Friday, September 23, 2011

Line 10. 1 Anne Marbury Hutchinson, Banished!

Usually not a whole lot is known about the personal lives of colonial women aside from, possibly who their parents were, when and where they were born and died and whom they married. The Puritans in New England kept meticulous vital statistic records almost from the start but other then birth, marriage and death record, women were rarely mentioned in other records. Ever now and then, however, a New England woman stood above even the men of her community and made history. I had at least two of these women in my ancestral line, Anne Marbury Hutchison being one of them.

Anne Marbury baptized 20 July 1691 in Alford, Lincoln, England, daughter of Rev. Francis Marbury and his wife Bridget Dryden.
She married William Hutchinson 19 August 1612 in St. Mary Woolnoth's, London, England
She died August 1643 in Pelham Bay, NY
Anne and William Hutchinson had the following children:
1.   Edward Hutchinson born May 1613 in Alford, Lincoln, England; died 19 August 1675 in Marlborough, Middlesex, MA; married Catherine Hamby
2.   Susanna Hutchinson born 1614 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died and was buried there 08 September 1630
3.   Richard Hutchinson born 1615 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died 1670 in London, Middlesex, England
4.   Faith Hutchinson born 1617 in Alford, Lincoln, England; died 20 February 1651/52 in Boston, Suffolk, MA. She married Thomas Savage of St. Albons, England who died 1682 also in Boston, MA.
5.   Bridget Hutchinson born in Alford, Lincoln, England; died August 1698 in Boston, MA. She married 1. Mr. Willis of Bridgewater 2. John SANFORD who died 1653. and 3. William Philips.
6.   Francis Hutchinson born 1620 in Alford, Lincoln, England. He married Mary Cushman and died with his wife and mother and other family members 1643 in Pelham Bay, NY
7.   Elizabeth Hutchinson born 1621 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died there 04 October 1630.
8.   William Hutchinson born 1623 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died in 1643 along with his family in Pelham Bay, NY.
9.   Samuel Hutchinson born 1624 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died in 1643 along with his family in Pelham Bay, NY.
10.     Anne Hutchinson born 1626 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died in 1643 along with his family in Pelham Bay, NY.
11.    Mary Hutchinson born 1627 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died in 1643 along with his family in Pelham Bay, NY.
12.    Katherine Hutchinson born 1629 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died in 1643 along with his family in Pelham Bay, NY.
13.    William Hutchinson born 1631 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died in 1643 along with his family in Pelham Bay, NY.
14.    Susanna Hutchinson born 1633 in Alford, Lincoln, England; died 1713 in North Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island. She was captured by the Indians who killed her family and rescued by and married John Cole
15.    Zuriel Hutchinson born 1636 in Boston, Suffolk, MA and died in 1643 along with his family in Pelham Bay, NY.

Anne Marbury was born in Alford, Lincoln, England the daughter of Rev. Francis Marbury and his second wife Bridget Dryden. As mentioned in the chapter on her father, Anne was evidently well-educated and very intelligent woman. Early on, she was exposed to her father’s concerns about the English clergy and their lack of Biblical understanding. Francis Marbury’s large library and his and his wife’s intense study of the Bible was their children’s classroom. They must have instilled an attitude of wonder and excitement about God and learning in general to their children.

In 1612, Anne married William Hutchinson at St. Mary Woolnoth's, in London, England. William, himself, was of the reform movement, a good steady Puritan with a strong gift of leadership and yet a man who did not seem to be threatened by his wife’s intelligence and scholarly nature even when her wit and wisdom overwhelmed other men.

In England, the Hutchinsons closely followed the sermons of the Protestant minister John Cotton who was among the most influential Puritans of the early 1600s. John Cotton left with the Winthrop Fleet in 1634 for the Massachusetts colony. The William and Anne Hutchinson with their fifteen children, his mother Susanna and Anne’s sister Katherine Marbury (mentioned in Line 3) followed shortly after on the Griffin. Their fellow passengers included at least two other ancestors of mine, William Bartholomew (who would later testify at Anne’s trial) and John Lathrop. John Cotton, an intelligent and celebrated preacher and teacher of early Boston, would play a greater and harsher role in the Hutchinson’s life at a later date. He was a compassionate man but lived his puritan orthodoxy to a painful degree. His grandson, Cotton Matters, would play a role in the lives of other ancestors of mine, the Walcotts and the Putnams of Salem, Massachusetts.

