Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Delamaine, Alexander
DELAMAINE, ALEXANDER (fl. 1654–1683), Muggletonian, was probably originally a baptist; his brother Edward was, in 1668, a baptist preacher at Marlborough, Wiltshire. In 1654 he was a quaker, as appears from his letter of 27 June in that year. He first appears as a Muggletonian in 1671, and it is probable that he attached himself to the following of Lodowicke Muggleton [q. v.] about the time when Muggleton obtained complete control over his sect by putting down ‘the rebellion against the nine assertions,’ which began in 1670. At this period Delamaine was a London tobacconist, carrying on business ‘at the sign of the three tobacco pipes’ on Bread Street Hill. He became a very staunch disciple of Muggleton, collecting money and receiving letters for him during his troubles with the authorities. After the release of Muggleton from Newgate on 19 July 1677, Delamaine composed a ‘song,’ dealing with the circumstances of his trial before Chief-justice Rainsford in the previous January. This was first printed in ‘Divine Songs of the Muggletonians,’ 1829, 12mo, p. 267. In 1682 he finished transcribing into a folio volume the letters of Muggleton (with a few by John Reeve [q. v.]), addressed to various persons, from 1653 onward. On 19 April 1682 he began a second volume of additional letters ‘that would not goe into my grate Book.’ Both these manuscript volumes are preserved among the Muggletonian archives. Their contents have been edited in ‘A Volume of Spiritual Epistles,’ &c., 1755, 4to; 2nd edit. 1820, 4to.
Delamaine died between 25 June 1683 and 26 Dec. 1687. His second wife, who survived him, was Anne Lowe, first married to William Hall. By his first wife he had a son, Alexander, and several daughters, of whom the last survivor was Sarah, married to Robert Delamaine. All were zealous Muggletonians.
[Letters of Early Friends, 1841, p. 5; Supplement to the Book of Letters (Muggletonian), 1831; works cited above.]