USA > Massachusetts > The Quaker invasion of Massachusetts > Part 9
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Also another Law, - That if there be a Qua- ker Meeting any where in this Colony, the Party in whose House, or on whose Ground it is, is to pay Forty Shillings ; the Preaching Quakei Forty Shillings ; every Hearer Forty Shillings : Yea, and if they have Meetings, tho' nothing be spoken, when they so meet, which they say, so it falls out sometimes - Our last Law, -- That now they are to be apprehended, and carried be- fore a Magistrate, and by him committed to be kept close Prisoners, until they will promise to depart, and never come again ; and will also pay their Fees - (which I perceive they will do nei -- ther the one nor the other) and they must be kept only with the Counties Allowance, which is
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but small (namely, Course Bread and Water.) No Friend may bring them anything ; none may be permitted to speak with them ; Nay, if they have Money of their own, they may not make use of that to relieve themselves. -
In the Massachusets (namely, Boston Colony) after they have Whipp'd them, and cut their Ears, they have now, at last, gone the furthest step they can : They Banish them upon pain of Death, if ever they come there again. We ex- , pect that we must do the like ; we must Dance after their Pipe : Now Plimouth-Saddle is on the Bay-Horse (viz, Boston) we shall follow them on the Career : For, it is well if in some there be not a Desire to be their Apes and Imitators in all their Proceedings in things of this Nature. All these Carnal and Antichristian Ways being not of God's Appointment, effect nothing as to the Obstructing or Hindring of them in their Way or Course. It is only the Word and Spirit of the Lord that is able to Convince Gainsayers : They are the Mighty Weapons of a Christian's Warfare, by which Great and Mighty Things are done and accomplished. They have many Meetings, and many Adherents, almost the whole Town of Sandwich is adhering towards them ; and, give me leave a little to acquaint you with their Sufferings, which is Grievous unto, and Sad- dens the Hearts of most of the Precious Saints of God; It lies down and rises up with them, and they cannot put it out of their Minds, to fee and hear of poor Families deprived of their Com-
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forts, and brought into Penury and Want (you may say, By what Means? And, to what End ?) As far as I am able to judge of the End, It is to force them from their Homes and lawful Habi- tations, and to drive them out of their Coasts. The Massachusets hath Banish'd Six of their Ini- habitants, to be gone upon pain of Death ; and I wish that Blood be not shed : But our poor Peo- ple are pillaged and plundered of their Goods ; and haply, when they have no more to satisfie their unsatiable Desire, at last may be forced to flee, and glad they have their Lives for a Prey.
As for the Means by which they are impover- ished; These in the first place were Scrupuloris of an Oath; why then we must put in Force an Old Law, - That all must take the Oath of Fidelity. - This being tendered, they will not take it ; and then we must add more Force to the Law; and that is, - If any Man refuse, or neglect to take it by such a time, he shall pay Five Pounds, or depart the Colony. - When the time is come, they are the same as they were; Then goes out the Marshal, and fetcheth away their Cows and other Cattle. Well, an- other Court comes, They are required to take the Oath again, - They cannot - Then Five Pounds more: On this Account Thirty Five Head of Cattle, as I have been credibly in- formed, hath been by the Authority of our Court taken from them the latter part of this Summer ; and these People say, - If they have more right to them, than themselves, Let them
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take them. - Some that had a Cow only, some 'Two Cows, some Three Cows, and many small Children in their Families, to whom, in Summer time, a Cow or Two was the greatest Outward Comfort they had for their Subsistance. A poor Weaver that hath Seven or Eight small Chil- dren (I know not which) he himself Lame in his Body, had but Two Cows, and both taken from him, The Marshal asked him, What he would do ? He must have his Cows. The Man said, - That God that gave him them, he doubted not, but would still provide for him. - To fill up the Measure yet more full, tho' to the further emptying of Sandwich-Men of their out- ward Comforts. The last Court of Assistants, the first Tuesday of this Instant, the Court was pleased to determine Fines on Sandwich-Men for Meetings, - sometimes on First Days of the Week, sometimes on other Days, as they say : They meet ordinarily twice in a Week, besides the Lord's Day, - One Hundred and Fifty Pounds, whereof W. Newland is Twenty Four Pounds, for himself and his Wife, at Ten Shil- lings a Meeting. W. Allen Forty Six Pounds, some affirm it Forty Nine Pounds. The poor Weaver afore spoken of, Twenty Pounds. Brother Cook told me, one of the Brethren at Barnstable certified him, That he was in the Weaver's House, when cruel Barloe (Sandwich Marshal) came to demand the Sum, and said, he was fully informed of all the poor Man had, and thought, if all lay together, it was not worth Ten
