John Haynes - Early Life

Early Life

Haynes was likely born at Messing, Essex, England, the eldest son of John Haynes and Mary Michel Haynes. The family was an armigerous gentry or 'visitation family' who had lived at Codicote, Herefordshire, and at Great Haddam. In 1605, when he was eleven, his father died, and he eventually inherited the family's many properties. It is possible that Haynes attended Cambridge; during the relevant time period, two John Hayneses are listed as attending. By about 1616, Haynes was living at Gurney's Manor, Hingham, Norfolk, a hotbed of Puritan sentiment, where Haynes was Lord of the Manor. There he married Mary Thorneton, the daughter of Norfolk nobility, with whom he had six children. In 1627, his wife Mary died and was buried at St. Andrews Church in Hingham. In the early 1620s, he purchased Copford Hall, near Colchester in Essex; this estate alone was reported to produce £1,100 per year.

Essex was also a Puritan center, and Haynes was greatly influenced by the pastor Thomas Hooker, who was a close friend. In about 1630, John Winthrop and John Humphreys, two of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, extended invitations to Hooker and Haynes to join them in the New World. Apparently leaving his minor children behind, Haynes emigrated in 1633, sailing aboard the Griffin with Hooker. They settled first at Newtowne (later renamed Cambridge), where Haynes was the guest of Thomas Dudley until his own house was ready.