Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Utenhove, John
UTENHOVE, JOHN (d. 1565), reformer, second son of Nicholas Utenhove by his second wife Elizabeth de Grutere, was a native of Ghent, where his family had for centuries held a high position. Becoming a protestant, he quitted Flanders in 1544. Through his half-brother, Charles Utenhove, an amanuensis of Erasmus, he became acquainted with John Laski or à Lasco [q. v.], with whom Charles had travelled to Italy from Basle in October 1525. In the summer of 1548 Utenhove came to England from Strasburg in advance of Laski, and co-operated with him in the organisation of the 'strangers' churches' in London and Canterbury. It was on his recommendation that Valérand Poullain, a gentleman of Lille, was brought over from Strasburg as pastor of the French-speaking protestant exiles at Canterbury. Poullain organised an offshoot from this community at Glastonbury, under the patronage of Lord-protector Somerset. To Glastonbury Utenhove sent the Flemish and Walloon weavers, who introduced the manufacture of broadcloth and blankets in the west of England. John Hooper [q. v.], who employed Utenhove on a mission to Bullinger in April 1549, writes of him in the highest terms. He left England with Laski in 1553, but returned at the accession of Elizabeth, and took a leading part in affairs as 'first elder' of the Dutch church. He died in London in 1565, leaving a widow (Anna de Grutere de Lannoy) and three children.
Of his writings the most important is 'Simplex et Fidelis Narratio de … Belgarum aliorumque Peregrinorum in Anglia Ecclesia,' Basle, 1560, 8vo. His translations of Psalms into Dutch verse appeared from time to time, the most complete edition being 'LXIIII Psalmen end ander Ghesanghen,' Emden, 1561, 8vo. Laski's London 'Catechismus' (distinct from the Emden one) is known only in the Flemish version by Utenhove, printed at London in 1551.
[Utenhove's Narratio, 1560; Pijper's Jan Utenhove, 1883; Strype's Eccles. Memorials, II. i.; Strype's Grindal; Original Letters (Parker Soc.), 1846 i. 55 sq., 1847 ii. 653 sq.; Dalton's John à Lasco (Evans), 1886; Buisson's Sébastien Castellion, 1892.]