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ANNE HUTCHINSON (c. 1600-1643)

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 12 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANNE See also:HUTCHINSON (c. 1600-1643)  , See also:American religious enthusiast, See also:leader of the " See also:Antinomians " in New See also:England, was See also:born in See also:Lincolnshire, England, about 1600 . She was the daughter of a clergyman named See also:Francis Marbury, and, according to tradition, was a See also:cousin of See also:John See also:Dryden . She married See also:William See also:Hutchinson, and in 1634 emigrated to See also:Boston, See also:Massachusetts, as a follower and admirer of the Rev . John See also:Cotton . Her orthodoxy was suspected and for a See also:time she was not admitted to the See also:church, but soon she organized meetings among the Boston See also:women, among whom her exceptional ability and her services as a See also:nurse had given her See also:great See also:influence; and at these meetings she discussed and commented upon See also:recent sermons and gave expression to her own theological views . The meetings became increasingly popular, and were soon attended not only by the women buteven by some of the ministers and magistrates, including See also:Governor See also:Henry See also:Vane . At these meetings she asserted that she, Cotton and her See also:brother-in-See also:law, the Rev . John Wheelwright—whom she was trying to make second " teacher " in the Boston church—were under a " See also:covenant of See also:grace," that they had a See also:special See also:inspiration, a " See also:peculiar indwelling of the See also:Holy See also:Ghost," whereas the Rev . John See also:Wilson, the pastor of the Boston church, and the other ministers of the See also:colony were under a " covenant of See also:works." See also:Anne Hutchinson was, in fact, voicing a protest against the legalism of the Massachusetts Puritans, and was also striking at the authority of the See also:clergy in an intensely theocratic community . In such a community a theological controversy inevitably was carried into See also:secular politics, and the entire colony was divided into factions . Mrs Hutchinson was supported by Governor Vane, Cotton, Wheelwright and the great See also:majority of the Boston church; opposed to her were See also:Deputy-Governor John See also:Winthrop, Wilson and all of the See also:country magistrates and churches . At a See also:general fast, held See also:late in See also:January 1637, Wheelwright preached a See also:sermon which was taken as a See also:criticism of Wilson and his See also:friends .

The strength of the parties was tested at the General See also:

Court of See also:Election of May 1637, when Winthrop defeated Vane for the governorship . Cotton recanted, Vane re-turned to England in disgust, Wheelwright was tried and banished and the See also:rank and See also:file either followed Cotton in making sub-See also:mission or suffered various See also:minor punishments . Mrs Hutchinson was tried (See also:November 1637) by the General Court chiefly for " traducing the ministers," and was sentenced to banishment; later, in See also:March 1638, she was tried before the Boston church and was formally excommunicated . With William Coddington (d . 1678), John See also:Clarke and others, she established a See also:settlement on the See also:island of Aquidneck (now Rhode Island) in 1638 . Four years later, after the See also:death of her See also:husband, she settled on See also:Long Island See also:Sound near what is now New Rochelle, Westchester See also:county, New See also:York, and was killed in an See also:Indian rising in See also:August 1643, an event regarded .in Massachusetts as a manifestation of Divine See also:Providence . Anne Hutchinson and her followers were called " Antinomians," probably more as a See also:term of reproach than with any special reference to her doctrinal theories; and the controversy in which she was involved is known as the " Antinomian Controversy." See C . F . See also:Adams, Antinomianism in the Colony of Massachusetts See also:Bay, vol. xiv. of the See also:Prince Society Publications (Boston, 1894) ; and Three Episodes of Massachusetts See also:History (Boston and New York, 1896) .

End of Article: ANNE HUTCHINSON (c. 1600-1643)
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