The Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

s were originally members of a group of English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Protestants

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 seeking "purity", further reforms or even separation from the established church

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

, during the Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

. The group is also extended to include some early colonial America

Colonial America

The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...

n ministers and important lay-leaders. The majority of people in this list were mainstream Puritans, adhering strictly to the doctrine of Predestination. The more moderate ones, who tended towards Arminianism

Arminianism

Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...

, have the label "Arminian" behind their names.

A

• Robert Abbot
  Robert Abbot (theologian)
  Robert Abbot was an English theologian who promoted puritan doctrines. He is sometimes mistakenly described as the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot, but this is generally considered to be incorrect...
  
  
• Joseph Alleine
  Joseph Alleine
  Joseph Alleine was an English Puritan Nonconformist pastor and author of many religious works.-Life:...
  
  
• Richard Alleine
  Richard Alleine
  Richard Alleine was an English Puritan divine.He was born at Ditcheat, Somerset, where his father was rector. He was a younger brother of William Alleine, the saintly vicar of Blandford...
  
  
• William Ames
  William Ames
  William Ames was an English Protestant divine, philosopher, and controversialist...
  
  
• John Arrowsmith
  John Arrowsmith (scholar)
  John Arrowsmith was an English theologian and academic.-Life:He was born near Gateshead and entered St John's College, Cambridge in 1616. In 1623 he entered the fellowship of St Catherine Hall, Cambridge....
  
  
• Simon Ashe (Simeon Ashe)

B

• Robert Baillie
  Robert Baillie
  Robert Baillie was a Scottish divine and historical writer.-Life:Baillie was born at Glasgow, the son of Baillie of Jerviston...
  
  
• John Ball
  John Ball (Puritan)
  John Ball was an English puritan divine.-Life:He was born in Cassington, Oxfordshire.After taking his BA degree from St Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1608, he went into Cheshire to act as tutor to the children of Lady Cholmondeley...
  
  
• Henry Barrowe
  Henry Barrowe
  Henry Barrowe was an English Puritan and Separatist, executed for his views.-Life:He was born about 1550, in Norfolk, of a family related by marriage to Nicholas Bacon, and probably to John Aylmer, Bishop of London. He matriculated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in November 1566, and graduated B.A. in...
  
  
• Richard Baxter
  Richard Baxter
  Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
  
  
• Thomas Baylie
  Thomas Baylie
  Thomas Baylie was an English clergyman, member of the Westminster Assembly, Fifth Monarchist and ejected minister.-Life:He was born in Wiltshire in 1582, and was entered either as a servitor or batler of St. Alban Hall, Oxford, in 1600. He was elected demy of Magdalen College in 1600, and...
  
  
• Lewis Bayly
  Lewis Bayly
  Lewis Bayly was an Anglican bishop.-Life:He was educated at Oxford, became vicar of Evesham, Worcestershire, and probably in 1604 became rector of St. Matthew's Church, Friday street, London...
  
  
• Richard Bernard
  Richard Bernard
  Richard Bernard was an English Puritan clergyman and writer.-Life:Bernard was born in Epworth and received his education at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1592, obtained his BA in 1595, and an MA in 1598. He was married in 1601 and had six children...
  
  
• Robert Bolton
  Robert Bolton
  Robert Bolton was an English clergyman and academic, noted as a preacher.-Life:He was born on Whit Sunday in Blackburn, Lancashire, the sixth son of Adam Bolton of Backhouse. He attended what is now Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, where his father was a founding governor, and was...
  
  
• Samuel Bolton
  Samuel Bolton
  Samuel Bolton was an English clergyman and scholar, a member of the Westminster Assembly and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge.-Life:...
  
  
• John Bond (Puritan)
  John Bond (jurist)
  John Bond LL.D. was an English jurist, Puritan clergyman, member of the Westminster Assembly, and Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.-Life:...
  
  
• Thomas Boston
  Thomas Boston
  Thomas Boston was a Scottish church leader.He was born at Duns. His father, John Boston, and his mother, Alison Trotter, were both Covenanters. He was educated at Edinburgh, and licensed in 1697 by the presbytery of Chirnside...
  
  
• William Bradford
• William Bradshaw
  William Bradshaw (Puritan)
  William Bradshaw was a moderate English Puritan, born in Market Bosworth.He was educated at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he met both Anthony Gilby, and his future patron Arthur Hildersham, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He became a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1599, but left...
  
  
• Anne Bradstreet
  Anne Bradstreet
  Anne Dudley Bradstreet was New England's first published poet. Her work met with a positive reception in both the Old World and the New World.-Biography:...
  
