A BRIEF MEMOIR 
OF 
REV. GILES FIRMIN, 
ONE OF THE 
EJECTED MINISTERS 
OF 1 G 6 2. 
By JOHN WARD DEAN, 
«W.-PEESIDENT OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY. 
BOSTON: 
DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS 334 WASHINGTON STREET. 
1 8 6 6 . A BRIEF MEMOIR 
OF 
REV. GILES FIRM IN, 
ONE OF THE 
EJECTED MINISTERS 
OF 1 G 6 2. 
By JOHN/WARD DEAN, 
TIC E-PRESIDENT OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY. 
BOSTON: 
DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS 334 WASHINGTON STREET. 
1 8 6 6 . Haying been lately engaged in preparing a memoir of Rev. 
Nathaniel Ward, compiler of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties 
and author of several quaint productions that were published at 
London during the last years of Charles I., I was necessarily led 
to make investigations into the history of his son-in-law, Rev. Giles 
Firmin, a controversial writer of considerable repute, in his day, 
among the Nonconformists of England. His chief work, the Real 
Christian, was held in esteem by our New England fathers in the 
last Century, and Cotton Mather applies to it the epithet, “golden.” 
The result of these researches was embodied in the following arti- 
cle, which was printed in the New-England Historical and Genealo- 
gical Register for January, 18G6. The type set for the Register 
has been used to print a few copies, in pamphlet form, for presen- 
tation to friends. J. w. d. A BRIEF MEMOIR OF REV. GILES FIRMIN. 
TnouGn the reputation of Rev. Giles Firmin, as a writer and a divine, 
was gained in England, and though in that country he was born, yet 
we in New England have an interest in his history; for here, in Mas- 
sachusetts, in the infancy of our colony, his early manhood was spent. 
Here, too, he married his wife—the daughter of one whose memory 
is still fresh among us.* Nor did his interest in the affairs of New 
England cease when he left our shores, as is shown in his writings 
and by other evidence. A correspondence was for many years kept 
up by him with the ministers and other prominent men in Massa- 
chusetts. 
lie published at least fifteen different works ; but only one of these, 
his Real Christian, has, we think, been reprinted in this country ; nor 
have we been able to find in public libraries here, or in the collections 
of our friends, more than five of the others. 
The limits to which we shall be restricted in this article will only 
allow us to present the results of our investigations in the briefest 
possible form. His biography, if written with all the fulness of detail 
that the subject is capable of, would possess deep interest; for his 
lengthened life was passed amid remarkable and rapidly changing 
scenes. 
He is said to have been born in 1614 or 1615,f in the County of 
Suffolk, England ; J but his birth was probably not earlier than the 
latter date. His father was Mr. Giles Firmin, 11 a godly man, an 
apothecary of Sudbury, in England,Ӥ who afterwards came to Mas- 
sachusetts, and in October, 1633, was chosen deacon of the church at 
Boston, where he died previous to October 6, 1634, being selectman 
of the town at his decease. || It has generally been asserted that both 
father and son came to New England in 1630, in the fleet that brought 
Winthrop and his company—but the latter did not probably come so 
* Rev. Nathaniel Ward, author of the Simple Cobbler of Agawam, and compiler of the 
Body of Liberties, “ the first code of laws established in New England.” 
t Eliot’s Biog. Diet., art. Firmin. Felt states that “ he died in April, 1697, in his eighty- 
third year.”—History of Ipswich, p. 74. 
t Calamy’s Life and Times of Baxter, p. 243. 
f Winthrop’s Journal, Vol. i.; 2d ed. p. 114, 3d ed- p. 136. 
|| Boston Town Records, in loco. 6 
Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
soon ; for ho was certainly a fellow-passenger with Rev. John Wilson, 
on one of the return voyages of that divine to New England,* and 
the probability is, that this was in 1032, when Mr. Wilson brought 
his wife to her new home. 
Giles Firmin, Jr., was here before October 11, 1632, as his admis- 
sion to the First Church of Boston, which bears no date, was entered 
before that day.f lie is said by Calamy to have studied at Cam- 
bridge under the tuition of Dr. Ilill ;J and perhaps he returned to his 
native country for that purpose. This conjecture is strengthened by 
the following extract from the Real Christian, by which it appears 
that he was “ far distant” from his father, in the fall of 1634, when 
the latter died. Of a religious duty, which he omits to name, he says : 
“ I called to mind that my own Father, during the time I lived with 
him (unless it were on the Lord’s day) did not perform the duty, 
what he did after I cannot well tell; but yet he was a man who kept 
his secret communion with God, had a heart for God, and a tongue 
for God, (as sometimes being a Gown-man in a corporation, he had 
occasion to appear for God) while he lived in the world, was above 
the world ; when he came to leave the world, he would several times 
send up short prayers to his Father, When wilt thou send thy 
Servant to fetch me home ? With a smiling countenance he en- 
tertained Death, having some fore-tastes of what he was going 
to possess, by that expression of his, I shall have as much glory as 
ever I can bear. • When he was dead, his Minister who wrote to us 
the news of his death, said this of him, He lived much desired, he 
died much mourned for. Yet this my godly Father would scarcely be 
esteemed for a serious Christian by some, for not performing that 
duty according to the question, though I suppose, a year or two be- 
fore his death he did take it up, but then I was far distant from him.Ӥ 
If, as seems probable, the son returned to England, after joining 
the church at Boston, it is possible that he first came in 1630, as gen- 
erally stated ; and that the voyage to New England, in which he was 
a fellow-passenger with the Rev. John Wilson, may have been in the 
summer of 1635, when that clergyman came for the last time to the 
new world.|| In an auto-biographic paragraph, which we shall again 
have occasion to quote, he uses this language :—“ Being broken from 
my study in the prime of my years, from eighteen years of age to 
twenty-eight, and what time I could get in them years I spent in the 
study and practise of Physick in that Wildernes til these times 
changed, and then I changed my studies to Divinity.”^ 
* Finn in himself makes this statement: “ Mr. Philips Pastor of the Church in Water- 
town, while.Mr. Wilson Pastor of the Church of Boston was here in England, went to 
Boston and administered the Lord’s Supper to that Church. I was not then in the Country, 
but I heard of it soone after, when I went over with Mr. Wilson.”—Separation Ex- 
amined, pp. 62-3. 
