In treating of these people in a historical
manner, we are obliged to have recourse to much tenderness. That
they differ from the generality of Protestants in some of the
capital points of religion cannot be denied, and yet, as Protestant
dissenters they are included under the description of the toleration
act. It is not our business to inquire whether people of similar
sentiments had any existence in the primitive ages of Christianity:
perhaps, in some respects, they had not, but we are to write of
them not as what they were, but what they now are. That they have
been treated by several writers in a very contemptuous manner
is certain; that they did not deserve such treatment, is equally
certain.
The appellation Quakers, was bestowed upon
them as a term of reproach, in consequence of their apparent convulsions
which they labored under when they delivered their discourses,
because they imagined they were the effect of divine inspiration.
It is not our business, at present, to inquire
whether the sentiments of these people are agreeable to the Gospel,
but this much is certain, that the first leader of them, as a
separate body, was a man of obscure birth, who had his first existence
in Leicestershire, about the year 1624. In speaking of this man
we shall deliver our own sentiments in a historical manner, and
joining these to what have been said by the Friends themselves,
we shall endeavor to furnish out a complete narrative.
George Fox was descended of honest and respected
parents, who brought him up in the national religion: but from
a child he appeared religious, still, solid, and observing, beyond
his years, and uncommonly knowing in divine things. He was brought
up to husbandry, and other country business, and was particularly
inclined to the solitary occupation of a shepherd; an employment,
that very well suited his mind in several respects, both for its
innocency and solitude; and was a just emblem of his after ministry
and service. In the year 1646, he entirely forsook the national
Church, in whose tenets he had been brought up, as before observed;
and in 1647, he travelled into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire,
without any set purpose of visiting particular places, but in
a solitary manner he walked through several towns and villages,
which waysoever his mind turned. “He fasted much,” said
Sewell, “and walked often in retired places, with no other
companion than his Bible.” “He visited the most retired
and religious people in those parts,” says Penn, “and
some there were, short of few, if any, in this nation, who waited
for the consolation of Israel night and day; as Zacharias, Anna,
an’ Simeon, did of old time. To these he was sent, and these
he sought out in the neighboring counties, and among them he so,
journed until his more ample ministry came upon him. At this time
he taught, and was an example of silence, endeavoring to bring
them from self-performances; testifying of, and turning them to
the light of Christ within them, and encouraging them to wait
in patience, and to feel the power of it to stir in their hearts,
that their knowledge and worship of God might stand in the power
of an endless life, which was to be found in the light, as it
was obeyed in the manifestation of it in man: for in the Word
was life, and that life is the light of men. Life in the Word,
light in men; and life in men too, as the light is obeyed; the
children of the light living by the life of the Word, by which
the Word begets them again to God, which is the generation and
new birth, without which there is no coming into the Kingdom of
God, and to which whoever comes is greater than John: that is,
than John’s dispensation, which was not that of the Kingdom,
but the consummation of the legal, and forerunning of the Gospel
times, the time of the Kingdom. Accordingly several meetings were
gathering in those parts; and thus his time was employed for some
years.
In the year 1652, “he had a visitation
of the great work of God in the earth, and of the way that he
was to go forth, in a public ministry, to begin it.” He directed
his course northward, “and in every place where he came,
if not before he came to it, he had his particular exercise and
service shown to him, so that the Lord was his leader indeed.”
He made great numbers of converts to his opinions, and many pious
and good men joined him in his ministry. These were drawn forth
especially to visit the public assemblies to reprove, reform,
and exhort them; sometimes in markets, fairs, streets, and by
the highway-side, “calling people to repentance, and to return
to the Lord, with their hearts as well as their mouths; directing
them to the light of Christ within them, to see, examine, and
to consider their ways by, and to eschew the evil, and to do the
good and acceptable will of God.”
