“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

Heroic Woman of Faith

Anne Hutchinson (July 1591 – August 1643) continues to be a controversial figure in some Christian circles. But, the more I study her life, the more I am convinced that she practiced her Christian faith with love and grace and power. Her father was an Anglican cleric and school teacher who gave her an education that few women enjoyed at the time. She lived an authentic relationship with Jesus displaying a deep knowledge of God’s Word as well as exercising gifts of teaching, prophecy and healing. Her’s was a conviction that this personal, intimate relationship is meant for all. She was involved in leading many to a personal faith in Jesus Christ.

While holding widely-attended house meetings in Puritan Boston she forcefully condemned the widespread burdensome teachings by many of the Massachusetts Bay Ministers emphasizing a Salvation based on Works. For the ministers of the colony to have their authority challenged was blasphemy. They labeled her and her ‘Gospel of Grace’ with all types of derogatory terms including being “Antinomian” (the practice of taking the freedom found in Christ as license for sinful and selfish pursuits). By most accounts there was no one more dedicated to their marriage, their family and their faith. She was as loving, selfless, charitable and Christ-like as any person in the colony.

Interesting that these spiritual debates like Salvation ‘by Faith’ versus ‘by Works’ and the use of Spiritual gifts continues to divide our Christian community today.

She strikes me as one who lived out her Christian convictions in a way that would fit nicely with my own faith and theological beliefs as I seek to stretch my faith – believing in a God that is alive through Jesus and who desires to be more active and interactive in my life.

The ‘Martyr’ Anne Hutchinson

In November of 1637 while pregnant and sick she endured a civil trial in Newtowne (Cambridge) accused of promoting theological “errors” and challenging the Ministers of the colony. She was convicted and then held under house arrest. In a later church trial she was excommunicated and banished from the colony. She and her leading supporters were given three months to leave the colony. They removed to Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

In the Autumn of 1642 after the death of her husband, William, and under continuing harassment from the Puritan leaders of Massachusetts Bay, Anne Hutchinson moved west with six of her younger children along with a number of servants. They settled in Dutch controlled territory near the location of a large glacial boulder popularly called Split Rock within what is now known as Pelham Bay, New York. The exact location of the property is unknown.

When they arrived, they had been friendly to the local Native Americans named the Siwanoy who had been subject to mistreatment by the ruling Dutch. (She was actually a staunch defender of Native American rights and had good relations with all tribes she had contact with). But, a number of bloody exchanges in the New Netherland colony led to what became known as Kieft’s War. In the summer of 1643 the Siwanoy began to warn the Dutch in the area that they would be attacking their settlements and preparing to burn down every house.

The Siwanoy chief, Wampage, who had sent the warning did not expect to find any settlers as they moved from house to house. The warriors were surprised to find children, young men and women at the Hutchinson house. The braves asked them to restrain the family’s dogs. As soon as the dogs were tied up the braves seized, killed and scalped all but two. One of the Hutchinson’s daughters seeking to escape was caught as she was getting over a hedge, and they drew her back again by the hair of the head to the stump of a tree, and there cut off her head with a hatchet.

The warriors then dragged the bodies and dead animals into the house and set it on fire until it completely burned to the ground. No bodies were ever recovered.

The only survivor was the Hutchinson’s nine-year old daughter, Susanna, who was off hiding nearby (legend has it that she was hiding in the crevice of Split Rock). When she was found, it is believed that because of their enamor with her unique bright red hair, her life was spared. She was taken captive and lived with the Siwanoy for as many as six years until family members who had stayed in the Bay Colony recovered her. It was reported that she did not want to leave her captors. In 1651 she married John Cole and they started a farm in Rhode Island beginning a long line of descendants.

After the massacre, Wampage, the warrior chief who claimed to have slain Anne Hutchinson, as was the custom, assumed the name of his most famous victim, calling himself “Anne Hoeck.”

The exact date of the massacre is not known but is believed to have occurred in August 1643. When the Massachusetts leaders and clergy learned of Anne Hutchinson’s death they were quick to condemn her and to identify it as God’s hand of vengeance and retribution for her damned heresies.

In 1911 a bronze tablet to the memory of Mrs. Hutchinson was placed on Split Rock by the Society of Colonial Dames of the State of New York, who recognized that the resting place of this most noted woman of her time was well worthy of a memorial:

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 Tablet is placed here by the

Colonial Dames of the State of New York

ANNO DOMINI MCMXI

Virtutes Majorurn Filiae Conservant

The Hutchinson River and the Hutchinson River Parkway in New York are named in her honor. Split Rock can be seen at the intersection of the Hutchinson River Parkway and Route 95 in New York.

I believe it was her Christian witness and teachings to a group of locals, primarily in the area of her farm in Mount Wollaston (now Quincy), that spurred a small group of pioneers to eventually seek out a place where they could build a community where all could freely worship God (or not) as their conscience directed.

They settled on a small Island off the coast of Rhode Island.

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One of the Leaders of our Community (Black Rock Church) is a distant descendant of one Anne Hutchinson. Can you guess who? (Find the answer below)

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JUST RELEASED – My next short novel (novelette) of Historical Fiction, entitled Puritan Retribution and Manisses Destiny

This next story in The Block Island Settlement saga details the two Puritan invasions of Block Island in 1636 & 1637 as retribution for the murder of Captain John Oldham. With these attacks, the Manissean Tribe begins sobering to the reality that control of their precious Island home is slipping away.
At the same time back in Boston, the Puritan leaders engage in a political and spiritual battle from within. Anne Hutchinson’s popularity while advocating for a Gospel of Grace threatens the male-dominated Puritan Theocracy. This begins to set the stage for a small group of likeminded pioneers to search for a place where they can freely practice the convictions of their hearts. (Ultimately, settling on Block Island)

This book is Part Three in a series of novelettes depicting the major events and spiritual journey that led to the eventual settlement of Block Island, RI and what many believe was the first true Democracy in America.

Each book of the series is available on Amazon as an E-Book or in Paperback. You can also find them at the local Block Island bookstore: Island Bound Bookstore

If you are a Block Island lover or have an appetite for early American history and the colonial journey of faith, I expect you’ll find this Summer read fast-paced, entertaining and educational.

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Answer to the question above:

From the Whitman family records, there appears to be this lineage from Anne Hutchinson:

• Anne Marbury married William Hutchinson
  • They birthed Edward Hutchinson who married Catherine Hamby
    • They birthed Anne Hutchinson who married Sam Dyer (Relative of Mary Dyer)
      • They birthed Anne Dyer who married Carew Clarke (Relative of John Clarke)
        • They birthed Mary Clarke who on June 11^th 1724 married George Wightman

A direct descendent of George Wightman is one Gloria (Whitman) Treash, wife of Don Treash and mother of Pastor Steve Treash

It appears that Gloria’s amazing ancestry includes not only Anne Hutchinson but Mary Dyer (Quaker and friend of Anne Hutchinson who was hanged in Boston for apposing the brutal tactics of the Massachusetts Puritan authorities) as well as John Clarke (Leader who, perhaps more than any other person, was responsible for establishing the right to Freedom of Religion in Rhode Island that became the model for the The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution)

The lineage of faithful and courageous Christian leaders continues!