Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bond, John (1612-1676)
BOND, JOHN, LL.D. (1612–1676), puritan divine, was a member of an old Dorsetshire family which settled in that county in the reign of Henry VI, but was born at Chard, in Somersetshire (Ep. Dedicat. to Occasus Occident.) on 12 April 1612. His father was Dennis Bond [q. v.] He was educated at Dorchester under John White, and afterwards entered at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. of which he became a fellow. He took his B.A. degree in 1631, became M.A. in 1635, and LL.D. ten years later. After leaving Cambridge he was for some time a lecturer at Exeter, and then succeeded his old master, White, as minister of the Savoy. In 1643 he became a member of the assembly of divines, and in December 1645 succeeded to the mastership of the Savoy. In the same year, Selden having declined the mastership of Trinity Hall, Dr. King was chosen by the fellows: but, parliament interposing on behalf of Bond he was elected master on 7 March 1646. Three years later he was made professor of law at Gresham College, London, and in 1654 became assistant to the commissioners of Middlesex and Westminster for ejecting scandalous ministers and schoolmasters He was appointed vice-chancellor of Cambridge University in 1658, but lost his preferments at Cambridge and London on the Restoration. He retired to Dorsetshire, where he died at Sandwich, in the Isle of Purbeck, and was buried at Steeple on 30 July 1676. He is thought by some to be identical with the John Bond who was member for Melcombe Regis in the last parliament of Charles I, recorder of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in 1645 and subsequently a recruiter in that district for the Long parliament (Hutchins, Dorsetshire, ed. Ship and Hodson).
He published the following sermons:
- 'A Door of Hope,' 1641.
- 'Holy and Royal Activity,' 1641.
- 'Sermon at Exeter before the Deputy Lieutenants,' 1643.
- 'Salvation in a Mystery,' 1644.
- 'Ortus Occidentalis,' 1645.
- 'Grapes amongst Thorns,' 1648
- 'A Thanksgiving Sermon,' 1648.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), 1817, ii. 115; Kennett's Register and Chron. Ecclesiastical and Civil, 1728, p. 222; Ward's Lives of the Gresham Coll. Professors, 1740, p. 247; Coker's Survey of Dorset shire, 1732, p. 49; Hutchins's History and Antiq. of Dorsetshire, ed. Ship and Hodson, 1861, i. 603, 607, ii. 438, 440, 451, 453; Willis's Notitia Parliament. ii. 437, iii. 244.]