USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > The history of Salem, Massachusetts, vol 2, 1924 > Part 29
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Major Hathorne signed this order to the constable of Salem at this time :-
You are required, by Vertue hereof, to fearch in all fufpicious Houfes for Private Meetings; and if they refufe to open the Doors, you are to break open the Door upon them, and return the Names of all ye find to Ipswich Court.
WILLIAM HATHORNE.
The constable was so eager in his search that, with an axe, he broke open the door of a house wherein they had met, though if he had asked to come in he would have been welcomed. The constable took the names of four of the persons present and sent them to the court at Ipswich. This meeting was probably held on Sunday, Sept. 26, 1658. Bishop says that the court did not desire a large number of the Quakers to be present at one time, be- ing fearful of its effect upon the people. The constable arrested three of the quartette, and took them to the court in Ipswich. These were Samuel Shattuck, Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum. The fourth was Mrs. Ann Needham, who could not be brought, as she was in childbed ?.
1New England Judged, page 78.
2Her daughter Anna was born Aug. 31, 1658.
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The court convened on Tuesday, Sept. 28th, the second day after the meeting. Nicholas Phelps had heard some one say that the Quakers denied magistrates and ministers, and he gave them a paper stating the contrary. The court asked him if he ac- knowledged it as his own view, and he said, "Yea." Then they fined him forty shillings. Simon Bradstreet questioned them about the Trinity, Christ's body, etc. They replied, "Produce your evidences : We defire nothing but a fair Tryal, the Priviledge of Men : We are not afraid nor ashamed to declare what we hold, whether before the court, or elfewhere." They offered before all the people : to have a fair trial by a jury of twelve men, according to law. But this, the court denied. General Denison sarcastically said to them, "That they had left off being Doctors of Divinity, and were turned Lawyers." Joshua Buffum was fined fifteen shillings for being at this Quaker meeting. Then they were sent to the house of correction there to continue in their imprisonment until they gave security to renounce their opinions or removed without the jurisdiction of the colony. Thus they rejoined their neighbors.
Upon his entrance to the jail, Phelps was cruelly whipped, but his physical condition excited no compassion; and within half-an-hour each of the others received ten strokes with a knotted-cord whip. Phelps was whipped three times in five days, ten cruel strokes each time, with a three-fold corded whip, with knots. Added to the horrors of his imprisonment, was the thought of affairs at home, as it was then the harvest season. But his spirit did not waiver.
Oct. 19, 1658, the general court, becoming convinced that the terrible laws which had been enacted were insufficient to stop the preaching of the Quakers, and "for the further prevention of infection and guiding of people in the truth," passed a law banish- ing all persons "favoring the Quakers who after due means of conviction remain obstinate and pertinacious," and Rev. John Norton was requested to speedily undertake to convince them of their errors.
Learning that the Salem Quakers in the Ipswich house of correction would do nothing to effect their release, the general court immediately ordered that they should be brought before them. This was done, and they were all taken to Boston, where they were placed in the prison.
A few days afterward, William Marston of Hampton, who was on his way to Boston, stopped in Salem, and was requested by Lawrence Southwick's children to carry some provisions to their parents, and also their son Josiah's wife to take some things to her husband. Mr. Marston himself was put into the prison,
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and kept fourteen days in a cold room, though he was seventy years of age.
Much endeavor was vainly made to convince and reform the prisoners, by Mr. Norton, and the court then ordered that Samuel Shattock, Lawrence Southwick and his wife Cassandra Southwick, Nicholas Phelps, Joshua Buffum and Josiah South- wick depart out of this jurisdiction before the first day of the next court of election, which if they should neglect or fail to do, they should then be banished under pain of death. Governor Endecott told them "That all deserved to be hanged," and that they were blasphemers and heretics. Shattock's sister Mary Hamor, upon her petition, was allowed by the general court to be permitted to meet him, when he should be brought to Boston, and take him to Rev. Mr. Norton's house for his conversion1.
