Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Blower, Samuel
BLOWER, SAMUEL (d. 1701), nonconformist divine, of Magdalen College, Oxford, was ejected in 1662 from Woodstock in Oxfordshire. He had been previously cast out of his fellowship at Magdalen for very slight nonconformity. In 1662-3 he settled in Northampton, and was the first pastor or founder of the meeting-house on Castle Hill there. According to a local history of the congregation, 'Mr. Blower's ministry must have been fruitful. The church covenant was signed by 164 names. For many years he had laboured in adverse circumstances, kept the people together, and prepared the way for his successors,' Of the adverse circumstances there is still a survival in a huge wall and window shutters of extraordinary thickness, prepared specially 'to protect the place from violent attacks.' Blower resigned the charge in his old age in 1694. He retired to Abingdon in Berkshire, which is supposed to have been his birthplace, and died there in 1701. His only published writing was a funeral sermon for Mrs. Elizabeth Tub on Psalm xviii. 46.
[Calamy and Palmer; Acts and Memoirs of ye P'ticular Church of Christ in Northampton of which Mr. Samuel Blower was pastor; communications from Mr John Taylor. Northampton and Rev. Stephen Lepine, Abingdon. Berkshire.]