JOHN ELIOT & GOV. WINTHROP

Puritans were a group of Protestants who were opposed to what they saw as the corruption and abuses of the Church of England, and wanted to purify it. Initially they tried to work to reform the Church from within, but the Church grew more politicized and hostile to Puritan ideas, particularly after the coronation of King Charles I in 1626 and the attendant increase in influence of his favorite, churchman William Laud.

Laud, who ultimately became the Archbishop of Canterbury, persecuted the Puritans and it soon became clear that there was little or nothing they could do to reform the Church of England from within. After painful struggles, many decided that the only real choice was to move away from England to a place where they could worship God freely and raise their children in an environment consistent with their faith.

The Massachusetts Bay Company was formed in 1629 to send settlers to New England to obtain furs and other goods and ship them back to England, and the King (perhaps due to an oversight) gave the Company a charter which allowed it to effectively establish an autonomous government with its own laws and operate without direct supervision by the King's authorities in London. Most of the company’s members were Puritans, and the venture became the vehicle for a mass immigration of Puritans to America.

A prominent Puritan named John Winthrop was selected as governor (a position he held almost continuously from the time he planted the colony until his death), and the first settlers sailed with him for Massachusettes in 1630. He was instrumental in establishing a new form of government which included elections (some of which he lost); he believed that one day the nations of the world would copy this innovation. He had the vision that this new colony would be an example and inspiration to all ("We shall be a city set on a hill"), making him the first American leader to see America as a society with a mission. Winthrop was undoubtedly the foremost political leader in America during the 17th century.

John Eliot (often called “The Apostle to the Indians”) was a Puritan minister who immigrated to New England in 1631 and led the influential church at Roxbury (then a separate town but now part of Boston). He developed an interest in Indian language and customs, and began to preach to the Indians in 1646, at first in English but within a year in their own tongue, Algonkian. He published a catechism for them in 1654 and then translated the Bible into Algonkian.

In 1663 this Bible became the first book printed in America; examples sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars today. George Alcock matriculated as a sizar (a poor student who paid reduced fees, working his way through college by taking on domestic chores) at Oxford University in 1622, and became a physician. He married the sister of prominent Puritan clergyman and author Thomas Hooker, who later founded Connecticut. The Alcocks came to America in 1630 in the same ship as Governor Winthrop, and settled in Roxbury (where Eliot soon became the minister). They had a son, John. Mrs. Alcock died the first winter and Dr. Alcock then married a woman named Elizabeth. He served as a representative at the first Massachusetts general assembly which was held in 1634, and died in 1640, the church records in the hand of Eliot saying he "left a good savor behind him, the poor of the church much bewailing his loss."

His son John Alcock (1627-1667) graduated from Harvard in 1646, receiving the 21st diploma ever issued by that university. He taught school for a while in Hartford (apparently under the aegis of his uncle Hooker), and went on to become one of the most noted physicians of his generation. He is an ancestor of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Henry Dingham was a physician who originally settled in Watertown, Mass. as one of its earliest citizens, and received grants of land in February and June of 1637.

In April 1641, he married Elizabeth, George Alcock’s widow (thereby becoming John Alcock’s step-father). Their marriage did not last long, as Dingham died of apoplexy on December 8, 1645, as the church records of Roxbury tell. As he lay dying, he called in his minister, John Eliot, and stating that he had no will and was too unwell to write, dictated his final wishes to Eliot, who then wrote them down as:

 “The last will & testament of Mr. Henry Dingham, dyed at Roxbury the 8th day of this 10th month (December 8, 1645)”, and signed the document as a witness. “He having no will written, nor being able to write, nor desirous that any should be troubled about that little he had to bestow, by word of mouth he declared this to be his will: He made his wife his sole executrix, and gave unto her all he had, houses, lands, goods, debts, etc., excepting some tokens of love he gave to some special friends, as also the particular legacies hereafter specified, requiring her also to pay all his debts. He gave to John Alcock all his books, and a black suit of clothes and a coat. He gave to his wife’s kinswoman his house at Boston after his wife’s decease, and appointed his wife to make it habitable, which he had not yet done. He gave to the school at Dedham 3 pounds, to be paid out of his house and lands there. He gave to the school of Roxbury 3 pounds. He forgave such debts as were owing to him by the poor of Roxbury and Dedham. And such as should be judged poor were to be confident of, with respect to the little he had, and left to his wife. John Eliot.”

This will, full of charity, took over a year to reach Governor Winthrop for approval. Winthrop notes that the text was Eliot’s testimony, approves by signing “Jo. Winthrop, Govr.”, and dates the document September 1647. So here it is: a document written and signed by the Apostle to the Indians, approved by the most important figure in the founding years of America, leaving an estate to one of the leading physicians of the time and progenitor of F.D.R., to be administered by the widow of Thomas Hooker’s brother-in-law.

It is noteworthy that this is the only autograph of John Eliot we can find offered for sale in at least 30 years, and one of just three of Winthrop. The combination of their holographs is likely unique, and qualifies this as one of the finest 17th century American document still in private hands. A short anecdote will illustrate the rarity and importance of this document.

Back in 1890, there were still extraordinary manuscripts available on the market, such as seldom appear today. Pioneer autograph dealer Walter Benjamin used to report the results of major auctions in his magazine, The Collector. After commenting on a number of the best items in a truly spectacular sale that year, including major letters of Washington, Jefferson and Hancock, he called the “gem” of the sale a seemingly routine document, written out and signed by John Eliot. Ex Sang Collection.