William Noyes

For the American jurist, see William Curtis Noyes. For the American analytical and organic chemist, see William A. Noyes.

The Revd. William Noyes (1568–1622), Rector of Cholderton, Wiltshire, was an Anglican clergyman of Puritan teachings. Under the influence of his instruction, members of his family succeeded him in Puritan ministry both in England and in Massachusetts Bay Colony, at first in Newbury, Essex County, where two of his sons, James and Nicholas, and his nephew Thomas Parker, were prominent figures. His grandson Nicholas Noyes was closely involved in the Salem witch trials. The religious motivations which led them to New England also gave rise to an extensive American branch of the Noyes family, of which William Noyes is the direct progenitor.[1]

Origins and early life

William Noyes was the son of Robert Noyes (1524–1614) and Joan Attridge (1527–1618) of Urchfont, Wiltshire. The Noyes family were already established in various branches in Wiltshire during the 16th century. William Noyes of Urchfont, yeoman (d. 1557[2]) purchased the prebend of Urchfont in 1540 from the Earl of Hertford, afterwards Protector Somerset. His son Richard Noyes of Manningford Bruce mentions "the sons of Robert Noyes of Cholderton" in his will of 1590.[3] This may refer to Robert the father of William and his brothers Richard Noyes, of Cholderton, yeoman, who married Sara and died in 1639,[4] and Robert Noyes, yeoman, born 1570, who died 20 January 1659 and was buried at Cholderton. The Noyes families of Urchfont[5] and Cholderton were of the same stock, but there were various Noyes households.[6]

In November 1588 William matriculated from University College in the University of Oxford, and gained his B.A. in May 1592.[7] He was ordained deacon in September 1593 and priest in December of the same year by John Coldwell at Salisbury Cathedral.[8] In around 1595 he married and his three elder sons were born to him by c.1600. His wife Anne was, according to their grandson Nicholas Noyes of Salem,[9] the sister of Robert Parker, M.A. (graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford[10]) with whom William Noyes was closely associated. However this is inconclusive since at the time the term sister-in-law was not in common use and the term "sister" was used to refer to both sisters by birth and sisters by marriage. According to the religious social values and laws of the time there were no distinctions made between sisters by birth or by marriage. It has been claimed alternatively[11] that she was the sister of Parker's wife Dorothy Stephens [12] and daughter of Nicholas Stephens (d. 1611)[13] and his wife Frances Brydges, daughter of Sir Richard Brydges, of Burderop Park, Chiseldon, Wiltshire,.[14] It was not uncommon during this time period to not name, particularly married daughters, in legal records and they were largely undocumented. Robert Parker and his wife had one son, Thomas Parker, who was the nephew of William Noyes.[15]

In 1598 Noyes appears as 'minister of this place' at Leigh, Essex, in the household of Richard Rich (illegitimate son of Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich), when he witnessed Rich's nuncupative will in the presence of his daughter Margaret Rich.[16] In around 1605 she became sister-in-law to Sir William Calley by marriage to Paul Bowdler. Calley, of a family long associated with Burderop, purchased the Manor in 1619.[17] In c.1614 Margaret remarried to Sir Thomas Wroth of Petherton Park, Somerset.

Rector of Cholderton

Noyes was instituted Rector of Cholderton[18] in the episcopacy of Henry Cotton in May 1602. Patronage was in John Thornborough (a bishop sympathetic to Puritan teaching) in 1567, and advowson being granted to Robert Noyes (yeoman), Giles Hutchens of Salisbury (sometime Mayor and M.P. for that city[19]) was assigned as William's lay patron. In July of the following year the appointment was renewed under the patronage of George Kingsmill,[20] Justiciar in the King's Bench, Westminster. Noyes held the living until shortly before his death.[21] In 1604 Parker presented Richard Stephens, his brother-in-law,[22] as Perpetual Vicar of Stanton St. Bernard[23] (which he held until 1659[24]), and in 1607 was obliged to flee religious persecution to the Netherlands, where he remained until his death in 1614.[25]

Noyes became the schoolmaster of his nephew Thomas Parker. The Revd. Cotton Mather, pastor of the North Church in Boston, gave an insight into his character in describing Parker's early education: "This Mr. Thomas Parker was the only son of his father, who being very desirous to have him a scholar, committed him unto perhaps a godly, but a very severe master. Under this hard master, though he was well nigh discouraged by the Dulness which he apprehended in his own capacity, yet the consideration of his father's desire made him, with an early piety, to join his prayers unto his pains, that he might have his education prospered; and God so prospered him, that he arrived unto a desirable degree of knowledge, both in the Tongues and in the Arts."[26]

