Abraham Pierson, 1609-1678

Rev. Abraham Pierson was the pastor of the Branford church in Connecticut where many of the former New Haven colonists had come from who were the first English settlers in Newark. Rev. Pierson was born in 1609 in Yorkshire, England and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1632 at age 19. He was episcopally ordained at the parish church of Newark-on-the-Trent. He landed in Boston in 1639, was ordained a Congregational minister there, and later organized a Congregational church in Lynn, Massachusetts.

In 1640, he led a group of Puritans to found "The Isle of the Innocents," Southampton, Long Island. They landed there on June 12, 1640, on what is now known as Conscience Point. He was opposed to Southampton joining the more liberal Connecticut colony in 1644 and made his way to Branford, Connecticut around 1647. Southampton remains the oldest English settlement in the state of New York.

Rev. Pierson married Abigail Wheelwright. The couple had 10 children, most of them born in Southampton. When Robert Treat set sail in early May of 1666 with the New Haven party, Rev. Pierson stayed behind in Branford until 1667. Newark was the last Puritan theocracy to be founded in America.

Rev. Pierson remained pastor in Newark until his death on August 9, 1678. Cotton Mather characterized Pierson as a "godly, learned man" and "wherever he came he shone." When he died, his library included over 400 books (one of the largest collections in the colonies), which were left to his son, Abraham. This son was the first rector, from 1701 to 1707, and one of the founders of the Collegiate School — which later became Yale University.

Unanswered Questions:

• When did the Puritan theocracy in Newark end? And what led to its demise?