Anne Marbury Hutchinson (The Elder) Part l

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Anne Hutchinson, was born Anne Marbury, in in Alford, Lincolnshire, England, in July, 1591, the daughter of Bridget Dryden and Francis Marbury, a deacon at Christ Church, Cambridge.  Anne's father believed that most of the ministers in the Church of England had not accessed their positions through proper training, but for political reasons.  He so openly deplored this lack of competence from the clergy that he was arrested, and spent a year in jail for his "subversive" words of dissent.  This did not deter Marbury from continuing to voice his opinions, and there would be more arrests.  Marbury later found success as the rector of St. Martin's Vintry, rector of St. Pancras, and finally rector of St. Margaret's.
Given her father's strong beliefs and academic competence, it's no surprise that Anne developed an interest in religion and theology at a very young age.  Anne was home-schooled, and  read from her father's library, where she found there were as many new questions about faith as there seemed to be answers.  She had grown to admire her father's ideals and assertiveness, and wasn't afraid of questioning the principles of faith and the authority of the Church, as is usually the case with anyone who has had the benefit of a good education. At the age of 21, Anne married Will Hutchinson, and settled down in Alford, where she took on the role of housewife and mother, while retaining a vivid interest in theology and the Church.  She and her family followed the sermons of John Cotton, a Protestant minister whose teachings echoed those of her father's, but were now more commonly accepted under the increasingly popular banner of Puritanism. As much as Anne's father had been criticized and condemned for his views, many Protestants had grown increasingly concerned with the level of corruption within the Catholic Church, and to a certain degree within the Protestant Church; a new reformist movement known as Puritanism has evolved, thus named because it's main objective was to "purify" the National Church of all Catholic influence.	Pieter de Hooch Buy This Art Print At AllPosters.com Nothing to do with Anne, but a painting from same period.
In 1634, when John Cotton was relocated to the Puritan colonies of New England, Will and Anne Hutchinson, along with their 15 children, soon followed suit, sailing to America with John Lothrop and other colonists on the Griffin, in the hopes of practicing their faith in an environment more favorable to the new ideas of Puritanism.  Anne had high hopes for a life in the colonies, thinking it would be a haven for those who wished to worship God as they saw fit.