...in 1638, Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts
Bay Colony. Three years after arriving in Boston, she found
herself the first female defendant in a Massachusetts court.
When she held prayer meetings attended by both men and women,
the authorities were alarmed; but what really disturbed them was
her criticism of the colony's ministers and her assertion that a
person could know God's will directly. Put on trial for heresy,
she defended herself brilliantly. But her claim to have had a
revelation from God sealed her fate. She was banished from the
colony. Along with her family and 60 followers, she moved to
Rhode Island, and later to New York, where she perished in an
Indian raid. Anne and William Hutchinson and their 15 children
were among the 200 passengers who arrived in Boston aboard the
Griffen in the fall of 1634. The couple had followed their
minister, the Reverend John Cotton, to be part of a new
community where they would be able to practice their faith
openly. A successful merchant in En