Anne Hutchinson
!
1591-1643
A Prologue to
Portsmouth History
Anne in England
1591 born in Alford - moved to
London as teenager
Father was Francis Marbury.
Educated Anne - she read his
library of books.
As young man he served time in
jail for criticizing ministers.
Entertained his children with
transcript of his trial. He was the
hero and the bishop was the fool.
Alford
London
Anne in England
Mother Bridget taught
Anne skills of:
midwife
herbalist
Skills she brought to
Boston and Portsmouth.
Anne in England
1612: Anne marries cloth merchant
William Hutchinson. Moves back to
Alford.
1613: Anne’s first child, Edward, is
born. Anne would have 15 children,
but many died in childhood.
Anne and William become followers
of Puritan minister John Cotton.
1634: When Cotten moved to
Boston, the Hutchinson family
traveled to America on ship Griffin.
Anne in Boston
Anne served as midwife, nurse, herbalist.
She opened her large home to meetings to discuss
sermons of ministers.
Up to 80 people came.
Men followed her as well as women.
She began to criticize Rev. John Wilson. Some
thought she wanted to replace him with her
brother-in-law, John Wheelwright.
In 1636 her friend Henry Vane became governor.
In 1637 John Winthrop became governor. thought
she was a threat to the peace of the town.
Anne on Trial
November 1637 Anne was put
on trial before the
Massachusetts Bay General
Court on charges of heresy
and “traducing” (telling lies)
about the ministers.
Church and the government were tied in the Bay Colony.
Anne was tried twice - once by the court and later
by the church.
Gov. Winthrop’s Charges
(from Trial Transcript)
“You are called here as one of those
who have troubled the peace.”
“You have maintained a meeting and an
assembly in your house…not fitting for
your sex.”
Anne was guilty of “dishonoring of
parents.” (the ministers)
“We are your judges and not you ours.”
“She hath said that the ministers
preached a covenant of works”
She is “unfit for our society.”
Anne’s Defense
(from Trial Transcript)
About the meetings in her home: “There lies a
clear rule in Titus, that the elder women should
instruct the younger.”
“Do you think it is not lawful for me to teach
women and why do you call me to teach the
court?”
About “dishonoring” elders: “Neither do I think
that I ever put any dishonor upon you.”
About criticizing ministers: “I acknowledge using
the words of the apostle to the Corinthians unto
him, that they that were ministers of the letter and
not the spirit did preach a covenant of works.”
In Her Own Words
Trial Transcript is only
Record of Anne’s Thoughts
“You have power over my body but the Lord
Jesus hath power over my body and soul.”
“Now if you condemn me for speaking what in
my conscience I know to be truth, I must commit
myself unto the Lord.”
“I bless the Lord, he hath let me see which was
the clear ministry and which the wrong.”
(How does God speak to her?) “So to me by
an immediate revelation….by the voice of his
own spirit to my soul.”
“..if you go on in this course you begin, you
will bring a curse upon you and your posterity,
and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
The Sentence
Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you
hear is that you are banished from out of our
jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our
society, and are to be imprisoned til the court
shall send you away.
Church Trial
March 15, 1638
After her civil trial, Anne was put under house arrest and ordered to be gone by
March. She was not allowed to go home. She was held in Roxbury two miles
away and rarely saw her family.
Rev. Cotton: You see she is but a woman and many unsound and dangerous
principles are held by her.
Hutchinson received spiritual penalty of excommunication.
Rev. Wilson “I do cast you out and deliver you up to Satan.” He ordered her “as
a leper to withdraw your self out of the Congregation.”
Mary Dyer walked over to Anne, joined hands with her and the two walked
together through the church door.
Anne turned and said: “The Lord judges not as man judges better to be cast
out of our the Church than to deny Christ.”
Portsmouth History Begins
Between court and church trial,
Anne’s followers prepared to leave
Boston.
Roger Williams’ friendship with
Narragansett tribe helped group
arrange for settlement on
Aquidneck Island.
March 7, 1638 men of group
signed a “compact” or agreement
to form a “Bodie Politick” based on
the guidance of the bible.
Travel to Portsmouth
Some, like Anne
Hutchinson, walked six
days overland to
Providence, then came up
to Salt Pond to Founder’s
Brook.
Others traveled by ship
around Cape Cod.
Early settlement of tents
and mud huts.
Portsmouth Town Fathers
John Coddington, John Coggeshall and
William Aspinwall voted for acquittal.
Coggeshall spoke in Anne’s defense
and was also expelled. All three men
would come to Portsmouth with Anne.
William Baulston and William Dyer
were punished also.
Son-in-law Thomas Savage and son
Edward Hutchinson supported Anne
and were exiled as well.
Most of these founding settlers came to
Portsmouth because they were
followers of Anne or Rev. Wheelwright.
Anne at Portsmouth
Little is recorded of Anne at
Portsmouth.
Husband William takes a major
role in settlement, even serving
as Governor.
No real churches in Portsmouth
- worshiped in homes.
Winthrop continues to send
people to Portsmouth to harass
Anne.
Anne
Leaves
Portsmouth
1642 William Hutchinson dies.
Massachusetts threatening to take over Aquidneck Island.
Summer of 1642 Anne and her younger children moved
to area in northern Bronx.
Anne’s Death
Anne and family caught in conflict between Algonquin tribe
and Dutch settlers.
Only daughter Susanna survived. She was held captive and
released much later.
Sources
Trial Transcript from: Thomas Hutchinson, History of the Colony of
Province of Massachusetts, Boston 1767.
Photos by Gloria Schmidt - images of Anne from decorations at the 375th
celebration at Founder’s Brook.
LaPlante, Eve. American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson.
2004-Harper One.
Garman, Jim:. “Anne Hutchinson - Finally the Honor She Deserves”
Sakonnet Times in the April 25, 1996 edition.
West, Edward: Land Grant Maps of the Town of Portsmouth.
Hog Island Hay-Document in the Collection of the Portsmouth Historical
Society, 1638.