Massachusetts -- Church history; Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Puritans -- Massachusetts
But, as Endicott told the Browns, when he shipped them to England,
because their practice in adhering to their Episcopal orders tended to
“mutiny,” “New England was no place for such as they.” One by one they
had gone,--the Browns first, and afterward William Blackstone, who had
found it best to leave Boston because he could not join the church; and
now the pressure on Maverick began to make him restive. Though he had
been admitted a freeman in the early days, he was excluded from all
offices of importance; he was taxed to support a church of which he
disapproved, yet was forced to attend, though it would not baptize his
children; and he was so suspected that, in March, 1635, he had been
ordered to remove to Boston, and was forbidden to lodge strangers
for more than one night without leave from a magistrate. Under such
circumstances he could not but sympathize with Vassal in his effort
to win for all men equal rights before the law. Next after him in
consequence was Dr. Robert Childe, who had taken a degree at Padua, and
who, though not a freeman, had considerable interests in the country,--a
man of property and standing. There were five more signers of the
petition: Thomas Burton, John Smith, David Yale, Thomas Fowle, and John
Dand, but they do not require particular notice. They prayed that “civil
liberty and freedome be forthwith granted to all truly English, equall
to the rest of their countrymen, as in all plantations is accustomed to
be done, and as all free-borne enjoy in our native country.... Further
that none of the English nation ... be banished unlesse they break the
known lawes of England.... We therefore humbly intreat you, in whose
hands it is to help ... for the glory of God ... to give liberty to the
members of the churches of England not scandalous in their lives ...
to be taken into your congregations, and to enjoy with you all those
liberties and ordinances Christ hath purchased for them, and into
whose name they are baptized... or otherwise to grant liberty to settle
themselves here in a church way according to the best reformations of
England and Scotland. If not, we and they shall be necessitated to apply
our humble desires to the Honorable Houses of Parliament.” [Footnote:
_New Eng. Jonas_, Marvin’s ed. pp. 13-15.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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