It is unclear where and when Atherton was born. It is presumed he came from
heretics.[10] His accidental death was seen by the Quakers as a punishment from God for his persecution of them,[11] an idea repeated in a play by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was one of the most successful land speculators in the New England colonies.[12] He and his wife, Mary, had a number of children and several New England families have traced their ancestry to them. He is interred at Dorchester North Burying Ground, one of the oldest cemeteries in New England.[13]
Origin and emigration
Humphrey Atherton's date and place of birth are uncertain. It has been presumed by some that he was born in Lancashire, England, because the name Atherton is prominent there.[8] However, genealogist Robert Charles Anderson, in The Great Migration, states that this "does not come close to constituting proof of origin." The date of 1608 is sometimes given as his date of birth because Edmund Atherton of Wigan Lancashire, England died in 1612 leaving, as his heir, a four-year-old son named Humphrey. However, Duane Hamilton Hurd, in History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts stated that Atherton was 36 years old when he died in 1661.[14] On the other hand, Charles Samuel Hall in Hall Ancestry, pointed out that when Atherton was made freeman and was granted property in 1638, "he must at that time reached his majority."[5]
Charles H. Atherton, said that Humphrey Atherton, his wife and three young children arrived at the colony in the ship James, August 7, 1635,[15] but there is no record of this.[8] He further said that Atherton and his wife were each about 15 years old when they were married.[15]
There is a record of Nathaniel Wales having voyaged on the James. Wales referred to Humphrey Atherton as his "brother-in-law" in his will, so it has been assumed that Atherton's wife, Mary, was Wales' sister. However, the term may have been used because Atherton's daughter, Isabel, was married to Nathaniel Wales, Jr.[16] The identity of his wife is disputed. Some sources say Mary Kennion.[8]
Political and military life
Atherton had a very active public life having power and taking part in the law making, enforcing and interpreting affairs of the colony. Subsequent to his acceptance as a freeman, in 1638, he was frequently
Court of Assistants which gave him a say in the appointment of governors as well as judicial power in criminal and civil matters.[4]
In 1638 and 1639–41 he was a governor's assistant in the General Court, and in 1653, he
succeeded Daniel Denison as Speaker of the House,[2] leader of the Court of Deputies, which was the lower house of the General Court, representing Springfield, Massachusetts. He was also "long a justice of the peace, and solemnized many marriages".[3] One of the marriages over which he officiated was that of Myles Standish, Jr. and Sarah Winslow.[18]
Atherton was a member of the
trained band (militia) in Dorchester. As Major-General in the Suffolk Regiment, he was the senior military officer in New England.[10] which included the responsibilities of subduing and controlling Native Americans[3] and apprehending criminals, such as those accused of heresy.[10]
In 1644 he [Atherton] was sent, with Captains Johnson and Cook, to Narragansett to arrest and try Samuel Gorton for heresy. It is hoped that Gorton's complaint of his treatment was exaggerated, for he said, in passing through Dorchester. 'A large concourse of persons assembled with several ministers to witness the passage of the troops, and the prisoners were stationed apart and volleys of musketry fired over their heads in token of victory.'[10]
Other persecutions
Harlow Elliot Woodword, in Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, said that Atherton had believed in witches and "felt it to be a duty which he owed to God and to his Country to mete out to the poor creatures, against whom accusations were brought, the punishment, which, in his opinion, they so richly merited."[8] Woodward said that, in his capacity as assistant, Atherton had been instrumental in bringing about the execution of Mrs. Ann Hibbins,[8] a wealthy widow, who was executed for witchcraft on June 19, 1656.[19] Hibbins was later fictionalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. In that book she was depicted as the sister of Governor Bellingham.[20][21]
Atherton was involved in the persecution of Quakers[9] and there are two incidents in particular that the Quakers wrote about in relationship to Atherton. First, the case of Mary Dyer, a Quaker who was executed in 1660 after returning to Boston despite banishment. Atherton was assistant governor at the time, and at her hanging he was said to have remarked, "She hangs there like a flag."[22] The Quakers understood this comment to be an insulting boast.[23]
There was the case of Wenlock Christison, a Quaker who had repeatedly returned to Massachusetts despite banishment, whose trial in May, 1661 put an end to the execution of Quakers. He was sentenced to death, but the law was changed soon after, and he was not executed. He was the last Quaker to be sentenced to death in Massachusetts. The Quakers believed that during an altercation between the accused and Atherton at the trial, Christison prophesied the outcome of his trial as well as the circumstances of Atherton's untimely death. Quaker writer George Bishop wrote, "Yea, Wenlock Christison, though they did not put him to death, yet they sentenced him to die, so that their cruel purposes were nevertheless. I cannot forbear to mention what he spoke, being so prophetical, not only as to the judgment of God coming on Major-general Adderton, but as to their putting any more Quakers to death after they had passed sentence on him."[11] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recreated the Christison trial in his play John Endicott which included the damnation of Atherton by the accused.[24][25] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recreated the Christison trial in his play[26][1]John Endicott which included the damnation of Atherton by the accused.[24]