Christopher Holder began teaching the tenets of George Fox from nearly the moment he stepped off the Woodhouse in Newport. He found resistance from some, including the Rev. Roger Williams, who was now Governor Williams.
Introduced to Catherine Marbury Scott and her husband Richard Scott, Holder was to make his first converts. Catherine Scott was the sister of the late Anne Hutchinson, considered a martyr by this time despite being massacred by Natives (and possibly others, see the “New England Genes: Anne Marbury Hutchinson Part 5: The Founding of Newport and Massacre in the Bronx, featuring John Throckmorton” post).
In Mary Scott, the 20 year-old daughter of Richard and Catherine, Christopher Holder found another convert, as well as a fiance. The connection would later save his life.
The pertinacious Quaker missionary was determined to spread his message to Massachusetts, yet Holder got the cold shoulder in Plymouth. Hearing there were folks amenable to the Friends’ message further south in the village of Sandwich, Holder would set up a campus there.
Not allowed to use the church building, Christopher held meetings in a Sandwich hollow that for many years was called Christopher’s Hollow or Holder’s Hollow. If you have driven on Christopher’s Hollow Road in Sandwich, you are very warm, as we called it in Easter egg hunts. I am sure Christopher loved teaching from the hillside while his followers sat below in the hollow, just as Jesus is said to have done in his day.
So far, I’ve tried to avoid speaking of John Endecott even though he is a hero to some and considered a Founding father of New England. I’m just not a fan.
There is nuance as with all things. Endecott did good things in the Massachusetts Colony, such as importing and planting fruit trees for the health of the colony, but he was also personally involved in many of the nefarious events that happened during that period.
Don’t know if you remember my earlier post on Roger Williams when I said Roger felt women should be veiled as in the Middle East? Where do you think he got that grand idea? Endecott did his best to push Williams towards hardcore Puritanism, and helped bring him to Salem to teach in Williams’ early days before he backslid into Baptist theology.
Genealogy note: I recently learned that my merchant/sea captain ancestor Robert Lord (9th GGF) built the house in Salem where Roger Williams dwelled after moving to Salem. We’ll speak more of Robert later as two of his daughters and a granddaughter were caught up in the Salem Witch Trials.
Speaking of Baptists, Endecott hated them. We have spoken several times on the Tight Genes Blog of Rev. John Clarke who was instrumental in founding Rhode Island, as well as bringing Baptist ideas to New England.
Endecott had John Clarke arrested on a visit to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and threatened him with death. He whipped one of Clarke’s companions and threatened the same with Clarke if he did not recant his Baptist positions and pay a large fine. Clarke essentially told him to do his worst.
Clearly, Endecott, who was afraid of very little, was afraid to take the lash to Clarke. He allowed friends of Clarke to pay the fine for the stubborn reverend who had patently refused. The conditions of Clarke’s release were that his supporters remove him to Rhode Island, never to return.
Residing in Salem, Governor Endecott named himself pastor of the Salem Church. One Sunday following his sermon, an unknown preacher took the pulpit.
Christopher Holder began to share his message of “God’s light” to the Salem congregation. Endecott and his cronies cried foul, and Endecott screamed for someone to remove this heretic from the church.
One of Endecott’s henchmen grabbed Holder by his long locks (something else Endecott hated). Wrenching Holder’s head violently backwards, the man snatched him from the podium and stuffed a handkerchief (or possibly a glove) into Christopher’s mouth.
Seeing the stifled young missionary was literally suffocating as men held him down on the floor, one fearless man came to his rescue. I am proud to say that man was my 10th Great-grandfather Samuel Shattuck, a local shopkeeper (and ancestor of President Richard Nixon). He shoved the men away from Holder, pulled the handkerchief (or glove) from the missionary’s mouth and throat, and chastised his attackers as he fought to resuscitate Christopher Holder.
For coming to Holder’s rescue, Endecott had Shattuck arrested and jailed in Boston. He would be levied an enormous fine, and then tied to the heavy cannon in the public square of Boston Common and given 30 lashes. Holder was jailed with Shattuck and whipped, but on top of that, Endecott ordered his right ear cut off. If he was caught preaching heresy again, Endecott promised to have a hot poker shoved through his tongue.
To be continued in The Quakening, Part 6: The Martyrdom of Mary Dyer…