Thomas Cartwright (abt. 1535 - 1603)

Born about 1535 in Hertfordshire, England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 27 Dec 1603 at about age 68 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England

Biography

Thomas Cartwright was a puritan theologian and the pioneer of the presbyterian movement in England.

Cartwright was born about 1535 and sent young to Cambridge, where he matriculated at Clare College in 1547. ^[1] He was listed as probably born at Royston, Hertfordshire. ^[2] During the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary, he left the university but returned by 1560 at the accession of her sister Elizabeth I. ^[3] He was named Fellow of St John's in 1560. He took the BA from St John's in 1553/4 and the MA in 1560. He migrated then to Trinity College, where he was Fellow 1562-1571 and took the BD in 1567. He was named Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity 1569-70. ^[1]

It was at Cambridge, and particularly at Trinity, where he became a leader of the newly militant English puritans^[4] and incurred the opposition of John Whitgift, who championed Queen Elizabeth I's 1559 religious settlement and calls for uniformity, increasingly attacked by Cartwright. Whitgift, following Cartwright's call for a presbyterian settlement of the church in 1570, deprived him of his fellowship, his professorship, and blocked his grant of the Doctorate of Divinity. ^{[5] [4] [6]}

From this time, he was periodically threatened with arrest and began to spend time over seas, largely in Antwerp and Middelburgh. He also returned periodically to England, but he continued to advocate a presbyterian form of church governance, and his contentious and uncompromising nature persistently involved him in disputes with Whitgift, promoted to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and other authorities. In 1585, he was imprisoned for returning to England without permission, but he fortunately had the support of William Cecil, the queen's premier advisor, Lord Burghley, as well as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, through whose influence he was named Master of the Earl of Leicester's Hospital in Warwick, giving him "the prospect of living comfortably during the rest of his days." ^[7] Again in 1590 and 1591 he was briefly imprisoned, but influence again led to his release. ^[5]

Family

In March 1577/8, Thomas Cartwright married Alice Stubbs, daughter of John and Elizabeth Stubbs of Buxton, Norfolk. Her brother was puritan writer and lawyer John Stubbs (Stubbe). ^{[8] [9]}

Thomas Cartwright died at Warwick on 27 December 1603. ^[10] His Will ^{[11] [12]} was dated 10 May 1603 and proved 23 February 1603/4. Family members named were:

Wife Alice, still living

Sons (in law) Master (William) Lockey and Master (Andrew) Wilmer executors

Son Samuel - under age

Daughter Martha - unmarried; later married Robert Woodrof.

Brother William Cartwright - "toward (his) orderly and honest finding ... during his natural life forty shillings to be paid yearly by even portions ... I mean that he be kept from wandering and ranging abroad from place to place ..."

Brother John Cartwright

Of his two married daughters, The Visitation of Hertfordshire names the wife of William Lockey as Anne. ^[13] The other was Mary, wife of puritan Andrew Wilmer. ^[9]

Research Note:

DNB ^[14] names a son Thomas, father of Thomas Cartwright, Bishop of Chester. This Thomas is not mentioned in either of the Wills of Thomas or Alice Cartwright, nor is he mentioned by Pearson. He has not been attached to this profile.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Alumni Cantabrigienses, vol 1, p. 303. Cambridge University Press. p. 303
2. ↑ Pearson, Andrew Forret Scott, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism, 1535-1603 p. 1. Cambridge University Press, 1925. p. 1
3. ↑ Pearson, p. 8. p. 8
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} MacCulloch, Diarmaid The Reformation, pp. 382-390. New York: Viking Penguin 2003.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09/ Cartwright, Thomas (1535-1603) by James Bass Mullinger DNB
6. ↑ Pearson, pp. 22-23. p. 22
7. ↑ Pearson, pp. 290-295 p. 290
8. ↑ Pearson, pp. 178-9. p. 178
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Green, Joseph Joshua. The Puritan Family of Wilmer, p. 4. 1909. p. 4
10. ↑ Pearson, p. 392 p. 392
11. ↑ "Will of Thomas Cartwright or Cartwrighte, Master of the Hospital of the Earl of Leicester of Warwick, Warwickshire" PROB 11/103/280
12. ↑ Pearson, Appendix XXXIX, pp. 482-483. p. 482
13. ↑ The Visitations of Hertfordshire 1572 and 1634, with Hertfordshire pedigrees from Harleian mss. 6147 and 1546</i> p. 152. London : Ye Wardovr Press, 1886. p. 152
14. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09/ Cartwright, Thomas (1634-1689) by George Gresley Perry [1]

See Also:

• Chalmers' General Biographical Dictionary, vol. 8, pp. 322 ff. "Cartwright (Thomas)" [2]

• Cooper, Charles Henry Athenae Cantabrigienses Cambridge : Deighton, Bell & Co. ; and Macmillan & Co. ; London : Bell & Daldy [3]

• Brooks, Lives of the Puritans, 3 vols. [4]