Josephs, Pearson, Paige & Vail ancestors
who tangled with church authority
| Ancestor | Line | Town | Offense |
| Akin, John | V | New Bristol MA | Quaker; jailed for refusing to collect taxes in support of Puritan churches; released on order of King Charles I |
| Allen, Ralph | V | Sandwich MA | Quaker; fined repeatedly for absence from church, attitude toward church, refusal of fidelity oath; jailed; disenfranchised |
| Bachiler, Stephen (Rev.) | V | MA, NH, ME | Ungovernable preacher; twice excommunicated; kicked out of three communities; married four times; inspired The Scarlet Letter |
| Blanchan, Matthieu | Pg | Hurley NY | Huguenot; fined for churning milk after fasting bell had rung; fined for selling brandy to brother-in-law; entire court went on horseback to brother-in-law’s house to find the brandy |
| Chauncy, Charles (Rev.) | J | Cambridge MA | Refused to wear proper vestments; argued against communion rail; insisted on full-immersion baptism for infants |
| Coles, Robert | V | Roxbury MA | Fined for drinking to excess; ordered to wear a scarlet “D”; moved to Ipswich, then Providence RI |
| Colt, John | J | Windsor CT | Fined for playing cards at an unseasonable hour of night |
| Cooke, John | V | Plymouth MA | Anabaptistry; excommunicated; moved to Dartmouth NH |
| Dillingham, Edmund | V | Sandwich MA | Arrested and censured for sympathy to Quakers |
| Dalton, Timothy (Rev.) | Pr | Hampton NH | Engaged in public feud with Rev. Stephen Bachiler |
| Doughty, Francis | V | Taunton MA | |
| Enno, James | Pr | Windsor CT | Requested church pew and baptism for his children despite being Church of England; huge controversy ensued |
| Farrington, Edward | Pr | Flushing NY | Arrested for signing Flushing Remonstrance; lived on bread and water for a month |
| Glover, Henry | V | New Haven CT | Excommunicated for unknown sins; reconciled with church in 1644 |
| Goodwin, William | Pr
|
Hartford MA | Dispute with authorities over fitness of minister; left Hartford with Rev. Russell to found Hadley MA |
| Gould, John | V | Topsfield MA | Dispute with church: called the minister drunk and incompetent; prosecuted for slander |
| Gould, Zaccheus | V | Topsfield MA | Fined for neglect of public worship; disrupting Sabbath meeting (by sitting with his back to the minister and wearing a hat); entertaining Quakers |
| Hart, Nicholas | V | Taunton MA | Excommunicated in 1643 for “scandalous, lewd, and odious unclean behavior” with Sarah Dudley, daughter of Gov. Thomas Dudley; moved to RI |
| Hunt, Thomas & Cecily Clarke | Pr | New Haven CT | Kicked out of New Haven for keeping company with a man the elders disapproved of; moved to Stamford |
| Hallett, William & Elizabeth Ffownes | V | Greenwich CT | Adultery; questionable marriage [Elizabeth is known as “The Winthrop Woman”] |
| Hart, Nicholas | V | Taunton MA | Excommunicated for not conforming to Puritan beliefs; moved to Boston where he had further religious trouble; moved to RI |
| Hopkins, Stephen | V | Plymouth MA | Fined/arrested for selling liquor, playing shuffleboard on Sunday, fighting, permitting guests to drink to excess, throwing out pregnant maid |
| Knight, Agnes | Pr | Newbury MA | Admonished for wearing a silk hood and scarf |
| Learned, William | Pg | Charlestown MA | Hutchinson supporter; renounced support rather than disarm and move |
| Lothrop, John (Rev.) | V | Barnstable MA | Renounced Church of England; jailed in London and freed on condition he emigrate to Boston; church in Scituate failed over schism on infant baptism; fought for separation of church and state |
| Marston, William | Pr | Hampton NH | Fined for possessing Quaker books |
| Mather, Elizabeth | J | ||
| Niles, Nathaniel & Littlefield, Jane | V | Boston MA | Indicted for fornication; bore a child four months after marriage (Jane herself was illegitimate) |
| Paige, Christopher | Pg | Hardwick MA | |
| Pickering, John | Pr | Portsmouth NH | Charged with failure to attend church; said reason was not discontent with minister but rather “great deafness” |
| Porter, Herodias Long Hicks Gardner | Pr, V | Boston | Divorced; moved to RI; had 9 children out of wedlock; whipped and jailed for Quaker beliefs; took up with married lieutenant governor |
| Porter, John | V | Roxbury MA | Hutchinson supporter; excommunicated and exiled for antinomy; moved to RI and became Lt. Gov.; deserted wife to marry Herodias Long Hicks Gardner |
| Pynchon, William | J | Springfield MA | Church insufficiently strict; returned to England |
| Rand, Francis | Pr | Rye NH | Fined for drinking on the Sabbath |
| Richardson, Ezekiel | Pg | Woburn MA | Hutchinson supporter; renounced support rather than disarm and move |
| Russell, John (Rev.) | V | Wethersfield CT | Dispute between Presbyterians and Congregationalists; left with entire church and founded Hadley MA |
| Sherman, Philip | V | Roxbury MA | Hutchinson supporter; excommunicated and exiled for antinomy; moved to RI |
| Slocum, Giles | V | Newport RI | Excommunicated for joining the Quakers; moved to RI |
| Swain, Richard | Pr | Hampton NH | Fined and disenfranchised for harboring Quakers; bought island of Nantucket and moved there |
| Swift, Joan Sisson | V | Sandwich MA | Fined for attending Quaker meetings |
| Taber, Philip | V | Edgartown MA | Committed “certain moral indiscretions” making it necessary to leave Martha’s Vineyard and move to RI |
| Thorne, William Jr. | V | Flushing NY | Signed Flushing Remonstrance protesting illegal treatment of Quakers |
| Townsend, Henry | V | Jamaica NY | Arrested twice for harboring Quakers; moved to Oyster Bay NY, signed Flushing Remonstrance |
| Tucker, Henry | V | Milton MA | Persecuted for being a Quaker; moved to Dartmouth MA |
| Underhill, John | V | Boston MA | Fined/arrested for antinomy and contemptuous speeches; disarmed, disenfranchised, and discharged, later banished; excommunicated for adultery, then reinstated |
| Warren, John | Pr | Watertown MA | Fined for refusal to kneel at communion; neglect of public worship on Sabbath (14 times); suspicion of harboring Quakers; granddaughter accused of possession by the devil |
| Webster, John (Gov.) | V | Hartford CT | Followed Russell to Hadley MA in fight over infant baptism |
| White, Ebenezer (Rev.) | V | Danbury CT | Expelled from Congregational church in fight over infant damnation and original sin; formed New Danbury Church |
| Willey, Joana Luten | J | New London CT | Fined 5 shillings in 1667 for missing public worship, along with her children |
| Wing, Daniel | V | Sandwich MA | Quaker; fined so repeatedly and heavily that he signed estate over to his minor children to prevent its confiscation |
| Winslow, Kenelm | Pg | Marshfield MA | Fined for speaking opprobrious words against the church |
| Worden, Peter | Pg | Yarmouth MA | Fined for causing a disturbance in the meeting house on Sabbath (by holding a conversation) |
| Wright, Nicholas | V | Boston MA | Quaker; niece Lydia Wright was imprisoned, stripped, tied to a cart and whipped in public; fled to uncle’s home in Long Island |