#john wheelwright

The Antinomian Controversy Part 6: Some of this sounds depressingly familiar

Find the intro (and general trigger warnings) here:

I stated up front that this does not have a happy ending. Well, it’s starting to go to shit now.

A random aside for earlier character choices: I mentioned in the last post that Wilson was going to have aspects of my health teacher, and thinking about it more, it’s not as much that Wilson has aspects of my health teacher as I can see aspects of my conflict with my health teacher in the conflict between Anne Hutchinson and John Wilson.

Which, on that note, I’m probably going to draw from a very specific interaction with my health teacher early on. It will help explain why Anne says some of the things she does about Wilson. More importantly, it’s an excellent way to establish the character traits that are important to my portrayal of Mary Dyer. The actions of a friend of mine in that particular incident are consistent with how I’m envisioning Mary. And she really does need more key moments earlier on. Unfortunately, women typically don’t get written down in the history books unless they’re royalty, or that they really got put through the wringer in their lives, so I have to make stuff up.

In case you forgot about the Pequot Wars

In early spring, the Pequot, who had until that point had primarily been besieging Saybrook, rallied their allies and began attacking towns along the Connecticut River. Massachusetts Bay Colony began recruiting soldiers to reinforce the colonists in Connecticut. Men in Boston refused to sign up. Why did they refuse to sign up? Because John Wilson was serving as the expedition’s chaplain.

Ignoring the colonizer bullshit of it all, you sort of have to feel for the colonists in Connecticut at that. They likely didn’t know about that particular item of church drama, not at that moment. Boston was the capital of the colony. From their perspective, Boston is refusing to help fix a problem that they started.

Those poor boys are going to have to deal with a LOT of side-eye in Connecticut when people find out they came from Boston. It’s not just the association with a person who is now persona non grata, but also, UGH, Boston. Meanwhile Caleb’s like, “I was 10?!”

That’s pretty much it for the Pequot Wars’ relevance to the Antinomian Controversy specifically. It’s happening over there, we don’t have to care, right? (Sarcasm, hopefully obviously). As I’ve said before, the primary reason for spending time with it during the Boston arc is because it ties the Boston arc and the Connecticut arc together. That, and Henry Vane’s involvement. The war itself is happening as things are falling apart in Boston though, so the brothers will be finding out about things after the fact.

Quick aside because I was getting confused by the colonial government structure

This part has a lot of politics. The 1636 election was just “Henry Vane got elected governor,” but now I’m trying to keep straight magistrates and deputies, and what’s what going on. So, for anyone as confused as I was, here’s a summary.

The “General Court” was the governing body for Massachusetts Bay Colony, and they handled just about everything that wasn’t specifically connected with the church, except for small cases that could be handled in town. There were 4 elected positions: Governor, deputy governor (Winthrop’s position currently), a council of assistants formed by 18 magistrates, and the deputies. All positions would be elected annually, and members of the clergy were restricted from holding office.

The governor, deputy governor, and magistrates would be elected in a single gathering every May. From what I understand, this group is the group that makes the decisions. The governor and deputy governor are responsible for a lot of the executive stuff, but they don’t have any special veto privilege. The deputies are elected at the town level, since it isn’t feasible to expect all voters to come from across the colony (hooo boy does that come up later). There are 2 deputies to every town, and that changeover comes every October. They don’t vote on quite as many things as the magistrates, but I haven’t figured out that exact division.

Those eligible to vote in the general elections were called freemen—men, members of approved Puritan churches, without debt, who had to undergo a sort of interview process to ensure their values aligned with those of the colony. To say it was restrictive is an understatement.

John Wheelwright’s Trial

Over the two months following the Fast Day Sermon, other ministers would begin bringing doctrinal charges against Wheelwright, not just for his Fast Day Sermon, but the things he had been preaching at Mount Wollaston as well. At the next meeting of the General Court, Wheelwright would be called to address these charges.

The magistrates were relatively balanced at the time. Twelve were present. Three (including Vane) were in strong support of Wheelwright. Four others were more tolerant of religious diversity. However, the majority of the 33 deputies present were opposed to Wheelwright, and they led the case against him. The official charge was heresy and sedition, tending to mutiny and disturbance.

