Puritans | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 21, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Dominion of New England

Following the period of Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth in England, the ‘Restoration’ in 1660 marked the return of Charles II as king, who had been in exile in Europe and then reclaimed the crown of England. The bishops were restored to Parliament, which established a strict Anglican orthodoxy. (Britannia)

After the Restoration, Charles II cast a doubtful eye on the Massachusetts Bay Colony that sometimes ignored English civil law if it conflicted with biblical demands. (Brooks)

In 1683 Charles insisted that they revise its charter to weaken the influence of biblical teachings and eliminate the stringent voting requirements. The Massachusetts government said no. With that, Charles revoked the charter. Massachusetts remained in political limbo until 1685, when James II came to the throne. Then conditions grew far worse. (Brooks)

In an effort to centralize administration of his growing American empire, King James decided on a reorganization of the colonies. He combined several of the northern colonies into one large unit under direct loyal control. (Brooks)

King James II chose Sir Edmund Andros to govern the Dominion. Andros had previously served as the governor of New York and New Jersey from 1674 to 1681. (Brooks)

The constitution of the Dominion of New England was determined by the commission and instructions which were issued to Governor Andros and modeled on those given to the governors of the first royal colony, Virginia. (Barnes)

The Dominion of New England, included Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Plymouth Plantations, New Jersey and New York, both newly acquired from the Dutch. (Brooks)

The formation of the Dominion of New England was the most complete expression of the British colonial policy in the seventeenth century. (Barnes)

By it England attempted to define the status of the New England colonies, to bring them into a closer relationship with the mother country, and to reform the colonial policy in matters of trade and defense.

The establishment of Dominion government was variously received by the different parties and factions. The moderates, although supporting it at the outset, objected to the great concentration of power in the hands of the governor and council and to their extensive interference with long-established precedents and traditions.

The strict Puritans hated it because it destroyed their theocracy and brought a remodeling of their institutions on the English pattern. (Barnes)

According to the book The Imperial Executive in America, it was the lack of local legislatures that became the biggest source of strife in the Dominion:

The Dominion of New England did not have a representative assembly. All legislation would be adopted by the governor and council subject to the approval of the king.

William Blathwayt’s assistant, John Povey, accurately surmised that it “will put Sir Edmund to his utmost dexterity” to govern Massachusetts without a representative body.

Andros himself had no aversion to an assembly and in New York had requested the duke to permit him to call such a body. The absence of an assembly was probably the chief reason underlying unrest in Massachusetts.

Even before Andros arrived, [Edward] Randolph had warned the Privy Council that he found “the country dissatisfied for want of an Assembly of Representatives … with power to raise money, and make laws, etc.” Randolph’s suggestions to provide representative government fell on deaf ears.

Boston was chosen as the headquarters of the Dominion of New England. Andros arrived in Boston on December 20, 1686 and immediately took control of the Dominion.

Town meetings were severely restricted, the local legislatures were disbanded and a council was created to assist Andros in governing the colony. (Brooks)

Andros’ council was based in Boston and distance made it difficult for many of the council members, who were not paid for their service or compensated for their travel expenses, to attend the meetings. As a result, Andros often passed legislation that the council had not even voted on.

One of the first things Andros did as Governor of the Dominion was find a way to raise revenue. In March of 1687, Andros proposed a penny per pound tax for imports, estates and poll taxes. The council opposed this measure but discovered shortly after that Andros had signed it into law without a vote.

The following year, when these taxes failed to raise enough revenue, Andros also raised levies on wine, rum and brandy, which again went against the wishes of many of the councilors.

Also, because the old charter was revoked, all the old land titles were brought into question. All landowners were informed that the titles to their land had been voided. The land now belonged to the king and the landowners were required to petition the government for new titles. (Brooks)

Other measures Andros took involved cracking down on the smuggling of imports and goods that arose after the passage of the Navigation Act and, due to King James II Declaration of Indulgence, holding Anglican services in the local churches for the first time.

In 1686, Andros founded the King’s Chapel congregation, which was the first Anglican church in colonial New England.

