A history and first hand report of the extraordinary life of non conformist Cornish missionary Rev. Nicholas Leverton, taken from a family manuscript written in 1670 by fellow Cornishman Rev. Charles Morton educator of Daniel Defoe, and Harvard Vice President.
Born 1610 in St. Eval, Cornwall, England during a time of great religious change Nicholas gained a BA at Exeter College, Oxford and was ordained as a Minister at Exeter Cathedral in 1632. Initially he earned his living keeping a small School at St. Endillion.
The following year he sailed to Barbados in the Caribbean where he preached for a while and then to Tobago with 80 plantation settlers as ships Chaplin. After being attacked by Indians on the island and left for dead he regained his old and rotten ship and eventually landed on the Providence Island, a model Puritan Colony lying off the coast of Nicaragua. The Island was also of strategic importance to England in an area dominated by the Spanish Empire.
Here Nicholas stayed for 3 years as a Minister of the Church during which time the Island suffered repeated Spanish attacks. In 1641 he was recalled England to answer to Archbishop Laud for his non conformism only to find that Laud had been arrested so Nick had no religious charges to answer.
He returned to Providencia but the Island had already fallen to the third Spanish Attack. After two further years of adventures in the Carribean he eventually landed on the Island of St Christopher. Having been away for 10 years in the Carribean Nicholas returned to England in 1644 via Bermuda where he had met and married Anbitt (Cubitt) Reyner the daughter of a plantation owner from Egham in Surrey, England.
After a time as Minister at High Heveningham in Suffolk he returned to Cornwall in 1649 and settled in Padstow close to his birthplace in St.Eval where he was intruded as the Minister of St Tudy by the Cornish Puritan Anthony Nicholl in the place of Rector Obadiah Ghossip, for the next 10 years.
Like Charles Morton, Nicholas was a prominent member of the Cornwall Classis movement but his ministry was not without controversy including bouts of drunken behaviour. In 1660 at the Restoration Nicholas was ousted from his living at St. Tudy by the Royalist patron Lord Mohun who appointed his own Churchman Henry Greensworth. He moved to Ireland for a short time with his wife and daughter Jane and there learnt that Lord Willoughby of Parham, Governor of Surinam proposed that Nicholas be a Minister in Surinam.
Nicholas, now sick and in debt left for Surinam in 1662 where he died that same year.
The following year he sailed to Barbados in the Caribbean where he preached for a while and then to Tobago with 80 plantation settlers as ships Chaplin. After being attacked by Indians on the island and left for dead he regained his old and rotten ship and eventually landed on the Providence Island, a model Puritan Colony lying off the coast of Nicaragua. The Island was also of strategic importance to England in an area dominated by the Spanish Empire.
Here Nicholas stayed for 3 years as a Minister of the Church during which time the Island suffered repeated Spanish attacks. In 1641 he was recalled England to answer to Archbishop Laud for his non conformism only to find that Laud had been arrested so Nick had no religious charges to answer.
He returned to Providencia but the Island had already fallen to the third Spanish Attack. After two further years of adventures in the Carribean he eventually landed on the Island of St Christopher. Having been away for 10 years in the Carribean Nicholas returned to England in 1644 via Bermuda where he had met and married Anbitt (Cubitt) Reyner the daughter of a plantation owner from Egham in Surrey, England.
After a time as Minister at High Heveningham in Suffolk he returned to Cornwall in 1649 and settled in Padstow close to his birthplace in St.Eval where he was intruded as the Minister of St Tudy by the Cornish Puritan Anthony Nicholl in the place of Rector Obadiah Ghossip, for the next 10 years.
Like Charles Morton, Nicholas was a prominent member of the Cornwall Classis movement but his ministry was not without controversy including bouts of drunken behaviour. In 1660 at the Restoration Nicholas was ousted from his living at St. Tudy by the Royalist patron Lord Mohun who appointed his own Churchman Henry Greensworth. He moved to Ireland for a short time with his wife and daughter Jane and there learnt that Lord Willoughby of Parham, Governor of Surinam proposed that Nicholas be a Minister in Surinam.
Nicholas, now sick and in debt left for Surinam in 1662 where he died that same year.