Settlement on Rhode-Island commenced—Mrs. Hutchinson—settlement at
Pawtuxet.
The little colony at Providence was rapidly increased by the arrival of
persons from the other colonies and from Europe, attracted thither by
the freedom which the conscience there enjoyed. So tenaciously was this
principle held, that the town disfranchised one of its citizens, for
refusing to allow his wife to attend meeting as often as she
wished.[173] This act has been censured, as a deviation from their
principles, because it inflicted a civil punishment on a man, for
conduct which he might allege to have sprung from conscientious
scruples. But this inconsistency, if it was such, was an error on the
right side. The woman might have failed in duty to her husband, by an
obstinate contempt of his just authority, and a disregard of his
reasonable wishes. But the inhabitants of Providence were right in
adhering to the great principle, that our duties to God are paramount to
all human obligations; and that the right to worship him, in the manner
which we deem most acceptable to him, is not, and cannot be,
surrendered, even by the marriage covenant.
A settlement was made, in 1637–8, at Portsmouth, on the north side of
the island which gives name to the State. The settlers were, like Mr.
Williams and his companions, exiles or emigrants from Massachusetts. The
cause of their removal may be traced to the singular ferment which arose
in Massachusetts, on account of Mrs. Hutchinson.
This lady, with her husband, came to Boston, from England, in 1636. She
possessed talents, which she appears to have felt no reluctance to
display. She was treated with great respect by Mr. Cotton, and by other
distinguished individuals, particularly by Governor Vane. It was the
custom of the members of the church to meet every week, to repeat Mr.
Cotton’s sermons, and converse on religious doctrines. Mrs. Hutchinson
commenced a meeting of the females, in which she repeated the sermons,
with her own comments. Her eloquence was admired, and her meetings were
thronged. Her vanity was inflamed, and she proceeded to announce
opinions and doctrines, which soon became the topic of conversation, and
the source of vehement contentions throughout the colony. Parties were
formed, among the ministers as well as the people; Mr. Cotton himself
being inclined to the side of Mrs. Hutchinson, while most of the
ministers and magistrates opposed her. The opinions ascribed to her
related to such points as the nature of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost
in the person of the believer, and the connection between sanctification
and justification. From these opinions others, still more heretical,
were supposed to flow, and, as usually happens, the inferences which men
chose to form were considered as substantial errors actually held by
Mrs. Hutchinson.[174]
The alarm spread through the colony. The ministers thronged to Boston,
to confer with Mr. Cotton and others. Long discussions ensued, without
effect, and at length it was resolved to try the virtue of a general
synod. It was accordingly held at Newtown, (now Cambridge) on the 30th
of August, 1637, and was attended not only by all the ministers and
messengers of the churches, but by the magistrates. Three weeks were
spent in debates, during which the mild spirit of Winthrop often
interposed to soften the asperity of controversy. The synod collected,
with great industry, all the erroneous opinions then to be found in the
country, amounting to eighty-two, and finished its session, by
condemning these errors, and pronouncing its judgment on certain points
of church discipline.[175]
The effect of the synod was the usual one, of increasing the pertinacity
with which the different parties held their opinions. Mrs. Hutchinson
continued her lectures, and nearly all the members of the Boston church
became her converts. She forsook the public assemblies, and set up a
meeting in her own house. She accused the greater part of the ministers
in the country as preachers of error. The civil power now interposed, to
apply the remedy for heresy, which has often been used, when argument
had failed. Mrs. Hutchinson was summoned before the General Court, and
many of the ministers. She was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be
banished. The church excommunicated her, though she is said to have
recanted her errors. Rev. Mr. Wheelwright, her brother-in-law, who had
publicly espoused her cause, was likewise banished.
The Court proceeded to a more extraordinary measure. Nearly sixty
citizens of Boston, and a number in other towns, were required to
surrender their arms and ammunition to a person appointed by the Court,
under a penalty of ten pounds; and were forbidden, under the same
penalty, to buy or borrow any arms or ammunition until further orders.