The first day was a lot of back and forth with more charges and countercharges (“you’re [X]”, “yeah, well you’re [Y]”, etc), and ended with Wheelwright providing a transcription of his sermon to the court. After the court’s dismissal, his supporters brought a petition signed by more than 40 people that challenged the court’s right to try the case. As this was a case of conscience, not of law, the church should have heard the case first. This petition went nowhere.

The next day, in a private session, Wheelwright asked who his accusers were. They answered that his sermon was the accuser, which is some sort of bullshit. Knowing who your accusers were is a fundamental part of British Law. Nobody wanted to be officially on the record as accusing him of heresy and sedition.

The court opened to the public in the afternoon, and this time, many of the ministers in the colony were present. Initially, the deputies attempted to attack Wheelwright’s “false doctrine,” which John Cotton immediately shut down. That line of attack meant going after Cotton as well, and he was far too influential. Eventually, the court gets the idea to ask the ministers if they felt that Wheelwright was attacking them. The court would adjourn for the day with the ministers agreeing to discuss this amongst themselves in the evening.

The next day, the ministers returned to court and saying that they, with exception of Cotton, did feel that Wheelwright was insulting them specifically, inferring that they were Antichrists. They did provide a way for Wheelwright to back away from his statements, but Wheelwright, for better or for worse, was not somebody who would back down easily. Eventually, two of the more moderate magistrates were convinced to join the prosecution’s side, bringing the magistrates’ vote to 7-5 in favor of conviction. The deputies would then vote, and Wheelwright was declared guilty of contempt and sedition. Sentencing would wait for the next court.

The people of Boston were not going to let Wheelwright go down without a fight. A formal petition was penned, one so angry it had to be edited down several times to not be considered immediately libelous. Even so, the petition contained statements that the court was inviting God’s retribution in its meddling. Over 60 men signed the petition, many of them prominent members of the community.

Somewhere around here is when I’ll mention that Mary Dyer is pregnant. I guess slight spoiler/trigger warning in advance for what her documented relevance entails. The pregnancy mention will also be a way of setting up that Caleb clearly has PTSD as a result of his mom’s death, and pregnancy/childbirth is a trigger.

The 1637 Election

The next session of the General Court, when elections would be held, was fast approaching. HENRY VANE (the younger) had decided to run again, in spite of his prior attempt at resignation. That being said, between the Pequot Wars, then at its peak, and how communities outside of Boston viewed the Boston church’s drama, Vane did not have quite the popularity he had held a year before.

John Winthrop, who was also running, saw an opportunity. While Vane was extremely popular in Boston, that was less the case in other towns. Additionally, a majority of the deputies were his supporters. He moved to have the much more conservative Newtown (now Cambridge).

A question to consider: how do you logistically run an election without ballots, or, more accurately, without a system to accommodate remote voting? Voting needs to be done in person. With proper planning, you can accommodate multiple voting sites, but that means planning. It also means no stump speeches. Massachusetts Bay did not have that setup in the first place.

So, in order to get your vote counted, you need to travel to where the vote is being held. You have to know how you will travel. If you walk, you need to account for how long you will be away from. There’s a lot to account for.

Changing up where votes are held is not the worst idea, to make things as fair as possible. However, that needs to be on a predictable rotation. Changing the plan is going to affect the people who had arranged their lives assuming the vote would be held close to home.

To summarize, somehow, even with suffrage strictly limited to male church members without debt, SOMEHOW, Massachusetts Bay Colony managed to provide an early example of the disenfranchisement of urban voters through the limitation of polling access. There is nothing new under the sun.

Vane attempted to get the election moved back to Boston, but as he was outnumbered amongst the magistrates and deputies, he was unsuccessful. The Bostonians recruited as much of a contingent as they were able, but it was, as the orthodox party had planned, insufficient. Vane’s backup plan was for him to do what he did best: state his case orally.

Vane came prepared with a speech defending the Bostonians and their support of Hutchinson and Wheelwright. Seeing as this controversy was a major voting issue, he should have been able to give it. However, another contingent insisted on proceeding straight to the vote. After a good deal of shouting and a few fist fights (old time elections were something else), Reverend Wilson was raised into a tree, where he would shout to the crowd below and gain their attention. Gotta respect the presentation at least.

I’m trying to figure out a good excuse for Caleb to be there, because describing this from the perspective of a 10-year-old who isn’t actually voting seems like the best way to capture how chaotic it is. Vane would be my usual POV character for this, but he’s more focused on gaining control of the crowd.