They were not without opposition in the
work they imagined themselves called to, being often set in the
stocks, stoned, beaten, whipped and imprisoned, though honest
men of good report, that had left wives, children, houses, and
lands, to visit them with a living call to repentance. But these
coercive methods rather forwarded than abated their zeal, and
in those parts they brought over many proselytes, and amongst
them several magistrates, and others of the better sort. They
apprehended the Lord had forbidden them to pull off their hats
to anyone, high or low, and required them to speak to the people,
without distinction, in the language of thou and thee. They scrupled
bidding people good-morrow, or good-night, nor might they bend
the knee to anyone, even in supreme authority. Both men and women
went in a plain and simple dress, different from the fashion of
the times. They neither gave nor accepted any titles of respect
or honor, nor would they call any man master on earth. Several
texts of Scripture they quoted in defence of these singularities;
such as, “Swear not at all.” “How can ye believe,
which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that
cometh from God only?” etc., etc. They placed the basis of
religion in an inward light, and an extraordinary impulse of the
Holy Spirit.
In 1654, their first separate meeting in
London was held in the house of Robert Dring, in Watling-street,
for by that time they spread themselves into all parts of the
kingdom, and had in many places set up meetings or assemblies,
particularly in Lancashire, and the adjacent parts, but they were
still exposed to great persecutions and trials of every kind.
One of them in a letter to the protector, Oliver Cromwell, represents,
though there are no penal laws in force obliging men to comply
with the established religion, yet the Quakers are exposed upon
other accounts; they are fined and imprisoned for refusing to
take an oath; for not paying their tithes; for disturbing the
public assemblies, and meeting in the streets, and places of public
resort; some of them have been whipped for vagabonds, and for
their plain speeches to the magistrate.
Under favor of the then toleration, they
opened their meetings at the Bull and Mouth, in Aldersgate-street,
where women, as well as men, were moved to speak. Their zeal transported
them to some extravagancies, which laid them still more open to
the lash of their enemies, who exercised various severities upon
them throughout the next reign. Upon the suppression of Venner’s
mad insurrection, the government, having published a proclamation,
forbidding the Anabaptists, Quakers, and Fifth Monarchy Men, to
assemble or meet together under pretence of worshipping God, except
it be in some parochial church, chapel, or in private houses,
by consent of the persons there inhabiting, all meetings in other
places being declared to be unlawful and riotous, etc., etc.,
the Quakers thought it expedient to address the king thereon,
which they did in the following words:
“O King Charles!
“Our desire is, that thou mayest live
forever in the fear of God, and thy council. We beseech thee and
thy council. to read these following lines in tender bowels, and
compassion for our souls, and for your good.
“And this consider, we are about four
hundred imprisoned, in and about this city, of men and women from
their families, besides, in the county jails, about ten hundred;
we desire that our meetings may not be broken up, but that all
may come to a fair trial, that our innocency may be cleared up.
“London, 16th day, eleventh month, 1660.”
On the twenty-eighth of the same month,
they published the declaration referred to in their address, entitled:
“A declaration from the harmless and innocent people of God,
called Quakers, against all sedition, plotters, and fighters in
the world, for removing the ground of jealousy and suspicion,
from both magistrates and people in the kingdom, concerning wars
and fightings.” It was presented to the king the twenty-first
day of the eleventh month, 1660, and he promised them upon his
royal word, that they should not suffer for their opinions as
long as they lived peaceably; but his promises were very little
regarded afterward.
In 1661 they assumed courage to petition
the House of Lords for a toleration of their religion, and for
a dispensation from taking the oaths, which they held unlawful,
not from any disaffection to the government, or a belief that
they were less obliged by an affirmation, but from a persuasion
that all oaths were unlawful; and that swearing upon the most
solemn occasions was forbidden in the New Testament. Their petition
was rejected, and instead of granting them relief, an act was
passed against them, the preamble to which set forth, “That
whereas several persons have taken up an opinion that an oath,
even before a magistrate, is unlawful, and contrary to the Word
of God: and whereas, under pretence of religious worship, the
said persons do assemble in great numbers in several parts of
the kingdom, separating themselves from the rest of his majesty’s
subjects, and the public congregations and usual places of divine
worship; be it therefore enacted, that if any such persons, after
the twenty-fourth of March, 1661-2, shall refuse to take an oath
when lawfully tendered, or persuade others to do it, or maintain
in writing or otherwise, the unlawfulness of taking an oath; or
if they shall assemble for religious worship, to the number of
five or more, of the age of fifteen, they shall for the first
offence forfeit five pounds; for the second, ten pounds; and for
the third shall abjure the realm, or be transported to the plantations:
and the justices of peace at their open sessions may hear and
finally determine in the affair.”