The pretence, as set forth in the act,[176] was a fear, that the
principles which they had learned of Mrs. Hutchinson and Mr. Wheelwright
might impel them to disturb the peace of the community, as certain
persons in Germany had done. Though anabaptism is not named, it is easy
to perceive, that this dreadful phantom, which so haunted the
imaginations of our ancestors, was, on this, as on other occasions, made
the apology for oppressive measures. That it was a mere pretext, in this
case, we have the best reason to believe, for Winthrop[177] honestly
attributes the act of disarming these men, to the part which most of
them had taken in a remonstrance to the General Court against its
measures in relation to Mr. Wheelwright. The act itself proves the same
point, for it provides, that if any of them would acknowledge their
guilt in signing the “seditious libel,” they should be exempted from its
operation. The General Court was as jealous of its prerogatives as King
James I.; and to prevent these individuals from expressing their
disapprobation by acts more energetic than a remonstrance, the Court
thought it prudent to deprive them of offensive weapons. By an act,
passed at the same session, a severe punishment was decreed for those
persons who should speak evil of the judges or magistrates.
These transactions have been recited, not only from their connection
with the settlement of Rhode-Island, but because they furnish ample
illustrations of the multiform mischiefs which ensue from an
interference by the civil magistrate in the affairs of the church. Had
Mrs. Hutchinson been permitted, without notice, to expound and prophecy
as she pleased, it is probable that her zeal would have soon spent
itself, if unsupplied with fuel by her vanity. Or if she had been left
to the salutary discipline of the church, as she would now be, no
serious effects would have followed. But the injudicious excitement
among the clergy, and still more, the improper conduct of the
magistrates, gave importance to the affair, and produced a convulsion in
the Commonwealth, which would have ruined a community less intelligent
and pious, and the perils of which may be inferred from the act of the
General Court, disarming a portion of its citizens. The Court, having
assumed the office of inquisitors into the religious opinions of men,
was forced, by a regard to consistency, to prosecute its measures to the
end, and punish the heretics by disfranchisement and expulsion from the
Commonwealth. Thus were the affections of many of the inhabitants
alienated from each other, and from the government, and the colony was
deprived of a large number of its citizens.
But God, whose high prerogative it is to educe good from evil, made this
unhappy feud in Massachusetts the occasion of establishing a new
settlement on Rhode-Island. Many of the individuals who had been
disarmed, and others who were banished, removed from Massachusetts. Some
of them went to Connecticut, others to New-Hampshire, and several to
Providence. But a number of persons, among whom was John Clarke, a
learned physician, agreed to migrate together, and requested him and
some others to select a suitable place. They accordingly proceeded to
New-Hampshire, in the autumn or winter of 1637, the preceding summer
having been so warm as to induce them to seek a more northerly position.
But the severity of the winter in New-Hampshire turned their thoughts
towards a more genial clime. Mr. Clarke and his associates accordingly
proceeded southward, with a design to settle on Long-Island, or on
_Delaware Bay_. But at Providence, they were kindly received by Mr.
Williams, who advised them to form a settlement at Sowams (now called
Barrington, a few miles from Providence) or at Aquetneck,[178] (now
called Rhode-Island.) But as they had resolved to remove beyond the
limits both of Plymouth and of Massachusetts, Mr. Williams, Mr. Clarke,
and two others went to Plymouth, to ascertain whether they claimed
either of these places. They were treated with respect at Plymouth, and
were informed, that Sowams was claimed by that colony, but that
Aquetneck was out of their jurisdiction.
They returned to Providence, and on the 7th of March, 1637–8, the
following instrument was drawn up, and signed by nineteen individuals,
all but two of whom were named in the act to disarm certain citizens of
Massachusetts:
“We, whose names are underwritten, do swear, solemnly, in the presence
of Jehovah, to incorporate ourselves into a body politic, and as he
shall help us, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord
Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and to all those
most perfect and absolute laws of his, given us in his holy word of
truth, to be guided and judged thereby.
THOMAS SAVAGE,
WILLIAM DYER,
WILLIAM FREEBORNE,
PHILIP SHERMAN,
JOHN WALKER,
RICHARD CARDER,
WILLIAM BAULSTONE,
EDWARD HUTCHINSON, Sen.
HENRY BULL,
RANDALL HOLDEN,
WILLIAM CODDINGTON,
JOHN CLARKE,
WILLIAM HUTCHINSON,
JOHN COGGESHALL,
WILLIAM ASPINWALL,
SAMUEL WILBORE,
JOHN PORTER,
EDWARD HUTCHINSON, Jr.
JOHN SANFORD.”
