James Cudworth (colonist)


James Cudworth was one of the most important men in Plymouth Colony. He served as a Deputy to the Plymouth General Court, as commander of militia in King Philip's War, as well as Assistant Governor and Deputy Governor of Plymouth Colony, and a commissioner to the New England Confederation.

Family background

The Rev. Dr Ralph Cudworth (1572/3–1624)

James Cudworth was the eldest son of The Rev. Dr Ralph Cudworth, who was a student at, and graduate and Fellow of, Emmanuel College, Cambridge. In 1606, Dr Cudworth was instituted as Vicar of Coggeshall, Essex, to replace Thomas Stoughton. Dr Cudworth resigned his Fellowship to accept the Rectoriate of Aller, Somerset, England.
At the Parish Church of St. Mary Newington, Southwark, Ralph Cudworth married ? Mary Machell, who had been a nurse to Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I. It appears likely that Mary was a granddaughter of John Machell, clothworker, Alderman and Sheriff of London. A pedigree tradition, reinforced by a more recent claim, argued that she was the daughter of Mathew Machell of Shacklewell, Hackney, Middlesex and his wife Mary Lewknor. Mary Lewknor was one of the daughters of Edward Lewknor and his wife Dorothy Wroth. It is also contended that Mary Machell was the daughter of Mathew Machell's elder brother, John, by his second wife Ursula Hynde. Despite extended debate, it is not absolutely certain which Machell was father of Mary, but these are the likely candidates.
Ralph and Mary Cudworth had three sons and at least two daughters, before Dr Cudworth died at Aller. James Cudworth was baptized there, followed by Elizabeth, Ralph, Mary and John, and probably Jane.

The Rev. Dr John Stoughton (d.1639)

Dr Cudworth was succeeded, as Rector, by The Rev. Dr John Stoughton, who was also a student, graduate, and Fellow of Emmanuel College. Stoughton later married Ralph's widow, Mary Cudworth. Dr Stoughton, an influential clergyman and preacher, took on the education of his stepchildren and, following the death of Mary their mother, remarried to Jane Browne.
John Browne was closely associated with John White of Dorchester, Dorset, Dr Stoughton, and others, in the promotion of religious emigration and colonization in New England: Dr Stoughton's brother, Thomas, sailed in the Mary and John to found Dorchester, Boston in Massachusetts Bay Colony, and was followed by his brother, Israel Stoughton,. Mary Machell's cousins, Sir Nathaniel Rich and his sister Margaret, Lady Wroth, wife of Sir Thomas Wroth of Petherton Park, Somerset, near Aller, were also highly active in the promotion of colonial enterprise in the Americas. Lady Wroth had been present at Dr Cudworth's deathbed and, at the time of her father's death, their minister at Leigh, Essex, had been William Noyes. As a member of the Rich family, she and they were generally associated with the interests, influence and patronage of the Lords Rich.
Dr Stoughton was invited by John Winthrop and John Wilson to take up his ministry in New England, but elected to remain in old England and accepted a preaching appointment at St Mary Aldermanbury, London. His correspondence with Sir Thomas Wroth was intercepted by government agents and was the subject of an official inquiry. Dr Stoughton and his widow, Jane Browne Stoughton, raised two daughters. Jane Browne Stoughton also left a son and daughter by her first marriage.
Dr Stoughton sent his younger stepson, Ralph Cudworth, to study at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where, by the 1650s, he had become Master of Christ's College, married Damaris Cradock Andrewes, become a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists, and was consulted by John Thurloe. James Cudworth's youngest brother, John Cudworth of London and Bentley, Suffolk, became an Alderman of London, and was Master of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers.

Career

Settlement in Scituate, Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts (1634–8)

Having married Mary Parker at Northam, Devon, England, James and his new bride migrated to New England, where they initially settled at Scituate. In December 1634, he wrote to his stepfather, thanking him for the thorough religious education which he had given him. He mentioned that he had planted, successfully, a crop of corn. Scituate's population amounted to 60 residents, and Cudworth's house was used for local religious meetings. He listed the pastors and teachers in the various settlements, noting the arrival of John Lothropp, who landed at Boston in the Griffin together with Anne Hutchinson and Zechariah Symmes. James Cudworth and Timothy Hatherly top the list of those who had prepared the way for Lothropp at Scituate, where he arrived. Cudworth also reported the forthcoming marriage of Dr Stoughton's brother, Thomas, at Dorchester. The letter survives among the British State Papers and was presumably among those seized from Dr Stoughton for scrutiny soon afterwards.
Cudworth was admitted as a freeman of Plymouth Colony. Brethren of Scituate who were members of the Plymouth church had been dismissed in the expectation that they would form their own congregation and, a covenant being joined, Cudworth were registered as members of the Scituate church. John Lothropp accepted formal appointment as their minister. Lothropp's record shows that "My sonn Fuller and my daughter Jane, and Edward Foster and Lettice Handford, marrd att Mr Cudworths by Captaine Standige Aprill 8 ye 4th day of the weeke 1635", which traces Cudworth's connection with Myles Standish back to the first year of his life in America. Cudworth's first children were born at Scituate: James, Mary, and Jonathan.
In October 1636, the Plymouth General Court appointed William Brewster, James Cudworth, and several other prominent citizens to a special committee which was to join with the Governor in reviewing all laws, with proposed changes to laws being presented at the next court meeting.

