I came to do the will of my Father, Whoever kills you will think and claim that he has offered service to God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, The Persecutions of Early Quakers in America Site Editor's Introduction The Puritans of New England, specifically Connecticut and Massachusetts, exceeded the persecutions that the Quakers experienced in England. One would think that the Puritans, after escaping persecutions themselves by fleeing to New England, would have been more tolerant. But, as you will see, their self-righteous spirit, viciously dealt with all conflicting religious opinions; and, since the Quakers were far more convicting than any other sect, with their nontraditional doctrines, they were most brutally persecuted. The callous, unchristian brutality of the Puritan persecutors has only been exceeded by the priests of the barbarous Roman Catholic inquisitions, who murdered 9,000,000 souls in the Middle Ages. The murdering Puritans and the Catholic priests had all believed in Jesus, had been baptized, took communion, read the Bible frequently, prayed frequently, attended worship services regularly - they were all saved Christians murdering and torturing those with different religious opinions. So it is simple to conclude - if you want to understand true Christianity, study what those said, who were the victims. Few could argue that the murderers could possibly be Christians. As you study on this site the gospel message of the early Quaker lambs of God - massively persecuted by the Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Congregationalist Puritans - you may discover truth of what they preached. To understand why the Quakers were so severely persecuted, click here. The numbers of early Quakers persecuted in America were orders of magnitude less than the number persecuted in England; because the population of early colonial New England was only a small fraction of England's - but the brutality in America exceeded England. Further, the American early Quaker experience uniquely chronicles the dedicated obedience of, not only men, but many Quaker women, in ages from eleven years young to seventy years ancient, sent by the Lord to extinguish the fires of persecution with their blood. As you read these records of persecution, notice how it was the preachers and ministers, (also true in England), who were the principal advocates of violence, including death; often inciting reluctant government officials to go beyond humane bounds, plunging into the depths of Satanic barbarity. John Calvin, was a principal founder of Protestantism and had great influence on the Presbyterians, Puritan Congregationalists, Baptists, and even Lutherans. Calvin had Servetus, another prominent early Protestant, arrested; and Calving wrote charges of heresy against him. Servetus had stated that there was no support in the Bible for infant baptism, and that the word trinity did not exist in the Bible, being an invention of the Roman church, and a twisting of 1 John 5:7, from one spirit to three persons. Calvin's wrote the charges against him and had him arrested, resulting in Servetus being burned at the stake, slowly with green wood and burning pitch dripping down his face. Calvin, with many other Protestant authorities, further participated in the burning of twenty-three others with differing religious views. Calvin wrote: Whoever shall maintain that wrong is done to heretics and blasphemers in punishing them makes himself an accomplice in their crime and guilty as they are. There is no question here of man's authority; it is God who speaks, and clear it is what law he will have kept in the church, even to the end of the world. Wherefore does he demand of us a so extreme severity, if not to show us that due honor is not paid him, so that we spare not kin, nor blood of any, and forget all humanity when the matter is to combat for His glory. The apologists of Calvin spilling blood and forgetting all humanity point out that many other Protestants killed heretics too - (the everybody-did-it defense). This record of Puritan persecutions further proves the Quaker's belief, that religion and government should not mix. Fox and the early Quakers had a tenet "not to meddle with the powers of the earth." As in Revelations, the church adulterated with the kings of the earth. As Martin Luther, for protection from Roman arrest, gave his sanction to an alliance between the Church and the State in Saxony. As the colonial New England governments created a religious state. All resulted in tyrannies and horrible corruptions of Christ's teachings and commands. In the main, these web pages are an extract from The History of the Society of Friends in America, 1850, by James Bowden, an excellent historian and Quaker; who though proud of his Quaker heritage, like most Quakers from 1800 on, did not have a clue as to the measure of Christ possessed by the Early Quakers in 1650-1700. In a few noted passages, I have used the more descriptive text of William Sewel's The History of the Rise, Increase and Progress of the Christian People Called Quakers, 1844, first written in 1995; Sewel was a Quaker himself, and interviewed many of the eye-witnesses to the events he wrote. Describing God's revenge on Boston, I have also excerpted and noted text from from the Narrative of the Martyrdom at Boston, by John Richardson, 1831. In the text of Bowden, I have deleted the mostly unsuccessful colonization of America details, to begin with the Puritans' colonization of New England, and terminated the text at the cessation of their vicious persecutions. The text has been largely updated to current usage. I have added text delineated in {} braces. Most of the direct quotations were footnoted in the original work, but for ease of reading the footnotes have been eliminated; the great majority having been references to Besse's Sufferings, New England Judged, Norton's Ensign, Secret Works, Colonial Records, Swarthmore original manuscripts, Hutchinson's Massachusetts, Secret Works, Commons Journal in Kennett, Journal of the Lords, F. Howgill's Popish Inquisition, Sewel's History, Call from Death to Life, J. Bancroft's United States, Croese's General History of the Quakers, and Will Caton's original manuscripts. Most of these books have disappeared today. If you want to see the original text with footnotes, click here.
The Puritan Predecessors
For more than a century after the discovery of the Western World, the English had landed on its shores, comparatively speaking, but a mere handful of people. After repeated failures, the colonization of Virginia, under the management of the London company, led to great expectations; but it was reserved for the Puritans to give the greatest impulse to the tide of emigration to the new country. The Reformation in England had never been accompanied by a full toleration of individual sentiment in matters of religion, and here may be dated the establishment of the colonies in New England. The Nonconformist emigrants to that region, were individuals, who contended for a more thorough reformation in religion, than that recognized by Queen Elizabeth. They were dissatisfied with the pompous display of the Anglican Church, and regarded it as a remnant of the Roman apostasy. The use of organs and other instruments of music in the time of public worship, the prohibition of extemporaneous prayer, the bowing at the name of Jesus, the use of the surplice and other priestly vestments, together with the liturgy and the various distinctions of rank among the ministers of religion, were among the leading grounds of dissent held by this class of English Reformers. The Protestants of England thus became divided into two parties, the one pleading for greater purity and simplicity in the church, and the other for entire conformity to the reformed religion as recognized by law. The latter being the more powerful of the two, soon had recourse to the civil power in the enforcement of their views. In 1554 an "Act of Conformity" was passed, and at the instigation of Elizabeth in 1593, another act of greater severity followed, including provisions for penalties and imprisonments, and even for capital punishment, against those who refused to conform to the usages of the church established by law. The enactments for enforcing conformity to the Anglican church, drove the Puritan party to speak openly of secession, and at last in 1572, they formed a separate congregation. The laws against nonconformists were now cruelly enforced, numbers were banished the country, and two were even hung at Tyburn. The persecuted Puritans finding that Holland afforded them a refuge, fled there, and a congregation of them was formed at Amsterdam; but the intermarriages of their members with Dutch families decreased their numbers, and this, with some other considerations, led most of the younger part of their church to resolve to a move to America. An application for a grant of land was accordingly obtained, and was sanctioned by King James; but he refused to enter into any stipulation for the free exercise of their religion; saying, that "if they demeaned themselves quietly, no inquiry would be made." In the summer of 1620, one hundred persons, having about £2,400 in goods and provisions, embarked as exiles, seeking a new home on the western shores of the Atlantic. After a voyage of two months, they arrived in the harbor of Cape Cod, in sight of the most barren part of Massachusetts. The country on which they landed, had, a few years before, been rendered a lonely desert by a pestilence which had swept over it. Wigwams were found, but their tenants had disappeared; the rising smoke in the distance, however, indicated that the Indian was not far off,—a fact which was soon confirmed by the sound of the war-whoop, for the natives knew the European only as the kidnapper of their race. After exploring the country, the emigrants chose a spot, as the most inviting on which to form a settlement, and to this they gave the name of Plymouth. The winter was passed in endurance of extreme privation, and before another summer's sun had beamed upon the little company, one-half of their number had closed their earthly career. In [a supposed] imitation of the primitive Christians, these Pilgrim Fathers adopted a community of goods as the basis of their system; but they found to their cost that it was one poorly adapted to their state. Labor was given with so sluggish a disposition, that in some instances whipping was resorted to, as a necessary coercive.* In the following year the colony was reinforced by an arrival of new emigrants. For at least three years after the landing of the Puritans in New England, they had to submit to great hardships, which they bore with much cheerfulness; and the settlement increased. In ten years it was flourishing, and numbered three hundred inhabitants.