f MS. Records of First Church, Boston. 
X Calamy’s Baxter, p. 243. An account of Rev. Thomas Hill, D.D., will be found in 
Brook’s Puritans, vol. iii. pp. 170-3. Firmin, himself, speaks of “ My Reverend Tutor, 
Doctor Hill.” See Real Christian, Boston ed. p. 26. 
§ Real Christian, pp. 314-15. 
|| The reason why we incline to the opinion that it was in 1632, and not in 1635, that he 
was a fellow-passenger with Mr. Wilson, is that Mr. Phillips would not be so likely to 
administer the Lord’s Supper, at Boston, during Mr. Wilson’s last absence, when Mr. Cotton 
was Teacher of the Church, as during his first absence when the Church was left without 
a minister. 
IT A Serious Question Stated. Address, To the Reader. Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
7 
The expression, “ broken from my study,” may or may not refer to 
University study. From the age at which his studies were interrupt- 
ed, there can be little doubt that it was the death of his father that 
put a stop to them. From this event to his return to England there 
is an interval of ten years, the same interval that there is between 
the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight, when he says he was broken 
from his study. If he was between the ages of eighteen and nine- 
teen when his father died, and between the ages of twenty-eight and 
twenty-nine when he returned to England, he could not have been 
born earlier than 1615. 
He was certainly in New England in March, 1637-8, for he was 
present when Mrs. Hutchinson was excommunicated from the Boston 
Church,* which was on the 22d of that month.f Calamy says that 
he was present at the Synod held on occasion of the Antinomian trou- 
bles, and “ afterwards wrote in defence of the Ministers.”J This 
synod was held in the autumn of 1637, at Newtown, now Cambridge.§ 
Firmin gives some particulars relative to Mrs. Hutchinson’s excom- 
munication. Rev. Thomas Edwards had stated in a Sermon at Col- 
chester, that “ when they excommunicated Mrs. Hutchison, because 
her own sonne did not joyne in the casting out of his own mother, he 
was likewise censured. ”|| Mr. Firmin replies to this :— 
“ The story doth something concerne the head I am upon, and 
therefore I make bold to insert it here. I was a little troubled at the 
passage, knowing well how things were carried, being present at that 
time, and so tooke occasion some few weeks after, to give a bare 
narrative how the thing was carried, with so much meeknesse, I am 
sure none could accuse me. The summe is this. When all wayes 
according to the word had been tryed with Mrs. Hutchison to recall 
her, but none would prevaile, the question was put to the Church to 
manifest consent to her excommunication ; but her sonne and sonne- 
in-law (one more than Mr. Edwards mentioned) stood up to put some 
stop in the way (had they sate still, as any body would have ex- 
pected, though they had suspended their votes, I know not who 
would have spoken one vor(I to them). Mr. Cotton rose up, and gave 
them a grave admonition, that though their naturall affection might now 
worke, for which he did not blame them, yet he would not have them 
preferre their mother before Christ, nor hinder their mother from that 
Ordinance, which might be a meanes to save her soule ; with these 
words they both sate downc ; they never had any other censure (if 
this be a censure) and the Church proceeded to her excommunication. 
Now I appeale unto all, to judge where was the tyranny in this act? 
Yet though I carried this with all mildnesse, this was the onely cause 
why Mr. Edivards raked up all he could against me, and put it into 
print, even such things as were never in my thoughts.”^ 
On the fourth of January, 1638-9, he was granted by the “ freemen 
of Ipswich,” one hundred acres of land “ near Mr. Hubbard’s farm,”** 
* Separation Examined, p. 102. 
f Winthrop’s Journal, vol. i.; 2d ed. p. 257, 3d ed. p. 309, where will be found an 
account of Mrs. Hutchinson’s excommunication, 
t Calamy’s Baxter, p. 243. 
$ Winthrop’s Journal, vol. i.; 2d ed. p. 237, 3d ed. p. 284. 
|| Separation Examined, pp. 101-2. 
II Separation Examined, p. 102. 
