( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Simplicitys-Defence-Against-Seven-Headed-Explanatory/dp/1373979097?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1373979097
Samuel Gorton was born of a good family at Gorton, three miles from Manchester, England. 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.
Although Gorton himself said he had not been to school it is evident that he learned much, probably from tutors, and could read the Bible in the original tongues.
Samuel had private tutors who taught him the classics.
When Gorton was about twenty- five, probably, he was in London engaged in the business of finishing cloth.
In 1637, he arrived in Boston with his wife, Mary Maplet, and at least one child. He was tried for teaching heresy, convicted, fined, imprisoned, and banished because of his religeous views.
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 had bought the land from Mian- tonomo but in June 1643 two of the inferior sachems contested his claim and the validity of the purchase and applied for relief to the court at Boston.
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 and for being enemies “of all civil authority among the people of God”.
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, 1655-57, 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.
He died at Warwick between November 27 and December 1677.
Samuel Gorton is known as the founder of Warwick, Rhode Island. He 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. He was also theologically active, and the leader of a small sect of converts known as Gortonists or Gortonites. He had strong religious beliefs that were contrary to Puritan theology and was very outspoken, and as a result he was frequently in trouble with the civil and church authorities in the New England colonies.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
Although brought up in the Church of England, Gorton developed heterodox opinions and emigrated to Massachusetts in the belief that that colony practised religious toleration.
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.
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. Among his religious beliefs, he 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. 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.
Samuel was courteous, friendly, and elegant. He is said to have looked like a Saxon, tall and thin, with blue eyes and light brown hair.
Quotes from others about the person
"Gorton might almost be said to have graduated as a disturber of peace in every colony in New England. " - an English historian commented.
"He was one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. His career furnishes an apt illustration of the radicalism in action, which may spring from ultra-conservatism in theory. The turbulence of his earlier history was the result of a disregard for existing law, because it was not based upon what he held to be the only legitimate source of power--the assent of the supreme authority in England. He denied the right of a people to self-government, and contended for his views with the vigor of an unrivalled intellect and the strength of an ungoverned passion. But when this point was conceded, by the securing of a Patent, no man was more submissive to delegated law. His astuteness of mind and his Biblical learning made him a formidable opponent of the Puritan hierarchy, while his ardent love of liberty, when it was once guaranteed, caused him to embrace with fervor the principles that gave origin to Rhode Island. " - Lieutenant Governor Samuel G. Arnold
Gorton was married to Mary Maplet. He had had three sons and at least six daughters.
1555 - 3 January 1610
1563 - 1 Nov 1623
Born on 12 Mar 1609.
1638 - 1688
1641 - 1704
5 June 1644 - 24 February 1750
1644 - 28 May 1734
1630 - 21 August 1723
Born in 1638.
