Church History

Church History

 



THE FOLLOWING ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONS WERE EITHER QUAKERS, OR DESCENDANTS OF QUAKERS.

William Penn, a Quaker. 

Solomon Southwick, of Newport, R. I., son of a Quaker. 

Solomon Southwick, of Albany, N.Y., grandson of a Quaker. 

Isaac T. Hopper, of Philadelphia, Pa., a Quaker. 

Elias Hicks, of New York, a Quaker Preacher. 

General Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island, son of a Quaker Preacher. 

Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia, Pa., a Quaker Preacher, and daughter of Quaker parents, of
Nantucket, R. I. 

Abraham Lincoln, son of Quaker parents. 

John Bright, of Birmingham, England, a Quaker, and son of a Quaker, Jacob Bright. 

John GreenleafWhittier, a Quaker Poet, of Quaker parents. 



SEWEL'S HISTORY OF THE QUAKERS.

IN 1657, William Shattuck, a shoe maker of Boston, being on
the first day of the week found at his 

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house instead of coming to the place of worship was taken to
the house of correction, where at his first entrance he was
cruelly whipped and then kept at work whilst his wife and
innocent children were in want on account of his absence.
Richard Bellingham, Deputy Governor, said to William's wife
that since he was poor and could not pay five shillings per
week for not coming to church they should keep him in prison. 

John Copeland and Christopher Holder coming to Dedham were
taken by the Constable to Boston, when being brought before
the Governor, John Endicott, he said in a rage "ye shall be
sure to have your ears cut off." Soon after, John Rouse came
to Boston and was arrested and put into prison. Then Governor
Endicott called the three prisoners by name and said in a
great passion, it is the sentence of the Court that you three
have each of you his right ear cut off by the hangman. The
sentence was executed in private. 

In 1658, Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh came to Boston, and
having spoken in the public meetingplace, were brought to the
house of correction, and three days before and three days
after being whipped were not allowed to have victuals,
although they offered to pay for them; and when Sarah
afterwards asked Governor Endicott whether this was justice
and equity, he answered that it mattered not. 

Not long after, Hored Gardner, an inhabitant of Rhode Island,
came with her sucking babe and a girl to carry it to Weymouth.
Being a Quaker she was hurried to Boston, where both she and
the girl were 

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whipped with a three-fold knotted whip. Hored after being
whipped knelt down and prayed the Lord to forgive their
persecutors. 

Daniel and Provided Southwick, son and daughter of Lawrence
and Cassandra Southwick, seeing how unreasonably their honest
parents and brother Josiah were dealt with, felt themselves
encouraged to follow their steps and not frequent the
assemblies of such a persecuting generation; for which absence
they were fined ten pounds, though it was well known they had
no estate. To get this money an order was issued in the
General Court at Boston that they should be sold as slaves to
any of the English nation at Virginia or Barbadoes to answer
said fines. 

REV. JOHN SELBY WATSON'S LIFE OF GEORGE FOX.

IN 1656 two women, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, came to Boston
to preach as humble followers of George Fox. There had been no
law made against Quakers in New England, yet Richard
Billingham, the Deputy Governor, committed these two women to
prison on their landing, as being of the sect called Quakers,
because one of them in speaking to him said "thou" instead of
"you." They were afterwards barbarously treated; they were
undressed and searched on pretence of ascertaining whether
they were "Witches." 

They were kept in confinement five weeks and almost starved;
and at last the captain of a vessel was forced to carry them
back to England, and the jailor 

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kept their beds, which had been brought on shore, for jail
fees: such was the "entertainment" the Quakers first met with
at Boston from a people who pretended that for conscience sake
they chose the wilds of America rather than the
well-cultivated Old England. 

Four male and four female "Quakers" who landed about a month
afterwards were treated in a similar manner by Governor
Endicott, and after eleven weeks stay were shipped back to
England. 

Cassandra Southwick was arrested July, 1656, for absence from
worship. 

A law was then made prohibiting all masters of ships from
bringing "Quakers" to New England and "Quakers" themselves
from landing there under penalty of imprisonment. 

Quakers, however, still continued to appear in New England,
and most cruel measures were adopted for their exclusion. At
length two "Quakers," William Robinson, a London trader, and
Marmaduke Stevenson, an agriculturist from Yorkshire, both of
whom persisted in frequenting Boston and the neighborhood,
were ordered by the court to keep themselves out of its
jurisdiction "under pain of death," and as they did not feel
"free in mind" to obey the order, were in the latter part of
the year 1659 actually hanged, and their dead bodies were
stripped and mangled by the hands of the mob. A woman named
Mary Dyer was executed soon afterwards. 

And in the early part of the following year William Leddra and
Wenlock Christison were also hung for same reasons. 

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But these proceedings, which far surpassed anything that had
been done against the "Quakers" in England, excited the
attention of the English people as well as the "Quakers"
themselves, and an application being made to the King, Charles
II, a mandamus was addressed by the English government to the
authorities of New England, directing that if there were any
"Quakers" in that country under sentence of imprisonment,
corporeal punishment or death, the proceedings against them
should be stopped and they should be sent over to England to
be dealt with according to English laws. 

This order was so far obeyed that the "Quakers" who were then
in prison were set at liberty, and three deputies, Colonel
Temple, a priest named Norton, and Simon Broadstreet, one of
the magistrates, were sent over to England to inform the King
of their release and to deprecate his displeasure. 

During their stay in England George Fox and some of his
friends found an opportunity of speaking to them and charged
them boldly, at least Norton and Broadstreet (who acknowledged
that they were concerned in the persecutions), with murder, in
having, though subjects of England, put to death peaceable
citizens, not by English laws, but by arbitrary enactments of
their own; and many of the old Royalists says "Sewel" were
earnest with the "Quakers" to bring the New England
persecutors or as many of them as possible to trial, but
George Fox replied that he would leave them to Him to whom
vengeance belonged, and consequently nothing was done in the
matter. 

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It does not appear that any more "Quakers" were put to death
in New England, but persecutions were not discontinued and
ill-treatment of them by whipping, imprisonment, and other
modes of vexation were indulged to a great extent. 

BISHOP'S NEW ENGLAND JUDGED.

IN 1657, Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra his wife, an aged
and grave couple, inhabitants of Salem, Mass., and members of
First church, who for entertaining two strangers, viz.: John
Copeland and Christopher Holder, were committed to prison at
Boston. Lawrence was released as being a member of First
church, to be dealt with by said congregation; but Cassandra
was kept in prison seven weeks and then fined forty shillings
for owning a paper written by the two aforesaid strangers in
reference to the truth and the Scriptures. Gov. Endicott
putting questions to her to ensnare her and bring her under
the law, which was illegal, said law being enacted to punish
any person who should write or hold any heretical papers, said
papers were not proved to be heretical but were the truth. 

In the 5th Month, 16, 1658, Old Style, Lawrence, Cassandra and
their son Josiah were imprisoned at Boston for being Quakers,
and were kept there twenty weeks on a charge of violating a
law enacted while they were in prison. 

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JAMES SAVAGE'S GENEALOGICAL DICTIONARY OF

FIRST SETTLERS OF NEW ENGLAND.

1658 and 1659. In the dark days of delusion against the
Quakers the whole family of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick
suffer much from fines and imprisonment. When the fines of
Daniel and Provided were unpaid, the tender hearted General
Court with intent to magnify the GLORY OF GOD ordered them to
be sold for Slaves to any Christian in Virginia or Barbadoes. 

Lawrence made his will at Shelter Island in 1659 and died
there three days before his wife, in spring of 1660; his will
was proved at Salem in 1660, in which he mentions sons John,
Josiah and Daniel, and daughters Provided and Mary (who
married Henry Trask), and some grand children. 

FELT'S ANNALS OF SALEM.

IN July, 1656, Cassandra, the wife of Lawrence Southwick, is
arraigned for absence from worship. 

March 23, 1657. Josiah Hobart is preaching at Cape Ann Side. 

Sept. 21, 1657. Christopher Holder and John Copeland, Quakers,
attempt to address our people after the Minister closed. They
are secured until Monday, then sent to Boston where they
received thirty stripes and were imprisoned nine weeks. Samuel
Shattuck, for interfering when Holder was apprehended, was
imprisoned at Boston till he gave 

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bonds. Lawrence Southwick and his wife, for entertaining
Holder and Copeland, were confined in the same town. 

In March, 1658, John Small, Josiah Southwick and John Burton
are apprehended in Dedham for being Quakers, while on their
way to Rhode Island to provide a residence for themselves and
families, and to escape from their persecutors. They were
released and resumed their journey. 

June 29, 1658. Among the persons punished for attending a
Quaker Meeting at Nicholas Phelps' are John, Daniel and
Provided Southwick, Joseph Pope, Anthony Needham, Edward
Wharton, Samuel Gaskin, or Gaskill, Henry Trask and wife,
Joseph Buffum's wife and his son Joseph, and Thomas Brackett;
the wives of Needham, Phelps, Pope, and Geo. Gardner are
indicted; Edward Harnett and his wife Priscilla are fined. 

March 11, 1659. As the fines of Daniel and Provided Southwick
are not paid they are ordered to be sold into Slavery to any
of the English living in Virginia or Barbadoes; but this was
not done. Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick and their son
Josiah, Samuel Shattuck, Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum are
banished on pain of death. 

Oct. 18, 1659. Hannah Phelps is admonished, and Wm. King is
sentenced to be whipped. Margaret Smith and son, and Mary
Trask are in prison; they had attended the trial of Robinson,
Stevenson and Mary Dyer in Boston. 

Nov. 3, 1659. Edward Wharton is whipped and 

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fined for asserting that the two former were
unjustly hung. 

