Chandler, John (1)

an English minister of the Society of Friends, was born at Great Bardfield, Essex, April 10, 1787. He was a linen-draper by trade, and had but little scholastic education; but he applied himself diligently to study, familiarizing himself with Latin and several of the modern European languages, and general literature. In 1839 he went to the West Indies, under sanction of the Meeting for Sufferings, to relieve the miseries of the emancipated Negroes. During his visit he explored many of the islands. In 1849 he made a second voyage to the West Indies in behalf of the Antislavery Society. In 1850 he visited America. In 1852 he went to Portugal, to present to the queen of that country an address from the Society of Friends on slavery; and in the latter part of the same year he visited Brazil on a similar mission. In 1853 he was sent to America, to present to the governor of each state, and the president of the United States, a declaration from the Yearly Meeting of London on the unrighteousness of slavery. In 1862 he went to Norway as a missionary. He was one of the founders of the Auxiliary Bible Society, and was secretary of the same for fifty years. He died at Springfield, Chelmsford, July 4, 1869. See Annual Monitor, 1870, p. 39.