John Nuttall, baptised at Bury Parish Church 14 February 1635-6. He was the third of four children born to Francis and Mary Nuttall of Tottington: Ellen, baptised at Bury Parish Church 18 April 1630; Mary, baptised at Bury Parish Church 1633-4; John; and Margaret, baptised at Bury Parish Church, 24 September 1637.

When John was only 2 years old, his father died, leaving John and his siblings to the care of their mother, Mary. Most of John’s uncles and aunts had also died by this time, but his uncle Thomas Nuttall of Tottington, who was 30 when John’s father died, may have helped in the bringing up of John and his siblings. However, Thomas himself died aged only 48 on 26 June 1652, when John was 17. 

On 12 May 1656, John married Elizabeth Fenton at St Mary’s Parish Church, Bury. They had at least one son, Francis, born in 1658.