Rejected Puritan Anne Hutchinson
with Dr. Michael Winship & host Nick Walters
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In 1637, Anne Hutchinson stood before the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony accused of undermining the religious community she had crossed the Atlantic to join. A deeply committed Puritan, a student of Scripture and a religious teacher, Hutchinson had become one of the most controversial figures in colonial New England. How did a woman who shared the Puritans’ desire for a godly society become someone they considered dangerous enough to banish?
Born in England around 1591, Anne Marbury grew up in a household shaped by religious controversy. Her father, Francis Marbury, was a clergyman who had challenged church authorities. After marrying merchant William Hutchinson, she became associated with Puritan minister John Cotton. In 1634, the Hutchinson family followed Cotton to Boston, where English Puritans were attempting to establish a Christian community ordered around their understanding of Scripture.
Hutchinson began hosting gatherings in her home to examine sermons and discuss religious questions. Initially attended by women, the meetings eventually attracted men as well. Her command of the Bible and her scrutiny of ministers earned admiration from supporters and alarmed opponents.
At the heart of the conflict was a question that had occupied Protestant reformers for generations: What is the relationship between God’s grace, faith, good works, and assurance of salvation? Hutchinson and her allies emphasized the covenant of grace and questioned whether some Massachusetts ministers placed too much weight on outward signs of spiritual renewal. Their opponents feared that such arguments weakened the role of sanctification, encouraged religious disorder, and threatened colonial unity.
The controversy was not simply a contest between a courageous dissenter and intolerant authorities. It involved rival understandings of Puritan theology, political factions, and a society where religious disagreement became a civil matter. Hutchinson’s position as a woman publicly challenging male religious authorities added another dimension to the dispute.
In November 1637, Hutchinson appeared before the General Court, where Governor John Winthrop was among her principal accusers. She defended herself with considerable biblical knowledge, but her claims concerning direct divine revelation intensified the court’s concerns. She was sentenced to banishment. Following a separate church proceeding in March 1638, she was excommunicated from the Boston congregation.
Hutchinson and members of her family joined other religious dissenters on Aquidneck Island in what became Rhode Island. After her husband’s death, she moved farther away from Massachusetts to New Netherland, near present-day New York City. In 1643, she and members of her household were killed during violence involving Indigenous people and Dutch colonists.
What should we make of Anne Hutchinson today? Was she primarily a theological dissenter, a victim of political and religious factionalism, a challenge to established gender expectations, or some combination of all three? And what does her experience reveal about the limits of religious liberty among people who had themselves crossed the ocean seeking freedom to practice their faith?
For our Deep Dive, host Nick Walters is joined by Dr. Michael P. Winship, professor of history and holder of the E. Merton Coulter Chair at the University of Georgia. Winship is the author of The Times and Trials of Anne Hutchinson: Puritans Divided and Making Heretics: Militant Protestantism and Free Grace in Massachusetts, 1636–1641. His scholarship helps place Hutchinson within the wider Puritan movement and the conflicts of early Massachusetts. Her story opens a window onto what Puritans believed, why they disagreed, and how those disagreements shaped colonial Christianity.
Our first historical highlight takes us to Alton, Illinois. On November 7, 1837, Presbyterian minister and newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy was murdered by a proslavery mob while defending his printing operation. Lovejoy had condemned slavery and persisted in publishing despite threats and repeated attacks on his presses. His death became a powerful symbol for abolitionists and defenders of freedom of the press, showing the risks of publicly opposing slavery.
Our second highlight takes us to medieval Cologne. On November 8, 1308, the Franciscan theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus died there. Known as the “Subtle Doctor” for the precision of his reasoning, Scotus made lasting contributions to medieval discussions of God’s nature, human freedom, and the Incarnation. He is especially remembered for his defense of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a teaching that later became Roman Catholic dogma. His work remains significant in the history of Christian theology and philosophy.
This Week in Christian History is produced by the Center for Christian History and hosted by Nick Walters.