John Eliot (c. 1604 – 21 May 1690) was a Puritan missionary to Native Americans who some called "the apostle to the Indians", and the founder of Roxbury Latin School in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1645. In 1660 he completed the enormous task of translating the Eliot Indian Bible into the Massachusett language, producing more than two thousand completed copies.
Early life and education
Eliot was born in Widford, Hertfordshire, England, and lived at Nazeing as a boy. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge. After college, he became assistant to Thomas Hooker at a private school in Little Baddow, Essex. After Hooker was forced to flee to the Netherlands, Eliot emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, arranging passage as chaplain on the ship Lyon and arriving on 3 November 1631. Eliot became minister and "teaching elder" at the First Church in Roxbury. From 1637 to 1638, Eliot participated in both the civil and church trials of Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy. Eliot disapproved of Hutchinson's views and actions, and was one of the two ministers representing Roxbury in the proceedings which led to her excommunication and exile. In 1645, Eliot founded the Roxbury Latin School. He and fellow ministers Thomas Weld (also of Roxbury), Thomas Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard, and Richard Mather of Dorchester are credited with editing the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published in the British North American colonies (1640). From 1649 to 1674, Samuel Danforth assisted Eliot in his Roxbury ministry.
Roxbury and Dorchester, Massachusetts There are many connections between John Eliot and the towns of Roxbury and Dorchester. After working for a short time as pastor in Boston as the temporary replacement for John Wilson at Boston's first church society, John Eliot settled in Roxbury with other Puritans from Essex, England. He was the teacher at The First Church in Roxbury for sixty years and was their sole pastor for forty years. For the first forty years in Roxbury, Eliot preached in the 20-foot by 30-foot meetinghouse with thatched roof and plastered walls that stood on Meetinghouse Hill. Eliot founded the Roxbury Grammar School and worked hard to keep it prosperous and relevant. Eliot also preached at times in the Dorchester church; he was given land by Dorchester for use in his missionary efforts. In 1649 he gave half of a donation he received from a man in London to the schoolmaster of Dorchester.
Use of the Massachusett language
The chief barrier to preaching to the Native Americans was language. Gestures and pidgin English were used for trade but could not be used to convey a sermon. John Eliot studied the Massachusett or Wampanoag language, the language of the local Indigenous population. To help him with this task, Eliot relied on a young Native American named Cockenoe. Cockenoe had been captured in the Pequot War of 1637 and made the servant of an Englishman named Richard Collicott. John Eliot said, "he was the first that I made use of to teach me words, and to be my interpreter." Cockenoe could not write, but could speak Massachusett and English. With his help, Eliot was able to translate the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and other scriptures and prayers. In 1660, Eliot translated the Bible from English to Massachusett, and had it printed by Marmaduke Johnson and Samuel Green on the press in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By 1663, Marmaduke and Green had printed 1,180 volumes of the Old and New Testaments translated from English to the Massachusett language. The first time Eliot attempted to preach to the Massachusett (led by sachem Cutshamekin) in 1646 at Dorchester Mills, he failed, saying that they "gave no heed unto it, but were weary and despised what I said." The second time he preached to Native Americans was at the wigwam of Waban near Watertown Mill, which was later called Nonantum, now Newton, Massachusetts. John Eliot was not the first Puritan missionary to try to convert Native Americans to Christianity, but he was the first to produce printed publications for the Algonquian people in their own language. This meant that the settlements of "praying Indians" could employ other preachers and teachers to continue the work John Eliot started. By translating sermons to the Massachusett language, John Eliot not only disseminated Christianity to local Native Americans, but also introduced written language; Massachussett did not have a written alphabet of its own, mainly employing spoken language and pictorial language.
Missionary career
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