Jonathan Mayhew (October 8, 1720 – July 9, 1766) was a noted American
Congregational minister at
Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts.
Early life
Mayhew was born at
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...
, being fifth in descent from
Thomas Mayhew (1592–1682), an early settler and the grantee (1641) of
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...
and adjacent islands. Thomas Mayhew, Jr. (1622–1657), his son John (d. 1689) and John's son,
Experience Mayhew (1673–1758), were active
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
among the Indians of Marthas Vineyard and the vicinity.
Mayhew graduated from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
in 1744 and in 1749 received the degree of
D.D.
A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity.
In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...
from the
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...
.
Theological views
So
liberal were his theological views that when he was to be ordained minister of the West Church in Boston in 1747, only two ministers attended the first council called for the ordination, and it was necessary to summon a second council. Mayhew's preaching made his church essentially the first
Unitarian Congregational church in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, though it was never officially Unitarian. He preached the strict unity of God, the subordinate nature of
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
, and
salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
by character. Like other Unitarians of this time, Mayhew believed God punished whole communities if the people were not moral and pious enough.
On March 20, 1760, Boston experienced a fire that consumed over three hundred buildings and left about a thousand people without homes. Three days later, Mayhew preached a sermon that proclaimed that God had caused the fire to chastise Bostonians. Mayhew declared that God had “determined to let loose his wrath upon the city to ‘rebuke us in his anger, and chasten us in his hot displeasure’. ” Therefore, Mayhew said, God “caused his wind to blow; and suddenly raised it to such a height, that all endeavours to put a stop to the raging flames, were ineffectual”. Mayhew finished his sermon by warning the people of Boston that unless they repented and reformed enough, they should expect an even greater punishment.
Political views
In politics, Mayhew bitterly opposed the
Stamp Act, and urged the necessity of colonial union (or communion) to secure colonial liberties. He was famous, in part, for his 1750 and 1754 election sermons espousing American rights — the cause of liberty and the right and duty to resist tyranny; other famous sermons included "The Snare Broken," 1766. His sermons and writings were a powerful influence in the development of the movement for liberty and independence.
The extent of his political feeling can be seen in hi
''Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission''(complete text)
a sermon delivered on the 100th anniversary of the execution of Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
(January 30, 1649/50). Taking vigorous issue with recent efforts to portray Charles as a martyred monarch, Mayhew began with observations on the antiquity of English liberties. The English constitution, he asserted, “is originally and essentially free.” Roman sources, such as the reliable Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his t ...
, made it clear that “the ancient Britons … were extremely jealous of their liberties.” England’s monarchs originally held their throne “solely by grant of parliament,” so the ancient English kings ruled “by the voluntary consent of the people.” After forty pages of such historical discourse, Mayhew reached his major point: the essential rightness of the execution of an English king when he too greatly infringed upon British liberties.
The vigor of Mayhew’s sermon established his reputation. It was published not only in Boston, but also in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1752 and again in 1767. In Boston, John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
remembered long afterward that Mayhew’s sermon, “was read by everybody.” Some would say later that this sermon was the first volley of the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
, setting forth the intellectual and scriptural justification for rebellion against the Crown.
In 1763 he turned his attention to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organization (registered charity no. 234518).
It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Part ...
, a branch of the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
established "to send priests and schoolteachers to America to help provide the Church's ministry to the colonists". His ''Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts'' was published in Boston and London and raised considerable opposition in England and America; Thomas Secker
Thomas Secker (21 September 16933 August 1768) was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England.
Early life and studies
Secker was born in Sibthorpe, Nottinghamshire. In 1699, he went to Richard Brown's free school in Chesterfield, D ...
, then archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
, wrote an ''Answer'' the following year.
In 1765, with the provocation of the Stamp Act fresh, Mayhew delivered another rousing sermon on the virtues of liberty and the iniquity of tyranny. The essence of slavery, he announced, consists in subjection to others—“whether many, few, or but one, it matters not.” The day after his sermon, a Boston mob attacked Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson’s house, and many thought Mayhew was responsible.
Mayhew was Dudleian lecturer at Harvard in 1765. He died July 1766.
A quarter century after his death, the following lines were delivered at the Harvard commencement address of 1792:
While Britain claim'd by laws our rights to lead,
And faith was fetter'd by a bigot's creed.
Then mental freedom first her power display'd
and call'd a MAYHEW to religion's aid.
For this great truth, he boldly led the van,
That private judgment was the right of man.
References
Bibliography
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* Chris Beneke, "The Critical Turn: Jonathan Mayhew, the British Empire, and the Idea of Resistance in Mid-Eightennth-Century Boston." ''Massachusetts Historical Review,'' Vol. 10 (2008): pp. 23–56.
* Howard L. Lubert, "Jonathan Mayhew: Conservative Revolutionary." ''History of Political Thought'' 32 (Winter 2011): 589-616.
* Patrick Mullins. ''Father of Liberty: Jonathan Mayhew and the Principles of the American Revolution'' (2017)
External links
A brief bio"Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers""Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers" (complete text)*
Boston University Mayhew Papers (1648–1774)
Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher PowersFrom th
at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayhew, Jonathan
1720 births
1766 deaths
People from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Harvard College alumni
American Congregationalist ministers
18th-century Christian clergy
American Unitarians
18th century in Boston
People of colonial Massachusetts
18th-century American clergy