John Wheelwright

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John Wheelwright (1592–15 November 1679) was born in Saleby, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Rebert Wheelwright of Cumberworth and Saleby. His grandfather was John Wheelwright of Mumby. He was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, receiving his B.A. in 1614 and his M.A. in 1618.

Cotton Mather, the celebrated American Puritan, wrote 'as to college athletics that when Wheelwright was a young spark at the University he was noted for more than an ordinary stroke at wrestling.' Mather further stated that 'he was a gentleman of the most unspotted morals and a man of unblemished reputation.' This was quite generous of Cotton, inasmuch as Rev. John had opposed many of the dogmatic principles of the Congregational Theocracy established by Cotton's grandfather, Richard Mather, in his A Platform of Church Discipline in 1649.

His first wife was Mary, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Storre of Bilsby, England, whom he married in 1621. She died a few years later.

Rev. John Wheelwright became vicar of Bilsby from 1623 to 1633. A hiatus in the records of his English parish indicates that its pastor, John Wheelwright, was absent during the years 1628 and 1629. It may be inferred that he came to New England with Endicott in September of the former year, and lived with associates in Massachusetts during the succeeding winter. The conditions were favorable for Wheelwright, or any other congenial foreigner, to obtain a right of settlement within the limits of New Hampshire. The principal result of Wheelwright’s activities at this time appears to have been the execution of a settlement treaty or option with the Indian sagamores of southern New Hampshire, to which Oldham was a witness. This document was later disputed as a forgery by many historians.

His second wife was Mary, daughter of Edward and Sussana Hutchinson of Alford, Lincolnshire, England; whom he married in England about 1631. While Rev. Wheelwright was vicar at Bilsby in 1636 he was driven from his Anglican church for non-conformity. With his second wife, her mother Sussana, and their five children and accompanied by Augustine Storer, brother of his first wife, he sailed for Boston where they arrived on 12 June 1636. Rev. John was well received and became pastor of the Eaxe Chapel at Mount Wollaston, Boston, for a few months.

All went well for a time, but he, with his sister-in-law Anne Hutchinson, and Henry Vane, Governor of the Colony, were soon in hot controversy with the conservative part—the “Covenant of Grace versus the Covenant of Works.” The party that Wheelwright stoutly defended stood for freedom of speech and opinion, but there was a great deal of political partisanship mixed with these theological disputes, and the controversy between Wheelwright and the conservatives was the principal issue in John Winthrop’s candidacy for governor of the colony against Vane. Winthrop was elected, and Vane returned to England, while Wheelwright was banished from Massachusetts along with Anne Hutchinson and other friends.

Wheelwright with some loyal friends removed to the Piscataqua region about 50 miles north of Boston and purchased the rights of the Indian sagamore of Wehanownouit and his son and founded the town of Exeter, New Hampshire on 3 April 1638. He was the leader in the foundation of the town, where he filled the office of pastor of the church and active citizen. This little republic had a short life however, as the Massachusetts Bay Colony planted a settlement at Hampton, which included Wheelwright’s purchase in its jurisdiction. So he and his associates moved to the coast of Maine, where, by agreement with the agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, he was allowed to take up land and organize a church in Wells, Maine, in 1641.

He purchased 400 acres of land on the Ogunquit River and built a one-story house and sawmill. In 1643, after the murder of Anne Hutchinson by the Indians, Wheelwright wrote Governor Winthrop seeking pardon of the Bay Colony. His sentence was revoked by the general court in 1644, and he was restored to the freedom of the colony.

In 1656 he made a voyage to England where he remained for six years. This was during the period that his old schoolmate, Oliver Cromwell, was Lord Protector of England. Rev. John was well received by Cromwell—both having matriculated from that "nursery of Puritans", Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, in the same period. Cromwell, when he was describing Wheelwright to a group of gentlemen, stated that "he remembered the time when he had been more afraid of meeting him at football than of meeting an army since in the field." Wheelwright's relations with Cromwell are generally understood to have proved of service to the colony, and it has been suggested that the existence of his supposed portrait in the State house in Boston is connected with recognition by the Colony of his services at Court.

After his return to New England, he settled at Salisbury, Massachusetts. His death occurred there, at age 87.