Mormonism and the Radical
Religious Movement in Early
Colonial New England
Val D. Rust
INTRODUCTION
MORMONS BELIEVE THAT forerunners prepared the way for the restoration of
the Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. This paper examines a special
set of those forerunners, namely, the progenitors of the early converts to the
LDS church, whose religious experiences took them through a refiner's fire
so significant and revolutionary that it helped provide their descendants
with the disposition to embrace a new, radical faith.
Religious scholars often ask why a person converts from one religion to
another. In Mormon circles, several theories are proffered to explain why
people join the LDS church. Most theories assume that a person must be
"touched by the Spirit" and that "my sheep hear my voice," but they also
include social factors. A popular missionary theory is that converts come
more often from personal referrals than from cold calls. Mormon re-
searchers have attempted to demonstrate the validity of this theory by
claiming it takes about 1,000 contacts through door-to-door tracting to find
one convert, while a personal referral of a friend or relative results in con-
version about half the time.
1
Certain scholars have turned this common-
sense insight into a formal theory of conversion. Rodney Stark, for exam-
ple,
claims converts to a religion such as the LDS church come mainly
through a "huge, interlocking, kinship network" consisting of extended
families, friendship circles, and neighborhoods.
2
1. Rodney Stark and
W.
S. Bainbridge, "Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Re-
cruitment to Cults and Sects,"
American
Journal
of
Sociology
85
(May 1980): 1376-95.
2.
Rodney Stark, "Extracting Social Scientific Models from Mormon History,"
Journal
of
Mormon
History
25,
no. 1 (1999): 174-94.
26
Dialogue:
A
Journal of
Mormon
Thought
There is persuasive anecdotal evidence that Stark is correct with regard
to the kinship ties among the first converts of the LDS church. Most of the
first converts came via family lines, including spouses, brothers and sisters,
cousins, in-laws, and uncles. Richard Bushman describes the conversions
in the first months after the church was organized:
Five Whitmer children and three of their spouses were baptized
.
.. besides the
parents. Eleven
Smiths,
six
Jollys,
and five Rockwells joined. . . . The most re-
markable collection of kin
was
the offspring and relatives of Joseph Knight, Sr.,
and his wife Polly Peck Knight....
Two
of Polly Knight's brothers and a sister,
their
spouses,
and
a
sister-in-law ...
were
baptized.
Five
of
the
Knight children,
four of them with spouses, joined, plus Joseph Knight's sister, Mary Knight
Slade, and five of her children.
3
As the church spread, other families joined the extensive webwork of
relationships. Over a two-year period, no less than thirteen Young family
members joined the church, and through the Youngs, the Heber C. Kimball
family. These two families were distant cousins of Joseph Smith and were
well aware of their relationship to each other.
However, it becomes increasingly difficult to explain the further expan-
sion of the LDS church strictly through kinship and friendship associations.
Although obvious clusters of people joined the church, more is required to
explain why these clusters identified themselves as Mormon even when
they were quite distant from each other and had no common kinship con-
nections. Additional explanations are also necessary to account for an in-
creasing number of outliers or isolates who came into the church.
Stark recognizes that factors other than kinship and friendship ties are
often at work in the conversion process. He notes that converts usually re-
spond to the message because it resonates with their life orientation and
does not require them to reject their so-called "religious capital." Rather,
conversion to a new faith is easier when that new faith "maximizes their
conservation of religious capital."
4
Converts are drawn to religions which
fit within their pre-conversion frame of reference.
The kinship theory of conversion is persuasive, and I would like to
push it in a direction not yet taken by scholars. I argue in this paper that an
individual who is attracted to a strange religious orientation likely has a
family history that corresponds in a marked way with that religious orien-
tation. In fact, this orientation can be traced across a number of generations.
The religious orientation is not necessarily directly experiential, but may
have become almost archetypal in nature. In other words, personal and
3.
Richard L. Bushman,
From Puritan
to
Yankee
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1988),
151.
4.
Stark, "Extracting Social Scientific Models," 184-85.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 27
family histories have been so imprinted on people's lives that they feel a
strange spiritual outlook in their soul. It becomes a part of a collective con-
sciousness of a group of people that distinguishes them in a special way. I
argue that spiritual orientation is often so strong it can be validated empir-
ically over several generations.
People who joined the LDS church in its first years are prime examples
of this theory. The LDS church message was so radical that it demanded a
certain spiritual predisposition among its converts. I am proposing that the
individuals who converted to the LDS church in the first years after it was
established possessed a shared historical background and a radical spiri-
tual orientation which had been cultivated and honed over a number of
generations. These converts had been prepared by their ancestors over sev-
eral generations to embrace their new faith and to help build the founda-
tions of the Mormon church.
As an example, I turn briefly to the Protestant Reformation. We typi-
cally identify the Reformation with names such as Luther, Calvin, and
Knox, but in 1962 George H. Williams drew attention to "radical" aspects of
the Reformation.
5
Although this radical religious movement reflected so-
cial, economic, and political struggles, it was mainly a mystical-spiritualist
attempt by fringe groups to overcome the worldly order which adherents
felt had infected Christianity. Radical reformers anticipated the return of
Jesus Christ and wished to prepare for God's kingdom on earth.
Members of these fringe groups were met by imprisonment, scourging,
mutilation, and even hanging, but they persisted in their convictions. They
professed a wide variety of beliefs and identified themselves as Familists
(Family of Love), Ranters, Seekers, Anabaptists, Quakers, Muggletonians,
and Antinomians, among other groups; however, they shared certain qual-
ities.
Winsor
notes:
"There was in all of them a strong and ardent element of
enthusiasm and fanaticism, and in most of them a claim to a special divine
illumination and guidance in the form of 'private revelations.'"
6
The less radical were committed to being a "covenant people" and to
building a church/state theocracy, while the more radical believed further
that individuals can gain a personal knowledge of God, that they possess a
spark of the divine, that they are able to exercise gifts of the Spirit, and that
the gospel of Jesus Christ would be restored through divine intervention.
Latter-day Saints will recognize the similarity of these "radical" beliefs
to their own convictions, but few are aware that these beliefs foreshadowed
the gospel of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by Joseph Smith and had been pro-
fessed by radical groups since the Reformation. The task of this study was
5.
George Huntston Williams,
The Radical Reformation
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
1962).
6. Justin Winsor,
The Memorial History
of
Boston,
vol.
1
(Boston: James
R.
Osgood and Co.,
1881),
169.
28 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
to determine the degree to which progenitors of early LDS converts were
associated with these earlier radical religious orientations. I have relied on
genealogical data taken from the LDS Ancestral Files to locate the religious
practices and beliefs of several thousand progenitors of early Mormon
converts.
It is important to stress that the methodology used in this study in-
volved a complicated process of family historiography. Fortunately, the tra-
dition of the LDS Church makes such a study possible because Mormon
doctrine motivates its members to engage in extensive genealogical re-
search. The data collected by millions of genealogical researchers are now
readily available in LDS family history centers and through the internet,
and the technology is now available to trace family lines.
EARLY
LATTER-DAY SAINT CONVERTS
We began by determining who the early LDS converts were. On the
surface,
the problem was rather straightforward; however, the solution was
more difficult. Although the LDS church has always been a record-keeping
institution, membership data on early members are sporadic, impressionis-
tic,
and unreliable because records were often lost or otherwise destroyed.
Dean May points out that the first systematic reports on LDS membership
were published in 1879.
7
However, the minutes of the first general confer-
ence of the church, on June 9,1830, approximately two months after it was
organized, report twenty-seven members, while the minutes of the second
general conference, which took place on September
26-28,
report sixty-two
members.
8
Larry Porter has also identified at least 139 names of individuals
who were likely baptized during the so-called New York-Pennsylvania pe-
riod.
9
By the beginning of
1831,
the body of the Saints had moved to Kirt-
land, Ohio, because the first great surge in membership ranks occurred in
Ohio in the fall of 1830 when Parley
P.
Pratt, Ziba Peterson, Oliver Cowdery
and Peter Whitmer, Jr., converted a number of people associated with
Alexander Campbell.
10
Their visit to Ohio came at a fortuitous time, be-
cause the local leader, Sidney Rigdon, had become dissatisfied with Camp-
7.
Dean May, "A Demographic Portrait of the Mormons, 1830-1980," in D. Michael
Quinn, ed.,
The
New
Mormon
History
(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 121.
8. Most of these members belonged to one of three branches at Palmyra, New York;
Coleville, New York; and Harmony, Pennsylvania. See Joseph Fielding Smith,
The
Essentials
of
Church History
(Salt Lake
City:
Deseret News Press, 1950), 97,113.
9. Larry E. Porter,
"A
Study of the Origins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, 1816-1830," PhD diss., Brigham Young
University, 1971.
10.
Parley
P.
Pratt baptized
127
people in Kirtland on their first visit, and he claims that
the number of members "soon increased to one thousand," although no evidence exists to
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 29
bellite doctrines
and
was seeking other means
to
restore "the ancient order
of things" including "supernatural gifts
and
miracles."
There is
no
single source that provides
a
complete list
of
early
LDS
con-
verts.
The
most comprehensive catalogue
of
membership prior
to the
exo-
dus
to the
Rocky Mountains was made under the direction
of
Susan Easton
Black.
It is
based
on
primary
and
secondary sources, including minute
books, journals, autobiographies, biographies, periodicals,
and
genealogi-
cal materials. Black compiled
a
fifty-volume list
of
information, including
dates of baptism, concerning all known church membership prior
to
1848.
n
Unfortunately,
the
Black materials
do not
provide
the
time
of
baptism
for
several thousand
of
these converts, including many
of
those who joined
the
church prior
to
1835.
It was
necessary
to
engage
in my own
analysis
to
identify
the
baptismal dates
of
these converts. A number
of
valuable
sec-
ondary sources
is
also available.
12
The so-called
Far West Record
is a
compi-
lation
of the
minutes
of
church-related meetings between
1830 a nd 1844;
the appendix
of
that record lists biographical notes
on
approximately
375
names noted
in the
minutes, including several baptismal dates.
13
A
four-
volume History of
the Church
(a
compilation
of
historical materials dictated
by Joseph Smith) provides
a
chronology
of
church events during Smith's
life;
in the
text
the
prophet names more than 200 people
as
members
of the
church prior
to
1835.
14
Milton
V.
Backman published
a
detailed analysis
of
the members
of
the Kirtland Branch, where
the
Saints lived until they relo-
cated
to
Missouri
in the
latter half
of the
1830s.
15
He
identified more than
800 male members, their spouses,
and
parents. Additional sources included
lists
of
members
of
Zion's Camp,
the
Danites, marriage dates
in
Kirtland
and Nauvoo,
and the
death notices
in
Nauvoo.
16
Almost all these materials
gave little indication
of
baptismal dates,
and it was
necessary
to
conduct
corroborate that claim. See Parley P. Pratt, The
Autobiography
of
Parley
P.
