Ralph Levett - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Rev. Ralph Levett was an Anglican minister who served as domestic chaplain to an aristocratic 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...

family from Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

with 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...

sympathies, who subsequently installed him as rector of the local parish. A graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

, where he became a protege of the prominent Puritan

Puritan

minister John Cotton, Levett later married the sister of the wife of his friend Rev. John Wheelwright

John Wheelwright

John Wheelwright was a clergyman in England and America.-Early life:...

, another well-known early Puritan settler of New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

.

Ralph Levett

Levett

Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet, and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of...

was born in 1600 in High Melton

St James' Church, High Melton

St James' Church, High Melton, is a parish church in the Church of England in High Melton.-Background:The Church of St James dominates the village of High Melton, near Doncaster, in South Yorkshire...

, South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...

to an old Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

family previously seated at Normanton

Normanton, West Yorkshire

Normanton is a town and civil parish within the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is northeast of Wakefield and southwest of Castleford, and at the time of the 2001 Census, the population was 19,949.-History:...

and Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt

Hooton Levitt is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England; one of four villages in the county that carry the name of Hooton, meaning 'farmstead on a spur of land'...

. His father, Thomas Levett, was of middling rank in the local gentry, not owning the manor at High Melton, but identified as 'gent.' in local records. Ralph Levett's mother was Elizabeth Mirfin of a family who owned the manor of Thurcroft

Thurcroft

Thurcroft is a village and civil parish situated southeast of Rotherham in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. From 1902 to 1991, it was a close-knit, mining community. It has a population of 5,296....

.

Levett enrolled at Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

, in 1617, where he took his B.A. and M.A. degrees, and was ordained in 1624, when he was named a deacon at York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

. Following his ordination, Levett spent time in the Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...

, household of Rev. Cotton, a leading Puritan of his day. The practice of taking in postgraduate students for training in a Puritan rector's household was a well-established one, and Cotton had many such Cambridge acolytes, who came to learn the ways of carrying on a Puritan ministry.

Following his time in Cotton's household, Levett took up his post as private chaplain with the household of Sir William Wray in Ashby cum Fenby

Ashby cum Fenby

Ashby cum Fenby is a village and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England, 4 miles south-west from Holton le Clay.In the 2001 census the population was recorded as 248. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book....

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

. Wray was the son of Sir Christopher Wray

Christopher Wray

Sir Christopher Wray was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.-Early life and career:Wray, the third son of Thomas Wray, seneschal in 1535 of Coverham Abbey, Yorkshire, by Joan, daughter of Robert Jackson of Gatenby, Bedale, in the same county, was born at Bedale in 1524...

, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...

and a wealthy politician, having enriched himself with profits from the Royal mint

Royal Mint

The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. The Mint originated over 1,100 years ago, but since 2009 it operates as Royal Mint Ltd, a company which has an exclusive contract with HM Treasury to supply all coinage for the UK...

. Sir Christopher Wray was lord of several manors in Yorkshire, as well as four others, including Grainsby, in Lincolnshire. His son Sir William, (1555-1617) was created baronet, and was the father of two sons: Sir John Wray and, by his second wife Frances, daughter of Sir William Drury

William Drury

Sir William Drury, Knt., was an English statesman and soldier,He was a son of Sir Robert Drury of Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire, and grandson of another Sir Robert Drury , who was speaker of the House of Commons in 1495. He was a brother of Dru Drury.He was born at Hawstead in Suffolk, and was...

of Hawstead, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, Sir Christopher Wray (1601-1646).

Although originally from Yorkshire

Yorkshire

, Levett apparently decided to remain in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

. His post within the Wray family household, known as Puritan sympathizers, shielded Levett to some degree from the persecution by Archbishop William Laud

William Laud

William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...

of clergymen with Puritan sympathies. In 1636, by contrast, Levett's friend Wheelwright, whom he apparently knew at Cambridge, was driven from his post at Bilsby

Bilsby

Bilsby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, just east of the town of Alford. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 415. It was mentioned in Domesday Book of 1086 when it consisted of eighteen households. Asserby and Thurlby are hamlets...

by the ecclesiastical authorities, and departed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

. (Wheelwright was following Rev. Cotton, who himself had fled to Massachusetts three years earlier to avoid imprisonment for nonconformity

Nonconformity

Nonconformity may refer to:* Nonconformity , a memoir by Nelson Algren, published posthumously in 1992* Nonconformity , a term in quality management* A type of unconformity in geology...

.)

Still, the rigors of ministering to an aristocratic, if Puritan-inclined household, meant that Levett sometimes wrote to his former mentor Cotton for advice on handling tricky situations. In 1627 the novice Levett wrote Cotton, inquiring how to pray appropriately for his patroness when she was in the congregation, and Levett asked for particular guidance on dealing with entertainments he witnessed at Christmastime, including "cardinge" as well as "mixt dancinge." Valentine's Day caught Levett unawares when he was approached by the household's "2. young Ladyes" and asked to draw a name from a hat.

