Madan, Martin

Madan, Martin an Anglican divine, was born near Hertford, England, in 1726. He first studied law, but finally entered the ministry, and was for a number of years chaplain to the Lock Hospital, London. He died in 1790. Mr. Madan gained great notoriety by a work which he published in 1780, entitled Thelypthora, a treatise on female ruin, in which he stoutly advocated the practice of polygamy. The pamphlets which his work elicited he replied to in a number of tracts. Madan's object in advocating polygamy was the removal of seduction. He was quite a pulpit orator; several of his sermons have been published. — Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and American Authors, vol. ii, s.v.; Darling, Cyclopaedia Bibliog. 2:1920.