Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Butterworth, John
BUTTERWORTH, JOHN (1727–1803), baptist minister, was the son of Henry Butterworth, a pious blacksmith of Goodshaw, a village in Rossendale, Lancashire. He was one of five sons, of whom three, besides John, became ministers of baptist congregations. One of them named Lawrence, a minister at Evesham, wrote two pamphlets against unitarian views. John was born 13 Dec. 1727, and went to the school of David Crosley, a Calvinistic minister who had known John Bunyan. About the year 1753 he was appointed pastor of Cow Lane Chapel, Coventry. With this congregation he remained upwards of fifty years, and died 24 April 1803, aged 75.
He published, in 1767, ‘A New Concordance and Dictionary to the Holy Scriptures,’ which was reprinted in 1785, 1792, and 1809. The last edition was edited by Dr. Adam Clarke. He also wrote ‘A Serious Address to the Rev. Dr. Priestley,’ 1790.
His son, Joseph, and his grandson, Henry, are separately noticed.
[Parry's Hist. of Cloughfold Baptist Church, p. 226; Newbigging's Forest of Rossendale, p. 176; Hargreaves's Life of Hirst, pp. 325, 365; Life of Adam Clarke, 1833, ii. 17, iii. 147; Poole's Coventry, p. 238.]