|
Hooker
and Eliot
Thomas
Hooker
was a Puritan minister who became lecturer at St Mary's,
Chelmsford (now the Cathedral) in 1626. His Puritan
views attracted the attention and displeasure of Archbishop
Laud and he was eventually forced to leave Chelmsford.
He was invited by 'some eminent persons' to open a school in
Little Baddow (at Cuckoos Farm) with John Eliot as his
assistant. Little Baddow's residents had strong
Puritan leanings, probably following the lead of Sir Henry
Mildmay of Graces and the Barrington family of Tofts.
Thomas Hooker was eventually forced to flee England, and
after a brief stay in Holland he embarked for Boston,
Massachusetts to join a group of his Essex followers known
as 'Mr Hooker's Company'. They eventually moved to the
Connecticut valley to a riverside site which became known as
Hartford. Thomas Hooker was instrumental in drafting
the "Fundamental Orders" - a democratic governmental plan
that was eventually adopted into the American Constitution.
John Eliot had also taken ship for New England, settling at
Roxbury near Boston and becoming pastor and teacher there -
a ministry which lasted 60 years. He began ministering
to the Indians in 1646, publishing an Indian translation of
the Bible - the first Bible to be printed in America.
In the 1980s Deryck Collingwood, then Minister of the Chapel
discovered Little Baddow's links to Hooker and Eliot and the
founding of these communities in northern America.
Contact was established with the churches of Hartford and
Roxbury and since then there has been a regular exchange of
visits and correspondence.
Each year in July an open-air service is held at Cuckoos to
commemorate these links.
Deryck Collingwood left his research archive to the village
and work has begun to index it.
Our "Hooker and Eliot" exhibition is available to view by
prior arrangement. Please
contact
us for further information.
Back to top
|