Nov. 29, 1659. Joseph Miles, Thomas Spooner,
James Smith, and Francis Simpson are arraigned
with other Quakers. 

May 18, 1660. Henry Bacheller and (June 26) the
wife of Edmund Nicholson, the wife of Wm.
Vincent, Samuel Salmon, and other Friends are
prosecuted. 

Nov. 27, 1660. The wife of Robert Stone, John
Burton and other Quakers are prosecuted. 

Dec. 21, 1660. A letter from Mary Trask and
Margaret Smith to the Governor, relative to the
persecution of their denomination, concludes:
"From your house of correction (in Boston) where
we have been unjustly restrained from our
children and habitations, one of us about 8
months, the other 10 months; and where we are yet
continued by you oppressors, yet know no Shame." 

March 6, 1661. Of several things for which a fast
is observed by the church in Salem is renewal of
covenant and adding to it as follows: "Therefore
we do covenant by the help of Jesus Christ to
take heed and beware of the leaven of the
doctrine of the Quakers."(*) 
(*) How absurdly false this pretence is, for the
Quakers did 
not have any Doctrine or Code of Faith and
Belief. They simply 
by their discipline enjoined the reading of the
Bible; and each to 
interpret for themselves, that the light within
each and every 
person was sufficient to guide them aright, "that
he who runs 
might read, and need not go astray." 

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March 14, 1661. Edward Wharton attends on Wm. Leddra executed
at Boston and assists to bury his body. 

Sept. 9, 1661. Josiah Southwick having come from banishment,
is ordered by the assistants to be stripped from his girdle
upwards, tied to a cart's tail and whipped ten stripes in each
of the towns of Boston, Roxbury and Dedham. 

Nov. 27, 1661. The General Court vote to comply with a letter
from the King (Charles II.) which required them to cease
proceedings against the Quakers, and to send such of them as
are apprehended over to England for trial. This Royal
injunction was brought by Samuel Shattuck from London, whither
he had gone after being banished by our authorities. 

Dec. 10, 1661. Several of the Friends are fined as usual. 

June 6, 1663. Mr Higginson writes to the Legislature; in a
postscript is the following: "I doe further entreate yt ye
hond. Court will please to consider what course may be taken
for ye dissolueing ye Quaker Meetings here which we have
frequent and constant without interruption a long time,
strange Quakers often repairing hither, yt occasion may be
given for others abroad to looke upon Salem as a nest of
Quakers from hence to infect ye rest of ye country." 

Philip Veren is sentenced to be severely lashed for saying
that our authorities "had murdered the dear saints and
servants of God, and that he saw one of them murdered at
Boston himself." 

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To build a prison here œ50 are appropriated, which sum was the
price of lands taken from Quakers. 

Nov. 24, 1663. Twenty-five of this denomination are fined and
they continue to be thus treated for several years. 

June 26, 1666. John Blevin is among the Quakers prosecuted. 

Nov. 24, 1668. Nathaniel Hadlock suffers with the Quakers. 

June 29, 1669. Robert Gray, also of the Friends, is fined. The
will of Robert Buffum is not allowed, because the witnesses
would only testify, and not swear, to its correctness. 

July 18, 1676. After a few years' respite, the Quakers are
renewedly prosecuted. 

Dec. 12, 1695. An order of General Court requires that all the
copies of a book entitled "Truth Held Forth," and edited by
Thomas Maule, be searched for and seized. This work contained
severe reflections on the government for their treatment of
the Quakers. 

Extract from THE RECORDS OF THE COLONY OF

THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY OF NEW ENGLAND.

Oct. 14, 1656. 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 of God, and
infallibly assisted by the spirit to speak and write
blasphemous opinions, despising government and the order of
God in 

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church and commonwealth, speaking evil of dignities and
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 serious consideration
the premises, and to prevent the like mischief as by their
means is wrought in our native land, doth hereby order, and by
the authority of this court be it ordered and enacted that
what master of any ship, bark, pinnace, catch, or of any other
vessel that shall henceforth bring into any harbor, creek or
cove within this jurisdiction any known Quaker, or any other
blasphemous heretics as aforesaid, shall pay or cause to be
paid, a fine of one Hundred Pounds, to the treasurer of the
country; except it appear that he wanted 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 payment or good
security for it, shall be committed to prison and there remain
till the said sum be satisfied to the treasurer as aforesaid;
and the commander of any such ship or vessel that shall bring
them, 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 from whence he brought them, and on his refusal to
do so 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
shall give sufficient security to the 

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content of the Governor or any of the magistrates as
aforesaid, and it is hereby ordered and enacted that what
Quakers soever shall arise in this country from foreign parts
or come into this jurisdiction from any parts adjacent, shall
forthwith be committed to the house of correction, and at
their entrance to be severely whipt, and by the master thereof
to be kept constantly at work and none suffered to converse or
speak with them during the time of their imprisonment, which
shall be no longer than necessity requireth; and further it is
ordered if any person shall knowingly import into any harbor
of this jurisdiction any Quaker books or writings concerning
their Devilish opinions, shall pay for every such book or
writings, being legally proved against him or them, the sum of
five pounds; and whoever shall disperse or conceal any such
book or writings and it be found with him or her or in his or
her house, and shall not immediately deliver into the next
magistrate, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five pounds for
the dispersing or concealing of any such book or writing. 

And it is hereby further enacted that if any person within
this colony take upon them the heretical opinions of the said
Quakers, or any of their books or papers as aforesaid, "ex
animo," if legally proved shall be fined for the first time
forty shillings, and if they shall persist in the same and
shall so again defend it, the second time four pounds; if
still notwithstanding they shall again so defend and maintain
the said Quakers' heretical opinions, they shall be committed
to the house of correction till there be 

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convenient passage to send them out of the land, being
sentenced by the Court of assistance to banishment. Lastly, it
is hereby ordered that what person or persons soever shall
revile the office or person of magistrates or ministers, as is
usual with the Quakers, such person or persons shall be
severely whipt, or pay the sum of five pounds. 

Oct. 15, 1656. (Page 279.) It is ordered that the secretary
forthwith issue out a warrant from this Court to the Marshall
General or his deputy, to impress a meet boat and sufficient
and convenient help to carry down and deliver the Quakers
aboard Mr. Locke. 

Oct. 14, 1657. (Page 308.) As, in addition to the late order
in reference to the coming or bringing in 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 be committed to prison and there remain
until the penalty be satisfied and paid; and if any person or
persons within this jurisdiction shall entertain any Quaker or
Quakers or other blasphemous heretics, shall forfeit forty
shillings for every hours' entertainment and concealment, and
shall be committed to prison until the fine is paid: and it is
further ordered that if any Quaker or Quakers, after they have
once suffered what the law requireth, come into this
jurisdiction, every such male 

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Quaker shall for the first offence have one of his ears cut
off and be kept at work in the house of correction till he can
be sent away at his charge, and for the second offence have
his other ear cut off, and kept at house of correction as
aforesaid. And every woman Quaker that hath suffered the law
here that shall presume to come into this jurisdiction shall
be severely whipt and kept at the house of correction at work
till she shall be sent away at her own charge; and so for her
coming again she shall be alike used as aforesaid, and for
every Quaker, he or she that shall a third time offend, they
shall have their tongue bored through with a hot iron and kept
at the house of correction close to work till they shall be
sent away at their own charge; and it is further ordered that
all and every Quaker arising from amongst ourselves shall be
dealt with and suffer the like punishment as the law provides
for foreign Quakers. 

May 19, 1658. (Page 321.) That Quakers and such accursed
heretics arising among ourselves may be dealt with according
to their deserts, and that their pestilent errors and
practices may speedily be prevented, it is hereby ordered that
as in addition to the former law against Quakers, that every
such person professing any of their pernicious ways by
speaking, writing, or by meeting on the Lord's day, or any
other time, to strengthen themselves or seduce others to their
diabolical doctrines, shall after conviction incur the penalty
ensuing, that is, every person so meeting shall pay to the
country for every time, ten shillings; and every one speaking
in such meeting shall pay 

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five pounds apiece, and in case any such person hath been
punished by scourging or whipping the first time according to
the former laws, shall be kept at work in the house of
correction till they put in security, with two sufficient men,
that they shall not any more vent their hateful errors or use
their sinful practices, or else shall depart this jurisdiction
at their own charges; and if any of them return again, then
each person shall incur the penalty of the laws formerly made
for strangers. 

Oct. 19, 1658. (Page 348.) Whereas this Court, well
understanding the dangerous events of the doctrines and
practices of the Quakers, hath by law endeavored to prevent
the same, but finding that some of them do disperse their
papers, so expressing themselves therein as that they may
deceive divers of weak capacities and so draw them on to favor
their opinions and ways. Now for the further prevention of
infection and guiding of people in the truth in reference to
such opinions, heresies or blasphemies by them expressed in
their books, letters, or by words openly held forth by some of
them, the Court judgeth meet that there be a writing or
declaration drawn up and printed to manifest the evil of their
tenets and dangers of their practices, as tending to the
subversion of religion, of church order, and civil government,
and the necessity that this government is put upon (for the
preservation of religion and their own peace and safety) to
exclude such persons from amongst them, who after due means of
conviction shall remain obstinate and pertinacious, and this
work the Court 

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doth commend to the care and pains of the Rev. Mr. John
Norton, speedily to effect. 

Oct. 19, 1658. (Page 349.) It is ordered that the Quakers in
prison at Ipswich be forthwith sent for; warrant issued out
accordingly and return to the warrant made; the Court
convented the said Quakers before them and after much endeavor
to convince and reform them, ordered that Samuel Shattocke,
Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Southwick his wife, shall be
enjoined at their peril to depart out of this jurisdiction
before the first day of the Court of election next, which if
they neglect or refuse to do, they shall then be banished
under pain of death, and if in the meantime they shall
transgress against the new law made by this Court against
Quakers, they shall be proceeded with as the said law
requires; and it is referred to the County Court of Suffolk to
declare this sentence to them, and thereupon release them out
of prison. 

May 11, 1659. (Page 366.) Whereas Daniel and Provided
Southwick, son and daughter to Lawrence Southwick, have been
fined by the County Courts of Salem and Ipswich, pretending
they have no estates, resolving not to work, and others
likewise have been fined for siding with the Quakers and
absenting themselves from the public ordinances; and in answer
to a question what course shall be taken for the satisfaction
of the fines, the Court, on perusal of the law title arrests,
Resolve that the treasurers of the several counties are, and
shall hereby be impowered to sell the said persons to any of
the English nation at Virginia or Barbadoes. 

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May 11, 1659. (Page 367.) It is ordered that Lawrence
Southwick and Cassandra his wife, Samuel Shattocke, Nicholas
Phelps, Joshua Buffum and Josiah Southwick, hereby are
sentenced according to the order of the General Court in
October last, to banishment, to depart out of this
jurisdiction by the 8th of June next, on pain of death; and if
any of them after the 8th of June next, shall be found within
this jurisdiction, they shall be apprehended by any constable
or other officer, there to lye till the next Court of
assistance, when they shall be tried, and being found guilty
of the breach of this law, shall be put to death. 

Oct. 18, 1659. (Page 383.) It is ordered that William
Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson and Mary Dyer, Quakers now in
prison for their rebellion, sedition, presumptious obtruding
themselves upon us, notwithstanding their being sentenced to
banishment on pain of death as underminers of this government,
etc., shall be brought before this Court for their trials, to
suffer the penalty of the law (the just reward of their
transgressions), on the morrow morning, being the 19th inst. 

William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson and Mary Dyer, banished
this jurisdiction by the last Court of assistance, on pain of
death, being committed by order of the General Court, were
sent for, brought to the bar, acknowledge themselves to be the
persons banished; after a full hearing of what the prisoners
could say for themselves, it was put to the question whether
William Robinson, Marmaduke 

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Stephenson and Mary Dyer, the persons now in prison, who have
been convicted of being Quakers and banished this jurisdiction
on pain of death, should be put to death according as the law
provides in that case. The court resolved this question in the
affirmative, and the Governor in open Court declared the
sentence to William Robinson, that was brought to the bar,
"William Robinson, you shall go from whence you came and from
thence to the place of execution and there hang till you be
dead. The like sentence the Governor in open Court pronounced
against Marmaduke Stephenson and Mary Dyer, being brought to
the bar one after another, in same words. Whereas William
Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson and Mary Dyer are sentenced by
this court to death for their rebellion, etc., it is ordered
that the secretary issue out his warrant to Edward Michelson,
Marshall General, for repairing to the prison on the 27th of
this instant October, and take the said William Robinson,
Marmaduke Stephenson and Mary Dyer into his custody and them
forthwith by the aid of Captain James Oliver, with one hundred
soldiers taken out by his order proportionately out of each
company in Boston, armed with pike and musketeer with powder
and bullet, to lead them to the place of execution, and there
see them hang till they be dead, and in their going, being
there, and return, to see all things be carried out peaceably
and orderly. Warrants issued out accordingly. 

Whereas Mary Dyer is condemned by the General Court to be
executed for her offence, on the petition 

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of William Dier, her son, it is ordered that the said Mary
Dyer shall have liberty for 48 hours after this day to depart
out of this jurisdiction, after which time, being found
therein, she is forthwith to be executed, and in the meantime
that she be kept a close prisoner till her son or some other
be ready to carry her away within the aforesaid time, and it
is further ordered that she shall be carried to the place of
execution, there to stand with a rope about her neck till the
rest be executed, and then returned to the prison and remain
as aforesaid. 

Oct. 18, 1659. (Page 390.) It is ordered that there shall be a
sufficient fence erected about the common prison in Boston,
and house of correction, such as may debar persons from
conversing with the prisoners, and the charge thereof to be
borne half by the county of Suffolk, and the other half by the
country; that the treasurer of the county of Suffolk see the
same effected. 

Oct. 18, 1659. (Page 391.) Whereas Christopher Holder, a
Quaker, hath suffered what the law formerly appointed, after
being sent to England without punishment, presumptuously
coming into this jurisdiction without leave first obtained,
the Court judgeth it meete to sentence him to banishment on
pain of death; in case he be found within this jurisdiction
three days after the next ship now bound from hence to England
be departed from this harbor, and between this and the ship's
departure, with the keeper at his own charge, he shall have
liberty one day in a week to go about his business, and in
case he shall 

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choose to go out of this jurisdiction sooner on the penalty
aforesaid, he shall by order from the Governor or Deputy
Governor be discharged the prison, so as he stay not above
three days after his discharge from the prison in this
jurisdiction. 

Oct. 16, 1660. (Page 432.) For explication of the law or laws
referring to the manner of trial of such persons as are found
in this jurisdiction after banishment on pain of death, this
Court doth judge meete to declare that when any person or
persons banished on pain of death shall, after the expiration
of their time limited for departure, be found within the
limits of this jurisdiction, all Magistrates, Commissioners,
Constables and other officers of this jurisdiction, do use
their best endeavors for their apprehension and conveying to
safe custody, and being there secured, such person or persons
shall at the next Court of assistance, whether in ordinary or
specially called, according to direction of the law for
calling of such Courts, have a legal trial by a jury of twelve
men, and being found by evidence of their own confession to be
the person or persons formerly sentenced to banishment on pain
of death, shall accordingly be sentenced to death and executed
by warrant from the Governor or Deputy Governor, directed to
the Marshall General, unless they be regularly reprieved in
the mean time. 

There being some women Quakers now in prison liable to
sentence of banishment, whose husbands are innocent persons in
that respect as far as we know, and are inhabitants in this
jurisdiction, this Court 

Page 24

doth order that the said women, named Margaret Smith and Mary
Trask, be committed to the house of correction and there kept
to constant labor and mean diet, according to the order of
said house, until this Court release them, and that the
sentence of banishment upon the said persons be suspended, any
law to the contrary notwithstanding, unless their husbands
shall choose to carry them out of this jurisdiction, and not
return without leave first obtained. 

In answer to a motion of the Quakers now in prison that they
may have their liberty to go for England, the Court judgeth it
meete to declare that all the Quakers now in prison shall
forthwith have their liberty to go for England in this ship
now bound thither if they will, and for such as will not go
for England, shall have liberty to depart this jurisdiction
within eight days, as they solemnly engage under their hands
delivered by them to the Governor or Deputy Governor, that
they will not return into this jurisdiction without leave from
the Council or General Court first by them obtained. 

Whereas Joseph Nicholson and Jane his wife, being two Quakers
banished this jurisdiction upon pain of death, and returning
some time since into this jurisdiction, were called before the
Court, where manifesting their desire to go for England the
Court granted liberty to the aforesaid persons for three days
to depart this jurisdiction either for England or elsewhere,
the said persons accordingly repairing to the ship then bound
for England, but by reason of its fullness of the ships lading
could not obtain their passage, 

Page 25

and on their return tendering themselves to the Governor to be
secured in prison until they may get passage for England,
another ship being bound for England the undertakers whereof
being willing to transport the said persons, the Court grants
the said persons liberty to pass for England by the next
opportunity, and in the interim to be secured in prison, any
law to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The court understanding that several inhabitants of this
jurisdiction have lodged the Quakers now in prison, do order
that the secretary issue out a warrant to the several persons
and send the same by messenger of purpose to bring them all
with speed to this Court to answer to their offence therein. 

May 30, 1660. (Page 419.) The whole court met together, sent
for Mary Dyer, who rebelliously after sentence of death passed
against her, returned into this jurisdiction; being come
before the court she acknowledged herself to be Mary Dyer, the
person, and was condemned by this court to death. Being asked
what she had to say why that sentence of death should not be
executed, she gave no other answer but that she denied our
law, came to bear witness against it and could not choose but
come and do as formerly. The whole Court met together, voted
that the said Mary Dyer, for her rebelliously returning into
this jurisdiction (notwithstanding the favor of this court
towards her), shall be by the Marshall General on the first
day of June, about nine of the clock in the morning, carried
to the place of execution and according to the sentence of the
General 

Page 26

Court in October last, be put to death. That the secretary
issue out warrant accordingly, which sentence the Governor
declared to her in open Court, and warrant issued out
accordingly to Edward Michelson, Marshall General, and to
Captain James Oliver and his order as formerly. 

May 30, 1660. (Page 419.) Whereas Joseph Nicholson and Jane
his wife, Quakers, formerly banished this jurisdiction on pain
of death (and being contrary to the sentence of the court,
found within the same), were apprehended and committed to
prison; this court having called the said Joseph and Jane his
wife before them and examined them on grounds of their not
departure, do judge meet so far to declare their farther
clemency as yet to give them respite on penalty of their
former sentence, to depart this jurisdiction by the next
fourth day, and if they or either of them after that day shall
be found in any part of the same, they shall again be
apprehended by any magistrate, commissioner or constable or
other person and brought to the prison at Boston, where they
shall be kept close prisoners and being legally convicted
thereof, shall be put to death. 

It is ordered that the Quakers now in prison shall there
remain until the next Court of assistance and then they shall
be tried by a jury accordingly as the law provides in that
case. 

Oct. 8, 1662. (Page 59.) This court heretofore for some
reasons inducing did judge meete to suspend the laws against
Quakers as such, so far as they respect corporal punishment or
death, during 

Page 27

the Court's pleasure. Now forasmuch as new complaints are made
to this Court of such persons abounding, especially in the
eastern part, endeavoring to draw away others to that wicked
opinion, it is therefore ordered that the last law "title
Vagabond Quakers, 1661," be henceforth in force in all
respects, provided their whipping be but through three towns,
and the Magistrate or Commissioners signing such warrant shall
appoint the towns and number of stripes in EACH to be given. 

