37th Generation

Family of Rev. Edward Bulkeley (5734) & Olive Irby

5809. Mary Bulkeley. Born ca 1567.1

5810. Frances Bulkeley. Born ca 1568.1 Moult. Frances died in 1610. Buried in 1610 in Moulton, Lincoln, Eng.1

In 1598 Frances married Richard Welby, son of Thomas Welby & Elizabeth Thimbleby, in Whaplode, Lincoln. Richard was baptized in Moulton, Lincoln, Eng., in 1564.1

Their children include:
5909 i. Thomas Welby
5910 ii. Ann Welby
5911 iii. Anthony Welby (Died soon)
5912 iv. Olive Welby (ca 1604-1 Aug 1670)
5913 v. Edward Welby

5811. Judith Bulkeley. Born ca 1570.1

5812. Martha Bulkeley. Born ca 1572.1

ca 1695 Martha married Abraham Mellowes.12 Born ca 1570. Abraham died in 1638 in Charlestown, MA.12

Abraham, of Boston, Lincolnshire, came to New England in 1633 and settled at Charlestown.

Their children include:
5914 i. Oliver Mellowes (ca 1598-1638)
5915 ii. Elizabeth Mellowes (-Feb 1618/9)
5916 iii. Anne Mellowes
5917 iv. Abraham Mellowes (-Jan 1615/6)
5918 v. Catherine Mellowes
5919 vi. Edward Mellowes (24 Aug 1610-)

5813. Nathaniel Bulkeley. Born ca 1574.1 Nathaniel died in 1602 in London, England.1

Nathaniel was living iin St. Michael Bassinghall, London, when he made his will, which was proved 4 Dec 1602; he made his father Edward Bulckley, D.D., Executor.1

5814. Deborah Bulkeley. Born ca 1575.1

5815. Dorcas Bulkeley. Born ca 1577.1

Dorcas was Anthony’s second wife.

On 10 Dec 1598 (lic.) Dorcas married Rev. Anthony Ingoldsby.1 Born ca 1560.1 Anthony died in 1627 in Fishtoft, Lincoln, Eng.1

Anthony was the Rector of Fishtoft from 1585 until his death.1

Their children include:
5920 i. Olive Ingoldsby (-bef 22 Apr 1627)

5816. Elizabeth Bulkeley. Born ca 1579.1 Elizabeth died on 14 Oct 1643 in Boston, MA.1

ca 1614 Elizabeth first married Richard Whittingham, son of Baruch Whittingham. Born ca 1580.1 Richard died in 1618.1

Richard, of Stuterton, Lincoln, Gentleman.

Their children include:
5921 i. Capt. John Whittingham (ca 1616-early 1649)

On 9 Jan 1617/8 Elizabeth second married Atherton Hough in Boston, MA.1 Atherton died on 11 Sep 1650 in Boston, MA.1

Atherton had been mayor of Boston, in Co. Lincoln, 1628, and was an alderman there in 1633, when he resolved to come with his minister, the famous John Cotton, and arrived with his wife Elizabeth in the Griffin, 4 Sep 1733. He was freeman 4 mar 1634, chosen an Assistant 1635, left out in 1637 as of Antinomian tendency, and chosen representative for Boston at the same, and following courts.10

Their children include:
5922 i. Rev. Samuel Hough (ca 1621-30 Mar 1662)

5817. Sarah Bulkeley. Born ca 1580.1 Sarah died bef 1611 in Keysoe, Bedfordshire.

Sarah married Oliver St. John, son of Henry St. John (ca 1545-) & Jane Neal. Born ca 1575. Oliver died in Mar 1626/7. Buried on 23 Mar 1625/6 in Keysoe, Bedfordshire.1

Oliver, of Keysoe, Bedford, Gentleman.1

Their children include:
5923 i. Oliver St. John (ca 1598-31 Dec 1673)
5924 ii. Dorothy St. John (ca 1602-)
5925 iii. Elizabeth St. John (12 Jan 1604-3 Mar 1676/7)
5926 iv. Edward St. John (ca 1606-)
5927 v. Judith St. John
5928 vi. Judith St. John (ca 1609-)

5818. Paul Bulkeley. Born ca 1581.1 Paul died in Oct 1610. Buried on 19 Oct 1610.1 Education: Paul was admitted pensioner at Queen’s College, Cambridge, 18 Mar 1600/1; B.A. 1604/5; M.A. 1608; Fellow 1607-1610.1

5819. Rev. Peter Bulkeley. Born on 31 Jan 1582/3 in Odell, Bedfordshire, Eng.13 Peter died in Concord, MA, on 9 Mar 1658/9; he was 76.14 “mr Revernd Peter Bulkely, husband to Grace Bulkely his wife died, 9th march : 1658. 1659”. Education: St Johns, Cambridge, B.A. 1605/6, M.A. 1608.1

Peter was ordained deacon and priest Jun 1608, Canon of Lichfield 1609, and University preacher 1610. He was instituted 12 Jan 1609/10 as Rector at Odell, “compounded” 9 May 1610 (paid of one year’s salary to the Bishop).1