Under this order they were released from prison, and, return- ing to their homes, cared for their suffering families and farms. The time of their probation was about at an end when, at the ses- sion of the court, May II, 1659, the six were called before it. Governor Endecott charged them with rebelling against the authority of the country in not departing according to order. They answered that they had no other place to go to, and had their wives, children and estates to care for ; nor had they done anything worthy of death, banishment or bonds, or any of the hardships or ignominious punishments which they had suffered in their persons, besides the loss of a large amount of money and property that had been taken to pay fines. Governor Endecott was silenced ; but General Denison made this unanswerable reply, that they stood against the authority of the country in not submitting to its laws ; that "they and the church people are not able well to live together ; at present the power is in our hand, and therefore the strongest must fend off." The sentence of banishment was then pronounced upon them, and only two weeks' time (until June 8th) was al- lowed in which to settle their affairs and bid "good-bye" forever to their families and friends and home.
Lawrence Southwick and his wife, in their old age, parted from their children, and with but little money and few articles, the fines of the court having taken much of their estate, secured a boat and sailed southward along the coast. They finally built a little house on Shelter Island, in Long Island Sound; and there passed the few months of their exile. The privation and exposure that they experienced during the rigorous winter that followed was too severe for their aged and weakened bodies, and both died in the following spring, his wife surviving him three days.
1Massachusetts Archives, volume 17, leaf 3.
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Josiah Southwick and Joshua Buffum also went to Shelter Island. They returned into the colony more than two years later, and Josiah Southwick was discovered in Boston soon after- ward, and taken into custody. He was kept in the Boston jail nine weeks, and then the court of assistants, Sept. 9, 1661, ordered that he be tied to a cart's tail, stripped above his waist and whipped out of Boston with ten stripes, and then with ten stripes through Roxbury, and then to be delivered to the constable of Dedham, who was ordered to whip him ten stripes out of the jurisdiction of the colony. Southwick said to the court: "Here is my body; if you want a further testimony to the truth I profess, take it and tear it in pieces ; your sentence is no more terrifying to me than if you had taken a feather and blown it in the air." He was whipped, not with whip cord, as in England, but of dried intestines of animals, of such as bass-viol strings are made, and with three knots at the end, which the constable laid on with both hands, producing most violent torture. Twenty-six miles of scourging that day, and then the constable left him in the wilderness fifteen miles from any town. His back was plowed, and his flesh torn and beaten. But some friends had followed and assisted him to his home, more that thirty-five miles that night, making in all more than sixty miles of travel that day and night, probably with- out food or drink. His friends had one horse between them, and he undoubtedly rode on horseback in the night.
Samuel Shattuck and Nicholas Phelps took advantage of an opportunity to sail for England, four days later, with the intention of laying the whole matter before parliament. They returned to- gether, but Mr. Phelps, being weak in body, after some time died. His mother, Mrs. Eleanor Trusler, had died in 1655, and her sons Henry and Nicholas Phelps inherited her farm in West Pea- body, where, at the house thereon, the first meeting of the Friends had been held. Nicholas Phelps' half of the house and lands were taken for the payment of fines. Batter, the treasurer, apparently turned it over to Nicholas Phelps' brother Henry, who owned the other half interest, Henry having married Batter's sister; and, July 18, 1664, Henry sold the entire estate to Joseph Pope.
On the day that Lawrence Southwick and his wife and friends were sentenced to banishment, at the suggestion of Cap- tain Hathorne, the county treasurer was authorized to sell their younger children, Daniel, aged twenty-two, and Provided, aged eighteen, to the English in Virginia or Barbadoes1. This was because these young people could not pay the heavy fines imposed
1John G. Whittier wrote a poem upon this subject, entitled "Cassandra Southwick," having substituted the name of her mother in place of Provided Southwick, as her mother's was a more poetic name.
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upon them "for siding with the Quakers, and absenting them- selves from public ordinances," and as a means of satisfaction of the fines. But no one would have anything to do with the propo- sition, and they were released. The records of the quarterly court held at Ipswich May 10, 1660, stated: "Provided Suth- wicke, upon proof of her contemptuous carriage at Salem to the great disturbance of the peace. The court sets a fine on her of forty shillings and to abide in prison until she have paid it and the fine set by Salem court or other course be taken to sell her for the payment there of according to law and fees of court." But neither was Provided Southwick sold under this decree.
