Notes |
- "Rev. Hugh Peter graduated from the University of Cambridge, obtaining a B.A. in 1617/8 and an M.A. in 1622. It was while teaching school at Laindon, co. Essex, that he met and married Mrs. Reade, who must have been much his senior. Ordained by the Bishop of London, he was appointed curate at Rayleigh, but his non-conformist tendencies caused his departure for Holland in 1629 and in 1632 he was minister of the English church in Rotterdam. Being in constant communication with his wife's children in New England, he joined them in 1635, was made a freeman of Massachusetts Bay on March 3, 1635/6 and settled as minister of the Salem church in the following December. After five years of controversial ministry he left for England, as one of the colony's agents, in 1641, and the rest of his life was occupied in semi-military, semi-religious activity with the Parliamentary forces in Ireland and England during the Civil War. On the restoration of Charles II he was arrested, confined in the Tower, tried at the Old Bailey for complicity in the execution of Charles I, found guilty and executed October 16, 1660." [The Ancestry of Bethia Harris, citation details below]
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