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Our "Restless Souls"
One of the things that astounded me when I began this quest for ancestors was their apparent dedication to migrating. Having made it to the New World, they apparently were determined to locate in just the spot that suited them. Understanding those migrations has taken me some time.
The first component again appears to be their determination to worship their God in the manner that they saw fit. The Rev. John Lathrop is a case in point. He immigrated with Winthrop's Fleet after he'd been imprisoned in England for worshipping outside the established religion. He became a minister at a church in Scituate, Mass. Then when he differed with the established powers here he moved to Barnstable, Mass. and founded a new church, more in keeping with his principles. When he left Scituate, he did not go alone, as this web site maintained by the Scituate Historical Society shows.
List of Early Scituate Families
Barnstable, of course, was nearly wilderness when settled in those early years. Now it's a highly desirable location and a magnet for tourists. And its Sturgis Library is still partly housed in a building constructed for the Rev. Lathrop.
Rhode Island became another haven for those differing with the developing religious precepts of Massachusetts Bay. Obadiah Holmes was among those who opted for the expanded religious environment offered by Roger Williams. The Rev. Holmes' biography is available at the link below at a web site by Sam Behling.
Others of our family's ancestors followed The Rev. Thomas Hooker as he settled Hartford, Conn. His biography is available at a site named Ray's Place.