Removal to Barnstable, Plymouth Colony (1638–46)

The removal of some part of the Scituate population to a new plantation at Barnstable was advocated to the Governor, Thomas Prence, in two letters by John Lothropp. The causes appear to have included a split in the Scituate congregation concerning Lothropp's views on baptism. James Cudworth and his family were among those who removed to Barnstable. They arrived, and were listed there as amongst the first settlers. Their younger children, Israel, Joanna, an unbaptized male child, and Jonathan were born at Barnstable.

Deputy to Plymouth General Court (1649), Assistant Governor (1656–8), and Commissioner (1657)

Cudworth retained his interests in Scituate, and was listed for both locations as among the men "Able To Bear Arms". He was in Scituate, and, Cudworth became a Deputy to Plymouth General Court, and later Captain of the Scituate Militia. During this time, the sovereignty of the English Parliament, and the authority of the puritan Oliver Cromwell, as Lord Protector, enlarged the expectations of the puritan colonial legislature.
Both Captain James Cudworth and his friend Timothy Hatherly were appointed as supervisors of the last will and testament of Myles Standish of Duxbury, Massachusetts, and Cudworth was also a witness to this will. Standish was a Mayflower colonist of 1620, had been Plymouth Militia's first Captain, and was a leading figure in Plymouth Colony. In 1657, James Cudworth and Thomas Prence became the two Plymouth Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England,. Cudworth served as Assistant Governor, during a time which saw the end of William Bradford's last term of office and the commencement of the third and lengthy administration of Thomas Prence.

Stand against persecution (1657–73)

In September 1657, the Commissioners issued a letter, to the authorities of Rhode Island, demanding the suppression of the Quakers; of all the Commissioners, Cudworth alone refused to sign. In December 1658, he wrote a long letter, in which he provided details of the brutally harsh and illegal laws and punishments meted out to the Quakers who the Puritan monopoly in the colonial legislature wished to purge. He reported that this "Antichristian Persecuting Spirit" had been at work during the previous two years, and that he had often had to object to such proceedings. His objections had given rise to a petition against him. This, he admitted, he had done to acquaint himself with Quaker principles ; and he found that he disagreed with the Quakers on various matters, and told the court, which heard the petition, that he was no Quaker: but that, just "as I was no Quaker, so I will be no Persecutor".
When the Act of Court was read before the people at Scituate, there was a great disturbance against him, which he brought under control by making a speech. Consequently, a fresh petition was brought, to which the court answered respectfully that Cudworth was a very useful and accomplished person, and that the only point against him was his association with Quakers. In consequence of this, he and his friend Hatherly had been removed from the Bench at the previous election, and Cudworth himself was relieved of his military command.
The persecutions to which Cudworth referred were fuelled by the actions of the Boston legislature. Cudworth's uncle, Israel Stoughton, had worked with Endecott during the period of the Antinomian Controversy surrounding Anne Hutchinson, but had returned to England. Israel's son, William Stoughton was, during the 1650s, also resident in England. It was the voyage from England of the Speedwell in 1656, and of the Woodhouse in 1657, and the subsequent renewal of their attempts to enter the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Rhode Island or Barbados, which now aroused the Puritan hostility. The treatment of Quakers under Boston laws, whipped up similar fervor elsewhere in the United Colonies in imitation: laws were emended retrospectively so that even minor actions of dissent and, of course, the Quaker refusal to take oaths were punishable by cumulative fines and imprisonments resulting in the eprivation of livelihood. Cudworth noted the strong influence of Quakerism upon the people of Sandwich, in Barnstable County.
At the time of the petitions against Cudworth, the Rhode Island Assembly rebuked the United Colonies Commissioners for their demand concerning preventing the admission of Quakers, and warned that any subsequent civil troubles should be referred to "The Supream Authority of England". Cudworth's letter, written weeks after the death of Oliver Cromwell, naming the relevant members of the legislature and accusing them of arbitrary legislation outside the principles of English law, may reflect this intention. For disobedience to their laws, the Boston authorities executed: William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, Mary Dyer, and William Leddra.
In 1659, James Cudworth was sent, by Scituate, as a Deputy to the Plymouth General Court, but was not approved by the Court. Charged with disaffection to authority, he was ordered to appear before the Court on a bond of £500, and was sentenced to be disfranchised of his freedom of Plymouth Colony, having been found a "manifest opposer of the laws of government". In October 1660, he was questioned concerning a letter of reply received from John Browne of Frampton. In the light of the information which reached England, a lengthy indictment of the persecutions against Quakers in New England was published in London by George Bishop, entitled New-England Judged, with a supplement describing the sufferings of the martyrs, and a full second part was published in 1667. The first volume of Bishop's work included the first publication of Cudworth's letter: it was this, therefore, which may have been influential in causing Charles II, to issue "The King's Missive", which required that any Quakers held by them under sentence of death or other corporeal punishment should forthwith not be proceeded against, but should be returned to England where the charges against them might be considered according to English law.
Before this, in March 1660/61, Cudworth's elder daughter, Mary, had married the Quaker, Robert Whitcomb, and had been fined for disorderly marriage and for choosing each other without parental consent. They were, however, permitted to marry in orderly fashion. In 1665, Cudworth's eldest son, James, also married a Quaker, Mary Howland, and they were fined for fornication.