Jacobus explains the circumstances of Peter’s state when he came to New England as follows:1
    “To too many ministers of Bulkeley’s generation, the ministry was merely a convenient and genteel way of obtaining a livelihood. We can easily understand how Puritanism, with its earnestness and its definite program of reform, should appeal to many sincere and devout clergymen. We must believe that these were the motives which led Peter Bulkeley to adopt Puritanism. For a long period, his official superiors were satisfied to overlook his lack of strict conformity with the practices of the English Church. The situation changed when Archbishop Laud came into power, for he was determined to rid the church of non-conformist ministers.
    “The crisis came in 1634, when Mr. Bulkeley was suspended for non-attendance at the visitation of Sir Nathaniel Brent, Vicar-General. Afterwards he came and confessed that he never used the surplice nor the cross in baptism, ‘accounting them ceremonies, superstitions and dissentaneous to the holy Word of God.’ This of course meant that unless he admitted his error and showed a willingness to yield to the opinions of his ecclesiastic superiors, sooner or later he would lose his encumbency. Feeling a call to continue the preaching of the gospel, he decided to come to New England where he would be secure from the persecutions of Archbishop Laud. His case was apparently allowed to drag, and it is possible that he secured delays through the influence of some of his highly-placed comlections. At any rate, his successor at Odell, Henry Levit, S.T.B., was not instituted as Rector until 1 July 1635, over a month after Mr. Bulkeley had left the shores of England.”

Peter’s son came to New England before the rest of the family, which soon followed. The family managed to escape England by obscuring their intention to leave. On 13 Apr 1635 “Jo: Backley” aged 15 was entered on the list for those accepted for sailing on the Susan & Ellen. Five days later, “Ben: Buckley” and 11 (probably Joseph), and “Daniel Buckley” aged 9 were entered. On 8 May 1635 “Grace Bulkley” aged 33 (Peter’s recent bride, his second wife) was entered on the list for the Elizabeth & Ann, and the next day “Peter Bulkley” aged 50 was entered on the list for the Susan & Ellen. Jacobus speculates that through some subtrifuge that Grace did not board the Elizabeth & Ann, but the Susan & Ellen with her family. Although the name of Thomas (who was then 18) does not appear on a shipping list of a ship bound for New England, he probably arrived in New England about the same time as the rest of the family, perhaps with them on the Susan & Ellen. (A “Tho: Bulkley” aged 32, 15 May 1635, appears on the shipping list of the Plaine Joan, bound for Virginia.)1

From Jacobus’ Bulkeley Genealogy:1
    “Mr. Bulkeley's son, Edward, had doubtless made arrangements for the reception of his family, and temporarily they sojourned in Cambridge, Mass. In addition to several relatives of Mr. Bulkeley, there were a few of his former tenants and parishioners who had come or were planning to come, to join him in the settlement of the wilderness. In the autumn of 1635, a tract of land at Musketaquid, six miles square, was purchased from the Indians. ...
    “The wealthy settlers like Mr. Bulkeley, who brought £6000, and Mr. Thomas Flint, who brought £4000, not only shared the privations of the early years of colonization, but greatly impaired their fortunes. The soil of the uplands was poor; there were floods that destroyed the crops produced on the meadows; and there were heavy losses of livestock. Cotton Mather has told us of Mr. Bulkeley's generosity to his servants and dependents, which in addition to the losses suffered by all must have depleted his resources.
    “Sad to relate, religious dissensions had already broken out in the youthful colony, which could not but involve the new settlement of Concord. In 1636 Mr. Bulkeley and Mr. John Jones organized the church, and in April 1637 they were ordained at Cambridge, the former as teacher, the latter as pastor, of the church at Concord. The colonial ministry was divided at the time in their attitude towards the teachings of Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. Mr. Bulkeley belonged to the party known as Legalists, while Mr. Cotton and others were more liberal. Mr. Bulkeley was unsparing in his condemnation of Mrs. Hutchinson, and called her ‘that Jezabell whom the Devill sent over thither to poison these American Churches with her depths of Satan, wllich she has learned in the schools of the Familists.’
    “These religious differences seem remote to us to-day, but were very real and important to the participants. It is pleasing to record that Mr. Bulkeley and Mr. Cotton, despite their differences of view, remained personally good friends. Mr. Cotton complained of the want of brotherly love he had experienced, and Mr. Bulkeley replied in his letter: ‘I doe confesse I have found as little towards myself as ever I did in any place God brought me unto. It is the place I have desired to show love unto for His sake, who has set his name here, and yet I have found so many strangenesses, alienations, and so much neglect from some who would formerly have visited me, yet will they pass by my dore as if I were a man they had not knowne, that I have sometimes wondered what the cause of the change could be, whether in myself or in them. Remembering myne own love and respect unto yourself, I hartily desire you to lay aside all jealousy concerning the same, assuring you before Him, who knoweth our hearts, that my soule is knit with you as it hath been (in some measure) ever since God brought me in acquaintance with you, though in some things I have difference in apprehension and of judgment.’
    “A great Ecclesiastical Council was called at Cambridge, 30 Aug. 1637, to deliberate upon the differences of opinion which had wrought all the tumult. Mr. Bulkeley and Mr. Hooker of Hartford were chosen Moderators, and after long discussion, certain opinions (eighty-two in all) were declared heretical, and Mr. Cotton succeeded in convincing the Council of his substantial orthodoxy.
    “The Covenant adopted by the Concord church contains no statement of doctrine, but is a simple binding of the members to one another ‘to walke henceforth as becometh the people of God.’ Mr. Bulkeley devoted himself to the needs of his parishioners in Concord, but at times was concerned about the evils of his day. In a letter he wrote, ‘I am persuaded that except there be some means used to change the course of things .... our churches will grow more corrupt day hy day, and tumult will arise hardly to be settled.’ Early stirrings of the feminist spirit also troubled him, for women were beginning to claim their rights in Concord. He inquired of Mr. Cotton ‘how to act when a sister takes offence against a brother,’ whether she has the same liberty as a brother to deal with the offending brother. He feared an affirmative decision, ‘for there being neither male nor female in the Iord,’ allowing the sister to call a brother in question might end in giving the woman power over the man.
    “The trials and discouragements at Concord continued, and in 1644 Mr. Jones and several families removed to Fairfield, Conn. With them went Mr. Bulkeley’s sons, Thomas and Daniel, the former married to a daughter of Mr. Jones. Mr. Bulkeley remained in his chosen field, and continued to minister to the Concord church, although only thirty families remained after the departure of the Jones contingent. Gradually, difficulties were overcome, and the town began to prosper. ... His book, The Gospel Covenant, was the first religious book of importance written in New England, and one of the first American books to be printed; it went through several editions in England.”

