ORI GIN: Sudbury, Suffolk
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Boston
RETURN TRIPS: Made two brief trips to England, leaving in 1631, returning the last of May 1632 on the Whale [WJ 1:62, 93], and leaving again in 1634 [WP 3:61, 175; WJ 1:205]
OCCUPATION: Minister. On 23 August 1630 it was ordered that "Mr. Wilson should have after £20 per annum till his wife come over, his year to being the 10th of July last" [MBCR 1:73]. Teacher at Boston, 27 August 1630 [WJ 2:267]. Installed as pastor of the First Church of Boston 23 November 1632 [WJ 1:114]. On 17 May 1637 a lottery was taken to choose Mr. John Wilson or Mr. John Eliot to "go forth with the soldiers against the Pequots" and Mr. Wilson was chosen [MBCR 1:195]. On his return by 20 November 1637 he was given £20 as a "gratuity for going with the soldiers" [MBCR 1:215].
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1631 and admitted 2 July 1632 [MBCR 1:80, 367].
EDUCATION: John Wilson was educated at Eton and Cambridge. He was admitted at King's College, Cambridge, on 23 August 1605, aged fourteen, B.A. 1609-10, M.A. 1613 [Venn 4:429; Morison 408]. He wrote numerous religious tracts and a Latin poem in memory of Rev. John Harvard [NEHGR 61:40]. His inventory included "a parcel of old books given by Mr. Wilson to his son John Wilson as part of his portion long ago, which at his death he was to possess & also a parcel of new books which young Mr. Wilson & his brother Mr. Danforth were to divide as the will directs" valued at £19 4s. 6d.
OFFICES: Committee to examine Mr. Samuel Hutchinson for soundness of judgement, 7 October 1641 [MBCR 1:338].
ESTATE: On 1 April 1634 Mr. John Wilson, pastor of the church of Boston, was granted two hundred acres of land next to Medford [MBCR 1:114]. On 6 June 1639 "Mr. John Wilson, pastor of Boston" was granted one thousand acres of land at "Pecoit" in any place "so as it may not hinder a plantation" [MBCR 1:263]. On 10 May 1648 it was ordered that his 1500 acres in Pequot country be laid out adjoining Mr. Winthrop's [MBCR 2:241-42].
In his will, dated 31 May 1667 and proved 21 August 1667, "John Wilson Sr., pastor of the Church of Christ at Boston, ... being now aged and many weaknesses attending of me," bequeathed to "John Wilson Jun. the son of my son Edmond Wilson, Doctor of Physick, late of London, deceased" £233 6s. 8d. "to be paid to his lawful guardian within two years"; "to my grandchild Bridget Prideaux, the daughter of the abovesaid Edmond Wilson deceased, the now wife of Nicholas Prideaux, merchant in Barbados" £100; to "my son John Wilson, pastor of the Church at Medfield, and to my daughter, Mary Danforth, the wife of Samuel Danforth of Roxbury, pastor of that Church to whom I have by deed made and signed the same day ... given and granted all my houses and lands" and residue of goods; "my two sons John Wilson and Samuel Danforth" joint executors; to "Sarah, Elizabeth, John and Susanna, my grandchildren by my son John Wilson" £25 apiece; to "my grandchildren, John, Mary, Elizabeth and Samuel, children of my daughter Mary Danforth" £25 apiece "as also to such children as my said daughter shall bear within the space of two years next"; to "my son John Wilson ... all my old books and my new books more lately bought of Mr. Usher or of any others in New England to be divided between my son John Wilson and my daughter Mary Danforth, two third parts to my said son ... and one third part to her my said daughter"; to "my beloved cousin Mr. Edward Rawson at Boston" £100; to "Mrs. Anna Paige my kinswoman" £20; to "my brother John Mansfield and his children I do give £10 vizt. to him and his wife £5 and the other £5 to be equally divided between his children"; to "my dear cousin Mrs. Sarah Higginson" £5; to the church "over whom I am an overseer" £10; to "my beloved brother and fellow Elder over the same Church, Mr. James Penn" £3; to "my beloved brethren Capt. James Johnson, Mr. Richard Truesdale, Mr. Jacob Eliot, deacons" 40s.; "to my ancient and good friend Mrs. Norton as a small expression of my affectionate love to her" 20s; to "my faithful and good friends Gaudy James and Ann his wife" £5 "as a testimony of my thankfulness to them for their love and service done unto me"; to "my cousin Benjamin Brisco" 40s.; to "my cousin William Smith" 40s.; to "my Reverend and beloved brethren and fellow laborers in the works of the ministry Mr. Richard Mather of Dorchester, Mr. John Allene of Dedham, Mr. Zechariah Symes Sr. of Charlestown, Mr. John Sherman of Watertown, Mr. Jonathan Mitchel of Cambridge, Mr. Thomas Shephard of Charlestown and Mr. Michael Wigglesworth" 10s. apiece; to "Mr. Thomas Thacher and Mr. James Allen" 20s.; if estate is insufficient, legacies to be abated proportionally except legacies to be given "to my grandchildren the children of my son Edmond Wilson"; "moreover and above what is aforenamed I do give to my grandchild John Wilson the son of Edmond Wilson a silver goblet, and to his sister Prideaux the cover thereof"; to "my son John Wilson I give the gold ring with the seal"; to "my daughter Mary Danforth an enamelled gold ring"; "my honored friend Mr. Thomas Danforth of Cambridge and my loving kinsman Mr. Edward Rawson" overseers; to "Mr. Thomas Danforth the sum of 40s." [SPR 6:1-4].