** New England Hist, and Gen. Register, vol. iv. p. 11. 8 
Memoir of Rev. Giles Fir min. 
on condition of his living there three years.* Mr. Hammatt informs 
us that he also possessed a “ planting lot ” of six acres on which he 
built a house, where he resided, which was purchased, after his return 
to England, by William Goodhue, the ancestor of the extensive family 
of that name.f On the 22d of May, 1639, he was admitted freeman 
of He had probably, before this time, removed to 
Ipswich, where he practised as a physician. 
The date of his marriage to Susan, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Ward, 
has not been ascertained, but it was before December 26, 1639. He 
had thought, as early as this, of studying divinity and giving up 
medicine which he did not find remunerative. § At a later date he 
was advised by Gov. Winthrop to remove to the Bay ;|| but he ap- 
parently continued to practise his profession at Ipswich during his 
residence in this country. 
The General Court, at the session that began December 10, 1641, 
appointed him clerk of the writs for the town of Ipswich, with power 
to grant summons and attachment in civil which office he 
held till June, 1642, when he was succeeded by John Whipple.** 
Having “long inhabited ” at Ipswich, he was dismissed Feb. 25, 
1643-4, from the First Church at Boston, to the church at the former 
place.ff About the same time several other members, who had resid- 
ed some time in other towns, were dismissed to their respective 
churches.|| This was probably owing to a decision of the New Eng- 
land Elders, of which he gives the following account in his Reply to 
Mr. Cawdrey:— 
“It was,” he says, “the practice of divers of us in N. E. at the 
first planting we did joyne our selves to this or that Church ; after- 
wards when other Plantations were erected, for convenience of dwell- 
ing (the former Plantations being too full) we would remove and 
dwell there, retaining still our membership in those churches to which 
we first joyned, and by vertue of it, having letters of recommendation, 
did partake of the Sacraments in those churches where we lived, and 
hence many members lived many miles, twenty or sixty from their 
own churches, and from the inspection of those officers who had power 
to call them to account, and observe their Conversations, and yet 
would partake of the Sacraments six or eight yeeres together in another 
Congregation : but this indeed he [Mr. Hooker] opposed, in so much 
that when I came away the Elders would not suffer it any longer.”§§ 
It is, undoubtedly, to his residence at Ipswich, while he was a mem- 
ber of the Boston church, that he refers in the same work, when he 
says : “I have had three of my children baptized by ministers who 
never looked on me as a member of their church, though I dwelt in 
their Town.”|||| 
* Felt’s Ipswich, p. 74; Hutchinson Papers, p. 109. 
t New England Hist, and Gen. Register, vol. iv. p. 11. 
X Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. i. p. 376 ; N. E. Hist, and Gen. Reg., vol. iii. p. 96; 
Wintlirop’s Journal, vol. ii.; Appendix K. 
6 Hutchinson Papers, p. 109. 
[| Massachusetts Hist. Coll., vol. xxxvii. p. 275. 
11 Massachusetts Colony Records, vol. i. p. 345. 
** Ibid., vol. ii. p. 14. 
ft MS. Records of First Church, Boston, in loco. Andyetby the town records of Ipswich, 
according to Felt, he was an Elder of the church at I., Nov. 3, 1642.—See Ilist. of Ips- 
wich, p. 74. 
XX MS. Records of First Church, Boston, in loco. 
M Sober Reply to Mr. Cawdrey, p. 28. 
1111 Sober Reply to Mr. Cawdrey, p. 20. Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
9 
In the autumn of 1644, he left New England to return to Europe ; 
but probably not with the intention of remaining there permanently, 
lie left his family behind, we presume in charge of his father-in-law ; 
and embarked in the Seafort, which sailed for Malaga on the twenty- 
third of November, 1644, or in her consort whose name Winthrop 
does not give.* 
The Seafort was a ship of more than four hundred tons, and was built 
at Boston, by Capt. Thomas Hawkins. On account of her strength, 
many who were going to England preferred taking passage in her to 
going direct in a weaker vessel. They arrived near the coast of Spain 
in December. One evening “ some of the company supposed they 
saw land ; yet they sailed all night with a fair gale, and, towards the 
morning, they saw a light or two which they conceiving to have been 
some sliips, either Turks or others, they prepared their ships and 
stood towards them.”f 
About one o’clock the ship in which Firmin was a passenger struck 
upon the rocks. The seamen must have considered the situation very 
perilous, for he tells us that some of them shouted that they should 
be “in Hell before morning.Three hours before day, both ships 
had grounded ; and they soon broke in pieces.§ At the very time, 
when he was in extreme danger of being drowned, a little child of 
his, about four years old, then with her mother and the rest of the 
family in New England, lay crying out, at times, through the night, 
“ My Father, My Father,” and would not be pacified. This moved 
his relatives to pray heartily for his safety.|| Nineteen persons were 
drowned ; but lie and the rest of the passengers and crew were 
saved. 
Although the ships at first grounded two or three miles from the 
shore, they were thrown by the sea near the dry land before they fell 
in pieces. The place where they were wrecked was five miles from 
Cadiz.** In the morning the people of the island plundered the vessel 
and even took away from the passengers some plate which they had 
saved ; but when they arrived at the city they were treated kindly. 
They went there naked and barefoot as they had been frightened 
from their cabins, and the Spaniards received them into their houses 
and clothed them. 
