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CHAPTER VI.
Humphrey Norton's sufferings at New Haven — lie proceeds, accom- panied by John Rous, to Plymouth ; their sufferings at that place — William Brend, Mary Dyer, Mary Wetherhead, John Copeland, and John Rous, visit New Haven — William Leddra passes into Connec- ticut ; is banished thence, and returns to Rhode Island — Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh proceed to Massachusetts ; their perilous journey thither — They arrive at Boston ; are imprisoned and scourged — They go to Providence and Connecticut ; are banished from Connecticut — Robert Hodgson visits New England — Richard Doudney, JNIary Clark, and Mary Wetherhead are shipwrecked and drowned — Ten Friends in the ministry meet on Rhode Island — Thomas Harris goes to Boston, and William Brend and William Leddra to Salem — Their sufferings at those places — Humphrey Norton and John Rous visit Boston — They are imprisoned and scourged — The inhabitants of Boston subscribe money for the libera- tion of Friends from gaol.
Humphrey Norton, whom we have noticed as a prisoner at New Haven, in Connecticut, in the latter part of 1657, was brought before the court there, in the beginning of the First Month following. On his examination he was not charged with any breach of the civil law, but his persecutors considered that they had more serious things to allege against him on doctrinal grounds, and a priest undertook to prove to the court, that he was guilty of heresy. Humphrey attempting to reply to his allega- tions, a large iron key was placed to his mouth, and so tied, as to prevent his speaking. He was told that when the priest had con- cluded he might answer the charges, but before he had an oppor- tunity of doing so, the priest " had fled."* The trial occupied two days, and, after a long and frivolous examination, and many attempts on the part of the authorities, to entrap the prisoner in
• Norton's Ensign, p. 50. VOL. T. H
100 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
his words, he was re-committed. After ten days he was again brought before the court, when he received a sentence from which humanity recoils. He was first to be whipped, then burnt in the hand with the letter H, to signify that he was a condemned heretic ; to be fined ten pounds for the costs and charges of the trial, and finally to be banished from the colony of New Haven, '' upon the utmost penalty that the law could inflict."* The court determined that no time should be lost in subjecting this victim of their displeasure to the cruel decree ; and, in the afternoon of the same day, amidst a large concourse of people, gathered by beat of drum, the whipping and burning were carried into execution. The first act was to place him in the stocks " in view of all the people," and when he had been stripped to the waist, " with his back to the magistrates," the flogging commenced. Thirty-six " cruel stripes" were inflicted : and probably more would have been given, had not the inhuman exhibition disgusted the by- standers. '' Do they mean to kill the man ?"t was the language of dissatisfaction which broke from the crowd. Plumphrey, how- ever, who was remarkably freed from the feeling of pain observed that '' his body was as if it had been covered with balm. "J This part of the sentence being executed, the officers turned the face of the sufferer to the magistrates, and having fastened his right hand in the stocks, burnt the letter H upon it, " more deep,"" says John Rous, " then ever I saw an impression upon any living creature."§ The presence of Him, who supports his devoted children under every variety of trial, was, however, very near this faithful man, and on being loosed from the stocks, " the Lord opened his mouth in prayer, and he uttered his voice towards heaven, from whence came his help, to the astonishment of them all. "II He was enabled to rejoice and give thanks, for the peace, and love, and joy, with which his heart abounded. He was now told that he might have his liberty, on paying the fine and prison fees. To this he replied, that if the sum of two-pence only would
* Norton's Ensign, p. 60.
t The Secret Works of a cruel people, p. 6.
X Norton's Ensign, p. 51. § Ibid, p. 51.
II New England Judged, p. 155.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 101
obtain his discharge, he could not pay it, or consent for others to do so for him. The autliorities, being evidently ashamed of their cruel proceedings, then told him, that if he would only promise to pay the amount hereafter, he should be released ; but this also he declined. A Dutch settler, touched with compassion for the sufferer, now came forward, and, offering twenty nobles, obtained his discharge. " His spirit within him,'' the friendly settler re- marked, " made him do it/'"^ Humphrey Norton was then banished the colony of New Plaven, from whence he proceeded to Rhode Island. These sufferings of Humphrey Norton, afford the first instance of the persecution of Friends in Connecticut.
After remaining for several weeks in the province of Rhode Island, Humphrey Norton believed it to be required of him to attend the next general court for the colony of Plymouth ; and John Rous, who had recently returned from a visit to some parts of Connecticut, felt it his duty to accompany him. The immediate object of Humphrey Norton's visit to Plymouth, was to plead with the authorities of that colony, on account of their intolerant and cruel proceedings towards Friends ; and in order that the governor might know the object of his coming, he forwarded pre- viously, an epitome of the sufferings which his fellow-professors had endured in that settlement, with some remarks upon them. " These," he observes, " and what further may be presented to remembrance by the Lord, are the just grounds whereupon my intent and desire is, to appear before your court and country, and all who may be concerned therein, if God permit."-[-
On the 1st of the Fourth Month, 1658, the two Friends arrived at Plymouth, where they were immediately arrested and imprisoned, and two days after, they were brought before the court and questioned, as to their motives in coming. Humphrey re- ferred them to the paper he had forwarded. The governor, how- ever, unwilling to admit that he had received it, uttered several falsehoods and unfounded charges, which called forth a rebuke from Humphrey Norton. John Rous, feeling tliat, as a free-born Englishman, he had an undoubted right to visit any part of the
* Norton's Ensign, p. 51. t Ibid, p. 39.
H 2
102 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
British dominions, denied the authority of the law, by which they sought to exclude Friends from the territory. The examination, however, ended in their being re-committed to prison. The Ply- mouth records charge them with having acted turbulently on the occasion. Humphrey Norton''s reproof to the governor for his falsehoods, and the pleading of John Rous for his rights as a British subject, appear to have constituted the only ground for the charge.
Two days after the two Friends had been remanded, they were again brought before the court ; for the object, it would appear, of being charged with heresy, by an individual who was anxious for the support of Puritan orthodoxy. The prisoners, confident of being able to disprove the obnoxious charge, desired a public opportunity of doing so ; but the magistrates, fearing the result of a disputation, remanded them a second time ; their accuser with some others being requested to visit them in prison, to hear what they had to say in answer to the charge. The interview having ended, it was reported to the court, that there was '' very little difference betwixt what Winter affirmed, and the said Humphrey Norton owned ;'' from which it seems that their accuser failed to sustain his allegation. On being again brought into court, Humphrey Norton desired that he might be permitted to read the paper which he had written, in explanation of the object of his visit to the colony. The governor, however, who still pretended to be ignorant of its contents, not only refused the request, but again used abusive language, calling the prisoners '' inordinate fellows,'' " Papists,'' " Jesuits," and many other opprobrious epithets. Humphrey, indignant at these malicious expressions, replied, " Thy clamorous tongue I regard no more than the dust under my feet."*
The rulers at Plymouth, disappointed in not having sufficient evidence to convict the two Friends of heresy, and, determined that they should suffer for thus venturing within the limits of the colony, concluded to tender them the oath of allegiance, a snare in which they well knew that these conscientious men would be
* Colonial Records.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 103
entrapped. On their refusal of tlie oatli, the magistrates at once ordered them to be flogged ; Humphrey Norton being sentenced to receive twenty-three, and John Rous fifteen lashes. On their leaving the court, several of the inhabitants, desirous to express the sympathy which they felt for the strangers, shook hands with them as they passed ; but the envious rulers, disturbed at these tokens of Christian kindness, ordered three of them to be placed in the stocks for the act. The prisoners on arriving at the place of punishment, felt their minds influenced by the spirit of prayer, and in the midst of the assembled multitude, they supplicated the Most High. The flogging, although executed with great severity, was borne by the sufferers with marked patience and meekness. Being informed at its conclusion, that on the pay- ment of the fees they might have their liberty, they answered, that if anything was due, they might go to the keeper of that purse, which had been filled by robberies on the innocent. A Puritan minister, who had been banished from Virginia for non- conformity to Episcopacy, was heard to remark, in reference to this exciting occasion ; — " On my conscience, you are men of noble spirits ; I could neither find it in my heart to stay in the court to hear and see the proceedings, nor come to the stocks' to see your sufferings." " This persecution,'' remarks John Rous, " did prove much for the advantage of truth, and their [the magistrates] disadvantage ; for Friends did Avith much boldness own us openly in it, and it did work deeply with many." After a further im- prisonment of a few days, they were released, and returned to Rhode Island.
The sufferings of Humphrey Norton at New Haven, and his banishment from thence, did not deter other gospel labourers from visiting that settlement. William Brend, Mary Dyer, and Mary Wetherhead, went thither from Rhode Island, to bear a public testimony against the cruelty and bigotry of the rulers, and arrived in the Second Month, 1 658 ; but they were immediately arrested, and forcibly carried back to Rhode Island.
During the same month, John Rous and John Copeland, under a sense of religious duty, visited the colony of Connecticut. Tliey first proceeded to Hartford, where resided John Winthrop, the
104 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
governor, who was an enlightened man, and averse to persecution. At Hartford lived also a noted Puritan disputant^ with whom John Copeland and John Kous had a discussion in the presence of the governor, and several of the magistrates. The priest proposed several questions, with a view to confound the two Friends : " What is God ?" he asked. " A spirit,'' replied the Friends. The priest hoping by a syllogistic mode of reasoning to show the contrary, denied their assertion. " A spirit is an angel,'"* said he, " an angel is a creature ; God is not a creature, and therefore God is not a spirit.'* But the Friends, confident in the truth of their assertion, replied that his conclusion was contrary to Scripture, and that " it shewed he had learned more of logic than of God ; for had he known God, he dared not thus to have spoken.'"* The priest, supposing that he had to deal with two ignorant men, pro- ceeded to other subjects ; but in these also, notwithstanding his artful mode of reasoning, he signally failed ; " much,'^ says John Rous, " to the glory of truth, and his own shame." Much of the day having been thus spent in polemical discussion, the ma- gistrates informed the strangers that, by a law of the colony, their presence could not be allowed within its limits. Their visit to Connecticut was short, but it appears to have been instrumental for good ; ''the Lord," says John Rous, "gave us no small dominion, and after some stay there we returned to Rhode Island.'-' After remarking that the four colonies of Massachusetts, Ply- mouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, had united in the unholy purpose of banishing Friends, John Rous says of Connecticut, "amongst all the colonies, found we not the like moderation as in this ; most of the magistrates being more noble than those of the others. '^t
About the Third Month of this year, William Leddra, who had lately arrived at Rhode Island from Barbadoes, in company with Thomas Harris, also felt drawn to visit the colony of Con- necticut. After having had some religious service there, he was arrested and banished, and subsequently returned to Rhode Island.
Sarah Gibbons, and Dorothy Waugh, who had been engaged in
* Norton's Ensign, p. 52. t Ibid, p. 53.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 105
Rhode Island, left that colony in the Second Month of 1 658, and proceeded on a gospel mission to Salem. The journey, Avhich was performed on foot, occupied them several days. Their way was through a wilderness country of more than sixty miles, and being performed in the winter season, they were exposed to " great storms and tempests of frost and snow,"' while their only shelter at night was such as the forests afforded. " They lodged,'' says Humphrey Norton, "in the wilderness day and night — through whicli they cheerfully passed to accomplish the will and work of God, who, for their reward, brought them, beyond their expectation, to their appointed place, where their message was gladly received."* Having been jccupied in gospel labours at and about Salem for two weeks, they believed it required of them again to go to the persecuting town of Boston. Arrived here, they felt it their duty to attend the weekly lecture given at the place of public worship, and, after waiting quietly until the lecturer had finished, Sarah Gibbons began to address the com- pany. She had not, however, uttered many sentences, before she was taken into custody by the sergeant. Dorothy Waugh then rose, and having repeated the Scripture passage, " Fear God and give glory to his name,"t she also was stopped, and with her com- panion was hurried to prison, in the midst of a concourse of excited people. After being closely confined for three days, these faithful women were brought before the intolerant Endicott and Bellingham, who sentenced them to be whipped ; an order which was cruelly executed, " with a threefold cord, having knots at the ends for tearing the flesh." The whipping being over, " the people were astonished" to hear these innocent sufferers vocally offering praise and thanksgiving to their Heavenly Father, for the help of His sustaining presence in the time of their extremity. From this scene they were conveyed back to the prison -liouse, the gaoler refusing to let them go without the payment of his fees. Here they were detained for four days, when a kind-hearted inhabitant of Rhode Island obtained their release.
On leaving Boston, they proceeded southward to Providence
* Norton's Ensign, p. 69. t Ibid p. 70.
106 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
and Rhode Island, where they remained for some weeks. They then felt drawn to i^ay a visit to Connecticut ; and, leaving the company of many of their dear and sympathizing friends, they travelled to Hartford. Of the nature of their religious services at this town we are uninformed. In consequence of the laws of the colony, however, they were soon placed under confinement,"^ and in a short time banished from its soil. Excepting that some extra apparel, which they took with them, was sold by the gaoler to pay his fees, no act of persecution befel them at Hartford.
Robert Hodgson, who, on reaching the shores of America, proceeded to visit New Netherlands and Long Island, arrived early in 1658, within the limits of Rhode Island, from whence he passed eastward as far as Marshfield, in the colony of Plymouth.
Excepting Mary Dyer, of Rhode Island, and John Rous, William Leddra, and Thomas Harris, from Barbadoes, up to the Third Month, 1658, the eleven who had crossed the Atlantic in the '' Woodhouse,^^ were the only Friends labouring in the work of the gospel in New England ; making in the whole fifteen, who were publicly pleading the cause of their Lord in this inte- resting part of the world. But it pleased the All-wise Disposer of events, whose purposes, however mysterious, we dare not question, to reduce the number of this devoted band. We have previously stated that Richard Doudney and Mary Clark were fellow-prisoners at Boston, and that they were liberated in the Ninth Month, 1657, after which, it appears, they were mostly engaged within the colony of Rhode Island. Mary Wetherhead had landed at New Amsterdam, but her presence not being allowed, either in the Dutch colony, or at New Haven, she also went to Rhode Island in the Second Month, 1658. Soon after- wards, these three Friends suffered shipwreck and were drowned.
About the middle of the Fourth Month following, ten of the remaining number met on Rhode Island, but they were not permitted long to enjoy this favoured retreat. On the 15th, William Brend, Thomas Harris, and William Leddra, proceeded
* Secret Works, p. 6.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 107
northward for Massachusetts : in a day or two after, Christopher Holder and John Copeland passed eastward to Plymouth ; and two weeks later, Humphrey Norton and John Rous felt it to be their religious duty to go to Boston ; the three women Friends, Sarah Gibbons, Dorothy Waugh, and Mary Dyer, still remaining on Rhode Island. We next proceed to some particulars of the services of the respective parties.
William Brend and William Lcddra passed onwards to Salem ; but Thomas Harris arrived at Boston on the 17th, the usual " lecture-day'' of the week, and, under a feeling of religious duty, he attended the meeting. Having waited until tlie priest had finished his lecture, Thomas Harris began to address the company, but he was quickly interrupted and stopped. He again attempted to speak, declaring that, " the Lord God was risen, and the coverings of the persecutors were found too narrow, for their nakedness appeared to all them that feared God.''* He was then seized and forthwith taken to prison, but in a short time was brouo;ht before the maoistrates for examination, or more properly, to receive a cruel sentence. The formal and haughty Endicott, observing the prisoner enter the court with his hat on, thus sternly addressed him : — " Do you know before whom you are come ? Thomas Hariris. Yea. Endicott. Why then do you not put off your hat ? Thomas Harris. I do not keep it on in contempt of authority, but in obedience to the Lord."t His hat being pulled off, and Bellingham having observed that his hair was longer than their rules admitted, ordered the marshal to bring a pair of shears and cut it off. After being questioned by Endicott from whence he came, and what was his object in coming, he was sent back to prison ; instructions being given that no one should be allowed to visit him. The gaoler, a cruel and heartless man, refusing to allow or sell his prisoner food, told him on the second day, that for every shilling which he earned at work, he might have the value of four-pence in diet. Thomas Harris, however, believed it right to bear a decided testimony against such unreasonable conduct, and declined working. The refusal
* Norton's Ensign, p. 73. t Ibid, p 74.
108 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
was almost immediately followed by a whipping, after which the gaoler told him that, as he had suffered the penalty of the law for venturing within their limits, he might have his liberty provided he paid the marshal to convey him away. " If the doors be set open, I know no other but I shall pass,'' said Thomas, " but to hire a guard, that J cannot.''* His imprisonment was conse- quently continued. The gaoler, who still refused to sell him food, brought some before him, with the taunting assurance that he should not taste it unless he promised to work. He again declined, and for five da>js, in the dismal prison of Boston, he was kept without nourishment of any kind. On the fifth night, a sym- pathizing friend, undiscovered in consequence of the darkness which prevailed, managed to convey him some food through the prison window. " In all probability, starved he had been," says Bishop, *' had not the Lord kept him those five days, and ordered it so after that time, that fopd was conveyed to him by night at a window, by some tender people, who, though they came not into the pro- fession of truth openly, by reason of the cruelty [of the rulers,] yet felt it secretly moving in them, and so were made serviceable to keep the servants of the Lord from perishing ; who shall not go without a reward. "f On the sixth day of his imprisonment, Thomas Harris still refusing to work at the bidding of the mer- ciless gaoler, was again subjected to the lash. Twenty-two strokes were given him on this occasion ; and, with the view of additional torture, a pitched rope was used instead of the whip. Leaving him in the gaol, lacerated and torn by this cruel infliction, we now turn to the proceedings of his late companions.
Beaching Salem, William Brend and William Leddra were warmly welcomed by the few faithful Friends of that place, with whom they were favoured to hold several meetings to their mutual refreshment and comfort. On First-day, the 20th of Fourth Month, they attended one held at the house of Nicholas Phelps, in the woods, about five miles from Salem. A magistrate of the town hearing of the intended meeting, came with a constable, for the purpose of breaking it up, and securing the two strangers ;
* Norton's Ensign, p. 75. t New England Judged, p. 49.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 109
but failing in his purpose, he left the company, witli a threat that he would prosecute the Friends who were present. From Salem the two gospel messengers travelled to Newburyport, where also they had some religious service. Their passing thus from place to place, in the very heart of the Puritan population of New England, and by their powerful ministry making converts to the doctrines they professed, aroused the fears of the local magis- tracy to this new state of things. After leaving Newburyport, they were soon overtaken by a zealous ruler of the place, who arrested them and carried them to Salem. Tiie court, which was then sitting in the town, had the Friends brought up for exami- nation. Here they were interrogated respecting the doctrines they were promulgating, but their answers were so clear and convincing, and they appealed so effectually to the consciences of the magistrates, that the latter confessed they discovered nothing heretical or dangerous in their opinions. The court, however, told the prisoners that they had a law against Quakers, and that that law must be obeyed. An order for their committal immedi- ately followed, and in a few days they were removed to Boston prison. Six Friends of Salem were also committed for having attended the meeting at the house of Nicholas Phelps.
On their arrival at Boston, William Brend and William Leddra, who were deemed special offenders, were separated from their companions. They were placed in a miserable cell, the window of which was so stopped, as not only to deprive them of light, but also of ventilation, whilst all intercourse between them and the citizens was strictly forbidden. The gaoler, following the cruel course which he had pursued towards Thomas Harris, refused to allow them an opportunity of purchasing food, offering them occasionally a little pottage and bread, if they would work for it. The sufferers, however, declining to sanction such prison discipline, were kept for five days without food of any description. On the 5th of the Fifth Month, they were subjected to a whipping, after which they were told that they might obtain their liberation on payment of the prison fees, and the expenses of the marshal to convey them from the colony. The offer, as might be antici- pated was rejected. William Brcnd, still refusing to work.
110 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
underwent on the following day a new description of punishment. The inhuman gaoler, having fastened an iron fetter round his neck, and one on each leg, wdth great exertion drew them together, and left the aged man locked in that painful position for the space of sixteen hours. On the following morning, the gaoler, on releasing his victim from the iron fetters, ordered him to work, a requisition with which he still refused to comply. The baffled official, bent upon reducing his prisoner to submission, now changed his mode of treatment ; and, taking a pitched rope, an inch in thickness, comm.enced beating him " over his back and arms with all his strength/'^ Bruised and torn by this cruel infliction, the innocent old man was taken to his dark and dismal cell. On the same day the gaoler unavailingly repeated his command to him to work. " He haled me down,'' observes William Brend, '' into the lower room again, and bid me work, which I could not do for all the world.'' The disappointed gaoler, overcome with passion, renewed his work of cruelty with increased violence, and, " foam- ing at the mouth,"-|- continued beating William Brend until ex- haustion alone stopped his barbarity, but not until he had inflicted on the object of his rage, ninety-seven blows with his pitched rope. On leaving the prisoner, he uttered a threat that on his return in the morning, he would inflict as many more.
The lacerated condition to which William Brend was reduced by the successive floggings, together with the weakness produced by the closeness of his cell, and by the privation of food for five days, seemed likely to be the means of soon liberating him for ever from the hands of his persecutors. He now sank rapidly, and " his body turning cold,"J he appeared to be dying. His critical situation having become known, the magistrates and the gaoler were much alarmed. Endicott, fearing the consequences which might arise in the event of the death of the suiferer, sent his physician to attend him, and various means were resorted to for the resuscitation of the dying man. The physician, after examining his mangled body, to the dismay of his persecutors, pronounced his recovery impracticable ; intimating that the flesh
* Besse, vol. ii. p. 186. t Ibid, vol. ii. p, 186.
X Ibid, vol. ii. p. 186.
1658] NEW ENGLAND. Ill
was so torn and bruised, that it would rot from liis bones. The idea of a murder committed under such aggravated circumstances, by a public officer of the colony, roused the feelings of the citizens of Boston. The magistrates, " to prevent a tumult,"* and fear- ful of being involved in serious responsibility, used efforts to fix the odium of the transaction on the gaoler ; whilst Endicott, to appease the public mind, issued a hand-bill, declaring that this official should be summoned to the next court to answer for his conduct. But the circumstance, although one of such atrocious barbarity, had its defenders, among whom John Norton, the popular minister of Boston, made himself conspicuous. If the gaoler was called in question for the act, this persecuting eccle- siastic declared that he would appear on his behalf. William Brend, he said, had '' endeavoured to beat the gospel ordinances black and blue, and it was but just to beat him black and blue,"t and '' if they dealt with him; he would leave them.^J The uneasy forebodings of the rulers of Massachusetts, in the prospect of the death of their prisoner, were, however, soon dissipated ; for William Brend, contrary to all expectation, rapidly recovered.
Humphrey Norton, soon after the departure of William Brend and his companions for Massachusetts, was brought under a deep religious exercise to follow them in the same direction as far as Boston. " The sense of the strength of the enmity against the righteous seed" greatly distressed him, and took from him both rest and sleep. In this tried condition of mind, he informed John Rous of his prospect, who believed the same to be required of him ; he being sensible,"' remarks Humphrey Norton, " of the necessity of our repairing thither, to bear our parts with the prisoners of hope, which at that time stood bound for the testi- mony of Jesus."§ Anxious to reach Boston as early as possible, they travelled day and night, and arrived there the day after that on which William Brend had been so barbarously treated. One of the inhabitants of the town, being affected at tlie wicked course which the rulers were pursuing, and observing the arrival of the two Friends, informed them of the cruelties that had been exer-
* Besse, vol. ii. p. 186. t Norton's Ensign, p. 78.
X Secret Works, p. 8. § Norton's Ensign, p. 8.
