James Cudworth (colonist)

General James Cudworth ( ; 1612 – 1682) was one of the most important men in Plymouth Colony.Samuel Deane, 'Gen. James Cudworth' in History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1831 (James Loring, Boston 1831), pp. 245–51. He served as Deputy to the Plymouth General Court (1649), Commander of militia in King Philip's War (1675–8), Assistant Governor (1656–8, 1674–80) and Deputy Governor (1681–2) of Plymouth Colony, and Commissioner to the New England Confederation (four times, 1655–81).Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620–91 (Salt Lake City: 1986), p. 275Douglas Richardson

Family background Rev. Ralph Cudworth (1572/3–1624) James Cudworth was the eldest son of The Rev. Dr Ralph Cudworth, who was a student, then graduate and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I Part 1, p. 431. In 1606, Dr Cudworth was instituted as Vicar of Coggeshall, Essex (at the presentation of Robert, 3rd Lord Rich (later 1st Earl of Warwick)),Clergy of the Church of England database, CCEd Appointment Record ID: 193664. to replace Thomas Stoughton (who, having been active in the Conference of Reformed Ministers at Dedham, Essex, had been deprived by High Commission for nonconformism).P. Collinson, J. Craig and B. Usher, Conferences and Combination Lectures in the Elizabethan Church: Dedham and Bury St Edmunds 1582–90, Church of England Records Society Vol. 10 (Boydell Press, 2003). See also J. Craig, 'Members of the Dedham Conference,' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Themes. Dr Cudworth resigned his Fellowship (c.1610) to accept the rectorate of Aller, Somerset, England (which was in the presentation of Emmanuel College).

At the Parish Church of St. Mary Newington, Southwark (1611), Ralph Cudworth married Mary Machell (c.1582–1634),Marriage Register of St Mary Newington, Southwark, June 1611, appears as 'Rodolph' Cudworth ministr, married to Mrs Mari Machell ye xviii day by lisence'. who had been a nurse to Henry, Prince of Wales (1593/4–1612), eldest son of James I.This story was contained among the materials collected by Edward Chandler for the biographical preface to J.L. v. Mosheim, Radulphi Cudworthi Systema intellectuale hujus universi, 2 Vols (sumtu viduae Meyer, Jena 1733), I, 'Praefatio Moshemii' (34 sides, unpaginated), side 19. It appears likely that Mary was a granddaughter of John Machell (d.1558), clothworker, Alderman and Sheriff of London (1555–56). A pedigree tradition,E. Bellasis, ' 1886, 'Machell of Crackenthorpe', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society VIII (1886) , 2nd Machell pedigree (from John Machell of London) at end of article, based partly upon a pedigree tradition which is in places confused. reinforced by a more recent claim,D. Richardson, 'Cudworth', Jewels of the Crown Newsletter 4 (Fall 2009), pp. 4–6, at p. 5. (see Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition (2011), III, p. 10, items 15–16). argued that she was the daughter of Mathew Machell of Shacklewell, Hackney, Middlesex (John Machell's second son by his second marriage) and his wife Mary Lewknor (who obtained a licence to marry in 1568).General licence issued 1 July 1568, in J.L. Chester, ed. G.J. Armytage, Allegations for Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, 1520–1610 Vol. I, Harleian Society Vol. XXV (London 1887), p. 39. Mary Lewknor was one of the daughters of Edward Lewknor and his wife Dorothy Wroth (sister of the Edwardian courtier Sir Thomas Wroth (c.1518–73)). It is also contended that Mary Machell was the daughter of Mathew Machell's elder brother, John, by his second wife Ursula Hynde (daughter of Francis Hynde of Madingley Hall, Cambridge, and his wife Jane Verney). Despite extended debate, it is not absolutely certain which Machell (John or Matthew) was father of Mary, but these are the likely candidates.

Ralph and Mary Cudworth had three sons and at least two (possibly three) daughters, before Dr Cudworth died at Aller (1624).Will of Raphe Cudworth, Doctor of Divinity, Parson of Aller, Somerset (P.C.C. 1624). James Cudworth was baptized there (2 August 1612), followed by Elizabeth (1615), Ralph (1617), Mary (1619) and John (1622), and probably Jane (c. 1624).

Rev. John Stoughton (d.1639) Dr Cudworth was succeeded, as Rector, by The Rev. Dr John StoughtonP.S. Seaver, 'Stoughton, John (bap. 1593, d. 1639), Church of England clergyman', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (son of Thomas Stoughton of Coggeshall),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) who was also a student, graduate, and Fellow of Emmanuel College.Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Part I Vol. 4, p. 171. Stoughton later married Ralph's widow, Mary (Machell) Cudworth (c.1582–1634).Mosheim's Biographical Preface (1733): see also 'Memoir of Ralph Cudworth' in The Present State of the Republic of Letters Vol. 17 (1736), at pp. 24–25: 'An Account' by T. Birch in his edition of Ralph Cudworth's True Intellectual System (J. Walthoe etc., London 1743), at p. vi. Dr Stoughton, an influential clergyman and preacher, took on the education of his stepchildren and, following the death of Mary their mother (Summer 1634), remarried to Jane Browne (daughter of John Browne of Frampton, Dorset).