Cotton Mather’s biography of Peter Bulkeley:13
    “It has been a matter of some reflection, that among the pretended successors of Saint Peter, there never was any Pope that would pretend unto the name of Peter; but if any of them had been christened by that name at the font, they afterwards changed it, when they came unto the chair. No doubt, as Raphael Urbine, the famous painter, being taxed, for making the face in the picture of Peter too red, replied, He did it on purpose, that he might represent the apostle blushing in heaven to see what successors he had on earth: so these infamous apostates might blush to hear themselves called Peter, while they are conscious unto themselves of their being strangers to all the vertues of that great apostle. But the denomination of Peter might be with an everlasting agreeableness claimed by our eminent Bulkly, who, according to the spirit and counsel of Peter, ‘fed the flock of God among us, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a willing mind.’
    “He was descended of an honourable family, in Bedfordshire; where for many successive generations the names of Edward and Peter were alternatively worn by the heirs of the family. His father was Edward Bulkly, D.D., a faithful minister of the gospel; the same whom we find making a supplement unto the last volume of our books of martyrs. He was born at Woodhill (or Odel) in Bedfordshire, January 31st, 1582.
    “His education was answerable unto his original; it was learned, it was genteel, and, which was the top of all, it was very pious: at length it made him a Batchellor of Divinity and Fellow of Saint John’s Colledge in Cambridge: the colledge whereinto he had been admitted, about the sixteenth year of his age; and it was while he was but a junior batchellor that he was chosen a fellow.
    “When he came abroad in the world, a good benefice befel him, added unto the estate of a gentleman, left him by his father; whom he succeeded in his ministry at the place of his nativity; which one would imagine temptations enough to keep him out of a wilderness.
    “Nevertheless, the concern which his renewed soul had for the pure worship of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the planting of evangelical churches to exercise that worship, caused him to leave and sell all, in hopes of gaining the ‘pearl of great price’ among those that first peopled New-England upon those glorious ends. It was not long that he continued in conformity to the ceremonies of the church of England; but the good Bishop of Lincoln connived at his non-conformity, (as he did at his father's,) and he lived an unmolested non-conformist until he had been three prentice-ships of years in his ministry. Towards the latter end of this time, his ministry had a notable success, in the conversion of many unto God; and this was one occasion of a latter end for this time. When Sir Nathanael Brent was Arch-Bishop Laud’s General, as Arch-Bishop Laud wag another’s, complaints were made against Mr. Bulkly, for his non-conformity, and he was therefore silenced.
    “To New-England he therefore came, in the year 1635; and there having been for a while at Cambridge, he carried a good number of planters with him, up further into the woods, where they gathered the twelfth church then formed in the colony, and called the town by the name of Concord.
    “Here he buried a great estate, while he raised one still for almost every person whom he employed in the affairs of his husbandry. He had many and godly servants, whom, after they had lived with him a fit number of years, he still dismissed with bestowing farms upon them, and so took others after the like manner, to succeed them in their service and his kindness. Thus he cast his bread both upon the waters and into the earth, not expecting the return of this his charity to a religious plantation, until ‘after many days.’
    “He was a most excellent scholar, a very well-read person, and one who, in his advice to young students, gave demonstrations that he knew what would go to make a scholar. But it being essential unto a scholar to love a scholar, so did he; and in token thereof endowed the library of Harvard-Colledge with no small part of his own.
    “And he was therewithal a most exalted Christian; full of those devotions which accompany a ‘conversation in heaven’; especially, so exact a Sabbath-keeper, that if at any time he had been asked, ‘whether he had strictly kept the Sabbath ?’ he would have replied, Christianus sum, intermittere non possum [I am a Christian; I cannot swerve from duty]. And conscientious, even to a degree of scrupulosity. That scrupulosity appeared particularly in his avoiding all novelties of apparel, and the cutting of hair so close, that of all the famous namesakes he had in the world, he could have least born the sir-name of that well known author, Petrus Crinitus [Peter the Long Haired].
    “It was observed that his neighbors hardly ever came into his company, but whatever business he had been talking of, he would let fall some holy, serious, divine, and useful sentences upon them, ere they parted: an example many ways worthy to be imitated by every one that is called a minister of the gospel.
    “In his ministry he was another Farel, Quo Nemo tonnuit fortius [than whom no one thundered louder]; he was very laborious, and because he was, through some infirmities of body, not so able to visit his flock, and instruct them from house to house, he added unto his other publick labours on the Lord’s days, that of constant catechising; wherein, after all the unmarried people had answered, all the people of the whole assembly were edified by his expositions and applications.
