page_title: John Stoughton (priest)
section_title: Aller, Somerset
hierarchical_section_title: John Stoughton (priest) / Life / Aller, Somerset
caption_attribution_description: English: St Andrew's Church, Aller
context_page_description: John Stoughton was an English clergyman, of influential millennial views. He was the stepfather and preceptor in their youth of Ralph Cudworth and James Cudworth.
context_section_description: In 1624 the College living of Aller, in Somerset, became vacant by the death of Dr. Ralph Cudworth, who had resigned his own fellowship to marry and settle in the Rectory there in 1610. John Stoughton succeeded him as Rector in 1624 and married his widow Mary (née Machell). Here he developed connections with Sir Thomas and Dame Margaret Wroth of Petherton Park, who were highly active in colonial enterprises in North America. Dame Margaret, cousin of Robert Rich and sister of Sir Nathaniel Rich, and probably a near relation of Dr. Stoughton's wife, had witnessed the elder Dr. Cudworth's deathbed testament.  Also present was the minister Anthony Earbury of nearby Westonzoyland.
  As stepfather he took in hand the education of his wife's young sons and daughters. The younger Ralph later described this as a "diet of Calvinism". Stoughton was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1626. Under his instruction his stepchildren flourished, and he thought Ralph Cudworth (junr.) 'as wel grounded in Schol-Learning as any Boy of his Age that went to the University', when commencing his studies at Emmanuel College in 1632.
  In 1630 Stoughton's brother Thomas (by then married and with a family) was among the emigrants in the sailing of the Mary and John of London to New England, arranged by John White of Dorchester, Dorset to found the town of Dorchester, Boston, in Massachusetts Bay Colony. A younger brother Israel Stoughton followed in 1632.
caption: St Andrew's church, Aller, where John Stoughton succeeded Dr Cudworth in 1624
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