112 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
cised towards William Brend, and begged them, '' if they loved their lives/' not to remain in that place of persecution ; they were dead men/' he added, '' if they did not depart.'' It was evident that the honest *' freeman" in his kind endeavours to save the strangers from suffering, did not understand the nature of their mission. " Such was our load," says Humphrey Norton, *' that beside Him who laid it upon us, no flesh nor place could ease us."^ The day on which the two devoted men entered Boston, was that of John Norton's usual lecture, and both of them believed it right to be present on the occasion. The public mind of the city being at this juncture much excited by the arrival of several Quaker ministers, the lecturer was not willing to lose so favourable an opportunity, of endeavouring to impress his audience with the danger of their principles. John Rous, in describing the discourse of this intolerant minister, says, '*' he began his sermon, wherein, amongst many lifeless expressions, he spoke much of the danger of those called Quakers, and did much labour to stain their innocency with many feigned word^ — sure I am, little but gall and vinegar fell from him while I was there, with which many of his hearers are abundantly filled." The lecture being over, Humphrey Norton, who had listened quietly to the slanderous language of the minister, feeling himself called to bear a public testimony against it, stood up and began thus to address the assembly. " Verily, this is the sacrifice which the Lord God accepts not, for whilst with the same spirit that you sin, you preach and pray, and sing ; that sacrifice is an abomination, "f It was evident to the minister and his company, that Humphrey Norton was about to plead against the wicked conduct of the Bostonians, in their misrepresentations and persecution of Friends. From their first arrival at that place, the rulers had studiously en- deavoured to suppress all such remonstrances ; and on this occa- sion Humphrey was soon haled down, and, with his companion John Bous, taken off to the magistrates. Before these authorities, a charge of blasphemy was preferred against Humphrey Norton, for the words he had uttered in the assembly. A long examination
* Norton's Ensign, p. 79. t Ibid, p. 79.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. ^113
took place, and the charge of blasphemy being disproved was with- drawn ; they were however Quakers, and as such, were sentenced to be in prison and whipped. During the examination, John Rous was treated by the authorities with more respect and atten- tion, than it had been customary for them to show to Friends. This arose from the circumstance of Lieutenant Colonel Rous, the father of John Rous, having resided in the colony, and being well known and respected. Vainly imagining that, by their acquaint- ance with his father, they might be able to prevail on John Rous to relinquish his fellowship with the despised and "heretical Quakers,'' the magistrates began to flatter and praise him. He was, however, too firmly established in the truth, to be shaken by their hypocritical flattery ; and not only boldly upheld his doctrines before them, but, as an English citizen, demanded his privilege of having his case tried in the courts of the mother country. An exposure of the judicial proceedings of Massa- chusetts in reference to Friends was, however, what Endicott and Bellingham shrank from : they well knew that such a course would inevitably bring disgrace upon the colony, and might be attended with serious results in respect to their charter. It is then no matter of surprise that the appeal of John Rous should have been vigorously resisted. " No appeal to England ! No appeal to England l"^ was the language of these intolerant rulers on the occasion. Before his removal from the court, John Rous referred to the inhuman practice of preventing his imprisoned Friends from obtaining food, and demanded that he and his com- panion might be supplied with proper nourishment for their money. The exposure had its good effect, and neither of them was subjected to this species of New England cruelty.
After an imprisonment of three days, Humphrey Norton and John Rous, underwent the whipping to which they had been sentenced. Liberty was then off"ered to them, on payment of the prison fees, and of the cost of conveyance beyond the limits of the colony ; but declining to recognise these impositions they were ao-ain taken to gaol. The law which had been enacted for
* Besse's Sufferings, vol. ii. p. 188.
114 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
the punishment of '' Quakers and such accursed heretics/' not being, in the estimation of the magistracy of Boston, sufficiently severe for those now in prison, an order was issued to the gaoler that, if the Quakers refused to work, they were to be whipped regularly twice a week ; the first whipping to be with ten strokes, the second with fifteen, and every subsequent whipping with an addition of three "until further orders/' The victims upon whom the efficacy of this fresh order was to be tried, were Humphrey Norton, John Rous, William Leddra, and Thomas Harris, and on First-day, the 18th of Fifth Month, each of them received ten strokes. The gaoler, eager in his work of cruelty, in a few days had the whip again applied with the stated number of fifteen lashes to each. On this second application of the lash, the blood flowed profusely from the unhealed wounds of the prisoners. The inha- bitants of Boston, already much excited by the barbarities which had been committed on William Brend, and increasingly dis- gusted by these renewed cruelties, opened a public subscription, for the purpose of discharging the prison fees of the sufferers, and for defraying the cost of conveying them out of the colony. The necessary amount was quickly raised, and, soon after, William Brend, and his four companions, were conveyed to the safe and quiet retreat of the settlement at Providence.
CHAPTER VII.
Christoplier Holder and John Copeland's travels and sufferings in Massachusetts — John Rous visits Boston a second time and is again imprisoned — His letter to Margaret Fell — The barbarous usage of Christopher Holder, John Copeland, and John Rous — Josiah Cole and Thomas Thurston proceed on a religious visit to America — Their gospel labours among the Indians — Josiah Cole's mission among those of Martha's Vineyard and Massachusetts — He is joined by John Copeland — They are imprisoned at Sandwich — Josiah Cole's further labours among the Indians of Xew England — Extract from his letter to George Bishop, containing a narrative of these engagements — Peter Cowsnooke, Edward Eades, and Philip Rose, embark for New England — Brief notices of the lives of Mary Clark, Richard Doudney, Mary Wetherhead, Sarah Gibbons, Dorothy Waugh, William Brend, Humphrey Norton, Christopher Holder, John Copeland, John Rous, Thomas Harris, and Robert Fowler.
Christopher Holder and John Copeland, as we have already noticed, left Rhode Island about the middle of the Fourth Month, 1658, for the colony of Plymouth. On the 23rd, they attended a meeting of the little company of Friends at Sandwich. The marshal, on hearing of their arrival, immediately went to the meeting and arrested them. The orders which this functionary- had received from the authorities, were, to banish all such without delay ; and, should any so banished return, that then " the select men appointed for that purpose, were to see them whipped.''* Conformably to his instructions, he ordered the two Friends to leave the township : to which Christopher Holder and his com- panion replied, that, should they feel it to be the will of their di\dne Master, they would do so ; but on no other ground could
* Norton's Ensign, p. 39. VOL. I. I
116 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
they promise to leave Sandwich. With a view to the infliction of the punishment referred to, the " select men'' were informed of the continued presence of the Friends ; but this body, entertaining no desire to sanction measures so severe tow^ards those who dififered from them in religion, declined to act in the case. The marshal, disappointed at the refusal, determined to take them before a neighbouring magistrate at Barnstaple, about two miles distant, who, he anticipated, would lend a ready hand to assist in punish- ing Quakers, — an expectation which was fully realized. This functionary, after a frivolous examination of the prisoners, ordered them to be tied to the post of an out-house ; and then, turning executioner, he gave each of them thirty-three lashes. The Friends of Sandwich, aware of the hatred which the Barnstaple magistrate had to Quakerism, and well assured that no mercy was to be expected from him, with a view to cheer their brethren in bonds, accompanied them thither on the occasion, and were "eye and ear witnesses of the cruelty*" inflicted on them. These were new proceedings at Barnstaple, and caused no little sensa- tion among the quiet settlers of the district. They felt that however erroneous Quakerism might be, such conduct on the part of their rulers did not consist with the religion of Jesus. " Who would have thought,'" said one of them, " that I should have come to 'New England to witness such scenes ?" On the following day, the two Friends were taken back to Sandwich, from whence they were carried towards Rhode Island, and liberated.
After labouring for some weeks in the work of the ministry, in the vicinity of Providence and Newport, Christopher Holder and John Copeland, felt a religious call to proceed to Boston. At this place they had already experienced both imprisonment and the lash of the knotted scourge ; and they were not ignorant that, on the return of those who had been banished from Massa- chusetts, as they had been, the loss of one of their ears would probably be the penalty inflicted. But these faithful men, feeling assured that their call was from on high, humbly obeyed the requisition, believing that He who had hitherto been their help and their shield, would not forsake them in any extremity to which they might be exposed for the truth's sake. Leaving
1G58.] NEW ENGLAND. 117
Providence on the 3rd of Sixth Month, 1658, tliey arrived on the same evening, at the town of Dedham. Their presence within the limits of Massachusetts was soon made known to the magis- tracy ; and early on the following morning, the travellers were arrested, to be conveyed as prisoners to Boston. On reaching this city, they were taken without delay to the residence of Endicott. " You shall have your ears cut off,"* were the first words, which, angry and agitated, the cruel governor uttered on seeing them. That men, who had been imprisoned, and whipped, and banished for their religious opinions, should still persist in the advocacy of them with the certainty of incurring increased severities, was what the darkened mind of Endicott could not comprehend ; " What, you remain in the same opinion you were before V he said. " We remain in the fear of the Lord ;" the prisoners meekly replied ; adding, " the Lord God hath com- manded us, and we could not but come." " The Lord command you to come ! it was Satan,'' vociferated the governor. The ex- amination ended in the issue of the following order : —
" To THE Keeper op the House op Correction.
" You are, by virtue hereof, required to take into your custody the bodies of Christopher Holder and John Copeland, and them safely to keep close to work, with prisoners' diet only, till their ears be cut off ; and not to suffer them to converse with any while they are in your custody.
" Edward Rawson, Secretary."-\
In pursuance of this order, the two Friends were kept closely confined ; and the unmerciful gaoler, pursuing his usual course towards such prisoners, prevented them for several days from having food, because they declined to work at his bidding.
John Rous, although he had been recently banished from Massachusetts, felt it required of him again to -vdsit Boston. He reached it on the 25th of Sixth Month, and was arrested and taken before Endicott on the same day. After ordering him to
* New England Judged, p. 71. + Besse Sufferings, vol. ii. p. 189.
i2
118 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
be searched for letters and papers, the governor sent him to join Christopher Holder and John Copeland, in the city gaol. About a week after he had been thus imprisoned, he wrote a letter to Margaret Fell, containing many interesting particulars of the proceedings of the Society in New England, of which the follow- ing, taken from the original, is a copy : —
John Rous to Margaret Fell.
*' Dearly Beloved Sister, M. F.
'' About the last of the Sixth Month, 1657, I came from Barbadoes with another Friend, an inhabitant of the island ; and, according to the appointment of the Father, landed on Rhode Island in the beginning of the Eighth Month, on an out part of the island ; and being come thither, I heard of the arrival of Friends from England ; which was no small refreshment to me. After I had been there a little while, I passed out of the island into Plymouth Patent, to Sandwich, and several other towns thereabouts ; where, in the winter time, more service was done than was expected. Some time after, I was in Connecticut with John Copeland, where the Lord gave us no small dominion, for there we met with one of the greatest disputers of New England, who is priest of Hartford, who was much confounded, to the glory of truth, and to his shame. After some stay there, we returned to Rhode Island, where Humphrey Norton was, and after some time, he and I went into Plymouth Patent, and they having a Court while we were there, we went to the place where it was ; having sent before to the Governor, the grounds of our coming ; but we were straightway put in prison, and after twice being before them, where we were much railed at, they judged us to be whipped. Humphrey Norton received twenty-three stripes, and I fifteen with rods, which did prove much for the advantage of truth, and their disadvantage ; for Friends did with much boldness own us openly in it, and it did work deeply with many. After we were let forth thence, we returned to Rhode Island, and after some stay there, we went to Providence, and from thence to Boston, to bear witness in a few words, in their meeting-house
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 119
against their worship, till they haled us forth and had us to their house of correction, and that evening we were examined and committed to prison. On the seventh day in the evening, they whipped us with ten stripes each, with a three-fold whip, to con- clude a wicked week's work, which was this ; on the Second-day, they whipped six Friends ; on the Third-day, the gaoler laid William Brend, (a Friend that came from London), neck and heels, as they call it, in irons for sixteen hours ; on the Fourth- day, the gaoler gave William Brend one hundred and seventeen strokes with a pitched rope ; on the Fifth-day, they imprisoned us ; and on the Seventh day we suffered. The beating of William Brend did work much in the town, and for a time, much liberty was granted ; for several people came to us in the prison ; but the enemies, seeing the forwardness and love in the people towards us, plotted, and a warrant was given forth that, if we would not work, we should be whipped once in every three days, and the first time have fifteen stripes, the second eighteen, and the third time twenty-one. So on the Second-day after our first whipping, four of us received fifteen stripes each ; the which did so work with the people, that on the Fourth-day after, we were released. We returned to Rhode Island, and continued there awhile, and after some time, Humphrey Norton went into Ply- mouth Patent to Friends there, and I was moved to come to Boston ; so that, that day five weeks [after] I was released, at night I was put in again. There were Christopher Holder and John Copeland, two of the Friends which came from England ; and we do lie here, according to their law, to have each of us, an ear cut off ; but we are kept in the dominion of God, and our enemies are under our feet. It is reported that we shall be tried at a Court that is to be held next week, and if the ship do not go away from hence before then, thou shalt hear further how it is ordered for us, (if God permit). There was a great lamenting for me by many when I came again, but they were not minded by me ; I was much tempted to say, I came to the town to take shipping to go to Barbadoes, but I could not deny Him who moved me to come hither, nor his service, to avoid sufferings. This relation, in short, I have given thee, that thou might know how
120 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
it hath fared with me since I came into this land. About five weeks since, six Friends,"^ having done their service here, took shipping for Barbadoes ; two whereof were to go to Virginia and Maryland, two for London, and the other two were inhabitants of Barbadoes ; so that there are only four of us in the land.
" Dear Sister, truth is spread here above two hundred miles, and many are in fine conditions, and very sensible of the power of God, and walk honestly in their measures. Some of the inhabi- tants of the land who are Friends have been forth in the service, and they do more grieve the enemy than we ; for they have hoped to be rid of us, but they have no hope to be rid of them. We keep the burden of the service ofi".from them at present, for no sooner is there need in a place, but straightway some or other of us step to it ; but when it is the will of the Father to clear us of this land, then will the burden fall on them. The seed in Boston and Plymouth Patent is ripe, and the weight very much lies on this town, the which being brought into subjection unto the truth, the others will not stand out long. The seed in Connecticut and Newhaven Patents, is not as yet ripe, but there is a hopeful appearance, the gathering of which in its time, will much re- dound to the glory of God. We have two strong places in this land, the one at Newport in Rhode Island, and the other at Sandwich, which the enemy will never get dominion over ; and at Salem there are several pretty Friends in their measures ; but being very young, and the enemy exercising his cruelty much against them, they have been something scattered, but there are some of them grown pretty bold through their sufferings. Humphrey Norton, we hear, hath been with them this week, and had a fine large meeting among them, and they received much strength by it. One of the inhabitants of Salem was whipped three times in five days, once to fulfil their law, and twice for refusing to work ; after eleven days' imprisonment he was let forth, and hath gotten much strength by his sufferings. Great
* These doubtless were William Leddra, and Thomas Harris, of Bar- badoes, and William Brend, Richard Hodgson, Dorothy Waugh, and Sarah Gibbons. The four left in New England being Humphrey Norton, John Copeland, Christopher Holder, and John Rous.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 121
have been the sufterings of Friends in this land, but generally they suffer with much boldness and courage, both the spoiling of their goods, and the abusing of their bodies. There are Friends, few or more, almost from one end of the land to the other, that is inhabited by the English. A firm foundation there is laid in this land, such an one as the devil will never get broken up. If thou art free to write to me, thou may direct thy letter to be sent to Barbadoes for me ; so in that which is eternal, do I remain,
" Thy brother, in my measure, who suffers for the Seed's
sake, earnestly thirsting for the prosperity and peace of
Zion, the City of the living God,
"om a Lion's Den called Boston ^ ^y y^
Prison, this 3rd day of the Cy-^rriJjs^^^ '
"My dear fellow -prisoners, John Copeland and Christopher Holder, do dearly salute thee. Salute me dearly in the Lord to thy children, and the rest of thy family who are in the truth/'
According to the statement of John Rous in the foregoing letter, Christopher Holder, John Copeland, and himself were examined, on the 7th of the Seventh Month, by the " Court of Assistants'' assembled in Boston. After a tedious questioning relative to their object in visiting those parts, they were re- manded, and on the ] 0th were again brought before the court, but for th3 purpose only of receiving the cruel sentence, that each should have his right ear cut off.* The prisoners, feeling the injustice of the proceedings, and not doubting such cruelties would be condemned by the tribunals of the mother country, informed the court that they desired to appeal to Cromwell against its decision. So little regard, however, had the civil
* This degrading punishment for ecclesiastical offences had been prac- tised in England towards Puritans. By order of the Star Chamber, William Prynne in 1634, and Henry Burton and Dr. Bastwick in 1637, had their ears cut off in public on a scaffold in Palace Yard, West- minster.
122 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
powers of Massachusetts for the laws of the empire, in pursuing their intolerant course towards Friends, that the only reply elicited by the appeal was a threat that, unless they were quiet, the gag would make them so. In about one week after this wicked sentence had been pronounced, it was privately carried into execution by the hangman, within the walls of Boston gaol. " In the strength of God,'' say the prisoners, " we suffered joy- fully, having freely given up not only one member, but all, if the Lord so required, for the sealing of our testimony which the Lord hath given us.'' On the 7th of the Eighth Month, John Rous, Christopher Holder, and John Copeland, were released from prison ; the first having been confined for six, and the other two for nine weeks.
Excepting the visit of John Rous, William Leddra, and Thomas Harris, no fresh arrival of Friends in the ministry appears to have taken place in New England for more than a year after the landing of those from Robert Fowler's vessel. About the Eighth Month, 1658, however, Josiah Cole and Thomas Thurston, who had been engaged in religious labours among the Indians in Virojinia and New Netherlands, reached Rhode Island, havins; travelled through the interior of the country. This inland journey extended through some hundreds of miles of forest country. The Indians who inhabited these uncultivated wilds had been greatly exasperated by the European settlers, with whom they were fre- quently involved in most murderous conflicts, and in sudden onsets from the forest whole villages of the Dutch had been laid waste. The circumstance, therefore, of two or three unarmed and defenceless Englishmen venturing among these irritated and re- vengeful natives, excited considerable surprise. But they were the bearers of peace and goodwill to these benighted sons of the forest. Their mission also was from on high, and they went forth divested of fear. Trusting in the unfailing arm of the Shepherd of Israel, they passed through the wigwam towns of the interior in perfect safety.
1658.]
NEW ENGLAND.
123
The annexed sketch, taken from a Dutch map of that period, represents one of the towns of an Indian tribe visited by Josiah Cole and his companions on this occasion.
Jta/yuezt Vam. U^cxnyo^ie^e^ o/ie Dorpe^ de/r .JiaAcccuru)
n.atu>a6, Uvew- ixeLa(vuou.t5.
An original manuscript account of this extraordinary journey is yet preserved, from which we give the following extract : —
Josiah Cole to George Bishop.
'' We went from Virginia [on the] 2nd of Sixth Month, 1658, and after about one hundred miles travel by land and water, we came amongst the Susquehanna Indians, who courteously received us and entertained us in their huts with much respect. After being there two or three days with [word indistinct,] several of them accompanied us about two hundred miles further, through the wilderness or woods ; for there was no inhabitant so far,
124 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
neither knew we any part of the way through which the Lord had required us to travel. For outward sustenance we knew not how to supply ourselves, but without questioning or doubting, we gave up freely to the Lord, knowing assuredly that his presence was (and should be continued) with us ; and according to our faith, so it was, for his presence and love we found with us daily, carry- ing us on in his strength, and also opening the hearts of those poor Indians, so that in all times of need they were made helpful both to carry us through rivers, and also to supply us with food sufficient. After this travel, we came to a place where more of them inhabited, and they also very kindly entertained us in their houses, where we remained about sixteen days, my fellow-tra- veller [Thomas Thurston] being weak of body through sickness and lameness ; in which time these Indians shewed very much respect to us, for they gave us freely of the best they could get. Being something recovered after this stay, we passed on towards the Dutch plantation, to which one of them accompanied us, which was about one hundred miles further —
" I am thy friend in the truth,
After reaching Rhode Island, Josiah Cole very soon felt drawn to visit the Indians on the island of Martha's Vineyard. " I had a meeting amongst them,'' he observes, " and they were very loving, and told me they much desired to know God." From thence he crossed over to the colony of Plymouth, and laboured in the love of the gospel among the aboriginal tribes of that dis- trict. " Some of these," he writes, " had true breathings after the knowledge of God." Here he was joined by John Copeland, and they proceeded from tribe to tribe, among the natives of Massachusetts, " sounding the day of the Lord," being received with courtesy and kindness ; but on reaching the town of Sand- wich, and the dwellings of the civilized, an opposite treatment awaited them. The arrival of two English Quaker ministers becoming known to the authorities, they were soon subjected to
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 125
the laws of the colony against such, and whilst at a Friend's house in Sandwich they '^ were haled out hy violence/'"^ and committed to prison. On his liberation, Josiah Cole returned to the untutored Alo-on quins, preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, and inviting them to Him as the Leader, the Comforter, and all-sufficient Saviour of his people. Though these untutored sons of the forest knew that the youthful preacher f had but just come from within the prison walls of his persecutors, they never-, theless listened attentively to his ministrations. The hatred which the rulers of Massachusetts entertained towards Friends, was a circumstance of which the Indians were not ignorant, but acting according to their own sense of right and wrong, they were not disposed to follow the malevolent example. '' The English- men did not love Quakers,'' remarked the Indian king to Josiah Cole on this occasion, "but,'' he added, '' the Quakers are honest men and do no harm, and this is no Englishman's sea or land, and Quakers shall come here and welcome." The love and favour that Josiah Cole found amongst these Indians deeply impressed his mind. " I do confess," he wrote, " this to be the Lord's hand of love towards me ; through the goodness of the Lord we found these Indians more sober and Christian-like towards us than the Christians so called-^J This indefatigable labourer in the service of truth, having now been absent for a considerable time from his native country, felt at liberty to return home. Thomas Thurston made but a short stay in Rhode Island, and then passed southward a2:ain to Viro-inia.
About this time, Peter Cowsnooke, a Friend of the north of England, was directino- his course towards North America, in company with Edward Fades and Philip Rose of Warwick. His desire was, if possible, to sail direct from some English port to New England ; but not being able to effect this, he proceeded first to Barbadoes, being accompanied by Henry Fell and some other Friends, including the two from Warwick. They reached Barbadoes in the Seventh Month, 1658, and in the following month, Peter Cowsnooke, Edward Fades, and Philip Rose,
* New England Judged, p. 180.
+ His age was then about twenty-four.
:J: Letter to George Bishop, 1G")8.
126 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
made arrangements for proceeding to Rhode Island, by way of Virginia,* but whether they reached the shores of New England has not been ascertained. t
In the future pages of this history, we shall have occasion to refer but little to those who crossed the Atlantic in Robert Fowler's vessel, or to the other gospel messengers whose visits to New England have also been noticed, excepting William Robinson, William Leddra, Robert Hodgson, and Josiah Cole. A sketch, therefore, of the lives of those dedicated servants of the Lord, from whom we are now about to turn our attention, may not be inappropriately given in this chapter. They doubtless possessed gifts and qualifications in the service of their Lord, differing widely from each other, but, seeking to be led by His unerring voice, they were preserved in unity and love, and in a har- monious labour in His holy cause, and were made eminently instrumental in the spread of vital religion among men.
Mary Claek.
Mary Clark was the wife of John Clark, a tradesman of London, and united herself in religious fellowship with Friends, very early after their rise in that city. She came forth as a minister soon after, and in 1655 travelled into Worcestershire, to expostulate with the local magistracy respecting their cruel treatment of Friends ;
* Letter to Henry Fell, 1658.
t A short time previous to the embarkation of Peter Cowsnooke on this religious visit, he addressed a letter to Margaret Fell, in which he notices a conversation he had with George Fox, in reference to his reli- gious prospect, and respecting which, at times, he appears to have had feelings of discouragement. " I asked George concerning it," he says, " when I was first with him, and he left it to me. I was since with him at the General Meeting, at John Crook's, and as before, he said he would leave it to me. But I being somewhat troubled, he asked what I would have him to say, had I freedom in myself to pass back again ? I answered, I did not at present see it ; so he said again he would leave it to me." The care observed by George Fox, in not interfering in a matter where in- dividual apprehension of duty was concerned, and his solicitude that the party might not lean on the judgment of others, affords a striking in- stance of his watchful care in regard to such important matters.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 127
in the course of which visit she was placed in the stocks at Evesham for three hours on the market-day,* and exposed to other sufferings. Leaving her husband and children in 1657, she proceeded on the visit to New England. The first member of the Society who experienced the application of the lash in Great Britain was Mary Fisher ; but it fell to the lot of Mary Clark to be the first among Friends to suffer in this revolting manner in America. She was liberated from Boston gaol in the Ninth Month, 1657, and was occupied in religious service in New England until the early part of 1658, when, as we have already mentioned, with two of her companions in the ministry, Richard Doudney and ]\Iary Wetherhead, she was shipwrecked and drowned. Thus, we may reverently believe, was she suddenly called from a tribulated path, to inefiable and unfading glory. The sufierings which she endured in New England, were borne with marked Christian patience ; " herinnocency preaching con- demnation to her adversaries,'' and, " for her faithfulness herein,'' said her companions, " the Lord God is her reward/'f
Richard Doudney.