    “His first sermon was on Rom. i. 16: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.’ At Odel he preached on part of the prophecy of Isaiah, and part of Jonah, and a great part of the gospel of Matthew, and of Luke; the Epistles to the Philippians, and of Peter, and of Jude; besides many other scriptures. At Concord he preached over the illustrious truths about the person, the natures, the offices of Christ; the greatest part of the book of Psalms: the conversion of Zacheus; Paul’s commission, in Acts xxvi. 18. His death found him handling the commandments; and John xvi. 7, 8, 9. He expounded Mr. Perkins his six principles, whereto he added a seventh, and examined the young people, what they understood and remembered of his exposition.
    “Moreover, by a sort of winning, and yet prudent familiarity, he drew persons of all ages in his congregation to come and sit with him, when he could not go and sit with them; whereby he had opportunity to do the part of a faithful pastor, in considering the state of his flock.
    “Such was his pious conduct that he was had much in reverence by his people; and when at any time he was either hasty in speaking to such as were about him, whereto he was disposed by his bodily pains, or severe in preaching against some things, that others thought were no way momentous, whereto the great exactness of his piety inclined him; yet those little stinginesses took not away the interests which he had in their hearts; they ‘knowing him to be a just man, and an holy. observed him.’
    “And the observance which his own people had for him was also paid him from all sorts of people throughout the land; but especially from the ministers of the country, who would still address him as a father, a prophet, a counsellor, on all occasions.
    “Upon his importunate pressing a piece of charity, disagreeable to the will of the ruling elder, there was occasioned an unhappy discord in the church of Concord; which yet was at last healed by their calling in the help of a council, and the ruling elder's abdication. Of the temptations which occurred on these occasions, Mr. Bulkly would say, ‘He thereby came—1, To know more of God; 2, To know more of himself; 3, To know more of men.’ Peace being thus restored, the small things in the beginning of the church there, increased in the hands of their faithful Bulkly, until he was translated into the regions which afford nothing but concord and glory; leaving his well-fed ‘flock in the wilderness’ unto the pastoral care of his worthy son, Mr. Edward Bulkly.
    “It is remarked, that a man’s whole religion is according to his acquaintance with the new covenant. If then, any person would know that Mr. Peter Bulkly was, let him read his judicious and savoury treatise of the gospel covenant; which has passed through several editions, with much acceptance among the people of God. Quickly after his first coming into this country, he preached many sermons on Zech. ix. 11: ‘The blood of thy covenant.’ The importunity of his congregation prevailed with him to preach this doctrine of the covenant over again in his lectures, and fit it for the press. He did accordingly; and of that book the well-known Mr. Shepard, of Cambridge, has given this testimony: ‘The church of God is bound to bless God, for the holy, judicious, and learned labours of this aged, experienced, and precious servant of Jesus Christ, who hath taken much pains to discover, and that not in words and allegories, but in the demonstration and evidence of the spirit, the great mystery of godliness wrapt up in the covenant; and hath now fully opened many knotty questions concerning the same, which happily have not been brought so full to light until now; which cannot but be of singular and seasonable use to prevent apostasies from the simplicity of the covenant and gospel of Christ.’
    “Having offered this particular account of a book, which is to be reckoned among the first-born of New-England, I may not forbear doing my country the service of extracting from it one paragraph, which we may reckon the dying charge of a Moses to an Israel in a wilderness:
    “‘And thou, New-England, which art exalted in priviledges of the gospel above many other people, know thou the “time of thy visitation,” and consider the great things the Lord hath done for thee. The gospel hath free passage in all places where thou dwellest; Oh! that it might be glorified also by thee! Thou enjoyest many faithful witnesses, which have testified unto thee the gospel of the grace of God. Thou hast many bright stars shining in thy firmament, to give thee the “knowledge of salvation from on high, to guide thy feet in the way of peace.” Be not high-minded because of thy priviledges, but fear because of thy danger. The more thou hast committed unto thee, the more thou must account for. No people’s account will be heavier than thine, if thou do not walk worthy of the means of thy salvation. The Lord looks for more from thee than from other people: more zeal for God, more love to his truth, more justice and equity in thy ways: thou shouldest be a special people, an only people, none like thee in all the earth. Oh! be so, in loving the gospel, and the ministers of it, having them in “singular love for their work’s sake.”
    “‘Glorifie thou the word of the Lord, which has glorified thee. Take heed, least for neglect of either, God “remove thy candlestick” out of the midst of thee; lest being now “as a city upon an hill,” which many seek unto, thou be left “like a beacon upon the top of a mountain,” desolate and forsaken. If we walk unworthy of the gospel brought unto us, the greater our mercy hath been in the enjoying of it, the greater will our judgment be for the contempt.’
    “His first wife was the daughter of Mr. Thomas Allen, of Goldington: a most vertuous gentlewoman, whose nephew was the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Allen. By her he had nine sons and two daughters. After her death, he lived eight years a widdower, and then married a vertuous daughter of Sir Richard Chitwood; by whom he had three sons and one daughter.
    “Age at length creeping on him, he grew much afraid of outliving his work; and his fear he thus expressed in a short Epigram, composed March 25, 1657:

Pigra senectutis jam venit inutilis aetas,
    Nil aliud nunc sum quam fere pondus iners.
Da tamen, Alme Deus, dum vivam, vivere laudi
    Aeternum sancti Nominis usque Tui.
Ne vivam (moriar potius!) nil utile Agendo:

    Finiat opto magis, mors properata Dies.
Vel doceam in Sancto Caetu tua verba salutis,
    Caelestive canam Cantica sacra Choro;
Seu vivam, moriarve, tuns sim, Christe quad uni
    Debita mea est, debita morsque tibi.

[Translations by Jacobus:1
I've reached the evening of my mortal day;
    A sluggish mass of clay is this my frame;
Yet grant, O God, that while I live, I may
    Live to the glory of Thy holy name,
And if in life I may not honour Thee,
From such dishonour my Death set me free.

Whether within Thy holy courts below
    I preach salvation unto dying men—
Or in Thine Upper Temple, with the flow
    Of angel-quirings blend my raptured strain—
Living or dying, Thine I still would be:
My life and death alike are due to Thee.]

    “He was ill, as well as old, when he writ these verses; but God granted him his desire. He recovered, and preached near two years after this, and then expired, March 9, 1658-9, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.
    “The Epigram newly mentioned, invites me to remember that he had a competently good stroke at Latin poetry; and even in his old age affected sometimes to improve it. Many of his composures are yet in our hands. One was written on his Birth-day, June 31st, 1654:

Ultimus iste Dies Mensis, mihi primus habetur;
    Quo caepi lucem cernere primus erat.
Septuaginta duos Annos exinde peregi.
Atque tot Amlorum est Ultimus iste Dies.
    Praeterito Veteri jam nunc novus incipit Annus
O utinam mihi sit mens nova, vita nova.

[This last day of the month is first to me,
For with it dawning life began to be.
    Nor have its mild returns been slow or few:
Of Seventy-two long years this is the last;
A new year now begins, the old year passed:
    Oh may my heart and life be also new!]

    “Another of them was written on an Earthquake, October 29, 1653:

Ecce Dei nutu tellus pavefacta tremescit,
    Terra Tremens mota est sedibus ipsa suis,
Nutant Fulcra Orbis, mundi compago soluta est;
    Ex vultu irati contremit ille Dei.
Contremuit tellus, imis concussa Cavernis
    Ponderibus quanquam sit gravis illa suis.
Evomit ore putres magno cum murmure ventos,
    Quos in visceribus clauserat ante suis.

Ipsa tremit Tellus scelerum gravitate vivorum,
    Sub sceleris nostri pondere Terra tremit.
O nos quam duri! Sunt ferrea pectora nobis;
    Non etenim gemimus cum gemit omne solum.
Quis te non metuit, metuit quem Fabrica mundi
    Quemque timent coeli, terraque tota tremit.
Motibus a Tantis nunc tandem terra quiescat,
    Sed cessent potius crimina nostra precor.

[The solid earth, before an angry God,
Shakes at the terrors of His awful nod.
The balance of the mighty world is lost—
Its vast foundations, in confusion toss’d,
Through all the hollows of its deepest caves
Rock like a vessel foundering in the waves.
Volumes of sulphurous air, with booming sound,
Burst through the gorges of the parted ground.

