Chapter C: E.’ (2)

‘And though this law is pretended against us, for to banish us,
and to rid the land of us, as some vainly suppose; yet must it
needs be executed to the height of it, without limitation or
restriction? Must this law be executed to its height more than
some others laws that are as truly enacted, and as fully in
force as this act can be? Yet some such laws there are, which
better deserve execution than this, yet they lie dormant, as it
is visibly apparent at this day, as in 4 Jac. c. 5, in these
words: ‘Be it enacted, &c. that all and every person or persons,
which after forty days next following the end of this present
session of parliament, shall be drunk, and of the same offence
of drunkenness shall be lawfully convicted, shall for every such
offence, forfeit and lose five shillings, &c. to be paid to the
hands of the church-wardens of that parish where the offence
shall be committed, who shall be accountable therefor to the
use of the poor of the same parish. And if the said person or
persons so convicted, shall refuse or neglect to pay the said
forfeiture, then the same shall be levied off the goods of every
such person or persons, by warrant of precept from the court,
judge, or justices, before whom the same conviction shall be; and
if the offender be not able to pay the sum of five shillings,
then he shall be committed to the stocks for the space of six
hours.’ I pray you read the statute at large; it is worth a
sober man’s pains to read over, and then judge whether that law
be duly executed at this day: and also whether it deserves not
more strict execution than the present act against us. Also
the 1 Jac. c. 7, in these words: ‘That all persons calling
themselves scholars, going about begging; all idle persons
going about in any country, either begging or using any subtle
craft, or unlawful games or plays, or feigning themselves to
have knowledge in physiognomy, or pretending that they can tell
fortunes, or such other like fantastical imaginations; all
fencers, bear-wards, common players of interludes and minstrels,
wandering abroad, shall be taken, adjudged, and deemed as rogues,
vagabonds, and sturdy-beggars, and shall suffer such pains and
punishments as are expressed, 39 Eliz. c. 4. viz. That every
such person shall be stripped naked from the middle upwards, and
shall be openly whipped, until his or her body be bloody, &c.
and shall be forthwith sent from parish to parish,’ &c. Read the
statute at large, and then consider how duly it is executed now,
and whether it deserve not the execution as much as the late act
against us, though in some places the one is more executed than
the other, where many of our friends being honest sober persons,
and of good conversation, yet are hauled out of their meetings,
where they are met only to worship God, and for no other end, and
sent to prison, and persecuted to the very height of the said
act; whereas idle persons following unlawful games and plays, and
bear-wards, common players of interludes and minstrels of divers
kinds, do wander up and down city and country, and having their
play-houses public, where their wickedness is acted; such persons
and such things, though appearing publicly, yet are permitted,
and little or no notice taken of them by some of the magistrates,
so as to punish them for breach of the laws, for the preventing
of these evils; but such wickedness is too much suffered, though
there be divers acts of parliament against such persons and such
actions, as well as there is one against our meetings; yet the
act against us is more put in execution in some places, for the
breaking of our meetings, which are for the worship of God, than
the good laws for suppressing of wickedness, though there is
better law for the one than for the other. Divers other laws and
statutes made for good ends, for the suppressing of wickedness in
the land there are, which are but easily executed at this day;
but here is one act against peaceable meeting together for the
worship of God, which is violently prosecuted and executed upon
innocent men; let all just men judge of these things. Though
there be a law enacted against our meetings, so there is against
drunkards and drunkenness, and unseasonable tippling in taverns
and ale-houses, and against minstrels, fiddlers, pipers and
players, common players, and stage players that go up and down
the countries, and have their play-houses in public cities; which
statute ought rather to be executed, though they are not: but
these things we shall leave to all sober people to judge of.

‘And seeing that the law against us is more put in execution than
those other laws, it doth appear that there is more envy against
us and our peaceable religious meetings than there is against
profaneness, and wickedness, drunkenness, and stage-playing, and
such like: and such magistrates wheresoever they are, are not
excusable in the sight of God, though there is a law against us,
while they prosecute it against us, and not those other good
laws, against profane and ungodly persons and practices; and
therefore seeing we do suffer, we must say it is not only because
there is a law against us, but it is also, or rather, because
there is enmity, and wrath, and wickedness in the hearts of men
against us, which is the main cause of our sufferings at this
day.’

Thus was E. Burrough always laborious, and like a faithful and diligent minister of Christ, he was so totally devoted to the service of God and the church, both in preaching and writing in the defence of the gospel, that he scarce reserved any time for himself, and seldom took rest, but continued to work incessantly till the time of his departure drew near; plainly manifesting that it really was his meat and drink to do the will of his heavenly Father; and this he endeavoured unweariedly to the end of his days.

Now I turn again to New England, where though the murdering part was acted to the full, yet their blood-thirstiness was not quenched, as may appear from the following relation I shall give of the cruel whippings inflicted on some. If I should relate all of that kind that happened there, it would make up a pretty big volume by itself; and therefore I will mention some few instances only.