Pratt, ed. Parley P.
Pratt, Jr. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1964), 48. Lucy Mack Smith wrote to her father on
January 6,1831 that 300 hundred had been baptized in Ohio. See Ben
E.
Rich,
Scrapbook
of Mor-
mon
Literature
(Chicago: Henry C. Etten, 1910), 543-45.
11.
Available at www.myfamily.com, or as part of a computer software package known
as LDS Family History, Suite 2.
12.
May points out that the first systematic reports on LDS membership were published
in
1879.
See May,
121.
13.
Donald Q. Cannon and Lyndon W. Cook,
Far
West
Record:
Minutes of
the
Church of
Jesus Christ
of
Latter-day
Saints:
1830-1844
(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983).
14.
Membership is noted by labels such as Sister Newel Knight, Brother David Whitmer,
Bishop Edward Partridge, Elder Brigham Young, etc. See Joseph Smith, The History of the
Church of
Jesus
Christ of
Latter-day
Saints, comp. B.H. Roberts (Salt Lake City: Deseret News
Press, 1902).
15. Milton
V.
Backman,
Jr., A
Profile
of
Latter-day Saints
of
Kirtland,
Ohio
and
Members
of
Zion's
Camp:
1830-1839
(Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1983).
16.
Backman, App. I. See also Lyndon W. Cook,
Nauvoo Deaths
and
Marriages:
1839-1845
(Orem, Utah: Grandin Book Company, 1994).
30 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
my own search of ordinance data, particularly through the LDS Ancestral
File.
I have been able to identify approximately 1,400 members who were
likely baptized prior to 1835.
I have chosen to focus on converts baptized before
1835,
before British
converts began to join the church. Therefore, any reference here to LDS con-
verts means persons who joined the church between 1830 and the end of
1834.
Two additional criteria were set for selecting my sample of early Lat-
ter-day Saints. First, it is crucial to give attention to those who made a ma-
ture,
deliberate decision to be baptized, and so my sample only includes
those converts who were at least fifteen years of age when they were bap-
tized. Second, because I wished to trace the genealogical lines to the begin-
ning of the colonial period in America when the expression of religious rad-
icalism was strong, I included only early LDS converts for whom the LDS
Ancestral File provides at least one sixth-generation progenitor.
These criteria neglect a number of early converts, particularly women,
even though I checked the "Family Group Record" of all male members to
determine if and when wives and children were baptized. Ancestral files
are incomplete even for men who played a crucial role in the formative
stages of the church, including William
E.
McLellin, Ziba Peterson, Charles
C. Rich, and Sidney Rigdon.
I found 583 early LDS converts who satisfied my criteria.
17
Although
the baptismal dates of ninety-three of these converts are disputed, contex-
tual information indicates that they were baptized during the time in ques-
tion.
18
The total sample represents approximately 40 percent of the church
membership during that time.
19
I will give special attention to the sixth-
generation ancestors of early LDS converts, because this group represents
the first generation that could have been born in early colonial America.
Their average birth date was 1646.
PROGENITORS
OF EARLY LDS CONVERTS
If I had been able to identify every progenitor of every early Latter-day
Saint convert, I would have doubled the progenitors in each generation.
Consequently, two second-generation progenitors would multiply to four
third-, eight fourth-, sixteen fifth-, and thirty-two sixth-generation progeni-
17.
The names of these LDS converts are available on request from the author.
18.
The numbers of
LDS
converts in this study by year are: 1829-30 (103); 1831 (98); 1832
(110);
1833 (142); 1834
(37);
date disputed (93), for a total of
583
converts.
19.
An exact count of church membership during the first five years does not exist. The
sample size was determined by extrapolating the sample size from the New York-Pennsylva-
nia period. Porter has identified 139 names of converts during this early period of the church;
56 satisfied my criteria for inclusion in the study, representing 40.3 percent. See Porter, "A
Study of the Origins." This percentage places church membership in the beginning of 1835 at
about
1,500.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 31
tors.
The ideal number of sixth-generation progenitors for the 583 Latter-
day Saints in the study would be 18,656. In fact, we see in Table 1 that 56
percent (10,492) of all possible sixth-generation progenitors were found. Of
course, the percentage of progenitors identified increases with the fifth (64
percent), fourth (77 percent), third (90 percent), and second (99.7 percent)
generations. This is a remarkable outcome of the study and is a testimony
to the extensive genealogical work so many Latter-day Saints have done.
We also see in Table 1 that about 30 percent (3,086) of sixth-generation
progenitors were born in Europe, but only about
3
percent of the fifth- (224)
and fourth- (113) generation progenitors were born in Europe, while almost
no third-, second-, or first-generation progenitors were born in Europe. In
other words, almost all the progenitors of every generation after the sixth
were born in North America. In addition, few of these progenitors were
born outside New England. In fact, 60 percent (349) of the LDS converts
themselves were born in New England.
If we break down the data for the sixth generation, we find more spe-
cific information. Table 2 shows that 6 percent (655) of the sixth-generation
progenitors were born and died in Europe; 23 percent (2,431) were born in
Europe and migrated to America; 68 percent (7,170) were born in America
(including New England, New York, the mid-Atlantic and the south); and
Table 1
LDS Progenitors Identified by Birthplace and Generation
Where Born 1st Gen. 2nd Gen. 3rd Gen. 4th Gen. 5th Gen. 6th Gen.
Europe
Outside New England
New England
Unknown Birthplace
Total
1
232
349
1
583
6
273
884
-
1,163
25
356
1,712
-
2,093
113
408
3,079
-
3,600
224
458
5,333
-
6,015
3,086
375
6,795
236
10,492
Table 2
Birthplaces of Sixth-Generation
LDS
Progenitors
Europe
Europe but Migrated
New England
New York
Mid-Atlantic
South
Birthplace Unknown
Total
Progenitors' Birthplace
655
2,431
6,795
293
51
31
236
10,492
Percentage of Total
5.6
23.2
64.8
2.8
0.5
0 3
2.2
100.0
32 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
2 percent (236) have unknown birthplaces. Of those sixth-generation prog-
enitors who were born in America, 95 percent (6,795) were born in early
colonial New England. Of those 5 percent (450) born elsewhere in the
colonies, 3 percent were born in New York (293), another 1 percent (51)
were born in the mid-Atlantic region, and only 0.3 percent (31) were born in
the South. Thus, almost all the sixth-generation progenitors of the early
LDS church converts were either born in New England or moved to New
England from Europe, and they apparently remained in New England
through the fifth, fourth, third, and second generations, until their descen-
dants joined the church in the 1830s.
Let us put these figures into context. New England was never domi-
nant in terms of America's colonial population. Approximately 30 percent
of the population of the colonies lived in New England, while the majority
lived in the mid-Atlantic and southern regions. In fact, Virginia contained
more inhabitants than all the New England colonies combined. However,
few early LDS converts and their progenitors came from the mid-Atlantic
or south.
20
When placed in the context of the general New England population,
the raw number of sixth-generation progenitors is striking. The
U.S.
Bureau
of the Census estimates that approximately 22,800 British settlers were liv-
ing in New England by 1650.
21
One might be tempted to conclude, on the
basis of the 9,091 sixth-generation New England progenitors who have
been identified in the middle of the seventeenth century, that 40 percent of
the entire population were progenitors of LDS converts. This would be
faulty reasoning because of the overlap in names; i.e., one early LDS con-
vert would likely have progenitors who were also progenitors of other con-
verts.
However, one does find 2,688 people who are progenitors of only one
of the 583 LDS converts in this study, and no fewer than 4,541 different or
unique names are found among sixth-generation progenitors. This means
that at least 20 percent (4,541) of the 1650 population of New England
(22,800) were direct-line ancestors of LDS converts, although the percent-
age could rise substantially higher as additional progenitors are identified
(see Table 3).
NEW
ENGLAND RELIGIOUS ORIENTATIONS
AND
THEIR LDS CONVERT CONNECTIONS
Earlier in this paper, I hypothesized that the progenitors of early LDS
converts would exhibit a special "radical" spiritual orientation. The fact
that almost all these converts shared a heritage reaching back to the earliest
20.
New York is an exception due to its historical significance in the westward migration
from New England.
21.
World
Almanac
and
Book
of
Facts
(Mahwah, N.J.: World Almanac Books, 1997), 378.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 33
Table 3
Combined Birthplaces and Places of Death of Sixth-Generation Immigrant
LDS Progenitors Compared to Total New England Population in 1650
Ply Col Mass Conn RI NH ME Totals
LDS Progenitors
(15.3%) 1,390
(49.4%) 4,494
(24%) 2,189
(7.4%) 675
(2.2%) 197
(1.6%) 146
(100%) 9,091
Unique Names 653 2,186 1,185 314 122 81 4,541
NE Population in 1650
(4.4%) 1,000
(64%) 14,600
(18%) 4,100
(3.5%) 800
(5.7%) 1,300
(4.4%) 1,000
(100%) 22,800
years of America's New England colonial history suggests in itself a special
spiritual orientation. It indicates that the forerunners of early converts
shared a two-century heritage in a country Latter-day Saints believe to be a
land of promise, a land "choice above all other lands/' a land "consecrated"
for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
22
While all religions in New England might be characterized as radical,
three main levels of radicalism were found: Puritans, Separatists, and Rad-
ical Spiritualists.
23
My best estimate is that up to 85 percent of the popula-
tion of New England was Puritan, 10 percent Separatist, and no more than
5 percent Radical Spiritualist. In this section I will describe these groups
and examine the degree of association between LDS progenitors and these
radical groups.
PURITANS
In some respects the term "Puritan" was applied to most radical reli-
gious groups in seventeenth-century England and New England.
24
In this
22.
2Nephil:5-8.
23.
I have borrowed the term "Radical Spiritualist" from Philip Gura, A
Glimpse
ofZion's
Glory:
Puritan
Radicalism
in New
England,
1620-1660
(Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University
Press,
1984).
24.
Edward H. Bloomfield,
The
Opposition
to
the
English
Separatists,
1570-1625
(Washing-
ton,
D.C.:
University Press of America, 1981), x.
34 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
study, however, we shall distinguish between Puritans, Separatists, and
Radical Spiritualists. Puritans were dedicated to the goals of the Reforma-
tion in that they desired personal righteousness and a more constant level
of morality in church and state, but they wished to remain within the
boundaries of the Church of England. Puritans were also dedicated to the
notion that scripture alone served as the guide to their faith and life. They
rejected both the Catholic and Anglican traditions of ritual, church author-
ity, and dogma, as well as the claims of more radical reformers that the
scriptures were supplemented by direct revelation from God and an "inner
light." Puritanism was closely bound with Calvinism and the vernacular
Bible.