This act had a most dreadful effect upon
the Quakers, though it was well known and notorious that these
conscientious persons were far from sedition or disaffection to
the government. George Fox, in his address to the king, acquaints
him that three thousand and sixty eight of their friends had been
imprisoned since his majesty’s restoration; that their meetings
were daily broken up by men with clubs and arms, and their friends
thrown into the water, and trampled under foot until the blood
gushed out, which gave rise to their meeting in the open streets.
A relation was printed, signed by twelve witnesses, which says
that more than four thousand two hundred Quakers were imprisoned;
and of them five hundred were in and about London, and the suburbs;
several of whom were dead in the jails.
However, they ever gloried in their sufferings,
which increased every day; so that in 1665, and the intermediate
years, they were harassed without example. As they persisted resolutely
to assemble, openly, at the Bull and Mouth, before mentioned,
the soldiers, and other officers, dragged them from thence to
prison, until Newgate was filled with them, and multitudes died
of close confinement, in that and other jails.
Six hundred of them, says an account published
at that time, were in prison, merely for religion’s sake,
of whom several were banished to the plantations. In short, the
Quakers gave such full employment to the informers, that they
had less leisure to attend the meetings of other dissenters.
Yet, under all these calamities, they behaved
with patience and modesty towards the government, and upon occasion
of the Ryehouse plot in 1682, thought proper to declare their
innocence of that sham plot, in an address to the king, wherein
“appealing to the Searcher of all hearts,” they say,
“their principles do not allow them to take up defensive
arms, much less to avenge themselves for the injuries they received
from others: that they continually pray for the king’s safety
and preservation; and therefore take this occasion humbly to beseech
his majesty to compassionate their suffering friends, with whom
the jails are so filled, that they want air, to the apparent hazard
of their lives, and to the endangering an infection in divers
places. Besides, many houses, shops, barns, and fields are ransacked,
and the goods, corn, and cattle swept away, to the discouraging
trade and husbandry, and impoverishing great numbers of quiet
and industrious people; and this, for no other cause, but for
the exercise of a tender conscience in the worship of Almighty
God, who is sovereign Lord and King of men’s consciences.”
On the accession of James II they addressed
that monarch honestly and plainly, telling him: “We are come
to testify our sorrow for the death of our good friend Charles,
and our joy for thy being made our governor. We are told thou
art not of the persuasion of the Church of England, no more than
we; therefore we hope thou wilt grant us the same liberty which
thou allowest thyself, which doing, we wish thee all manner of
happiness.”
When James, by his dispensing power, granted
liberty to the dissenters, they began to enjoy some rest from
their troubles; and indeed it was high time, for they were swelled
to an enormous amount. They, the year before this, to them one
of glad release, in a petition to James for a cessation of their
sufferings, set forth, “that of late above one thousand five
hundred of their friends, both men and women, and that now there
remain one thousand three hundred and eighty-three; of which two
hundred are women, many under sentence of praemunire; and more
than three hundred near it for refusing the oath of allegiance,
because they could not swear. Three hundred and fifty have died
in prison since the year 1680; in London, the jail of Newgate
has been crowded, within these two years sometimes with near twenty
in a room, whereby several have been suffocated, and others, who
have been taken out sick, have died of malignant fevers within
a few days. Great violences, outrageous distresses, and woful
havoc and spoil, have been made upon people’s goods and estates,
by a company of idle, extravagant, and merciless infortners, by
persecutions on the conventicle act, and others, also on quitam
writs, and on other processes, for twenty pounds a month, and
two thirds of their estates seized for the king. Some had not
a bed to rest on, others had no cattle to till the ground, nor
corn for feed or bread, nor tools to work with; the said informers
and bailiffs in some places breaking into houses, and making great
waste and spoil, under pretence of serving the king and the Church.
