John Wheelwright

For the American poet, see John Brooks Wheelwright.

John Wheelwright
Reverend John Wheelwright, c.1677
Born	c. 1592 Saleby, Lincolnshire, England
Died	15 November 1679 Salisbury, Massachusetts
Resting place	Colonial Burying Ground, Salisbury
Education	Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, B.A. 1614/5; M.A. 1618
Occupation	Clergyman
Spouse(s)	(1) Mary Storre (2) Mary Hutchinson
Children	(1st wife): John, Thomas, William, Susannah; (2nd wife): Katherine, Mary, Elizabeth, Mary, Samuel, Rebecca, Hannah, Sarah
Parent	Robert Wheelwright

John Wheelwright (c.1592 - 1679), was a Puritan clergyman in England and America, and was most noted for being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Antinomian Controversy, and for subsequently establishing the town of Exeter, New Hampshire. Born in Lincolnshire, England, he was raised in a family with substantial means, and received both a B.A. and M.A. at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge where he was a noted athlete and where Oliver Cromwell was a college mate of his. Ordained in 1619, he became the vicar of the church in Bilsby, Lincolnshire, and held this position for ten years until removed, probably because of his Puritan stance.

Leaving for New England in 1636, he was warmly welcomed in Boston, where the wife of his wife's brother, Anne Hutchinson was beginning to attract negative attention for her religious outspokenness. Soon he, Hutchinson, and the minister of the Boston church, John Cotton, became embroiled in the Antinomian Controversy, resulting in both Hutchinson and Wheelwright being banished from the colony. Wheelwright went north with a group of followers during the harsh winter of 1637-1638, and the following April established the town of Exeter in what would become the Province of New Hampshire. Wheelwright's stay in Exeter lasted only a few years, when he was compelled to leave, and went to Wells, Maine where he was living when his order of banishment was retracted, though it was done in a way that still placed guilt upon him. From wells he went to preach at Hampton (then in the Bay colony, but later in New Hampshire), where his parishioners helped him get the vindication that he sought from the Massachusetts Court for the events of nearly 20 years earlier.

In 1756, following the extraordinary events occurring in England, Wheelwright made a trip there to see two of his friends who were now in positions of great power, Oliver Cromwell and Sir Henry Vane. The political tide turned markedly during the six years he was there, and following Cromwell's death and Vane's execution, he returned to New England to become the minister in Salisbury, Massachusetts where he spent the remainder of his life. Wheelwright was characterized as being contentious and unbending, but also forgiving, energetic and courageous. His sincere piety was never called into question, even by those whose opinions differed greatly from his.

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 also was the heir to some landed property in Lincolnshire. His grandfather was also named John Wheelwright, and died at Mumby in 1611. Young Wheelwright was educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, receiving his B.A. in 1614/5 and his M.A. in 1618. When in college, Wheelwright had noteworthy athletic abilities, and Cotton Mather, the celebrated American Puritan, wrote, "when Wheelwright was a young spark at the University he was noted for more than an ordinary stroke at wrestling." A friend and college mate of Wheelwright was Oliver Cromwell, who later gained prominence as the Lord Protector of England.

After college, Wheelwright was ordained a Deacon on 19 December 1619, and the following day was ordained a Priest in the Anglican Church. On 8 November 1621 he married Mary Storre, the daughter of Thomas Storre who was the vicar of Bilsby. In 1623, upon the death of his father-in-law, Wheelwright became the Bilsby vicar, and held this position for ten years, until he was suspended in 1633. His successor was chosen in January 1633, and for what reason is not recorded, but it was likely that Wheelwright, with his Puritan leanings, had been singled out for non-conformity with the tenets of the established Anglican Church. Wheelwright's first wife died in 1629, and was buried in Bilsby on 18 May, shortly after which he married Mary Hutchinson, a daughter of Edward Hutchinson of Alford, and a sister of William Hutchinson whose wife was Anne Hutchinson.

After his removal from Bilsby he was likely in Laceby in June 1633 where his daughter Elizabeth was baptized. He then preached for a short while at Belleau, Lincolnshire, but was soon silenced for his opinions, and began making plans for his emigration from England. Wheelwright left England in 1636 with his second wife, her mother Susanna Hutchinson, and his five living children.

Massachusetts

John Wheelwright, with his family, arrived in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on 26 May 1636. He was admitted to the Boston church 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 be harboring some theologically unsound opinions. After just a few months in New England Wheelwright had become the champion of the so-called Antinomian party, though he didn't embrace the more extreme views of Hutchinson.

Antinomian Controvery

Main article: Antinomian Controversy

On or shortly after 21 October 1636, magistrate John Winthrop gave the first warning of a problem that would consume him and the colonial leadership for most of the next two years. In his journal he wrote, "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." He then went on to elaborate these two points.

Anne Hutchinson, related to Wheelwright by marriage, was a strong ally during the Antinomian Controversy

In October 1636 the 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 were of the opinion of Hutchinson's "free grace" ideas, and they wanted Wheelwright to become the church's second pastor, with Cotton. The church already had another pastor, Reverend John Wilson, who was unsympathetic to Hutchinson and Wheelwright. Wilson was a friend of Boston founder John Winthrop who was a layman in the church, and it was Winthrop who took advantage of a rule requiring unanimity in a church vote, and using this was able to thwart the appointment of Wheelwright. 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." Some of the Boston church members wanted to form a church at Mount Wollaston where they had farms, and this is where Wheelwright was sent to commence his pastoral service. Mount Wollaston, about eight or nine miles south of Boston, subsequently became a part of Braintree, and then later Quincy.

In December 1636 the ministers met once again, but this meeting did not produce agreement, and Cotton warned about the question of sanctification becoming essentially a "Covenant of Works." Hutchinson was much more blunt, and accused the other ministers of preaching "works" and not "grace." These theological differences had begun to take their toll in the political aspects of the colony, and the Massachusetts governor, Sir Henry Vane, who was a strong admirer of Hutchinson, announced his resignation to a special session of the deputies. His reasoning was that God's judgment would "come upon us for these differences and dissensions," implying that Hutchinson's indictment of the ministers was correct. The members of the Boston church induced Vane to withdraw his resignation, while the General Court began to debate who was responsible for the colony's troubles. The General Court, like the remainder of the colony, was deeply divided, and called for a general fast to take place on 19 January in hopes that such repentance would restore peace.

Wheelwright's fast-day sermon

While attending services at the Boston church during the appointed January day of fasting, Wheelwright was called up out of the congregation and invited to preach by Cotton. While in the eyes of a lay person the sermon was benign and non-threatening, to the Puritan clergy it was censurable and incited mischief. Instead of bringing the desired peace, the sermon had the opposite effect, and in Winthrop's words, Wheelwright "inveighed against all that walked in a covenant of works" and concerning those who preached "works, he "called them antichrists, and stirred up the people against them with much bitterness and vehemency." The followers of Hutchinson were encouraged by the sermon, and intensified their crusade against the "legalists" among the clergy. During church services and lectures they publicly asked the ministers about their doctrines which disagreed with their own beliefs.

Henry Vane strongly supported Wheelwright during the Antinomian Controversy.

When the General Court next met on 9 March, Wheelwright was called upon to answer for his sermon. An advisory council of the colony's clergy was present, and Wheelwright was called to "satisfy the court about some passages of his sermon, which seemed to be offensive." In his sermon Wheelwright had said that those who walked in a covenant of works should be denounced as Antichrists and enemies of the Lord. The issue at stake was whether had implied that the colony's magistrates and ministers fell into this category. Though Wheelwright denied that this was the case, all of the colony's ministers, except for Cotton, thought Wheelwright to be guilty of this implication. He was then judged guilty of "contempt & sedition" for having "purposely set himself to kindle and increase" bitterness within the colony. Action on the judgment was postponed for several months. The vote did not pass without a fight, and Wheelwright's friends protested formally. Governor Vane and some of the magistrates and deputies who did not concur with the ruling wanted their dissenting opinion entered into the court record, but the court refused. They then tendered a protest which was also rejected. For this reason a remonstrance was prepared and signed by "above three score" persons, and presented to the court. This petition became the pretext for severe penalties later inflicted upon the signatories.

None of the protests was accepted by the Court or magistrates, nor was Governor Henry Vane, a supporter of both Hutchinson and Wheelwright, able to prevent the Court from holding its next session in Newtown (Cambridge), where the orthodox party stood a much better chance of winning if the elections were held away from Boston. During election day, 17 May 1637, Governor Vane wanted to read a petition in defense of Wheelwright, but Winthrop and his party insisted the elections take place, and then the petitions be heard. Following clamor and debate, the majority of freemen, wanting the election to take place, went with Winthrop to one side of the Newtown common and elected him governor in place of Vane. After this, additional measures were taken against the so called Antinomians, and in the election of magistrates, those who supported Wheelwright were left out. In addition, the Court passed a law that no "strangers" could be received within the colony for longer than three weeks without the Court's permission. Winthrop declared this law as being necessary to prevent new immigrants from being added to the number of his Antinomian opponents.

Order of banishment

When the court met again in August 1637, Wheelwright was informed that if he would retract his obnoxious opinions "he might expect favor." To this he responded that if he were guilty of sedition, he ought to be put to death, and if the court intended to sentence him, he should appeal to the king.

