Canne, John

, was a leader of the English Brownists at Amsterdam, whither he fled on the restoration; but little is known of his personal history. His employ in England before his flight seems to have been no other than compiling the weekly news, yet he found time sufficient to collate many passages of Scripture, from whence he drew his notes, which he placed in the margin of his Bible; the first edit, printed in 8vo, at Amsterdam, in 1664, is the rarest, but the best, perhaps, is that of Edinburgh, 1727, 8vo. In the preface he mentions a larger work, to be soon published, but it does not seem to have ever been printed. It was his opinion that the original text of scripture in Hebrew and Greek should be translated, as much as possible, word for word, as Ainsworth did the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and Canticles, which were all printed together in 1639, folio. Canne succeeded Ainsworth as preacher to the congregation of Brownists at Amsterdam. ²