Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
History
Curiosities of History: Boston, September Seventeenth, 1630-1880
Wheildon, William W. (William Willder)
Boston (Mass.) -- Description and travel; Boston (Mass.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
In May, 1664, Edward Wharton, of Salem, being in Boston, a Quaker meeting
was held, when a warrant was issued for his arrest: but the meeting being
over, he was found at a friend's house; was arrested; the next day
whipped, and sent to the constable at Lynn, to be whipped there, and then
sent to Salem. In one instance, a girl, eleven years of age, allowing
herself to be a Quaker, whether she knew what the word meant or not, was
sent to prison, and afterwards brought before the great and dignified
Court. The Court speak of "the malice of Satan and his instruments," and
determine that as "Satan is put to his shifts to make use of such a child,
not being of the years of discretion, it is judged meet so far to slight
her as a Quaker, as only to admonish and instruct her according to her
capacity, and so discharge her." Hutchinson says, "It would have been
horrible, if there had been any further severity."
In 1665, additional laws were made, or orders passed, levying a fine of
ten shillings for attending a Quaker meeting, and five pounds for speaking
at one; and, in the same year, the penalty of death was revived against
all Quakers who should return to the colony after they had been banished.
Some persons ventured to express their dissent with regard to some of
these laws, and, probably owing to their respectability, escaped
punishment; but Nicholas Upsall, who had shown compassion to some Quakers
while in prison, in 1656-57, was fined and banished, and endured
incredible hardships. Three years later, in 1660, he returned, and was
again thrown into prison, and died in 1666.
The laws against Quakers and heretics were published in Boston "with beat
of drum through its streets." We presume they were read after the
town-crier fashion of later days.
In 1677, when the toleration of the Quakers was thought to be one of the
sins which brought on the Indian war, as a punishment, the Court ordered,
"That every person found at a Quaker's meeting shall be apprehended ex
officio, by the constable, and, by warrant from a magistrate or
commissioner, shall be committed to the House of Correction, and there
have the discipline of the house applied to them, and be kept to work,
with bread and water, for three days, and then released, or else shall pay
five pounds in money, as a fine to the country, for such offence, and all
constables neglecting their duty, in not faithfully executing this order,
shall incur the penalty of five pounds, upon conviction, one third thereof
to the informer."
Upon this remarkable order, Hutchinson declares, "I know of nothing which
can be urged as in anywise tending to excuse the severity of this law,
unless it be human infirmity," and, he adds, the practices of other
religious sects who are persuaded that the indulgence of any other "was a
toleration of impiety" and brought down the judgments of heaven. This law
cost the colony many friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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