Oct. 21, 1663. (Page 88.) Whereas it is found by experience
that there are many who are inhabitants of this jurisdiction
which are enemies of all governments, Civil and
Ecclesiastical, who will not yield obedience to authority, but
make it much of their religion to be in opposition thereto and
refuse to bear arms under others, who notwithstanding combine
together in some towns and make parties suitable to their
designs in election of such persons according to their ends,
it is therefore ordered by this Court and the authority
thereof, that all persons, Quakers, or others who refuse to
attend upon the public worship of God established here, that
all such persons whether freemen or others acting as aforesaid
shall and hereby are made incapable of voting in all civil
assemblies, during their obstinate persisting in such wicked
ways and courses, and until certificate be given of their
reformation; and it is further ordered that all those fines
and mulcts of any such delinquent as aforesaid which are not
gathered nor paid to the several treasurers of the Counties,
as also what fines shall be 

Page 28

laid on them for the future, shall be delivered by the order
of the County treasurers respectively to the selectmen of the
several towns whereunto they belong, to be by them improved
for the poor of the town. 

A REVIEW OF THE PAST FROM THE QUAKER 
STAND-POINT. 
Salem, Mass., 9 mo. 30th, 1878. 
To the editors of the Observer:-- 
MY DEAR FRIENDS:--Please allow me, through the columns of thy
paper, to present a few facts and reflections brought to mind
as I have read, with interest, the report of the exercises in
Mechanic Hall, 9 mo. 18th, to commemorate the landing of Gov.
Endicott upon our New England coast in the seventeenth
century. With much, of course, both of the letter and the
spirit of those exercises I am in warm sympathy, but I have
been led to see clearly that they present to the public,
facts, solemn historical facts, in a somewhat one-sided
manner. In simple justice to the present and rising
generations, it seems to me that more of the truth, the whole
truth, in the case should be stated. Had the scenes of
violence and intolerance which marred the annals of the early
days of this colony, transpired but ten or twenty years ago,
we should consider our Christian faith and dignity and charity
not a little compromised, if we came together to celebrate
them with song and oration and feast; why should the interval
of two hundred and 

Page 29

fifty years that has elapsed make us to feel so very
differently in the matter? Why not with equal propriety, push
this matter of historical research and commemoration yet a
little further; perchance we should find a line of descent
with some unimportant breaks, running away back, through the
years, as far as the founders of the Spanish inquisition. 

Now about this time, there were in different parts of England,
some ten thousand Quakers, taken from their homes, their
vocations, and their meeting-houses, and placed in jails,
prisons--honest, industrious, inoffensive and God-fearing
people. Many of the prisons were vile and filthy places;
oft-times they were placed in the same apartments among
murderers and criminals of the lowest order, and numbers of
the prisoners died during their incarceration from disease
contracted, some being thus shut up for years. 

William Penn was about this time committed to Newgate, and in
response to Sir John Robinson, who sentenced him and accused
him of sedition, he said:-- 

"We (Friends) have the unhappiness to be misrepresented. But
bring me the man that will dare to justify this accusation to
my face, and if I am not able to make it appear that it is
both my practice and that of all the Friends to instill
principles of peace on all occasions, (and war only against
spiritual wickedness, that all men may be brought to fear God
and work righteousness) I shall contentedly undergo the
severest punishment your laws can expose me to. As for the
King, I make this offer, if any 

Page 30

one living can make appear directly or indirectly from the
time I have been called a Quaker (since it is from thence you
date my sedition) I have contrived or acted anything injurious
to his person, or to the English government, I shall submit my
person to your utmost cruelties. But it is hard that being
innocent I should be reputed guilty." 

Robinson said to him:--"You bring yourself into trouble,
heading parties and drawing people after you." Penn
responded:--"I would have thee and all men know I scorn that
religion which is not worth suffering for, and which is not
able to sustain those who are afflicted for it. Mine is, and
whatever be my lot I am resigned to the will of God. Thy
religion persecutes, mine forgives, and I desire that God may
forgive you all that are concerned in my commitment. I leave
you, wishing you everlasting salvation." Well, it was natural
amid such surroundings and trials that some should be led to
leave their native country and seek an asylum in our then
wilderness colony. Endicott now had the opportunity to play
the part of a hero and a true Christian; but no, he chose
rather to be a tyrant and a persecutor; whippings,
imprisonment and death here awaited the coming of the poor,
down-trodden Quaker. He had them publicly lashed, confined in
jails, and three were hung on Boston Common. Between Penn and
Endicott it was not so much a question of time, of education,
of generation, (for they both figured in the same century,) as
of obedience to the Light; the former followed and obeyed, the
latter trampled it 

Page 31

under foot. And surely these must be rated as days of
religious declension when high functionaries in church and
state could so far come to "believe a lie," as to give their
countenance and their aid to the perpetration and the
consummation of the follies, the horrors, and the crimes of
the witchcraft delusion. 

The names of the three victims mentioned above were William
Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mary Dyer. William Ledra
was also executed later, in another place. Mary Dyer is
described as "a person of no mean extract and parentage, of an
estate pretty plentiful, of a comely stature and countenance,
of a piercing knowledge in many things, of a wonderful sweet
and pleasant discourse, fit for great affairs." She was a
minister in the society, as were also the other two. Nicholas
Upsal, notwithstanding the infirmities of old age, was exiled
from Boston in the winter of 1656. "He had ventured to
remonstrate with the rulers of Massachusetts, on their passing
a law for the banishment of 'that cursed sect of heretics
lately risen up in the world, commonly called Quakers,' and
prohibiting all commanders of ships, under penalty of a heavy
fine, from bringing them into that jurisdiction. Leaving his
wife and children and the colony in which long before he had
taken refuge from persecution at home, the old man at length
reached Rhode Island. Although during many years he had taken
deep interest in the particular Puritan congregation of which
he was a member, he had found that forms and ceremonies could
not satisfy his soul, and on hearing the views maintained by
Friends he was "much refreshed." 

Page 32

Rhode Island had, with the assistance of Roger Williams, been
purchased by the new sect of Narragansett Indians, and
immediately these faithful reformers illustrated their
forgiving spirit and true philanthropy by enacting that "none
should be accounted a delinquent for doctrine." But no
Puritanical power, no human hand, was strong enough to
suppress the heaven-implanted and divinely directed zeal of
the Friends to share their spiritual treasure with others.
About this time six of those who had been driven from Boston
the previous year believed that the Lord was calling them
thither again, and were assured that He would give them grace
to endure any suffering they might have to pass through." 

In the summer of 1657, eleven Quakers came to America from
England in a little craft called the "Wood house." Their names
were Humphrey Norton, Robert Hodshon, Dorothy Waugh,
Christopher Holder, William Brend, John Copeland, Richard
Doudney, Mary Weatherhead, Sarah Gibbons, Mary Clarke. The
master of the ship, Robert Fowler, was also a Friend; five of
them landed at New York while the remaining six went on to
Rhode Island; others came from time to time. Soon after their
arrival John Copeland says in a letter to his parents: 

"Take no thought for me. The Lord's power hath overshadowed
me, and man I do not fear; for my trust is in the Lord who is
become our shield and buckler, and exceeding great reward."
Thus did God prepare His youthful servant to suffer for His
sake. A few weeks later, Christopher Holder and 

Page 33

himself were lying in Boston gaol, without bedding or even
straw, lacerated from the effect of thirty lashes barbarously
inflicted with a knotted scourge. For three days the gaoler
refused to supply them with food or water, but they were
sustained by their Saviour, and enabled to rejoice in His
manifested love. Being accused as "blasphemers, heretics and
deceivers," they issued a declaration of faith, containing the
following sentences:-- 

"In Him do we believe, who is the only begotten Son of the
Father, full of grace and truth. And in Him do we trust alone
for salvation; by whose blood we are washed from sin; through
whom we have access to the Father with boldness, being
justified by faith in believing in His name. Who has sent
forth the Holy Ghost, to wit, the Spirit of Truth, that
proceedeth from the Father and the Son; by which we are sealed
and adopted sons and heirs of the kingdom of Heaven. 

Believe in the Light, that you may be the children of the
light; for as you love it and obey it, it will lead you to
repentance, bring you to know Him in whom is remission of
sins, in whom God is well pleased; who will give you an
entrance into the kingdom of God, an inheritance amongst them
that are sanctified." But the Governors would not allow any
such assertion to alter their opinion that Quakerism was a
dangerous heresy, and terribly rigorous as was the law against
its promulgators it was not sufficiently so to satisfy them;
for Endicott and Bellingham gave orders that all the Friends
then in prison 

Page 34

should be severely whipped twice a week. But the humanity of
the inhabitants of Boston revolted at this decree, and the
sympathy thus aroused led to the release of the sufferers, who
were at once banished from the colony. Soon afterwards, John
Copeland and his friend, William Brend, were sentenced to a
severe scourging while passing through New Plymouth. The age
of the latter awoke no compassion in the hearts of the
persecutors. The following year after holding several meetings
with William Ledra of Barbadoes, he was imprisoned at Boston,
and received such brutal beatings, inflicted with a pitched
rope, by a gaoler who had previously kept him without food for
five days, and most cruelly fettered him for many hours, that
he appeared to be dying; Endicott being alarmed at this, sent
a physician to him, who thought his recovery impossible. But
the hand of an unseen Healer was laid on him, and he must have
been at least ninety when, eighteen years later, the following
burial note was made out:--"William Brend, of the Liberty of
Katherine's, near the Tower, a minister, died Seventh mo.,
Seventh, 1676, and was buried at Bunhill Fields." Before
returning to England he labored in Rhode Island and the West
Indies. In 1662 he was one of the many hundred Friends
confined in Newgate, fifty-two of whom died in consequence of
diseases caused by the loathsome state of that prison. We may
form some idea of the heavenly consolation granted to this
venerable pilgrim in his hour of need, by his beautiful
"salutation of all Friends," from which a brief extract
follows:--"It 

Page 35

hath been upon my heart, when in the sweet repose of the
streams of my Father's love and life, by which my heart hath
been overcome, to visit you with a loving salutation from the
place of my outward bonds." After bidding them "flock together
into our Father's fold, to get into His tent of safety, and
lie down in the arms of His dear love," &c., he adds: "Oh, in
the love and life of the Lamb, look over all weakness in one
another, as God doth look over all the weakness in every one
of us, and doth love us for his own Son's sake--in so doing
peace will abound in our borders, it will flow forth amongst
us like a river, and it will keep out jars, strifes and
contentions." 

As the Governors of Massachusetts were regardless of old age,
so were they of the weakness of women. We read of the
astonishment of the people of Boston at hearing Sarah Gibbons
and her young friend, Dorothy Waugh, offering praise and
thanksgiving for the gracious support granted them during a
cruel scourging, three days before and three days after which
they were kept without food. A little later, Endicott
sentenced Hored Gardner, of Rhode Island, to the punishment of
the knotted scourge. She had left her home at Newport, from
the belief that her Lord had called her to labor for Him at
Weymouth, in Massachusetts, where her ministry was cordially
received. The maid who had accompanied her on this perilous
journey, to assist in taking charge of her infant, was the
victim of a similar sentence, and the only protection granted
the baby was that 

Page 36

afforded by its mother's arms, who, when the executioner
stayed his hand, prayed that her persecutors might be
forgiven, because "they knew not what they did." At a later
date, Alice Ambros, Mary Tomkins, and Ann Coleman, who was
apparently young, and in delicate health, were sentenced to be
whipped through eleven towns, covering a distance of nearly
eighty miles. Although they were themselves enabled to praise
the Lord for the marvellous help He granted them, the sight of
their "torn bodies and weary steps" in the third town through
which they passed, excited so much pity that one of the
inhabitants induced the constable to commit the prisoners and
the warrant to his care, and at once set them at liberty.
Taking advantage of their unlookedfor release they went to New
Quechawanah, where they had a meeting. Subsequently it was for
a time feared that Ann Coleman would die from the effect of
other barbarous scourgings. To George Fox she writes: "Oh the
love of the Lord, who hath kept His handmaid that put her
trust in Him; what shall I say unto thee of the love of my
Father; none can make me afraid; much service for the Lord in
this land, and it hath not been in vain, and so, let thy
prayers be unto the Lord for me. In that life and love which
is unchangeable art thou near me." Good cause indeed had that
patient historian, Sewel, for exclaiming:--"but when should I
have done, if I would describe all the whippings inflicted on
Quakers in those parts!" Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh, soon
after leaving Boston, returned to Rhode 

Page 37

Island, where they had previously been engaged in religious
service, and we now find their names associated with that of
Mary Dyer. About this time Humphrey Norton was finding a short
respite from persecution in the same colony. A few months
earlier his ministerial labors had been interrupted by an
imprisonment at New Haven, Conn., where his right hand was
deeply branded with the letter H, as a sign that he was a
condemned heretic, and he was flogged in such a manner as to
make some from the crowd, gathered by the beat of drum,
exclaim, "do they mean to kill the man?" But He, who of old
caused His children to receive "no hurt" in the midst of the
seven times heated furnace, wonderfully upheld him in this
hour of extremest need, for he states that his "body was as if
it had been covered with balm." Much did the people marvel
when, at the conclusion of the infliction, he raised his voice
in thanksgiving and prayer. Not long after, Humphrey Norton
received another scourging in New Plymouth. His rest in Rhode
Island was a very short one, for he soon thought it right to
go to Boston in company with a young Friend, named John Rous,
who had previously been his associate in service, and
sometimes in suffering, for their Lord. He was the son of
Lieutenant Colonel Rous, a wealthy sugar planter of Barbadoes,
who afterwards became a Friend, having, it is said, been much
impressed by the ministry of his son. When Humphrey Norton
told John Rous that sleep had fled from him because of the
sorrow occasioned by a "sense of the strength of the enmity
against the 

Page 38

righteous seed" in Boston, he also felt that he must bear a
part "with the prisoners of hope, which at that time stood
bound for the testimony of Jesus." Longing to lose no time,
they travelled night and day, and on their arrival at Boston
were told of the state in which William Brend then lay from
the effect of the gaoler's cruelty, and were begged by their
informant to leave the town, or they would be "dead men." But
they were bound on a holy mission, from which no human power
could turn them aside. "Such was our load," says Humphrey
Norton, "that beside Him who laid it upon us, no flesh nor
place could ease us." And a few hours later we find him, at
the conclusion of the usual lecture of John Norton, a minister
who notoriously instigated persecution, beginning an address
in these words: "Verily this is the sacrifice which the Lord
accepts not; for, whilst with the same spirit that you sin,
you preach and pray and sing, that sacrifice is an
abomination." 

Although a charge of blasphemy could not be proved against
him, there was no doubt that his companion and himself were
guilty of being Quakers, and as such they were sentenced to
imprisonment and whipping. The former, as the son of
Lieutenant Colonel Rous, who had formerly resided in the
colony, was at first courteously treated by the magistrates,
who hoped they might induce this young champion of the Cross
to cast aside "the heresy" he was upholding. But,
notwithstanding their flattery, he steadfastly maintained his
ground, vindicated the doctrines which he had adopted, and, as
an English 

Page 39

citizen, claimed the right of a trial in an English Court. But
the Governors, well knowing what an alarming exposure of their
conduct towards Friends would be involved by this, would not
hear of such a course. "No appeal to England! No appeal to
England!" was their cry. Three days later the prisoners
underwent the flogging to which they had been condemned; but
when this punishment was soon renewed, the public indignation,
already aroused by the treatment of William Brend, became so
strong that it soon led to the liberation of the prisoners. In
the midst of all afflictions the Friends were aided by the
belief that their labors and sufferings were not in vain in
the Lord. In a letter to Margaret Fell, John Rous says: "A
firm foundation is there laid in this land, such a one as the
devil will never get broken up." He writes, when again in
Boston prison, where, about a fortnight later, he and his
companions, John Copeland and Christopher Holder, underwent
the mutilation of having the right ear cut off. Shall we
shrink from reading their sufferings when we see the spirit
with which they were enabled to endure them? "In the strength
of God," is their language, "we suffered joyfully, having
freely given up not one member, but all, if the Lord so
required, for the sealing of our testimony, which the Lord
hath given us;" words which may recall those of Brainerd with
regard to his prayers for his brother and himself--"My heart
sweetly exulted in the thought of any distresses that might
light on him or me, in the advancement of Christ's kingdom
upon earth." 

Page 40

So on, and on, and on, runs the record of the inhuman cruelty
of these early magistrates, a record which was most carefully
avoided at the proceedings of the late celebration; but I
hasten on to conclude the narration:-- 

Early in 1659, William Robinson, who had been preaching in
Virginia, where his ministry was much blest, and Marmaduke
Stevenson, who had lately come from Barbadoes, felt required
of the Lord to go to Boston; the former receiving a clear
revelation that his life would be taken, he writes: "Obedience
was demanded of me by the Lord, who filled me with living
strength and power from His heavenly presence which at that
time did mightily overshadow me, and my life did say amen to
what the Lord required of me." The two young ministers arrived
at Boston on one of the public fast days, and were soon
arrested. Like the apostles of old they tarried or they
journeyed as they were restrained or constrained by the Spirit
of the Lord. In a letter to George Fox from Boston gaol, Wm.
Robinson writes: "Oh! my dearly beloved, thou who art endued
with power from on High, who art of a quick discerning in the
fear of God; oh, remember us--let thy prayers be put up unto
the Lord God for us, that His power and strength may rest with
us and upon us, that faithful we may be preserved to the end.
Amen. 

Soon the aged Mary Dyer arrived at Boston, constrained to
carry comfort and cheer to her captive fellow-believers there,
and was shortly imprisoned also. A Friend, writing with
reference to their 

Page 41

preaching before imprisonment, says:--"Divers were convinced,
the power of the Lord accompanying them, and with astonishment
confounded their enemies before them; great was their service
abroad in that jurisdiction for four weeks and upwards." Being
brought before the Governor, Wm. Robinson asked leave to read
an explanation which he had prepared: --"After describing the
heavenly intimation he had received that it was God's will
that he should lay down his life for the cause of Christ, he
writes: I, being a child, durst not question the Lord in the
least, and as the Lord made me willing, dealing gently and
kindly with me as a tender father by a faithful child whom he
tenderly loves, so the Lord did deal with me in ministering
his life unto me, which gave and gives me strength to perform
what the Lord required of me. Therefore all who are ignorant
of the motion of the Lord in the inward parts be not hasty in
judging in this matter. The presence of the Lord and his
heavenly life doth ??ccompany me so that I can say in truth,
Blessed be the Lord God of my life who hath counted me worthy
and called me hereunto. Will ye put us to death for obeying
the Lord, the God of the whole earth?" 

Endicott took up this document, and after reading it
pronounced sentence of death on its writer. A few days before
his execution, in an epistle addressed "to the Lord's people,"
Wm. Robinson says: "The streams of my Father's love run daily
through me, from the Holy Fountain of life to the seed
throughout the whole relation. I am overcome with love, 

Page 42

for it is my life and length of days; it is my glory and my
daily strength. I am full of the quickening power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I shall enter with my Beloved into eternal rest
and peace, and I shall depart with everlasting joy in my heart
and praises in my mouth." 

