Michael Metcalf

1590 - 1664  (74 years)

• Name	Michael Metcalf
  Birth	1590	Tatterford, Norfolk, England   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	27 Dec 1664	Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts   [3]
  Person ID	I41112	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of XYZ
  Last Modified	5 May 2024

  
  

  Father	Rev. Leonard Metcalf,   b. Abt 1541, Apperside, Wensleydale, Yorkshire, England d. Abt 1616, West Barsham, Norfolk, England (Age ~ 75 years)
  Family ID	F24058	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Sarah Elwyn,   b. Bef 13 Jun 1593   d. 30 Nov 1644, Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts (Age > 51 years)
  Marriage	13 Oct 1616	Waynham, Norfolk, England   [3]
  Children	+ 1. Michael Metcalf,   b. Bef 30 Nov 1617   d. 25 Mar 1654, Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts (Age > 36 years)
  Family ID	F24055	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 May 2024

  
  

• Notes

  He was warden of St. Benedict's in Norwich from 1619 to 1634. He first tried to emigrate to New England in 1636, but his ship was forced back to England. Before this, he wrote a lengthy letter "to all the true professors of Christs gospel within the city of Norwich", where he then resided, setting forth in great detail his religious beliefs and reasons for wishing to emigrate. This letter has survived and was printed in full in the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 16, pages 279-84, 1862, viewable to anyone with an NEHGS membership. In about 1636-37 Michael Metcalf appeared at the Norwich Consistory Court as a supporting witness for the Reverend Thomas Allen, who himself later emigrated after being silenced by the bishop. Shortly after his testimony, Michael and his family, plus sixteen-year-old servant Thomas Comberbach, arrived in New England in 1637 and settled at Dedham. Michael Metcalf was a dornick weaver, dornick being a coarse variety of damask used for curtains, carpets, and wall hangings, originally made at Tournai in what is now Belgium. The Flemish name for Tournai is Doornick. "Metcalf was an interesting person. He appears to have been a very well-to-do citizen of Norwich and a fiery Puritan. His zeal brought him into conflict with his bishop, Matthew Wrenn, who cited him into the Bishop's Court, and by his persecution brought about his flight to New England. In his trial by the Long Parliament one of the charges brought against Wrenn was his cruelty to Metcalf, which compelled him to remove to New England to the detriment of Norwich's manufactures. Metcalf, after his arrival in Massachusetts, settled at Dedham, whence he wrote several long and religious epistles to his friends in Norwich, and the certificate of his freedom of Norwich is still preserved in the Dedham Historical Society." [G. Andrews Moriarty, The Elwyns of Norfolk, London: Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1926]

  
  

• Sources

  [S7679] Charles Edward Banks, "Genealogical Research in England: Metcalf." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 80:312, 1926. [S7678] Richard L. Bush, "The English Ancestry of Michael and Sarah (Elwyn) Metcalf of Dedham, Massachusetts." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 166:28, 2012. [S7677] Luther Metcalf Harris, "Metcalf Family." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 6:171, 1852.