reverendjohnwinge

John Wing, born in England in the latter 1500's. Died about 1629, The Hague,
Holland or 1630 in England. Married probably about 1610 to Deborah
Bachiller. They probably were married in Holland.

Like his father-in-law, Stephen Bachiler, John Wing was an English minister
who moved to Holland and became a Puritan pastor there, most likely for
similar reasons. He had been residing at Sandwich, County Kent, England on
the Strait of Dover and then at Banbury before migrating to Holland. There
he became pastor of an English Puritan Congregation in Flushing, Province of
Zealand. It is likely that he was associated in some way in Holland with
Stephen Bachiler, as he married Stephen's daughter. Pope, in PIONEERS ON
MASSACHUSETTS, states that John Wing died in the Hague, Holland in 1629.
Lovell, in SANDWICH: A CAPE COD TOWN, states that he died in England in
1630. An early Wing family genealogist, writing in 1881, stated that John
came to America and settled in Sandwich. But more recent research proves
that the writer must have confused John Wing with John Wing, Jr., his son,
who did accompany his widowed mother, brothers, and Stephen Bachiler to
America in 1632, and settled first in Lynn, and later in Sandwich.

Elizabeth ruled England with an iron hand. The Puritans were in a majority in
the House of Commons, but the severe reprimands they had met with from
the throne deterred them from enacting any religious laws. The prelates of
the Church of England were still in the haughty exercise of all religious
prerogatives. So that when Matthew, or perchance Mary, carried the infant
John in their arms up the stately aisles of old St. Mary's to the Saxon
baptismal font, he was baptized with the parents and attendants kneeling at
the sacrament, which was sealed by the sign of the cross. Every question of
ceremony was regulated by Queen Elizabeth. Even the size and height of the
ruff about Matthew's neck was determined by the Queen's edict.

The very year of John's birth, Elizabeth consigned the religious life of England
into the keeping of forty-four commissioners, who were enpowered by all
means and ways they could devise, by juries, by the rack, by torture, by
inquisition, by imprisonment, to reform all heresies and schism, and to
punish all breaches of uniformity of worship. so we may well imagine that
John was christened by his parents with strict regard to the country's laws.

Matthew and Mary were not permitted to invite their neighbors to read and
discuss the scriptures. All such gatherings, without the Queen's special
permission, were unlawful. And if, perchance, Matthew (who was a tailor) in
his business sold a suit of clothes to a nobleman, he was obliged to wait that
gentlman's knightly pleasure for payment. If he sued to recover the price, he
was liable to imprisoment himself. It was only during the succeeding
generations that the noble principles of liberty took root. Executions took
place for robbery, theft and felonies; whippings and burnings in the hand
hand were legal modes of punishment for lesser crimes. In fact, the "Merrie
England" of the days of Matthew and the boyhood of John affords us no
reason to be in love with the picture of the absolute monarchy or with the
government of "good Queen Bess."

The boyhood of John was spent in Banbury. The square about the old
Banbury cross was undoubtedly a playground, and time and again he must
have passed and entered the old Reindeer Inn. The schools of the day were
known as grammar schools, and undoubtedly John made good use of them,
for he was able to matriculate at Oxford when but fifteen years of age. We
cannot doubt that he was a regular Sunday attendant at St. Mary's. His
deeply spiritual nature was a surety of that. The sermons in the English
churches at that time were merely homilies prepared by the prelates and
given the vicars to read, exhorting their congregations to obey the Queen
and extolling her goodness.

In John's fourteenth year, all England was aflame with the approach of the
great Spanish Armada. His father at that time was forty-eight years of age,
and his brothers, Fulk and Thomas, twenty-four and twenty-two respectively.
Unquestionably they were enrolled among the nation's defenders. The year
following the excitement attending the Armada, John Wing entered Oxford
University. The school was only twenty-three miles from his home. The
matriculation entry is as follows:
"John Wynge of Oxon, pleb. St. Alban's Hall, 15 October, 1599, aged 14."

