Josselyn's years of birth and death are not known, but he was born early in the seventeenth century. He was the second son of Sir Thomas Josselyn, Knight, of Torrell's Hall in Willingale-Doe, Essex, and his second wife, Theodora (Cooke) Bere, of a Kentish family
Josselyn first came to New England in the summer of 1638, and after visiting John Cotton and John Winthrop in Boston and staying some months at his brother's place in Black Point (now Scarborough, Maine), he departed in October 1639.
His second visit extended from July 1663 till August 1671. He appears to have spent these years as a student and observer rather than as a gentleman-planter, and was again with his brother in the eastern country. It is not a surprise to learn that while in Maine he was twice presented by the grand jury for not being a regular attendant at divine service.
After his return to England he perhaps came to enjoy a royal pension, if we may accept literally a statement in the Two Voyages. The rest is silence.
His first, New-Englands Rarities Discovered, was licensed for publication, at London, on June 24, 1672. Josselyn's book was immediately noticed with approval in the pages of Philosophical Transactions, the organ of the Royal Society. Thus encouraged, Josselyn turned to his desk and wrote An Account of Two Voyages to New-England, which was published first in 1674 and again in 1675. Though this work was dedicated to the Fellows of the Royal Society, no official notice of it was taken.
He died probably in 1675.
John Josselyn was famous as the author of two volumes dealing with New England, based on his observations made during two visits to that region. His first work, New-Englands Rarities Discovered, was highly appreciated because of its wealth of information relating to the animals and plants of the country, being the first systematic account of the botanical species of this portion of English America. His second, The Two Voyages, is a rather strange compound of scientific lore, suggestions for settlers, bits of local history, and much general observation. Both volumes were considered of high worthy.
The tone of his main writtings, by and large, - fair, but scattered through it are to be found some statements that are slyly hostile to the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay.
His writings furnish ample evidence that his was an educated mind, and that he was not without a degree of curiosity in matters scientific, as he was likewise not without an element of occasional credulity in judging of them. One infers that he had been trained as a surgeon and physician.
His writings show him as a jovial companion, fond of good cheer.
Quotes from others about the person
Josselyn was "a writer of almost incredible credulity", according to the anthology Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Beginnings of Americanism 1650–1710.
He was a bachelor.