Prior to Richard Doudney's visit to America, we find no incident respecting him. After his engagement in New England, in 1657, he joined Christopher Holder in a visit to some of the West India islands ; J he however, returned to Rhode Island in the spring of 1658, soon after which the melancholy shipwreck took place, in which he was drowned. He is described as an " innocent man," and one who " served the Lord in the sincerity of his heart,"§ and he doubtless was prepared to meet the awful summons.
Mary Wetherhead.
Mary Wetherhead appears to have been an inhabitant of Bristol ; no particulars, however, of her life previous to her crossing the Atlantic in 1656, have been met with. She is spoken of as being unmarried, and, it is believed, was young at the time of her death.
* Besse's Sufferings, vol. ii. p. 60. t Norton^s Ensign, p. 60. X Letter of Peter Evans to George Fox, 1658. § Norton's Ensign, p. 62.
]2s new england. [1658.
Sarah Gibbons.
The narrative of the visit of the little company of gospel messengers to Boston, in 1 656, first introduces the name of this Friend to our notice. After her expulsion from Connecticut in the early part of 1658, she appears to have been engaged for some months within the limits of Rhode Island, from whence, in com- pany with Dorothy Waugh, the aged Brend, and three other Friends, she proceeded on religious service to Barbadoes.* In 1659, we find her again on Rhode Island ; her earthly pilgrimage, however, was now nearly accomplished, and its termination was an awfully sudden and affecting one. Whilst attempting to land from a sloop at Providence, she was drowned. The melancholy accident is thus referred to in a letter of William Robinson's, under date of Fifth Month, 1659. " As they came near to the shore, near that town, there came a man in a canoe to fetch them from on board, wherein they went with some others, not minding that the canoe was a bad one, and soon after they were in it, the canoe filled with water and did sink. All that were in the canoe did escape and got to the shore, except Sarah Gibbons who was drowned. When it was low water they found her, and the next day buried her in Richard Scott's orchard." After alluding to the trial of her being thus unexpectedly taken from her friends, William Robinson adds, " but herein were we comforted, that she was kept faithful to the end."
Dorothy Waugh.
Dorothy Waugh, who resided, it is believed, in London, united with Friends, very soon after their rise in that city, and is men- tioned as being both young and unmarried. Towards the close of 1 654), she travelled in the work of the ministry into Lancashire, and from thence to Norwich, where, for exhorting the people in the market, t she was imprisoned for the space of three months. On her release from Norwich gaol, she proceeded to London to meet George Fox.J During 1655, she travelled in gospel labours, to
* Letter of Henry Fell, ] 658. t Letter of R. Hubberthorne, 1655.
X Letter of T. Willan, 1G55.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 129
the western counties as far as Cornwall, and northward as far as Cumherland. In the course of this service she was imprisoned at Truro, and at Carlisle was subjected to barbarous treatment for preaching in the streets. In the early part of 165G, she visited some of the southern counties of England. The Berkshire sufferings for that year records her committal to the county gaol, for addressing the cougTegation in the public place of worship at Heading.''^' Her imprisonment, however, on this occasion, was but a short one, as she soon after embarked on her first visit to New England. The travels and sufferings of Dorothy Waugh, in New England, to the Fourth Month, 1658. have been already related, and after this period, the only remaining notice that we have respecting her, is of a visit to the West India Islands, towards the close of the same year. It is a remarkable circumstance that of the four women Friends, who formed a part of the little com- pany of gospel ministers who crossed the Atlantic in the " Wood- house'' that within two years from the date of their landing in America, Dorothy Waugh was the only one surviving ; her female companions having all found a watery grave. The following is a fac-simile of her signature.
William Brend.
Among the ministers of the Society who were called thus early to labour in the work of the gospel in New England, the characters of few present features of greater interest than that of William Brend. The powerful preaching of Burrough and Howgill had not long been heard within the City of London, ere this ancient and venerable man appeared in the ranks of the ministers of the new Society. Having attained the age of manhood about the time of Queen Elizabeth's death, he witnessed the oppression and persecution inflicted on the Puritans in the time of James I.; but what was his own religious profession during this reign, and in the times of the civil wars of Charles L, or durino; the reli<2:ious excitement which followed in the days of the Commonv.ealth, it
* MS. Account of Sufferings, vol. i.
180 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
does not appear. His good natural abilities and general intelli- gence, warrant tlie supposition, that at least he could not have been an unconcerned spectator of what was passing around him in reference to these things ; his being alluded to as "a man fearing God in his generation,'' and who was " known to many of the inhabitants of the City of London,"'* encourages this belief. Although his call to the work of the ministry was not until the evening of his day, it nevertheless pleased his Divine Master to lead him in the exercise of his gift into distant coun- tries, and thus in 1656, he embarked with seven others for North America, and again in the following year. On both these occa- sions, William Brend occupied an interesting position, for, with the exception of one, or at most two, who were of middle age, all his fellow-labourers in the ministry were young and unmarried. The presence, therefore, of one, who as respects age was as a father among them, and who was also experienced in the truth, must have made his company peculiarly acceptable. The foregoing chapters detail his travels and sufferings in New England. It may however be remarked, that except in the martyrdom of four individuals, amidst all the cruelty which sectarian intolerance inflicted on the early Friends in New England, none was more severe, or more repugnant to the feelings of humanity, than that endured by this good and aged man. In 1658, it appears that he left Rhodelsland on a visit to the West Indies :t in 1659, however, we again find him pleading the cause of true religion at Boston. This was subsequent to the passing of the Massachusetts law for banishment on pain of death, and under which, in the Third Month, he was expelled the jurisdiction. For some months after this, his religious engagements were confined within the limits of Rhode Island. He was a prisoner in Newgate, London, in the Ninth Month, 1662. When his incarceration there commenced, it is difficult to ascertain. In the Eleventh Month, 1664, some of his published pieces are dated " from Newgate :'' and in the previous month, Besse records his being sentenced with several others to transportation to Jamaica.
* Ilowgill's Popish Inquisition, p. 64. t Letter of Henry Fell, 1658.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 131
The outbreak of the Fifth monarchy men in England at the close of the Protectorate, furnished a pretext to the Royalists for the adoption of severer measures towards nonconformists. Ten- dering the oath of allegiance was the most prominent of these measures, and objecting as the Society of Friends did to oaths of every description, it fell with peculiar force upon them ; but not- withstanding the numerous imprisonments which arose from this cause, towards the close of 1661, the legislature passed an act to prohibit the meetings of dissenters, in which " Quakers'' were especially alluded to. The penalties under which the act was to be enforced, were such, to use the language of its promoters, " as might be profitable to work upon the humours of such fanatics,"* and '' to cure the distempers of these people/ 't The Society of Friends had borne a large amount of cruel sufferings by the revival of laws originally directed against Papists ; it had, how- ever, in 1 662, to feel a more formidable oppression in this attempt of the legislature to crush them. The toiTent of persecution which swept over it in consequence of the enactment in question, and the noble stand which Friends were strengthened to make against it, forms one of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of this people. In a very short time after the passing of the cruel law, there was not a county gaol in England which did not number among its prisoners. Friends who had been com- mitted under its provisions, whilst some of the prisons, were literally crammed with them. In Newgate alone, William Brend could count hundreds of his fellow-professors. The wretched places into which they were thrust during these imprisonments are almost past belief. J The loathsomeness of Newgate was such, that during 1662, and the two subsequent years, no less than fifty-two of William Brend's fellow-prisoners died from disease contracted there. Edward Burrough, who was one of these martyrs, speaks of an hundred being " in one room''§ at a time.
During this storm of persecution, many christian exhortations
* Commons Journal in Kennett, p. 448. t Journal of the Lords, May 28th, 1661. X See " The Cry of Newgate, by.R. C," 1662. § Letter of E. Burrough to Friends, 1662.
K
182 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
to faithfulness and constancy, were addressed to tlie sufferers by the more prominent Friends of that day, among which we find one from the pen of William Brend, entitled " A loving saluta- tion to all Friends every where, in this great day of trial, to stand faithful unto God over all sufferings.'' The following extracts from this piece, evidences the qualification of the writer for such services, and the strong desire which he felt for the maintenance of love and harmony among his persecuted and tried brethren every where : —
"It hath been upon my heart when in the sweet repose of the streams of my Father's love and life, by which my heart, soul and spirit, hath been overcome, to visit you with a loving saluta- tion from the place of my outward bonds and imprisonment, for the gospel sake.
" 0 come, my dear lambs and dear babes, it is a time for us to flock together into our Father's fold, and to get into his tent of safety, and to lie down in the arms of his dear love, and to be covered with the wing of his power, now the wild boar of the forest is abroad to make his prey, and the wolvish devourers are seeking to scatter the sheep of the Lord's pasture. 0 let us feel and know the safe harbour, in which alone is safety, whilst the boisterous storms and tempests are all about us, and the foaming rage of the troubled seas are casting up their waves, one after another. —
"Oh, dear lambs and babes of God, our Rock is sure and sted- fast, our Refuge and Harbour safe and unmoveable, and our Pilot wise and exceeding skilful ; there is not a danger near that can attend us in our voyage to our everlasting land of rest, but he doth foresee, and knows right well how to avoid them all — he never failed any that trusted in him, and in the Arm of his salvation — may we all stand fast, and quit ourselves like men, and be strong in the power of his might.
" Oh, dear lambs ! we have a great portion ; for I can say in the secret of my soul. The Lord is my portion, and hath been and is yours also, who have waited for him, and in whom is your delight.
" Oh ! in the love and life of the Lamb, look over all weak-
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 133
ness in one another, as God doth look over all the weakness in every one of us, and doth love us for his own Son's sake — in so doing, peace will abound in our borders, it will flow forth amongst us like a river, and it will keep out jars, strifes and contentions from us, and so we shall be kept as a beautiful and amiable family, and in the order of God.
" These few lines do manifest something that was upon my heart towards you in the feelings of my Father's love, as I lay in my bed in the night season, this 11th of the Ninth Month, 1662.''
" Newgate Prison in London.''
Cyp'di^CiyrL $W:7i^
Several other pieces were also written and published by William Brend during his imprisonment in Newgate.
Although William Brend had received sentence of transporta- tion it was not carried into execution. This did not result from any change of feeling on the part of his persecutors, but simply from the difficulty they experienced to procure vessels for the purpose. With but one or two exceptions, the ship owners and captains declined to engage in the nefarious business, for, con- scious of the uprightness and integrity of the sufferers, they felt no desire thus to countenance proceedings which evidently bore the stamp of cruelty and injustice. The number of Friends who received sentence of banishment gradually increased. In the summer of 1665, they amounted in Newgate to one hundred and twenty, and had not the great plague of London appeared, the number, doubtless, would have been considerably augmented. About the time when this devastating pestilence had reached its height, the prison doors of the metropolis were opened for the liberation of Friends, but not until the spirits of some scores''^ of the innocent victims of intolerance had been for ever freed, by the hand of death from all earthly oppression.
In 1672, the Yearly Meeting, as usual, was held in London. It was an important occasion in the history of Friends, and William Brend, aged and feeble as he was, attended, and his
* Besse, vol. i. pp. 388, 404, 407.
K 2
134 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
name, with that of eleven others, appears on the records of the meeting as having prepared one of the Epistles issued at that time. The only remaining notice that we find respecting him, is that which records his death about four years later. His age could not have been much, if at all, under ninety. The burial record is as follows — '' William Brend of the liberty of Katherines, near the Tower, a minister, died the 7th of the Seventh Month, 1676, and was buried at Bunhill Fields.''
Humphrey Norton.
The earliest notice which we find respecting Humphrey Norton, occurs in a manuscript letter addressed to Margaret Fell in the Seventh Month, 1655, by Thomas Willan of Kendal ; from this it appears that he w^as then residing in London, and acting as the accredited agent or officer of the Society tliere, for the assistance of Friends travelling in the ministry. Whilst thus occupied, he maintained a frequent correspondence with Thomas Willan and George Taylor of Kendal, who were actively engaged in superintending the affairs of the body at large, more parti- cularly in reference to its provisions for defraying the travelling expenses of ministering Friends.* The rise of the Society of Friends in London, took place about one year previous to the date of the'letter referred to, but as it had existed as a distinct asso- ciation in the midland and northern counties, for nearly ten years before, the fact of Kendal being then the central place of the body, is explained.
The precise date when Humphrey Norton came forth as a minister, it is difficult to ascertain ; but as early as 1655, he appears to have travelled as such in the North of England, and it is known that, in the following year, he was extensively engaged in the ministry in Ireland. During this period he had become acquainted with that nursing mother in the church, Margaret Fell, with whom he kept up a correspondence.! In the course of his travels in Ireland, he visited the provinces of Leinster,
* Vide letters of Thomas Willan and George Taylor to Margaret Fell, 1655 and 1656, in the Swarthmore MSS. t Letter of Richard Hubberthorne, Tenth Month, 1655.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 135
Munster, and Connaught ; during which, in common with most of the early ministers of the Society, he experienced the persecuting liand of an envious and intolerant hierarchy. In Gal way, he was " taken violently out of a meeting by a guard of soldiers, and driven from the city.* At Wexford, whilst at " a peaceable meeting," he was again seized by the soldiery, " taken to the steeple house, and thence committed to gaol till the next assizes. t His return from Ireland was in the early part of 1657. J In the Fourth Month, as has been already related, he went on board the ''Woodhouse^^ for New England. The revolting cruelties which he endured in that land while prosecuting his gospel labours, need not be repeated. From New England, Humphrey Norton proceeded to visit some of the more southern English colonies. In 1660, he was again in Rhode Island, and, it is singular, that, after that date, no notice of him has been met with.
Christopher Holder.
Previously to his visit to New England in 1656, Christopher Holder resided at Winterboume, in Gloucestershire. He is re- ferred to as a "well educated" man, and of "good estate,'' and was one of those who, in the south-west of England, very early professed with Friends. The following is the first notice found respecting him : " Christopher Holder, in y^ year 1655, was sent to y® gayle at Ilchester, for speaking to y^ priest at Keinsham steeple house ; and from thence after a while, upon bayle brought to y^ next sessions, and so discharged. *'§ Having been called by the Great Head of the Church to plead his holy cause among men, in 1656, he believed it required of him to visit New England: which visit he repeated in 1657, with the little band of gospel messengers who sailed for that country. His reli- gious engagements there continued until near the close of 1657, when he proceeded on a \dsit to some of the West India islands. His absence, however, from North America was but short, for in a letter received by George Fox from Barbadoes,|| he is men-
* Sufferings of Friends in Ireland. t Ibid.
X Swarthmcre Collection of MSS. § MSS. Sufferings, vol. i.
II Letter of Peter Evans, 16:tb.
136 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
tioned as having sailed from that island in the Second Month, 1658, for Bermuda and Rhode Island ; the latter place, as we have already stated, he reached in the Fourth Month of that year. After his liberation from Boston gaol in the Eighth Month, 1658, he proceeded southward, and united with William Robinson and Robert Hodgson, " for some time," in gospel labours in Virginia, returning again to Rhode Island in the early part of 1659.^' William Robinson, who was soon after im- prisoned at Boston, mentions his having received in the Fifth Month, a letter from Christopher Holder, ^' who," he says, " was in service at a town called Salem, last week, and hath had fine service among Friends in these parts/' In a short time after, Christopher Holder became a fellow-prisoner with William Robinson at Boston, having gone thither to seek a vessel bound for England. After an imprisonment of two months he was liberated, and taking passage in a vessel about to sail for Great Britain, he reached his home in safety. A few months after his return to England, he was united in marriage to Mary Scott, mentioned in the register as of " Boston, in New England,'' and the marriage was solemnized at Gives ton, near Bristol, in Sixth Month, 1660. Mary Scott was the daughter of Richard and Katherine Scott of Providence.
Christoper Holder repeatedly visited America, -I* and it was the lot of this faithful minister, whilst travelling in distant countries, to endure a large amount of suffering and trial in the cause of his Great Master. On his return from America, he also suffered severely for his testimony to the truth. In the Third Month, 1682, he was again committed to Ilchester gaol for refusing to swear. After two months, he was premunired, and was continued a prisoner for more than four years and a half, till the Twelfth Month, ] 685, when he was released with a large number of Friends in different parts of the country, under the general discharge granted by James II. He died about two years afterwards. In the burial
* William Robinson's letter, Fifth Month, 1659. t Vide letter of Ellis Ilookes to Margaret Fell, 1669, Swarthmore MSS., and Journal of George Fox, 1672.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 137
register, his death is thus recorded, '' Christopher Holder of Puddimore, in the county of Somerset, died at Ircott, in the parish of Almondsbury, on the 13th of Fourth Month, 1688, and was buried at Hazell." Having been described as " a young man,'' during his first visit to New England, his age probably did not exceed sixty. He was a minister about thirty-three years, and to him, we doubt not, the language of the Psalmist may be fitly applied, " mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."
John Copeland.
The relation of the visit of the eight Friends to New England, in the summer of 1656, contains the first reference that appears to John Copeland. Like his beloved companion, Christopher Holder, he was at that time young and unmarried : he is also spoken of as having been '^ well educated.'' His residence appears to have been in Holderness, in Yorkshire, and hence the pro- bability of his early acquaintance with Robert Fowler of Brid- lington Quay, in that county, a fellow-labourer in the gospel, and in whose little vessel he again visited America in 1657. How long John Copeland was absent from his native land during this visit it is difficult to ascertain ; but in the latter part of 1658, he was at Sandwich, in company with Josiah Cole,, when they were violently taken from a Friend's house and carried to prison. In 1661, we meet with him in London,* and in 1667, he married. In the register of his marriage he is described as of '• Lockington, North Cave, in the county of York." His wife dying about eight years after their union, he married a second time, in 1677. Ten years later, we find him again in America ; in a letter addressed to George Fox from that land, he is mentioned as beins: in Virginia. After his return from this visit, he entered, in 1691, for the third time into the marriage covenant. It pleased Him, who holdeth the breath of every living thing, to grant to this dear Friend, length of days ; and having survived his first visit to North America, more than sixty years, he had reason to
* Sewel, p. 279.
188 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
rejoice, that the cause for which he both laboured and suffered, had spread itself widely amon^ the settlers in that land. He died on the 9th of First Month, 1718, and was buried at North Cave.
John Rous.
John Eous was the son of Thomas Eous, a wealthy sugar planter of Barbadoes, and both father and son were among the early members of our religious Society in that island. At the time of John Rous's visit to New England, he was evidently but a young man. After his release from Boston gaol, in the Eighth Month, 1658, except a visit which he paid to the island of Nevis'^ towards the close of that year, we lose all trace of him until his marriage with Margaret, the eldest daughter of Judge Fell, which was solemnized at Swarthmore Hall, in the First Month, 1662. On his marriage John Rous settled in London, in which, and its vicinity, he appears to have resided during the remainder of his life. But few particulars of the life of John Rous have been preserved, and except a visit to the county of Kent in 1670, accompanied by Alexander Parker and George Whitehead ; to Barbadoes in the following year with George Fox ; and to the counties of York and Durham in 1689, t we know nothing of his gospel labours after he settled in England. In his will, which is dated from Kingston in the county of Surrey, '^ October, 1692,'' he describes himself as a merchant, and his property, which it appears was considerable, lay chiefly in Barba- does. It is singular that no record of his death has been found, but as his will was proved in 1695, the probability is that it took place in that year.
Thomas Harris.
The particulars given of the visit of Thomas Harris to New England is about all that we know of his history. As he is men- tioned as " of Barbadoes,'' he must have been one of the earliest who embraced the views of our religious Society on that island.
* Besse's SufTerings, vol. ii. p. 352.
t Letter of John Rous to George Fox, 1 689.
1658.] new england. 13.0
Robert Fowler.
The biographical sketches of the early ministers of the Society, who Avere instrumental in the introduction and spread of its prin- ciples in New England, may be suitably followed by some allusion to Robert Fowler, the master and owner of the " Woodhouse." His home was at Bridlington Quay, in Yorkshire, his business being that of a mariner. A record in an ancient minute book of the Monthly Meeting of Holderness, entitled " A memorial of the first manifestation of the truth in the eastern parts of York- shire,'' written, as it professes, "for the view of posterity," states that Robert Fowler, " with many others gladly received the word of life in the year 1652.'' " Great fear and dread and the power of the Lord," continues the account, " wrought mightily in us, and made the strong man bow himself, and the keepers of the house to tremble, and those that were patient and staid in the light and power of God, increased in their faith, and loved one another fervently out of a pure heart, so that nothing was lacking unto any ; for self-denial, the true simplicity of the gospel, and charity which thinks no evil, flourished amongst us, and the wiles of Satan were manifest, and a way to escape his snares was seen in the light ; for the Lord anointed us with his Holy Spirit, and that led us into truth and righteousness ; and some were fitted to labour in his vineyard — unto the Lord be all the praise and glory, for it is his due, through all ages and generations."
In 1656, whilst building his little vessel, he became strongly impressed with the belief, that it would be required for some par- ticular service in furtherance of the cause of truth ; — an impres- sion, which, as we have seen, was remarkably realized. It was in the summer of 1657 that he landed his devoted friends on the shores of North America, and, as in the following year we find him for " some weeks a close prisoner" in Lincoln- shire, for exhorting an assembly in one of the national places of worship, we may conclude that he returned without much delay from that country. The first notice of his exercising a gift in the ministry occurs in 1658; there is, nevertheless, good reason to believe, that he was for some years before, engaged in this im-
140 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
portant work. In the Eleventh Month of 1660^ whilst assembled with his friends at Bridlington Quay, for the solemn purpose of worship, he was seized and carried to York Castle for refusing to take the " oath of allegiance,'' a snare which the enemies of the Society in that day, used to a great extent, and by which many thousands of its members were subjected to imprisonment ; at one time in 1 660, no less than 4230 Friends were confined in the gaols and castles of the kingdom. His imprisonment on this occasion lasted about two months. The year following his com- mittal to York Castle, we find that he was violently taken from a meeting at South Shields, and confined for four weeks in one of the dismal holes of Tynemouth Castle. Eobert Fowler, it appears, had six children, the youngest of whom was born in 1665, and after this date we are unable to trace the incidents of his Christian course. The following indorsement made by George Fox on a letter which he received from Robert Fowler, but which is without date, contains the only remaining facts we have been able to gather respecting him : — " Robert Fowler, who often went to the steeple houses to declare the truth, and was a master of a ship, and died in the truth, and was often in prison for it.'' The fulness of George Fox's brief testimony needs no comment ; he " died in the truth." The date of his decease has not been ascertained.
CHAPTER VIII.
The sufferings of Friends of New England— Ho.red Gardner's visit to Boston — Her sufferings there —Katherine Scott (sister of Anne Hutchinson) goes on a religious visit to Boston — Is imprisoned and scourged— Her character — The sufferings of Arthur Howland— The sufferings of Friends at Sandwich— The humane conduct of Cudworth and Hatherly, two magistrates of Scituate— The sufferings of Friends at Salem — The case of Edward Harnett — Six Friends of Salem im- prisoned for attending a meeting ; four of whom are scourged, and two have their ears cut off— The sufferings of Nicholas Phelps — Further persecution of Salem Friends — The persecution of William Shattock of Boston, and William Marston of Hampton— A review of the progress of the Society in the colonies of New England — The population of the province.
Our attention in the preceding chapters, has been chiefly directed to the proceedings and treatment of those gospel ministers who had crossed the Atlantic, to promulgate the spiritual views of the Society of Friends, among the settlers in New England. We now enter upon the subject of the religious labours and sufferings of those in that land, who had embraced their views. The first of this class to be noticed, is Hored Gardner of Newport, on Rhode Island. In 1658, this faithful woman, under an apprehension of religious duty, left her family, consisting of " many children," to go on a visit to Weymouth, in the province of Massachusetts. This trial of her faith was rendered additionally severe, from her having at the time, a young infant to care for. Concluding to travel on foot, she took a girl with her to assist in carrying and caring for her child. Her journey was through a wilderness of above sixty miles, and *' according to man," as a writer of the day re- marks, " hardly accomplishable.'""* She was, Iiowevcr, favoured
* New England Judged, p. 47.
