John Wheelwright

Early life

John Wheelwright, born about 1592, was the son of Robert Wheelwright of Cumberworth and Saleby in Lincolnshire, England. When his father died in 1612, Wheelwright administered the estate, and was also the heir to some property in Lincolnshire. His grandfather, also named John Wheelwright, died in 1611 at Mumby.

In 1611, Wheelwright entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge which shared its Puritan ethos with the other newly established Cambridge college: Emmanuel. Entering as a sizar, Wheelwright received his B.A. in 1614/5 and his M.A. in 1618. At Cambridge, Wheelwright had noteworthy athletic abilities, and the American Puritan, Cotton Mather (born 1663), wrote, "when Wheelwright was a young spark at the University he was noted for more than an ordinary stroke at wrestling". At Sidney Sussex, Wheelwright first met his life-long friend Oliver Cromwell and fellow Lincolnshire man Rev. William Skepper (1597-c.1650) who, like Wheelwright, would leave England (1638) to 'find freedom' at the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Both Wheelwright and Skepper shared a friend in fellow Puritan and Cambridge contemporary John Cotton.

Wheelwright was ordained a deacon on 19 December 1619, and the following day was ordained a priest in the Church of England. On 8 November 1621 he married Mary Storre, the daughter of Thomas Storre, who was the vicar of Bilsby. In April 1623, following the death of his father-in-law, Wheelwright was instituted as the vicar of Bilsby. His first wife died in 1629, and was buried in Bilsby on 18 May. He soon thereafter married Mary Hutchinson, a daughter of Edward Hutchinson of Alford, and a sister of William Hutchinson, whose wife was Anne Hutchinson.

After nearly ten years as vicar, Wheelwright was suspended in 1633 following his attempt to sell his Bilsby ministry back to its patron to get funds to travel to New England. He was convicted of simony (selling church offices), and removed from office. After his removal from Bilsby he was likely in Laceby in June 1633 where his daughter Elizabeth was baptized. He then preached at Belleau, Lincolnshire, but was soon silenced by the Church authorities for his Puritan opinions. Wheelwright left England in 1636 with his second wife, her mother Susanna Hutchinson, and his five living children.

Massachusetts

Wheelwright arrived in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on 26 May 1636, and was admitted to the First Church in Boston on 12 June 1636, with his wife, Mary, and her mother, Susanna Hutchinson. During the year of his arrival, several of the Puritan ministers of Massachusetts had taken notice of the religious gatherings that his relative by marriage, Anne Hutchinson, had been holding at her house, and they also began having questions about the preaching of John Cotton whose Boston parishioners seemed to them to be harboring some theologically unsound opinions. Wheelwright was a strong advocate of Cotton's theology, as was Hutchinson, but their views differed from those of the majority of the colony's ministers, and they soon became embroiled in a major clash over this issue.

Theological views

After his arrival in New England, Wheelwright preached primarily to the Boston settlers who owned land at Mount Wollaston (modern-day Quincy), still considered a part of Boston at the time, but located about ten miles south of the Boston meetinghouse. Within months, someone had alerted magistrate John Winthrop, a lay person in the Boston church, that Wheelwright was harboring familist and antinomian doctrines. Familism, the theology of the Family of Love, involved one's perfect union with God under the Holy Spirit, coupled with freedom from both sin, and the responsibility for it. Antinomianism, or being freed from moral law under the covenant of grace, was a form of familism. Most of the New England Puritan ministers were adamantly opposed to these theological doctrines, seeing them as the cause of the violent and bloody ravages of the anabaptists in Germany during the Münster Rebellion of the 1530s. When confronted with accusations of familism, Wheelwright denied preaching such a doctrine. While Winthrop and many of the colony's ministers may have viewed Wheelwright as a familist, Cotton saw him as an orthodox minister.

Antinomian Controversy

As early as spring 1636 the minister of Newtown (later renamed Cambridge), Thomas Shepard, began a correspondence with Boston minister John Cotton, and in his letters Shepard notified Cotton of his concern about Cotton's theology, and of some strange opinions circulating among the members of the Boston church. Cotton, who advocated that God's free grace was the only path to salvation, differed from all of the colony's other ministers, who felt that sanctification (works) was a necessary ingredient to salvation. When Wheelwright arrived in the colony, he became a firm ally of Cotton in these theological differences. Opinions that were first shared in private correspondence soon began to find their way into Shepard's sermons to his Newtown congregation. This "pulpit aggression" did not go unnoticed by Wheelwright, and soon his own sermons began taking a critical view of the "covenant of works" being preached by Shepard.

