Tag: Puritan

image_pdfimage_print

Mystery Monday: The John White Family and Puritanism

Pilgrims Going to Church by George Henry Boughton (1867), via Wikipedia, public domain.

McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

Yesterday’s post reviewed a bit of the life of John White, our Puritan ancestor who immigrated to New England about 1638 with his family. The sources listed below will provide more details about all the land he was granted in the Puritan colony of Wenham, which was a part of Salem, Massachusetts at the time.

Although the Puritans came to the New World to find religious freedom, the Puritans wanted only those who worshipped the same way to live in their colonies- no religious tolerance was allowed by the Puritans. Those who had other ideas and challenged the Puritan church were expelled from the colonies, such as Anne Hutchinson, a lay minister (and a woman!! and mother of 11…), and Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island where all could practice religion as they desired. Mary Dyer was hanged by the Puritans of Boston for her Quaker beliefs and not leaving the colony when ordered to do so. The Puritans also were very intolerant of Anglicans,  Baptists, but especially Catholics: a Catholic who had been banished from the colony once would be executed at a second offense.

So was John White a Puritan? It seems he would have been required to be of the faith, since he was granted so much acreage by those in charge of the colony. He, in fact, was one of the largest landholders.

But, his “…name does not appear upon the church roll” per an 1898 letter concerning the Church Record kept by Rev. John Fisk, Pastor of the First Church in Wenham, Massachusetts, organized in 1644. (The Fisks married into the White family.)

We do know that his wife, Joane (West) White, became a member of the very first church formed in Salem on Feb. 26, 1642-3, and three of their children were baptized there- but in their mother’s name. This is curious because in the Puritan faith, the father was the undisputed head of household, and held all power within the family.

The family held lands in Wenham, which was considered a part of Salem, Massachusetts at that time. As the population grew with “The Great Migration” from England, a second church, actually in nearby Wenham, was formed. To become a new member of that church, which was closer to their home, Joane had to be dismissed in good standing from the Salem church, and then accepted into the new church.

Part of her dismissal letter to the Wenham church read:

Whereas Joane White a member of our Congregation, by reason of her abode with you, cannot so well partake with us in ye Ordinances: nor live under our watch…

Know you therefore yet we have consented thereto & request you to receive her in ye Lord, as becometh Scts. & watch over her, administering to her all ye holy things of his house yt she may be prsented blamelesse in ye day of Jesus Christ…

Part of the Puritan faith included watching over the other members and ensuring that they followed the rules of the Bible and society. This preserved order as well as prepared individuals, if they were chosen by God, to go to Heaven. The Puritans did not believe that a life of good works would get one to Heaven- they believed in predestination. However, if chosen, their life would need to have been “blamelesse” in order to receive the Grace of God in the hereafter.

The letter was dated “Salem, 10, 2, 45”- the Puritans dated with the day of the month first, then the month. At that time, the 2nd month of the year was April, as their year started in March, not January. The year was 1645. Seeing that they casually left off the first two digits of the year, as we often do today, could they have imagined that their descendants would have to determine which century they were referencing 373 years later?? They would not have been able to even comprehend the technology that we are using at this moment for me to write this, nor you to read it via computer and the internet. (Nor can we predict how our descendants might read this 373 years from today, in the year 2391!)

Joane’s letter of dismissal from the Salem church was only the first half of her move to the new Wenham congregation. On that same day, 10 April 1645, the letter was read and accepted by the Wenham faithful at a church meeting. As caretaker’s of each member’s soul, the new church wanted to make sure that Joane was faithful enough:

Hereupon ye church desired of her being present to make a declaration of ye worke of Grace on her soule w’ch was done, ye substance whereof was this:

She was brought up in a poore Ignorant place &c. [etc]

her 1st conviction was of ye sins of ye breach of ye sabbath & ye taking of Gods name in vayne, from Commandments 3 & 4th, her hearte being drawn towards New England because good people came hither:–

At last by a providence comeing over was shut up for a long space of time liveing far remote in ye woods from ye means, (of grace) & reading in Romans 10, Faith commeth by hearing: put her affections onward, towards ye desire of ye meanes: — afterwards at Ipswich…– her consent & closure.

