WAS JOHN BUN VAN A GIPSY? 



day. Even in the United States, I 

 find intelligent and liberal-minded 

 Scotchmen, twenty years absent 

 from their native country, saying, 

 " I would not like it to be said," and 

 others, " I would not have it said that 

 Bunyan was a Gipsy." Notwith- 

 standing all that, the writer in Black- 

 wood says : 



"John Bunyan was so exceedingly 

 plain-spoken, that he would most likely 

 have called himself a Gipsy if he were 

 really one," 



even if he were to be hanged for it, 

 or treated as a felon " without ben- 

 efit of clergy," and incurred the 

 odium of his fellow-creatures of the 

 native race, when there was no call 

 or occasion for him to say anything 

 about his ancestry or family ; and that, 



" Our editor's idea of a ' conclusive ' 

 proof is a defiance and anathema to any 

 who shall dare to assert the contrary." 



It sounds strange, as coming from 

 the seat of legal science in Scotland, 

 to be told that a thing cannot be 

 proved against a man unless he con- 

 fesses it ; and that he is not even to 

 be believed on the point if he does 

 confess it, but declines using a word 

 to which the law and society attach 

 so severe a penalty as the one in 

 question. 



You will perceive at once the 

 bearing that Bunyan's nationality 

 will have on the raising up of the 

 name of the Gipsy tribe. People 

 will get accustomed and reconciled 

 to the idea, and entertain a becom- 

 ing respect for it, were it only on his 

 account; for it unfortunately hap- 

 pens that, owing to the peculiarity 

 of their origin, and the prejudice of 

 the rest of the population, the race 

 hide the fact of their being Gipsies 

 from the rest of the world, as they 

 acquire settled habits, or even leave 

 the tent, so that they never get the 

 credit of any good that may spring 

 from them as a people.* 



* What follows did not appear in the 

 paper sent to the Scottish clergy. 



In the Disquisition on the Gipsies^ 

 I have said that " the world never 

 can do justice to Bunyan unless it 

 takes him up as a Gipsy ; nor can 

 the Christian, unless he considers 

 him as being a Gipsy, in Abraham's 

 bosom. His biographers have not, 

 even in one instance, done justice 

 to him ; for, while it is altogether 

 out of the question to call him the 

 ' wicked tinker,' the * depraved Bun- 

 yan,' it is unreasonable to style 

 him a ' blackguard,' as Southey has 

 done" (p. 519). The argument 

 showing that he was a Gipsy is very 

 fully given on pages 506-523. I 

 may give here a few extracts bear- 

 ing on his nationality generally : 



John Bunyan has told us as much of 

 his history as he dared to do. It was a 

 subject upon which, in some respects, he 

 doubtless maintained a great reserve; 

 for it cannot be supposed that a man 

 occupying so prominent and popular a 

 position, as a preacher and writer, and 

 of so singular an origin, . should have 

 had no investigations made into his his- 

 tory, and that of his family ; if not by 

 his friends, at least by his enemies, who 

 seemed to have been capable of doing 

 anything to injure and discredit him.* 

 But, very probably, his being 1 a tinker 

 was, with friends and enemies, a cir- 

 cumstance so altogether discreditable, 

 as to render any investigation of the 

 kind perfectly superfluous. In mention- 

 ing that much of himself which he did, 

 Bunyan doubtless imagined that the 

 world understood, or would have under- 

 stood, what he meant, and would, sooner 

 or later, acknowledge the race to which 

 he belonged. And yet it has remained 

 in this unacknowledged state for two 

 centuries since his time. How unreason- 

 able it is to imagine that Bunyan should 

 have said, in as many words, that he 

 was a Gipsy, when the world generally 

 is so apt to become fired with indigna- 

 tion, should we now say that he was " 

 one of the race. How applicable are 



* It is not impossible that people inti- 

 mate with Bunyan learned from his own 

 mouth that he was a Gipsy, but suppress- 

 ed the information, under the influence 

 of the unfortunate prejudice that exists 

 against the name, with all the timidity 

 that makes sheep huddle together when 

 attacked by a ravenous animal. 