After Marmaduke Stevenson had received his sentence, he
solemnly addressed the magistrates, concluding with these
words: "Assuredly if you put us to death you will bring
innocent blood upon your own heads, and swift destruction will
come upon you." It is a remarkable fact that many of these
persecutors came to an untimely end, or were visited by severe
personal calamities which resulted in death. "The hand or
judgment of the Lord is upon me," were the words of John
Norton, who, whilst walking in his own house, leant his head
against a chimney piece and sank down never to speak again.
And Major General Adderton, who had scoffingly said "the
judgements of the Lord God are not come upon us yet," was
overtaken by a sudden and shocking death. 

During his imprisonment, Marmaduke Stevenson wrote his "Call
to the Work and Service of the Lord," and not losing sight of
his old friends he prepared an address to his "neighbors and
the people of the town of Shiptown, Weighton and elsewhere." A
few days before his execution he wrote a letter "to the Lord's
people" from which the following extracts are taken: 

"Lambs of my Father's fold and sheep of His pasture, the
remembrance of you is precious to me, 

Page 43

my dearly beloved ones--who are reconciled to God, and one to
another, in that which sea and land cannot separate; here you
may feel me knit and joined to you in the spirit of truth, and
linked to you as members of His body, who is our Head and Rock
of sure defence; here we are kept safe in the hour of
temptation, and in the day of trial shall we be preserved in
the hollow of His hand; here His banner of love will be over
us .... So, my dear friends, let us always wait at the altar
of the Lord, to see the table spread, that so we may sit down
and eat together, and be refreshed with the hidden manna that
comes from Him who is our life, our peace, our strength and
our preserver, night and day. Oh, my beloved ones! let us all
go on in His strength, who is our Prince and Saviour .... If I
forget you, then let the Lord forget me. Nay, verily you
cannot be forgotten by me; so long as I abide in the Vine I am
a branch of the same nature with you, which the Lord hath
blessed; we grow together in His life and image, as ??embers
of His body, where we shall live together to all eternity." 

After Mary Dyer had heard her sentence she only replied by the
significant words, "The will of the Lord be done." And when
Endicott impatiently exclaimed "Take her away, Marshal," she
added, "Yea, joyfully I go;" for her heart was filled with
heavenly consolation from the love of Christ, and from the
thought that she was counted worthy to suffer for His sake.
She told the marshal that it was unnecessary for him to guard
her to the prison. "I 

Page 44

believe you, Mrs. Dyer," he answered, "but I must do as I am
commanded." From the House of Correction she addressed "An
appeal to the Rulers of Boston," in which she asks nothing for
herself, but manifests--as an anonymous writer remarks--"the
courage of an apostle contending for the truth, and the
tenderness of a woman feeling for the sufferings of her
people." She writes: "I have no self ends, the Lord knoweth;
for if my life were freely granted by you, it would not avail
me, so long as I should daily hear or see the sufferings of my
dear brethren." It is said that on the day preceding that
appointed for the execution, Mary Dyer's oldest son arrived at
Boston, and was allowed to remain all night with his mother.
He came in the vain hope of inducing her to make such
concessions as might be the means of saving her life. 

The erection of gallows on Boston Common for these guiltless
victims awakened such strong feelings of amazement and
indignation amongst the inhabitants, as to give alarm to the
magistrates. On the morning of the day appointed for the
execution a great number of people gathered round the prison,
and gave earnest attention to William Robinson, who addressed
them from an open window of an upper room. But the rulers, who
always studiously endeavored to prevent the Friends from
holding intercourse with the colonists, were afraid for the
crowd to listen, at this crisis, to Quaker preaching, and
accordingly sent a military captain to disperse them. Finding
this impracticable, he entered the gaol in a 

Page 45

violent passion, and hurling some of the prisoners down
stairs, shut them into a low, dark cell. One of this little
company writes: "As we sat together waiting upon the Lord, it
was a time of love, for as the world hated us, so the Lord was
pleased in a wonderful manner to manifest His supporting love,
and kindness to us in our innocent sufferings; especially to
the worthies who had now finished their course .... God was
with them, and many sweet and heavenly sayings they gave unto
us, being themselves filled with comfort. While we were yet
embracing each other, with full and tender hearts, the
officers came in and took the two from us (Robinson and
Stevenson) as sheep for the slaughter." 

Boston Common was separated by the distance of a mile from the
gaol, and the prisoners were escorted by two hundred men,
armed with halberds, guns, swords and pikes--in addition to
many horsemen. It was thought the safest arrangement for this
procession to avoid the direct thoroughfare through the city,
and the drummers were ordered immediately before the three
captives, and to beat more loudly if they should attempt to
speak. Thus when William Robinson did so, the only words which
were audible were, "This is your hour, and the power of
darkness." Marmaduke Stevenson's voice was drowned by the same
means. "Yet they went on," as Sewel says, "with great
cheerfulness, as if going to an everlasting wedding"--which
indeed they were. In reply to a coarse taunt from the marshal,
Mary Dyer said: "This is to me an hour of the greatest joy I
ever had 


Page 46

in this world. No ear can hear, no tongue can utter, no heart
can understand, the sweet incomes and the refreshings of the
spirit of the Lord which I now feel." Having bade farewell to
his friends and mounted the scaffold, William Robinson
addressed the assembled crowd: "We suffer not as evil doers,
but as those who have testified and manifested the Truth. This
is the day of your visitation, and therefore I desire you to
mind the light of Christ which is in you, to which I have
borne testimony and am now going to seal my testimony with my
blood." Wilson, a minister of the city, changing the scoffing
tone he had assumed whilst they were walking to the Common,
now exclaimed--"Hold thy tongue; be silent; thou art going to
die with a lie in thy mouth." After the executioner had
adjusted the rope, William Robinson said, "Now are ye made
manifest; I suffer for Christ in whom I live and for whom I
die." Marmaduke Stevenson also spoke a few words to the
spectators: "Be it known unto you all this day, that we
suffer, not as evil doers, but for conscience sake. This day
shall we all be at rest with the Lord." 

The friends of the martyrs were not allowed to provide coffins
for them, nor even to enclose the pit into which the bodies
were thrown. Wilson, the minister to whom allusion has already
been made, composed a scoffing song on the sufferers. But no
amount of indignity which might be heaped upon them could
prevent their death from being a solemn attestation to the
futility of every effort of a blind bigotry to crush the
conscience of those who, bearing 

Page 47

the image and superscription of Christ, rendered unto God the
things that are God's and consequently with regard to these
"things" acknowledged no ruler but him in whose kingdom their
spirits dwelt. So deep an impression was made on John
Chamberlain, an inhabitant of Boston, by what he saw and heard
that day, as to cause his convincement of the truth of the
doctrines held by Friends; before two years were over he had
been imprisoned, banished, and also cruelly whipped through
three towns; yet his Saviour suffered not his faith to fail,
for we learn that this persecution "so far from beating him
from the truth rather drove him nearer to it." 

After Mary Dyer had ascended the ladder, she was told that if
she would return home her life should be spared. "Nay," she
answered, "I cannot; for in obedience to the will of the Lord
I came, and in his will I abide faithful unto death." To the
charge of being guilty of her own blood, she replied: "Nay, I
came to take blood guiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal
the unrighteous and unjust law; therefore my blood will be
required of your hands who wilfully do it." When asked if she
wished any of the people to pray for her she said that she
desired the prayers of all the people of God; and to the
proposal that an Elder should do so, she answered: "Nay--first
a child, then a young man, then a strong man, before (being)
an Elder in Christ Jesus." When accused of having said she had
been in Paradise, she replied without hesitation, "Yea, I have
been in Paradise these several days." The few more words she
spoke 

Page 48

were on the everlasting happiness now so near at hand. A
Friend, who had united in her ministerial services on Shelter
Island, sums up his description of her by saying: "She even
shined in the image of God." 

Some eight or nine months later, Wm. Ledra, who is said to
have been a Cornishman, though his home was in Barbadoes, was
condemned to death for having returned to Boston after
sentence of banishment. When in 1658, after mutual labors for
their Lord, he had shared the imprisonment of his friend
William Brend in an unventilated cell--the cruelty of which he
had been the victim had imperilled his life; and now,
notwithstanding the inclemency of a New England winter, he was
kept chained in an open prison. On the day before his death he
addressed a letter to "the little flock of Christ" in which he
remarks that he was filled "with the joy of the Lord in the
beauty of holiness, whilst his spirit was wholly swallowed up
in the bosom of eternity. As the flowing of the ocean (he
continues) doth fill every creek and branch thereof, and then
retires again towards its own being and fulness, and leaves a
savour behind it; so doth the life and virtue of God flow into
every one of your hearts, whom he hath made partakers of His
Divine nature." Alluding to his tender yearnings for the young
he says: "Stand in the watch within in the fear of the Lord,
which is the very entrance of wisdom and the state wherein you
are ready to receive the secrets of the Lord. Hunger and
thirst patiently, be not weary, neither doubt; stand 

Page 49

still and cease from thy own workings, and in due time thou
shalt enter into rest and thy eyes shall behold His salvation.
Confess Him before men; bring all things to the light that
they may be proved whether they are wrought in God. Without
grace possessed there is no assurance of salvation. By grace
you are saved." The following day the fetters which had so
long bound him were knocked off, and we are told that he went
"forth to the slaughter in the meekness of the Spirit of
Jesus." He was surrounded by soldiers in order to prevent
intercourse with his friends; but before mounting the scaffold
he exhorted one of them to faithfulness, and on bidding him
farewell added, "all that will be Christ's disciples must take
up His cross." A visitor to the city, from England, who
witnessed this scene, having asked leave to speak, said:
"Gentlemen, I am a stranger both to your persons and country,
yet a friend of both. For the Lord's sake take not away the
man's life, but remember Gamaliel's counsel to the Jews: 'If
it be of men it will come to nought; but if it be of God ye
cannot overthrow it; be careful ye are not found fighters
against God.'" This courageous stranger also told them that
they had "no warrant from the word of God, nor precedent from
our country, nor power from His Majesty to hang the man." 

