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{{Short description|English and later American Puritan}}

'''Peter Bulkley''' (born January 31, 1583, at Odell, [[Bedfordshire]], [[England]], died March 9, 1659, at Concord, [[Massachusetts]]) was an influential early [[Protestant]] preacher who left England for greater religious freedom in the American colonies.

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]

| name = Peter Bulkeley

| image = Peter Bulkley.png

| alt =

| caption = portrait thought to be of Bulkley as rector of Odell, Bedfordshire

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1583|01|31|df=yes}}

| birth_place = [[Odell, Bedfordshire]], [[England]]

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1659|03|9|1583|01|31|df=yes}}

| death_place = [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]], [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]

| nationality = British

| other_names = Peter Bulkeley could also be known by the names Peter Buckeley, Bulkley, and multiple others.

| occupation = [[Puritan]]

| known_for = Founder of Concord, Massachusetts

}}

'''Peter Bulkley''' (31 January 1583 – 9 March 1659, last name also spelled '''Bulkeley''') was an influential early [[Puritan]] minister who left England for greater religious freedom in the American colony of [[Massachusetts]]. He was a founder of [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]],<ref name="Stearns">{{cite book

==Early Education in England==

|url=https://archive.org/details/gb1tA6JjSgdCQC

Bulkley was admitted to St. John's College at [[Cambridge University]] at the age of 16, where he received several degrees. After finishing his education, Bulkley succeeded his father as rector of Odell, 1610-1635. During this time Bulkley followed in his father's footsteps as a non-conformist. Finally in the 1630s there were increasing complaints about his preaching and he was silenced by the archbishop for his unwillingness to conform with the requirements of the [[Anglican Church]]. His first wife, Jane Allen, died in [[1626]].

|title=Sketches from Concord and Appledore

|author=Frank Preston Stearns

|year=1896

|publisher=[[G. P. Putnam's Sons]]}}</ref> and was named by descendant [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] in his poem about Concord, "Hamatreya".<ref>{{cite web

|url=http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/poems/hamatreya.html

|title=Hamatreya

|author=Ralph Waldo Emerson

|author-link=Ralph Waldo Emerson

|publisher=American Transcendalism Web}}</ref>

==Early life==

==Career at Concord, Massachusetts==

Bulkley was born in [[Odell, Bedfordshire]], [[England]], and admitted to [[St John's College, Cambridge|St. John's College]] at [[Cambridge University]] at the age of sixteen, where he received several degrees. At one point he was even a [[Fellow]] of St. John's.<ref>{{acad|id=BLKY604P|name=Bulkeley or Buckley, Peter}}</ref><ref name="Tyler">{{cite book

Thus he was forced to emigrate to New England aboard the ''Susan and Ellen'' in [[1635]] and settle at Concord, where he lived until [[1659]]. His second wife Grace Chetwode and sons John, Benjamin, and Daniel accompanied him. He was ordained at Cambridge, Massachusetts, for Concord, in April 1637, and became the first minister there. He was one of the men that moved further into the woods there and settled at Muskataquid, where he is said to have spent a large amount of his own money to promote the settlement there.

|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryamerica11tylegoog

|title=A History of American Literature

|author=Moses Coit Tyler

|author-link=Moses Coit Tyler

|year=1883

|publisher=[[G. P. Putnam's Sons]]}}</ref> After finishing his education, Bulkley succeeded his father as rector of Odell, 1610–1635.<ref>According to Huish, the church remained virtually unchanged three centuries later.</ref> During this time Bulkley followed in his father's footsteps as a non-conformist. Finally in the 1630s there were increasing complaints about his preaching, and he was silenced by Archbishop Laud for his unwillingness to conform with the requirements of the [[Anglican Church]].{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

In 1633, [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] reissued the [[Declaration of Sports]], an ecclesiastical declaration of allowed recreational activities on Sundays, with the stipulation that any minister unwilling to read from the [[pulpit]] should be removed, and Bulkley's sentiments, along with others in the Puritan movement, were against it. In 1634, Bulkley refused to wear a [[surplice]] or use the [[Sign of the Cross]] at a visitation for Archbishop [[William Laud]]. For this infraction he was ejected from the parish, at least temporarily.<ref name="Huish">{{cite book