On 12 February, 1603, Queen's College invested him with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. During the days of John's schooling there, Oxford was
particularly active in the literary movement of that day, and undoubtedly the
youth became acquainted there with many of the great lights who dazzled
the world with their writings in the generation following.

That we may better appreciate the scholarly attainments of young John
Wing, B.A., nineteen years of age, when he left the shadows of Queen's
College in 1603, a review of the times may prove interesting. Of the peers of
the realm during Elizabeth's reign only about sixty knew their letters. In the
rual districts, to read and write were considered rare accomplishments, and
even among the gentry below the first degree there was little difference in
literary accomplishments between master and the boorish attendants. As we
descend a step lower we reach a class wholly illiterate. Shakespeare's father
was High Bailiff of Stratford, but he could neither read nor write. Of nineteen
aldermen of Stratford only six could write their names. Nor was the
ignorance confined to the laymen. In1578, according to Neal, of one hundred
and forty clergymen in Cornwall belonging to the established church, not one
was capable of preaching, and throughout the kingdom, those who could
preach were in the proportion of one to four.

The time of the induction of John into the holy order is conjectural. Oxford at
the time of his graduation was, under Elizabeth's reign, the fountain head of
English church theology. His parents were members of the established
church, and it was quite likely with a view of taking the orders that he
pursued his studies at the University. It is most likely that the young Oxford
graduate secured a position in some country village as a curate or assistant
to the vicar of some parish and, while acting in that capacity, met Deborah
Bachiler, daughter of the Vicar of Wherwell in Hampton.

Stephen Bachiler, the Vicar of Wherwell, had gained considerable reputation
among his clerical brethren for learning and ability. A man of willful
independent and forceful character, he had refused conformity with the
requirements of his superiors in the chuch and in 1605 was deprived of his
living at Wherwell. He immediately secured another following in the vicinity
of Wherwell and continued to preach the gospel as a Presbyterian. It was an
age of fierce religious controversy, and it was during the period immediately
following Bachiler's expulsion from his living at Wherwell that the young
Oxford graduate met and courted Deborah. It will not for an instant be
believed by those who have studied Bachiler's dominating and forceful
character that he would permit his daughter to marry a clergyman of the
Church of England. Tradition says that he refused to give his youngest
daughter, Theodate, in marriage to young Christopher Hussey until the latter
would promise to take her to New England, where he himself proposed to
settle. The influence of the courtship and the marriage of John and Deborah,
and the subsequent associations with the father of the latter, may have had
much to do with the breaking of the young man's relations with the mother
church.

John Wing and Deborah Bachiler were married about the year 1609-10. It
may be conjectured that because John's brother named a daughter Deborah,
born to him in 1608, that the marriage occurred even earlier. At the time of
his marriage, John was about twenty-five years of age and Deborah barely
eighteen. The oldest child, Deborah was born in 1611. John, the second child,
is said by some student of family history to have been born at Yarmouth. He
is mentioned in his grandfather's will made in 1614, so that it is probably that
his birth occurred in 1613.

In 1617, John Wing is found preaching to the famous society of Merchant
Adventurers of England in Hanover, Germany, and it is known definitely that
he was in charge of a congregation at the old Roman cinque port of
Sandwich in Kent at some period prior to 1620. The proof of this is contained
in the dedication of his first book, "The Crown Conjugall", printed in
November, 1620. He thus inscribed it:

"To The Right Worshipfull Master Matthew Peke Esquire, Mayor of the
Towne and Port of Sandwich, and to the Worshipfull, the Jurates of his
brethren, the Common Counsell and whole Corporation for the same JOHN
WING, doth with Grace and Peace and all good form from the living God
through the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the worke of the Holy Ghost,
(our former favours, and the abundant fruits of your love Right Worshipfull
and welbeloved in the Lord) which I have from time to time experienced ever
since it pleased the Lord to cast affliction upon mine external state, doe daily
provoke and deeply challange from me, the manifestation of a thankfull hart
unto you all to whose kindnes I stand a Debtor much engaged to this day."

