USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Springfield > Colonial justice in western Massachusetts, 1639-1702; the Pynchon court record, an original judges' diary of the administration of justice in the Springfield courts in the Massachusetts Bay Colony > Part 4
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62 Drake, Annals of Witchcraft 233, 253. Two depositions, those of William Branch and Thomas Stebbins, taken in Parsons v. Bridgman, a slander action tried in the County Court of Middlesex County at Cambridge on October 7, 1656, reveal Wil- liam Pynchon admitting inability to ex- plain supernatural events connected with another Mary Parsons, the wife of Joseph Parsons of Northampton, formerly of Long Meadow, and no relation to the wife of Hugh Parsons. (The identity of names and the fact that the Mary Parsons of Northampton was involved in both a civil action for defamation and a criminal pro- ceeding for witchcraft has confused his- torians over the years.) Most of the depo- sitions in this case are in the Office of the
Clerk, Superior Court, Middlesex County, Mass. (East Cambridge) in Folder 16 (1656) of file papers. Photostatic copies are in the Harvard Law School Library in two volumes entitled Papers in Cases Be- fore The County Court of Middlesex County, 1649-63, running from about item 646 to item 674. The depositions have been summarized in 1 Trumbull, Hist. Northampton 43-50. For the judgment for plaintiff in the manuscript court records, see 1 Middlesex County Court Records, 1649-62, 110. An account in Burt, Cornet Joseph Parsons 45-46 is inaccurate and unreliable.
63 For a treatment of this case, see Poole, Witchcraft in Boston in 2 Memorial History Boston 133-137.
25
WILLIAM PYNCHON
This Court had resorted to a forced search of the prisoner's person to determine if she had "the Devil's mark" in some secret place and to the same course adopted in England of watching for her familiar or imp.64
In the absence of the record of the examination of Mary Parsons one cannot tell whether Pynchon ordered the accused searched for "the Devil's mark"; however, there is nothing in the examination of Hugh to suggest that either was exposed to such indignity. Such ex- amination does show that several persons were appointed by Pyn- chon to "watch" Mary. What form the watching took and what re- sults were obtained is not clear. Nothing indicates that watchers were appointed for Hugh.65 On the whole, the conduct of Pynchon ap- pears much less vigorous than that of the General Court in the case of Margaret Jones. And, if, as certain contemporary accounts indi- cate, Springfield in 1650-51 was threatened with a rash of witchcraft cases, his skillful handling of the situation kept Springfield from be- ing linked with Salem in the annals of witchcraft.
While William Pynchon was sitting in the examinations of the Parsons he himself was under a cloud as the result of the publication in London in June 1650 of a book entitled The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, Justification, etc. Cleering it from some common Errors ... by "William Pinchin, Gentleman, in New England." In the form of a discourse between "a Trades-man and A Divine" the book was designed to prove that "Christ did not suffer for us those un-utterable Torments of Gods Wrath, which commonly are called Hell-Torments, to redeem our Souls from them" and that "Christ did not bear our Sins by Gods Imputation, and therefore he did not bear the Curse of the Law for them." The reader was notified that the argument set forth was "framed by M. Henry Smith a godly Preacher, neer thirty years since, in my presence." 66
64 Poole, Witchcraft in Boston 135, re- fers to Gaule, Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft (1646) who describes the mode of "watching a witch" in England.
65 Mary Parsons testified in the course of the examination of her husband that she had made an inconclusive search of Hugh's body while he slept, while Hugh testified that his wife had denied him the same privilege. Drake, Annals of Witch- craft 240-241, 244, 248.