Our religious assemblies have been charged at common law with
being rioters and disturbers of the public,peace, whereby great
numbers have been confined in prison without regard to age, and
many confined to holes and dungeons. The seizing for 20 pounds
a month has amounted to many thousands and several who have employed,
some hundreds of poor people in manufactures, are disabled to
do so any more, by reason of long imprisonment. They spare neither
widow nor fatherless, nor have they so much as a bed to lie on.
The informers are both witnesses and prosecutors, to the ruin
of great numbers of sober families; and justices of the peace
have been threatened with the forfeiture of one hundred pounds,
if they do not issue out warrants upon their informations.”
With this petition they presented a list of their friends in prison,
in the several counties, amounting to four hundred and sixty.
During the reign of King James II these
people were, through the intercession of their friend Mr. Penn,
treated with greater indulgence than ever they had been before.
They were now become extremely numerous in many parts of the country,
and the settlement of Pennsylvania taking place soon after, many
of them went over to America. There they enjoyed the blessings
of a peaceful government, and cultivated the arts of honest industry.
As the whole colony was the property of
Mr. Penn, so he invited people of all denominations to come and
settle with him. A universal liberty of conscience took place;
and in this new colony the natural rights of mankind were, for
the first time, established.
These Friends are, in the present age, a
very harmless, inoffensive body of people; but of that we shall
take more notice hereafter. By their wise regulations, they not
only do honor to themselves, but they are of vast service to the
community.
It may be necessary here to observe, that
as the Friends, commonly called Quakers, will not take an oath
in a court of justice, so their affirmation is permitted in all
civil affairs; but they cannot prosecute a criminal, because,
in the English courts of justice, all evidence must be upon oath.
About the middle of the seventeenth century,
much persecution and suffering were inflicted on a sect of Protestant
dissenters, commonly called Quakers: a people which arose at that
time in England some of whom sealed their testimony with their
blood.
For an account of the above people, see
Sewell’s, or Gough’s history of them.
The principal points upon which their conscientious
nonconformity rendered them obnoxious to the penalties of the
law, were,
The Christian resolution of assembling publicly
for the worship of God, in a manner most agreeable to their consciences.
Their refusal to pay tithes, which they
esteemed a Jewish ceremony, abrogated by the coming of Christ.
Their testimony against wars and fighting,
the practice of which they judged inconsistent with the command
of Christ: “Love your enemies,” Matt. 5:44.
Their constant obedience to the command
of Christ: “Swear not at all,” Matt. 5:34.
Their refusal to pay rates or assessments
for building and repairing houses for a worship which they did
not approve.
6.Their use of the proper and Scriptural
language, “thou,” and “thee,” to a single
person: and their disuse of the custom of uncovering their heads,
or pulling off their hats, by way of homage to man.
The necessity many found themselves under,
of publishing what they believed to be the doctrine of truth;
and sometimes even in the places appointed for the public national
worship.
Their conscientious noncompliance in the
preceding particulars, exposed them to much persecution and suffering,
which consisted in prosecutions, fines, cruel beatings, whippings,
and other corporal punishments, imprisonment, banishment, and
even death.
To relate a particular account of their
persecutions and sufferings, would extend beyond the limits of
this work: we shall therefore refer, for that information, to
the histories already mentioned, and more particularly to Besae’s
Collection of their sufferings; and shall confine our account
here mostly to those who sacrificed their lives, and evinced,
by their disposition of mind, constancy, patience, and faithful
perseverance, that they were influenced by a sense of religious
duty.
Numerous and repeated were the persecutions
against them; and sometimes for transgressions or offences which
the law did not contemplate or embrace.
