Born: July 20, 1591, Alford, Lincolnshire, England
Died: August or September 1643,
Pelham Bay, New York [U.S.]
Anne Hutchinson was an American religious reformer, born Anne Marbury in Alford, England. In 1612, she married William Hutchinson, bore him 14 children, and following the lead of their firstborn son, immigrated with her family in 1634 to the Massachusetts Bay Colony at Boston. There, her gentle nature and exceptional powers of mind brought her a large following. At meetings that she organized among Boston women, and that many leaders of the community later attended, she preached a doctrine of salvation realized through the intuition of God’s indwelling in grace. Appearing to eliminate the need for the externals of institutionalized belief and law, her teachings were considered an attack on the rigid moral and legal codes of the Puritans of New England, as well as the authority of the Massachusetts clergy. Because of this, she caused a great political controversy in the colony, and strong partisanship arose on both sides. Many of her supporters deserted her when the governor, Sir Henry Vane, who favoured her cause, lost his office to her staunch opponent, the colonial leader John Winthrop. In 1637, she was tried by the General Court of Massachusetts, presided over by Winthrop, on the charge of “traducing the ministers” (such ministers as the brilliant preacher John Cotton). The trial was a travesty of justice; Hutchinson was found guilty, excommunicated, and banished from the colony. She moved with her husband and family to the island of Aquidneck (now part of Rhode Island) and after the death of her husband settled in what is now Pelham Bay, the Bronx, New York. Hutchinson and all but one member of her family were killed in an attack by Native Americans in August 1643.