John Winthrop was the governor and presiding judge when Wheelwright was banished from the Massachusetts colony.

The next session of the General Court began on the 2nd of November 1637 at the meeting house on Spring Street in Newtown (soon to be named Cambridge). As historian Charles Bell put it, the purpose of the meeting was to "rid the colony of the sectaries who would not be dragooned into the abandonment of their convictions." One of the first orders of business on that Monday was to deal with Wheelwright, whose case had been long deferred by Winthrop in hopes that he might finally see the error of his ways. When asked if he was ready to confess his offenses, Wheelwright responded that "he was not guilty, that he had preached nothing but the truth of Christ, and he was not responsible for the application they made of it." Winthrop painted a picture of a peaceful colony before Wheelwright's arrival, and how after his fast-day sermon Boston refused to join the Pequot War, Pastor Wilson was often slighted, and controversy arose in town meetings. Wheelwright was steadfast in his demeanor, but was not sentenced as the court adjourned for the evening. On Tuesday, after further argument in the case of Wheelwright, the court declared him guilty and read the sentence:

Mr. John Wheelwright being formerly convicted of contempt and sedition, and now justifying himselfe and his former practise, being to the disturbance of the civill peace, hee is by the Court disfranchized and banished.

— Massachusetts General Court, 3 November 1637

He was then given two weeks to depart the jurisdiction. When asked to give security for his peaceful departure, he declined, but later realized the futility of defiance after spending a night in custody. When directed not to preach during his two weeks of preparation, he outright refused, and the court determined that such an injunction was not worth pursuing.

Exeter, Wells, and Hampton

With some loyal friends, Wheelwright removed to the Piscataqua region about 50 miles (80 km) north of Boston and spent the severe winter at Squamscott in the region that later became the Province of New Hampshire. 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, Susanna Hutchinson, left Mount Wollaston to reach the embryo settlement at about this time. Almost immediately a house of worship was built, and he was the leader in the foundation of the town, where he filled the office of pastor and active citizen. The need of a government became apparent, and in 1640 a combination was drawn up by Wheelwright and signed by himself and the members of the church and other inhabitants.

Wells

Wheelwright's stay here was short-lived, however, as the Massachusetts Bay Colony planted a settlement at Hampton, which included Wheelwright’s purchase in its jurisdiction. He 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 superintendent of the affairs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, for a property that would become Wells, Maine.

He purchased 400 acres (1.6 km²) of land on the Ogunquit River and built a one-story house and sawmill. Almost immediately he built a house for his large family, to include his mother-in-law, Susanna Hutchinson, who soon died here. 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 harbor the kindest feelings towards him and were slow to "relinquish the expectation that he might return to them."

Lifting of banishment

Wheelwright probably long entertained the notion that he could make peace with Massachusetts without undue difficulty. 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 minsters 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. Winthrop had even sent a personal letter to him, to which he responded. In this letter Wheelwright, who may have come across as being too submissive in his first letter, 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 disposed to do. The matter then rested until 29 May 1644 when the legislature made the following pronouncement, ordering:

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.

— Massachusetts General Court, 29 May 1644

The italics show that the Court perverted the honest intent of his letters, and extended to him their grace based on grounds that he never admitted.

While this correspondence was taking place, another issue arose when, in early 1644, a publication entitled A Short Story of the Rise, reign and ruin of the Antinomians, Familists & Libertines that infected the Churches of New England... was published in London. The author of the work was never stated, though the Reverend Thomas Weld provided the introduction and preface. Scholars through the years have almost unanimously attributed the authorship of this work to John Winthrop. It was hardly a balanced account of events, and Governor Bell wrote that "it may be characterized as a very bitter and partisan production, even for that day."

Wheelwright received intelligence concerning this publication at about the time he received the letter lifting his banishment with the unwarranted terms therein. "He could hardly have helped feeling stung by the acrimonious revival of the defunct controversy," wrote Governor Bell, "after the lapse of seven long years, and at the very time when, by the encouragement of influential inhabitants of the Bay, he was making advances for reconciliation." He had friends and relatives in England, and was unwilling to let them get their impressions of his time in New England "from the grossly unfair statements of his opponents." Determined to publish and answer to claims made, in order to secure his character, he likely obtained the aid of friends to help with a countering publication. In 1645, Mercurius Americanus was published in London under the name of John Wheelwright, Jr., presumably his son. Bell says of it, "in tone and temper, it is incontestably superior to the Short Story, and, while devoted especially to the vindication of its author's doctrinal views, agreeably to the school of polemics then in vogue, it contains some key retorts upon his detractors, and indicates a mind trained to logical acuteness, and imbued with the learning of the times."

