The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Wheelwright, John

WHEELWRIGHT, John, an American clergyman, born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1594, died in Salisbury, N.. H., Nov. 15, 1679. He was a graduate of Cambridge, and for some years a clergyman of the established church at Alford, Lincolnshire; but in 1636, being displaced by Archbishop Laud, he emigrated to Boston, and was chosen pastor of a branch church, in what is now Braintree. The celebrated Mrs. Anne Hutchinson was his sister-in-law, and he partook of her views. Differences of opinion led to personal animosities between him and Mr. Wilson, the pastor of the Boston church; and the general court in its session of 1636-'7 appointed a fast, partly to heal these dissensions. On this occasion Mr. Wheelwright preached in Boston, and for his sermon the general court pronounced him guilty of sedition and contempt, and after some months' delay he was banished from the colony. In 1638 he formed a settlement on the banks of the Piscataqua, which he called Exeter. After five years Massachusetts claimed this town, and he removed with a part of his church to Wells in the district of Maine. In 1646 he was permitted to return to Massachusetts, and settled in Hampton. In 1654 he published his “Vindication.” He went to England in 1657, but returned in 1660, and settled as pastor in Salisbury in 1662. He published Mercurius Americanus (4to, London, 1645).