Verin Colonial Women's History Project

CHAIR
Linda H. Newton

STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS, Fiscal Year 2002
Sue Andrews
Toby Ayers, PhD
Margaret Manchester, PhD
John McNiff, MA
Roberta Richman, MFA
Nancy Kolman Ventrone, MA
Student Intern: Jen Q. Lin, University of Rhode Island

EX-OFFICIO
Jane M. Anthony
Kathleen M. Spangler, JD

Purpose/Description

The Verin case appears to be the first legal decision in the 17th century New England colonies to uphold a woman’s right to “freedom of conscience”, that in matters of thought and belief, a woman could be seen as independent of her husband’s control. A partnership between RICW, the National Park Service/Roger Williams National Memorial and faculty from the American Studies Program at Providence College was initiated to research this historic case.

This is an unusual case with many unanswered questions. The settlement of the New World brought into question many long held ‘truths’ about individuals’ rights and place in society, particular with respect to women. The Verin Case, occurring in 1638 only two years after the founding of Providence with its doctrine of religious liberty, combines elements of women’s freedom of conscience and domestic violence, and has local and potentially national significance.

 

The goals of this project are

• to understand the Verin Case and its importance to women’s history
• to make this information readily available to the public
• to enhance the public’s understanding of what “liberty of conscience” meant to inhabitants of 17th century Rhode Island.
  
  

Description of the Verin Case

On March 21, 1638, Joshua Verin was disenfranchised by a vote of Providence town members for preventing his wife from attending religious services. This town vote may have been the first legal decision in the English colonies to establish the right of a woman to “freedom of conscience” or religious liberty, even in the face of opposition by a husband. Some townsmen protested that Verin’s actions were justified since they said laws of God mandated the subjugation of wives to their husbands. A majority of town members rejected this argument, and Verin left Providence. These events occurred in the context of domestic violence: Joshua had beaten Jane Verin until “she went in danger of Life” to prevent her from attending services. When he left, he “hale(d) his wife with ropes to Salem”, MA. At the time, in New England it would not have been uncommon to punish serious domestic abuse, but Providence chose instead to charge Joshua Verin with violating individual freedom of conscience.
(Quotations are from a letter of Roger Williams dated May 22, 1638).

In FY 2001, RICW established a partnership with the National Park Service to pursue this project. Public meetings were held that included a large and diverse group of scholars in History, Law and Women’s Studies, and members of the domestic violence, social services and historic preservation communities. The purpose of these meetings was to share what is known of the Verin Case and to develop a multidisciplinary group of potential collaborators. Through this process, a Principal Researcher for the project was determined, Dr. Margaret Manchester, Director, American Studies Program, Providence College.

The research study is following the lives of the Verins before they arrived in Providence in 1636 and after Joshua forced Jane to return with him to Salem, MA in 1638. It has become an investigation of the role of New England women in Puritan religious society. Preliminary conclusions indicate that subsequently, Jane actively challenged the authority of the Salem Church and suffered admonishment, removal from church and corporal punishment for her beliefs. Her experience has similarities to other female religious dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, who were perceived as a threat to the established social order and were made to suffer the consequences. There seem to have been many less well-known individuals like Jane Verin, who pushed against the boundaries of the social roles commonly ascribed to women. What is significant about the 1638 event in RI is that it appears to be the first time a legal precedent was established supporting a woman’s independent decision to act according to the dictates of her conscience, even in opposition to the wishes of her husband. This single event appears part of a pattern of action that may comprise an early women’s movement – women seeking a greater role in society in a new country.

Within about five years of this event, Jane Verin disappears from the records and her husband Joshua moves to Barbados about 1645, to become a plantation owner and remarry. We do not yet know when, where or how Jane died.

Accomplishments during FY 2002

• Dr. Manchester made the Verin Project the subject of a sabbatical in 2001.
• A graduate seminar course was taught in Summer 2001 at Providence College by Dr. Manchester, “Rights and Liberties in Early America”. Its primary topic was the Verin Case. Enrolled students collected archival research on this case. Data were analyzed and summarized in the following months.
• Preliminary findings were presented in a lecture on “The Verin Case: Rights and Liberties in Early America” was presented to the RI Historical Society by Dr. Manchester and committee members Dr. Ayers and Ranger John McNiff, on October 24, 2001.
• The Committee presented the preliminary research findings to the full Commission at a meeting on December 3, 2001.
• The RICW Chair was interviewed for an article in Women’s Enews, “Six State Constitutions Use Gender Neutral Language” about the Rhode Island 1663 charter, which includes what appears to be the first use of gender-neutral language in such a charter. The article was published December 9, 2002.