66 In 16 Bibliotheca Americana (1886) 153 Sabin places publication on or about June 2, 1650. The fact that the title page states that the volume was "Printed by J. M. for George Whittington, and James
Moxon" has led to the assumption that a relative of the Reverend Moxon was con- nected with the publication. James and Joseph Moxon were printers in London in 1650; the latter became famous as the first practical English writer on the mechanics of typography. See Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Founders (Rev. ed., 1952) 168 ff. The DNB accounts of George Moxon and Joseph Moxon show both were born in or near Wakefield in Yorkshire. Once thought exceedingly rare, at least eight copies have been located; they are in the British Museum, New York Public Li- brary, Connecticut Valley Historical Mu- seum, Congregational Library in Boston, Bodleian, Balliol College (Oxford) , Hunt-
26
INTRODUCTION
Henry M. Burt, Springfield historian, has this to say of the book:
This work was a protest against the Calvinistic theology as preached by the clergy of that day, and proves Mr. Pynchon to have been a pro- found scholar, a logical writer, and an independent thinker. He read his Bible in the original tongues, and while a sincere believer in the literal truth of the Scriptures and in the exact fulfillment of prophecy, he was his own interpreter and he would not accept as a part of his faith the system which Calvin had framed in all its terrible details. In his book he condemned specially the doctrine that Christ suffered the wrath of God and the torments of hell to pay man's debt to his Creator. His theory of the atonement was that, inasmuch as sin came into the world through Adam's disobedience, so Christ by his perfect obedience, paid the full price of our redemption. The killing of Jesus was not the display of God's wrath, but was the work of the devil through his in- struments, the Jews and the Roman soldiers. The theory that the guilt of the world was laid upon or imputed to Christ he denounced unspar- ingly.67
What motivated William Pynchon to put into print the product of thirty years intellectual gestation is one of the darker corners of his career. He must have known it would arouse wrath and indigna- tion in Boston. The first copies of the book apparently arrived in Boston in the second week of October 1650. The General Court, then in session, after a quick examination of the volume, on October 15, 1650, ordered: first, that a protest be drawn to notify all men that the Court, far from approving the volume, did "utterly dislike it and de- test it as erronious and daingerous"; secondly, that the book be an- swered by one of the elders; thirdly, that the author be summoned to appear before the next General Court to answer for his publica- tion; and, fourthly, that the book be burnt by the executioner, or such other person as the magistrates should appoint, in the market in Boston the next day after the lecture. A "Declaration and Protesta-
ington Library, and The Free Library of Philadelphia. There may be others still in private hands, such as the Hollingsworth copy referred to in 1 Wright, Story West- ern Mass. 200-201. No support has been found for the statement that the edition was "quite large and quickly exhausted." See 1 Lockwood, Hist. Western Mass. 101. Several standard reference works state that Pynchon published the book "during a visit to England in 1650." This could not have been so since the Record shows Pynchon was in Springfield on June 10th (Rec. 39) . The Record refers to several
indentures between Pynchon and servants in Barnett, England, entered into on April 22 and 29, 1650 but these must have been entered into by an agent since it further appears from the Record that Pynchon was in Springfield on May 7. See Rec. 38, 42-43, 45.
67 1 Burt, Hist. Springfield 80. See also F. H. Foster, A Genetic History of the New England Theology (1907) 16-19 and Byington, "William Pynchon, the Founder of Springfield," 2 Papers and Proc. Conn. Valley Hist. Soc. 32.
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
tion" was drawn up to be signed by the Secretary and sent to England to be printed.68
The General Court also ordered that the Reverend John Norton of Ipswich be entreated to answer Pynchon's work and that the latter be summoned to appear before the next General Court to answer for it. On May 7, 1651 William Pynchon appeared before the General Court and owned the book to be his. The Court, out of its "tender respect" to the author, then offered him liberty to confer with the reverend elders present. Pynchon, taking this offer under considera- tion, returned "his mind" in a writing, dated May 9, 1651, in which he stated that he had "conferred with the Reverend Mr. Cotton, Mr. Norrice, and Mr. Norton, about some points of the greatest conse- quence in my booke, and I hope I have so explained my meaning to them, as to take of the worst construction," and admitted "that I have not spoken in my booke so fully of the prize and merrit of Christs sufferings as I should have done." 69
The Court on May 13, finding by Pynchon's writing that he was "in a hopefull way to give good sattisfaction," granted him liberty to return home. He was to have Mr. Norton's answer with him to con- sider so that at the October session of the Court he might appear and give "all due sattisfaction as is hoped for and desired." On October 24, 1651 the Court judged it meet that patience be exercised toward Pynchon that, if possible, he might be reduced into the way of truth and renounce the errors and heresies published in his book. To that end the Court gave him time to the next General Court, in May, more thoroughly to consider of such errors and heresies and to weigh Norton's answer, so that he might give full satisfaction for his offense. In case he did not give satisfaction, the Court ordered that judgment be suspended till the Court in May next, and that Pynchon be en- joined, under the penalty of one hundred pounds, to make his per- sonal appearance to give a full answer to the Court's satisfaction or otherwise to stand to its judgment and censure. It was also ordered by the Court that Norton's answer to Pynchon's book be sent to England to be printed. This volume, not published in England until 1653, bore the short title of A Discussion of that Great Point in Divinity, the Sufferings of Christ and was dedicated to the General Court.70
68 4 Rec. Mass. Bay (Part I) 29; 3 ibid. 215. A letter written at a later date by cer- tain "considerable" elders throws further light on the vigorous action of the General Court. This letter is an appendix to Nor- ton, A Discussion of that Great Point in Divinity, the Sufferings of Christ (1653) . 69 4 Rec. Mass. Bay (Part I) 48-49. For
the only contemporary reference to the in- cident found, apart from official records and Norton's reply, see 6 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (4th ser.) 285.
