Anne Marbury
A "courageous exponent of civil liberty and religious toleration."
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(bap. 20 Jul 1591, England; d. Aug 1643, USA)
In front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston there is a statue of Anne with one of her daughters, sculpted in 1922 by Cyrus Edwin Dallin (1861-1944); photograph by Arthur Griffin, taken 1962.
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Another thing that got her into trouble was her insistence on holding meetings for women, with religious instruction and discussion; then men began attending and soon she was seen as a spiritual leader amongst her peers. Women, however, were not allowed to teach or speak in public.
Some of her more particular views on the interpretation of their doctrine led to leaders fearing she was jeopardizing"the authority of magistrates, clergy and all forms of government". source
She was arrested and put on trial.
[I won't go into detail, but you can find out more by following the links.]
Composure, intelligence and superior knowledge of the Bible helped Anne Hutchinson defend herself through much of her 1637 trial for heresy, before a claim of immediate revelation led to her conviction.
(Illustration by Edwin Austin Abbey, c. 1901)
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She then had to go through a Church trial, in March 1638. Her husband and some family members had already left the colony for Rhode Island.
After the trials she was banished from Massachusetts, and so left to join her husband.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (famous author of The Scarlet Letter) wrote of her in 1830:
“Her final movement was to lead her family within the limits of the Dutch Jurisdiction, where, having felled the trees of virgin soil, she became herself the virtual head, civil and ecclesiastical, of a little colony. Perhaps here she found repose, hitherto so vainly sought. Secluded from all whose faith she could not govern, surrounded by dependents over whom she held an unlimited influence, agitated by none of the turmoltuous billows which were left swelling behind her, we may suppose, that, in the stillness of nature, her heart was stilled.”
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Her famous profile.
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[In the notes below I have listed the names of her & husband William's children, and bolded the ones who died together.]
They had settled in an area of dangerous unrest between the colonists and local native Indian tribes. The governor was playing tribes off against each other, extorting money, and mistreating them. A series of events stemming from this lead to what is called Kieft’s War, and the death of families caught up in this war.
On the 20th of August, 1643 a group of Siwanoy indians raided the area the Hutchinson's lived in.
“The Siwanoy warriors stampeded into the tiny settlement above Pelham Bay, prepared to burn down every house. The Siwanoy chief, Wampage, who had sent a warning, expected to find no settlers present. But at one house the men in animal skins encountered several children, young men and women, and a woman past middle age. One Siwanoy indicated that the Hutchinsons should restrain the family’s dogs. Without apparent fear, one of the family tied up the dogs. As quickly as possible, the Siwanoy seized and scalped Francis Hutchinson, William Collins, several servants, the two Annes (mother and daughter), and the younger children—William, Katherine, Mary, and Zuriel. As the story was later recounted in Boston, one of the Hutchinson’s daughters, ‘seeking to escape,’ was caught ‘as she was getting over a hedge, and they drew her back again by the hair of the head to the stump of a tree, and there cut off her head with a hatchet.’”
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Another daughter, Susanna, had been out picking berries at the time and so hid, but was then found and taken captive into the tribe where she lived with them for the next nine years before being ransomed back to the family.
Local landmarks around New York have been named after her, such as:
the neighboring land near where Hutchinson lived was named Anne-Hoeck’s neck
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In 1987, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis officially pardoned Anne Hutchinson, therefore revoking her banishment from Massachusetts and clearing her name.
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Notes:
She and husband William HUTCHINSON (bap. 14 Aug 1586; d. 1642) who married on the 9th of August 1612, in London (although were both from Lincolnshire, and settled there), have some famous descendants, including several US presidents, governors, and court justices as well as the unfortunate Thomas Hutchinson of the infamous Boston Tea Party incident.
Here is an interesting chart which maps some of the relationships:
Anne's parents were Rev. Francis Marbury (b. 155; d. 1611; a puritan minister) and Bridget Dryden (b. 1563; d. 1645; a midwife).
William Hutchinson held positions such as judge/chief magistrate, merchant, treasurer of Portsmouth. selectman, governor of Portsmouth.
Historical highway marker for William and Anne Hutchinson property at Mount Wollaston, later in Quincy, Massachusetts
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While William's direct ancestry can be traced back to (as already mentioned) Barnard Hutchinson, esq. (b. 1298, Cowlam, Yorkshire, England; d. 1382, Cowlam); and Bernard's wife Beatrice de Boyvill's family can be traced back even further ... Anne herself has a very prestigious pedigree. Her ancestry includes not only those of the English aristocracy, but Plantagent kings & queens, including Edward I.
My previous post on their relations, the Hutchinson Family Singers, can be found here.
Of the 15 children William and Anne had, 14 were born in England, and the last one born in the USA. Not all made it to adulthood.
- Edward (bap. 28 May 1613; d. 19 Aug 1675)
- Susanna (bap. 4 Sep 1614; d. Sep 1630)
- Richard (bap. 8 Dec 1615; d. 1670)
- Faith (bap. 14 Aug 1617; d. 20 Feb 1651)
- Bridget (bap. 15 Jan 1619; d. Aug 1698)
- Francis (bap. 24 Dec 1620; d. 20 Aug 1643)
- Elizabeth (bap. 17 Feb 1621; d. Oct 1630)
- William (bap. 22 Jun 1623; d. cir 1624)
- Samuel (bap. 17 Dec 1624; d. 20 Aug 1643)
- Anne (bap. 5 May 1626; d. 20 Aug 1643)
- Mary (bap. 22 Feb 1627; d. 20 Aug 1643)
- Katherine (bap. 7 Feb 1630; d. 20 Aug 1643)
- William (bap. 28 Sep 1631; d. 20 Aug 1643)
- Susanna (b. 15 Nov 1633; d. 8 Sep 1713)
- Zuriel (bap. 13 Mar 1636; d. 15 Aug 1643)
Apparently their Boston house stood on the spot where the Old Corner Bookstore, another local icon, now stands.
Bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson
https://www.biography.com/people/anne-hutchinson-9348085
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/anne-hutchinson
http://www.famous-trials.com/hutchinson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson#Descendants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hutchinson_(Rhode_Island)
https://www.nps.gov/sapa/planyourvisit/anne-hutchinson-in-massachusetts-bay.htm
http://historyofmassachusetts.org/anne-hutchinson/
If you are interested in your own family history and want some help, I work for Steem & SBD. Check out my biz post here.
(extra tags: #irdp)
Very cool.
Did you see @littlescribe post today about 23 and me?
Ancestry is so cool.
I find the history of our families so intriguing.
Cheers, I'll check it out thanks. Our family history is indeed intriguing, but you can tell I am a big fan already, lol.
Genealogy to the moon! :D
My Mom's maiden name was Hitchcock.
So there's that going for me. :)
Oh man...your maternal haplogroup is gunna be interesting....
Thanks for the mention! It was fun to find out where I came from!
Interesting post about a strong woman early in US history. History really comes alive when you can make family connection to historical events. Great post @ravenruis
Exactly what I think! The two are so very much intertwined, and I always learn a lot more about moments in history when researching family ... anyone's family, lol.