"Not a Hair Fell from any Man of Boston"

The Sinner

1634 - 1638

The Narragansett reparations aren’t enough to forestall a punitive expedition against the Block Islanders. On August 24, Adam Trane and Nat Steele march with a twenty-six-man company led by Captain John Underhill, “an eccentric soldier who generally went to excess in whatever he undertook.”

Forty Block Islanders resist the landing, their arrows proving no match for English muskets. One Indian is killed, before the rest flee. Disappointed at their failure to exterminate the natives, the soldiers “destroy some dogs instead of men and put the Indian settlements to the torch.”

The expedition sails to the mainland and invests a Pequot town, where they demand the surrender of Oldham’s murderers. When the parley breaks down, the English slay thirteen Pequots and plunder the wigwams and fields.

On September 14, three weeks after setting out, the Boston troops return to the bay, “a marvelous providence of God that not a hair fell from any, nor any sick or feeble person among them.”

In winter 1636, Winthrop and his supporters open a new front, not against Pequots but the Hutchinsonians. Anne’s followers in First Church want John Wheelwright appointed assistant teacher, initial step toward replacing incumbent John Wilson. At a Sunday meeting, Winthrop leads the counter-attack against Wheelwright and succeeds in getting him sent out of Boston as minister to the settlers at Wollaston.

Winthrop’s next salvo is aimed at Governor Vane himself. The debate between the two is so painful to young Henry that he bursts into tears and offers his resignation. To Winthrop’s surprise, the General Court refuses to let Henry go, at least not until the regular annual election in May.

Sir Henry Vane the Younger - Portrait by Peter Lely

 

As the strife between the two factions grows, a day of fast and humiliation is kept on January 20, 1637. Invited to talk at Boston, John Wheelwright illuminates Anne’s belief in a Covenant of Grace offering personal salvation through faith alone and rejection of a covenant demanding godly deeds and total obedience to the elect. Wheelwright ends with a rallying call to his “brethren and sisters” (unique in including ‘sisters’ of the church, ever mute and virtually unseen by most black-coats): “We must all prepare for battle against the enemies of the Lord. If we do not strive, those under a Covenant of Works will prevail. If we be called, we must be willing to lay down our lives.”

Two months later, a closed session of the General Court judges Wheelwright “guilty of sedition and contempt.” His sentence is postponed until the May election, when Winthrop’s supporters confidently expect they will unseat Vane.

 

Sir Henry Vane - Boston Public Library
Sculptor - Frederick William MacMonnies