ELISABETH HOOTON. Although Charles II. had by his Mandamus issued in 1661 obtained some remission of the cruelties practised against the Quakers in Massachusetts, he appears to have quickly repented his clemency, for in an Order in Council, issued 28th of June, 1662, after acknowledging the receipt of an Address from that Colony and confirming the Patent and Charter granted by his father, he continues: And as the principal end of their Charter was liberty of conscience His Majesty requires that those who desire to perform their devotions according to the Book of Common Prayer be not denied the exercise thereof nor undergo any predjudice thereby and that all persons of good and honest lives be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the Book of Common Prayer and their children to Baptism. We cannot be understood hereby to direct or wish that any indulgence should be granted to those persons commonly called Quakers, whose principles being inconsistent with any kind of Government, we have found it necessary, by the advice of our Parliament, here to make a sharp Law against them and are well contented that you do the like there. Undeterred by the prospect of further persecution and the improbability of the King again intervening on behalf of the Quakers, Elizabeth Hooton once more believed herself called of the Lord to visit New England. This time she carried with her a licence from the King “to purchase land in any of his plantations beyond the seas.” One cannot help suspecting that King Charles, wearied with her importunities, had hit upon this method of ridding himself of the necessity of an enquiry into the high-handed proceedings of the Leicestershire magistrates, of which she had so vigourously complained, and that it would be a matter of perfect indifference to him whether she succeeded in making good the purchase in the Boston Courts, or not. Fortunately, again, the account of her journey and her sufferings can be given in her own words. She says:[75] Afterwards was J moved of yᵉ Lord & called by his spᵗ to goe to New England againe, & tooke wᵗʰ me my Daughter to beare there my 2ᵈ Testimony, where when yᵉ persecutoʳˢ understood J was come they would have fined yᵉ ships Mʳ 100ˡⁱ, but yᵗ he told them J had been wᵗʰ yᵉ King & thither was J come to buy an house so stopped them from seizing on his goods, when J had been a while in yᵉ Country among ffriends, then came J up to Boston to buy an house & went to their Courts 4 times but they denied it me in open Court by James Oliver, who was one of their chief a persecutor, so J told yᵐ yᵗ if they denyed me an house yᵉ King having promised us libertie in any of his plantaçons beyond yᵉ Sea then might J goe to England & lay it before yᵉ King if God was pleased.