The earth doth heave, with groanings of distress,
Beneath the weight of human sinfulness.
Shall not our eyes drop penitential rain,
When all creation travaileth in pain?
Great God! who shall not fear Thee in the hour
When heaven and earth are trembling at Thy power!
Father, to nature’s tumult whisper peace,
And bid the wickedness of man to cease!]

    “The rest we will bury with him, under this Epitaph

    Obiitjam qui jamdudum abierat Bulklaeus;
    Nec Patriam ille mutavit, nec paene vitam:
    Eo ivit, quo ire consueverat, et ubi jam erat.

    [Bulkly hath left us for a happier shore—
    Nay, rather lingers where he was before.
    He ne’er hath slept beneath this humble sod,
    For both in life and death he was with God.]”

Will: The will of Rev. Peter Bulkeley:1
I Peter Bulkely minister of the Word, being now in the Seventy six yeare of my age, & ready to go the way of all flesh, do make this my last Will, & testament as followeth, first I do hereby testifie unto all that I do dy in the fayth of that Doctrine, which I have here preached in Concord, among my hearers, testifying & sealing the same with this my last confession, that it is the saveing truth of God, and therefore do humbly desire of God, that those who have opposed & gaine sayed may in time bethink themselves, & repent, that they may find mercy with the Lord in that behalfe, even the same mercy as I desire unto myne owne soul, desireing also that though I Have manifested much weaknes in my dispensacion, yet the hearers would labor to express the power of what they have received, so that both I and they may rejoice together in the day of Christ. Now as touching my worldly estate which is now very little in comparison of what it was, when I came first to this place, I do dispose thereof as followeth. first I do give unto my Sonne Edward Bulkely, (to whom I did at the time of his mariage give such a portion as I was then able to give) if he continue and stay in this land, these books, following, hereafter to be set downe in a Schedule anexed to this my will, or if he should remove from this Country to England then (instead of ye books before expressed in gen'all, and to be particularly named in the Schedule) I give unto him five pounds of English money to be paid him there in England by my Sonne John. Item, I do give unto my daughter in law, the widow of my Sonne Thomas deceased, the vallue of one kow, to be payd unto her by my Executor hereafter named, only with this exception, that if her necessity do require the same to be payd unto her whiie I am liveing, then that so given in my life time, shall be instead of the other here before named, to be payd by my Executor, and my Executor to be discharged of that legasy. Item I do give to my Sonne Eliezur, either the farme which is now used by Widow Goble, & her sonne Thomas Goble adjoining to Mrs. Flents farme, or my mill here in the Towne, or the hundred acres of land be the same more or less, which Iyes at the neerer end of the great meadow, & together with this land I do give him also twenty acres of meadow liing towards the further end of the great meadow, beyond the poynt of upland, which shooles down into the meadow, towards the River, one of these three, namely either the farme, or the mill, or the hundred acres of land with the twenty acres of meadow, I do hereby give unto my said Sonne Eleezur but which of the three to settle upon him, I do not at present resolve, but I leave the consideracion thereof to my Executor & the overseers of this my last will hereafter named desireing them to let him have that which will be most usefull & profitable to him, when he is fit to make use thereof. Item I do give & bequath to my Sonne Peter, the next in vallew of these three things before named, so that when Eliezurs portion is sett out, then the next in worth to be for Peter, and the third of the three to remayne to those that shall inheritt mine house in which I do now live. Item I do give to my Sonne John, Mr. Cartwright upon the Rhemish testament & Willetts Sinopsis. Item to my sonne Joseph, Mr. Hildersham upon the one & fiftieth psalme, and ye History of the Councell of Trent in English, and Cornelius Tacitry[Tacitus?] in English, & Mr. Bolton on Gen, 6: concerning a Christian walking with God. Item, I do bequeath to my Lord Oliver, St. John Lord Cheif Justice of the Common pleas, my great English Bible in folio which hath the letters of his name (O & G.) upon the cover of it; intreating him to accept this small token of my due love which I owe unto him, and as a testimony of my thankfull achlowledgement, of his kindness and bounty towards me, his liberality, having been a great help & support unto me in these my later times, & many Straytes. Item I do give unto my cousen Mr. Samuel Haugh Dr. Twisse in folio, against the Arminians. Item I do give to my Daughter Dorothy, the hundred & fifty pounds of English money which I have in England, in the hands of my Sonne John, the most part thereof came to me and my wife by the death of one of my wives Sisters, I mencion here £150. be the same more or less,—and though I suppose it is some what more, but what it is in just and exact account I do not know, but whatsoever it is, to my daughter Dorothy I give it, which being lesser then to suffice for her suteable disposall in marriage, I do therefore desire my wife when God shall take her to himselfe, to add something more to the said 150£. as God shall enable her. and in the meane time I will that if my Sonne John do make any profitt thereof. that then not only the said 150. be it more or less, but the profit of it also, shall be reserved to the increase of my daughters portion. The rest of my Estate unbequeathed before, whether moveables or unmoveables, as namely my house, land, whether granted me first by the Towne or bought by money from others, cattle or money, or household stuffe, or plate or whatsoever, I do give unto my dear wife, & her heirs by me begotten, giving her power, hereby to dispose by sale or otherwise to her benefitt of any part of the laulds I have in the Towne (except before bequeathed & given) to her owne benefitt as her need shall require. And in case any of my children before named by me in this my will, to whom I have bequeathed the legacies named, should prove disobedient to their mother, or otherwise vitious & wicket (which God of his mercy prevent) then I will that the legacy before bequeathed to any of them so proveing disobedient & wicked shall be wholly in the power of my said wife their mother, to deale with them therein, as shee herselfe in christian wisedome shall think meet either to give them their legacy, or to keep it to herselfe, and my will further is that if any of the three children before named, Eliezer, Peter or Dorothy, should dy before their legacyes be paid them, that then the legacy of the deceased shall go to the other two surviveing, if my wife do not stand in need of it, but if shee do stand in need thereof, for her necessary mainetenance, then she shall have power to take it to herselfe. It may perhaps be expected that I should bequeath something to the Publique use of the Countrey, which practice I wish were more observed then it is by those that are of ability. But were my estate better then now it is, I suppose I may be therein excused, in regard, of what I have done formerly in the beginning of these plantations, wherein what I have done, some few do know, but I will here be spareing therein. This only I know and may say, that which I did then was an help to the weake beghming, which then were, more then what was then done, I do not thinke God requires of me now, considering my wasted estate, which I have here consumed, haveing little to leave to the children what God hath given me, and to my pretious wife whose unfeigned piety: and singular grace of God shineing in her, doth deserve more then I can do for her. Her & her children by me, I do now leave to the goodnes, and mercifull providence & care of God, my mercifull father in Christ Jesus, beseeching him that as he hath given them to mee so he would take them again as a gift from my hands, owneing them as his owne, being a father to the fatherlesse, and a Judge unto the widow: to defend her case, in case any should go about to do her wrong. And of this my will & testament, I do make my loveing wife mine only Executrix, desireing my loveing Brethren, Robert Merriam & Luke Potter, the faythfull Deacons of our Church, & William Hunt & Timothy Wheeler to be overseers of this my will, and to assist my said wife in any thing wherein shee shall stand in need of their help, giving to Robert Merriam Mr. Rutherfords treatise upon the woman of Canaan, to Luke Potter Mr. Rutherfords upon the dying of Christ, on Jno. 12. To Wm Hunt Mr. Cooper on the 8th chapter to the Romans, & To Timothy Wheeler Mr. Dike on Jeremiah 17th concerning the deceitfulnes of mans heart, which. small toakens, though the be unanswerable, to the care or paynes they may meet with upon these occasions, yet my hope and confidence is that they will afford there helpe herein, more out of conscience towards God, then out of respect of reward from man. And to this my last will & Testament, I have set my hand and seal, this fourteenth day of Aprill in the year one thousand six hundred fifty and eight. 1658. By me Peter Bulkeley & a seale and 17th of febr. in the same year.