In addition, although the puritan ban on Christmas was lifted in 1681, the puritans still disapproved of Christmas and were offended when Andros attended Christmas services, with sixty redcoats following behind him, the first month he arrived in Boston.

According to the New England Historical Society website, Andros committed a similar offense again on Good Friday:

On March 23, 1687, the Wednesday of Passion Week, Andros ordered his agent to ask for the keys to the Old South Church (then the Third Church) for Anglican services. He was rebuffed. A Puritan delegation visited him to explain why they couldn’t allow it.

On Good Friday, he ordered the sexton to throw open the doors of Old South and ring the bell for ‘those of the Church of England.’ Whether the sexton was persuaded or coerced is not known, but the doors were open, the bell rung and the service held. It was an affront the Puritans would not forgive.

In 1688, when the puritans in Boston refused to sell land to the congregation to build a church on, Andros directed King’s Chapel to be built on public land in the corner of an old puritan burying ground on Tremont street. (In 1749, the original small wooden church built there was eventually replaced with the large granite church that still stands there today.)

The British government also issued a Royalist flag for the Dominion: A white flag with a red cross and a gold crown embossed with the letters J.R.

When New York was added to the Dominion in 1688, the Lieutenant Governor of New York at the time, Thomas Dongan, was dismissed and Andros was sent to New York that summer to establish his commission.

The colonists strongly resented the Dominion of New England and Andros, whom they viewed as greedy and arrogant. Andros offended the puritans when he established the Church of England as the official religion of the colony. He also alienated the non-puritans when he completely abolished the local legislatures, which they had struggled to be included in for years.

When Andros instituted the new taxes, both puritans and non-puritans refused to pay them. The colonists were also angered by the presence of Andros’ small army of soldiers whom they accused of teaching people to “drink, blaspheme, curse and damn.”

The Dominion was disbanded after the Glorious Revolution took place in England, during which James II was pressured to abdicate the throne in December of 1688 after England was invaded by James II’s son-in-law, William of Orange.

On February 13, 1689 his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, became King and Queen of England. The news sparked a mob to rise up in Boston and overthrow Andros.

The insurgents seized Andros on April 18 and set up a Council for Safety, which was led by Simon Bradstreet and included Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne, who later became judges in the Salem Witch Trials.

The council handled affairs in the colony for a few months until official confirmation of a new regime came from William and Mary.

On May 22, the council voted to return the colony to its former puritan-run government. This prompted the other colonies that had been included in the Dominion to assert their independence and reinstate their old charters as well.

The Dominion of New England forever changed the culture of the New England colonies from a strict puritan society independent of Britain into a much more secular royal colony.

Following the failure of the Dominion of New England, in the late-1690s and early-1700s the British government began to follow a policy of salutary neglect, during which it relaxed its enforcement of laws and trade regulations in the colonies.

This came to an end though after the Seven Year’s War in 1763 when the government, saddled with debt from the war, began passing new laws and taxes in the colonies, causing the colonist’s lingering resentment to build until it erupted in the American Revolution in the late 1770s. (Brooks)

Click the following link to a general summary about the Dominion of New England:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Dominion-of-New-England.pdf

March 7, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers

The English Civil Wars (Great Rebellion (1642-1651)) involved fighting on the British Isles between supporters of the monarchy of Charles I (and his son and successor, Charles II) and opposing groups in each of Charles’s kingdoms, including Parliamentarians in England, Covenanters in Scotland, and Confederates in Ireland. It was a time when many people were interested in radically reshaping religion, politics and society. (Britannica)

The wars were primarily due to disputes between the Crown and Parliament about how England, Scotland and Ireland should be governed. But they also had religious and social dimensions as people sought answers in a time of turmoil. The wars witnessed the creation of the first national standing army, which had important implications for domestic politics. (British National Army Museum)

The first war was settled with Oliver Cromwell’s victory for Parliamentary forces at the 1645 Battle of Naseby. The second phase ended with Charles I’s’ defeat at the Battle of Preston and his subsequent execution in 1649. Charles’ son, Charles II, then formed an army of English and Scottish Royalists, which prompted Cromwell to invade Scotland in 1650.

