John Cotton

Overview

John Cotton was a leading Puritan minister whose life and work shaped early New England. Born in Derby, England, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later became a fellow at Emmanuel College, where he embraced Puritan theology around 1609.

 In 1612, he became the Vicar of St. Botolph’s Church in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, and gradually reformed church practices to match Puritan ideals. His growing nonconformity brought him into conflict with the Church of England authorities. In 1632, he fled to New England.

Cotton arrived in Massachusetts in September 1633 and soon became the Teacher of the Boston Church, a post he held for life. He quickly emerged as a central religious and political voice in the colony. He influenced laws and church policy and took part in religious debates, including the Antinomian Controversy, where he first supported and later opposed Anne Hutchinson. In 1645, he defined the core principles of Puritan life in The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England, which was retitled The New England Way.

A tireless worker, Cotton was known for preaching for long hours and for writing many vital works in defense of Puritan Congregationalism. In his later years, he supported close ties between the church and civil authority. Cotton worked until illness overtook him, and he died on December 23, 1652.

Personal Facts

• Born: December 4, 1585, in Derby, England.
• Parents: Rowland Cotton (father), Mary Hurlbert (mother).
• Spouse: Elizabeth Horrocks (1613), Sarah Hawkridge Story (1632).
• Died: December 23, 1652, in Boston, Massachusetts. 67 years old.
• Buried: King’s Chapel Burying Ground, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Part of: Puritan Leaders in Colonial America, Sermons in Colonial America, Massachusetts on AHC.

Key Details

• Cotton became a Puritan around 1609.
• He immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632.
• Cotton was a supporter of Anne Hutchinson, but broke with her during the Antinomian Controversy (1636–1638).
• He contributed to the Cambridge Platform in 1646.
• Cotton was a key figure in developing the Massachusetts Congregational Church and Puritan religious, political, and social systems, which are known as the “New England Way.”

Significance

John Cotton is important to American History because he helped shape the religious foundation of New England by promoting Puritan and Congregational beliefs. In Massachusetts, his preaching and writings influenced church government and tied religion closely to civil authority. Through his leadership in debates, including the Antinomian Controversy, he helped shape the colony’s strict moral and political order.

Biography

Early Life

John Cotton was born in Derby, Derbyshire, England. His father, Roland Cotton, worked as a lawyer and lived as a devoted Christian, and people also described his mother, Mary Hurlbert, as being a deeply religious woman. Little is known about his early childhood.

Education

At age 13, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1603 and a Master of Arts degree in 1606. He showed a strong desire to pursue a scholarly career, and his father provided financial support for his studies.

Cotton excelled in Hebrew. In an examination based mainly on that language, he won a fellowship at Emmanuel College. A Puritan founded Emmanuel College, and it was the most open to Puritan beliefs at Cambridge, where Puritan ideas strongly shaped the university at the time. 

• Cotton remained there for 6 years. He became head lecturer and dean and often preached at St. Mary’s Church. 
• During this time, he experienced his first religious awakening (see Puritan Conversion).
• On July 13, 1610, leaders ordained him as deacon and priest at Lincoln. In 1613, he received the degree of Bachelor of Divinity.

AHC Note

• Puritan Conversion — An event during which a person had an intense religious experience that indicated they had been saved by God. Once they underwent Conversion and described it to the congregation of their church, they became members and were also given the right to vote on church matters and for church leaders.

St. Botolph’s Church 

Cotton’s learning and preaching drew attention. On June 24, 1612, when he was only 27 years old, leaders chose him as Vicar of the large parish church of St. Botolph’s in the seaport town of Boston, Lincolnshire. 

According to Cotton’s grandson, Cotton Mather,  the city council tied in the vote, and the Mayor, by mistake, cast his vote twice for Cotton, which gave him the position. The Bishop had to approve the choice, and accounts suggest that people secured this approval through bribery, although no evidence shows that Cotton took part or was aware. 

After only a few years at St. Botolph’s, he started to change the church service. Around 1615, he removed certain forms and ceremonies to match Puritan beliefs.

Many people in the parish supported him, but only part of the congregation followed him as he moved away from the Church of England’s practices toward simpler Puritan worship. To manage this division, leaders appointed an assistant. The assistant held services using the old forms, while Cotton continued to preach according to his Puritan ideas.

