Christopher Holder

Christopher Holder (1631–1688) was an early Quaker evangelist who was imprisoned and whipped, had an ear cut off, and was threatened with death for his religious activism in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and in England.

Undeterred, Holder returned to New England aboard the small barque Woodhouse, landing in New Amsterdam in August 1657 despite few predictions of success.

Holder, with his frequent companion John Copeland, went north to begin their evangelistic efforts in the face of increasingly threatening anti-Quaker laws.

With little success on Martha's Vineyard, they moved to Cape Cod in the Plymouth Colony where they were warmly received in Sandwich, establishing the earliest Quaker meeting in America.

This time, in addition to a lengthy imprisonment and frequent whippings, the men faced the escalating Puritan laws, having their right ears cut off.

The Puritans had by now enacted capital punishment for defying an order of banishment, and though Holder was arrested again that summer, it may have been his social position and education that compelled the authorities to allow him to sail back to England.

[1] As a very young man he became an avid member of the Society of Friends, a religious group commonly called Quakers, founded by George Fox about 1647.

[2] In addition to denouncing the clergy and refusing to support it with their tithes, they claimed liberty of conscience as an inalienable right and demanded the separation of church and state.

The first Quakers to arrive in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, who landed in Boston in the early summer of 1656 aboard the Swallow.

[7] The ship landed in Boston on 27 July 1656, (calendar differences may make this September[7]) and the four men and four women who were Quakers were taken in for questioning by the authorities.

[11][14] The vessel departed on 1 April 1657 "entirely inadequate for the purpose", wrote historian Charles Holder, and an observer added, "they did go on in the name and power of the Lord.

"[13] Weather required the ship to put in at Portsmouth, then again at Southampton, until on 11 April it finally cleared the English coastline for the open sea.

Its lengthy title is telling: "A true relation of the voyage undertaken by me, Robert Fowler, with my small vessel the Woodhouse, but performed by the Lord like as he did Noah's ark wherein he shut up a few righteous persons and landed them safe even at the hill Ararat.

[16] On 12 Jun 1657, Copeland wrote a letter to his parents from Providence, saying, "I and Christopher Holder are going to Martha's Vineyard, in obedience to the will of God, which is our joy.

Accordingly, following Mayhew's sermon, Holder addressed the congregation saying that he "brought the Word as understood by Friends, and were messengers bearing God's love to their brethren in America.

"[20] Holder and Copeland persisted with their message following the afternoon and evening meetings, and being offensive to some of the congregation, were ordered to leave, being taken to the beach and left.

[24] "Whereas, it is reported by them that have not a bridle to their tongues, that we, who are by the world called Quakers, are blasphemous, heretics, and deceivers; therefore we who are here in prison, shall in a few words, declare unto all people that may see this the ground of our religion, and the faith that we contend for, and the cause whereof we suffer.

[28] On 23 September 1657 Holder was whipped with thirty stripes "as near as the hangman could in one place, measuring his ground and fetching his strokes with great strength and advantage.

[31] Very alarmed by the inroads that the Quaker missionaries were making in New England, a group of commissioners from the United Colonies (Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven and Connecticut) addressed a letter to the governor of Rhode Island on 12 September 1657.

"[33] President Arnold promised Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet that at the next session of the General Assembly the Quakers' "extravagent outgoinges" would be considered, and he hoped some action would be taken to prevent the "bad effects of their doctrines and endeavors.

"[33] At the March 1658 session of the Assembly, the Rhode Island doctrine of "freedom of different consciences" was reaffirmed, and a letter was sent to the commissioners of the United Colonies stating that if troubles arose from harboring Quakers, the matter would be presented to the supreme authority of England.

There were now 15 active Quaker missionaries in the American colonies: the original 11 who sailed on the Woodhouse, Mary Dyer from Rhode Island, and three more from the Barbados, one of whom was the future martyr, William Leddra.

[38] During the meeting they were once again apprehended, and marched to Barnstable where they were tied to a post and each given 33 lashes, with many of their brethren watching on as "ear and eye witnesses to the cruelty".

Mary Dyer biographer Ruth Plimpton wrote that the men "were so stalwart while their ears were removed, that the persecutors began to feel that this was insufficient punishment.

At the 19 October 1658 meeting of the Massachusetts General Court, a law was passed that any Quaker caught in their jurisdiction would be banished upon pain of death.

[45] After leaving Boston in late 1658, Holder went south and joined fellow missionaries Robert Hodgson and William Robinson in Maryland and Virginia.

Afraid of public opinion, the authorities were not ready to test their law instituting capital punishment, and the girl was released, while the others were banished.

The king was reinstated to the throne under the Declaration of Breda in May 1660, and the proclamation not only outlined amnesty for most subjects who were involved in the English Civil Wars and interregnum, but also offered religious freedoms not previously seen in England.

From 1675 to 1676, King Philip's War, "the most disastrous conflict to ever devastate New England," left the mainland towns of Rhode Island in ruins.

[60] His death was recorded as follows: "Christopher Holder of Puddimore, in the county of Somerset, died at Ircott, in the parish of Almondsbury 13, 4 mo.