Rev. John Woodbridge

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]

1. Rev. John Woodbridge was born about 1644 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 13 Nov 1691 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut.
2. Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge was born about 1648; died on 15 Jan 1710 in Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts.
3. Rev. Timothy Woodbridge was born in 1656 in Barford St. Martin, Wiltshire, England; died on 30 Apr 1732 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut.

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:

He was a tailor.

Richard married Ellen. Ellen died after 22 Jan 1607. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

Parker, Robert (c. 1564–1614), religious controversialist, was probably born in Wilton, Wiltshire; his parents' names are unknown. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, entering as a chorister in 1575, graduating BA in 1582, and proceeding MA in 1587. From 1585 he was a fellow of Magdalen. While at Oxford, Parker began moving in a nonconformist direction; the authorities had to punish him for not wearing the required robes, and he tried by every means to avoid clerical subscription to church canons. After finally subscribing in 1591, and with the support of Henry Herbert, second earl of Pembroke, whom he served as chaplain, he gained positions in the church. From 1591 to 1593 he was rector of Patney and master of the hospital of St Nicholas, Salisbury, and then from 1593 to 1607 he was prebendary of Stanton St Bernard. In or before 1592 he resigned his Oxford fellowship to marry Dorothy Stevens (d. 1649/50); their daughter Sarah was baptized in April 1593.

Parker's conformity was always very marginal and in 1607, with the publication in the Netherlands of his Scholasticall discourse against symbolizing with Antichrist in ceremonies, especially in the signe of the crosse, his nonconformist convictions were totally revealed. The work warned about the ceremonial sign of the cross during baptism, because it was abhorrent to God's sense of simplicity and not compatible with scripture. The sign of the cross produced sins such as idolatry, superstition, hypocrisy, impiety, injustice, soul murder, adultery, wrong, slander, and concupiscence. Puritans welcomed the book as unanswerable truth, but Parker's bishop was not pleased. Parker was quickly suspended from his ministry, and 'fled from the storm' by going across to the Netherlands. His flight probably occurred in 1607, but some reports say he travelled across with William Ames in 1610.

Parker's trail reappeared in 1610 in Leiden, where John Robinson's separatist church provided sustenance for a while to Parker and other destitute refugee puritans, such as William Ames and Henry Jacob. For several years Parker had no visible means of support and could not find a pastorate or chaplaincy. His wife and children initially stayed in England. Secret funds, however, were coming in from sympathetic, puritan-minded merchants so that he could write more fiery, puritanical books; they seem to have sent him and Ames abroad expressly 'to write against the English hierarchy' (Nethenus, 4). However, Parker's second book, De descensu domini nostri Jesu Christi ad inferos (1611), a continuation of a work begun by Hugh Sanford, dealt with erudite arguments about Christ's descent into hell, and did not draw much attention.

The period of Parker's residence in the Netherlands corresponded with sharp puritan debates about church polity. Both Leiden and Amsterdam had two English churches, one for the separatists (Brownists) and the other for the non-separatist presbyterian English and Scots. Parker clearly rejected the separatists as schismatics, as is evident from a letter printed in Christopher Lawne's Prophane Schisme of the Brownists (1612), yet neither was he fully in tune with the presbyterian position. Instead, he was part of a third or new grouping called the Jacobites or the Amesians—non-separatist (or, said some, semi-separatist) congregational puritans, who included Ames and Jacob. They refused to use the language of separatism, thus remaining loosely within the bounds of the Church of England, but argued for the autonomy of the local congregation.

In 1611 Parker moved on to Amsterdam, where Pastor John Paget of the English Reformed church took him into his home, like a 'member of the same family and living under the same roofe.' Parker joined the English church on 4 January 1612, and the church elected him elder the same year. His family arrived, and his wife became a church member on 17 October 1612. His powerful preaching endeared him to the congregation and soon there was a move to appoint him co-pastor with Paget. Although Parker welcomed the call, Paget was lukewarm—an ardent presbyterian, Paget had been taken aback at Parker's talk that synods were for advice and counsel only, and concluded that Parker was 'somewhat confused.' He worked to reconvert Parker to presbyterian polity but, when the English government protested against advancement of such an outspoken nonconformist, the city magistrates vetoed his pastoral appointment.

With the doors closed in Amsterdam, in 1613 Parker retreated eastward: the Lord would provide, 'who I know will be my God as well out of Amsterdam as in it.' Finally, he found work as a chaplain to English troops and pastor of the tiny English church in the frontier city of Doesburg in Gelderland—not a choice position, but he had no alternative. In accordance with Dutch practice, he presented his ministerial documents to the Dutch classis of Zutphen in September of 1613 and received approval to serve. In the early summer of 1614, after only eight months' service, he died. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy, and three children, Sarah, then wife of John Woodbridge (1582–1637), Thomas, and Elizabeth Avery. Thomas Parker studied at Leiden University and, with the support of William Ames, graduated MA from Franeker University in 1617; he was later pastor at Newbury, Massachusetts. Sarah Woodbridge had two sons, John Woodbridge, who also went to Newbury, and Benjamin Woodbridge; she later married Thomas Baylie.

Two further works by Parker appeared after his death. Exposition of the Pouring out of the Fourth Vial was not published until 1650 (in the Netherlands, like all the others, because permission was not forthcoming to print them in England), but De politeia ecclesiastica Christi, et hierarchica opposita, libri tres, his most controversial work, written in Latin for an international audience of scholars, was printed by William Brewster and his Pilgrim Press at Leiden in 1616 (two versions). Two further editions, to which many printers contributed, followed in 1621 and 1638. The book, on church government, still exhibited some ecclesiological vagueness. Parker approved of both primary congregations and the use of synods (but with rather limited authority for the latter). Although John Paget proclaimed himself satisfied that the book was in line with presbyterian puritanism, the chapters about the primary power of congregations appealed greatly to congregational-minded puritans. A favourite text, much quoted by congregationalists, was that 'all ecclesiastical power is always in the whole congregation'. New England congregationalists especially revered Parker as a founder of the faith: according to Cotton Mather, Parker was 'in some sort the father of all the non-conformists in our age.'

Robert married Dorothy Stevens before 1592. Dorothy died between 10 Oct 1649 and 11 Apr 1650 in Mildenhall, Wiltshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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.