70 4 Rec. Mass. Bay (Part I) 72; 3 ibid. 248. Foster, Genetic History 19, comment- ing on Norton's reply states that: "The reply was keen and able, but it was sim-
2 8
INTRODUCTION
During this period it seems likely that Pynchon turned to Eng- land for support. This support apparently took the form of letters to several influential elders in the colony who were requested to inter- cede with the magistrates to deal favorably with Pynchon "as a Gen- tleman pious and well deserving." This intercession proved unsuc- cessful.71
When the May 1652 session of the General Court arrived, it seems likely that William Pynchon had returned to England beyond the reach of the General Court. The date of departure is not known; the fact that the General Court records for May 1652 contain no ref- erence to proceedings against Pynchon indicates he was no longer in the jurisdiction.72 The fact that he published a second book in Lon- don in 1652, a short work with the title of The Jewes Synagogue: or, A Treatise Concerning the ancient Orders and manner of Worship used by the Jewes in their Synagogue-Assemblies, is somewhat equiv- ocal evidence as to his whereabouts, since the author is carried on the title page as "William Pinchin of Springfield in N. England." 73 However, there is in existence at least one copy of The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption composed of previously unbound sheets used in the 1650 edition, with a cancel title page bearing a 1652 date.74 This 1652 issue, if authorized, must have been published after Pynchon arrived in England. The fact that the author was still de- scribed as "of New England" may have been deliberate goading of the Massachusetts authorities. Support for the view that Pynchon ar- rived in England prior to April 15, 1652 and intended to return to the colony is derived from a well-known letter of that date, written from England to the Massachusetts authorities on his behalf by his friend Sir Henry Vane the Younger, a former governor of the colony.75
pły a defense of the old theology according to the command of the General Court, and added nothing to the common understand- ing of the theme." Byington characterizes Norton's reply as a "very able and learned work, thoroughly scientific in its meth- ods." William Pynchon, The Founder of Springfield 34. See also 1 Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The Ecclesiastical History of New England (1853 ed.) 291- 292.
71 See the letter referred to in note 68.
72 Reasons of appeal in Pynchon v. Col- licott indicate that William Pynchon re- turned to England from Boston but not the date of his departure. 1 Records of the Suffolk County Court, 1671-1680, 29 Pub. Col. Soc. Mass. 320. No support appears
for the statement (1 Lockwood, Hist. Western Mass. 109) that £100 forfeited for nonappearance was "honorably paid."
73 Mccutcheon, "Americana in English Newspapers, 1648-1660," 20 Pub. Col. Soc. Mass. 88.
74 The copy is owned by The John Car- ter Brown Library; the conclusion was reached by Lawrence C. Wroth, now Li- brarian Emeritus, in 1938 as the result of correspondence with H. A. Wright. See 1 Wright, Story Western Mass. 200-201. The title page includes the following: "Lon- don,/Printed for William Ley at Paul's Chain neer Doctors Commons. 1652."
75 Hutchinson Papers, 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (grd. ser.) 35-37. Lockwood makes the
statement that Pynchon passed
2 9
WILLIAM PYNCHON
Pynchon on his return to England was accompanied only by his wife. Henry Smith, his son-in-law, seemingly returned in October 1652: his daughter Anne, late in 1654. The Reverend Moxon and his family probably left in the autumn of 1652 but had no further association with Pynchon after arriving in England. John was left to carry on the various Pynchon enterprises at Springfield. Also re- maining in New England were John's other sisters, Margaret (who had married William Davis, a wealthy and enterprising Boston apothecary, later chosen deputy from Springfield several times) and Mary (who had married Elizur Holyoke) .76 Pynchon first lived at Hackney, a suburb of London. Later the Pynchons and the Smiths settled down at Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire, twenty miles from London on the Thames opposite Runnymede.77
through Hartford with Moxon on his way to England in July 1652. 1 Hist. Western Mass. 108. Wright takes the view that Pynchon went to England for business reasons and that Moxon went to England later than Pynchon, remarking that on September 22, 1652 Moxon conveyed all his real property to the town. 1 Story Western Mass. 193, 199. The fact that Pynchon conveyed to his son John certain lands and buildings on April 17, and Sep- tember 24, 1651, indicates that a decision to leave for England at an early date had been arrived at. 1 Lockwood, Hist. West- ern Mass. 107; 1 Wright, Story Western Mass. 200. Andrews (2 Col. Period Amer. Hist. 98) states that Pynchon returned to England because of his difficulties with the authorities and, in part, because of the necessity of looking after extensive prop- erties there.