Theological tension was mounting in the colony, but it wasn't until October 1636 when it became noticeable enough for Winthrop to record an entry in his journal. On or shortly after 21 October 1636 he noted the rising disunity, but instead of pointing fingers at one of the godly ministers, he instead put the blame on Wheelwright's sister-in-law, writing, "One Mrs. Hutchinson, a member of the church at Boston, a woman of a ready wit and a bold spirit, brought over with her two dangerous errors: 1. That the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person. 2. That no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justification".

Late in October the colony's ministers confronted the question of religious opinions directly and had a "conference in private" with Cotton, Hutchinson, and Wheelwright. The outcome of this meeting was favorable, and the parties were in agreement. Cotton, whose theology rested on a covenant of grace, gave satisfaction to the other ministers that sanctification (a covenant of works) did help in finding grace in the eyes of God, and Wheelwright agreed as well. However, the effects of the conference were short-lived, because a majority of the members of the Boston church, Cotton's parishioners, held the free grace ideas strongly, and they wanted Wheelwright to become the church's second pastor behind Cotton. The church already had another pastor, Reverend John Wilson, who was unsympathetic to the free grace advocates. Wilson was a friend of Winthrop, who was a layman in the church, and it was Winthrop who took advantage of a rule requiring unanimity in a church vote to thwart Wheelwright's appointment. Though Winthrop "thought reverendly" of Wheelwright's talents and piety, he felt that he was "apt to raise doubtful disputations [and] he could not consent to choose him to that place". This was Winthrop's way of suggesting that Wheelwright maintained familist doctrines.

Exeter, Wells, and Hampton

Exeter

Following the events of the Antinomian Controversy, some families went north with Wheelwright into the Province of New Hampshire, and others went south with the Hutchinsons to Aquidneck Island. With some loyal friends, Wheelwright removed to the Piscataqua region about 50 miles (80 km) north of Boston and spent the severe winter of 1637 to 1638 at Squamscott. Following the winter, he purchased the rights of the Indian sagamore of Wehanownouit and his son, and founded the town of Exeter, New Hampshire, on 3 April 1638. His wife, children, and mother-in-law left Mount Wollaston to reach the embryo settlement at about this time. About 20 married men were there by spring 1638, roughly half of whom had had ties with Wheelwright back in Lincolnshire, England.

Almost immediately a house of worship was built with Wheelwright as the pastor. The need of a government soon became apparent, and in 1640 a combination (governing agreement) was drawn up by Wheelwright and signed by himself, the members of the church, and other area inhabitants. By contrast to the turmoils that infected the settlement at Aquidneck, Wheelwright's Exeter community began smoothly.

Wells

Wheelwright's stay in Exeter was short-lived, however, as the Bay Colony planted a settlement at Hampton, which included Wheelwright's purchase in its jurisdiction, and this put the banished Wheelwright in Massachusetts territory. He then began looking for a new place to settle, and two of his partners from the 1638 purchase, Samuel Hutchinson and Nicholas Needham, began prospecting the region to the northeast. On 24 September 1641 they obtained a license from Thomas Gorges, the deputy governor of Maine, for a property that became Wells, Maine.

Wheelwright purchased 400 acres (1.6 km2) of land on the Ogunquit River and almost immediately built a sawmill and a house for his large family. His mother-in-law, Susanna Hutchinson, accompanied the family, and died there not long afterward. A considerable number of his Exeter parishioners accompanied him to Wells so a church was built at once, and he was its pastor. The people he left behind in Exeter continued to hold Wheelwright in the highest regard, and were slow to give up their hope that he might return to them.

In September 1642, while still in Exeter, an application for reconciliation was made on his behalf, to which the Bay Colony replied that he would be given safe conduct to return to Boston and petition the court. While he does not appear to have acted in that regard, Massachusetts was interested in mending fences, and without solicitation they again invited him to the General Court to be held on 10 May 1643. This prompted him to communicate with some of the ministers there, and they were so pleased with his demeanor that they likely coached him on how to frame a letter to the General Court. He wrote this letter on 10 September, and it reached Boston on 4 October 1643. The court was heavily inclined to retract the order of banishment, and again he was offered safe conduct to present his case to the court. John Winthrop had even sent a personal letter to him, to which he responded. In this letter Wheelwright now rested his claim for acquittal on justice, rather than mercy. He was not willing to desert his principles, though he "made a manly concession of his error, to bring about reconciliation and peace, as was eminently becoming his sacred calling". Upon receipt of Wheelwright's second letter, Winthrop recommended that he appear in court in person, but this he was not willing to do. The matter then rested until 29 May 1644 when the legislature acted without Wheelwright's physical presence, and made the following pronouncement:

that Mr. Wheelwright (upon piticular, solenme and serious acknowledgmt & concession by letter, of his evill carriages & of ye Ct's justice upon him for them) hath his banishmt taken of, & is received in as a member of this commonwealth.

