Bunyan, John, 1628-1688 -- Relations with Romanies; Romanies
{9} Dated 30th August, 1882.
{10a} _Contributions to Natural History_, etc., p. 158.
{10b} I have commented on the assertion of Mr. Groome, that “John
Bunyan, from parish registers, does not appear to have had one drop of
Gipsy blood,” as if that could have been ascertained from parish
registers! I did not expect to find such a loose idea as that in the
_Encyclopædia Britannica_, taken from a casual or stray contributor to
_Notes and Queries_. But I find an English journal quoting it as a
_proof_ that Bunyan was not of the Gipsy race; and supporting it by Mr.
Froude’s ignoring the question in his highly conventional work on
Bunyan.—_The Scottish Churches and the Gipsies_, pp. 11, 52 and 59.
{11a} Mr. Brown objects to its being said that the English Bunyans could
have sprung from Bunyans that left Scotland fifty years before 1548, for
the reason that he finds men of that name in England, in 1219, 1257 and
1310. Thomas Bunyan, if he is correct in his information, says that the
Italian mason of the name of Bunyan was at Melrose in 1136. The name
might have had its origin in foreign masons called Bunyan, as there would
be families of that craft, continued from generation to generation,
during the middle ages, employed in church architecture all over Europe,
including England as well as Scotland. I have not seen Mr. Thomas
Bunyan’s information, as quoted above, called in question by any one.
{11b} Dated 6th September, 1882.
{11c} In an article in _Notes and Queries_, for the 27th March, 1875, I
said:—“In addition to the investigations made in church registers, I
would suggest that the records of the different criminal courts in
Bedfordshire (if they still exist) should be examined, to find if people
of the name of Bunyan (and how designated) are found to have been on
trial, and for what offences.”—_Contributions_, _etc._, p. 186.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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