Daniel Gookin
Daniel Gookin was a notable figure in 17th-century colonial America, born into a family with strong ecclesiastical ties in England. He first appeared in Virginia records in 1630 and was granted a significant land parcel in 1635. After facing personal loss, Gookin returned to England, remarried, and had nine children. He was an advocate for Puritanism and played a role in the Virginia legislature while serving in the local militia. In 1642, he took part in a petition to bring Puritan ministers to Virginia, reflecting his commitment to his faith. Gookin later settled in Massachusetts, where he collaborated with prominent religious leaders like John Eliot to support the Christianization of Native Americans. His military and political career flourished as he ascended to the rank of major general and served on the governor's council for many years. Gookin was also a prolific writer, documenting the experiences of Native Americans during tumultuous periods such as King Philip's War. His work remains a valuable resource for understanding the intersections of colonial governance, religion, and Indigenous relations.
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Daniel Gookin
Judge
- Born: c. 1612
- Birthplace: Kent, England
- Died: March 19, 1687
- Place of death: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Biography
Daniel Gookin was the son of Daniel Gookin and Mary Byrd, daughter of Richard Byrd, canon of Canterbury Cathedral in Kent. His father invested in lands in Virginia, and Gookin appears in the Virginia records in 1630 at the age of eighteen. In 1635 he was granted twenty-five hundred acres in the Nansemond area on the south side of the James River. His first wife’s name is unknown, but he returned to England as a widower in 1639 and married Mary Dolling of London; they had nine children. In 1641 they returned to Virginia, where Gookin was elected to the Virginia legislature to represent Upper Norfolk country and also served as a captain in the local militia. Gookin was attracted to puritanism and preferred this lifestyle.
The royal governor of Virginia, William Berkeley, was loyal to Charles I and was strongly committed to maintaining the Church of England in the Virginia parishes. In 1642 Gookin traveled to Boston with the Nansemond Petition, signed by seventy-one settlers, that requested that Puritan ministers be sent to Virginia to establish three new parishes. According to Gookin’s account of his conversion, he returned to England because the governor kept the ministers out of Virginia. In 1644 he joined the John Cotton’s First Church in Boston and lived in Roxbury. He also joined John Eliot, the “apostle to the Indians,” and helped him establish towns of “praying Indians” who converted to Christianity. The towns and property of the Christian Native Americans were supposed to be protected against the settlers.
In 1648 Gookin and his wife moved to Cambridge to escape Boston’s antinomian controversy. They joined Thomas Shepard’s church, and Gookin later served as one of the executors of Shepard’s estate. Gookin seems to have owned trading ships that sailed between New England and the southern colonies. From 1650 and 1660, during the ascendancy of the Puritans in England, he was employed under Cromwell and charged with persuading New England Puritans to settle on the island of Jamaica. In 1648 he was made captain of the military company in Cambridge and kept that position for the rest of his life; he rose to the rank of major general of the colony-wide army in 1681.
In 1649 and 1651 Gookin was elected representative to the legislature from Cambridge and was became Speaker of the House in 1651. In 1652 he was elected to the governor’s council, a position he held until 1687 (though he took a brief hiatus in 1676). When King Philip’s War broke out in 1675, he was the only magistrate who stood with John Eliot in support of the Indians, and he was not elected to the governor’s council in 1676. He completed Historical Collections of the Indians of Massachusetts by 1674; the manuscript is owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society. He also wrote An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England in the Years 1675, 1676, 1677 and a lost manuscript “History of New England, Especially of the Colony of Massachusetts.”