Queer Places:
Harvard University (Ivy League), 2 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Bell Rock Cemetery
Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
Michael Wigglesworth (October 18, 1631 – June 10, 1705) was a Puritan minister, physician, and poet whose poem The Day of Doom was a bestseller in early New England.
In the 1650s the Reverend Michael Wigglesworth, a Puritan divine, found
himself tormented by “too much doting affection,” love, and lust for his
Harvard students.
Michael Wigglesworth was born October 18, 1631 in Yorkshire, England. His father was Edward Wigglesworth, born 1603 in Scotton, Lincolnshire, and his mother was Ester Batley of Wrawby, who married on October 27, 1629 in Wrawby. The family moved to New England in 1638. They originally lived in Charlestown, Massachusetts, then soon moved to New Haven, Connecticut. When Wigglesworth was ten years old his father became bed-ridden, forcing him to leave school to help maintain the family farm. He graduated from Harvard in 1651 and taught there as a tutor until 1654, sometimes preaching in Charlestown and Malden, Massachusetts. He became a minister at the First Parish in Malden in 1654 but was not actually ordained until 1656.[1] A daughter Mercy Wigglesworth was born February 21, 1655. With his second wife, Martha Mudge, married in 1679, he had six children, including Samuel Wigglesworth born circa 1689. His youngest son, with his third wife, Sybil Sparhawk Avery, married in 1691, was clergyman Edward Michael Wigglesworth (c. 1693–1765), who had several namesakes.[2] His son, Samuel, had 12 children, including one also named Edward Wigglesworth (1741–1826) who was a colonel in the American Revolutionary War.
Michael Wigglesworth became minister of the church in Malden in about 1656. His poem The Day of Doom (1662) was intended to prepare readers for judgement day; it was a colonial best-seller, with almost eighteen hundred copies purchased in the first year of publication. Wigglesworth had graduated from Harvard in 1651 and was appointed fellow and tutor, 1652-1654. At the advice of physician Dr John Alcock, Wigglesworth married in 1655 and "by the will of God" consummated the union. Revered Michael Wigglesworth, Harvard class of 1651, and onetime candidate for President of Harvard, hated himself for being attracted to male Harvard students. "Lord I am vile," he wrote.
Wigglesworth died June 10, 1705 in Malden, Middlesex County. The epitaph on his grave in Bell Rock Cemetery says: HERE LYES BURIED Ye BODY OF THAT FAITHFUL SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST Ye REVEREND MR. MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH PASTOUR OF Ye CHURCH OF CHRIST AT MAULDEN , < > YEARS WHO FINISHED HIS WORK AND ENTERED APON AN ETERNAL SABBATH OF REST ON Ye LORD’S DAY JUNE Ye 10 1705 IN Ye 74TH YEAR OF HIS AGE. HERE LIES INTERRED IN SILENT GRAVE BELOW MAULDEN’S PHYSITIAN FOR SOUL AND BODY TWO.
An encomium to his memory says, His pen did once Meat from the Eater take And now he's gone beyond the Eater's reach His body once so thin was next to none From hence he's to unbodied spirits flown. Once his rare skill did all diseases heal And he doth nothing now uneasy feel. He to his paradise is joyful come And waits with joy to see his Day of Doom.
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