The following year, Cromwell shattered the remaining Royalist forces and ended the “wars of the three kingdoms.” Cromwell, a devout Puritan, was particularly intolerant of Catholics and Quakers, though he is also credited by others for helping to lead Great Britain toward a constitutional government.

The Beginning of the Quakers

In the aftermath of the war, in 1647, 23-year-old George Fox was already a discerning critic of his culture. When human counselors could not fill his spiritual void, he turned to Bible reading and prayer, often in the sanctuary of “hollow trees and lonesome places.”

On some of these occasions he received “openings,” e.g., that attending a university does not make a minister, that “the people, not the steeple, is the church,” and that the same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is their true interpreter.

Fox worked first as a cobbler and then as a partner with a wool and cattle dealer. His integrity brought him commercial success. But the spiritual conflict raged furiously within him until his experience of Christ brought peace. (George Fox University)

One day Fox climbed up desolate Pendle Hill (believed to be a haunt of demons) and saw “a people in white raiment, coming to the Lord.” The vision signified that proclaiming Christ’s power over sin would gather people to the kingdom.

From his spiritual epiphany until 1652, Fox engaged in itinerant ministry, preaching at the close of Puritan meetings, or outdoors before crowds. (George Fox University)

Historians mark 1652 as the beginning of the Quaker movement. Zealous young men and women (“the Valiant Sixty”) joined Fox in preaching at fairs, marketplaces, in the fields, in the jails, in the courts, and through the printing press. The Valiant Sixty were a group of early leaders and activists in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

These Quaker missionaries were unusual in their time. Most other preaching was done by well-educated ordained male clergymen, but most of the Valiant Sixty were ordinary farmers and tradesmen, and several of them were women. Although the number of these missionaries is given as 60 the actual number was likely a little higher.

At first these fired-up Christians called themselves “children of the Light,” “publishers of Truth,” or “the camp of the Lord.” (George Fox University)

This was the beginning of the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers.

Persecution of Quakers in England

Persecution in England was severe and swift.

Fox was thrown down church steps, beaten with sticks and once with a brass-bound Bible! He refused to be intimidated, and his courage and physical stamina gave credibility to a central theme of his preaching: the power through Christ to live a holy life. For such preaching, Fox spent six months in Derby jail. Offered release if he would accept a commission in Cromwell’s army, Fox refused, saying Christ had brought him into the “covenant of peace.” For this he was jailed another six months.

Quakers were jailed frequently during the Society’s first forty years. Some historians estimate that 15,000 had been imprisoned by 1689, when the Act of Toleration finally was passed.

If prison were not enough, Quakers would be whipped publicly or have to endure tongue borings and brandings in the government’s efforts to rid England of this sect. Mutilation of religious rebels was commonplace in England, including cutting off of body parts.

Quakers Coming to the New World

The Quaker movement originated in England, but soon afterwards, the Quakers found their way to America where they were not at first welcomed. In spite of persecution, however, they stood fast and became firmly established during the last quarter of the century. Around 1700 there were already fifty to sixty thousand Quakers in America and about the same number in England. (Nobel Prize)

In 1656, members of the Religious Society of Friends first arrived in Boston from England. While springing from the same religious turmoil that gave rise to the Separatist movement, the Quakers lack respect for hierarchy and believe in man’s ability to achieve his own salvation. Tenets so contrary to orthodox Puritanism quickly turn most New Englanders against them.

Although they were victims of religious persecution in Europe, the Puritans supported the Old World theory that sanctioned it, the need for uniformity of religion in the state. Once in control in New England, they sought to break “the very neck of Schism and vile opinions.” (LOC)

The first known Quakers to arrive in Boston were two women, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher who landed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Quakers believed in the equality of men and women, and they believed that women had a right to preach.

Shortly after they arrived in Boston, eight more Quakers arrived on a ship from England. This group of eight was imprisoned and beaten. While they were in prison, an edict was passed in Boston that any ship’s captain who carried Quakers into Boston would be fined heavily.

