Joseph Gurney Bevan

Joseph Gurney Bevan (1753–1814) was a British Quaker, known as a writer of apologetics. Life The son of Timothy and Hannah Bevan, he was born in London on 18 February 1753. His father hired the English educator, historian, and Quaker Robert Proud to tutor him and his brother. His father gave him a share in his business of a chemist and druggist in Plough Court, Lombard Street. In 1784 his mother died. He retired from trade in 1794 with a loss of capital, having refused, from conscientious reasons, to supply armed vessels with drugs. He filled for many years the station of a Quaker elder. In 1796 he moved to Stoke Newington. On a visit to friends in Scotland, in 1808, Bevan began to suffer from cataract in his left eye, and two years later he was attacked by paralysis in his left side. His wife became unable to recognise her own husband. She died in 1813. Bevan at the end of his life had read to him selections from John Kendall's Collection of Letters, Thomas Ellwood's Journal, and Mary Waring's Diary; and spent most of his time in Tottenham with family connections. On 12 September 1814 Bevan died, and was buried at the Quaker Burying Ground, Bunhill Fields.