Blog #5 Colonial Individual

Blog #5: Historical Figure during the Colonial period
ANNE HUTCHINSON

Portrait of Anne Hutchinson

What specifically is it that sets me apart from the other women of her time? I, unlike other women of my time, was not passive or submissive; however, I proved to be one of the first prominent female figures within Colonial History for openly going against the Boston Church.

Anne Hutchinson statue in Rhode Island

                I born Anne Marbury in Lincolnshire, England in 1591 and was the daughter of an Anglican minister, Francis Marbury. Marbury, my father,  felt that the clergy should be well educated clashed with common ideas at the time and was imprisoned years before my birth, in 1580, he was released, he then preached and taught in the small market town of Alford, by 1585 he became schoolmaster at the local Grammar School. I was the third child out of fifteen, my father’s influence, provided me with a powerful insight to a better education than most girls my age. A female during the 16^th century within England, was privileged with education only if their family held a high social position; education, at the time was offered exclusively to  and dominated by males. My father died in 1611, in 1612 I William Hutchinson, my husband and I were exposed to preacher John Cotton; an English clergyman and colonist. Cotton moved to Boston, New England where he would study to become a minster,we were so inspired by Cotton that we decided to make the dangerous trip into the New World. I was specifically interested in Cotton’s theology of “absolute grace”, and his thoughts on the “elect”, “law”, and “work”; and saw myself as a participant in the power of the Almighty. Through this ideology, I was given a voice; an actual method of existing beyond the control of male “superiority”.

TRIAL

                My family of ten, arrived in Boston in the Summer of 1634, where we purchased half an acre creating one of the largest houses on the peninsula, in present day downtown Boston. Once in Boston, I became a midwife, assisting women during childbirth- within the New World twenty-percent of women died during childcare. I also created a Home Bible study group, for women, and later men, who wanted to discuss Cotton’s sermons, hosting at least sixty people on a weekly basis. Within my meetings I started to question the validity behind the legitimacy of the “elect”, stating that “an intuition of the Spirit” s was the only way to go through the gates of Heaven. However, ministers of the Boston Church began to oppose my so called “unauthorized” religious meetings that could confuse the faithful. In 1636, John Winthrop stated that I committed two errors: that the “holy Ghost” dwells in a justified person, and “that no sanctification can help to evidence our justification”. In late 1636 my followers and I were accused of having committed two heresies against the Puritan Church; antinomism and familism. In November 1637, I was put on civil trial by the General Court on the charge of damaging the minsters reputations, found guilty and put under house arrest. March 1638 marked my Church , which lasted nine hours; however, I was excommunicated (banished) from Massachusetts and made my way into Rhode Island along with Roger Williams.