College, Oxford, about 1628; but before matriculation renounced tlie Church of lingland and refused to take the oath of allegiance. He travelled in France, Hol- land, and Switzerland, and com[)leted his education at (Jeneva, where he became confirmed in the rciinblicau principles which he had imbibed, and avowed the Puri- tan doctrines. The unpopularity of his opinions in Eng- land led him to seek a home in America, and We arrived in ^Massachusetts in 1035, where he was received with great satisfaction on account of his high reputation and social position, and elected governor of the colony in
1636. Having taken the part of Mrs. Hutcliinson in a bitter religious controversy' then existing, he lost much of his popularity, and failed of a re-election for governor the following year. He was then chosen a member of the general court, but returned to iMigland in August,
1637. He now married a daughter of Sir Christopher Wray of Ashby, in Lincolnshire ; was knighted, and en- tered upon a political career. Through his father's in- terest he was appointed joint treasurer of the navy with Sir William Knssell, and entered Parliament for Kingston-upon-IIiiU in 1640, where he almost immedi- ately joined Pym and the anti-court party, of which he became one of the most vehement and resolute leaders. He took an important part in the impeachment of Straf- ford and Land: became sole treasurer of the navy in 1642 ; was a zealous supporter of Parliament in the Civil War, to which body he gave up the fees of his office ; was a member of the Westminster Assembly; went, in June, 1643, to Scotland as one of the joint commission- ers to negotiate an alliance, and was influential in se- curing the adoption of the Solemn League and Covenant; enabled Roger Williams to obtain the charter of Rhode Island in 1643 ; was one of the chief promoters of the Self- denying Ordinance in 1044 : opposed the terms of settle- ment offered by Charles in 1648; became a member of the Council of State in F'ebruary, 1049, in which position he remained until Cromwell's dissolution of Parliament in 1653. During this period he had the direction of the navy, and important jiowers in reference to the foreign wars then in progress. He also enjoyed the friendship of John Milton, who addressed one of liis sonnets to him. After the dissolution of the Long Parliament, he retired to his estate of Raby Castle, where he wrote religious treatises and political pamphlets, one of which led to his imprisonment for four months in Carisbrooke Castle, by order of Cromwell, in 1()50. He remained in oppo- sition until the death of Cromwell, when he was again chosen to Parliament, and became the leader of the re- publican party, endeavoring to mould the common- wealth to his ideas of govenmient. He was one of the twenty persons excepted from the Act of General Par- don and Oblivion, passed at the Restoration, and in July, 10()0, was committed to the Tower. He was afterwards committed to other prisons, remaining two years in a castle in the Scilly Islands, occu]iied in theological stud- ies and writing. On June 2, 1062, he was arraigned for high-treason before the Middlesex grand-jury; found guilty on the 6th, and, contrary to a promise made by Charles, was beheaded on Tower Hill, June 14, 1662. His theological writings were of a liighly mystical type, and of very little value. He was a Millenarian, and believed or hoped that the Saviour woidd come and establish a fifth universal monarchy. These views gave rise to a small sect known as Vanists (q. v.). See Knight, Life and Death of Sir Henry Vane (Lond. 1662) ; Birch, lAves ; Ludlow, Memoirs ; S|iarks, .4 merican Biographies, vol. iv.
Van Gaasbeek, LAtnKXTirs, a minister of the Reformed (Dutch) Church, was born in Holland. He graduated from tlic University of Leyden.]\lay 15, 1674; sailed from Amsterdam Maj' 13, 1678, arriving in New- York Aug. 21 of the same year. He reached Kingston Sept. 8, and preached his first sermon there one week later. He was pastor of the Church in Kingston from that time until February, 1680, the date of his death. See Corwin, Maiiual of ike Ref Church in America, s. v.
VAN HARLINGEN
VU
VANIAII
Van Haiiingen, Johannes Maitinus, a Re-
fornn'il (^l)iitch) niinister, was born near Millstmie, N. J., in 1724, of Dutch parentage, lie went to Holland to complete his studies in one of the universities, and to get ordination by the Classis of Amsterdam, which was secured in 17G1. In 17G2 he returned to America and took pastoral charge of the united churches of Neshanic and Sourland, in Somerset Co., N. .1., where he ministered thirl y-three years, and died in 17t)o, universally beloved and lamented. A sutHcient proof of the esteem in which he was held is found in the fact that his name was, after his death, given to the village and church and district ill which he had lived and labored so long, Sourland being changed to Harliugen. Me preached only in the Dutch language until within a few years before his death, when, to gratify the younger people, he preached occasionally in English. He was evangelical, faithful, a patron of learning, one of the original trustees of Queen's College, and, in all that is known of him, one of the best of the old Dutch ministers of the last cen- tury. See Corwin, Manual of the Ref. Church in A mer- ica, s. v.; Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, vol. ix.