John Geree ( – February 1649) was an English Puritan clergyman preacher, and author of several tracts engaging in theological and political issues of the day, who was silenced for nonconformism but later reinstated. His elder brother Stephen Geree (1594-1665), also a Puritan minister and author, maintained his ministry through the Commonwealth and Restoration in Surrey.K. Gibson, 'Geree, John (1599/1600–1649), Church of England clergyman, also including Stephen Geree (1593/4–1664)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. A. Gibson, 'Geree, John (1601?–1649), puritan divine', Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 21. B. Brook, Lives of the Puritans 3 Vols (James Black, London 1813), III, pp. 102 & 265.
Origins and education Stephen and John Geree were born in Yorkshire, and studied at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. Stephen, the elder, became a student there in 1611, aged 17, and went through the courses in Logic and Philosophy, taking B.A. in 1615.Anthony a Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Churchyard, London 1692), II, p. 132. He was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Bath and Wells in March 1616, and priest by the Bishop of Llandaff in December 1623.CCEd, Person ID: 69582. Appointment Record ID: 249668. John entered the college in 1615, aged 14, either as batler or servitor. He graduated B.A. on 27 January 1619, and took his M.A. on 12 June 1621, the same day on which John Tombes took his B.A. from the same college.Athenae Oxonienses, I, 838–39; II, pp.64–65.
John Geree John Geree made an early appearance in print in 1625, with a dedicatory epistle to the collected lectures of William Pemble of Magdalen Hall, published after his death as Vindiciae Fidei: A Treatise of Justification by Faith.(Richard Capel), Vindiciae fidei, or A treatise of iustification by faith: wherein that point is fully cleared, and vindicated from the cavils of its adversaries. Delivered in certaine lectures at Magdalen Hall in Oxford, by William Pemble, Master of Arts of the same house: and now published since his death for the publique benefit (Printed by Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, for Edward Forrest, Oxford 1625). Read full text at Umich/eebo (open). In November 1627 he was licensed as a preacher throughout the dioceses of London, Gloucester and Worcester, and as preacher and curate in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.CCEd Person ID: 69581. In 1629 he published at Oxford A Catechisme concerning the Lord's Supper. For refusal to conform to ceremonies of the Church of England he was silenced by Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, and was reduced to living 'by the helps of his brethren.'Athenae Oxonienses, II, pp. 64-65. However, during the later 1630s he continued to defy the suspension in Tewkesbury, and by 1641 he had an enthusiastic following there.D.C. Beaver, Parish Communities and Religious Conflict in the Vale of Gloucester, 1590-1690 (Harvard University Press, 2009), pp. 179-92 (Google preview).
In 1641 he was restored to his cure by the Committee for Plundered Ministers.Athenae Oxonienses, II, p. 64. From this date his sermons or tracts recommence, beginning with The Down-Fall of Anti-Christ, dedicated to the Committee itself, and Judah's Joy at the Oath, a sermon celebrating the Parliamentary Covenant, but finding unsoundness in Henry Burton's interpretation of it. In the following year he preached by authority at a public fast on behalf of Ireland (a sermon printed in Dublin and London), and in 1644 published Vindiciæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, a treatise showing the need for reform and the ejection of scandalous ministers, but maintaining that reformed ministry need not entail separation from the Church of England. It affirmed the principle of infant baptism.
With these credentials he was proposed, examined, and appointed to officiate the Cure of St Albans in Hertfordshire early in 1645/6,W. Urwick, Nonconformity in Herts: Being Lectures upon the Nonconforming Worthies of St Albans (Hazell, Watson & Viney Ltd., London 1884), pp. 131-34. and his The Character of an Old English Puritane, or Non-Conformist appeared in 1646.For the text of this work, see The Reformed Reader website. The Baptist movement was very active in north-western Hertfordshire: Geree's Vindiciae Paedo-Baptismi and Vindiciae Vindiciarum (dedicated to the Mayor and Burgesses of St Albans) were directed against the arguments of his former fellow-student John Tombes (whom he calls his 'ancient friend'), and of Edward Harrison of Kensworth, who was effectively founder of the St Albans Baptists.W.T. Whitley, 'Edward Harrison of Petty France', The Baptist Quarterly VII no. 5, pp. 214-20 ; D.G. Turner, 'The Origins of St Albans Baptists', The Baptist Quarterly XXXVII no. 8, pp. 402-09. Their belief was that the sacrament of baptism should be accorded only to those of age and understanding to be able to confess their faith. A determined opponent of Episcopacy, in 1646 he also published A Case of Conscience Resolved, to prove that the King could consent to its abolition without breaking his Coronation Oath. In another tract he condemned the practise of Judicial astrology.
