Meeting Time and Place Change
On Sunday, July 10, Meeting for Worship will take place from 10 AM to 11 AM at Apponegansett Meetinghouse on Russell's Mills Road. Children are encouraged to join us. We hope all will attend and share in experiencing Meeting at one of our cherished local Quaker landmarks.
Times Have Changed
Puritan legislators directed their first ordinance against Quakers in a law that was passed in Boston on October 14, 1656. It provided severe penalties for the master of any vessel who knowingly brought any Quaker into the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It further provided that Quakers who came from any direction were to be imprisoned, severely whipped , kept at work, and allowed to converse with no one. Anyone who imported or concealed Quaker books or writings was also to be severely punished.
But, Quakers continued to come, so the Boston legislators passed more severe laws and Plymouth took similar action. An enactment of May 19, 1658 forbade Quakers to hold meetings. Any who attended were to be fined ten shillings, any who should speak in the meeting, five pounds. There were other penalties for old offenders. These were the laws under which Henry Howland of Marshfield, as well as William and Ralph Allen of Sandwich, were heavily fined for allowing meetings in their houses. Nevertheless, Quakers were greatly interested in the beginning of the settlement of Dartmouth. Given the religious climate of the times, it is easily understandable why early Friends were willing to take their chances with Ponegansett Indians, rather than with the Puritan officials of Boston, Marshfield or Sandwich.
A History of Allen’s Neck Friends Meeting
by Mary Sullivan
(Copies of this booklet are in our library.)
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