Francis Marbury (1555-1611) was the father of 18 documented children (reportedly a father of 20), including Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson (1591-1643) and Katherine (Marbury) Scott (Abt. 1607-1687). These three family members played prominent parts in the early Church of England, Puritanism, attempted reformation of some Puritan beliefs (Antinomian Controversy), and Quakerism. ¹

Francis Marbury was an English cleric, schoolmaster, playwright, political dissident, and the son of a lawyer, William Marbury, who was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1572. Francis was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge (England). He took some positions of the Puritans putting him in conflict with his church. He served several short jail terms because of it, and then a two year sentence to prison for impudence. He was considered reformed and allowed to preach again, but was yet again arrested for speaking out against church leadership. He promised to refrain from speaking out against leadership and was allowed a parish. He died unexpectedly at age 55.

Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson was a midwife, a Puritan spiritual advisor, and a religious reformer, differing on some of the tenets of Puritanism. In 1637 she was charged with heresy, tried and convicted in court and banished from Boston (Massachusetts), removed to Rhode Island, then to New Amsterdam, where she and many of her family were murdered by Siwanoy Indians, largely as a result of Willem Kieft's murderous war against the Indians.

Katherine (Marbury) Scott married Richard Scott in 1632 and in 1634 they followed her sister Anne and her husband William Hutchinson to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They initially settled in Salem, but removed to Providence, Rhode Island following the dissident preacher Roger Williams. In the 1650s Katherine and her husband converted to Quakerism, and are believed to be the first converts to Quakerism in New England.

More on these three folks in future posts. ²