Person:John Wilson (207)

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Rev. John Wilson
b.Abt 1591
m.
  1. Rev. John WilsonAbt 1591 - 1667
  2. Margaret WilsonEst 1592 -
m. Bef 1617
  1. Edmund WilsonEst 1618 -
  2. Rev. John Wilson1621 - 1691
  3. Mary Wilson1633 -
Facts and Events
Name[1] Rev. John Wilson
Gender Male
Birth[1] Abt 1591
Degree[1] 1609/10 B.A., Cambridge
Degree[1] 1613 M.A., Cambridge
Marriage Bef 1617 to Elizabeth Mansfield
Emigration[1] 1630
Residence[1] 1630 Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States
Other[1] 2 Jul 1632 Freeman
Will[1] 31 May 1667
Occupation[1] Minister
Death[1] 7 Aug 1667 Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States
Estate Inventory[1] 19 Aug 1667 £419-14-06; £300 in real estate.
Probate[1] 21 Aug 1667
Reference Number? Q6264494?


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

John Wilson (c. 1588 – 1667) was a Puritan clergyman in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the minister of the First Church of Boston from its beginnings in Charlestown in 1630 until his death in 1667. He is most noted for being a minister at odds with Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy from 1636 to 1638, and for being an attending minister during the execution of Mary Dyer in 1660.

Born into a prominent English family from Sudbury in Suffolk, his father was the chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and thus held a high position in the Anglican Church. Young Wilson was sent to school at Eton for four years, and then attended the university at King's College, Cambridge, where he received his B.A. in 1610. From there he studied law briefly, and then studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he received an M.A. in 1613. Following his ordination, he was the chaplain for some prominent families for a few years, before being installed as pastor in his home town of Sudbury. Over the next ten years he was dismissed and then reinstated on several occasions, because of his strong Puritan sentiments which contradicted the practices of the established church.

As with many other Puritan divines, Wilson came to New England, and sailed with his friend John Winthrop and the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. He was the first minister of the settlers, who established themselves in Charlestown, but soon crossed the Charles River into Boston. Wilson was an encouragement to the early settlers during the very trying initial years of colonization. He made two return trips to England during his early days in Boston, the first time to persuade his wife to come, after she initially refused to make the trip, and the second time to transact some business. Upon his second return to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, Anne Hutchinson was first exposed to his preaching, and found an unhappy difference between his theology and that of her mentor, John Cotton, who was the other Boston minister. The theologically astute, sharp-minded, and outspoken Hutchinson, who had been hosting large groups of followers in her home, began to criticize Wilson, and the divide erupted into the Antinomian Controversy. Hutchinson was eventually tried and banished from the colony, as was her brother-in-law, Reverend John Wheelwright.

Following the controversy, Wilson and Cotton were able to work together to heal the divisions within the Boston church, but after Cotton's death more controversy befell Boston as the Quakers began to infiltrate the orthodox colony with their evangelists. Greatly opposed to their theology, Wilson supported the actions taken against them, and supervised the execution of his former parishioner, Mary Dyer in 1660. He died in 1667, the longest-lived of the early ministers in the Boston area, and his passing was lamented by those who knew him and worked with him, but he is also remembered for the roles he played in the persecution of those who did not embrace the Puritan orthodoxy.

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at John Wilson (minister). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
References
  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 "John Wilson", in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
    III:2012ff.

    ORIGIN: Sudbury, Suffolk.
    RETURN TRIPS: Made two brief trips to England, leaving in 1631, returning the last of May 1632 on the Whale [W] 1:62, 93, and leaving again in 1634 [WP 3:61, 175; WJ 1:205].
    FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1631 and admitted 2 July 1692 [MBCR 1:80, 367].
    EDUCATION: John Wilson was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He was admitted at King's College, Cambridge, on 23 August 1605, aged 14, B.A. 1609-10, M.A. 1613 [Venn 4:429; Morison 408]

    BIRTH: About 1591 [Venn 4:429], son of Rev. William Wilson [Venn 4:433; Magnalia 1:303].
    DEATH: Boston 7 August 1667, aged 68. "About two of the clock in the morning, my honored Father, Mr. John Wilson, Pastor to the church of Boston, aged about 78 years and an half, a man eminent in faith, love, humility, self-denial, prayer, soundess of mind, zeal for God, liberality to all men, esp[ecial]ly to the s[ain]ts & ministers of Christ, rested from his labors & sorrows, beloved & lamented of all, and very honorably interred the day following" (the record of Samuel Danforth [RChR 206]).

  2.   John Wilson (minister), in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.