I’ve always kept track of the professions of my ancestors. If possible. So there seems to be over a dozen ministers for which I can account. Three are famous enough to be on wikipedia.
1. and 2. Rev. Samuel Arnold b.ca. 1622-1693 and his son Rev. Samuel Arnold 1649-1708. They were Puritan ministers. The Puritan church in Massachusetts was the only church available (it was a theocracy) and it would in time become the Congregational Church of today. The older Samuel Arnold was the minister at Marshfield, Massachusetts and his son was the minister at Rochester, Massachusetts. They each married and had children
3. Rev. John Buss ca. 1644-1736, the minister at Durham, New Hampshire. Born in Concord, Massachusetts he eventually settled in Durham, New Hampshire where he was minister for 45 years. He lived so long he had three wives and had six children by the first two.
Rev. John Buss m. Eilzabeth Bradbury
Elizabeth Buss m. John Smith
Hannah Smith m. Abraham Runnels
Ebenezer Runnels m. Betsey Stanton
Alice Runnels m. Jonathan Pinkham
Luther Hale Pinkham m. Mary Chamberlain Wallis
George Hale Pinkham m. Olive Ann Hurd
Burt Hale Pinkham m. Kate Kinmond
Clarence Melvin Pinkham m. Agnes Elizabeth Pratt
my grandparents.
As a footnote, Elizabeth Bradbury in line #1 was the daughter of Thomas Bradbury and Mary Perkins who was accused of being a witch in the Salem witch hysteria of 1692. Convicted she was not executed. Thomas Bradbury himself was the grandson of William Whitgift, the brother of the Rev. John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to 1604. See wikipedia for his biography.
4. and 5. Rev. Nathan Cleveland 1777-1868 and his son John Cleveland 1802-1892. The Rev. Nathan was a Baptist minister. He was the minister of Onslow, Nova Scotia for ten years before moving to Hopewell, New Brunswick and preaching there before retiring to Alma, New Brunswick. There’s no doubt he was a ordained minister. His son John was a carpenter and itinerant preacher. I’m not sure he was ordained but he acted as a minister during his life.
Rev. Nathan Cleveland m. Diademia Dexter
John Cleveland m. Amy Martin
Ama Ann Cleveland m. James Smith
Agnes Jane Smith m. John Quigley (this is the couple who first owned the family Bible)
Lila Mae Quigley m. Archibald Thompson Pratt
Agnes Elizabeth Pratt m. Clarence Melvin Pinkham
6. Rev. Gershom Hall 1648-1732. He was also a Puritan preacher. He was a millwright by trade but was called to the pulpit as there was an opening. He preached on and off for twenty years. He married and had five children.
Rev. Gershom Hall m. Bethia Bangs
Bethia Hall m. Kenelm Winslow, III
Rebecca Winslow m. Samuel Rider
Lydia Rider m. Ebenezer Dexter
Diademia Dexter m. Rev. Nathan Cleveland, see above nos. 4 and 5.
7. Rev. Thomas Hooker 1586-1647. This man has a biography on Wikipedia as well as written biographies. In my estimation he is (not counting medieval royalty) the most famous person from whom I descend. He was one of the big five ministers who came on the Winthrop Fleet. He was first the minister at Cambridge, Massachusetts (then called Newtown) but disagreed with the idea of theocracy. So he left and established Hartford, Connecticut and was the minister there. His early writings form the nucleus of the concept of separation of church and state. We descend from him twice through two of his daughters.
Rev. Thomas Hooker m. Susannah Gabrand
Mary Hooker m. Rev. Roger Newton Sarah Hooker m. Rev. John Wilson, Jr.
Sarah Newton m. her first cousin John Wilson, III
Sarah Wilson m. John Marsh
Samuel Marsh m. Jemima Spear
Joshua Marsh m. Margaret Corbett
Isabella Marsh m. Robinson Thompson
Joshua Thompson m. Mary Spencer
Rebecca DennyThompson m. Samuel Pratt, Jr.
Joshua Thompson Pratt m. Elizabeth Jane Stack
Archibald Thompson Pratt m. Lila Mae Quigley see above nos. 4 and 5
8. Rev Joseph Hull 1596-1665. He also has a biography on Wikipedia. B.A. from Oxford University in 1614. He was the curate at Broadway in 1633 and 1634 and was instrumental in organizing the ship Marygould which he was on in 1635. He married twice and had seventeen children. We descend from him four times. He lived in Hingham, Barnstable, and Yarmouth, Massachusetts, York Maine, and Isle of Shoals, New Hampshire.
Rev. Joseph Hull m. Joanne (—-)
Temperance Hull m. John Bickford
Benjamin Bickford m. Sarah Barsham
Temperance Bickford m. George Walton, Jr.
