Israel Stoughton

Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District where Stoughton's Mill was located on the Neponset River

Israel Stoughton (1603?-1644) was an early English colonist in Massachusetts and a colonial commander in the Pequot War. Returning to England, he served as Parliamentarian officer in the First English Civil War.

Life

Born in England, a younger brother of John Stoughton, Stoughton emigrated to the Massachusetts Colony in 1632. He settled at Dorchester near Richard Callicot and was admitted as a freeman there on 5 November 1633. Stoughton was chosen as representative for Dorchester in the Massachusetts General Court in 1634 and 1635. In 1634 Stoughton was allowed to build the first mill on the Neponset River in what is now the Dorchester-Milton Lower Mills Industrial District.[1] Stoughton had several apprentices and servants, including John Whipple.[2]

During the height of the Antinomian Controversy in the colony, Stoughton wrote a book that attacked the colony's constitution. The book offended some members of the General Court, which barred Stoughton from holding any colony offices for three years. Stoughton later petitioned that the book be ‘forthwith burnt, as being weak and offensive.’ Despite this reversal, the General Court maintained their ban until 1636. In 1637, the General Court allowed Stoughton to become an assistant.

In 1636, war broke out between the Pequot tribe and the three New England colonies and their Native American allies. Appointed commander of the Massachusetts Colony militia, Stoughton reportedly employed brutal tactics against the Pequots. In 1637 Stoughton transported Pequot prisoners to Massachusetts to serve as servants, and Stoughton requested "the fairest and largest" of the Pequot female prisoners to be his servant.[3] He also had African American slaves, including the well known, Dorcas the Blackmore, who joined the First Parish Church of Dorchester, and evangelized Stoughton's Native American servants and eventually attempted to gained her freedom with the help of the local church.[4][5][6]

In 1639 Stoughton and John Endecott acted as commissioners on behalf of Massachusetts Colony to settle a boundary dispute with Plymouth Colony.

Toward the end of 1643, Stoughton made a brief trip to England, returning home by the beginning of 1644. In late 1644 he went to England again, never to return to Massachusetts.

With the advent of the First English Civil War, the English Parliament appointed Stoughton as a lieutenant colonel in their army. Stoughton died very soon afterwards in Lincoln.

Stoughton's children included William Stoughton, best known as the chief magistrate of the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.dorchesteratheneum.org/page.php?id=679
  2. ↑ Captain John and Sarah Whipple of Dorchester, Massachusetts & Providence, Rhode Island, Charles M. Whipple, Jr., Ph.D., Ed.D., Litt.D. https://whipple.org/charles/johnandsarah/
  3. ↑ Margaret Ellen Newell, Brethren by Nature, (Cornell University Press) p. 35
  4. ↑ http://www.blackpast.org/aah/dorcas-blackmore-ca-1620
  5. ↑ Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630-1649
  6. ↑ New England's First Fruits
  • Thompson, Roger. "Stoughton, Israel". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26605. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.). The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource:  "Stoughton, Israel". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Stoughton, Israel". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

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