The master of an English ship which happened to be in the roads, 
Mr. Mariot by name, received as many of the shipwrecked people as 
his ship would stow, and clothed many of them with his own cloth- 
ing.ff Mr. Firmin, however, seems to have remained in Spain till the 
* We assume that Mr. Firmin sailed in one of these two vessels whose shipwreck Win- 
throp records, for various reasons, among which these may be named: 
1. Mr. Firmin in sailing from New England was shipwrecked on the coast of Spain, in 
the month of December, and in the latter part of the night; all of which circumstances 
agree with those related by Winthrop of the two vessels. 
2. The two vessels were wrecked in December, 1044; so was Mr. Firmin’s ship. 
3. The two vessels were wrecked near Cadiz; Firmin mentions visiting San Lucar, which 
is only eighteen miles from Cadiz. There are so many concurring circumstances that there 
is little room for doubt. 
t Winthrop’s Journal, vol. ii.; 2d ed. pp. 238-40, 3d ed. pp. 292-3. 
t Firmin’s Real Christian, p. 80. 
f Winthrop’s Journal, ubi supra. 
|| Calamy’s Baxter, pp. 243-4; Nonconformist’s Memorial (ed. 1778), vol. i. p. 518. 
II Winthrop’s Journal, ubi supra. 
** Winthrop writes it, “ Cales,” according to the custom of the time. See Drake’s Old 
Indian Chronicle, p. 13. 
ft Winthrop’s Journal, vol. ii. ; 2d ed. pp. 239-40, 3d ed. pp. 292-3. 10 
Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
following- spring. lie speaks of having visited the town of San Lucar 
de Barrameda, and of going farther up the Guadalquiver, and we 
know of no other time when he would be likely to visit those places.* 
He had returned to England by the next summer, as Robert 
Ilarmer, apparently a Presbyterian clergyman, writing from Colches- 
ter, under date of August 1, 1645, mentions Mr. Firmin’s preaching 
in that town on Wednesday, July 30, 1645. f The following extract 
from Mr. Harmer’s letter is printed by Rev. Thomas Edwards :— 
“ Reverend Sir, 
Since my last, I went on Wednesday to hear Mr. E. to make good 
his challenge but when I came he Preached not; but one out of 
New England, one Mr. F., a stranger in this Town, came to confute 
you in point of Story. He left us to judge whether the Presbytery 
was not an unjust Domination ; but for your saying they admitted 
not of Appeal, he utterly denied it before the people, and told us 
many stories of their Synods by way of counsel. He cited Mr. N.% 
for a Sermon he Preached, how near the Independents and Presbyteri- 
ans were come : He cited him again, that he should say, and Mr. IF.|| 
that the Assembly had granted to every Congregation an entire power 
within itself. They carry things before the people, as if they had no 
Adversaries, but some few rash men. But in conclusion, he exhorted 
to peace, and said they desire peace, they must have peace, and they 
will have peace ; yet Prophecying of a second Civil War, and that 
there was death in our pot. I desire you to communicate to these 
Divines, how we and they are abused ; these things are unsufferable. 
Dura mihi opus est palientia in tanta rerum dissolutione. Dear Sir, 
The Almighty God uphold our Spirits in these broken times.”^[ 
Another letter from Mr. narmcr without date, gives an account of 
a Sermon by Mr. Ellis, concluding his examination of Mr. Edwards’s 
statements. The writer proceeds : “ Since the Preaching of Mr. F.’s 
Sermon (Iesuit like) they desire a peace, and would have us propound 
two Ministers and they would propound two ; but the Friends that 
came to see you, gave Mr. E. the inclosed Quceries, and said they 
knew I would treat with them, if they would Answer these Quceries 
under their hands, but they refused to do it.” The writer then gives 
four queries, headed : “ Quaeries put to some Independents of G. 
* “ If such a one writes of the River that goeth up to Sevil in Spain, and tells me, when 
you get over the bar which lieth at the mouth of the River, on the Star-board-side, as you 
sail up, there stands a Castle, higher stands the Town of Saint Lucar, higher another Cas- 
tle, and a Monastery by it, higher the Chappel Bonance, and still on the Star-board-side, this 
man saith true: But doth he know these as I (though I do not deserve the name of a Travel- 
ler) do, who have been in the Town, in the Castle, in the Chappel, and seen them ? ”—Real 
Christian, p. 32. 
t This was the stated Fast ordered by Parliament on the last Wednesday of every 
month. For the strictness with which this Fast was kept, see Neal’s Puritans (Boston, 
1817), vol. iii. pp. 66-8. The monthly fast in December, 1644, falling on Christmas day, 
Parliament ordered that the festival should give way to the fast.—Ibid., p. 181. 
X Rev. Mr. Ellis, of Colehester, an Independent Minister, who is here referred to, is 
mentioned in some of the previous letters. In one written July 29, three days before this, 
an attempt of Mr. Ellis oil the preceding Sabbath to confute some of Mr. Edwards’s state- 
ments, is reported. 
1) Probably Rev. John Norton, then of Ipswich, N. E. 
|| Perhaps Rev. John Wilson, of Boston, N. E.; possibly Mr. Ward. 
IT Edwards’s Gangrama, Part. i. p. 101. We would acknowledge our obligation to George 
Brinley, Esq., of Hartford, Ct., for calling our attention to these letters. Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
11 
upon an occasion of a Sermon Preached by Mr. F., an Independent 
Apothecary Physician, sometime Servant to Ur. Cl. of London. 
