He was born in 1616 in Whiteparish, Wilts, England, United Kingdom, probably spent part of his childhood in Landford, and arrived in Boston with his father, his brother John, and three sisters, on June 3, 1635. They went first to Ipswich, but soon afterward moved to the newly settled town of Newbury, Massachussets, where Robert lived until 1639, when he joined the colony which founded Salisbury.
There is no information about his education.
Elected to the General Court in 1648, he criticized civil and religious liberty in colonial Massachusetts in 1653 because it made preaching by one not a regularly ordained minister a misdemeanor. The law was designed to prevent certain Baptists from exhorting in the absence of a minister. For his action, which was also to the advantage of the Quakers, he was arraigned before the General Court, tried, convicted, fined, and disfranchised.
As a result of his protest, however, the General Court at its next session repealed the law. Nevertheless, Pike's disfranchisement remained and fifteen of the numerous petitioners in his behalf were bound over for trial in the county courts. Whether they were actually tried or punished does not appear. Pike's civil disabilities were removed in 1657.
He was immediately elected by the people of Salisbury to represent them again in the General Court. In 1675 he was engaged in a controversy with his pastor, John Wheelwright, who sent him a document containing criticisms of his conduct and a warning that he might be excommunicated. Pike, as magistrate, summoned Wheelwright to appear before him to account for the document. Wheelwright then excommunicated Pike. Appeals to the General Court resulted in the admonition of both parties, the lifting of the excommunication, and the receiving back of Pike into the fellowship of the church.
In 1692, at the height of the witchcraft delusion, Pike raised his voice against the character of the legal evidence upon which the convictions were based. The argument is contained in a letter addressed to Magistrate Jonathan Corwin and signed by the initials, "R. P. " Though attributed by some to Robert Paine, the evidence indicates, according to Upham (post), that Robert Pike was the author. The argument was directed not to proving that witchcraft was a delusion, but to stressing the invalidity of spectre testimony.
In 1688-89, after the revolution in England and the deposition of Andros in Massachusetts, Pike was elected near the head of the poll at a popular election of magistrates. Later, when a list of appointees to fill the same offices was decided on by the Crown, Pike's name was on the list though the names of several of his conspicuous colleagues were omitted. From 1689 to 1696 he was a member of the Governor's Council. He headed the list of commoners of Salisbury after the minister, paid the largest tax in 1652.
After 1696 he retired to private life and was engaged in giving away to his heirs the property which he had accumulated during his lifetime.
Pike held public office during a period of fifty years, served as major in the Indian wars. He deserves a high place among the defenders of civil and religious liberty in colonial Massachusetts. He was one of a group who bought the island of Nantucket from Thomas Mayhew in 1659, was a member of the Governor's Council.
He was evidently valued as a man of force and character.
On April 3, 1641, he married Sarah Sanders, and they had eight children; she died November 1, 1679, and on October 30, 1684, he married in Salisbury Martha Moyce, widow of George Goldwyer. He had a son John.