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Pounds. What will be the End of such Courses and Practices, the Lord only knows. I heartily and earnestly pray, that these, and such like, Courses, neither raise up among us, or bring in upon us, either the Sword, or any devouring Ca- lamity, as a just Avenger of the Lord's Quarrel, for Acts of Injustice and Oppression ; and that we may every one find out the Plague of his own Heart; and putting away the Evil of his own Doings, and meet the Lord by Entreaties of Peace, before it be too late, and there be nc Remedy. Our Civil Powers are so exercised in Things appertaining to the Kingdom of Christ, in Matters of Religion and Conscience, that we car. have no time to effect anything that tends to the Promotion of the Civil Weal, or the Prosperity of the Place ; but now we must have a State -. Religion, such as the Powers of the World will allow, and no other: A State-Ministry, and a State way of Maintenance : And we must Wor -. ship and Serve the Lord Jesus as the World shall appoint us : We must all go to the publick Place of Meeting, in the Parish where he dwells, or be presented ; I am Informed of Three or Fourscore last Court presented, for not coming to publick Meetings ; and let me tell you how they brought this about : You may remember a Law once made, call'd Thomas Hinckley's Law, - That if any neglected the Worship of God, in the Place where he lives, and sets up a Worship contrary to God, and the Allowance of this Gov- ernment, to the publick Prophanation of God's
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Holy Day and Ordinance, shall pay Ten Shil- lings, -- This Law would not reach what then was aimed at : Because he must do so and so ; that is, all things therein expressed, or else break not the Law. In March last a Court of Deputies was called, and some Acts touching Quakers were made; and then they contrived to make this Law serviceable to them ; and that was by putting out the Word [and] and putting in the Word [or] which is a Disjunctive, and makes every Branch to become a Law. So now, if any do neglect, or will not come to the publick Meetings, Ten Shillings for every De- fect. Certainly we either have less Wit, or more money, than the Massachusets : For, for Five Shillings a Day a Man may stay away, till it come to Twelve or Thirteen Pounds, if he had it but to pay them. And these Men alter- ing this Law now in March, yet left it Dated, June 6. 1651. and so it stands as the Act of a General Court; they to be the Authors of it Seven Years before it was in being; and so you yourselves have your part and share in it, if the Recorder lye not. But what may be the Reason that they should not by another Law, made and dated by that Court, as well effect what was in- tended, as by altering a Word, and so the whole Sense of the Law ; and leave this their Act by the Date of it charged on another Court's Ac- count? Surely the Chief Instruments in the Business, being privy to an Act of Parliament for Liberty, should too openly have acted repug-
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nant to a Law of England; but if they can do the Thing, and leave it on a Court, as making it Six Years before the Act of Parliament. there can be no danger in this. And that they were privy to the Act of Parliament for Liberty, to be then in being, is evident, That the Deputies might be free to act it. They told us, That now the Protector stood not engaged to the Articles for Liberty, for the Parliament had now taken the Power into their own Hands, and had given the Protector a new Oath, Only in General, to maintain the Protestant Religion ; and so pro- duced the Oath in a Paper, in Writing; whereas the Act of Parliament and the Oath, are both in one Book, in Print: So that they who were privy to the one, could not be Ignorant of the other. But still all is well, if we can but keep the People Ignorant of their Liberties and Priv- iledges, then we have Liberty to Act in our own Wills what we please.
