SAXTON. 159 PETER SAXTON, A. M.-This venerable divine was born at or near Bramiey, in the parish of Leeds, in Yorkshire, and educated in the university of Cambridge, where he took his degrees in arts. Hewas admitted preacher, first by Archbishop Hutton, then by Archbishop Matthews, both of the province of York. He obtained the king's presen- tation as well as that of SirEdward Stanhope, to the rectory of Edlington in his native county, as appears from the book of admissions in the register's office at York; where, December 1, 1614, he made the usual subscription willingly et ex animo. He afterwards saw cause to, change his opinion ; and he became so alienated from the discipline and ceremonies of the church, that he is said to have called the surplice the whore's smock.' Having espoused the sentiments of the puritans, and not being ashamed to avow his opinions, he could find no rest in his native country. The horrors of cruel persecution having overspreadthe nation, he retired from the storm, and sought an asylum in New England, where, to his greaf comfort, he arrived in the year 1640.. There we find his name, as minister of Scituate, in the first classes of those who enlightened the dark regions of America by their ministry.f He' continuedsome time in this situation ; but the unsettled condition of the colony, and some unhappy contentions in the plantation where he lived, induced hint to remove first to Boston, then to England, in his advanced years. # On his return from New England, the ship was overtaken in so violent astorm, that the mariners, who could not bebrought to pray before, came tremblim, to him like dying men; and they found him upon the deck exulting, with his arms stretched towards heaven, and crying, " 0 ! who is now for heaven? who is boundfor heaven?" After Mr. Saxton's arrival in his native country, he had the offer of a considerable living in Kent, which he declined to accept, preferring the vicarage of Leeds in his own county, to which he was inducted in the month of April, 1646, and, possessed till his death, which happened Octo- ber 1, 1651, having survivedhis daughter Silence, thewife of Captain Samuel Pool, to whom she was married in New England ; but she died at Leeds, as did also his widow the February following. He was a venerable, pious, and learned divine ; but he used many plain expressions, which often occasioned smiles, and once downright laughter in a Thoresby's Vicaria Leodiensis, p. 86. + Mather's Hist. of New Eng. b. iii. p. 3. I Ibid. p. 214.
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