phere in which she lived and moved and had her being.
Intellectually, she was an enthusiast, morally an agitator, a clever
leader, whom Winthrop very aptly described as a "woman of ready wit and
bold spirit."

While still young, this exceptionally gifted woman married William
Hutchinson, a country gentleman of good character and estate, whose
home was also in Lincolnshire. Winthrop has nothing but words of
contempt for Mrs. Hutchinson's husband, but there is little doubt that a
sincere attachment existed between the married pair, and that Hutchinson
was a man of sterling character and worth, even though he was
intellectually the inferior of his remarkable wife. In their
Lincolnshire home the Hutchinsons had been parishioners of the Reverend
John Cotton, and regular attendants at that celebrated divine's church
in Boston, England. To him, her pastor, Mrs. Hutchinson was deeply
attached. And when the minister fled to New England in order to escape
from the tyranny of the bishops, the Hutchinsons also decided to come to
America, and presently the whole family did so. Mrs. Hutchinson's
daughter, who had married the Reverend John Wright Wheelwright--another
Lincolnshire minister who had suffered at the hands of Archbishop
Laud--came with her mother. Besides the daughter, there were three grown
sons in the family at the time Mrs. Hutchinson landed in the Boston she
was afterward to rend with religious dissension.

So it was no young, sentimental, unbalanced girl, but a middle-aged,
matured, and experienced woman of the world who, in the autumn of 1634,
took sail for New England. During the voyage it was learned that Mrs.
Hutchinson came primed for religious controversy. With some Puritan
ministers who were on the same vessel she discussed eagerly abstruse
theological questions, and she hinted in no uncertain way that when they
should arrive in New England they might expect to hear more from her.
Clearly, she regarded herself as one with a mission. In unmistakable
terms she avowed her belief that direct revelations are made to the
elect, and asserted that nothing of importance had ever happened to her
which had not been revealed to her beforehand.

Upon their arrival in Boston, the Hutchinsons settled down in a house on
the site of the present Old Corner Book Store, the head of the family
made arrangements to enter upon his business affairs, and in due time
both husband and wife made their application to be received as membe