Experience Mayhew

rdf:langString Experience Mayhew

rdf:langString Experience Mayhew (1673–1758) was a New England missionary to the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard and adjacent islands. He is the author of Massachusett Psalter (a rare book like the Bay Psalm Book and Eliot Indian Bible). Experience was born on January 27, 1673, in Quansoo, Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, the oldest son of Rev. John Mayhew, missionary to the Indians, nephew of Gov. Matthew Mayhew, and great-grandson of Gov. Thomas Mayhew. The Mayhews’ missionary work is considered the “longest most persistent missionary endeavor” in the annals of Christendom. At the age of 21, Experience Mayhew began to preach to the Wampanoag Indians in a one-room meetinghouse built by his father in Chilmark. He became a Congregational minister with the oversight of five or six Indian assemblies, and continued in his ministry for 64 years. Having thoroughly mastered the Wôpanâak language, which he had learned in infancy, he was employed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England to make a new version of the Psalms and of the Gospel of John, which he did in 1709 in parallel columns of English and Indian. It was said of him, "Had he been favored with the advantages of education he would have ranked among the first worthies of New England." He had no formal education, but in July 1723 Harvard College awarded him an honorary bachelor's degree; he attempted to refuse the degree but was "overruled."