History of Westchester County, New York, from its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900
Hutchinson personally was of spotless Westchester County. self-sacnhcing; holdreputation and high and noble aims; benevolent, iuo- the things of the world in positive contempt; an enthusiast in reliction, independent in her opinions, and fearless in advocacy of them.to With her husband and their children, she left England and came Settling in Boston, she immediately enMassachusetts Bay in 163G. tk Every tered upon a career of religious teaching and proselytizing. dwelling a congreweek she gathered around her in her comfortable o-ation of fifty or eighty women, and urged them to repentance and a religious oood deeds * Soon her meetings were held twice a week; against the But, careful not to offend revival swept over 1 he colony." decorum of the church, she confined her formal spiritual labors to the women, declining to address the men, although many of the latter, including some of the principal personages, visited her, and came Among her cordial under her personal and intellectual influence. friends and supporters were Harry Vane, the young governor of the colony; Mr. Col ton, the favorite preacher; Coddington, the wealthy citizen; and Captain John Underbill, the hero of the Pequod wars, who, accepting a commission from the Dutch in their sanguinary
EARLIEST
SETTLERS
struggle with the Indians, was the leader of the celebrated expeditionary force which, in 1644, the year after the murder of Mrs. Hutchinson, marched into the heart of Westchester County and wreaked dire vengeance for that and other bloody deeds. To the work of instruction she added a large practical philanthropy, assisting the poor and ministering to the sick. But it was not long before Mrs. Hutchinson, by the independence of her opinions, excited the serious displeasure of the rigid Puritan element. Her precise doctrinal offense against the established standards concerned, says a sympathetic writer, " a point so nice and finely drawn that the modern intellect passes it by in disdain; a difference so faint that one can scarcely represent it in words.