SUNY Potdam

McIntyre publishes collection of letters by Puritan Minister John Cotton Jr.

10.29.09

SUNY Potsdam Associate Professor of History Dr. Sheila McIntyre recently co-edited “The Correspondence of John Cotton Jr.,” which includes nearly 400 letters written by Cotton or sent to him from 1662 to 1699. The letters encourage the reader to explore the mythology surrounding the Puritans and to reexamine the typical dated image of the first founding fathers.

Working with Dr. Len Travers, Dr. McIntyre has combed through hundreds of early New England letters to discover the complicated life led by this son of a famous clergymen of New England’s founding generation.

Cotton was already the pastor of the church in Wethersfield, CT, at the age of 22, when he lost his ministry as a result of a sex scandal. Disgraced and jobless, Cotton moved his family to distant Martha's Vineyard to start anew as a missionary to the Indians.

Within a few years, Cotton had managed to rehabilitate his reputation, and he accepted a call to the church in Plymouth. He kept the Plymouth pulpit for nearly 30 years before losing it, once again to scandal and factional church politics.

Cotton retired to Cape Cod for a short time before accepting one final call, this time to Charleston, SC, where he died in less than a year of yellow fever.  

Cotton wrote during an era when it was widely accepted that letters would circulate far beyond the immediate addressee. Thus, both his letters and those addressed to him often read more like newsletters than personal correspondence, documenting some of the most dramatic events of the late 17th century, including the brutal King Philip's War and the eventual overthrow of the hated Dominion of New England.

Dr. McIntyre first discovered Cotton while doing research for her dissertation about letter writing in early New England.

“When I began writing, I kept noticing that my favorite quotes and stories came from letters written by John Cotton, Jr. His letters had never been collected into a ‘Papers of...’-type collection and almost none had been published. I began to wonder why,” she recalled.

“After some digging, I learned about the adultery scandal, and then it all made sense. He was a bit of a black sheep,” she concluded.

Dr. McIntyre started by writing a conference paper about Cotton and his epistolary practices, which she presented at the national Organization of American Historians conference in 1998.

“Three very eminent and powerful early American historians commented on his amazing letters and encouraged me to stop work on my monograph and publish Cotton's letters instead,” Dr. McIntyre said.

She notes that Cotton’s life is as rich and complicated as any modern-day person’s.

“He is fleshy, manipulative, coy, loving and emotional – but he is also a powerhouse of information,” Dr. McIntyre said. “Ultimately, I think his life is about the power of forgiveness. When he is caught committing adultery again at the age of 57, his congregation still votes to keep him on as minister. His life shows us a softer side of Puritanism.”

Dr. McIntyre considers the book finally being published a great accomplishment.

“I have spent 12 years of my life with John Cotton, and holding that volume in my hands for the first time is beyond my powers to describe,” she said.

University of Virginia Press, the publisher, promoted the book over the summer with a book launch in Plymouth that C-SPAN broadcasted.

“I was worried about being too emotional and worked hard to keep it all in check. But when the president of the Colonial Society presented the current minister of the Plymouth Church with a copy for the church library, tears streamed down my face. It felt like the final rehabilitation for Cotton. He was finally back in good graces,” she said.

Dr. McIntyre noted one Cotton descendent bought four copies for her and Dr. Travers to sign for all his grandchildren.

“That was also very touching because I felt like, on some level, he was no longer the black sheep of a very prestigious family. I cannot wait for historians and students to discover these letters and use Cotton in their own work,” she said.

Dr. McIntyre will discuss the open debate on Cotton’s alleged adultery at a book presentation on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. in SUNY Potsdam’s Raymond Hall eighth floor lounge.

The book discussion is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Department of History and the Student History Association.

Contact:
Sheila McIntyre
(315) 267-3405 | mcintysm@potsdam.edu