Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford, in 1636, portrait in 1846
Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 - July 7, 1647) was a prominent Puritan colonial leader, who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding speaker and a leader of universal Christian suffrage.
Hooker was born on July 5, 1586 in England, as the son of Thomas Hooker and Susannah Pym. After preaching briefly in the parish of Esher in Surrey, England, Hooker became lecturer to the Church of St. Mary at Chelmsford, Essex, around 1626, where he delivered fervent evangelical addresses. Such church lectureships, an innovation of Puritanism, came under attack from the Church of England in 1629, and in 1630, Hooker fled to Holland. In 1633, he immigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony. At New Towne (now Cambridge), he became pastor of a company of Puritans, who had arrived from England the previous year; in expectation of his joining them, they had been called Mr. Hooker's Company. They became restive under the influence of John Cotton, and in 1636, he led a group to Connecticut to settle Hartford, where he served as pastor and was active in formulating the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639), which helped shape aspects of the Constitution.
In 1647, Hooker died in Hartford.
Family[]
Hooker married his first wife, whose name was not known.
- Joanna Hooker - m. Thomas Shepard
- Mary Hooker - m. Roger Newton
Hooker married Susanna Garbrand on April 3, 1621 in Buckinghamshire.
- Sarah Hooker - m. John Wilson, Jr.
- Samuel Hooker - m. Mary Willet
- John Hooker - unmarried.
- Sarah Hooker - died young.