Mr. Stevens, in his "History of Presbyterianism" thus makes mention of our
ancestor:
"Mr. Wing, a pious man, and edifying preacher, was first at Sandwich, but
had latterly been chaplain to the Merchants Adventurers of England residing
at Hamburg. He exerted himself much for the good of his people her
(Flushing) until he removed to the Hague in 1627."

On 19 June, 1620, he had been ordained as pastor of the churches of
Flushing and Middleburg (in Holland) under the direction of Mr. John Paget
of Amsterdam, assisted by two Dutch clergymen, and in the presence of the
burgomaster and other magistrates.

There are many theories as to the exact religious beliefs of the Rev. John
Wing. Robert Browne, the founder of English Congregationalism, as early as
1581, had emigrated to Middleburg, in Zealand, with his followers, and it was
from here that he published his several works. His followers became
distracted and divided on matters of discipline and were finally disbanded. It
may have been remnants of Brown's old congregation at Middleburg that
John Wing preached to in 1620. The fact that the Dutch government
recognized and materially aided the Rev. John Wing in his ministrations at
the Hague and in his induction into the Pastorate at Middleburg, leads to the
belief that he was a Presbyterian in his belief and teachings. He was the first
settled English pastor at the Hague, being admitted 11 May, 1627. The states
of Holland allowed him a subsidy of 300 pounds year, which, by a decree of
1628, was augmented to 500 pounds. A subscription of 100 pounds was
raised by the English, and expended in repairing and beautifying the chapel.
This church, or chapel, was much frequented by the royal family, and
especially by Elizabeth, daughter of King James, wife of the ex-King of
Bohemia. It was here that Mr. Wing preached 18 May, 1624, his sermon "The
Saint's Advantage, or the Wellfare of the Faithfull in the Worst Times" before
Queen Elizabeth. The sermon was given at the Hague while Mr. Wing was
still in the pastorate at Middleburg. It was printed in London, in 1624, by
John Dawson for John Bellamie, and was sold at his shop the the Three
Golden Lions, near the Royal Exchange.

A number of the sermons of the Rev. John Wing were published. Samuel
Austin Allibone, in his "Dictionary of Authors" mentions some of the
publications:
"1. The Crowne Conjugall, or the Spouse Royall, Middleburg, 1620
2. Jacob's Staffe to Beare up the Faithful and Beat Down the Profane,
Flushing, 1621
3. The Best Merchandis, 1622"
To those should be added "Abel's Offering" and "The Saint's Advantage." The
former was printed in 1622 and is dedicated "To the Right Worshipfull and
worthy fellowship of Merchants Adventurers of England, residents of Delft,
in Holland." It had been preached in Middleburg, in Zealand. The book
contains 138 pages. The latter sermon preached at Hamburg in November
1617, and was printed at Flushing in October of 1621.

Five of the volumes of John Wing's publications are held by the British
Museum and have been seen and examined there by several members of
the Wing Family of America. At least one copy of each of the five publications
is now in America. a Copy of the "Crown Conjugall" was secured by the late
Col. George W. Wing, first president of the Wing Family of America, having
been purchased in a London bookstore in 1903. A copy of the book "The
Saint's Advantage" is part of the John Adams collection in the Boston Public
Library, carefully guarded under lock and key. On the title page of this copy is
the following notation placed by Mr. Thomas Prince who owned the book at
one time:
"This Wing was Pastor of ye English Puitan Chh. at Middleborough in
Zeeland, wh. wido bro't her children to Sandwich in New England who
afterwards turned Quaker and frm whm ye Wings at Sandwich, Wareham,
Rochester and Dartmouth are descended."

In Septmeber, 1908, Mr. George Wing Sisson, at that time Vice President of
the Wing Family of America, received from Miss Miriam H. L. wing, of
Coventry, England, a bound volume cotaining "Jacob's Staffe," "The Best
Merchandise", and "Abel's Offering", bound within the same covers. Miss
Wing was the daughter of an English Clergyman and stated that the volume
had been purchased by her father from a London bookseller merely because
the author bore his surname.

