Cotton and Thomas Hooker were the first eminent ministers to come to New England, according to Cotton's biographer Larzer Ziff.
Cotton was openly welcomed on his arrival in September 1633 as one of the two ministers of the church in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, having been personally invited to the colony by Governor Winthrop.
Ziff writes, "It was only fitting, the majority felt, that the most eminent preacher in the colony should be located in the principal city."
Also, many who had come from Boston, Lincolnshire had settled in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Boston meetinghouse of the 1630s was small and windowless, with clay walls and a thatched roof—far different from Cotton's former surroundings in the spacious and comfortable church of St. Botolph's.
Once established in his new church, however, his evangelical fervor contributed to a religious revival, and there were more conversions during his first six months in the pastorate than there had been the previous year.
He was recognized as the leading intellectual in the colony and is the first minister known to have preached a theme of millennialism in New England.
He also became the spokesman for the new church polity known as Congregationalism.

Congregationalists felt very strongly that individual congregations were real churches, while the Church of England had strayed far from the teachings of the Bible.
Puritan leader John Winthrop arrived in Salem with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, but minister Samuel Skelton informed him that they would not be welcomed at the celebration of the Lord's supper and their children would not be baptized in Skelton's church because of Winthrop's association with the Church of England.
Cotton was initially offended by this action and was concerned that the Puritans in Salem 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.
Cotton and Thomas Hooker were the first eminent ministers to come to New England, according to Cotton's biographer Larzer Ziff. Cotton was openly welcomed on his arrival in September 1633 as one of the two ministers of the church in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, having been personally invited to the colony by Governor Winthrop. Ziff writes, "It was only fitting, the majority felt, that the most eminent preacher in the colony should be located in the principal city." Also, many who had come from Boston, Lincolnshire had settled in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Boston meetinghouse of the 1630s was small and windowless, with clay walls and a thatched roof—far different from Cotton's former surroundings in the spacious and comfortable church of St. Botolph's. Once established in his new church, however, his evangelical fervor contributed to a religious revival, and there were more conversions during his first six months in the pastorate than there had been the previous year. He was recognized as the leading intellectual in the colony and is the first minister known to have preached a theme of millennialism in New England. He also became the spokesman for the new church polity known as Congregationalism.
Congregationalists felt very strongly that individual congregations were real churches, while the Church of England had strayed far from the teachings of the Bible. Puritan leader John Winthrop arrived in Salem with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, but minister Samuel Skelton informed him that they would not be welcomed at the celebration of the Lord's supper and their children would not be baptized in Skelton's church because of Winthrop's association with the Church of England. Cotton was initially offended by this action and was concerned that the Puritans in Salem 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.
John Cotton (minister)