John Dowling (pastor)

John William Dowling (May 13, 1807 – July 4, 1878)^[1] was an American Baptist, minister, and author of religious texts.

John Dowling was born in Pevensey, on the Southern coast of Sussex, England, on May 13, 1807.^[2] Both of his parents were members of the Church of England. At the age of seven, Dowling’s mother came under the influence of a Baptist minister, Thomas Gough (d. 1841), and converted. The family moved to London, where Dowling attended Sunday school at the Eagle Street Baptist Church, then under the pastoral care of Joseph Ivimey (1773-1834).

Dowling himself converted at age 16. He received a classical education and became a tutor at a classical institution in London in 1826. Three years later, he established a boarding school near Oxford, where he taught until 1832.^[1] That same year, he emigrated to New York City with his wife and two children and joined the local Baptist church in Catskill, where he was ordained.^[3] After a brief visit to Catskill, during which he left his family in New York City, he returned to find that his wife and one of his children had died from cholera during the epidemic.^[4] He returned with his remaining child to Catskill, where he became the pastor of the local Baptist Church. While serving there, he married Maria S. Perkins. The couple had a child called John William Dowling. ^[5]

Dowling left Catskill in 1834 and, over the next thirty years, held pastorates in New York, Philadelphia, Providence, and Newport.^[7] He accepted a call to the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Utica and remained there for several years. From there, he relocated to Providence to serve as a pastor of the First Baptist Church. While in Providence, the Trustees of Brown University conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. He then moved to New York City, where he worked as a pastor and as an opponent of the Roman Catholic Church; he publicly debated with prelate Archbishop Hughes and wrote The History of Romanism: From the Earliest Corruptions of Christianity to the Present Time.

After leaving New York, he moved to Philadelphia, succeeding Dr. William Stoughton^[8] as pastor of the Sansom Street Baptist Church. There, he ministered to a large congregation and remained a prominent leader in the Baptist denomination. He later returned to New York, where he again served in ministry.

On June 30, 1878, Dowling was admitted to the Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital in Middletown, New York, where he died on July 4, 1878.^[9][10]

His published works include:^[1]

• Vindication of the Baptists (New York)
• Exposition of the Prophecies (1840)
• Defense of the Protestant Scriptures (1843)
• History of Romanism (1845)
• Power of Illustration
• Nights and Mornings
• Judson Offering

He edited a Conference hymnbook (1868), Noel's work on Baptism, the works of Lorenzo Dow, Conyer's Middleton, on the Conformity of Popery and Paganism, Memoir of the Missionary Jacob Thomas, and a translation from the French of Cote's work on Romanism.^[1]

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Cleave's Biographical Cyclopaedia of Homeopathic Physicians and Surgeons of 1873.

• Biography of his son John William Dowling: John Dowling is briefly discussed at the beginning.
• Online book: "The History of Romanism: From the earliest corruptions of Christianity to the present time"
• "Dowling, John" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.