1 See pages 85-88, and 91.

2 This seems to have been a note interpolated after the paper was signed. See page 88.

3 West and Browne never came over to the Colony, and nothing is known concerning them.

4 William Pynchon, whose name occurs so frequently in the Company's Records, was a gentleman of learning as well as religion. He was one of the Assistants named in the Charter, and came over with Gov. Winthrop. He laid the foundation of the town of Roxbury, and was the first member of the church in that place. Early in 1636 he removed to Connecticut river, with eight others, and was the father of the town of Springfield, which was so named after the town in England where he resided, near Chelmsford, in Essex. In 1650, there appeared in England a book entitled, "The Meritorious Price of our Redemption, Justification, &c., clearing it from some Errors, by William Pinchin, in New-England, gent." A copy of this book was brought over by a ship a few days before the meeting of the General Court, which was held Oct. 15, and which proceeded to pass the following order: "This Court having had a sight of a book lately printed, under the name of William Pinchon, in NewEngland, gent., and judging it meet, do therefore order; first, that a Protest be drawn, fully and clearly to satisfy all men that this Court do utterly dislike it and detest it as erroneous and dangerous; secondly, that it be sufficiently answered by one of the reverend elders; thirdly, that the said William Pinchon, gent., be summoned to appear before the next General Court to answer for the same; fourthly, that the said book, now brought over, be burnt by the executioner, and that in the marketplace in Boston on the morrow, immediately after the Lecture." The Rev. John Norton, of Ipswich, was entreated to answer the book, which he did. The Protest of the Court

283

26.

covers a page of their Records, and CHAP. in it they condemn the book as XIV. "false, erroneous, and heretical," and declare their purpose "to pro- 1629. ceed with the author according to Aug. his demerits, unless he retract the same, and give full satisfaction both here and by some second writing to be printed and dispersed in England." The grand error of the book consisted in regarding the sufferings of Christ as merely "trials of his obedience;" and of course it was the first heretical work on the Atonement that was written in this country. At the next General Court, held May 7, 1651, Pynchon appeared, and explained or retracted the obnoxious opinions, after having conferred with the Rev. Messrs. Cotton, Norris, and Norton. He appeared before them again Oct. 14, 1651, but the judgment of the Court on his errors and heresies was suspended till the next session in May, 1652. Before that time, Mr. Pynchon, seeing the storm gathering, and doubtful what might be the result, prudently left the Colony and returned to England, accompanied by his son-in-law, Capt. Henry Smith, and the Rev. George Moxon, a graduate of Sydney College, Cambridge, in 1623, who had been the minister of Springfield since 1637. Is it not probable, that Moxon himself was infected with the same heresy, and perhaps had a hand in writing the book? From a letter of the Governor and Council, preserved in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxi. 35, it appears that Sir Henry Vane had written them a letter in behalf of Pynchon, April 15, 1652, previous to which he had probably arrived in England. They speak of him as "one whom we did all love and respect," and intimate that he had privately held this doctrine "above thirty years." He died at Wraysbury, on the Thames, in Buckinghamshire, in October, 1662, aged 72 or 74. His son, John, was a prominent man in the Colony, and a long line of descendants may be seen in Farmer's

284

CHAP. Genealogical Register. No copy of XIV. Pynchon's book is known to exist in this country, but Mr. Savage found 1629. it in the British Museum, and two other tracts written by him. A series of papers, belonging to him and

his family, is printed in the Mass. Hist. Coll. xviii. 228–249. See Col. Rec. ii. 280-3, 295, 328; Breck's Century Sermon at Springfield, pp. 15-17; Mass. Hist. Coll. xvi. 308, xxviii. 248, 288, 294.