142 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
to reach Weymouth in safety ; lier ministry was well received ; " the witness in the people answering to her words.'"** It was scarcely to be expected that, travelling thus in the same holy cause which had subjected her friends in the ministry, from England, to fines, whippings, imprisonments and banishments, she should herself escape persecution ; and accordingly, on the day after her arrival at Weymouth, she was placed under arrest, and conveyed to Boston. Endicott, who had recently evinced his hatred to Quakers, by causing Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh, to be imprisoned and whipped, on seeing a New England proselyte to Quakerism, brought before him for promulgating its doctrines, broke forth into abusive language to the prisoner, and ordered both her and her young attendant, to receive ten lashes " on their naked bodies.'' This species of punishment towards females, is at all times revolting, but in the present instance, it was rendered additionally so from the fact, that during its infliction, the inno- cent babe of Hored Gardner was on her breast, protected only by the arms of its agonized mother. The whipping being over, the scene was quickly changed, and instead of the sound of the knotted scourge, the voice of prayer arose from the unoffending sufferer, that her persecutors might be forgiven ; for she said that " they knew not what they did." The meek christian spirit thus strikingly displayed, struck the bystanders with astonish- ment. " Surely,^' said one of them, "if she has not the spirit of the Lord, she could not do this thing."t They were at once con- veyed to Boston gaol, in which they were confined for fourteen days, all communication with her Friends being strictly forbidden. One of the early sufferers in New England, in commenting on this heartless case, observes, that such instances distinctly mark the difference between the faith of those w^ho professed with the maltreated Quakers, and that of their persecutors : — " the one, manifesting theirs through travails, trials, patience and sufferings ; the other, through wrath, malice, cruel mockings, reviling lan- guage, scourgings, and imprisonments." And he adds, " whether of these faiths stands in God, seeing there is but one Lord and
* Norton's Ensign, p, 72. t Ibid, p. 72.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 143
one faith unto salvation, we leave it unto that of God in all people to judge."*
The next sufferer whom we shall notice, is Katherine Scott of Providence, who in the Seventh Month, 1658, proceeded to Boston, to testify against the cruel proceedings of the magistracy towards Friends. Soon after her arrival, Christopher Holder, John Copeland, and John Rous, having been sentenced to the loss of their ears, Katherine Scott believed it to be her religious duty to remonstrate with the rulers on this barbarous act. For her christian boldness, however, she was imprisoned for three weeks, and also subjected to the ignominious torture of the lash. In the course of her examination, being told that they were likely to have a law to hang her if she came there again, she said, "If God call us, woe be to us if we come not ; and I question not but He whom we love, will make us not count our lives dear unto ourselves, for the sake of His name." Endicott maliciously replied, '' And we shall be as ready to take away your lives, as ye shall be to lay them down.^'t
The case of Katherine Scott derives additional interest from the fact of her being a woman of considerable note and standing in New England. She was a sister of the celebrated Anne Hutchinson, J the leader of the Antinomians, and of John Wheel- wright, both of whom were banished from Massachusetts in 1637, for their religious opinions. A narrator of Katherine Scott's sufferings, describes her as ''a grave, sober, ancient woman, of blameless conversation,'' and of good education and circum- stances. § Hutchinson the historian says, she " was well bred, being a minister's daughter in England.''i| Her husband, Richard Scott, and eight or nine of her children, also became convinced of our principles. " The power of God," writes John Rous, '' took place in all their children, "H One of her daughters spoke as a minister in the following year, although but eleven years of age.
Arthur Howland, an aged and venerable settler, residing at Marshfield in the colony of Plymouth, was also a sufferer for his
* Norton's Ensign, p. 72. t Norton's Ensign, p. 97.
X Secret Works, p. 10. § New England Judged, p. 75.
II Hutchinson's Massachusetts, vol. i. p. 200. iT Norton's Ensign, p. 95.
144 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
conscientious attachment to the principles of the new Society. He was one of those who had lon^ sought the Lord^ and " Simeon like/' had waited for his salvation. Convinced that a ministry for hire, and of mere human appointment, was a fearful usurpation of the prerogative of the Great Head of the Church, he felt bound to bear a christian testimony against it, by declining any longer to contribute towards its support. His conscientious refusal, how- ever, subjected him to considerable loss. The minister, incensed by this innovation, and copying the example of those of his order in the mother country, forcibly seized upon his property. In 1658, Robert Hodgson, in the course of his religious engagements visited Marshfield, and was warmly received by Arthur Howland. The good old man, believing the stranger to be a disciple of Christ, entertained him gladly ; having faith in the declaration of our Lord to his disciples, " He that receiveth you, receiveth me : and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me.''* Whilst Eobert Hodgson was there, a constable came to the house to arrest him. The aged Friend, feeling bound to do what he could to protect his guest, demanded of the officer a warrant of his authority. The constable replied that he had none, but that the magistrate would justify him in taking a Quaker without one. Arthur Howland, seeing that he had no legal authority for pro- ceeding, told the officer that, in accordance with the constitution of the colony, and the allegiance which he owed to the Protector, he should resist his attempt ; and the constable, thus unex- pectedly opposed, left the house. The local magistrates, vexed at losing their prey, and at the course adopted by Arthur Howland, fined him five pounds ; to satisfy which, a distraint was made upon his cattle. '^ But such was their rage at the old man," observes Bishop, " that this would not satisfy them." A com- mitment to prison soon followed the fine. These arbitrary measures, being considered by the sufferer as an invasion of the rights of a British subject, and at variance with the colonial laws of the empire, he demanded his liberty, in order that he might " repair to England, to make his case known to the powers."t His appeal, however, was unheeded, and had not a brother inter- fered, and obtained his release '' by giving a bond," the aged * Matthew x. 40. f Secret Works, p. 5.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 145
colonist would have had to endure the severity of a winter season within the precincts of a prison.
Among the early converts to the Society in New England, were some who resided at Sandwich, and who had been convinced in 1657. William Newland and Ralph Allen were two of these, and their attachment to the principles which they had embraced, was soon tested by suffering. Both of them were called to serve on a jury, and, acting on the injunction of their Lord, " Swear not at all," they declined to take the oath. William Newland was fined ten shillings for his refusal ; and on his request, during the sitting of the court, that his friends Christopher Holder and John Copeland, might be furnished with a copy of the warrant on which they had been arrested, he was fined another ten shillings for his interference : a distress was levied on his goods for the recovery of these sums. They were then arraigned before the court for keeping disorderly meetings at their houses. The charge, it appears, rested on the fact of a few Friends having met in silence to wait upon God. Their so assembling, however, being viewed by the magistrates as a grave offence, a fine of twenty shillings was imposed on each of the Friends, -with an order, that they should find sureties in the sum of eighty pounds for their good behaviour during the ensuing six months. As an acquiescence in this demand would imply an acknowledgment of the offence, and a relinquishment of that spiritual worship of the Most High, which had become precious to them, they unhesitatingly refused to comply. They were then committed to the custody of the marshal, and were kept close prisoners for five months. When half the period had expired, they were offered their liberty on engaging not to receive or listen to a Quaker ; but the request was met by an immediate and a decided negative. Their settle- ment in the truth was too firm to be shaken by offers of this description.
Towards the close of 1657, the individuals who had been newly convinced at Sandwich, suffered considerably for continuing to meet for the purpose of religious worship. This little company included the six brothers and sisters of Ralph Allen just referred to. The father of the family, who had been an Anabaptist, and
146 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
had also entertained a conscientious scruple against judicial swearing, had " laid down his head in peace'' before Friends had visited those parts. His children had resided upwards of twenty years in Sandwich and its vicinity, and were much respected by their neighbours. But their reception of Quakerism was pecu- liarly annoying to the ministers and magistracy, whose persecuting hand was specially directed against them : the only individuals to whom the "oath of fidelity" was tendered, being those of this family. In 1658, the sufferings of Friends of Sandwich were much aggra- vated by increased distraints on their goods, and by being prevented from holding their religious meetings. The levies were made for fines, on account of their conscientious refusal to take the " oath of fidelity,'' tendered purposely to ensnare them ; and also for absence from the public worship. In the Eighth Month, sixteen Friends of this place were summoned to the court held at Plymouth, and were fined five pounds each for refusing to take the oath. Some of them had been fined already on the same charge."^ Some of
* Besse records the following distraints made about this period from Friends resident in and near Sandwich, to satisfy the fines imposed : —
Robert Harper £44 0 0
Joseph Allen . . 5 12 0
Edward Perry 89 18 0
George Allen 25 15 0
William Gifford 57 19 0
William Newland 36 0 0
Ralph Allen, Jun 18 0 0
John Jenkins 19 10 0
Henry Howland . , . . . . 110 0
Ralph Allen, Sen 68 0 0
Thomas Greenfield 4 0 0
Richard Kirby 57 12 0
WilUam Allen 86 17 0
Thomas Ewer 25 8 0
Daniel Wing 12 0 0
Peter Gaunt 43 14 6
Michael Turner 13 10 0
John Newland 2 6 0
Matthew Allen 48 16 0
^660 7 6
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 147
these faithful sufferers, alluding to the persecution to which they were subjected for refusing the oath, remark, that it was '' con- trary to the law of Christ,'' " whose law,'' they add, ''is so strongly written in our hearts, and the keeping of it so delight- some to us ; and the gloriousness of its life daily appearing, makes us to endure the cross patiently, and suffer the spoihng of our goods with joy."*
While recording the sufferings of those who professed with Friends in the colony of Plymouth, we must not omit to notice the case of Cudworth and Hatherly, the two magistrates of Scituate. These worthy men appear never to have joined our religious Society, but being enlightened on the subject of re- ligious toleration, and rejoicing in the extension of the kingdom of the Redeemer by whatever means He might use, they not only boldly opposed the authorities of New England in persecuting Friends, but also welcomed those who came to Scituate, and entertained them at their houses. This liberality was offensive to the rigid professors of Massachusetts, and several attempts being made to displace them from the magistracy, they both ulti- mately resigned their appointments. '' He that will not whip and lash, persecute and punish men that differ in matters of reli- gion," says one of them, " must not sit on the bench." Cudworth, who held a military captainship was discliarged, " because," he says, " I entertained some of the Quakers at my house.'^
Turning from the Friends of Plymouth to their fellow-pro- fessors in the other part of Massachusetts, we find that suffering was also their lot for the cause of truth. The banishment of Nicholas Upshal from Boston in 1656, and the imprisonment of Samuel Shattock, and of Laurence and Cassandra Southwick of Salem, in the following year, have already been mentioned. Towards the close of 1657, the Salem Friends suffered severely for maintaining their meetings ; and in order, as Bishop says, " to terrify the rest," the magistrates subjected Laurence and Cassandra South- wick, with their son Josiah, to a cruel whipping and an imprison- ment for eleven days, for absenting themselves from public worship ; and in the meanwhile, goods to the value of four pounds thirteen
* Norton's Ensign, p, 4?. VOL. I. L
148 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
shillings were taken from them for fines on account of such absence.*
Another who suffered at Salem, was Edward Harnet, a settler aged nearly seventy years. So many fines were levied upon him for not attending the authorised place of worship, as to make it probable that all the little property which he possessed, and which was his main dependence in declining life, would be sacrificed to the cruelty and rapacity of his enemies. To prevent this result, he felt free to emigrate to Rhode Island, after disposing of his house and land ;t and several others, who were similarly harassed, con- cluded to leave the scene of persecution. John Small, Josiah Southwick, and John Buffum were of this number, and whilst proceeding to Khode Island, in order to fix upon some spot in this favoured province, on which to settle with their families, they were arrested and carried to Boston. This, however, was an out- rage on the liberty of the colonist, which even the intolerant Endicott refused to sanction ; and on appealing to him the Friends were liberated.
Reference has been made in a previous chapter to a meeting held by William Brend and William Leddra, at the house of Nicholas Phelps, in the woods, about five miles from Salem, and to a threat made by one of the authorities who attended, that he would prosecute the Friends who were present. The threatening magistrate, true to his intolerant purpose, applied to the court then sitting at Salem, for an order to arrest six of the Friends who were present at the meeting in question. The application was readily responded to, and in a short time Samuel Shattock, Laurence and Cassandra Southwick, their son Josiah, Samuel Gaskin, and Joshua Buffum, were seized by the officers. After an imprisonment of two days, they were brought before the court for examination. The charges preferred against them were, for absenting themselves from public worship— for assembling by themselves, and for meeting with the Quakers. They were com- mitted, and sent to join William Brend and William Leddra, who were already in Salem prison.
* F. Howgill's Popish Inquisition, p. 35. t Ibid, p. 34.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 149
A few days after tlie committal of the six Friends, a warrant was issued to convey them all to Boston, and on the 2nd of the Fifth Month, preparations were made for the purpose. The Friends of Salem, finding that their companions were about to be separated from them, and conveyed to a place already notorious for scenes of persecution, came to take a sorrowing farewell of the sufferers ; and '' before our departure," remarks one of them, '' the Lord gathered us together, and we had a meeting of Friends some part of the way thither.""* They were all on foot, and as the little company proceeded towards Boston, the solemnity of a reli2;ious meetinoj was maintained. When the time came for them to part, the prisoners engaged in prayer, and committed themselves in faith to the sustaining arm of the Shepherd of Israel. Having arrived at Boston, four of the Salem Friends were sentenced to undergo the cruelties of the lash, from which even Cassandra Southwick was not exempted. For Laurence Southwick and his son Josiah, the remaining two, a more severe punishment was reserved. In accordance with the last revolting law against Quakers, they both suffered the loss of their ears.
Being detained as prisoners after the liberation of the English Friends who were committed about the same period, the six Friends drew up a remonstrance to the court at Salem, under whose authority they had been sent to gaol. " Let it not be a small thing in your eyes," said they, " thus to expose, as much as in you lies, our families to ruin — as for our parts, we have true peace and rest in the Lord in all our sufferings, and are made willing in the power and strength of God, freely to offer up our lives in his cause, yea, and we find (through grace) the enlarge- ment of God in our imprisoned state, to whom alone we commit ourselves and our families, for the disposing of us, according to his infinite wisdom and pleasure ; in whose love is our rest and life/'t The Christian meekness and patience breathed in the lanoTiage of these faithful individuals, and the inward peace and consolation which they enjoyed amid their sufferings, strikingly exemplifies the gracious promise of our Redeemer, " In
* Norton's Ensign, p. 76. t New England Judged, p. 60.
L 2
150 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me peace/* The court, on receiving the remonstrance, directed the liberation of the pri- soners, excepting the South wicks, who were continued under close confinement for twenty weeks.
Previously to the holding of the meeting at his house, Nicholas Phelps, being convinced of the spiritual character of divine wor- ship, had absented himself from the public assemblies, and had been fined five shillings per week, for thus adhering to his religious convictions. Having rendered himself additionally obnoxious to the magistracy by allowing meetings to be held at his house, he was summoned before the court held at Salem, in the Fifth Month, 1658.^ The presence of Quakers in New England being adverted to, one of the justices, with a view to prejudice the court against them, remarked, that they denied both magistrates and ministers. Nicholas Phelps, hearing the charge, and being sensible of its injustice, undertook to disprove it, and presented to the bench, a paper setting forth the sentiments of the Society on those questions. The document being read, and its contents found to be opposed to puritan opinions, the minds of the bigoted rulers were further incensed, and they determined that Nicholas Phelps should suffer for thus boldly advocating heresy. He was now asked, if he owned the document, and answering in the affirmative, was fined forty shillings for the paper, also forty shillings for having had a meeting at his house, and was finally committed to Ipswich gaol for being a Quaker.f The gaoler of Ipswich, following the example of his fellow-official at Boston, ordered Nicholas Phelps to work, and having received a refusal to his unjust demand, subjected him to three severe whippings in the short space of five days. The punishment inflicted upon this conscientious man was the more cruel in consequence of the very weak state of his health, and a physical deformity under which he laboured, but he endured it all with christian meekness and patience, and " being strong in faith,'' J " all their cruelty
* F. Howgill's Popish Inquisition, p. 38.
t New England Judged, p. 61.
X F. Howgill's Popish Inquisition, p. 38.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 151
could not bend his spirit, for the Lord upheld him.""^ The magistrates, finding that their prisoner was not to be shaken from his resolutions, either by fines, whippings, or imprisonments, seemed anxious to give up the fruitless task of attempting to reduce him to orthodoxy, and after fourteen days' confinement, he was set at liberty. This imprisonment, being in the time of harvest, occasioned him considerable loss.
In the Seventh Month, 1658, Joshua Bufi'tim and Samuel Shattock, who had been but lately released from an imprisonment of twenty weeks, were committed to Ipswich gaol with Nicholas Phelps, for holding a meeting in the vicinity of Salem. They were detained on this occasion for three weeks, and were also severely scourged. In addition to these severities, Samuel Shattock had " half of his house and the ground belonging to it''t seized for the fines imposed — a very unusual and unwarranted stretch of arbitrary power. He was a man in good circumstances, and is spoken of as " the most considerable man at Salem.'' But, said he, in a letter to a friend, " In the Lord I rejoice, that I have something to sufier the loss of, for the Truth's sake. "J A few days only had elapsed, after the liberation of these Friends, when with Laurence, Cassandra and Josiah Southwick, they were forcibly taken and carried to Boston, to hear from the lips of the authorities of that town, a law which they had just enacted, for banishing Friends on pain of death. Francis Howgill, alluding to the sufferings of Friends at Salem, sa3-3, " Now after all this there was a court held at Salem, the last day of November, 1658. This court sent for about fifteen of the inhabitants for not coming to their meeting, twelve of whom did appear ; of these, nine were fined for sixteen weeks' absence £4!. a-piece ; one was fined £S. 15s., and one £}. The sum of what was fined by this court, was .^40. 15s."§
We now pass on to Boston. This was much the most con- siderable town in the two colonies of jMassachusetts, — tlie seat of government of one of them, and conspicuous, above all other places in New England, for bigotry and for excessive persecutions. The
* Norton's Ensign, p. 81. t Ibid, p. 103.
X F. Howgill's Popish Inquisition, p. 60. § Ibid, p. 43.
152 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
cruelty of Endicott and Bellingham towards the gospel messengers of the new Society, naturally led to much inquiry respecting the principles of Friends : hut the watchful and unceasing efforts of the authorities, prevented those who came from publicly advo- cating the truth, as they had been enabled to do at Salem, Sand- wich, and some other places in Massachusetts. To this cause may be attributed the few convincements which took place at Boston. From the time of Nicholas Upshal's banishment in 1656, to the close of 1658, but one of the inhabitants openly professed with Friends. This individual was William Shattock. Being convinced that the worship of the Divine Being must be performed in spirit and in truth, and that ability to preach or pray aright must be waited for, instead of frequenting the usual place of divine worship, he sought retirement for this purpose in his own dwelling. His non-attendance of public worship was soon noticed by the jealous eye of the rulers, and in the First Month of 1658, he was arrested for the offence, and brought before the court. Endicott, who presided, after questioning him on several points, sentenced him to be taken to the house of cor- rection— to be severely whipped, and to be kept from all inter- course with his friends and neighbours. William Shattock was but poor as to the things of this world, and, having a wife and four children who were dependent upon his labour, the case of his family became truly distressing. Under these urgent circum- stances, the wife of William Shattock interceded for his liberation, but the authorities, bent on clearing their capital at least, of " heretics,'' replied, that until he promised to leave the colony, the prison would be his habitation, and that his children would be taken and placed in servitude. In this painful situation, William Shattock " sought counsel of the Lord,'' and, he observes, " their arm of cruelty was so great, I found freedom to depart." The magistrates, impatient for his banishment, allowed him but three days to prepare for his departure. Thus exiled from Massa- chusetts, he proceeded to Ehode Island, where he found a peace- ful home for himself and his family, and once more Boston appeared to be free from the '^ accursed heretics."
In these details, the case of William Marston of Hampton must not be forgotten. Notwithstanding the precautions taken
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 153
by the authorities, to prevent the introduction and circulation of the writings of Friends, means had, it appears, heen found for their distribution. William Marston was suspected of having some of these in his possession ; his house was searched, and a copy of William Dewsbury's " Mighty day of the Lord,'' and of John Lilburne's " Resurrection/' being found, he was subjected to the excessive fine of cPlO. Subsequently, he was " rated in the sum of £S. to the priest for his wages," and also fined £5. for absence from the authorised worship. To satisfy these claims, goods to the value of o(?20. were taken from him.*
In concluding the present chapter, which brings this narrative down to the close of 1 658, being about two years and a-half from the time of the first landing of Friends in New England, it may be well to consider the extent of the footing which their principles had obtained in that country. Very early after the landing of the few gospel messengers from the '' Woodhouse," meetings for worship were established and regularly kept up at Provi- dence, and on Rhode Island. Of the number of members which constituted those meetings at this early period, it is difficult to speak with much precision : they could not, however, have been inconsiderable. Already several of their number had received a gift in the ministry, and four had travelled, in the exercise of that gift, to the neighbouring colonies of New England. The official documents of Rhode Island, as early as the First Month of 1658, alluding to the visits of English Friends, state that they had " raised up divers who seem to be of their spirit."t We must not forget, however, that Friends there, so far from expe- riencing persecution from the authorities, were received by them with favour. William Coddington and Nicholas Easton who had both filled the office of governor of the colony, inclined towards them from the first, and soon after, openly professed with them : meetings for worship, and also the Yearly j\Ieetings, were held at the house of the former at Newport until the time of his decease in 1688. J
* Besse, vol. ii. p. 195.
t Letter from the " General Assembly of the colony of Providence Plantations" to their agent in England.
:;: Morse and Parish's History of New England, p. 8b.
154 NEW ENGLAND. [1658
The spread of Quakerism, however, in other parts of New England, was not dependent, as has been already seen, on the smiles of its rulers. An opposite policy in Massachusetts signally failed to suppress the rising society, and the persecutions in its two intolerant colonies, seemed fruitful in results. *' Their patience under it,'' observes James Cudworth, in writing of the sufferers to his friend in London, " hath sometimes been the occasion of gaining more adherents to them, than if they had been suffered openly to preach a sermon.''* At Sandwich, where the magistracy harassed them with great severity, the largest meeting in New England was held. It is stated that in 1658, no less than eighteen families of this place recorded their names in one of the documents of the Society. -f Meetings were also held at Duxbury,;]: and some other places in this jurisdiction, whilst convincements had taken place at Marshfield and Barn- staple ; and at Scituate its ministers found a welcome reception from the local authorities. A magistrate of this latter town, addressing his friend, in 1658, thus remarks in reference to the progress of the Society, *' They have many meetings, and many adherents, almost the whole town of Sandwich is adhering towards them.'' '^ I am informed," he adds " of three or four-score last court presented for not coming to public meetings. "§ In the more persecuting colony of Boston, many had also received the spiritual views of the Society, and rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for so holy a cause. It is true, that in the town of Boston, whilst many sympathized with the sufferers, under the revolting cruelties to which they were subjected, two individuals only openly professed with Friends, and these two had been banished from the colony. At Hampton the truth had found an entrance ; during 1658, a family at this place suffered largely in distraints for their testimony. |1 But it
* Secret Works, p. 21
t See Brief Account of Meetings in New England. Providence, Printed 1836, p. 20.
X Norton's Ensign, p. 49.
§ Letter of J. Cudworth,— See Secret Works, p. 20, and Neal's History of New England, vol. i. p. 321.
