Meeting, lent for the occasion. He engaged in correspondence on the 'Logos' (1740-2) with Doddridge (printed in Theol. Repos. vol. i.); on subscription (1743) with the Kidderminster dissenters; on dissent (1746) with Groome, vicar of Sedgley. In his catechetical instructions, founded on the assembly's catechism, he used that manual rather as a point of departure than as a model of doctrine. Although he had a great name for heterodoxy, his preaching was seldom polemical, but full of unction, as were his prayers. In 1751 Bourn declined a call to succeed John Buck (d. 8 July 1750) in his father's congregation at Bolton. He died at Coseley of paralysis on 22 March 1754. His person was small, slight, and active; his glance keen; in dress he was somewhat negligent. He married while at Crook (about 1712) Hannah Harrison (d. 1768), of a good family near Kendal. She bore him nine children: 1. Joseph, born 1713; educated at Glasgow; minister first at Congleton, then at Hindley (1746); married (1748) Miss Farnworth (d. 1785); died 17 Feb. 1765; his eldest daughter Margaret married Samuel Jones (d. 17 March 1819), the Manchester banker, uncle of the first Lord Overstone. 2. Samuel [see below]. 3. Abraham, surgeon at Market Harborough, Leicester, and Liverpool; author of pamphlets ('Free and Candid Considerations,' &c., 1755, and 'A Review of the Argument,' &c., 1756) in reply to Peter Whitfield, a learned Liverpool printer and sugar-refiner, who left the dissenters and vigorously attacked their orthodoxy. 4. Benjamin, a London bookseller, author of 'A Sure Guide to Hell' (anon.), 1750, and supplement; he published some of his father's pieces. 5. Daniel, who built at Leominster what is said to have been the first cotton mill erected in England, an enterprise wrecked by a fire. 6. Miles, a mercer at Dudley. 7. John; died under age. Two others died young. Bourn's publications were:
- 'The Young Christian's Prayer Book,' &c.; 1733; 2nd ed. Dublin, with preface by John Leland, D.D.; 3rd ed. enlarged, 1742; 4th and best edition, 1748.
- 'An Introduction to the History of the Inquisition,' &c. (anon.), 1735.
- 'Popery a Craft, and Popish Priests the chief Craftsmen,' 1735, 8vo (a Fifth of November sermon on Acts xix. 25, reprinted in 'A Cordial for Low Spirits,' edited by Thomas Gordon, 2nd ed. 1763, edited by Rev. Richard Baron.
- 'An Address to Protestant Dissenters; or an Inquiry into the grounds of their attachment to the Assembly's Catechism … being a calm examination of the sixth answer … by a Prot. Dissenter' (anon.), 1736.
- 'A Dialogue betw. a Baptist and a Churchman; occasioned by the Baptists opening a new Meeting-House for reviving old Calvinistical doctrines and spreading Antinomian and other errors, at Birmingham,' &c. Part I. by ' a consistent Protestant ' (anon.), 1737; Part II. by 'a consistent Christian' (anon.), 1739.
- 'The Christian Family Prayer Book,' &c., with a recommendation by Isaac Watts, D.D., 1738 (frequently reprinted with additions. A prefixed 'Address to Heads of Families on Family Religion' was reprinted by Rev. John Kentish,, 1803).
- 'Address to the Congregation of Prot. Dissenters … at the Castle Gate in Nottingham,' &c., by a Prot. Dissenter (anon.), 1738 (in vindication of No. 4, which had been attacked by Rev. James Sloss, of Nottingham).
- ' Lectures to Children and Young People … consisting of Three Catechisms. … with a preface,' &c., 1738 (prefixed is a recommendation by Revs. John Mottershead, Josiah Rogerson, Henry Grove, Thomas Amory, D.D. [q. v.], Samuel Chandler, D.D., and George Benson, D.D. [q. v.], whom Bourn describes as his intimate friend; appended is the revision of the assembly's catechism, by James Strong, minister at Ilminster; 2nd ed. 1739; 3rd ed. 1748 (with title, 'Religious Education,' &c.); the third catechism of the set was re-edited by Job Orton as 'A Summary of Doctrinal and Practical Religion.'
- 'The True Christian Way of Striving for the Faith of the Gospel,' 1738, 8vo (sermon, on Phil. i. 27, 28, at the Dudley double lecture, 23 May).
- 'Remarks on a pretended Answer' to th& last piece (anon.), 1739.
- 'The Christian Catechism,' &c. (anon.), 1744 (intended as a preservative against Deism).
- 'Address' in services at ordination of Job Orton on 18 Sept. 1745 at Shrewsbury (a charge, from 1 Thess. ii. 10).
- 'The Protestant Catechism,' &c. (anon.), 1746.
- 'The Protestant Dissenters' Catechism … by a lover of truth and liberty ' (anon.), 1747.
- 'An Answer to the Remarks of an unknown Clergyman' on the foregoing (anon.), 1748 (annexed is a letter from a London dissenter on kneeling at the Lord's Supper).
- 'A new Call to the Unconverted' (anon.) 1754, 8vo (four sermons on Ezek. xxxiii. 2).
- (posthumous) 'Twenty Sermons on the most serious and practical subjects of the Christian Religion,' 1755, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1757. Toulmin prints selections from his catechetical lectures on scripture history, and describes the manuscript of a projected work on 'The Scriptures of the O. T. digested under proper heads … according to the method of Dr. Gastrell, bishop of Chester,' &c.
