John Webster (governor)

John Webster (bef August 16, 1590 – April 5, 1661) was an early colonial settler of New England, serving one term as governor of the Colony of Connecticut in 1656.

John Webster
Governor of the
Colony of Connecticut
In office
1656–1657
Preceded byThomas Welles
Succeeded byJohn Winthrop Jr.
Deputy Governor of the Colony of Connecticut
In office
1655–1655
Preceded byThomas Welles
Succeeded byThomas Welles
Personal details
Bornbef. August 16, 1590
Cossington, Leicestershire, England
DiedApril 5, 1661(1661-04-05) (aged 70)
Hadley, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Spouse
Agnes Smith
​
(m. 1609)​
Children9

Early life

Webster was born in Cossington, Leicestershire, England, the son of Matthew Webster (1548–1623) and his wife, Elizabeth Ashton.[1]

Career

In the early 1630s, he traveled to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with his wife and five children, settling in the area of Newtowne (now Cambridge, Massachusetts). He left in 1636, in all probability with Thomas Hooker and his adherents, to settle Hartford, Connecticut. His first public office was as a member of a committee that joined with the Court of Magistrates in determining the course of war with the Pequot Indians. He was chosen from 1639 to 1655 to be magistrate, and in 1655 he was chosen as Deputy Governor of the Colony of Connecticut. In 1656 he was elected governor, and he served as first magistrate from 1657 to 1659.

In addition to his service as Governor of the Connecticut Colony, John Webster was one of the nineteen men representing the towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor in 1638-39 who participated in the drafting and adoption of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, a document that is widely acknowledged as establishing one of the earliest forms of constitutional government.[2]

Communion controversy

A split amongst the church members in Hartford grew when the current minister at the First Church in Hartford, Samuel Stone, declared that the requirement that stated only parents that had both taken communion should be allowed to have a child baptized would be removed, and non-communicants would be allowed to vote. John Webster, among others, were a part of a council that agreed that this was not acceptable. Reverend Stone chose to ignore this sentiment, and the issue was taken up with the General Court in Massachusetts. The Court ruled that although Reverend Stone had been too strict in ignoring the majority of his parishioners, he was right in liberalizing the baptism ritual. It was also found that those who disagreed with Stone could remove themselves to a location in Massachusetts to practice how they saw fit. This eventual location chosen was Hadley, Massachusetts, and in 1659, a new community was built there. Webster lived there for less than two years, for in 1661 he contracted a fever and died.

Personal life
Coat of Arms of John Webster

On November 7, 1609, Webster married Agnes Smith (born August 29, 1585 in Cossington, Leicestershire, England) at Cossington. She died in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1667. They had nine children (all born in England):

  • Matthew Webster (b. 1608/09), who married Sarah Waterbury and Mary Reeve
  • Margaret Webster (b. 1609/10), who married William Bolton and Thomas Hunt
  • William Webster (1614–1688), who married Mary Reeve (1617–1698) ("Half-Hanged Mary": accused witch who survived being hanged in 1683) [3]
  • Thomas Webster (1616–1686), who married Abigail Sage Alexander (1647–1688)
  • Robert Webster (1619–1676), who married Susanna Treat (1629–1705)
  • Anne Webster (1621–1662), who married John Marsh (1618–1688)
  • Elizabeth Webster (1622/23–1688), who married William Markham (1621–1690)
  • Mary Webster (b. 1623), who married Jonathan Hunt (or died before April 15, 1623)
  • Faith Webster (1627–1627), who died 10 days after her birth

Notable descendants

References

Notes

  1. "The Ancestry of Governor John Webster," in The American Genealogist, vol. 24, no. 4 (October 1948), pp. 197ff.
  2. "The Constitutional History of Connecticut" by Roger Welles in Connecticut Magazine, vol. 5, at p. 93 (1899).
  3. "Mary Webster". 1624.

Sources

  • Webster, William Holcomb and Melville Reuben; William Holcomb Webster; Melville Reuben Webster (1915). History and Genealogy of the Governor John Webster Family of Connecticut. E. R. Andrews Printing Company. pp. 1–19.
  • Barbour, Lucius Barnes (1982). Families of Early Hartford, CT. Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc.
  • Holmes, Frank R. (1974). Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620–1700. Genealogical Publishing Company.
  • Meckler. Biographies of American and Colonial Governors.
  • Goodwin, Nethaniel (1856). Genealogical Notes First Settlers of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
  • Randolph Runyon (August 19, 1999). Delia Webster and the Underground Railroad. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2769-9.
  • Webster, Henry K. (1930). A Memoir of Towner Keeney Webster: 1849-1922. Walter A. Strong.
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