Anne Hutchinson was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened the Puritan religious community in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters.
Anne Hutchinson on Trial by Edwin Austin Abbey
Marshalsea Prison, London, where Hutchinson's father was detained for two years for "heresy"
Reverend John Cotton was Hutchinson's mentor and her reason for emigrating to New England.
Reverend John Wheelwright was an ally of Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy, and both were banished.
The Antinomian Controversy, also known as the Free Grace Controversy, was a religious and political conflict in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. It pitted most of the colony's ministers and magistrates against some adherents of Puritan minister John Cotton. The most notable Free Grace advocates, often called "Antinomians", were Anne Hutchinson, her brother-in-law Reverend John Wheelwright, and Massachusetts Bay Governor Henry Vane. The controversy was a theological debate concerning the "covenant of grace" and "covenant of works".
Anne Hutchinson at trial and John Winthrop
John Cotton was Hutchinson's mentor.
Henry Vane the Younger
John Wheelwright's fast-day sermon fanned the flames of the controversy.