  
• William Bridge
  William Bridge
  William Bridge was a leading English Independent minister, preacher, and religious and political writer.-Life:A native of Cambridgeshire, the Rev. William Bridge was probably born in or around the year 1600. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, receiving an M.A...
  
  
• John Brinsley the elder
  John Brinsley the elder
  John Brinsley the elder was an English schoolmaster, known for his educational works.-Life:He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1584 and M.A. in 1588. He became the master of the school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, brought there by Henry Hastings,...
  
  
• Thomas Brooks (Puritan)
  Thomas Brooks (Puritan)
  Thomas Brooks was an English non-conformist Puritan preacher and author.-Life:Much of what is known about Thomas Brooks has been ascertained from his writings. Born, likely to well-to-do parents, in 1608, Brooks entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1625, where he was preceded by such men as...
  
  
• Hugh Broughton
  Hugh Broughton
  Hugh Broughton was an English scholar and theologian.-Early life:He was born at Owlbury, Bishop's Castle, Shropshire. He calls himself a Cambrian, implying Welsh blood in his veins. He was educated by Bernard Gilpin at Houghton-le-Spring and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he matriculated...
  
  
• Robert Browne
• John Bunyan
  John Bunyan
  John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
  
  
• Anthony Burges
  Anthony Burges
  Anthony Burges or Burgess was a Nonconformist English clergyman, a prolific preacher and writer.-Life:He was a son of a schoolmaster at Watford, and not related to Cornelius Burgess or John Burges, his predecessor at Sutton Coldfield. He studied at St. John's College, Cambridge from 1623. He...
  
  
• Cornelius Burgess
• Jeremiah Burroughs
  Jeremiah Burroughs
  Jeremiah Burroughs was an English Congregationalist and a well-known Puritan preacher.-Biography:...
  
  
• Henry Burton
  Henry Burton (Puritan)
  Henry Burton , was an English puritan. Along with John Bastwick and William Prynne, Burton's ears were cut off in 1637 for writing pamphlets attacking the views of Archbishop Laud.-Early life:...
  
  
• Nicholas Byfield
  Nicholas Byfield
  Nicholas Byfield was an English clergyman, a leading preacher of the reign of James I.-Life:He was a native of Warwickshire, son by his first wife of Richard Byfield, who became vicar of Stratford-on-Avon in January 1597...
  
  
• Richard Byfield
  Richard Byfield
  Richard Byfield was an English clergyman, Sabbatarian controversialist, member of the Westminster Assembly, and ejected minister.-Life:...
  
  

C

• Edmund Calamy
  Edmund Calamy the Elder
  Edmund Calamy was an English Presbyterian church leader and divine. Known as "the elder", he was the first of four generations of nonconformist ministers bearing the same name.-Early life:...
  
  
• Richard Capel
  Richard Capel
  Richard Capel was an English nonconforming clergyman of Calvinist views, a member of the Westminster Assembly, and for a period of his life a practicing physician.-Life:...
  
  
• Thomas Carter
  Thomas Carter
  Thomas Carter may refer to:*Thomas Carter *Thomas Carter , Irish politician*Thomas Carter , British politician and Member of Parliament for Tamworth...
  
  
• Thomas Cartwright
  Thomas Cartwright (churchman)
  Thomas Cartwright was an English Puritan churchman.He was born in Hertfordshire, and studied divinity at St John's College, Cambridge. On the accession of Queen Mary I of England in 1553, he was forced to leave the university, and found occupation as clerk to a counsellor-at-law...
  
  
• Joseph Caryl
  Joseph Caryl
  Joseph Caryl was an English Nonconformist divine.-Life:He was born in London, educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and graduated at Exeter College, Oxford, and became preacher at Lincoln's Inn. He frequently preached before the Long Parliament, and was a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643...
  
  
• Thomas Case
  Thomas Case
  Thomas Case was an English clergyman of Presbyterian beliefs, member of the Westminster Assembly where he was one of the strongest advocates of theocracy, and sympathizer with the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy.-Life:...
  
  
• Daniel Cawdrey
• Thomas Cawton
  Thomas Cawton
  Thomas Cawton, the elder was an English clergyman of presbyterian and royalist views. After the discovery of the plot of Christopher Love, he went into exile in the Netherlands.-Life:...
  
  
• Laurence Chaderton
  Laurence Chaderton
  Laurence Chaderton was an English Puritan divine, and one of the translators of the King James Version of the Bible.-Life:...
  
  
• William Chaderton
  William Chaderton
  William Chaderton was an English academic and bishop. He also served as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity.He was born in Moston, Lancashire, what is now a part of the city of Manchester. He matriculated at Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1555, and graduated M.A...
  
