Anne Marbury was born in Alford, England. She was the daughter of a minister in the Church of England. In 1612 Anne married William Hutchinson and they had 12 children. In 1634 the Hutchinsons moved to Boston. Almost immediately, Anne Hutchinson’s Puritan beliefs clashed with those of the colony’s leaders. Hutchinson believed in the Covenant of Grace, meaning that fate—and not actions—determined whether people would be saved by God’s grace. Many Massachusetts Puritans viewed this thinking as dangerous because it gave people no reason to be good or follow rules. Hutchinson began to attract a number of followers, including important community members, who met regularly at her home for religious discussion. In 1637 she was put on trial for her beliefs and convicted for contradicting the colony’s leaders. She was banished from the colony. She and a group of followers founded the new colony of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island (now known as Rhode Island) in 1638. When her husband died in 1642, Hutchinson moved to a Dutch settlement on Long Island, in present-day New York. She was killed in attack by American Indians in 1643.
