Colonial Pastors in Public Affairs - Rev. John Wise P7

Last week I ended with the Rev. John Wise being put in prison being refused his lawful right of habeas corpus. King James II, who had sent Andros to America to be governor over all the colonies, was removed from the throne by the Glorious Revolution of 1688. With James II removed, Boston residents arrested the heavy-handed Andros and sent him back to England. Wise was then elected to help reorganize the government, and he sued Judge Dudley for refusing his right of habeas corpus, winning a large economic settlement against him.

Wise was a consistent and unflinching voice for freedom, boldly proclaiming that every individual is “a free-born subject under the crown of Heaven and owing homage to none but God Himself.” This was a revolutionary teaching at that time, but Wise forcefully asserted it not just for State but also for Church. Thus, when a plan was advanced to remove local church control and place it in the hands of a small council of elite ministers, he not only fiercely resisted but almost single-handedly defeated the effort.

Because so many of the key ideas the Founding Fathers used in writing the Declaration of Independence originated in Wise’s town of Ipswich, the town is known as the “Birthplace of American Independence.” Thus the Rev. John Wise, helped found free governments in colonial America as well as lay the philosophical and intellectual basis for American Independence. 

Content Sourced from The American Story, The Beginnings by Dave Barton & Tim Barton