THE SIXTH BOOK. 1661-1664.
1661.
The year 1661 being come, the government was altogether changed. Charles the Second was now seated on the throne of England in peace, and the power of persecution seemed somewhat restrained; so that there was an appearance of some quiet and calm. Therefore I will now take a turn to New England, to draw back the curtains of the bloody stage at Boston. We have already seen in the foregoing relation, how William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mary Dyar, were put to death by their persecutors, but their blood-thirstiness was not yet quenched.
William Leddra, who was banished from Boston on pain of death, was under such necessity of conscience, that he could not forbear returning thither; where he came about the conclusion of the foregoing year; but was soon taken prisoner, and being fastened to a log of wood, was kept night and day locked in chains, in an open prison, during a very cold winter; where we will leave him for the present, and in the meanwhile insert here an apology of the Boston persecutors concerning their cruel carriage, which may serve to confirm the truth of what hath been already related of their wicked dealings. For it seems, that fearing their bloody deeds would be disapproved by the court of England, they thought it safest for them to gild their transactions with a specious pretence; though this was of no other effect than that thereby they yet more exposed their own shame to public view, and in process of time they also incurred the King’s displeasure; for though Charles the Second was inclined to voluptuousness, yet he was good-natured, and the persecution in his reign proceeded chiefly from the instigation of other malicious men. But to come to the apology or declaration of the bloody persecutors, it was as followeth:
‘Although the justice of our proceedings against Wm. Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mary Dyar, supported by the authority of this court, the laws of this country, and the law of God, may rather persuade us to expect encouragement and commendation from all prudent and pious men, than convince us of any necessity to apologize for the same: yet for as much as men of weaker parts, out of pity and commiseration, a commendable and Christian virtue, yet easily abused, and susceptible of sinister and dangerous impressions, for want of a full information, may be less satisfied; and men of perverser principles, led to calumniate us, and render us as bloody persecutors; to satisfy the one, and stop the mouths of the other, we thought it requisite to declare, about three years since, divers persons professing themselves Quakers, (of whose pernicious opinions and practices we had received intelligence from good hands from Barbadoes and England,) arrived at Boston, whose persons where only secured to be sent away the first opportunity, without censure or punishment, although their professed tenets, turbulent and contemptuous behaviour to authority, would have justified a severer animadversion; yet the prudence of this court was exercised, only in making provision to secure the peace and order here established, against their attempts, whose design, (we were well assured by our own experience, as well as by the example of their predecessors in Munster,) was to undermine and ruin the same.
‘And accordingly a law was made and published, prohibiting all masters of ships, to bring any Quakers into this jurisdiction, and themselves from coming in on penalty of the house of correction, till they should be sent away. Notwithstanding which, by a back door they found entrance, and the penalty inflicted on themselves proving insufficient to restrain their impudent and insolent obtrusions, was increased by the loss of the ears of those who offended the second time; which also being too weak a defence against their impetuous frantic fury, necessitated us to endeavour our security; and upon serious consideration, after the former experiments by their incessant assaults, a law was made, that such persons should be banished upon pain of death, according to the example of England, in their provision against Jesuits; which sentence being regularly pronounced at the last court of assistants, against the parties above named, and they either returning, or continuing presumptuously in this jurisdiction after the time limited, were apprehended, and owning themselves to be the persons banished, were sentenced by the court to death, according to the law aforesaid, which hath been executed upon two of them. Mary Dyar, (upon petition of her son, and the mercy and clemency of this court,) had liberty to depart within two days; which she hath accepted of. The consideration of our gradual proceeding will vindicate us from the clamorous accusations of severity, our own just and necessary defence calling upon us, (other means failing,) to offer the point, which these persons have violently and wilfully rushed upon, and thereby become felons de se; which, might it have been prevented, and the sovereign law, salus populi, been preserved, our former proceedings, as well as the sparing Mary Dyar upon an inconsiderable intercession, will manifestly evince, that we desire their lives absent, rather than their deaths present.
EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary.’
In this apology, wherein the Quakers, (who always were an harmless people, and never made resistance with outward arms,) are compared to the mutinous and riotous Anabaptists of Munster, it is also said of them, that by a back door they found entrance. And this reflects on some who unexpectedly came into New England by land, since they could find no opportunity to come by sea, because the ship-masters fearing the severity of the Boston laws, were unwilling to carry any Quakers thither. This gave occasion to Thomas Thirstone, (who having been already at Boston, was sent away on board a ship,) to think on other means; for finding himself moved in spirit to go thither again, he and Josiah Cole, of whom mention hath been made before, and who may be further spoken of hereafter, went from England to Virginia, from whence they, with one Thomas Chapman, travelled several hundreds of miles on foot through vast wildernesses and woods, and so at length came into New England, which made the persecutors there astonished; for they thought this impossible, that way having been counted impassable for other men than the Indians, many of whom in those parts are warlike men, who behaved themselves well toward our travellers, whose journey however was very hard; for they had not only hunger and cold, it being winter time, to encounter with, but they were also in danger of being devoured by wild beasts, or of perishing in unknown marshes or bogs. But they were preserved by an Almighty hand; though this marvellous passage was represented like a criminal sauciness, by these New England persecutors.
It seems to me that the aforesaid apology, which was published in print, and likewise answered, was given forth before Mary Dyar was put to death; but after her death the general court of Boston sent over an address to king Charles the Second, signed by their governor John Endicot, to justify their cruel proceedings. Herein they said, that they had chosen rather the pure Scripture worship, with a good conscience, in that remote wilderness among the heathen, than the pleasures of England, with subjection to the imposition of the then so disposed, and so far prevailing hierarchy, which they could not do without an evil conscience.
Concerning the Quakers, they said, that they were open capital blasphemers, and seducers from the glorious Trinity, the Lord Christ, the blessed gospel; open enemies to the government itself; and malignant promoters of doctrines directly tending to subvert both church and state.