John Wilson

• 1588-1667

• Puritan clergyman

• Minister of first church of Boston from its inception until his death in 1667

• Born in Sudbury in Suffolk, England

• Sailed with John Winthrop

• Returned to England twice after arrival in Boston

  • Once to bring his wife back, another to conduct business

• Was part of controversy surrounding Christianity in Boston

• Part of the reason that Anne Hutchinson was banished from Massachusetts

• Wilson and Cotton were central in the controversy and later trails that ensued from the rising Quaker presence in Boston

• The first protestant minister to the Native people

  • November 1633 – visited Agawam (now known as Ipswich)

  • Visited the natives, tended to the sick, preached to those who spoke enough English to understand him