The determination of the leaders of the English Episcopal church, to persist in enforcing the laws made against dissent, and the unceasing efforts of Archbishop Laud for the introduction of a more pompous ritual, accompanied with an inquisitorial system of great severity against nonconformists, increased the desires of the persecuted Puritans for emigration to America. The reluctance which many of them felt to exchange the land of their nativity for the wilds of the new world was overcome by the persecution to which they were subjected, and an association for promoting emigration to New England, was formed on a large scale. Men of rank and influence, and ejected Puritan ministers of high standing, encouraged the scheme, and a grant of land from the government was applied for. The Court was not opposed to the design, and a patent was obtained, for "the governor and company of Massachusetts Bay." Preparations for embarkation having been made, the emigrants, amounting to above two hundred, set sail in six vessels. In the Sixth Month, 1629, they reached the coast of Massachusetts, and landed on a spot which they named Salem. Some needy settlers, amounting to about one hundred, had already located themselves at this place, and altogether the infant colony numbered three hundred souls. The early settlers at Salem, like those of the Plymouth colony, suffered great distresses, and before the following spring, more than eighty of their number had died. But the accounts transmitted to England gave a cheering description of the new country, and the feeling in favor of emigration became more intense among the nonconformists. In the following year preparations were made on a still larger scale, and no less than fifteen hundred persons landed on the shores of Massachusetts, including many both of wealth and education. The desire for this foreign land continued to gather strength, and year after year, masses of English dissenters of the most respectable class, proceeded to New England. Neale does not doubt that in a few years one fourth of the property of the kingdom would have been taken to America, had no resistance been offered. But the government became alarmed, and a proclamation was issued "to restrain the disorderly transporting of his Majesty's subjects, because of the many idle and refractory humors, whose only or principal end is to live beyond the reach of authority." On the day following an order appeared to "stay eight ships now in the river of Thames prepared to go for New England;" and the passengers, among whom was Oliver Cromwell,* were obliged to disembark. Although a considerable check was thus given to emigration by the interference of the civil power, yet large numbers continued to find their way to Massachusetts. It is calculated that, during twelve years, the emigrants amounted to no less than twenty-one thousand.
Escaped from a harassing and unjust persecution in their native land, it might have been expected that the settlers in New England would recognize religious liberty as the basis of their system. But no such idea, it appears, was ever entertained by them. The express object of the Puritans in seeking to found a colony in America, was, that they might enjoy the free exercise of their religion. The charter, however, is entirely silent on the subject. The king regarded the emigrants as a trading company, and they were forbidden to make any law or ordinance repugnant to the statutes of the realm. The fair construction of the charter is, that entire dissent from the English church was not intended to be allowed, nor does it appear that the English government, in granting it, ever anticipated that the Puritans would insist on a separation of church and state, or that their own religion, both in doctrine and discipline, was to be the only one tolerated in Massachusetts. These stern and unbending reformers, however, were resolved that neither the Roman apostasy, nor "the corruptions of the English church, "should find tolerance within the limits of their jurisdiction. "The common prayer worship," and Episcopacy, they deemed to be incompatible with that religious liberty, for the enjoyment of which, though in a western wilderness, they had left the homes of their ancestors, and they boldly determined to resist their introduction among the settlers. "Their imposition," they declared, "would be a sinful violation of the worship of God." Religious union they believed to be their stronghold against attacks of the hierarchy in England, and "the order of the churches" was to be maintained at all hazards; "The brethren " only, were to be the people of their country, and all dissent from their own belief and form of worship, was to be visited by the strong arm of magisterial authority; both minister and ruler regarding every innovation of their principles as dangerous to the community. Dudley, one of the most respectable governors of the province, was found at his death with a copy of verses in his pocket, in which these lines occur: "Let men of God, in court and churches, watch O'er such as do a toleration hatch." The pure doctrines of Christianity the Puritans fondly conceived, were, by their instrumentality, to be reduced to practice, and the civilized world was to have in Puritan New England, an example of a church, free from all those pollutions which had gradually crept into Christendom. That this formed the primary object, and was the conscientious aim of the Pilgrim Fathers in emigrating to New England, is not to be doubted. The character of these emigrants was undoubtedly much above the average of the British population, for sobriety, industrial habits, and general integrity of conduct. "God sifted three kingdoms," said one of their early governors," that he might bring choice grain into this wilderness." Notwithstanding their bigoted attachment to their own doctrines, and the errors which they committed on the subject of religious toleration, there is ample evidence that the early Puritans of New England were mostly a conscientious and pious people, but distinguished by some striking peculiarities. The practice of substituting Hebrew names, spiritual terms, and even passages of scripture, for English, proper names, was one of them; and from this fact may be traced the prevalence of Old Testament names in New England at the present day. The system which the Puritans intended to pursue in America, with respect to religion, was unexpected to the English nation; and had it been fully known, none, certainly, but those of their own profession would have joined in the emigration. It happened, however, that of the party who went out in 1629, two who had been appointed members of the colonial council by the Company, were Episcopalians, and these, refusing to unite with the Fathers in their mode of worship, collected a company of the settlers at Salem, who were desirous of upholding the forms and ceremonies of the English church. This circumstance took the Puritans by surprise, but being settled in their conclusions, they determined to meet the supposed evil with a high hand. The two Episcopalian legislators, after being accused as spies in the camp, and forbidden to exercise their religion in Massachusetts, were arrested, and on the return of the vessels, sent back to England. This was the first act of Puritan intolerance in New England; and had it been the only one, the Christian church would have been spared some of its dark excesses. The exclusive system of the Puritans in America, upheld as it was with the utmost severity, had its opponents. There were among those strict professors, enlightened men, who saw that it was repugnant to the spirit of true religion. Roger Williams of Salem, "a young minister godly and zealous," was one of this class, and one who did not hesitate boldly to declare, that "the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ." The presence of every man at public worship in New England was insisted upon, but this, Roger Williams contended, was an invasion of the natural rights of the subject. Doctrines thus openly professed and promulgated, were viewed as treason by the ministers of Massachusetts, and at length, in 1635, the magistrates resolved to banish Williams, as a disturber of the order of church and state. Exiled from his friends, Roger Williams sought shelter among the Indians of Narragansett Bay. They received him gladly. "The ravens," he remarked, "fed me in the wilderness." He determined upon founding a new colony, and acknowledging the rights of the native inhabitant to the soil; he purchased a territory, and established a new colony. Roger Williams thus became the founder of an American plantation, and pursuing an enlightened and Christian course, he founded it on the principles of absolute religious freedom. A spot having been selected for a settlement, he began to build, and in commemoration of the mercies of the Most High, he called it Providence, desiring that it might be "a shelter for persons of distressed conscience." The liberal policy of the founder of this settlement was duly appreciated, and he soon had the satisfaction of welcoming to the wilds of Narragansett, "godly people from England, who apprehended a special hand of Providence in raising this plantation, and whose hearts were stirred to come over." Its English population consequently increased rapidly. Scarcely had the first dwellings in Providence been tenanted by the exiles from Massachusetts, before that intolerant colony was subjected to a new schism. A Calvinistic sect, entertaining the notion that the Puritans of New England placed a dangerous reliance on the strictness and severity of their lives for salvation, and that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, constituted the true ground of the Christian's hope, gave rise to this division. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of great eloquence and ability was the leader of these Antinomians,* and Harry Vane, then governor of the province, and who afterwards became so conspicuous in England, identified himself with their cause. A furious controversy between the Puritan ministers and the Hutchinsonians took place. The former convened a synod, which, after declaring the orthodoxy of the New England church, proceeded to denounce Anne Hutchinson and her party, as unfit for society," and to exile them from the province. The larger portion of the new sect, headed by William Coddington, in 1637 proceeded southward, and with the assistance of Roger Williams, succeeded in purchasing of the Narragansett Indians the picturesque little territory of Rhode Island. Another colony was thus founded, and Coddington was chosen as its governor. The broad principle of liberty of conscience was fully recognized in its constitution; it being agreed "that none be accounted a delinquent for doctrine."
