Founder of the Brownists, born in Rutland; the first seceder from the Church of England, and the first to found a Church of his own on Congregational principles, which he did at Norwich, though his project of secession proved a failure, and he returned to the English Church; died in jail at Northampton, where he was imprisoned for assaulting a constable; he may be accounted the father of the Congregational body in England (1540-1630).