Henry Jessey (1603 – 1663) was an English Puritan Nonconformist minister and scholar. He was a founding member of the Puritan religious sect, the Jacobites. Jessey was considered a Hebrew and a rabbinical scholar. His active philosemitism has led him to be described as "among Israel's greatest seventeenth-century benefactors."Katz, David S. (1989). Menasseh Ben Israel’s Christian Connection: Henry Jessey and the Jews p.137 in eds. Kaplan, Yosef; Popkin, Richard Henry; Mechoulan, Henry Menasseh Ben Israel and His World, BRILL,
Life Henry Jessey was born on 1603 in West Rowton, Yorkshire. Jessey attended the University of Cambridge from 1618–24; he was at St. John's College, Cambridge in 1622, B. A. (1623).Concise Dictionary of National Biography He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1627. He was vicar of Assington, or simply resident in the family of Brampton Gurdon and then visited New England.English Dissenters: Jacobites He was vicar of Aughton, East Riding of Yorkshire from 1633; but was deprived of his living in 1634.For 'not using ceremonies': Christopher Hill, Change and Continuity in Seventeenth-Century England (1974), p. 22. He was then supported by Sir Matthew Boynton, who found him places to preach.
Henry Jacob had formed a non-separating Puritan faction of former Church of England members. They were Calvinist in theological practise. Contemporary scholars refer to them as: Independents, Brownist, semi-Separatist, or Puritans. John Lothropp picked up Jacob's London congregation after his death; Jessey took over, from 1637. Henry Jessey Bio by Cramp
The church faced hostility from the authorities, and migrated to Southwark where Jessey became a preacher at St George the Martyr Church and then under Cromwell, it is claimed, rector. He travelled in November 1639 to set up with William Wroth, an Independent church at Llanfaches, Monmouthshire. He was imprisoned, with members of his congregation, in August 1641. He became a Baptist in 1645, under the influence of Hanserd Knollys.:s:Knollys, Hanserd (DNB00)
Henry Jessey also observed the seventh-day Sabbath, although he was somewhat reluctant to promulgate his views on the subject. However, in 1647 he argued that the seventh-day was "[Christ's] Sabbath which he blessed and sanctified.Henry Jessey, A Scripture Almanack; Bryan Ball, the Seventh Day Men It has been suggested that he may have authored the anonymous "Moralitie of the Fourth Commandment" (1652).Bryan Ball, the Seventh Day Men, p.129 In his posthumous work, Miscellanea Sacra, or Diverse Necessary Truths (1665) Jessey asserted that believing Christians "should have respect to all the Ten Commandments of the Law."Henry Jessey, Miscellanea Sacra, or Diverse Necessary Truths (1665) Jessey's biographer records that he kept the Sabbath in his own chamber, with only four or five more of the same mind after being convinced that the seventh day should be kept by Christians evangelically.Edward Whiston, Life of Jessey. p.87 Jessey's itinerary throughout western England contributed to the beginnings of several Sabbatarian groups.W.T.Whitley, "A Century of Sabbath Doctrine", p.167; Bryan Ball, the Seventh Day Men, p.131
The church developed within the Particular Baptists:
There have been some questions raised about the documentary evidence, the Stinton Repository attributed to Benjamin Stinton.
In 1650, Jessey wrote The Glory of Iehudah and Israel in which he extolled the nobility of the Jews and proposed the reconciliation of Christianity and Judaism. He then played a moderating role among the political millenarians in the two years before the Whitehall Conference.Katz, David S. (1989). Menasseh Ben Israel’s Christian Connection: Henry Jessey and the Jews pps.124-125 in eds. Qaplan, Yosef; Popkin, Richard Henry; Mechoulan, Henry Menasseh Ben Israel and His World, BRILL,
Jessey was buried in the New Churchyard, Bethlem, London, on the 8 September 1663.
The Whitehall Conference He wrote an accountA Narrative of the late Proceeds at White-Hall, Concerning the Jews (London, 1656). of the 1655 conference at Whitehall, at which Manasseh ben Israel put a case to the Parliamentary government of Oliver Cromwell, to lift the restrictions on Jews living in England.Book extract He was in correspondence with Manasseh,PDF, pp.4-5. was an enthusiastic student of Hebrew and Aramaic and philo-Semite.Jewish Encyclopedia, Baptists. In lobbying for the rights of the Jews to official readmission to the country, and in high expectations from this, Jessey was an associate of John Dury and Nathaniel Holmes.The Readmission Of The Jews To England In 1658 Jessey composed a work entitled An Information Concerning the Present State of the Jewish Nation in Europe and Judea.Jessey, Henry, 1603-1663., 2011, An information, concerning the present state of the Jewish nation in Europe and Judea. Wherein the footsteps of Providence preparing a way for their conversion to Christ, and for their deliverance from captivity, are discovered., Oxford Text Archive, He both advocated the conversion of the Jews and treating them with kindness, and believed God's special concern for them. The pamphlet also expresses concern for the trials of the Jews in Palestine, specifically the suffering from the lack of donations following the Khmelnytsky Uprising which had led to a decrease in the Jewish population in Eastern Europe and a subsequent loss of donations.Scult, Mel (1978). Millennial Expectations and Jewish Liberties: A Study of the Efforts to Convert the Jews in Britain, Up to the Mid Nineteenth Century. Brill Archive. pps.29-30. As well as raising money for the impoverished Jews of Palestine, Jessey was also well acquainted with two of the key figures disseminating information throughout Europe about the Jewish millenarian prophet Sabbatai Zevi.Katz (1989) pps.130-135
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