John Styles (17 March 1782 – 22 June 1849) was an English Congregational minister, biographer and animal welfare writer. While he is in many places described as a Methodist, the notices in the Evangelical Magazine to which he contributed appearing after his death make no mention of that.
Biography
Styles was born at
Thrandeston, Suffolk. The family moved to
Islington when he was about six.
He was influenced by Thomas Wills at Islington Chapel, and made his way to nonconformist services of the ministers Nathaniel Jennings at
Lothbury and Joseph Barber at
Aldermanbury.
He was a student at
Hoxton College.
[ The Characteristics and Dying Testimony of Peter: A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of Rev. John Styles, D. D. By John Sibree. The Baptist Magazine. Volume 41, 1849. p. 561]
Before the age of 20 Styles entered the ministry at Newport, Isle of Wight. During his career he was a pastor of an Independent church at Brighton, which he left in 1823 for Kennington.
Styles then had Claylands Chapel built in Clapham. He remained there to 1844.
Styles was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1844 by Aberdeen University. He died at Kennington on 22 June 1849.
Works
In 1837, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) sponsored an essay competition, with a prize of £100, for the best essay encouraging greater kindness to animals (illustrating "the obligations of humanity as due to the brute creation").
[Preece, Rod. (2011). Animal Sensibility and Inclusive Justice in the Age of Bernard Shaw. UBC Press. p. 98. ][Feuerstein, Anna. (2019). The Political Lives of Victorian Animals: Liberal Creatures in Literature and Culture. Cambridge University Press. pp. 63-64. ] Styles won the competition with his essay
The Animal Creation: Its Claims on Our Humanity Stated and Enforced, an early work on animal welfare.
described Styles as an early church animal welfare proponent.
Styles based his arguments on Christian principles from the Bible, arguing that animals feel pain and suffer as humans do and that because God has given humans dominion over animals, they should treat them with benevolence and mercy.
Styles opposed all forms of hunting and vivisection.
Publications
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A tribute to the memory of Nelson (1805), sermon.
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An Essay on the Character and Influence of the Stage on Morals and Happiness (1807).
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Strictures on two critiques in the Edinburgh Review, on the subject of Methodism and Missions (1808)
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The Life of David Brainerd (1808), adapted work on the missionary David Brainerd
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The Characteristic Principles of the Gospel Illustrated and Defended (1810)
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The Complete Family Bible (1812, 2 vols.), annotations.
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Sermons on various subjects (1813), with dedication to Isaac Buxton, "the friend and guide of my youth"; includes an 1811 funeral sermon for Thomas Spencer.
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The Temptations of a Watering-Place (1815)
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The Legend of the Velvet Cushion (1815), pseudonymous, as Jeremiah Ringletub. It was an answer to The Velvet Cushion (1814) by John William Cunningham, on English church history.
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Memoirs and Remains of the Late Rev. Charles Buck (1817), on Charles Buck
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Lord Byron's works (1824)
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Early Blossoms: Or Biographical Notices of Individuals Distinguished by Their Genius and Attainments, who Died in Their Youth (1819)
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Memoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. George Canning (1828)
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The Animal Creation: Its Claims on Our Humanity Stated and Enforced (1839). There was a pamphlet reply by Grantley Berkeley, an opponent of game laws reform.
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Pulpit studies: or aids to preaching and meditation, chiefly narratives and facts (1839), anonymous
See also