The Puritans were located largely in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
We recall that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was started almost a decade
after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, but quickly became the dominant
force in New England. Massachusetts Bay settlers were intent on cleansing
the Church of England, to purify it. Thus, they were known as the Puritans.
Even though its landmass was no larger than that of Plymouth Colony, by
1650 at least 14,600 individuals lived there, in contrast to 1,000 in Plymouth
Colony. In fact, 64 percent of New Englanders resided in Massachusetts at
the time.
The Connecticut and New Haven colonies were also dominated by
Puritans. Their inhabitants had fled the problems wracking Massachusetts,
setting up communities of small, tightly knit groups of people who wished
to establish theocratic polities. About 4,100 people lived in Connecticut/
New Haven by 1650, which was 18 percent of the New England popula-
tion. Here quite a different picture emerged. Connecticut was "a small, in-
conspicuous agricultural colony," isolated from the main currents of reli-
gious and political activity.
25
Its people did not fit the Massachusetts
profile, with its extreme class distinctions; rather, each congregation was
left to its own devices to form its individual character. Connecticut Puritans
took pride in their independence: Their norms and politics coincided more
nearly with those of the Pilgrims in Plymouth.
Given the great numbers of progenitors who lived in the Puritan
colonies, we can assume that Puritanism played a substantial role in the re-
ligious orientation of these progenitors. It is clearly appropriate to draw
connections between Mormonism and Puritan thought and beliefs.
26
Joseph Smith resonated well with Puritan beliefs, in part because almost all
25.
Charles McLean Andrews,
Connecticut's Place
in
Colonial History
(New Haven: Con-
necticut Society of Colonial Wars, 1923), 9.
26.
See, for example, James R. Christianson, "Puritanism and Mormonism: Parallel
Paths—A Parting of the Ways," in Donald M. Cannon, ed.,
Regional Studies
in
Latter-day Saint
Church
History:
New
England
(Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Department of Church
History and Doctrine, 1988).
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 35
his sixth-generation ancestors were born in Puritan Massachusetts. How-
ever, such an argument fails to explain the population distribution of peo-
ple who were attracted to the message of Joseph Smith. Given the overall
population distribution of New England, we might have expected converts
to come largely from the northern areas of New England, but in fact the
number of progenitors born in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine
was substantially under-represented. (Progenitors who did reside in New
Hampshire and Maine came from communities which showed radical reli-
gious tendencies.) In addition, the progenitors were substantially over-rep-
resented in the thinly settled areas of Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Con-
necticut/New Haven.
It is instructive to examine the Massachusetts Bay Colony to determine
where the LDS progenitors lived. Greene and Harrington claim the popula-
tion of Boston was 14,300 in 1664, and the population of Massachusetts was
23,461 in
1665,
27
which suggests that up to 60 percent of the early Massachu-
setts population resided in the Boston area.
28
Yet w e find that fewer than 14
percent of the Massachusetts progenitors were born in Suffolk County,
where Boston is located, and fewer than
5
percent were born in Boston
itself.
Clearly, the progenitors of early converts were not concentrated in the center
of Massachusetts; rather, they were primarily in Essex (1,550) and Middlesex
(1,379) counties.
29
In addition, more than half the Massachusetts progenitors
came from only ten towns. We find more progenitors living in the towns of
Salem, Ipswich, Rowley, and Watertown than were living in Boston.
The Massachusetts county with the most progenitors of LDS converts
was Essex, with 35 percent of all Massachusetts progenitors. In fact, 40 per-
cent (233) of LDS had at least one sixth-generation progenitor from Essex
County. This is of particular interest to us because much of Essex County
was politically identified at mid-century with New Hampshire, where a
radical religious element resided.
30
The courts of New Hampshire covered
much of Essex County, so the political representatives were the same.
31
The
area also deviated in tone and practice from mainstream Puritanism. First,
27.
Evarts B. Greene and Virginia D. Harrington,
American Population before
the
Federal
Census
of1790 (New
York:
Columbia University Press, 1932), 13,19.
28.
This claim is supported by a survey of houses in various coastal communities at the
time,
which indicated that 60 percent of Massachusetts' homes were located in Boston. See
G. D. Scull, "Historical Notes and Letters Relating to Early New England," New
England
His-
torical and Genealogical Register 38
(October
1884):
378-81.
29.
The numbers of sixth-generation progenitors of early LDS converts born in or emi-
grating to counties in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
were:
Essex
(1,550);
Hampton
(299);
Mid-
dlesex (1,379); Suffolk (602); Other (402).
30.
Scull, "Historical Notes and Letters."
31.
Victor C. Sanborn, "Stephen Bachiler: An Unforgiven Puritan." (Paper prepared for
the New Hampshire Historical Society,
1875,
Part
II,
178-204.) See also Scull, "Historical Notes
and Letters."
36 Dialogue:
A
Journal
of
Mormon Thought
many
of
its towns had been settled
for
economic reasons before the Massa-
chusetts Bay Puritans arrived
in
the new world,
and
there was continuous
competition between
the
Massachusetts
Bay
Company
and
other groups
claiming coastal territories. Second,
the
major town
in the
area, Salem,
tended toward Separatism, harboring
the
largest number
of
Antinomians
outside
of
Boston, and
in
the 1640s
and
50s,
a
good share
of
Gortonists
and
Anabaptists
as
well.
32
The Society
of
Friends also made
its
first inroads
in
the Salem area.
33
Third, Essex County
was the
location
of the
infamous
witch trials
of
1692, which
is
indicative
of the
spiritual agitation cutting
through the communities.
A
high concentration
of
sixth-generation progenitors
of
early LDS con-
verts
is
found
in
Puritan Connecticut. Indeed,
53
percent (309)
of all the
early LDS converts
in
this study had
at
least one sixth-generation progeni-
tor from Connecticut. While
the
colony
of
Connecticut could claim only
about 4,100 inhabitants
at the
time,
we
find
no
fewer than
1,185
different
last names among the sixth-generation progenitors
of
early converts and
an
astounding 2,181 different first
and
last names. This means that more than
half the residents
of
early Connecticut were progenitors
of
early LDS con-
verts,
even after accounting
for
duplicate names.
Furthermore, these progenitors were clearly concentrated
in a few
Connecticut counties
and
towns.
In
fact, 50 percent
of
all progenitors were
located
in
only five towns. The earliest permanent settlements
in
Connecti-
cut were Hartford, Wethersfield,
and
Windsor,
all in
Hartford County.
Thirty percent
of
all progenitors
of
LDS converts were located
in the
three
towns
of
this county, which should
not b e
surprising, because
in
mid-cen-
tury
it
was
by far
the most populated county
in
Connecticut.
The most prominent group
in
early Connecticut comprised the follow-
ers
of
Thomas Hooker,
34
whose life
in
England paralleled that
of
other
Pu-
ritan divines. While
a
minister
at
Chelmsford, England, Hooker
had
been
"silenced
for
non-conformity."
He
spent three years
in
Holland
as a di s-
senter prior
to
emigrating
to New
England, arriving
in
September 1633,
where he joined his Chelmsford flock, most
of
whom
had
preceded him
to
Massachusetts.
35
He was disturbed with the turmoil
in
the Boston area
and
decided
the
group would settle away from Boston
in the
Connecticut
Valley.
36
Hooker
and the
main body
of
believers arrived
in
what would
32.
Carla Gardina Pestana, "Sectarianism in Colonial Massachusetts," Ph.D. diss., Uni-
versity of California, Los Angeles, 1987,18-19.
33.
Carla Gardina Pestana,
Quakers
and Baptists in
Colonial Massachusetts
(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1991).
34.
Thomas Hooker is a direct-line progenitor of LDS converts Shadrach Roundy and
Uriah Roundy.
35.
G. H. Hollister,
The
History
of
Connecticut
(New Haven: Durrie and Peck, 1855), 1: 22.
36. George Leon Walker, Thomas Hooker: Preacher, Founder, Democrat
(New
York: Dodd,
Mead, and Co., 1891).
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 37
become Hartford in the fall of 1635. Included in the Hooker group were
names which anyone interested in early LDS history would readily recog-
nize.
Settlers such as John and William Pratt, William Parker, William Par-
tridge, Paul Peck, and Richard Webb were ancestors of a host of early LDS
converts.
Almost an equal number of progenitors has been identified in Windsor.
In October of the same year in which Hooker settled Hartford, the Rev-
erend John Wareham brought a flock of about sixty souls to a place they
named Windsor, just north of Hartford. Wareham had been an "eminent
minister" in Exeter, England, who had lived briefly in Dorchester, Massa-
chusetts, before moving with his people to Windsor.
37
Although Windsor
was a small settlement with a population in the low hundreds at midcen-
tury, large numbers of LDS progenitors were born there. No fewer than
eighty-three of the 583 LDS converts in our sample had sixth-generation
relatives born in Windsor. These converts included well-known names
such as W. W. Phelps, Polly Peck, Edward Partridge, Sr., Luke Johnson,
Orson Hyde, Lorenzo Snow, and many others. I found a total of
252
Wind-
sor progenitors of those eighty-three early
LDS
converts, which means each
convert averaged almost three progenitors from Windsor, suggesting in-
tense family and communal connections of large numbers of progenitors of
early Saints.
A third Hartford County group settled in Wethersfield, just south of
Hartford. Here I found at least 162 sixth-generation ancestors born in
Wethersfield who are direct-line, sixth-generation progenitors of seventy-
four early LDS converts. Included among these were well-known names
such as the Fisk family, Orson Hyde, Edward Partridge, Sr., the Joseph
Smith, Sr., family, Lucy Mack, Daniel Wells, Frederick G. Williams, Wilford
Woodruff,
and the Young family.
New London County, where considerable numbers of progenitors
were also located, maintained an independent, radical orientation similar
to Rhode Island. It is the location of the first Anabaptists in Connecticut and
the birthplace of the Rogerene movement.
New Haven Colony was established through the efforts of Theophilus
Eaton and his brother, Reverend Samuel Eaton, along with Reverend John
Davenport. The saga of Davenport is typical of those who set out to form
their own colonial group in New England. After graduating from Oxford in
1615
he became a preacher in London. In
1624
he was "elected ... to the vic-
arage of St. Stephen's," a large, wealthy, middle-class parish which had a
clear Congregational orientation.
38
With the accession of Archbishop Laud
37.
Elias
B.
Sanford, A
History
of
Connecticut
(Hartford: S. S. Scranton, 1888), 20.
38.
Rollin G. Osterweis,
Three Centuries
of New
Haven,
1638-1938
(New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 1953), 9.
38 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
in 1633, Davenport was compelled to flee to Holland. One of his London
parishioners, Theophilus Eaton, was a boyhood schoolmate who had be-
come a prominent businessman. Under cover, Davenport returned to Lon-
don where he and Eaton organized a company consisting mainly of his old
wealthy parish, and in April 1637 they set sail on the ship
Hector,
intending
to establish the most thoroughgoing theocracy in New England. After pick-
ing up additional followers, the group sailed to New Haven the next
spring.