While Lawrence Southwick and his associates were preparing to take their final leave of everything worth remaining for, Wil- liam Brend, the Quaker preacher, who had found a sympathetic and receptive friend in Southwick when he first came to America, had, regardless of his banishment, apparently returned to bid his friends "Good-bye," so little regard had he for physical conse- quences. He was arrested and placed in prison, and ordered by the general court to be released on the sixteenth of May, and be out of the jurisdiction within two days thereafter, on penalty of death1.
He returned to England, and, in 1662, he was one of the hundreds of Friends confined in loathsome Newgate prison. He died at the age of ninety ; and the following is the record of his burial : "William Brend, of the Liberty of Katherine's, near the Tower, a minister, died Seventh mo., Seventh, 1676, and was buried at Bunhill Fields." Twelve years later, the remains of John Bunyan, the celebrated author of "Pilgrim's Progress," were laid in the same burial place.
The beautiful spirit of this venerable pilgrim is shown in his writings, in one of which, written in prison, he says, "It hath been upon my heart, when in the sweet repose of the streams of my Father's love and life, by which my heart hath been overcome, to visit you with a loving salutation from the place of my outward bonds. Oh, in the love and life of the Lamb, look over all weakness in one another, as God doth look over all the weakness in every one of us, and doth love us for his own Son's sake-in so doing peace will abound in our borders, it will flow forth amongst us like a river, and it will keep out jars, strifes and con- tentions."
William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson were two preachers of the Friends, and they were arrested and imprisoned. After being flogged they were released and banished. They came
1Massachusetts Bay Colony Records, volume IV, part I, page 371.
.
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to Salem, where they remained awhile. Daniel Gould wrote that he overtook them at Salem, where they had a meeting in the woods (West Peabody), as people were afraid to have meetings in their homes. There was a "great flocking" to it to hear; "And the Lord was mightily with them, and they spoke of the things of God boldly, to the affecting and tendering of the hearts of many." The three then went to Piscataqua and its neighborhood, "in the service of the Lord," and found the people friendly as they went. They returned to Boston, the party numbering ten or twelve besides Robinson and Stephenson, and were all put into prison. Gould received thirty stripes, being tied to a gun car- riage, and two men and three women were also whipped at the same time, ten stripes each. They were in an upper room, and Robinson spoke from the window to the crowd without, who were eager to hear. The people were ordered to disperse, but being a large number they would not go; and so James Oliver, the captain, "hauled" some of the prisoners down the stairs to a low dark "cub" solitary place. The Friends bade goodbye to and embraced the two preachers as the soldiers took them away to the place of execution.
Mary Dyer, formerly of Boston, but then of Rhode Island, had been banished with Robinson and Stephenson, "for their re- bellion, sedition, and presumptuous obtruding themselves upon us, notwithstanding their being sentenced to banishment on paine of death, as underminers of this government, etc.," were brought before the general court Oct. 19, 1659, and returned to the prison without action, the next day being again brought in and sentenced to die, by hanging on the seventh day thereafter.1 On the twenty-seventh, one hundred soldiers, completely armed with pikes, and musketeers with powder and bullet, under command of Captain Oliver, were ordered to lead them to the place of exe- cution and see them hang "till they be dead." Reverends Zachariah Symmes and John Norton were ordered to repair to the prison and tender their endeavors to make the prisoners sen- sible of their approaching dangers, and prepare them for their end.
Thirty-six of the soldiers were ordered to remain in and about the town as sentinels to preserve peace while the rest went to the execution; and the selectmen of Boston were required by the general court to impress ten or twelve able and faithful persons every night during the sitting of the court "to watch with great care the towne, especially the prison." The general court became very much alarmed over its acts, fearing the people, and a state- ment was printed and distributed by it and written into the records
1New England Judged, by George Bishop, page 12I.
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to excuse or "vindicate" it.1 This was prepared by Rev. John Norton, to whom the general court, November 12th, voted its thanks "for his great paines and worthy labors in the tractate he drew up, and by order of this Court hath been printed, wherein the dangerous errors of the Quakers is fully refuted and dis- covered," and also five hundred acres of land, "as a small re- compence for his paines therein."