The colonies of Providence and Rhode Island had not been secured a political existence by a charter from the mother country, and consequently were excluded from the colonial union of New England. The settlers, feeling that their existence as a separate province, depended on the protection of a charter, appointed Roger Williams in 1643, to proceed to England for the purpose of obtaining one. Sir Harry Vane,* then an influential member of the Parliament, favored the application, and through his exertions, a charter was obtained, incorporating the two colonies under the title of "Rhode Island."
The inhabitants of the new province now happily experienced the blessings of liberty of conscience. "We have not felt," they said in 1654, in an address to their patron Sir Henry Vane, "the iron yoke of wolfish bishops, or the new chains of the Presbyterian tyrants, nor, in this colony, have we been consumed by the over-zealous fire of the (so called) godly Christian magistrate. We have not known what an excise means—we have almost forgotten what tithes are." Such was the happy experience of the early inhabitants of Rhode Island. Returning again to the colonies of Massachusetts, we find, that in a few years after the Antinomians had been cast out, Anabaptism sprang up, and disturbed the intolerant Puritan. The denying of infant baptism, and the holding of separate meetings, was called, "setting up an altar of their own against God's altar." "God forbid," said Dudley in his old age, "that we should tolerate errors." " To say that men ought to have liberty of conscience, is impious ignorance," said another." "Religion," responded the notorious priest, Norton, "admits of no eccentric notions." The conscientious Anabaptist shared no quarter, and fines, whippings, and finally, banishments, cleared Massachusetts of its Baptist population. How then can we wonder that in Puritanical New England, Quakerism should draw down a severer persecution? The territory of New Hampshire was formed into a colony in 1622; its progress, however, was slow. The inhabitants were chiefly Puritans from Massachusetts, which claimed the right of jurisdiction over the district; and in 1642, it was annexed to that colony; but in 1679 it received a distinct charter, and became another province. The valley of the Connecticut, by its alluvial fertility, early attracted settlers from Massachusetts. In 1635, a company of sixty of the Pilgrims emigrated in a body through the forests to this country, and in the following year, when still larger numbers found their way to it, the government of Connecticut was established under the auspices of Winthrop. The fur trade also attracted many to settle on the banks of its noble river; these were chiefly Dutch from New Amsterdam. In 1662, the colony obtained a charter from Charles II. Soon after emigration to Connecticut had begun, a colony sprang up at New Haven, under Puritan auspices; however, it never obtained a charter, but became incorporated with the former under one government. The country comprising the province of New York, appears to have been first visited by Henry Hudson in 1609, while in the employ of the Dutch. This enterprise led the Dutch nation to claim the country contiguous to the river which bears the name of this navigator; and, in the following year, some Amsterdam merchants traded with the Indians on the shores of Long Island Sound; and a few years later, some Dutch fur traders took up their abode on the island of Manhattan. In 1621, the Dutch West India Company obtained a charter to plant colonies in America, and four years later, several dwellings of persons who came to prosecute the fur trade, were erected on the site of the present city of New York. Subsequently, all the country extending from Maryland to New England, was claimed by the Dutch. In colonizing this country, then called New Netherlands, the Dutch West India Company recognized religious toleration. "Let every peaceful citizen," wrote the directors from Amsterdam, "enjoy freedom of conscience; this maxim has made our city the asylum for fugitives from every land; tread in its steps and you shall be blessed." The liberty thus allowed, attracted persons from different parts of Europe, and the Dutch colony soon became a home, not only for English, French, and Belgians, but also for Germans, Bohemians, Swiss, and Italians. The French protestants came in such numbers, that official documents were sometimes issued in their language, as well as in Dutch and English. The enlightened legislation of New Netherlands, forms a bright spot in the colonization of America, and, but for the conduct of the Calvinistic Stuyvesant, its governor, in persecuting some Lutherans and Quakers, religious toleration would have been complete within its limits. The duration of Dutch power in America, was, however, but short. In a war with the English in 1664, it was lost, and a dismemberment of New Netherlands followed as war reparations. James, the Duke of York and the brother of Charles I, was given the new lands; the country east of the Delaware was assigned to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, both proprietors in Carolina; and which now received the name of New Jersey. The colonization of Delaware began in 1631, when about thirty Dutch people formed a settlement near Lewistown, and it became a separate colony. Before Europeans had planted themselves on the soil of Delaware, Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, had planned an enterprise for settling a colony of his people in the new world, and at his instance, a company was incorporated for the purpose. It was not, however, until 1638, that the Scandinavians found their way to the territory of Delaware. Their numbers, though small at first, gradually increased; and in 1654, they amounted to about seven hundred settlers. At this date they were conquered by the Dutch, and the colony came under the control of that people. The Swedish emigrants were protestants of considerable piety. They took much pains to educate their children, and lived on terms of peace with the Indians. The country attracted a few English from New England, for the enlightened Gustavus desired that it should be open to "all oppressed Christendom." The favorable accounts which the early settlers in Virginia gave of the fertility and resources of the western continent, increased the enthusiasm of the English for American plantations; and Sir George Calvert, afterwards Lord Baltimore, a member of the Virginian company, and a man of ability and enterprise, shared largely in the feeling. He became a convert to Roman Catholicism, and, avowing his opinions, resigned his office of Secretary of State. Baltimore, on embracing the Roman faith, entertained the idea of emigrating to America, but the laws of Virginia excluded Papists from its territory. The country lying northward of the Potomac, being, however, yet untenanted by the English, in 1632 he applied for and obtained from Charles I a grant of land, which he called Maryland, in honor of Henrietta Maria, the consort of the King. In framing the laws of the province, Lord Baltimore determined that no preference should be given to any sect. It became an asylum for Papists, but equality in religious rights, and civil freedom, were assured to all. Religious liberty was the basis adopted by the governor of Maryland. "I will not," said he in his oath, "by myself or any other, directly or indirectly, molest any person professing to believe in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of religion." The liberal institutions of the new colony, together with the fertility of the soil, attracted many adventurers; the lonely forests were soon converted into prosperous plantations, and both Protestants from Europe, and Puritans from New England, flocked in considerable numbers to the province. The troubles in the mother country between Charles and the Puritan Parliament, were watched with much interest by the Papists of Maryland; and, fearing lest the ascendance of the Puritans, might endanger the religious privileges of the colony, they concluded in 1649, to pass an act, to protect freedom of conscience in matters of religion. Unhappily for Maryland, a dispute arose between Lord Baltimore and Clayborne, a resolute and enterprising man, who claimed a right to the province, on the plea of a grant from the Virginian company in 1631, and in which he was supported by many of the colonists. The conflicting claims of the two parties greatly divided the population, and sectarianism had no small influence in the controversy. The Puritans, who had been welcomed by the governor, and to whose liberal policy they were indebted for a home in the colony, threw their influence into the scale of the Clayborne party, and made it preponderate. The change which took place in the government of Maryland was followed by religious intolerance, and in a new assembly held in 1654, the Puritans, under the auspices of Clayborne, supported the passing of an act, which refused religious liberty to those who professed "popery or Episcopacy;" but the ungrateful enactment was never countenanced by Cromwell. Lord Baltimore, when he heard of these proceedings, became indignant, and resolved to vindicate his supremacy. The Puritans and Claybornites, however, took to arms, and repelling the forces of the governor, maintained their power until the restoration of the monarchy; when the authority of Baltimore was again recognized. The prosperity of Maryland was progressive; it had become famed as an asylum for the persecuted of every class and country, and emigrants from France, from Germany, from Holland, from Sweden, from Piedmont, and from Bohemia, sought its un sectarian soil. In that province, remarks a modern historian, "the empire of justice and humanity had been complete, except for the sufferings of the people called Quakers." Except the disastrous attempt on the Roanoke in 1587, under the auspices of the disappointed Raleigh, and the settlement in 1650 of some Virginian planters, and also a few years after them, of some New England men in the vicinity of Cape Fear, no attempts at colonization in Carolina appear to have been made by the English, until the year 1667. But although the tide of emigration had been checked in this direction, by the failure of the early expeditions, the fertility of the southern lands of North America was still remembered; and Carolina was constituted a province by a grant of Charles II to some of his most influential courtiers. The great philosopher John Locke,* who was intimately acquainted with the Earl of Shaftesbury, one of the proprietors, undertook, at his solicitation, to frame a constitution for the new colony.