AHC Notes

• At St. Botolph’s, John Cotton refused to fully follow the Church of England’s liturgy, angering church leaders.
• Tensions grew when radicals in his parish broke the church’s stained-glass windows, which they considered to be graven images in violation of the Second Commandment.

Escape to London

After three or four years, church leaders challenged Cotton, but they took no action against him. For almost the full 20 years he served there, his Bishop treated him with patience and respect. One friend even said that King James himself ordered officials not to trouble Cotton over his nonconformity. 

In 1621, a group of disorderly Puritans broke the stained glass windows in the church and damaged the monuments and carvings. This event led to no further action, and no evidence linked Cotton to the damage.

In the early 1630s, King Charles I and William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, launched a stricter campaign against religious nonconformists. In 1632, officials called on Cotton to appear before the Court of High Commission. Although no one delivered the summons to him, he fled to London for safety. There, John Davenport offered him support and shelter. While in London, Cotton resigned his position in a letter to the Bishop of Lincoln that was dated May 7, 1633.

AHC Notes

• John Davenport (1597–1670) — Davenport was an English-born Puritan minister. Educated at Oxford, he fled England to escape religious pressure and helped found New Haven, Connecticut, in 1638. He helped shape its close union of church and government. He opposed the “Half Way Covenant,” sheltered the regicide judges, Edward Whalley and William Goffe, in 1661, resisted New Haven’s union with Connecticut, and later served briefly as pastor of the First Church in Boston. 

Migration to Massachusetts

Cotton considered fleeing to the Netherlands, but had already shown interest in Massachusetts. He was a friend of John Winthrop and had traveled from Boston to Southampton to preach a farewell sermon when Winthrop and his group prepared to sail. This group of settlers sailed to Massachusetts aboard the Winthrop Fleet, which marked the start of the Great Puritan Migration. 

Cotton decided to go to Massachusetts. In 1632, he set sail for America aboard the Griffin with his wife, Thomas Hooker, Edmund Quincy, John Haynes, and others who later became leaders in New England. During the voyage, his first son was born, and he named him “Seaborn.”

AHC Notes

• John Winthrop (1588–1649) — Winthrop was a prominent Puritan leader who played a key role in the Great Puritan Migration and the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He led the Winthrop Fleet to Massachusetts in 1630, served as the colony’s Governor for a majority of the next 20 years, and oversaw the establishment of new settlements. Winthrop was largely responsible for maintaining order and stability, which helped Massachusetts become the dominant colony in New England.
• Thomas Hooker (1586–1647) — Hooker was a prominent Puritan minister and theologian who played an important role in the founding of the Province of Connecticut. Hooker was known as the “Father of Connecticut” due to his contributions to the establishment of the colony and influence on the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.
• Winthrop Fleet — A group of 11 ships that arrived in New England in the summer of 1630. They were funded by the Massachusetts Bay Company and carried somewhere between 700 and 1,000 Puritan immigrants. John Winthrop sailed on the Arbella, which was the fleet’s flagship. The Arbella and three other ships set sail on April 8, 1630. The remaining seven ships sailed in May 1680.
• Great Puritan Migration (1629–1640) — The Great Puritan Migration was a cultural event in which thousands of Puritans left their homes in England, migrated to the New World, and settled in New England. Although some historians point to the 1620 Voyage of the Mayflower as the beginning of the migration, it escalated with the departure of the Winthrop Fleet in 1629. From then until 1640, it is estimated that at least 20,000 Puritans moved to the colonies in America.

Boston Church

Cotton landed at Boston on September 4, 1633. On October 10, 1633, the Boston Church (First Church of Christ) chose him as Teacher, a position he held until his death. At this church, he worked with John Wilson, another prominent Puritan leader.

He quickly became a leading figure in Massachusetts, known for his powerful preaching. He took an active role in both political and religious matters, which were closely connected due to the Puritan theocracy. People said that what he spoke from the pulpit soon became the law of the land or the practice of the church.

In 1636, he prepared the Abstract of the Lawes of New England for the General Court. He based it strongly on the laws of Moses, found in the Old Testament. The General Court rejected his code and chose a less strict system instead.

AHC Notes 

• Theocracy — A theocracy is a system of government in which religious leaders rule in the name of God or a god. There is no Separation of Church and State; they are tied together.

The Antinomian Controversy

Cotton was one of the leading figures in the Antinomian Controversy, which took place in Massachusetts from 1636 to 1638, and ended in the excommunication and banishment of Anne Hutchinson in 1638. 

