John Stoughton (1593?–1639) was an English clergyman, of influential millennial views.P.S. Seaver, 'Stoughton, John (bap. 1593, d. 1639), Church of England clergyman', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He was the stepfather and preceptor in their youth of Ralph Cudworth and James Cudworth.J.C. Whitebrook, 'Dr. John Stoughton the Elder', Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society Vol. VI, no. 2 (October 1913), pp. 89-107, continued in Vol. VI, no. 3 (February 1914), pp. 177-87 (Internet Archive).

Origin and religious background Thomas Stoughton, father of John

John Stoughton, baptized at Naughton, Suffolk in 1593, was one of the three sons of the clergyman Thomas Stoughton (died 1622),E.McL. Turner, The English Ancestry of Thomas Stoughton, 1588–1661, and his son Thomas Stoughton, 1624–84, of Windsor, Conn. (Artcraft Press, Waterloo, Wisconsin 1958), at pp. 62-73. (HathiTrust) Warning: the page sequence in this view is muddled. See Internet Archive version (Login only). and his wife, Katherine.Thomas should not be confused with his contemporary Thomas Stoughton who married Katherine Evelyn (aunt of the diarist John Evelyn), who was son of Sir Lawrence Stoughton of Stoughton in Stoke, Guildford, Surrey, see W. Bruce Bannerman, The Visitations of the County of Surrey, Harleian Society Vol. XLIII (1899), p. 87. Thomas Stoughton, the father, was born an only child in Sandwich, Kent. The University career suggested for him in the Alumni CantabrigiensesJ. & J.J. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge University Press, 1927), Part I Vol. 4, p. 172. is shown by a detailed study to be a confusion with another person.P. Collinson, J. Craig and B. Usher, Conferences and Combination Lectures in the Elizabethan Church: Dedham and Bury St Edmunds 1582–1590, Church of England Records Society Vol. 10 (Boydell Press, 2003), p. xciv and 'Biographical Register' pp. 252-55, at p. 253, fn. 2 and p. 254 and p. 255 (Google). He became Rector of Naughton from 1586 to 1594, when he was deprived by Archbishop Whitgift.Clergy of the Church of England database, Vacancy Evidence Record ID: 241617. During this time his first children, including John and Thomas, were born.

Involved with the Conference of reformed ministers at Dedham, Essex, his disputation with Andrew Oxenbridge was on the point of justification by faith alone (sola fide).Collinson, Craig and Usher, Conferences and Combination Lectures, pp. 103-04, 253-55. J. Craig, 'Members of the Dedham Conference,' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Themes. He served as assistant minister at Great Burstead, Essex before being presented by Baron Rich of Leez to the Vicarage of Coggeshall, Essex in 1600. By 1603, when his wife Katherine died, she had borne him twelve children, of whom a further son IsraelR. Thompson, 'Stoughton, Israel (bap. 1603, d. 1644), colonist in America,' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. and four daughters also reached adulthood.(Thomas Stoughton), The Christian Sacrifice as set forth in Romans XII, 1,2 (1622), Postscript. British Library 4371, b.20. As one not conforming to the Anglican formulae he was deprived by High Commission of his living in 1606: Ralph Cudworth, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, was instituted Perpetual Vicar in his place at the presentation of Baron Rich,Clergy of the Church of England database, CCEd Appointment Record ID: 193664. and held it for two years. After some time at Great Totham Stoughton returned to Kent (by 1615) and died there in 1622.Conferences and Combination Lectures, pp. 251-55.

Works Thomas Stoughton published four principal works:

A Generall Treatise against Poperie (1598)A generall treatise against poperie and in defence of the religion by publike authoritie professed in England and other churches reformed. VVherein they that either want leisure to read, or that haue not iudgement to conceiue, or that are not able to buie the learned treatises of other concerning particular points of religion, may yet euidently see poperie not to be of God, and our religion to be acceptable in his sight. Very necessarie for these times, for the confirmation and strengthening of men in our religion, that neither by Iesuits, nor by any other, they may be drawne to poperie, or any other heresie or sect: and likewise for the winning of Papists and atheists to an vnfained liking and true profession of our religion. By Thomas Stoughton minister of the word (Printed by Iohn Legat, Printer to the University of Cambridge, 1598). Full text at Umich/eebo. The Dignitie of God's Children (1610)The Dignitie of God's Children: or an exposition of 1 John iii. 1, 2, 3, plentifully showing the comfortable ... and most blessed state of all God's children, and also ... the base ... condition of all other that are not the children of God (Printed by Thomas Haueland, for Thomas Man, and are to be sold at his shop in Paternoster Row, at the signe of the Talbot, London 1610). Two profitable treatises (1616)Two profitable treatises: I. Of Davids love to the word: II. Of Dauids meditation on the word of God. The one shewing the excellencie of the word, and therefore worthy of the love of all men: and what be the trials and testimonies; as likewise the impediments and helpes of the said love. The other shewing the necessitie of the continuall meditation of the word by all men that will bee saved: and that as well for knowledge as for practice and obedience: removing likewise the things that may hinder, and laying forth the things that may further the said meditation of the word, either generally by all men, or particularly by ministers of the word (Printed by Edward Griffin for Arthur Iohnson dwelling in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the White horse, London 1616). Original at (Google). The Christians sacrifice (1622)The Christians sacrifice: much better then all the legall sacrifices of the Iewes; and without the which, all the said legall sacrifices of the Iewes, euen when they were in force, were not acceptable to God. Or, a logicall and theologicall exposition of the two first verses of the twelfth to the Romanes, with all the doctrine in the said two verses, plainly laid forth, and fitly applied according as these times do require the same. Wherein also besides the orthodoxall exposition of the said words, diuers other places of Scripture by the way occurring, before somewhat obscure, are so naturally interpreted, as that the iudicious reader shall thinke his paines well bestowed in vouchsafing to reade this treatise following. With the authors postscript to his children, as it were his last will and testament vnto them (Printed by William Iones, London 1622). Original at Google.

