Rev. Jeremiah Peck

Other Events and Attributes:

• Immigration: 4 Jun1637, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; He arrived, with his parents, in Boston on board the Hector in the company of Governor Eaton and the Rev. Davenport. This company was principally from the city of London, where Mr. Davenport had been a celebrated minister, and consisted of many wealthy merchants, and others of great respectability from London, and of farmers from Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Kent, and some from Surrey and Sussex. They had suffered much from the intolerance and persecution of Archbishop Laud during the reign of Charles I., and the object of their emigration was the unmolested enjoyment of civil and religious liberty.
• Education: say 1638; He is said by Cotton Mather to have been bred at Harvard College, but, though probably a student, his name does not appear in the catalog of the graduates of that institution.
• History: 1660; According to Peck (1877) and Selleck (1912), "He was then, and for some time previously had been, preaching or teaching school at Gruilford, and he continued to be thus engaged until 1660, when he was invited to take charge of the Collegiate school at New Haven, Conn. This was a colony school, and had been instituted by the General Court, in 1659. It was open to students from other colonies, and in it were to be taught Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and young men fitted for college. He accepted the invitation, and removing from Guilford to New Haven, entered upon his duties as its instructor and continued to discharge the same until the summer of 1661, when the school was temporarily suspended for want of adequate support. It was revived, however, after a few years, and has continued and flourished until the present day under the name of the Hopkins Grammar School. In the autumn of 1661 he was invited to preach at Saybrook, Conn., where there is much reason to suppose that he was ordained, and where he settled as a minister, succeeding Rev. James Fitch ; the agree few years there was some dissatisfaction with his ministry, and a misunderstanding as to the provisions of his agreement of settlement, which being amicably arranged he left Saybrook removing to Gruilford early in 1666. He was then, and for some time had been, together with numerous other Ministers and churches in the New Haven and Connecticut Colonies, decidedly opposed to what was called the "Half-way Covenant," adopted by the General Synod of 1662, and with many of the leading ministers and the people of the New Haven Colony was especially and irreconcilably hostile to the Union of the New Haven and Connecticut Colonies under the charter of Charles II., which, however, after a protracted struggle, was finally effected in 1665, and he resolved to emigrate from the colony. Removing from Guilford in 1666, he "became one of the first settlers of Newark, N. J. His home lot and residence in Newark were on the northeasterly comer of Market and Mulberry streets. He does not appear to have officiated as a minister at Newark. He preached to the neighboring people of Elizabethtown soon after his removal to Newark, and finally settled there as their first minister in 1669 or 1670. In 1670, and again in 1675, he was invited by the people of Woodbridge, N. J., and in 1676 by the people of Greenwich, Conn., to settle with them in the ministry, but he declined these several invitations. In Sept., 1678, he was again invited to settle as a minister at Greenwich, and in Oct., 1678, he had a similar call from Newtown, Long Island, N. T. He accepted thie last call from Greenwich, and removing thither late in the autumn of 1678 from Elizabethtown, N. J., he became the first settled minister in Greenwich, Conn., where his pastorate was a very quiet and useful one, and only disturbed by his refusal in 1688 to baptize the children of non-communicants, allowed by the "Half-way Covenant," the introduction of which still, agitated the churches in Connecticut. Though sustained by a majority of the members of his church, the dissatisfaction of the minority probably led to his resignation in 1689. He then commenced preaching in Waterbury, Conn., and having received and accepted the unanimous invitation of the residents of that town to settle with them in the ministry, he removed thither early in 1690, and became the first settled minister of the church in Waterbury in 1691. He was then nearly seventy years of age. In a few years his health gradually failed, but he continued the pastor of the church and discharged the most of his official duties until his decease at Waterbury, June 7, 1699. He seems to have possessed considerable energy and ability, and to have been a man of much usefulness, both as a teacher and minister in the frontier settlements, among the early colonists of this country. The first salary paid him at Greenwich for preaching was £50 per year with fire-wood, or £60 without. He chose the latter."
• Proprietor: 1672, Saybrook, Middlesex County, Connecticut; He became one of the twenty-seven Proprietors of Common Lands.
• Land/House: May 1693; The Court grant to Rev. Jeremiah Peck 2oo acres of land for a farm, provided he take it up where it may not be prejudicial to any former grant or plantation.
• Will: 14 Jan 1696/97

Jeremiah married Johannah Kitchell on 12 Nov 1656 in Guilford, New Haven County, Connecticut. Johannah (daughter of Robert Kitchell and unknown) died in 1711 in Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Captain Samuel Peck was born on 18 Jan 1659 in Guilford, New Haven County, Connecticut; died on 28 Apr 1746 in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut; was buried in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
2. Ruth Peck was born on 3 Apr 1661 in New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut.
3. Caleb Peck was born in 1663 in Saybrook, Middlesex County, Connecticut; died on 10 Mar 1725 in Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
4. Anne Peck was born in 1665 in Saybrook, Middlesex County, Connecticut; died on 23 May 1718 in Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut.
5. Deacon Jeremiah Peck was born in 1667 in Guilford, New Haven County, Connecticut; died in 1752 in Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut.
6. Joshua Peck was born in 1673 in Elizabethtown, Union County, New Jersey; died on 14 Feb 1736 in Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Immigration: 4 Jun1637, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; He arrived in Boston on board the Hector in the company of Governor Eaton and the Rev. Davenport. This company was principally from the city of London, where Mr. Davenport had been a celebrated minister, and consisted of many wealthy merchants, and others of great respectability from London, and of farmers from Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Kent, and some from Surrey and Sussex. They had suffered much from the intolerance and persecution of Archbishop Laud during the reign of Charles I., and the object of their emigration was the unmolested enjoyment of civil and religious liberty.
• History: 1638; He was one of the founders of the New Haven Colony. In signed the colonial Constitution dated 4 June 1639.
• Occupation: say 1640, New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut; He was a merchant. He was also the trustee, treasurer, and business agent for the Colony Collegiate School.
• Freeman: 20 Oct 1640, New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut
• Will: 9 Mar1689, New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut
• Probate/Proved: 11 Oct 1694, New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut

Notes:

Name:
His surname was often written by him, and by his oldest son, Rev. Jeremiah Peck, with a final "e", but it was dropped in the latter part of their lives.


Buried:
His grave is in that part of the old burial ground, now under Centre Church in New Haven. His gravestone was moved to the new cemetery in the northern part of the town in 1821.

William married Elizabeth about 1622 in London, England. Elizabeth died on 5 Dec 1683 in New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Immigration: 4 Jun1637, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; She, with her husband and son, arrived in Boston on board the Hector in the company of Governor Eaton and the Rev. Davenport. This company was principally from the city of London, where Mr. Davenport had been a celebrated minister, and consisted of many wealthy merchants, and others of great respectability from London, and of farmers from Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Kent, and some from Surrey and Sussex. They had suffered much from the intolerance and persecution of Archbishop Laud during the reign of Charles I., and the object of their emigration was the unmolested enjoyment of civil and religious liberty.

Notes:

Name: