13 Facts About Michael Wigglesworth

Michael Wigglesworth was a Puritan minister, physician, and poet whose poem The Day of Doom was a bestseller in early New England.

When Wigglesworth was ten years old his father became bed-ridden, forcing him to leave school to help maintain the family farm.

Michael Wigglesworth graduated from Harvard in 1651 and taught there as a tutor until 1654, sometimes preaching in Charlestown and Malden, Massachusetts.

Michael Wigglesworth became a minister at the First Parish in Malden in 1654 but was not actually ordained until 1656.

Michael Wigglesworth's son, Samuel, had 12 children, including one named Edward Wigglesworth who was a colonel in the American Revolutionary War.

Michael Wigglesworth believed that he was essentially not worthy of believing in God as a result of his depraved humanity.

At one point, Michael Wigglesworth was overcome with a psychosomatic disorder in which he felt he should not preach.

Thereafter, Michael Wigglesworth was reinstated and encouraged to take up preaching again.

Michael Wigglesworth was plagued by his attraction to his male students, many of whom were his close contemporaries in age.

Rev Michael Wigglesworth was among the area ministers invited to join the Cambridge Association when it formed in 1690, organized by the twenty-seven-year-old Rev Cotton Mather and the elder Rev Charles Morton.

Michael Wigglesworth was in attendance at a number of meetings that year but is not recorded as having had much to say.

Michael Wigglesworth had been astute in believing the end of his life was near and he died within a year of writing the letter.

Michael Wigglesworth's pen did once Meat from the Eater take And now he's gone beyond the Eater's reach Michael Wigglesworth's body once so thin was next to none From hence he's to unbodied spirits flown.