Puritans believed that it wasn’t enough to just say that you were a Puritan- one had to have a conversion, or “conviction”- a spiritual event within oneself that bound your soul to God. So the church elders would have asked her about that event, and Joane stated that she was brought up ignorant of the faith. She did have a realization that she was sinful in not keeping the Sabbath and by taking God’s name in vain. Knowing that the faithful were migrating to New England, she too desired to make the journey, which became spiritual as well as physical. Once she got to the colony, however, it was such a deep wilderness and there was little mobility for a woman with many children when walking, riding horseback, or going by boat were all dangerous journeys due to the wildlife, the natives, the weather, etc.

Joane did, however, probably have her Bible in the wilderness, and as she was probably able to read Romans 10, she realized that she needed to be a part of a church with a preacher to speak of the faith. She apparently decided that at Ipswich, which was about 7 miles from Wenham. (This is about a three-hour walk today with paved roads, but going through the wilds of Massachusetts in 1645 might have taken much longer.)

The men of the church asked Joane more questions, and she gave her confession and acceptance of the church Covenant.  Satisfied with her conviction and answers, the elders told her to come back the next Sabbath.

Three days later, on 13 April 1645, Joane returned to the Wenham church:

After ye sermon & singing, ye letters of dismission concerning Joane White were publickly read, and after that ye Church had by vote manifested their willingness to reach forth unto her ye right hand of fellowship: –she was admitted & pronounced and actual member of this church.

Knowing that the family practiced Puritanism, we can surmise that the whole family was literate. Puritan leaders believed that wives, children, and servants should be able to read the Bible as well as civil laws, and in 1642 in Massachusetts, the leaders required husbands to teach reading and writing to their family and servants. Five years later Massachusetts required a teacher and school for any town over 50 households, and Harvard and Yale were founded to further educate men for the ministry.

Learning of Joane’s involved process of becoming a church member, we can understand why her husband, John White, may not have been listed on a church roll. By the 1640s, the second generation of the first Pilgrims had become more lax in requiring a “conviction” experience, yet some were allowed to “be” Puritans so that the faith would not lose members. John may have been one of those who had not experienced a “conviction” or who was more interested in survival and business than his own spiritual journey, so he probably never joined the church. A Puritan wife, however, had the duty of ensuring that her children were brought up properly in the faith, and Joane did just that.

The Puritan tradition lived on in the Congregational Church, and we have quite a few ancestors who were deacons,  ministers, and/or missionaries in the Congregational church. None were descended from John White, but they carried the spirit of Puritanism that he must have embodied despite not officially being a church member.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. I am definitely not an authority on religious thought and practice, but the above is my understanding from the copious reading I have done on the subject. For more information on Puritanism and some of our other family members who practiced that faith, see also “Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Day has New Meaning This Year”–http://heritageramblings.net/2015/11/26/thankful-thursday-thanksgiving-day-has-new-meaning-this-year/
  2. “Sorting Sunday: John White, Our Puritan Immigrant,” Heritage Ramblings blog.  http://heritageramblings.net/2018/11/25/sorting-sunday-john-white-our-puritan-immigrant/
  3. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. 1638-1900, in Two Volumes. Almira Larkin White, 1900. Volume 1 has provided information for this blog post. Both volumes are available on archive.org.
  4. Ancestry.com. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Accessed 11/24/2018. Original data: Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.
  5. “Puritans”– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans#Puritans_in_North_America; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Puritans_under_King_Charles_I#The_foundation_of_Puritan_New_England,_1630–1642; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan_migration_to_New_England_(1620–40)
  6. The Puritan Family: Religion and Domestic Relations in Seventeenth-Century New England by Edmund S. Morgan, 1966.

