Lady Arbella Johnson (née Clinton; 3 August 1597 – 30 August 1630) was one of the early settlers of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

. She was the daughter of

Thomas Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln Thomas Clinton, 3rd Earl of Lincoln (1568 – 15 January 1619), was an English peer, styled Lord Clinton from 1585 to 1616. Life Educated at Oxford ( MA 1588), Clinton represented the constituencies of Lincolnshire in 1601 and Great Grimsby f ...

and his wife

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

. William Allen suggests that she was probably named after

Lady Arbella Stuart Lady Arbella Stuart (also Arabella, or Stewart; 1575 – 25 September 1615) was an English noblewoman who was considered a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. During the reign of King James VI and I (her first cousin), she marrie ...

. On April 15, 1623, she married Rev. Isaac Johnson. In 1630, they both sailed to Massachusetts on a ship that was named the ''

Arbella ''Arbella'' or ''Arabella'' was the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet on which Governor John Winthrop, other members of the Company (including William Gager), and Puritan emigrants transported themselves and the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay C ...

'' after her. She died soon after arriving, while her husband died a month later. She was described as "lovely in both character and person".

Cotton Mather Cotton Mather (; February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a Puritan clergyman and author in colonial New England, who wrote extensively on theological, historical, and scientific subjects. After being educated at Harvard College, he join ...

says in his ''

Magnalia Christi Americana ''Magnalia Christi Americana'' (roughly, ''The Glorious Works of Christ in America'') is a book published in 1702 by the puritan minister Cotton Mather (1663–1728). Its title is in Latin, but its subtitle is in English: ''The Ecclesiastical His ...

'' that Johnson, "left an earthly paradise in the family of an earldom, to encounter the sorrows of a wilderness, for the entertainments of a pure worship in the house of God; and then immediately left that wilderness for the heavenly paradise, whereto the compassionate Jesus, of whom she was a follower, called her." On the other hand, William Hubbard said of her:

Coming from a paradise of plenty and pleasure, which she enjoyed in the family of a noble Earldom, into a wilderness of wants, it proved too strong a temptation for her; so that the virtues of her mind were not able to stem the tide of those many adversities of her outward condition, which she, soon after her arrival, saw herself surrounded withal.

Johnson is the first person described in

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associat ...

's ''Grandfather's Chair'', which is a collection of tales from American history. Gillian Brown notes that "American history, according to Hawthorne, begins with the story of Lady Arbella Johnson."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Arbella 1597 births 1630 deaths English emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony Daughters of English earls