Upon the arrest of Robinson and Stephenson, there followed them to Boston Alice Cowland (Couland) "who came to bring linen wherein to wrap the dead bodies of them who were to suffer," and Daniel Gold, William King, Mrs. Hannah Phelps (wife of Nicholas Phelps, who was banished), Mrs. Mary Trask (wife of Henry Trask) and Mrs. Margaret Smith (wife of John Smith and daughter of Robert Buffum), all of Salem, came to- gether to "accompany those who should suffer." Provided Southwick came with them to see her sister, who was then in the prison, and they were all put into the prison. So the prison began to fill.
At the time appointed, the three victims went hand in hand to the place of the execution. After the men had been hung, Mrs. Dyer mounted the ladder, and the rope was placed about her neck and the hood adjusted. She expected every moment to be launched into eternity, but she did not know that her son had secured a reprieve of two days that she might depart from the territory of the colony. She was returned to the prison, sorely disappointed, as she had expected to immediately meet her Savior face to face. She went to Rhode Island, but returned the next May, and was executed June Ist.
When the bodies of Robinson and Stephenson became rigid, instead of taking them down, the rope was cut and the bodies fell to the ground, and in the case of one of them the skull was frac- tured. Their shirts were ripped off with a knife, and their naked bodies were unceremoniously cast into a hole, which was dug in the open field. Friends of the dead wanted to take the bodies away, but the executioner refused to allow it, but did permit the bodies to be wrapped in linen. Water ran into the pit, and so nature, as though sympathetic, covered the remains. Thus was verified the prophecy of the Son of God: "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me."2
'This "Vindication" is printed in full in the records of the court, volume IV, part I, pages 385-390.
"John 15: 2, 3.
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Edward Wharton of Salem, a glazier, who lived on the south side of Essex Street and on the easterly corner of Higginson Place, being the house next to the meeting house, was a Quaker before the persecution became severe, and as it developed he grew in faith and adherence to the principles of the Friends. Once, when he was about to be scourged by the constable, Philip Crom- well, who was a slaughterer, Wharton asked him how he, who had been his near neighbor, could treat him so, he answered, "He must needs go that the devil drives."1 He, also, had accompanied the preachers Robinson and Stephenson from town to town in their journeys between Salem and the Piscataqua River; and four days after their execution he was arrested at Salem and im- prisoned in the jail in Boston. November 3d, he was whipped twenty-four lashes.
At the session of the general court, which convened Oct. 18th, and at which Robinson and Stephenson were sentenced to death, Christopher Holder, who had been banished and had gone to England, was now returned to New England. He was arrested and placed in the jail in Boston and at this session of the court sentenced to banishment on pain of death and ordered to leave the colony within three days after his release from confinement. He was whipped on the twenty-second of the month.
Daniel Gold, William King, Mrs. Margaret Smith, Mrs. Mary Trask, Provided Southwick and Mrs. Hannah Phelps were arrested and committed to prison in Boston, and, Nov. 12, 1659, they were brought before the general court. King was about twenty-six years old, and lived on the western side of Bass River (now in Beverly) about sixty rods southerly from the upper end of the river, where Mckay Street is now located. These persons were confined, so the record says, "for adherence to the cursed sect of the Quakers, . not disowning the same, nor their submission to the order here established, either in church or com- monwealth, their disorderly practices and vagabond like life in absenting themselves from their family relations and run- ning from place to place." Mrs. Phelps was admonished, Gold to be whipped with thirty stripes, King fifteen, and Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Trask and Provided Southwick, ten each. Daniel Gold was order- ed to depart from this jurisdiction within five days. The others were committed to prison. Gold, shorn of his clothes, was tied to the wheel of a great gun, his skin stripped from his back and his flesh beaten on his bones. The women remained in jail until friends paid the jailer's fees. William King, Mrs. Phelps, Mrs.
"This is what the clown said, in Shakespeare's play, "All's Well that Ends Well," scene III, and is probably an old English saying. George Peele, the earlier English dramatist, also used the same saying.
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Smith, Mrs. Trask and Provided Southwick were released soon after.
