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Thomas Hooker

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Thomas Hooker
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(born probably July 7, 1586, Markfield, Leicestershire, Eng. — died July 7, 1647, Hartford, Conn.) Anglo-American colonial clergyman. He held pastorates in England (1620 – 30), where he was attacked for Puritan leanings. He fled to Holland before emigrating to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633. As pastor of a company of Puritans, he moved them to Connecticut to settle Hartford in 1636. He helped frame the Fundamental Orders (1639), which later formed the basis of the Connecticut constitution.

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Biography: Thomas Hooker
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Thomas Hooker (1586-1647), English-born Puritan theologian, was founder and spiritual leader of the Connecticut colony in New England.

Thomas Hooker was born in Leicestershire. After receiving a preparatory education, he attended Cambridge University, earning a bachelor of arts degree (1608) and a master of arts degree (1611). He remained as a fellow at the university until 1618, becoming a devout Puritan. In the 1620s Hooker served a congregation in Essex, where he became widely known for his excellent preaching. Because of his Puritan views, however, he attracted the attention of the Anglican authorities, who forced him to leave England. He eventually settled in Rotterdam, Holland, and here he received the call to the ministry of the Newtown (Cambridge) congregation in the American colony of Massachusetts.

Hooker was never happy in Newtown. His congregation was dissatisfied with its land; the religious challenges posed by Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were shaking the colony; and, most significantly, Hooker found himself incompatible with the leaders of Massachusetts. In 1636 the Newtown congregation received permission to emigrate, and Hooker led a majority of them to Connecticut.

The Hartford Church, under Hooker's pastorate, was exemplary for its lack of discord and controversy. Hooker was a humane and understanding clergyman. He made an outstanding contribution to the colony in a sermon in which he applied the principles of Congregationalism to political organization. Used as the basis for the Fundamental Orders, the sermon emphasized the election of public officials and the limitation of their power by the electorate. While Hooker's ideas seemed highly democratic, they were strictly qualified. His "people" were limited to full participating members of the Puritan church, and his emphasis on the responsible use of power precluded unrestrained popular rule.

Hooker did not differ with orthodox New England Puritanism, although he practiced these beliefs with more humanity than his clerical colleagues. While living in Newtown, he had debated Roger Williams, and after moving to Connecticut, he returned to Massachusetts to serve on the court that tried Anne Hutchinson for heresy. His pamphlet "A Survey of the Summed of Church-Discipline, " is an excellent explanation and defense of New England Congregationalism. Hooker retained his Hartford pastorate until his death on July 7, 1647.

Further Reading

The only book-length biography of Hooker is George L. Walker, Thomas Hooker: Preacher, Founder, Democrat (1891). A briefer biography is Warren W. Archibald, Thomas Hooker (1933). Background information is in Herbert L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (3 vols., 1904-1907); Charles M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History (4 vols., 1934-1938); Albert E. Van Dusen, Connecticut (1961); and Mary Jeanne Anderson Jones, Congregational Commonwealth: Connecticut, 1636-1662 (1968).

Additional Sources

Shuffelton, Frank, Thomas Hooker, 1586-1647, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Thomas Hooker
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Hooker, Thomas, 1586-1647, Puritan clergyman in the American colonies, chief founder of Hartford, Conn., b. Leicestershire, England. A clergyman, he was ordered to appear before the court of high commission for nonconformist preaching in England and fled (1630) to Holland. In 1633, Hooker immigrated to Massachusetts, where he was pastor at Newtown (now Cambridge). He had a dispute with John Cotton and apparently was discontented with the strict theological rule in Massachusetts. After a group of settlers had been sent ahead in 1635, he and many of his flock moved in 1636 to found Hartford, where he was pastor until his death. Hooker was one of the drafters of the Fundamental Orders (1639), under which Connecticut was long governed and which represent his political views. He also promoted a plan for the New England Confederation.

Bibliography

See biography by G. L. Walker (1891, repr. 1969).

Works: Works by Thomas Hooker
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(1586-1647)

1637"The Soules Humiliation," "The Soules Implantation," "The Soules Ingrafting into Christ," and "The Soules Effectuall Calling to Christ." Having immigrated to America in 1633, Hooker had served as the pastor of Cambridge for three years and then led his congregation of more than one hundred families to establish the Connecticut colony at Hartford. He is regarded as one of the greatest preachers of his generation in early New England, and his considerable oratorical power is demonstrated in these sermons.
1648A Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline. A posthumously published defense of New England Congregationalism by the founder of the Connecticut colony. A second volume would be written by John Cotton and also published in 1648.
1657The Application of Redemption. Hooker's series of sermons describing the soul's progress from contrition to humiliation, vocation, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification would be called his masterpiece by twentieth-century scholar Perry Miller.
1661The Saints Dignitie, and Duty. The sermons in this posthumously published collection were likely delivered during and after the trial of Anne Hutchinson in the 1630s since they all deal with aspects of the Antinomian controversy.

Wikipedia: 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

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]

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]

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]

Works

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]

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

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Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
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