Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bulkeley, Peter

BULKELEY, Peter, clergyman, b. in Odell, Bedfordshire, England, 31 Jan., 1583; d. in Concord, Mass., 9 March, 1659. He was educated at Cambridge, where he afterward became a fellow. Later he took orders, and succeeded to the living of his father in Odell, where he remained for twenty-one years, when he was removed by Archbishop Laud for non-conformity. In 1635 he sold his estates and came to this country with other settlers. He remained for some time at Cambridge, Mass., but pushed farther inland and founded Concord, where he lived until his death. Mr. Bulkeley was an excellent scholar. He wrote Latin verses, some of which have been preserved in Cotton Mather's “History of New England”; an elegy on the Rev. Thomas Hooker; and “The Gospel Covenant; or, the Covenant of Grace Opened” (London, 1646). He contributed a large part of his own valuable collection to establish the library of Harvard college.