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Who was Samuell Gorton? What part did he play in our Colonial history? These questions let us briefly answer before we attempt a somewhat careful study of his religious and political opinions, about which there has been so much misunderstanding. Samuell Gorton was born in the parish of Gorton, England, a few miles from the present bustling city of Manchester, about the year 1592.^[7] He came of a good family, “not entirely unknown,” says Judge Brayton, “to the heraldry of England.”^[8] Here, as Gorton himself declares, “the fathers of his body had dwelt for generations.”

We know but little about his early life. Though he did not attend any of the celebrated schools or universities of England, his education seems to have been carefully conducted by private tutors.^[9] As with many other students of his day, the Bible was his principal text-book. He could read it in the original: he was a master of both Greek and Hebrew. And he brought to the reading a vigorous intellect and a more original and independent judgment than is commonly applied to theological studies.

Samuell Gorton probably dwelt in the vicinity of his birthplace until he was about twenty-five years of age.^[10] Here he made the acquaintance of a Separatist Elder, afterwards connected with the church in Holland, whence came the Mayflower Pilgrims. His mind readily assimilated the spirit of the Puritan revolt against the degenerate formalism of the times; yet his Puritanism was without taint of dogmatic narrowness. He always retained an affection for the church of his fathers. “I drew my tenets,” he says, “from the breasts of my mother, the Church of England.”^[11]

In his early manhood he left Gorton and went to seek his fortune in the great English metropolis. In London he engaged in business, and built for himself a home. In a certain conveyance signed during his residence there, he is described as “Samuell Gorton, clothier,” and also as “Professor of the misteries of Christ.” Religion and daily occupation were never divorced in his consciousness. He would not make a trade of the former, nor could he conduct the latter on a plane inconsistent with those moral and religious principles which dominated his life. His business as a “clothier,” in the phraseology of the day, was that of a branch of manufacturing—the finishing of cloths after weaving. It is doubtful whether he met with great pecuniary rewards in his chosen industry. His enemies afterwards said that he left London in debt, to avoid imprisonment threatened by his creditors. Of this there is no valid evidence; we may dismiss it on the authority of his explicit denial.^[12] “I left my native country,” he said, “to enjoy libertie of conscience in respect to faith towards God, and for no other end.”

Samuell Gorton arrived in Boston in March, 1636–7.^[13] A few months before, Roger Williams had been banished from Massachusetts Bay. The Colonial authorities were now agitated by the heresies of Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright.^[14] They, in turn, were shortly compelled to seek other dwelling places to secure opportunity for free expression of opinion. Evidently, the liberty of conscience which Gorton sought was not to be safely exercised in Boston. He turned his steps toward Plymouth, the home of the Separatist Pilgrims, hoping there to find the goal of his desires. In Plymouth he hired for four years a part of the house of Ralph Smith, formerly the minister of the Plymouth church, of whom Roger Williams for a brief time had been the colleague. Here Gorton first met the founder of Rhode Island, while on a visit to his former home. Gorton dwelt quietly in Plymouth^[15] for a time, with his family; his wife, Mary,^[16] whom he married in London, of whom he says: “She had been as tenderly brought up as any man’s wife then in town,” his eldest son Samuell, a boy of six years when he left England, his daughter Mary, and one or two other children; and one Mrs. Aldredge, a worthy woman, a widow, and a servant of Mrs. Gorton’s.

It was the latter member of his household who got him into trouble with the Plymouth authorities. She committed the unpardonable sin of smiling in meeting, on what provocation we know not.^[17] Samuell Gorton defended her before the magistrates, and advised her not to appear in person to answer to their charges, which were based upon no express allegations of the violation of law. He vigorously denounced their action as in opposition to those English precedents which the customs of many generations had established for the legal protection of persons unjustly accused of violations of the public peace. For his alleged contumacy and mutinous behavior he was fined, held under bonds to keep the peace, and sentenced to banishment from the Colony within fourteen days.^[18]