"His Puritan principles," writes Sargent Bush in his The Correspondence of John Cotton, "were clearly being challenged as he considered what was an appropriate response for him as a minister of God on the one hand and an employee of the family on the other. So he looked to his mentor for advice."

In Cotton's responses, one senses the subtle nuances required of some Puritan thinkers, as well as the collegial nature of the early Puritan ministerial cadre. Cotton gave Levett advice on how to pray for his patroness without appearing to flatter her, and he warned Levett against 'carding' and drawing names at Valentine's as they were 'lotteries.' Interestingly, Cotton had no problem with dancing, except "lasciuious dauncinge to wanton dittyes & in amorous gestures & wanton dalliances especially after great feasts."

In 1632, five years after Levett's letter to Cotton, Lincolnshire records show the marriage of "Mr. Ralfe Levit and Anne Hutchinson" in Bilsby

Bilsby

, the parish of Rev. John Wheelwright and not far from Ashby cum Fenby

Ashby cum Fenby

. Anne Hutchinson was the daughter of Edward Hutchinson of Alford

Alford, Lincolnshire

- Notable residents :* Captain John Smith who lived in nearby Willoughby* Anne Hutchinson, pioneer settler and religious reformer in the United States* Thomas Paine, who was an excise officer in the town....

, and the sister of Mary Hutchinson, Rev. Wheelwright's second wife. Mary Hutchinson, John Wheelwright's wife, was the sister-in-law of her brother William Hutchinson's wife, another Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...

, who later became prominent in the Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

Antinomian controversy.

But unlike his Puritan friends, Levett elected to remain in England. He left his post as domestic chaplain to the Wray family for the rector's job in a manor owned by his Wray patrons. In 1633 he began signing the transcripts at the church at Grainsby as 'Radulphus Levet, rector.' On April 3, 1635, when the previous rector Thomas Humphrey was buried, 'Ralph Levitt, M.A.' was presented to the rectory of Grainsby by Frances, widow of Sir William Wray. Perhaps the Wray family's endorsement provided Levett some measure of protection, or his brother John's position as Chancellor

Chancellor

Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

and Commissary

Commissary

A commissary is someone delegated by a superior to execute a duty or an office; in a formal, legal context, one who has received power from a legitimate superior authority to pass judgment in a certain cause or to take information concerning it.-Word history:...

to the Archbishop of York

Archbishop of York

The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...

helped shield him from persecution.

Levett apparently held the living of the tiny village of Grainsby until at least 1649, when he signed the transcripts as 'R. Levet, rector.' His son Francis graduated at Queens College, Cambridge, also became a minister, and was rector of Little Carlton, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

, from 1662 until 1711. (When the emigrant Rev. John Wheelwright

John Wheelwright

John Wheelwright was a clergyman in England and America.-Early life:...

finally disposed of the last of his Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

property in 1677, Massachusetts records reflect that it was "purchased of Francis Levett, gentleman," likely the son of his old friend Ralph Levett.)

Ralph Levett's two brothers were both prominent Oxford-educated lawyers. His brother Thomas Levett

Thomas Levett

Thomas Levett , was an Oxford-educated Lincoln's Inn barrister, judge of the Admiralty for the Northern Counties and High Sheriff of Rutland...

served as High Sheriff of Rutland

High Sheriff of Rutland

This is a list of High Sheriffs of Rutland. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown: there has been a Sheriff of Rutland since 1129...

, and his brother John Levett was a well-known figure in York

York

legal circles, frequently representing the Archbishop of York

Archbishop of York

. But the two freewheeling brothers apparently dissipated what was a large estate of properties scattered across Yorkshire. Thomas Levett

Thomas Levett

Thomas Levett , was an Oxford-educated Lincoln's Inn barrister, judge of the Admiralty for the Northern Counties and High Sheriff of Rutland...

was well-known as an antiquarian, and his disposal of monastic charters descended in the Levett family to Roger Dodsworth

Roger Dodsworth

Roger Dodsworth was an English antiquary.-Life:He was born at Newton Grange, Oswaldkirk, near Helmsley, Yorkshire, in the house of his maternal grandfather, Ralph Sandwith...

for publication was an important event in Yorkshire historical circles. Another brother, Peter Levett, also graduated Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

as well, and became a Yorkshire vicar, successively at Cantley, South Yorkshire

Cantley, South Yorkshire

Cantley is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 2,830.-Early history:...

and Boynton, East Riding of Yorkshire

Boynton, East Riding of Yorkshire

Boynton is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately west of the town of Bridlington and lies on the B1253 road.According to the 2001 UK census, Boynton parish had a population of 161....

External links

Further reading