39
While the New Haven population barely exceeded 800 by mid-century,
and no more than 1,000 prior to annexation to Connecticut in 1665, the
colony claimed no fewer than 530 sixth-generation progenitors of early
LDS converts. Of course, many of the converts had duplicate ancestors, but
nevertheless, approximately 43 percent of all the original settlers in New
Haven colony were the progenitors of at least one early LDS convert.
SEPARATISTS
Separatists, who broke away from the Church of England altogether,
formed the second level of religious radicalism in New England. H. S. Stout
portrays them as "the most radical, unpopular Puritan faction of their
age."
40
In England, Separatists and non-Separatists maintained strong dif-
ferences, but there were important common elements. For example, both
Puritans and Separatists relied heavily on Calvinist doctrine. However, the
term "Separatist" refers to those who believed "the English Church was a
false church and that it would never be reformed." The Church of England
was seen as being "so tainted with Romanism that no true Christian could
remain part of it."
41
The Pilgrims originated mainly from the village of
Scrooby and had found the situation so intolerable in England that they
moved first to Amsterdam
42
then to Leyden, Holland. They recognized that
Holland was a temporary place of residence, and on August 5,1620, a few
members of their congregation joined certain "adventurers" and set sail on
the Mayflower for the New World. The original Pilgrim colony at Cape Cod
never thrived. By 1624 only 180 individuals lived in the colony, which was
quickly overshadowed by Massachusetts Bay Colony.
43
However, Plymouth Colony set the tone for certain religious traditions
in New England which melded the differences between Puritans and Sepa-
39.
Francis
J.
Degnan,
A New
Look
at Old New
Haven
(New
Haven,
Yale-New
Haven
Teachers
Institute,
1992),
5.
40. H. S.
Stout,
"Puritanism,"
in
Daniel
G.
Reid,
ed.,
Dictionary
of
Christianity
in
America
(Downers
Grove,
111.:
Intervarsity
Press,
1990),
966.
41.
Bloomfield,
x.
42. Marion L. Starkey, The
Congregational
Way: The Role of the Pilgrims and Their Heirs in
Shaping
America (Garden
City,
N.Y.:
Doubleday
and Co.,
1966),
17.
43.
Greene
and
Harrington,
10.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 39
ratists. We noted above that although the Plymouth Separatists failed to
flourish in terms of numbers, they established the framework for Congre-
gationalism which took hold in New England with both Separatist and
non-Separatist bodies.
44
The Pilgrims claimed that every church was a unit,
independent of all outside control, including the hierarchical officials of the
church. Thus, when the
Mayflower
arrived at Cape Cod, the Pilgrim leaders
concluded a compact, based on the Scrooby Church Covenant, wherein
they declared:
We
... solemnly and mutually... covenant and combine ourselves together into
a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation ... for the general
good of
the
colony, unto which
we
promise all due subjection and obedience.
45
That covenant formed the basis of government for the small group by
establishing the congregation as the ruling body over church members, and
it set the pattern for other congregations in the colonies. When the Salem
congregation was organized as a body of Puritans, the Plymouth influence
prevailed, and that congregation also established itself as an independent
covenant body.
46
By 1645, twenty-three churches had been organized in
Massachusetts, and all had adopted the Congregational framework.
47
Al-
though the differences between Puritans and Separatists were melded in
New England, distinctions remained, particularly with regard to church/
state matters.
Some connections between Separatists and the LDS church have al-
ready been established in the literature. For example, in 1920 B. Roland
Lewis wrote an article for the
Improvement
Era,
in celebration of the Ter-
centenary Celebration of the
Mayflower,
which extolled the contribution of
the Pilgrims to American and Mormon thought. Lewis correctly suggested
that Pilgrim thought has more in common with Mormon orientations than
does Puritanism. A rewarding aspect of my own research has been finding
such a high number of Pilgrim family lines tied to early LDS converts. It is
possible to tie significant numbers of progenitors of early Latter-day Saint
converts to those first Pilgrim refugees. In fact, at least 67 of the 583 Latter-
day Saint converts in this study have progenitors who arrived on the
Mayflower.
The large number of LDS converts connected with the
Mayflower
is es-
pecially significant because more than half its
102
passengers died that first
44.
Louise M. Greene, The
Development
of
Religious
Liberty in Connecticut (Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin, 1905).
45.
B. Roland Lewis, "The Pilgrims and the Utah Pioneers,"
Improvement Era
24 (Dec.
1920):
95-103.
46.
Michael R. Watts,
The Dissenters
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 103.
47.
William Warren Sweet,
Religion
in
Colonial America
(New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons,
1942),
87.
40 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
winter, while several other "adventurers" returned to England within a
short time. John Landis has determined that only twenty-two heads of
household from the Mayflower exist from whom all descent can be traced
without duplication.
48
I have traced early convert direct lines back to at
least fifteen of these twenty-two heads of household.
49
Of course, many
LDS converts claim multiple Mayflower ancestors. Mary Ann Kennedy, for
example, had five Mayflower ancestors, while the fourteen converts who
had links with John Howland, including the Pratt brothers and the Joseph
Smith family (through Lucy Mack), would automatically be connected not
only with Howland but also with Howland's wife, Elizabeth Tillie (often
spelled Tilley), and her parents, John Tillie and Joan Hurst Tillie, constitut-
ing four Mayflower progenitors.
We find in Table 3 that while the mid-century population of Plymouth
Colony was only
1,000,
an astounding 1,382 ancestors of early LDS con-
verts are recorded. Naturally the number of progenitors cannot exceed the
entire population. Duplicate names account for most of this anomaly. For
example, the names John Garnsey, John Chase, and John Eddy were all an-
cestors of eleven early LDS converts, while Sarah Smith was an ancestor of
ten converts. A more realistic figure would be the number of unique first
and last names among the progenitors, which is 653. Even so, this figure
suggests that almost two-thirds of all individuals living in Plymouth
Colony in the mid-1600s were progenitors of early converts. If we look
from another vantage point, we find that at least 45 percent (262 of 583) of
the early converts in our study claimed relationship either to people born
in early Plymouth Colony or to those who came from England to reside in
Plymouth Colony.
To provide a picture of the Separatist world, I shall focus on a single
town, Barnstable, which was settled by a group under the leadership of
48.
John Landis, Mayflower Descendents and Their Marriages for Two Generations after the
Landing
(Baltimore: Southern Book
Co.,
1956).
49.
Early
LDS
converts are shown in parentheses: John Alden (Elizabeth Hathaway, Lucy
Simmons, Noah Packard, Joseph Coe, Mary Ann Kennedy, the John Young family, Joel Hills
Johnson, Julia Ann Johnson, Deleana Johnson, Cyril Call and Anson Call); Isaac Allerton
(Mary Ann Kennedy); John Billington (Polly Chadwick, Anna P. Johnson, Martin H. Peck);
William Bradford (Josiah Sumner, Elizabeth Hathaway); William Brewster (Daniel Avery,
Rhoda Walker, Sarah King); Peter Brown (Olive Farwell and Isaac Freeman); James Childon
(Sophia Bundy); Francis Cooke (Soloman Chamberlain, Jesse Baker, Lydia and Ira Ames, John
Tanner, Titus Billings, Stephen Chase Noah Packard, Mary Ann Kennedy, Elijah Cheney); Ed-
ward Fuller (Lucy Mack and the Smith family, Frederick G. Williams, Ashael A. Lathrop);
Stephen Hopkins (Stephen Chase, Titus Billings, Noah Packard); John Howland (Dimick B.
Huntington, Lucy Mack and the Smith family, Orson, Parley Parker and William D. Pratt,
Lyman Curtis, Emma Hale, Mary Ann Kennedy, Lyman Curtis); Thomas Rogers (Luke, John
Jr., Lyman and Nancy Johnson, Chauncey Calkins, Sarah Webber, Elizabeth Hathaway);
Henry Sampson (Mayhew Hillman); George Soule (Lucy Simmons); Richard Warren (Mary
Ann Kennedy, Olive Farwell, Isaac Freeman, Solomon Chamberlain).
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 41
John Lathrop. As a minister in Yorkshire, England, Lathrop had established
a clear record of public protest against the prevailing religious orientation.
He decided that the Church of England had lost its way, so in 1623 he re-
nounced his religious orders and declared he would henceforth espouse
the cause of the religious "Independents." He moved the next year to Lon-
don, where he succeeded Henry Jacob as the Pastor of the First Indepen-
dent Church. In 1624 his church was formally banned by the government,
and for eight years the congregation worshipped in secret. In 1632, John
Lathrop and forty-three members of his parish were arrested on the im-
probable charge of practicing the teachings of the New Testament.
50
While in prison Lathrop's first wife died, and he was released after two
years on condition that he and his followers leave the country. He, his fam-
ily, and many of his parishioners sailed for New England on the same ship
as Anne Marbury Hutchinson, arriving in Boston on September 18,1634. He
then organized a church for his flock at Scituate in Plymouth Colony, where
he remained for two years before the group moved to Barnstable in October
1639,
apparently because of disputes over the proper mode of baptism.
51
Barnstable was a rather small town compared with places like Boston,
Charlestown, Hingham, and Ipswich, but
116
people born around the mid-
16005 have been identified in that town alone as progenitors of early con-
verts.
Lathrop has long been identified as an ancestor of many Mormon
leaders, including Frederick G. Williams, Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum and
Joseph Smith (through Lucy Mack), Wilford
Woodruff,
as well as Orson
and Parley Parker Pratt.
52
However, he was also the ancestor of a number
of more ordinary early converts. It would take us too far afield to identify
by name more than fifty of the early converts who are direct-line descen-
dents of those in the congregation who accompanied John Lathrop to Barn-
stable, but that congregation clearly was an important feeder institution for
early church converts.
RADICAL SPIRITUALISTS
The third level of religious radicalism in New England included those
whose religious orientation was so radical that they were persecuted, ostra-
cized, and usually expelled not only from England, but from the power
center of New England. I will now examine the degree to which progeni-
tors of early LDS converts were associated with these Radical Spiritualists.
Some observations related to geography are in order. The two geo-
graphical areas of colonial New England that might be considered the most
50.
Charles H enry
Pope,
The
Pioneers
of
Massachusetts
(Boston: Charles H.
Pope,
1900),
202.
51.
Elijah Baldwin Huntington, A
Genealogical
Memoire of the Lo-Lathrop Family (Ridge-
field, Conn., 1884), 28.
52.
Archibald Bennett, "Orson Pratt as a Genealogist,"
Deseret
News,
April 25,1936, p. 2.