11 F. Howgill's Popish Inquisition, p. 42.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 155
was at and near Salem, about sixteen miles north of Boston, that the largest number of convincements in this colony took place. In 1657, it is stated that there were "divers Friends'' in that locality. During the summer of 1658, the sufferings of eight families are distinctly recorded, and in the Ninth Month, fifteen individuals were summoned at one time to the court held at Salem, for not attending the Puritan meetings. Neal states, that about this time as many as twenty were taken at once from a meeting held at the house of Nicholas Phelps, about five miles from Salem.* Joscelyn, in his chronological observations on America at this period, remarks, that "the Quakers' opinions were vented up and down the country, ""[- and John Rous writing to Margaret Fell, from New England, observes, " the truth is spread here above two hundred miles, many are in a fine condition, and very sensible of the power of God, and some of the inhabitants who are Friends, have been forth in the ministry. We have," he continues, "two strong places in this land, the one at Newport in Rhode Island, and the other at Sandwich. At Salem, there are several pretty Friends in their measures — there are Friends, few or more, almost from one end of the land to the other, that is inhabited by the English. "J
In noticing the progress of the Society at this early period in New England, it should be borne in mind, that, being a newly settled country, its towns were few, and the number of its popula- tion was comparatively small. In 1643, there were but thirty- six churches, or places of authorized worship, in New England ; in 1650, there were forty, containing 7750 communicants. § Twenty-five years later, the whole population of Massachusetts and Rhode Island did not exceed 33,000. || The settlements were chiefly agricultural communities, planted near the sea-side, or on the rivers, and cultivation had not extended far into the interior.
* Neal's History of New England, vol. i. p. 304.
t See I\Iassachussett, Hist. Society's Pub. vol. iii. 3rd Series.
:|: Swarthmore Collection of MSS.
§ Morse and Parish's History of New England, p. 165.
11 Bancroft's History of the United States.
CHAPTER rx.
The priests and rulers of Boston petition the colonial legislature for a law to banish Friends on pain of death — The proceedings of the authorities respecting it — The law is passed by a majority of one vote — A copy of the law. — W. Brend and six Friends of Salem ban- ished under its provisions — Daniel and Provided Southwick, for not attending Puritan worship, are fined and ordered to be sold as slaves — The authorities a^.-e unable to carry out the sentence — Samuel Uaskin ordered to be sold as a slave — The constabulary empowered to break open the doors of those suspected to be Quakers — William Leddra and Peter Pearson are imprisoned at Plymouth — Letter of Peter Pearson — William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson arrive at Rhode Island — They proceed to Boston, and are imprisoned — Nicholas Davis and Patience Scott also go to Boston, and are imprisoned — Some account of Patience Scott, who came forth in the ministry when eleven years of age — Observations on the ministry of young persons — Extract of a Letter from William Robinson to Oeorge Fox, written in Boston gaol.
For two years had the rulers of the church and of the state in New England been strenuous in their endeavours to check the introduction and spread of Quakerism, and lent themselves to acts of great cruelty in pursuance of their purpose. The various laws, however, which they had passed for this object, all signally failed, for, notwithstanding the opposition which it had to encounter, the little Society rapidly increased in numbers, and neither imprisonments, whippings, nor banishments, deterred its ministers from preaching their doctrines among the colonists. " Such was the enthusiastic fire of the Quakers,'' observes an early historian of the country, '' that nothing could quench it : the sect grew under these disadvantage?.''^
The bigoted religionists of Massachusetts, alarmed at the pro- gress of these innovations, and disappointed in their exertions to prevent them, now suffered themselves, in their deep-rooted aver-
* Keal's History of New England, vol. i. p. 306.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 157
sion to dissent from the authorised religion, to be led on to the commission of extreme aets of persecution ; and the ministers, among whom the notorious Norton of Boston,* was foremost, petitioned the local legislature to banish Friends upon pain of death. The magistrates of the colony, who had evinced an eagerness in the work of persecution, listened to the unchristian suggestion ; and, at their general court held at Boston in the Eighth Month, 1658, the inhuman statute was enacted for exil- ing all Friends, both colonists and strangers, on pain of death. The laws of the British nation, based on the foundation of IMagna Charta, made it imperative that the life of the subject should not be taken without trial by jury ; but the authorities of Massa- chusetts, to forward their wicked purpose of exterminating this harmless people, thus arbitrarily setting aside this safeguard of liberty, resolved that the awful sentence of death might be passed by a majority of a county court, consisting of even three magis- trates only.
The legislature of the colony consisted of two houses, the one composed of the magistracy, and the other of representatives elected by the freemen of the respective towns ; each house being independent of the other. To enact a law, a majority of both houses was necessary ; the magisterial one, therefore, having passed the law in question, sent it to the representatives for confirmation. The deputies, however, were much divided in opinion on tlie pro- posed measure. Several of them had viewed with dissatisfaction the harsh and unchristian laws already passed in reference to Friends ; but the extreme severity of the bill in question was such, that, out of twenty-six members of their house, fifteen were decidedly opposed to it. This becoming known, the authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, being determined to carry their bold and wicked scheme, exerted all the power and influence they possessed, to induce the representatives to pass the extirpating enactment. Their efforts were unhappily successful ; two of the deputies were prevailed upon to alter their opinions,t and, in the absence, through illness of a third, (a deacon named Wozel,) who was opposed to the
* Oldmixon in his " British Empire in America," says " Norton was at the head of all the Quakers' sufferings" in New England, t NeaFs History of New England, vol. i. p. 3()7.
158 NEW ENGLAND. [1658,
proposition, the assembly of twenty-five representatives passed the sanguinary law by a majority of one ; thirteen being for it, whilst the speaker and eleven others were opposed to it.^ The absent member, it appears, felt such a conscientious repugnance to the proposed measure, that, although suffering from severe indisposition, he determined, nevertheless, to be present when the votes on the question should be taken ; and '' he earnestly de- sired the speaker and some of the deputies, to send for him when the time came '/'f but to nullify his opposition, care had been taken by those favourable to the bill, to divide before he could arrive.:]: "Wozel, being informed of the stratagem which had thus been practised, and or the law having been carried by a majority of one voice only, which his presence would have negatived, hastened to the assembly, and, expressing his sorrow that it should have passed by his absence, desired his vote to be taken ; and said that if he had not been able to go, he would have crept on his hands and knees to prevent it.§ But the exertions of the humane deputy were unavailing ; his vote was refused, and the blood-stained and unconstitutional measure was published as the deliberate act of the legislature of Massachusetts.
The twelve deputies who had voted in the minority, having entered their protest against the law, as being repugnant to those of the realm, the magistrates, fearful of proceeding under such circumstances, subsequently agreed to an amendment of the law, and admitted trial by special jury. The lives of some of the most conscientious inhabitants of New England were now placed in the hands of men who were known to be their most determined foes, and who were vindictively bent on their destruction. Such was the legislation of those who, to erect a church free from all the blemishes of popery, and to escape the persecuting hand of Laud, had fled to the wilds of America ; but, says a modern historian, '' Laud was justified by the men whom he had wronged.'' || The " foul enactment," contrary to the laws both of God and man, and from which the mind turns with feelings of abhorrence, will go down to posterity as a monument of lasting disgrace to Puritan New
* Neal's History of New England, vol. i. p. 307.
t New England Judged, p. 80. X H^id? P- 80. § Sewel, p. 198.
II Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 190.
1658.] NEW ENGLAND. 159
England. What a humiliating proof does this dark transaction furnish, of the extent to ^hich man may err, through haughty self-righteousness, and a mistaken and fiery zeal for certain religious opinions. The law was as follows : —
THE
20th of octobek, 1658.
'^ Whereas, there is a pernicious sect, commonly called Quakers, lately arisen, who by word and writing have published and maintained many dangerous and horrid tenets, and do take upon them to change and alter the received laudable customs of our nation, in giving civil respect to equals or reverence to superiors, whose actions tend to undermine the civil government, and also to destroy the order of the churches, by denying all established forms of worship, and by withdrawing from orderly church-fellowship, allowed and approved by all orthodox pro- fessors of truth, and instead thereof, and in opposition thereunto, frequently meeting by themselves, insinuating themselves into the minds of the simple, or such as are at least affected to the order and government of church and commonwealth, whereby divers of our inhabitants have been infected, notwithstanding all former laws made upon the experience of their arrogant and bold obtrusions, to disseminate their principles amongst us, prohibit- ing their coming into this jurisdiction, they have not been deterred from their impetuous attempts to undermine our peace and hazard our ruin.
" For prevention thereof, this court doth order and enact, that every person or persons of the cursed sect of Quaker's, who is not an inhabitant of, but is found within this jurisdiction, shall be apprehended without warrant where no magistrate is at hand, by any constable, commissioner, or select man, and con- veyed from constable to constable to the next magistrate, who shall commit the said person to close prison, there to remain (without bail) unto the next court of assistants, where they shall have a legal trial ; and being convicted to be of the sect of Quakers, shall be sentenced to be banished upon pain of death :
160 NEW ENGLAND. [1658.
And that every inhabitant of this jurisdiction, being convicted to be of the aforesaid sect, either by taking up, publishing, or defending the horrid opinions of the Quakers, or the stirring up mutiny, sedition, or rebellion against the government, or by taking up their abusive and destructive practices, viz : denying civil respect to equals and superiors, and withdrawing from our church assemblies, and instead thereof frequenting meetings of their own in opposition to our church order, or by adhering to or approving of any known Quaker, and the tenets and practices of the Quakers that are opposite to the orthodox received opinions of the godly, and endeavouring to disafifect others to civil govern- ment and church order, or condemning the proceedings and prac- tices of this court against the Quakers, manifesting thereby their compliance with those whose design is to overthrow the order established in church and state ; every such person, upon convic- tion before the said court of assistants in manner aforesaid, shall be committed to close prison for one month, and then, unless they choose voluntarily to depart this jurisdiction, shall give bond for their good behaviour, and appear at the next court, where continuing obstinate, and refusing to retract and reform the afore- said opinions, they shall be sentenced to banishment upon pain of death ; and any one magistrate, upon information given him of any such person, shall cause him to be apprehended, and shall commit any such person to prison, according to his discretion, until he come to trial as aforesaid/^
This wicked and sanguinary measure, although passed into law, from some cause or other, was not brought into operation for more than six months. Although congenial to the perse- cuting ecclesiastics and rulers of Boston, it was not so to the inhabitants generally. The dissatisfaction excited in the colony, by the barbarities recently inflicted upon the English Friends who had been banished, had not yot sufficiently subsided, to allow the authorities to exhibit with impunity, the revolting spectacle of the gallows in support of their religion.
The first individual upon whom the efficacy of the new law was tested, was William Brend, whilst on a visit to Boston in the
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 161
Third Month, 1659. This aged minister of Christ, whose scarred body testified abundantly to the severity of the perse- cutors of Massachusetts, was the first Friend who entered its territory after the passing of the act. Having received sentence of banishment on pain of death, and being informed by the authorities, that, if ^vithin two days he was found within the pre- cincts of their jurisdiction, death would be his inevitable portion,"^ he returned to Ehode Island. His testimony to the truth had been most unflinching among the high professors of this land, and for his faithfulness he had already been brought near the gates of death ; his withdrawal to Rhode Island therefore, must not be understood to have been in order to avoid an ignominious death, in violation of his duty, for his former course is opposed to such a con- clusion : but rather let us believe that it was in compliance with the apprehended will of his Great Master on that particular occasion. The next victims to the application of the barbarous law, were Nicholas Phelps, Joshua Buffum, Samuel Shattock, Laurence and Cassandra Southwick, and their son Josiah. These Friends all resided in and near Salem, and had already smarted under in- tolerance and tyranny. They had been twice imprisoned, some for ten, and others for twenty weeks ; three had been once subjected to the lash, two others twice, and the remaining one no less than four times ; whilst property to a large amount had been taken from them ;t and all for not conforming to the dominant ideas in religion. The date of their arraignment under this act, was the 11th of the Third Month, 1659, and no specific charge having been made for their arrest, they desired the court to point out the crime of which they had been guilty. The governor replied, that " it was for contemning authority, in not coming to the ordinances of God, and for rebelling against the authority of the country in not departing according to their order/'J In answer to this ex- position of the governor, they said, " that they had no other place to go to, but had their wives, children, families, and estates, to look after, nor had they done any thing worthy of death, banishment, or bonds, or of any thing which they had
* Secret Works, p. 10. New England a Degenerate Plant, p. 8. t New England Judged, p. 82. J Besse, vol. ii. p. 197.
162 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
suffered.'^"^ Conscience smitten with the truth of the prisoners' reply, the governor remained silent, on which Denison, a Major- general, told them, that " they stood against the authority of the country in not submitting to their laws,"" adding, "you and we are not able well to live together, and at present the power is in our hand, and, therefore, the stronger must fend off.^f
The six Friends were taken out of court, but in a short time were called back, and received the dreadful sentence of death, should their persons be found within the limits of the colony within two weeks from that day. The following, taken from the records of the General Court at Boston, is a copy of the minute on the occasion : —
AT A GENERAL COURT HELD AT BOSTON, THE IItH OF MAY,
1659.
" It is ordered, that Laurence Southwick, and Cassandra his wife, Samuel Shattock, Nicholas Phelps, Joshua Buffum, and Josiah Southwick, are hereby sentenced, according to the order of the General Court in October last, to banishment, to depart out of this jurisdiction by the eighth day of June next, on pain of death ; and if any of them after the said eighth day of June next, shall be found within this jurisdiction, they shall be appre- hended by any constable or other officer of this jurisdiction, and be committed to close prison, there to lie till the next Court of Assistants, where they shall be tried, and being found guilty of the breach of this law, shall be put to death.*"
The prisoners urged the necessity of a longer period to allow them to settle their affairs, and to find an opportunity of pro- ceeding to England, but this reasonable request was denied, and they were ordered summarily to leave their country, their families and friends, to seek a home and subsistence in some land of strangers. Four days after, a vessel being about to sail for Barbadoes, Nicholas Phelps, Samuel Shattock and Josiah South- wick, embraced the opportunity it afforded for proceeding by that
* New England Judged, p. 84. f Besse, vol. ii. p. 198.
1659] NEW ENGLAND. 163
route to England, to seek redress for these despotic proceedings. The aged Laurence and Cassandra Southwick took their course for Shelter Island, which lay at the eastern end of Long Island, and at that time belonged to Nathaniel Silvester, a Friend ;* whilst Joshua Buffum made his way to Rhode Island. The cir- cumstance of being thus suddenly and rudely torn from their children, and banished from a home dear to them by many fond ties and recollections, was too great a shock for the aged South- wicks. Soon after reaching Shelter Island, and within three days of each other, the exiled couple were called from all the tribula- tions of time, in the good hope of a better and more peaceful inheritance.f
The family of the Southwicks, appear to have been the special objects of sectarian malignity ; which, not satisfied with driving the aged parents and their eldest son into banishment, now" placed its unrelenting hand on the two remaining members of the family, a son Daniel, and a daughter named Provided. Daniel and Provided had wisely " Remembered their Creator in the days of their youth ;*" the cause of truth had become precious to them, and for its sake they were now orphans in the world. Their absence from public worship continued to bear a clear though negative testimony against its lifeless forms and ceremonies ; and for this offence, although it was well known that they had no estate of their own, and it was notorious that their parents had been reduced to poverty by their rapacious persecutors, these innocent young persons were fined ten pounds each, and as an expedient for raising this unjust penalty, the General Court at Boston resolved to sell them as slaves, under the following order.
" Whereas, Daniel Southwick and Provided Southwick, son and daughter of Laurence Southwick, absenting themselves from the public ordinances, having been fined b , the court of Salem and Ipswich, pretending they have no estates, and resolving not to work : The court, upon perusal of a law which was made upon account of debts, in answer to what should be done for the satis-
* MS. letter of William Robinson, 1659. t Besse, vol. ii. p. 19«.
VOL. I. M
164 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
faction of the fines resolves, That the treasurers of the several counties, are and shall be fully empowered to sell the said persons to any of the English nation at Virginia or Barbadoes, to answer the said fines/'
The heartless mandate having been issued, steps were now taken to put it in force, and the brother and sister, subjects of the British realm, were offered first to one Barbadoes captain, and then to another, as slaves for the southern markets. The atrocity of the attempt was, however, too glaring to meet with success, and the refusal of all the sea captains to lend themselves to the fur- therance of such barbarity, offered a strong rebuke to the self- righteous ministers and rulers of Boston. One captain, less bold in his refusal than his companions, as an excuse for declining to purchase them, said, " they would spoil the ship's company/' '' No,'' said the officer, " you need not fear that, for they are poor harmless creatures that will not hurt any body." The captain, struck with this inconsistent avowal of the truth, at once replied, " Will 3'ou then offer to make slaves of such harm- less creatures ?"* Thus foiled in their wicked work, and at a loss how to dispose of their prey, as winter approached, the brother and sister were set at liberty to provide for themselves, until an opportunity could be found to accomplish the cruel purpose.
In framing the laws of New England, the Pilgrim Fathers, enlightened beyond most of their contemporaries on the subject of jurisprudence, had considerably reduced the number of offences, to be punished by the extreme penalty of the law.f The abhor- rence also, with which they viewed the sinful and disgusting traffic in men, practised at that period by most, if not every christian nation, prompted them to constitute as one of their capital offences, a participation in this wicked and odious com- merce. When, therefore, we compare these bright spots in their history, with the revolting conduct of their successors in the affair of the youthful Southwieks, how is the heinousness of the trans- action heightened, and a palliation of such cruel inconsistencies
* New England Judged, p. 90, Sewel, p. 224.
t They had reduced the number of capital offences to eleven.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 165
rendered impossible ! The authorised commission of a crime, for which their own laws had imposed the forfeiture of life, can only find its explanation in the excesses of a blind and barbarous bigotry, an explanation equally applicable to the darkest deeds of the Romish inquisition.
The failure of the rulers of Massachusetts to sell the two children of Laurence and Cassandra Southwick into bondage, did not deter them from making a similar attempt respecting others who were older. Edward Wharton and Samuel Gaskin, two Friends of Salem, who had already suffered severely for their religion, were soon after arrested for the non-attendance of public worship, and fined in the respective sums of £o. 10s. and d£'8. One of them, having no visible property to distrain upon for the fines, was sentenced to be sent to Barbadoes and sold as a slave. The cruel order, however, was never executed, arising it is supposed from the same cause which had frustrated the previous attempt. The authorities of Boston, it is evident, had not calcu- lated upon the difficulties which presented in their attempt to make slaves of their conscientious neighbours. Their design undoubtedly was, to carry out to some considerable extent this plan for extinguishing heresy ; in pursuance of which the General Court made a law in the Third Month, '' That all children and servants and others, that for conscience' sake cannot come to their meetings to worship, and have not estates in their hands to answer the fines, must be sold for slaves to Barbadoes or Virginia, or other remote parts ;"^ and so unblushingly did the rulers of the province proceed in this disgusting business, that the slave making order was *' proclaimed throughout the province."t The more effectually to hunt down the poor unresisting Quakers, the oflicei-s were instructed to use at their own discretion, all the powers of a search warrant. The following is a specimen of an order of this description given to the constable of Salem.
'' You are required, by virtue hereof, to search in all suspicio houses for private meetings ; and if they refuse to open the doors,
♦ New England a Degenerate Plant, p. lu. t Ibid, p. 10.
166 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
you are to break open the door upon them, and return the names
of all ye find to Ipswich court/'*
" William Hathorn/'
While the authorities of the Boston division of Massachusetts, were thus pursuing religious persecution, those of the Plymouth patent, were not idle in the same wicked work. In the Fourth Month, 1659, William Leddra, and Peter Pearson, whilst travel- ling in gospel labours in that colony, were arrested, and im- prisoned for ten months at Plymouth. The following extract from a letter written by Peter Pearson during his imprison- ment, gives a few particulars of the movements of himself and some of his friends prior to his arrest.
" Upon the Ninth-day of the Fourth Month, 1 659, the Fourth- day of the week, all of us English Friends that were abroad in this country, had a meeting upon Rhode Island. The Sixth-day fol- lowing, at a Ferry side, upon Rhode Island, one Friend, William Leddra, and I, parted with Christopher Holder, Marmaduke Stevenson, and William Robinson, we being about to pass over the ferry, to travel into this part of the country called Plymouth colony. At the end of two days' journey we came to a town therein, called Sandwich, and the day following had a pretty peaceable meeting, and it was with us, if we did escape appre- hension in this colony, to have travelled into Boston's jurisdic- tion ; but in the second meeting that we had at Sandwich, we were apprehended, and had before the governor and magistrates^ and by them committed to this prison, where we have remained five months and upward."-)*
" Written in Plymouth prison, in New Eng- ^^ ^^
land, the edh of the Tenth Month, 1659." //j^^ ^^CU^/^/lL^
Turning again to Boston, w^e find intolerant zeal fast approach- its climax of atrocity. William Robinson who arrived in
* New England Judged, p. 91.
t Call from Death to Life, (fee, printed 1660, p. 30.
165P.] NEW ENGLAND. 1^7
New England in 1657, but whose gospel labours had been mostly in Virginia, came in the early part of 1659, to Rhode Island; where he met with Marmaduke Stevenson, who had recently arrived from Barbadoes, with Peter Pearson. Whilst there, William Robinson was much affected on hearing of the sufferings of his fel- low-professors in Massachusetts, under the cruel law of banishment on pain of death, and, under a feeling of deep religious exercise, he believed it required of hira to proceed to that arena of cruelty to bear a testimony against such unholy proceedings. In alluding to this prospect of religious duty a short time after, he thus writes, '' On the Eighth-day of the Fourth Month, 1659, in the after part of the day, in travelling betwixt Newport and the house of Daniel Gould on Rhode Island, with my dear brother Christopher Holder, the word of the Lord came expressly unto me, and com- manded me to pass to the town of Boston, my life to lay down in his will, for the accomplishing of his service ; to which heavenly voice I presently yielded obedience, not questioning the Lord, who filled me with living strength and power from his heavenly presence, which at that time did mightily overshadow me : and my life said Amen, to what the Lord required of me.''* A similar impression of religious duty was felt by his companion Marmaduke Stevenson ; who had, even whilst in Barbadoes, a sense that such a service might be required of him, but which, he says, " I kept in my heart, and after I had been in Rhode Island a little time, visiting the seed, which the Lord had blessed, the word of the Lord came to me, saying. Go to Boston with thy brother William Robinson ; and at His command I was obedient, and gave up to his will/'-|-
Under such impressions, these dedicated men proceeded to Boston, and reached it about the middle of the Fourth Month, 1659. Their arrival was on one of the public fast days, and proceeding to one of the assemblies, they attempted to address the congregation, after the minister had concluded.
The presence of Quakers, thus boldly manifested, whilst it struck the company with surprise, excited the malevolent feelings
* i^ew England Judged, p. 95. t Ibid, p. 108.
168 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
of the minister and rulers, and, as will be readily supposed, they were quickly arrested by the constabulary, and summarily com- mitted to prison.
It happened that about the same period, Nicholas Davis of Sandwich, and Patience Scott, a young Friend of Providence, were also in Boston, and being Quakers, were committed to prison with William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, under the same warrant ; of which the following is a copy : —
" To THE Keeper of the Prison,
" You are by virtue hereof, required to take into your custody the persons of Nicholas Davis, William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Patience Scott, Quakers ; according to the law made in October, 1658 : to be sure to keep them close prisoners till the next Court of Assistants, whereby they are to be tried according to law ; not suffering any to come at them, or discourse with them, without special order from this court ; and allow them only prisoner's fare, unless it be in times of sickness.
" Edward Rawson, Secretary."
