Born: 5 October 1725, Bond Street, London, England (at the house of his maternal grandfather, Judge Spencer Cowper, MP).
Died: May 1, 1790, at his home in Woodcote End, Epsom, Surrey, England.
Buried: St. Mary Abbot’s Church, Kensington, England.
Madan was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. Though he planned a career in law, he converted after hearing a sermon by John Wesley, Prepare to Meet Thy God
:
Madan, who was a cousin to the poet Cowper, was a young lawyer of considerable wealth.
One day he was at a coffee-house in London with some companions, who, hearing that John Wesley was preaching close at hand, sent Madan to hear him in order that he might mimic the great preacher on his return.
But Madan returned in a very different frame of mind from what had been anticipated, for on being asked if he had
taken off the old Methodist,he replied,No, gentlemen, but he has taken me off.Soon after he left the law for the Church.Lightwood, p. 183
After some difficulties, Madan took Holy Orders, and subsequently founded and became chaplain of the Lock Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, London. He was a popular preacher, and had a considerable reputation as a composer.
Madan stopped preaching after publication of his work Thelyphthora, which advocated the practice of polygamy.
His other works include: