Thomas Wyllys 1450.pdf - GBLCreations

Notes for REV. EDWARD TAYLOR:
[2731103.FTW]
Name Prefix: Rev.
Edward Taylor was educated for the ministry in England , "but the ejection of two thousand ministers from their
pulpits in 1662, for n onconformity, so darkened his prospects for usefulness there, that he determine d to come to
America. He arrived here in 1668, and entered the University at Cambridge [Harvard College], where he
graduated in 1671." (NEHGR 2:395 [1848])
Rev. Taylor removed to Westfield, Massachusetts, in November 1671. On November 5, 1674, he married
Elizabeth Fitch, daughter of Hon. James Fitch of Norwi ch, Ct. They had eight children before she died in 1689.
In 1692, at the age of 50, he married Ruth Wyllys, daughter of Hon. Samuel Wyllys of Hartford. The y had six
children, including Keziah, born in 1702, who would become the mother of Ezra Stiles [the president of Yale],
and ELDAD (see #88), the youngest, bor n in 1708 when the Reverend was 66 years old.
Rev. Edward Taylor was ministe r of the Congregational Church in the fortified town of Westfield for fifty-eig ht
years until his death in 1729. In 1937 his myriad volumes of handwritten ma nuscripts, which he had bequeathed
to Yale at his death, were unearthed in the Yale Library after having lain undisturbed for 200 years. They show
him as having been in his time a passionate and spiritually imaginative poet, such that h e is "celebrated today as
colonial America's most prolific and inventive poet." (Karen E. Rowe in The Heath Anthology of American
Literature, 3d ed., 1998)[2836643.FTW]
Name Prefix: Rev.
Edward Taylor was educated for the ministry in England , "but the ejection of two thousand ministers from their
pulpits in 1662, for n onconformity, so darkened his prospects for usefulness there, that he determine d to come to
America. He arrived here in 1668, and entered the University at C ambridge [Harvard College], where he
graduated in 1671." (NEHGR 2:395 [1848])
Rev. Taylor removed to Westfield, Massachusetts, in November 1671. On Nove mber 5, 1674, he married
Elizabeth Fitch, daughter of Hon. James Fitch of Norwich, Ct. They had eight children before she died in 1689.
In 1692, at the age of 50, he married Ruth Wyllys, daughter of Hon. Samuel Wyllys of Hartford. They had six
children, including Keziah, born in 1702, who would become the mother of Ezra Stiles [the president of Yale],
and ELDAD (see #88), the youngest, born in 1708 when the Reverend was 66 years old.
Rev. Edward Taylor was ministe r of the Congregational Church in the fortified town of Westfield for fifty-eig ht
years until his death in 1729. He also had studied medicine and was for many years the only physician in
Westfield and miles beyond. Reverend Taylor was also a gifted poet, although virtually none of his poems were
ever published in his lifetime. In 1937 his myriad volumes of handwritten manuscripts--"no less than a hundred
volumes which he had transcribed and bound with his own hands"- - which he had bequeathed to Yale at his
death, were unearthed in the Yale Library after having lain undisturbed for 200 years. They show him as having
been in his time a passionate and spiritually imaginative poet, such that he is "celebrated today as colonial
America's most prolific and inventive poet." (Karen E. Rowe in The Heath Anthology of American Literature, 3d
ed., 1998)[memobarn.FTW]
Reverend Edward Taylor was born in Sketchley, near Coventry, County Leicester, England, in 1642. His parents
educated him for ministry among the dissenters, but their sufferings became very severe after 1662. The ejection
of two thousand dissenting clergymen and the persecution which followed induced him to a voluntary exile. He
remained some years after the passing of the Act of Uniformity, and sailed from England for America in 1668; he
had declined to take the oath required of all dissenters after the restoration of Charles II. He spent four years at
Cambridge University. The ship left England in April 1668, and arrived at Boston in July. He brought letters to
Rev. Increase Mather, Pastor of the Second Church in Boston, and lodged with him for two nights. Then he went
to Harvard College in Cambridge, where he continued to study for three and a half years.
He left Harvard very reluctantly, to accept a position as a minister at Westfield. Increase Mather strongly
encouraged him to accept the position, as did the President of Harvard. The town was some 100 miles away, by a
difficult road with heavy snowdrifts to overcome. When he arrived, all the men of the town turned out to greet
him. He arrived in Westfield only four years before King Philip's War erupted, which kept the inhabitants in a
constant state of excitement and fear.Through the day they were always within reach of their loaded guns, with
sentries to give an alarm. In the night, all inhabitants were regularly gathered into the fort, while guards were
watching for trouble. No aid was available from the Colony, and the small towns like Westfield were told to
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