American Colonist, Religious Leader, Social Reformer. One of many persons victim of the religious persecutions in Europe, she followed the highly venerated Reverend John Cotton from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband in 1634 on the ship "Griffin" and they settled in Boston. Intelligent and keen-witted she spent her youth learning to read the only book available; The Bible. With the strict New England religious climate being that of discipline and prayer Anne was a regular fixture at church. Soon she formed a women's group that were to initially discuss the previous week's sermons, however she slowly began introducing her own ideas and Bible interpretations. Her opinions differed from the local ministers and soon men were joining her group to hear what she had to say. It's reported that she was brilliant and articulate. She denied that conformity with the religious laws were a sign of Godliness and insisted that "true Godliness came from inner experience of the Holy Spirit." She further proclaimed that only two Boston ministers were "elect" or saved, John Cotton and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright. As many as 80 persons would join her weekly meetings and her influence in the community grew so much that local pastor Jon Wilson and Governor John Winthrop considered her very dangerous to the current state of affairs. What started as religious soon took on a political tone. Anne Hutchinson's ideas were branded as the heresy of "Antinomianism" (a belief that Christians are not bound by moral law), and her followers became known as "Antinomians." Winthrop put a ban on her meetings and settled a law that prevented any further Antinomians from settling in Boston. In defiance, her meetings were now held twice a week and to further try to squelch her, they branded her the worst kind of heretic and put her and her husband on trial. During this trial Winthrop described her meetings as "a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God, nor fitting for your sex." Hutchinson held fast and was so erudite in answering her cross-examination questions that Edmund S. Morgan, a biographer of Governor Winthrop, later commented that Anne Hutchinson was the governor's "intellectual superior in everything except political judgment; in everything except the sense of what was possible in this world." In spite of her intelligent testimony, the court voted to banish her from the colony, "as being a woman not fit for our society." Now banished, Hutchinson with her husband, children and 60 followers settled in Rhode Island, the land of Narragansetts, from whose chief, Miantonomah, they purchased Aquidneck Island. In 1638 they founded the town of Pocasset, later to be called "Portsmouth" in 1639. They established that colony's first civil government. Upon her husbands death in 1642 she moved her family (consisting of the five youngest of her nine children) to the Dutch colony in what is now New York County. in August of 1643 Mohicans raided the settlement and killed Anne and her children living with her (save her daughter Susannah who was taken captive and survived). A plaque to her final resting place sits in Pellham Bay Park where the site of her former homestead once stood. It reads: "Anne Hutchinson, Banished From the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638 Because of Her Devotion to Religious Liberty, This Courageous Woman Sought Freedom From Persecution In New Netherland Near This Rock in 1643 She and Her Household Were Massacred by Indians. This Table is placed here by the Colonial Dames of the State of New York. Anno Domini MCMXI Virtutes Majorum Fillae Conservant".

American Colonist, Religious Leader, Social Reformer. One of many persons victim of the religious persecutions in Europe, she followed the highly venerated Reverend John Cotton from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband in 1634 on the ship "Griffin" and they settled in Boston. Intelligent and keen-witted she spent her youth learning to read the only book available; The Bible. With the strict New England religious climate being that of discipline and prayer Anne was a regular fixture at church. Soon she formed a women's group that were to initially discuss the previous week's sermons, however she slowly began introducing her own ideas and Bible interpretations. Her opinions differed from the local ministers and soon men were joining her group to hear what she had to say. It's reported that she was brilliant and articulate. She denied that conformity with the religious laws were a sign of Godliness and insisted that "true Godliness came from inner experience of the Holy Spirit." She further proclaimed that only two Boston ministers were "elect" or saved, John Cotton and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright. As many as 80 persons would join her weekly meetings and her influence in the community grew so much that local pastor Jon Wilson and Governor John Winthrop considered her very dangerous to the current state of affairs. What started as religious soon took on a political tone. Anne Hutchinson's ideas were branded as the heresy of "Antinomianism" (a belief that Christians are not bound by moral law), and her followers became known as "Antinomians." Winthrop put a ban on her meetings and settled a law that prevented any further Antinomians from settling in Boston. In defiance, her meetings were now held twice a week and to further try to squelch her, they branded her the worst kind of heretic and put her and her husband on trial. During this trial Winthrop described her meetings as "a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God, nor fitting for your sex." Hutchinson held fast and was so erudite in answering her cross-examination questions that Edmund S. Morgan, a biographer of Governor Winthrop, later commented that Anne Hutchinson was the governor's "intellectual superior in everything except political judgment; in everything except the sense of what was possible in this world." In spite of her intelligent testimony, the court voted to banish her from the colony, "as being a woman not fit for our society." Now banished, Hutchinson with her husband, children and 60 followers settled in Rhode Island, the land of Narragansetts, from whose chief, Miantonomah, they purchased Aquidneck Island. In 1638 they founded the town of Pocasset, later to be called "Portsmouth" in 1639. They established that colony's first civil government. Upon her husbands death in 1642 she moved her family (consisting of the five youngest of her nine children) to the Dutch colony in what is now New York County. in August of 1643 Mohicans raided the settlement and killed Anne and her children living with her (save her daughter Susannah who was taken captive and survived). A plaque to her final resting place sits in Pellham Bay Park where the site of her former homestead once stood. It reads: "Anne Hutchinson, Banished From the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638 Because of Her Devotion to Religious Liberty, This Courageous Woman Sought Freedom From Persecution In New Netherland Near This Rock in 1643 She and Her Household Were Massacred by Indians. This Table is placed here by the Colonial Dames of the State of New York. Anno Domini MCMXI Virtutes Majorum Fillae Conservant".

Bio by: R. Digati