WHEELWRIGHT, John, American Pur itan clergyman: b. Lincolnshire, England, about 1592; d. Salisbury, N. H 15 Nov. 1679. He was a graduate of Cambridge and vicar of Bilsby, near Lincolnshire; but in 1636, being driven from his church by Arch bishop Laud, he emigrated to Boston, Mass, where the same year he was chosen pastor of a branch of the Boston church at Mount Wollaston, in what is now Quincy. The cele brated Anne Hutchinson (q.v.) was his sister in-law, and he partook of her views. Differ ences of opinion led to personal animosities between him and John IN ikon, the pastor of the Boston church; and the General Court ap pointed a fast in January 1637, partly to heal these dissensions. On this occasion Wheel wright preached in Boston and, as his enemies asserted, denounced the ministers and magis trates. The General Court pronounced him guilty of sedition and contempt, for which in November 1637 he was banished from the colony. In 1638 he formed a, settlement on
the banks of the Piscataqua, which he called Exeter. After a residence of five years here the town was declared to be within the limits of Massachusetts, and he removed with a part of his church to Wells in the district of Maine. In 1644 his sentence of banishment was re yoked, in consequence of some acknowledg ments on his part, and he returned to that colony in 1646 and settled in Hampton. In 1654 he published his 'Vindication.' About 1657 he went to England. where Cromwell, who had been his college classmate, received him cor dially; but he returned in 1660 and in 1662 set tled as pastor in Salisbury, N. H. His 'Writ ings,' with a memoir, edited by C. H. Bell, were published by the Prince Society in 1876.