42 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
radical would be Rhode Island and New Hampshire. More than 20 percent
of the early LDS converts in this study have direct-line progenitors either
born in or immigrating to Rhode Island, even though it contained less than
8 percent of the New England population. From another vantage point, we
find that among the
623
progenitors in Rhode Island there are 309 different
names, constituting one-third of the entire population of the colony at mid-
seventeenth century. In other words, substantial connections are found in
Rhode Island between the early colonial residents and early LDS converts.
When we turn to New Hampshire, we find the connections are not so sub-
stantial. Even so, fifty-eight early converts in this study have direct-line
progenitors either born in or immigrating to that area. The New Hampshire
population was clustered largely within four townships: Dover, Ports-
mouth, Hampton, and Exeter. We shall find that radical leanings have been
identified in all these towns except Portsmouth, and the progenitors of
early LDS converts were indeed centered in these more radical towns.
Various overlapping categories of radicals can be identified. First, cer-
tain heretical individuals gained the spotlight, and groups of people rallied
around them; pertinent here are Roger Williams, Anne Marbury Hutchin-
son, and Samuell Gorton. Second, radical religious groups were trans-
ported to the colonies from England, e.g., Anabaptists and Quakers. Third,
several Puritan congregations were radicalized in New England by oppres-
sive actions taken by Puritan leaders; I will focus on the congregations of
John Wheelwright and Stephen Bachiler. It should be clear that great over-
lap exists among the three categories, although they provide some frame-
work for discussion.
Heretical Individuals: Williams, Hutchinson, and Gorton
Among those who called for radical change, none were more important
for those interested in LDS roots than Roger Williams, Anne Marbury
Hutchinson, and Samuell Gorton. They foreshadowed many of the claims
made by Joseph Smith at the time of the organization of the church.
While as many as nineteen people, the first in 1624, were expelled from
New England towns prior to Roger Williams's expulsion, he was the first to
gain historical renown. The account of his expulsion is well known, so I
will content myself with delineating certain aspects of his religious beliefs.
He believed that the Antichrist had reigned for 1,260 years and had de-
stroyed the original Church of Jesus Christ. In his eyes, the Anglicans, Puri-
tans,
and Separatists were no more legitimate than the church of Rome be-
cause they continued to accept the validity of ordinances such as infant
baptism.
53
In Rhode Island, Williams made arrangements in 1639 for
53.
W. Clark Gilpin,
The Millenarian Piety
of
Roger Williams
(Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press,
1979),
53-54.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 43
Ezekiel Holliman to rebaptize him, although he was uncomfortable with
the procedure and eventually declared it invalid. He believed that true or-
dinances such as baptism could only be restored by a special commission
from God.
54
He believed God's plan was to restore the Church of Jesus
Christ in its original pattern, and the church would only be restored
through the millennial appearance of new apostles.
55
In spite of his forbearing and magnanimous attitude, Williams was so
resolute in his convictions that he was expelled. The hierarchy of Massa-
chusetts expected Williams to go back to England, but he chose instead to
travel into the wilderness and eventually settled with several of his "friends
and neighbors" in what was to become Providence, Rhode Island. The
group consisted of about twelve households, and at least twenty-nine early
LDS converts claimed one or more heads of household as direct-line prog-
enitors.
56
In other words, progenitors of LDS converts were in rich abun-
dance in settling Rhode Island and establishing the spiritual and cultural
norms that reigned in the area.
We turn now to Anne Marbury Hutchinson, a central figure of the so-
called Antinomian crisis of the 1630s. Thomas Bicknell summarizes her life
in the following way:
In matters of religion and theology Anne Hutchinson was a seer, a prophetess,
"a Daniel, come to jedgment
[sic]."
Three great spiritual concepts possessed
her.
She
believed that the human soul could and did hold close communication
with the Divine Over-Soul.
She
believed in direct and special revelations from
the divine to the human, from God
to
her own
soul.
She
also
believed in a spir-
itual justification of the soul of
man,
with
God,
through faith.
57
The debate that led to her conviction and expulsion from Massachu-
setts was related to grace and works. However, since beliefs were respected
as matters of conscience, she could never have been expelled exclusively
over this issue. Rather, her expulsion was ensured when she was asked in
her trial why she was so certain of her position. She explained, "I shall give
54.
John Callender, An Historical Discourse on the Civil and Religious Affairs of
the
Colony
of
Rhode-Island,
with annotations and documents ed. by Romeo Elation
(1843;
repr. New York:
Books for Libraries Press, 1971).
55.
Gilpin,59.
56.
LDS converts are shown in parentheses: Roger Williams (Eleazer Miller, Lucina
Streeter, and Catherine Slauson); Stukeley Westcott (Erastus Wightman and Catharine Slau-
son);
William Arnold (Lydia Ackerman, Celinda Ackerman, and Barnell Cole); John Greene,
Sr. (Orson Pratt, Parley Parker Pratt, Anson Pratt, William Dickinson Pratt, Maria Sagers,
Reynolds Cahoon, William Farrington Cahoon, Evan Molbourne Greene, and John Port.
Greene); William Harris (Lydia and Celinda Ackerman); William Carpenter (Horace Morley,
Lucy Diantha Morley, Laban Morrill, Martin Horton, Ann Eliza, Nancy F., and Sally Ann
Peck);
Thomas Olney (James William, Solomon, and Thomas Osborn Angell).
57.
Thomas
W.
Bicknell,
Story
of
Dr.
John Clarke
(Providence:
T.
W.
Bicknell, 1915), 59.
44 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
you the ground of what I know to be true.... The Lord ..
.
by his propheti-
cal office must open it to me." Her examiner, John Winthrop, pushed her on
her meaning, asking how she knew, and she replied, "So to me by an im-
mediate revelation." Thus was her fate sealed because she claimed to know
by "the voice of his own spirit to my soul."
58
The Puritans had taken a strong stand against the leaders of the Church
of England who wished to retain certain ceremonial practices and rituals as
well as certain theological beliefs from the Catholic Church. The Puritan fa-
thers held firmly to the position that doctrines and practices could be ac-
ceptable only if they were validated through the scriptures. Nothing out-
side the Bible could be used in argument or debate. It was the rock of all
knowledge,
belief,
and practice.
59
Anne Marbury Hutchinson, while reject-
ing the validity of custom and habit, claimed that her life had been guided
not only by the scriptures but by God himself. She claimed that in difficult
times "God came often to her," giving direction and meaning to her life.
60
She developed an intimacy with the Spirit that was profound but unset-
tling to those around her. Hutchinson advocated that the scriptures were
powerful and helpful, but that an individual could develop a direct means
of reaching God through the "indwelling of the Spirit," a notion that paral-
lels the Latter-day Saint belief in the "Gift of the Holy Ghost."
Some of the negative attitudes of the Puritan hierarchy toward
Hutchinson were also related to her claim to possess a gift of healing. The
healing arts were connected in that day with witchcraft; the most famous
incident of healing gone wrong was that of Mary Dyer who gave birth to a
premature "monster child" while being attended by Hutchinson and a
midwife friend by the name of Mrs. Hawkins. It was rumored that
Hutchinson and Mrs. Hawkins were somehow responsible for the whole
hideous event.
61
When Hutchinson was banished, Hawkins was one of
those who went with her to Rhode Island. It was widely rumored that
Hawkins was a Familist and a witch.
62
The Hutchinson crisis is known generally as Antinomianism. Battis
names
187
males who participated to some degree in the Hutchinson affair,
with thirty-eight men forming a core group. The most severe punishment
for conviction of Antinomianism was banishment. Within a few months
58.
Edwin
S.
Gaustad,
ed., A
Documentary History
of
Religion
in
America
to the
Civil
War
(Grand
Rapids,
MI:
William
B.
Eerdmans Publishing
Co.,
1993),
133.
59.
George
E. Ellis,
Puritan
Age and
Rule
in the
Colony
of the
Massachusetts
Bay:
1629-1685
(1888;
repr.
New
York:
Burt
Franklin,
1970), 78-79.
60.
Emery
Battis,
Saints
and
Sectaries:
Anne Hutchinson
and the
Antinomian Controversy
in
the
Massachusetts
Bay
Colony (Chapel
Hill,
NC:
University
of
North Carolina
Press, 1962), 50.
61.
Ibid.,
177-79.
62.
Charles Francis
Adams,
Antinomianism
in the
Colony
of
Massachusetts
Bay:
1636-1638
(New
York:
Burt
Franklin,
1967), 188.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 45
after the verdict against Hutchinson,
at
least thirty-four heads of household
arrived, many with their families,
in
Rhode Island. Others were convicted
but went elsewhere.
For
example, John Wheelwright took
his
entire
con-
gregation
to
New Hampshire. Progenitors
of
LDS converts travelling with
Hutchinson included: William Coddington,
one of the
wealthiest
men in
the colony; John Coggeshall,
a
dealer
of
expensive fabrics; John Sanford;
William Denison; Edward Hutchinson,
Sr.;
Francis Hutchinson; John
Porter; Robert Porter; Philip
and
Samuel Sherman; John Underhill; Robert
Potter; William
and
Thomas Wardell;
and
John Wheelwright,
63
which
is a
remarkable number considering that so few progenitors were located in the
Boston area.
64
In addition, several family members
of
direct-line progenitors were im-
plicated
in
Antinomianism. Robert Harding
is a
good case
in
point. There
are no direct-line descendents
of
Robert among early LDS converts because
he moved back
to
London. However, Robert's younger brother Abraham,
who was only
a
teenager
at
the time
and
living with Robert, was undoubt-
edly
a
family participant
in
the Antinomian crisis. He
is
the progenitor and
namesake
of
Dwight Harding, who was baptized
in
1831.
65
In spite
of the
lasting visibility
of
Roger Williams
and
Anne Marbury
Hutchinson,
the
most schismatic
and
controversial
of the
heretics
was
Samuell Gorton.
66
Gorton
was
called
at
various times
an
"arch-heretic,"
a
"beast,"
a
"miscreant,"
a
"proud and pestilent seducer,"
and a
"prodigious
minter
of
exorbitant novelties."
67
Although
he
never identified himself
with the Family
of
Love,
he
was often regarded as
a
Familist, because both
"believed
in
mystical communion with the Holy Spirit."
68
Gorton's life before immigrating was conventional, but after arriving in
63.
Battis,App. I.
64.
Hutchinson had thirteen children who were slaughtered by Indians in 1643, except
for the youngest daughter. She, therefore, has few descendants. LDS converts are shown in
parentheses: William (Anne's husband) and Edward Hutchinson (John Port. Greene, Evan
Melbourne Greene, Anson Pratt, Parley Parker Pratt, Orson Pratt, William Dickinson Pratt,
Meritable Sawyer); John Coggeshall (Rhoda Walker, Alfred, Hulda, Ira, Rhoda, and Russell W.
