Blunt, The J. J.: - John James Blunt was an Anglican priest from England, known for his studies on the early Church. He was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire and obtained a fellowship after graduating as fifteenth wrangler from St John's College, Cambridge in 1816. Blunt became a Worts travelling bachelor in 1818 and spent time in Italy and Sicily, publishing an account of his journey later on. He was appointed as a Hulsean Lecturer in 1831-1832 while holding a curacy in Shropshire. In 1834, he became the rector of Great Oakley in Essex, and in 1839, he was appointed Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. Although offered the see of Salisbury in 1854, he declined. Blunt is best known for his book, Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings both of the Old and New Testaments (1833; fuller edition, 1847), in which he coined the term "undesigned coincidences". His other writings, such as the History of the Christian Church during the First Three Centuries and the lectures On the Right Use of the Early Fathers, were published posthumously. A short memoir about him was written by William Selwyn, his successor in the divinity professorship, and was published in 1856.