It happened about this time, that some of the people called Quakers that lived there, being had before the magistrates, it was demanded by one of them, how they might know a Quaker; to which Simon Broadstreet, one of the magistrates, answered, ‘Thou art one, for coming in with thy hat on.’ Which made the other reply, it was a horrible thing to make such cruel laws, to whip and cut off ears, and bore through the tongue, for not putting off the hat. Then one of the bench said, that the Quakers held forth blasphemies at their meetings. To which one of the others desired him to make such a thing appear, if it were so, that they might be convinced: and further, that they should do well to send some to their meetings, that they might hear, and give account of what was done and spoken there; and not conclude of a thing they knew not. ‘But,’ said major-general Denison, ‘if ye meet together, and say any thing, we may conclude that ye speak blasphemy.’ A very strange syllogism indeed. No better, (to prove persecution lawful,) was the argument of Charles Chansey, chief teacher at the university, who in a sermon at Boston, argued thus: ‘suppose you should catch six wolves in a trap, and ye cannot prove that they killed either sheep or lambs: and now you have them they will neither bark nor bite: yet they have the plain marks of wolves, and therefore ye knock them down.’ A base expression, thus to compare man to a beast; for God said in plain terms to Noah, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” But these persecutors thought there was stress enough in it to call the Quakers wolves; and to make one pass for a Quaker, they counted it a sufficient proof, when they saw he did not put off his hat to men; ‘Knock him down, it is a wolf.’
And if the hat was not found fault with, something else was thought on; for at Salem twelve persons were fined forty pounds nineteen shillings, for not coming to church; and of others much money was extorted, because their wives absented themselves from the public worship. William Marston, of Hampton, was fined ten pounds for two books found in his house, viz. John Lilburn’s resurrection, and W. Dewsbury’s Mighty Day of the Lord. Thus these people did whatever they would, without any regard to the laws in Old England: and when once some prisoners appealed to it, the governor, John Endicot, and his deputy Bellingham, cried, ‘No appeal to England! No appeal to England.’ And they seemed to fear nothing for what they did to the Quakers: according to what major-general Denison said in open court, ‘This year you will go and complain to the parliament, the next year they will send some to see how things go, and in the third year the government will be changed.’ Now they not at all caring for Old England, denied also the prisoners their request of being tried according to the laws of that realm, by a jury. And the rulers dealing thus arbitrarily, the jailer of the house of correction did the like; for when some of his prisoners showed themselves not unwilling to work, provided that their families should have something of the gain, he would not allow that, unless they paid him eight-pence for every twelve-pence gain: and when they refused this, the whipping-post was his refuge.
But to go on: in the foregoing year mention was made of John Copeland, and Christopher Holder, these coming in the sixth month to Dedham, lodged there one night; but the next day, were taken up by a constable, and carried to Boston, where being brought before the governor, he said in a rage, ‘Ye shall be sure to have your ears cut off.’ Not long after, John Rous came again to Boston, but was shortly after taken, and committed to prison. On the 17th of September, he, with Holder, and Copeland, were brought before the magistrates in the court, where the deputy-governor told them, that they, in contempt of the magistrates and ministers, being come there again to seduce the people, might know that whatever befel them, whether the loss of their ears, or of their lives, their blood would be upon their own heads. They denying this, and saying, that the Lord had sent them hither, the governor, Endicot, said, ‘You are greater enemies to us, than those that come openly; since under pretence of peace, you come to poison the people.’ Being asked for proof that the Lord had sent them they replied, that it was some kind of proof that the Lord had sent them, because they met with such entertainment as Christ had told his disciples would be meted to them, for his name sake, viz. whipping, &c. To this, major-general Denison said, ‘Then when malefactors are whipt, they suffer for Christ’s sake.’ Then John Rous, whose father was a lieutenant-colonel in Barbadoes, said, ‘If we were evil-doers, the judgments of God would be heavier upon us than those we suffer by you.’ To which major Denison replied, ‘Mr. Rous, (for so I may call you, having heard your father is a gentleman,) what judgment of God do you look for greater than is upon you, to be driven from your father’s house, and to run about here as a vagabond, with a company of deceivers, except you look for a halter?’ To this Rous said, ‘I was not driven from my father’s house, but in obedience to the Lord I left it; and when the Lord shall have cleared me of this land, I shall return to it again.’ Then Endicot called to the secretary to read the law, who thereupon read this clause in it, that if any that had suffered the law, should presume to return again, they should have one of their ears cut off. Some more words were spoken, and among the rest, Endicot said, ‘The Quakers have nothing to prove their commission by, but the spirit within them, and that is the devil.’ And when one of the prisoners said, ‘We have seen some of your laws, that have many scriptures in the margin; but what example have you in Scripture for cutting off ears?’ Endicot asked, ‘What Scripture is there for hanging?’ To which Denison said scoffing, ‘Yes, they would be crucified.’ Then Endicot called the three prisoners by name, and said in great passion, ‘It is the sentence of the court, that you three have each of you his right ear cut off by the hangman.’ Then they were carried to the prison, and on the 16th of September, the Marshal’s deputy came thither, letting as many come in as he thought meet; and when the doors were made fast, the said marshal read the following order:
‘To the marshal-general, or his deputy: you are to take with you the executioner, and repair to the house of correction, and there see him cut off the right ears of John Copeland, Christopher Holder, and John Rous, Quakers; in execution of the sentence of the court of assistants, for the breach of the law, intitled Quakers.
EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary.’
