Massachusetts -- Church history; Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Puritans -- Massachusetts
1657, 14 Oct. By a supplementary act; Quakers returning after one
conviction for first offence, for men, loss of one ear; imprisonment
till exile. Second offence, loss other ear, like imprisonment. For
females; first offence, whipping, imprisonment. Second offence, idem.
Third offence, men and women alike; tongue to be bored with a hot iron,
imprisonment, exile. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 309.]
1658. In this year Rev. John Norton actively exerted himself to secure
more stringent legislation; procured petition to that effect to be
presented to court.
1658, 19 Oct. Enacted that undomiciled Quakers returning from banishment
should be hanged. Domiciled Quakers upon conviction, refusing to
apostatize, to be banished, under pain of death on return. [Footnote:
_Idem_, p. 346.]
Under this act the following persons were hanged:
1659, 27 Oct. Robinson and Stevenson hanged.
1660, 1 June. Mary Dyer hanged. (Previously condemned, reprieved, and
executed for returning.)
1660-1661, 14 Mar. William Leddra hanged.
1661, June. Wenlock Christison condemned to death; released.
1661, 22 May. Vagabond Act. Any person convicted before a county
magistrate of being an undomiciled or vagabond Quaker to be stripped
naked to the middle, tied to the cart’s tail, and flogged from town to
town to the border. Domiciled Quakers to be proceeded against under Act
of 1658 to banishment, and then treated as vagabond Quakers. The death
penalty was still preserved but not enforced. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._
vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 3.]
1661, 9 Sept. King Charles II. wrote to Governor Endicott directing the
cessation of corporal punishment in regard to Quakers, and ordering the
accused to be sent to England for trial.
1661. 27 Nov. Vagabond Act suspended.
1662. 28 June. The company’s agents, Bradstreet and Norton, received
from the king his letter of pardon, etc., wherein, however, Quakers are
excepted from the demand made for religious toleration.
1662, 8 Oct. Encouraged by the above letter the Vagabond law revived.
1664-5, 15 March. Death of John Endicott. Bellingham governor.
Commissioners interfere on behalf of Quakers in May. The persecution
subsides.
1672, 3 Nov. Persecution revived by passage of law punishing persons
found at Quaker meeting by fine or imprisonment and flogging. Also
fining constables for neglect in making arrests and giving one third the
fine to informers. [Footnote: _Mass. Rec._ v. 60.]
1677, Aug. 9. Margaret Brewster whipped for entering the Old South in
sackcloth.
TURBULENT QUAKERS.
1656, Mary Prince. 1662, Deborah Wilson.
1658, Sarah Gibbons. 1663, Thomas Newhouse.
“ Dorothy Waugh. “ Edward Wharton.
1660, John Smith. 1664, Hannah Wright. [Footnote: Uncertain.]
1661, Katherine Chatham. “ Mary Tomkins.
“ George Wilson. 1665, Lydia Wardwell.
1662, Elizabeth Hooton. 1677, Margaret Brewster.
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