Under date of August 14, 1645, Mr. Harmer writes : 
“ Dear Friend, 
I writ you in my last of a new Lecture ; it is to he kept by Mr. F.t 
an Apothecary Physician of New England, who is not in orders, nor 
ever Preached as he confesseth, but on Shipboard as he came over. 
Yesternight Mr. E. and Mr. F. desired to speak with me, and Mr. .E. 
broke the businesse to me, how necessary it was they should Preach 
controversies no more ; that they desired nothing but peace, and 
the glory of God in this. To which I answered, That Mr. W. and 
himself had behaved themselves most politickly, craftily, with fair 
pretences, until they got possession of our Churches, and then played 
their pranks ; and told them how, and in what they and all their party 
had deluded us with fair words. We will not be fooled any longer : 
I see we are neerly bought and sold with Equivocations and Dissimu- 
lations of this party: You know their Spirits : God give me 
patience. 
The first part of Gangrgena, in which these extracts were printed, 
was published in the latter part of February or early in March, 1645-6. 
Mr. Ellis soon after denied the statements relative to himself and his 
brother, writing thus to a friend in London : “ The aspertions cast on 
me, and some others here by Master Edwards, are as false as foule ; 
which because they are a great part of his Book and strength,| those 
who are here concerned in it, will, if God please, shortly make Reply. Ӥ 
Mr. Edwards, in answer to this, prints a letter he had received from 
Ilarmer, dated April, 1646, in which the latter says : '‘Concerning 
those Letters 1 writ you from Colchester, 1 have them attested under 
the hands of many sufficient witnesses, each particular that is mate- 
riall being averred by three witnesses at least, and those of piety 
and judgement.” || 
Five years later Mr. Firmin himself denies most of the charges 
brought against him by Mr. Ilarmer. In the preface to A Serious 
Question Stated, published in 1651, Mr. Firmin, in replying to them, 
furnishes a bit of his autobiography, as follows : — 
“ Now to give an account to the reader why I appear in Print, 
[being conscious to myself of my owne weaknesse, being broken from 
my study in the prime of my years, from eighteen years to twenty- 
eight, and what time I could get in them years I spent in the study 
and practise of Physick in that wildernes til these times changed, and 
then 1 changed my studies to Divinity.] 
The reason, I say, of my appearing in print is this. I being branded 
by Mr. Edwards for an Independent in the first part of his Gangrene, 
where there is one whole letter concerns me, and that is all false, 
being merely mistakes ; the next letter (half of it) concerns me also, 
* Edwards’s Gangraena, Part i. pp. 100. 
t IOid., p. 101-2. 
X Mr. Edwards, in the Second Part of his Gangraena, thus replies to Mr. Ellis:—“ The 
things I relate of Master Ellis, or some others of Colchester, in Gangraena are not false 
(though Master Ellis saith they are foule) neither are they a great part of my Book and 
strength, but a small little part, rot the twentieth part of my Book.”—Page 99. 
iCretcnsis, page 44, quoted iu Edwards’s Gangr&ma, Part ii. page 54. 
Gangnena, Part ii. p. 55. 12 
Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
and [excepting that I preached and was not in orders], that also is 
false, I believe the Gentleman that wrote those Letters, if they were 
now to be written, would not do it But being branded by 
him thus, and so others looked upon me, when I was ordained, I did 
declare to the Elders and the Congregation, how far I owned Indepen- 
dency, that is, That a Church Organized and walking regularly, might 
execute all the power of the Keyes within itself”* 
Mr. Firmin reverts to the charge of being an Independent in a later 
work. “ What some may think of me,” he says, “ when they find 
me in Mr. Edwards gang amongst the Independents, and now read 
this, I know not. Possibly they will say either Mr. Edwards wrote 
what is false, or that I am changed from my principles (as some have 
said), but I assure the Reader, 1 am not gone back, nor advanced one 
step in these controversies, from what I ever manifested in those times 
when those letters were sent to Mr. Edwards.”]" 
He resided at Colchester as late as July 1, 1646 and the winter 
after his family probably joined him. Colchester suffered a severe 
siege§ in 1648, being hold for King Charles, and besieged by the Par- 
liamentary Army. Whether Mr. Firmin was there at the siege or left 
before, we do not learn. In 1651, he had removed to Shalford, in 
the same county, and was settled as the minister of the church there. j| 
It will be noticed that he admits the charge against him, made by 
Mr. Ilarmer, that he preached before he was in orders, to be true. 
His ordination, he tells us, was delayed because the Congregational 
ministers of Essex #were unwilling to impose hands, and he would 
not be ordained without that Finally ho was ordained 
by the Presbyterians.** “ If any,” he says, “ shall object against me, 
my preaching so long without ordination, I answer: 1. I never con- 
temned the Ordinance. 2. I would never have come into a Pulpit, if 
1 had not intended to have been ordained. 3. I did endeavor to have 
some Ministers to Ordaine me, two years before I could obtain it, be- 
cause of troubles. 4. The reason why I did delay it was, because I 
would have it in the place where I was chosen, and not in another 
place from my people, which I apprehended not to be so regular. ”fj- 
In one of his books, he gives this account of the services when he 
was ordained : “ For my owne Ordination, it was in the face of my peo- 
ple, the day was spent in fasting, and Prayer, those who carried on 
the worke were Mr. Dam. Rogers, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Ranew, with 
other godly Ministers, who joyned with them in the imposing of hands 
(the ministers lived about me) I never saw that Ordinance carried on 
with more solemnity in my life, the people showed their election by 
suffrage, holding up their hands ; all was done according to the 
Pattern.”];]; 
* Address “ To the Reader ” prefixed to A Serious Question Stated, 
t Firmin on Schism (published in 1658), pp. 28-9. 
t Massachusetts Hist. Coll., vol. xxxvii. pp. 276-7. 