Anne’s beliefs were based on what she had learned from John Cotton’s sermons with a measure of her own father’s beliefs and a lot of in-depth Bible study. She wasn’t content to just go by what other’s taught. She driveled into the Word and discovered much more then Cotton taught. She believed strongly in a personal relationship with God but also realized that she needed to temper her words so as not to appear vain and shortsighted. Once in the colony of Massachusetts, Anne began to hold Bible studies for women in her home so that they could express their own insights and theological ideas. Soon men, including pastors and magistrates began to attend her meetings. Governor Henry Vane was among her students. Anne’s teaching followed the Puritan theology in the salvation came from God’s grace, but she stopped there. It was God’s grace and man’s faith and acceptance in that grace that resulted in salvation. The saved man was no longer bound works. The Puritans felt that the Antinomians would be the end of Christianity with their “anything goes” theology and that moral anarchy would pursue.

In the summer of 1637, following John Winthrop’s election to the governorship of the colony, a synod was called to deal with the “errors” of Mrs. Hutchinson’s theology. The pro-Hutchinson deputies of the General Court were not allowed to take their seats. A synod was held and eight-two heresies committed by those who followed Anne’s teaching was read. Private meetings were banned. However The Rev. Wheelwright continued his preaching and Ann continued her meetings. Anne Hutchinson’s brother-in-law John Wheelwright was later banished because of a sermon preached on the grace issue. Mary Hutchinson Wheelwright left Boston with her husband and children to Exeter, New Hampshire and later to Salisbury, Massachusetts. The Wheelwrights were considered the founders of Exeter. John Wheelwright also spent some time in England where he renewed his friendship with a schoolmate of his, Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of England.

Back in Boston in November of 1637, Anne Hutchinson stood trial for heresy. Anne was accused of sedition. The procecution hounded her but she was able to defend herself with her biblical knowledge and her well thought out defense. But when Anne declared she had direction revolations from God, the court turned against her. John Winthrop denounced her meetings, calling them 'a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God, nor fitting for your sex.' He called Anne, herself, “an American Jezebel, who had gone a-whoring from God' who should be 'tried as a heretic.” The court would not declare to the public the reasons she was banished. Governor John Withrop, when asked said “Say no more, the court knows wherefore and is satisfied.”

The court wasn’t totally heartless though. It was was winter and Mrs. Hutchinson’s was suffering from poor health. Instead of sending her on her way, she was placed underhouse arrest until a church trial could be conducted in the Spring. She was tutored by John Cotton where he and the Rev. John Davneport who tried to convince her of her errors.

In the spring of 1638 the Hutchinson family and 60 followers  (including William and Mary Dyer – see Line 7) emigrated with her family to the colony on the island of Aquidneck, later known as Rhode Island. They purchased the island of Aquidnect also called Peaceable Island, from the Narragansetts Indians and founded the town of Portsmouth.

William Hutchinson, age about 56, died sometime in 1642. Without her husband and with the threat of Massachusetts colony taking over the Rhode Island colony, Anne and five of her children moved to the Dutch controlled Long Island and later to what is now Pelham Bay on the mainland. The other living children had either married or choose to stay in Rhode Island or return to Boston. While there is proof that Anne and her family got along with the local natives, a warring group of Mohegan Indians arrived in the area and slaughtered the entire Hutchinson family residing there except for one daughter, Susanna. She was taken captive by the Mohegans and later ransomed by the Dutch. Susanna married John Cole of Rhode Island in 1651. She and several other children of William and Anne Hutchinson married and had children; some of whom influenced the history of the colony and later state of Massachusetts.

Anne Marbury Hutchinson was a remarkable woman no matter what your opinion of her is. She was certainly an intelligent and likeable woman, an effective midwife, a faithful Christian with a hunger to know God. People, even many men of her age, were drawn to her thoughtful interpretations of the Bible, while others found her influences too strong and outside the established Boston beliefs, a real threat to their Calvinist biblical view. While her opposition was successful in driving her out of Boston, they weren’t successful in taking her out of the history boos. She is not a well know figure in history, but she will appear in a well written history of the New England colonies and her story was one of the reasons we are free to worship God in our chosen way in the United States of America.

