Coussins, Jonathan
1757-1805; e.m. 1780

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Early itinerant, born in Reading. Brought up a strict Anglican, he was awakened by a sermon in the Countess of Huntingdon's Bristol chapel and converted in 1776 through Penelope Newman of *Cheltenham. Finding him perplexed over the controversy between election and general redemption, she lent him Wesley's Predestination Calmly Considered. They were married in 1782. John Valton encouraged him to enter the itinerancy. Despite his self-deprecation, Wesley had a high opinion of his abilities and included him as one of the youngest members of the Legal Hundred. Both he and his wife suffered from periodic ill health and in April 1804 he had a stroke. He died on 31 October 1805. In 1962 his remains were discovered under the floor of the chapel at Diss and reinterred at North Lopham.

Sources
  • W.A. Green, 'Jonathan and Penelope Coussins', in WHS Proceedings 34, pp.58-60
  • WM Magazine 1806 pp.286-96, 337-44, 385-9
  • Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography