{"id":98900,"date":"2024-05-07T09:43:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T13:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=98900"},"modified":"2024-05-29T10:38:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T14:38:13","slug":"17th-century-quaker-women-gone-wild-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/17th-century-quaker-women-gone-wild-part-3.html","title":{"rendered":"17th Century Quaker Women Gone Wild (part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes more about three brave Quaker women who defied Puritan officials in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I continue my series focusing on three brave 17th century Quaker women: Lydia Wardwell, Deborah Wilson, and Margaret Brewster. They were among the many dames who protested the orthodox Puritan church in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s.<\/p>\n

To recap: My first two stories covered Quakeress Lydia (nee Perkins) Wardwell of Hampton, New Hampshire, wife of Eliakim Wardwell, who went naked into Newbury Meeting House in 1663 to protest the actions of Puritan officials. Read \u201cQuakers Gone Wild\u201d Part 1<\/a> and Part 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The following cartoon depicts the Quakers of the 17th century and includes all three subjects of this story series. The Quaker lot were viewed by many historians as loud troublemakers, dissenters, and unruly heretics (more on this below).<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: cartoon from \u201cQuaint Old New England\u201d by James Burke and William B. Coltin, artwork by Jack Wythycomb. Public domain cartoon from the collection of Melissa Davenport Berry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This act of nude protest had earlier been carried out (in June of 1662) by Deborah (nee Buffum) Wilson, who walked through the town of Salem, Massachusetts, naked as a sign of the spiritual bareness of the orthodox church. When Wilson pulled her Godiva act, she was accompanied by her mother and sister (both fully clothed) to support her cause.<\/p>\n

Wilson was arrested before she made the full rounds of the village and Judge William Ha[w]thorne<\/a> ordered her punishment, according to court records<\/a>, for:<\/p>\n

\u201cher barbarous and unhuman going naked through the town, is sentenced to be tied at a cart\u2019s tail with her body naked downward to her waist, and whipped from Mr. Gidneyes\u2019 gate till she come to her own house, not exceeding thirty stripes, and her mother [Thomasin] Buffum and her sister [Margaret, wife of John] Smith, that were abetted to her, etc., to be tied on either side of her, at the cart\u2019s tail, naked to their shifts to the waist, and accompany her.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wilson was protesting the persecution of her family and friends at the hands of the Puritans. Her plight was addressed in a letter written by Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier in 1881. A portion of the letter was published in the newspaper and furnished more explanation for Wilson\u2019s protest and a defense of her and other Quakers who challenged the Puritan order.<\/p>\n

\"Letter<\/a>
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune (Cincinnati, Ohio), 2 April 1881, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whittier wrote:<\/p>\n

She [Deborah Wilson] had seen her friends and neighbors scourged naked through the street, among them her brother [Joshua Buffum<\/a>], who was banished on pain of death. She, like all Puritans, had been educated in the belief of the plenary inspiration of Scripture, and had brooded over the strange \u201csigns\u201d and testimonies of the Hebrew prophets. It seemed to her that the time had arrived for some similar demonstration, and that it was her duty to walk abroad in the disrobed condition to which her friends had been subjected, as a sign and warning to the persecutors. Whatever of \u201cindecency\u201d there was in these cases was directly chargeable upon the atrocious persecution. At the door of the magistrates and ministers of Massachusetts must be laid the insanity of the conduct of these unfortunate women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whittier\u2019s letter was a response to Dr. George E. Ellis<\/a>, who criticized the poet\u2019s poem \u201cThe King\u2019s Missive<\/a>\u201d in a lecture before the Massachusetts Historical Society.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ellis asserted that the Quakers were all \u201cof low rank, of mean breeding, and illiterate.\u2019 Further, \u201cthey courted persecution and were a pestilent brood of ranters, disturbers of the public peace, and dreaded by the leaders of the infant Commonwealth as they would have dreaded the cholera.\u201d His description is much like the one in the cartoon above.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Whittier further wrote:<\/p>\n

The charge that the Quakers who suffered were \u201cvagabonds\u201d and \u201cignorant, low fanatics,\u2019 is unfounded in fact. Mary Dyer, who was executed, was a woman of marked respectability. She had been the friend and associate of [Massachusetts Governor] Sir Henry Vane<\/a> and the ministers [Rev. John] Wheelwright<\/a> and [Rev. John] Cotton<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A statue in honor of Mary Dyer was erected by the Art Commission of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from the legacy of Zenas Ellis of Fair Haven, Vermont. It was dedicated on 9 July 1959 and carries this inscription:<\/p>\n

Mary Dyer
\nQuaker
\nWitness for Religious Freedom
\nHanged on Boston Common \u2013 1660
\n\u201cMy life not availeth me in comparison to the liberty of the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Statue<\/a>
Statue of Mary Dyer outside the Massachusetts State House, Boston, Massachusetts. Credit: Historical Marker Database.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whittier also wrote in his letter:<\/p>\n

The papers left behind by the three men who were hanged [Quakers William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson in 1659, and Quaker William Leddra in 1661] show that they were above the common class of their day in mental power and genuine piety. John Rous<\/a>, who in execution of his sentence, had his right ear cut off by the constable in the Boston jail, was of gentlemanly lineage, the son of Colonel Rous of the British army, and himself the betrothed of a high-born and cultivated young English lady. Nicholas Upsall<\/a> was one of Boston\u2019s most worthy and substantial citizens, yet was driven, in his age and infirmities, from his home and property into the wilderness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: Governor John Endicott and his band of lawmen knocking at the door of Nicholas Upsall\u2019s tavern in Boston, from \u201cThe New England Tragedies: John Endicott Governor of Massachusetts.\u201d Credit: \u201cThe Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,\u201d illustrated, 1879.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Buffum family were no commoners either! More on that in the next story, so stay tuned \u2013 Deborah (nee Buffum) Wilson\u2019s drama and a love twist\u2026<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> The \u201csign\u201d for going naked is explained in Augustus Charles Bickley\u2019s book \u201cGeorge Fox and the Early Quakers<\/a>,\u201d and in Heather E. Barry\u2019s article \u201cNaked Quakers Who Were Not So Naked. Seventeenth-Century Quaker Women in the Massachusetts Bay Colony<\/a>\u201d published in the Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Volume 43, No. 2.<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cCassandra Southwick in court before the magistrates,\u201d from the Boston Globe, 23 October 1923.<\/p>\n

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