Around 1626, Hooker became a lecturer or preacher at what was then St. Mary's parish church, Chelmsford (now Chelmsford Cathedral) and curate to its rector, John Michaelson. However, in 1629 Archbishop William Laud suppressed church lecturers, and Hooker retired to Little Baddow where he kept a school. His leadership of Puritan sympathizers brought him a summons to the Court of High Commission. Forfeiting his bond, Hooker fled to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and considered a position in the English Reformed Church, Amsterdam, as assistant to its senior pastor, the Rev. John Paget. From the Netherlands, after a clandestine trip to England to put his affairs in order, he immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony aboard the "Griffin".