The Generall Treatise against Poperie was dedicated to Robert, Lord Rich, with a letter to his readers including friends in Kent, London, Essex and Suffolk. The Two Profitable Treatises were dedicated to the Mayor and Jurats of Sandwich, were published in London in 1616, and were dated by Stoughton from St Bartholomew's Hospital in Sandwich. The Christians Sacrifice (dedicated to Robert (2nd) Earl of Warwick, and Baron of Leez, and to his son Robert, Lord Rich) contains "The Authors Postscript to his children as it were his last will and testament unto them", dated 22 August 1622. He states he has lived to twice his father's age, and twelve years more. Having seven children then living, he declares he has nothing to leave them but his precepts. "Let none of you be grieved that I have left you nothing of my inheritance in Kent, neither of my lands since, that I purchased in Suffolke, as also in Essex, all being now gone, and the price thereof spent: not riotously or otherwise lewdly, but by other meanes."Stoughton, The Christians Sacrifice, Postscript, pp. 252-58 (Google).

Life University John Stoughton reached university age while his father was still in East Anglia, and entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1607, where he was tutored by William Sancroft the elder, uncle of Archbishop Sancroft.F.J. Bremer, Congregational Communion: Clerical Friendship in the Anglo-American Puritan Community, 1610–1692, New England Studies (Northeastern University Press, Boston 1994), p. 31, referring to Letter of 1615 in Harleian MSS 3785 no. 29. Graduating B.A. in 1611 and M.A. in 1614, he was elected a Fellow of the college in 1616. His ordination as priest is probably that recorded in December 1617, performed by Samuel Harsnett:CCEd Ordination Record ID: 194231. he took the degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 1621.Alumni Cantabrigienses Part I Vol. 4, p. 171. In the following year his father died, but by this time John was well-established in his university position. In 1623, when the Master of Emmanuel, John Preston (admitted 1622), sought confirmation of a college statute concerning the requirements for his residency, John Stoughton's signature headed the list of Fellows' names who certified their formal response in two separate orders.E.S. Shuckburgh, Emmanuel College, Cambridge College Histories (F.E. Robinson & Co., London 1904), pp. 58-60 (Internet Archive).

He was considered a preacher of unusual eloquence. Two notable sermons given by him in 1624, reflecting political circumstances of the time, concern the theme of marriage. Early in 1623/24 he preached at Paul's Cross in London The Love-Sick Spouse, on a text of lament from the Canticles interpreted to signify the separation of Christ from His true Church. The Song of Solomon was a rich source for contemporary theological exegesis directed against the threat to protestantism posed by royal marital alliance with Roman Catholic Spain or France. Stoughton quoted many classical and patristic sources in his exposition. About ten months later, in The Happinesse of Peace preached during a royal visitation to Cambridge, he spoke to like point before a courtly audience which cannot have missed his meaning.J. Shami, ' The Love-Sick Spouse: John Stoughton's 1624 St. Paul's Cross sermon in context,' in W.J.T. Kirby and P.G. Stanwood (eds), Paul's Cross and the Culture of Persuasion in England, 1520–1640 (Brill, Leiden & Boston 2013), pp. 389-407.

Aller, Somerset

In 1624 the College living of Aller,A.P. Baggs, R.J.E. Bush and M. Tomlinson, 'Parishes: Aller ', in A History of the County of Somerset Vol. 3, ed. R.W. Dunning (V.C.H., London 1974), pp. 61-71. (British History Online accessed 4 June 2016) in Somerset, became vacant by the death of Dr. Ralph Cudworth, who had resigned his own fellowship to marry and settle in the Rectory there in 1610. John Stoughton succeeded him as Rector in 1624 and married his widow Mary (née Machell). Here he developed connections with Sir Thomas and Dame Margaret Wroth of Petherton Park, who were highly active in colonial enterprises in North America. Dame Margaret, cousin of Robert Rich and sister of Sir Nathaniel Rich, and probably a near relation of Dr. Stoughton's wife,For this connection see D. Richardson, ed. K.J. Everingham, Magna Carta Ancestry 2nd Edn (2011), II, p. 10 items 15-16, but contrast A. Boaz, Specific Ancestral Lines of the Boaz, Paul, Welty and Fishel Families (Otter Day Books, LLC, 2014), pp. 479-81. had witnessed the elder Dr. Cudworth's deathbed testament.Will of Dr. Ralph Cudworth of Aller, Somerset (P.C.C. 1624). Also present was the minister Anthony Earbury of nearby Westonzoyland.