A vote was held on whether or not the election should be the first thing to proceed. The crowd voted to proceed with the vote. This went exactly how Winthrop and his cronies wanted it. He was now governor. Furthermore, the three magistrates who had supported Hutchinson and Wheelwright were also removed from office. The religious conservatives now held complete power.

A little over a week after the election, the decisive battle determining the outcome of the Pequot Wars occurs, although calling it a “battle” is …questionable. It’s not a battle; it’s an act of genocide, now referred to as the Mystic Massacre. There will be some news of it making its way to Boston afterward, but not in a lot of detail as far as what the brothers hear. They’ll hear more when they get to Connecticut though, from the monster who masterminded it himself.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to have the brothers’ uncle get killed in the aftermath of that, when survivors are fleeing. A few colonists were killed near Saybrook during that timeframe. That he was confirmed alive after the turning point in the war lets it make a little more sense why the brothers would think he was probably still alive when it’s clear they need to leave Boston.

Election aftermath

One of the first things Winthrop would do as governor would be to enact a law preventing people who might oppose him from entering the colony. He enacted a law that required new arrivals to the colony to obtain court approval, otherwise they could not stay in Massachusetts for more than 3 weeks. It’s always the immigrants that get targeted first. (yes, yes, I know, colonialism; I’m TRYING to draw a parallel to modern day here).

One of the first impacted by the new law was Anne Hutchinson’s brother-in-law, Samuel. He, and the friends who accompanied him, were blocked from settling in Massachusetts Bay, because they would not disavow the Free Grace advocates. Freedom of religion for me, but not for thee. Vane would protest this, strongly, but his protests would fall on deaf ears.

The court would meet again in August. One of the items on the docket was the sentencing of John Wheelwright. He was told that if he were to retract his prior statements, he could expect a more lenient sentence. Wheelwright’s response was to dare them to execute him. If he was guilty of sedition, he should be put to death. The court was never actually considering that (they’ll save that for witches and Quakers), so they balked. Wheelwright said that if they were to sentence him, he would take his appeal to the king. Wheelwright’s sentencing was deferred once again.

Also in August, Henry Vane would leave New England, never to return. He was fed up with the miscarriages of justice taking place. It’s possible it was before the August court I just mentioned. However, from a narrative perspective, I think what makes the most sense is that the ultimate decision was in direct response to Wheelwright’s statement about appealing to the king. Vane realized that he was being obstructed at every turn in Massachusetts, and, given his privilege, that he had a chance of being able to help his friends from England. If Wheelwright had a voice ready to defend him in England, he could block the sentencing from being too harsh.

Before Vane leaves, Caleb gets him with Phillip’s breeching, or, when boys start wearing pants (okay, breeches). I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but Phillip should be wearing a dress in several of those Hollow Mind portraits. It’s not a gender thing, it’s that toileting is a lot easier without a bunch of buttons and things in the way. Phillip’s breeching is maybe a bit late, being nearly 6, but not very late. Caleb’s been putting it off because first off - the cost of new clothes, second - he doesn’t actually remember his as he was breeched way too early, and third and most importantly - because this is Phillip’s first “coming of age” moment since their parents’ deaths. Doing this makes Caleb’s role in his brother’s life official in a manner of speaking, not least of which because Vane’s the first of Caleb’s “raising Phillip” support network to leave their life. But hey, Vane does buy them both new sets of clothes.

The combination of the Alien act (and its direct effect on Samuel Hutchinson) and Vane’s departure were signals for many to also consider leaving. This didn’t really start happening until Anne Hutchinson’s trial in November. However, given the fudging of Hutchinson’s trial dates to be closer in time to each other for narrative impact, I will also move up when some of her supporters, her husband included, started making moves to purchase Aquidneck Island (Rhode Island!) from the Narragansett people. Told you actual Rhode Island was going to be relevant.

Up Next: Hey, I thought Fascism hadn’t been invented yet

I would like you to know that I am now getting all those super cheesy “find Jesus” ads on tumblr as a result of all this religion ranting, and those ads are 90% A.I. slop now. Please appreciate my sacrifice for your edutainment.

Hey, tumblr advertising algorithm! I’m an obviously queer ex-vangelical atheist writing a fanfic where the love interests are chaotic bisexuals with a blasphemy* kink. Trust me, unless they WANT somebody in the congregation giggling uncontrollably every time somebody mentions the Battle of Jericho, those churches don’t want me.