  
• Stephen Charnock
  Stephen Charnock
  Stephen Charnock , Puritan divine, was an English Puritan Presbyterian clergyman born at the St Katherine Cree parish of London.-Life:...
  
  
• Francis Cheynell
  Francis Cheynell
  Franicis Cheynell was a prominent English religious controversialist, of Presbyterian views, and President of St. John's College, Oxford 1648 to 1650, imposed by the Parliamentary regime....
  
  
• Thomas Coleman
  Thomas Coleman
  Thomas Coleman was an English clergyman, known for his scholarship in the Hebrew language, which earned him the nickname ‘Rabbi Coleman’, and for his Erastian view of church polity. In the Westminster Assembly he was the clerical leader of the Erastian party, alongside the lawyer John Selden...
  
  
• Edward Corbet
  Edward Corbet
  Edward Corbet was an English clergyman, a member of the Westminster Assembly.-Life:He was born at Pontesbury in Shropshire, and was educated at Shrewsbury and Merton College, Oxford, where he was admitted a probationer fellow in 1624. Meanwhile he had taken his B.A. degree on 4 December 1622, and...
  
  
• John Cotton
• Miles Coverdale
• Oliver Cromwell
  Oliver Cromwell
  Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
  
  

D

• Thomas Danforth
  Thomas Danforth
  Thomas Danforth was a judge for the 1692 Salem witch trials in early colonial America.-Early life:He was born in Framlingham, Suffolk, England as the eldest son of Nicholas Danforth and Elizabeth Symmes...
  
  
• John Darrell
  John Darrell
  John Darrell was an Anglican clergyman, noted for his Puritan views and practice as an exorcist.Darrell was a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge. In 1586 he exorcised a girl in Derbyshire, and published an account of his work. In 1596-7 he conducted further exorcisms, mainly at St. Mary's...
  
  
• John Davenport
  John Davenport (clergyman)
  John Davenport was an English puritan clergyman and co-founder of the American colony of New Haven.-Early life:Born in Manchester, Warwickshire, England to a wealthy family, Davenport was educated at Oxford University...
  
  
• Arthur Dent
  Arthur Dent (Puritan)
  Arthur Dent was the author of The Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven, first published in 1601. This was one of the two books that John Bunyan read before or during the four years of spiritual struggle that led eventually to his conversion, and his subsequent writing of Pilgrim's Progress. The other...
  
  
• John Dod
  John Dod
  John Dod , known as “Decalogue Dod”, was a non-conforming English clergyman, taking his nickname for his emphasis on the Ten Commandments. He is known for his widely circulated writings...
  
  
• Philip Doddridge
  Philip Doddridge
  Philip Doddridge DD was an English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter.-Early life:...
  
  
• John Downame
  John Downame
  John Downame was an English clergyman and theologian in London, who came to prominence in the 1640s, when he worked closely with the Westminster Assembly. He is now remembered for his writings.-Life:...
  
  
• Calibute Downing
• John Dury
  John Dury
  John Dury was a Scottish Calvinist minister and a significant intellectual of the English Civil War period. He made efforts to re-unite the Calvinist and Lutheran wings of Protestantism, hoping to succeed when he moved to Kassel in 1661, but he did not accomplish this...
  
  

E

• Theophilus Eaton
  Theophilus Eaton
  Theophilus Eaton was a merchant, farmer, and Puritan colonial leader who was the co-founder and first governor of New Haven Colony, Connecticut.-Early life and first marriage:...
  
  
• Jonathan Edwards, American
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   heir of the Puritans who is often listed with them
• Stephen Egerton
  Stephen Egerton (clergyman)
  Stephen Egerton was an English clergyman, a leading Puritan preacher of his time also active in organizing for reform of the Church of England.-Life:...
  
  
• Michael Wigglesworth
  Michael Wigglesworth
  Michael Wigglesworth was a Puritan minister and poet whose poem The Day of Doom was a bestseller in early New England.-Family:Michael Wigglesworth was born October 18, 1631 in Wrawby, Lincolnshire....
  
  

F

• Humphrey Fenn
  Humphrey Fenn
  Humphrey Fenn , was an English puritan divine.-Life:Fenn was matriculated as sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, on 12 November 1568, and graduated B.A. in 1573. He migrated to Peterhouse, and graduated M.A. in 1576. In the same year he began his ministry at Northampton, and at once got into...
  
  
• John Field
  John Field (divine)
  John Feild , also called John Feilde, was a British Puritan clergyman and controversialist.-Life:We know very little of his early life, but when he was ordained by Edmund Grindal in 1566 at the age of 21, he was called a bachelor of arts of Christ Church, Oxford...
  