Among these, I meet with Josiah Southwick, (whose father and mother, Lawrence and Cassandra, had been of the first that were banished from Boston because of their religion, as hath been said before; and whose brother and sister had been ordered to be sold for bound slaves,) who, having been in Old England, and had found himself obliged notwithstanding the severe law, to return to Boston, was sentenced to be whipped at a cart’s tail, first at Boston, and then at Rocksbury and Dedham, when with out-stretched arms, he said to those who sentenced him, ‘Here is my body; if ye want a further testimony of the Truth I profess, take it, and tear it to pieces; it is freely given up; and for your sentence, I matter it not:’ adding further, ‘it is no more terrifying unto me, than if ye had taken a feather and blown it up in the air, and had said, take heed it hurt thee not: for surely tongue cannot express nor declare the goodness and love of God to his suffering people.’ Then he was stripped and tied to the cart’s tail in Boston, where the hangman scourged him with what vehemency he could. It is remarkable that the whip used for those cruel executions, was not of whip-cord, as those in England, but of dried guts, and every string with three knots at the end, which, being fastened to a stick, the hangman many times laid on with both his hands, which must cause violent torture to the body. But all this cruelty was not able to make Josiah faint; for as he was led through the streets of Boston at the cart’s tail, he sung aloud, and was heard to utter these words: ‘They that know God to be their strength, cannot fear what man can do.’ The same day he was whipped also at Rocksbury, and the next morning, it being very cold, at Dedham, where he was discharged and turned into the wilderness; for so inhuman were these furious New England professors, that they seemed to think that whatever it was, there was nothing done amiss to the Quakers. Nay, it hath happened that being shut up with thieves, and endeavouring to turn them from their wicked lives, they have been ill-treated on that account, and the thieves set at liberty, lest they should turn Quakers.

At Dover, in New England, Anne Coleman, Mary Tomkins, and Alice Ambrose, were sentenced to very cruel whipping, only for being come there: the warrant was as followeth:

‘_To the constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, Newbury,
Rowley, Ipswich, Wennam, Linn, Boston, Roxbury, Dedham,
and until these vagabond Quakers are carried out of this
jurisdiction._

‘You and every of you, are required in the king’s majesty’s name,
to take these vagabond Quakers, Anne Coleman, Mary Tomkins,
and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart’s tail, and
driving the cart through your several towns, to whip them upon
their naked backs, not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of
them, in each town; and so to convey them from constable to
constable, till they are out of this jurisdiction, as you will
answer it at your peril; and this shall be your warrant.

Per me,
RICHARD WALDEN.’

At Dover, dated December 22, 1662.

Cruel indeed was this order; because to whip these three tender women through eleven towns, with ten stripes apiece at each place, through a length of near eighty miles, in bitter cold weather, would have been enough to have beaten their bones bare, and their lives out of their bodies.

Now in a very cold day the deputy Walden, at Dover, caused these women to be stripped naked from the middle upward, and tied to a cart, and then whipped them, while the priest looked on, and laughed at it; which some of their friends seeing, and taking notice of Walden’s cruelty, testified against him; for which Walden put two of them in the stocks.

The women being thus whipped at Dover, were carried to Hampton, and there delivered to the constable, William Fifield, who having understood by the constable of Dover what work he had in bringing them through a deep road, thought to have daunted them, and said, ‘I profess you must not think to make fools of men.’ To which they answered, they should be able to deal with him as well as the other. This constable the next morning would have whipped them before day, but they refused, saying that they were not ashamed of their sufferings. Then he would have whipped them on their clothes when he had them at the cart; but they said, ‘Set us free, or do according to thy order;’ which was to whip them on their naked backs. He then spoke to a woman to take off their clothes; but she said she would not do it for all the world. ‘Why,’ said he, ‘I profess I will do it myself.’ So he stripped them, and then stood trembling with the whip in his hand, and so he did the execution, though at first he professed himself so stout. Then he carried them to Salisbury, through dirt and snow, half the leg deep, and here they were whipped again. Among the rest of the spectators, Edward Wharton accidentally passing along that way, came to be one; and beholding this whipping, one Thomas Broadberry, clerk of the courts of Salisbury and Hampton, said to him, ‘Edward Wharton, what do you here?’ ‘I am here,’ answered he, ‘to see your wickedness and cruelty, that so if ye kill these women, I may be able to declare how ye murdered them:’ for indeed their bodies were so torn, that if Providence had not watched over them, they might have been in danger of their lives. But it fell out so that they were discharged: for the constable at Salisbury, who must have carried them to Newberry, was desired by one Walter Barefoot, to make him his deputy, who thus receiving the warrant, set them at liberty; though John Wheelright, the priest, advised the constable to drive on, as his safest way.

