Darby, John Nelson

(1800–82)

   Denomination Founder.

   Darby was born in Ireland and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. After training as a lawyer, he was ordained as a Church of Ireland clergyman. However, in 1827, disenchanted with the complacency and apathy of the established Church, he wrote a tract entitled On the Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ and resigned his curacy. He joined a group of Plymouth Brethren in Dublin and quickly became their leader. In 1845 he quarrelled with the Brethren leader Benjamin Newton on questions of Church order and the interpretation of prophecy. In 1848 Newton was charged with heresy and the Brethren split into the Open and the Exclusive groups, Darby being the leader of the latter. He dedicated the rest of his life to preaching and made many visits abroad to Europe, to North America and to New Zealand. Under his care, the Exclusives became increasingly centralised and legalistic. Since his death they have had several further divisions among themselves.

   F.R. Coad, A History of the Brethren Movement (1968);

   A. Reese, The Approaching Advent of Christ: An Examination of the Teaching of J.N. Darby and his Followers (1937);

   H.H. Rowdon, The Origins of the Brethren (1967).