An addition to this my Will added Jan. 13. 1658. Be it known also, that as a part of my will now written, I do add this namely that whereas I have agreed for a sixteenth part of the mill and for a like sixtenth part in the Iron Works which is now in frameing, I do give all my interest in both these unto my beloved wife

    Peter Bulkely Jan. 13: 1658.

A request to the overseers of this my will & testament, These I do earnestly intreate not to suffer any materiall or substantiall point of my Will to be altered or changed, on any pretence whatsoever, especially, if it do concerne my deare wife, whose interest & welfare I do cheifely respect, so that be the pretence either coulor of law, or matter of conscience, yet I desire them to maintain the substance of my Will as I have set it downe, as being that I have herein discharged my duty to each one, so farre as my weake decaied estate will beare in Witness whereof I have here subscribed my name this 26th of febr. 1658:

    By me Petcr Bulkeley.

Witness hereof,
John Joanes,
Thomas Bateman,
Thomas Browne.

The names of the books which I bequeath to my Sonne Edward:
    1: I give him all Piscators Commentaries on the bible.
    2: Dr. Willett on Exod. & Levitt. on Sam. 1. 2. & on Daniell.
    3: Tarnovious in 2 vollums upon prophetas minores.
    4: Dr. Owen, against the Arminians in 4.°
    5: I give him one part of the English anotations upon the bible, the other part to be to my Son Gershom these my two Sons shall divide the books between themselves and if they desire to have the whole, they may join together in buying the whole and then they may divide those two as they have done these of mine, & so each of them may have the whole worke.
    6: Mr. Aynsworth notes upon the 5 books of Moses & upon the psalmes. Item whereas I above bequeathed the vallew of one kow, to my daughter in law the Widow of my Sonne Thomas, I do hereby discharge mine Executor of that legacy, I haveing already disposed the vallew expressed to her use and benefitt.

    Peter Bulkely.

    The witnesses above written gave upon oath to the truth of this will, the 20th of the 4th mo. 1659. Before me Simon Willard.
    Entered and Recorded, June 21, 1659.
    By Thomas Danforth Recorder.