We are wrapped up in a Labyrinth of Con- fused Laws, that the Freemens Power is quite gone ; and it was said, last June Court, by one, - That they knew nothing the Freemen had there to do. Sandwich-Men may not go to the Bay, lest they be taken up for Quakers : W. Newland was there about his Occasions some Ten Days since, and they put him in Prison Twenty Four Hours, and sent for divers to Witness against him ; but they had not Proof enough to make him a Quaker, which if they had, he should have been Whipp'd: Nay, they may not go about
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their Occasions in other Towns in our Colony, but Warrants lie in Ambush to Apprehend and bring them before a Magistrate, to give an Ac- count of their Business. Some of the Quakers in Rhode-Island came to bring them Goods, to 'Trade with them, and that for far Reasonabler Terms, than the Professing and Oppressing Mer- chants of the Country ; but that will not be suf- fered : So that unless the Lord step in, to their Help and Assistance, in some way beyond Man's Conceiving, their Case is sad, and to be pitied : und truly it moves Bowels of Compassion in all sorts, except those in place, who carry it with a high Hand towards them. Through Mercy we have yet among us worthy Mr. Dunstar, whom the Lord hath made boldly to bear Testimony against the Spirit of Persecution.
Our Bench now is, Tho. Prince, Governour ; Mr. Collier, Capt. Willet, Capt. Winslow, Mr. Alden, Lieut. Southworth, W. Bradford, Tho. Hinckley. Mr. Collier last June would not sit on the Bench, if I sate there ; and now will not sit the next Year, unless he may have Thirty Pounds sit by him. Our Court and Deputies last June made Capt. Winslow a Major. Surely we are all Mercenary Soldiers, that must have a Major imposed upon us. Doubtless the next Court they may choose us a Governour and As- sistants also. A Freeman shall need to do noth- ing but bear such Burdens as are laid upon him. Mr. Alden hath deceived the Expectations of many, and indeed lost the Affections of such, as
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I judge were his Cordial Christian Friends ; who is very active in such Ways, as I pray God may not be Charged on him, to be Oppressions of & High Nature.
THE STORY OF HORED GARDNER.1
Hored Gardner, who being the Mother of many Children, and an Inhabitant of Newport in Rhode-Island, came with her Babe sucking at her Breast, from thence to Weymouth (a Town in your Colony) where having finished what she had to do, and her Testimony from the Lord, unto which the Witness of God answered in the People, she was hurried by the baser sort to Boston, before your Governour, John Endicot, who after he had entertained her with much abusive Language, and the Girl that came with her, to help bear her Child, he committed them both to Prison, and Ordered them to be whipp'd with Ten Lashes a-piece, which was cruelly laid on their Naked Bodies, with a three- fold-knotted-Whip of Cords, and then were con- tinued for the space of Fourteen Days longer in Prison, from their Friends, who could not Visit them. The Women came a very sore Journe ', and (according to Man) hardly accomplishable, through a Wilderness of above Sixty Miles, be- tween Rhode-Island and Boston ; and being kept up, after your Cruel Usage of their Bodies, might have died ; but you had no Consideration of this, or of them, tho' the Mother had of you, who after
1 Reported in New England Judged, pp. 60, 61.
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the Savage, Inhumane and Bloody Execution on her, of your Cruelty aforesaid, kneeled down, and Prayed - The Lord to Forgive you - which so reached upon a Woman that stood by, and wrought upon her, that she gave Glory to God, and said, - That surely she could not have done that thing, if it had not been by the Spirit of the Lord, - 11th of 3d Month, 1658.
RECAPITULATION OF THE SUFFERINGS OF LAURENCE AND CASSANDRA SOUTHICK.1
First, while members of their Church, they were both imprisoned for entertaining strangers, Christopher Holder and John Copeland, a Chris- tian duty, which the apostle to the Hebrews ad- zises not to be unmindful of. And after seven weeks imprisonment, Cassandra was fined 40s. 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 Hawthorn, 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 Hawthorn issued his warrant to distrain their goods for absence from their public worship, whereby there were taken from them cattle to the value of 4/. 15s. Again they were imprisoned with others for be- ing at a meeting, and Cassandra was again whipped and upon their joint letter to the magis-
1 Gough's History of the Quakers, vol. i. pp. 379-381.
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trates 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 de- manded their attendance. While they were in prison, William Maston coming through Salem in his way to Boston, brought them some pro- visions from home, for which he was committed to prison, and kept there fourteen days in the cold winter season, though about seventy years of age. And last of all were banished upon pain of death by a law made while they were impris- oned, and consequently against which they had not offended : Thus spoiled of their property, deprived of their liberty, driven into banish- ment, and in jeopardy of their lives, for no other crime than meeting apart, and dissenting from the established worship, the sufferings of this in- offensive aged couple ended only with their lives.
