Colonial Genealogy 



attacked as "scoffers, jeerers of religion, and as disturbers 

 of the proceedings of a town meeting"; the Barnstable 

 church, moreover, "hurled letters of excommunication 

 against Hull and his followers," but without effect. 

 They then appealed to the civil authorities, and a war- 

 rant was issued for Hull's arrest "for the crime of preach- 

 ing at Yarmouth, he being an excommunicated person!" 

 In this juncture, although not daunted by the spiritual 

 weapons employed, "as a good citizen, he felt bound not 

 to resist the civil authority." He therefore abandoned 

 the fight, and left Yarmouth for Dover, then near the 

 extreme edge of settlement. But trouble still pursued, 

 and his presence in Dover "gave great offense to the 

 Governor Winthrop] and the other delegates of the 

 United Colonies of New England, who held their first 

 meeting in Boston in May, 1643." 



Furthermore, because "the little town of Dover had 

 elected a mechanic to be its mayor and called Mr. Hull 

 to be its minister," the Colony, then known as "Georgi- 

 ana" (the patent of Sir Fernando Gorges, including terri- 

 tory now in New Hampshire and Maine), was denied by 

 the Governor and his Council the right of membership 

 in the United Colonies. Had it been admitted, "other 

 counsels might have prevailed and perhaps some of the 

 long, bloody, and cruel wars between the English on one 

 side and the French and Indians on the other might have 

 been avoided." 



That Hull was never really "a contentious man," nor 

 even opinionated or selfish, seems to be true, for state- 

 ments by Lothrop and Cotton Mather are said to have 

 fully vindicated him. Indeed, "every recorded act of his 

 life exhibits him as a man of peace, of a quiet and yield- 

 ing disposition, as a sincere man, and a good Christian." 



Nevertheless, I find that once when his pulpit at Dover 

 was invaded by a Quakeress, it was charged that "old 

 Mr. Hull, in leading Mary out, pinched her arm," though 

 later that day he "allowed the Quakeresses to do as their 



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