John Oliver (minister)

John Oliver
BornAbt. 1616, London, United Kingdom
EmigratedJune 5, 1632 aboard William and Francis
Died1646 Massachusetts Bay Colony
EducationHarvard College (graduated 1645)
Known forSenior sergeant in Capt. John Underhill's Garrison; Member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company; First Minister Rumney Marsh (now Chelsea, Massachusetts)
SpouseElizabeth Newdigate
ChildrenJohn, Elizabeth (married Enoch Wiswall, son of Thomas Wiswall), Hannah, John, Thomas
Nickname"The Scholar"

John Oliver (c. 1616, died 1646)[1][2] was a Puritan minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and one of the earliest graduates of Harvard College[1] (class of 1645).[1][2][3][4] Known as "the Scholar",[5] he served as an early member of Massachusetts General Court in 1637[2][6][7] and as its treasurer and selectman.[6] In 1637, Oliver joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company[6][8] and was a senior sergeant in Captain John Underhill's garrison at the Castle in Boston Harbor by 1639.[7] Oliver was considered an "expert soldier" in John Winthrop's journal.[4] John Oliver was the First Minister of Rumney Marsh (now Chelsea, Massachusetts).[2][9][10]

  1. ^ a b c Sibley, John Langdon (1873). Graduates of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Vol. I (1st ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Charles William Sever, Harvard University. pp. 102–103.
  2. ^ a b c d Sibley, John Langdon (1873). Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University. Vol. I. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-3-38520-034-0.
  3. ^ Briggs, Mary Balch (1887). We and Our Kinsfolk: Ephraim and Rebekah Waterman Briggs, Their Descendants and Ancestors (1st ed.). Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press: Thomas Todd, Printer. pp. 75–77.
  4. ^ a b "Harvard in the Colonial Wars, 1675-1748". The Harvard Graduates' Magazine. XXVI: 558. 1917–1918.
  5. ^ Whittemore, Henry (1995). Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America. Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield Company, Inc. p. 282. ISBN 0-8063-0378-6.
  6. ^ a b c Roberts, Oliver Ayer (1895). History of The Military Company of the Massachusetts Now Called The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts 1637-1888 (1st ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers. pp. 28–30.
  7. ^ a b Shelley, Henry C. (1932). John Underhill, Captain of New England and New Netherland. New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co. p. 137.
  8. ^ The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts Rolls (1638-1894). Boston, Massachusetts: Alfred Mudge & Sons. 1895. p. 1.
  9. ^ Crane, Ellery Bicknell (1907). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts (IV ed.). New York, New York: The Lewis Publishing Company. p. 62.
  10. ^ "Brief Notice of the Settlement of the Town of Newton". Brief Notice of the Settlement of the Town of Newton (September 1852). Boston, Massachusetts: CCP Moody: 20. September 1852.