These three women being thus unexpectedly released, went to New Quechawanah, where they had a meeting, and Shubal Drummer, the priest of the place, came also thither, and sat quiet. And the meeting being ended, he stood up and said, ‘Good women, ye have spoken well, and prayed well; pray what is your rule?’ They answering, ‘The Spirit of God is our rule, and it ought to be thine, and all men’s, to walk by:’ he replied, ‘It is not my rule, nor I hope ever shall be.’ A clear evidence how prejudice may bias even discreet people; for being prepossessed thereby, men will speak sometimes rashly, without considering what.

Not long after these women returned to Dover to visit their friends, and being in a meeting the next First-day of the week, the constables, Thomas Roberts, and his brother John, rushed in, and laid hands on Alice Ambrose, as she was in prayer, and taking her, one by the one arm, and the other by the other, they dragged her out of doors, almost a mile, with her face towards the snow, which was near knee deep, over stumps and old trees, having put on their old clothes on purpose not to dirty their better suits. They then locked her up in a certain house, and so went back to fetch Mary Tomkins, whom they dragged in the same manner, which their father, old Thomas Roberts seeing, lamented, and cried, ‘Wo that ever I was father to such wicked children.’ But they seemed not to matter what their father said, who had been, a member of the church at Dover above twenty years; but because he no longer frequented their worship for their degeneracy, they took away his cow, which with its milk, helped to support him and his wife. Mary Tomkins being brought into the house where Alice was, Anne Coleman was also fetched. Next morning they got a canoe, and threatened the women they would now do so with them, that they should be troubled with them no more; by which saying they seemed to signify that they would give them up to the mercy of the sea, which made the women unwilling to go to the water-side. Then one Edward Weymouth took Mary by the arms, and dragged her on her back over the stumps of trees, down a very steep hill, by which she was much bruised, and often died away. They also laid hold on Alice, whom they plucked violently into the water, and kept her swimming by the canoe, so that she was in danger of being drowned or frozen to death. Anne Coleman was also rudely dealt with, and all this in the presence of one Hate-evil Nutwel, a ruling elder, who stirred up the constables to this wicked action, and so showed that he bore a wrong name. But the wicked intention of these men was stopped by a power from on high, for on a sudden a great tempest arose, so that they brought the women back again to the house, and about midnight they turned them all out of doors in the snow, the weather being so frosty that Alice’s clothes were frozen like boards. How barbarously soever these women were treated, yet the Lord was pleased to preserve and support them.

Afterwards it happened that Anne Coleman and four of her friends were whipped through Salem, Boston, and Dedham, by order of William Hawthorn, who before he was a magistrate, had opposed compulsion for conscience; and when under the government of Cromwell it was proposed to make a law that none should preach without license, he publicly said at Salem, that if ever such a law took place in New England, he should look upon it as one of the most abominable actions that were ever committed there, and that it would be as eminent a token of God’s having forsaken New England, as any could be: and yet afterward this man became a fierce persecutor of those who asserted liberty of preaching: though formerly it may be, if any one had foretold him how he would be given to persecution, he would have said as Hazael to the prophet Elisha, ‘What, is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing?’ But to return to Anne Coleman, when she was to be whipped at Dedham, and fastened to a cart, deputy Bellingham having seen Hawthorn’s warrant, said, ‘The warrant is firm;’ and then bade the executioner go on; who, thus encouraged, laid on so severely, that with the knot of the whip he split the nipple of her breast, which so tortured her, that it had almost cost her her life; and she, who was a little weakly woman, thinking this would have been her lot, said once, that if she should happen to die thus, she was willing that her body should be laid before Bellingham’s door, with a charge from her mouth that he was guilty of her blood.

The usage Elizabeth Hooton met with, I cannot pass by in silence, because of her age, being about sixty, who hearing of the wickedness committed by those of New England, was moved to make a voyage to America.

In order thereto she went from England in the year 1661, having one Joan Broksup with her, a woman near as aged as herself, who freely resolved to be her companion: and because they could not find a master of a ship that was willing to carry them to New England, because of the fine for every Quaker that was brought thither, they set sail towards Virginia, where they met with a ketch which carried them part of the way, and then they went the rest by land, and so at length came to Boston. But there they could not soon find a place of reception, because of the penalty on those that received a Quaker into their houses. Yet at length a woman received them. Next day they went to the prison to visit their friends; but the jailer altogether unwilling to let them in, carried them to the governor Endicot, who with much scurrilous language called them witches, and asked Elizabeth what she came for: to which she answered, ‘To do the will of him that sent me.’ And he demanding what was that: she replied, ‘To warn thee of shedding any more innocent blood.’ To which he returned that he would hang more yet; but she told him he was in the hand of the Lord, who could take him away first.[22] This so displeased him, that he sent them to prison, where many more of their friends were. After consultation what to do with them, they were carried two days’ journey into the wilderness, among wolves and bears; but by Providence they got to Rhode Island, where they took ship for Barbadoes, and from thence to New England again, and so they returned to Boston. But then they were put into a ship, which carried them to Virginia, from whence Elizabeth departed to Old England, where she staid some time in her own habitation.

