John Conder

John Conder, D.D. (June 3 1714 - May 30 1781) was an Independent minister at Cambridge who later became President of the Independent College, Homerton in the parish of Hackney near London.

John Conder was born at Wimpole in Cambridgeshire on June 3rd 1714. At the time the Nonconformists were in great fear because of Parliament's "Schism Bill" under Queen Anne, but following the accession of George I a degree of religious toleration was won, and throughout the eighteenth century they were able to practice their beliefs independently of the Church of England's wishes, though with a number of legal restrictions and disadvantages that continued into the nineteenth century.

Dr John Conder's first sermon as an Independent was preached in 1738 and he developed a successful ministry at Cambridge. In 1754 he left to take up an appointment as President of the Independent College at Homerton, near London, an institution that is today's Homerton College, a college of Cambridge University in that city. In 1762, he was accepted as pastor of a chapel at Moorfields in the City of London, where he served for a twenty-one years as minister.

Dr Conder wrote a number of works and hymns, including "Christ watches o'er the embers...", although his grandson Josiah Conder was the more prolific hymn writer in the family. As a practiced author, Dr Conder even composed the last part of the wording for his own headstone. This was duly erected at Bunhill Fields, the Independent burial-ground on the edge of the City of London, on his burial, following his death at Hackney in 1781, aged 67 years.