Fisk);
William Denison (Catharine Slauson); Robert Potter (William Walker Rust); William
Coggington (John Port. Greene, Evan Melbourne Greene); William Dyer (William Wines
Phelps); William Wardell (Edmund Durfee, James Durfee, William Walker Rust); John Wheel-
wright (Olive Lowell); Richard Carder (Anna Knight, Esther Knight, Hyruna Knight, Joseph
Knight, Newell Knight, Polly Knight, Vinson Knight, Ezekiel Peck, Hezekiah Peck, Polly Peck,
Sally Ann Peck, Nancy
F.
Peck, Ann Eliza Peck).
65. Glen F. Harding,
A
Record
of
the
Ancestry, Family, and Descendents of Abraham Harding
(Ogden, Utah: Glen
F.
Harding, 1979).
66.
Gura, A
Glimpse
ofSion's
Glory.
67. Lewis G. Janes, Samuell Gorton:
A
Forgotten Founder
of Our
Liberties:
First Settler
of
War-
wick,
R.I. (Providence: Preston and Rounds, 1896), 83.
68.
Sydney
V.
James,
Colonial Rhode
Island:
A
History
(New York; Charles Scribner's Sons,
1975),
28.
46 Dialogue:
A
Journal
of
Mormon Thought
Boston
in
1636, Gorton suddenly acquired
an
orientation
of
disruption
and
protest.
He was
initially banished from Boston
and
moved
to
Plymouth;
then
in
1638
he was
expelled
to
Rhode Island.
In
1641
he
found himself
in
Providence where
he
questioned every exercise
of
civil authority, causing
even Roger Williams
to
wonder
at his
behavior.
He
then moved
to War-
wick, south
of
Providence,
but had to
fight
off
Indian
and
Massachusetts
claims
to
the land. At one time
a
force
of
forty men sought him
out an d car-
ried him and others to Boston
for
trial. There he was beaten, jailed,
and
per-
secuted because he emphasized
the
indwellin g
of
the Holy Spirit.
69
Gorton's theology conflicted directly with the most fundamental tenets
of mainstream Christianity.
For
example,
he
challenged
the
prevailing
no-
tion
of
trinitarianism which, since
the
Nicaean Creed,
had
dictated that
God, Christ,
and the
Holy Ghost were
"of one
essence."
His
beliefs about
the Godhead were
not the
same
as
those found
in
Mormonism,
but
they
helped open the way to
a
challenge
of
trinitarianism.
One aspect
of
Gortonism which
did
coincide with Mormonism was
the
belief that there is
an
essential divine spark
in
human nature. Every human
soul possesses that spark;
it is
neither created
nor
will
it
pass away.
It is
eternal and everlasting. Gorton also anticipates Mormon theology
in
his be-
lief that good
and
evil
are in
eternal conflict. The good
and the ba d are in-
volved
in
every action; righteousness
is
movement toward life eternal,
while
sin is
movement toward damnation. All humankind
is
participating
in
a
moment
of
eternity. Gortonists
did not
look
for
future existence
so
much
as
they strove
to
attain
the
heavenly
in
every action
and
decision.
Gorton believed heaven
is not so
much
a
place
as a
condition
of the
soul.
Gortonists believed both men
and
women could partake
of
the Spirit.
Gorton
and
most
of his
followers
are
direct-line progenitors
of
many
LDS converts. John Greene, Sr.,
the
first
of a
long line
of
important leaders
in Rhode Island,
is a
good case
in
point.
70
Greene's religious beliefs were
not only consistent with those
of
Gorton,
but his
spiritual mysticism
was
strikingly similar
to the
universalism
of
Familists, who practiced
a
spiritu-
ally egalitarian form
of
Puritanism. Gortonists were universalists
who ar-
gued, "Goe
and
preach the Gospell
in
every creature."
71
Probably
the
closest disciple
of
Gorton
was
Randall Holdan,
who es-
tablished
a
permanent Gortonist settlement around Warwick Cove.
72
He
has many connections with early LDS converts, including
the
Knights
and
69.
Kenneth W. Porter, "Samuell Gorton: New England Firebrand," The New England
Quarterly
(September,
1934):
405-44.
70.
Henry E. Turner, The
Greenes
of
Warwick
in
Colonial
History (Newport: Davis and Pit-
man, Steam Printers, 1877).
71.
John
L.
Brooke,
The
Refiner's
Fire:
The Making
of
Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844
(New
York: University of Cambridge, 1994), 46.
72.
James, 31.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 47
Pecks,
Richard Waterman, John Warner,
and
William Wardell.
73
These
an d
others provide substantial evidence that
a
good number
of
those engaged
in
the
most radical movements
of
that
day
were
the
progenitors
of
many
LDS converts.
Anabaptists and Quakers
Although Roger Williams was an Anabaptist for only a few months, his
companions became leaders
in the
establishment
of
Anabaptists
in
Amer-
ica. They were never
a
unified group. While the original congregation was
in Providence, another group emerged
in
Newport under
the
direction
of
John Clarke,
a man
convicted
of
Antinomianism
and one of the
more
highly educated colonists. Clarke
and a
small band
of
fellow believers
es-
tablished the settlement
of
Newport, Rhode Island,
in
1639, and
in
1644 the
settlement formally established
a
"baptizing church."
In
response
to
Clarke's efforts, Massachusetts moved
to
make Anabaptistry illegal
and
curb
the
spread
of
Anabaptism beyond Rhode Island.
74
Rehoboth,
in
Ply-
mouth Colony,
for
example, was becoming a hotbed for Anabaptist activity.
It was akin to the independent spirit
of
Providence, Rhode Island, less than
ten miles away. Echoing Roger Williams, John Browne
of
Rehoboth often
professed "liberty
of
conscience"
and
the new mode
of
baptism.
In
1648
at
least fourteen Rehoboth residents were rebaptized within a few weeks. An-
abaptists included John Hazel, Edward Smith, Obadiah Holmes, Joseph
Torry, James Mann, William Deuell,
and
their families. With pressure from
Boston, all except Hazel moved
to
Rhode Island and became leaders
in the
Anabaptist congregations
of
Providence
and
Newport.
75
Swansea,
a
tiny
village within the boundaries
of
Rehoboth,
on
the border
of
Rhode Island,
was known as an Anabaptist community.
Many
of
the progenitors
of
LDS converts were involved
in
radical
ac-
tivities
in
Rehoboth
and
Swansea. One
of
the important names connected
with the LDS Church was Rehoboth resident Joseph Peck, ancestor
of
Polly
Peck and other LDS Pecks. Large numbers
of
other early converts were also
73.
LDS converts are shown in parentheses: Samuell Gorton (Lydia Ackerman, Celinda
Ackerman, Lebbeus Thaddeus Coons,
Sr.);
John Greene, Sr. (John
P.
Greene, Anson Pratt, Par-
ley Parker Pratt, Orson Pratt, William Dickinson Pratt, Maria Sagers, Reynolds Cahoon,
William Farrington Cahoon, Maria Sagers, Anson Call, and Cyril Call); Randall Holden (Anna
Knight, Esther Knight, Hyruna Knight, Joseph Knight, Newell Knight, Polly Knight, Vinson
Knight, Ezekiel Peck, Hezekiah Peck, Polly Peck, Sally Ann Peck, Nancy F. Peck, Ann Eliza
Peck, Martin Horton, Clarissa Reed, John Reed); Richard Waterman (Lucina Streeter); John
Warner (Micah
B.
Welton, Lillis Ballau, Alfred Fisk, Hulda Fisk, Ira Fisk, Rhoda Risk, and Rus-
sell
W.
Fisk); William Wardell (William Walker Rust).
74. Isaac Backus,
A
History
of
New England with Particular Reference
to the
Baptists,
vol. 1
(1871;
repr. New
York:
Arno Press and the New
York
Times,
1969), 126.
75.
Richard Lebaron Bowen,
Early
Rehoboth,
vol.
1
(Rehoboth: Rumford Press, 1945), 29.
48 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
connected with the town. In fact, 326 sixth-generation progenitors were
born in Rehoboth and seventy-seven in the little village of Swansea. This is
remarkable because the actual population of Rehoboth was certainly no
more than 250.
76
Of course, it is impossible for 326 individuals to reside in a
town of 250, but we can account for most of this difficulty in that only 117
unique names are found. For example, John Garnsey and Elizabeth Titus
are each progenitors of eleven LDS converts; Mary Sly and Sarah Smith are
each progenitors of ten converts.
In the 1640s, the Anabaptist zeal was increased by the infusion of mis-
sionaries from England, the most prominent being Mark Lucar, who ar-
rived in Newport around
1648.
He brought with him not only the new bap-
tism by "dipping," but also the basic principles of so-called Particular
Anabaptists, who believed that Christ's atonement was "particular" or in-
dividual in that it pertained only to the "elect." So-called General Anabap-
tists believed that the atonement was universal in nature.
77
Gardner estimates that in 1650 there were sixty Anabaptist members in
Rhode Island, while there were only eleven members in Massachusetts.
78
The connection of early LDS converts with the early Rhode Island Anabap-
tists is substantial. Among the eleven associates of Roger Williams in Provi-
dence, eight are direct-line ancestors of many converts.
79
One of these An-
abaptist progenitors was Obadiah Holmes, who had experienced a
profound spiritual awakening while living in England. Holmes accompa-
nied John Clarke, Sr. and John Crandall to Massachusetts in 1651 on a reli-
gious mission, where they were apprehended, jailed, tried, and fined.
Holmes was severely beaten as well. John Clarke had no family issue, but
John Crandall was the progenitor of several converts. Stuckely Westcott, an-
other progenitor, had been censured by the Salem congregation for telling
them theirs was not the "true church."
80
He then removed to Portsmouth,
Rhode Island, where his family committed itself to Anabaptism.
76.
Ibid., 18.
77. Leon H. McBeth,
The Baptist Heritage
(Nashville: Broadman, 1987).
78.
Robert G. Gardner,
Baptists
of
Early
America:
A
Statistical
History,
1639-1790
(Atlanta:
Georgia Baptist Historical Society, 1983), 34.
79.
Early LDS converts are shown in parentheses: Roger Williams (Eliazer Miller and
Catherine Slauson); John Crandall (Celinda and Lydia Ackermann, Lebbeus T. Coons, Sr.,
David Crandall, Sanford Porter, and Louisa Tanner); Obadiah Holmes (Rhoda Fisk, Rhonda
Fisk, Ira Fisk, Alfred Fisk, Huldah Louisa Fisk, Russell W. Fisk, Sterry Fisk, Martin Horton
Peck, Hezekiah Peck, Ann Eliza Peck, Nancy Peck, Sally Ann Peck, Catherine Slauson, Cyn-
thia Elizabeth
Soule,
Erastus Wightman, Benjamin Freeman Bird, Alpheus Gifford, and Keziah
Pearce).
80.
Oliver Payson Fuller,
The History
of
Warwick
(Providence: Angeli, Burlingame & Co.,
1875).
