Hutchinson follows American trail to Rhode Is. - Part 2
REPRINTED FROM 12-15-2011
ANNE HUTCHINSON
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J BTR ANUARY 18-24, 2019 43
She began her trek to Rhode
Island with her family and
followers in April following
the single fi le Native American
trail that Roger Williams
and her husband had taken
earlier. Williams had sought
refuge at the winter camp of
Massasoit when he ran into
diffi culty. Massasoit was the
Wampanoag sachem who had
helped save the Massachusetts
Bay Colony from starvation so
they were well-acquainted with
each other. I would imagine
that William Hutchinson had
sought Roger Williams’ advice
when traveling to Rhode Island
and he would most likely have
advised his wife to also look
to Massasoit for advice on the
safety of the trail at the time.
The trek was six days in
length and after arriving at
Narragansett Bay they took
a boat trip to Aquidneck Is.
(Aquidneck is the native American
term for fl oating mass)
where her husband, William,
had already started construction
of their home. His settlement
there was called Pocasset
which translates to “where the
stream widens.” The name was
later changed to Portsmouth.
William Coddington, who
sided with Anne Hutchinson
when she was tried, left Massachusetts
with William and
he was among the 23 men who
signed the Portsmouth Compact
in Boston on March 7, 1638
electing him as governor.
Anne arrived with additional
followers during the second
week of April 1638. William
Coddington was deposed
as governor on April 28, 1639
and William Hutchinson was
elected to the position. Coddington
then moved to Newport
at the south end of Aquidneck
Is.. Portsmouth and Newport
were reunited on March 12,
1640 and Coddington was again
elected governor. In the interim,
a new political system
was created separating church
and state and creating the justice
system of trial by peers.
This was confi rmed by the 39
freemen and became the law of
the land in Rhode Island.
William Hutchinson passed
away in 1641 during which time
overtures were being made between
the Rhode Is. colonies
and the Massachusetts Bay
Colony. The talks of reuniting
the two colonies created fear in
Anne after all she went through
with her two trials. Another
former colonist who had relocated
from Massachusetts to
Rhode Is. had sought and obtained
permission from the
Dutch to settle on their land.
John Throckmorton obtained
a land grant from Dutch Governor
Wilhelm Kieft to settle on
the Vriedlandt in Dutch territory.
Although his settlement
in 1642 was short-lived, it still
bears his name in the form of
Throggs Neck. His land grant
extended north to the Hutchinson
River delta.
Anne was desperate to get
away from the control of the
British and also sought to establish
herself in Dutch territory.
Thus it was that she and
much of her family traveled
south, probably by boat, to the
area north of Throckmorton’s
Neck and the Hutchinson River
delta to set up her homestead.
No offi cial land grant or patent
from the Dutch exists but we do
know that she established her
home on the west side of the
river that now bears her name.
The land would have to be relatively
fl at and suffi ciently
inland and tillable enough to
maintain a farm. She hired a
distant relative, James Sands,
to build her home and the Native
Americans soon made it
apparent that she was not welcome
there. She persisted but
Dutch governor Wilhelm Kieft
initiated a series of raids upon
the Native Americans that
were retaliated. Anne’s entire
settlement with the exception
of one nine year old daughter,
Susannah, was massacred. Susannah
was later ransomed by
an older brother who had remained
in Massachusetts. She
married John Cole in 1651 and
the couple moved to Rhode Island
and had 11 children. The
location of Anne Hutchinson’s
home has been the subject of
numerous investigations over
the years but still remains unknown
somewhere beneath Coop
City.