The Puritan establishment forced the captain, who had brought the group of eight Quakers to Boston, to take them back to England, under a bond of £500. (Swathmore College)

To the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, Quaker teachings were not just heretical but a direct threat to the authority of the magistrates who governed the colony.

Meanwhile, Quakers had also made their way to neighboring Plymouth Colony. Lawmakers there responded by prohibiting the transporting of Quakers into the colony and authorizing punishment for residents who provided shelter to a Quaker or attended a Quaker meeting.

In spite of these harsh measures, two Quakers began teaching in Sandwich; about 18 families joined what became the first Friends’ Meeting in America. As word spread, Sandwich became a gathering place for Quakers. Colonial authorities responded by seizing any vessel that was headed for Sandwich with Quakers aboard.

As the Quaker presence grew, the governors of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth both took legal steps to prevent Quakers from entering their colonies. Under the Massachusetts Bay charter, the governor had no authority to imprison Quakers.

In late 1656 and 1657, the General Court rectified this situation when it passed a series of laws that outlawed “the cursed sect of heretics commonly called Quakers.”

Captains of ships that brought Quakers to Massachusetts Bay were subject to heavy fines; so was anyone who owned books by Quakers or dared to defend the Quakers’ “devilish opinions.”

As the movement continued to gain adherents, Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth passed even harsher laws. Quakers who persisted in entering the colony were imprisoned, publicly whipped till they bled, and had ears chopped off. Finally, in October of 1658, the Massachusetts General Court passed a law that barred Quakers from the colony “under pain of death.” (MassMoments)

Beginning in 1659 Virginia enacted anti-Quaker laws, including the death penalty for refractory Quakers. Jefferson surmised that “if no capital execution took place here, as did in New England, it was not owing to the moderation of the church, or the spirit of the legislature.” (Library of Congress)

William Penn’s Colony

William Penn, born in 1644, was the son of a wealthy Admiral in the Royal Navy. As a young man he joined the Quaker religion, which was illegal since any person who was not a part of the Church of England, the official religion of England, was persecuted as a religious dissenter. This caused Penn to be jailed several times and fight for the right to religious toleration.

After his father’s death, Penn took over the family estate. In May of 1680, Penn petitioned King Charles II for land in the New World. Persecuted in England for his Quaker faith, Penn wanted to establish a place where people could enjoy freedom of religion. It was a “holy experiment” – intended for Quakers but open to everyone. (LOC)

The crown owed William’s late father, Admiral Sir William Penn, for using his own wealth to outfit and feed the British Navy.

Penn approached the King with an offer: Penn would forgive the debt in exchange for land in America. King Charles agreed and granted Penn a Charter on March 4, 1681. Penn wished to call the land “New Wales,” or simply “Sylvania,” Latin for “woods.”

King Charles II insisted that “Penn” precede the word “Sylvania”, in honor of William’s late father to create “Pennsylvania”, or “Penn’s Woods.”

This is where the dream of a colony where Quakers could practice their religion freely became a reality with the founding of Pennsylvania. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

By 1690, the population of the colony numbered about 11,500, that of the principal city, Philadelphia, about 2,000. Ten years later, the colony had close to 18,000 inhabitants, and Philadelphia over 3,000.

The Society of Friends was never established as the official religion of the colony and Quakers were always a minority, although their influence was predominant in both the government and the early society.

Penn’s hope for a “Holy Experiment” – where Pennsylvanians did well economically while doing good morally and religiously – failed to materialize. Landed gentleman investors did not, in general, emigrate, and their investments went badly. The Society of Free Traders was bankrupt within a few years. Penn, himself, never achieved the profits he expected.

The colony was taken away from Penn in 1693 on suspicion of treasonable association with James II, but returned to him in 1695, initiating yet another charter in 1696.

Although Penn lived until 1718, he only spent four years in Pennsylvania (1682-84 and 1699-1701).

He was bedeviled by personal and financial problems and had to remain in England to attempt to resolve them. He actually spent time in debtors prison. (Philadelphia Encyclopedia)

Click the following link to a general summary about the Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers:

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Quakers.pdf