A Quaker meeting was held, in February, 1659-60, at Whar- ton's house, next the meeting house, while the church services were going on. This was certainly audacious and courageous. At least, William King, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Trask and Provided Southwick were there and were arrested. Provided Southwick was committed to the Ipswich house of correction, but the others were imprisoned in Boston. Mrs. Trask had three children at home, respectively seven, five and three years of age. Through her husband's pleading with Governor Endecott, she was allowed to go home for two months the succeeding summer. Mrs. Smith's husband, John Smith, was arrested for speaking at the ordination of Rev. John Higginson, August 29th, and eight days later was brought to the Boston jail. Joseph Nicholson and his wife Jane, who was great with child, came to Salem about March 18, 1659-60, and John Southwick took them into his house. April 3d, the se- lectmen fined him twenty shillings a week thereafter while she remained in the town. They were Quakers, and May 30th were banished from the colony on pain of death, being ordered to depart by the next Wednesday. They could not secure passage to England, to which place the general court permitted them to go.
A letter1, written from the jail in Boston, by John Smith to his wife's brother Joshua Buffium, and dated Nov. 4, 1660, states that William Ledra, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson, Edward Wharton, Mrs. Trask and William King were with the writer and his wife in the Boston jail. The following is a copy of this letter :-
Joshua Buffum dear brother this is to let thee understand and all friends with thee how many of us ar hear in prison at this time.
Nicholas Upshall he hath ben hear forteen months or thereabout being formerly banished upon his returning for to remain in prison all his lif time as they say. William Lidra who being banished at the Cort of Assizes on the 7 month who was returning after some time to visit us hear in prison was apprehended before he came to us and carried before the Governor and so sent to the prison. And Joseph Nichoson and his wife and child who came to take passage to go for Ingland who was had before the cort and his liberty granted to go away and a boat pressed to cary him on bord the ship at Nantasket the master of the ship refused to cary him came up to Boston again and went before the Governor desired to have prison room or some other privit hous to be in till there was another opportunity to go. William Lidra was called forth also and demanded whether he would go for Ingland he answered he had no occasion to go for Ingland therefore could not go they said he should go somewher else then
1This letter is in the possession of Mrs. Mary Cassandra Hodges of New York City.
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he asked whither som answered to the gallows so he was brought to the prison again and hear both remain. Hear is Edward Wharton who was brought to the prison the latter end of the 3 month or thereabout for not going to ther meeting as they call it. John Chamberlen one of the town of Boston imprisoned the latter end of the 3 month for de- claring against the minister of Charlston in publick as they call it. Her is Robert Harper and his wife imprisoned for coming to visit us hear in prison the 26 of the 8 month or therebout. My wife and Mary Traske imprisoned the 12 day of the 12 month 1659 and hear kept ever since only Mary Traske was at home 2 months of the time or therabout through her husbands pleding with the Governor who was imprisoned both of them for meeting at Edward Whartons house near the meeting hous and for making disturbance before they had done as they say being moved of the lord to speak not knowing but that it was don. William King imprisoned at the sam tim was banished and departed to Rod Iland not long after for the sam thing. Provided Southwick imprisoned also for the sam meting in Ipswich prison and let out the county cort at Ipswich to answer at Sallem Cort on the 9 month and I was put in prison for making a disturbanc on the day of ordination as they say being moved of the lord to declare against them therein imprisoned the 6 of the 7 month 1660 and hear now must remain al winter for ought we know. Only Joseph Nichoson and his wife it is lik shall pass to Ingland when oportunity is.
Wrighten in the hous of correction
the 4 day of the 9 month 1660.
From the dear brother in the [Lord ?] JOHN SMITH Arraigned and in prison.
[Indorsed :]
For the hands of Joshua Buffum at Shelter Island or elsewhere.
There are a number of letters which were written by the missionaries, and a joint letter by Mary Traske and Margaret Smith to Governor Endecott, dated at Boston, Dec. 21, 1660. This is found in the Massachusetts Archives, volume 10, leaf 267. All these letters are printed in New England Judged.
Sometimes, though not often, as it was resourceless, the Quakers complained to the court of indignities done to them. John Kitchen's1 wife Elizabeth had Edward Batter presented be- fore the Salem court June 26, 1660, for publicly slandering her. John Ward and Thomas Meekins, two young men, with Batter and two of the constables, Philip Cromwell and Thomas Roots, were going along the road near Strongwater brook, one morning, and met Mrs. Kitchen and a man, riding on a horse. Batter and Roots took hold of the bridle and told Mrs. Kitchen to get off the
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