REV. THOMAS HOOKER
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John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts, recorded in his famous journal, the arrival of the ship “Griffin”, eight weeks out of England. On board was the Rev. Thomas Hooker, who went immediately on to Newtown, Massachusetts (now Cambridge), where some of his English congregation had gone ahead a year earlier. Hooker became the first pastor to this transplanted group of believers. His home was on land which today is part of the Harvard Yard.
It wasn't very long at all before Hooker was in conflict with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He disagreed with Gov. Winthrop over who could take part in the civil government. Winthrop held that only admitted members of the Puritan church could vote and hold office. Hooker maintained that any adult male property owner could vote and participate in the government, regardless of church membership. This conflict for Hooker was unresolvable.
In 1634, Hooker and his congregation applied to the General Court for permission to remove to Connecticut, citing as their reasons:
The Court feared that a defection such as this would weaken the Colony and refused the request. The majority of the deputies were in favor of letting Hooker leave if he wanted; the majority of the magistrates were not. As could be guessed, the larger deputy group was more popular and more democratic than the magistrates group. Debate went on to see if the deputies' votes would outrule the magistrates, and so the vote was postponed. Newtown's townsmen were granted more land rights in their own neighborhood, and they waited.
In 1635, the legislature granted permission to the towns of Watertown, Roxbury, and Dorchester to move anywhere, provided that they continue subordinate to the Massachusetts government. This was something the government really had no legal right to impose. But, leave it to a government to press the issue a step further than allowed. A few months later the Colony passed a law that no one could leave the colony without the permission of a majority of the magistrates. Oddly, under an older law, no one could settle in Massachusetts without the consent of the half-dozen or more men in control. So, to get in or go out, one must get permission from the government.
Groups from Dorchester took immediate advantage and by July there were daily departures for the Connecticut River Valley. The folks were unprepared for the severe weather and many of them returned to Boston for the winter. In the spring 1636, Hooker and about 100 of his congregation travelled overland, with their herds of cattle, to the settlement of Hartford on the Connecticut River.
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Hooker's party trudged through the wilderness on the Indian trail, known later as the Old Connecticut Path. Once in Hartford, he continued to be in contact with John Winthrop and often travelled back and forth to Boston to help settle intercolonial disputes, using the Old Connecticut Path.
Some of Hooker’s people had gone earlier, and others followed the next year, but the main body went in that Spring. They took with them 160 cattle which provided milk for the journey.
Gov. Winthrop's Journal, dated 5 October 1635, states: “about sixty men, women and little children, went by land toward Connecticut with their cows, horses and swine, and after a tedious and difficult journey arrived safe there.” Rev. Hooker’s wife was too ill to walk and so was carried on a horse-drawn litter.
Their progress was slow, requiring at minimum ten to twelve days. And so began the new settlement at Suckiaug (Hartford).
Upon their arrival, they settled north of the Dutch. They originally called their new home Newtown, but changed it to Hartford, probably at the suggestion of Samuel Stone.
By the end of 1636, there may have been 800 people in Connecticut, settled mainly at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield.*
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An exhaustive study of land records from Cambridge to Hartford, noting the references to an ancient Indian trail (now known as the Old Connecticut Path), gives us the likely description of their journey:
There's a Google site called the "Old Connecticut Path: Rediscovering the Old Connecticut Path" which is produced by Jason Newton who has done a lot of research on the path. Please consult this site for the best information about the old path.
Thomas Hooker played a significant role in the creation of "the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut". This document is one of the modern world's first written constitutions and was a primary influence upon the current American Constitution, written nearly a century and a half later.
On May 31, 1638, when a new form of government was under consideration, Hooker preached his famous sermon, in which he laid down the doctrines that “the choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by Gods own allowance,” and that “they who have the power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power, also, to set bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them,” because “the foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people.”
“the choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by Gods own allowance,”
“they who have the power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power, also, to set bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them,” because “the foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people.”
This last principle was not new, to Hooker nor to his fellow Connecticut colonists, either in theory or in practice. Hooker was arguing, not for a democratic government, which they already possessed, but for a fixed code of laws to rule the magistrates in their actions.
See my small web page on The Fundamental Orders.
The next year, the constitution of the new government was adopted by the residents of the plantations of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. That constitution provided for a General Court, in which each of the three original plantations should be represented by four deputies, and which should pave the authority to incorporate towns. It was only subsequent to the creation of this general government by the inhabitants of the commonwealth, that the towns, as political entities, came into being. Freemen were merely required to pe passed upon by the General Court, no religious qualification being attached to the franchise. It is noteworthy that the governor was not allowed to serve for two successive terms, And that no reference was made to any external authority, rot even to that of the king.
