Hooker, Thomas, 1586–1647, Puritan clergyman in the American colonies, chief founder of Hartford, Conn., b. Leicestershire, England. A clergyman, he was ordered to appear before the court of high commission for nonconformist preaching in England and fled (1630) to Holland. In 1633, Hooker immigrated to Massachusetts, where he was pastor at Newtown (now Cambridge). He had a dispute with John Cotton and apparently was discontented with the strict theological rule in Massachusetts. After a group of settlers had been sent ahead in 1635, he and many of his flock moved in 1636 to found Hartford, where he was pastor until his death. Hooker was one of the drafters of the Fundamental Orders (1639), under which Connecticut was long governed and which represent his political views. He also promoted a plan for the New England Confederation.

Bibliography

See biography by G. L. Walker (1891, repr. 1969).

Hooker, Thomas

(born probably July 7, 1586, Markfield, Leicestershire, Eng.—died July 7, 1647, Hartford, Conn.) Anglo-American colonial clergyman. He held pastorates in England (1620–30), where he was attacked for Puritan leanings. He fled to Holland before emigrating to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633. As pastor of a company of Puritans, he moved them to Connecticut to settle Hartford in 1636. He helped frame the Fundamental Orders (1639), which later formed the basis of the Connecticut constitution.

Hooker, Thomas (1586–1647) religious leader; born in Leicestershire, England. He emigrated to Holland (1630) and then to Massachusetts in 1633. After falling out with the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay colony, he led a group of his parishioners to Connecticut and helped to establish Hartford. His political ideas were embodied in the Fundamental Orders (1639), which was Connecticut's first constitution.