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After attending the Collegiate School at Ely, he entered Cambridge University at the age of fifteen years, and was quickly elected a scholar. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1580; elected to a fellowship at Christmas, 1583; Master of Arts in 1584, and in the same year was incorporated as a member of the University of Oxford. He took holy orders in 1585, and was admitted, July 22, 1587, on the presentation of the Queen, to the prebendal stall at Ely, which his father had resigned in his favour. He quickly gained fame as a preacher, and was selected to read the lectures for three years in the cathedral church at Ely, and for one year at St. Paul's Church, London. He held the living of Childerly until 1594. He was graduated Bachelor of Divinity in 1591, and Doctor of Divinity in 1601, and in 1597 was admitted to the rectory of Gransden Parva, in Huntingdonshire, but shortly after exchanged to Barley, his father having died, and was instituted January 29, 1599. Twenty-three years of his life were spent here in the ministry. He was a very prolific writer, making it a rule to produce not less than one work each half year, and so learned and profound were these writings, that it was said of him that he was a "walking library," and that "he must write in his sleep, it being impossible he should do so much waking." The method and regularity with which he worked were, however, the secret of his success. He was chaplain-in-ordinary and tutor to Prince Henry, as well as a frequent preacher before the court. He was greatly admired by King James, yet able to adapt himself to his rural parishioners. It is owing to his influence with his friend, Thomas Sutton, that we owe that masterpiece of Protestant charity, Charterhouse. He fell into disfavour at court by his opposition to the Spanish marriage, and in consequence suffered imprisonment for a month.¹

He began his career as a public notary and officiated as such at the consecration of Archbishop Parker. Late in life he took holy orders, becoming rector of Barley, Hertfordshire, fourteen miles from Cambridge, which living had been presented to him by his patron, Bishop Richard Cox (Bishop of Ely 1559-81). He was also admitted to the fifth prebendal stall of Ely in 1560 by his patron, with whom he had been associated as subalmoner to Edward VI. He had two sons and four daughters.¹

"He was but sixteen years of age when his father died, and he continued to live with his widowed mother and maternal grandmother until he had attained his majority. Shortly afterward he went to Leyden and joined the second Puritan exodus to the New Plymouth plantations, and Governor Bradford mentions him as "being discreet and one in whom they could place trust." He was admitted a freeman in 1633 after he had become a successful trader with the Indians, and soon became a large ship owner trading with New Amsterdam. He was elected one of the assistant governors of the Plymouth Colony, and as a proof of his worth of character and commanding abilities, he was frequently chosen to settle disputes between the rival colonies of England and Holland. He also became captain of a military company.
Early in 1660 he left Plymouth and establishing himself in Rhode Island became the founder of Swansea. Accompanying the English commander, Nicholls, he greatly contributed to the peaceable surrender of New Amsterdam to the English, September 7, 1664, and when the colony received the name of New York, Captain Willet was appointed the first mayor, June, 1665, with the approval of English and Dutch alike. The following year he was elected alderman, and became mayor a second time in 1667. Not long afterward he withdrew to Swansea, where he spent the remainder of his life. In his religious views he was an independent. His descendants were numerous and included Colonel Marinus Willet, the friend of Washington, who himself became mayor of New York, and the "Dorothy Q." of the poem of Oliver Wendell Holmes, was the great-granddaughter of Captain Thomas Willet, and the great-grandmother of the poet."⁸