[22] Which was fulfilled, for after that he never took away the
lives of any more of those called Quakers.

But it came upon her to visit New England again; and so she did, taking her daughter Elizabeth along with her. And being arrived, those of the magistrates that were present, would have fined the master of the ship an hundred pounds, for bringing her over contrary to their law. But he telling them that Elizabeth had been with the king, and that she had liberty from him to come thither to buy her a house, this so puzzled these snarling persecutors, that they found themselves at a loss, and thus were stopped from seizing the master’s goods.

Elizabeth being come to Boston, notwithstanding the rulers, went to them, and signified that she came thither to buy a house for herself to live in. She was four times at the court for that purpose, but it was denied her; and though she said that this denial would give her occasion if she went to England again, to lay it before the king, it was in vain, and had no influence upon them.

Departing then, and passing through several places, she came to Cambridge, and was thrust into a stinking dungeon, where there was nothing to lie down or sit on. Here they kept her two days and two nights, without affording her any thing to eat or drink; and because a certain man in compassion brought her a little milk, he was also cast into prison and fined five pounds. Being brought to the court, they ordered her to be sent out of their coasts, and to be whipped at three towns with ten stripes at each. So at Cambridge she was tied to the whipping-post, and lashed with ten stripes, with a three-stringed whip, with three knots at an end. At Water Town she had ten stripes more with willow rods; and to make up all, at Dedham, in a cold frosty morning, she received ten cruel lashes at a cart’s tail. And being thus beaten and torn, she was put on horseback and carried many miles into the wilderness, and towards night they left her there, where were many wolves, bears, and other wild beasts, and many deep waters to pass through; but being preserved by an invisible hand, she came in the morning into a town called Rehoboth, being neither weary nor faint; and from thence she went to Rhode Island, where coming to her friends, she gave thanks to God for having counted her worthy, and enabled her to suffer for his name’s sake, beyond what her age and sex, morally speaking, could otherwise have borne.

After some stay there, she returned to Cambridge, about eighty miles, to fetch her linen and clothes, which the inhuman persecutors would not suffer her to take with her after they had whipped her. Having fetched these things, and going back with her daughter and Sarah Coleman, an ancient woman, she was taken up by the constable of Charlestown, and carried prisoner to Cambridge; where being asked by one of the magistrates, whose name was Daniel Goggin, wherefore she came thither, seeing they had warned her not to come there any more: she answered that she came not there of her own accord, but was forced thither, after she had been to fetch her clothes, which they would not let her take with her when she was whipped and sent away; but that now returning back, she was taken up by force out of the highway, and carried thither. Then the other old woman was asked whether she owned Elizabeth and her religion: to which she answered, she owned the Truth. And of Elizabeth’s daughter he demanded, ‘Dost thou own thy mother’s religion?’ To which she was silent: and yet they were sent to the house of correction, with order to be whipped. Next morning the executioner came betimes before it was light, and asked them whether they would be whipped there: which made Elizabeth ask whether he was come to take away their blood in the dark: and whether they were ashamed that their deeds should be seen: but not heeding what she said, he took her down stairs, and whipped her with a three-stringed whip. Then he brought down the ancient woman, and did the like to her. And taking Elizabeth’s daughter he gave the like to her also, who never was there before, nor had said or done any thing. After this Elizabeth the mother was whipped again at the cart’s tail at Boston and other places, where she came to see her friends: since which I have several times seen her in England in a good condition.

I could relate many more severities of the New England persecutors; but I long to come to an end, and therefore shall make a large step, and outrun some space of time.

1664.

In the year 1664, it happened that Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose came again to Boston, having been in Virginia, where for their religion they had not only been pilloried, but whipped also each of them with thirty-two stripes, with a whip of nine cords, and every cord with three knots; and they were handled so severely, that the very first lash drew blood, and made it run down from their breasts. Being afterwards arrived at Boston, Mary grew so sick, that she was thought to be near death; which made Edward Wharton with Wenlock Christison come from Salem to visit her. But after they had been there a little time, two constables came in, and notwithstanding Mary’s weak condition, forced them all to the governor’s house. Now though Mary seemed to be a little on the mending hand, yet she was so ill, that she fell down as it were dead in the way. But one of the constables staid with her till she came to herself again, and then brought her before the governor, where were also deputy Bellingham and Thomas Daufort, one of the magistrates; who ordered all four of them to be whipped; but because Mary was so weak, and lest probably she might die under their hands, they gave order that she and Alice should not be whipped at Boston, but at the towns beyond. And this was to have been executed, but that colonel Temple coming in, interceded and prevailed for three of them. And now Edward became the mark of their fury, on whom they vented their passion, though they had nothing to charge him with, but that he was come from Salem to Boston to visit his sick friend; and for this pretended crime the following warrant was framed:

‘_To the constables of Boston, Charlestown,
Malden, and Lynn._

‘You are required to take into your custody respectively,
Edward Wharton, convicted of being a vagabond, from his own
dwelling-place; and the constable of Boston is to whip him
severely with thirty stripes on his naked body. And from
constable to constable you are required to convey him until he
come to Salem, the place where he saith he dwelleth: and in so
doing this shall be your warrant.

