Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Dowling, John

DOWLING, John, clergyman, b. in Pavensey, Sussex, England, 13 May, 1807; d. in Middletown, N. Y., 4 July, 1878. In an irregular way he acquired a classical education, and became a tutor in a classical institution in London in 1826. Three years later he established a boarding-school a few miles from Oxford, where he taught until 1832. In that year he emigrated to the United States and united with the Baptist church in Catskill, N. Y., where he was ordained. In 1834 he removed to Newport, R. I., and two years later was called to a church in New York. He afterward preached in Providence, Philadelphia, Newark, and other places. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Transylvania university. Dr. Dowling's published works include “Vindication of the Baptists” (New York); “Exposition of the Prophecies” (1840); “Defence of the Protestant Scriptures” (1843); “History of Romanism” (1845), of which 30,000 copies were sold in less than ten years; “Power of Illustration”; “Nights and Mornings”; and “Judson Offering.” He edited a Conference hymn-book (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 Dr. Cote's work on “Romanism.” His son John W. died in 1892.