  
• William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele
  William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele
  William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele was born at the family home of Broughton Castle near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. He was the only son of Richard Fiennes, seventh Baron Saye and Sele...
  
  
• John Flavel
  John Flavel
  John Flavel was an English Presbyterian clergyman and author.-Life:Flavel was born at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire and studied at Oxford. Ordained as a Presbyterian in 1650, though later a Congregationalist, he held livings at Diptford and Dartmouth...
  
  
• John Foxe
  John Foxe
  John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
  
  
• William Fulke
  William Fulke
  William Fulke was an English Puritan divine.-Life:He was born in London and educated at St John's College, Cambridge graduating in 1557/58....
  
  

G

• Thomas Gataker
  Thomas Gataker
  Thomas Gataker was an English clergyman and theologian.-Life:He was born in London and educated at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1601 to 1611 he held the appointment of preacher to the society of Lincoln's Inn, which he resigned on accepting the rectory of Rotherhithe...
  
  
• Anthony Gilby
  Anthony Gilby
  Anthony Gilby was an English clergyman, known as a radical Puritan and Geneva Bible translator.He was born in Lincolnshire, and was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1535.-Early life:...
  
  
• George Gillespie
  George Gillespie
  George Gillespie was a Scottish theologian.-Life:He was born at Kirkcaldy, where his father, John Gillespie, was parish minister, and studied at St. Andrews University as a "presbytery bursar". On graduating he became domestic chaplain to John Gordon, 1st Viscount Kenmure , and afterwards to John...
  
  
• Bernard Gilpin
  Bernard Gilpin
  Bernard Gilpin , was an Oxford theologian and then an influential clergyman in the emerging Church of England spanning the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I...
  
  
• Christopher Goodman
  Christopher Goodman
  Christopher Goodman BD was an English reforming clergyman and writer. He was a Marian exile, who left England to escape persecution during the counter-reformation in the reign of Queen Mary I of England. He was the author of a work on limits to obedience to rulers, and a contributor to the Geneva...
  
  
• Thomas Goodwin
  Thomas Goodwin
  Thomas Goodwin , known as 'the Elder', was an English Puritan theologian and preacher, and an important leader of religious Independents. He served as chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and was imposed by Parliament as President of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1650...
  
  
• William Gouge
  William Gouge
  William Gouge was an English clergyman and author. He was a minister and preacher at St Ann Blackfriars for 45 years, from 1608, and a member of the Westminster Assembly from 1643.-Life:...
  
  
• Richard Greenham
  Richard Greenham
  Richard Greenham was an English clergyman of Puritan views, known as a Sabbatarian writer.-Life:He was probably born about 1535, and went at a late age to the University of Cambridge where he matriculated as a sizar of Pembroke Hall on 27 May 1559. He graduated B.A. early in 1564, and was...
  
  
• William Greenhill
  William Greenhill
  William Greenhill was an English nonconformist clergyman, independent minister, and member of the Westminster Assembly.-Life:He was born probably in Oxfordshire. At the age of thirteen he matriculated at the University of Oxford on 8 June 1604 and was elected a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, on...
  
  
• John Greenwood
• William Guthrie
  William Guthrie (Puritan)
  William Guthrie was a Scottish Puritan minister and author. He was the first minister of Fenwick parish church in Ayrshire, Scotland. He is known primarily for his book on assurance, The Christian's Great Interest.- External links :...
  
  

H

• Robert Harris
  Robert Harris (President of Trinity)
  Robert Harris was an English clergyman, known as a Puritan preacher, member of the Westminster Assembly, and President of Trinity College, Oxford.-Life:...
  
  
• John Harvard
  John Harvard (clergyman)
  John Harvard was an English minister in America whose deathbed bequest to the Massachusetts Bay Colony's fledgling New College was so gratefully received that the school was renamed Harvard College in his honor.-Biography:Harvard was born and raised in Southwark, England, the fourth of nine...
  
  
• Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon
  Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon
  Sir Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, KG KB was the eldest son of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon and Catherine Pole.-Ancestry:...
  
  
• Thomas Hastings (colonist)
  Thomas Hastings (colonist)
  Thomas Hastings was a prominent English immigrant to New England, one of the approximately 20,000 immigrants who came as part of the Great Migration. A Deacon of the church, among his many public offices he served on the Committee of Colony Assessments in 1640 and as Deputy for Watertown to the...
  
  
• Alexander Henderson
  Alexander Henderson (theologian)
  Alexander Henderson was a Scottish theologian, and an important ecclesiastical statesman of his period. He is considered the second founder of the Reformed Church in Scotland, and its Presbyterian churches are largely indebted to him for the forms of their dogmas and organization.-Life:He was born...
  
