FAMILY HISTORY AND STORIES
The Rev John Lothrop(p) Story
John Lothropp[1] (born Etton, Yorkshire, 1584; died 1653) was an English Anglican clergyman, who became a Congregationalist minister and emigrant to New England. He was the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.
Early life: He was baptized December 20, 1584. He attended Queen's College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1601, graduated with a B.A. in 1605, and with an MA in 1609. He was ordained in the Church of England and appointed curate of a local parish in Egerton, Kent. In 1623 he renounced his orders and joined the cause of the Independents. Lothropp gained prominence in 1624, when he was called to replace Rev. Henry Jacob, as the pastor of the First Independent Church in London, a congregation of sixty members, which met at Southwark. Church historians sometimes call this church, the Jacob-Lothropp-Jessey Church, named for its first three pastors; Henry Jacob, John Lothropp, Henry Jessey.
They were forced to meet in private to avoid the scrutiny of Bishop of London William Laud. Following the group's discovery on April 22, 1632 by officers of the king, forty two of Lothropp's Independents were arrested. Only eighteen escaped capture. They were prosecuted for failure to take the oath of loyalty to the established church. They were jailed in The Clink at Newgate. All were released on bail by the spring of 1634, except Lothropp who was deemed too dangerous to be set at liberty. While he was in prison his wife Hannah House became ill and died. His six surviving children were according to tradition left to fend for themselves begging for bread on the streets of London. Friends being unable to care for his children brought them to the Bishop who had charge of Lothropp. The bishop ultimately released him on bond in May of 1634 with the understanding that he would immediately remove to the New World.
Lothropp was told that he would be pardoned upon acceptance of terms to permanently leave England with his family along with as many of his congregation members as he could take who would not accept the authority of the Church of England. Lathrop accepted this offer and left for Plymouth, Massachusetts. He, with his group, sailed on the Griffin and arrived in Boston September 18, 1634. He married Anna Hammond (1616-1687) shortly after his arrival.
Lothropp did not stay in Boston long. Within days, he and his group relocated to Scituate where they "joyned in covenaunt together" along with nine others who preceded them to form the "church of Christ collected att Scituate." The Congregation at Scituate was not a success. Dissension on the issue of baptism as well as other unspecified grievances and the lack of good grazing land and fodder for their cattle caused the church in Scituate to split in 1638.
Lothropp petitioned Governor Thomas Prence in Plymouth for a "place for the transplanting of us, to the end that God might have more glory and wee more comfort". Thus as Otis says "Mr. Lothropp and a large company arrived in Barnstable, Oct 11, 1639 O.S., bringing with them the crops which they had raised in Scituate." There, within three years they had built homes for all the families and then Lothropp began construction on a larger sturdier  meeting house by Coggin's (or Cooper's) Pond, which was completed in 1644. This building, now part of The Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts is one of John Lothrop's original homes and meeting houses, and is now also the oldest building housing a public library in America.
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