My 9th Great-grandfather Rev. Christopher Fowler was born in 1611. He was a minister of the Church of England and a fellow at Eton College, but he was removed from both for “scandalous” behavior. He was said to have “used odd gestures and antic behavior from the pulpit” (Chalmers’ General Biographical Dictionary Vol. 15, p. 15). As far as I know, he was not a Quaker, but his son and grandson (my 8th GGF and 7th GGF) were both Quakers. I’m only mentioning them, because I wonder if there was any relation to the man Holder finally found to bring them to New England.
Many of the stories I have read about Robert Fowler seem apocryphal, so take all of this with a grain of salt. Most agree Fowler was a boat builder, perhaps a commercial fisherman, and definitely a Quaker. Some say Fowler had a dream that told him to sail to London. Others say he heard the voice of God. We’ll say he was “inspired” to sail to London, and that is where he met Christopher Holder and his band of Quaker missionaries.
Fowler’s boat, the Woodhouse, was no ocean liner. It was more like a single-masted fishing/merchant bark made for coastal sailing. I used to live on a 1980’s 41’ Morgan sloop which was probably more seaworthy, but I wouldn’t have tried to cross the Atlantic in it.
Yet, Robert Fowler felt God had made it his mission to carry these Quaker missionaries to the new world, and he did just that. Fowler later wrote a memoir called A Quakers Sea-Journal Being a True Relation of a Voyage to New-England (this guy is even wordier than me). In the memoir he tells of the various “visions” that guided him to America.
Setting sail in April of 1657, they found difficulty leaving England due to weather. At some point the Woodhouse linked up with three vessels sailing for Newfoundland. When finally the weather was right, they headed towards the Americas as a flotilla.
Unfortunately, they soon found they were being pursued by a Dutch battleship. It looked as if the battleship would overtake them, but the Quakers got on their knees and prayed.
Suddenly some sort of mist appeared and then the battleship lost the wind and its sails deflated, or something to that effect. To be honest, we’re not sure what happened, except they escaped which was great. Though they were separated from the Newfoundland bound vessels. Still, with no earthly (oceanly?) idea how to navigate to New England, the Quakers continued in their little sailboat.
In the middle of the Atlantic, they saw another boat sailing. Again they prayed and were given a sign apparently to approach that ship, which turned out to be a merchant vessel on its way to London. The people aboard the ship were friendly. They shared provisions and agreed to carry messages for the Quakers, I suppose to family and friends back home.
Once more Robert Fowler and the Quakers set sail for America, and before long they sighted Long Island. There they met Theresa Caputo, got the answers they were searching for and went home. Just kidding.
The group met yet another sailing vessel, which guided them to New Amsterdam. A couple of the missionaries decided to stay, while others said their path was southward into Virginia and Maryland.
At first the remainder considered heading straight into Boston, but perhaps on the advice of Mary Dyer, they made their way to Providence instead. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention Mary Dyer was one of the Quakers in the Woodhouse?
We have spoken of Mary Dyer in the previous post “Anne Marbury Hutchinson Part 5: The Founding of Newport and Massacre in the Bronx, featuring John Throckmorton”. If you haven’t read that yet, Mary Dyer famously held hands with Anne Hutchinson as she was sentenced and the two strode from Anne’s trial in defiance, causing quite a stir.
In the months before the trial, the midwife Anne Hutchinson delivered a stillborn baby belonging to Mary Dyer. If that wasn’t sad enough, the baby was malformed to the extent that Anne wanted to hide it, afraid the Puritans of Boston would do exactly what they would do later.
Anne questioned the Rev. John Cotton on how the situation should be handled. His pastorly advice was to bury the baby in secrecy.
As we mentioned, Mary made quite a stir by holding the hand of the condemned Anne Hutchinson, an act of female solidarity and defiance that would make Puritan heads spin. So after the trial, Gov. John Winthrop wanted to know, “Who’s that girl?”
Someone with knowledge of Dyer’s stillbirth was quick to offer, “She’s the one who birthed a monster!” (paraphrasing).
Gov. Winthrop had not heard of this, so he began to shake down anyone who may have known, until he reached Rev. John Cotton. Whether or not Winthrop twisted Cotton’s arm, I don’t know, but Cotton spilled the Boston baked beans.
A mass of people began to gather as Cotton led them to the site of the secret burial. They exhumed the tiny body, and were shocked to see “a most hideous creature, a woman, a fish, a bird, and a beast all woven together”.
The poor child was anencephalic, which I won’t describe here, but someone that I love dearly lost her baby to anencephaly, and there’s nothing more tragic. It is thought Mary Dyer had been exposed to lead paint or perhaps she was just lacking Vitamin B in her diet. I have a better answer.
Mary’s husband was a milliner, aka a hatter, or simply, a hatmaker. Those of you who’ve read Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll, or seen the various Alice In Wonderland movies, are probably already familiar with the use of mercuric nitrate in the early days of hat making (used to stiffen felt). Contact with mercury could cause insanity as with the Mad Hatter, but it could also cause birth defects, and specifically anencephaly.
There was absolutely nothing demonic involved, but just try telling that to a bunch of knuckleheads who recently exhumed a child. Some of them went on to write books on the “monstrous” baby, one becoming a bestseller in London.
I’m sure the word “witchcraft” was tossed about in regards to Mary Dyer, but fortunately for her, she and Anne Hutchinson’s party left for their new settlement in Pocasset very soon afterward. They would avoid Boston like the plague for years after.
Now the Dyers played a large role in the founding of Rhode Island and its early settlements. In our previous blog post “Anne Marbury Hutchinson Part 3: William Coddington, a Powerful Ally” we discussed Coddington’s rise and more in “Anne Marbury Hutchinson Part 4: If You Can’t Join ’em, Beat ’em: The Founding of Portsmouth, featuring John Coggeshall”, but we didn’t really get into the strife between Coddington and Williams.
To summarize, Coddington tried to have himself set up as Governor of Rhode Island for life. Others didn’t agree, and there was some back and forth. In 1652, on one of those back and forths, William and Mary Dyer sailed to England with Roger Williams and Baptist minister John Clarke.
While in England, Roger Williams and the Dyers found that an influential family friend, Margaret Fell, had become a follower of George Fox. Margaret was also friends with our handsome Lord Henry Vane who had been very close with the Dyers while in Boston (see our previous posts on Henry Vane and Anne Hutchinson). In fact, the Puritans of Boston would continue to believe Vane and Mary Dyer had been lovers, and some were convinced that Mary’s “monster” had actually been his child.
Suffice it to say, the Dyers were forthwith introduced to George Fox and his protege Christopher Holder. Now Roger Williams found the teachings of Fox quite out of bounds, and it seems William Dyer was not convinced either. We don’t have a record of Mary Dyer’s time in England, but I’d guess she was an easy convert.
Roger Williams and William Dyer returned to Providence to complete their mission, and Mary insisted upon staying with Margaret and the other Friends in England. Their associate John Clarke also remained to continue working towards and official charter.
For five years, Friend Mary lived in England. She was now returning to Providence as a full fledged Quaker missionary with the bonus of having survived a miracle crossing in Robert Fowler’s bark the Woodhouse.
To be continued in The Quakening, Part 4…