  
• Matthew Henry
  Matthew Henry
  Matthew Henry was an English commentator on the Bible and Presbyterian minister.-Life:He was born at Broad Oak, a farmhouse on the borders of Flintshire and Shropshire. His father, Philip Henry, had just been ejected under the Act of Uniformity 1662...
  
  
• Philip Henry
  Philip Henry (clergyman)
  Philip Henry was an English Nonconformist clergyman and diarist.-Early life:Henry graduated from Oxford in 1652 and was ordained in 1657. He was the eldest son of John Henry, keeper of the orchard at Whitehall, and was born at Whitehall on 24 August 1631...
  
  
• Charles Herle
  Charles Herle
  Charles Herle was a prominent English theologian, of moderate Presbyterian views.He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford with an M.A. in 1618. He was vicar of Winwick, Lancashire, from 1626.....
  
  
• Richard Heyrick
• Gasper Hickes
• Francis Higginson
  Francis Higginson
  Francis Higginson was an early Puritan minister in Colonial New England, and the first minister of Salem, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
  
  
• Arthur Hildersham
  Arthur Hildersham
  Arthur Hildersham was an English clergyman, a Puritan and nonconforming preacher.-Life:Arthur Hildersham was born at Stetchworth, and brought up as a Roman Catholic. He was educated in Saffron Walden and at Christ's College, Cambridge. Through the patronage of Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of...
  
  
• Robert Hill (clergyman)
  Robert Hill (clergyman)
  Robert Hill was an English clergyman, a “conforming puritan” according to Anthony Milton.-Life:He was a native of Ashbourne, Derbyshire. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1584, M.A. in 1586. In 1588-9 he was admitted fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and...
  
  
• Thomas Hooker
  Thomas Hooker
  Thomas Hooker was a prominent Puritan colonial leader, who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts...
  
  
• John Howe
• Joshua Hoyle
  Joshua Hoyle
  Joshua Hoyle was a Professor of Divinity at Trinity College, Dublin and Master of University College, Oxford during the Commonwealth of England.-Life:...
  
  
• Laurence Humphrey
• Edward Hake
  Edward Hake
  Edward Hake , English satirist, was educated under John Hopkins, the part-author of the metrical version of the Psalms.He dwelt at Gray's Inn and Barnard's Inn, London. In the address To the Gentle Reader prefixed to his Newes out of Powles Churchyard .....
  
  

L

• John Lathrop
  John Lathrop
  John Lathrop is the name of:* John Lothropp , British clergy* John Lathrop , of Boston, Mass* John Hiram Lathrop , educator...
  
  
• Alexander Leighton
  Alexander Leighton
  Alexander Leighton was a Scottish medical doctor and puritan preacher and pamphleteer best known for his 1630 pamphlet that attacked the Anglican church and which led to his torture by King Charles I.-Early life:...
  
  
• John Ley
  John Ley
  -Life:He was born in Warwick 4 February 1583, and received his early education at the free school in that town. On 12 February 1602 he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and graduated B.A. and M.A. . Taking holy orders he was presented to the vicarage of Great Budworth, Cheshire, in 1616. He...
  
  
• John Lightfoot
  John Lightfoot
  John Lightfoot was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.-Life:...
  
  
• Morgan Llwyd
  Morgan Llwyd
  Morgan Llwyd , was a Welsh Puritan preacher, poet and prose writer.- Biography :...
  
   (Arminian)
• Christopher Love
  Christopher Love
  Christopher Love was a Welsh Protestant preacher and advocate of Presbyterianism at the time of the English Civil War. In 1651 he was executed by the government, after it was discovered that he had been in correspondence with the exiled Stuart court...
  
  

M

• Stephen Marshall
  Stephen Marshall
  Stephen Marshall was an English Nonconformist churchman.His sermons, especially that on the death of John Pym in 1643, reveal eloquence and fervour...
  
  
• Walter Marshall (Puritan)
  Walter Marshall (Puritan)
  Walter Marshall was an English, non-conformist Puritan pastor and author best known for his book on the Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, which has been praised as perhaps the single greatest work on sanctification ever composed.- Life :Walter Marshall became a fellow of New College, Oxford in...
  
  
• Cotton Mather
  Cotton Mather
  Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...
  
  
• Increase Mather
  Increase Mather
  Increase Mather was a major figure in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay . He was a Puritan minister who was involved with the government of the colony, the administration of Harvard College, and most notoriously, the Salem witch trials...
  
  
• Richard Mather
  Richard Mather
  Richard Mather , was a Puritan clergyman in colonial Boston, Massachusetts. He was father to Increase Mather and grandfather to Cotton Mather, both celebrated Boston divines.-Biography:...
  