Then the prisoners were brought into another room, where John Rous said to the marshal, ‘We have appealed to the chief magistrate of England.’ To which he answered, he had nothing to do with that. Holder said, ‘Such execution as this should be done publicly, and not in private; for this was contrary to the law of England.’ But captain Oliver replied, ‘We do it in private to keep you from tattling.’ Then the executioner took Holder, and when he had turned aside his hair, and was going to cut off his ear, the marshal turned his back on him, which made Rous say, ‘Turn about and see it; for so was his order.’ The marshal then, though filled with fear, turned, and said, ‘Yes, yes, let us look on it.’ Rous, who was more undaunted than his persecutor, suffered the like, as well as the third, and they said, ‘those that do it ignorantly, we desire from our hearts the Lord to forgive them; but for them that do it maliciously, let our blood be upon their head; and such shall know in the day of account, that every drop of our blood shall be as heavy upon them as a millstone.’ Afterwards these persons were whipt again; but this practice becoming so common in New England as if it was but play, I will not detain my reader with it.
Persecution being now come to the cutting off of ears, did not stop there, but went higher, and rested not, before it came to the taking away of lives. But to compass that proved very difficult; for there were many honest people who abhorred such a cruelty. Yet John Norton, and the other priests, petitioned the magistrates, to cause the court to make some law to banish the Quakers, upon pain of death. This gave encouragement to the magistrates, for since the churchmen pushed on so wicked a business, no scruple was made to go on with this bloody work; and the court of magistrates voted it to be put in execution by a country court, which three magistrates made up, the majority of which might hang at pleasure, without trial by a jury; a thing not heard of in Old England: but it served the purpose of Norton, and his fellow preachers. The court where this law was made, consisted of twenty-five persons; and when it was put to the vote it was carried in the affirmative, the speaker and eleven being on the negative, but thirteen on the affirmative, so that one vote carried it. This so troubled one Wozel, when he heard it, having through illness been absent, that he got to the court, and weeping for grief, that his absence should occasion such a law to pass, said, if he had not been able to go, he would have crept upon his knees, rather than it should have passed. But what he said proved in vain; they had now passed the Rubicon, and what was eagerly desired, was obtained. Yet there was a great difference in the court, and the twelve that had voted in the negative, resolved to enter their dissents to that law; which the others seeing, and that so many difficulties would weaken their law, they admitted this addition, to be tried by a special jury; though a standing law of the country contained, that none be sentenced to death and banishment, but by a special jury, and a court of assistants; and such a court consisted of seven magistrates at the least. But it was now resolved, to prosecute the Quakers to death; and all this trial, when it came to it, was but, whether they were Quakers? Which they judged by their coming in covered; and that they had been banished out of the country. Now to enter upon this bloody business, the following act was made at a general court, held at Boston, the 20th of October, in this year, 1658.
‘An Act made at a general court, held at Boston, the 20th of October, 1658.
‘Whereas there is a pernicious sect, (commonly called Quakers,) lately risen, who by word and writing have published and maintained many dangerous and horrid tenets, and do take upon them to change and alter the received laudable customs of our nation, in giving civil respect to equals, or reverence to superiors, whose actions tend to undermine the civil government, and also to destroy the order of the churches, by denying all established forms of worship, and by withdrawing from orderly church-fellowship, allowed and approved by all orthodox professors of the Truth, and instead thereof, and in opposition thereunto, frequently meeting themselves, insinuating themselves into the minds of the simple, or such as are least affected to the order and government of church and commonwealth, whereby divers of our inhabitants have been infected, notwithstanding all former laws, made upon the experience of their arrogant and bold obtrusions, to disseminate their principles among us, prohibiting their coming in this jurisdiction, they have not been deterred from their impetuous attempts to undermine our peace, and hazard our ruin.
‘For prevention thereof, this court doth order and enact, that every person, or persons, of the cursed sect of the Quakers, who is not an inhabitant of, but is found within this jurisdiction, shall be apprehended without warrant, where no magistrate is at hand, by any constable, commissioner, or select man, and conveyed from constable to constable, to the next magistrate, who shall commit the said person to close prison, there to remain, without bail, unto the next court of assistants, where they shall have a legal trial: and being convicted to be of the sect of the Quakers, shall be sentenced to be banished upon pain of death: and that every inhabitant of this jurisdiction, being convicted to be of the aforesaid sect, either by taking up, publishing, or defending the horrid opinions of the Quakers, or the stirring up mutiny, sedition, or rebellion against the government, or by taking up their absurd and destructive practices, viz. Denying civil respect to equals and superiors, and withdrawing from our church assemblies, and instead thereof frequent meetings of their own, in opposition to our church order; or by adhering to, or approving of any known Quaker, and the tenets and practices of the Quakers, that are opposite to the orthodox received opinions of the godly, and endeavouring to disaffect others to civil government, and church orders, or condemning the practice and proceedings of this court against the Quakers, manifesting thereby their complying with those, whose design is to overthrow the order established in church and state, every such person, upon conviction before the said court of assistants, in manner as aforesaid, shall be committed to close prison for one month, and then, unless they choose voluntarily to depart this jurisdiction, shall give bond for their good behaviour, and appear at the next court, where continuing obstinate, and refusing to retract and reform the aforesaid opinions, they shall be sentenced to banishment upon pain of death; and any one magistrate, upon information given him of any such person, shall cause him to be apprehended, and shall commit any such person to prison, according to his discretion, until he come to trial, as aforesaid.’