_The Ninth month, 1659._
Now how soon after these sayings of Burrough, ‘Your estates shall not
be spared from the spoiler, nor your necks from the axe; your enemies
shall charge treason upon you, and if you seek to stop the Lord’s work
you shall not cumber the earth very long,’ were fulfilled, we shall see
shortly.
About this time also he wrote several epistles to his friends, wherein
he so powerfully exhorted them to faithfulness and steadfastness,
that thereby he hath procured to himself a name that will never die;
as living still in the remembrance of thousands, though he long ago
went the way of all flesh, having laid down his life in bonds for the
testimony of Jesus, as will be said in its due place.
There is also extant a piece of a letter written about this time to the
cavaliers, which, whether done by E. Burrough, or by George Fox the
younger, or by George Bishop, I cannot tell: but thus it speaks:
‘The very spirit of pride and oppression, and idolatry, is
entered into them, (viz. your enemies,) and now lives in them
in as high a measure as ever it lived amongst you; and their
iniquities are well nigh finished, and the Lord will one way or
other correct and reprove them; and they shall be dealt with in
like manner as they have dealt with you; for they were no more
than a rod in the hand of the Lord for a season, and they must
also be broken and cast into the fire; and whether the Lord
may ever make use of you to reprove them, as he did of them to
reprove you, this I determine not, but leave it to him who can
discover whatsoever he will, by what instrument he pleaseth. It
is true, you have made many attempts to be revenged upon them,
but you have not hitherto prospered; but could you be humbled,
and come into the meek Spirit of the Lord, then might you
prosper; hitherto the Lord hath always defeated you, and bowed
you down under a people as unworthy as others; but their time
will come to an end. Submit therefore unto the will of the Lord
in what is come to pass, and seek not vengeance to yourselves,
and then the Lord will avenge your cause; for the iniquities of
your adversaries are ripe. And Charles Stuart must either be
converted to God, and ruled by him, or else he can never rightly
rule for God in this nation; though this I believe, it is not
impossible but that he may be a rod upon them that once smote
him: and their oppressions and ambitions may receive a check
through him.’
Among several other eminent preachers, Stephen Crisp was now also
become a public minister of the word of God; and it was about this time
that he went to Scotland, to preach the gospel there, and to edify the
churches with his gift.
G. Fox the younger, this year wrote an exhortation to the military
officers, and the army, showing them how they were departed from their
first integrity, and fallen into pride and wantonness.
G. Fox the elder, about the Tenth month, was at Norwich, where a
meeting being appointed, and the mayor having got notice of it,
intended to have given out a warrant to apprehend him, but he having
heard of this, sent some of his friends to the mayor, to speak with
him about it. And his answer was, that he feared such a meeting would
cause tumults in the town. But being spoken to in a kind way, he
behaved himself moderately, and a large peaceable meeting was kept;
to which, among others, several priests also came, and among these
was one Townsend, who stood up and cried, ‘Error, Blasphemy,’ &c. G.
Fox desired him not to burden himself with that which he could not
make good. But he asserted it to be error and blasphemy, that G. Fox
had said that people must wait upon God by his power and Spirit, and
feel his presence when they did not speak words. On this G. Fox asked
him, whether the apostles and holy men of God, did not hear God speak
to them in their silence before they spake forth the Scriptures, and
before it was written? He replied ‘Yes,’ and confirmed it by saying
plainly, that David and the prophets did so. Then G. Fox showed people
how absurd it was, that Townsend, had called such a practice error
and blasphemy. This so puzzled Townsend, that he said, ‘O this is not
that George Fox I would speak withal; but this is a subtil man.’ Now
when some of the auditory called to the priest, and bade him prove
the blasphemy and error which he had charged G. Fox with, he went
away; and being afterwards spoken to by George Whitehead, and Richard
Hubberthorn, who were then also about Norwich, he was soon confounded
and brought down.