But the multiplied injuries of this harmless pair were not sufficient to gratify that thirst of. vengeance which stimulated these persecutors, while any member of the family remained unmo- lested : During their detention in prison, they left at home a son and daughter named Daniel and Provided; these children, not deterred by the unchristian treatment of their parents and brother, felt themselves rather encouraged to fol- low their steps, and relinquish the assemblies of a people whose religion was productive of such
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relentless persecution, for their absence from which they were fined 10/. though it was well known they had no estate, their parents having been reduced to poverty by repeated fines and extravagant distraints ; wherefore to satisfy the fine. they were ordered to be sold for bond-slaves by the following mandate : " -
Att a Generall Court of Election, held at Boston, 11th of May, 1659.1
COUNTY TREASURER AUTHORIZED TO SELL QUAKERS.
Whereas Daniell and Provided Southwicke, sonne & daughter to Lawrence Southwicke, haue binn fyned by the County Courts at Salem & Ipswich, ptending they haue no estates, resolving not to worke, and others likewise haue binn tyned, & more like to be fyned, for siding wth the Quakers & absenting themselves from the pub- licke ordinances, - in ans" to a question, what course shall be taken for the sattisfaction of the fines, the Court, on pervsall of the lawe, title Arrests, resolve, that the Tresurers of the seu- erall countjes are and shall hereby be impowred to sell the sajd persons to any of the English na- tion at Virginia or Barbadoes.
Letter of Laurence Southich and others.2
This to the Magistrates at the Court in Salem. Friends,
Whereas it was your pleasures to commit us
1 Mass. Records, vol. iv. part I. p. 366. 2 New England Judged, pp. 74, 75.
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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 ns in upon the account of one law? and execute another law upon us, of which accord- ing 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 also, 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 ruine. It's not unknown to you, the season and the time of the year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their cattle and families may be exposed unto ; and also such as live on trade : We know if the spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you" these things would take impression on your spir- its. What our lives and conversations have been in that place is well known; and what we now
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suffer for, is much for false reports, and un- grounded 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 suf- fer: Yea, and we do find (through grace) the enlargements of God in our imprisoned state, to whome alone we commit ourselves and families, for the disposing of us according to his infinite wisdom and pleasure, in whose love is our rest and life.
LAURENCE CASSANDRA SOUTHICK. JOSIAHI SAMUEL SHATTUCK. JOSHUA BUFFUM.
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. In which we quietly rest, this 16th of the 5mo. 1658.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE SUFFERINGS OF ELIZABETH HOOTEN, AS RELATED IN SEWEL'S HISTORY OF THE QUAKERS, pp. 383-385.
The usage Elizabeth Hooten met with, I can't pass by in silence, because of her age, being about sixty, who hearing of the wickedness com- mitted by those of New-England, was moved to make a voyage to America.
In order thereto she went from England in the
12
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year 1661, having one Joan Broksup with her, a woman near as aged as herself, who freely re- solved 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 gaoler altogether unwilling to let them in, carried them to the Governor En- dicot, 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 demanded, '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.' 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 Barbados, and from thence to New - England
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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.
Bat it came upon her to visit New-England again ; and so she did, taking her daughter Eliza- beth 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 them- selves at a loss, and thus were stopped from seiz- ing the master's goods.
Elizabeth being come to Boston, notwithstand- ing the rulers, went to them, and signified that sho came thither ' to buy a house for herself to live int' 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 on or sit on. Ilere they kept her two days and two nights, without affording her anything to eat or drink ; and because a certain
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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 Watertown 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 horse-back, 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 Reho- both, being neither weary nor faint; and from thence she went to Rhode-Island, where coming to her friends, she gave thanks to God, for hav- ing counted her worthy, and enabled her to suf- fer for his name-sake, beyond what her age and sex, morally speaking, could otherwise have borne.
After some stay there, she returned to Cam- bridge, about eighty miles, to fetch her linen and clothes, which the inhuman persecutors would not suffer her to take with her when they had whipped her. Having fetched these things, and going back with her daughter and Sarah Cole- man, an ancient woman, she was taken up by the
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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 'et 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 heed- ing 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 anything. After this Elizabeth the mother was whipped again at a cart's-tail at Boston and other places, where she
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