Hampton

After more than five years at Wells, Wheelwright received an invitation from the church and town of Hampton, then under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, to join the Reverend Timothy Dalton as a pastor of the church there. Without apparent hesitation he went there in the spring of 1647 and entered into a written agreement with a committee of the church and town. He was installed as the minister on 12 April 1647 by some accounts, or 24 June 1647 by another. The job afforded the 55-year-old Wheelwright with a larger salary than the parish at Wells did, an important consideration given the large size of his family. No longer in a frontier setting, he was now within reach of professional brethren and laymen of culture and social refinement, more aligned with his educational background.

While the town acknowledged his service with gifts of land and remuneration, their greatest gift came in a different form—a vindication from the Massachusetts General Court. The Short Story, prefaced by Reverend Weld, was largely accepted in England, and had been endorsed by the prominent Scottish divine, Reverend Samuel Rutherford. Wheelwright had probably long felt that some reparation was due for the attitudes conveyed in both the Short Story and in his release from banishment, and his Hampton townsmen were likely well aware of this. On 1 May 1654 they drafted a petition to the legislature, and on 3 May the General Court made the following declaration: that they were

not willing to recall those uncomfortable differences that formerly passed betwixt this Court and Mr. Wheelwright, concerning matters of religion or practise, nor do they know what Mr. Rutherford or Mr Wells [Weld] hath charged him with, yet they judg meete to certifie that Mr. Wheelwright hath long since given such satisfaction both to the Court & elders generally as that he is now, & so for many years hath bin, an officer in ye church at Hampton wthin [sic] o[u]r jurisdiction, & yt w[i]thout offence to any so far as we know & as we are informed, he hath been a useful & psitable [sic] instrument of doinge much good in that church.

While his vindication from the Massachusetts court allowed Wheelwright to mend his relationships with his brethren in New England, he still felt stung by the accusations of the authors of the Short Story, and of Samuel Rutherford in his 1648 work, A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist ... , and he was intent in clearing his name with people back in England. In 1658, Edward Cole of London published Wheelwright's A Brief and Plain Apology, whose lengthy subtitle read "Wherein he doth vindicate himself, From al those Errors, Heresies, and Flagitious Crimes, layed to his charge by Mr. Thomas Weld, in his short story, And further Fastened upon him by Mr. Samuel Rutherford in his Survey of Antinomianisme".

England

In late 1655, Wheelwright moved back to England with his family, to Alford, the home town of his wife, Mary. He had received his final salary payment from the Hampton church in the late summer, but was preaching in Alford by 12 December when a salary augmentation of £60 was to be granted "to John Wheelwright, minister of Alford, co. Lincoln, who has a great charge of children". This remuneration was in addition to a £40 salary already allowed.

Extraordinary events had recently transpired in England, with King Charles I executed, power in the hands of Cromwell, and the pulpits handed over to Puritans. Vane, who had been close to Wheelwright during the events of the Antinomian Controversy, had also reached high positions in government. Vane and Cromwell had been working side by side but became estranged and hostile towards each other in the early 1650s. Vane had retired from public life while Cromwell moved into the highest position of authority in England. Wheelwright was well received by Cromwell, with whom Wheelwright had gone to college, and who once described him this way: "I remember the time when I was more afraid of meeting Wheelwright at football than I have been since of meeting an army in the field, for I was infallibly sure of being tripped up by him". Wheelwright wrote a letter to his church in Hampton, dated 20 April 1658, in which he described his meeting with Cromwell, writing, "I had discourse in private about the space of an hour. All his speeches seemed to me very orthodox and gracious".

Wheelwright probably spent most of his time in England in Lincolnshire, and besides preaching in Alford he likely preached at Belleau, the estate of Sir Henry Vane "who had greatly noticed him since his arrival in the kingdom". It is possible that Vane encouraged Wheelwright to publish his Apology. After the death of Cromwell in 1658, events became less favorable for England's Puritans. After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, Vane was imprisoned for his role during England's Interregnum and executed in June 1662. Wheelwright returned to New England in the summer of 1662 with several other ministers who had been visiting the kingdom.

Salisbury

Wheelwright's position at the church in Hampton had, as expected, been filled during his absence, but he was quickly called by residents of the neighboring town of Salisbury to be their pastor, and on 9 December 1662, when 70 years old, he was installed there. This became Wheelwright's longest pastorate in his varied life, lasting nearly 17 years.