The committee of safety being now in power, Edmund Ludlow continued to
urge the restoring of the parliament; and general Monk, who commanded
the army in Scotland, aiming at the restoration of the king, yet wrote
to the speaker, Lenthal, that he would act for the parliament: and so
it was restored.
G. Fox the younger, wrote to this parliament a letter, wherein he
told them, that their day was turned into darkness; and that the sun
was gone down over them. Yea, that the decree was gone out, and sealed
against them, and it could not be recalled: with many other remarkable
expressions. He had written at other times to the army, and to the
parliament, as did also Richard Hubberthorn, which to avoid prolixity,
I pass by.
* * * * *
Let us now again take a view of the persecution in New England. I have
already made mention of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, and their
son Josiah, of whom more is to be said hereafter; but first I will
speak of Daniel and Provided, son and daughter of the said Lawrence and
Cassandra. These children seeing how unreasonably their honest parents
and brothers were dealt with, were so far from being deterred thereby,
that they rather felt themselves encouraged to follow their steps, and
not to frequent the assemblies of such a persecuting generation; for
which absence they were fined ten pounds, though it was well known
they had no estate, their parents being already brought to poverty by
their rapacious persecutors. To get this money, the following order was
issued in the general court at Boston.
‘Whereas Daniel Southwick, and Provided Southwick, son and
daughter of Lawrence Southwick, absenting themselves from the
public ordinances, have been fined by the courts 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
the account of debts, in answer to what should be done for the
satisfaction of the fines, resolves, that the treasurers of
the several counties are, and shall be fully impowered to sell
the said persons to any of the English nation, at Virginia, or
Barbadoes, to answer the said fines, &c.
EDWARD RAWSON, _Secretary_.’
The subject of this order was answered effectually at large in print,
by G. Bishop, who showed the unreasonableness of this work very plainly
from sacred writ; as from Amos, ii. 6, where the judgments of God are
denounced against those who sold the righteous for silver, and the
poor for a pair of shoes; and from Levit. xxv. 42, where the making
the children of Israel bondmen, is expressly forbidden; this being not
lawful, but in the case of theft, if the thief had nothing to make
satisfaction with. But to return to Daniel and Provided, there wanted
nothing but the execution of the said order against them. Wherefore
Edmund Butter, one of the treasurers, to get something of the booty,
sought out for passage, to send them to Barbadoes for sale; but none
were willing to take or carry them: and a certain master of a ship,
to put the thing off, pretended, that they would spoil all the ship’s
company. To which Butter returned, ‘No, you need not fear that, for
they are poor harmless creatures, and will not hurt any body.’ ‘Will
they not so,’ replied the shipmaster: ‘and will you offer to make
slaves of such harmless creatures?’ Thus Butter, maugre his wicked
intention, the winter being at hand, sent them home again, to shift for
themselves, till he could get a convenient opportunity to send them
away.
It happened also in this year, that a girl, about eleven years old,
named Patience Scot, whose religious mother had been cruelly whipt by
these people, bore witness against their wicked persecution; which so
incensed the persecutors, that they sent her to prison: and the child
having been examined, spoke so well to the purpose, that she confounded
her enemies; some of whom confessed, that they had many children, who
had been well educated, and that it were well if they could say half
so much for God, as she could for the devil. But this child not being
of years to be obnoxious to the law, how wicked soever they were, it
seems they could not resolve to proceed to banishment, as they did with
others.
All that hitherto I have said of the New England persecution, is but
cursorily, and only a very small part of those manifold whippings
that were inflicted there; besides the extortions of fines, which
were exorbitant to a high degree; as may appear by what was done to
William Maston, at Hampton, who was fined ten pounds for two books
found in his house, five pounds for not frequenting their church, and
three pounds besides, as a due to the priest: and he not being free
in conscience to pay this fine, had taken from him what amounted to
more than twenty pounds. I find also, that not long after this time,
above a thousand pounds was extorted from some, only because they
had separated themselves from the persecuting church: and it seems
they were deemed such as were shut out from the protection of the
law; insomuch that Thomas Prince, governor of Plymouth, did not stick
to say, that in his conscience the Quakers were such a people, that
deserved to be destroyed, they, their wives, and children, their houses
and lands, without pity or mercy. I find also that one Humphrey Norton
at Newhaven, for being a Quaker, was whipt severely, and burnt in the
hand with the letter H. to signify heretic.
