Reverend Edward Bulkeley

brief biography

Edward Bulkeley matriculated pensioner from St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, Easter, 1629. He arrived at New England before his father and the rest of his family. He was at that time barely 21 years old. He joined the First Church in Boston 22 Mar 1634/5, and was made a freeman on 6 May 1635. Edward was dismissed to Concord, 15 Aug 1641. Having acquired a professional education, under instruction of his father, he was licensed to preach the Gospel and ordained at Marshfield, MA, in 1642/3. On the death of his father in 1659, he was dismissed and installed over the Church in Concord as his successor at £80 a year. He preached the Election Sermon in 1680.(1)

Edward Bulkeley succeeded his father, Peter, as Minister of the First Parish Church in Concord, and served from 1659-1696.  His house still stands at 92 Sudbury Road.  He had graduated from Harvard Divinity School and been ordained at Marshfield, MA in 1642.
He served during the bloody King Philip’s War of 1675.  People said that he delivered such fiery prayers that the Indians didn’t dare attach his town, and indeed there was never any trouble here with the American natives.
During his ministry, the second Meeting House was built on the same site as the first, we believe, only twice as big.  The exact location of these two buildings has never been decided.  One argument is that they were located on top of the hill where it would have been closer to God and a look-out for any enemies approaching.  The other argument is that they would never have lugged materials up that steep hill when they could have more easily built on ground level.  There they would have had easier access in an emergency, more warmth in winter with the help of the sun from the east, south and west, and protection from the north winds with the high esker behind them.  My own theory is that it was on the ground level because of the location of the burying ground and the first grave stones we see there today.  In their traditional English manner, their dead were buried close to and around their churches, and seven or eight very early stones, before inscriptions were possible, are in a just right position to indicate where a building might have stood. (2)

On 5 Mar. 1694, the town of Concord voted, “Whereas the Rev. Pastor, Mr Edward Bulkeley, is under such infirmities of body by reason of great age, that he is not capable of attending the work of the ministry as in time past, being also sensible of the obligations the town is under to afford him a comfortable maintenance during the term of his natural life, that thereby the people may testifie their gratitude for his former services in the Gospel, they do hereby oblige the town to pay Mr. Bulkeley yearly, during his natural life, the sum of £30 in lieu of his former salary.” He accepted this provided he could preach or not as he felt inclined.

Sewall’s diary, 4 Jan 1695/6: “The Revd. Mr. Edward Bulkly, of Concord, dies at Chelmsford in a good old Age; is buried at Concord.” [1]

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Minister of the First Parish Church in Concord

sources

1. 153. Donald Lines Jacobus, The Bulkeley Genealogy: Rev. Peter Bulkeley, being an account of his career, his ancestry, the ancestry of his two wives, and his relatives in England and New England, together with a genealogy of his descendants through the seventh American generation, New Haven, Connecticut, 1933.
2. Ministers of the First Parish Church in Concord:  369 Years of Parish Ministry. by Marian Wheeler, February 2006

links

• http://trees.wmgs.org/getperson.php?personID=I11234&tree=Schirado

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Edward Bulkeley succeeded his father, Peter, as Minister from 1659-1696. His house
still stands at 92 Sudbury Road. He had graduated from Harvard Divinity School and been
ordained at Marshfield, MA in 1642.

Edward served during the bloody King Philip's War of 1675. People said that he
delivered such fiery prayers that the Indians didn't dare attach his town, and indeed there was
never any trouble here with the American natives

During his ministry, the second Meeting House was built on the same site as the first, we
believe, only twice as big. The exact location of these two buildings has never been decided.
One argument is that they were located on top of the hill where it would have been closer to God
and a look-out for any enemies approaching. The other argument is that they would never have
lugged materials up that steep hill when they could have more easily built on ground level.

There they would have had easier access in an emergency, more warmth in winter with the help
of the sun from the east, south and west, and protection from the north winds with the high esker
behind them. My own theory is that it was on the ground level because of the location of the
burying ground and the first grave stones we see there today. In their traditional English manner,
their dead were buried close to and around their churches, and seven or eight very early stones,
before inscriptions were possible, are in a just right position to indicate where a building might
have stood.On March 5, 1694, the town of Concord voted, "Whereas the Rev. Pastor, Mr Edward
Bulkeley, is under such infirmities of body by reason of great age, that he is not capable of
attending the work of the ministry as in time past, being also sensible of the obligations the town is under to afford him a comfortable maintenance during the term of his natural life, that thereby
the people may testifie their gratitude for his former services in the Gospel, they do hereby
oblige the town to pay Mr. Bulkeley yearly, during his natural life, the sum of £30 in lieu of his
former salary." He accepted this provided he could preach or not, as he felt inclined.

Edward was memorialized on side 2 of the "Early Settlers at Green Harbor Monument" in the Winslow Cemetery in Marshfield, MA.

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Edward was born June 17, 1614 in Odell, England to Peter and Jane Allen Bulkeley, the oldest child of 9. Edward’s dad Peter was a Puritan pastor in Odell and was harassed by Archbishop Laud, so looking to leave England. The Buckeleys sailed to America in 1634 or 1635, secretly, “No doubt the long drawn out enrollments and lack of effort to standardize spelling of the names were reflections of the family’s attempt to board the ship without being apprehended. Son Edward preceded the rest of the family, becoming a member of Boston church on 22 March 1634/5”. Archbishop Laud’s story didn’t end well, He was sent to the Tower of London, then executed in 1645. King Charles would regret putting ’too much trust in Laud’.

Once they were in America the Bulkeleys lived in Concord where Edward was a freeman on May 6 1635. He married Lucien, last name unknown, in 1640 and they had 6 children. Around 1660 Edward built a house in Concord, on Main Street. “А deed referring to the property, with a dwelling on it, records the 1663 transfer of 10 acres of land located on today’s Main Street to Edward Bulkeley by his mother, widow of one of Concord’s founders and its first minister, Peter Bulkeley.” Today this home is at 92 Sudbury Road in Concord, a private residence, the house was moved in the 1800s. Edward died in 1696, his wife Lucien died in 1690. They are both probably buried at Old Hill Burying Ground in Concord, no headstones remain.

Edward, like his dad, was a Puritan pastor and was known for his ‘fiery’ sermons. When his dad died, Edward followed as pastor of the First Parish Church in Concord. This church is also still there in Concord, Massachusetts, now a Unitarian Universalist church.

• https://eachlifeinplace.com/tag/bulkeley/

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