Hutchinson's Legal Woes: What Laws Were Broken?

Anne Hutchinson was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy, which shook the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious declarations were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in Boston, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened the Puritan religious community in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters.

Hutchinson was accused of two heresies: antinomianism and familism. Antinomianism, in a theological context, means that the moral law is not binding upon Christians, who are under the law of grace. Familism was named for a 16th-century sect called the Family of Love and involved a perfect union with God under the Holy Spirit. Hutchinson was also blamed for causing tension that led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. However, there is no clear indication of the specific laws that she broke.

Hutchinson's involvement in the Antinomian Controversy

Anne Hutchinson was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and a key figure in the history of religious freedom in England's American colonies. She was also an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy, which shook the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638.

Hutchinson was a parishioner and admirer of John Cotton, a Puritan minister in Boston, England. She and her husband followed him to the new Boston, where they were admitted to membership in the First Church. Hutchinson was exceptionally intelligent, learned, and eloquent, and soon began to share her opinions on Cotton's sermons. She caused turmoil by reinterpreting the clerical doctrine of the covenant of grace. The standard view held that the elect entered a covenant with God on the condition of their believing in Christ, in return for which God contracted to give them salvation. Hutchinson declared that this put too much emphasis on works and denied the fundamental Protestant tenet of salvation by faith alone. She preached that the believer received the Holy Ghost and that conduct as a sign of justification had no value.

Hutchinson's teachings were seen as a form of "Antinomianism", or a discarding of the moral law. She made matters worse by accusing all the clergy except Cotton of preaching a covenant of works, so that it began to be as common in Massachusetts to distinguish the party of works and the party of grace "as in other countries between Protestants and papists." Thus, she threatened to split the colony into factions, particularly when she was supported by her brother-in-law, the Reverend John Wheelwright, and the new young governor, Henry Vane.

The other clergy and magistrates believed that the existence of the whole colony was at stake. They regained control of the government in May 1637, then proceeded to disarm Hutchinson's partisans and suppress the movement. Hutchinson was examined by a synod of the ministers, which found her guilty of eighty erroneous opinions. John Cotton publicly repudiated her, and she was excommunicated from the First Church in March 1638, before being banished from the colony.

Hutchinson and her supporters established the settlement of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, with encouragement from Providence Plantations founder Roger Williams. Hutchinson is a central figure in the Antinomian Controversy, which was a crucial episode in the early colonial history of New England.

Hutchinson's banishment from Massachusetts

Anne Hutchinson was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637, following a trial in which she was accused of "traducing [slandering] the ministers". The trial was presided over by Governor John Winthrop, who, along with John Cotton, had become a vocal opponent of Hutchinson and her increasingly popular religious teachings.

Hutchinson was a Puritan spiritual advisor and religious reformer, who, through her preaching, garnered the disapproval of the elders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hutchinson's teachings were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity helped create a theological schism that threatened the Puritan religious community in New England. She believed that heaven was open to those who worshipped God through a personal connection, without the need for any church intervention. This view was in direct violation of Puritan doctrine and church structure. Hutchinson also preached that behaviour, and therefore sin, did not affect whether someone went to heaven, which was also contrary to Puritan doctrine.

Hutchinson's trial lasted two days, during which she performed well when challenged on her Biblical knowledge. However, her final argument sealed her fate. In a lengthy statement, she recounted speaking directly with God and concluded with a prophecy that the court and the colony would be ruined in retribution for their persecution of her. The men saw this as a challenge to their authority, and Hutchinson was proclaimed a heretic. She and her family were banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and any supporters in positions of authority were removed. All supporters were forced to surrender their arms, and Hutchinson was placed under house arrest until the winter ended.

In March 1638, Hutchinson, along with 30 other families, left for the island of Aquidneck in the Rhode Island territory, where they founded Portsmouth.

Hutchinson's trial and conviction

Anne Hutchinson was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy, which shook the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious formal declaration was at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened the Puritan religious community in New England.