  
• John Maynard (MP)
  John Maynard (MP)
  Sir John Maynard KS was an English lawyer and politician, prominent under the reigns of Charles I, the Commonwealth, Charles II, James II and William III.-Origins and education:...
  
  
• Joseph Mede
  Joseph Mede
  Joseph Mede was an English scholar with a wide range of interests. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow from 1613. He is now remembered as a biblical scholar. He was also a naturalist and Egyptologist...
  
  
• Walter Mildmay
  Walter Mildmay
  Sir Walter Mildmay was an English statesman who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer of England under Queen Elizabeth I, and was founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.-Early life:...
  
  
• John Milton
  John Milton
  John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
  
  
• John More
  John More (Puritan)
  John More was an English clergyman, known as the 'Apostle of Norwich.' Tending to nonconformity, he was treated leniently by the church authorities.-Life:...
  
  

P

• Herbert Palmer
  Herbert Palmer (Puritan)
  Herbert Palmer was an English Puritan clergyman, member of the Westminster Assembly, and President of Queens’ College, Cambridge. He is now remembered for his work on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and as a leading opponent of John Milton's divorce tracts.-Biography:He was a younger son of Sir...
  
  
• Robert Parker
  Robert Parker (minister)
  Robert Parker English Puritan scholar and divine, who became minister of a separatist congregation in the Holland where he died while exiled for his heterodoxy. He was a descended from the Spencer family of Althorp, Northamptonshire...
  
  
• Thomas Parker
• John Penry
  John Penry
  John Penry is Wales's most famous Protestant martyr.-Early life:He was born in Brecknockshire, Wales; Cefn Brith, a farm near Llangammarch, is traditionally recognised as his birthplace. He matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in December 1580, being then probably a Roman Catholic; but soon...
  
  
• William Perkins
• Andrew Perne
• William Phelps
  William Phelps (colonist)
  William Phelps was a Puritan Englishman who immigrated in 1630 to the American Colonies. He was one of the founders of both Dorchester, Massachusetts and Windsor, Connecticut, foreman of the first grand jury in New England, served most of his life in early colonial government, and played a key...
  
  
• Matthew Poole
  Matthew Poole
  Matthew Poole was an English Nonconformist theologian.-Life to 1662:He was born at York, the son of Francis Pole, but he spelled his name Poole, and in Latin Polus; his mother was a daughter of Alderman Toppins there. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from 1645, under John...
  
  
• John Preston

R

• John Rainolds
  John Rainolds
  John Rainolds , English divine, was born about Michaelmas 1549 at Pinhoe, near Exeter.He was educated at Merton and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, becoming a fellow of the latter in 1568. In 1572-73 he was appointed reader in Greek, and his lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric laid the sure basis of...
  
  
• Mary Rowlandson
  Mary Rowlandson
  Mary Rowlandson was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. After her release, she wrote a book about her experience, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and...
  
  
• Edward Reynolds
  Edward Reynolds
  Edward Reynolds was a bishop of Norwich in the Church of England and an author.He was born in Holyrood parish Southampton, the son of Augustine Reynolds, one of the customers of the city, and his wife, Bridget....
  
  
• Edmund Rice
  Edmund Rice (1638)
  Edmund Rice , was an early immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony who was born in Suffolk, England, and lived in Stanstead, Suffolk and Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire prior to sailing with his family to America. He arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in summer or fall of 1638, presumed to be first...
  
  
• Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick
  Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick
  Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick was an English colonial administrator, admiral, and puritan.Rich was the eldest son of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick and his wife Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich, and succeeded to his father's title in 1619...
  
  
• John Robinson
  John Robinson (pastor)
  John Robinson was the pastor of the "Pilgrim Fathers" before they left on the Mayflower. He became one of the early leaders of the English Separatists, minister of the Pilgrims, and is regarded as one of the founders of the Congregational Church.-Early life:Robinson was born in Sturton le Steeple...
  
  
• John Rogers
• Samuel Rutherford
  Samuel Rutherford
  Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author, and one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly.-Life:...
  
  

S

• Thomas Sampson
  Thomas Sampson
  Thomas Sampson was an English Puritan theologian. A Marian exile, he was one of the Geneva Bible translators. On his return to England, he had trouble with conformity to the Anglican practices...
  
  
• Henry Scudder
  Henry Scudder (clergyman)
  Henry Scudder was an English clergyman of presbyterian views, known as a devotional writer, and member of the Westminster Assembly.-Life:...
  
