John Burnyeat

John Burnyeat (also spelled Burneyeat) (ca. 1631 in Crabtreebeck, Loweswater, Cumberland – 11 July 1690 in Kilconnor, County Carlow, Ireland) was a British Quaker.

Biography A Cumberland farmer, he joined the Quakers in 1653. He began to interrupt church services and was imprisoned in Scotland in 1658 after he made an unsuccessful attempt to plant quakerism there. After spending a few months on his farm upon release, he made a similar effort in Ireland, where he was imprisoned several times for short periods, and was more than once nearly starved to death in crossing what were then almost uninhabited parts of the island. Burneyeat was a born missionary, and in 1660 felt 'moved' to visit America. For nearly two years he resisted the impulse, until, its strength increasing, he sought out George Fox and consulted him on the matter. Shortly afterwards he was again arrested and sent to prison for refusing to take the sacrament, and was treated with considerable harshness. According to his own account he was released at the end of fourteen weeks, because 'there was a bowling-alley before the prison door, where several of the magistrates and others used to come to their games; and hearing my voice they were offended and sent me away.'

He then went on a tour of Barbados, Virginia and New England, from 1664 to 1667. He was imprisoned in Dublin in 1676 but released in 1683 and was soon married (for five years until the death of his wife in 1688). In the same year he married Elizabeth Maine and they were married for five years until her death.