Progenitors are: Stukely Westcott (Catharine Slauson and Erastus Wightman); William
Clarke (Emer, Martin and Preserved Harris); and Thomas Clarke (Anson Pratt, Orson Pratt,
Parley Parker Pratt, and William Dickinson Pratt).
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 49
The Massachusetts Anabaptists were
far
fewer
in
number than
the
Rhode Island Anabaptists,
and the
identities
of
the most early members
are
unknown, although some known Anabaptists have connections
to
early
LDS converts.
81
There
is
some record
of
mid-seventeenth-century Anabap-
tist influence
in
New Hampshire, mainly through
the
influence
of
Hanserd
Knollys,
a
notable English radical
who
spent
a few
years
in the
colonies.
Knollys was
an
ordained minister
in
England, but he renounced his ordina-
tion
in the
early 1630s because
he did not
feel
he had
received
a
clear call
and commission from Christ
to do
the
work.
He
then sought counsel from
John Wheelwright
and,
following several discussions
and
a
period
of
time
in seclusion, Knollys declared
he had
experienced
a
profound spiritual
manifestation which filled
his
"soul with
joy and
peace
in
believing"
so
that
he
again commenced
his
work,
but
with
a
conviction
of
Antinomian
doctrines
of
salvation
and
Anabaptist principles.
82
Met
with much oppres-
sion,
he
left England
and
eventually served
as
minister
of
Dover,
New
Hampshire. Undoubtedly, members
of
his
congregation were receptive
to
his heresies, including some
of
the earliest settlers, namely, Thomas Roberts
and William
and
Edward Hilton
who had
arrived
in
1623.
In
fact, Roberts
eventually became
a
Quaker.
83
While Anabaptist impulses
had
already manifested themselves
as an
outgrowth
of the
Antinomian crisis,
the
Quaker movement
did not
gain
visibility until
the
1650s.
The
Quaker movement originated about 1644
in
Leicestershire, England, when
a
certain group
of
piously disposed people
formed
an
association centered
on
George Fox.
By th e
early 1650s,
a
full
missionary effort
was
under way.
84
The
message
of
George
Fox
was
that
Christian churches
had
departed from
the
primitive purity
and
simplicity,
but the "day
of
the Lord was
at
hand ." God was pouring his spirit upon
the
earth,
and
those touched
by his
spirit were
to
dedicate themselves
to
preaching
his
everlasting gospel
to all of
God's creatures.
God "did not
dwell
in
temples made with hands,"
but in
individuals through "that
in-
ward light, spirit,
and
grace,
by
which
all
might know their salvation
and
their way
to
God." This inner light was available to every one
of
God's chil-
dren,
for
"Christ
had
died
for
all men to
profit rather than
for
the
elect."
In
81.
John George, for example, was baptized in 1665. He is the progenitor of Clarissa,
John R, and Olive Boynton.
82.
B. R.
White, Hanserd Knollys
and
Radical Dissent
in the 17
th
Century (London:
Dr.
Williams's Trust, 1977),
5-7;
John
N.
McClintock, History of New
Hampshire
(Boston:
B. B. Rus-
sell,
Cornhill, 1888), 41.
83.
John Scales, History
of
Dover,
New
Hampshire
(Manchester,
NH:
John
B.
Clarke
Co.,
1900),
91.
LDS converts
are
shown
in
parentheses: Roberts (David
Cluff,
Mary Thurston Rand,
and Heber
C.
Kimball); William
or
Edward Tilton (Mary Thurston Rand).
84.
James Bowden,
The
History of the
Society
of
Friends
in
America,
vol. 1 (New
York: Arno
Press,
1972), 29-30.
50 Dialogue:
A
Journal
of
Mormon Thought
this respect, Fox argued
a
universalism that was akin
to
that
of
the General
Baptists
and the
Mormons
two
hundred years later.
85
Followers gathered
without liturgy
or
prearranged preachers, believing that
the
light
of God
would come
in
silence
or
that God would inspire those who speak with
his
inner light.
Worrall claims the number
of
Quakers
in
certain parts
of
northern New
England grew faster than
did the
population
in
general.
86
Essex County,
Massachusetts,
was a
hotbed
of
Quaker activity
as
well
as
certain settle-
ments
in New
Hampshire
and
Maine. Stories abound regarding persecu-
tions
and
whippings. Progenitors
of
certain
LDS
converts, such
as the
Wardells,
are a
good case
in
point. William Wardell was fined
for
entertain-
ing
a
Quaker missionary,
87
while Eliakin Wardell's wife went naked into
the Newbury Puritan meeting house
to
shame
the
Puritans
for
stripping
women
to the
waist
and
whipping them through town.
(In
Dover, three
Quaker women
had
been stripped
to the
waist, tied
to the
back
of a
horse-
drawn cart
and
whipped with
ten
lashes
as
they passed through each
township
on
their
way to
Boston.)
88
The
Coffins,
who
later adopted Quak-
erism
in
Nantucket, were exposed
to
Quakers while they lived
in New
Hampshire. All these people are ancestors
of
Mary Thurston Rand,
an
early
LDS convert.
By
1658
over thirty individuals
in
Salem were engaged
in
Quaker meet-
ings.
The Salem Quakers represented
a
wide range
of
social lines
and
occu-
pational pursuits although
the
lower social ranges were more heavily
rep-
resented.
89
Local authorities, wishing
to
quell
the
movement, dealt harshly
with
the
Quaker missionaries circulating through
New
England.
The pri-
mary strategy authorities used was to harass those involved although fines,
imprisonments,
and
whippings were also common.
In
1655 Massachusetts
passed
a law
that anyone
who
"entertained"
a
Quaker would
be
fined.
Early LDS progenitors Richard Swaine
and
John Heard were
two of
those
so punished.
90
Other progenitors, such
as
William Marston
in
Hampton,
New Hampshire, were apprehended
and
their dwellings searched
to
deter-
mine
if
they were harboring Quakers. Marston was once fined £20
for
hav-
ing two Quaker tracts
in
his home.
91
85.
Melvin
B.
Endy,
William
Penn and
Early Quakerism
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 1973),
55,193.
86.
Arthur J. Worrall,
Quakers
in the
Colonial
Northeast (Hanover, N.H.: University Press
of New England, 1980), 71.
87.
Ibid., 28.
88.
Hamilton Hurd, History
ofRockingham
and
Strafford
Counties,
New
Hampshire,
with Bi-
ographical Sketches
of Many of Its
Pioneers
and
Prominent
Men (Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis and Co.,
1882),
807-9.
89.
Pestana, "Sectarianism in Colonial Massachusetts,"
30-31.
90.
Starbuck, 15-16.
91.
Bowden, 153.
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 51
In 1658 persecution reached such an extreme point that Quakers were
banished from the colony and informed they would suffer the pain of death
if they returned. In 1659 a group of Salem, New Hampshire, and Maine
Quakers converged on Boston and were arrested and imprisoned. The
court took harsh action and executed the leaders, William Robinson and
Marmaduke Stephenson, as well as Mary Dyer, the mother of the so-called
monster child which Anne Marbury Hutchinson had helped deliver in
1637.
(Dyer had converted to Quakerism after moving to Rhode Island and
then to England.)
92
Such actions inspired more direct confrontation as well
as active persecution. By 1670 there were fifty-seven Quakers in Salem. At
least twenty-five of these were progenitors of early LDS converts, and al-
most all converts had multiple direct-line connections with them.
93
Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island also witnessed unusual
Quaker growth. By the turn of the eighteenth century, it has been estimated
that half the population of Rhode Island had declared themselves Quakers.
We recall that large numbers of these were progenitors of LDS converts.
Nantucket also played a significant role in Quaker history, and certain LDS
converts traced their direct-line ancestors to many of its early settlers. Dur-
ing the summer of 1659 a number of people from Hampton, New Hamp-
shire visited Nantucket as a possible place to settle and decided to organize
a group to buy all rights and interest in the island. They included Tristram
Coffin, Sr., Peter Coffin, Richard Swaine, John Swaine, Christopher Hussey,
and Stephen Greenleaf .
94
Radicalized Puritan Congregations
Several Puritan congregations were radicalized at the time because of
events which occurred in their respective communities. Some of these con-
gregations were radicalized in England and subsequently came to New
England, while others were radicalized in New England
itself.
Certain of
these congregations were central in the lives of many progenitors of early
LDS converts, and, consistent with the general findings of this study, their
92.
Dyer is a progenitor of William Wines Phelps.
93.
LDS converts are shown in parentheses: Joseph Boyce (Polly Chubuck, Joshua Buf-
fum, his wife, and daughter Cassandra, Elias Hutchings, and Lyman Curtis); William King
and his wife (Mehitable Wells); John Marston (Laban Morrill); William Marston (Mary
Thurston Rand); Samuel Shattuck and his wife (Josiah and Thomas Butterfield, David Nelson,
as well as Polly, Archibald, Elizabeth, Ira
].,
John M., and David Wyman Patten); John Smith
and his wife (Betsy Taylor Putnam and Vilate Stockwell); Lawrence Southwick and his wife as
well as Daniel Southwick and his wife and John Southwick and his wife (Polly Chubuck);
Lawrence Southwick and his wife (Elias Hutchins and Lyman Curtis); Henry Trask and his
wife (Lyman Curtis).
94.
LDS converts tracing their direct-line ancestors to one or more of these individuals
include Samuel Jones Rolfe, Mary Thurston Rand, Lydia Chamberlain, and Dwight Harding.
52 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
stories were played out on the fringes of the New England colonies. We
have already discussed the congregations at Plymouth and Barnstable, and
now we will focus on the congregations of Stephen Bachiler and John
Wheelwright.
While the main focus of migration of those expelled from Massachu-
setts was Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine were also recipients of
Anabaptists, Antinomians, Quakers, freethinkers, and others.
95
Migrations
to New Hampshire and Maine were confined to the Piscataqua River area
along the coast and focused on four towns (Hampton, Exeter, Dover, and
Portsmouth), as well as on a fifth town across the river from Portsmouth at
Kittery, Maine. All these towns fell within a radius of ten miles, so the terri-
tory was confined to a small area. By 1639 approximately 1,000 English had
settled there. Our discussion will focus on the settlements of Exeter and
Hampton.
The most important religious immigration into Exeter was made by a
congregation led by John Wheelwright, the brother-in-law of Anne Mar-
bury Hutchinson. Wheelwright began service as a vicar in Belsby, England.
After serving eight years, he was released because of his nonconformist
views.
Having no permanent appointment in the clerical profession,
Wheelwright sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636.
In Boston he was warmly received although he was sympathetic with
his sister-in-law's views and held a conviction that anyone who knew God
and his gospel had received that knowledge through the gift of the Holy
Spirit. In his inaugural address at Boston, he discussed the nature of faith.
