The congregation of dissenters collected by the three missionaries before mentioned from Massachusetts, amounted in 1648 to one hundred and eighteen members. They encountered the continual opposition of the colonial authorities. Mr. Durand, their elder, had already been banished by the governor; and in the course of this year their pastor, Harrison, being ordered to depart, retired to New England. On his arrival there he represented that many of the Virginia council were favorably disposed toward the introduction of Puritanism, and that "one thousand of the people, by conjecture, were of a similar mind."[211:D] The members of the council at that time were Captain John West, Richard Kempe, secretary, Captain William Brocas, Captain Thomas Pettus, Captain William Bernard, Captain Henry Browne, and Mr. George Ludlow. When the prevalence of Puritanism in the mother country is considered, and the numerous ties of interest and consanguinity that connected it with the colony, the estimate of the number favorably disposed toward Puritanism does not appear improbable. John Hammond afterwards gave an account of the proceedings against the Puritans in Virginia.[212:A] According to him, during the reign of Charles the First, Virginia "was wholly for monarchy." A congregation of people calling themselves Independents having organized a church, (probably in Nansemond County,) and daily increasing, several consultations were held by the authorities of the colony how to suppress and extinguish them. At first their pastor was banished, next their other teachers, then many were confined in prison; next they were generally disarmed, which was a very harsh measure in such a country, where they were surrounded by the Indian savages; lastly, the non-conformists were put in a condition of banishment, so that they knew not how in those straits to dispose of themselves. The leader in this persecution, according to Hammond, was Colonel Samuel Matthews, member of the council in 1643, and subsequently agent for Virginia to the parliament. A number of these dissenters having gained the consent of Lord Baltimore and his deputy governor of Maryland, retired to that colony, and settled there. Among these, one of the principal was Richard Bennet, a merchant and a Roundhead. For a time these refugees prospered and remained apparently content with their new place of abode; and others, induced by their example, likewise removed thither.