Many of the fines and penalties exacted
of them, were not only unreasonable and exorbitant, but as they
could not consistently pay them, were sometimes distrained to
several times the value of the demand; whereby many poor families
were greatly distressed, and obliged to depend on the assistance
of their friends.
Numbers were not only cruelly beaten and
whipped in a public manner, like criminals, but some were branded
and others had their ears cut off.
Great numbers were long confined in loathsome
prisons; in which some ended their days in consequence thereof.
Many were sentenced to banishment; and a
considerable number were transported. Some were banished on pain
of death; and four were actually executed by the hands of the
hangman, as we shall here relate, after inserting copies of some
of the laws of the country where they suffered.
“Whereas, there is a cursed sect of
heretics, lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called
Quakers, who take upon them to be immediately sent from God, and
infallibly assisted by the Spirit, to speak and write blasphemous
opinions, despising government, and the order of God, in the Church
and commonwealth, speaking evil of dignities, reproaching and
reviling magistrates and ministers, seeking to turn the people
from the faith, and gain proselytes to their pernicious ways:
this court taking into consideration the premises, and to prevent
the like mischief, as by their means is wrought in our land, doth
hereby order, and by authority of this court, be it ordered and
enacted, that what master or commander of any ship, bark, pink,
or ketch, shall henceforth bring into any harbor, creek, or cove,
within this jurisdiction, any Quaker or Quakers, or other blasphemous
heretics, shall pay, or cause to be paid, the fine of one hundred
pounds to the treasurer of the country, except it appear he want
true knowledge or information of their being such; and, in that
case, he hath liberty to clear himself by his oath, when sufficient
proof to the contrary is wanting: and, for default of good payment,
or good security for it, shall be cast into prison, and there
to continue until the said sum be satisfied to the treasurer as
foresaid.
“And the commander of any ketch, ship,
or vessel, being legally convicted, shall give in sufficient security
to the governor, or any one or more of the magistrates, who have
power to determine the same, to carry them back to the place whence
he brought them; and, on his refusal so to do, the governor, or
one or more of the magistrates, are hereby empowered to issue
out his or their warrants to commit such master or commander to
prison, there to continue, until he give in sufficient security
to the content of the governor, or any of the magistrates, as
aforesaid.
“And it is hereby further ordered and
enacted, that what Quaker soever shall arrive in this country
from foreign parts, or shall come into this jurisdiction from
any parts adjacent, shall be forthwith committed to the House
of Correction; and, at their entrance, to be severely whipped,
and by the master thereof be kept constantly to work, and none
suffered to converse or speak with them, during the time of their
imprisonment, which shall be no longer than necessity requires.
“And it is ordered, if any person shall
knowingly import into any harbor of this jurisdiction, any Quakers’
books or writings, concerning their devilish opinions, shall pay
for such book or writing, being legally proved against him or
them the sum of five pounds.; and whosoever shall disperse or
conceal any such book or writing, and it be found with him or
her, or in his or her house and shall not immediately deliver
the same to the next magistrate, shall forfeit or pay five pounds,
for the dispersing or concealing of any such book or writing.
“And it is hereby further enacted,
that if any persons within this colony shall take upon them to
defend the heretical opinions of the Quakers, or any of their
books or papers, shall be fined for the first time forty shillings;
if they shall persist in the same, and shall again defend it the
second time, four pounds; if notwithstanding they again defend
and maintain the said Quakers’ heretical opinions, they shall
be committed to the House of Correction until there be convenient
passage to send them out of the land, being sentenced by the court
of Assistants to banishment.
“Lastly, it is hereby ordered, that
what person or persons soever, shall revile the persons of the
magistrates or ministers, as is usual with the Quakers, such person
or persons shall be severely whipped or pay the sum of five pounds.
“This is a true copy of the court’s
order, as attests “EDWARD RAWSON, SEC.”
