Michael Metcalfe 10th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

Michael Metcalfe was b.1587 into a long line of Metcalfs. He lived in Tatterford and Norwich, England, was a weaver and married Sarah Ellwyn. Michael was a Puritan in England which led to trouble in the 1630s when he felt persecuted by Archbishop Laud and Bishop Wren. Both bishops were eventually charged with various crimes and locked in the Tower of London. Wren was let go and Laud was executed.

Michael wrote a letter, “I was persecuted in the land of my fathers’ sepulchres for not bowing at the name of Jesus and observing the ceremonies inforced upon me at the instance of Bishop Wren of Norwich, and his Chancellor Dr. Corbet, whose violent measures troubled me in the Bishop’s court, and returned me into the High Commissioner’s Court. Suffering many times for the cause of religion, I was forced for the sake of the liberty of my conscience to flee from my wife and children to go into New England; taking ship for the voyage at London, 17th Sept., 1636, and being by tempests tossed up and down the seas till the Christmas following; and then veering about to Plymouth in Old England. Leaving the ship I went down to Yarmouth, in Co. Norfolk, whence I finally shipped myself and family to come to New England; sailed April 15, 1637, and arrived three days before Midsummer with my wife, nine children, and a servant, Thomas Comberbach, aged 16.”