William Noyes's grandson, the Revd. Nicholas Noyes of Salem, Massachusetts, gave Mather a valuable narrative of his uncle James Noyes (b. 1608), in which he explained that his grandfather was "a very learned man". William's children no doubt also received instruction from their father. It was said by Nicholas Noyes that after William Noyes's death Thomas Parker tutored James and engaged him as assistant teacher in the Free School at Newbury, Berkshire, where they taught together. There it was, perhaps, that with the help of Dr. William Twisse of Newbury (the eminent Supralapsarian[27]), Parker converted James Noyes to his ministry.[28] James's elder brother Nathan, who was to succeed their father as Rector at Cholderton, matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford in May 1615, aged 17, and obtained his B.A. little more than a year later in October 1616. He was ordained deacon at Marsh Baldon near Oxford in March 1617.[29]

The Parish Register for William Noyes's time as Rector was presumably lost or destroyed by 1651, when, after the death of Nathan, his successor Samuel Heskins began a new book and supplied the confused record: "Mr. William Noyes Rector of Choldington about 30 years departed this life anno 1616. Mr. Nathan Noyes succeeded his father in the Rectorie of Choldrington and departed this life in ye year 1651."[30] Diocesan records show that a Faculty Office dispensation was granted to Nathan to hold the Rectory in his father's place on 4 February 1622:[31] William Noyes resigned the Rectory the next day, and Nathan was appointed Rector immediately with the Privy Counsellor Edward, Lord Zouche, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and a Commissioner of the Virginia Company, as his patron.[32]

William Noyes died intestate before 30 April following, when an inventory of his estate was made. Anne, his widow, entered into a bond of administration dated 28 May jointly with Cuthbert Parker, yeoman, of Whitchbury, Hampshire, both signing in well-trained hands and both using heraldic seals.[33] She lived to the age of 82, long enough for her burial at Cholderton to be recorded in Samuel Heskins' register on 7 March 1657. Her will, made on 18 March 1655/56,[34] refers to her two sons James and Nicholas in New England and left to them and 'to such children as they have living' 12 pence apiece,[35] by which disinheritance she prevented them from challenging her other legacies.[36]

The old church of Cholderton was pulled down in 1840.[37]

Family

The children of Rev William Noyes and his wife Anne Stephens, daughter of Nicolas Stephens, Esq. of Burbrop Manor, are shown as follows:

References

  1. ↑ H.E. Noyes and H. E. Noyes, Genealogical Record of some of the Noyes Descendants of James, Nicholas and Peter Noyes, 2 Vols. (Boston, Mass., 1904).
  2. ↑ Will of William Noyes, Yeoman of Archefounte, Wiltshire (P.C.C. 1558).
  3. ↑ Will dated 2 February 1590 (Diocese of Sarum).
  4. ↑ Will dated 25 Aug 1639, Inventory 26 October 1639, (Wiltshire and Swindon Archives).
  5. ↑ 'Parishes: Urchfont', in A.P. Baggs, D.A. Crowley, R.B. Pugh, J.H. Stevenson and M. Tomlinson, A History of the County of Wiltshire Vol. 10, ed. Elizabeth Crittall (V.C.H., London 1975), pp. 173-190. (British History Online, accessed 1 June 2016).
  6. ↑ J.A. Noyes, 'Noyes Pedigree', New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol. 53 (1899), p. 35 ff.
  7. ↑ 'Noyes, William', in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, (Oxford, 1891), pp. 1050-83. (British History Online accessed 31 May 2016)
  8. ↑ Episcopal Registers, Wiltshire and Swindon Archives. Church of England Clergy Database
  9. ↑ Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The Ecclesiastical History of New-England (Thomas Parkhurst, at the Bible and Crowns in Cheapside, London 1702), Book III: Polybius: Lives of Many Reverend, Learned and Holy Divines, Chap. XXV: 'An Appendix Containing Memoirs of Mr. James Noyes,' pp. 145-48, at p. 145.
  10. ↑ J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford, 1891), pp. 1104-31. (British History Online accessed 31 May 2016). The rectories of Bulbridge, Ditchhampton and Wilton pertained to a different clergyman named Parker, see concluding note in W.A. Shaw, 'Parker, Robert (1564?-1614)', Dictionary of National Biography.
  11. ↑ J.J. Currier, "Ould Newbury": Historical and Biographical Sketches (Damrell & Upham, Newbury, Mass. 1896), p. 165. See Noyes & Noyes (1904), Genealogical Record I, p. 45, who at first rejected the claim, but after further research accepted it. (See 'Notes' below.)
  12. ↑ Sister of Richard Stevens of Stanton St Bernard, Wiltshire, named in Will of Dorothie Parker of Midenhall, Wiltshire, (P.C.C. 1650).
  13. ↑ For Stephens of Burderop see 'Chiseldon: Manors and other estates', in R.W. Dunning, K.H. Rogers, P.A. Spalding, C. Shrimpton, J.H. Stevenson and M. Tomlinson, A History of the County of Wiltshire Vol. 9, ed. E. Crittall (V.C.H. London, 1970), pp. 6-23. (British History Online accessed 30 May 2016).
  14. ↑ Dorothy and Richard Stevens, and Anne Stevens, do not appear as children of Nicholas in his will (P.C.C. 1611) nor among other records of the family printed in 'The Society's MSS. Chiseldon and Draycot' (continued), Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 30 for 1898-99 (1899), pp. 126-142.
  15. ↑ R.A. Wheeler, History of the Town of Stonington, County of New London, Connecticut (Press of the Day Publishing Co., New London, Conn. 1900), p. 484.
  16. ↑ Will of Richard Rich of Leigh, gentleman, Essex Record Office D/ABW 32/91.
  17. ↑ 'The Society's MSS. Chiseldon, etc. (continued)', Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine No. XCIV, Vol. XXXI (Devizes, December 1900), pp. 173-79, at p. 175.
  18. ↑ 'Parishes: Cholderton', in A.P. Baggs, J. Freeman and J.H. Stevenson, A History of the County of Wiltshire Vol. 15, Amesbury Hundred, Branch and Dole Hundred, ed. D..A Crowley (V.C.H., London 1995), pp. 70-78. (British History Online accessed 11 May 2016)
  19. ↑ W.J.J., 'Hutchens, Giles (bef.1556-1624), of Salisbury, Wilts.' in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (Boydell & Brewer, 1981). Read here
  20. ↑ E. Foss, The Judges of England, with Sketches of their Lives, Vol. VI (1603-1660) (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, London 1857), p. 163..
  21. ↑ Church of England Clergy database: Appointment Records (Salisbury Diocesan Register).
  22. ↑ Father of Nathaniel Stephens (1606/7-1678), religious controversialist: A. Gordon, rev. M. Mullett, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  23. ↑ Church of England Clergy database, Appointment Record.
  24. ↑ Church of England Clergy database: Richard Cromwell's record of his death 9 March 1659 (Lambeth Palace Library).
  25. ↑ K.L. Sprunger, 'Parker, Robert (c.1564–1614), religious controversialist,' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  26. ↑ Magnalia Christi Americana, III, Chap. XXV: 'Scholasticus. The Life of Mr Thomas Parker' pp. 143-45. Reprint, (Hartford, 1855), Vol. 1, pp. 480–488.
  27. ↑ Consult J. Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity (New Edition), 3 Vols (W. Winterbotham, London 1796), I, p. 270.
  28. ↑ Magnalia Christi Americana, III, Chap. XXV: 'An Appendix Containing Memoirs of Mr. James Noyes,' pp. 145-48.
  29. ↑ Church of England Clergy database: Oxford Diocesan Papers: Subscription Book, and Register.
  30. ↑ E. Deering Noyes, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 42, (October 1888), p.403.
  31. ↑ Church of England Clergy database: Dispensation Rolls.
  32. ↑ Church of England Clergy database: Vacancy Record; Appointment Record; Subscription Record.
  33. ↑ Court of Archdeacon of Sarum.
  34. ↑ Will of Anne Noyes, Widow of Cholderton, Wiltshire (P.C.C. 1658).
  35. ↑ Noyes & Noyes (1904), Genealogical Record I, p. 45.
  36. ↑ 'Cut off with a shilling', Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Revised and Enlarged (Harper & Brothers, New York ?1952), p. 262.
  37. ↑ E.P. Barrow, "Parish Notes" (1889).

Notes

The correction was published in 1906 as follows:

Other Sources

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