" Boston, June 19th, 1659."*
The object which drew Nicholas Davis to Boston on this occasion, was one of business only ; ''to reckon," says Bishop, f " with those with whom he traded, and to pay some debts.'' But that of Patience Scott *' was to bear witness against the perse- cuting spirit" of the rulers. The extreme youthfulness of Patience Scott renders her case a remarkable one, and deserving of further notice. She was one of the children of Richard and Katherine Scott of Providence, already mentioned. Though but a child of eleven years of age, it pleased the Most High to employ her in his holy cause, and to call her to go and plead with the cruel religionists of Massachusetts ; and she seems to have been several weeks in the city before her Imprisonment. In the course of her examination before the magistrates, she gave evidence of being endued with a wisdom above that of this world, " and spoke
* Secret Works, p. 19. t New England Judged, p. 93.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 169
SO well to the purpose, that she confounded her enemies.''* A narrative of the sufferings of Friends in New England, printed in 1659, thus mentions her. "They have imprisoned three men and a woman, whom they cast in prison with her clothes wet, and a child between ten and eleven years of age, who was moved of the Lord to go from her outward habitation 105 miles to Boston, where she was cast into prison, and being examined, her answers were so far beyond the ordinary capacity of a child of her years, that the governor confessed there was a spirit in her beyond the spirit of woman ; but being blind, and not seeing God perfecting his praise out of the child's mouth, he said it was the devil. "-f- William Robinson, in writing to George Fox about a month after their imprisonment, thus alludes to her. '' Here is a daughter of Katherine Scott, who is a prisoner in the gaoler's house : she is a fine child, and is finely kept : she is about eleven or twelve years of age, and is of good understanding. "J After an imprison- ment of about three months. Patience Scott was brought up for trial. The court, however, was somewhat perplexed with her case. Formally to banish a mere child for professing Quakerism, par- took too much of the ridiculous to be enforced, and at last it was concluded to discharge her. The record made on this occasion was singular. " The court duly considering the malice of Satan and his instruments, by all means and ways to propagate error and disturb the truth, and bring in confusion among us, — that Satan is put to his shifts to make use of such a child, not being of the years of discretion, nor understanding the principles of religion, judge meet so far to slight her as a Quaker, as only to admonish and instruct her according to her capacity, and so discharge her ; Captain Hutchinson undertaking to send her home."§ " Strange," observes an historian of the colony, *' that such a child should be imprisoned ! it would have been horrible if there had been any other severity." ||
Before we turn from this notice of Patience Scott, it may be observed that the fact of a person young as she was being called
* Sewel, p. 224. t Secret Works, p. 19.
X MSS. Letters of Early Friends.
§ Hutchinson's Massachusetts, vol. i. p. U)9.
il Ibid, vol. i. p. 200.
170 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
to the ministry, is not a solitary one in the history of Friends. George Newland, a youth of Ireland, entered upon this gospel service in his twelfth year ; he died ahout the age of nineteen, and about six years before his death, laboured in the churches in his native land, to the comfort and edification of his friends. Ellis Lewis, of Worth Wales, felt constrained to engage in the ministry in his thirteenth year. His first communication was made in the Eno-lish languao-e, with which he was not familiar, and it is stated to have been " remarkable and ten- dering.'' Another instance of early dedication and submission to this divine call, was that of the noted William Hunt, of North Carolina. He entered upon gospel labours when about fourteen. At eleven years of age he had remarkable openings in divine things. Christiana Barclay, the daughter of Robert Barclay the Apologist, also entered on this important work when about fourteen years old. Many other young persons among Friends in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth years of their age, it is well known, were also called by Him whose '' Spirit .bloweth where it listeth,'' to proclaim to others, the unsearchable riches of his heavenly kingdom. As an illustration of the power and efficacy which has attended the ministry of some of our youth- ful preachers, may be instanced the remarkable fact, that the Society of Friends in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridge, was first raised, and became very numerous, chiefly through the instrumentality of James Parnel, William Caton, and George Whitehead, before either of them had attained the age^of twenty years.
During his imprisonment, William Robinson, being desirous that his friends in Great Britain should be acquainted with the state of things in New England, addressed a letter to George Fox, the original of which is still preserved. The rarity of such docu- ments relating to America, together with the interesting parti- culars it contains, makes it valuable and worthy of being included in these pages.
From William Robinson to George Fox. G. F.
Oh! beloved of God, and highly honoured and esteemed among the children of the Lord, who hath made thee a father unto
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 171
thousands ; and hatli given thee the spirit of wisdom and of understanding. I was refreshed when I was constrained to write, to give thee an account of our travels and labours in these countries. I who am one of the least among my brethren, have been for some time in Virginia with Robert Hodgson and Christopher Holder, where there are many people convinced ; and some that are brought into the sense and feeling of Truth in several places. We left Thomas Thurston a prisoner in a place called ^[aryland ; his sentence was, to be kept a year and a day. We came lately to Rhode Island, where we did meet with two of our brethren, named Peter Pearson and Marmaduke Stevenson, in whom we were refreshed, and Friends on the island were glad to see us, and the honest-hearted were refreshed.
Peter Pearson and one William Leddra, are prisoners in this country, at a town called Plymouth, as I did understand by a letter I received from my brother Christopher Holder, who was in service at a town called Salem, last week, some fifteen miles from Boston, where I am now a prisoner, (with my brother Marmaduke Stevenson) for the testimony of Jesus. Soon after I came to Rhode Island, the Lord commanded me to pass to Boston, to bear my testimony against their persecution and to try their bloody law which they have made, with laying down of my life, if they have power to take it from me ; for truly I am given up in my spirit into the hand of the Lord to do with me as He sees meet ; for verily, my life is laid down, and my spirit is freely given up for the service of God, whereunto he hath called me.
The rulers, priests, and people, do boast much in their hearts, that they have caused some to fly, for they have banished six Friends upon death, from their outward beings which was at Salem, and they have stooped to them in flying the cross in departing. Three of them are gone towards Barbadoes, and intend for England, it may be for London, whose names are Samuel Shafctock, Nicholas Phelps, and Josiah Southwick ; Josiah's father and mother are passed to a place called Shelter Island, which belongs to a Friend, one Nathaniel Silvester, who is a fine, noble man ; and the other of the six are gone to Rhode Island. Oh ! God knows how near this went to me, when I did
172 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
hear that they were departed, and soon did the Lord lay it upon me to try their law ; yea, on the same day that I heard of their departure was I constrained, and soon made willing to give up my life, Boston's bloody laws to try ; and was given up frequently in my spirit into the Lord's will, even to finish my testimony for the Lord, against the town of Boston ; not knowing of any Friend to pass with me at that time, but the Lord had compassion on me, seeing how willingly I was given up to do his will, not count- ing my life dear to me, so that I might finish my course with joy ; and on the day following, the Lord constrained my brother, M. S. [Marmaduke Stevenson] to pass along with me to Boston, who is freely given up to suffer with me for the seed's sake, who doth dearly salute thee. Oh ! my dearly beloved, thou who art endued with power from on High ; who art of a quick dis- cerning in the fear of our God ; Oh ! remember us — let thy prayers be put up unto the Lord God for us, that his power and strength may rest with us and upon us ; that, faithful, we may be preserved to the end. Amen.
William Robinson.
From the Common Gaol in Boston, the 12th of the Fifth Mo. '59.
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CHAPTEH X.
!Mary Dyer leaves her home on Rhode Island, and proceeds to Boston- is imprisoned — M. Stevenson, W. Robinson, N. Davis, and M. Dyer are sentenced to banishment on pain of death — M. Dyer returns home — W. Robinson and M. Stevenson go to Salem, &c. — M. Dyer returns to Boston, and is again arrested — Mary Scott, Robert Harper, Daniel and Provided Southwick, and Nicholas Upshal are imprisoned at Boston — W. Robinson and M. Stevenson return to Boston, and are again imprisoned — Daniel Gould and several Friends of Salem also imprisoned at Boston — W. Robinson, M. Stevenson, and Mary Dyer are sentenced to be executed — The procession to the place of execu- tion described — W. Robinson and M. Stevenson are executed — M, Dyer is reprieved, and returns home — Brief notices of the lives of W. Robinson and M. Stevenson — John Chamberlain, Edward Wharton, Daniel Gould, and several others are scourged — Christopher Holder banished on pain of death — Persecutions in Plymouth Colony — John Taylor visits New England.
Mary Dyer has already been noticed, both as an Antinomiati exile from Massachusetts, and as having been expelled from Boston in 1657, and from New Haven in 1658, when visiting those places as a minister of the Gospel. This dedicated woman, hearing of the new species of persecution, and of the imprison- ment of four of her fellow-professors at Boston, believed herself called to visit them, in order to comfort and encourage them under their trials. On reaching the city, she was very soon brought before the magistrates for examination as a Quaker, which re- sulted in her committal until the next Court of Assistants.
The Court of Assistants referred to, was a court consisting of the governor, deputy governor, and magistrates of Boston. It met in the early part of the Seventh Month, then called September. Before this tribunal the imprisoned Friends, were
174 FEW ENGLAND. [1659
examined, and, excepting Patience Scott, all received sentence of banishment, on pain of death, if found within the limits of that jurisdiction \Yithin two days after their release from prison. William Robinson, being desirous that the magistrate's should fully understand that they came to those parts under a feeling of religious duty, and not in their own wills only, pleaded with them on the iniquitous course they were pursuing. '' If they did put them to death," he said, ''for transgressing their law, they would become guilty of shedding innocent blood ;"* " with many more expressions, ''f observes Peter Pearson, '' that cut them to the quick." But the persecuting court were not inclined to listen to the remonstrances of their victim, and he was silenced by having a handkerchief rudely thrust into his mouth. Again he attempted to address . them respecting their cruel law, when the magistrates ''in a great rage," and "looking upon him as a teacher,":]: sentenced him to receive twenty lashes. He was forthwith taken into the streets of the city, stripped to the waist, and subjected to the degrading punishment.
The wicked sentence having been passed, Rawson, pursuant to the direction of the court, issued the followins: warrant to the gaoler : —
*' You are required by these, presently to set at liberty, William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, Mary Dyer, and Nicholas Davis ; who, by an order of the court of council, had been im- prisoned, because it appeared by their own confession, words, anc actions, that they are Quakers ; wherefore a sentence was pro- nounced against them, to depart this jurisdiction on pain of death ; and that they must answer it at their peril, if they, or any of them, after the 14th of this present month, September, are found within this jurisdiction, or any part thereof.
" Edward Rawson, Secretary." *' Boston, September I2th, 1659.§"
* Call from Death, &c. p. 31.
t Peter Pearson's letter in Call from Death, (fee. p. 31.
X New England Judged, p. 96.
§ Sewel, p. 226.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 175
Having thus received their discharge, Nicholas Davis pro- ceeded to his home at Sandwich, and Mary Dyer felt liberty to return to Rhode Island. But William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, under a deep sense of religious duty, believed it re- quired of them to remain in the colony, and on the day following their liberation they proceeded to Salem, where they endeavoured to strengthen and encourao;e their friends to stand fast in this day of trial. Daniel Gould of Rhode Island, who had become acquainted with these two servants of the Lord, thought it right to be with them under their perilous circumstances, and joined them at Salem.* Here, he remarks, "the people were much exercised in their minds concerning them ; and some were willing to hear ; but by reason of their cruel law, were afraid to have meetings at their houses. They had a meeting in the woods, not far from Salem, and great flocking there was to hear. The Lord was mightily with them, and they spake of the things of God boldly, to the affecting and tendering the hearts of many."t William Robinson, writing to Christopher Holder from this place, says, " we were, and are gladly received here, and the seed hath been reached in many — we have had two fine meetings. ''J Leaving Salem, they proceeded northward as far as Piscattaway, and as they went, '' found the people very tender and loving.''§ Their continued presence in the colony was regarded by many of the inhabitants, as a proof of great devotedness to their Lord ; and gave rise to much inquiry concerning the doctrines they were promulgating. " Divers,'' says Peter Pearson, '' were convinced, the power of the Lord accompanying them ; and with astonish- ment confounded their enemies before them : great was their service abroad in that jurisdiction for four weeks and upwards.''||
Whilst William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson were thus travelling in the service of their Great Master, Mary Dyer, under a feeling of religious constraint, returned to Boston, accom- panied by Hope Clifton, a Friend of Rhode Island. They entered the city on the Sth of Eighth Month, and on the following morn-
* A Narrative, <fec., by D. Gould, p. 5. f Ibid, p. 6.
; Call from Death, (fcc, p. 20. § D. Gould's Narrative, p. 5.
II P. Pearson's Letter in Call, <fec. p. 31.
176 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
ing proceeded to the gaol to visit Christopher Holder, who, after labouring in the gospel, in the north of Massachusetts, came to Boston, with an intention to take shipping for England, where he was arrested and imprisoned. Mary Dyer was soon recog- nised and placed under arrest, together with her companion Hope Clifton. On the same day was also committed Mary Scott, who came to visit Christopher Holder, with whom she was under an engagement of marriage. Robert Harper, of Sandwich, who had come to Boston on business, was also arrested as a Quaker, and imprisoned with them. In addition to these, the gaoler had in his custody Daniel and Provided Southwick, and the good old Nicholas Upshal, who, after a banishment of three years, had returned to see his wife and family. But although this con- scientious man had been an exile for so long a period, it was not considered a sufficient expiation of his crime in favouring Quaker opinions, and he was thus given to understand, that he was still regarded as a criminal in their estimation.
But a very few days had elapsed after the committal of Mary Dyer, before William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson again made their appearance in Boston. Having finished their religious engagements in the north of the province, they returned by way of Salem, accompanied by several Friends of that place ;* having been absent rather more than four weeks. The Friends who came with them on this perilous occasion were Daniel Gould, Hannah the wife of the exiled Nicholas Phelps, William King, Mary Trask, Margaret Smith, and Alice Cowland, the latter of whom " brought linen to wrap the dead bodies of those who were to suffer.^'t " These,'' says Bishop, '^ all came together, in the moving and power of the Lord, as one man, to look their bloody laws in the face, and to try them."*'J
This return of William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, forms one of the most striking and remarkable incidents in the his- tory of Friends. Banished the colony of Massachusetts on pain of death, instead of obeying, they disregard the unrighteous mandate, and proceed at once to preach within its limits, and to make converts
* New England Judged, p. 97. f Ibid, p. 97.
; Ibid, p. 97.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 177
to the doctrines, for the profession of which, the dreadful sentence had been passed upon them. Engaged thus for the space of a month, they next go, under the apprehended constrainings of a divine call, to lay down their lives a willing sacrifice, and to evince to highly professing New England, the impotence of their persecuting edicts to stay the work of the Lord. The conclusion, thus to ofier their lives for the cause of truth, excites in the minds of their newly convinced brethren the tenderest emotions, and, regardless of the consequences of the step, seven of them, under a sense of duty, accompany the exiled strangers to Boston. The mournful little company, as they left Salem, bearing with them the habiliments for the dead, partook much of the character of a funeral procession ; and as they drew towards the persecuting city, they felt that they were approaching the spot, where they were to witness the martyrdom of two beloved servants of Christ.
The constabulary, having been apprised of the approach of the banished Friends and their companions, went forth " with a rude company,"* and arrested them. After a mocking and scoffing ex- amination by the magistrates, the whole of them were committed to prison, the gaoler being specially instructed to place William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson in chains, and to keep them in a separate cell. They were also searched, and all their papers, including William Robinson's journal, were taken from them.f There were now no less than seventeen persons in the gaols of Boston for professing Quakerism. " Their prisons," observes Bishop, ''begin to fill.'' Thus, notwithstanding the extreme nature of the persecuting law, at no previous date had the city wit- nessed the presence of so many of the sect which the rulers were vainly endeavouring to crush. This extraordinary circumstance has attracted the notice of historians. " The Quakers," remarks a modern writer, " swarmed where they were feared. "J
The rulers had now in custody three individuals whose con- tinued presence in the colony subjected them, under the late sanguinary law, to the forfeiture of their lives. These three, William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson and Mary Dyer, were brought before the General Court on the 19th of the Seventh
* Gould, p. 6. t Gould; p. 6. l Bancroft's United States.
178 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
Month, 1659. Endicott, who presided, '* demanded why they came again into that jurisdiction after being banished upon pain of death. ''"^ To this the prisoners severally replied, that they came only in obedience to a Divine call.f The situation of the court was peculiar. The law that had been passed for proceeding to the extreme penalty of death, was clearly applicable to the parties arraigned. But vindictive and cruel, as Endicott and Bellino^ham and their fellow-mao^istrates had shown themselves, they evidently shrank from the horrible deed of imbruing their hands in blood. After telling the prisoners '' that he desired not their death, and that they had liberty to speak for themselves/ 'J and querying with them why sentence of death should not be passed upon them, Endicott directed the gaoler to take them away. Baffled as the£3 bigoted and intolerant rulers were, they yet paused, ere they put forth their hands to slay their fellow- professors of the christian name, for merely dissenting from certain religious opinions.
On the following day, being one of the public meeting days, the officiating minister, in addressing his auditory, alluded to the presence of so many of the "cursed sect'' among them. Instead of endeavouring to inculcate feelings of tenderness and love, he prostituted his eloquence to the wicked purpose of exciting his hearers to hatred and revenge, and urged them on to one of the darkest deeds of ecclesiastical power. The rulers, says Bishop, thus "heated by their priest, and prepared to shed the blood of the innocent, sent for the prisoners again.''§ On their being brought into court, Endicott, after directing the gaoler to pull off their hats, and without any preparatory proceedings, began to pass sentence of death upon them in these words, " We have made many laws, and endeavoured by several ways to keep you from us ; and neither whipping, nor imprisonment, nor cutting off ears, nor banishment on pain of death, will keep you from among us. I desired not your deaths : give ear and hearken to your sentence/' II Here Endicott, whose proceedings had been
♦ New England Judged, p. 97. + Ibid, p. 98. ;; Ibid, p. 98.
§ Ibid, p. 98. II W. Robinson's Letter in Call, &c. p. 24.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 179
marked "with much fear/'* made a stop, for, observes Bishop, *' he spoke faintly as a man whose life was departing from him, for the hand of the Lord was upon him."-|- At this juncture William Robinson requested permission to read a document which he had prepared, setting forth the reason why he had not departed the colony. But Endicott, excited by the in- terruption, replied, " you shall not read it, nor will the court hear it read.''J William Robinson then calmly laid it on the table, and it was handed up to Endicott, who, after having quietly read the document to himself, proceeded thus to finish the horrible sentence, " You shall be had back to the place from whence you came, and from thence to the place of execution, to be hanged on the gallows till you are dead.''§
William Robinson having been removed, Marmaduke Stevenson was called to receive a similar sentence. Endicott, before pro- ceeding, said to him, II '^ If you have any thing to say, you may speak ;'' but the prisoner seeing the manner in which his com- panion had been treated, made no reply. The governor tben pronounced the awful sentence of death against him in the usual form, after which, Marmaduke, under a feeling of Divine authority,^ thus addressed the court, " Give ear, ye magistrates, and all who are guilty, for this the Lord hath said concerning you, and will perform his word upon you. That the same day ye put his servants to death, shall the day of your visitation pass over your heads, and you shall be cursed for evermore ; the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it. Therefore, in love to you all, I exhort you to take warning before it be too late, that so the curse may be removed. For assuredly, if you put us to death, you will bring innocent blood upon your own heads, and swift destruction will come upon you.''** Mary Dyer was next called, and the same dreadful sentence having been pronounced on her, she meekly replied, " The will of the Lord be done.""tt Endicott, irritated at the calm and dignified manner in which the sentence
* Nicholson's Standard of the Lord lifted up, p. 22. t New England Judged, p. 98. Call, &c., p. 24. t Ibid, p. 98. § Ibid, p. 99. II Nicholson, p. 22.
IT Nicholson, p. 23. ** Besse, vol. ii. p. 199. tf Call, &c., p. 26. VOL. I. N
180 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
was received, impatiently said, '' take her away marshal ;" but she, undisturbed by the unfeeling order, replied, " yea, joyfully shall I go ;"* and so favoured was she with heavenly joy and consolation, that on her way to the prison, she frequently uttered praises to the Most High, for the evidences of His love, and that she was counted worthy to suffer for His name. Whilst under sentence of death, she wrote a close remonstrance to the General Court relative to their wicked law.
*' Were ever such laws," she says, " heard of among a people that profess Christ come in the flesh ? Have you no other weapons but such laws, to fight against spiritual wickedness withal, as you call it ? Woe is me for you. You are disobedient and deceived. Let my request be as Esther's to Ahasuerus. You will not then repent that you were kept from shedding of blood, though it was by a woman. "f
The day appointed for the execution, was the 27th of the Seventh Month, being one week after the condemnation, and the usual meeting day of the Church in Boston. The week which thus intervened, was a memorable one in the history of that city. The fact of the gallows being about to be called into requisition for the support of religion, produced an ex- citement of no ordinary character. It was a fresh shock to the feelings of most of the inhabitants. " They stood amazed, and wondered at such cruelty.^'j " The thing struck among them," says a narrator of the circumstance, " and struck a fear in the magistrates, where no fear had been.'' Throughout the per- secution of Friends in New England, it had been an especial object with the rulers, to prevent their having any intercourse with the colonists, during their imprisonment. On the present occasion, however, the sympathy of the people was stronger than the words of their rulers, and they flocked to the prison windows to hear the ministrations of the conscientious victims."§ On the morning of the day on which the execution was to take place, " there came,'' says Daniel Gould, " a multitude of people about
* Call, (fee, p. 26. t Besse, vol. ii. p. 202.
X William Robinson's letter, in Besse vol. ii. p. 244. § New England Judged, p. 99.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 181
the prison, and we being in an upper room, William Robinson, put forth his head at a window, and spake to the people concern- ing the things of God ; at which the people flocked about, earnest to hear, and gave serious attention. But,'' he continues, " quickly it was noised in the town that much people was about the prison to see the Quakers, and that the Quakers were speak- ing to them, upon which came Oliver, (a captain, a very fit man for their purpose) and a company with him, to disperse the people ; but they being so many, and willing to hear, he could not drive them away/'^ The captain, anxious to stop the preach- ing of the Friends, and finding himself unable to disperse the assemblage, proceeded to take other means to accomplish his purpose. " He came,'' says Daniel Gould, " in a fret and heat to us within, and furiously hurling some of us down stairs, left us not, till he had shut us up in a little low dark cub, where we could not see the people. "•!• But though thus persecuted for the cause of their dear Lord, they felt Him near to sustain them> and realized his ancient promise, " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." " As we sat together waiting upon the Lord," observes one of them, " it was a time of love ; for as the world hated us, and despitefully used us, so the Lord was pleased in a wonderful manner, to manifest his supporting love and kindness to us in our innocent sufferings ; especially to the worthies who had now near finished their course — for God had given them a sure word, that their souls should rest in eternal peace. God was with them, and many sweet and heavenly say- ings they gave unto us, being themselves filled with comfort."|
Whilst these things were passing at the prison, the magistrates and others were assembled at their meeting. Here, as on the week previous, the minister spoke abundantly of " the diabolical doctrines" and horrid tenets of, as he was wont to term them, ''the cursed sect of Quakers." "Their lecture being ended ; the priest having sharpened and hardened them for the service,"§ the officers, in pursuance of the bloody work, proceeded to the
* Gould's Narrative, p. 8. t Ibid, p. 8.
I Ibid, p. 9. § Ibid, p. 9.
N 2
182 NEW ENGLAND. [1659,
prison with an escort of two hundred '' armed men, with drums and colours, and halberds, guns, swords and pikes, besides many horse- men.""* " While we were yet embracing each other, and taking leave, with full and tender hearts," observes one of the prisoners, '' the officers came in and took the two from us, as sheep for the slauo'hter."i- These two were William Robinson, and Marmadiike Stevenson ; the house of correction having been selected as the place of Mary Dyer's imprisonment. Every thing being prepared, the procession began its march towards Boston Common, the destined place of execution, being about one mile distant. The authorities, as though conscious of the wickedness of the deed, and fearing the excitement of the citizens, directed the course to be taken by a back-way, and not through the direct thoroughfare of the city.
The motley concourse, as it proceeded with its Boston priest, and Boston soldiery, the city officials, and the condemned ; with colours flying, and drums beating, together with the unmarshalled multitude which the impending demonstration had attracted, presented a scene strongly analogous to the procession of an auto-da-fe of Eoman Catholic Spain. Except, indeed, that in the one case, the victims were to be led to the gibbet, and in the other to the stake, there seems such an identity of proceeding, that it is difficult to realize the idea that the abettors of this revolting spectacle, professed to be the uncompromising opposers of papacy.
It might have been expected that at least some little regard would be paid to the feelings of those who were now so soon to be launched into eternity, but the want of decorum exhibited towards the condemned at this awful period, was revolting in the highest degree. The rulers, dreading the voice of public remonstrance from the victims of their malignity, in order to frustrate any such attempt, directed the drummers to walk immediately before them, with special instructions for a louder beat, should either of them begin to speak : when therefore, William Robinson began to
* E. Burrough's declaration of the sad and great persecution, p. 24. t Gould's Narrative, p. 9,
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 183
address the people, his voice was quickly drowned amid the in- creased diu, and all that could be heard was, *' this is your hour and [the] power of darkness." The drums having ceased a little, Marmaduke Stevenson said, " This is the day of your visitation, wlierein the Lord hath visited you.*"* He said more, but the drums being again beaten, it could not be heard.
