In 1635, Thomas Chamberlain, age 20, and and William Chamberlain, age 16, sailed from Gravesend, England to Virginia. Thomas Chamberlain embarked on the Thomas & John in June,  and William on the Thomas in August.

They apparently desired to live in a Puritan community, so why did they chose to go to Virginia? Is it possible that they wanted to find their father who left England when they were ages 2 and 6?

The last information we have about Francis Chamberlain, his wife Rebecca and their three-year-old son Francis was the muster of 1625. Did the brothers ever cross paths with and renew their old and possibly strained acquaintance with their father?

We cannot say for sure that Francis Chamberlain who left England in 1621 is the father of Thomas and William. The only connection I can find between him and the young brothers Thomas and William is the name Daniel Gookin.

The household of Francis Chamberlain had been described as “next-but-one to that of Daniel Gookin.” ¹ I am not sure exactly what that means. Some say it means they were next door neighbors. In my opinion, it means that Francis’ wealth in Virginia was exceeded only by that of Daniel Gookin.

Daniel Gookin, Sr. returned to Ireland

Daniel Gookin Sr. emigrated from Ireland in 1621 and established a colonial settlement in Virginia. He brought with him fifty men to engaged in the enterprise of shipping cattle and goats from Ireland to Virginia. After the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622 an order was given requiring all settlers to retreat to Jamestown. Gookin chose to refuse that order and, with his fifty men, defend his plantation at Newport News. Daniel Sr. soon went back to Ireland, and apparently never returned. His son Daniel Gookin Jr. took over managing the plantation in Virginia.²

Daniel Gookin Jr. led a group of Virginia Puritans

On February 25, 1635 the general court granted Daniel Gookin 2500 acres on the south side of the James River in the upper county of Norfolk.³  It may not be coincidence that Thomas and William Chamberlain made the voyage from England to Virginia later that summer. Daniel Gookin, Jr. and the Chamberlain brothers were a part of the younger generation who expressed a religious fervor and passion for the Puritan cause. A cause which was not apparent in their fathers.

Puritans were a devoted group of Christians who sought to purify the Church of England by removing what they felt were non biblical practices, such as formal prayers and litanies held over from the Catholic Church. They believed that all people were born evil and that they could be saved only by the predetermined grace of God.  They sought to establish godly communities of fellow believers and to worship in churches free of extraneous ceremony.

Daniel Gookin was delighted that a considerable number of Puritan families had settled in upper Norfolk County, Virginia.  However, they had no qualified ministers and meager religious supplies, which probably consisted of “a rude chapel, a Bible and a few religious books.”⁴ Thomas and William Chamberlain were likely among this group of devout followers.

1642 Sir William Berkeley was one of the King’s inner circle. The king sent him to Virginia as the new governor and captain-general of the colony.

Virginia Puritans request ministers from Massachusetts

On May 24, 1642, seventy-four Virginia Puritans led by Richard Bennett, Daniel Gookin and John Hull addressed a letter to the elders of the colony of Massachusetts Bay “bewailing  their sad condition for want of the means of salvation and earnestly entreating a supply of faithful ministers whom upon experience of their gifts and godliness they might call to office.”⁵ The governor of Massachusetts Bay, John Winthrop, gladly granted this request for the “advancement of the kingdom of Christ in those parts.“⁶

July 15, 1642 Intolerance for the Puritans in Virginia was increasing. They were considered nonconformists disloyal to the Church of England. Puritan William Durand expressed his dissatisfaction with the way they were being treated in a letter to Rev. John Davenport. He wrote that God has condemned “many poore soules in Virginia” for their ungodly conduct, “if ever the lord had cause to consume the citys of Sodom and Gomorrah he might justly and more severely execute his wrath upon Virginia,”⁷

January 1643 In response to the letter of May 24 from Bennett, Gookin, Hull and their 71 Puritan followers, three minsters from New England, William Thompson, John Knowles and Thomas James, arrived in Jamestown.  They were warmly received “by some well disposed people who desired their company.” The group who desired their company did not include Governor Berkeley.⁸

Governor Berkeley opposed Puritans in Virginia

Governor Berkeley was fiercely loyal to King Charles 1. In 1643, Charles gave orders to oppose any religious non conformity in Virginia. The Governor and the General assembly agreed to legislation ordering “all nonconformists… be compelled to depart the colony with all convenience.“⁹

The three ministers left Virginia immediately and Daniel Gookin began to study the best course of action for him and his fellow Puritans. They would be welcome in Maryland, however, Daniel felt that that location was under Papist rule and was not the place for him. Massachusetts, on the other hand, held the powerful attraction of a Puritan community “having his affection strongly set on the truths of Christ and his pure ordinances.“¹⁰

Puritans were preparing to leave before the Indian attack of 1644

While the Puritans were preparing to leave Virginia, all hell broke loose on April 18, 1644. Opechancanough and his legions attacked the colony killing about 500 men women and children.¹¹ (This was the Indian attack mentioned at the end of Chapter 1).