JOHN ENDICOT.’

Dated at Boston, the 20th of June,
1664.

Pursuant to this warrant, Edward, (who therein was called a vagabond, for no other reason but that he was gone from his dwelling-place,) was led away to the market place, and there being stripped, his arms were bound to the wheel of a great gun. Then the constable John Loel, bade the hangman to do his work severely; which he did so cruelly that it was testified pease might lie in the holes that the knots of the whip had made in the flesh of his arms and back. And his body was swelled and very black from the waist upwards. Such was the doings of those, who to enjoy the free exercise of their worship, had left Old England; and thus they treated a man that was of good repute, and had lived in that country above twenty years; and was once by the governor himself acknowledged to be his friend, when he supplied him with necessaries in his want, saying then, that if ever it lay in his power he would requite him; which now he did, but in what an inhuman and barbarous manner! That this governor Endicot once had been a man of but a mean condition, appears from a letter written to him shortly after the death of Mary Dyar, by one John Smith, because he had not only caused his wife to be whipped severely, but had also kept her prisoner a whole winter, separate from her children, and had been assisting in the making of an order that no man or woman should bring any thing to the imprisoned Quakers, or carry any thing from them, upon the penalty of five pounds for the first time, and ten pounds for the second. In this letter John Smith said:

‘O my spirit is grieved for thee, because that the love I did
once see in thee is departed from thee, and there remaineth
in thee a spirit of cruelty, of hard-heartedness to thy poor
neighbours, which thou hast formerly been much beholden to, and
helped by, in time of want, when thou hadst no bread to eat. O
consider of these times, and forget them not, and of the love
thou didst find among poor people in thy necessity, and how
evil thou hast dealt with, and requited some of them now; and
how thou dost walk and act contrary to what thou didst formerly
profess: yea, I have heard thee say that all the armies on earth
cannot subdue one lust in man or woman. And now thou pronouncest
sentence of death upon some, because they cannot submit to your
wills, nor worship as ye do.’

But I return to Edward Wharton, who after his whipping was not led the direct way to Salem, but by Charlestown, and so about the country, as if they had a mind to make a show of him: yet at Charlestown the constable was so compassionate, that he entertained him in his house, and anointed his stripes; and the next day he was conveyed to his home. Since that time the said Wharton was whipped again severely; but I pass by particulars to avoid prolixity. Yet I cannot forbear to say, that before he was whipped at Boston, as hath been said, it was told him that if he would promise the governor to come no more to the Quakers’ meeting in Boston, then it was likely the governor would let him have his liberty: to which Edward returned, ‘Not for all the world. And friends, I have a back to lend to the smiter, and I have felt your cruel whippings before now, and the Lord hath made me able to bear them; and as I abide in his fear, I need not fear what you shall be suffered to do unto me.’

The case of one Anne Needham being also very remarkable, I will give a short hint of it. She was fined at Boston for being one of those called Quakers; but her husband refused to pay the fine, asking them, seeing the law for adultery was death, whether if his wife had committed adultery, he must by that law have suffered death. She then was sentenced to be whipped, which the constable, Thomas Roots, performed with great cruelty; for seeing she kept silent whilst he lashed her, he did whatever he could with his tormenting whip, to make her cry out; but all his endeavours proved in vain; which made him say that the Quakers were a hard-hearted people: though this epithet much better fitted himself, and all those cruel persecutors that were really become hard-hearted to the highest degree, insomuch that they had not only shaken off humanity, but all true sense of piety, which I shall prove by instances whereof some are even blasphemous.

One Barlow, who formerly had been a preacher at Exeter, afterwards turned lawyer, and at length being become a marshal, would boast that when he went to distrain for fines, he would think what goods were most serviceable to the Quakers, and then he would take them away. By such doings he encouraged others to vice; for a certain Indian taking a knife from an Englishman’s house, and being told he should not steal, answered that he himself had thought so, but now he saw that Barlow and the magistrates did so by the Quakers. This Barlow in the days of Cromwell being grown rich with the spoils of the innocent, grew poor after king Charles was restored; which made Barlow say that he hoped for a good time again: and took the shameful liberty to add, he thought the Quakers would not let him want.

