lived (W. Winters, Memorials of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1882, p. 26). He was the son of Bennett Eliot, a yeoman holding land in the parishes of Ware, Widford, Hunsdon, and Eastwick in the same county, who bequeathed by will, dated 5 Nov. 1621, 8l. of the profits of these lands for the maintenance of his son John at Cambridge University (ib. pp. 39–42). John Eliot entered as a pensioner at Jesus College, 20 March 1619, and took his degree in 1622. He was for some years usher in a school at Little Baddow, near Chelmsford, kept by the Rev. Thomas Hooker, afterwards (1633) pastor of the First Church at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cotton Mather owned a manuscript account of this school written by Eliot, whose leaning towards non-conformity commenced under Hooker's administration (Magnalia Christi Americana, 1702, bk. iii. p. 59). Eliot had taken orders in the church of England, but his opinions led him to quit his native country. He landed at Boston in New England on 4 Nov. 1631 (John Winthrop, Hist. of New England, Boston, 1853, i. 76), going over in the same ship with Governor Winthrop's wife and children. Three brothers and three sisters went with him either then or shortly afterwards. 'He adjoyned to the church at Boston, and there exercised in the absens of Mr. Wilson, the pastor of that church, who had gone bock to England' (Eliot's own 'Church Record,' reprinted in Report of the Boston Record Coinmissioners, Doc. 114, 1880, and portions in New England Hist. and Genealog. Register, vol. xxxiii. 1879). He was so much liked that 'though Boston laboured all they could, both with the congregation of Roxbury and with Mr. Eliot himself, alleging their want of him, and the covenant between them, &c., yet he could not be diverted from accepting the call of Roxbury' (Winthrop, History, i. 111). Before leaving England Eliot was engaged to be married to Hanna Mumford or Mountford, who followed him a year after his arrival in the colony, and to whom he was married on 4 Sept. 1632, or rather October, says Savage (Genealog. Dict. ii. 109). This was the first marriage recorded in Roxbury. On 5 Nov. following he was established a 'teacher' of the church at Roxbury, an office he continued until his death, and at once began to manifest that love of learning, devotion to religious obligations, and chivalric ardour for the temporal and spiritual welfare of the Indians, which always distinguished him. In 1634, having censured the conduct of the colonial government in concluding a treaty with the Pequots without consulting the whole community, he was called upon publicly to retract his observations. He was a witness against the religious enthusiast, Mrs. Hutchinson, on her trial in November 1637 (T. Hutchinson, History of the Province of Massachisetts Bay from 1628 to 1749, 1768, ii. 494). With Richard Mather and his colleague, Thomas Weld, he helped to prepare the English metrical version of the Psalms, printed by Stephen Daye [q. v.] in 1640, and known as the 'Bay Psalm Book,' the first book printed in New England.
Eliot states that he set himself to learn the Indian language with the assistance of 'a pregnant-witted young man, who had been a servant in an English house, who pretty well understood his own language, and had a clear pronunciation' (The. Indian Grammar begun, 1666, p. 66). He studied two years before he allowed himself to preach. His first pastoral visit to the Indians was on 28 Oct. 1646, at a place afterwards called Nonantum, on the borders of Newton and Watertown, Massachusetts. Here he delivered a long sermon in the native dialect, but prayed in English. Three other meetings were held, and the Indians are reported to have taken a lively interest in the proceedings. A practical step towards the civilisation of his converts was taken by Eliot in establishing settlements, giving them industrial occupations, clearings, houses, and clothes. They ultimately enjoyed some kind of self-government, with the comforts and securities of white citizens. He thought it 'absolutely necessary to carry on civility with religion.' The work was regarded with approval by his brother ministers, and money to found schools was sent by well-wishers even from England. An order of the home parliament was passed on 17 March 1647 requiring the committee on foreign plantations to prepare an ordinance 'for the encouragement and advancement of learning and piety in New England'(Francis, p. 132). An ordinance was passed on 27 July 1649 for the advancement of civilisation and Christianity among the Indians, and 'A Corporation for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel among the Indians of New England' was instituted. The first township of 'praying Indians' was at Natick, where in 1651 a considerable number were established. A dozen more settlements were founded under the care of Eliot, who sought for the support of the general court in his proceedings. While fulfilling his duties at Roxbury he visited Natick once a fortnight, riding horseback across open country. He begged clothing and other necessaries for his pupils. A water-drinker and abhorrer of smoking himself, he did not forbid his converts either wine or tobacco. The papooses always found small gifts in his deep pockets. The medicine men
