John Wheelwright, colonial minister and nonconformist, is best remembered for his association with Anne Hutchinson and his long conflict with John Winthrop and the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the Antinomian controversy. Wheelwright was probably born in Saleby, Lincolnshire, England, to Robert Wheelwright, a moderately wealthy landholder. Matriculating at Sydney-Sussex College, Cambridge, when he was eighteen, Wheelwright became friends with Oliver Cromwell before receiving his A.B. in 1614. He received his A.M. in 1618, and took orders the following year. In 1621 he married Marie Storre, daughter of Thomas Storre, vicar of Bilsby, and on 9 April 1623 he succeeded to the vicarage upon the death of his father-in-law. Sometime between 1628 and 1630, after bearing three children, his wife died; thereupon, in 1630, he married Mary Hutchinson, whose brother, William, was married to Anne Hutchinson.

Wheelwright's nonconformist beliefs emerged during the early 1630s, and in 1633 a successor to Wheelwright's vicarage was inducted. Wheelwright was...