76 Bagg in his article on William Pynchon (20 Americana 210) prints in facsimile a deed by Anne Smith to John Pynchon of August 18, 1654 which refers to a power of attorney from her husband of October 17, 1652 at the time he "went into England." The return of Moxon and his family has been ascribed to the Par- sons witchcraft episode. Morris, “Bi-Cen- tennial Address," 1 Papers and Proc. Conn. Valley Hist. Soc. 311-312. A deposi- tion by Symon Beamon, quondam Pynch- on servant, made September 19, 1656 in Parsons v. Bridgman, relates that "about the time that witches were apprehended to be sent to Boston Mr. Moxon's children were taken ill with their fits (which we took to be bewitched) ." The deposition
is in the Treasure Room, Widener Li- brary, Harvard University. A statement by George Bliss, one of the earliest writers on the subject, that the Moxons left with William Pynchon, but that Henry Smith left a year later, cannot be reconciled with known dates. An Address, Delivered at the Opening of the Town-Hall in Springfield March 24, 1828 (1828) 14. For Davis, see "Note on William Davis the Loyalist," 6 Pub. Col. Soc. Mass. 124.
77 The deed to the lands at Wraysbury, dated December 5, 1653, is in possession of the Connecticut Valley Historical Muse- um. Photostatic copies are in the Library of Congress (Genealogical Division) in a collection entitled: Facsimiles of some English deeds, leases and other documents, about 1525 to 1686 relating to William Pynchon and his son John who settled Springfield, Massachusetts in 1636. Mary, a sister-in-law of John Pynchon of Writtle (grandfather of William) and also a daughter of Sir Richard Empson, married for her second husband Edward Bulstrode of Bulstrode Park, Buckinghamshire, not far from Windsor and in the immediate neighborhood of Horton and Wraysbury. See Crawford, Maternal Ancestry of Charles Whiting MacNair (1912) 57; The Visitation of the County of Buckingham- shire, 58 Harleian Soc. Pub. 12-13. For purchase of lands in Wraysbury from Ed- ward Bulstrode by John Pynchon in 1662, see documents in the above Library of Congress item and Gyll, History of the Parish of Wraysbury, Anderwycke and Magna Charta Island (1862) 21. This work also makes reference to later land
30
INTRODUCTION
From this rural retreat Pynchon continued at a safe distance his doctrinal struggle with the Massachusetts Bay authorities. Following publication in 1654 of The Time when the First Sabbath was Or- dained, he returned to his controversy in the next year with A Fur- ther Discussion of That Great Point in Divinity the Sufferings of Christ ... Being a Vindication of a Dialogue, Intitled [The Meri- torious Price of our Redemption, Justification, etc.] from the excep- tions of Mr. Norton and others.78
No support has been found for the statement that Pynchon was one of the Puritans returning to England who rose to a position of prominence during the Commonwealth and Protectorate.79 Some controversy was, however, aroused in England by his writings.80 No further volume came forth from Pynchon's pen until 1662 when his last work, The Covenant of Nature made with Adam Described, and Cleared from sundry great mistakes, saw publication. This book was an enlargement of the author's earlier reply to Norton.
William Pynchon died on October 29, 1662 and was buried in the churchyard at Wraysbury; presumably he had returned to the Church of England. He outlived both his second wife and his daugh- ter Mary, who had died within a few days of each other in October 1657.81
Posterity paid little attention to Pynchon's theological writings and he exerted no positive influence upon the development of theo-
transactions of John Pynchon and litiga- tion over titles involving Henry Smith. Ibid. 21, 46. In a November 20, 1672 letter to his son Joseph in England, John Pynch- on gave him, among other things, "all my land and housing bought of Mr. Bul- strode." Mass. Hist. Soc. Photostat. Some writers have the Moxons living with Wil- liam Pynchon at Wraysbury but the DNB account of George Moxon does not sup- port such statements.
78 Some copies were issued with the title The Meritorious Price of Mans Re- demption, or Christ's Satisfaction Dis- cussed and Explained and have been mis- taken for a second edition of Pynchon's first work. The New York Public Library copy with this title has corrections and additions in the author's hand.