My Hutchinson line:
John Hutchinson, Mayor of Lincoln, England m. Anne?
Edward Hutchinson, died 1632 in England m. Susanna? who died in Wells, Maine
William Hutchinson 1568-1642 m. Anne Marbury
Edward Hutchinson (Line 4) married Catherine Hamby

***SOURCES***
1. Passengers and Ships by Banks
2. "The Hutchinson Family of England and New England, and its Connections wit the Marburys and Drydens" by Joseph Lemuel Chester, NEHGR
3. The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants by Gary Boyd Roberts, page 351 & 233
4."Family History, the Marbury Family" http://www.plix.com/~users/ncallahn
5. The American Genealogist Oct 1992 "The Well Beloved Mother-in-law of Robert Marbury"
6.  http://genweb.net/~blackwell/blql "Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, wife of William Hutchinson" by David C Blackwell
7. http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/ah.html "Notable Women Ancestors - Anne Hutchinson" from Text compiled by Sam Behling, 1998

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Line 10, Francis Marbury; Setting a Faithful Example of a Holy Life

I was going to do Anne Marbury Hutchinson as “Line 2” in my ancestor’s faith stories but when I started to write her story I discovered that setting the stage for New England was going to take up as much space as Anne’s story in Massachusetts. The story of her remarkable and fearless father sets the stage for Anne’s story but is also an intriguing story in itself.

Francis Marbury was born about 1555 probably in London, Middlesex, England, baptized 27 October 1555 at St. Pancras, Soper Lane, London, England the youngest son of William Marbury and his wife Agnes Lenton, daughter of John Lenton, Esquire.
Francis married first Elizabeth Moore who died sometime after the birth of her youngest daughter Susan in September 1585
He married second Bridget Dryden, the daughter of John Dryden and his wife Elizabeth Cope.
Died January 1610/11 in Lincoln, County Lincoln, England
Children by his first wife, Elizabeth Moore:
1.      Mary Marbury who died young
2.      Elizabeth Marbury who died age about 18
3.      Susan Marbury who died young
By is second wife:
4.      Mary Marbury born 1588 and died 18 April 1643 in St Mary Woolnoth, London, England. She married Bartholomew Layton
5.      John Marbury born 1589 in Alford, Lincoln, England
6.      Anne Marbury born 1591 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died August 1643 in Pelham Bay, NY. She married William Hutchinson
7.      Bridget Marbury born 1593 and died 1598 in Alford, Lincoln, England
8.      Francis Marbury born October 1594 in Alford, Lincoln, England. He married and left children.
9.      Emme Marbury born Dec. 1595 in Alford, Lincoln, England and married John Saunders.
10.  Erasmus Marbury born February 1595/96 Alford, Lincoln, England and died 1627.
11.  Anthony Marbury born 1598 and died April 1601 in Alford, Lincoln, England
12.  Bridget Marbury Nov. 1599 in Alford, Lincoln, England
13.  Jeremuth Marbury born 1601 Alford, Lincoln, England and died 1623
14.  Daniel Marbury born Nov. 1602 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died 1611 in London, England
15.  Elizabeth Marbury born January 1604/05 in Alford, Lincoln, England and died 09 March 1613/14 in London, England
16.  Anthony Marbury born 1608 in London, Middlesex, England. He married and had at least three children.
17.  Katherine Marbury born about 1610 and died 02 May 1687 in Providence, Providence, RI. She married Richard Scott.

Francis Marbury was the son of William Marbury and his wife Agnes Lenton, daughter of John Lenton. Freshmen nobility with a rough edge, William Marbury's father and grandfather rubbed elbows with the likes of King Henry the Seventh and his henchmen. Francis was the youngest son and while he didn’t inherit much wealth from his father, he was given a good education and married, as his second wife, Bridget Dryden who not only had royal connections; she was actually descended from English kings. Francis’ first wife by whom he had three daughters, who all died before they were old enough to marry, seems to have been of simpler stuff but was probably from a well to do family as well.

Bridget Dryden was the great-aunt of John Dryden the poet and descended through several noble English lines. Her parents were John Dryden and Elizabeth Cope, large estate owners in central England. Elizabeth’s ancestral line included King Edward the First and his wife Eleanor of Castile as well as many of the important English families of the Middle Ages. By the time Bridget Dryden was born, many of her family had become Puritans and at least one relative had been imprisoned in the Tower of London because he advocated religious reforms.

