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A Purpose Lost: Cultural Consequences of the English Civil War for Congregationalist New England, 1630 - 1649

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A Purpose Lost: Cultural Consequences of the English Civil War for Congregationalist New England, 1630 - 1649 Durham E-Theses A Purpose Lost: Cultural Consequences of the English Civil War for Congregationalist New England, 1630 - 1649 DANDURAND, ELI,ALAIN How to cite: DANDURAND, ELI,ALAIN (2015) A Purpose Lost: Cultural Consequences of the English Civil War for Congregationalist New England, 1630 - 1649 , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11103/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A Purpose Lost: Cultural Consequences of the English Civil War for Congregationalist New England, 1630 - 1649 ! ! ! ! Eli A. Dandurand Department of History Durham University 2014 A Purpose Lost: Cultural Consequences of the English Civil War for Congregationalist New England, 1630 - 1649 ! Eli A. Dandurand ! Abstract ! Though rarely identified as such, the English Civil War was a transformative event in early New England history. Founded upon religious idealism, the New England colonies were particularly susceptible to the religious and political movements in England which influenced Puritan motives and emigration. Reliant on a steady flow of immigrants to sustain the young colonial economy, the Puritan community in New England found itself reliant on the continuation of religious dissatisfaction in England strong enough to drive emigrants to settle in the colonies. During the 1640s, the religious and political contest produced by the English Civil War completely overturned the status quo of England and enticed many Puritans to remain in England rather than seek religious satisfaction in the wilderness of America. Foreseen by John Winthrop and confirmed by the 1640s trend of ‘remigration’ out of New England, religious reforms in England reduced the colonies’ former appeal and forced a reevaluation of New England’s niche within the English world. This thesis examines the religious and political ramifications which war in England had on Puritan New England, not only demographically, but also culturally. Communication and intimate trans-atlantic connections, along with direct participation in the wars and debates of England, illustrate colonists’ continued dedication, as well as vulnerability, to the seemingly-distant events across the Atlantic. The religious and political resolutions following the wars of the 1640s are shown to have had deep impacts on New England by removing the religious incentive to remove to the colonies. New England religious ‘declension’, a concept heavily debated by historians, is examined in the context of Civil War outcomes across the Atlantic rather than in its traditional internal colonial context. The notion of declension itself is revealed to have arisen as a harbinger of 1640s cultural transformation in response to the war in England. ! !1 ! ! ! ! ! A Purpose Lost: Cultural Consequences of the English Civil War for Congregationalist New England, 1630 - 1649 ! ! ! Eli A. Dandurand ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Submitted for the Qualification of Master of Arts ! Department of History Durham University ! ! 2014 !2 Contents! ! !Statement of Copyright and Acknowledgments!! ! ! ! 4! Introduction !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 5! Chapter 1 - This Solemn Enterprise: ! !New England’s Beginning and Connections with England !! ! ! 14! New England Origins, Conceptions, and Promotion in Print 16 Unity and Separation - New England’s Contradictions 29 New England’s Intellectual Relevancy and Integration with Old 36 Chapter 2 - New England’s Tears and Old England’s Fears: !Shifting Perceptions of New England and the Transatlantic Civil War 49 Communication and Transatlantic New England Connections 51 New England Remigration and Civil War Involvement 61 Royalist and Episcopal Sentiments of New Englanders 69 New England as the Alternative 74 Persecution, Returning Soldiers, and Opinions of New England 82 Cultural Impact and Preserving New England Relevancy 89 Chapter 3 - ’New England’s Way’: !Transatlantic Religious Discourse and Civil War Consequences 101 New England’s Reputation in England 104 The Convergence of Church and State 114 Presbyterianism and New England Congregationalism 124 New England Congregationalism and the Westminster Assembly 129 New England Declension and Cultural Revision 143 Conclusion 157 Bibliography 165 !3 Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. ! ! Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to the entire history department at Durham University for providing an exceptional setting and experience while undertaking historical studies and for sponsoring a research trip to London during the course of my research. I would particularly like to thank my advisors, Dr. Alex Barber and Dr. Adrian Green, who have both provided outstanding supervision and guidance for the completion of this thesis. Through their efforts, I have grown and learned greatly from this research experience. I would also like to thank my former professors Paul Deslandes, Andrew Buchanan, and Brian Walsh for their support and encouragement during my academic career; my friend, Katie, for welcoming me back to England, making me feel at home, and assisting with all things British; Emily, for support, entertainment, and countless hours working together !online; and my family and friends, for everything. ! Dedication Lastly, I would like to thank my brother, Daniel, for his support since childhood. From watching Sesame Street together to postgraduate school, he has always been there for help, wisdom, and advice, and has emboldened me to aspire to achieve more than I ever would !have thought possible without his encouragement. This thesis is dedicated to him. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !4 Introduction! Early colonial American history, especially concerning the Puritan settlers in New England, is often retrospectively analysed as the foreshadowing precursor to American sovereignty and independence.1 In turn, the American Revolution is often taken for granted, and even was by contemporaries, as an inevitable conclusion, either fated or deliberate, to the founding of New England.2 Contemporary conditions and motives for the earliest New England settlers, however, were not those which have been anachronistically attributed to them. Migrant Puritans removing to New England were neither, as professor Perry Miller argued, transient settlers collectively intent on uprooting and returning to England at the earliest opportunity for reformation, nor an isolated ‘distant curiosity’ to observers in England as David Cressy has suggested.3 Rather, the New England Saints, despite theological tensions with the Crown and established Church of England, maintained an intimate connection with England and participated as an integrated entity within the English world while they simultaneously attempted to establish their own reformed version of England in the New World. If the Saints were dissatisfied with the establishment in England, they needed to contend with the development of their own religious and political systems in the colonies. By the mid-1630s and 1640s, a firm antipathy toward Arminian hierarchy became a defining feature of Puritan theology.4 Subsequently, New England ministers and magistrates were 1 Arthur H. Shaffer, The Politics of History: Writing the History of the American Revolution (Chicago, IL: Precedent Publishing, Inc., 1975). p.182. 2 Godfrey Hodgson, The Myth of American Exceptionalism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010). p.5-6. 3 Perry Miller, Errand into the Wilderness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956). p.11; David Cressy, Coming Over: Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1987). p.26. 4 Nicholas Tyacke, Aspects of English Protestantism C. 1530-1700, Politics, Culture, and Society in Early Modern Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002). p.150. !5 forced to contend with their specious positions against papist hierarchy while they themselves attempted to devise an effective new government and church organisation within the colonies.5 The resolution produced was the New England Way, which dispensed with Episcopal hierarchy in favour of what John Cotton outlined as, ‘the way of churches walking in brotherly equalitie, or co-ordination, without subjection of one Church to another’.6 New England’s Way, which the colonial Saints themselves termed ‘Congregationalism’ and which detractors would label ‘Independency’ in England, reflected a compromise between anti- hierarchical sentiments and necessary leadership, accomplished by reducing ecclesiastical hierarchy to individual congregations. Establishing a new system of church and governance in the colonies raises the question of how such fundamental alterations in traditional
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