John Cotton was a Puritan clergyman, known as the Patriarch of New England. He was born in 1584 at Derby and died in 1652. He was educated at the University of Cambridge. In 1610 he was ordained a priest of the Church of England, and in 1612 he was chosen vicar of Saint Botolph's Church, Boston, Lincolnshire. He served there almost continuously until 1633, when, because of his Puritan leanings, he was summoned to appear before the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, at the Court of High Commission. Instead, John Cotton fled the country, and in September 1633 he arrived at the town of Boston, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There he was ordained teacher of the First Church, a post he held until his death.
Both in England and in Massachusetts, John Cotton had a wide reputation for learning and piety, and he wielded a powerful influence in New England. He approved the exile from Massachusetts of the Puritan clergyman Roger Williams and the religious reformer Anne Hutchinson, whom he had first supported in her controversy with church authorities.
John Cotton became one of the heads of the Congregational church in Massachusetts, promulgating his teachings in more than fifty volumes, including 'The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven' published in 1644, 'The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England' published in 1645, and 'The Way of the Congregational Churches Cleared' published in 1648. He staunchly upheld the right of Puritan magistrates to enforce uniformity of religious beliefs. Research John Cotton
Abbreviations
People
Research John Cotton