The Dartmouth Quakers' Struggle for Religious Liberty, 1692-1734

Abstract

The Dartmouth Quakers' Struggle for Religious Liberty, 1692-1734 William G. McLoughlin* In 1684 King Charles II revoked the original charter of the Puritan colonists who had come to Boston in 1629 to create a city upon a hill for all the world to admire—a religious commonwealth built according to the most perfect model of God's will, a religious paradise. Some pious folk in Boston thought that the revocation of their charter came about because God was angry with his chosen people for having hanged four Quakers on Boston Common in 1659-1660. Others said God was angry with them for not having hanged all of the Quakers. In 1686 King James II sent a royal governor , Sir Edmund Andros, to rule over the Bay Colony, and for two years he flouted all of the holy principles of the Bible Commonwealth , forcing upon it not only the toleration of Anglican worship but also of Baptist and Quaker worship. Andros even denied that the Congregationalists of New England had any right to lay taxes on its people for the support of their religion; he said that the Church of England was the only established religion in the realm. The Puritans hated Sir Edmund; the non-Puritans loved him. In 1688 Divine Providence again intervened. Just as King James II seemed about to return England to Roman Catholicism the Glorious Revolution took place, and James II was forced to abdicate . Edmund Andros was imprisoned in Boston, and Parliament called William of Orange from Holland to become King of Britain. Increase Mather, the most learned man in Boston, went to London to persuade the new monarch to restore the Bay Colony's charter. At this critical moment, the Devil appeared in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, and before he could be subdued, twenty men and women were executed as witches. Although William of Orange was a devout Calvinist, Increase Mather was unable to obtain the old charter back from him. But he did grant Massachusetts a new charter in 1691 which omitted the requirement that the Anglican Church become the established church in Massachusetts, as it was in New York, Virginia, and most of the southern colonies. William did, *William McLoughlin is professor of history at Brown University. This article was originally presented as a paper to the Old Dartmouth Historical Society in April, 1983, at the Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts. 1 Quaker History however, require Massachusetts to accept a royal governor appointed by the king; he also required that all the laws of the province be subject to review and veto by the king. The Massachusetts colonists felt that this new charter deprived them of much of their original freedom. However, when Increase Mather returned to Boston in 1691 he argued that the charter was not so bad as at first glance it would seem. Your religion is secured to you. Now you need not fear being sent to Prison (as some of you were under a late government [of Andros]) because you scrupled Swearing by a Book [the Book of Common Prayer]. You may worship God in the greatest Purity, and no one may disturb you. . . . You may, by laws, not only Protect, but encourage that Religion which is the General Profession of the Country. ' And Cotton Mather added that under this charter "The General Assembly may, by their acts, give a distinguishing encouragement unto that religion which is the general profession of the inhabitants."2 According to Increase and Cotton Mather's interpretation of the new charter, the legislature of Massachusetts was entitled to enact laws which would re-establish Puritan Congregationalism as the official religion of the province; the legislature could require that only ministers educated at Harvard could be installed as the official ministers in every town and parish; and it could also require that these ministers should be supported by taxes levied by each town upon all of the property holders in the town. The colonial legislature of Massachusetts soon proceeded to enact a series of laws according to the Mathers' interpretation. A law passed in 1692 required each town in the province to provide itself with an "able, learned, orthodox minister . . . of good...