Thomas Carter (1608 – 5 September 1684) was an American colonist and Puritan minister. Educated at Cambridge, he left England and emigrated to the

American colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...

during the Puritan Great Migration. Carter was ordained as a Puritan minister in 1642, becoming the first person in the American colonies to receive a Christian ordination. He served as a church elder and minister in Dedham, Watertown, and Woburn. A prominent religious figure in the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

, Carter was one signers of the Dedham Covenant and one of the founders of Woburn.

Early life and family

Carter was born in

Hinderclay, Suffolk Hinderclay is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. The village is located around - from Bury St Edmunds in an area of rolling arable land to the south of the Little Ouse river valley. Neighbouring ...

, England, and baptized there on 3 July 1608. His father, James Carter, was a yeoman. He had an older brother, James, baptized 14 June 1603, and an older sister, Mary, baptized 25 March 1605 or 1606. He studied at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, receiving his B.A. in 1630 and his M.A. in 1633. Carter was a student at Cambridge at the same time as John Harvard. Like Harvard and many other Puritans, Carter emigrated to New England as part of the Great Migration.

Life in the colonies

Carter was recognized as a freeman of

Dedham, Massachusetts Dedham ( ) is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest b ...

in 1637. He was active in the church, both at Dedham, and at Watertown, Massachusetts, where he served as an

elder An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. Elder or elders may refer to: Positions Administrative * Elder (administrative title), a position of authority Cultural * North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...

. Carter, who signed the Dedham Covenant, was considered for the post of the initial minister of the

First Church and Parish in Dedham First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

. Carter preached in Woburn for the first time on December 4, 1641, which was the second service of public worship ever held in the new town. Having demonstrated spiritual gifts during his time as an elder, on November 22, 1642, Carter was ordained at Woburn, Massachusetts, becoming the first pastor of the Woburn congregation and the first religious ordination in the Americas. In 1638, Carter married Mary Parkhurst (1614–1687), daughter of George Parkhurst and Phoebe Leete, whose cousin

William Leete William Leete (1612 or 1613 – 16 April 1683) was Governor of the Colony of New Haven from 1661 to 1665 and Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683. Biography Leete was born about 1612 or 1613 at Diddington, Huntingdonshire, En ...

became Governor of the Colony of Connecticut. Together, they had eight children: Samuel, Judith, Theopilus, Mary, Abigail, Deborah, Timothy, and Thomas.

Legacy

A painting by Albert Thompson depicting the occasion of his ordination is currently displayed at the

Woburn Public Library Winn Memorial Library, also known as the Woburn Public Library (1876–79) is a National Historic Landmark in Woburn, Massachusetts. Designed by architect H. H. Richardson, the Romanesque Revival building was a bequest of the Winn family. It hous ...

. His ordination, as the painting suggests, included all of the major ministers of Massachusetts, including John Cotton, Richard Mather, John Eliot, Edward Johnson, John Wilson, with

Increase Nowell Increase Nowell, (1590–1655), was a British colonial administrator, original patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and first ruling elder of the First Church in Charlestown. He was baptized in 1593 a ...

sitting in the front row.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Thomas 1608 births 1684 deaths 17th-century Christian clergy Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge American Protestant ministers and clergy Early colonists in America Massachusetts colonial-era clergy 17th-century New England Puritan ministers People from Mid Suffolk District People from Watertown, Massachusetts People from Woburn, Massachusetts Clergy from Dedham, Massachusetts Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony Signers of the Dedham Covenant People from colonial Dedham, Massachusetts Thomas Carter family