John Browne was closely associated with John White of Dorchester, Dorset,R.T. Cornish, 'White, John (1575–1648), clergyman and promoter of colonization', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Dr Stoughton, and others, in the promotion of religious emigration and colonization in New England: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). Dr Stoughton's brother, Thomas, sailed in the Mary and John (1630) to found Dorchester, Boston in Massachusetts Bay Colony (later becoming a freeman: 18 May 1631),English Ancestry of Thomas Stoughton, pp. 79–84. (HathiTrust) and was followed (1632) by his brother, Israel Stoughton, (who was admitted freeman: November 5, 1633).R. Thompson, 'Stoughton, Israel', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Mary Machell's cousins,Jane Machell (a daughter of John Machell, Sheriff of London 1555–56) married 'Richard Riches' at St Mary Aldermary, City of London on 13 December 1574. J.L. Chester, The Parish Registers of St Mary Aldermary, Harleian Society, Registers Vol. V (London 1880), p. 5. Sir Nathaniel Rich and his sister Margaret, Lady Wroth, wife of Sir Thomas Wroth (1584–1672) of Petherton Park, Somerset, near Aller (whose father, Richard Rich (d.1598), was the acknowledged illegitimate son and substantial legatee of Richard, 1st Lord Rich), were also highly active in the promotion of colonial enterprise in the Americas.G. Yerby and P. Hunneyball, 'Wrothe, Sir Thomas (1584–1672), of Petherton Park, Som.', in A. Thrush and J.P Ferris, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604–29 (Cambridge University Press, 2010). History of Parliament online . Lady Wroth had been present at Dr Cudworth's deathbed (1624) and, at the time of her father's death (1598), their minister at Leigh, Essex (England), had been William NoyesWill of Richard Rich of Leigh, gentleman, Essex Record Office D/ABW 32/91. (whose son, James Noyes,Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, III, Chap. XXV: 'An Appendix Containing Memoirs of Mr. James Noyes,' Reprint (Hartford, 1855), Vol. 1, pp. 145–48. and nephew, Thomas Parker,Magnalia Christi Americana, III, Chap. XXV: 'Scholasticus. The Life of Mr Thomas Parker' pp. 143–45. Reprint (Hartford, 1855), Vol. 1, pp. 480–488.Parker's father Robert Parker was a Puritan minister who became a religious exile in the Netherlands. migrated (1634) and had important roles in the settlement and ministry of Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony). As a member of the Rich family, she and they were generally associated with the interests, influence and patronage of the Lords Rich (later Earls of Warwick).

Dr Stoughton was invited by John Winthrop and John Wilson to take up his ministry in New England (1632),The Winthrop Papers Vol. III, 1631–1637 (Massachusetts Historical Society 1943), pp. 88–89. but elected to remain in old England and accepted a preaching appointment at St Mary Aldermanbury, London. His correspondence with Sir Thomas Wroth was intercepted by government agents and was the subject of an official inquiry (in which both men escaped serious consequences).N. Tyacke, Aspects of English Protestantism, c.1530–1700 (Manchester University Press, 2001), pp. 124–25. See State Papers, Charles I, Domestic, SP 16/297/39, Letter dated 12 September 1635. J. Bruce (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Charles I: 1635 (Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green 1865), pp. 104–05, 377–78. Dr Stoughton (d. 1639)Will of John Stoughton, Doctor in Divinity and Curate of Saint Mary Aldermanbury, City of London (P.C.C. 1639). and his widow, Jane Browne Stoughton (d. 1658), raised two daughters (Jane, and another who died in infancy). Jane Browne Stoughton also left a son and daughter by her first marriage (to the clergyman Walter Newburgh).Will of John Browne of Frampton (P.C.C. 1659) dated 1658, Audley Quire; "John Newburgh, his sister Elizabeth, and Jane Stoughton, three of the children of my deceased daughter Jane".

Dr Stoughton sent his younger stepson, Ralph Cudworth (1617–88), to study at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where, by the 1650s, he had become Master of Christ's College, married Damaris Cradock Andrewes (daughter of Mathew Cradock, first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company), become a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists, and was consulted by John Thurloe.D.A. Pailin, 'Cudworth, Ralph (1617–1688), philosopher and theologian', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. James Cudworth's youngest brother, John Cudworth (1622–75)Will of John Cudworth, Girdler of London (P.C.C. 1675). of London and Bentley, Suffolk, became an Alderman of London, and was Master of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers (1667–68).W. Dumville Smythe, An Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers, London (Chiswick press, London 1905), pp. 109–10.

Career Settlement in Scituate, Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts (1634–8)