The religious views and teachings of the Rev. John Wing are not conjectural
to his descendants. Over 800 pages of his writings or preachings are
accessible to those of his posterity living today. They reveal to us a man of
strong spituality, classic learning, masterful character, ready wit, fierce
invective, a facile pen and a ready tongue. He lived in an age of cant and
long-winded sermons, and at times his preachings take on the color of the
age, but through them all gleams the effort to be of sincere use to his
fellowmen.

Fully fifteen years of the lives of John Wing and his wife Deborah were spent
in Germany and Holland as practical exiles from their native England.
Hamburg and The Hague were cities of note and cosmopolitian beyond their
contemporaries in Europe. Their associates, and the members of their
congregations, were people of note and keen enterprise. The salary of 500
pounds a year while at The Hague afforded him the means of living in
affluence. Reckoned for its purchasing power at that time, it would equal the
modern salary of $10,000 given to favored ministers of the gospel, and
speaks for itself of the value placed upon his services.

What changes of fortune brought him and his family to London before his
death we are unable to determine. Perhaps it was a fatal illness: possibly the
growing power of the Puritan movement: perhaps he too had caught the
fever to emigrate to America. He sickened and died in London in 1630,
probably during the summer, in his forty-sixth year, and his wife, Deborah, at
thirty-eight was left a widow with five children.

No picture comes down to us through the ages of the Rev. John Wing. The
Puritan and Presbyterian clergy of that period affected a small chin beard
with mustaches, hair rather long and flowing, high hats with rather broad
trims, black clothes and cloak, with knee breeches and silver- buckled shoes.
The office of the clergy carried with it a great dignity and sterness of bearing.
The Rev. John at all times felt the responsibilities of his mission.

The English recods contain this synopsis of his will:
"John Winge, late of the Hague in Holland, clerk, now living in St. Mary
Aldermary, London, 2 November, 1629, proved Aug. 4, 1630. Certain lands
(freehold) in Crickston and Stroud, Kent, shall be sold as conveniently may be
and the money thereof arising shall be with all other goods, etc, divided into
equal parts, the one to be had, received and enjoyed unto by my loving wife,
Debora, and the other part or moiety to be equally and indifferently had,
parted, divided and enjoyed unto amongst all my children, share and share
alike, except unto and by my daughter Debora whom I have already
advanced in marriage. Wife Debora to be executrix and Edward Foord of
London, merchant, and Andrew Blake of Stroud, in Kent, yeomen, overseers."

It is not unusual circumstance for the Rev. John Wing to be styled a "clerk" in
his will. His father-in-law, also a minister, was so designated in at least three
conveyances made by him about the same time. The term evidently had a
broader meaning than is now ascribed to it, and was used to designate a
scholarly gentleman.

A brief review of the family and surroundings of the widow Deborah Wing
and her children at this period may bring the situation nearer home to us.
Deborah herself was still a young woman of thirty-eight. Her only daughter,
Deborah, aged about nineteen, had but recently married. Her eldest son,
John, was but seventeen, her son Daniel a year or two younger than John,
Stephen but nine and Matthew still younger. Her younger sister, Ann
Sanborn, also widowed with a family , was living on the strand in London and
her brothers, Samuel and Nathaniel, probably living in Holland. The freehold
estate mentioned by Rev. John Wing in his will was located at Crickston and
Stroud in Kent, a few miles distant from Sandwich. There is a tradition among
the New England members of the family that Matthew Wing, Deborah's
youngest son, "went back to England to look after some property left
behind." We have positive knowledge that Matthew Wing returned to
Stroud, married, lived and died there. The size, importance and value of the
estate left by John to his wife and sons is not known; but it appears probable
that they were provided with some means when they set out for America in
the spring of 1632.

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An Interesting History of Rev. John Wing...submitted by John Jackson...a
Wing descendant.

This history was sent to me by a cousin...John Jackson. I found it so
interesting that I had to include it on the website. The actual history was
written by Elizabeth Wing Kurfman (the rest of her history is included in the
section of Stephen Wing and His Descendants. Alice's sources for this article
include: 1. ) The Compedium of American Genealogy. 2.) Pioneers of
Massachusetts...Pope. 3. ) Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of
New England...Savage. 4. ) Cape Cod...A guide by Donald Wood. Thank you
John for this contribution.