He left St Albans in 1647, being appointed preacher at St Faith under St Paul's,Athenae Oxonienses, p. 64. a parish whose congregation (including many booksellers) met in a crypt within Old St Paul's Cathedral in London. His residence in February 1648 was in Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row. In London, as elsewhere, his sermons were largely attended by Puritans. He produced a fourth edition of William Fenner's The Spirituall Mans Directorie, with his own preface of recommendation, enlarged tables and notes for the illiterate.See full text, including Geree letter, at Google (open). His Case of Conscience had been answered, or 'sifted', by Edward Boughen, to whom he rejoined with The Sifter's sieve broken in 1648. In the same year he introduced the publication of a tract from Thomas Shepard, formerly of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who had emigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1635 to continue his ministry there.Some select cases resolved : Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings: &c. In a letter to a pious friend in England. By Thomas Shepard, M.A. Formerly of Emmanuel-College in Cambridge in England: afterward Minister of Cambridge in New-England (Printed by M. Simmons, for Iohn Rothwell, at the Sun and Fountain in Pauls Church-yard, London 1648). Full text at Google (open). At the request of 'a godly Parliament-man' he preached against the drinking of healths.
A sermon preached by Geree in May 1648 On the Bloodiness of War, to persuade to peace, met with a response from certain 'left-eared orators' taking it as an aspersion upon the army, and was published in self-defence. He came into controversy with John Goodwin, declaring that the seclusion and imprisoning of certain Parliament-men by the army was defensible neither by reason nor religion, and was answered by Goodwin and Samuel Richardson. His advocacy of reform had steered a careful path away from rebellion: he died in February 1649, soon after the King's execution. It was reported by Richard Baxter that Geree was against the Parliament's war, and that 'he dyed at the news of the King's death.'R. Baxter, An apology for the nonconformists ministry: ... written in 1668, and 1669, for the most of it, and now published as an addition to the defence against Dr. Stillingfleet, and as an account to the silencers of the reasons of our practice (Printed for T. Parkhurst and D. Newman, London 1681), pp. 144-45 (Umich/eebo) (open). The Minister who preached his funeral oration told the brethren he was poor, and made a collection for his children.Athenae Oxonienses, II, p. 65. Geree entrusted their education to his wife, who survived him.Will of John Geree, Pastor of St Faith the Virgin, City of London (P.C.C. 1649).
Stephen Geree In September 1627, Stephen Geree was appointed a licensed preacher throughout the dioceses of London, Lincoln, Gloucester and Coventry and Lichfield.CCEd Person ID: 69582. He was by then married to Margaret, their daughter being christened at St Margaret Moses in London in January 1627/8, but dying soon afterwards. In January 1628/9 a similar license was granted for the Winchester diocese, and for the parish of Wonersh, near Guildford, Surrey. There he was instituted, and subscribed, as Perpetual Vicar under the lay patronage of George Duncombe (armiger) of AlburyH.E. Maldon (ed.), 'Parishes: Albury' (Manor of Weston), A History of the County of Surrey Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1911), pp. 72-77. (British History Online accessed 12 June 2016). at Christmas 1629.CCEd Appointment Record ID: 249668. Over the next ten years several of his children were christened at Wonersh.Anglican Parish Registers. Woking, Surrey, England: Surrey History Centre, Ref. WON/1/1.
Geree was protected at Wonersh by his patron's influence, especially through Lady Elizabeth Aungier (daughter of Lord Francis Aungier of East ClandonJ.E.M., 'Aungier, Francis (1558-1632), of Gray's Inn, London and East Clandon, Surr.; later of Longford and Dublin, Ireland', in P.W. Hasler, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, (Boydell and Brewer, 1981). History of Parliament Online ), who by her first marriage to Simon Carryll (d. 1619), of Great Tangley Manor in Wonersh,H.E. Malden (ed.), 'Parishes: Wonersh', A History of the County of Surrey, Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1911), pp. 121-27. (British History Online accessed 11 June 2016) was Duncombe's sister-in-law.W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Surrey made and taken in the years 1530..., 1572... and 1623, Harleian Society XLIII (1899), pp. 88-89. See also Duncombe's epitaph in Albury Church, in J. Aubrey, The Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (E. Curll, London 1728), Vol. IV, pp. 72-73, 75. Their very extensive connections, not least at Hatchlands Park, held their own position within the sphere of More (of Loseley Park) and Onslow (of Cranleigh) influence. As dowager of Tangley, Lady Elizabeth's remarriage in 1624/5 to John MachellWill of John Machell of Wonersh (P.C.C. 1647). brought affinity with his cousins Sir Nathaniel Rich and Dame Margaret Wroth, whose sister Dame Elizabeth Morgan died a parishioner at Chilworth beside Wonersh in December 1632.Wills of Sir John Morgan of Chilworth (P.C.C. 1621), of Dame Elizabeth Morgan (P.C.C. 1633), and of Sir Nathaniel Rich (P.C.C. 1636). H.F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England, Vol II (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston 1901), pp 871-74. Lady Aungier's stepson Mathew Machell in 1635 married her daughter Elizabeth Carryll,W.H. Challen, 'John Machell, M.P., Horsham', Sussex Notes and Queries XVI (1964), pp. 114-121. who died of smallpox in 1639 leaving an infant son John MachellB.M. Crook, 'Machell, John (1637-1704), of Hills Place, Horsham, Suss.', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (Boydell and Brewer 1983), Read here ; P. Watson, 'Machell, John (1637-1704), of Hills Place, Horsham, Suss.', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715 (Boydell & Brewer 2002). Read here to inherit a considerable fortune which afterwards descended to the Viscounts of Irvine of Temple Newsam in Yorkshire.