born 1604, Widford, Hertfordshire, Eng.
died May 21, 1690, Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony
English Puritan missionary to the Indians of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
He emigrated to Boston in 1631 and became pastor of a church in nearby Roxbury. Supported by his congregation and fellow ministers, he began a mission to the American Indians that inspired the creation in 1649 of the first genuine missionary society (financed chiefly from England). His methods set the pattern of subsequent Native American missions for almost two centuries. His translation of the Bible into the Algonquian language was the first Bible printed in North America.