“As an addition to the late order,
in reference to the coming or bringing of any of the cursed sect
of the Quakers into this jurisdiction, it is ordered that whosoever
shall from henceforth bring, or cause to be brought, directly,
or indirectly, any known Quaker or Quakers, or other blasphemous
heretics, into this jurisdiction, every such person shall forfeit
the sum of one hundred pounds to the country, and shall by warrant
from any magistrate be committed to prison, there to remain until
the penalty be satisfied and paid; and if any person or persons
within this jurisdiction, shall henceforth entertain and conceal
any such Quaker or Quakers, or other blasphemous heretics, knowing
them so to be, every such person shall forfeit to the country
forty shillings for every hour’s entertainment and concealment
of any Quaker or Quaker, etc., as aforesaid, and shall be committed
to prison as aforesaid, until the forfeiture be fully satisfied
and paid.
“And it is further ordered, that if
any Quaker or Quakers shall presume, after they have once suffered
what the law requires, to come into this jurisdiction, every such
male Quaker shall, for the first offence, have one of his ears
cut off, and be kept at work in the House of Correction, until
he can be sent away at his own charge; and for the second offence,
shall have his other ear cut off ; and every woman Quaker, that
has suffered the law here, that shall presume to come into this
jurisdiction, shall be severely whipped, and kept at the House
of Correction at work, until she be sent away at her own charge,
and so also for her coming again, she shall be alike used as aforesaid.
“And for every Quaker, he or she, that
shall a third time herein again offend, they shall have their
tongues bored through with a hot iron, and be kept at the House
of Correction close to work, until they be sent away at their
own charge.
“And it is further ordered, that all
and every Quaker arising from among ourselves, shall be dealt
with, and suffer the like punishment as the law provides against
foreign Quakers. “EDWARD RAWSON, Sec.”
“Whereas, there is a pernicious sect,
commonly called Quakers, lately risen, who by word and writing
have published and maintained many dangerous and horrid tenets,
and do take upon them to change and alter the received laudable
customs of our nation, in giving civil respects to equals, or
reverence to superiors; whose actions tend to undermine the civil
government, and also to destroy the order of the churches, by
denying all established forms of worship, and by withdrawing from
orderly Church fellowship, allowed and approved by all orthodox
professors of truth, and instead thereof, and in opposition thereunto,
frequently meeting by themselves, insinuating themselves into
the minds of the simple, or such as are at least affected to the
order and government of church and commonwealth, whereby divers
of our inhabitants have been infected, notwithstanding all former
laws, made upon the experience of their arrogant and bold obtrusions,
to disseminate their principles amongst us, prohibiting their
coming into this jurisdiction, they have not been deferred from
their impious attempts to undermine our peace, and hazard our
ruin.
“For prevention thereof, this court
doth order and enact, that any person or persons, of the cursed
sect of the Quakers, who is not an inhabitant of, but is found
within this jurisdiction, shall be apprehended without warrant,
where no magistrate is at hand, by any constable commissioner,
or selectman, and conveyed from constable to constable, to the
next magistrate, who shall commit the said person to close prison,
there to remain (without bail) until the next court of Assistants,
where they shall have legal trial.
“And being convicted to be of the sect
of the Quakers, shall be sentenced to banishment, on pain of death.
And that every inhabitant of this jurisdiction, being convicted
to be of the aforesaid sect, either by taking up, publishing,
or defending the horrid opinions of the Quakers, or the stirring
up mutiny, sedition, or rebellion against the government, or by
taking up their abusive and destructive practices, viz. denying
civil respect to equals and superiors, and withdrawing from the
Church assemblies; and instead thereof, frequenting meetings of
their own, in opposition to our Church order; adhering to, or
approving of any known Quaker, and the tenets and practices of
Quakers, that are opposite to the orthodox received opinions of
the godly; and endeavoring to disaffect others to civil government
and Church order, or condemning the practice and proceedings of
this court against the Quakers, manifesting thereby their complying
with those, whose design is to overthrow the order established
in Church and state: every such person, upon conviction before
the said court of Assistants, in manner aforesaid, shall be committed
to close prison for one month, and then, unless they choose voluntarily
to depart this jurisdiction, shall give bond for their good behavior
and appear at the next court, continuing obstinate, and refusing
to retract and reform the aforesaid opinions, they shall be sentenced
to banishment, upon pain of death. And any one magistrate, upon
information given him of any such person, shall cause him to be
apprehended, and shall commit any such person to prison, according
to his discretion, until he come to trial as aforesaid.”
