ANNE HUTCHINSON
1590-1643
Anne Marbury was an English girl who lived in Lincolnshire, near the
town of Boston. Her father was a Puritan minister, preaching there and
in London. In Lincolnshire Anne passed her girlhood, doubtless hearing
a great deal of theological controversy and religious discussion,
for this was the time of the Puritan revolt in England, and of great
religious excitement. Naturally intelligent and earnest, her mental
powers were aroused and quickened.
At an early age she married William Hutchinson, “a very honest and
peaceable man of good estate.” And in 1634 with her husband and
children she journeyed to America--the outcome of the Reverend John
Cotton’s leaving England because of his persecution by the bishops.
Anne Hutchinson had been one of his most ardent disciples in the church
at old Boston, and was now to sit under him in the new Boston.
It was a pleasant voyage of seven weeks, in the good ship _Griffen_.
There were over a hundred passengers, among them two ministers, so you
may be sure there were sermons and prayers and religious discussions
all during the crossing. Indeed Mistress Anne Hutchinson was so
outspoken in her doctrines that, when they landed, one of these
ministers reported her to the governor as holding dangerous beliefs.
Though her husband was accepted at once, the colony leaders took a
week’s time to look into her liberal views, and then examined her
rigorously before admitting her to membership in the church.
For Massachusetts, you remember, was settled by Puritans who had met
persecution in England, and had braved the dangers of the long voyage
and the greater dangers of hunger and illness in a new land, in order
to worship God in their own way. In accomplishing this they became as
intolerant as those from whom they had fled. Indeed there was a far
closer relation of church and state in Massachusetts than in England.
The only liberty the fathers allowed was the liberty to believe just as
they believed. They were right, others were wrong, and on this theory
they regulated everything, both religious and civil.
Until their own house could be built, Mistress Anne Hutchinson and
some of the children lived at the Reverend Cotton’s; and for the three
years the family remained in Boston, their home was across the street
from John Winthrop’s. Almost immediately this house became the social
center of the town and Anne Hutchinson had a leading place among the
three hundred inhabitants and the fast friendship of the brilliant
young Englishman, Sir Harry Vane, then serving a term as governor of
the colony. The women loved her for her goodness of heart, her cheerful
neighborliness, her great skill in nursing. Both men and women welcomed
her intellectual and magnetic personality. She had a vigorous mind,
a dauntless courage, a natural gift for leadership; she was capable,
energetic, amiable.
And there was another reason why the women liked her. The colonists had
two church services on Sunday, with sermons sometimes three hours long;
Thursday lectures, and a Saturday night meeting. There was also during
the week religious discussion for the men. Mrs. Hutchinson started
meetings for women--a new departure, for never before had women met
for independent thought and action. At first this won high approval.
The women--forty, sixty, sometimes eighty of them, even a hundred, for
they came from near-by towns as well as from Boston homes--were soon
holding regular meetings to review the sermons of the Sunday before,
with Mistress Anne’s comment and interpretation.
“All the faithful embraced her conference,” a contemporary record
describes the gatherings, “and blessed God for her fruitful discourses.”
But from a review of the sermons to discussion and criticism of them
and the ministers as well was a short step. It soon began to be said
that Anne Hutchinson cast reproaches on those who preached “a covenant
by works” instead of the “covenant by grace” in which she fervently
believed. Such freedom of speech could not be tolerated by the good
Puritans, and a theological dispute arose which threatened the very
life of the colony. There were two parties, grace and works. Politics
became a matter of Hutchinson opinions, for political lines and
religious lines coincided exactly. Indeed there was no separation of
church and state; the leaders of one controlled the policy of the other.
From the beginning of the colony the preachers had had an unlimited
influence. Now they complained that “more resort to Mrs. Hutchinson
for council about matters of conscience than to any minister in the
country.” Moreover this grace and works difficulty was carried into
every phase of life. Some people turned their backs contemptuously and
walked out of meeting when a preacher not under a covenant of grace
entered the pulpit. Others interrupted the services with questions of
controversy. Indeed it was carried so far that when the Pequot Indians
became aggressive and dangerous and it was necessary to send troops
against them, the Boston soldiers refused to be mustered into service,
because the chaplain, drawn by lot, preached a covenant of works, and
they disagreed with his Sunday sermon! The whole town of Boston, the
whole colony of Massachusetts, church and state, were set in commotion
and turmoil. This theological quarrel was a stumbling block in the way
of all progress.
The ministers so freely criticized were embittered and determined
to call Mistress Hutchinson and her doctrines to account. So they
summoned a synod, all the clergymen and magistrates of Massachusetts,
who met in Cambridge for full three weeks, discussing some eighty-two
opinions which they condemned--some as dangerous, some blasphemous,
some erroneous, and all unsafe. The women’s meetings were forbidden as
“disorderly and without rule.”
Forbidden to speak in public Anne Hutchinson continued to hold meetings
in her own house. Roger Williams, who was shortly to feel the full
displeasure of the Puritan leaders, said that in view of her usefulness
as a nurse and a neighbor, she ought to be allowed to speak when she
chose and to say what she wished, “because if it be a lie, it will die
of itself; and if it be truth, we ought to know it.”
The authorities in Massachusetts were in constant dread of losing their
charter, which was especially endangered by reports of disorderly
proceedings. And certainly nothing had provoked so much disorder
and sedition as the course taken by Mistress Anne. Both politically
and religiously they felt it a duty to suppress her party. So in
October, 1637, she was brought to trial before the General Court of
Massachusetts, sitting in the meeting-house in Cambridge.
“Mrs. Hutchinson,” said Winthrop, presiding, “you are called here as
one of those that have troubled the peace of the commonwealth and the
churches here.... You have maintained a meeting and an assembly in
your house that hath been condemned by the general assembly as a thing
not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God nor fitting for your
sex, and notwithstanding that was cried down you have continued the
same. Therefore we have thought good to send for you to understand how
things are, that if you be in an erroneous way we may reduce you that
so you may become a profitable member here among us, otherwise if you
be obstinate in your course that then the court may take such course
that you may trouble us no further.”
This trial was at once a civil, judicial and ecclesiastical process,
lasting through two long weary days. Extremely tiring and exhausting
must have been the examination, for the deputy-governor complained
that they would all be sick from fasting! The forty-three men who
tried her were like an English court of High Commission, almost like
the Inquisition. For Anne Hutchinson had no lawyer. They even kept her
standing until she almost fell from fatigue, before they allowed her to
answer seated.
Governor and deputy, magistrates and judges were arrayed against her.
They examined and cross-examined her. They badgered and insulted and
sneered at her. They browbeat and silenced her witnesses, in absolute
disregard of fair play. Only one man of them all defended her, saying
with spirit, “There is no law of God that she has broken, nor any law
of the country, and she deserves no censure.”
They found it no easy thing to make her trap herself. Their fine
theological distinctions were familiar ground to her. She had a ready
grasp of scriptural authority, and wonderful skill in using her
intellectual power to prove her spiritual position. With the ability
and clearness of a trained advocate she conducted her case, showing
tact and judgment and self-reliance, and always with the demeanor of
a lady. What Winthrop described as her “nimble wit and voluble tongue”
never deserted her, though she was hard pressed by the keenest minds of
the colony.
When they failed to prove her women’s meetings opposed to the Bible,
they fell back on the argument of their authority and said, “We are
your judges, and not you ours, and we must compel you to it.”
When she answered to some of their questions, “That’s matter of
conscience, sir,” stern Governor Winthrop replied, “Your conscience you
must keep, or it must be kept for you.”
It was the deputy-governor who summed the whole matter up:
“About three years ago we were all in peace. Mrs. Hutchinson from that
time she came hath made a disturbance.... She hath vented divers of
her strange opinions and hath made parties.... She in particular hath
disparaged all our ministers.... Why this is not to be suffered, and
therefore being driven to the foundation and it being found that Mrs.
Hutchinson ... hath been the cause of what is fallen out, why we must
take away the foundation and the building will fall.”
The result of the trial might have been announced before it opened.
Read how the court record finishes:
“Governor Winthrop: The Court hath already declared itself satisfied
concerning the things you hear, and concerning the troublesomeness
of her spirit, and the danger of her course amongst us, which is not
to be suffered. Therefore if it be the mind of the Court that Mrs.
Hutchinson, for these things that appear before us, is unfit for our
society, and if it be the mind of the Court that she shall be banished
out of our liberties, and imprisoned till she be sent away, let them
hold up their hands.”
All but three held up their hands.
“Governor Winthrop: Mrs. Hutchinson, you hear the sentence of the
Court. It is that you are banished from out our jurisdiction as being
a woman not fit for our society, and you are to be imprisoned till the
Court send you away.
“Mrs. Hutchinson: I desire to know wherefore I am banished.
“Governor Winthrop: Say no more. The Court knows wherefore, and is
satisfied.”
Semi-imprisonment Mistress Anne had all that winter, in the house of a
man in Roxbury whose brother was one of her most bitter enemies. She
was sent up to Boston to be admonished by the elders of the church; and
when she refused to sign an absolute retraction of her opinions, and
would not promise to hold any more meetings, she was excommunicated.
The sentence of banishment was carried out in March of 1638. To the
sorrow of many of the colonists, William Hutchinson went with his wife.
He refused their invitations to remain, saying, “For I am more dearly
tied to my wife than to the church.... And I do think her a saint and
servant of God.” With husband and children and seventy friends Mistress
Anne went to Rhode Island where Roger Williams offered the party a
friendly refuge. From the Indians they bought an island, for ten coats,
twenty hoes, and forty fathoms of white wampum; and lived there until
1642 when William Hutchinson died.
Hearing a rumor that Massachusetts was trying to extend her control
over Rhode Island, the settlers left for a new site in the Dutch colony
to the west. A year later a friendly Indian one morning visited Anne
Hutchinson’s house. Seeing that the family was defenseless he returned
that night with others of his tribe, killed the sixteen members of the
household and set fire to the buildings.
When Governor Winthrop heard of this massacre he declared that
“the bare arm of God displayed itself in her death.” Ministers in
Massachusetts announced it a divine judgment supporting their verdict.
One of them wrote, “God’s hand is more apparently seen herein to
pick out this woful woman to make her and those belonging to her an
unheard-of heavy example above others.” But Mistress Anne’s friends
charged the guilt of her murder upon the colony and declared it was the
judgment of the Lord on Massachusetts.
An able woman, clever, brilliant, possibly indiscreet in her criticism
of the ministers, Anne Hutchinson’s life was a strange mixture of
consecration and conflict, of kindliness and contention, with a tragic
end. She was fighting the first battle in a long series to be fought
out in America--for religious toleration and for freedom of thought and
speech, for liberty of conscience, for a true democracy in religion.