The inventory of the estate of Mr. John Wilson was taken 19 August 1667 and totalled £419 14s. 6d., including "the house" valued at £300 [SPR 5:53-54].
BIRTH: About 1591 [Venn 4:429], son of Rev. William Wilson [Venn 4:433; Magnalia 1:303].
DEATH: Boston 7 August 1667, aged 68. "About two of the clock in the morning, my honored Father, Mr. John Wilson, Pastor to the church of Boston, aged about 78 years and an half, a man eminent in faith, love, humility, self-denial, prayer, soundess of mind, zeal for God, liberality to all men, esp[ecial]ly to the s[ain]ts & ministers of Christ, rested from his labors & sorrows, beloved & lamented of all, and very honorably interred the day following" (the record of Samuel Danforth [RChR 206]).
MARRIAGE: By about 1617 Elizabeth Mansfield, daughter of John and Elizabeth Mansfield. She died about 1658 [Magnalia 1:311].
She did not accompany her husband in 1630, and her unwillingness to come to New England was the subject of several letters from Margaret Winthrop to her son John in May 1631; she first reported that "Mr. Wilson is now in London and promised me to come and see you. He cannot yet persuade his wife to go, for all he hath taken this pains to come and fetch her. I marvel what mettle she is made on. Sure she will yield at last, or else we shall want him exceedingly in New England" [WP 3:33]. In her second letter she noted that WILLIAM CODDINGTON "is gone to Sudbury to Mr. Wilson," and in her third letter that "if he go it must be without his wife's consent, for she is more averse than ever she was" [WP 3:34, 36]. John Wilson's wife did return with him in 1632, however, for they had a child born and baptized in Boston in 1633. When John Wilson made a second trip to England in 1634, she was "at first very much affected with her husband's departure, but she is now well pacified" [WP 3:175].
CHILDREN:
| i EDMUND, b. say 1618; m. say 1645 _____ _____. Remained in England [NEHGR 61:41; Venn 4:427; Foster 4:1654]. |
| iii ELIZABETH, b. say 1630; "baptized in her infancy into the fellowship of the church" and received into the Boston church 19 November 1648 [BChR 51]; m. 1650 Rev. Ezekiel Rogers of Rowley (Rogers took as his second wife "a virgin daughter of the well-known Mr. John Wilson, in hopes of issue by her; but God also took her away, with the child she had conceived by him" [Magnalia 1:311, 412]; on 24 February 1650[/1] Emmanuel Downing reported to John Winthrop Jr. that "Mr. Rogers of Rowly hath last week buried his wife and child within a few days after she was brought to bed," and the following day Adam Winthrop reported the same [WP 5:97, 99]). |
| iv MARY, b. Boston 12 September 1633 [BVR 2]; bp. there 15 September 1633 [BChR 278]; m. (1) [5 November] 1651 Rev. Samuel Danforth (the day and month of the marriage are given in many secondary sources, but the contemporary record of this marriage has not been found; Mather supplies the year [Magnalia 59-65, at 62; Sibley 1:88-92, at 91]); m. (2) Joseph Rock (on 17 September 1682 "Sister Danforth now Rock is dismissed [from Roxbury church] to the First Church at Boston" [RChR 95]). |
ASSOCIATIONS: Through his wife he was brother-in-law to the powerful and wealthy Capt. Robert Keayne. In his 1656 will Keayne bequeathed to his sister, wife of Rev. John Wilson [SPR Case #171].
COMMENTS: John Winthrop reported dramatically on the attempted return voyage of John Wilson to England in 1634:
returning in the winter time, in a small and weak ship, bound for Barnstaple, were driven by foul weather upon the coast of Ireland, not known by any in the ship, and were brought, through many desparate dangers, into Galloway, where they parted, Mr. Winthrop taking his journey over land to Dublin, and Mr. Wilson by sea, and being come within sight of Lundy, in the mouth of Severn, they were forced back by tempest to Kinsale, where some ships perished in their view. Mr. Wilson, being in Ireland, gave much satisfaction to the Christians there about New England [WJ 1:205].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: Cotton Mather wrote one of his longer memorials on Rev. John Wilson [Magnalia 1:302-21]. In 1907 J. Gardner Bartlett published the "Ancestry and Descendants of Rev. John Wilson of Boston, Mass." [NEHGR 61:36-41, 127-33]. A brief account of John Wilson appears in the Dictionary of American Biography. |
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