Married to the eldest daughter of Capt. Thomas Willett of Plymouth Colony, a Plymouth merchant and later first mayor of New York City, Rev. Samuel Hooker was the progenitor of all Hookers who claim descent from Rev. Thomas Hooker of Connecticut. [1]
Hooker, Edward, "The Origin and Ancestry of Rev. Thomas Hooker,@ a paper prepared by Commander Edward Hooker, U.S.N., and read before the Hooker gathering, August, 1892", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, by New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff (Heritage Books, 1997), pp. 189–192; The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 44, by New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff (N.E. Historic Genealogical Society, 1890), pp. 397–398; Hooker, Margaret Huntington, "Introduction", Hooker, Edward W., The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker: Hartford, Connecticut, 1586–1908, p. ix; Porter, Alice, "Thomas Hooker", Connecticut Magazine, July–August 1906 [2][permanent dead link]; Underwood, Nancy, Ancestry and Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker[3]
Following the Rev. Hooker's sermon in which he declared, "The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people", the Fundamental Orders were adopted by the colony of Connecticut on January 14, 1639 (by New Style reckoning). While some modern historians dispute the claim that this was the first constitution in the western democratic tradition, neither the Mayflower Compact nor the Narragansett communities' agreements established any forms of government. Furthermore, former Connecticut Chief Justice Simeon E. Baldwin upheld the claim in Norris Osborn's History of Connecticut in Monographic Form, declaring that "never had a company of men deliberately met to frame a social compact for immediate use, constituting a new and independent commonwealth, with definite officers, executive and legislative, and prescribed rules and modes of government, until the first planters of Connecticut came together for their great work on January 14th, 1638–9." Drafted primarily by Roger Ludlow, it was the first compact between a government and the people to uphold the Rev. Hooker’s proclamation that the foundation of constitutional authority was with the people. Ref: Osborn, Norris Galpin, Editor, History of Connecticut in Monographic Form (States History Co., 1925); Hooker, John, An Account of the Reunion of the Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker (The Salem Press, 1890), p. 27; Logan, Walter Seth, Thomas Hooker, the First American Democrat (The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, 1904), p. 19; Lutz, Donald S., Stephen L. Schechter & Richard B. Bernstein, Roots of the Republic: American Founding Documents Interpreted, p. 24; CT.gov, The Official State of Connecticut Website [ww.ct.gov/ctportal/cwp/view.asp?a=246434]; Connecticut, History of the USA http://www.usahistory.info/New-England/Connecticut.html.
web.archive.org
Hooker, Edward, "The Origin and Ancestry of Rev. Thomas Hooker,@ a paper prepared by Commander Edward Hooker, U.S.N., and read before the Hooker gathering, August, 1892", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, by New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff (Heritage Books, 1997), pp. 189–192; The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 44, by New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff (N.E. Historic Genealogical Society, 1890), pp. 397–398; Hooker, Margaret Huntington, "Introduction", Hooker, Edward W., The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker: Hartford, Connecticut, 1586–1908, p. ix; Porter, Alice, "Thomas Hooker", Connecticut Magazine, July–August 1906 [2][permanent dead link]; Underwood, Nancy, Ancestry and Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker[3]
