Digging into family history: ironies and intrigue

A preacher’s kid (PK) in a small Midwestern town in the 1950s and early ’60s might find himself the victim of tasteless harassment – some of it frivolous or flippant, but too often it could be mean-spirited.

This is especially true when his father’s denomination held church services on Saturday (the Sabbath); everyone else in town worshipped on Sunday.

Seventh Day Baptists observe the traditional Jewish Sabbath, Friday night sundown to Saturday night sundown. Ask me — I was there. If someone in the town of Milton, Wisconsin (population 1,200) who knew my father, saw me out and about on Friday night — or on Sabbath Day — I often paid a price.

“Aren’t you Reverend FitzRandolph’s son? Isn’t today your Sabbath?” Or the annoying comment might be: “Does your father know you go to movies on the Sabbath?” The principal at our high school would call me in after I got caught skipping a class: “Should I call the reverend and tell him what un-Christian mischief you’ve been up to”?

I endured plenty of that while coming of age. So, in 1967, I moved west to San Luis Obispo for a welcomed fresh start. No one knew me, my dad, or his denominational uniqueness. I loved dad, but I ached to fly free, like a caged bird sensing a door left open.

I carved out a refreshingly new life for myself in the Golden State, attending Cuesta and earning my BA in English (and a teaching credential) from Poly. Not a single soul judged me by anything other than my own activities as a student, teacher, writer, fundraiser, broadcaster, and advocate for seniors, Native Americans, environmental activists and underserved ethnic communities.

Escape from England

My youthful aggravation was minuscule compared with the persecution suffered by my forebear, Edward FitzRandolph, the first FitzRandolph to set foot on the North American continent.

It was 386 years ago when the Winthrop Fleet made its pilgrimage west across the Atlantic Ocean. Ten years after the Mayflower’s challenging voyage, 11 ships, led by the Rev. John Winthrop, carried about 1,000 Puritans plus livestock. The flotilla left England April 8, 1630, and arrived near Salem, Massachusetts, on June 12.

More than 300 of the original passengers died during the passage, or within a year after arriving in America. Edward FitzRandolph (an educated, prosperous farmer whose ancestors accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy to England) was on board one of the 11 ships, the 350-ton Arbella. He survived the trip and lived to be 77, an impressively long life during that early American era.

Why did FitzRandolph and his fellow Puritans leave their English farms and homes, embarking on a perilous passage? They were weary of the stifling rigidity of the Crown Church of England.

It is meticulously recorded in the literature that religious repression was rampant in England under Charles 1 — who ruled England, Scotland and Ireland.

When sufficient numbers of Puritans were elected to Parliament, part of a movement for religious liberty, Charles viewed this as a threat. Hence, he dissolved parliament permanently in 1629. He instituted the “Personal Rule” directive, carried out by William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud ordered justices of the peace to arrest, and even incarcerate, worshippers who met in private Puritan-led services.

This exodus from England — and others — for religious purposes is, of course, the backdrop for the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion … ”

Puritans as hypocrites

But once settled in America, Puritan leaders proved to be hypocrites: They practiced blatant discrimination against Christians who did not accept that the Puritan way was the only way.

Ironically, Puritans fled England because of palpable prejudice visited upon them by King Charles; but in time they, too practiced a harsh form of intolerance. They “allowed no one to stay among them who did not agree with their ideas,” author Eva March Tappan wrote in her book, “An Elementary History of Our Country.”

They couldn’t fathom how “anyone else could be as earnest as they in wishing to serve God and yet not go about it in the Puritan way,” Tappan writes. Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, imposed “restrictions on immigrants” in order to prevent “Antinomians” from settling in Massachusetts.

Antinomians believe obedience to religious dogma is not necessary to achieve salvation.

In 1631, a year after the Winthrop Fleet arrived in America, the Puritans limited citizenship to “Freemen” (Puritan church members); only freemen could vote, hold office, or participate in any way in public affairs. “Dissenters were suppressed or expelled to other settlements,” Tappan explains.

In conducting this research, I experienced the glow of ancestral pride when I learned that Edward FitzRandolph rejected the Puritans’ extreme orthodoxy. FitzRandolph moved his family to Piscataway, New Jersey, because he “did not agree wholeheartedly with the puritanical, morally rigorous, and strict beliefs in vogue among many people in the colony,” according to historical records.

The moral of the story: I moved west to find freedom from religion while Edward moved west to find freedom of religion.

Three postscripts are worthy:

▪  Edward FitzRandolph abandoned England’s religious bigotry when he fled to America in 1630. But England had the final say when the British 42^nd Regiment used St. James Church in Piscataway as a barracks / hospital in 1777. The Redcoats destroyed tombstones – including Edward’s – when they built an encampment in the church’s burial ground. Ironically, locals later buried British soldiers in a large common grave near where Edward’s body is believed to lie.

▪  Edward’s grandson, Nathaniel FitzRandolph, a wealthy landowner who was prominent in civic affairs in Princeton, New Jersey, was instrumental in raising money – and donating land – to establish Princeton University. Today the wrought iron main gate into Princeton University is the “FitzRandolph Gate.”

▪  One of Edward’s sons (born in 1653), an illustrious landowner and civic leader in Piscataway, was among the original 17 members of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in 1688. His name: John FitzRandolph

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Digging into family history: ironies and intrigue."