First Founders: American Puritans and Puritanism in an Atlantic World

Hugh Peter: Regicide

HuGh Peter Regicide Previous chapters have mentioned the outbreak of war in England in the 1640s and some of the ways in which that conflict impacted New England . Having come to New England to create an exemplary society that, coupled with the colonists’ prayers, might move England to the reforms that puritans had long advocated, the colonists embraced the possibilities posed by the English struggle, supported the forces of Parliament, and distanced themselves from the king’s cause. Many clergy wrote tracts designed to promote the New England Way in their mother country. other clergy returned to England to personally lend a hand to the task of reform. still other colonists, including stephen Winthrop and John Leverett , returned and served in the Parliamentary armies and the puritan regimes that followed the defeat and execution of Charles I. But the New Englander who became most identified with England’s Puritan revolution was Hugh Peter. H uGh peter was born in Cornwall, in the far southwest of England, in 1598. His father’s family had emigrated from Antwerp much earlier in the century. Hugh matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1613 and graduated with his BA in 1618. He moved to London where for a few years he taught school. He had been drawn to the city, as he later explained it “to ripen my studies, not intending to preach at all, where I attended dr. [William] Gouge, richard sibbes, and John davenport’s ministry, with others; and I hope with some profit.” He became close to davenport, on whose recommendation the Earl of Warwick appointed him to the parish of raleigh, in Essex in 1623. 132 First Founders Peter left this Essex parish around 1626 and settled again in London. He assisted the Feoffees for Impropriations (a group organized by davenport and other puritan leaders to place zealous clergy in the nation’s parishes ), helped raise funds for Protestant refugees from the Thirty Years War, and developed contacts with the leaders of some of the churches of foreign Protestants in the city. Peter was frequently found as a visiting preacher in various London churches, and on one such occasion was heard to pray that the queen might forsake her “idolatry and superstition ,” a reference to King Charles I’s French Catholic wife and the tolerance of Catholic religious services in her household. He was arrested and imprisoned. The Earl of Warwick paid his bail, but his license to preach was suspended in August 1627. despite his license being suspended, Peter continued to preach on occasion in raleigh. He also journeyed back and forth to the Netherlands, and he accepted a position as proctor of Friesland University, where the distinguished English puritan émigré William Ames was the rector. Late in 1629 he accepted a position ministering to the congregation of English merchants in rotterdam. From his earliest days in London Peter had shown an interest in international Protestantism and support for the Protestant interests in the Thirty Years War raging on the Continent. His position in rotterdam gave him an opportunity to follow that struggle closely, and in 1631 he took a leave from his congregation to accept a position as chaplain to an English regiment commanded by sir Edward Harwood that was fighting with the dutch forces in the conflict. Harwood was the brother of a London merchant who was one of the Feofees for Impropriations, and his connection with that group likely led to Peter making the colonel’s acquaintance. serving as chaplain, Peter came to admire the colonel’s character and abilities, writing that “religion, fidelity, and prowess met in him.” The regiment, along with other English forces, was serving under the dutch prince Frederick Henry in defending Bergen op Zoom against spanish attacks. Among the English officers engaged in the battle with whom Peter would later have connections were Thomas Fairfax, Philip skippon, George Monck, Lion Gardiner, and John Underhill. Based on his experiences, Peter penned an account of the struggle, Digi- Hugh Peter 133 tus Dei, or Good Newes from Holland (1631). The following spring Peter accompanied Harwood when the colonel was dispatched to prepare for the siege of Maastricht. While the siege progressed he took a leave and accompanied another English clergyman, John Forbes, on a visit to the encampment of the swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, who was leading the Protestant forces in Germany. Peter returned to rotterdam with a heightened commitment to international...