§ In the Simple Cobbler, Mr. Ward says : “ All the Counties and shires of England have 
had wars in them since the Conquest, but Essex, which is oncly free, and should tie thank- 
full.”—Page 27 of 1st cd. Essex, it will be seen above, did not enjoy this distinction 
much longer. 
|| Title page of A Serious Question Stated. 
11 Firmin on Schism, pp. 119-20. 
** Sober Reply to Mr. Cawdrey, p. 7; and Presbyterial Ordination, title page and preface, 
ft A Serious Question Stated, Address, To the Reader. 
+j Separation Examined, p. 37. Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
13 
While the opponents of Episcopacy were in power, Mr. Firmin had 
defended the validity of ordination by bishops,* but on the restoration 
of that form of church government, lie found his own ordination called 
in question by its advocates. In replying to his Episcopal assailants, 
he gives another account of his ordination, containing a few additional 
particulars, as follows :— 
“ According to the Talent the Lord hath lent me, I wrote a little 
in defence of Episcopal Ordination, so far as to prove it not to be 
Antichristian : But now the controversie is come home to my own 
door; for though in the presence of the people who elected me, with 
their hands lifted up to manifest their Election, in a day of Fasting 
and Prayer, I was by five Ancient, Godly and Grave Divines (the 
greater part eminent in their Generation) set apart to the work 
of the Ministry by Imposition of Hands, Prayer and words suitable to 
the Ordinance, yet my Ordination is questioned by such in whose 
defence I wrote before (thank you Brethren) ; the ground being this, 
they judge Ordination to be a work proper to a Bishop, whom they 
make an Officer distinct from Presbyters, having more eminent Offices 
and greater power belonging to them than the Presbyters have.”f 
Calamy, in his Life and Times of Baxter, gives a biographical 
sketch of Mr. Firmin, in which it is said that, “when he was near 
upon forty Years of Age, he was Ordain’d by Mr. Stephen Marshall, of 
Finchingfield, and other Ministers,” at Shalford.| The expression, 
“ near upon forty years of Age,” must not be taken too literally, 
lie was evidently ordained before his Serious Question Stated was 
published, and this appeared in 1651. lie was then not far from 
thirty-six years old.§ Though “ ordained by the Presbytery,”|| Mr. 
Firmin states that he never took the Covenant.^ 
In the preface to his Presbyterial Ordination Vindicated, published 
in 1660, he asserts that he had upheld the cause of the king, during 
his exile, as far as was consistent with prudence. “ Some of us,” he 
says, “ were so imprudent [knowing the tempers of our Congrega- 
tions which could say heartily, Amen] to pray publickly for him in 
his lowest condition. The prison had witnessed it, had I not a friend 
who delivered mo ; and this year, had not his Majestie been restored, 
it had been proved, by being threatned to my face, and the threats 
often repeated, That as sure as God was in the heaven, I should be 
called into question, only for praying for the Eoyall Family : If any 
desire other Proofs of Loyalty to his Majesty in his low condition, I 
could give them, but I spare to name them. Such Subjects had his 
Majesty among the now despised Presbyterians, who had they not 
been faithfull and loyal to his Majesty [as they were bound to be 
by the Solemn Covenant] but would have closed with the Army, 
doubtless they could have carried such a Party with ’em, that I 
believe as yet our King had not set upon his English Throne, nor 
had the voice of Thanksgiving for his restoring been heard in our 
Hand.” 
* In his Separation Examined, 
t Presbyterial Ordination, p. 2. 
X Calamy’s Baxter, p. 244. 
f Eliot (Biographical Dictionary, art. Firmin) and other authorities erroneously make 
him full “ forty years ” old when ordained. 
|| Sober Reply to Mr. Cawdrey, p. 7. 
U Preface to Presbyterial Ordination Vindicated. 14 
Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin, 
Mr. Firmin, in 1652, writing- of his parish, states that “ the strong- 
est Party in the Towne is religious.”* In the same work, he calls it 
“ a small Village, where the maintenance will not keep one Minister/’f 
Eight years after, he speaks of it as a “ poor Viccaridg ” which afford- 
ed him but “ half the maintenance ” for his family.| He continued at 
Shalford, “a painful Labourer in the Work of the Ministry,” Calamy 
tells us, “ till he was turned out with others of his Brethren. After 
his Ejectment the Church Doors were shut up for several Weeks, nay 
Months; and God had no Publick Worship there, because he could 
not conform to the Ceremonies. And he Complains, it was so also in 
several other Places, in his Question between the Conformist and 
Non-conformist truly Stated, and briefly Discuss’d ; in an Answer to 
Dr. Faulkner, Page 29.Ӥ 
LTpon the Indulgence in 1612, he with Rev. Daniel Ray, of Ridg- 
well, in Essex, about 7 or 8 miles from Shalford, set up a meeting at 
the former place. The next year Mr. Ray removed to Burstall in 
Suffolk,! but Mr. Firmin continued at Ridgwell till his death. 