In laying down the form of its government, Locke evidently desired that aristocratic influence should be maintained in its councils, but he nevertheless supported religious toleration. An express clause in the charter opened the way for its recognition; and religious freedom to "Jews, heathens, and other dissenters," to "men of any religion," was allowed to settlers in Carolina. The non-sectarian constitution of the province was appreciated, and together with the fertility of the country, it attracted, not only English and Irish, but Dutch from New York and Holland; persecuted Huguenots from France, and exiled Covenanters* from Scotland.
The recognition of negro slavery in Locke's "constitutions" for the southern settlement, was, however, a deep blot upon his system, and promising and fruitful as the country appeared to be, the colony advanced slowly, and with difficulty. In North Carolina the settlers soon became uneasy under the political restraints of the government, and in 1680, the "constitutions" were abandoned, as inapplicable to men who sought a more populist government. The colonists of South Carolina began also to feel that their rights were restricted by the legislation of Locke, and the proprietors seeing the futility of attempting to enforce it, entirely laid aside the scheme of the great philosopher. This was in the year 1693, the year preceding the election by the proprietors, of John Archdale, a Quaker of Chipping Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, as governor of South Carolina. Under the management of "the peaceful Archdale," as he is termed, "the mediator between factions," the province began to thrive, and the fame of Carolina, as "the American Canaan that flowed with milk and honey," increased. The colony, says its enlightened Quaker governor, "stood circumstanced with the honor of a true English government, zealous for the increase of virtue, as well as outward trade and business." The representatives of the freemen of the settlement, sensible of the cause of this happy change, declared that John Archdale "by his wisdom, and labor, had laid a firm foundation for a most glorious superstructure," and voted him an address of thanks. Having now included in our introductory pages, a condensed narrative of the discovery of the North American continent, and of the settlement of its several European colonies, down to nearly the end of the seventeenth century, it may not be amiss, before retiring from the subject, briefly to recapitulate the leading points of the history. We have seen that the attempts of the PORTUGUESE and of the SPANISH nations for territorial acquisitions in this portion of the western world, were failures; that the FRENCH, more successful in their endeavors, had formed settlements of considerable extent in the region now known as Canada; that the enterprising DUTCH had planted themselves in considerable numbers on the banks of the Hudson, and that protestant SWEDES, encouraged by Gustavus, their king, occupied both the right and left banks of the Delaware; but, we have also seen that to the enterprising exertions of the ENGLISH nation, the colonization of this vast country is mainly attributable. One of the chief objects in penning this introductory relation is to exhibit the moral and religious character of the several provinces at the time referred to, and also the degree of religious toleration which they individually recognized. Virginia the earliest permanent settlement of the English, founded in 1607, was colonized by a class of men mostly of the high Anglican church, who proceeded to the new country with extravagant hopes of wealth. For the first half century they refused to allow the exercise of any religion other than Episcopacy; but, from the time of the Commonwealth, their views regarding religious toleration were modified, and excepting the law of 1658, for banishing Friends, which was enforced, in a few cases only, religious freedom prevailed in the colony. Next in succession followed the settlement of the Pilgrim Fathers in Massachusetts. Professing to be the uncompromising opponents to Roman declension, and as such, to the pompous display and Episcopacy of the Anglican Church, they refused the introduction of Papacy and Episcopacy into their jurisdiction, and also every kind of religion, excepting Puritanism; and in their zeal to uphold these views, they were led into great excesses of persecution. These remarks respecting the Puritans in Massachusetts will apply to those of Connecticut, where the exclusive principle was also upheld and enforced. The colony of Maryland the very opposites of Puritanical New England as respects religious liberty, was commenced in 1633, under the auspices of Lord Baltimore, a leading papist; but, contrary to the practices of his own church, and to both Episcopal Virginia and the Pilgrim Fathers, he allowed complete liberty of conscience. The result of his liberal policy was the influx of settlers of all shades of religious opinions. The intolerance of the Pilgrims of Massachusetts gave rise, in 1636, to the settlement on Rhode Island. The occupiers of this delightful locality were men of enlightened minds. They had been persecuted and banished for their religion, and evinced their condemnation of these unchristian practices, by granting in their own jurisdiction entire religious freedom. Thirty years later, the same principle was still further extended in the new world, in the settlement of the Carolinas. The crowning example of religious freedom, and of enlightened Christian legislation in America, and indeed in the world at large, was, however, in the settlement of Pennsylvania, and the Jerseys, under the directing hand of William Penn. We see then, that, excepting Massachusetts and Connecticut, North America offered an asylum for the persecuted of every class, and for the people of every clime; we cannot therefore wonder that its non-sectarian soil became the resort, not only of English, and Irish, and Scotch, but also of emigrants from almost every nation in Europe. In studying the history of the Society of Friends, the observant reader, cannot, we think, fail to notice, that it was only in countries where the darkness of popery had been much dispelled, that its spiritual and enlightened views found steady acceptance. Although the early Quakers were engaged in gospel labors in several of the Roman Catholic countries of Europe, we do not find that they were successful in the establishment of a single meeting, or except in a few cases, in obtaining an individual conversion to their principles; while on the other hand, in almost every Protestant nation in which they preached, communities were gathered, who professed and promulgated their doctrines. The Reformation, therefore, was instrumental in preparing the way for the introduction of Quakerism into Christendom. But enfranchised, as most of the settlers of the western world were, from the shackles of popery, and to a large extent from Episcopacy also; and consisting, as they did of considerable numbers of pious individuals, who had been driven from their respective countries for the cause of religion, the colonies of America presented a sphere peculiarly adapted for the reception of those high and enlightened views of christianity, which the Society of Friends were called to uphold, and to advocate among their fellow men. Of the labors of their gospel messengers, and of the manner in which their principles were received in the new world, it will be the object of our future pages to treat. The rise of the Society of Friends - George Fox's brief narrative respecting it-Mary Fisher and Anne Austin visit Barbados and New England-Facsimile of a letter from Mary Fisher to George Fox - prejudice of the Puritans against Friends - Mary Fisher and Anne Austin reach Boston-Their trunks are searched for Quaker books-A special council of the magistrates of Boston convened- They issue an order for the imprisonment and banishment of the two Friends-Their books are burnt-They are searched as witches-Are banished, and sent to Barbados-Letter of Henry Fell to Margaret Fell, from Barbados-sketch of the life of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin. THE rise of the religious Society of Friends appears from the most authentic data to have taken place in 1644; the year in which some piously-disposed persons, residing in Leicestershire, one of the midland counties of England, first associated themselves in religious profession with George Fox. For about seven years from this period, the Society had not extended much beyond a few of the neighboring counties, including Yorkshire. In a brief account given by George Fox of “the spreading of truth," he thus notices the early progress of the Society. “The truth sprang up first to us, so as to be a people to the Lord, in Leicestershire in 1644, in Warwickshire in 1645, in Nottinghamshire in 1646, in Derbyshire in 1647, and in the adjacent counties in 1648, 1649, and 1650; in Yorkshire in 1651." The year 1652 was marked by a very considerable enlargement of the Society, and many individuals, who became eminent instruments in the hand of the Lord for the promotion of his holy cause, united with the new association. At this date it numbered twenty-five ministers, by whom, remarks George Fox, "multitudes were convinced." The ministry of these gospel laborers, during this and the subsequent year, was principally confined to the northern and midland portions of the kingdom; but in 1654, we find Quaker ministers traveling in nearly all the counties of England and Wales, and in parts of Scotland and Ireland, while the establishment of meetings had taken place in most parts of the nation. There were now no fewer than sixty engaged in the work of the ministry, and their labors were followed with signal success; a convincing power attended them in these engagements, which impressed awful considerations, and {promised a salvation to be experienced by the release from the bondage of sin and fellowship with the Father and son.} Their preaching was like that of the apostles, in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power; multitudes flocked to hear them, and many embraced their doctrines.'*— Gough's History, vol. i. p. 143.
