Rev. John Woodbridge

Abt 1613 - 1695  (~ 82 years)

• Name	John Woodbridge  [1, 2]
  Prefix	Rev.
  Birth	Abt 1613  [3, 4, 5, 6]
  Gender	Male
  Death	17 Mar 1695	Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts   [4, 7, 8, 9]
  Burial	19 Mar 1695	Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts   [4]
  Person ID	I9147	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	10 Feb 2024

  
  

  Father	Rev. John Woodbridge,   b. Between 1581 and 1582   d. 9 Dec 1637 (Age ~ 56 years)
  Mother	Sarah Parker,   b. Bef 15 Apr 1593   d. 1660 (Age > 66 years)
  Marriage	Bef 1613  [6, 10]
  Family ID	F5069	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mercy Dudley,   b. 27 Sep 1621, England d. 1 Jul 1691, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts (Age 69 years)
  Marriage	Bef 1640  [2, 4, 11]
  Children	1. Rev. John Woodbridge,   b. Abt 1644, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts d. 13 Nov 1691, Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut (Age ~ 47 years)   2. Rev. Benjamin Woodbridge,   b. Abt 1648   d. 15 Jan 1710, Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts (Age ~ 62 years)
  Family ID	F5038	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	12 Nov 2021

  
  

• 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.

  
  

• Sources

  [S1510] "Pedigree of Dudley." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 10:130, April 1856. [S2306] The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England 1629-1630 by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012. [S1511] Genealogies of the Lymans of Middlefield, of the Dickinsons of Montreal, and of the Partridges of Hatfield, by Jas. T. Dickinson. Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1865. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011. [S1648] The Woodbridge Record: Being an Account of the Descendants of the Rev. John Woodbridge, of Newbury, Mass.. "Compiled from the papers left by the late Louis Mitchell, Esquire." New Haven, Connecticut, 1883. [S2906] Puritans and Pedigrees: The Deep Roots of the Great Migration to New England by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018. [S1511] Genealogies of the Lymans of Middlefield, of the Dickinsons of Montreal, and of the Partridges of Hatfield, by Jas. T. Dickinson. Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1865., year only. [S2906] Puritans and Pedigrees: The Deep Roots of the Great Migration to New England by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018., year only. [S6118] Mary K. Talcott, "Genealogy of the Woodbridge Family." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 32:292, July 1879. [S7377] Leslie Mahler, "The Hinton and Woodbridge Ancestry of Abigail1 Hinton, Wife of William1 Averill of Ipswich, Massachusetts." The American Genealogist 89:283, 2017., says "by 1612". [S6118] Mary K. Talcott, "Genealogy of the Woodbridge Family." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 32:292, July 1879., says "about 1639".