Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/77

  Biogr. Sketches, i. 71–5; Gent. Mag. 1795, pt. ii. p. 1085; Lowth's Letter to Author of Divine Legation, pp. 23–4.]  PETERS or PETER, HUGH (1598–1660), independent divine, baptised on 29 June 1598, was younger son of Thomas Dyckwoode alias Peters, and Martha, daughter of John Treffry of Treffry, Cornwall (, Bibl. Cornub. ii. 465, iii. 1310). Contemporaries usually styled him ‘Peters;’ he signs himself ‘Peter.’ His elder brother Thomas [q. v.] is noticed separately. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1617–18 as a member of Trinity College, and M.A. in 1622 (, Great Civil War, ii. 323). A sermon which he heard at St. Paul's about 1620 struck him with the sense of his sinful estate, and another sermon, supplemented by the labours of Thomas Hooker, perfected his conversion. For a time he lived and preached in Essex, marrying there, about 1624, Elizabeth, widow of Edmund Read of Wickford, and daughter of Thomas Cooke of Pebmarsh in the same county (A Dying Father's Legacy, 1660, p. 99; Bibl. Cornub. iii. 1310). This marriage connected him with the Winthrop family, for Edmund Read's daughter Elizabeth was the wife of John Winthrop the younger.

Peters returned to London to complete his theological studies, attended the sermons of Sibbes, Gouge, and Davenport, and preached occasionally himself. Having been licensed and ordained by Bishop Montaigne of London, he was appointed lecturer at St. Sepulchre's. ‘At this lecture,’ he says, ‘the resort grew so great that it contracted envy and anger, though I believe above an hundred every week were persuaded from sin to Christ’ (Legacy, p. 100). In addition to this, Peters became concerned in the work of the puritan feoffees for the purchase of impropriations. He was suspected of heterodoxy, and on 17 Aug. 1627 subscribed a submission and protestation addressed to the bishop of London, setting forth his adhesion to the doctrine and discipline of the English government, and his acceptance of episcopal government (, Fresh Discovery of Prodigious Wandering Stars, 1645, p. 33). But, according to his own account, he ‘would not conform to all,’ and he thought it better to leave England and settle in Holland. His departure seems to have taken place about 1629 (A Dying Father's Last Legacy, p. 100).

In Holland Peters made the acquaintance of John Forbes, a noted presbyterian divine, with whom he travelled into Germany to see Gustavus Adolphus, and of Sir Edward Harwood, an English commander in the Dutch service, who fell at the siege of Maestricht in 1632. It seems probable that Peters was Harwood's chaplain (Harleian Miscellany, iv. 271;, Last Report of the English Wars, 1646, p. 14). About 1632, or possibly earlier, he became minister of the English church at Rotterdam. Sir William Brereton (1604–1661) [q. v.], who visited Rotterdam in 1634, describes Peters as ‘a right zealous and worthy man,’ and states that he was paid a salary of five thousand guilders by the Dutch government (Travels of Sir William Brereton, Chetham Soc. 1844, pp. 6, 10, 11, 24). Under the influence of their pastor the church speedily progressed towards the principles of the independents, and Peters was encouraged in his adoption of those views by the approbation of his colleague, the learned William Ames (1571–1633) [q. v.], who told him ‘that if there were a way of public worship in the world that God would own, it was that’ (Last Report, p. 14). Peters preached the funeral sermon of Ames, and had a hand in the publication of his posthumous treatise, entitled ‘A Fresh Suit against Roman Ceremonies’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1631–3 p. 213, 1634 pp. 279, 413).

The English government, at the instigation of Archbishop Laud, was at this time engaged in endeavouring to induce the British churches in Holland to conform to the doctrine and ceremonies of the Anglican church, and its attention was called to the conduct of Peters by the informations given by John Paget and Stephen Goffe to the English ambassador. He had drawn up a church covenant of fifteen articles for the acceptance of the members of his congregation, and showed by his example that he thought it lawful to communicate with the Brownists in their worship. In consequence of these complaints and disputes, Peters made up his mind to leave Holland for New England (, Historical Memorials relating to the Independents, i. 534, ii. 242, 309, 372, iii. 139; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633–4, p. 318, 1635, p. 28; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 6394, ff. 128, 146).

As far back as 1628 Peters had become connected with the Massachusetts patentees, and on 30 May 1628 had signed their instructions to John Endecott (, History of Massachusetts Bay, 1765, i. 9). His relationship with John Winthrop supplied an additional motive for emigration, and he also states that many of his acquaintance when going for New England had engaged him to come to them when they sent for him (Last Legacy, p. 101). Accordingly, evading with some difficulty the attempt of the English government to arrest him on his way