At Hampton, priest Seaborn Cotton, understanding that one Eliakim Wardel had entertained Wenlock Christison, went with some of his herd to Eliakim’s house, having like a sturdy herdsmen put himself at the head of his followers, with a truncheon in his hand. Wenlock seeing him in this posture, asked him what he did with that club: to which he answered, he came to keep the wolves from his sheep. Wenlock then asking whether those he led were his sheep, got no answer, but instead thereof was led away by this crew to Salisbury. This same Cotton having heard that major Shapleigh was become a Quaker, said he was sorry for it, but he would endeavour to convert him. And afterwards drinking in a house in an isle in the river Piscataway, and hearing the major was there in a warehouse, he went thither; but going up stairs, and being in drink, he tumbled down, and got such a heavy fall, that the major himself came to help this drunken converter.

When Edward Wharton was told once by governor Endicot, that every soul ought to be subject to the higher power; he thereupon asked whether that which set up the golden image, and required all to fall down and worship it, was the higher power: he answered, ‘Yea.’ Then Edward queried whether the power that required Daniel to be cast into the lion’s den, for praying to any besides the king for thirty days, was the higher power: the governor said, ‘Yea.’ The next question Edward asked, was, whether the three children that were cast into the fiery furnace for not falling down to, and worshipping the golden image, did well: and whether Daniel for praying to his God contrary to what the said higher power did command, did well: the governor replied, ‘Yea,’ also. But secretary Rawson seeing how the governor had talked himself into a noose, to help him out said, they did obey the higher power by suffering: to which Edward returned, ‘So do we too.’

Another of these magistrates whose name was Brian Pembleton, was asked by George Walton and his wife Alice, who was reputed one of the most godly women thereabout, what the anointing was which the apostle John exhorted the saints unto in that day: but what a wicked man this Pembleton was, may appear by the abominable answer he gave, viz. that John was either a fool or a madman, or else he did not know what he said. And blasphemous in a very high degree was what he said to the question, ‘What was that light which shone about Paul?’ For his answer was, ‘It was the light of the devil for aught he did know.’

Joshua Scotaway, also one of the magistrates, asked Mary Tomkins in the court at Boston, where she dwelt: to which she answered in the words of the apostle, ‘In God; for in him we live and move, and have a being.’ To which Scotaway did not stick to say, ‘So doth every dog and cat.’ No wonder truly, that men thus darkened in their minds, grew also quite hardened in persecuting, so as to glory in it; as did Thomas Daufort, a magistrate of Cambridge, who in the governor’s house at Boston, laying his hand on Wenlock Christison’s shoulder, said to him, ‘Wenlock I am a mortal man, and die I must, and that ere long; and I must appear at the tribunal seat of Christ, and must give an account for my deeds done in the body; and I believe it will be my greatest glory in that day, that I have given my vote for thee to be soundly whipped at this time.’ This made Wenlock say, ‘O wicked man, if thou hast nothing to glory in that day, but in drawing the blood of the innocent, and in laying stripes upon the servants of the living God, thy glory will be turned into shame, and wo will be thy portion.’

But no exhortation, how extraordinary soever, seemed to take any hold on these persecutors: for once a girl of thirteen or fourteen years of age, called Hannah Wright, whose sister had been banished for religion, was stirred with such zeal, that coming from Long Island, some hundreds of miles from Boston, into that bloody town, she appeared in the court there, and warned the magistrates to spill no more innocent blood. This saying so struck them at first, that they all sat silent; till Rawson the secretary said, ‘What, shall we be baffled by such a one as this? come, let us drink a dram.’

Here we see the religion of these men, who were once so precise that they would not join with the worship of the church of England. But it seems not improbable that they fell away to this hardness of heart, because being convinced in their understandings of some superstitious ceremonies that were yet remaining in the church of England, they were not faithful to testify against those things, and to set their light on the candlestick; but that to shun the cross and avoid sufferings, they chose to go into a strange country. And yet they were so presumptuous as to say they were the purest church on earth, and their magistrates and preachers very godly men, and it may be some of their cruel executioners seeing how their magistrates, (as hath been said of Thomas Daufort,) did glory in cruelty, have been foolish enough to persuade themselves that their excessive whipping was some kind of meritorious work. But whatever these English people thought, they were worse than others, for in some places of America lived also Swedes, who in regard of their worship were no less despised by the English, than were the old Samaritans by the Jews; and yet these Swedes entertained the Quakers when they came amongst them, far better than the English did: and thus they made it appear that they surpassed them in life, if not in possession. But the precise New Englandmen seemed to place great virtue in a sturdy severity, of which the following is an instance.