Under the {command of the Holy Spirit, the early Quakers forsook home, spouse, children, and friends to obey God; they followed the Spirit's leading for the joy of serving God and the joy of sharing the Truth with their fellow men, also created in the image of God. They said, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. They said: ' Ho!' to every one that thirsts,' come you to the waters, and he that has no money, come you buy and eat, yes, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? They said: God was a God at hand, not off in the distance. They said God was to be experienced in this life, to be seen, to be heard, to be obeyed, to be followed; not just read about, talked about, addressed with requests, or sung about - all in the carnal mind, which in enmity to God. The said one could be freed from sin, that one could be translated into the kingdom, that one could enter the rest to have peace, with eternal confidence and assurance. They said all of these wonderful joys were by the cross of Christ, the inward cross of self-denial, and any other way is without salvation, whatever one may have been told. The basic difference in the message of the Quakers was that God was not remote in a far-off heaven, but was nearby within the heart of each man, patiently waiting to be sought, to be listened to, to teach teach each person, and with such faith to lead each person to purity. They said Jesus was the word within and the Light within all men; and that the workings of salvation only began after a person listened and obeyed to the Lord's voice within them. They said belief in the accuracy of the Bible was not sufficient; that faith enough to obey the commands of the Son of God within was necessary. These statements were considered heresy to the Puritans, who considered the Bible as the source and rule of faith, despite that: 1) Faith comes from hearing the word of god, not someone reading a book, 2) that Christ is the Author and Finisher of Faith, and 3) while the law is our beginning schoolmaster, the scriptures cannot be our permanent rule; we must seek to follow in faith, Christ our rule and judge. See James Parnell's outstanding writing on this subject.
It has been observed, in the preceding chapter, that there existed in some parts of New England, more especially in the state of Massachusetts, a spirit of great intolerance and persecution. Confident in the notion of their own righteousness and in that profession of religion which subjected their ancestors to so much cruelty in the mother country, and which ultimately drove the Pilgrim Fathers to seek a refuge in the American wilderness, the Puritans of New England unhappily cherished a disposition inimical to religious freedom. They contended for the right of judging in spiritual things, and bore their testimony against Episcopacy and whatever else they deemed to be error, but all dissent from their own doctrines they held to be heresy. Very early after the rise of Friends in Great Britain, many of them had to undergo much suffering and oppression from both priests and rulers. Episcopacy was at that time no longer the official religion of the state. The pulpits were occupied both by Presbyterians and Independents. Between the civil and ecclesiastical powers at home therefore, and those of New England, there was at this period, a great identity of feeling, and that desire for the establishment of uniformity in religion, which prompted the Presbyterians to endeavor to set up a consistory in every parish throughout England, found its ample response in the bosoms of the bigoted rulers of Massachusetts. Striking, as the principles of the Society of Friends do, at the very foundation of hierarchical systems, and all distinctions between laity and clergy, they met with vehement opposition from almost every class of religious professors, and both Royalist and Parliamentarian joined in common cause to oppress them. {By oppressing them, by imprisoning them, fining them, whipping them, etc., they proved they were no followers of Christ. For Christ said love your enemies, pray for your enemies, and turn the other cheek. The Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Puritan Congregationalists ignored Christ's reply to his disciples when they wished to punish the people who would not listen to Him, severely rebuking them with: Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. If someone is violating the standards of the church, (sinning), they are supposed to be warned by one, then warned by two or three, then censured by the whole body of believers, - and if they fail to repent of their error, they are supposed to be expelled and shunned - not killed, or imprisoned, or tortured, or lose their property. Thus the Protestants, like their Roman Catholic forefathers, plainly showed they were the false church - even as spoken of in Revelation to be the Whore of Babylon, of which all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, because all the sects are simply evolutional varieties of the Roman Empire's church, both east and west, whose doctrines were dictated by the sainted Emperors Constantine and Justinian the despot, thus eliminating the true gospel by 390 AD. As prophesied in Revelations, the church adulterated with the Kings of the earth. This deficit is hardly surprising, when you consider that Christ's disciples and apostles (John, Peter, Paul, and Jude) wrote of false teachers and preachers in their time, 2000 years ago. Even when John was alive, writing Revelation, the Lord spoke of fatal errors in six out of seven churches addressed. Contrast the actions of the Quakers. They prayed for their enemies. They forgave their enemies. They declined to prosecute their enemies, when the law was rarely on their side - saying vengeance was God's, not their's. Like Christ, they did not fight back. Like Christ they went like sheep to the slaughter. Like Christ, they went to their death, without anger, threats, or begging for mercy. In Revelations he [the beast] was further permitted to wage war on God's holy people (the saints) and to overcome them. And power was given him to extend his authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. The beast of the Book of Revelation is the beast of heathen religious authority, which power was severely curtailed [a wound to the head] by early Christianity, particularly in the Mediterranean region. But a second beast shortly arose that had horns like a lamb, but was a beast. Note, this beast appears to be Christian-like, and under pretence of the Lamb's authority, (though acted by the dragon's power, derived from the first beast of heathen religion) compels men to comply with such traditions, ceremonies, and rituals, (for Christian duties), as resemble the customs of the heathen, in their idolatrous worship and superstition. The whole earth followed this beast, and still does. Thus, the false church arose, and no one could spiritually buy or sell, (like the foolish virgins for oil in their lamps), unless they complied with the beast and had received the false church's mark. Any who denied this false church, or who tried to buy or sell (spiritual works by mind or hand) without the sanction of the false church were martyred, as their predecessors had done before, under the heathen power, or first beast. And while this false church is often identified by the Protestants as the Roman church, the Protestants are all part of the same false whore, (the beast has many names), salvation based on saying certain words, water, bread and wine - all superstitious rituals - instead of a complete change of heart - circumcised to be a new heart and mind. Their enemies, not just content with persecuting this despised people for sentiments which they really held and preached, endeavored, by an enormous amount of misrepresentation, to raise a prejudice against them in the minds of those who had not an opportunity of judging for themselves. The distorted books* which were industriously circulated respecting them, had, at a very early period of their history, reached the remotest settlements of the British empire; and, as it regards the American colonists, had produced among them not only a settled prejudice against Friends, but also a deep-rooted repugnance to the spiritual views which they advocated. The manner in which this feeling was manifested in Puritan New England, will be shown in the subsequent pages.
