Christopher Vitell
Christopher Vitell , a Dutch carpenter or joiner from Southwark, was the first Familist preacher in England, though he subsequently recanted his belief when faced with death by burning. Vitell appears to have developed his Anabaptist beliefs from the Dutchman Henry Nicholis.
Life
A native of Delft, settled in England some time before the middle of the sixteenth century. He changed views in religion, professing Arianism under Queen Mary, and being imprisoned in Wood Street, London, until on Elizabeth's succession he recanted his errors before Edmund Grindal at St. Paul's Cross. Eventually, however, Vitell became a convert to the teaching of Nicholis, the founder of the Familists or ‘Family of Love.’He wandered up and down in East Anglia spreading mystical doctrines, and found a hearing at Cambridge, Willingham and Balsham in Cambridgeshire, Strethall in Essex, at Colchester, and other places. He became a chief elder in the family, and translated into English the writings of Niclaes, and one or two by Elidad and Fidelitas, his seniors. The result of Vitell's translation was a proclamation issued in 1580 by Archbishop Grindal against the ‘family’ and all their writings.
There is no authentic record of his later life.