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sAL4xpKL7YMC

|title=The American Pilgrim's Way in England

|author=Marcus Bourne Huish

|author-link=Marcus Bourne Huish

|year=1907

|publisher=London [[Fine Art Society]]}}</ref><ref>Huish notes that Laud himself may not have been present, but rather his Vicar-General, [[Nathaniel Brent]].</ref>

==Career in America==

Within the year he emigrated to [[New England]], coming aboard the ''Susan and Ellen'' in 1635. He was ordained at [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], in April 1637, and "having carried a good number of planters with him into the woods",<ref name="Tyler"/> became the first minister in Musketaquid, later named Concord. He was "noted even among Puritans for the superlative stiffness of his Puritanism".<ref name="Tyler"/> In March 1638 during the [[Antinomian Controversy]], he was one of the ministers who sat during the church trial of [[Anne Hutchinson]], which resulted in her excommunication from the Boston church.<ref>{{cite book |last=Battis |first=Emery |title=Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony |url=https://archive.org/details/saintssectariesa0000batt |url-access=registration |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |place=Chapel Hill |year=1962|pages=[https://archive.org/details/saintssectariesa0000batt/page/232 232–248]}}</ref>

In 1635, a group of settlers from Britain led by Rev. Peter Bulkley and Major [[Simon Willard (Massachusetts colonist)|Simon Willard]] negotiated a land purchase with the remnants of the local tribe. Bulkley was an influential religious leader who "carried a good number of planters with him into the woods";{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans.{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} Their six-square-mile purchase formed the basis of the new town, which was called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition.

He was known for his facility in [[Latin]] with both epigrams and poetry, with [[Cotton Mather]] praising the latter.<ref name="Tyler"/> As a writer, his book of Puritan sermons titled ''The Gospel Covenant, or the Covenant of Grace Opened'', published in [[London]] in 1646, in which he appealed to "the people of New England," that they might "labor to shine forth in holiness above all other people", and evoked the [[City upon a Hill]] of [[John Winthrop]]. To historian [[Moses Coit Tyler]], the "monumental book ... stands for the intellectual robustness of New England in the first age."<ref name="Tyler"/> It is considered one of the first books published in New England.<ref>{{cite book

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCzKp7yJkioC

|title=Bibliotheca Britannica

|author=Robert Watt

|author-link=Robert Watt (bibliographer)

|year=1824

|publisher=Archibald Constable & Co.

|___location=[[Edinburgh]]

|isbn=0-415-13706-3}}</ref>

Bulkley served as moderator at a 1637 [[synod]] called in Cambridge due to what Emerson called the "errors" of [[Anne Hutchinson]].<ref name="Emerson">{{cite book

|url=https://archive.org/details/liferevjosephem00emergoog

|title=Life of Rev. Joseph Emerson

|author=Ralph Waldo Emerson

|year=1834

|publisher=[[Crocker & Brewster]]

|___location=[[New York City]]}}</ref> According to "tradition", a council of Indians considering attacking the town of Concord held off because "Bulkley is there, the man of the big pray!"<ref name="Emerson"/>

(This occurred during King Philip's War in 1675–6, after Peter was dead, and refers instead to his son Rev. Edward Bulkley.)<ref name="Lemuel Shattock">{{cite book

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2bsTAAAAYAAJ

|title=A History of the town of Concord

|author=Lemuel Shattock

|year=1835

|publisher=[[Russell, Odiorne, and Company]]

|___location=[[Boston]]}}</ref>

In 1643, he was the author and the first signer of a petition sent to [[John Endecott|Governor John Endecott]] in favor of [[Ambrose Martin]], who was fined for speaking negatively towards the [[Puritan]] church and consequently met significant financial hardship.<ref>Arthur Bernon Tourtellot, Lexington and Concord: The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution, 1959, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=1T0HxlnFxTkC&dq=concord+%22ambrose+martin%22&pg=PA150]", 11 January 2011.</ref>

Bulkley died in Concord.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

==Personal life==

Bulkley's first wife, Jane Allen, died in 1626.<ref name = "Sibley">{{cite book

|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalske01shipgoog

|title=Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University

|author=John Langdon Sibley

|author-link=John Langdon Sibley

|year=1881

|publisher=Charles William Sever}}</ref>

They had twelve children:<ref name = "Chapman">Chapman, F.W. ''The Bulkeley Family; or the Descendants of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, who settled at Concord, Mass., in 1636'', 1875.</ref>{{RP|38}}