On 12 Apr 1613 when Peter was 30, he first married Jane Allen, daughter of Thomas Allen (5964) (ca 1560-14 Apr 1635) & Mary Fairclough (5875) (ca 1555-Apr 1631), in Goldington, Bedfordshire, Eng.1 Born ca 1587 in Goldington, Bedfordshire. Jane was baptized in Goldington, Bedfordshire, on 13 Jan 1587/8.1 Jane died in Dec 1626 in Odell, Bedfordshire. Buried on 8 Dec 1626 in Odell, Bedfordshire.1

Their children include:
5929 i. Edward Bulkeley (ca 1614-2 Jan 1695/6)
5930 ii. Mary Bulkeley (Died soon) (1615-Jan 1615/6)
5931 iii. Thomas Bulkeley (ca 1617-1658)
5932 iv. Nathaniel Bulkeley (Died young) (ca 1618-Feb 1628/9)
5933 v. Rev. John Bulkeley (ca 1619-24 May 1689)
5934 vi. Mary Bulkeley (ca 1621-)
5935 vii. Joseph Bulkeley (ca 1623-aft 1658)
5936 viii. Daniel Bulkeley (ca 1625-bef 1648)
5937 ix. Jabez Bulkeley (Died young) (ca 1626-ca Dec 1629)

In Apr 1635 Peter second married Grace Chetwood, daughter of Sir Richard Chetwood (ca 1560-aft 1631) & Dorothy Needham (-aft 1629).1 Born ca 1602.1 Grace died on 21 Apr 1669 in New London, CT.1

On 13 Apr 1635 “Grace Bewlie” aged 30 and “Jo[hn] Backley” aged 15 were enrolled at London as passengers for New England on the Susan & Ellen. On 18 Apr 1635 “Ben[jamin] buckley” aged 11 and “Daniell Buckley” aged 9 were enrolled at London on the same ship. On 8 May 1635 “Grace Bulkley” aged 33 was enrolled at Longdon as a passenger for New England on the Elizabeth & Ann. On 9 May 1635 “Peter Bulkley” aged 50 was enrolled on the same ship. Son Edward came to New England before the rest of the family becoming a member of Boston church on 22 Mar 1634/5.15

From Styles’ Ancient Wethersfield:
    “A curious and very live tradition in the family, is connected with the mother’s, Mrs. Grace Bulkeley’s voyage across the Atlantic, viz., to the effect that while on the why hither, ‘she apparently died, and that her husband, supposing land to he near and unwilling to consign the beloved form to a watery grave, urgently entreated the Captain that the body might be kept one day more and yet another day, to which, as no signs of decay appeared, he consented. On the third day, symptoms of vitality were observed, and before land was reached, animation so long suspended, was restored, and though carried from the ship an invalid, she recovered and lived to old age.’—Caulkins’ New London, 132.
    “Some antiquarians have treated this as a fairy-tale; but, after, all, from a physicians’ standpoint, it may be quite true. The strongest argument against the validity of the tradition is the fact that Savage says that Rev. Peter and his bride came over to New England in separate ships. Hotten confirms this, but he also mentions a Grace Bewlie, ae. 30, as on the same ship with Peter and Jo. Backlie and the other children, so that Hotten can be used to prove either theory. And it is quite improbable that Rev. Peter would, if he could have managed it otherwise, have allowed his new and young wife to be separated from him in this long and tedious voyage to their new home. It being assumed, then, (Savage to the contrary) that husband and wife were on the same ship—we have only to remember, as to the trance, that such swoons, or trances, are apt to occur with pregnant women (especially in first pregnancies), at about the time of their ‘quickening'’—and it would be nothing strange or impossible that Mistress Grace, a young and impressible woman, passing through all the anxieties and excitement of such a leaving of home and such a rough voyage, should have, at the time of her ‘quickening’ (which must, from the dates, have occurred while on the ocean) experienced a nervous disturbance of the nature of a trance. Gershom, her first-born, was born about four months after his parents arrived in New England; and the name (Gershom) which was given him, meaning, as it does, ‘an exile’ (~'I have been a stranger in a strange land.’—Exodus II, 22) affords us a glimpse, perhaps, of the thoughts, anxieties and forebodings which filled the young mother’s heart.”

After the death of Grace’s husband Peter Bulkeley, she lived with her son, Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, at New London, CT. Bradstreet recorded her death in his Journal in these words: “Mrs Grace Bulkley ye widow of Mr Peter Bulkley sometime Pastour of ye chh of Concord, deceased. She was a woman of great piety and wisdome and dyed in a good old Age. Her sickness was long and very afflictive.”1

Their children include:
5938 i. Rev. Gershom Bulkeley (Jan 1635/6-2 Dec 1713)
5939 ii. Eleazer Bulkeley (ca 1638-)
5940 iii. Dorothy Bulkeley (2 Aug 1640-)
5941 iv. Dr. Peter Bulkeley (12 Aug 1643-1691)

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