Samuel Gorton was an early settler and civic leader of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and President of the towns of Providence and Warwick.
Background
Gorton was born c. 1592 in Manchester, England, the son of Thomas and Anne Gorton from the chapelry of Gorton, a part of Manchester. His grandfather and great grandfather were both also likely named Thomas Gorton of the same place. They were members of an ancient family, found in Gorton as early as 1332. Owing to confusion between two children of the same name, his birth has sometimes been assigned to the year 1600 but it is probable that he was the child baptized February 12, 1592/3.
Education
Gorton was educated by tutors and became an accomplished scholar, particularly in the area of languages and English law. Although he himself said he had not been to school it is evident that he learned much, and could read the Bible in the original tongues.
Career
When Gorton was about twenty-five, probably, he was in London engaged in the business of finishing cloth. Although brought up in the Church of England he developed heterodox opinions and emigrated to Massachusetts in the belief that that colony practiced religious toleration. In 1637 he arrived in Boston with his wife and at least one child. His views very soon brought him into conflict with the authorities, who were already dealing with the Antinomian controversy, and within two months he was tried for teaching heresy, convicted, fined, imprisoned, and banished. From Boston he went to Plymouth but fared no better there. He embroiled himself in a religious dispute with Ralph Smith, a Plymouth minister whose house he had leased, and Smith had him haled to court. After trial, Gorton was fined and ordered to find sureties for his good behavior. He seems also to have been banished and in any case left the colony in the winter of 1638 and went with a few followers to Aquidneck (Rhode Island). On April 30, 1639, he took part in organizing the government of Portsmouth. Soon he was again in trouble with the Coddington government at Newport and was publicly whipped. He next took refuge with Roger Williams at Providence but it is said he never was admitted an inhabitant there. He then bought land and settled at Pawtuxet, but again got into disputes with the colonists and, having refused to present himself at Boston at the order of the Massachusetts authorities, moved once more, this time to Shawomet. He was summoned to Boston by a court order of September 7, 1643, and when he did not go, Massachusetts sent forty soldiers and captured him, together with several companions, though they were living outside the jurisdiction of that colony. They were taken to Boston, where they were tried for blasphemy. They were condemned to imprisonment at hard labor in irons, November 3, and released and banished March 7, 1644. Gorton went first to Portsmouth and then to England to seek redress. He obtained from the Earl of Warwick a letter of safe conduct ordering Massachusetts to leave him unmolested in "the land called Narragansett Bay, " and after his return in May 1648 he lived peaceably for the rest of his life at Shawomet, which he renamed Warwick. His troubles or advancing age appear to have sobered him, and he became a dignified and useful citizen. On Sundays he preached to the colonists and Indians and among other civil offices he performed the duties of representative of Warwick in the Assembly in 1649, 1651, 1652, 1655-1657, 1659, 1660, 1662-66. He was at one time a judge in the highest court, served several times in the upper house, was chosen many times to audit the town books, and at his death was a member of the town council while his son Samuel was treasurer. Before his death Gorton attained a clear and dignified literary style, as shown in his letter of defense to Morton. His earlier style, however, in his controversial works, was incoherent and often vituperative. His publications include the following: Simplicities Defence against Seven-Headed Policy (1646), a vindication of his course in New England; An Incorruptible Key Composed of the CX Psalme (1647); Saltmarsh Returned from the Dead (1655); An Antidote Against the Common Plague of the World (1657). He also left some manuscripts now in the possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society, notably a commentary on the Lord's Prayer containing his latest religious beliefs. Gorton would never have considered himself the founder of a sect, but he had followers who called themselves Gortonites and persisted as a distinct group for nearly a century. He died at Warwick between November 27 and December 10, 1677.
Achievements
Gorton is best remembered as colonist, who had strong religious beliefs which differed from Puritan theology and was very outspoken. He became the leader of a small sect of converts known as Gortonists or Gortonites, and as a result, was frequently in trouble with the civil and church authorities in the New England colonies.
Religion
Among his religious beliefs, Gorton denied the doctrine of the Trinity, although he declared Christ to be God and the only proper object of worship; he denounced a "hireling ministry" and denied the fitness of men who were paid, claiming that each man should be his own priest; he would do away with all outward ordinances; and taught a conditional immortality dependent upon individual character. He also held that by union with Christ one partook of the perfection of God, and denied the actual existence of heaven or hell.
Connections
Gorton was married prior to 11 January 1629/30 to Mary Mayplet, the daughter of John Mayplet who was a haberdasher. He had had three sons and at least six daughters.
