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Thomas Hooker

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Thomas Hooker

Hooker's Company reach the Connecticut, publishers: Estes & Lauriat, 1879
Born July 5, 1586(1586-07-05)
Marefield, Leicestershire
Died July 7, 1647(1647-07-07)
Hartford, Connecticut Colony
Nationality  England
Occupation Congregationalist minister
Known for Helped found the Connecticut Colony and write one of the first written constitutions
Religious beliefs Congregationalist
Spouse(s) Susanna Hooker (2nd wife)
The name of his first wife is not known[1]
Children 6[1]

Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent Puritan religious and colonial leader, who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as a great speaker and a leader of universal Christian suffrage. Hooker also had a role in creating the "Fundamental Orders of Connecticut", one of the world's first written constitutions.

Contents

[edit] Life

Thomas Hooker was born in Marefield, Leicestershire.[2] He received his Bachelors of Arts from Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1608, continuing there to earn his Masters of Arts in 1611.[3][2][4] He stayed at Emmanuel as a fellow for a few years.[2] After his stay at Emmanuel, Hooker preached at the Esher parish, where he garnered a reputation as an excellent speaker.[2][4]

Around 1626, Hooker became a lecturer at the Chelmsford Cathedral.[2] However, in 1629 Archbishop William Laud suppressed church lecturers, and Hooker was forced to retire to Little Baddow.[2] Eventually, his Puritan leadership brought him a summons to the Court of High Commission. Forfeiting his bond, Hooker fled to Rotterdam, Holland[4], and from there immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony aboard the Griffin.[2][1]

In Massachusetts Bay Colony, Hooker became the pastor of the church at Newetowne, now Cambridge, where his parish became known as "Mr. Hooker's Company".[2] Discontented with the suppression of Puritan suffrage and at odds with the colony leadership[4], Hooker led a group of about 100[5] who, in 1636, founded Hartford, Connecticut. This led to the founding of the Connecticut Colony.[2][6] Hooker became more active in politics in Connecticut, helping to draft the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639, considered by some historians the first written constitution in the western tradition.[2][7] He also participated in negotiations which led to the New England Confederation.[2] Hooker remained the leader of the Hartford church until his death in 1647.[2]

[edit] Views

Thomas Hooker strongly advocated extended suffrage to include Puritan worshippers, a view which would lead him and his followers to colonize Connecticut.[2] He also promoted the concept of a government that must answer to the people, stating: "they who have the power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power, also, to set the bounds and limitations of the power and place unto which they call them" through "the privilege of election, which belongs to the people according to the blessed will and law of God".[2] Thomas Hooker also argued greater religious tolerance towards all Christian sects.[8]

Hooker defended the calling of synods by magistrates, and attended a convention of ministers in Boston whose purpose was to defend Congregationalism.[2] He later published A Survey of the Summed of Church-Discipline in defense of Congregationalism, and applied its principles to politics and government.[4]

Thomas Hooker was a strong leader of the contrition doctrine and believed that much of God's favor needed to be re-earned by men.[9] To Hooker, sin was the most crafty of enemies, defeating grace on most occasions. He disagreed with many of the predecessor theologies of Free Grace theology, preferring a more muted view on the subject. He focused on preparation for heaven and following the moralist character.[9]

[edit] Family

Thomas Hooker's son Samuel, likely born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard College in 1653, and subsequently became the well-known minister of Farmington, Connecticut, where his descendants lived for many generations.[notes 1] Of Rev. Samuel Hooker, Cotton Mather wrote in Magnalia Christi Americana: "Thus we have to this day among us our dead Hooker, yet living in his worthy son Samuel Hooker, an able, faithful, useful minister at Farmington, in the Colony of Connecticut."

John Hooker, son of Rev. Samuel and grandson of Rev. Thomas, served as Speaker of the Connecticut Assembly, and previously as Judge of the state supreme court. James Hooker, brother of John and son of Rev. Samuel, also became a prominent political figure in Connecticut. He married the daughter of William Leete of Guilford, Connecticut, and subsequently settled there. James Hooker served as the first probate judge, and later as speaker of the Connecticut colonial assembly. Rev. Thomas's granddaughter Mary Hooker, the daughter of Rev. Samuel, married the Rev. James Pierpont. Their daughter Sarah Pierpont married the Rev. Jonathan Edwards.

Other direct descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker include Henry Hooker, William Howard Taft, Timothy Dwight V, Aaron Burr,William Gillette, Edward H. Gillette, George Catlin, Emma Willard, J.P. Morgan, Rev. Joshua Leavitt, Roger Hooker Leavitt, Hart Leavitt, Thom Miller, and Adonijah Rockwell.[1] On May 16, 1890, the descendants of Thomas Hooker held their first reunion at Hartford, Connecticut.[10]

[edit] Works

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Married to the eldest daughter of Capt. Thomas Willett of Plymouth Colony, a Plymouth merchant and later first mayor of New York City, Rev. Samuel Hooker was the progenitor of all Hookers who claim descent from Rev. Thomas Hooker of Connecticut. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Hooker, Edward; Margaret Huntington Hooker (1909). The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker, Hartford, Connecticut, 1586-1908. Harvard University. http://books.google.com/books?id=r17mNhtcPRwC&pg=PA231&lpg=PA231&dq=%22henry+hooker%22+house+&source=web&ots=NjS_2_N-Ef&sig=xug9p9wVPLg9x2bZSOUS8GTb0AQ&hl=en#PPA3,M1. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "THOMAS HOOKER (1586–1647)". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911. 
  3. ^ Hooker, Thomas in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Hooker, Thomas (1586-1647)". Encyclopedia of World Biography. 1998. 
  5. ^ Lucas, Beverly Johnson (August 2002), "History in houses: the Butler-McCook house and garden in Hartford, Connecticut.", The Magazine Antiques: 88-96 
  6. ^ Kennedy, David; Lizabeth Cohen; and Thomas A. Bailey (2006). The American Pageant 13th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 49. ISBN 0-618-4790-6. 
  7. ^ Black, Karla (Spring 1994). "The Connecticut State Constitution: A Reference Guide". Publius 24 (2): 148-149. 
  8. ^ Goode, Stephen (5 May 1997), "Why religious persecution violates American values", Insight on the News: 14-15 
  9. ^ a b Parnham, David (December 2008). "Redeeming free grace: Thomas Hooker and the contested language of salvation". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture (New Haven, Connecticut: American Society of Church History) 77 (4): 915-955. 
  10. ^ "In Honor of Thomas Hooker, His Descendants to Hold a Reunion in Hartford, Conn.", The New York Times, May 1, 1890

[edit] External links


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