Probably the most noteworthy event of his tenure in Salisbury occurred very late in his life when Major Robert Pike, a layman and prominent member of his church, collided with him during the winter of 1675 to 1676. There may have been multiple reasons for the severe friction between the men, one of them being that Wheelwright was against the Quaker presence in New England, whereas Pike was more tolerant of their evangelism. Another reason may have been that during the election of 1637, Pike traveled all the way from Newbury to Newtown to vote Vane out of office. A more recent and local cause of dissension was likely over the division of Salisbury when the town of Amesbury was created from it. Pike had made certain claims of Wheelwright, to which Wheelwright wrote a petition to the court, and on 10 March 1676 the court sided with Wheelwright. Not easily rebuked, Pike enlisted support from other members of the church and town, following which Wheelwright called for intervention by civil authorities.

The intervention did not occur immediately, leaving the two sides to cast aspersions at each other. While a majority of church members supported Wheelwright, a large minority were in support of Pike, and when the brethren attempted to subject Pike to discipline for misconduct, he contemptuously refused the judgment, and Wheelwright then excommunicated him from the church. In the spring of 1677 disaffected members of the church and town petitioned the court that Wheelwright was the cause of the disturbance, and that his preaching had a tendency to pit one person against another, and requested he be removed from the ministry. Pike's biographer wrote in 1879 that Pike "opposed Wheelwright, and the arbitrary devices of his church polity, to the extent of incurring excommunication". The legislature appointed a committee, earlier proposed by Wheelwright, and through much effort was able to establish a peace. Both parties were assigned fault in the matter, Pike was required to make a concession of his faults, and the church was prompted to return him to communion. From all that is known, the matter was resolved, and did not recur.

In October 1677, Wheelwright sold his property in Lincolnshire, (purchased of Francis Levett, gentleman) to his son-in-law Richard Crispe, the husband of his youngest daughter, Sarah. In June 1679, Wheelwright was given, following an earlier recommendation, an assistant, the Reverend George Burroughs, who later became the only minister executed during the Salem witch trials.

Wheelwright deed of 1629

In 1707, a deed was found among the ancient files of York County, Maine, near where Wheelwright had brought his flock to settle in Wells. The deed, dated 17 May 1629, showed Wheelwright as being one of several recipients of land from the Indian sagamores of southern New Hampshire, and a signer of the document. The deed thus implied that Wheelwright was present in New England in 1629, even though he was known to be the vicar of Bilsby in Lincolnshire at the time. While many historians declared the deed to be a forgery, Charles H. Bell, in his biography of Wheelwright in 1876, presented the case that the deed could be legitimate.

It was known that as the vicar of Bilsby, Wheelwright was required to send a transcript of the parish registers to a central repository once a year, and this was done in March. However, of the transcripts found with Wheelwright's signature attached, the one for March 1629 could not be found, leaving open the possibility that Wheelwright had come to New England during this time frame and then returned to England. Sometime after Bell published his book on Wheelwright, the missing transcript was found, proving almost conclusively that Wheelwright had never left England during his ministry at Bilsby, and demonstrating with certainty that the deed of 1629 was a forgery. Sometime before his death, Governor Bell acknowledged the sequence of events and that the deed was an ingenious fabrication, and stated this in an undated letter to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society.

Legacy

Charles Bell, in his biography of Wheelwright, provided a mixed assessment of the character of Wheelwright, calling him contentious, lacking a conciliatory spirit, and never one to shrink from controversy. In Massachusetts he was to blame for much of the temper and spirit which he displayed, when "by a more moderate carriage he might have mitigated the bitterness of the strife ..." However, Bell found him to be neither intractable nor unforgiving, and called him notably energetic, industrious and courageous. His sincere piety was never called into question, even by those with whom he differed most widely.

Governor Winthrop, although he favored the proceedings against Wheelwright, said publicly that "he did love that brother's person, and did honor the gifts and graces of God in him". New England divine and historian Cotton Mather spoke of him as "being a man that had the root of the matter in him". Historian and Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson called him "a zealous minister, of character both for learning and piety" and New Hampshire historian Jeremy Belknap styled him "a gentleman of learning, piety and zeal".

Wheelwright Hall at Phillips Exeter Academy, the Wheelwright room at the Exeter Town Office, Wheelwright Pond in Lee, New Hampshire, site of a battle during King William's War, and Wheelwright Avenue in Exeter are all named for him.

Family

Wheelwright had 12 children, 10 of whom survived to adulthood. With his first wife, Mary Storre, Wheelwright had four children, three of whom survived childhood, and came to New England. The oldest child of this marriage, John Wheelwright, Jr., remained in England and published a vindication of his father in 1645. With his second wife, Mary Hutchinson, Wheelwright had eight more children. The first three were baptized in England, and two survived, leaving him with five children during his immigration to New England. Five more children were born in New England, all of whom survived and married.

His descendants include preachers Thomas M. Clark and Rufus Wheelwright Clark.