# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oasland, Henry

According to the ODNB, Oasland married Mary Bradley, née Henzey.
​OASLAND or OSLAND, HENRY (1625–1703), ejected minister, the son of ‘Edward Osland and Elizabeth his wife,’ was born at Rock in Worcestershire in 1625, and was baptised there on 1 May (Parish Register). His parents were well-to-do people, and Oasland, after having been educated at the grammar school at Bewdley, entered Trinity College, Cambridge, about 1644. The influence of Dr. Thomas Hill (d. 1653) [q. v.], who was master of Trinity College, gave his thoughts a religious turn, and he experienced a bitter feeling of remorse for having in earlier life engaged in dancing and sports on the Sabbath.
In 1648, when on a visit to his parents at Rock, he preached in the locality with great success. He graduated B.A. at Cambridge in 1649, and M.A. in 1653. In 1650 he temporarily officiated at Sheriff Hales in Staffordshire, while the incumbent went to London to be ordained by the assembly. He had already, on 1 Jan. 1649–50, taken part in Bewdley Chapel in a disputation between John Tombes, vicar of Bewdley, and Richard Baxter on the subject of infant baptism (Baxter, Infant Membership). Soon afterwards Tombes left Bewdley, and Oasland, after a first refusal, accepted the pastorate there in 1650. He always adapted his sermons to the requirements and capacities of his hearers, and his church was soon crowded. In 1651 he went to London, and was ordained by the presbyterian ministers S. Clarke and Simeon Ashe at Bartholomew's Exchange.
In 1661 he was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in a plot of the presbyterians against the government, which is known both as Pakington's plot and Baxter's plot. ​A man named Churm, who owed a grudge to Oasland, claimed to have accidentally found a letter mentioning Oasland's complicity, which had been dropped from the pack of a Scottish pedlar, and was addressed to Sir John Pakington [q. v.] Oasland was kept in close confinement at the George Inn in Worcester till 2 April 1662, when his fellow-prisoner, Andrew Yarrenton, Yarranton, or Yarrington [q. v.], on examination by the lord-lieutenant, satisfied him of his own and of Oasland's innocence (Yarranton, Full Discovery, passim).
Oasland was much associated with Baxter, who appreciated his fluency in the pulpit. In August 1662 Oasland was ejected from his living in Bewdley by the Act of Uniformity, and removed to Staffordshire, where he preached privately. He had many remarkable escapes from arrest, but the respect with which he was universally regarded often prompted even men of opposite opinions to shelter him. He was cited by the court of Lichfield, but discharged by the declaration for liberty of 1685. After the Toleration Act of 1688 he preached regularly till 3 Oct. 1703, when he was taken ill. He died on the 19th.
Baxter described Oasland as ‘the most lively, fervent, moving preacher in all the county, of an honest, upright life,’ and not carried ‘too far from conformity.’ His generosity to the poor was great, and he had a peculiar talent for winning the love and confidence of children.
Oasland married, in 1660, a daughter of Mr. Maxwell, banker and mercer, of Bewdley, by whom he had several children. Edward, his eldest son, was presbyterian minister at Bewdley, and died in January 1752, at which time he was possessed of a farm at Rock and a house at Bewdley.
Oasland published:
* . ‘The Christian's Daily Walk’ (under the initials O. N.), London, n.d. (? 1660).
* ‘The Dead Pastor yet speaketh,’ London, 1662 (Kennet, Register, p. 748); the substance of two sermons preached at Bewdley, and printed without his knowledge.
[Oasland's Autobiography, and Life by his son, in Bewdley Parish Magazine, March 1878, and following numbers; Sylvester's Reliq. Baxterianæ, pt. i. pp. 90, 95, pt. ii. p. 383, pt. iii. p. 91; Burton's Hist. of Bewdley, pp. 23–4, 49; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, iii. 383–7; Cal. State Papers, 1661–2, pp. 143, 149; assistance from the Rev. E. Winnington Ingram of Bewdley; Cambr. Univ. Reg. per the Registrary; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. vii. 102.]
B. P.