John Eliot (missionary)

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John Eliot (baptized 5 August 1604 - 21 May 1690) is one of the many colonial immigrants who would find a religious purpose for their life in the New World. Eliot was born in a small village near London,England. Widford, Hertfordshire, England. Records show that his father was a middleclass farmer by the name of Bennett Eliot. Eliot attended Jesus College in Cambridge. From the beginning, he showed an ability to work well with philology. Some believe that he may have gone into ministry of the Established Church soon after graduation. In 1629, Eliot began teaching at a school near Chelmsford. As an assistant and guest in the home of Rev. Thomas Hooker, John Eliot may have picked up on the Puritan influence and converted. In 1630, Eliot left the school around the time Puritan persecutions by The Church of England forced his spiritual idol, Hooker, to exile to Holland. The persecutions and the oppression he faced led Eliot to move to America on November 3, 1631.On the voyage to the New World, Eliot served as the chaplain on the ship called the ""Lyon"". He arrived in New England and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. In that town he founded the Roxbury Latin School in 1645. Eliot would later become an ordained minister at a church in Roxbury where some members were those he sailed to the New World with. Records also show that one year after his arrival in 1631, Eliot married Hanna Mumford and conceived six children with her. The Encyclopedia Americana quoted her to be "dear, faithful, pious, purdent, prayerful wife." While preaching at Roxbury, John Eliot picked up an increasing interest in the surrounding Indian population. This newfound interest sparked him to want to convert their religion. Eliot found a young Indian servant, captured in the Pequot War of 1646, to come live in his home and help teach the Algonquin Indian Language. Once he was comfortable with the language, he translated teaching material, Eliot successfully preached to the Native Americans in October 1646 at Nonantum. His first sermons were in English but within the year he began preaching in the Indians native tongue. Many Indians claimed to be Christians after just a few meetings. The conversion of the Indians provoked Eliot to ask the Massachusetts General Court to give specific areas of land for the Indians to reside on. These towns would be built away from the colonial towns in order to help preserve the Indian culture, except for their religion. The court ruled in favor of this decision and also established an annual election to choose two clergymen to preach to the Indians. Support for Eliot's plan flooded from both the New and Old England. Many people donated a great deal of money to help his endeavors. Old England also induced Parliament to establish the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England," which showed their support in Eliot's work. Six Puritan churches were built in the settlements. Eliot organized the first settlement for the "Praying Indians" in a place called Natick. The town had a school and meeting-house. Eliot also went to further establish his purpose by printing out the first Algonkian Bible in America. This Bible would be printed almost 120 years before an English language Bible in America. Although King Phillip's War disrupted Eliot's work, he still made major religious contributions in America. He died on May 20, 1690 in Roxbury. His legacy was left behind in many writings such as ""Up-bookum Psalmes, The Indian Primer, The Harmony of the Gospels, The Communion of the Churches, the Bay Psalm Book, and The Christian Commonwealth.""

Eliot was also the author of The Christian Commonwealth: or,The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ, considered the first book on politics written by an American and also the first book to be banned by an American government. Written in the late 1640s, and published in England in 1659, it proposed a new model of civil government based on the system Eliot instituted among the Christianized Indians, which was based in turn on Exodus 18, the government instituted among the Israelites by Moses in the wilderness. It's most objectionable part was its "Preface," where Eliot asserted that "Christ is the only right Heir of the Crown of England," and called for the institution of an elected theocracy in England and throughout the world. The accession to the throne of Charles II of England made the book an embarrassment to the Massachusetts colony, and in 1661 the General Court banned the book and ordered all copies destroyed. Eliot was forced to issue a public retraction and apology. The full text of the work can be seen online here.

His grandson, Jared Eliot, was a noted pastor and agriculture writer.

In 1689 he donated 75 acres of land in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts to support the Eliot School, founded in 1676. The school survives near its original location to this day as The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts.

He died in 1690, aged 85, his last words being "welcome joy!"

[edit] Literature

• Francis, John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, in "Library of American Biography," volume v (Boston, 1836)
• Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, volume i (Boston, 1880-81)
• Walker, Ten New England Leaders, New York, 1901)
• Handy, Robert T. "John Eliot". The Encyclopedia Americana. 1997.
• "John Eliot". <http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-eliot.html>
• "Eliot, John". The Encyclopaedia Brittanica. 1895.
• "Eliot, John". Chambers's Encyclopedia.New Revised ed.
• Kiefer, James E. "John Eliot, Missionary to the American Indians". Biographical Sketches. <http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/164.html>
• Todd Ruthven. "Eliot, John". Collier's Encyclopedia. 1994.