Dorothy Stevens

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1650

Notes:

Puritans and Pedigrees provides the date of her will. It does not provide her probate date, but a footnote points the reader to the National Archives site, where it can be looked up.

Dorothy married Rev. Robert Parker before 1592. Robert (son of (Unknown) Parker) was born about 1564 in Wilton, Wiltshire, England; died in 1614 in Doesburg, Gelderland, Netherlands. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Described by Cotton Mather, in Magnalia Americana, as a woman "who did so virtuously, that her own personal character would have made her highly esteemed, if a relation to such a father had not farther added unto the lustre of her character."

Described by Cotton Mather, in Magnalia Christi Americana, as a woman "who did so virtuously, that her own personal character would have made her highly esteemed, if a relation to such a father had not farther added unto the lustre of her character."

Sarah married Rev. John Woodbridge before 1613. John (son of Richard Woodbridge and Ellen) was born between 1581 and 1582; died on 9 Dec 1637. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Publisher of Anne Bradstreet, who was his sister-in-law -- sister of his wife Mercy Dudley.

From Wikipedia:

John Woodbridge VI (1613–1696) was an English nonconformist, who emigrated to New England. He had positions on both sides of the Atlantic, until 1663, when he settled permanently in New England.

John Woodbridge VI was born at Stanton, near Highworth, England, in 1613 to Rev. John Woodbridge V (1582 - 1637) and Sarah Parker. John was sixth in a line of men by the same name -- all ministers -- the first of whom, Rev. John Woodbridge I, was a follower of John Wycliffe, a 14th-century translator of the Bible. He studied at the University of Oxford, but, objecting to the oath of conformity, left the university and studied privately till 1634, when he immigrated to America. Woodbridge took up lands at Newbury, Massachusetts, where he acted as first town clerk till 19 November 1638. In 1637, 1640 and 1641 he served as deputy to the general court.

In 1641 Woodbridge of Newbury purchased the land "about Cochichewick" that had been reserved by a vote of the General Court in 1634. He led a group of settlers there in 1641. The settlers named the town Andover because some of them came from Andover, Hampshire, in England. Woodbridge was ordained at Andover, Massachusetts on 24 October 1645 and was chosen teacher of a congregation at Newbury. Cotton Mather said of him "The town of Andover then first peeping into the world, he was, by the hands of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Worcester, ordained the teacher of a Congregation there. There he continued with good reputation, discharging the duties of the ministry until, upon the invitation of friends, he returned once more to England."

In 1647, Woodbridge returned to England and was made chaplain to the commissioners for the Treaty of Newport, in the Isle of Wight. On this journey he carried a manuscript of poetry by his sister-in-law Anne Bradstreet without her knowledge. He had it published in London as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up into America, by a Gentlewoman in such Parts. The publication appears to have been an attempt by Puritan men (Thomas Dudley, Simon Bradstreet, and Woodbridge) to show that a godly and educated woman could elevate the position held by a wife and mother, without necessarily placing her in competition with men. The publication was though unauthorized and reportedly, on the publication of Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse (1650), he wrote: "I feare the displeasure of no person in the publishing of these Poems but the Author's, without whose knowledge, and contrary to her expectation, I have presumed to bring to publick view what she resolved should never in such as manner see the Sun."

Woodbridge settled in New England in 1663 and became teacher and assistant pastor to his uncle Reverend Thomas Parker, M.A. as minister at Newbury. Disagreeing with his congregation on some points of church discipline, he gave up his post in 1672 and became a magistrate of the township. He died on 17 March 1696.

John married Mercy Dudley before 1640. Mercy (daughter of Thomas Dudley, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Dorothy Yorke) was born on 27 Sep 1621 in England; died on 1 Jul 1691 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Graduated Harvard 1664; began preaching at Killingworth, Connecticut in 1666 and was ordained minister there 7 Apr 1669.

John married Abigail Leete on 26 Oct 1671 in Killingworth, Middlesex, Connecticut. Abigail (daughter of William Leete, Governor of the New Haven Colony; Governor of Connecticut and Anna Payne) was born about 1650; died on 9 Apr 1710 in Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1645

Notes:

"Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge [...] was invited to preach at Windsor, Ct., by a minority of the church, about the end of the year 1667; ordained over a church formed by the withdrawal of dissatisfied members from the old church, March 18, 1669-70. He remained there, in the midst of many dissensions, until May, 1681. Married, June 3, 1672, Mary, dau. of Rev. John Ward, of Haverhill. She died Oct. 11, 1685. He preached at Bristol, R. I., 1681-6; and at Kittery, Me., in 1688. In 1691 he resided at Portsmouth, N. H., and in 1694 at Newcastle. He was called, in 1698, to Medford, where he was the minister for about ten years. Married second, at Hingham, Aug. 81, 1686, Deborah, widow of Henry Tarlton, and dau. of Daniel Cushing, who survived him. She was born Nov. 18, 1651. He d. at Medford, Jan. 15, 1709-10." ["Genealogy of the Woodbridge Family," citation details below]

Benjamin married Mary Ward on 13 Jun 1672. Mary (daughter of Rev. John Ward and Alice) was born on 24 Jun 1649; died on 11 Oct 1685 in Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut

Notes:

Graduatyed Harvard 1675; became minister of the first church in Hartford, 1682; ordained pastor there 18 Nov 1685. His predecessor as pastor was his wife Mehitable Wyllys's previous husband, the Rev. Isaac Foster.

Family/Spouse: Mehitable Wyllys. Mehitable (daughter of Samuel Wyllys and Ruth Haynes) was born about 1658; died on 21 Dec 1698 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]