  
• Lazarus Seaman
  Lazarus Seaman
  Lazarus Seaman , was an English clergyman, supporter in the Westminster Assembly of the Presbyterian party, intruded Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and nonconformist minister.-Life:...
  
  
• Obadiah Sedgwick
  Obadiah Sedgwick
  Obadiah Sedgwick was an English clergyman of presbyterian views, a member of the Westminster Assembly.-Life:He was son of Joseph Sedgwick, vicar of St. Peter's, Marlborough, Wiltshire, and then of Ogbourne St. Andrew, and was born at Marlborough about 1600. He matriculated at Queen's College,...
  
  
• Jeremiah Shepard
  Jeremiah Shepard
  Jeremiah Shepard was an American Puritan minister and the youngest son of Thomas Shepard, a major figure in the founding generation of Puritan New England...
  
  
• Thomas Shepard
• Richard Sibbes
  Richard Sibbes
  Richard Sibbes was an English theologian. He is known as a Biblical exegete, and as a representative, with William Perkins and John Preston, of what has been called "main-line" Puritanism.-Life:...
  
  
• Sidrach Simpson
  Sidrach Simpson
  Sidrach Simpson was an English Independent minister, one of the leaders of the Independent faction in the Westminster Assembly.-Life:Sidrach Simpson came from Lincolnshire. He was educated as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge....
  
  
• Peter Smart
  Peter Smart
  Peter Smart was an English Puritan clergyman, kept imprisoned for 12 years after he preached against innovations in the ceremonies at Durham Cathedral.-Life:...
  
  
• William Spurstowe
  William Spurstowe
  William Spurstowe was an English clergyman, theologian, and member of the Westminster Assembly. He was one of the Smectymnuus group of Presbyterian clergy, supplying the final WS of the acronym.-Life:...
  
  
• Edmund Staunton
  Edmund Staunton
  Edmund Staunton was an English clergyman, chosen by Parliament as President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and a member of the Westminster Assembly. Later he was a nonconformist minister.-Life:...
  
  
• Peter Sterry
  Peter Sterry
  Peter Sterry was an English independent theologian, associated with the Cambridge Platonists prominent during the English Civil War era. He was chaplain to Parliamentarian general Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke and then Oliver Cromwell, a member of the Westminster Assembly, and a leading...
  
  
• Solomon Stoddard
  Solomon Stoddard
  Solomon Stoddard was the pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, MA. He succeeded the Rev. Eleazer Mather, marrying his widow around 1670...
  
  

T

• Thomas Taylor (clergyman)
  Thomas Taylor (clergyman)
  Thomas Taylor was an English clergyman.-Life:He was born in 1576 at Richmond, Yorkshire, where his father,was known as a friend to puritans and silenced ministers in the north. He distinguished himself at Cambridge, became fellow and reader in Hebrew at Christ's College, proceeded B.D. 1628, and...
  
  
• James Temple
  James Temple
  James Temple was a puritan and English Civil War soldier who was convicted of the regicide of Charles I. Born in Rochester, Kent, to a well-connected gentry family, he was the second of two sons of Sir Alexander Temple, although his elder brother died in 1627...
  
  
• Robert Titus
  Robert Titus
  Robert Titus was the first Titus immigrant from England to America and is the progenitor of many of the Tituses in America today.-Emigration:...
  
  
• Walter Travers
  Walter Travers
  Walter Travers was an English Puritan theologian. He was at one time chaplain to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and tutor to his son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury.He is remembered mostly as an opponent of the teaching of Richard Hooker...
  
  
• Thomas Tregosse
  Thomas Tregosse
  Rev. Thomas Tregosse of Cornwall was a Puritan minister and vicar of the Rebellion period who was silenced for being a Nonconformist.-Early years:He was born in St Ives, the son of William Tregosse...
  
  
• William Twisse
  William Twisse
  William Twisse was a prominent English clergyman and theologian. He became Prolocutor of the Westminster Assembly, putting him at the head of the churchmen of the Commonwealth. He was described by a Scottish member, Robert Baillie, as “very good, beloved of all, and highlie esteemed; but merelie...
  
  

W

• George Walker
  George Walker (Puritan)
  George Walker was an English clergyman, known for strong Puritan views. He was imprisoned in 1638 by William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, an affair that was raised later against Laud at his trial...
  
  
• Nehemiah Wallington
  Nehemiah Wallington
  Nehemiah Wallington was an English Puritan artisan and chronicler. from Eastcheap. He left over 2,500 pages and 50 volumes on himself, religion and politics.-Life:...
  
  
• John Wallis
• Nathaniel Ward
  Nathaniel Ward
  Nathaniel Ward was a Puritan clergyman and pamphleteer in England and Massachusetts. He wrote the first constitution in North America in 1641....
  
