Anne Hutchison

Full Name: Anne Marbury
Profession: Religious Reformer

Nationality:

Biography: Anne Hutchinson was a Puritan religious reformer and an important participant in the development of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She was a central player in a religious controversy that became known as the Antinomian Controversy.

Hutchinson was born in England. She was the daughter of Francis Marbury, an Anglican cleric and schoolteacher who insisted that his daughter receive a good education. Her father's unorthodox religious views and his opposition to the poor training of clergymen influenced her deeply.

In 1634, Anne Hutchinson, along with her husband William and their children, subsequently followed minister John Cotton to the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to the ongoing religious persecution in England. In Boston, she began hosting meetings in her home where she discussed Cotton's sermons and provided her own theological insights.

These meetings, which grew in size and popularity, particularly among women, soon became controversial. Hutchinson criticized many of the colony's ministers for what she saw as a reliance on a "covenant of works" rather than a "covenant of grace." This theological dispute escalated into what is known as the Antinomian Controversy, a major crisis in the colony.

Hutchinson's beliefs, which included the notion of direct revelation from God, were seen as a threat to the established religious and civil authorities. She was put on trial in 1637 for heresy and sedition. During her trial, she defended herself well but eventually claimed direct divine revelation. This assertion sealed her fate, and she was convicted and banished from the colony.

After her banishment, she initially settled in Rhode Island, a colony founded on principles of religious tolerance by Roger Williams. Later, following the death of her husband, she moved to New Netherland (now New York), where she and her family were killed in an attack by Native Americans. This tragic end was seen by some in Massachusetts as divine retribution for her religious dissent.

Birthplace: Alford, Lincolnshire, England