The pious sufferers, although deprived of outward quiet and solemnity at this awful time, were neverthele:>s wonderfully sup- ported, and favoured with great serenity of mind, and, under the feeling of the Divine presence which was largely vouchsafed to them, they rose superior to all the clamour and indignities to which they were exposed ; and, as they proceeded, walking hand in hand, to the place of execution, " glorious signs of heavenly joy and gladness were beheld in their counten;mces,"t and they rejoiced that the Lord had counted them worthy to suffer for his name's sake.
It can excite no surprise that many of those engaged in this wicked work were strangers to sensibility of mind, and the marshal appears to have been one of these. This active official, observing that Mary Dyer walked between her condemned com- panions, coarsely and tauntingly said to her, " Are you not ashamed to walk thus between two young men ?'"* " No," answered Mary Dyer, to the repulsive observation, " this is to me an hour of the greatest joy I ever had in this world. No ear can hear, no tongue can utter, and no heart can understand, the sweet incomes and the refreshings of the Spirit of the Lord, which I now feel.''| Wilson, the *' minister of Boston," appears to have been another of this class. Having made himself conspicuous in urging the rulers to the use of the gallows against Friends, he countenanced the present proceedings in a manner which stigmatizes him as a ruthless and hardened persecutor. Whilst the dismal group was on its way, this high professor joined in the train, and wickedly glorying in the transaction, began " taunting William Robinson ;" and " shaking his
♦ Sewel, p. 224. t Ihid, p. 224.
X Sewel, p. 231.
184 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
hand in a light scoffing manner/' in low and vulgar language thus addressed him. " Shall such Jacks as you come in before authority with their hats on ?" The observation occasioned William Robinson to say to the spectators, " Mind you, mind you, it is for not putting off the hat we are put to death. ''"^
Having reached the Common, the faithful sufferers now took a final farewell of each other. William Robinson was selected as the first to undergo the sentence, and having ascended the ladder, he thus addressed the multitude : " we suffer, not as evil doers, but as those who have testified and manifested the truth. This is the day of your visitation, and therefore 1 desire you to mind the Light of Christ, which is in you, to which I have borne tes- timony, and am now going to seal my testimony with my blood.'' Short as the address was, it was too long for Wilson. This im- placable professor, vexed at beholding the martyrs display so little fear of death, and the fortitude and joyful resignation with which they were favoured, interrupted William Robinson, and vented his impetuous virulence by saying, " hold thy tongue — be silent — thou art going to die wilh a lie in thy mouth.'^f The executioner having fastened the rope around his neck, bound his hands and feet, and drawn his neckcloth over his face, he said " Now are ye made manifest ;" lis last words being, " I suffer for Christ, in whom I live, and for whom I die.'' Marmaduke Stevenson was the next to suffer, and having mounted the ladder, he thus addressed the spectators — " Be it known unto you all this day, that we suffer not as evil-doers, but for conscience' sake ;" adding a few moments before he was turned off, " this day shall we be at rest with the Lord."J
Mary Dyer, who saw the lifeless bodies of her companions suspended before her, was now called to undergo the like igno- minious death. She calmly ascended the ladder — her clothes Avere bound around her feet — her face was covered and the halter adjusted, and in a few seconds her resigned and purified spirit would have been for ever free from all the trials of time ; but at
♦ New England Judged, p. 101. t Ibid, p. 101.
t Sewel, p. 224.
1659.] • NEW ENGLAND. 185
this aAvful moment the silence which prevailed over the gazing assembly was suddenly broken by the distant cry, " Stop ! she is reprieved/'* Her life had been granted at the intercession of her son. The announcement though heard with gladness by many who witnessed the horrid spectacle, bore no tidings of joy to Mary Dyer. So entirely resigned was she to the prospect of death, and so favoured with divine consolation, that she seemed to be already participating in the joys of eternity. '' Her mind,'' says a historian, '' was already in heaven, and when they loosened her feet and bade her come down, she stood still, and said she was there willing to suffer as her brethren had, unless they would annul their wicked law.^'f The officers, however, disregarding her expressions, pulled her down, and under the care of the marshal she was re-conducted to prison, where her son was waiting to receive her.
Having thus sacrificed two victims to their intolerance, these persecutors had done enough to satisfy even an extreme malignity, but not enough it appears, to glut their desires for blood. To add to the atrocities of the spectacle, even the remains of the sufferers were subjected to the revenge which characterised these proceedings. The bodies after hanging the usual time were cut down, and no pains I eing taken to prevent it, they fell violently to the ground, the skull of William Robinson being fractured by the fall. They were then stripped, thrown into a pit, and there left uncovered. Those who had been denied the request to provide coffins, and to give the remains a decent interment, fearing that the bodies thus exposed would be devoured by the wild animals which then infested the country, requested permission to erect a fence around the pit, but even this reasonable application was disregarded ; and had not the hole been soon filled with water, the bodies would in all probability have been food for the beasts of the forest. To complete this wicked and disgusting business, the notorious Wilson, as a yet further exhibition of his malice, actually made a song on the two martyrs. For the cause of humanity and for the cause of religion, it is well that the pages
• Sewel, p. 232. t Ibid. p. 232.
186
i^EW ENGLAND.
[1659.
of Anglo-Saxon history are not sullied by many such exhi- bitions of human malevolence. Protestantism at least has not an equal to so atrocious a transaction. May it never be stained by a similar exhibition !
Before passing from the martyrdom of William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, it may be well to notice a few particulars of them that have been preserved.
William Robinson.
The earliest notice that we find respecting William Robinson, is that of his voyage to New England in the '' Woodhouse," in the
The accompanying plan of Boston, is taken from an ancient one in the British Museum. About the year 1663, Boston was described in Johnson's Wonder Working Providence, in the following manner : —
" Invironed it is with brinish flood, saving one small istmos, which
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 187
year 1G57. He was a man of good education, and in very respect- able circumstances, his occupation being that of a merchant in the City of London.* His father was living at the time of his execution, and instituted some inquiry respecting it. On the day when he received sentence of death, he addressed the following epistle to his fellow-prisoners : —
*' Dear Brethren and Sisters,
" To whom my love abounds ; I am filled with pure love unto you all ; dear lambs, feel it in your own lives, and receive it into your own hearts as new oil ; for truly the fear of the Lord is our strength, and the blessing of the Lord is our portion, which the Lord doth daily give nnto us ; blessed be his name for ever. Oh ! let us all keep in lowliness, and holiness, and meekness, and tender love one towards another, which is the seal and witness that the Lord is with us ; where the Lord for ever keeps us stayed on him, to receive our daily bread, which satisfieth the hungry soul.
" Dear friends, brethren and sisters, this I am constrained to let you know, how mightily the love of the Lord our God abounds in my heart, towards you all ; it runs forth as a living stream,
gives free access to the neighbouring towns by land, on the south side, on the north-west and north-east. Two constant fairs are kept for daily trafique thereunto. The form of this town is Uke a heart, naturally situated for fortifications, having two hills on the frontier part thereof next the sea, the one well fortified on the superficies thereof, with store of great artillery well mounted : the other hath a very strong battery built of whole timber, and filled with earth. At the descent of the hill, in the extreme point thereof, betwixt these two strong arms, lies a cove or bay, on which the chief part of this town is built, overtopped with a third hill ; all these, like overtopping towers, keep a constant watch to see the approach of foreign danger, being furnished with a beacon, and loud babbling guns, to give notice by their redoubled echo to all the sister towns. The chief edifice of this city-like town is crowded on the sea-banks, and wharfed out with great labour and cost ; the buildings beautiful and large, some fairly set forth with brick, tile, stone, and slate, and orderly placed with seemly streets, whose continual enlargement presageth some sumptuous city."
* Bishop, p. 93.
188 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
refreshing the spirit and life — I was the first that our heavenly Father did lay this thing upon, for which I now suAct bonds near unto death ; from the first day until now, the weight of the thing lay upon me from the Lord God, and in obedience to his holy will and command I gave up ; in which obedience the arm and power of the Lord hath been, and is with me this day ; and the thing which the Lord had said unto me, still remains with me, that my life must accomphsh the thing, and by it must the powers of darkness fall, and yet will they seek and labour to take it from me, and through much difiiculty will they be suffered, to the glory of our God, and to the rejoicing of the elect.
" So, my dear brethren and sisters, my love and my life feel in your hearts, for I am full unto you all in heavenly joy. The Lord for ever keep us all as we are now, to the glory of his name, Amen. This was I moved to write unto you all, my dear brethren and sisters, my fellow-prisoners, that have any part, or do partake with me herein.
" Your dear brother, in holy and heavenly joy, and true love and peace.
" William Robinson."^ " Written in the Hole of the Condemned, in Boston gaol in New England, the First- day of the week, being the 16th day of the Eighth Month, 1659."
Four days before his death he wrote an epistle " To the Lord's people.'' The heavenly state of his mind, and the complete re- signation with which he was favoured at this awful season, is very fully developed in this address, and we cannot better close the notice of him than by inserting the following extract from it : —
" The streams of my Father's love run daily through me, from the Holy Fountain of Life, to the seed throughout the whole creation. I am overcome with love, for it is my life and length of my days ; it is my glory and my daily strength. —
" I am full of the quickening power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and my lamp is filled with pure oil, so that it gives a clear light * Besse, vol. ii. p. 247.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 189
and pleasant smell ; and I sliall enter with my beloved into eternal rest and peace, and I shall depart with everlasting joy in my heart, and praises in my mouth, singing hallelujah unto the Lord, who hath redeemed me by his living power from amongst kindreds, tongues, and nations. And now the day of my depar- ture draweth near. I have fought a good fight; I have kept the holy faith ; I have near finished my course ; my travailing is near at an end ; my testimony is near to be finished, and an eternal crown is laid up for me, and for all whose feet are shod with righteousness, and the preparation of peace, even such Avhose names are written in the book of life, wherein I live and rejoice with all the faithful for evermore.
" Written by a servant of Jesus Christ,
" Willi AxM Kobinson.'' The 23rd of the Eighth Month, 1659.*
Marmaduke Stevenson.
Marmaduke Stevenson was an agriculturist of Shipton, near Market Weighton, in Yorkshire. The earliest account of him is contained in a paper which he put forth at Boston shortly before his execution, designated his " Call to the work and service of the Lord.'' It begins thus : — " In the beginning of the year 1655, I was at plough in the east part of Yorkshire, in Old England, and as I walked after the plough, I was filled with the love and presence of the living God, which did ravish my heart when I felt it, for it did increase and abound in me like a living stream, which made me to stand still. And as I stood a little still, with my heart and mind stayed upon the Lord, the word of the Lord came to me in a still small voice, which I heard perfectly, saying to me in the secret of my heart : ' I have ordained thee a prophet unto the nations ;' and at the hearing of the word of the Lord I was put to a stand, seeing that I was but a child, for such a weighty matter. So at the time appointed, Barbadoes was set before me, unto which I was re- quired of the Lord to go, and leave my dear and loving wife and tender children ; for the Lord said unto me, immediately by his
* Besse, vol. ii. p. 248.
190 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
Spirit, that he would be as an husband to my wife, and as a father to my children, and they should not want in my absence, for he would provide for them/' Notwithstanding the prospect which he thus had in 1655, he did not leave his native land until the Fourth Month, 1658, when he embarked for Barbadoes with several other gospel messengers.
During his imprisonment at Boston, he wrote his " Call to the work and service of the Lord,'' already referred to, and also a long address to his ^' neighbours and the people of the town of Shipton, Weighton, and elsewhere," entitled '' A Call from Death to Life, out of the dark Ways and Worships of the world, where the Seed is held in bondage, under the Merchants of Babylon." In this piece he affectionately warns those who were living in for- getfulness of God, " to lend an ear to His call, while he knocked at the door of their hearts." '' Oh," he writes, " my love runs out to you all in compassion and pity to your souls, which lie in death, as mine hath done ; but the Lord in his eternal love and pity to my soul, hath redeemed me from my fallen estate, and raised my soul from death to life, out of the pit, wherein it lay dead in trespasses and sins. And seeing the Lord hath done this for me, I cannot but declare it to the sons of men, and praise his Name in the land of the living, who hath done great things for me. When I consider, and ponder it in my heart, my soul is ravished with his love, and broken into tears at his kindness towards me, who was by nature a child of wrath as well as others. Oh ! the consideration of his love hath constrained me to follow him, and to give up all for his sake, if it be the laying down of my life ; for none are the disciples of Christ, but they that follow him in his cross, and through sufferings, and they that love any thing more than him, ' are not worthy of him.' The Lord knows I do not forget you, though I be thousands of miles from you, be- cause of the simplicity that was in some of you, who were my neighbours and acquaintance ; for I am one who has obtained mercy from the Lord, through judgment and great tribulation, which all must pass through before they come into the land of Canaan : they must be regenerate and born again, and know a dying to sin, and that which they have delighted in, before they witness a living to righteousness : the old man must be put off
1659. J NEW ENGLAND. 191
with his deeds, before the new man Christ Jesus, be put on, the Son of the living God." " The desire of my soul is," he con- tinues, " that you may not perish in your gainsayings, and for this end was this written unto you, as I was moved of the Lord, knowing that you are where I once was, in the perishing state, like the prodigal from the Father's house, in the i\ir country, feeding upon the husks, with the swine. This was my state and condition for many years ; but in the time appointed the Lord looked upon me with an eye of pity, and called me home to him- self, out of the far country, where I was feeding on the husks with the swine, into the banqueting house, where my soul is re- freshed, nourished, and fed with the hidden manna and bread of life."*
He also wrote a few days before his martyrdom, a letter " To the Lord's People," which strikingly evidences the prepared state of his mind in the near prospect of death, as will appear from the following extract : —
" Oh ! my dear and well-beloved ones, who are sealed with me in the holy covenant of our Father's love, my love and life runs out to you all who are chosen of God and faithful ; for you are dear unto me, the Lord knows it, and are as seals upon my breast. You lambs of my Father's fold, and sheep of his pasture, the remembrance of you is precious to me, my dearly beloved ones, who are of the holy seed, and bear the right image, which springs from the true vine and offspring of David, the stock of Abraham, the father of the faithful, and the redeemed ones, who are recon- ciled to God and one to another, in that which sea and land cannot separate ; here you may feel me knit and joined to you, in the spirit of truth, and linked to you as members of his body ; who is our head, and rock of sure defence to fly unto ; here we are kept safe in the hour of temptation ; and in the day of trial shall we be preserved in the hollow of his hand ; here his banner of love will be over us, to compass us about ; here we shall have recourse to the living springs, which come from the pure fountain and well-spring of life, which issues forth abundantly to refresh the hungry, and strengthen the feeble-minded ; here you may * Besse, vol. ii. p. 256.
192 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
feel me, my beloved ones, in the green pastures, among the lilies of the pleasant springs, where our souls are bathed and refreshed together, with the overcomings of God's love, and the virtue of his presence, which is as precious ointment poured forth, giving a pleasant smell.
"So my dear friends ! let us always wait at the altar of the Lord, to see the table spread ; that so we may sit down and eat together, and be refreshed with the hidden manna, and living food of life, that comes from Him who is our life, our peace, our strength, and our Preserver night and day. 0 ! my beloved ones ! let us all go on in his strength, who is our Prince and Saviour, that his image we may bear, who is meek and lowly in heart, and mind the true and sure foundation of many generations, the chief Corner Stone, elect and precious ; the Eock of Ages on which the saints were built ; and if we all abide thereon, we shall never be moved, but stand for ever as trees of righteousness, rooted and grounded in Him, who will be with us in all our trials and temptations ; and here will the Lord our God be honoured by us all that are faithful unto death : and we shall assuredly have a crown of life which will never be taken from us.
" Oh ! my beloved ones, what shall I say unto you, who drink with me at the living fountain, where we are nourished and brought up : where I do embrace you in the bond of peace which never will be broken. 0 ! feel me and read me in your hearts ; for I am filled with love when I think upon you, and broken into tears ; for the remembrance of you doth refresh my soul, which makes me often to think upon you, you jewels of my Father, and first fruits of his increase. If I forget you, then let the Lord forget me. Nay, verily, you cannot be forgotten by me : so long as I abide in the vine, I am a branch of the same nature with you, which the Lord hath blessed, where we grow tos^ether in his life and image, as members of his body ; where we shall live together to all eternity, and sit down in the kingdom of rest and peace, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to sing the songs of deliverance to the Most High that sits on the throne, who alone is worthy of all honour and living praise, to whom it is due now and for ever. Amen.''*
* Besse, vol. ii. p. 249.
1659.] NEW ENGLAND. 193
On the day following the execution of her two Friends, Mary Dyer addressed their persecuting judges, in a strain of sublimity, displaying a boldness and fortitude of mind, with such a deep sense of their iniquitous proceedings, as was calculated strongly to impress them. " Once more to the General Court assembled in Boston, speaks Mary Dyer, even as before. My life is not accepted, neither availeth me, in comparison of the lives and liberty of the truth, and the servants of the living God, for which, in the bowels of meekness and love, I sought you.'' After reproving them for resisting the power of divine grace, she thus concludes, '* when I heard your last order read, it was a disturb- ance to me, who was freely ofi'ering up my life to Him that gave it me, and sent me hither so to do ; which obedience being his own work, he gloriously accompanied with his presence, and peace, and love, in which I rested from my labour."
Mary Dyer's reprieve directed that she should remain a pri- soner for forty- eight hours, after which the magistracy thought it most prudent to commute her sentence into banishment, on penalty of death in the event of her return. In accordance with this decision, she was sent with a guard of four men, fifteen miles in the direction of Pihode Island, where she was left with a man and horse to convey her forward ; but declining the offices of her guard, she proceeded to her home without his assistance. The disgust with which the executions had been witnessed by the people, and their growing discontent at such cruel and unconsti- tutional proceedings, induced the rulers to adopt the plan of send- ing Mary Dyer to her home, in order to allay the excitement which prevailed.
A feeling of indignation was not the only effect produced on the minds of the colonists on this occasion. The Christian con- stancy and holy resignation of the victims, excited a desire in some of the serious people to become more intimately acquainted with the principles of those, who were strengthened and upheld joyfully to suffer even the loss of their lives for the cause of reli- gion. The consequence of this inquiry was a further accession of numbers to the little persecuted band. John Chamberlain was one of these. On attending the execution, he was so much aflfected that he became convinced of the truth of the principles
194 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
for Avhich the sufferers died. His sympathies being awakened, he was led to visit the prisons at Boston, to comfort and encourage those, whom he now claimed as brethren of the same religious faith. This did not escape the notice of the magistracy, and in a short time he was not only an inmate of the gaol, but had more than once severely to feel the effect of religious bigotry, in the application of the knotted scourge.*' Edward Wharton of Salem, was also deeply affected by the circumstance of the executions ; and spoke boldly among his fellow-townsmen of the wickedness of the act. But his testimony against these unrighteous proceedings drew down the anger of the rulers, and Edward, '' as a peremp- tory fellow,"" was visited not only with a whipping of twenty lashes, but also with a fine of twenty pounds. f
Returning to the other Friends who were imprisoned at Boston, we find that after about two months' confinement, they were brought before the General Court for examination. At this tri- bunal, Daniel Gould was sentenced to receive thirty strokes ; Robert Harper, and William King, each fifteen ; and Margaret Smith, Mary Trask, and Provided Southwick, ten strokes each ; whilst Alice Cowland, Hannah Phelps, Mary Scott, and Hope Clifton were ^' delivered over to the governor to be admonished.''^ To Christopher Holder, the only English Friend of the company, was reserved the sentence of banishment on pain of death. § The lash, at best a barbarous and degrading punishment, was in this instance rendered additionally repulsive by its application in " the open streets of the city ;"1| the female as well as the male pri- soners being stripped for the purpose, before the gazing multitude. These cruelties caused much excitement and commotion in the city, and the gaol was at last so crowded by sympathizing citizens, that a guard was sent to prevent their approach. " The compas- sion of the people," observes an early writer, " was moved ; many resorted to the prison by day and by night, and upon a representa- tion of the keeper, a constant watch was kept round the prison, to keep people off."^ The punishment being inflicted, the court
* New England Judged, p. 110. t Ibid. p. 111. J Ibid. p. 112.
§ Besse, vol. ii. p. 205. || New England Judged, p. 112.
IF Hutchinson's Massachusetts, vol. i. p. 201.
lb'59.J NEW ENGLAND. 195
ordered the liberation of the prisoners, on their paying the gaoler's fees, but the sufferers objecting in any manner to recognize their unjust imprisonment, refused the payment of this demand. The inhabitants, however, grieved at the scenes of persecution which had disgraced their country, undertook to pay the amount, and procured their discharge.
The magistrates of Boston, finding that the sympathies of the colonists were now much awakened in favour of the victims of their intolerance, and that murmurs of dissatisfaction with their illegal conduct, were increasing, endeavoured to remove this feeling, by publishing a justification of their proceedings. Throughout, the defence is but a lame one, and " the miserable apology,"* as it has been justly called, concludes in an incoherent manner, worthy of men who could perpetrate such deeds of darkness. " The consideration of our gradual proceedings,'' say they, " will vindicate us from the clamorous accusations of severity ; our own just and necessary defence calling upon us, other means failing, to offer the point which these persons have violently and wilfully rushed upon, and thereby become felones de se, which^ might it have been prevented, and the sovereign law, saliis populi, been preserved, our former proceedings, as well as the sparing of Mary Dyer, upon an inconsiderable intercession, will evidently evince we desire their lives absent, rather than their deaths pre- sent.'' " It is said,^^ remarks Bancroft, in allusion to this mani- festo, " the Quakers themselves rushed on the sword, and so were suicides." " If it were so," he continues, " the men who held the sword were accessaries to the crime." The same fallacious plea might be urged by the most unrelenting persecutors for religion.
The rulers of the colony of Plymouth, though not so severe in their measures for oppressing Friends, as their neighbours of Boston, continued, nevertheless, to harass them by heavy fines, for the non-attendance of meetings. Thomas Ewer of Sandwich, in addition to severe distraints, was " laid neck and heels together, "f for reproving his persecutors, for these unjust proceedings. Peter Pearson and William Leddra, who were committed to Plymouth
* Bancroft's United States. t New England Judged, p. 148.
VOL. I. o
196 NEW ENGLAND. [1659.
gaol, in the Fourth Month of 1659, did not obtain their liberty nntil the early part of the following year ; the period of their imprisonment, being more prolonged than that of any Friend who suffered in New England.
During the year 1659, three Friends only appear to have arrived from Great Britain, for religious service in New England ; these were Marmaduke Stevenson, and Peter Pearson, already referred to ; and John Taylor, of York. Respecting^the religious labours of the last, but a very brief account has been met with. It appears that in the previous year, he felt a call to proceed to America, but being a young man, and of a diffident disposition, he was reluc- tant to venture on so important an engagement, without first consulting some of his friends. Acting on this conclusion, he laid the subject before George Fox, Francis Howgill and Edward Burrough, who all encouraged him to proceed, under the persua- sion that he was called to the work. He accordingly embarked for the new country, from London, being then only in the twenty- second year of his age, and, after a voyage of ten weeks, he landed " at his desired haven in New Endand.^' How Ions: he was occupied within the limits of this province it is not stated, but his religious services were not confined to the English settlers. Trust- ing to the never-failing arm of divine guidance and protection, he travelled alone among the Indian tribes, and " had meetings in the woods and wilderness, to declare the truth to them,'' as he remarks, " and to turn them from darkness to the light of Christ Jesus, in their own hearts.'' By these untutored sons of the forest, the stripling preacher was " received with kindness," and in their wigwams he became a welcome guest. " They heard me soberly," he says, " and did confess to the truth I spake, by an interpreter ; and they were loving and kind afterwards to Friends.'' In the course of this history we shall have again to refer to John Taylor, but it may be observed here, that he is described by a contemporary, ''as an able minister of the New Testament ; in the publishing of which, the Spirit of God and of glory rested upon him, to the comforting and true refreshment of the churches, where the Lord ordered him, or his lot was cast.''
