- Increase Nowell
Increase Nowell, (1590 [ [http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:ZSXbal0PMHcJ:famousamericans.net/increasenowell/+Boston%E2%80%93Charlestown+church+nowell&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=uk&lr=lang_en famousamericans.net] ] - 1655), was a colonial administrator, original patentee of the
Massachusetts Bay Company , founder ofCharlestown, Massachusetts and first ruling elder of the First Church in Charlestown.He was baptized in 1593 at Sheldon,
Warwickshire , on the estate bought in 1575 by his grandfather Laurence Nowell. He married at Holy Trinity,Minories , London.He was named within The Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company and in 1629 was created assistant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony being re-elected annually up until 1654.
He was an eminent member of the Puritan Great Migration of the 1630s. As a result of the
Cambridge Agreement , emigrating shareholders bought out those not emigrating thus allowing the proposed colony autonomy from London. Nowell had dealings with transatlantic merchants and as theWinthrop Fleet was being assembled, he was recommended as "good counsel concerning buying a ship" [ "Anderson, 2.1346" per ODNB]In 1630 Nowell sailed with
John Winthrop as a part of the original Puritan expedition toMassachusetts . Soon after arriving in the New World, Nowell became one of the original settlers of Charlestown, one of Massachusetts' earliest Puritan communities.He was first ruling elder of the First Church in Charlestown, now The First Congregational Society of Charlestown, which was founded in November 1632 with Nowell named first on the covenant of the original members. The original meetinghouse is believed to have been in the vicinity today’s Thompson Square. Nowell conducted marriages but declined further ecclesiastical office. In 1637 John Harvard, benefactor of
Harvard University was appointed minister for the church.Nowell worked as a lay magistrate, military commissioner and colonial secretary (1636–50). On his death, his estate was valued at £592. In 1656 the General Court, "sensible of the low condition of the family", initially granted 2000 acres, with a further 3200 acre grant later [ Records of the governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 5 vols. in 6 (1853–4); edited by N. B. Shurtleff ]
Descendants
His eldest surviving son Samuel Nowell (1634–1688) graduated from Harvard College in 1653, and was chaplain under General
Josiah Winslow inKing Philip's War .The founder of
Radcliffe College ,Cambridge, Massachusetts , Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, was a descendant of Nowell [ [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/54_659_454.asp New England Ancestors.org] ]References
*"Increase Nowell" by Roger Thompson; ODNB
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