FLAVEL, John (c. 1627-1691), an English nonconformist divine, was born at Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, probably in 1627. He was the elder son of Mr Richard Flavel, described in contemporary records as “a painful and eminent minister.” After receiving his early education, partly at home, and partly at the grammar-schools of Bromsgrove and Haslar, he entered University College, Oxford. Soon after taking orders in 1650, he obtained a curacy at Deptford, and on the death of the vicar he was appointed to succeed him. From Deptford he removed in 1656 to Dartmouth. He was ejected from his living by the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662, but continued to preach and administer the sacraments privately till the Oxford Act of 1665, when he retired to Slopton, five miles from the scene of his official labours. After the expulsion of the Stuart dynasty, he became minister of a nonconformist church at Dartmouth, where he laboured till his death in 1691. Although the writings of Flavel now appear cumbrous in structure, yet their literary style has some merits; and from their tender and devotional character they were long popular with a certain class of readers.

His principal works are his Trecdise on the Soul of Man; The Fountain of Life, in forty-two Sermons; The Method of Grace; A Token for Mourners; Husbandry Spiritualized; and Navigation Spiritualized. A new edition of his collected works was published in 1820 in 6 vols., 8vo. His select works were published in 1823 in 2 vols., and an edition of these, with Life, in 1833.