*Edward, born 17 June 1614, at Odell, England

*Mary, baptized 24 August 1615; died in a few months

*Thomas, born 11 April 1617

*Nathaniel, born 29 November 1618; died at the age of 9

*John, born 17 February 1620

*Mary, born 1 Nov. 1621; died at the age of 3

*George, born 17 May 1623

*Daniel, born 28 August 1625

*Jabez, born 20 December 1626; died before the age of 3

*Joseph

*William

*Richard

After eight years as a widower, he married Grace Chetwood (or Chitwood); they had four more children:<ref name = "Chapman" />{{rp|38}}

*[[Gershom Bulkeley|Gershom]], born 6 December 1636

*Eliezer, probably born 1638

*Dorothy, born 16 August 1640

*Rev. Peter, born 12 August 1643

His oldest son, Edward, preceded him to the Colonies on a separate voyage as much as a year earlier, while records show that Rev. Peter sailed on the ship "Susan & Ellen" to New England in May 1635, with three of his sons by his first wife, Benjamin* (11), Daniel (9) and "Jo:" (15) "Buckley". Records show his second wife, Grace Bulkeley, sailed for New England on the "Elizabeth & Ann" at the same time. However, diary accounts of another passenger on the ship "Susan & Ellen," show that Grace actually accompanied her husband on the ship "Susan & Ellen" to New England. [*Note: the name "Benjamin" appears to be an alias used for one of his sons, since no primary source records exist of Benjamin's birth or subsequent activities in the Colonies.]

His son, [[Gershom Bulkeley|Gershom]], graduated Harvard in 1655 and married Sarah Chauncey, daughter of [[Charles Chauncy|the president of Harvard]], 26 October 1659.<ref name = "Chapman" />{{rp|78}}

His grandson, the Honorable Peter Bulkeley, Esquire (son of Edward), born 3 January (11th month) 1640/41, died May 1688, married Rebecca Wheeler in 1667, was a Fellow of [[Harvard University]], a Massachusetts Freeman (franchised voter), and a Commissioner of the United Colonies. The Hon. Peter Bulkeley is often confused with his uncle, the Rev. Peter (1643–1691), son of Rev. Peter Bulkeley by his second wife, Grace Chetwode, due to their close proximity in years of birth. As a matter of fact, the reference by Sibley has "merged" these two Peters into one entity, as examination of records, including those at Harvard University, will show.<ref name = "Sibley" />

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

==References==

*Chapman, Rev. F. W. ''The Bulkeley Family; or the Descendants of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, who settled at Concord, Mass., in 1636''. The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., Printers. 1875. Hartford.

*Anderson, Robert Charles. ''The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633''. 3 vols. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.

*Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, Frederick Lewis Weis, 2008, Eighth edition.

*Jacobus, Donald Lines. ''The Bulkeley genealology; Rev. Peter Bulkeley''. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., 1933.

*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Bulkley, Peter |first=Gordon |last=Goodwin|volume=11|pages=}}

==External links==

*{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Bulkeley, Peter|year=1900 |short=x |notaref=x}}

{{Authority control}}

''The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633''. 2 vols. Boston: New England Genealogical Society, 1935.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulkley, Peter}}

Jacobus, Donald Lines. ''Rev. Peter Bulkeley''. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., 1933.

[[Category:1583 births]]

{{Uncategorized|date=June 2007}}

[[Category:1659 deaths]]

[[Category:17th-century Congregationalist ministers]]

[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]

[[Category:American Congregationalist ministers]]

[[Category:American religious writers]]

[[Category:17th-century English Puritan ministers]]

[[Category:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge]]

[[Category:Clergy from colonial Massachusetts]]

[[Category:17th-century New England Puritan ministers]]

[[Category:New England Puritanism]]

[[Category:People from the Borough of Bedford]]

[[Category:People from Concord, Massachusetts]]

[[Category:Neo-Latin poets]]

[[Category:17th-century writers in Latin]]

[[Category:American writers in Latin]]