Jane Walton m. Reuben Heard, see below
Rev. Joseph Hull m. Joanne (—-)
Elizabeth Hull m. John Heard
Mary Heard m. John Ham Tristram Heard m. Abigail (—-)
Mary Ham m. John Horne Tristram Heard, Jr. m. Jane Snell, see below
William Horne m. Mary Varney Reuben Heard m. Jane Walton, see above
Abigail Horne m. Moses Hayes
Moses Hayes, Jr. m. Anna Coffin
Nancy Ann Hayes m. Frederick Heard, grandson of Reuben Heard and Jane Walton, above
Benjamin Wingate Hurd m. Abiah Russell Learned
Olive Ann Hurd m. George Hale Pinkham, see above no. 3
Rev. Joseph Hull m. Agnes (—-)
Reuben Hull m. Hannah Ferniside
Elizabeth Hull m. John Snell
Jane Snell m. Tristram Heard, Jr. see above
9. Rev. Roger Newton b. ca. 1620-1683. Studied at Kings College, Cambridge and may have finished his studies at Harvard College. He studied under the Rev. Thomas Hooker whose daughter Mary he married. They moved to Connecticut where Roger was the minister at Milford, Connecticut for years. See under Hooker for descent.
10. Rev. Charles Luther Pinkham 1841-1903. He attended Bates College and graduated in 1879. He first enlisted and fought in the Civil War. He was a free-will Baptist and lived in New Hampshire. Later in life he was a representative of Alton, New Hampshire in 1903. He married but had no children. His wife outlived him and died in 1919. He is the brother of George Hale Pinkham see no. 3 above. I include him even though he’s not a direct ancestor because he’s the most recent mnister I can find.
11. Rev. Richard Slaney b.ca. 1550-1599. Minister at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, England. We know him from his burial record which records his profession
Rev. Richard Slaney m. Margaret Adams
Mary Slaney m. John Baisey
John Baisey, Jr. m. Elizabeth (—-)
Mary Baisey m. Samuel Burr
Elizabeth Burr m. Thomas Clarke, Jr.
Ann Clark m. Benjamin Cleveland
Benjamin Cleveland, Jr. (a noted hymn writer) m. Mary Elderkin
Rev. Nathan Cleveland m. Diademia Dexter, see above, nos. 4 and 5
11. 12, and 13. Rev. Willam Wilson b.ca. 1542-1615, his son Rev. John Wilson 1588-1667, and his son, Rev. John Wilson, Jr. 1621-1691. Rev. William Wilson educated at Merton College, Oxford (B.A. 1564, MA 1570, BD 1576 and DD, 1607). He was a minister in Islip, Clifee and Caxton before becoming a prebendary at St. Paul’s in London 1595-1615, at Rochester Cathedral 1591-1614 and most importantly canon of Windsor for 32 years. He married Isabel Woodhull, the niece of Edmund Grindal, another Archbishop of Canterbury. See wikipedia for his biography.
Rev. John Wilson 1588-1667 was another of the big five ministers of the Winthrop Fleet. He was the first minister of Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Christ College, Cambridge University in 1606 with AB and 1609 with an MA. He has a biography in wikipedia and well as other sources such as the Dictionary of American Biography and the American National Biography. He married Elizabeth Mansfield whose grandmother was the daughter of a lord. Through her we get all kinds of wonderful medieval ancestry.
Rev. John Wilson, Jr. 1621-1691 graduated from Harvard College in 1642, in the very first class of graduates. He was minister of Medfield, Massachusetts 1652 to his death. He married Sarah Hooker, daughter of Thomas Hooker, no. 7 above, See that for your descent.
14. Benjamin York (IV) 1761-1845, Baptist minister. He first took part in the American Revolution. After that he settled down in New Hampshire and became a minister. He married his first cousin Rebecca Coffin and had ten children.
Rev. Benjamin York m. Rebecca Coffin
Rebecca York m. Joseph Wallis
Mary Chamberlain Wallis m. Luther Hale Pinkham, see no. 3 above.
So you have a bunch of puritan ministers from the 16th and 17th centuries and some Baptist ministers since then. The puritan ministers were not nice people (my opinion). They truly believed that there was only one true religion and if you believed in that you went to heaven and if you didn’t you went to hell. John Wilson of Boston was so drastic he hanged Mary Dyer, a Quaker, for not being puritan. (She was warned away and exiled in Rhode Island but she returned and they executed her). So there wasn’t much room for love and compassion. But they were products of their times.
There are a few more ancestral uncles that were ministers:
James Hamden Thompson 1742-1795, Princeton Class of 1761 (AB and 1764 AM) Presbyterian minister of Charleston, South Carolina, brother of Archibald Thompson, Jr.
Samuel Thompson 1802-1885, Baptist minister in Nova Scotia., brother of Joshua Thompson
Descent:
Archibald Thompson, Jr. m. Martha Robinson
Robinson Thompson m. Isabella Marsh
Joshua Thompson m. Mary Spencer, see above no. 7.
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