Background
He was the son of John Aneley, born in Haseley, in Warwickshire in 1620. His father, a wealthy man, died when he was four years old.
He was the son of John Aneley, born in Haseley, in Warwickshire in 1620. His father, a wealthy man, died when he was four years old.
He started to read the bible at an early age In Michaelmas term, 1635, he was admitted a student at The Queen"s College, Oxford, and there he proceeded successively Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts He succeeded Griffin Higgs in the living of Cliffe, Kent, when Higgs was ejected for his loyalty to the king and treason to the Commonwealth. On 26 July 1648 he preached the fast sermon before the House of Commons, and around this time Oxford gave him an honorary doctorate. He was also again at sea with the Earl of Warwick, who was in action against the royalist navy.
In 1657 he was nominated by Oliver Cromwell lecturer of Saint Paul"s, and in 1658 was presented by Richard Cromwell to the vicarage of Saint Giles, Cripplegate.
He was presented again there after the Restoration, but was ejected after the Acting of Uniformity 1662. He preached semi-privately, but his goods were distrained for keeping a conventicle, a meeting-house in Little Saint Helen"son
In 1669 he was preaching in Spitalfields to a congregation estimated at 800. The sacred bow he so divinely drew,
That every shot both hit and overthrew;
His native candour and familiar style,
Which do so often his hearers" hours beguile,
Charmed us with godliness, and while he spake,
We loved the doctrine for the speaker"s sake.
He was buried in Saint Leonard"s Churchyard, Shoreditch, in an unmarked plot.
He died on 31 December 1696, his funeral sermon being preached by Daniel Williams, while Daniel Defoe, a member of his congregation, wrote an elegy on his death:.