This cruelty of the English did also stir up the Dutch to persecution:
for without inquiring what kind of people the Quakers were, they seemed
ready to conclude them to be men of pernicious opinions, since those of
their own nation, who pretended to more purity than other Protestants,
did so severely persecute them.
It happened that one Robert Hodshone, being in the Dutch plantation at
Hamstead, had a meeting with some of his friends that were English,
and lived there; but as he was walking in an orchard, an officer came
and took hold of him, and brought him before one Gildersleave, an
Englishman, and a magistrate there, who committed him to prison, and
rode to the Dutch governor to acquaint him therewith: and coming back
with a guard of musqueteers, the fiscal searched the prisoner, and
took away his knife, papers, and bible, and pinioned him, and kept him
so all night, and the next day. And making inquiry after those that
entertained him, he took into custody two women on that occasion, one
of whom had two small children, the one yet sucking at her breast.
Then they got a cart and carried the women away in it, and Robert was
fastened to the hinder part of the cart, pinioned, and so drawn through
the woods in the night season, whereby he was much torn and abused. And
being come to New Amsterdam, (now New York,) he was loosed, and led by
the rope, with which he had been fastened to the cart, to the dungeon,
being a filthy place, full of vermin; and the two women were carried to
another place. Some time after he was examined, there being one captain
Willet of Plymouth, who had much incensed the governor against him, who
before had been moderate. The conclusion was, that a sentence was read
in Dutch, to Robert, to this effect, that he was to work two years at
the wheelbarrow with a negro, or pay, or cause to be paid, six hundred
guilders. To this he attempted to make his defence in a sober way, but
was not suffered to speak, and sent to the dungeon again; where no
English were suffered to come to him. After some days he was taken out,
and pinioned, and being set with his face towards the court chamber,
his hat was taken off, and another sentence read to him in Dutch, which
he did not understand: but that it displeased many of that nation, did
appear by the shaking of their heads. Then he was cast again into the
dungeon, where he was kept some days.
At length, betimes in the morning, he was hauled out, and chained
to a wheelbarrow, and commanded to work: to which he answered, he
was never brought up, nor used to such a work. Upon which they made
a negro to take a pitched rope, nigh four inches about, and to beat
him; who did so, till Robert fell down. Then they took him up again,
and caused the negro to beat him with the said rope, until he fell
down the second time, and it was believed that he received about one
hundred blows. Thus he was kept all that day in the heat of the sun,
chained to the wheelbarrow; and his body being much bruised and swelled
with the blows, and he kept without food, grew very faint, and sat
upon the ground, with his mind retired to the Lord, and resigned to
his will, whereby he felt himself supported. At night he was locked
up again in the dungeon, and the next morning he was chained again to
the wheelbarrow, and a sentinel set over him, that none might come
so much as to speak with him. On the third day he was had forth, and
chained in like manner; and no wonder that he still refused to work,
for besides the unreasonableness of requiring such a servile work of
him who had committed no evil, he was not in a condition to perform
it, being made altogether unable by the cruel blows given him. In this
weak state he was brought before the governor, who demanded him to
work, otherwise he said, he should be whipt every day. Robert asked
him what law he had broken? And called for his accusers, that he might
know his transgression. But instead of an answer he was chained to the
wheelbarrow again, and threatened, that if he spake to any one, he
should be punished worse. Yet he did not forbear to speak to some that
came to him, so as he saw meet, and thought convenient. Then seeing
they could not keep him silent, they put him into the dungeon again,
and kept him close there several days, and two nights; one day and a
half of it, without bread or water.