It was in the early part of the Fifth Month, 1656, that Mary Fisher and Anne Austin arrived at Boston, and their approach appears to have caused no inconsiderable degree of consternation to the authorities of Massachusetts Bay. The news of the arrival of the two strangers had no sooner reached the ears of Bellingham, the deputy governor, the governor himself being absent, than, in his zeal to avert the dreaded introduction of heretical doctrines into the colony, he immediately ordered that the two Friends should be detained on board the ship in which they had come, and that their trunks should be searched for any printed works which they might have brought. These orders were strictly carried out; they were kept closely confined in the vessel, and about one hundred books were taken from them, and committed to the custody of the officers. On this "extraordinary occasion," as the historian Neal terms it, the magistrates of Boston took the alarm; and, as if the town were threatened with some imminent danger, by the arrival of two quiet and harmless English women. A special council was convened, whose deliberations terminated in the issue of the following order:—
In the extraordinary proceedings of the council of Boston in passing this order, we see the first deliberate act of the rulers of New England in their corporate capacity, towards Friends. The instructions thus issued were not only rigorously, but even barbarously enforced. Mary Fisher and Anne Austin were brought on shore and confined in the dismal jail of Boston, while their books were committed to the flames by the hands of the executioner. " Oh, learned and malicious cruelty !" remarks one who was soon after a prisoner in Boston for his Quaker's principles,"as if another man had not been sufficient to burn a few harmless books, which, like their masters, can neither fight, strike, nor quarrel." The authorities, in their determination to prevent the "heretical doctrines" from spreading among the settlers, threatened to inflict a penalty of £5* on any one who should even attempt to converse with the Friends through the window of their prison; subsequently they had it boarded up as an additional security, and not deeming these precautionary measures sufficient, they next deprived the prisoners of their writing materials.
The order of the council was severe, but the revolting treatment to which these harmless women were afterwards exposed, was a still greater outrage upon humanity. For some years preceding, a delusion of a most extraordinary and alarming character, in reference to the subject of witches, had unhappily taken hold on the minds of the colonists of New England, and several persons had already been put to death under the charge of witchcraft. Two had been executed at Boston, one in 1648, and another, Bellingham's own sister-in-law, but a few months before the arrival of the two strangers. Whether the persecutors of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin, were really designing the death of the victims of their bigotry, and in effecting it were endeavoring to avoid offering violence to the feelings of the community, we know not, but the cry of witchcraft was now raised against them. They were accordingly subjected to a close examination, but no overt act in substantiation of the malignant charge, could be adduced. The authorities, thus foiled in their wicked purpose, next subjected them to an indecent and cruel examination of their persons, to see if some marks of witchcraft were not upon them, under the popular superstitious notion, that some distinctive sign would be found on the bodies of those who had thus sold themselves to Satan. It would have been a fearful thing had any mark or mole of a peculiar kind been apparent, but nothing of the sort was to be found, and they thus escaped an ignominious death. The magistrates, baffled in their wicked design, now refused to furnish their prisoners with provisions, or even to allow the citizens of Boston to do so; but He who fed Elijah in the wilderness, and who cares for His saints under every variety of circumstance, was near to help. An aged inhabitant of the city, touched with compassion for their sufferings, bribed the jailer, by giving him five shillings a week, to allow him privately to administer to their wants. After an imprisonment of nearly five weeks, and the loss of their beds and their bible, which the jailer took for his fees, Mary Fisher and Anne Austin, were sent on board the vessel in which they came, and which was now about to sail to Barbados, the captain being bound, under a penalty of one hundred pounds, to carry them to that island, and to prevent their either landing in New England, or in any way communicating with its people. The date of their banishment from Boston, was the 5th of the Sixth Month, 1656. Kempthorn, the captain, submitted to the arbitrary requisition of the council; and, it is supposed, paid for the returning passage of the two Friends to Barbados. While these proceedings were going forward, Endicott, the governor, was in another part of the colony; and to his absence from Boston may be attributed the escape of Mary Fisher, and her companion, from a cruelty of another kind. " If I had been present," said this persecuting Puritan, on hearing the course adopted towards them, "I would have had them well whipped." This was that Endicott who afterwards made himself so conspicuous in the New England persecutions. The following unpublished letter in the Swarthmore collection of manuscripts, written by Henry Fell, who visited Barbados about this time, contains an account of the arrival of the banished Friends at that island, and will probably be read with interest.
As it will be interesting to know something further of the history of Mary Fisher, and Anne Austin, being the first who landed on the American continent to promulgate the doctrines of the Society of Friends, the present chapter will conclude with a brief sketch of their lives, as far as historical materials permit. MARY FISHER was born in the north of England about the year 1623, and at a very early period of the Society's progress in that part, joined in profession with it, but of the precise date and circumstance of her convincement we have no record. She was one who possessed talents much above the average of her sex, and" whose intellectual faculties," observes an early writer, "were greatly adorned by the gravity of her deportment." Her residence at the time of her convincement it is believed was at Pontefract in Yorkshire. She came forth as a minister of the gospel in 1652, and in the same year we find her imprisoned within York Castle, for addressing an assembly at the close of public worship at Selby; an imprisonment which lasted sixteen months. Almost immediately on her release from this long confinement, she proceeded on a gospel mission to the southeastern parts of England, in company with Elizabeth Williams, a fellow-laborer in the ministry. Two females thus traveling from county to county, publicly preaching the doctrines of the new Society in parts where previously its name had scarcely been known, must have excited no small surprise in the people among whom they came. They passed, however, without molestation through the country, until the Tenth Month, ] 653, when they arrived at Cambridge. To the students at this seat of learning, the presence of itinerant preachers appeared an absurdity, but that Quaker women should attempt to preach in Cambridge, was, in their estimation, a still greater presumption. Mary Fisher and her friend, faithful to their call, “discussed about the things of God" with the young students, and "preached at Sidney College gate" to the inmates of that establishment. But the doctrine of the freedom of gospel ministry, and the disuse of all ceremonial observances in religion, appeared to the letter-learned collegians mere jargon, and they began to mock and deride the two strangers as religious fanatics,* while the mayor of the town, eager to support the orthodoxy of his church, ordered them to be taken to the market cross and whipped, "until the blood ran down their bodies;" a sentence which was executed with much barbarity. Before they had been tied to the whipping-post, in presence of the gazing multitude, these innocent women, at the footstool of divine mercy, sought forgiveness for their persecutors. The scene was altogether new and strange to the spectators, and they were astonished on beholding the Christian patience and constancy which characterized the conduct of the sufferers, and more especially when they heard them pray that their persecutors 'might be pardoned.
