Michael Wigglesworth

1631–1705 · 1 work on Laurel, 2,825 lines, all free to read

The Last Judgement. Wigglesworth put the same scene into ballad metre as The Day of Doom.

Michael Wigglesworth (1631–1705) was a Puritan minister, physician, and poet whose poem The Day of Doom was a bestseller in early New England.

Michael Wigglesworth was born October 18, 1631, in Yorkshire, England.

His father was Edward Wigglesworth, born 1603 in Scotton, Lincolnshire, and his mother was Ester Middlebrook of Wrawby (born in Batley), who married on October 27, 1629, in Wrawby. The family moved to New England in 1638. They originally lived in Charlestown, Massachusetts, then soon moved to New Haven, Connecticut. When Wigglesworth was ten years old his father became bed-ridden, forcing him to leave school to help maintain the family farm.

Biography adapted from the Wikipedia article “Michael Wigglesworth”, CC BY-SA. Read it there.

Works

The Day of Doom · 1662