James Noyes

Rev. James Noyes (born 1608, Wiltshire, England – died 22 October 1656, Newbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 22 October 1656) was an English clergyman who emigrated to Massachusetts. He was a founder of Newbury, Massachusetts.

Biography

James Noyes was educated at Oxford, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1634, and after a short service in Medford was pastor of the church in Newbury, Massachusetts from 1635 until his death. He sailed aboard the Mary & John of London, accompanied by the Hercules on 23 March 1634 with his wife Sarah Browne Noyes, brother Rev. Nicholas Noyes and cousin Rev. Thomas Parker. The ship was detained in the River Thames where all passengers signed the oath of allegiance to the King and the church before they were allowed to sail from London.

Writings

  • The Temple Measured (London, 1647)
  • Catechism (1650, reprinted in 1691)
  • Moses and Aaron, or the Rights of Church and State (1661)

Yale

His son, Rev. James Noyes II of Stonington, Connecticut, was one of the first trustees of Yale College, a group of ten Congregationalist ministers, now known as "The Founders". Their engraved names line the facade of Woodbridge Hall at Yale University. The building is named for Timothy Woodbridge, cousin to Rev. James Noyes II and one of the other ten founding ministers of the college.

Woodbridge Hall

The Noyes Family continues a long tradition at Yale with notable persons having contributed to the University. Rev. James Noyes II was the first Senior Fellow (Chair) of the Board of Trustees, and his younger brother Rev. Moses Noyes also served as a member of the Trustees. Rev. Daniel Parker Noyes graduated Yale 1840, as did his two sons Edward Parish Noyes, 1880, and Frederic A. Noyes, 1862. Theodore R. Noyes receive a Yale medical degree 1867. Haskell Noyes graduated Yale 1908. Herbert MacArthur Noyes graduated Yale 1914. Newbold Noyes, Jr. graduated Yale 1941. Herbert MacArthur Noyes Jr. graduated Yale 1949. Thomas E. Noyes graduated Yale 1953. Professor Edward Simpson Noyes, PhD (1892-1967) was chairman of the Board of Admissions for 18 years, director of the Master of Arts in Teaching program, and received the Yale Medal of Honor in 1968. His son Edward MacArthur Noyes II (1919-1999), who was also presented with the Yale Medal of Honor for his lifetime service to Yale in 1996, served as president of the Yale Club of New Haven.

James Noyes House

The James Noyes House, built ca. 1646, is a historic First Period house at 7 Parker Street in Newbury, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

Family

Rev. James Noyes I was from Wiltshire in England and was educated at Oxford University. His father, Rev. William Noyes, rector of Cholderton, Wiltshire, was a graduate of Oxford University in 1592. His mother was Anne Stephens.[1] James married (in 1633) Sarah Brown, the daughter of Joseph Browne Esq. and Sarah Hibbert Browne of Southampton, shortly before leaving for the new world.

His cousin Thomas Parker (1595–1677), an English nonconforming clergyman, migrated to the new world with Rev. James Noyes on the Mary and John from London to establish a settlement in New England. As the founding ministers of Newbury, MA, Rev. James Noyes and Rev. Thomas Parker prepared students for Harvard, refusing all compensation for their services. Together they taught twelve or fourteen pupils at the James Noyes House, where he lived with Noyes. He taught languages with ease from memory as Parker went blind in his later years. Early Noyes descendants often were ministers and teachers, and sometimes distinguished by their rectitude – for example, the Salem Witch Trials and the founding of Yale College.

On 14 November 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials, 17-year-old Mary Herrick accused Noyes' daughter, Sarah Noyes Hale (wife of John Hale), and the ghost of executed Mary Eastey of afflicting her, but she was never formally charged with witchcraft or arrested.[2] A later commentator on the trials, Charles Upham suggests that this accusation was one that helped turn public opinion to end the prosecutions, and spurred John Hale's willingness to reconsider his support of the trials.[3]

His son James Noyes II (born 11 March 1640, Newbury – 30 December 1719, Stonington, Connecticut) was also a clergyman and founded Yale College. He graduated from Harvard in 1659, began to preach in 1664, and was pastor of the church in Stonington, Connecticut from 1674 until his death. A councilor in civil affairs in the critical periods of his colony, James Noyes II also practiced medicine with success.

Rev James Noyes I is also the ancestor of John Humphrey Noyes, leader of the Perfectionist movement and founder of the Oneida Community.

The daughter of Rev. James Noyes I, Sarah Noyes, is the great-grandmother of American hero Nathan Hale.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Noyes, Henry E.; Noyes, Harriette E. Genealogical record of some of the Noyes descendants of James Nicholas and Peter Noyes. Boston, MA. p. 44. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  2. ↑ No. 709: Statement of John Hale & Joseph Gerrish v. Mary Herrick, Records of the Salem Witch-Hunt, p. 703, Bernard Rosenthal, Ed. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009).
  3. ↑ Charles W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, 1969 (1867), Vol. II, pp. 345–46.

4 * 8861. 2. Noyes. R.W. N., Oct. 22, 1906. The "Additional Corrections and Additions," page 3, of Wheeler's "History of Stonington, Conn." has the following: "Miss Harriet E. Noyes of New Hampshire says: 'From recent investigations in England the name of Rev. William Noyes's wife was proven to be Anne Stephens, daughter of Nicholas Stephens of Burdrop Manor, and sister of Dorothy Stephens, mother of Rev. Thomas Parker.'" M. G. F.

References

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Noyes, James". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  • The "Additional Corrections and Additions," page 3, of Wheeler's "History of Stonington, Conn." has the following: "Miss Harriet E. Noyes of New Hampshire says: 'From recent investigations in England the name of Rev. William Noyes's wife was proven to be Anne Stephens, daughter of Nicholas Stephens of Burdrop Manor, and sister of Dorothy Stephens, mother of Rev. Thomas Parker.
  • Noyes, Horatio Nathaniel (1889). Noyes' genealogy: Record of a branch of the descendants of Rev. James Noyes, Newbury, 1634-1656.
  • James Noyes at Find a Grave
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