I do not see any clear witness against her, and you know it is a rule of the court that no man may be a judge and an accuser too. I would entreat you to consider whether those things which you have alleged against her deserve such censure as you are about to pass, be it to banishment or imprisonment. I beseech you: do not speak so as to force things along, for I do not, for my own part, see any equity in the court in all your proceedings. Here is no law of God that she hath broken nor any law of the country that she hath broke, and therefore deserve no censure.
~Speaking in defense of Anne Hutchinson
Links:
William Coddington http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brookefamily/coddingtonwilliam.htm Infoplease: William Coddington http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0812760.html Britannica https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Coddington |