Samuel Skelton

[1][2] On February 26, 1592/93, [citation needed]Skelton was baptized in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, England[3] where his father, William was rector.

[citation needed] He was recruited by John Endecott, who had just been appointed as the governor of a new colony, the London Plantation in the Massachusetts Bay in New England.

The Church of England, with all of its bishops, hierarchy and ecclesiastical courts, counted for nothing in the eyes of God, and had strayed far from the teachings of the Bible.

[10] Prominent English minister John Cotton was initially offended by this action, and was concerned that the Puritans had become separatists, as were the Pilgrims.

However, Cotton eventually came to agree with Skelton, and concluded that the only real churches were autonomous, individual congregations, and that there was no legitimate higher ecclesiastical power.