From Plymouth, he made his way to Pocasset, the new settlement which the followers of Anne Hutchinson had begun on the island of Aquidneck, in Narragansett Bay, where he arrived, probably, some time in December, 1638. The weather was cold and the journey perilous. His wife, in delicate health, had an infant at the breast, sick with measles, which “struck in” under the exposure, nearly causing its death. At Pocasset Gorton’s name appears as one of four out of fifty-nine freeholders to which the title of “Mr.” is prefixed, then an indication of social position and gentle birth.^[19] The government of Pocasset was at first theocratic, a judge and five elders constituting its magistrates, who were bound to execute justice “according to the laws of God.” A majority of the community desired a more democratic form of government; and Coddington, the judge (afterwards Governor of the united Colony), with the elders, and a few other free-holders, emigrated to the southern end of the island, where they founded the town of Newport.^[20] The remaining free-holders, including Samuell Gorton, thus forsaken by their magistrates, instituted a new town government, and changed the name of the settlement to Portsmouth. This occurred in the spring of 1639. A year later,^[21] the two settlements were united under one government for the transaction of affairs of common interest, and the influence of Coddington and the Newport magistrates became potent throughout the island. Gorton and his friends regarded this coalition as irregular and illegally constituted. It seems never to have been sanctioned by a majority of the free-holders. He appears to have declined to admit allegiance to it, and to have permitted his citizenship to lapse, though still retaining his residence.

It was not long before he became involved with the Portsmouth authorities in a controversy concerning an alleged assault of his servant on a woman who had trespassed on his land in pursuit of a cow which was also a trespasser. Gorton again defended his servant, and denied the legal constitution and jurisdiction of the court. “They did not have the choice of the people,” he says, “but set up for themselves. I know not any more that was present in their creation but the clergieman who blessed them in their inauguration.” His language was doubtless vigorous and not wholly parliamentary.^[22] His keen sense of justice was outraged by the proceeding, and his sympathetic nature led him to severe retorts upon a witness who, in his opinion, swore falsely, and the magistrates who were biased in favor of the prosecution. For his alleged mutinous behavior he was imprisoned and again sentenced to banishment. His enemies say that he was also whipped,^[23] but the Portsmouth records, which are explicit in reciting the charges and the other penalties, make no mention of this infliction. There is evidence, also, that he had many friends and sympathizers in the settlement. One of these, John Wickes, for refusing to testify and denying the legality and jurisdiction of the court, was placed in the stocks, and with four others was banished and disfranchised.^[24]

The little circle of congenial and independent souls was growing under persecution. From Portsmouth they pressed on to Providence, and though apparently seeking to avoid rather than to encourage controversy, they soon became involved in disputes which had already divided that settlement into two parties.^[25] I shall not enter into the merits of this controversy, which involved civil and not religious questions. As in Portsmouth, Gorton denied the legality of the self-constituted town government, and held that justice could not be maintained until the law was administered under authority delegated by the Mother Country. He was as anxious as any for liberty, but he would have liberty protected by law. As an Englishman, dwelling in a community of Englishmen, he claimed the protection of those principles of law and equity, which, since Magna Charta, had been thrown around all British citizens. For a time his vigorous maintenance of this doctrine brought him in conflict even with Roger Williams, who, Winthrop says, accused Gorton of “bewitching and bemadding poor Providence” with his new and radical opinions.^[26]

Gorton and his friends purchased land and commenced a settlement at Popaquinepaug, or Pawtuxet, within the jurisdiction of Providence; but certain of his enemies who owned adjoining property determined to prevent his peaceful occupancy. William Arnold and a few others, to insure his expulsion, gave in their allegiance to Massachusetts, and called on the government of that Colony to remove the intruders. This, however, is by no means to be regarded as an official action of the town of Providence, or as in accordance with the desires of a majority of her citizens. It is probable, in fact, that a majority were sympathizers with Gorton.^[27] Nevertheless, not from mere pusillanimity, but out of a desire for peace, and a disinclination to embroil Providence with her more powerful neighbor, the Gortonists moved on, beyond the jurisdiction either of Providence Plantations or of Massachusetts. Gorton purchased of Miantonomi, head sachem of the Narragansetts, and of Pomham and Soccononocco, under-sachems claiming local jurisdiction, a tract of land south of Pawtuxet and west of Narragansett Bay, then known by the Indian name of Shawomet.^[28]