Monument To John Owen, South Enclosure

Chest tomb of John Owen, South enclosure, Bunhill Fields Burial Ground

A simple stone chest tomb with moulded top, set upon a low brick plinth. The monument is constructed of Portland stone with a Pennant stone top. The south face is inscribed 'John Owen D.D.', and on the short west end appears 'The family vault of Samuel Walker M.A.' (the identity of the latter is unknown). The tomb was renewed in the late 18th or early 19th century.

John Owen (1616–83) was one of the leading Puritan theologians and churchmen of the mid-17th century. Born the son of an Oxfordshire clergyman and educated at Queen's College, Oxford, he initially worked as a private chaplain. His Parliamentarian sympathies led him to part company with his Royalist employer in 1642. He was repeatedly invited to preach before Parliament during and after the Civil War, and served as chaplain to Parliamentary troops during the siege of Colchester and the Irish expedition. With Cromwell's support, he became dean of Christ Church, Oxford in 1651 and vice-chancellor of the university in 1652. Initially drawn to Presbyterianism, he later aligned himself with the Independent faction, becoming its acknowledged leader by the late 1650s and publishing influential works attacking the Arminians, Socinians and other rival groups. He played a prominent role during the final years of the Protectorate: in early 1657 he drafted the petition that helped persuade Cromwell to reject Parliament's offer of the Crown, and in 1659 he worked to negotiate a settlement between factions loyal to Richard Cromwell and George Monck. These attempts failed, and in 1660 Owen was stripped of his post at Christ Church and forced to retire to the country. Influential friends protected him during the Restoration, however, and by the end of the decade he was again able to plead the Dissenting cause. He advised the King on drafting the 1672 Declaration of Indulgence and in 1677 was influential in securing John Bunyan's release from prison and the subsequent publication of The Pilgrim's Progress. His major late works included a four-volume study of the Epistle to the Hebrews and a five-volume work on the Holy Spirit.

Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Its location just outside the City boundary and independence from any Established place of worship made it London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964–5.