Thomas
Hooker
Born:
Marefield, Tilton Parish, Leicestershire, England; c. 1586
Died: Hartford; July 7, 1647
Entry
by Bruce P. Stark
Thomas
Hooker, Congregational clergyman and the founder of Connecticut,
was graduated in 1608 from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which
had the reputation of being a Puritan college. He received an
A.M. in 1611, remained at Emmanuel as a fellow until 1618, experienced
conversion, and became a Puritan. Hooker was rector of St. George's
Church, Exeter, Surrey, from 1620 to 1626 and was lecturer at
the Church of St. Mary, Chelmsford, Essex, from 1626 to 1629.
He soon earned a reputation as a powerful Puritan preacher. As
life for religious nonconformists became more and more intolerable
in the England of Charles I, Hooker was forced to leave his parish.
He moved to Holland to escape persecution but in 1633 decided
to join many of his Essex County followers who had migrated to
Massachusetts. On October 11, 1633, Thomas Hooker was ordained
pastor of the congregation in Newtown, now Cambridge. He quickly
became one of the religious and intellectual leaders of Massachusetts
Bay and was given the responsibility for defending Puritan orthodoxy
against the heresies propounded by Roger Williams at his trial
in 1635.
The
Newtown people were not happy in Massachusetts Bay due to a lack
of arable land and because of religious and political differences
with the rulers of the colony. Therefore, in June 1636 with the
reluctant approbation of Massachusetts Bay, Hooker led about one
hundred persons from Newtown to the site of Hartford. The Newtown
group, preceded by a Dorchester group which settled at Windsor
and some thirty Watertown families which migrated to Wethersfield,
formed the nucleus of the colony of Connecticut. The three towns
acknowledged the overlordship of Massachusetts Bay for one year
and then in 1637 established a rudimentary representative government.
By 1638 some more regularized governmental structure was required.
Hooker gave direction in a famous May 31, 1638, sermon in which
he forcefully asserted that the choice of public magistrates belongs
to the people, that the privilege of election belongs to the people,
and that those who have the power to appoint officers of government
have the right to limit the power they hold. This sermon provided
the impetus for the Fundamental Orders adopted in January 1639,
the frame of government for the colony until 1662.
As
a religious leader whose stature was matched only by that of John
Cotton, Hooker's advice and counsel were sought both in Connecticut
and Massachusetts Bay. He was involved in the trial of Anne Hutchinson;
he traveled to Boston in May 1639 along with Governor John Haynes
(1594-1653/54) to begin negotiations for the establishment of
a New England confederation; and he attended the Cambridge synods
of 1643 and 1645. The Cambridge meetings, at which Hooker was
one of two moderators, helped define the Congregational way, and
Hooker, along with John Davenport (1597-1669/70), was chosen to
write a book defending the Congregational system. The volume,
Survey of the Summe of Church-Discipline, was published
in England in 1648.
Thomas
Hooker was an eminent theologian, scholar, and preacher and is
deservedly ranked as one of the founders of Connecticut.
For
Further Reading
Archibald,
Warren Seymour. Thomas Hooker. New Haven, Connecticut,
1933. Tercentenary Pamphlet IV.
Shuffleton,
Frank. Thomas Hooker 1586-1647. Princeton, New Jersey,
1977.
Van
Dusen, Albert E. Connecticut. New York, 1961. See chapters
1 and 2.
*
Entry under revision.
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