Rehabilitation (1673), Assistant Governor (1674–80), and Deputy Governor (1681–2)

It was not until the death of the Governor of Plymouth Colony, Thomas Prence, and the election of his long-serving Assistant, Josiah Winslow as Governor, that Cudworth was officially rehabilitated. In June 1666, a majority of the Scituate militia had elected Cudworth as their commander, but this choice was nullified on account of his support for Quakers and his writing against the rulers. The Court remarked, "As to Mr. Cudworth it is directly against the advice of this court, and as to Mr. Pierce he is a stranger to us, therefore Sergeant Daman is directed to take command till further orders." Governor Winslow adopted a more lenient policy towards the Quakers and, among his first actions, released Cudworth and Robinson from prison. Colony records show that "Captain Cudworth, by a full and clear vote, is accepted and reestablished in the association and body of this Commonwealth.". On the same day he was appointed magistrate for Scituate, with powers to solemnize marriages, to grant subpoenas for witnesses, and to administer oaths to witnesses.
Cudworth was also chosen by the Court to lead a military expedition against the Dutch at New York. However, in declining this invitation, he addressed a very thoughtful letter to Governor Winslow, objecting that his wife who was in poor health would be unlikely to survive during his absence, and that he lacked the capabilities demanded by such an undertaking. He was ready to serve King and Country, but wondered why the General Court should choose him over others better qualified. He contended that the "voice of the people" was not always the "voice of God", and that he did not feel that God called him to the present task. He emphasised that he was not motivated, in his refusal, by discontent arising from any former difference: he explained that he had formerly bent his mind and thoughts to military work and other public concerns, but was discharged from them: "and therein I took vox populi to be vox Dei, and that God did thereby call and design me to sit still and be sequestered from all publick transactions, which condition suits me so well that I have received more satisfaction and contentment therein, than ever I did in sustaining any publick place."
Cudworth was chosen again as Assistant Governor, was appointed to take charge of the Plymouth Colony military forces and, during that summer, was in charge of one-hundred Plymouth men and two-hundred Massachusetts men. In December 1675, Governor Winslow became commander-in-chief of the United Colonies forces, and planned a campaign of attacks against the Indians during King Philip's War. Cudworth, now promoted to the rank of Major, took Winslow's place as commander of all Plymouth forces, and marched to the relief of Swansea with Major Thomas Savage. Major Cudworth was appointed, with two others, by the Plymouth War Council as press masters to obtain enough fit and able Scituate men for an expedition against the Native Americans. On December 30, the council further ordered that any person pressed into the colony's service who refused to serve would pay a fine.
Cudworth served as Deputy Governor, and became an official agent for Plymouth Colony. In this capacity he was charged with a mission to travel to England to obtain a new charter. He made his last will and testament in New England, which, since it does not mention his wife, suggests that she may have died. In his will, he named his sons, James, Israel, and Jonathan; his elder daughter Mary's four children ; and his younger daughter, Joanna Jones. The will also left two-thirds of his lands to his eldest son, James, and one-third each to Israel and Jonathan.

Death (1682) and Memorial

James Cudworth is said to have made his journey to England, and to have died, of smallpox, in London. An inventory of his possessions, was compiled, and his last will and testament was proved. His burial place remains unknown. His wife, Mary Parker Cudworth, was presumably buried in Scituate. A memorial stone, in his honor, was erected in the Men of Kent Cemetery in Scituate, Massachusetts, which reads:
A Memorial to Gen. James Cudworth. We Honor Him as a Lover of Religious Freedom, a Brave and Able Commander and a True Patriot

Marriage and Children

James Cudworth married Mary Parker at Northam, Devon, England,. and their children were:

Ancestry