page_title: Thomas Dudley
section_title: Anne Hutchinson affair
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Dudley / Massachusetts Bay Colony / Anne Hutchinson affair
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop. It was held in the Winthrop family until the 19th century, when it was donated to the American Antiquarian Society.
context_page_description: Thomas Dudley was a colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. He provided land and funds to establish the Roxbury Latin School, and signed Harvard College's new charter during his 1650 term as governor. Dudley was a devout Puritan who was opposed to religious views not conforming with his. In this he was more rigid than other early Massachusetts leaders like John Winthrop, but less confrontational than John Endecott.
  The son of a military man who died when he was young, Dudley saw military service himself during the French Wars of Religion, and then acquired some legal training before entering the service of his likely kinsman the Earl of Lincoln. Along with other Puritans in Lincoln's circle, Dudley helped organize the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailing with Winthrop in 1630. Although he served only four one-year terms as governor of the colony, he was regularly in other positions of authority.
  Dudley's daughter Anne Bradstreet was a prominent early American poet.
context_section_description: In 1635, and for the four following years, Dudley was elected either as deputy governor or as a member of the council of assistants.  The governor in 1636 was Henry Vane, and the colony was split over the actions of Anne Hutchinson.  She had come to the colony in 1634, and began preaching a "covenant of grace" following her mentor, John Cotton, while most of the colony's leadership, including Dudley, Winthrop, and most of the ministers, espoused a more Legalist view ("covenant of works").  This split divided the colony, since Vane and Cotton supported her.  At the end of this colonial strife, called the Antinomian Controversy, Hutchinson was banished from the colony, and a number of her followers left the colony as a consequence.  She settled in Rhode Island, where Roger Williams, also persona non-grata in Massachusetts over theological differences, offered her shelter.  Dudley's role in the affair is unclear, but historians supportive of Hutchinson's cause argue that he was a significant force in her banishment, and that he was unhappy that the colony did not adopt a more rigid stance or ban more of her followers.
  Vane was turned out of office in 1637 over the Hutchinson affair and his insistence on flying the English flag over the colony's fort — many Puritans felt that the Cross of St George on the flag was a symbol of popery and was thus anathema to them.  Vane was replaced by Winthrop, who then served three terms.  According to Winthrop, concerns over the length of his service led to Dudley's election as governor in 1640.
  Although Dudley and Winthrop clashed with each other on a number of issues, they agreed on the banning of Hutchinson, and their relationship had some significant positive elements.  In 1638 Dudley and Winthrop were each granted a tract of land "about six miles from Concord, northward".  Reportedly, Winthrop and Dudley went to the area together to survey the land and select their parcels.  Winthrop, then governor, graciously deferred to Dudley, then deputy governor, to make the first choice of land.  Dudley's land became Bedford, and Winthrop's Billerica.  The place where the two properties met was marked by two large stones, each carved with the owner's name; Winthrop described the spot as the "'Two Brothers', in remembrance that they were brothers by their children's marriage".
caption: John Winthrop
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