 Francis Marbury attended Christ College, Cambridge and although he didn’t receive a degree he began his pastoral career at the church in Northampton near the Dryden estate. Anglican clergymen were not appointed to their churches because of education or even skills of preaching and teaching, but rather by appointment from the ruling bishops who used these posts for political reasons. Whatever political reason Francis’ bishops may have had in placing Francis in Northampton, it was soon waylaid as Francis radical preaching landed him in prison three times before his 23rd birthday. Marbury was a passionate Puritan preacher, outspoken and highly intelligent. Francis complained and spoke out again the incompetence of English ministers, hired not for their love of God or for their study of the Bible, but for political reasons and family connections. In 1579 he wrote an allegorical play called “The Contract of Marriage between Wit and Wisdom” which once more landed him in prison. However, Marbury didn’t seem to lack for pastoral positions. By 1585 he was a curate and schoolmaster in Aford, co., Lincoln. But by 1590 he was in trouble once again with the Anglican Church and went to trail again. He won the trail but was forbidden to preach for several years. With a large family to support, Francis gave up trying to reform the church and in 1605 became the pastor of St. Martin Vintry, then St. Pancras, Soper Lane and finally St. Margaret, New Fish Street, in London while he was still pastor of St. Martin Vintry.

The Marbury household must have been a lively one. It is evident from the well-educated and thoughtful testimonies of his daughters Anne Marbury Hutchinson and Katherine Marbury Scott that the children, even the daughters, were all well educated and encouraged to express their intellectual side. Of the four sons who reached college age, three of them, Erusmus, Jeremuth and Anthony received degrees from Brasenose College at Oxford. Their father’s attraction to church reform certainly influenced Anne and it can be imagine that many theology discussions must have occurred in the Marbury’s household. Add to that the fact that Bridget Dryden’s family was steeped in Puritan leanings, even after Francis gave up trying to reform the Church of England, the Marbury’s must have engaged in many vigorous theological debate.

A note needs to be made here of Francis’ daughter, Katharine. She married Richard Scott and became a Quaker while living in Massachusetts. She, as well as her sister, Anne were friends of Mary Dyer who probably influenced Katherine’s decision to become a Quaker. (See Mary Barrett Dyer). In 1658 Katherine Scott was imprisoned in Boston and whipped with "Ten cruel Stripes with a three-fold-corded knotted Whip" for denouncing the Massachusetts’ government of cruelty and intolerance toward Quakers. If Francis gave up church reform, he only stopped at the door of his house for his daughters seemed to have carried on his determination of reform into the New World.

Francis died between June 25, 1610 when his will was written and February 14, 1611 when it was proved. His twelve living children were left 200 pounds each and his daughters were to stay with their mother until they married. Francis’ greatest legacy was the education and the strong love of God that he passed onto his children.
My Marbury line:
John Marbury died 1640 married Eleanor
William Marbury who died about 1512 married Anne Blount who died 20 November 1537 in
 Lincoln Co., England, the daughter of Thomas Blount and Agnes Hawley
Robert Marbury who died 07 August 1545 who married Katherine Williamson the daughter of  John Williamson and his wife Jane Angevine, daughter of Michael Angevine
William Marbury who died 1581 in Lincolnshire who married Agnes Lenton of
      Aldwinkle, Northampton, England, the daughter of John Lenton, Esq.
Francis Marbury who married Bridget Dryden
Anne Marbury who married William Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson who married Samuel Dyer
Samuel Dyer II who married Mary Cotta
Samuel Dyer III whose wife is unknown
John Dyer who married Mary  Hickey
James Dyer who married Mary  Marcy
James Dyer whose wife is unknown
Sarah Dyer who married Joel Chubb
James Harvey Chubb who married Martha Braman

***SOURCES****
1. "The Hutchinson Family of England and New England, and its Connections wit the Marburys and Drydens" by Joseph Lemuel Chester, NEHGR
2. The Royal Descents of 500 Immigrants by Gary Boyd Roberts, page 351 & 233
3. The Heraldic Journal Recording the Armorical Bearings and Genealogies of American Families Vol I Pub. by J. K. Wiggins 1865
4. "Family History, the Marbury Family" http://www.plix.com/~users/ncallahn
5.  Internet http://www.genweb.net/~samcasey/Marbury.html "Register Report - Marbury" by Sam Behling
6. Plantagenent Ancetry by David Faris
7. "Anne Hutchinson" http://www.annehutchinson.com/anne_hutchinson_biography_001.htm
8. Sam Behling, www.homepages.rootweb.ancestry.com/~Sam/Marbury/francis.html
9. The American Genealogist, October 1992 "The Well Beloved Mother-in-law of Robert Marbury" by F. N. Craig