Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Crompton, John
CROMPTON, JOHN (1611–1669), non-conformist divine, younger son of Abraham Crompton of Brightmet, a hamlet in the parish of Bolton, Lancashire, was born in 1611. He received his academical education at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he proceeded M.A. After leaving the university he became lecturer at All Saints, Derby. In 1637, when a pestilence visited the town, and every one fled that could, Crompton remained at his post, and did what he could to allay the terror and confusion. From Derby he removed to Brailsford, a rectory seven miles distant, where he paid the fifth of the whole profits. He also gave the profits of Osmaston chapelry, which belonged to the rectory, reckoned at 40l. a year, to a clergyman of his own choosing, that he might attend wholly to his parishioners at Brailsford. When Booth rose in Lancashire, and White at Nottingham, for the king, Crompton went with his neighbours, with such arms as they could get, to assist at Derby. The attempt failing, he and some of his friends were placed for a while under strict surveillance by the parliament. At the Restoration Crompton was forced to give up his rectory, though a certificate testifying his worth and loyalty was signed by many influential inhabitants of Derby and adjacent places. He then retired to Arnold, a small vicarage near Nottingham, from which he was soon ejected by the Act of Uniformity. He continued, however, to rent the vicarage house at Arnold till the Five Mile Act removed him to Mapperley in Derbyshire, where he preached as he had opportunity. He died on 9 Jan. 1669, and was buried at West Hallam. His funeral sermon was preached by Robert Horn, the rector, who, dying himself some six weeks later, desired to be laid in the same grave. Crompton had, with other issue, two sons, Abraham, of Derby, who died in 1734, and Samuel, pastor of a dissenting congregation at Doncaster.
[Calamy's Nonconf. Memorial (Palmer), iii. 86–8; Burke's Landed Gentry, 6th ed., 1882, i. 395; Glover's Derbyshire, pt. i. vol. ii. p. 495.]