A Dutchman, an Ostender, whose name was John Lawrence, was committed for adultery, and brought before the court at Boston, where the governor John Endicot, asked him whether he was guilty or not guilty: to which the prisoner, who it seems spoke but bad English, said ‘No guilt.’ On which Endicot said in a scoffing manner, ‘No gelt; there’s no money:’ for gheld signifies money in Dutch. Thus the Dutchman’s words and meaning were scoffingly perverted; and though there was no clear evidence against him, yet he was condemned to be hanged; but he denying the fact, the execution was deferred; and in the meanwhile the priests, John Wilson and James Mayo, came to him in prison to see what they could get out of him; and Mayo told him his time was near at an end, and that he must shortly die: and therefore he would have him now confess. To which the prisoner returned, ‘What will you have me to confess that which I never did?’ But Mayo did not desist, but said, ‘Confess, my son, and give glory to God.’ Yet the prisoner continued in denying the charge, and affirmed he was clear. But, said the priest, ‘You cannot be clear; for our Lord and Saviour saith. “Whosoever looketh upon a fair woman, and lusteth after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”’ Truly a very perverse use of the Scripture for compassing a false end. But the Dutchman seeing how they came to betray him, was cautious, and at length, after a long and tedious imprisonment, found means to break prison, and thus escaped from those who grew accustomed to be merciless; so that sometimes others as well as Quakers, felt the weight of their severity.

As it happened about the time that William Leddra was put to death, one Elizabeth Nicholson and her two sons, Christopher and Joseph, were charged with the death of her husband and their father Edmund Nicholson, who was found dead in the sea; and information being given that these people did show love to those they called cursed Quakers, they were all three fetched from their habitation at Salem and carried to Boston, and were tried for their lives merely on suspicion; but nothing of murder was proved against them; yet the mother was fined a great sum, and her two sons were sentenced to stand under the gallows certain hours, with ropes about their necks, and to be whipped in the market place, which was performed accordingly. And because these young men were not daunted, priest Wilson standing by, said, ‘Ah, cursed generation.’ And at Salem they were whipped also, which was done so mercilessly that one of the young men sunk down, or died away under the torture, though he was raised up and came to life again.

By this we may see how these New England persecutors were become inured to excessive severity. But before I leave them, I must also mention the dreadful exit of some of them.

The last act of governor Endicot’s bloody part that occurs, was the cruel whipping of Edward Wharton at Boston, related before; for the time was now come that he must go off the stage, to give an account of his extravagant severity before another tribunal than that of his sanguinary court. The measure of his iniquity was now filled up, and he was visited with a loathsome disease, insomuch that he stunk alive, and so died with rottenness, his name being like to give a bad savour through ages to come.

Yet more remarkable was the death of major-general Adderton, who when Mary Dyar was hanged, said scoffingly, and in an insulting way, that she hung as a flag, for others to take example by; and who also, when Wenlock Christison being condemned to death, warned the persecutors because of the righteous judgments of God, presumptuously said, ‘You pronounce woes and judgments, and those that are gone before you pronounced woes and judgments; but the judgments of the Lord God, are not come upon us as yet.’ But how he himself was struck by these judgments, and served for an example to others, we are to see now.

He, upon a certain day, having exercised his soldiers, and riding proudly on his horse towards his house, when he came about the place where usually they loosed the Quakers, so called, from the cart, after they had whipped them, a cow came and crossed the way, at which his horse taking fright, threw him down so violently, that he died, his eyes being started out of his head, his brains out of his nose, his tongue out of his mouth, and his blood out of his ears. Thus God’s judgments came upon him suddenly and unawares.

And John Norton, the chief priest of Boston died likewise on a sudden. It was he who promoted the putting to death of those martyrs that died at Boston, as hath been related; and when he saw the magistrates paused upon the execution of W. Robinson and M. Stevenson, he encouraged them thereto, especially because John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, earnestly dissuaded the shedding of innocent blood. He it was also, who when William Brend was beaten so barbarously with a rope, as hath been related in its due place, did not stick to say, since William Brend endeavoured to beat their gospel ordinances black and blue, it was but just upon him if he was beaten black and blue also. But this Norton was now struck with a blow that made him sink: for having been at his worship-house in the forenoon, and intending to go in the afternoon, as he was walking in his house he fetched a great groan, and leaning his head against the mantle tree of the chimney, he was heard to say, ‘The hand, or the judgments of the Lord are upon me.’ These were his last words, and he sunk down, and had fallen into the fire if he had not been caught by somebody that was present. More examples of this nature I could produce, but these may suffice.

What I have related of these cruelties and much more, was published in print about that time, that so the king and parliament of England might know what happened there; for those actions were come in public view, and known there all about the country. All that they did was to set a false colour upon their severity, and to disguise matters: and it was their happiness that they had not to do with revengeful people, else they might have been involved in great straits: but the friends of the persecuted committed vengeance to God; though some of the great ones in England advised them to sue the persecutors, which according to law they might have done.