While the descent of the “Fundamental Orders” of Connecticut can be traced in every step from the earliest charters of the trading companies, the transition was now complete. From such as we saw Tudor monarchs granting to merchants in the fifteenth century, past all those which we have noted as milestones by the way, the progress had been as steady as it was unperceived, from the privileges possessed by a few expatriated English traders and their clerks, dwelling among foreigners, to the self-governed commonwealth of a people in a land which they had made their own. While the charters, however, served as the framework of their government, the foundation of their political philosophy was found in the church covenant, which the Separatists had used in Europe for forty years before the Mayflower sailed; and the constitution of Connecticut was thus equally descended from religious theory and from the practice of trade.
Although there was little in the Fundamental Orders, as settled in 1639, which cannot be found in previous custom or legislation in Massachusetts or Plymouth, nevertheless, only those elements which were of a democratic tendency were put into the new constitution, and there was distinctly a more democratic attitude on the part of the leaders and people than in the Bay Colony. Such provisions as that making the governor ineligible for immediate reelection, and the franchise independent of religious qualification, probably show a reaction from the rule of Massachusetts.
The two most influential men in New England in 1640 were John Winthrop (the leader in Massachusetts) and Thomas Hooker (the leader in Connecticut). Winthrop called democracy “the worst of all forms of government”. Hooker, however, believed that the complete control of rulers “belongs unto the people by Gods own allowance.” In the new Connecticut government, Freemen needn't have a religious qualification; governors weren't allowed to serve for two successive terms; and also, importantly, there was not one mention or reference to any outside authority, not even the King.
Founders Monument (1986), located in the Ancient Burying Ground, also known as the Center Church Cemetery. Image scanned from The Original Proprietors, by the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford, Inc. (n.d.). Peter Grant, past Governor of the SDFH, wrote in the 1986 Register that:
"The Council of the Founders organized the Ancient Burying Ground Association in 1982 as a committee of the Founders. An earlier organization of the same name was formed in 1836 and erected the Founders Monument in 1837. A brownstone obelisk which listed the names of the city's founders, the monument had deteriorated severly, despite various conservation efforts.
"The Ancient Burying Ground Association determined that it was impossible to restore the 1837 monument. A replacement monument, carved from beautiful, durable Connecticut granite, was dedicated on August 6, 1986. While the new monument retains the size and proportions of the original, the Founders' names are now listed in alphabetical order. Several names, omitted from the 1837 monument, are now included."
Thomas Hooker, on Wikipedia.
Founders of Hartford.
This is one page on the website of The Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford.
Roger Ludlow, The Colonial Lawmaker, by John M. Taylor (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900) 166 pgs.
For details on Rev. Thomas Hooker, see page 87. This book is available on Google.
Historic Sites at Hartford, Connecticut.
On the website of The Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford.
"Thomas Hooker Tries Democracy", by Benjamin Hart.
This is Chapter 7 of his book Faith & Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty (Christian Defense Fund, 1997).
This is a wonderful discussion of Hooker's life and philosophy. The whole book is available on the Leadership U website (a project of Christian Leadership Ministries, a part of Campus Crusade for Christ, International).
History and Genealogy of the Gov. John Webster Family of Connecticut, by W. H. Webster & Rev. M. R. Webster (Rochester, NY: E. R. Andrews Printing Co., 1915), as featured on Paul Lange's family website.
See Part 1 for details Hooker's journey and the route taken; and Part 2 for a description of the broohaha that happened in the Church after Hooker's death. This led to the foundation of Hadley, Mass.
John Winthrop Jr. - Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, 1657, 1659-1676, as presented on the Connecticut State Library website. A good, well referenced, presentation.
"Old Connecticut Path: Rediscovering the Old Connecticut Path". Site owner: Jason Newton.
Mr. Newton has done a lot of research on the path. Thanks to Ric Skinner, Sturbridge MA, for the link.
Bay Path and Along the Way, by Levi Badger Chase (printed for the author, 1919). Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University. Thanks to Ric Skinner, Sturbridge MA, for the link.
The Pynchons and the People of Early Springfield, includes the background of Thomas Hooker, but is primarily about Springfield and the Pynchons.
From the excellent website "American Centuries: Views from New England," presented by the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, Mass. It includes a large library of primary resources, curricula, and interactive student activities; most of them presented in age-appropriate, user-friendly formats.
The author, Stephen Innes, presents Lesson 4 of Unit 1 ("The Colonial Period 1680-1720"), which is part of a broad high-school, online, social studies course entitled "The Nile of New England: A Study of the History of a Connecticut River Valley Town Over Three Centuries."
Innes is the author of Early Settlement in the Connecticut Valley (Westfield, MA: Westfield State College, 1984).
Picture "Hooker's Company reach the Connecticut" was published History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts by Samuel Adams Drake (1880, vol. 1). Copyright was claimed in 1879 by Estes & Lauriat, publishers.
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury:
William Laud, a Wikipedia web page.
Biography of Archbishop William Laud, a British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website by David Plant.
Archbishop William Laud, Luminarium Encyclopaedia, excerpted from Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol XVI. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910) p. 278. Website copyright ©1996-2007 Anniina Jokinen.
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