author
Charles Owen
d. 1746
An English dissenting minister and tutor remembered for both his religious writing and his curiosity about the natural world, he wrote on subjects ranging from theology to the history of serpents. His work offers a glimpse of the lively intellectual world of early 18th-century nonconformity.
1 Audiobook
An essay towards a natural history of serpents
by Charles Owen
About the author
Charles Owen was a Welsh-born Presbyterian, or dissenting, minister and tutor who died in 1746. He was the younger brother of James Owen and was educated within the dissenting academy tradition, studying first at Bethnal Green and later under his brother at Oswestry.
He served as minister at Cairo Street Chapel in Warrington from the late 1690s and became an important figure among Lancashire Presbyterian ministers. He also ran a well-known academy for training future ministers, helping shape a generation of nonconformist religious life outside the Church of England.
Owen published widely. Alongside theological and religious works, he is also associated with An Essay Towards a Natural History of Serpents (1742), a reminder that writers of his era often moved easily between divinity, natural history, and moral reflection.