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Sorting Sunday: John White, Our Puritan Immigrant

The Puritan by Augustus Saint Gaudens – Springfield, Massachusetts, via Wikipedia, public domain.

McMurray Family, Benjamin Family (Click for Family Tree)

Now that we are all post Thanksgiving-turkey-and-pie-food-comas and on to the shopping frenzy, if your feet or fingers would like to take a break, here is a bit about our own Puritan immigrant, John White.

First, an important note: There are two other men named John White who came to the colonies very early. One, a minister and founder of Massachusetts, travelled the ocean on another ship named Mayflower– not the original, 1620 vessel- and the other came in 1632 on the ship Lyon. Our McMurray-Benjamin line is not related to either of these men, as far as we have been able to ascertain. (See notes below.) There are some online family trees, however, that do have these three men mixed up (I too was confused by them for many years), so be careful out there in wild, wild GenealogyTreeLand.

∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇∇

The years before 1638 were difficult ones for the English. Charles the First was king, and he, like his father, had abandoned many of the practices of the Anglican Church founded by Henry VIII in the 1530s. The “Eleven Years Tyranny” from 1629-1640 was also called “The Personal Rule,” as Charles insisted on the return of sacraments and religious ceremonies similar to those of the Catholic Church, which had been outlawed for much of the previous century. This “return to popery,” as many called it, caused the Puritans to become even more dissatisfied with the English government. Charles 1 created illegal taxes as well, placing significant burdens on the common people, including many merchant Puritans, and was so frustrated with Parliament not giving him what he wanted that he disbanded it several times. (Hence, “The Personal Rule.”) With further persecution of Puritan clergy and laymen alike, many more decided to leave England. By 1638, four Puritans had been “martyred” to the cause (tortured and imprisoned, but not executed), the last of them due to importation of works censored because they were critical of the king and his government. Many Puritans lost hope that their religion and country would be reformed to be more “pure.” Perhaps this was the final motivator for “our” John White and his family to undertake the perilous voyage to New England. It was good timing, as civil war was soon to come in England (1641).

We have no record of exactly when and from where the John White family took leave of chaotic England and set sail, nor the name of the ship that carried them to the shores of New England. In 1784, a descendant recorded that John came from the west part of England, and more recent research verifies that he was baptized in South Petherton, Somerset, England (SW England), and born about 1602. He married Joan West in Drayton Parish of Somerset, in 1627.  Five of the known White children were born in England, with Mary born there about 1635; the rest were born in Massachusetts. There is record of John White being “of Salem in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1638,” per the White genealogy, although a GoogleBooks description states they migrated in 1639 to Salem, Massachusetts. (This date might be because of the land grant date- see next paragraph.)

Knee buckles worn by John White on his voyage from England to Massachusetts in 1638. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster Massachusetts by Almira Larkin White, 1900, page 17.

 

The Puritans had strict rules for those who lived in their colonies, and John was officially “received an inhabitant of Salem” in August, 1639, when he was granted 60 acres of land. On Feb.1, 1642, he was granted 6 acres of meadow at nearby Wenham, which he had already been mowing “for these 2 or 3 years past.” Town records note at least 48 more acres were granted to John White, and the first saw and grist mill in Wenham was built on a stream that ran through John’s land.