William Ledra's last words were, "I commend my righteous cause
unto Thee, O God! Lord Jesus receive my spirit." A few weeks
before his death he wrote the following testimony to the
willingness of God to supply all the need of his faithful
followers:--"I 

Page 50

testify in the fear of the Lord God that the noise of the whip
on my back, all the imprisonments, and the loud threatning of
a halter, did no more affright me, through the strength and
power of God, than if they had threatened to have bound a
spider's web on my finger--which makes me say with unfeigned
lips, wait upon the Lord O my soul!" Like Josiah Southwick of
Salem, he might have said, "Tongue cannot express the goodness
and love of God to his suffering people." "Here is my body"
were the words of the latter when sentenced to a severe
scourging, "if you want a further testimony to the truth I
profess, take it and tear it in pieces; your sentence is no
more terrifying to me than if you had taken a feather and
blown it in the air." 

On the day of William Ledra's execution, Wenlock Christison,
of Salem, was placed at the bar; he also had experienced, as
Milton says, of those days that 

"Heavy persecution shall arise 
On all, who in the worship persevere 
Of spirit and truth." 

Although exiled on pain of death, he had reappeared at Boston
and caused such consternation by entering the court just as
sentence of death was being pronounced on his friend, as to
cause perfect silence for a while. When now in his turn
condemned to die, he said, "The will of the Lord be done. If
you have power to take my life from me the which I question, I
believe you shall never more take Quaker's lives from them.
Note my words." 

Page 51

Just at this crisis the rulers of Massachusetts received
tidings from England which caused a sudden change in their
conduct; for on the day preceding that which had been fixed on
for the execution of Wenlock Christison, he and twenty-seven
other Friends were set at liberty; and after two of them had
been whipped through the town they were taken by a body of
soldiers out of the jurisdiction. Would it not be a false
refinement of feeling to be unwilling to contemplate the
sufferings which, not young and strong men only, but tender
and delicate women were enabled to endure for Christ?
Moreover, is there not instruction for us in this:-- 

"Mournful record of an earlier age, 
That pale and half effaced lies hidden away 
Beneath the fresher writing of to-day." 

"Thou shalt lose thy life and find it, 
Thou shalt boldly cast it forth; 
And then back again receiving, 
Know it in its endless worth." 

And here I close my recital of Puritan barbarities, a
designation which in truth and justice I feel to apply--a
record of cruelty which for atrocity has probably never been
exceeded on the American continent; except possibly in the
cases of Andersonville horrors during the late war, and the
brutal practices of slave masters under the old slave-holding
oligarchy. 

Compare now for a moment the early days of Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania.--Here was strife, contention and constant
affright from Indian alarms; there, Penn arrived in 1682 and
made his famous 

Page 52

treaty with the Indians, in the which they pledged themselves
in their strong, quaint language "to live in love with Onas,
(Penn) and his children as long as the sun and moon shall
endure." I quote from Penn's biography: "When the account of
this treaty reached Europe most of her politicians awaited
with sneering smiles the consummation they expected to follow.
Going among the cruel Indian savages without arms, and
pledging themselves never to use violence towards them! What
folly! What madness!" But they waited and watched long, and
still no violence or bloodshed ensued. Whilst the surrounding
colonists were ever and anon at war with the Indians, and the
scalping-knife and tomahawk brought death and terror to many a
hearth, the Quakers of Pensylvania and all their possessions
remained uninjured. 

Safe that quiet Eden lay, 
When the war-whoop stirred the land; 
Thence the Indian turned away 
From their homes his bloody hand. 

"He remembered the treaty with the sons of Onas and kept it
inviolate." The Friends of Pennsylvania on their side acted
truthfully and honestly towards the red men; and the Indian
people, even when at war with other English colonies, and when
the original parties to the treaty had died off, regarded the
lives and property of the children of Onas as sacred. Such was
the treaty of peace and amity of which Voltaire remarked that
"it was the only one ever made without an oath, and the only
one that never was broken." Whittier writes:-- 

Page 53

"The Quaker of the olden time ! 
So calm, and firm, and true, 
Unspotted by its wrong and crime, 
He walked the dark earth through; 
The lust of power, the love of gain, 
The thousand lures of sin 
Around him had no power to stain 
The purity within. 

With that deep insight which detects 
All great things in the small, 
And knows how each man's life affects 
The spiritual life of all, 
He walked by faith and not by sight, 
By love and not by law; 
The presence of the wrong or right, 
He rather felt than saw. 

He felt that wrong with wrong partakes, 
That nothing stands alone, 
That whoso gives the motive makes 
His brother's sin his own; 
And, pausing not for doubtful choice 
Of evils great or small, 
He listened to that inward voice 
Which calls away from all. 

Oh! spirit of that early day, 
So pure and strong and true, 
Be with us in the narrow way 
Our faithful fathers knew; 
Give strength the evil to forsake, 
The cross of truth to bear, 
And love and reverent fear to make 
Our daily lives a prayer." 

Had Gov. Endicott listened as attentively to the Voice of
Eternal Truth, Justice and Mercy within his breast, and obeyed
this light of Christ in the soul, as faithfully as did William
Penn, in Pennsylvania, our 

Page 54

New England colony would have been spared those blood-stains
upon her name and her fame--the massacre of Indian tribes, and
the persecution of Quaker and Baptist settlers. Penn came as
an ambassador of the Prince of Peace, and proved himself by
his deeds to be one. Endicott, seeking to "serve two
masters--God and Mammon," at times allowed the love of fame
and earthly power to dim and utterly obscure his spiritual
vision. So this same determination to erect a state, to found
a nation, at any cost, led on step by step to the perpetration
of that national crime, the War of the American Revolution,
which was a deliberate setting aside of the Gospel
command,--"But I say unto you that ye resist not evil; but
whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also." And likewise that solemn admonition of our
Lord:--"My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of
this world, then would my servants fight."--A crime as clearly
the forerunner of our national woes, as that pain and
suffering are sure to follow in the train of disobedience. 

The Ship of State was launched amid bloodshed and animosity,
and hatred, and therefore the establishment and perpetuation
of slavery, for so many years in the Southern states, with its
blighting influences, as well as the upheavals and terrors of
the great rebellion, were but the natural fruit of the tree
just planted, and the legitimate consequences of the first
sinning. 

If we owe something (and we do) to the sturdy 

Page 55

morals of the Puritan, we certainly are equally indebted to
the character of those obscure Quakers, who right at the time,
at the peril of their lives, protested faithfully, earnestly
and conscientiously, against blind and short-sighted bigotry,
and against practices and methods which, though Christian in
name, were in reality little better than Pagan. These hated
and despised ones were true Protestants, holding up in the
midst of oposition and persecution, the great truths of the
gospel in their simplicity and purity. They were faithful
ministers, preachers, witnesses; their Lord owned them, and
His peace was their portion. "Little ones," they may have
been, but their Master pronounced positive condemnation
against any who should "offend one such." We desire to judge
no man, or men, uncharitably, wishing always to be found in
the mind and of the spirit of Him "who, when He was reviled,
reviled not again;" but this same "High Priest," the "Son sent
of the Father," hath declared, as touching harm done to His
lowly followers: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

So, if praises and adulation are to-day so lavishly bestowed
upon these ancient blinded guides, surely one little word of
explanation, one little word of commendation, one little word
of blessing, is due to the memory of those innocents slain at
the hands of the Puritan governor and his associates; and
though we, their spiritual descendents, (the New England
Yearly Meeting of Friends), may have but a fraction 

Page 56

of the faith, courage, fortitude and patience of these, our
fore-fathers in the Truth, yet, in the exercise of that
fraction, it becomes our duty, boldly to state their case, and
hold up the bright example of their lives of self-denial, even
in these latter days! 

And to-day, amid the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty,
are we not to look back with as much of gratitude, because of
their "faithfulness unto death," as for the deeds and misdeeds
of the Pilgrim fathers? 

Truly thy friend, 
HENRY A. CHASE. 
(Salem Observer, Oct. 5, 1878.) 

HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS.

By John Gough, published, 1790, in Dublin, Ireland. 
Vol. I: Lawrence and Cassandra Southick, their 
sufferings, p. 349, 361; Josiah Southick, p. 349, 
361; Daniel and Provided ordered to be sold for 
slaves, 376 to 381. 