After this, he was brought very early in the morning, into a private
room, and stript to the waist, and hung up by his hands, and a great
log of wood tied to his feet, so that he could not turn his body;
and then a strong negro was set to whip him with rods, who laid many
stripes upon him, which cut his flesh very much. Then he was let down
again, and put into the dungeon as before, and none suffered to come
to him. Two days after he was had forth again, and hung up as before,
and many more stripes were laid upon him by another negro. He almost
fainting, and not knowing but his life might be taken away, desired
that some English might be suffered to come to him: which was granted,
and an English woman came and washed his stripes, finding him brought
so low that she thought he would not live till the next morning. And
she telling this to her husband, it made such an impression upon him,
that he went to the fiscal and proffered him a fat ox, to suffer Robert
to be at his house until he was well again. But the fiscal would not
permit this, unless the whole fine was paid. And though there were
some that would willingly have paid the fine for him, yet he could not
consent to it; but within three days after he had thus been whipped, he
was made whole, and as strong as before, and was free to labour, that
he might not be burdensome to any. Some others of those called Quakers,
(who came thither from the plantations in New England to enjoy liberty
of conscience, and whose names and sufferings I pass by for brevity’s
sake,) met also with hard measure from the governor, by the instigation
of the aforesaid Captain Willet. Robert now though guiltless, being
kept like a slave to hard work, it raised compassion in many, and the
governor’s sister, who was much affected with his sufferings, became
instrumental in obtaining his liberty; for she so plied her brother,
that he at length set him free without paying one penny, or any body
for him; by which the governor showed, that though he had been too
easily wrought upon to commit evil, yet he was not come near to that
height of malice as the New England persecutors; who increased in
their hard-heartedness, and became inured to cruelty, insomuch that
if any one amongst them would not give his vote for persecution, he
was counted unworthy to be a magistrate: as appears by a letter of one
James Cudworth, written some time before to one of his friends in Old
England, wherein I meet with these words:
‘As for the state and condition of things amongst us, it is
sad. The antichristian persecuting spirit is very active, and
that in the powers of this world. He that will not whip and
lash, persecute, and punish men that differ in matters of
religion, must not sit on the bench, nor sustain any office in
the commonwealth. Last election Mr. Hatherly and myself left the
bench, and myself was discharged of my captainship, because I had
entertained some of the Quakers at my house, that thereby I might
be the better acquainted with their principles. I thought it
better to do so, than with the blind world to censure, condemn,
rail at, and revile them, when they neither saw their persons,
nor knew any thing of their principles. But the Quakers and
myself cannot close in divers things; and so I signified to the
court I was no Quaker, but must give my testimony against sundry
things that they held, as I had occasion and opportunity. But
withal, I told them, that as I was no Quaker, so I would be no
persecutor.’
Now shall I enter upon the narrative of their putting some to death,
who died martyrs; for this was yet wanting to complete the tragedy,
which it seems could not be done to the satisfaction of the actors,
without playing a murdering part.
The two first that sealed their testimony with their blood, were
William Robinson, merchant of London, and Marmaduke Stevenson, a
countryman of Yorkshire. These coming to Boston in the beginning
of September, were sent for by the court of assistants, and there
sentenced to banishment on pain of death. This sentence was passed also
on Mary Dyar, mentioned heretofore, and Nicholas Davis, who were both
at Boston. But William Robinson, being looked upon as a teacher, was
also condemned to be whipt severely; and the constable was commanded to
get an able man to do it. Then Robinson was brought into the street,
and there stript; and having his hands put through the holes of the
carriage of a great gun, where the jailer held him, the executioner
gave him twenty stripes with a three-fold cord whip. Then he and the
other prisoners were shortly released, and banished; which that it
was for no other reason but their being Quakers, may appear by the
following warrant:
‘You are required by these, presently to set at liberty William
Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, Mary Dyar, and Nicholas Davis,
who by an order of the court and council, had been imprisoned,
because it appeared by their own confession, words, and actions,
that they are Quakers; wherefore a sentence was pronounced
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.