The first imprisoned Quaker was George Fox, at Nottingham, in 1649. He had also, with several others of his fellow professors, bore much personal abuse: but it was not until Mary Fisher and her companion visited Cambridge, that any were publicly scourged. On this occasion Mary Fisher, under a presentiment of the troubles that awaited Friends, was heard to say, "this is but the beginning of the sufferings of the people of God." Towards the close of 1653, she felt called to "declare the truth in the steeple-house" at Pontefract, an act of dedication for which she was immured six months within the walls of York Castle. In the following year, she was subjected, by the Mayor of Pontefract, to three months additional confinement in this fortress, because she was "unrepentant" for addressing the assembly at Pontefract, “and for refusing to give sureties for her good behavior." In 1655, we find her traveling in the ministry in Buckinghamshire, where she again for some months became the inmate of a prison, for “giving Christian exhortations to the priest and people." It was also during 1655, that Mary Fisher felt a religious call to leave the shores of her native country, for the West India Islands, and North America. The date of her return from the western world was probably in the early part of 1657. During the same year she again visited the West Indies. In 1658, we trace her at Nevis. In 1660, under an impression of religious duty to visit Sultan Mahomet IV, she performed a long and arduous journey to the continent of Asia. After visiting Italy, Zante, Corinth, and Smyrna, she at last reached Adrianople; where the Sultan was encamped with his army. Her message was received by this great Asiatic monarch* in a very courteous manner. On leaving the court of this Mohammedan potentate, she proceeded to Constantinople, from where she took her departure for England.
Soon after Mary Fisher had returned from the east, she was united in marriage with William Bayley of Poole, in Dorsetshire, an eminent minister in the Society. The marriage took place in the early part of 1662. William Bayley was by occupation a mariner, and occasionally made voyages to the West Indies, but he died when at sea, in the Fourth Month, 1675. Of the issue of this marriage we have no record; we find, however, that Sophia Hume, a ministering Friend of extraordinary character, was the granddaughter of William and Mary Bayley. In the Seventh Month, 1678, Mary Bayley was united in marriage with John Cross of London. How long John Cross and his wife resided in London after their union, does not appear, but, following the example of many other Friends of that day, they emigrated to America. In 1697, we find Mary a second time a widow, residing at Charlestown in South Carolina. Robert Barrow, after his providential escape from shipwreck on the coast of Florida, while traveling in the ministry, was conveyed by the Spaniards of St. Augustine, to Charlestown, where he became her welcome guest. Writing to his wife from this place, after mentioning the severe illness he had endured, arising from his privations, he thus speaks of his kind hostess: "At length we arrived at Ashley River, and it pleased God, I had the great fortune to have a good nurse, one whose name you have heard of, a Yorkshire woman, born within two miles of York; her maiden name was Mary Fisher, she that spoke to the great Turk; afterwards William Bayley's wife. She is now my landlady and nurse. She is a widow of a second husband, her name is now Mary Cross. At the date of Robert Barrow's letter, the age of Mary Cross could not have been much under seventy years. Since she left the shores of Britain for New England, forty-one years had elapsed. She doubtless finished her earthly course at Charlestown, but we regret that previously we have been unable to meet with any particulars of the close of her eventful life, or of the date when it took place. We may, however, reverently believe, that she was not unprepared for the solemn summons; and that she has entered into that rest, and enjoys that crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge gives unto all those that love his appearing. Respecting ANNE AUSTIN we have but few particulars to narrate. At the time of her visit to New England, she was mentioned as one stricken in years," and as being the mother of five children. Her residence it appears was in the city of London. Expelled from Boston, she was carried with her companion Mary Fisher, to Barbados. Her stay on that island was not a prolonged one; as we find the expenses of her returning passage to England, included in the accounts of the Society for 1656-7. Continuing faithful in her high calling as a minister of Christ, Anne Austin, on her return to her native land, had to feel the persecuting hands of ungodly men; and thus one of the filthy jails of London in 1659, became her abode, for exercising her gift in the assemblies of her own Society. From the time of her imprisonment at this date, to that of her decease, no incident is recorded of this dedicated woman. Her death occurred during the awful visitation of 1665, by which 100,000 of the inhabitants of London were called from time to eternity. The burial register of the Society states, that she died in the Sixth Month, 1665, of the plague, and was interred at Bunhill cemetery; and we doubt not but that she was called to receive that reward, which is the sure inheritance of all the faithful in Christ. CHAPTER III Eight Ministers of the Society arrive at Boston from London—Their trunks are searched—They are committed to prison and sentenced to banishment—The captain who brought them, bound over to take them back to England—The magistrates take measures to legalize their persecuting proceedings—A law is enacted for banishing Quakers from the colony of Boston—Nicholas Upshal testifies against the law —He is arrested, fined, imprisoned, and banished—He seeks refuge within the colony of Plymouth, and winters there—Is banished there, and proceeds to Rhode Island. In the expulsion of the early Quakers from New England, the rulers of Boston had evidently much underrated the task which they had unhappily imposed upon themselves; and well would it have been for their country had their actions responded to the advice given by Gamaliel, in reference to the preaching of the Apostles at Jerusalem, when the Jews sought to slay them : "Refrain from these men, and let them alone, for if this counsel or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it." Scarcely had the ship, which bore the two messengers of the gospel from the shores of Massachusetts, bent her course towards the Caribbean sea, when another vessel from London, having on board eight other Quakers, arrived in Boston Bay. These were Christopher Holder, John Copeland, Thomas Thurston, William Brend, Mary Prince, Sarah Gibbons, Mary Weatherhead, and Dorothy Waugh. The date of their arrival was the 7th of the Sixth Month, 1656, being only two days after the departure of Mary Fisher and Anne Austin. "They had been brought here," they said, "in the will of God, having been made sensible of the cries and groans of his seed, which was crying unto him for help and deliverance under cruel bondage."*
The master of the vessel, almost immediately on his arrival, furnished the governor with a list of his passengers, and when it was known that eight of them were Quakers from England, with Richard Smith an inhabitant of Long Island, who professed with them, officers were forthwith sent on board with a warrant, commanding them "to search the boxes, chests, and trunks of the Quakers, for erroneous books and hellish pamphlets," and also to bring the Friends before the court then sitting at Boston. The orders being promptly executed, the Friends were subjected to a long and frivolous examination, mostly in reference to their belief in the nature of the Divine Being, and concerning the Scriptures. Respecting the latter, one of the priests contended, on the authority of the passage in 2 Peter 1:19, which alludes to "the more sure word of prophecy,"* that the Scriptures were the only rule and guide of life. {See James Parnell's outstanding writing on this very point.} The priest during the discussion, finding it difficult to maintain his position, began to admit more than was in accordance with the views of some of the magistrates, on which much dissension arose among them to the no small alarm and consternation of the priest. Long as the examination had been, the court nevertheless desired to resume it on the following day; the Friends were therefore committed to prison for the night, and brought up again on the following morning. The subjects upon which the prisoners were now interrogated were those which they had discussed on the previous day, to which they declined to reply, except by referring the magistrates to their former answers, which had been already been carefully recorded. They then demanded to know why they had been arrested, and deprived of their liberty. Endicott, who had returned from the country, evading an answer to the question, replied, "Take heed you do not break our ecclesiastical laws, for then you are sure to stretch by a halter {hangman's rope; notice they were threatening death already, only lacking legal precedent to justify it."
