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Looking back on the family
genealogy, I cannot help but admire and respect three
courageous women who, in the very earliest days of this
country, paved the way for our family.
The first was
Mary Chilton, who at
age 13 traveled to a new land with her parents, James and his
wife (Susanna Farmer), aboard the Mayflower. James, a
tailor in Canterbury, England, moved to Sandwich and Kent
before going to Holland. In Holland he was a “Leiden Seperatist”.
Leiden was no paradise for the English, records show that on
April 28, 1619, at age 63 years of age, James and his daughter
were stoned by 20 boys as they approached their home. Bradford
mentions that many (persecuted for religious beliefs) preferred
to go to prison in England rather than “endure that great labor
and hard fare” of Holland. And so not only for religious
reasons, but also for “economic reasons and the welfare of
their children” they sailed for the North American coast. James
and his wife were not to set foot in the new land, as they
“Dyed in the first infection” December 8, 1620, while the
Mayflower was still anchored off Provincetown. The settlers
took in young Mary and it is possible she resided with the
Winslows. John Winslow, who came aboard the Fortune in
1621, later married Mary Chilton and they moved to Boston in
the 1650s where he became a prosperous businessman and
shipowner.
Records of the Town of
Duxbury identified the Plymouth Rock from a verbal story of
Elder Thomas Faunce. When he was ninety-five he told a group of
people he had been present when Mary Chilton came to Plymouth
and visited the Rock before she died. “She set foot on it and
laughed and said she was the first woman of the Mayflower
to step upon that rock, and now, at seventy-five, she was
stepping on it for the last time.” (There may be a minor
discrepancy here as my record shows she died at age 72.)
Anne
Marbury Hutchinson was
born in Alford, England in 1591 and came to the Massachusetts
Bay Colony with her husband William aboard the Griffin
in 1634. They lived in Boston where she organized and preached
a “doctrine of salvation realized through the intuition of
God’s indwelling in grace.” Her teachings were considered an
attack on the rigid moral codes of Puritanism and the authority
of the Massachusetts clergy. In 1637 she was tried by the
Massachusetts General Court, found guilty and banished from the
Bay Colony. Labeled an “American Jezebel” she was banished as a
religious dissenter. The real motive for her persecution was
that she challenged the traditional subordinate role of women
by expressing her religious beliefs.
Anne Hutchinson traveled with
her thirteen children on foot, to follow Roger Williams who,
banished earlier, had settled in Providence. A few years later,
after the death of her husband, she was forced once again, to
move on to escape the long arm of Governor Winthrop as he
attempted to expand the Bay Colony. Anne settled in what in now
Westchester New York and was massacred by Indians in 1643,
along with several members of her family residing in the
wilderness with her.
Ironically, her majestic
statue now stands before the State House in Boston, where the
Massachusetts General Court meets, the very court that cast her
out. The inscription on the statue reads: “ A courageous
exponent of civil liberty and religious toleration.”
Susannah North Martin was
born in England in the late 1620s and came with her father
George Martin, to settle in Amesbury. Rumors had circulated
that she was a witch for many years but there is no
documentation that any of her accusers had complained to the
authorities prior to May 1692. After contesting her father’s
will in the courts, she may have been considered to challenge
to the system of male inheritance. Women who refused to accept
their place in New England’s male dominated social order were
not only considered sinful but their attitudes were considered
to be evidence of witchcraft. She may certainly have had a
sharp tongue and even have used these (alleged) accusations to
her advantage with her more credulous neighbors, but she
protested strongly at her trial that she “was a virtuous woman
who had led a most holy life”. Her final words were “Amen,
Amen, a false tongue will never make a guilty person”.
Nevertheless, on July 19, 1692, Susanna Martin was hanged for
having steadfastly maintained the truth. A plaque at the site
of her home reads “ Susannah Martin, an honest, hardworking,
Christian woman accused as a witch, tried, and executed at
Salem, July 19, 1692. A martyr to superstition.”
Hundreds of documents, papers
and books have been written about these courageous women and I
am indebted to all those who brought them to life for me. To
this day they stand as examples of courage, intelligence and
honesty; I am proud to be a direct descendant of all three. I
owe my deepest gratitude to my sister Evelyn Alsing Elder for
her extensive genealogical research on these women, plus
documenting a great deal more of our family genealogy.
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