Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson (1591-1643) was born in Alford, Lincolnshire, England, and was well home schooled by her father, Francis Marbury (1555-1611), a cleric, schoolmaster, and playwright. It was highly unusual at the time for a girl to be so well educated. ¹

In 1605 the family moved to London, where her father died in 1611. The following year Anne married William Hutchinson, and they returned to their native town, Alford. ²

Anne read and studied the Geneva Bible herself, which at that time was only recently possible. (a copy of the Geneva Bible first came to America on the Mayflower in 1620. ³ She formed her own understanding of her religion from it, and in that followed in her father's footsteps. [RHB160].

In Alford, William and Anne heard about Reverend John Cotton, a gifted minister who was preaching in Boston (England) about twenty-four miles south of Alford at the Church of Saint Botolph's. He was becoming a well known intellectual Puritan preacher. Anne and William listened to his multi-hour preachings, and Anne, in particular, embraced his theology. They went to hear him preach as often as they were able. ⁴

Reverend John Cotton's theology consisted of two apparently opposing doctrines: absolute grace and conditional reprobation. As these are difficult concepts to describe, I will quote Eve LaPlante's description: "Absolute grace means God's grace is given absolutely to the elect so that neither good works nor faith can bring salvation. Conditional reprobation means that human depravity (being damned before birth) is conditional on one's misbehavior during life, which God decreed in his foreknowledge of human behavior." Anne interpreted this as empowering women since this theology held men and women inferior to God, rather than having only male authority figures interpret God's word. This gave Anne Hutchinson a voice. ⁵

Being a midwife and nurse ⁶, Anne was well positioned to minister to the needs of the people, especially women, being much in contact with them. She began holding meetings, conventicles, at her house in Alford ⁷ where she would repeat and explicate Reverend Cotton's word to women. These were very popular and were held weekly, and men started attending. ⁸

Reverend Cotton's doctrines were outside accepted church bounds, and church authorities repeatedly investigated him. He was called to appear before the Court of High Commission in London just as Anne's father had been called. Unlike Anne's father, however, Reverend Cotton went into hiding and fled to America in 1633 to avoid almost certain imprisonment. ⁹

Anne was much troubled that her spiritual mentor had left, and had the revelation that she too must go to America. In 1634, Anne and her family also came to America. ¹⁰

More in the next installment.