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John Eliot (baptized 5 August 1604 - 21 May 1690) was a Puritan missionary born in Widford, Hertfordshire, England. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge. Eliot arrived in Boston on November 3, 1631, on the ship Lyon, and became minister and "teaching elder" at the First Church in Roxbury. In that town he also founded the Roxbury Latin School in 1645. From 1649 to 1674, he was assisted in the Roxbury ministry by Samuel Danforth. He, along with ministers Thomas Weld (also of Roxbury) and Richard Mather of Dorchester, are credited as editors of the first book published in the British North American colonies, i.e. the Bay Psalm Book. He participated in the examination, excommunication and exile of Anne Hutchinson, whose opinions he deplored. He converted Massachusett Indians and translated the Bible into their language, for which he devised an alphabet; in 1663, it became the first Bible printed in North America. In 1666, his grammar of Massachusett, called The Indian Grammar Begun, was published as well. Eliot was best known for attempting to preserve the culture (minus the religion) of the Native Americans by putting them in planned towns where they could continue by their own rule. At one point in time, there were 14 of these towns of so-called "Praying Indians." the best documented being at Natick, Massachusetts. These towns were mostly destroyed by furious English colonists during King Philip's War (1675). Although restoration was attempted, it ultimately failed.
Eliot was also the author of The Christian Commonwealth: or,The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ, considered the first book on politics written by an American and also the first book to be banned by an American government. Written in the late 1640s, and published in England in 1659, it proposed a new model of civil government based on the system Eliot instituted among the Christianized Indians, which was based in turn on Exodus 18, the government instituted among the Israelites by Moses in the wilderness. It's most objectionable part was its "Preface," where Eliot asserted that "Christ is the only right Heir of the Crown of England," and called for the institution of an elected theocracy in England and throughout the world. The accession to the throne of Charles II of England made the book an embarrassment to the Massachusetts colony, and in 1661 the General Court banned the book and ordered all copies destroyed. Eliot was forced to issue a public retraction and apology. Full text of the work can be seen online here
His grandson, Jared Eliot, was a noted pastor and agriculture writer.
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