Prominent Parishioners—People listed in the membership roles of the First Church in Salem go back to 1629 and continue into the present. Today, what is referred to as the First Church of Salem, includes the churches that had split apart centuries before and have since returned to the fold. Among its most prominent members, only a few are listed below in hopes of stimulating interest among readers to learn more.
Samuel Skelton - The Church's first pastor (1629-1634).
Francis Higginson - The author of the Church's Covenant and its first teacher (1629-1630)
Roger Williams - Founder of the First Baptist Church in America; third minister of this church in 1635.
Hugh Peter - The Church's fourth minister (1636-1641) return to England and became chaplain to Oliver Cromwell and was hanged, drawn and quartered for complicity in the death of King Charles I.
Rebecca Nurse & Giles Cory - Two of the victims of the witchcraft hysteria of 1692, were members of this Church.
Other notables include:
Nathaniel Hawthorne - And the Hawthorne family
Jones Very - Transcendentalist
Lincoln F. Bingham - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts
Arthur Foote - Composer
Edward Sylvester Morse - Biologist and authority on Japanese culture
Nathaniel Peabody - Father of the Peabody sisters: Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Mary Peabody Mann, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody.
Leverett Saltonstal - First mayor of Salem
Charles Dexter Cleveland - American Consul at Cardiff
Caroline Plummer - Provided for the instruction, employment, and reformation of juvenile offenders in the City of Salem, established a new professorship at Harvard University, the Salem Atheneum and Plummer Hall, and the Farm School of Reform for Boys.
Henry K. Oliver - Organist and composer
Elizabeth Peabody - Author, editor, publisher, educator, founder of American kindergartens, Transcendentalist
Mary Peabody Mann - Educator, author, wife of Horace Mann
Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne - Artist, author, educator, wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Susan Burley - Literary patron (including Nathaniel Hawthorne's), salon/"Conversations" hostess, Transcendentalist
Caroline Osgood Emmerton — Philanthropist who founded the House of the Seven Gables Settlement House, endowed programs for the elderly, widows, orphans, and the poor, as well as the public library and historic preservation works.