THE severities already inflicted on the members of this
society had so affected many of the inhabitants of this colony
that they withdrew from their public assemblies and met on the
first day of the week, to worship quietly by themselves, for
which they were fined 5 shillings per week, and imprisoned.
Particularly Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, an aged couple
(who in the last year had been imprisoned and fined for
entertaining Christopher Holder and John Copeland), with their
son Joseph, were sent to the house of correction, whipped in
like manner as those before mentioned, and had their goods
taken to 

Page 57

the value of œ4, 15 shillings, for not coming to church. For
the same cause Edward Harnet, aged 69, and his wife, 73 years
of age, had 37 shillings taken from them without regard to
their circumstances, which were but mean, or their age, which
would naturally excite tenderness. About this time (1658)
there was a meeting at the house of Nicholas Phelps in the
woods about five miles from Salem, and upon the information of
one Butler, the six following residents were taken up and
committed to prison: Samuel Shattock, Lawrence Southwick and
Cassandra his wife, Josiah their son, Samuel Gaskin (or
Gaskill), and Joshua Buffum, who being kept close in the house
of correction during the heat of the Summer, from their
husbandry, after three weeks confinement, represented their
case to the court in the following letter: 

This to Magistrates at the Court in Salem. Friends:--Whereas
it was your pleasure to commit us, whose names are
under-written, to the house of correction in Boston, although
the Lord, the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth, is our
witness that we have done nothing worthy of stripes or of
bonds; and we being committed by your court to be dealt withal
as the law provides for foreign Quakers, as ye please to term
us; and having some of us suffered your law and pleasures, now
that which we do expect is, That whereas we have suffered your
law, so now to be set free by the same law, as your manner is
with strangers, and not to put us on the account of one law,
and execute another law upon us, of which 

Page 58

according to your own manner we were never convicted, as the
law expresses. If you had sent us upon the account of your new
law, we should have expected the jailer's order to have been
on that account, which that it was not, appears by the warrant
which we have, and the punishment which we bare, as four of us
were whipped, among whom was one that had formerly been
whipped; so now according to your former law, friends, let it
not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing as much as in
you lies, our families to ruin. It is not unknown to you, the
season and the time of year, for those that live of husbandry,
and what their cattle and families may be exposed unto; and
also such as live upon trade. We know if the spirit of Christ
did dwell and rule in you these things would take impression
on your spirits. What our lives and conversations have been in
that place is well known, and what we now suffer for, is much
for false reports, and ungrounded jealousies of heresy and
sedition. These things lie upon us to lay before you. As for
our parts we have true peace and rest in the Lord in all our
sufferings, and are made willing in the power and strength of
God, freely to offer up our lives in this cause of God, for
which we suffer: yea, and we do find (through grace) the
enlargement of God in our imprisoned state, to whom alone we
commit ourselves and our families, for the disposing of us
according to his infinite wisdom and pleasure, in whose love
is our rest and life. From the house of bondage in Boston
wherein we are made captives by the wills of men, although
made free by the Son, (John 8, 36). 

Page 59

In which we quietly rest, this 16th of the 5th month, 1658. 

LAWRENCE SOUTHICK, JOSIAH SOUTHICK, 
CASSANDRA SOUTHICK, SAMUEL SHATTOCK, 
JOSHUA BUFFUM." 

The first victims to this severe law were Lawrence and
Cassandra Southick, their son Josiah, Samuel Shattock,
Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum. They were called before the
court 11th of 3rd mo., 1659, and on their trial (such as it
was), the same arbitrary spirit of tyranny appeared in their
manner of executing as in passing their laws. The prisoners
making a rational objection to their proceeding against them
by their law as being in custody when it was made, and
therefore as to them an ex post facto law. To their query
whether it was for an offence against that law which then had
no existence, they were committed to prison and banished, they
received no reply; then one of them desired the governor that
he would be pleased to declare before the people the real and
true cause of their proceedings against them. He answered, it
was for contemning authority in not coming to the ordinances
of God. He further charged them with rebelling against the
authority of the country in not departing according to their
order; to which they answered they had no other place to go,
but had their wives, children, families and estates to look
after; nor had they done anything worthy of death, banishment
or bonds, or any of the hardships or ignominious punishments
which they had suffered in their persons, beside the loss of
one hundred 

Page 60

pound's worth of their property taken from them for meeting
together. This remonstrance of their recent accumulated
injuries silencing the Governor, Major General Denison made
this unanswerable reply, that they stood against the authority
of the country in not submitting to their laws, that he should
not go about to speak much of the error of their judgements
but added he, you and we are not able well to live together,
at present the power is in our hand, and therefore the
strongest must fend off. After this the prisoners were put
forth for a while, and being called in again, the sentence of
banishment was pronounced against them, and no more than a
fortnight's time allowed for them to depart on pain of death;
and although they desired a respite to attend to their affairs
and till an opportunity of a convenient passage to England
might occur, the unrelenting malice of their persecutors would
not grant them even this small and reasonable request; so
Samuel Shattock, Nicholas Phelps, and Josiah Southick were
obliged to take an opportunity that offered four days after,
to pass for England by Barbadoes, in order to seek redress
from the parliament and council of state there, but without
success. 

Lawrence and Cassandra Southick went to Shelter Island, where
they soon died, within three days of each other; and Joshua
Buffum retired to Rhode Island. The proceedings of these
haughty rulers are strongly marked throughout with the
features of self-importance, inhumanity and bitter malignity,
but I know of no instance of a more persevering malice 

Page 61

and cruelty, than that wherewith they persecuted the aforesaid
Lawrence and Cassandra Southick and their family. First, while
members of their church, they were both imprisoned for
entertaining strangers, Christopher Holder and John Copeland,
a christian duty which the apostle to the Hebrews advises not
to be unmindful of; and after seven weeks imprisonment,
Cassandra was fined 40 shillings for owning a paper written by
the aforesaid persons. Next, for absenting from the public
worship and owning the Quakers' doctrine, on the information
of one Captain Hawthorne, they, with their son Josiah, were
sent to the house of correction and whipped in the coldest
season of the year, and at the same time Hawthorne issued his
warrant to distrain their goods for absence from their public
worship, whereby there were taken from them cattle to the
value of œ4, 15 shillings. Again they were imprisoned, with
others, for being at a meeting, and Cassandra was again
whipped, and upon their joint letter to the magistrates before
recited, the other appellants were released, but this family,
although they with the rest had suffered the penalty of their
cruel law fully, were arbitrarily detained in prison to their
great loss and damage, being in the season of the year when
their affairs most immediately demanded their attendance; and
last of all were banished upon pain of death, as before
recited, by a law made while they were imprisoned. Thus
despoiled of their property, deprived of their liberty, driven
into banishment, and in jeopardy of their lives, for no other
crime than meeting apart and 

Page 62

dissenting from the established worship, the sufferings of
this inoffensive aged couple ended only with their lives. But
the multiplied injuries of this harmless pair were not
sufficient to gratify that thirst for vengeance which
stimulated these persecutors, while any member of the family
remained unmolested. During their detention in prison they
left at home a son Daniel and a daughter Provided; these
children, not deterred by the unchristian treatment of their
parents and brother, felt themselves rather encouraged to
follow their steps and relinquish the assemblies of a people
whose religion was productive of such relentless persecution;
for their absence from which they were fined œ10, though it
was well known that they had no estate, their parents having
been reduced to poverty by repeated fines and extravagant d??
traints; wherefore to satisfy the fine they were orde ?? to be
sold for bond-slaves by the following manda?? "Whereas Daniel
Southick and Provided Southick, son and daughter of Lawrence
Southick, absenting themselves from the public ordinances,
having been fined by the courts of Salem and Ipswich,
pretending they have no estates and resolving not to work, the
court upon perusal of a law which was made upon account of
debts, in answer to what should be done for the satisfaction
of the fines, resolves, that the treasurers of the several
counties are, and shall be fully empowered to sell the said
persons to any of the English Nation at Virginia or Barbadoes,
to answer the said fines." Pursuant to this order, Edward
Butler, one of the treasurers, sought out for a passage 

Page 63

for them to Barbadoes for sale, but could find none willing to
take them thither. One master of a ship to whom he applied, in
order to evade a compliance, pretended they would spoil the
ship's company. Butler replied, no, you do not fear that, for
they are poor harmless creatures that will not hurt anybody.
The master rejoined, will you then offer to make slaves of
such harmless creatures? and declined the invidious office of
transporting them, as well as the rest. Disappointed in his
designs and at a loss how to dispose of them, the winter
approaching, he sent them home to shift for themselves till he
could find a convenient opportunity to send them away. 

Is it strange that a few people became excited unto ??anity,
after such terrible outrages upon themselves ?? friends, as to
appear naked in public; rather is ?? not a wonder that more
were not made insane? 

Page 64

ERRATA.

Page 92. Ebenezer, 39, should be 40. 

Page 95. John Southwick, 56, should be 57. 

Page 96. Isaac Southwick, 62, should be 63. 

Page 116. Abraham Southwick, 59, should be 60. 

Page 117. Benjamin Southwick, 61, should be 62. 

Page 130. John Southwick, 90, should be 87. 

Page 132. Benjamin Southwick, 42, should be 43. 

Page 136. Joseph Southwick, 79, should be 171. 

Page 138. Ruth Southwick, 205, should be 204. 

Page 139. Zacheus Southwick, 195, should be 196. 

Page 148. Abigail Southwick, 160, should be 161. 

Page 148. Lydia Southwick, 156, should be 157. 

Page 150. Moses Southwick, 158, should be 159. 

Page 151. Daniel Southwick, 152, should be 153. 

Page 151. Caleb Southwick, 153, should be 154. 

Page 163. Isaac Southwick, 155, should be 152. 

Page 164. William Southwick (III), was born in 1715, and died
before 1767. Married first wife, name unknown, Aug. 6, 1748;
second, Sarah Elizabeth King; third, Lucy Kilburn, of Rowley. 

Page 188. Maria Brown, 369, should be 370. 

Page 192. Simeon Southwick (252), was married in 1793. 

Page 193. James Southwick (509), son of William and Sarah,
married, April 25, 1787, Mary Day, not Persis Peabody. 

Page 197. Solomon Southwick, 249, should be 248. 

Page 200. Henry Collins Southwick, 522, should be 523. 

Page 203. Mary Southwick, 530, should be 531. 

Page 213. Elisha Southwick (464), was a tanner at Union
Springs. 

Page 214. Rachael Southwick, 534, should be 535. 

Page 215. Chade Southwick (473), was not a tanner. 

Page 227. Hiram Brown, 370, should be 369. 

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Send your additions or corrections to:  Adrianne [email protected]