79 1 Andrews, Col. Period Amer. Hist. 497. No support appears for the statement that Pynchon had a part in writing Sir Henry Vane the Younger's book, A Heal- ing Question, Propounded and Resolved,
published in 1656. Cf. 1 Wright, Story Western Mass. 227.
80 In 1656 Nicholas Chewney, "MA and Minister of Gods word," published a refu- tation entitled Anti-Socinianism; or . . . the confutation of certain gross errours . . . in a dialogue ... called, The Meri- torious Price of our Redemption. The postscript to Pynchon's last work (infra) notes that the author, when his book was mostly in print, received "a copy of An- thony Burges, The True Doctrine of Justi- fication, the second part wherein I found he hath opposed some things in my Book."
81 A letter of William Pynchon is quoted in 1 Lockwood, Hist. Western Mass. 110, that, "I am the more solitary, as son Smith is of a reserved melancholy and my daughter (Anne) is crazy." Wil- liam's will left certain bequests to John and Anne and to his grandchildren, his surviving sisters and other members of the Pynchon family. John, named as executor, was the residuary legatee. 2 Waters, Gene- alogical Gleanings 859.
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
logical doctrines in New England or in the land of his birth. One writer has evaluated his contributions in the following words:
Thus Pynchon's work was one-sided, incomplete, and immature. It was essentially a protest, not in any way a constructive effort. It had no immediate effect in producing modification of theory in New England, for most of the following writers pass over all he said as if they had never heard of him, or at least never read him; and doubtless few had. No trace of positive influence exerted upon the later New England writers has yet been discovered. The book seems to have exhaled its life in the flames in which it was burned upon Boston market place.82
William Pynchon was obviously a man of many attributes and ac- complishments. Enjoying substantial means and social status in Es- sex, by his able, shrewd, and energetic conduct he became one of the foremost fur traders of Massachusetts. Despite his preoccupation with trade and husbandry, he was a man of learning and intellectual ac- complishments. He was intensely religious, although his writings in the field of theology, while stamping him as a man of independent thought, failed to attract a following. While his accomplishments as a public servant were not on the level of those of John Winthrop, Endecott, or Dudley, it was through his efforts that the upper portion of the Connecticut Valley became part of the Massachusetts Bay col- ony. His counsel in Indian matters was characterized by wisdom and insight.
While Pynchon was familiar with Fortescue and Dalton, his treat- ment of legal matters lacks a professional touch. It is doubtful that he brought to the administration of justice the same interest or ca- pacity which he did to fur trading or theology. That his interest in the law may have been largely philosophical appears in the dedica- tion of his last publication to Oliver St. John, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, which gives considerable insight into his views of the relation between the common law of England and scripture law. However, the part played by William Pynchon in the early ad- ministration of justice in western Massachusetts may be discovered through a reading of the Record.
82 Foster, Genetic History 19-20. Pynch- on's principal work has been characterized by Morison as "devoid of literary merit."
The Intellectual Life of New England (1956) 170. His other published writings fall into the same category.
III. John Pynchon
J. OHN PYNCHON'S date and place of birth are uncertain, but it seems probable that he was born at Springfield in Essex in 1626.1 It is doubtful that he arrived in New England with the re- mainder of the Pynchon family. The records do not reveal the nature or extent of John's education, which may have been under the tute- lage of John Eliot at Roxbury and of the Reverend Moxon at Spring- field.2 In October 1645 he married Amy Wyllys of Hartford, daughter of the late Governor George Wyllys of the Connecticut colony. He became a freeman of the Bay colony on April 13, 1648.3 Upon attain- ing maturity, he presumably participated in the fur trading and other pursuits of his father.
However, few facts are known as to John until November 1650 when he first held public office, being elected a selectman and also town treasurer of Springfield. He was chosen selectman again in 1651 and 1652, but was discharged from this office on November 27, 1652, when he, Samuel Chapin, and Elizur Holyoke, by order of the General Court, took their oaths before the selectmen as commission- ers for the town of Springfield. In the same month Pynchon was also
1 Some biographical details on John Pynchon are found in Record of the Pynchon Family in England and America, originally compiled by J. C. Pynchon (1885) , revised by W. F. Adams (1898) 5-7; A. P. Clarke, Clarke's Kindred Gene- alogies (1896) 139-140. Wright (1 Story Western Mass. 300) refers to an entry in the "Springfield register" that "the Hon- ourable Colonel John Pynchon, esquire, was sick and died in the seventy-seventh year of his age." The date of his death was January 17, 1702/3.
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