On November 8, 1637, Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson was sentenced by the Massachusetts Bay Colony's General Court:

Governor John Winthrop: "Mistress Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that you are banished from our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society, and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send you away."

When Governor Winthrop called for the magistrates vote, he did not specify the specific charges.

Hutchinson: "I desire to know wherefore I am banished."

Winthrop: "Say no more, the court knows wherefore and is satisfied." ¹

This court was determined to find her guilty, and had searched for charges that would sound legitimate enough to support that verdict in the public view.

The Governor's journal suggests that she was found guilty of two crimes: ²

1. Heresy. But they didn't name the church doctrine that she had violated. Direct revelation from God, which they railed against for the non-clergy, was not an actual doctrine.
2. Sedition. Resisting lawful authority. For her questioning and criticizing current ministers, some of their beliefs, and some of their abilities.

The Massachusetts Court, because of Anne Hutchinson's threat to the colony, decided to move ahead with a pending project, that of forming the colony's first college. There, orthodox ministers would be able to indoctrinate young men so that they would not fall victim to Antinomian beliefs. This college was founded at Newtown (now Cambridge), and later named Harvard for John Harvard. ³

There were several reasons why she was not immediately banished like many others. She was a woman, thought of as the weaker sex, and it was winter. She also was pregnant, obviously so, at her trial. Also, having been convicted of heresy, Anne needed to be tried by her church. ⁴

Anne was put under house arrest at the Roxbury home of Joseph Weld, a merchant and brother of Reverend Thomas Weld, only about 2 miles from her home, but winter prevented her husband and children from visiting her very often. She was required to leave the colony by the end of March. ⁵

Her husband, William Hutchinson signed the Portsmouth Compact on March 7, 1638, one of 23 men. This formed a "Bodie Politick" to set up an independent, Christian colony, but non-secular in governance, as a democracy. Nineteen of the signers had planned to remove to New Jersey or Long Island, but Roger Williams convinced them to settle near his Providence Plantations settlement. They purchased Aquidneck Island (it later became Rhode Island). William and many other men departed Boston for Aquidneck before Anne's church trial, scheduled for March 15, 1638, to begin constructing homes. [Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hutchinson].

Anne's four month house arrest kept her isolated and away from her supporters so that she could no longer affect public opinion. Orthodox ministers visited her weekly, or even more often, to preach to her in the hope of her recanting her unorthodox positions. All the while, they also recorded any of her words that were unorthodox positions, quietly planning to use those against her at trial. ⁶

She waited for her church trial.