Browse the John Eliot sermon notes

John Eliot (1604-1690) was born in Hertfordshire, England and came to Boston, Massachusetts in 1631. He settled in Roxbury and served as the minister at First Church in Roxbury until his death in 1690. Eliot was also engaged in missionary activities to the Indigenous people of New England. In the 1640s, Eliot began learning the Algonquian language spoken by the Massachusett and preaching to them in “praying towns” established for their conversion to Christianity. By the 1660s, Eliot had translated and printed the Bible in Algonquian with the help of several Indigenous interpreters. During King Philip's War in 1675, Eliot petitioned the General Court to end the practice of selling captured Indigenous people into slavery in the Caribbean, arguing it was a cruel punishment that would hinder their conversion. Eliot was also a founder of the Roxbury Grammar School (now Roxbury Latin School). 

Materials in this collection have been digitized in partnership with Massachusetts Historical Society and made available through our New England’s Hidden Histories project.