on a rainy day there come to my house edward wharton and three men more. the said wharton spoke to me saying that they were traveling eastward and desired me to direct them to hampton and never saw any of these men a fore except what are ton. neither did i inquire their names nor what they are but by their carriage i thought they might be quakers. and i said so. and, therefore, desired them to pass on, saying to them i might possibly give offense in entertaining them and soon as the violence of the rain ceased, for this rained hard, they went away and i never saw them since. the time that they stayed in my house about three quarters of an hour. they spoke not many words in the time, neither was i at leisure to talk to them for i come home wet to the skin, immediately a fore they came to the house and i found my wife second bid. if this satisfy not the honored court i shall submit unto their sentence. i have not willy offended i am ready to serve and obey you and the lord 28th of the eighth month, 1659. what's really happening here to think that an incident

family tradition identifies two of the three other men with edward wharton as marmaduke stephensons and william robinson, the two quakers hung in boston in october of 1659. in august of 1659, those two men are captured. they are imprisoned in boston and they write a volatile letter to the court that somehow becomes public. what i want you to think about is thomas macy, in the time that he is taking to prepare to bring his family to this island, he is seeing events speeding, speeding, speeding in the suppression of quakers. he knows these men face to face as he is about to leave town have just been executed on boston common. one of the reasons that he may have wanted to get out is that he himself was living in secret. not as a quaker but as a baptist. baptists were living with liberty of conscience. there is a distinction. freedom of religion means you can practice anything you would desire. liberty of conscious is such that you outwardly conform to the church practices of the day. when at home, as long as you practice what you desire in secret, you will never be endangered. by taking in