Samuel Bourn the Elder (1648–1719) was an English dissenting minister. His maternal uncle was Robert Seddon, who (after receiving Presbyterian ordination on 14 June 1654) became minister at Gorton, Lancashire and Langley, Derbyshire, where he was silenced in 1662. Seddon sent Bourn to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which he left in 1672. His tutor was Samuel Richardson, who taught that there is no distinction between grace and moral righteousness and salvation is dependent upon the moral state. It does not appear that Bourn accepted this view; his theology was always Calvinistic and, although he regretted deflectors from that system, he was no hunter of heretics.