Rev. Samuel Woodbridge

Notes:

Graduated Harvard 1701. Ordained first minister at East Hartford, 30 Mar 1705.

Samuel married Mabel Russell on 9 Dec 1707. Mabel (daughter of Rev. Daniel Russell and Mehitable Wyllys) was born in 1678; died on 10 May 1730 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Elizabeth Woodbridge was born in 1714; died in 1754.

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]

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:

In addition to being a third-generation minister, he was also a physician.

John married Alice before 1640. Alice was born about 1612; died on 24 Mar 1680 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She may have been Alice Edmunds, a daughter of Nicholas Edmunds of Alkham, Kent. See NEHGR 24:189, but Robert Charles Anderson considers it unproved.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1582, of Stanton Fitzwarren, Wiltshire, England

Notes:

Rector of Stanton, near Highworth in Wiltshire.

John married Sarah Parker before 1613. Sarah (daughter of Rev. Robert Parker and Dorothy Stevens) was born before 15 Apr 1593; was christened on 15 Apr 1593 in Patney, Wiltshire, England; died in 1660. [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."

Notes:

JMF's one proven "gateway ancestor" (not counting Alexander Magruder, who is very probable), and one of JTS's eleven.

From Wikipedia:

Thomas Dudley was a colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. He provided land and funds to establish the Roxbury Latin School, and signed Harvard College's new charter during his 1650 term as governor. Dudley was a devout Puritan who was opposed to religious views not conforming with his. In this he was more rigid than other early Massachusetts leaders like John Winthrop, but less confrontational than John Endecott.

The son of a military man who died when he was young, Dudley saw military service himself during the French Wars of Religion, and then acquired some legal training before entering the service of his likely kinsman the Earl of Lincoln. Along with other Puritans in Lincoln's circle, Dudley helped organize the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailing with Winthrop in 1630. Although he served only four one-year terms as governor of the colony, he was regularly in other positions of authority.

Dudley's descendants include his daughter Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672), the prominent early American poet, and many famous Americans. One of the gates of Harvard Yard, which existed from 1915 to 1947, was named in his honor, and Harvard's Dudley House is named for the family.

Thomas married Dorothy Yorke on 25 Apr 1603 in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, England. Dorothy (daughter of Edmund Yorke and Katherine Robins) was born before 14 Jun 1583; was christened on 14 Jun 1583 in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, England; died on 27 Dec 1643 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1578
• Alternate death: Bef Oct 1652

Notes:

Emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634; returned permanently to England in the winter of 1646-47.

From Wikipedia:

Nathaniel Ward (1578 - October 1652) was a Puritan clergyman and pamphleteer in England and Massachusetts. He wrote the first constitution in North America in 1641.

A son of John Ward, a noted Puritan minister, he was born in Haverhill, Suffolk, England. He studied law and graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University in 1603. He practised as a barrister and travelled in continental Europe. In Heidelberg he met a German Protestant reformer, David Pareus, who persuaded him to enter the ministry. In 1618 he was a chaplain to a company of English merchants at Elbing, in Prussia. He returned to England and in 1628 he was appointed rector of Stondon Massey in Essex. He was soon recognised as one of the foremost Puritan ministers in Essex, and so in 1631 was reprimanded by the Bishop of London, William Laud. Although he escaped excommunication, in 1633 he was dismissed for his Puritan beliefs. (Ward's two brothers also suffered for their non-conformity.)

In 1634 Ward emigrated to Massachusetts and became a minister in Ipswich for two years. He then resigned because of ill-health. While still living in Ipswich, he wrote for the colony of Massachusetts The Body of Liberties, legal code, which was adopted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company in December 1641. This was the first code of laws established in New England. The Body of Liberties defined liberty in terms that were advanced in their day, establishing a code of fundamental principles based on common law, the Magna Carta and the Old Testament. However, Ward believed in theocracy rather than democracy. One of his epigrams was:

The upper world shall Rule,
While Stars will run their race:
The nether world obey,
While People keep their place.

Ward thought that justice and the law were essential to the liberty of the individual. Some have said that The Body of Liberties began the American tradition of liberty, leading eventually to the United States Constitution.

In 1645 Ward began his second book, The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam in America. This was published in England in January, 1646–1647, before Ward's return there, under the pseudonym of Theodore de la Guard. Three other editions, with important additions and changes, soon followed. The Simple Cobbler is a small book, which "in spite of its bitterness, and its lack of toleration" is "full of quaint originality, grim humor and power", according to the anthology Colonial Prose and Poetry: The Transplanting of Culture 1607–1650 (1903).

According to the anthology, the book is "probably the most interesting literary performance" in the first half of the 17th century in the English colonies that later became the United States. The book was later reprinted in 1713 and 1843 in Boston, Massachusetts.

He also wrote several religious-political pamphlets.

At the end of the English Civil War, when Puritan beliefs were acceptable, Ward returned to England. Ward became the minister of the church at Shenfield in Essex and died shortly after in Shenfield.

Nathaniel married Elizabeth before 1607. Elizabeth died about 1634. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]