By the friendly assistance of Mr. Williams, Aquetneck and other islands
in the Narraganset Bay, were purchased of the sachems, Canonicus and
Miantinomo, on consideration of forty fathoms of white beads. The deed
of cession was signed by the sachems, March 24, 1637–8.[179]
The natives who resided at Aquetneck soon after agreed, on receiving ten
coats and twenty hoes, to remove before the next winter.[180]
On the beautiful island, the adventurers commenced their settlement,
under the simple compact which we have quoted. The northern part of the
island was first occupied, and called Portsmouth. The number of the
colonists being increased during the summer, a portion of the
inhabitants removed the next spring, to the southwestern part of the
island, where they commenced the town of Newport. Both towns, however,
were considered as belonging to the same colony. In imitation of the
form of government which existed for a time among the Jews, the
inhabitants chose Mr. Coddington to be their magistrate, with the title
of Judge; and a few months afterwards, they elected three elders,[181]
to assist him. This form of government continued till March 12, 1640,
when they chose Mr. Coddington, Governor; Mr. Brenton, Deputy Governor;
and Messrs. Easton, Coggeshall, William Hutchinson, and John Porter,
assistants; Robert Jefferies, Treasurer, and William Dyer, Secretary.
This form of government continued, till the charter was obtained. The
fertility of the soil, and the pleasantness of the climate, soon
attracted many people to the settlement, and the island in a few years
became so populous, as to send out colonists to the adjacent
shores.[182]
To this settlement, Mr. Hutchinson, with his family, removed from
Massachusetts. There is no evidence that Mrs. Hutchinson occasioned any
disturbance at Rhode-Island. Her husband was elected one of the
assistants, in 1640. He died in 1642, and his wife, for some reason not
satisfactorily explained, removed to the neighborhood of New-York, where
she was killed by the Indians, the next year, with all the members of
her family, amounting to sixteen persons, except one daughter, who was
carried into captivity.
It is proper to mention in this place, with special honor the important
aid of Mr. Williams in founding this settlement. With that prompt
humanity, which always distinguished him, he used all his influence on
behalf of this band of exiles; and it was, without question, his
intimacy and favor with the sachems which procured the cession of
Aquetneck. He himself asserted this fact, in a letter written in 1658:
“I have acknowledged (and have and shall endeavor to maintain) the
rights and properties of every inhabitant of Rhode-Island in peace; yet
since there is so much sound and noise of purchase and purchasers, I
judge it not unseasonable to declare the rise and bottom of the planting
of Rhode-Island in the fountain of it. It was not price nor money that
could have purchased Rhode-Island. Rhode-Island was obtained by love; by
the love and favor which that honorable gentleman, Sir Henry Vane, and
myself, had with that great sachem Miantinomo, about the league which I
procured between the Massachusetts English, &c. and the Narragansets, in
the Pequod war. It is true, I advised a gratuity to be presented to the
sachem and the natives; and because Mr. Coddington and the rest of my
loving countrymen were to inhabit the place, and to be at the charge of
the gratuities, I drew up a writing in Mr. Coddington’s name, and in the
names of such of my loving countrymen as came up with him, and put it
into as sure a form as I could at that time (amongst the Indians) for
the benefit and assurance of the present and future inhabitants of the
island. This I mention, that as that truly noble Sir Henry Vane hath
been so great an instrument in the hand of God for procuring of this
island from the barbarians, as also for procuring and confirming of the
charter, so it may by all due thankful acknowledgment be remembered and
recorded of us and ours, which reap and enjoy the sweet fruits of so
great benefits, and such unheard of liberties amongst us.” Backus, vol.
i. p. 91.
“In another manuscript,” (says Mr. Benedict, vol. i. p. 459) he tells
us, “The Indians were very shy and jealous of selling the lands to any,
and chose rather to make a grant of them to such as they affected; but
at the same time, expected such gratuities and rewards as made an Indian
gift oftentimes a very dear bargain.” “And the colony in 1666,” says Mr.
Callender, “averred, that though the favor Mr. Williams had with
Miantinomo was the great means of procuring the grants of the land, yet
the purchase had been dearer than of any lands in New-England.”
Mr. Williams’ conduct on this occasion was worthy of his character, and
entitled him to more gratitude than he seems to have received from some
of the objects of his good offices.
About this time, a number of the inhabitants of Providence, among whom
was Mr. Benedict Arnold, removed to Pawtuxet, a place four miles south
of Providence, and included within the territory ceded to Mr. Williams.
These individuals were doubtless induced to fix their residence there,
by the luxuriant meadows on the banks of the river, which furnished
pasture for their cattle.