Although there has been an assumption that John White was a Puritan, curiously, we have no real documentation of him being a church member. More to come on that point, but we do know that he lived in Puritan colonies and was granted land by the Puritans. He and his family came to New England just 18 years after the first Pilgrims landed, but their stories differed in many ways- we will explore that further in future posts.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. “Mayflower” was a common name used for ships in England. A second Mayflower made the trip to Plymouth Colony in 1629, also carrying Puritans from Leiden. In 1630 this same Mayflower was a part of the Winthrop Fleet, and the “other” (Rev.) John White, of Dorchester, England, was a part of passengers in this fleet. This Mayflower made 3 more successful trips to the colonies but was lost on a fourth trip in 1641.The original Mayflower of Plymouth Rock fame had returned to London in 1621, and her captain and owner died in 1622. The ship laid in the Thames in London (it is believed) until an appraisal in 1624 for Capt. Jones’ estate inventory. No one knows for sure what happened to her after that time, though it is surmised she was taken apart and timbers used in various land structures. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower for more information.
  2. Yet another John White of Messing, Essex, England, immigrated to the colonies in 1632 on the ship Lyon. He first lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then Hartford, Hadley, and Hartford again. See The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vols. 1-3, page 1976-1979, by Robert Charles Anderson, NEHGS.
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Puritans_under_King_Charles_I
  4. Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. 1638-1900, in Two Volumes. Almira Larkin White, 1900. Volume 1 has provided information for this blog post. Both volumes are available on archive.org.
  5. Ancestry.com. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Accessed 11/24/2018. Original data: Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.
  6.  Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts. Almira Larkin White, Chase Brothers, 1900. (Also brief bio.) https://books.google.com/books/about/Genealogy_of_the_Descendants_of_John_Whi.html?id=uqVbAAAAMAAJ

 

Click to enlarge any image. Please contact us if you would like an image in higher resolution.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.

Original content copyright 2013-2018 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly, i.e, reference this blog.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Black Sheep Sunday: Crime and Punishment circa 1633

John Sale and daughter Phebe 'bound over' for theft by John. Found in Pioneers of Massachusetts by Charles henry Pope, 1900. Public domain.
John Sale and daughter Phebe ‘bound over’ for theft committed by John. Found in Pioneers of Massachusetts by Charles Henry Pope, 1900. Public domain.

 

McMurray Family (Click for Family Tree)

Our Burnell, Tucker, Bannister, Pomeroy, Parsons, and Kingsley ancestors lived in Puritan Massachusetts in the 1600s, and the early 1700s as the society became more diverse. They may have known John Sales, or known of him- news travelled faster than we realize even though they did not have cell phones in those days. Thankfully, John Sales is not the ‘Black Sheep’ of our family, though he likely is such in some other family. His story, however, will give a bit of context to the time and place that our own ancestors lived.

Charles Henry Pope compiled information from many available sources, such as, in this case, the Records of Massachusetts Bay Colony or the General Court [Col. Rec.], and Gov. John Winthrop’s History of Massachusetts [W.]. Pope’s book Pioneers of Massachusetts was published in 1900.

These records show that John Sales was admitted as an inhabitant of Charlestown, Massachusetts, now known as Cambridge (Boston’s oldest neighborhood), and in 1630 the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. From other sources we learn that John migrated from Little Waldingfield, Suffolk, England, in 1630, and his first residence in the colony was Charlestown. John most likely was already a member of the Puritan church- the ONLY religion tolerated in the colony. To become a member of the local church, however, John, like other men and women, had to be examined by local Puritan religious leaders and found to be steadfast and knowledgeable in his faith. In fact, he proved himself- John was one of the members from the very beginning of the First Church in Boston, on 27 August 1630- he was member #21.

Anne (Dudley) Bradstreet, the first female poet to be published in the English colonies- and the most famous poet in the colonies- was also listed in that first accounting of members of the new church. Her most famous lines are:

“If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.”

John Winthrop, the Governor of the colony, was a member of the Boston First Church, too.

So how did John Sales, who travelled in such prominent circles to some degree, end up being convicted of theft?? ‘Black Sheep’ that he was, he had the distinction of being the first person in the colony to be convicted of that crime, on 1 April 1633.

