John Wilson Jr. (1621 - 1691)

Born 1 Sep 1621 in London, England

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Hooker) Wilson — married 1647 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 23 Aug 1691 at age 69 in Medfield, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Biography

John Wilson Jr. immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

This profile is part of the Wilson Name Study.

John was born September 1621 in London, the son of John Wilson and Elizabeth Mansfield. He was baptized 3 March 1644 Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony.^[1]

John Wilson [Jr.] ^[2] immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, with his father, in 1632. ^[1] It was his father's second voyage to New England, because his wife would not leave England in 1630. She accompanied him on the second voyage, with their son John, and daughter Elizabeth. Their son Edmund remained in England, and their daughter Mary was born in 1633 in Boston. ^[1]

John Wilson's father also named John Wilson was a graduate of Cambridge, and pastor of the the First Church of Boston. John Jr. followed in his father's steps, and graduated in the first class at Harvard in 1642. ^[3]

John Wilson [Jr.] married, by 1649 at Hartford, Connecticut, Sarah Hooker, eldest daughter of Rev. Samuel Hooker ^[1] and his wife Susannah. They had eight children. ^[3]

John was made assistant to Rev. Richard Mather, at Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1649. ^[3] In December 1651 he was installed as the first Minister in the new town of Medfield, and ordained Pastor 12 October 1652, where he continued for forty years until his death. ^[3] He also served as schoolmaster and physician. ^[3]

He died 23 August 1691 at Medfield, Suffolk (later Norfolk) county, Massachusetts Bay Colony. ^[3] He was well esteemed by his community. ^[3]

The following biography appeared in Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University' (Charles William Sever, Cambridge, 1873):^[4]

Rev. John Wilson, M.A., of Medfield, Massachusetts, was born in London, England, in September 1621. He was son of Rev. John Wilson, the first minister of the First Church in Boston, Massachusetts, and grandson of William Wilson, D, D., Prebendary of St. Paul's in London, whose wife was niece of Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr. Cotton Mather gives the following account of an accident which happened to him in his early years.

When a child, he fell upon his head, from a loft, four stories high, into the street, from whence he was taken up for dead, and so battered and bruised and bloody with his fall, that it struck horror into the beholders : but Mr. Wilson [the father] had a wonderful return of his prayers in the recovery of the child, bath unto life and unto sense ; insomuch that he continued unto old age, a faithful, painful, useful minister of the Gospel. ^[5]

(John Jr. was a Graduate of Harvard College 1642.)

After preaching several years, he was invited to assist Rev. Richard Mather, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and was ordained as his "coadjutor in 1649. Johnson calls him pastor to the church at Dorchester. He continued at this place two years after his settlement, and then removed to the neighboring town of Medfield, where he was minister forty years. He died 23 August, 1691, at the age of 70.

He preached the Artillery Election sermon in 1668, but it was not printed, and it does not appear that he ever published any thing. Mr. Wilson married Sarah Hooker, daughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford Connecticut. His son John was baptized in his grandfather Wilson's church at Boston, 8 July, 1649.

His children born in Medfield were; John, 1649 and died young; Sarah, 1650-1695; Thomas; 1652-1652; Elizabeth, 1653-1653; Elizabeth, 2d in 1656; who married Rev. Thomas Weld of Dunstable ; John, 2d. in 1660, who resided in Braintree, and was the same who was one of his majesty's justices there in 1705; Thomas, 2d. in 1662 - 1652; and Susanna, the wife of Rev. Grindal Rawson, who was graduated in 1678. Several of the descendants of Mr. Wilson have been educated at Harvard. ^[6]

Rev. Wilson died August 23, 1691, and his remains were buried at the Vine Lake Cemetery, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts. His tombstone reads: "Rev. John Willson (first minister of Medfield) died Augt 23d 1691. AEt. 70 & in the 41st year of his ministry in this Town."^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633
2. ↑ Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Ancestry and descendants of Rev. John Wilson of Boston, Mass.
4. ↑ Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Charles William Sever, Cambridge, 1873) Vol. 1: 1642-1658. Page 65-6: "He died at Medfield on Sunday, 23 August, 1691."
5. ↑ Mather, Magnalia, III, 49
6. ↑ Mather, Magnalia, i. 288. Harris, Memorials of the First Church in Dorchester, 16. Records of the First Church in Boston, Medfield Town Records. Whitman, Hist. Artill Co. 142. Savage, Notes in Winthrop, i. 222^ 310, 311. Johnson^ Hist. NE. 165. F. Jackson, MS. Extracts from Records. [Note: this is a list of about 6 sources and needs to be resolved.]
7. ↑ Find a Grave Memorial for Rev. John Willson.

See also:

• Farmer, John. Memorials of the Graduates of Harvard University (Marsh, Capen and Lyon, Concord, N.H., 1833) Page 20
• Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Charles William Sever, Cambridge, 1873) Vol. 1: 1642-1658. Page 65-6: "He died at Medfield on Sunday, 23 August, 1691."
• The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995).
• Ancestry and descendants of Rev. John Wilson of Boston, Mass., database online, Internet Archive, Joseph Gardner Bartlett, (Boston, Massachusetts, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1907), page 9
• Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, (2011), Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Royal Ancestry series, 2nd edition, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2011), volume I, page 130, #1. WorldCat: Find in a Library
• Roberts, Gary Boyd; Ancestors of American Presidents. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.
• "The Reverand Grindal Rawson" by Miss Sarah L. Staples [of Mendon], Feb 18, 1896.
• http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~marshall/esmd284.htm
• Ancestry Family Trees (Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA) Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=12090205&pid=-334310541
• The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1860) Vol. 14, Page 108: see footnote
• Sprague, William Buell. Annals of the American Pulpit (Robert Carter & Brothers, New York, 1857) Vol. 1, Page 14