William Noyes


The Revd. William Noyes, Rector of Cholderton, Wiltshire, was an Anglican clergyman of Puritan teachings. Under the influence of his instruction, members of his family succeeded him in Puritan ministry both in England and in Massachusetts Bay Colony, at first in Newbury, Essex County, where two of his sons, James and Nicholas, and his nephew Thomas Parker, were prominent figures. His grandson Nicholas Noyes was closely involved in the Salem witch trials. The religious motivations which led them to New England also gave rise to an extensive American branch of the Noyes family, of which William Noyes is the direct progenitor.

Origins and early life

William Noyes was the son of Robert Noyes and Joan Attridge of Urchfont, Wiltshire. The Noyes family were already established in various branches in Wiltshire during the 16th century. William Noyes of Urchfont, yeoman purchased the prebend of Urchfont in 1540 from the Earl of Hertford, afterwards Protector Somerset. His son Richard Noyes of Manningford Bruce mentions "the sons of Robert Noyes of Cholderton" in his will of 1590. This may refer to Robert the father of William and his brothers Richard Noyes, of Cholderton, yeoman, who married Sara and died in 1639, and Robert Noyes, yeoman, born 1570, who died 20 January 1659 and was buried at Cholderton. The Noyes families of Urchfont and Cholderton were of the same stock, but there were various Noyes households.
In November 1588 William matriculated from University College in the University of Oxford, and gained his B.A. in May 1592. He was ordained deacon in September 1593 and priest in December of the same year by John Coldwell at Salisbury Cathedral. In around 1595 he married and his three elder sons were born to him by c.1600. His wife Anne was, according to their grandson Nicholas Noyes of Salem, the sister of Robert Parker, M.A. with whom William Noyes was closely associated. However this is inconclusive, and it has been argued alternatively that she was sister of Parker's wife Dorothy Stevens, who was certainly the sister of Revd. Richard Stevens of Stanton St Bernard, Wiltshire. It has further been speculated that they were daughters of Nicholas Stephens and his wife Frances Brydges, daughter of Sir Richard Brydges, of Burderop Park, Chiseldon, Wiltshire. Neither Dorothy and Richard Stevens, nor Anne Stevens, appear as children of Nicholas in his will nor among other records of the family. The claim therefore lacks positive verification. Robert Parker and his wife had one son, Thomas Parker, who was the nephew of William Noyes.
In 1598 Noyes appears as 'minister of this place' at Leigh, Essex, in the household of Richard Rich, when he witnessed Rich's nuncupative will in the presence of his daughter Margaret Rich. In around 1605 she became sister-in-law to Sir William Calley by marriage to Paul Bowdler. Calley, of a family long associated with Burderop, purchased the Manor in 1619. In c.1614 Margaret remarried to Sir Thomas Wroth of Petherton Park, Somerset.

Rector of Cholderton

Noyes was instituted Rector of Cholderton in the episcopacy of Henry Cotton in May 1602. Patronage was in John Thornborough in 1567, and advowson being granted to Robert Noyes, Giles Hutchens of Salisbury was assigned as William's lay patron. In July of the following year the appointment was renewed under the patronage of George Kingsmill, Justiciar in the King's Bench, Westminster. Noyes held the living until shortly before his death. In 1604 Parker presented Richard Stevens, his brother-in-law, as Perpetual Vicar of Stanton St. Bernard, and in 1607 was obliged to flee religious persecution to the Netherlands, where he remained until his death in 1614.
Noyes became the schoolmaster of his nephew Thomas Parker. The Revd. Cotton Mather, pastor of the North Church in Boston, gave an insight into his character in describing Parker's early education: "This Mr. Thomas Parker was the only son of his father, who being very desirous to have him a scholar, committed him unto perhaps a godly, but a very severe master. Under this hard master, though he was well nigh discouraged by the Dulness which he apprehended in his own capacity, yet the consideration of his father's desire made him, with an early piety, to join his prayers unto his pains, that he might have his education prospered; and God so prospered him, that he arrived unto a desirable degree of knowledge, both in the Tongues and in the Arts."
William Noyes's grandson, the Revd. Nicholas Noyes of Salem, Massachusetts, gave Mather a valuable narrative of his uncle James Noyes, in which he explained that his grandfather was "a very learned man". William's children no doubt also received instruction from their father. It was said by Nicholas Noyes that after William Noyes's death Thomas Parker tutored James and engaged him as assistant teacher in the Free School at Newbury, Berkshire, where they taught together. There it was, perhaps, that with the help of Dr. William Twisse of Newbury, Parker converted James Noyes to his ministry. James's elder brother Nathan, who was to succeed their father as Rector at Cholderton, matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford in May 1615, aged 17, and obtained his B.A. little more than a year later in October 1616. He was ordained deacon at Marsh Baldon near Oxford in March 1617.
The Parish Register for William Noyes's time as Rector was presumably lost or destroyed by 1651, when, after the death of Nathan, his successor Samuel Heskins began a new book and supplied the confused record: "Mr. William Noyes Rector of Choldington about 30 years departed this life anno 1616. Mr. Nathan Noyes succeeded his father in the Rectorie of Choldrington and departed this life in ye year 1651." Diocesan records show that a Faculty Office dispensation was granted to Nathan to hold the Rectory in his father's place on 4 February 1622: William Noyes resigned the Rectory the next day, and Nathan was appointed Rector immediately with the Privy Counsellor Edward, Lord Zouche, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and a Commissioner of the Virginia Company, as his patron.
William Noyes died intestate before 30 April following, when an inventory of his estate was made. Anne, his widow, entered into a bond of administration dated 28 May jointly with Cuthbert Parker, yeoman, of Whitchbury, Hampshire, both signing in well-trained hands and both using heraldic seals. She lived to the age of 82, long enough for her burial at Cholderton to be recorded in Samuel Heskins' register on 7 March 1657. Her will, made on 18 March 1655/56, refers to her two sons James and Nicholas in New England and left to them and 'to such children as they have living' 12 pence apiece, by which disinheritance she prevented them from challenging her other legacies.
The old church of Cholderton was pulled down in 1840.

Family

The children of Rev William Noyes and his wife Anne, purported daughter of Nicolas Stephens, Esq. of Burderop Manor, are shown as follows: