By the 13th century the Gortons were considered one of the most distinguished families of County Lancashire. During the next three centuries the Gortons contributed to the culture of Britain. In the period from the 16th to the 18th centuries England was overwhelmed by religious conflicts. Many families lost titles and estates as religious groups gained and lost power. The turmoil led many people to migrate to such places as Ireland and the Colonies of North America. One of the first migrants to settle in the colonies was Samuel Gorton. Samuel was accompanied by his wife, Mary (Maplett) Gorton, their daughter Mary and son John and Samuel's brother Thomas. They sailed from England on a ship called The Speedwell and arrived at Boston in 1637.
Samuel Gorton was born on February 12, 1592 in Gorton, Lancashire, England. He was baptized in the Cathedral Church in Manchester, England. Samuel was the son of Thomas Gorton and Thomas' second wife Anne. His parents were well to do and quite connected with the English Heraldry. Samuel received a classical education through his private tutors. He was fluent in both the Greek and Hebrew languages which allowed him to study the Bible's original text. This ability led him to form his own ideas and opinions as to the Bible's interpretation. Upon landing in Massachusetts Samuel found that the area controlled by the Boston Puritans was no better than what he'd left behind. His radical religious and political ideals and his outspokenness soon put him at odds with the Government of Massachusetts. A courteous and friendly man, Samuel was open-minded and did not hesitate to express his opinion. He had very strong ideas when it came to religion and politics. Samuel believed and fought for the separation of church and state, the right of all people to religious freedom whatever their religion was. He believed that the Native Americans should be paid for their lands. Samuel was against slavery and fought to ban it. He was America's earliest advocate for equal rights for women. Not only did he think that women deserved the right to speak their minds, he also believed that they should be listened to!
Samuel's outspoken beliefs, along with the fact that he was gathering a following, irked Massachusett's Puritanical government. Boston wanted to be rid of Gorton and his Gortonists, to the extent that he was once imprisoned because his maid smiled in church! It is unknown exactly how long he was jailed as a result of this crime. After regaining his freedom, Samuel and his followers were thrown out of Boston. They settled an area of Rhode Island now known as Portsmouth. One of Portsmouth's most prominent citizens at that time was William Arnold, Benedict Arnold's father. William Arnold was well connected with the Massachusetts government. He was also opposed to the Gortonists settling in Portsmouth and he appealed to Boston to rid him of the Gortonists. The puritan government enlisted two Indian chiefs, Ponham and Soconoco to do their dirty work. The Indians raided Samuel's home and burned it. The Gorton family and his following retreated to a blockhouse to take refuge. The soldiers arrived from Massachusetts; they surround the house and fired upon it until the Gortonists surrendered. Samuel and his assemblage (now numbering about 100) were put on trial charged with being blasphemous enemies of the true religion and likewise of all civil government. They escaped death by one vote and were sentenced to wear chains and leg irons at the pleasure of the court. The governor of Massachusetts at that time, John Winthrop, was a quiet friend of Gorton's. He appealed to the court and had the sentences reduced to banishment from Portsmouth. Banishment was nothing new to Samuel Gorton. Prior to this incident he had been thrown out of Boston, Plymouth, Aquidneck and Newport. By 1642 an English historian said, Gorton might almost be said to have graduated as a disturber of the peace in every colony in New England! Samuel, his family and his band of believers left Portsmouth in a blizzard. They walked about 90 miles to the area that is now known as Providence. They purchased land from the great chief Miantonomo. This purchase came to be known as The Shawomet Purchase. The Gortonists became friends with the Indians and became fluent in their language. In 1642 Samuel was elected as Deputy Governor of this new land. Though the Gortonists were many miles away from Massachusetts, the government there was still not happy with his existence or with his religious and political ideas and with his befriending of the Indians. Gorton was noted in history as a man who had the power to inspire fear, loathing and wrath among his enemies. The puritanical government of Boston, it seemed, did fear and loathe him even though he was far from Boston. The magistrates of Massachusetts harassed Samuel with correspondences stating that the land he had purchased was under Boston rule. Samuel ignored the letters. Once again the government charged him with blasphemy and once again soldiers from Massachusetts arrived and burned his home. Gorton was again imprisoned for a time and released on the condition that he leave the land that the Gortonists had purchased. Samuel did indeed leave. He made arrangements for his family to live with Indian families nearby, then he disappeared. While Boston was celebrating what they saw as a victory, Samuel was on a ship to London. There he met with his old friend, Robert Rich, the Earl of Warwick. Samuel presented a manuscript to Parliament entitled Simplicities Defense against a Seven Headed Policy. With the help of the Earl of Warwick Samuel was granted a Royal Charter and received an order of safe passage and conduct. Needless to say the Massachusetts government was not happy upon Samuel's return to Boston and even less happy with the Royal Charter. The militia now had to escort Samuel safely back to Rhode Island and the government was ordered to never interfere with Samuel Gorton or the Gortonists again. Samuel returned, safely, to the land he and his followers had purchased. He named the land Warwick after his friend the Earl. In 1649 Samuel was elected General Assistant to the Governor and in 1651 he was elected first President of the towns of Providence and Warwick. For many years he held offices of Commissioner and Deputy Governor.
In 1670 Samuel retired from official office. He died on December 10, 1677 at the age of 85. Samuel is buried in Warwick behind a home off Warwick Neck Road. Samuel Gorton has been noted as a forgotten founder of liberty. The Gortonists sect survived for about 100 years after Samuel's death."
"Gorton's belief was that the Holy Spirit was present in all human beings, giving each person a divinity and obscuring any distinction between a saint and sinner. Religious conversion, then, was the willingness to follow the dictates of this inner divinity, even against human authority. Gorton felt that emphasizing external ordinances, as opposed to the inner Spirit, compelled people to live under the ordinances of man rather than of Christ" Source: Wikipedia
More about Samuel and his family:
" In 1637 Samuel sailed from London with his wife and family, arrived in Boston end of March of that year and to Plymouth. He looked at several points in Portsmouth, RI and finally chose in what would become Warwick, RI in 1641. In 1643 he united with others to purchase the tract of land which included Warwick and was prominent in the colony. He was a clothier. He served as commissioner several times, assistant, president of Providence and Warwick, deputy or member of the upper house of the state legislature. He was also involved with religious affairs and many of his writings were published. He founded a sect in RI which outlived him more than 100 years. WFT Vol.33-1072 gives many items of his life work. Source: WFT V35-0753. He was the 1st governor of the The Providence Plantations of RI, founder of Warwick, RI. The bulk of his education was religious, being fluent in both Greek and Hebrew, he was able to study the Bible's original texts. He was neither a Pilgrim or Puritan, but a nonconformist. Searching for religious freedom, Samuel, his wife Mary and the first three of their 9 children sailed to America aboard the Speedwell, landing in Boston 1636, moving on to Portsmouth, RI, then Narragansett area. There he purchased land from the Great Indian Chief Miantonomo."
Here below is the list of the Gorton children that I know about. John and Mary were born in England. Our ancestor, Elizabeth, was born in Warwick, Kent, RI and perhaps her siblings, Benjamin, Samuel and Maplet.
John
Mary
Benjamin
Maplet
Samuel, abt 1630
Elizabeth, abt. 1646, our ancestor
"The "Gortonists", as Samuel's religious order was named, were around 100 strong, believing in a type of Christian Transcendentalism. The Group believed Jesus Christ was divine, but they did not believe in the Trinity. The didn't think preachers should be paid, felt women were equal to men, were totally agianst Slavery and thought each individual had a right to read and study the Scriptures for themselves. Happily he lived to see religious freedom secured to the colony in it's constitution. This source gives a lot of the history of this man and quotes sources and gives titles of additional books and articles written about him. Of which is named, The Collegiate Church Parish Register of Manchester and lists the entire Pedigree of Gorton, with the Gorton name appearing 150 times between the years of 1573 and 1650. The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton by Thomas Gorton, Samuel Gorton of RI and His Descendents. There is a statue of Samuel in Warwick, RI and his writing chair is in the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Wash. D.C.
Occupation: Clothier Arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in March 1636/37. Moved to Plymouth,Massachusetts, then to Portsmouth, Providence, Cranston, andWarwick, Rhode Island. He was a president of the ProvidencePlantations in 1651 and founder of the town of Warwick. In theforefront of political reforms, he fought valiantly for the separationof church and state, played an important role in the movement to banslavery, and stood for the rights of Indians, paying them for hislands when many other colonists merely appropriated their realestate. A lay minister, he was the author of numerous historical andreglious volumes. On a mission back to England he was instrumental inobtaining a royal charter for Rhode Island and in defending its political independence from the threat of dominance by Massachusetts. From The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776: 1644, April 19 -- Copy of Act of Submission by Pessicus Sachem and the Narragansetts Indians to the Government of England. Samuel Gorton, John Wickes, Randal Holden, and John Warner are appointed to execute the deed witnessed by Christopher Helm, Robert Potter, and Richard Carder."
SOURCES: !CHRISTENING: From book in Hendersonville, NC public library. Place referred to as Gorton chapelry, Manchester parish, Lancaster County, England. Info in "The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton", Philadelphia, 1907; Book, Life and Times of Samuel Gorton, Individual, Linda Partner, 268 E 200 S, Paragonah, UT, United States, 84760; Source text: Published information: Family genealogies: birth: 12 February 1592; Manchester, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom Published Book one of about 25 copies; "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJ5K-56V : 10 February 2018), Samuel Gorton and Mary Maplet, 20 May 1628; citing Saint Mary Magdalene Old Fish Street,London,London,England, reference , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 374,491;"Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVK4-TRBH : 13 December 2015), Samuel Gorton, 1677; Burial, Warwick, Kent, Rhode Island, United States of America, Governor Samuel Gorton Lot; citing record ID 31050767, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.;Baptised at Manchester, ENG. 12 feb 1593. Also see more information about Samuel Gorton at Wikipedia.