Wheelwright explained that faith represents a union between the believer
and the Holy Ghost. This proclamation brought adulation from those as-
sembled although Governor John Winthrop stirred uneasily because he felt
such claims had no scriptural footing.
96
The Antinomian crisis had so infected all the churches of Massachu-
setts that the General Court proclaimed a fast to ease the tensions and inju-
diciously invited Wheelwright to deliver the sermon at the end of the fast.
His remarks only further inflamed the crisis. He was subsequently tried for
possessing 'Antinomian and Familistic" beliefs, found guilty of "sedition
and contempt," and punished with "disfranchisement and banishment."
97
In July
1638,
Wheelwright and his banished friends arrived in New Hamp-
shire, purchased land on the banks of the Swamscot River, and settled the
town of Exeter. The town contract was signed by thirty-four heads of
households, including many progenitors of LDS converts.
98
95.
McClintock, 49.
96.
Battis, 114.
97.
Hurd,244.
98.
Everett
S.
Stackpole,
History
of
New
Hampshire,
vol. 1 (New
York:
American Historical
Society, 1945),
44.
LDS converts are shown in parentheses: John Wheelwright (Olive Lowell);
Rust: Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 53
The settlement at Hampton dates back to
1638,
when Reverend Steven
Bachiler and a group of followers settled the area. Bachiler was already el-
derly, aged seventy-one, when in 1632 he arrived with his family in Amer-
ica. He had been a minister in England, but was inclined toward Familism.
In 1604 he had been "ejected" as vicar and excommunicated from the
church." Many of his parishioners followed him when he fled to Holland.
After a number of years, they came to Massachusetts and settled in Lynn,
Essex County, but his independent spirit created difficulties with the
church, so in 1636 he and his followers moved to Ipswich. Finding further
difficulty, they moved the next winter to Yarmouth and again after one year
to Newbury.
100
The congregation was growing increasingly restless about
their conflicts with other Puritans, so in 1638 approximately fifty-six fol-
lowers settled outside the boundaries of the colony, in Hampton, New
Hampshire.
101
Bachiler was Hampton's first minister and is said to have
given the town its name.
At least twenty LDS converts have progenitors who settled in Hamp-
ton with Bachiler.
102
During the next summer a number of others joined the
settlement, including Robert Page
Jr.,
John Philbrick, William Marston, and
William Parker, all of whom have multiple direct-line ancestry with LDS
converts.
SUMMARY
In this paper I have asserted that the progenitors of early LDS converts
possessed a radical spiritual heritage, and this spiritual orientation was
Thomas Wight (Newell Knight, Hyruya Nahaum Knight, Esther Knight, Anna Knight, Joseph
Knight Sr. and Jr., Polly Knight, Vinson Knight, Thomas Baldwin Marsh, Ann Marsh, Esther
Peck, Ezekiel Peck, Hezekiah Peck); William Wentworth (Andrew Lee Allen, Hjuldah Chap-
man, Elezer Freeman Nickerson, Freeman Nickerson, Levi Stillman Nickerson, Uriel Chitten-
don Nickerson, Moses Chapman Nickerson); Samuell Walker (Amanda Melissa Barnes,
William Walker Rust); Darby Field (Mary Thurston Rand, Lydia Smith, Sarah
York);
Edmond
Littlefield (Aaron Cheney, Amasa F. Cheney, Olive M. Cheney, Selah Cheney, Lydia Clisbee,
and Waldo Littlefield); John Cram (Lydia Chamberlain); William Wardell (William Walker
Rust, Edmund Durfee, James Durfee); Robert Smith (Andrew Lee Allen, Sarah York).
99.
Victor C. Sanborn, "Stephen Bachiler: An Unforgiven Puritan." (paper prepared
for the New Hampshire Historical Society, 1917); Philip Mason Marston, "The Reverend
Stephen Bachiler: Saint or Sinner?" (published privately by the Society of Colonial Wars in
the State of New Hampshire, 1961).
100.
Charles E. Batchelder, "Rev. Stephen Bachiler, Puritan Emigrant," in Frederick
Clifton Pierce, ed.,
Descendants
of
Rev.
Stephen
Bachiler,
of
England,
A
Leading
Non-Conformist,
Who
Settled the
Town
of New
Hampton,
N.H.
and
Joseph,
Henry,
Joshua
and
John
Batcheller
of Essex
Co.,
Massachusetts
(Chicago,
111.:
W.
B.
Conkey
Co.,
1898).
101.
Joseph Dow,
History
of
the
Town
of
Hampton:
From
Its
First
Settlement
in
1638 to
the
Au-
tumn of
1892
(Hampton, N.H.: Peter
E.
Randall, 1889), 8.
102.
LDS
converts are shown in
parentheses:
Bachiler (Heber
C.
Kimball,
Thomas Jefferson
Butterfield, Josiah Butterfield, Mary Thurston Rand); John Browne (Thomas Gates, Sr., and Jr.,
54 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
strong enough to manifest itself through several generations. The specific
spiritual orientation emphasized here is the belief that one can gain a per-
sonal knowledge of God, possess a spark of the divine, and be able to exer-
cise gifts of the Spirit; that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be restored; and
that his children are a covenant people who would live within a theocracy.
The basic data of this study came from an analysis of the direct-line an-
cestral files of 583 Latter-day Saints who converted to the church prior to
1835.
I have confirmed that almost all these converts come directly from
New England and that their families had lived in New England for several
generations. In fact, almost all identified sixth-generation progenitors
(10,492) of these 583 converts were either born in New England or emi-
grated to America. These progenitors represent at least one-fifth of all the
individuals living in colonial New England in the mid-1600s.
Various degrees of religious radicalism were found in New England:
The Puritans were the least radical, while the Radical Spiritualists were
more radical than either the Puritans or the Separatists. All the religious
orientations in early colonial New England were represented among the
LDS progenitors; however, we did not find a proportionate distribution
among them. We found that Massachusetts, which was dominated by Puri-
tans,
was dramatically under-represented, with less than half the progeni-
tors located there, while almost two-thirds of the population was centered
in that area. In addition, few progenitors were found in Suffolk County and
Boston, the center of Puritanism. Rather, those in Massachusetts professing
Puritan beliefs were more likely to reside in a limited number of towns and
religious communities in the marginal areas of Massachusetts, particularly
Lucinda Gates, Jacob Gates, Jabez Brunson, Seymour Brunson); Robert Pucke/Tucke (Mary
Thurston Rand, Daniel Sanborn
Miles,
Lydia Smith, Sarah
York);
Thomas Jones (Levi Ward Se-
nior Hancock, Clarissa Hancock, Thomas Hancock,
Jr.,
Soloman Hancock); Robert Saunderson
(Cyril Call and Anson Call); James Davis (Edson Barney, Royal Barney, Philania Barney, Asa
Lyman); Richard Swaine/Swain/Swan (Samuel Brown, Lydia Chamberlain, Mary Thurston
Rand, Sarah
York);
Abraham Perkins (Mary Thurston
Rand);
Francis Peabody (Benjamin Kim-
ball Hall, Levi Hall, Brigham
Young,
Eunice Clark Young, Joseph
Young,
Lorenzo Dow Young,
Nancy
Young,
Rhoda
Young,
Fanny
Young,
John
M.
Young, Susannah Young, Phinehas Howe
Young, and Louisa Young); John Higgins (Andrew Lee Allen, Alpheus Amulek Harmon,
Oliver Harmon, Cilia Kent, Sarah King); Thomas Moulton (Samuel Brown, Mary
Arey);
John
Moulton (Heman Tilton Hyde, Mary Thurston Rand, Aaron Cheney, Amasa
F.
Cheney, Olive
M. Cheney, Selah Cheney, William Walker Rust); Miriam Moulton (Thomas Jefferson Butter-
field);
William Palmer (Jonathan Harriman Hale); Issac Perkins (Daniel Sanborn Miles, Mary
Thurston Rand); William Fifield (Mary Thurston Rand, Lydia Smith, Sarah
York);
Moses Cox
(Mary Thurston Rand, Andrew Lee Allen); Daniel Hendrick (Heber C. Kimball); Thomas
Chase (Hyruna Knight, Nahamu Knight, Esther Knight, Newell Knight, Anna Knight, Joseph
Knight, Sr
v
and Jr., Polly Knight, Aaron Slade, Ann Slade, Benjamin Slade, and Clark Slade);
John Cross (Benjamin Andrew); William Sargent (John Boynton, Eliphalet Boynton, Clarissa
Boynton, and Laban Morrill).
Rust:
Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement 55
Essex County. Large numbers
of
progenitors also resided
in a few
towns of
Connecticut/New Haven where the Puritans resembled Separatists.
In contrast,
we
found that Separatists
and
Radical Spiritualists were
substantially over-rep r e s e n t e d among the progenitors. Almost two-thirds of
Plymouth Colony were progenitors
of
LDS
converts
in
our study. Such reli-
gious radicals
as
Roger Williams, Anne Marbury Hutchinson, Samuel Gor-
ton, John Wheelwright, Stephen Bachiler,
and
Hanserd Knollys
and
their
followers played
a
significant role
in
the family histories
of
early LDS con-
verts.
Radical religious groups, such
as the
Antinomians, Familists, Quak-
ers,
Anabaptists,
and
Gortonists were central to the lives
of
many ancestors
of LDS converts. Indeed,
a
substantial proportion
of
progenitors
is
associ-
ated with higher levels
of
religious radicalism.
The basic assumption
of
this study
is
that those who joined
the Mor-
mon church
in its
first years,
as
well
as
their progenitors, shared radical,
spiritual experiences. While
the
sixth-generation progenitors
of
early LDS
converts manifested these shared experiences, I have
not
traced these con-
nections through the fifth, fourth, third
or
second generations.
Some scholars maintain that
the
eighteenth century
was
more impor-
tant
in
shaping religion
in
America than was
the
seventeenth century.
Jon
Butler,
for
example, urges us to abandon the notion that Puritanism was
the
crucial force shaping
the
so-called 'American religion."
103
His
argument
suggests that those radical religious forces
of
early colonial America
may
have been lost
by the
time
the
LDS church
was
established
in
1830.
Nar-
rowly speaking, this appears
to
have been
the
case because Puritanism,
Separatism
and
other forms
of
colonial radicalism were lost as social forces
in
the
second half
of
the colonial period.
104
However, the successive gener-
ations
of
LDS progenitors tended
to
remain in New England until the nine-
teenth century,
and it
is
not
only possible but probable that elements
of
this
radicalism persisted
in
individual families
and
towns
for
several genera-
tions
and
influenced
the
choices people made when they decided to join
a
church which declared that
its
similar spiritual beliefs were central
to t he
"restored" gospel
of
Jesus Christ.
103.
Jon
Butler, Awash
in a Sea of
Faith:
Christianizing
the
American People (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1990), 2-3.
104.
See, for example, Bushman,
From Puritan
to
Yankee.