• Puritans were Calvinists who believed in double predestination, a concept in which God elects some for salvation and others for damnation based on His will.
• All Puritan ministers agreed that receiving God’s grace would lead to moral behavior. This was known as the Covenant of Grace.
• However, some ministers believed that a person who had received the Covenant of Grace had to reinforce it through a Covenant of works. This meant a person would perform good works and follow church law.
• Cotton, Hutchinson, and others argued that good works alone could not be trusted as evidence of salvation unless a person had first experienced true saving faith in Christ.

At first, Cotton supported Hutchinson and her followers. However, after she claimed to be communicating directly with God, Cotton became alarmed and distanced himself from her.

• Hutchinson was a devoted follower of Cotton’s sermons in England and followed him to Massachusetts.
• Hutchinson claimed her views on salvation aligned with Cotton’s teachings.
• Initially, Cotton did not realize how much their beliefs differed.
• Once he understood her views, he rejected her teachings.
• In 1637, he reached a theological compromise with other ministers at the Newtown Synod that clarified Puritan theology.
• Cotton personally pronounced Hutchinson’s excommunication from the Boston Church in 1638.

AHC Notes

• Anne Hutchinson (1591–1643) — Hutchinson was a Puritan religious leader who is best known for her role in the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hutchinson was a strong advocate for religious freedom and believed that individuals should be free to interpret the Bible for themselves. She also believed that salvation was a matter of faith, not good works, which was at odds with the beliefs of the Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. Hutchinson was eventually excommunicated from the church and was forced to leave the colony.
• Antinomianism — Antinomianism is the belief that Christians are not bound by moral laws or rules, but are saved by faith alone. Some members of the Puritan community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony held this belief, including Anne Hutchinson, who was excommunicated for her antinomian beliefs. The belief was seen as a threat to the authority of the church and the social order in the colony, and those who held these beliefs were often ostracized or punished.
• Antinomian Controversy (1636–1638) — A religious and political conflict in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that centered on disagreements over salvation, authority, and church discipline. The dispute emerged when Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright criticized Puritan ministers for teaching a “Covenant of Works” that stressed outward behavior rather than inward faith. Colonial leaders viewed these ideas as a threat to religious unity, social order, and clerical authority, leading to civil and church trials, banishments, and a clear demonstration of the close connection between church and state in early New England.

Debates With Roger Williams

Cotton was engaged in two major controversies with Roger Williams, during which they both published many pamphlets. 

1. Church Membership — The first debate focused on church membership. Williams argued that only people who clearly rejected the Church of England should join churches in New England. Cotton took the opposite and more open position. He believed churches should accept members even if they had not fully broken with the Church of England.
2. Separation of Civil Law and Church Law — The second controversy centered on the power of civil leaders. Williams claimed that magistrates should hold no authority over men’s souls and should not control religious matters, which helped lay the foundation for the Separation of Church and State in America. Cotton argued that magistrates should guide both religious life and civil affairs. He believed that the government had a duty to protect true faith as well as public order.

AHC Notes

• Roger Williams (c. 1603–1683) — Williams was the founder of Rhode Island. He was an advocate of the Separation of Church and State, Religious Freedom, and the rights of Indians. His beliefs helped form the concepts found in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In October 1635, he was accused of sedition and heresy by the Massachusetts General Court. He was convicted and banished.

Defense of Congregationalism

Cotton was a tireless worker and once said that a scholar should study for 12 hours each day. His church services were rigorous and placed a heavy mental strain on both him and his congregation. At times, he spent as many as six hours praying and preaching during a single service. 

The debate between English and New England Puritans began in manuscript form in the late 1630s. Despite his association with the Antinomian Controversy in the middle of the decade, Cotton’s reputation improved in the 1640s through his defense of Congregationalism by writing about the beliefs and methods of the Congregational Church in New England.

• Another key work was The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven (1644), which defended Congregationalism.
• His most widely read book was The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England (1645). Later, this was renamed “The New England Way.”
• One of his best-known works was his catechism Milk for Babes (1646). For many years, New England families used this book to teach children the basics of faith. He also wrote many works on prayer and church music. 
• Scottish Covenanter Robert Baillie criticized Cotton and Congregationalism in his work A Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time. He responded with The Way of the Congregational Churches Cleared (1648). 

