Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shuttlewood, John
SHUTTLEWOOD, JOHN (1632–1689), nonconformist tutor, was born at Wymeswold, Leicestershire, on 3 Jan. 1631–2. He was educated at a grammar school, and, having been approved by the Wirksworth classis, was ordained on 26 April 1654 as minister of Ravenstone, Leicestershire, a rectory which he seems to have held with the perpetual curacy of Hugglescote, being ejected from both in 1662. He removed to the borders of Northamptonshire, and became a persistent preacher at conventicles in both counties, changing his residence several times to avoid arrest. In January 1669 he was committed to Leicester gaol by William Streete, a county magistrate, on the charge of not attending his parish church, but was set free on 24 Feb. He was again arrested in 1670 at Theddingworth, Leicestershire; in 1672 (though he held a license under the indulgence of that year); and in 1674, while residing at Lubbenham, Leicestershire. On these occasions he escaped with heavy fines. His main assailant was Quartermaster Charles Gibbons, who was drowned at Lutterworth in December 1675.
Notwithstanding his troubles, Shuttlewood contrived to conduct an academy for the education of nonconformist ministers, and has been claimed as the pioneer in this enterprise; but it is not proved or probable that he anticipated Richard Frankland [q. v.], whose academy was opened in March 1670. There is no adequate list of Shuttlewood's students, but their number was considerable. Among them were Matthew Clarke the younger [q. v.], Thomas Emlyn [q. v.], Joshua Oldfield, D.D. [q. v.], and John Sheffield [q. v.] He had the reputation of learning as well as of ability, yet Emlyn's account is that he had ‘very few books, and them chiefly of one sort.’ The chief seat of his academy and of his preaching was Sulby, an extra-parochial district near Welford, Northamptonshire. He died at Creaton, Northamptonshire, on 17 March 1688–9, and was buried in the parish churchyard, where his tombstone bore a Latin inscription. He married, on 26 April 1652, Elizabeth (d. 3 July 1705, aged 70), daughter of Humphrey Carter of Draycot, Derbyshire. His only son, John Shuttlewood (1667–1737), independent minister at Mill Yard, Goodman's Fields, London, left issue, of whom Hannah married, in 1744, Thomas Gibbons [q. v.]
[Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 423 sq.; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, ii. 587; Memoirs of Emlyn, 1746, p. vi; Protestant Dissenter's Magazine, 1795, p. 490; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, 1802, ii. 395 sq., 477 (account by Gibbons from Shuttlewood's papers); Toulmin's Historical View, 1814, pp. 239, 586; James's History of Litigation respecting Presbyterian Chapels, 1867, p. 691.]