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- B.A., Magdalen College, Cambridge, 1599; M.A., 1602. Rector of Hingham, Norfolk from 1605 to 1638, when he came to New England and was ordained teacher of the church at Hingham, Massachusetts in 1638. He returned permanently to England when, in 1641, the news reached New England that Bishop Matthew Wren had been declared unfit for office.
From Abandoning America (citation details below):
Robert Peck, born at Beccles, Suffolk, graduated MA from Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1603. He became rector of Hingham, Norfolk, in 1605. He was convicted of nonconformity in 1615 and 1617. Samuel Harsnett, bishop of Norwich, censured Peck for catechising and singing psalms at his home on Sunday afternoons. As a result, Norwich citizens included Peck's case in a petition to the House of Commons against Harsnett. The bishop got Peck bound over at the quarter sessions in 1622 for holding conventicles, and in the consistory court it was alleged that Peck 'had infected the parish with strange opinions: as that people are not to kneel as they enter the church; that it is superstition to bow at the name of Jesus; and that the church is no more sacred than any other building'. Some of Peck's neighbours were said to believe that there was 'no Difference between an Alehouse and the Church, till the Preacher be in the Pulpit'. In 1630, Peck was one of four ministers among twelve 'trustees for the Religion in Norwich and Norfolk', who, in a similar fashion to the London Feoffees for Impropriations, worked to establish positions for zealous protestant preachers. Soon after, Peck joined the team of twelve ministers serving the Norwich 'combination lecture' at St George Tombland, the parish of William Bridge; other preachers included Jeremiah Burroughes and William Greenhill.
In the campaign for conformity led by Bishop Matthew Wren, Peck was excommunicated on 9 October 1636 and deprived of his living on 9 April 1638. According to petitions from his parishioners and his son Samuel -- included among papers presented in 1640 to the House of Commons against Wren -- Robert Peck had been excommunicated by Wren's chancellor, Clement Corbet, for not appearing in person at a visitation. Peck had requested absolution but Corbet refused this, according to Samuel Peck's account, unless his father agreed to 'alwayes preach in his surplesse, constantly use Common prayer, read second service att the high Altar, which they had caused to be built in the Chancell (with diverse other Articles commonly called Bishop Wrens pocket injuncions)'. Robert Peck would not assent, claiming the requirements had no legal force in the Church of England. On 4 November 1636, Corbet reported to Wren that Robert's son Thomas Peck had recently officiated at Hingham, and 'did nothing in order': Corbet called him to appear 'but he is returned into Essex from whence he came and it is rumorde the ould fox his father is kenelld ther'. (Thomas Peck had married Abigail, daughter of the well-known preacher John Rogers of Dedham, Essex.) The authorities sequestered tithes from Hingham, worth £160 according to the parishioners, £180 according to Samuel Peck. However, so 'addicted' to Robert Peck were his people that they paid their dues to him, or to his wife or deputies in his absence, defying Corbet. In light of Peck's obstinate refusal to repent, Corbet requested in June 1637 that the case should be taken to the Court of High Commission. On 9 March 1637/8, Corbet urged Wren to proceed against Peck, who had been called back to residence six months earlier but had not appeared. Corbet reported that Peck was soon to go to New England 'and carryeth [with him] many Housholdes in that and other townes adjacent, as I heare'. In the end, the authorities deprived Peck for nonresidency, 'notwithstanding', wrote his parishioners, 'he did alwayes abide in the said Towne where he had soe long lived'. Before Peck set off for New England, he made complex arrangements for family members left behind. He granted the profits of his living to his son Samuel, for maintenance. Samuel petitioned parliament for payment in 1640: this petition described Robert Peck, under threat of proceedings in the Court of High Commission, as 'inforced togeather with his wife and family in his old dayes to forsake his deare contry'. He and his wife were 'made Exiles in their old age'.
Robert Peck sailed for New England on the Diligent of Ipswich, which carried 135 East Anglian passengers. He arrived in New England on 10 August 1638, with his wife Ann, two servants, and two of his children, Joseph and Ann. His brother Joseph Peck emigrated with his family at the same time. On 28 November 1638, Robert Peck was ordained teacher at Hingham, Massachusetts, where Peter Hobart, who had grown up in Hingham, Norfolk, was pastor. Peck was granted land in 1638 and became a freeman on 13 March 1638/9. Thomas Lechford noted that Peck and Hobart 'refuse to baptize old Ottis grandchildren, an ancient member of their own Church'. The Hingham church seems to have included almost the whole community, but this case arose because in 1641 John Otis presented his granddaughter for baptism. Her father, Thomas Burton, had not joined a church, regarding it as a separatist act. Hobart and Peck initially refused baptism, adhering to the practice of baptising only the children of members, not their grandchildren. Later, after Peck's departure, Hobart baptised the child. In 1646 Hobart sided with Thomas Burton and Robert Child when they petitioned against, among other matters, restricted baptism.
Peck set sail for England on 27 October 1641, with his wife Ann and son Joseph. His daughter Ann stayed in New England, as did his brother Joseph. Robert Peck sailed in the same fleet as John Phillip. According to Cotton Mather, he went home at 'the Invitation of his Friends at Hingham in England'. His former parishioners had in fact petitioned the House of Commons in 1640, 'humbly crauing redresse that Mr Peck our old minister may be by law and justice of this Court returned to his old possession or att least some godly man may be placed amongst us'. Peck resumed his ministry at Hingham. The altar rails and mound at the east end of the chancel, erected on the orders of Bishop Wren's chancellor, Clement Corbet, were removed. On 5 July 1647, Captain John Mason, who had married Peck's daughter Ann, sold Peck's house and land in Hingham, Massachusetts. Peck died in 1656, or perhaps somewhat later. His will, made on 24 July 1651, was proved on 10 April 1658. Peck mentioned his wife Martha and asked to be buried at Hingham next to his former wife, Ann; also his sons Thomas, Samuel, Robert (deceased) and Joseph, and his daughter Ann, wife of John Mason of Connecticut. Peck's funeral sermon was preached by Nathaniel Jocelyn, pastor of Hardingham, Norfolk, near Hingham.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
1580 - 1658 (71 years)
[2, 3, 4]