Samuel Gorton

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Samuel Gorton (1592-1677), English sectary and founder of the American sect of Gortonites, was born in 1592 at Gorton, Lancashire.

He was first apprenticed to a clothier in London, but, fearing persecution for his religious convictions, he sailed for Boston, Massachusetts, in 1636. Constantly involved in religious disputes, he fled in turn to Plymouth, and (in 1637-1638) to Aquidneck Island (Newport), where he was publicly whipped for insulting the clergy and magistrates.

In 1643 he bought land, known as "Shawomet Purchase", from the Narraganset people at Shawomet--now Warwick--where he was joined by a number of his followers; but he quarrelled with the Native Americans and the authorities at Boston sent soldiers to arrest Gorton and six of his companions. He served a term of imprisonment for heresy at Charlestown, after which he was ejected from the colony.

In England in 1646 he published the curious tract Simplicities Defence against Seven Headed Policy (reprinted in 1835), giving an account of his grievances against the Massachusetts government. In 1648 he returned to New England with a letter of protection from the Robert Rich, 5th Earl of Warwick, and joining his former companions at Shawomet, which he named Warwick, in honour of the earl, he remained there till his death.

He is chiefly remembered as the founder of a small sect called the Gortonites, which survived till the end of the 18th century. They had a great contempt for the regular clergy and for all outward forms of religion, holding that the true believers partook of the perfection of God.

In 1649, Samuel Gorton was elected general assistant to the Governor, and in 1651, was elected the first President over the two towns Warwick and Providence, called the Providence Plantations. He was elected a Deputy Governor in 1664, 1665, 1666, and 1670.

It should be noted that the spelling of Gorton's first name with one L (Samuel, as opposed to Samuell) is a convention adopted by later scholars. In Gorton's personal papers and publications, he consistently spelled his name with two Ls.

His grave is still visible, behind a private home, on Samuel Gorton Avenue off Warwick Neck Road, in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Among his writings:

  • An Incorruptible Key composed of the CX. Psalms wherewith you may open the rest of the Scriptures (1647)
  • Saltmarsh returned from the Dead, with its sequel, An Antidote against the Common Plague of the World (1657)

See LG Jones, Samuel Gorton: a forgotten Founder of our Liberties (Providence, 1896).

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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