“He practis’d Physick for many Years,” says Calamy, “ and yet 
was still a Constant and Laborious Preacher, both on the Lord’s Days 
and Week Days too ; saving that once a Month there was a Sermon 
in the Church, at which Time he was an Auditor there. And he held 
on thus, in the hottest part of King Charles’s Reign, having large 
Meetings when so many other Meetings were suppress’d. He had 
one considerable Advantage above his Brethren, which was the Favour 
and Respect which the Neighbouring Gentry and Justices of Peace 
had for him, on the Account of their using him as a Physician. lie 
was extreamely respected indeed by all; for there were none but he 
was ready to serve them ; and of those he took the Care of, he was 
tender, and yet would take but little, tho’ the Physick was of his own 
preparing. The Poor applying themselves to him, had often both 
Advice and Physick too for nothing ; and of those who were more 
able, he took but very moderate Fees ; whereby he lost the Opportu- 
nity of getting an Estate, which had been a very easie Thing. 
He was a Man of strong Constitution of Body, and liv’d in much 
Health, till above Fourscore. There appear’d little Decay of Parts 
or Vigour in him, to what is usual in Persons of such an Age. He 
lay but a little while Sick ; being taken 111 on the Lord’s Day Night, 
after he had Preached Twice ; and the Saturday following he Dy’d, 
in April, 1697. He was a man of excellent Parts and a Generali 
Scholar ; for besides his Skill in Physick and Chyrurgery, and 
other Sciences subservient both to them and Divinity, he was 
eminent for the Oriental Tongues, well read in the Fathers, School- 
men, and Church History, and the Controversies with Papists, 
Socinians, Arminians, &c. Tho’ he was one of eminent Holiness and 
Zeal for God’s Glory, and most sincere and plain-hearted in the whole 
Course of his Conversation, yet he was exercis’d with various Temp- 
tations, and was in very perplexing Fears as to his Spiritual Estate ; 
* Separation Examined, p. 45. 
f Ibid., p. 71. 
1 Preface to Presbyterial Ordination Vindicated, published in 1660. 
5 Calamy’s Baxter, p. 244. 
|| Palmer’s Nonconformist’s Memorial, vol. i. pp. 517-18. 
If Calamy’s Baxter, p. 244. Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
15 
which had this Effect upon him, that they made him very Humble and 
Meek (tho’ naturally a Man of a very great Spirit) and careful in his 
Preaching and Writing, as not to encourage Hypocrites, or embolden 
any in Sin, so neither to Create any causeless Trouble in truly gra- 
cious Persons. And herein lay much of his Excellence. In his Life he 
had much spiritual Trouble ; but in his death he had much Comfort. 
Then he told those about him, how he had been Converted when a 
School Boy, by Mr. John Rogers, of Dedham. lie went late on a 
Lecture-day, and Crowded to get in. Mr. Rogers taking Notice of his 
Earnestness, with a Youth or Two more, for Room, with his usual 
Freedom cry’d out, Here are some Young ones come for a Christ. 
Will nothing serve you but you must have a Christ ? Then you shall 
have him, &c. ; which Sermon made such an Impression upon him 
that he thence Dated his Conversion. 
He was a Man of a Publick Spirit; not Rigid and Morose, but of 
great Moderation. He went about doing Good, and therein was his 
chief Delight. He was a Man of Peace, and his Loss was generally 
lamented all the Country round.”* 
Palmer says that his reading upon religious controversies was 
particularly of “ those between the Episcopal Party, the Presbyte- 
rians and the Independents. His judgment was that there ought to 
be more elders or presbyters than one in a church, instancing 8 
churches mentioned in scripture, wherein there were divers elders, 
viz., Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Coloss, and 
Tliesalonica ; besides those general texts that speak of many churches, 
Acts xiv. 23. Tit. i. 5. He thought also that one of these elders 
was, in the apostles’ time, primate and president among them for 
order’s sake, during life ; and that from the abuse of this constitution 
arose prelacy, and at last the pope. He esteemed imposition of hands 
essential to ordination. But he most excelled in practical divinity, 
especially in directing a sinner how to get peace with God, and how 
to judge of his state.”f 
Mr. Crofton says that he was "a Man no less approved for his 
Learning, Modesty, Piety, and Zeal for the Unity of tho Church, and 
his Anti-separation in the Days of its Prevalency and Prosperity, than 
for his Loyalty and Fidelity to the King’s Majesty in the Days of 
his Distress.”| 
From Calamy’s works and other sources, we obtain this list of Mr. 
Firmin’s publications :— 
1. A Serious Question Stated, Whether Ministers are bound by the Word of 
God, to Baptize the Children of all such Parents which say they Believe in Jesus 
Christ, but are grossly Ignorant and Scandalous in their Conversations, &c. 4to. 
1651. 
2. Separation Examined, or A Treatise in which Separation from the Ministry 
and Churches of England are weighed and found too light, &c. 4to. 1652. 
3. A Sober Reply to Mr. Cawdrey, in Defence of the Serious Question 
Stated. 4to. 1653. 
