Quick Facts
Biography
John Webster (bef August 16, 1590 – April 5, 1661) was an early colonial settler of New England, serving one term as governor of the Colony of Connecticut in 1656.
Life
Webster was born in Cossington, Leicestershire, England, the son of Matthew Webster (1548–1623) and his wife, Elizabeth Ashton. He traveled to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with his wife and five children in the early 1630s, settling in the area of Newtowne (now Cambridge, Massachusetts). He left in 1636, in all probability with Thomas Hooker and his adherents, to settle Hartford, Connecticut. His first public office was as a member of a committee that joined with the Court of Magistrates in determining the course of war with the Pequot Indians. He was chosen from 1639 to 1655 to be magistrate, and in 1655 he was chosen as Deputy Governor of the Colony of Connecticut. In 1656 he was elected governor, and he served as first magistrate from 1657 to 1659.
In addition to his service as Governor of the Connecticut Colony, John Webster was one of the nineteen men representing the towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor in 1638-39 who participated in the drafting and adoption of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, a document that is widely acknowledged as establishing one of the earliest forms of constitutional government.
A split amongst the church members in Hartford grew when the current minister at the First Church in Hartford, Samuel Stone, declared that the requirement that stated only parents that had both taken communion should be allowed to have a child baptized would be removed, and non-communicants would be allowed to vote. John Webster, among others, were a part of a council that agreed that this was not acceptable. Reverend Stone chose to ignore this sentiment, and the issue was taken up with the General Court in Massachusetts. The Court ruled that although Reverend Stone had been too strict in ignoring the majority of his parishioners, he was right in liberalizing the baptism ritual. It was also found that those who disagreed with Stone could remove themselves to a location in Massachusetts to practice how they saw fit. This eventual location chosen was Hadley, Massachusetts, and in 1659, a new community was built there. Webster lived there for less than two years, for in 1661 he contracted a fever and died.
Family
Webster married Agnes Smith (born August 29, 1585 in Cossington, Leicestershire, England) on November 7, 1609 at Cossington. She died in Hadley, Massachusetts in 1667. They had nine children (all born in England):
- Matthew (born about February 11, 1608/1609), married Sarah Waterbury and Mary Reeve
- Margaret (born about February 21, 1609/1610 married William Bolton and Thomas Hunt
- William (born December 26, 1614) married Mary Reeve
- Thomas (born November 24, 1616) married Abigail Alexander
- Robert (born November 17, 1619) married Susanna Treat
- Anne (born July 29, 1621) married John Marsh
- Elizabeth (born March 16, 1622/1623) married William Markham
- Mary (born March 30, 1623) married Jonathan Hunt (or died before April 15, 1623)
- Faith (born April 8, 1627, died 10 days later)
His descendants are numerous, including:
- Earl W. Bascom, cowboy sculptor
- Frank A. Dudley, lawyer, politician, hotelier and business owner
- Philo Farnsworth, television inventor
- Noah Webster, lexicographer
- Delia Ann Webster, (descended from his son Thomas) from Vermont, Conductor on the Underground Railroad, imprisoned in the Kentucky Penitentiary, had financial support from Northern Abolitionists for her work in Kentucky. She rescued many Slaves, including the Lewis Hayden family. She was arrested when she returned from taking them to freedom in Ohio.
- Pool, William (1897). Landmarks of Niagara County, New York. Niagara County, NY: D. Mason & Company, Publishers. pp. 130–131. Retrieved 14 October 2015.