Anne Hutchinson

About Anne...

 

In 1591, Anne Hutchinson was born in Alford, Lincolnshire, England to her parents Bridget Dryden and Francis Marbury. Growing up, she was well educated at home and developed a strong interest in theology due to the influence of her father who was an Anglican deacon. When Anne grew older, she married William Hutchinson. The couple began to follow a Puritan preacher named John Cotton, and when he decided to move in 1633, the Hutchinson family followed along a year later to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. When Anne arrived, her family joined Cotton's Boston Church. In the new world, Anne was a midwife, meaning she gave assistance to women during pregnancy. Anne was perfect for the job because of her attentiveness and because she had 13 children. While doing her job, she expressed her religious beliefs and began to attract audiences to hear her philosophies. At her meetings, she would discuss Cotton's sermons and explain her interpretation, but some found her unorthodox. In 1936, Hutchinson's brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, moved to Boston and became an ally of Anne. Anne believed in the philosophy of antinomianism which means  if you were God's elect then moral law did not apply, allowing one to engage in immoral acts. Because of this controversy, a SYNOD was held to investigate Cotton Hutchinson, and Wheelwright. Anne and her brother-in-law were banished and she fled to Aquidneck in Narragansett Bay. Anne and her family later moved to New York, but they were killed in an Indian raid in 1643.