4. The Questions between the Conformist and Non-conformist truly Stated 
and briefly Discuss’d ; in Answer to Dr. Falkner, and the Friendly Debate. 
5. Establishing against Shaking : Or, a Discovery of the Prince of Darkness, 
* Calamy’s Baxter, pp. 244-6. 
t Nonconformist’s Memorial (ed. 1778), vol. i. pp. 518-19. 
+ Preface to “ Mr. Firmin’s Liturgical Considcrator Considered,” 4to. 1661, quoted in 
Calamy’s Continuation, vol. i. p. 459. 16 
Memoir of Rev. Giles Firmin. 
(scarcely transformed into an Angel of Light) powerfully now working in the 
deluded People call’d Quakers. 4to. 1056. 
6. The Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters of Religion vindicated : A 
Sermon of Mr. Marshal’s, with Notes of Mr. Firmin’s. 4to. 1657. 
7. A Treatise of Schism, Parochial Congregations in England ; and Ordina- 
tion by Imposition of Hands, in Answer to Dr. Owen of Schism, and Mr. Noyes 
of New England’s argument against Imposition of Hands in Ordination. 8vo. 
1658. 
8. Presbyterial Ordination Vindicated, In a Brief and Sober Discourse con- 
cerning Episcopacy, As claiming greater Power and more eminent Offices by 
Divine Right than Presbyterie. The Arguments of the Reverend Bishop Dr. 
Davenant in his Determination for such Episcopacy are modestly 
and Arguments for the Validity of Presbyterial Ordination added. With a brief 
Discourse concerning Imposed Forms of Prayer and Ceremonies. 4to. 1660. 
(Calamy gives the date 1661, but a copy in the Massachusetts Hist. Society’s 
library is dated 1660.) 
9. The Real Christian, or a Treatise of Effectual Calling. 4to. 1670. This 
work was reprinted at Boston, Mass., in 8vo., 1742. 
10. The Plea of Children of Believing Parents for their Interest in Abraham’s 
Covenant, their Right to Church Membership with their Parents, and their Title 
to Baptism: In Answer to Mr. Danvers. 8vo. 1683. 
11. Scripture-Warrant sufficient Proof for Infant Baptism: A Reply to Mr. 
Grantham’s Presumption no Proof. 8vo. 1688. 
12. An Answer to Mr. Grantham’s vain Question put to, and charg’d upon Mr. 
F , (in his Book intit. The Infant’s Advocate) viz.: Whether the greatest 
Part of dying Infants shall be damned. 4to. 1689. 
13. Some Remarks upon the Anabaptists’ Answer to the Athenian Mercuries. 
4to. 
14. A brief View of Mr. Davis’s Vindication: And Remarks upon some Pas- 
sages of Mr. Crisp. 4to. 
15. Weighty Questions discussed. 1, About Imposition of Hands. 2, About 
Teaching Elders, and the Members meeting in one Place. 4to. 1692. 
Mather, in his Magnalia, Book iii., Appendix to Chap, xiv., gives 
an extract from a work by Firmin published in 1G81.* 
A Sermon which is said to have been preached by him before Parlia- 
ment and the Westminster Assembly, is quoted as follows :—“ I have 
lived in a country seven years,f and all that time I never heard one 
profane oath, and all that time never did see a man drunk in that 
land.”! This is the only allusion we have met with to Firmin’s 
having preached before Parliament, and we do not find the sermon in 
any list of his publications. 
* George Brinley, Esq., of Hartford, Ct., has a copy each of the Serious Question 
and Separation Examined; John Carter Brown, Esq., of Providence, R. I., has a copy of 
the latter work. The Massachusetts Historical Society has a copy each of the Reply to 
Mr. Cawdrey and Presbyterial Ordination; the Boston Athenaeum has the Treatise of 
Schism; and Charles Deane, Esq., of Cambridge, has the 1670 edition of the Real Chris- 
tian. The Boston reprint of the Real Christian is not very rare. 
If any reader of this memoir knows of copies of any of the other works of Rev. Giles 
Firmin, in this country, he will confer a favor by communicating the fact to the writer. 
f This is a shorter period than Firmin has generally been supposed to have lived in New 
England. Perhaps only his residence at Ipswich is meant. 
+ Felt’s Ecclesiastical History of New England, vol. ii. pp. 48-9; the late A. Ilammatt, 
Esq., of Ipswich, in Hist, and Gen. Register, vol. iv. p. 11. Cotton Mather gives a similar 
saying in a sermon before Parliament and the Assembly, without naming the preacher, in 
Wonders of the Invisible World, Sect. 1 of Enchantments Encountered, and Magnalia, book 
i. p. 37 ; but he evidently quotes from memory in one or both cases, as the language varies. 
If it were not for the positive assertion of Messrs. Felt and Hammatt, we should be in- 
clined to attribute the saying to Hugh Peters, who speaks in two of his works of his seven 
years’ residence in this country, and who, we know, preached before Parliament. We have 
iiot been able to find a copy of Peters’s sermon. 
Mr. Firmin’s father-in-law, Rev. Nathaniel Ward, reports a like experience in twelve 
years. See his Simple Cobbler, 1st ed., p. 61; Pulsifer’s ed., p. 67.