Samuel Gorton

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Samuel Gorton (1592–1677), English sectary and founder of the American sect of Gortonites, was born in 1592 at Gorton, Manchester, in Lancashire.

He was first apprenticed to a clothier in London, but, fearing persecution for his religious convictions, he sailed for Boston, Massachusetts, in 1636. Constantly involved in religious disputes, he fled in turn to Plymouth, and (in 1637-1638) to Aquidneck Island (now Newport, Rhode Island), where he was publicly whipped for insulting the magistrates.

In 1642 he bought land, known as "Shawomet Purchase", from the Narragansett people at Shawomet—now Warwick--where he was joined by a number of his followers; the authorities at Boston, frightened that his views would take hold among the population at large, sent soldiers to arrest Gorton and six of his companions. The Massachusetts soldiers ignored pleas from Roger Williams to respect the boundaries of Providence. As a result leaders from Providence got together with leaders from Newport and Portsmouth and formally created the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. After being arrested, Gorton and some of his followers served a term of imprisonment for heresy at Charlestown, but was released and formally banished when Winthrop and the other leaders found out Gorton was making converts. Of all the people banished from Massachusetts, none was more hated and feared by the Massachusetts leaders than Gorton.

Gorton's beliefs included rejection of baptism, rejection of communion, and a total rejection in formal religious training.

In England in 1646 he published the curious tract Simplicities Defence against Seven Headed Policy (reprinted in 1835), giving an account of his grievances against the Massachusetts government. In 1648 he returned to New England with a letter of protection from the Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick, and joining his former companions at Shawomet, which he named Warwick, in honour of the earl, he remained there until his death.

He is chiefly remembered as the founder of a small sect called the Gortonites, which survived until the end of the 18th century. They had a great contempt for the regular clergy and for all outward forms of religion, holding that true believers partook of the perfection of God.

In 1649, Samuel Gorton was elected general assistant to the Governor, and in 1651, was elected the first President over the two towns Warwick and Providence, called the Providence Plantations. He was elected a Deputy Governor in 1664, 1665, 1666, and 1670.

It should be noted that the spelling of Gorton's first name with one L (Samuel, as opposed to Samuell) is a convention adopted by later scholars. In Gorton's personal papers and publications, he consistently spelled his name with two Ls.

Gorton's grave is visible behind a private home, on Samuel Gorton Avenue off Warwick Neck Road in Warwick, Rhode Island. However, the grave aforementioned is that of one of Samuel's descendants.^{[citation needed]} Scholars agree that we actually do not know where he was buried, but there is a small memorial park with a bench, stone, and plaque commemorating the place where his homestead once stood on Warwick Neck Ave. in Warwick. Samuel's homestead along with the rest of Warwick was burned to the ground during King Philip's War.

Among his writings:

• An Incorruptible Key composed of the CX. Psalms wherewith you may open the rest of the Scriptures (1647)
• Saltmarsh returned from the Dead, with its sequel, An Antidote against the Common Plague of the World (1657)

See LG Jones, Samuel Gorton: a forgotten Founder of our Liberties (Providence, 1896).

References

• Gorton, Adelos, The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton, Philadelphia, George S. Ferguson Co., 1907
• Thompson, Kathryn Mae Gorton, Family History and Story of Samuel Gorton, Rhode Island Reading Room, 1999
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.