AHC Notes

• The New England Way — A term used to describe the strict religious and societal framework developed by Puritan colonists in 17th-century New England. It emphasized congregational church governance, moral discipline, education, and the close relationship between church and state. Ministers and lay leaders sought to create a “godly” community where civic and religious life were intertwined. This model influenced New England’s legal codes, town meetings, and educational institutions. It promoted conformity and suppressed dissent, contributing to events like the Antinomian Controversy and the expulsion of religious dissenters.

The Westminster Assembly

Because he strongly defended Congregationalism, leaders asked him to attend the Westminster Assembly in England in 1643, but he declined.

AHC Notes

• Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643–1648) — A conference attended by more than 120 English clergy and several commissioners from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that took place in Westminster Abbey to produce a set of standards relating to doctrine and church order. The English Civil War was underway, and the guidance from the Puritan-dominated Long Parliament was to make the Church of England more consistent with the Word of God. The principal product was the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was written by 1647 and approved by Parliament in 1648.

The Cambridge Platform

By 1646, Cotton had become the leading Congregational minister in New England. The Cambridge Synod chose him as one of three ministers to draft a plan for church government. Although leaders respected his work, they did not adopt his plan in the final model, which is known as the “Cambridge Platform.”

Later Views and Influence

Cotton was among the most able and influential leaders in Massachusetts in his time. He was known for having a gentle nature and the spirit of a scholar. Yet, as his life in America continued, many observers believed that he slowly changed. He seemed driven by a desire to preserve his honor and influence within a narrow, strict society. As his career advanced, his views grew more reactionary.

In England, Cotton had lived as a nonconformist who challenged church authority. In later life, however, he strongly supported the power of civil Magistrates in Massachusetts. He even accepted that the state could use life and death to enforce religious unity. He wrote, “Better, a dead soule be dead in body, as well as in Spirit, than to live, and be lively in the flesh, to murder many precious soules by the Magistrates Indulgence.”

Like John Winthrop, Cotton did not trust the judgment of the common people. He argued for strict rule by a small group of leaders. He wrote, “Democracy, I do not conceyve that ever God did ordeyne as a fitt government eyther for church or commonwealth.”

Final Years and Death

Cotton worked until the end of his life. In 1652, he caught a severe cold while preaching to students at Harvard College. This illness developed into serious trouble with his lungs. He preached in his church for the last time on November 21, 1652. He died on December 23, 1652.

Family and Legacy

Cotton was married twice. 

1. First, on July 3, 1613, at Balsham, Cambridgeshire, England, he married Elizabeth Horrocks. She died sometime after October 2, 1630. 
2. Second, on April 25, 1632, he married Sarah Hawkridge Story, the widow of William Story. She survived Cotton and later married the Reverend Richard Mather, whom she also outlived.

Cotton had six children by his second wife. His daughter Maria married another famous Puritan leader, Increase Mather. Their son was the famous minister, Cotton Mather. Both of the Mathers were involved in events connected to the Salem Witch Trials.

AHC Notes

• Increase Mather (1639–1723) — Mather was a leading Puritan minister and political figure in Massachusetts who served as the Pastor of Boston’s Old North Church and as President of Harvard College. He opposed open communion, later supported the Halfway Covenant, criticized the Salem Witch Trials, and negotiated the 1691 Massachusetts Charter. He also helped found Yale College to preserve Puritan orthodoxy.
• Cotton Mather (1663–1728) — A leading Puritan minister and intellectual in colonial New England who served at Boston’s Old North Church, participated in the Salem Witch Trials while later opposing “spectral evidence,” and authored influential works such as Wonders of the Invisible World and Magnalia Christi Americana. Mather played a significant role in shaping religious thought and preserving early American history.
• Salem Witch Trials (1692–1693) — A series of witchcraft trials and prosecutions that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. A wave of mass hysteria led to accusations of witchcraft against numerous individuals, predominantly women. The trials resulted in the execution of 20 people before they were ended when Cotton Mather denounced the use of spectral evidence. Governor William Phipps also dissolved the court that conducted the trials, moved the remaining cases to another court, and pardoned anyone accused of witchcraft.

AP US History

John Cotton is part of the following units, topics, and chapters in the AP US History curriculum:

• Settling the Northern Colonies (1619–1700).

Definitions

John Cotton — Cotton was a Puritan religious leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who rose to prominence as the leader of the Boston Church, helping shape the colony’s social and political future. He played an important role in the Antinomian Controversy, which challenged the Puritan-led government. He defined Puritan civil, religious, and social systems in the New England Way (1645).