We know that times were pretty lean in the first years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and we know that John had a daughter named Phebe to support. We do not know John’s status when he immigrated to the colony- was he part of the gentry, a merchant, a skilled craftsman, an apprentice, or indentured servant? His wife was not listed in any records (still existing) once he was in the colony. She may have died in England after the birth of their second daughter in 1628, or she died on board ship or shortly after arrival. My hypothesis is that she would have been on board ship, as it would be unlikely a man would bring a four-year old daughter- Phebe- with him to the colony without a woman to care for her. (Phoebe was baptized in 1626, but may not have been an infant at baptism, thus her actual age is unknown.) If his wife and second daughter, 2 year old Sarah had come on the voyage, they would have been like many other colonists, who travelled as a family. A number of passengers on board perished during the journey, however, and John’s wife and youngest daughter may have been two of them, as they are not mentioned in any of the Colony’s records.

John Sales and family probably sailed from England with the Winthrop Fleet, the 12 ships that landed in Salem, Massachusetts on 12 June 1630. The sick and decimated colonists already in Salem did not have enough food even for themselves, nor housing for the new arrivals. The newest colonists then only had a few months to find a different place to settle and build shelters for the oncoming brutal New England winter. They moved about twenty miles away, and founded Charlestown.

Wattle-and-daub construction, via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Wattle-and-daub construction, via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The colonists mostly lived in very simple housing such as wigwams, dugout homes, or wattle-and-daub (basically stick and mud) houses with dirt floors. The rich persons in town had clapboard houses, which would have been much warmer in winter than drafty wattle-and-daub. There was a lack of fresh water in Charlestown, and growing and gathering food to sustain them over that first winter would have been a challenge during the few remaining months of summer. Many got sick from poor diet, local conditions, and hard work. In that first year, about 200 of the approximately 1,000 immigrants died; the next spring, in 1631, another 200 returned to England. John Sale and his daughter Phebe somehow survived these tough times, and made it through their first year in the New World.

The year 1632 was harder, though, for John and Phebe. The Charlestown Town Records state:

“heere happened in this Towne, the first knowne thiefe yt [that] was notoriously observed in ye Country, his name was John Sales who having stolne [stolen] Corne from many people in this Scarce time was Convicted thereof before the Court…”

John was accused of

“… fellonyously takeing away corne & fishe from dyvers persons the last yeare & this, as also clapboards, &c.”

Not that stealing is acceptable, especially when others also do not have enough, but perhaps John was just trying to feed his daughter and himself, and either add clapboards to their home to help them stay warm, or use the clapboards for firewood. He may have been too sick to care for his daughter as well as bring home dinner or kindling from the woods. We cannot know his situation or motivation, but we do know what happened next.

We can also tell you that John Sales was not listed as an inhabitant of Charlestown on 9 January 1633/34. Obviously there was a big change in his life.

Tomorrow- The Punishment

 

 

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. Pioneers of Massachusetts by Charles Henry Pope, 1900, via Archive.org.
  2. John Sale is listed on page 2 of “Boston Church Records” The Records of the Churches of Boston. CD-ROM. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002. (Online database.  AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008 .)
  3. Entry for John Sales: The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995). He is listed on p. 407-8 in a footnote in the profile of John Coggeshall, page 1616-1618 in his own profile as John Sales.
  4. “&c” means “and etc.”
  5. Double or dual dating is often used during this time period because of the change from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar. See the article on dual dating at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_dating and http://www.usgenweb.org/research/calendar.shtml.

 

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2016 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted. 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright or use of our blog material.

Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Day has New Meaning This Year

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts. via Wikipedia, public domain.
Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts. via Wikipedia, public domain.

McMurray Family, Burnell Family (Click for Family Tree)

Pilgrims and Puritans always seemed so far removed from everything in life except Thanksgiving dinner- that was my thought in years past. The last few months, however, have revealed a much closer relationship than ever imagined. Some of our Burnell ancestors actually travelled on The Mayflower, though it was her third voyage to the colonies, not that first fateful voyage that gave us the holiday we celebrate today and the famous ‘Plymouth Rock.’ Also, we have quite a lot of Puritans in our Burnell ancestors of New England, and it is fascinating to be learning their stories.

Of course, finding this family heritage meant research into the daily lives of the Puritans. They were not the dour people we often envision. They did allow laughter and play, but everything they did was for the glory of God.

The Puritans wished to purify the English church, and rid it of any facets of Catholicism, such as priests, sacraments, ceremonies, etc. They did have much political power in England after the First English Civil War in 1642-6, but then were unhappy with the limited changes of the Reformation, and many left England. While the Mayflower pilgrims could be classified as being “Separatists” who wanted to start their own churches, likely our ancestors were “non-separating Puritans” since they followed John Winthrop and like-minded others. They did not want to leave the Church of England, but wanted to practice their religion in a more pure way. Thus, although we learned in grade school that the Pilgrims and Puritans came to the colonies for freedom of religion, technically it was so that THEY could practice THEIR religion freely; they would not tolerate others to question nor practice in any way other than that proscribed by the bible as interpreted by their ministers. (They persecuted and even executed heretics and Quakers like Anne Hutchinson.)

The Puritans believed in strict interpretation of the bible, and made their laws, which became the plantation/colony laws, accordingly. Their ultimate goal in this life was to glorify God, in the hope of being with God and an everlasting glory in heaven. They did not believe, like the Catholics, that good works would help one get closer to heaven- the chosen were pre-ordained by God, but they must also live their life orderly and properly in order to fulfill that destiny. Man was made to glorify God while on this earth, in thought, deed, worship, raising children, and even in his business pursuits, they affirmed.

The Puritans believed very strongly in the Fifth Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” This law produced the strict hierarchy ordering their lives: God was the father of man, who must honor him; man was the ‘father’ to his wife, children, and any servants, thus they would honor him by being subservient and obedient to him. He, as their ‘father,’ was required to see to their education in both religion and practical matters, and it was his duty to see that his family followed the many rules of their society. Because all persons existing at that time were “descendants of Abraham’s seed,” the bible indicated that every person was thus responsible for every other person’s behavior, because all were related. This led to townspeople going to the courts to turn another in for infractions, neighbor against neighbor, but in the spirit of tending to that neighbor’s soul. (Theoretically, of course- some was done as spite as well.) It also led to the guilt and fear of a society such that when something bad happened, like a drought or massacre by the natives- they believed that if they all had done a better job of following the proscribed laws, the bad would not have happened.

Because of their strict interpretation of the bible, the Puritans (as well as members of other religions of the time) felt that Satan was always nearby, ready to take possession of any who were weak or not cautious, not pious. This fear of demons led to a constant fear of anything unexplained. These events were thus considered as Satan’s doing, or his work through possession, or witchcraft.

The Puritans did not call themselves by that name, but felt they were “Congregationalists.” Their congregational church was made up of individuals who had come together voluntarily to worship. Only those who were “visible saints” could join- they had to experience a “conversion” in which the Holy Spirit would come to them. A person desiring admission to the church would have to explain in detail the visit of the Holy Spirit, and church members would be free to accept or reject the applicant. Children were automatically included while they lived in a parent’s household, and sometimes servants as well.  Young children were not brought to church, however- they had to be old enough, “so, as to be benefitted themselves and the Congregation not disturbed by ’em,” per Joseph Belcher. A child would have to experience their own conversion once an adult and out of the household, and apply for membership. Some references stated that our Joseph Parsons and his children had been admitted as church members, but Mary (Bliss) Parsons never did; others stated that she was a church member though regularly accused as a witch. A Puritan church was really made up of families, not individuals.

Education was very important to the Puritans, so that their children could read the bible for themselves. They were not taught to think for themselves, however- only to have the knowledge and understanding of the bible needed to follow the laws to be pious. New England laws proscribed the education of a child- all children, even if it was only a weekly catechism taught by a parent. The town selectmen would go to each home in the plantation (what they called their towns, rather than ‘colonies’ as we call them), and quiz the children on their catechism plus their understanding of it; a parent would be admonished if his children were not properly learning.