At the close of the examination, a sentence of banishment was pronounced upon the prisoners, instructions being issued for the close confinement of the eight English Friends, until the ship in which they came should be ready to return. Richard Smith, the Quaker from Long Island, was to be sent home by sea, rather than by the shorter and more convenient way by land; these bigoted rulers considered it needful to use all precautionary means to prevent the "Quaker heretics" from even passing through their country. The authorities having taken so summary a course against the Friends, now sent for the master of the vessel in which they came, in order to force him to pay a bond in the sum of ₤500, for conveying them to England at his own cost. The honest seaman, feeling that he had violated no law of his country, in having brought her free-born inhabitants to this part of her dominions, refused to comply with the arbitrary requisition. His opposition, however, proved unavailing; an imprisonment of four days sufficed to overcome his feelings of independence, and to reduce him to submission. The authorities of Boston, anxious in their zeal to adopt every mode to secure the colony from the influence of Quakerism, issued the following order to the keeper of the prison :— "
Subsequently, the jailer was also ordered "to search, as often as he saw necessary, the boxes, chests and things of the Quakers formerly committed to his custody, for pen, ink and paper, papers and books, and to take them from them." The extraordinary course, which the rulers of Massachusetts had taken in the prosecution of the Quakers, was not only in opposition to the laws of the mother country, but also without sanction from any of those of the colony. The authorities of Boston, eager as they were in the work of persecution, were not blind to their position in this respect; and here we find them anxiously endeavoring to promote measures for legalizing their wicked proceedings. On the 2nd of the Seventh Month, 1656, the governor and magistrates of the Boston patent assembled, and prepared a letter addressed to "The Commissioners of the United Provinces," who were about to meet at Plymouth; in which they recommended, "That some general rules may be recommended to each General Court, to prevent the coming in among us from foreign places such notorious heretics, as Quakers, Ranters, etc." The subject having been thus brought before the commissioners, the sanction of that body was obtained for framing a law, to justify the course which the rulers at Boston had pursued, and to legalize future intolerance. They agreed to "propose to the several General Courts, that all Quakers, Ranters, and other notorious heretics be prohibited coming into the United Colonies; and if any shall hereafter come or arise among us, that they be forthwith secured or removed out of all the jurisdictions." Encouraged by the recommendation of the Commissioners, the authorities at Boston soon passed a law for the banishment of Quakers from their territory. This persecuting enactment was the first in America specially directed against the Society. It is as follows: — "
You shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. The passing of the foregoing law in the usual way, together with its official recognition on the statute books of the colony, was, in the estimation of its advocates, a method too subtle for disposing of the measure. It was important in their view that the settlers of Massachusetts should be thoroughly impressed with the fearful character of the "cursed sect," and the dangerous consequences to which they would be exposed, if such "blasphemous heretics" were permitted to come among them. With beat of drum, therefore, in order to arouse the attention of the population, the law in question, was in a few days publicly proclaimed in the streets of Boston, producing an unprecedented degree of excitement and commotion. Turning again to the imprisoned Friends, we find as the time for their embarkation approached, that the officers under the provisions of another warrant, made a order for seizure on the goods of the prisoners for the payment of the jailer's fees, in pursuance of which all their bedding was taken. In this state, unprepared for a voyage across the wide Atlantic, the sufferers were inhumanly thrust on board the vessel now about to sail, and had not their goods been kindly redeemed by some of the inhabitants, who were touched with sympathy for them in their distress—they would have been forced away, thus un-provided, from the shores of America. After an imprisonment of about eleven weeks, and in the Eighth Month, 1656, the Friends were borne off from Boston, and after crossing the ocean in safety, they landed at London. Thus ended the second attempt of members of the Quakers to preach the gospel on the continent of the western world. The preceding details of Puritan persecution in New England, relate to the treatment of those, who came as strangers to that country. Our attention will now be directed to cruelties practiced towards colonists, who had been convinced that the principles of the banished Quakers, harmonized with the doctrines and precepts of Christ. In the relation of the treatment which Mary Fisher and Anne Austin received at Boston, allusion is made to the christian conduct of an aged inhabitant of the place, in supplying those persecuted women with provisions during their imprisonment. This individual was Nicholas Upshal, whose sufferings we have now to record, under the conscientious testimony which he bore, against the wicked and arbitrary proceedings of his countrymen. He had "long been an inhabitant and freeman of Boston," was a zealous and faithful christian, and one, who, from his earlier years, had been held in much esteem, as a man of "sober and innocent conversation." He had been a Puritan in religious profession, and in the prosperity of the particular congregation to which he belonged, he had been deeply interested for a long series of years. But the forms and ceremonies of his church had for some time past been burdensome to him. He had felt their insufficiency to satisfy the soul in its longing and thirsting after God; and he was prepared to receive more spiritual views of religious truth. When therefore, he found on inquiry, that the views of the persecuted strangers, who renounced all outward observances in religion, pointed emphatically to the inward appearance of Christ, as the consolation and strength of the Christian, and as the leader and guide of his people everywhere, they met with a response in his bosom, and "he was much refreshed." The cruel law enacted in New England against Friends, and which had been ostentatiously announced to the citizens of Boston by beat of drum, deeply affected the mind of this good man. Being "grieved at the heart," therefore, under the impression that these unrighteous actions would be followed by the just judgments of the Most High, when the proclamation of the law was made before his own door, he felt constrained to raise his voice in public disapprobation of the act. He was anxious that his fellow-citizens might know that he disclaimed any participation in proceedings utterly at variance with the character of true religion. The conscientious course pursued by the venerable colonist, was viewed by the self-righteous rulers as a grave offence against their authority, and one which required the marked severity of the court. On the following morning, therefore, he was cited to appear before them, to answer the charge preferred against him, "for having expressed his disapprobation of the law against Quakers." Thus arraigned, Nicholas Upshal, "in much tenderness and love," pleaded with his fellow-citizens on the iniquitous course they were pursuing, and warned them "to take heed for fear that they should be found fighting against God." The magistrates were untouched by his appeal, and in their determination to crush any questioning of their acts, fined, imprisoned, and banished him from the colony. The fine was twenty pounds, and the time allowed him to prepare for his expatriation was only thirty days, four of which he passed in prison. He was also subjected to an additional fine of three pounds, for not attending the usual place of worship, while under sentence of banishment. The time had arrived when Nicholas Upshal was to bid a final farewell to a city, memorable to himself, and others of the older inhabitants, as a place of refuge, which, through many trials and difficulties, they had sought in the wilds of the western world, from "persecution at home." The weak and "aged" colonist leaving his wife and children, towards the close of the Tenth Month, proceeded southward in the hope of finding a shelter at Sandwich, within the colony of Plymouth. The governor of this colony, had it appears, been apprised of his intention, and, desiring to assist in driving Quakers from Massachusetts, had issued a warrant, forbidding any of the people of Sandwich to entertain him. The inhabitants of the town, however, were not disposed to close their doors on the distressed, many of them had too much regard for the precepts of Christianity, to abandon the houseless and aged stranger to the inclement of a wintry season; and Nicholas Upshal found a ready home among them. But the hospitality of the kind-hearted people of Sandwich, displeased their governor, who, desired having this victim of priestly intolerance more immediately within his grasp, issued a special warrant for his appearance before him at Plymouth. The coldness of the winter, together with the precarious state of Nicholas Upshal's health, would, he believed, endanger his life, if he attempted to obey the summons. He, therefore, wisely concluded not to comply, and informed the governor by letter, that if the warrant should be enforced, and he perished, his blood would be required at his hands. His resolution not to remove from Sandwich is supposed to have received encouragement from the townsmen, by whom also it appears the constabulary were restrained from enforcing the warrant, and to the same course some of the more moderate of the magistrates inclined. In the early part of the following spring, however, the authorities of Sandwich at the unremitting solicitation of the governor, resolved that the banished man should find a home elsewhere. On the intimation of this resolu |