  
• Samuel Ward (minister)
  Samuel Ward (minister)
  Samuel Ward was an English Puritan minister of Ipswich.-Life:He was born in Suffolk, son of John Ward, minister of Haverhill, by his wife Susan. Nathaniel Ward was his younger brother. Another brother, John, was rector of St. Clement's, Ipswich. Samuel was admitted a scholar of St...
  
  
• Samuel Ward (scholar)
  Samuel Ward (scholar)
  Samuel Ward was an English academic and a master at the University of Cambridge.-Life:He was born at Bishop Middleham, county Durham. He was a scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, where in 1592 he was admitted B.A. In 1595 he was elected to a fellowship at Emmanuel, and in the following year...
  
  
• Thomas Watson
  Thomas Watson (Puritan)
  Thomas Watson was an English, non-conformist, Puritan preacher and author.He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was noted for remarkably intense study. In 1646 he commenced a sixteen year pastorate at St. Stephen's, Walbrook...
  
  
• Isaac Watts
  Isaac Watts
  Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...
  
  
• Paul Wentworth
  Paul Wentworth
  Paul Wentworth , a prominent English member of parliament in the reign of Elizabeth, was a member of the Lillingstone Lovell branch of the family.His father Sir Nicholas Wentworth was chief porter of Calais...
  
  
• Peter Wentworth
  Peter Wentworth
  Peter Wentworth was a prominent Puritan leader in the Parliament of England. He was the elder brother of Paul Wentworth, and first entered as member for Barnstaple in 1571. He later sat for the Cornish borough of Tregony in 1572, and for the town of Northampton in the parliaments of 1586–7, 1589,...
  
  
• Jeremiah Whitaker
  Jeremiah Whitaker
  Jeremiah Whitaker was an English Puritan clergyman, and important member of the Westminster Assembly.-Life:He was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1599. After being educated at the grammar school there under the Rev. Philip Jack, he entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1615, two...
  
  
• John White
• David Whitehead
  David Whitehead
  David Adie Whitehead CBE, DSO & Bar, MC was an Australian Army officer who fought in both World War I and World War II and rose to the rank of brigadier.-Biography:...
  
  
• William Whittingham
  William Whittingham
  William Whittingham was an English Biblical scholar and religious reformer. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, he became a zealous Protestant; as such he found it prudent to flee to France when Mary I ascended the throne of England....
  
  
• Giles Wigginton
  Giles Wigginton
  Giles Wigginton was an English clergyman who became a fringe religious activist towards the end of the sixteenth century.-Life:...
  
  
• John Winthrop
  John Winthrop
  John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
  
  
• Roger Williams (theologian)
  Roger Williams (theologian)
  Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...
  
  
• George Wither
  George Wither
  George Wither was an English poet, pamphleteer, and satirist. He was a prolific writer who adopted a deliberate plainness of style; he was several times imprisoned. C. V...
  
   (became Puritan from c. 1620)
• John Woodbridge
  John Woodbridge
  John Woodbridge VI was an English nonconformist, who emigrated to New England. He had positions on both sides of the Atlantic, until 1663, when he settled permanently in New England.-Life:...
  
  
• Benjamin Woodbridge
  Benjamin Woodbridge
  Benjamin Woodbridge was an English clergyman and controversialist, Harvard College's first-ever graduate, and participant in the Savoy Conference.-Life:...
  
  

Sources

• Lives of the Puritans by Benjamin Brook
  Benjamin Brook
  -Life:He was born at Nether Thong, near Huddersfield. When young he was admitted to membership in the independent church at Holmfield, under the Rev. Robert Gallond. In 1797 he entered Rotherham College as a student for the ministry...
  
   and Daniel Neal
  Daniel Neal
  Daniel Neal was an English historian.Born in London, he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, and at the universities of Utrecht and Leiden...
  
  's History of the Puritans
• Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640 (multi-vol series), Boston: New Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.
• Beeke, Joel, and Randall Pederson, Meet the Puritans: With a Guide to Modern Reprints, (Reformation Heritage Books, 2006) ISBN 9781601780003
• Cross, Claire, The Puritan Earl, The Life of Henry Hastings, Third Earl of Huntingdon, 1536-1595, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1966.
• Fischer, David Hackett, Albion's Seed, Four British Folkways in America, New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
• Morison, Samuel Eliot, Builders of the Bay Colony, Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1930 (1981 reprint).
• Powell, Sumner Chilton, Puritan Village, The Formation of a New England Town, Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1963.
• Stavely, Keith W.F., Puritan Legacies, Paradise Lost and the New England Tradition, 1630-1890, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.