Generally both boys and girls attended schools, with some boys moving on to an apprenticeship after learning to read and write, and girls moving to service in various homes in order to learn the skills of housekeeping. Most children were farmed out to other homes in order that they did not become too close to parents, and so that they would learn respect, which might decrease in the teen years if they had stayed with doting parents. Some boys went on to higher education, including Harvard University, which was originally a Puritan institution that mostly produced new ministers for the faith.

While the Puritans did not allow the arts such as drama, they did allow music for the Psalms, but no musical instruments in the church service. They did love their children, although discipline, even very harsh discipline (which was to be a last resort, though that was not always followed), was the duty of a parent or master in order to help ‘save’ the pious life of a child. They loved each other too, within marriage, and were not prudish about sex in the married state; sex outside marriage, however, was severely punished and could be a capital crime. There still exists a very sweet set of correspondence between John Winthrop and his wife, as he was often away. They did take pains, however, to keep their love for each other within bounds, and couch it in terms of their actions glorifying God.

Love was actually desirable in a Puritan marriage. Puritans often married at a slightly older age than many of the time, often mid-20s. All were required to live in a ‘family’ situation by law- no wild singles living on their own without others to see to their soul. Thus children lived with their parents until married, or until a young male was able to afford a household with servants. Sometimes a couple would ‘fall in love,’ but often a person would determine it was time to marry, and then look around at the pool of eligible spouses. Meetings would occur, and if a person thought they could love a person, negotiations were begun. The father of each would negotiate how much they would contribute o the new household, with the groom’s family providing twice as much as the bride’s, in general. Puritans seldom married across class lines, and if all were in agreement at the settlement, the marriage would proceed. Marriage was not a religious ceremony in Puritan society but more a contract, thus the ceremony was performed by a civil magistrate. Unfortunately the words of wedding ceremonies do not exist today- it would be very interesting to know what each spouse promised. Second marriages were left more to the adults to negotiate. It was common to have large blended families since so many spouses died young- often one spouse was marrying for the second, third, or even fourth time, and the other had been married once or more. Women bore children into their forties sometimes, and may have been having children for over a quarter of a century- Mary (Bliss) Parsons, our family’s accused witch, was one of those.

Surprisingly, one can find divorce in Puritan families. Generally divorce was reserved for egregious wrongs- the lack of performing marital ‘duties’ of any kind, whether for physical or willful reasons; abandonment/disappearance (they travelled more than I realized, and may have not made it back from a trip, or just moved on); and sometimes even for verbal or physical abuse .

Understanding Puritan society helps us to understand their lives in a richer deeper, way.

This Thanksgiving Day, thinking of these ancestors and how hard their lives were in the frontier of the New World, yet how they worked to gain glory in each act, will be a part of my reflection of gratitude. Understanding their lives helps us to understand more of our own society and personalities, as well as religions.

There is much more to come about our Puritan and early New England ancestors!

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

  1. The Puritan Family. Religion & Domestic Relations in Seventeenth Century New England by Edmund S. Morgan, the premier Puritan historian. Harper-Perennial, 1966 edition.
  2. Wikipedia- Puritans – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans

 

Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images. Click to enlarge images.

We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post (see form below), and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
 

Original content copyright 2013-2015 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.

Family history is meant to be shared, but the original content of this site may NOT be used for any commercial purposes unless explicit written permission is received from both the blog owner and author. Blogs or websites with ads and/or any income-generating components are included under “commercial purposes,” as are the large genealogy database websites. Sites that republish original HeritageRamblings.net content as their own are in violation of copyright as well, and use of full content is not permitted.
 
Descendants and researchers MAY download images and posts to share with their families, and use the information on their family trees or in family history books with a small number of reprints. Please make sure to credit and cite the information properly.
 
Please contact us if you have any questions about copyright of our blog material.