"Parents cannot doe all and performe their owne and their childrens parts
also. The good which the parent doth endeavor, cannot come unto the
childe, if he nglect himself. And therefore, all children that ever hope to be
happy in this, or any other estate, must most humbly and sincerely seeke the
face of the Lord and betake themselves to him, who will crown all such."

The above is a quotation from a sermon preached by Rev. John Wing at
Flushing, Zeeland in 1620. Seven volumes of his sermons are preserved in the
British Museum. At least 3 copies are in America : one was at the Wing
reunion held in Chicago in 1912, one was owned by George Wing Sisson at
that time and the third is in the Boston Public Library. It is believed the latter
was brought by Deborah Bachiler Wing to America in 1632, eventually
coming into the possession of John Quincy Adams. It is now a part of the
Adams Collection the the Boston Public Library. The Owl Editor stated that,
"his sermons show a discrimenating, analytical mind, and a most intimate
knowledge of the Bible."

"Tring, Wing and Ivanhue Three manors did Hampton forego, for the striking
of a blow." (author unknown) Two manors in England bore the name Wing
and Matthew descended from the Rutlandshire Wings. It is believed his
people originally came out of Wales. Matthew was a tailor and apparently
quite sucessful. He died in 1614 and he and Mary are both buried in St.
Mary's Churchyard at Banbury.

John Wing entered Queen's College, Oxford University, at age 14, graduating
in 1603. He was inducted into holy orders and rose rapidly in political
esteem. He was one of seven men to whom King James granted the Charter
of Banbury in 1606: an office he was supposed to hold for his lifetime. A few
miles away lived Deborah, the eighteen year old daughter of Rev. Stephen
Bachiler, Vicar of Wherwell. Deborah and John Wing were married in
1609-10. Their firstborn was a daughter, who they named Deborah. The Owl
printed a picture of a wood carving, which was suppose to be a likeness of
John, Deborah and their little daughter. In 1613 their son John, was born at
Yarmouth, Daniel was next and Stephen, was born at Flushing in 1621. Their
youngest son, Matthew, was born about 1625-26.

Rev. John Wing developed convictions, which made it impossible for him to
conform to the established Church of England of that period. King James I,
believed in the divine right of kings, and he severly persecuted both Roman
Catholics and Puritans. When Charles I came to the throne in 1625, he
continued to persecute the Puritans. John Wing was at Yarmouth, then
Sandwich, where history records he suffered great hardships. An old
document of Sandwich, Massachusetts, written by an early American Wing,
states that Rev. John Wing fled England ot escape severe persectuion and
when he later returned was put to death. Other sources record that he died
at the Hague.

In 1617 to 1624 he was preaching in Flushing, Holland, Middleburg Zeeland
and Hamburg, Germany. He was ordained pastor at the Hague in 1627, for
which he received a yearly grant of 300 pounds from the Dutch government.
That amount was increased to 500 pounds the following year. ( A laborer
received 5 pounds. ) At the Hague, he preached before Elizabeth, Queen of
Bohemia and daughter of King James I of England. His first volume of
sermons were printed in 1620 with the title, "The Crown Conjugal, a
Discovery of the True Honor and Happiness of Christian Matrimony." Two
more volumes were printed in 1621, a fourth in 1622 and in 1624, "The Saints
Advantage".

Some historians say Rev. John Wing died at the Hague in 1630, others claim
he visited England in 1629 and was put to death there. His family came to
America without disposing of his property in England, because records show
that young Matthew later returned to claim his fathers estate in County Kent,
near Sandwich. Matthew married Joann Newman, but he died young,
without children. The widow Deborah and sons, in the company of her
father and other family members, sailed for America March 9, 1632 in the "
William and Francis". They arrived at Lynn, Massachusetts in 1632 and
settled at Sandwich in 1637. There on Cape Cod they built their homes, some
of which may still be seen today.

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