True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

Anne Hutchinson Trial

Anne Hutchinson Trials: 1637 and 1638

Defendant: Anne Hutchinson

Crimes charged: "Traducing the ministers and their ministry" and heresy

Chief Defense Lawyer: None

Chief Prosecutors: Civil trial: John Winthrop; religious trial: the Reverend John Davenport

Judges: Civil trial: John Winthrop and the Magistrates of Massachusetts; religious trial: John Wilson and the ministers of the Church of Boston

Places: Civil trial: Newtown (Cambridge; religious trial: Boston

Dates of trials: Civil trial: November 7-8, 1637; Religious trial: March 22, 1638

Verdicts: Guilty

Sentences: Banishment from the colony and excommunication from the Church of Boston

S I G N I F I C A N C E

Anne Hutchinson was the defendant in the most famous of the trials intended to squelch religious dissent in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony had been founded so that the Puritans might perfectly practice their own faith. Religious liberty for others—a concept Americans would later take for granted—was not part of the Puritans' plan. Instead, founding Governor John Winthrop envisioned a model "Citty upon a hill," an example of Christian unity and order. Not incidentally, women were expected to play a submissive and supporting role in this society.

Anne Hutchinson, a skilled midwife and herbal healer with her own interpretation of Puritan doctrine, challenged the leaders of this "wilderness theocracy" as Barbara Ritter Dailey describes it. She arrived in the colony in 1634 and began holding religious meetings in her home. She quickly drew crowds of 60 to 80 men and women on a weekly basis. An alarmed assembly of church elders agreed that "women might meet [some few together] to pray and edify one another" but, without naming Hutchinson, denounced "one woman . . . [who] took upon the whole exercise . . . [as] disorderly, and without rule."

Hutchinson continued to outline her views. Puritans doctrine emphasized the performance of "good works," which might be interpreted as evidence, or justification, that an individual had been elected for salvation. Hutchinson's favorite minister, John Cotton, stressed a "covenant of grace" – the idea that one's own spiritual consciousness of God's election might also be justification.

Hutchinson expanded this idea to include an in-dwelling, Holy Ghost whose guidance replaced the self-will of the saved. She then denounced all of the colony's ministers except Cotton and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, for preaching only the "Covenant of Works."

General Court Summons Hutchinson

The General Court summoned Hutchinson in November 1637. She was put on trial for her theological views and for stepping outside the bounds assigned to women. Governor John Winthrop, acting as prosecutor, outlined the charges: "Mrs. Hutchinson, you are called here as one of those that have troubled the peace . . . you have spoken of divers[e] things . . . very prejudicial to the honour of the churches and ministers thereof, and you have maintained a meeting . . . that hath been condemned . . . as a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God nor fitting for your sex."

Hutchinson responded haughtily, "I am called here to answer before you, but I hear no things laid to my charge."

Winthrop said, "I have told you some already and more I can tell you."