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. There he was installed as the minister on 12 April 1647 by some accounts, or 24 June 1647 by another. Now at the age of 55 and with a large family, he realized that he would be provided with a better maintenance than with his smaller flock at Wells. No longer in a frontier setting, he was now within reach of professional brethren and layment of culture and social refinement, more aligned with his educational background.

Vindication

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.

— Massachusetts General Court, 3 May 1654

Soon after this pronouncement Wheelwright published a vindication of himself against the wrongs done to him by Mr. Weld and Mr. Rutherford, quoting Reverend Cotton therein, and also quoting a further declaration from the General Court dated 24 August 1654 which has not survived. With his position now set straight, Wheelwright began preparing to travel to England.

England

Oliver Cromwell, a college mate, welcomed Wheelwright heartily during his stay in England.

In 1655 or early 1656 Wheelwright arrived in England following an extraordinary set of events there. The English king, Charles I, had been executed, power was in the hands of a commoner, and freedom of the pulpit had been given to Puritans. Two of Wheelwright's personal friends were now very powerful, one being the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, with whom Wheelwright had gone to college, and the other Henry Vane, who had been very close to Wheelwright during the events of the Antinomian Controversy. The two men had been working side by side for political and religious liberty, but became estranged and hostile towards each other. Vane had retired from public life while Cromwell entertained lofty aspirations, but neither failed to heartily welcome Wheelwright. Wheelwright was well received by Cromwell, both having matriculated from the "nursery of Puritans", Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, during the same period. Cromwell, when he was describing Wheelwright to a group of gentlemen, commented, "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's relations with Cromwell are generally understood to have proved of service to the colony.

After the death of Cromwell in 1658, Wheelwright likely spent the remainder of his time in England with family and friends in Lincolnshire where he still owned land. He no doubt spent time at Belleau, the favorite residence of Vane "who had greatly noticed him since his arrival in the kingdom." Vane, who had hopes of the establishment of a permanent system of popular government once again became involved with the events of his day, but ended up on the wrong side of history, being imprisoned and then executed in June 1662. With this situation, Wheelwright returned to New England in the summer of 1662 with several other ministers.

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. Few records of his time in Salisbury exist, despite this being the 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 prominent member of his church, collided with him during the winter of 1675 to 1676. The original cause of the difficulty is not known, but was probably connected with the division of Salisibury when the town of Amesbury was created from it several years earlier. 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 several 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 finally 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 a much earlier recommendation, an assistant, the Reverend George Burroughs, who later became the only minister executed during the Salem witch trials.

At nearly 87 years old, Wheelwright died of apoplexy on 15 November 1679 and was buried at the East Village Graveyard, where no marker had been placed for the next 200 years. The graveyard became the Colonial Burying Ground of Salisbury, and memorials have since been installed recognizing Wheelwright's historical significance.

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 several transcripts found with Wheelwright's signature attached, the one for March 1629 could not be found, leaving the door wide open to the possibility that Wheelwright had come to New England during this time frame and then returned to England. Sometime after Governor 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 undatd letter to the New England Historical and Genealogical Society.

Legacy

Governor 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, he was neither intractable nor unforgiving, and was 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 Mr. Wheelwright, said publicly that "he did love that brother's person, and did honor the gifts and graces of God in him." Rev. John Cotton said, "I do conceive and profess, that our brother Wheelwright's doctrine is according to God, in the points controverted" and 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 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, lived in Wells and was a Colonel in the Maine militia, involved in the Indian wars at home. 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. They had five more children born after arriving in New England, all of whom survived and married.

References

Bibliography

• Anderson, Robert Charles (2003). The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England 1634–1635. Vol. Vol. III G-H. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. ISBN 0-88082-158-2. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Battis, Emery (1962). Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Bell, Charles H. (1876). John Wheelwright. Boston: printed for the Prince Society. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Bell, Charles H. (c.1890), "The Wheelwright Deed of 1629", in Bell, Charles H. (ed.), John Wheelwright, Boston: Prince Society, pp. appendix 1-3 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Hall, David D. (1990). The Antinomian Controversy, 1636–1638, A Documentary History. Durham [NC] and London: Duke University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Noyes, Sybil; Libby, Charles Thornton; Davis, Walter Goodwin (1979). Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Pike, James Shepherd (1879). The New Puritan, New England two hundred years ago, some account of the life of Robert Pike... New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Jefferds, Jerome S. (1982). The Jefferds Family. ASIN B0006EJR36.

• Clark, C. C. (1938). The Wheelwright Family. The Brick Store Museum.

See also

• History of Boston
• History of Massachusetts
• History of New Hampshire
• Province of New Hampshire

External links

• Dow's history of Hampton
• Historical background of the Wheelwright portrait
• Great Migration Newsletter
• Biography at Ancestry.com

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