Richard Bellingham, a fierce persecutor, and governor after John Endicot, went distracted ten years after, and so died. Not long before, William Coddington, governor of Rhode Island, wrote a letter to him, wherein he put him in mind of the former times; for he, (the said Coddington,) had been one of the first erectors of colonies in New England, and the first that built a house at Boston, and afterwards was a magistrate seven years, but when persecution arose he declared against it; and the case was debated three days in the court, but the moderate party was the weakest, and was opposed by all the priests, except one John Cotton, who said he remembered how at their departure from England he had preached on Acts, iv. 11, and had showed from that text that there was an inward grace which was to be minded, and that therefore he would not give his vote for persecuting the asserters of that doctrine; showing thereby much more sense of religion than the other persecuting priests. Now though Coddington was one of the greatest merchants or traders in that country, and in all probability might have acquired great riches there, yet seeing his good counsel was not hearkened to, he resolved to depart that place, and to go and live somewhere else. But whatever he said in his letter to Bellingham, this man remained hardened like Pharaoh, having showed himself cruel, even when Mary Fisher and Anne Austin first came to Boston, where he treated them in a barbarous manner.

Yet one thing remarkable I may mention here, which when I first heard, I could not fully give credit to; but thinking it worth the while to make a narrow inquiry into it, I did so, not only by writing, but also from the mouths of persons that had been eye-witnesses, or had been informed by such; and from these I got this concurring observation, viz. that the country about Boston was formerly a very fruitful soil that produced excellent wheat; but that since the time this town had been stained with the blood of the Quakers, so called, no wheat, &c. would grow to perfection within twenty miles, though the ground had been ploughed and sown several times; for sometimes what was sown was spoiled by vermin or insects; at other times it grew up, but scarce yielded more than was sown, and so could not countervail the charge; and in another year the expected harvest was quashed by another accident; and these disappointments continuing many years, the people at length grew weary of making further trial, and so left the ground untilled; notwithstanding that twenty miles off from Boston the soil is fruitful, and yields very good corn. But there having been so many reiterated instances of unfruitfulness nearer the town, ancient people that are alive still, and remember the first times, generally agree in their opinion that this is a judgment from heaven, and a curse on the land, because of the shedding of innocent blood at Boston. This relation I had from so many credible persons, (though the one knew nothing of the other, as differing much in time,) yet what they told me did so well agree in the main, that I could not but believe it, though I do not use to be credulous; and therefore I have been the more exact in my inquiry, so that I can no longer question the case; but it seems to me as a punishment on that blood-thirstiness which now hath ceased long ago.

In the island of Barbadoes those called Quakers suffered also much by the people, instigated not a little by the priests, Samuel Graves, Mathew Gray, Thomas Manwaring, and Francis Smith; for these being often drunk, gave occasion thereby to be reproved: and one Thomas Clark coming once into the place of public worship, and exhorting the auditors to desist from lewdness, and to fear God, was so grievously beaten with sticks, that he fell down in a swoon; and Graves who had preached then, went to the house of the said Clark, pulled his wife out of doors, and tore her clothes from her back. And Manwaring, who had threatened Clark that he would procure a law to be made, by which his ears should be cut off, once wrote in a letter to him, ‘I am sorry that your zeal surpasseth your moderation, and that a club must beat out of you what the devil hath inspired.’ And this was because Clark had told him that his conversation was not becoming a minister of the Gospel. Other rough treatment Clark met with I pass by, though once he was set in the stocks and imprisoned. But now I leave America, and return to England.

THE SEVENTH BOOK. 1662-1663.

1662.

Having now left America, and being returned to England, let us go and see the state of persecution at London, where desperate fury now raged; though it was not in that chief city alone the Quakers, so called, were most grievously persecuted: for a little before this time there was published in print a short relation of the persecution throughout all England, signed by twelve persons, showing that more than four thousand and two hundred of those called Quakers, both men and women, were in prison in England; and denoting the number of them that were imprisoned in each county, either for frequenting meetings, or for denying to swear, &c. Many of these had been grievously beaten, or their clothes torn or taken away from them; and some were put into such stinking dungeons, that some great men said, they would not have put their hunting dogs there. Some persons were crowded full both of men and women, so that there was not sufficient room for all to sit down at once; and in Cheshire sixty-eight persons were in this manner locked up in a small room; an evident sign that they were a harmless people, that would not make any resistance, or use force. By such ill-treatment many grew sick, and not a few died in such jails; for no age or sex was regarded, but even ancient people of sixty, seventy, and more years of age, were not spared: and the most of these being tradesmen, shopkeepers, and husbandmen, were thus reduced to poverty; for their goods were also seized, for not going to church, (so called,) or for not paying tithes. Many times they were fain to lie in prison on cold nasty ground, without being suffered to have any straw; and often they have been kept several days without victuals: no wonder therefore that many died by such hard imprisonments as these.