Nathaniel Vincent
Born	c. 1639 Probably Cornwall, England
Died	22 June 1697
Resting place	Bunhill Fields, London
Education	Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Christ Church, Oxford
Occupations	Nonconformist minister and author
Known for	Nonconformist preaching and devotional writing
Spouse	Anna Vincent
Children	6
Relatives	Thomas Vincent (brother)

Nathaniel Vincent (c. 1639 – 22 June 1697) was an English nonconformist minister and religious writer. Ejected from the rectory of Langley Marish under the Act of Uniformity 1662, he later gathered a congregation in Southwark and was repeatedly imprisoned for nonconformist preaching.^[1]

Vincent wrote devotional works, sermons and catechetical texts. His prison work A Covert from the Storm was published in 1671 after his confinement in the Marshalsea and the Gatehouse, Westminster.^[1][2]

Vincent was probably born in Cornwall about 1639, the son of John Vincent and Sarah Vincent. His father, a minister, was nominated by the committee of the Westminster Assembly to the rectory of Sedgefield, County Durham. Thomas Vincent, also a nonconformist minister, was his elder brother.^[1]

Vincent entered the University of Oxford as a chorister on 18 October 1648, aged about ten. He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 28 March 1655, graduated BA from Christ Church, Oxford, on 13 March 1656, and received MA on 11 June 1657. Corpus Christi later chose him as chaplain. Oliver Cromwell appointed him one of the first fellows of the proposed Durham College, though Vincent did not reside there.^[1]

Vincent preached at Pulborough, Sussex, by about the age of twenty. He was ordained and presented to the rectory of Langley Marish, Buckinghamshire, at about twenty-one, but was ejected in 1662. After his ejection he spent three years as chaplain to Sir Henry Blount and Lady Blount at Tyttenhanger House, Hertfordshire.^[1]

Around 1666 Vincent moved to London, where his preaching drew a congregation at a meeting house in Farthing Alley, Southwark. He continued preaching despite fines and attempts by soldiers to remove him from the pulpit.^[1]

In July 1670, shortly after his marriage, Vincent was confined in the Marshalsea and transferred to the Gatehouse, Westminster, on 22 August. He remained imprisoned for six months. Arrested again in 1682, he was brought before magistrates at Dorking and sentenced to three years' imprisonment followed by banishment, but was released after a flaw in the indictment. In February 1686 he was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Monmouth Rebellion.^[1]

Vincent died suddenly on 22 June 1697, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and was buried at Bunhill Fields. Nathaniel Taylor preached his funeral sermon. Vincent's wife, Anna, and six children were living in 1682; a daughter, also named Anna, married Dennis Herbert junior of London in 1695.^[1]

Vincent's published works addressed conversion, prayer, suffering, catechesis and practical divinity. Several were written or shaped by his experience of imprisonment, including A Covert from the Storm.^[1][2]

He also contributed sermons to Samuel Annesley's Continuation of Morning Exercises (1683) and Casuistical Morning Exercises (1690). Vincent edited The Morning-Exercise Against Popery (1675), a collection of sermons preached by visiting ministers at his Southwark meeting house.^[1]

• Vincent, Nathaniel (1669). The Conversion of a Sinner Explained and Applied. London. OCLC 606669248.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1671). A Covert from the Storm. London. OCLC 606683763.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1674). The Spirit of Prayer. London. OCLC 228706687.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1676). A Heaven or Hell upon Earth. London. OCLC 606752537.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1681). The Little Child's Catechism. London. OCLC 606722295.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1681). The True Touchstone. London. OCLC 606752320.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1684). The More Excellent Way. London. OCLC 606742661.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1688). A Warning Given to Secure Sinners. London. OCLC 606762591.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1691). The Principles of the Doctrine of Christ. London. OCLC 606748617.
• Vincent, Nathaniel (1693). A Present for Such as Have Been Sick. London. OCLC 228720032.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gordon, Alexander (1899). "Vincent, Nathaniel". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 362–363.

• Works related to Vincent, Nathaniel (DNB00) at Wikisource