It appears there were also laws passed in
both of the then colonies of New Plymouth and New Haven, and in
the Dutch settlement at New Amsterdamy now New York, prohibiting
the people called Quakers, from coming into those places, under
severe penalties; inconsequence of which, some underwent considerable
suffering.
The two first who were executed 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 hereafter, and Nicholas Davis, who were
both at Boston. But William Robinson, being looked upon as a teacher,
was also condemned to be whipped severely; and the constable was
commanded to get an able man to do it. Then Robinson was brought
into the street, and there stripped; 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 threefold
cord whip, Then he and the other prisoners were shortly after
released, and banished, as appears from 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 fourteenth of this present month, September,
are found within this jurisdiction, or any part thereof. “EDWARD
RAWSON.” “Boston, September 12, 1659.”
Though Mary Dyar and Nicholas Davis left
that jurisdiction for that time, yet Robinson and Stevenson, though
they departed the town of Boston, could not yet resolve (not being
free in mind) to depart that jurisdiction, though their lives
were at stake. And so they went to Salem, and some places thereabouts,
to visit and build up their friends in the faith. But it was not
long before they were taken and put again into prison at Boston,
and chains locked to their legs. In the next month, Mary Dyar
returned also. And as she stood before the prison, speaking with
one Christopher Holden, who was come thither to inquire for a
ship bound for England, whither he intended to go, she was also
taken into custody.
Thus, they had now three persons, who, according
to their law, had forfeited their lives. And, on the twentieth
of October, these three were brought into court, where John Endicot
and others were assembled. And being called to the bar, Endicot
commanded the keeper to pull off their hats; and then said, that
they had made several laws to keep the Quakers from amongst them,
and neither whipping, nor imprisoning, nor cutting off ears, nor
banishment upon pain of death, would keep them from amongst them.
And further, he said, that he or they desired not the death of
any of them. Yet. notwithstanding, his following words, without
more ado were, “Give ear, and hearken to your sentence of
death.” Sentence of death was also passed upon Marmaduke
Stevenson, Mary Dyar, and William Edrid. Several others were imprisoned,
whipped, and fined.
We have no disposition to justify the Pilgrims
for these proceedings, but we think, considering the circumstances
of the age in which they lived, their conduct admits of much palliation.
The fathers of New England, endured incredible hardships in providing for themselves a home in the wilderness; and to protect themselves in the undisturbed enjoyment of rights, which they had purchased at so dear a rate, they sometimes adopted measures, which, if tried by the more enlightened and liberal views of the present day, must at once be pronounced altogether unjustifiable. But shall they be condemned without mercy for not acting up to principles which were unacknowledged and unknown throughout the whole of Christendom? Shall they alone be held responsible for opinions and conduct which had become sacred by antiquity, and which were common to Christians of all other denominations? Every government then in existence assumed to itself the right to legislate in matters of religion; and to restrain heresy by penal statutes. This right was claimed by rulers, admitted by subjects, and is sanctioned by the names of Lord Bacon and Montesquieu, and many others equally famed for their talents and learning. It is unjust then, to ‘press upon one poor persecuted sect, the sins of all Christendom.’ The fault of our fathers was the fault of the age; and though this cannot justify, it certainly furnishes an extenuation of their conduct. As well might you condemn them for not understanding and acting up to the principles of religious toleration. At the same time, it is but just to say, that imperfect as were their views of the rights of conscience, they were nevertheless far in advance of the age to which they belonged; and it is to them more than to any other class of men on earth, the world is indebted for the more rational views that now prevail on the subject of civil and religious liberty.