Hutchinson's gatherings were seen as unorthodox by some of the colony's ministers, and differing religious opinions within the colony eventually became public debates. The resulting religious tension erupted into what has traditionally been called the Antinomian Controversy, but has more recently been labelled the Free Grace Controversy. Hutchinson was accused of two heresies in the Puritan church: antinomianism and familism. Antinomianism means "against or opposed to the law" and, in a theological context, means "the moral law is not binding upon Christians, who are under the law of grace." Familism was named for a 16th-century sect called the Family of Love and involved a perfect union with God under the Holy Spirit. Hutchinson was also blamed for causing a schism in the church and was seen as a threat to the stability of the colony.

Hutchinson was brought to trial on 7 November 1637, and Governor John Winthrop presided over it. She was charged with "traducing [slandering] the ministers" and "troubling the peace of the commonwealth and churches" by promoting and divulging opinions that had divided the community and continuing to hold meetings at her home despite a recent synod that had condemned them. The court found it difficult to charge Hutchinson because she had never spoken her opinions in public, nor had she ever signed any statements about them. However, the remainder of the trial was spent on the charge of her making disparaging remarks about the colony's ministers, and six ministers presented written versions of a recent conference to support this. Hutchinson's defence was that she had spoken reluctantly and in private.

Hutchinson was ultimately found guilty and was banished from the colony with many of her supporters. Following her civil trial, she was put under house arrest and ordered to leave by the end of the following March. She was frequently visited by ministers during this time, who attempted to reform her thinking and also collected evidence against her. She was called to another trial on 15 March 1638, which took place at her home church in Boston. The ministers intended to defend their orthodox doctrine and examine Hutchinson's theological errors. After a nine-hour interrogation, they concluded that Hutchinson's unsound beliefs outweighed all the good she had done and that she endangered the spiritual welfare of the community. She was instructed to return in one week and, during this time, she wrote out a formal recantation of her unsound opinions. However, when she returned, she would not acknowledge that she had held certain theological errors before her imprisonment, and she was accused of lying. She was sentenced to banishment and removed from the congregation.

Hutchinson's political opponents

Anne Hutchinson was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy, which shook the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious views were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened the Puritan religious community in New England.

Hutchinson's gatherings were seen as unorthodox and her differing religious opinions became public debates, erupting into what became known as the Antinomian Controversy. She was eventually tried and convicted, and banished from the colony with many of her supporters.

Hutchinson's opponents included Reverend Zechariah Symmes, who sailed to New England on the same ship as the Hutchinsons and doubted her orthodoxy based on questions she asked him following his shipboard sermons. This delayed her membership of the Boston church by a week.

Senior pastor John Wilson, whose teachings Hutchinson found disagreeable, and with whom she refused to align herself. She told her followers that he lacked "the seal of the Spirit".

Thomas Shepard, the minister of Newtown, who began writing letters to John Cotton as early as the spring of 1636, expressing concern about Cotton's preaching and some of the unorthodox opinions of his Boston parishioners.

Governor John Winthrop, who presided over Hutchinson's trial, during which she was charged with "traducing [slandering] the ministers", "troubling the peace of the commonwealth and churches", and continuing to hold meetings at her home.

Deputy governor Thomas Dudley, who stepped in to assist Winthrop in the prosecution of Hutchinson.

Magistrate Simon Bradstreet, who said that Hutchinson "would make the ministers sin if they said something mistaken under oath".

Hutchinson's role in the American Revolution

Thomas Hutchinson was a prominent figure in the years leading up to the American Revolution, serving as governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. A successful merchant and politician, Hutchinson was a polarising figure, identified as a supporter of unpopular British taxes. He was also blamed by the British Prime Minister, Lord North, as a significant contributor to the tensions that led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

Hutchinson's political career began in 1737, when he was elected as a Boston selectman. He went on to hold a series of posts, including chief justice of the Superior Court of Judicature and lieutenant governor of the state. Hutchinson was a supporter of royal and parliamentary authority, and his Boston mansion was ransacked in 1765 during protests against the Stamp Act. He was appointed governor in 1771, but his attempts to work out an imperial policy that could accommodate London's control and the radicals' resistance to parliamentary oversight failed.

Hutchinson's role in the lead-up to the American Revolution was complex. He was a Loyalist, prioritising his loyalty to Great Britain over his love for Massachusetts, and his actions contributed to colonial unrest. He was replaced as governor by General Thomas Gage in 1774 and went into exile in England, where he advised the British government on its dealings with the colonists.

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