May 20, 1644 One month after the terrible Indian massacre, a boatload of Puritan refugees fleeing Virginia arrived at Boston. However, the Puritans were not fleeing the Indians. Their colonial government dispelled them by decree of the King of England, Charles 1. They were driven out by the intolerance of Church of England loyalists.

Thomas and Mary Chamberlain and their two children, and also William Chamberlain were, presumably, among this group of refugees, which was led by Daniel Gookin. This group of Puritans was the first to carry the news of the disaster in Virginia to New England.¹²

Thomas Chamberlain and Daniel Gookin made Freemen in Boston

On May 29, 1644, nine days after they landed at Boston, Thomas Chamberlain, Daniel Gookin and others were made Freemen by the General Court at Woburn Massachusetts. Thomas was a “planter” who lived in Woburn from 1644 to 1655.¹³

Edmond Chamberlain married Mary Turner

Edmond Chamberlain first appears in the records of New England with his marriage to Mary Turner at Roxbury on 4 January 1647.²³  Edmond and his wife followed the other two Chamberlain brothers to Woburn, Chelmsford and Billerica Massachusetts.¹⁵

William Chamberlain married Rebecca Addington

William Chamberlain married Rebecca Addington in Roxbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts also on 4 January 1647. Assuming the records are correct, William/Rebecca and Edmond/Mary had a double wedding that day.  (Rebecca’s maiden name may have been Shelly. No one knows for sure.) She was born in England in about 1625 and lived in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts.¹⁴

William was first recorded as living in Boston October 30, 1647. There he took deed of a house and lot from Francis Smith. His house, garden, shop and out houses were bound on the north by (West Street), on the west (Mason Street), and on east (Washington Street).²³ He sold the Boston property on January 4, 1649. Two days later he was admitted as an inhabitant of the town of Woburn. William and Rebeca’a first son, Timothy, was born in Woburn on August 13, 1649.

Chamberlains move from Woburn to Chelmsford and Billerica

February 1652 Thomas Chamberlain, James Parker, and Isaac Learned, all of Woburn, bought 1500 acres of land lying on both sides of Concord River in Shawshin of His Excellency Governor Thomas Dudley. This grant was one of the largest ever made in Billerica. They divided it into twelve lots each containing 125 acres.¹⁶

May 1655 The town of Chelmsford was granted a town charter as were Billerica and Woburn at the same time. They changed the name of the settlement of Shawshin to Billerica. All three of these towns are significant in Chamberlain family History.

March 6, 1656 Thomas Chamberlain’s wife Mary of Chelmsford relinquished all her rights and interest in the “Dudley farm” in Billerica to ten parties including Edmond Chamberlain and William Chamberlain. And in 1665, Thomas Chamberlain and the two other Proprietors of the Dudley Grant gave deeds of different parts of the grant to William Chamberlain and four others.¹⁷ 

In Bilerica today (2016), there is a Chamberlain Street which is at the approximate location of William Chamberlain’s land. Now part of Lowell MA, it is immediately north of I-495 near exit 37, just a few blocks east of the Concord River.

Thomas, Edmond and William Chamberlain’s families in 1656

In 1656 things are going well for the three Chamberlain brothers. All three are all married and their families are growing. They live in towns named after where they may have lived in England, Thomas in Chelmsford, Edmond and William in Billerica.

Their families are growing fast. Thomas and Mary now have four children ages 11 to 17. Edmond and Mary have four children under nine-years-old including Edmund Jr. who was born that year. William and Rebecca now have five children under the age of eight.

They are all now living under a charter friendly to the Puritan cause, and able to worship God according their own understanding of the Bible. Life is good!

As a city upon a hill

The Massachusetts Bay Colony had managed to achieve a modicum of independence from Royal imposition of local government. They, by a shrewd and legally questionable move, transferred their management and charter to Massachusetts. They thereby paved the way for local management and established the assumption that a commercial company charter was in reality a political constitution for a new government with only indefinable dependence upon the King of England.¹⁸

Governor John Winthrop expressed great hope and a new vision for the Puritan cause in his 1630 address, A Model of Christian Charity:

“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.  ….we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it.”¹⁹

The reign of popes and kings, replaced by governors and reverends.