CHAPTER XL
Mary Dyer again returns to Boston — is arrested and sentenced to death — Her husband's Letter to Endicott — The procession to the place of execution — M. Dyer's Christian constancy — The execution — Some notice of her life and character — Joseph and Jane Nicholson, from Cumberland, visit New England — They are imprisoned at Boston — Letter of Joseph Nicholson to Margaret Fell from Boston prison — They are released, and travel to Plymouth ; are banished from that colony, and proceed to Rhode Island — J. Nicholson writes to Mar- garet Fell — Their return to England — Several Friends of Salem are imprisoned at Boston — Banishment and sufferings of "Wenlock Christison and others — A Monthly Meeting settled at Sandwich and Scituate — Extract from the Colonial Records respecting these meet- ings— Observations on the establishment of Meetings for Discipline among our early Friends — Ancient document relative thereto.
The last notice of Mary Dyer, mentioned her expulsion from Massachusetts on the reprieve of her life, and her subsequent return to Rhode Island. Shortly afterwards she believed herself called again to leave the comforts and happiness of home, to travel in the service of her Divine Master. Her course on this occasion was directed to Long Island, where she spent most of the winter ;^ thence proceeding to Shelter Island, to the main- land about Narragansett, and on to Providence. Here she was introduced into a deep religious exercise of soul, under the ap- prehension that it was required of her once more to visit Massa- chusetts, to finish, as she expresses it, " her sad and heavy ex- perience in the bloody town of Boston." Leaving, therefore, the quiet retreat of Providence, she journeyed towards the persecuting city, and arrived there on the 21st of the Third Month, 1660.
* Besse, vol. ii, p. 206.
0 2
198 NEW ENGLAND. [1660,
Having been so nearly a victim to the gallows for venturing within its confines before, her presence now took the rulers by surprise. They had cherished the hope, that the dreadful example of their cruelty in the execution of her late companions, would have been sufficient to deter her from again coming amongst them. But they were blind to the character and motives of Mary Dyer, and ignorant of the efficacy of that Divine Power by which she was led and supported.
So vigilant had the magistracy been to prevent the propa- gation of the views of Friends in the province, that on all previous instances, no time had been lost in immediately arrest- ing those who came co Boston for the purpose ; but, whether from the perplexity the rulers felt on the return of Mary Dyer, as shewing the futility of their barbarous enactment for excluding Friends ; or, from a fear of increasing the excitement of the public mind, or, from whatever other cause it might be, for ten days after the arrival of this devoted Friend, no attempt was made to interrupt the course of her gospel labours.
On this occasion, the general court was sitting. There were at the time several Friends in the gaols of the city, some of whom came to " sojourn'' in the province, and, like Mary Dyer, much to the perplexity of Endicott and his fellow-magistrates, had returned after being banished on pain of death. Since her reprieve, several of the colonists also, had, according to the law against Quakers, forfeited their lives ; yet this extreme penalty the ralers hesitated to enforce. But Mary Dyer was a stranger, and one whose avowed object in coming, was to preach those doctrines against which the whole weight of authority was vehemently directed. To exempt her, therefore, from the operation of the law, after she had been once reprieved, would have been a virtual abandonment of the enactment ; a course for which they were not yet prepared, and on the 31st of the Third Month, she was once more arraigned before the general court. Endicott, who undertook the examina- tion, asked her if she was the same Mary Dyer that was there before ? To which she unhesitatingly replied, '' I am the same Mary Dyer that was here at the last general court.'' Endicott said, " Then you own yourself a Quaker, do you not V '' I own
1660. J XEW ENGLAND. 199
myself to be reproachfully called so/' answered Mary Dyer. Eodicott, after saying, " I must then repeat the sentence once before pronounced upon you/' thus proceeded, " You must return to the prison, and there remain till to-morrow at nine o'clock ; then from thence you must go to the gallows, and there be hanged till you are dead.'' " This," said Mary Dyer calmly, " is no more than thou saidst before." To this observation, Endicott replied, '' But now it is to be executed ; therefore, prepare your- self for nine o'clock to-morrow.'* This dignified woman, un- moved by the dreadful sentence, and unshaken in her belief that her call to come amono-st them was from on hio-h, thus addressed the court : "I came in obedience to the will of God, to the last general court, praying you to repeal your unrighteous sentence of banishment on pain of death ; and that same is my work now, and earnest request, although I told you, that if you refused to repeal them, the Lord would send others of his servants to witness against them." Endicott, disturbed by her address, tauntingly said to her, '^ Are you a prophetess V '' I spoke the words," she re- plied, " which the Lord spoke to me, and now the thing is come to pass." She then proceeded to speak further of her religious call, but the governor impatiently cried, '' Away with her," and she was speedily reconducted to prison.
The departure of Mary Dyer to Boston on this occasion, plunged her family into the greatest distress ; for the consequence, they were well assured, would be the sacrifice of her life. Her husband, whose religious views did not harmonize with those of Friends, nevertheless loved her tenderly, and, anxious for her preservation, addressed the following touching appeal to Governor Endicott : —
"Honoured Sir, " It is with no little grief of mind and sadness of heart, that I am necessitated to be so bold as to supplicate your honoured self, with the honourable assembly of your general court, to extend your mercy and favour once again to me and my children. Little did I dream that I should have occasion to petition in a matter of this nature ; but so it is, that through the Divine Providence,
200 NEW ENGLAND. [1660.
and your benignity, my son obtained so much pity and mercy at your hands, to enjoy the life of his mother. Now, my supplica- tion to your honours is, to beg affectionately the life of my dear wife. 'Tis true, I have not seen her above this half year, and cannot tell how, in the frame of her spirit, she Avas moved thus again to run so great a hazard to herself, and perplexity to me and mine, and all her friends and well-wishers.
" So it is, from Shelter Island, about by Peynod, Narragansett, &c., to the town of Providence, she secretly and speedily journeyed, and as secretly from thence came to your jurisdiction. Unhappy journey, may I say, and woe to that generation, say I, that gives occasion thus of grief (to those that desire to be quiet), by helping one another to hazard their lives to, I know not what end, nor for what purpose.
" If her zeal be so great as thus to adventure. Oh ! let your pity and favour surmount it, and save her life. Let not your love and wonted compassion be conquered by her inconsiderate mad- ness ; and how greatly will your renown spread, if by so conquer- ing, you become victorious ! What shall I say more ? I know you are all sensible of my condition ; you see what my petition is, and what will give me and mine peace.
" Oh ! let Mercy's wings soar over Justice's balance, and then whilst I live, I shall exalt your goodness ; but otherways, 'twill be a languishing sorrow — yea, so great, that I should gladly suffer the blow at once, much rather. I shall forbear to trouble you with words, neither am I in a capacity to expatiate myself at present. I only say this, yourselves have been, and are, or may be, husbands to wives ; so am I, yea, to one most dearly beloved. Oh ! do not deprive me of her, but I pray give her me once again. I shall be so much obliged for ever, that I shall endeavour con- tinually to utter my thanks, and render you love and honour most renowned. Pity me ! I beg it with tears, and rest your humble suppliant,
W. Dyer.-5«-
* The Friend, a Philadelphia journal, vol. iv. p. 165, Third Month 5th, 1831. This, it is believed, was the first publication of the letter.
1660.] NEW ENGLAND. 201
What answer was returned to this appeal is not ascertained, if indeed, Endicott condescended to answer it at all ; it was, how- ever, unavailing. On the morning following her condemnation, being the 1st of the Fourth Month, Mary Dyer was led forth to execution. The officer, on coming to her cell, exhibited an un- becoming degree of impatience ; but, still preserved in great calm- ness, she desired him to " wait a little, and she would be ready presently.^^ The coarse and unfeeling official, more at home in such cruel business than most others, replied, '' He could not wait upon her, but she should now wait upon him.^'*
The demonstrations of sympathy by the townspeople towards the victims of these wicked proceedings, gave Endicott much uneasiness ; and fearing that the populace might show it in a very inconvenient manner, he deemed it prudent that a "strong guard'' of soldiers should be in attendance. Mary Dyer being brought forth, and the drummers placed both ''before and behind her,'' the procession commenced its march towards the Common.
Thus guarded, and amid the incessant beat of the drums, the procession arrived at the place of execution. Having ascended the ladder, she was told, that "if she would return home, she might come down and save her life ;" but to this she replied with much Christian firmness, " Nay, I cannot ; for in obedience to the will of the Lord I came, and in his will 1 abide faithful unto death."t She was then charged with being guilty of her own blood ; to which she answered, " Nay, I came to keep blood- guiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law of banishment upon pain of death, made against the innocent servants of the Lord ; therefore my blood will be required at your hands, who wilfully do it ; but for those that do it in tlie simplicity of their hearts, I desire the Lord to forgive them. I came to do the will of my Father, and in obedience to his will, I stand even to death.'':]:
M^hilst on the scaffold, with the eyes of the mixed multitude fixed intently upon her, she was asked whether she would have
* Sewel's History, p. 234. t Ibid. p. 234.
X Ibid, p. 234.
202 I^EW ENGLAND, [1660.
the elders to pray for her ? "I know never an elder here." was her reply. Will you then have any of the people to pray for you ? continued the attendant. '' I would have all the people of God to pray for me/' she said. As on the former occasion, so now, the approbation of the ministers of Boston was evinced by their presence. '' Mary Dyer ! Oh repent! Oh repent!" cried out Wilson, " and be not so deluded, and carried away by the deceit of the devil." '' Nay, man," she answered, " I am not now to repent." After some further conversation between her and her persecutors, she was reproached with having said, she had already been in Paradise. To this she unhesitatingly an- swered, " Yea, I have been in Paradise several days.'' Her mind was in the same peaceful and favoured condition as when she had been previously brought to the place of execution. Other expressions dropped from the lips of this devoted woman, descrip- tive of the happy and unclouded state of her mind, in the prospect of that eternity into which she was about to enter. The execu- tioner now did his awful office ; and her purified spirit passed, it may be humbly believed, into the glorious presence of Him for whose cause she died.
But few particulars of her previous history are recorded in the writings of Friends. It appears, however, that long before she embraced our principles, she was a prominent character in New England. As early as 1637, or about twenty years before she professed with Friends, she was a distinguished leader in the Antinomian secession in that country. Oldmixon, in his history of the English colonies in America, speaks of her as " the com- panion" of Anne Hutchinson in that controversy ;* and, in a work of more modern date, she is mentioned as her " devoted follower. "-f- In common with others who dissented from the Puritan church in Massachusetts, Mary Dyer and her husband were banished from Boston, and, with most of the Antinomians, they settled on Rhode Island. Her husband was one of eighteen who formed the " body politic" on the settlement of Rhode
* Oldmixon's British Empire in America, vol. i, p. 76. t Life of Anne Hutchinson in Sparke's American Biography. Boston printed.
1660.] NEW ENGLAND. 203
Island,* and afterwards held the office of secretary to the colony. t It is clear that Mary Dyer was endowed with mental qualities of no ordinary kind. Her addresses to the court, and her conduct when led to execution, evince that she possessed considerable ability and great fortitude of mind. John Taylor, who was united with her in some gospel labours on Shelter Island, a short time previous to her execution, said, " she was a very comely woman and grave matron, and even shined in the image of God.":J: Sewel, who bears a similar testimony, says, she had "extra- ordinary qualities,'' and " was of good family and estate, and the mother of several children. "§ Croese, a Dutch writer, states, that she was reputed as a "person of no mean extract and parentage, of an estate pretty plentiful, of a comely stature and countenance, of a piercing knowledge in many things, of a wonderful sweet and pleasant discourse, so fit for great affairs, that she wanted nothing that was manly, except only the name and the sex.''||
At the time of Mary Dyer's execution several Friends were lying in the prisons of Boston, and among them Joseph and Jane Nicholson of Cumberland. By a letter addressed in the Second Month, 1660, to Margaret Fell, it appears that it was their intention to make Boston their home, at least for a time. This letter recites several interesting incidents, as follows : —
From Joseph Nicholson to Margaret Fell.
From the Prison at Boston, this Third-day of the Second Month, 1660.
M. F.,
Upon the 7th of the First Month, I was called forth
before the court at Boston, and when I came, John Endicott bade me take off my hat, and after some words about that, he asked me
* Callender's Historical Discourse of Rhode Island, edited by Romeo Elton, p. 84.
t Hutchinson's Massachusetts, p. 199.
X Journal of John Taylor, p. 8.
§ Sewel's History, p. 233.
II The General History of the Quakers, &c., by Gerard Croese. Second Book, p. 148.
204 NEW ENGLAND. [1660.
what I came into the country for ; I told him he had my answer already. Then he asked, who sent me. I told him I was moved of the Lord to come hither with my wife, to sojourn in this land. He then asked, where I came from. I told him from Cumberland, where I formerly lived. Then he said, what would I follow when I had my liberty. I told him, labour with my hands the thing that was honest, as formerly I had done, if the Lord called me thereto. — He said, would I not go a preach- ing. I told him if I had a word from the Lord to speak, wherever I came I might speak it. — He asked if my wife was able to come to the court : I told him she was ; then he bid the gaoler fetch her, and the two other Old England Quakers. When they came, after some tempting questions, we were returned to prison. The next day we were called forth again, and were sentenced by the court to depart their jurisdiction before the sixteenth-day of the month, not to return upon pain of death. We could not have liberty to speak in our own defence, but, several times they stopped my mouth, and threatened to gag me, and to whip me when I could not forbear to speak. Bellingham boasted in open court, and said their law was too strong for us : he threatens much with their gallows. — My wife was not able to leave prison till the last day of their limited time, and then we passed to Salem, a place where are some Friends, and there stayed until the 20th, and then came two constables and took us both and carried us to prison. As we passed along the street we met the gaoler, who said I was come again to see if the gallows would hold me. The other two Friends that were banished with us, were one that did belong to the ship, and a maid that came with us in the ship, who was in prison about a week before the court began. They are at present gone out of the jurisdiction, but will hardly be clear, but come again. — I have had peace more than ever since this thing was made known to me, before I told thee of it : so the will of the Lord be done in it, what ever it be.
According to Boston law, Joseph Nicholson and his wife, by
1660.] NEW ENGLAND. 205
continuing in Massachusetts, had forfeited their lives, and the gaoler, presuming that he had another victim for the gallows, laid Joseph in irons. On the day of Mary Dyer's execution, they were brought before the general court, " to see,'' observes Bishop, '' if the terror thereof could have frighted them." '' But," he continues, " the power of the Lord in them was above all, and they feared them not, nor their threats of putting them to death."^ It was whilst lying in Boston prison, that Joseph Nicholson wrote a remonstrance to the rulers of the province, which he called ^'The Standard of the Lord lifted up in New England," (Sac.
The bold and unflinching manner in which Friends were strengthened to resist the banishing enactment, impressed the rulers of Boston with fear ; and, hesitating to pursue their sanguinary course, they again liberated Joseph and Jane Nicholson from prison. Having obtained their liberty, these Friends pro- ceeded to the contiguous colony of Plymouth. The rulers, how- ever, of this district, sympathised with those of Boston, and the two Friends were not allowed a resting-place amongst them ; " if they had turned them away at Boston,'' said the magistrates at Plymouth, '' they would have nothing to do witli them."t From Plymouth the exiled couple proceeded to Rhode Island, from whence Joseph Nicholson addressed a letter to his friend Margaret Fell, from which the following is an extract : —
From Joseph Nicholson to Margaret Fell.
From Rhode Inland, the lOth of Fifth Month, 1660.
M. F., We have found the Lord a God at hand, and although our lives were not dear unto us, yet He hath delivered us out of the hands of blood-thirsty men. We put our lives in our hands for the honour of the truth, and through the power of God we have them as yet. Although we pressed much to have our liberty to go as we came, yet could not, but are banished again. How it will be ordered afterward, if they let not their law fall, as it is
,* New England Judged. Second Edition, p. 221. t Ibid, p. 223.
206 NEW ENGLAND. [1660.
broken, we know not ; for if the Lord call us again to go, there we must go, and, whether we die or live, it will be well. His powerful presence was much with us in Boston. We found much favour in [the] sight of most people in that town. The power of God sounded aloud many times into their streets, which made some of them leave their meetings, and come about the prison, which was a sore torment to some of them.
I think I shall pass towards Shelter Island ere long, and some places that way where I have not yet been ; and, for ought we know at present, Jane may remain here awhile. Boston people were glad at our departure, for there were not many, I believe, would have had us to have been put to death. We are well in the Lord.
Thy friend in the Truth,
Joseph Nicholson.
I was prisoner in Boston [about] six months, and my wife a prisoner eighteen weeks.
Joseph and Jane Nicholson soon returned to England ; but scarcely had they regained the shores of their native land, ere they were immured within the walls of Dover Castle.* Writing from hence in the Second Month, 1661, Joseph Nicholson says, '' If the Lord make way for my liberty from these bonds shortly, I shall pass to Virginia in the Friends' ship, and so to New England again, but which way Jane will go, or how it is with her, I can- not say.^t We shall have hereafter to refer to these Friends.
When writing from Boston, Joseph Nicholson spoke of several Friends who were fellow-prisoners with him. These were Mary Trask, John Smith, Margaret Smith, Edward Wharton, and some others of Salem. About the same time, Robert Harper and his wife were also committed to the same wretched abode, and after them William Leddra, who it appears had returned to Boston, after having been banished upon pain of death. *' These," ob- serves Bishop, " were in Boston gaol in the Tenth Month, 1660,"
* Besse says they were imprisoned there for refusing to swear just after they had landed at Deal from New England. See vol. i. p. 291. t Swarthmore MSS.
15*60.] NEW ENGLAND. 207
where, he adds, '* they had been continued long."''^ William King, of Salem, who is noticed in the preceding chapter as having been imprisoned and whipped, had, we find, together with Wenlock Christison of Salem, Mary Wright of Oyster Bay, in Long Island, and Martha Standley, a young Friend of Eng- land, had sentence of banishment on pain of death passed upon them. Martha Standley is without a doubt " the maid'' referred to in Joseph Nicholson's letter from Boston, who '' came with him in the ship/' Wenlock Christison after his banishment, went on a visit to his brethren at Sandwich. Here, however, like the Nicholsons, he was not permitted to remain. On arriving at the town, he was arrested and conveyed to Plymouth, where he was not only imprisoned for fourteen weeks, but subjected to a severe flogging, once " tied neck and heels together, "t and robbed of his Bible and clothes, to the value of four pounds, for the payment of the prison fees. " All this," adds Bishop, " was but for coming into their jurisdiction, when he was banished from the other."!
The date of the transactions just alluded to, brings the narra- tive for New England, down to the close of 1660. In the closing chapter for 1658, a notice of the meetings established up to that period, is given. During the two subsequent years, the progress of the Society was rapid, and Monthly Meetings were established there, as in some parts of Great Britain. In a recent pamphlet relative to the meetings in New England, it is stated, that *' Sandwich Monthly Meeting was the first established in America,"§ and that Scituate, now known as Pembroke Monthly Meeting, was established prior to 1660.|| No authentic records of the Society appear to be in existence, by which the precise date of these can be ascertained, but the fact that meetings of this description were established by Friends of New England at this time, is corroborated by the ancient provincial manuscripts of
* New England Judged, Second Edition, p. 220. t Ibid. p. 222, X Ibid. p. 223.
§ Brief account of the Yearly Meetings in New England. Providence, printed, p. 20, II Ibid, p. 21.
208 NEW ENGLAND. [1660.
Massachusetts. In the minutes of the Court of Plymouth for the year 1660, the following order is recorded : —
'' Whereas there is a constant Monthly Meeting of Quakers from divers places in great numbers, which is very offensive, and may prove greatly prejudicial to the government, and as the most constant place for such meetings is at Duxburrow, the court have desired and appointed Constant Southworth and William Paybody to repair to such meetings, together with the marshal or constable of the town, and to use their best endeavours by argu- ment and discourse, to convince or hinder them.''"^
The circumstance of Monthly Meetings having been thus set up in America, before they had been generally established in England, is an interesting feature in the progress of the Society in the new country, and deserving of particular notice. There does not appear to have been any systematic organization attempted at this early period. The new association consisted of pious individuals, who, forsaking the lifeless forms and ceremonies of the day, and a dependence upon man in spiritual things, found in the principles of the gospel enunciated by George Fox, and his associates, that rest and peace which their souls desired. As a gathered church, they acknowledged Christ only as its living and ever present Head. He was felt to be " their all in all ;'' " their Teacher to instruct them, their Counsellor to direct them, their Shepherd to feed them, their Bishop to oversee them, and their Prophet to open divine mysteries unto them ;"f and remarkably indeed did the Chief Shepherd condescend to visit and " appear in the midst of them," refreshing and comforting their spirits, and cementing them in a precious feeling of unity and love.
Separated as the Early Friends were from other religious pro- fessors ; with their numbers gradually increasing, and the zeal of new converts warm and active, it was found that in the right exercise of the '' diversities of gifts,'' there arose a necessity for those important duties and for that mutual Christian care, which
* See notes on Duxbury in the Massachusett's Historical Society. Second Series, vol. x. t Journal of George Fox.
1660.] NEW ENGLAND. 209
we understand by the term Discipline ; to be regulated and up- held under the authority of frequent periodical meetings. The first meeting for discipline established in the Society, appears to have been held in the county of Durham, in the year 1653. This was a Monthly Meeting. George Fox mentions in his journal, that some meetings of this description were settled in the north of England at this date.* Among the Swarthmore manuscripts is a document which has been recently discovered, relative to the establishment of the Monthly Meeting in Durham. It is signed by sixteen Friends, and endorsed by George Fox.f This paper, setting forth the object which our early Friends had, in thus establishing a meeting for discipline, is valuable, and will, doubt- less, be read with interest. It is as follows : —
'' Dear Friends, in the measure of the light of Christ, we being brought to feel and see the estate and condition of the Church in these parts, and the danger that many lie in, because of the oppressors, and [that] thereby the enemy of the soul may come to have advantage over us, therefore in the fear of the Lord, being moved thereunto by the Lord, and being subject henceforth every one to bear his burden, the strong with the weak, that the weak be not oppressed above his strength, but all drawing on hand in hand, that the weak and the tired may be refreshed, and- so all become a joint witness to the everlasting truth, in word and con- versation ; our lives and minds being set free from that, that daily may tempt or trouble in the particular. Therefore, dear friends,
♦ See vol. ii. p. 229. Lead's Edition.
t The endorsement by George Fox runs thus : — " The setting up the men's meeting in Bishoprick, 1653." And the following are the Friends who signed it : —
Christ : Eyon. Anth : Pearson.
John Higgington. Robt : Selbye.
Christr : Richmound. Richard Wilson.
Peter Young. Will : Trewhitt.
"William Cotsworth. Jo : Langstaflf.
Martin Richmound. Rich : Ewbanke.
James Whyte. Andrew Rawe.
John Hopper. Thomas Shaw.
210 NEW ENGLAND. [1660.
we, who are met together, do think it convenient that some of every several meeting, do meet together, the first Seventh-day of every month, beginning with the Third Month, and to declare what necessities or wants are seen in their several meetings, there to be considered on by Friends, and as necessity is seen, so to minister. And, seeing at present there is a great need for a collection, by reason of some great sums of money that have been laid out, and more is to be laid out, we recommend it to your several meetings, to do herein every one according to your freedom in the present necessity, and to give notice the next First-day, that it may be collected for the poor, the First-day following, and to be paid over to John Langstaffe ; and a note of the same sub- scribed by some Friends from every meeting/'
Quarterly Meetings constituted of representatives from the several meetings m a county, were established in some parts, a few years subsequently ; their office in the body being then similar to that which Monthly Meetings now exercise. But the setting up of Monthly Meetings did not generally take place throughout Great Britain, until about thirteen years after the date of that above referred to. In an early epistle which George Fox wrote in reference to these meetings, he thus counsels his friends, "Ad- monish all them that be careless and slothful, to diligence in the truth and service for God, and to bring forth heavenly fruits, and that they may mind the good works of God, and do them in be- lieving on his Son, and showing it forth in their conversation, and to deny the devil, and his bad works, and not to do them ; and to seek them that be driven away from the truth into the deviPs wilderness, by his dark power. Seek them again by the truth, and by the truth and power of God, bring them to God again."
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