"Mrs. Hutchinson, the wife of Mr. William Hutchinson, being
convicted for traducing the ministers and their ministry in the
country, she declared voluntarily her revelations, and that she
should be delivered, and the Court ruined with their posterity,
and thereupon was banished, and in the meanwhile was committed to
Mr. Joseph Welde (of Roxbury) until the Court shall dispose of
her."

Her keeper for the winter was the brother of her worst enemy. She
was to be kept there at the expense of her husband, but forbidden
to pursue any of her usual occupations. Naturally she sunk into a
deep melancholy, in no wise lessened by constant visits from the
ministers, who insisted upon discussing her opinions, and who
wrought upon her till she was half distracted. They accused her of
falsehoods, declaring that she held "gross errors, to the number
of thirty or thereabouts," and badgering the unhappy creature till
it is miraculous that any spirit remained. Then came the church
trial, more legitimate, but conducted with fully as much virulence
as the secular one, the day of the weekly lecture, Thursday, being
chosen, as that which brought together the greatest number of
people.

The elders accused her of deliberate lying, and point by point,
brought up the thirty errors. Of some she admitted her possible
mistake; others she held to strenuously, but all were simply
speculation, not one having any vital bearing on faith or life.
Public admonition was ordered, but before this her two sons had
been publicly censured for refusing to join in signing the paper
which excommunicated her, Mr. Cotton addressing them "most
pitifully and pathetically," as "giving way to natural affection