The Puritans had established a theocratic government. There was no separation between church and state. The church was the state. Citizenship was conferred on those who had been baptized and received the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.²⁰

This was nothing new. It was the only condition that any of them had ever known or understood. Now, however, the reign of Popes and Kings had been replaced by Governor John Winthrop, Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley, and the Rev. John Cotton.

They and their other leaders, as they zealously guide their new Christian flock, must seek to prevent any variation of religious views.²¹ Toleration is considered the child of doubt and a sin of the first magnitude. At this time in world history, few men have any doubt at all that they are right in their religious beliefs, and anyone who disagrees with them must certainly be wrong.²²

Religious persecution is the natural consequence.

To be continued…

What happened to Francis Chamberlain, his son Francis, Jr. and his servants  John Forth, William Worlidge, Sionell Rolston and Richard Burton?  See Chapter 3 

Or continue with the story of Thomas, Edmond and William in Massachusetts Bay Colony, Chapter 4- Three Chamberlain Brothers in an Indian Storm of Fire

If you got this far, please click Goodbye or Table of Contents. This will simply tell me that someone looked at this post. Thank you! Dennis Chamberlain

© Copyright Dennis D. Chamberlain, The Chamberlain Story, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the written content of this site without express and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that  credit is given to Dennis D. Chamberlain and direction to  www.thechamberlainstory.com.

References:

1. Prentiss Glazier, Chamberlain Families of Early New England., p. 151
2. Larry Overmire, A BIOGRAPHY OF DANIEL GOOKIN SR., May 2007.
3. Fredrick William Gookin, Daniel Gookin, His Life and Letters, Chicago, 1912. p. 62.
4.  Abid., p. 67.
5. Abid., p. 67.
6. Kevin Butterfield, Puritans in Colonial Virginia, Encyclopedia Virginia.
7. Abid.
8. Fredrick William Gookin, Daniel Gookin, His Life and Letters, Chicago, 1912. p. 69.
9. Kevin Butterfield, Puritans in Colonial Virginia, Encyclopedia Virginia.
10. Fredrick William Gookin, Daniel Gookin, His Life and Letters, Chicago, 1912. p. 69.
11. Abid., p. 71.
12. Prentiss Glazier, Chamberlain Families of Early New England, The American Genealogist, July 1975. p. 151.
13. George Chamberlain, ONE BRANCH OF THE DESCENDANTS OF Thomas Chamberlain OF WOBURN, 1644. p. 5.
14. Rebecca Addington or Shelly Chamberlain, www.findagrave.com
15. George Chamberlain, ONE BRANCH OF THE DESCENDANTS OF Thomas Chamberlain OF WOBURN, 1644. p. 5
16. Rev. Henry Hazen, History of Billerica Massachusetts, A. Williams & Co., 1883, p.24.
17. Abid. p.24
18. Massachusetts Bay Colony, Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com.
19. John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity, 1630
20. Fredrick William Gookin, Daniel Gookin, His Life and Letters, Chicago, 1912. p. 74.
21. Massachusetts Bay Colony, Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com.
22. Fredrick William Gookin, Daniel Gookin, His Life and Letters, Chicago, 1912. p. 73-74.
23. Familysearch.org Sources Listed:
    Chamberlain Association of America, Mss Gen., New England Historic Society, SG/CHA/49-14, Edmund of Roxbury [RC321-1 thru 4R, #1]. Chamberlain Families, by Prentiss Glazier, Vol. I, “Chamberlain Families in Connecticut, 1790,” P. 42; Vol. II, “Descendants of Edmund¹ Chamberlain of Roxbury,” pp. 27-28. The History of Woodstock, Connecticut, Norwood, MA, 1926, by Clarence Winthrop Bowen, Vol. III, P. 270 [RC 397]. A History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, by W. Waters, 1917, Three Volumes, Vol. 1, P. 27 [RC 285]. History of Peter Parker and Sarah Ruggles, by J.W. Linzie, 1913, pp. 147, 371, 374, 541. Cutter’s book on early Connecticut familes. Also see, the histories of Roxbury, Chelsea, Malden, Revere, Dudley, and Hopkinton, MA. And other sources listed upon request.
24. John Camden, Hotten’s Original Lists, pages 84 and 127