ABSTRACT

In the winter of 1652, having endured nearly six months of imprisonment on the charge of blasphemy, a disconsolate TheaurauJohn Tany mused that ‘the Prisons were alwayes the Prophets Schooles, we read true Lectures in the empty walls, in our restraint, with-out Baals Books, in which ye learned Priests so much glory’. His despondency proved to be short-lived. Animated by a sudden surge of enthusiasm, he appended a triumphant coda:

My Name hath held al these changes in England from its Original, being the Hebrue Tan. Tani, Tanni, Tangoy, Toni, Totni, Totneses but now in this return of the Captivity of the Jewes my Brethren, my God hath sealed me with his glorious Seal, that is, Ruben, TheaurauJohn, Taniour, Allah, AL.1