Chapter 2: 1661-1683, Free liberty of conscience

While Robert Cann was currying favor with Charles II, Richard and Abigail Lippincott (accompanied by their children) decided to hazard the voyage across the Atlantic yet again in pursuit of the ability to practice their faith without molestation or hindrance from their neighbors or government. The children suffered bouts of seasickness over much of the course of their long journey, and Abigail remained busy nursing them and tending to their needs. Nevertheless, the ship finally dropped anchor at Providence Plantations, and the family disembarked as soon as it was possible to do so and secured temporary lodgings there.

2 They settled at Newport, and Abigail was pregnant again within a year. The following year, the couple welcomed another son into their midst. “We will call him Preserved, because the Lord has preserved us through many trials and tribulations!” Richard announced. “A-men,” Abigail agreed in exhausted contentment.

3 In 1664, the news spread that the Dutch had finally surrendered New Amsterdam to the British (who had promptly renamed it New York). This event set into motion a series of events that would have a profound impact on many of the Quaker settlers in America (the Lippincott family included). New lands and new opportunities were opening up for them.

4 The following year, Richard and his friends were in contact with some Quakers from Long Island who had formed an association to purchase some land from the natives situated just to the south of New York. Samuel Spicer, one of the leading men of the association wrote to Richard: “Like you, I have been harassed and imprisoned for my devotion to the Truth. Together, we will build a place where our people can gather together in peace and follow the dictates of our consciences without fear of persecution or reprisal.” Richard responded by contributing a considerable sum of money to the venture.

5 A few weeks later, he received the news that Spicer and his associates had successfully contracted with the “Indians” to purchase an area known as Navesink (which would eventually be known as Monmouth, New Jersey). In April, Governor Nicolls granted them a patent for the tract. However, he did stipulate that the patent was contingent upon them settling the land and developing it for farming. The patent also guaranteed “free liberty of conscience” to the people who agreed to settle there.

6 That was enough for Richard and Abigail. They quickly gathered their belongings together and moved to what was to become Shrewsbury. In fact, a good many Quaker families did exactly the same thing, and it wasn’t long until there were enough of them to form a regular meeting of the brethren.

7 The Lippincotts built their home near the banks of Passequeneiqua Creek. And, as soon as they had finished work on it, the Friends there began meeting in their parlor. “It is so good to meet here together with all of you without fear of disturbance,” Richard announced when everyone was seated. “We hope that this will be the first of many such gatherings,” Abigail added.

8 The years that followed were preoccupied with clearing land, planting crops and constructing barns and other outbuildings. The work was hard, but the progress was rapid and undeniable. In just a few short years, the Monmouth Tract was transformed into a patchwork of fertile fields and pastures with well-built houses and fences.

9 In 1669, Richard was selected to take a seat on the Governor’s Council; but he promptly declined the honor. “I cannot violate my conscience by subscribing to the oath of allegiance which that seat requires,” Richard confided to his friends. The Council responded by imposing fines on those who refused to take the oath or attend official sessions.

10 The following year Richard made arrangements with a local blacksmith and tanner for the apprenticeship of his son Freedom. “He’s still a boy,” Abigail fretted. “He is in need of a little discipline, and he will learn a trade that will enable him to support himself and a family someday,” Richard explained to his wife. Abigail nodded and helped her son gather some clothing to take with him to his new home.

11 As the time approached for the boy and his father to depart, Richard noticed a single tear stream down Abigail’s left cheek. She knew that her son would never live under her roof again. Under the terms of the apprenticeship, he would live with his master until his twenty-first birthday. “We will see him every week on the Lord’s Day – he will sojourn with us for the entire day,” he assured her.

12 Abigail forced a smile and stood in the doorway and watched them walk away down the dusty road that ran in front of their house. She sighed, turned away and wiped another tear from her face as they disappeared behind some trees.

13 In 1672, George Fox decided to visit America. Richard and Abigail were delighted to have their old friend and mentor stay with them. Quakers from all over the area gathered at their home to hear from the founder of the movement. Fox was very impressed with the circumstances in which he found his friends in America.

14 “God has been good to his children here,” he told them. “I know it is selfish, but we all wish that you could stay here with us,” Richard told him.

15 Three years later, however, Richard again made the voyage across the ocean to encourage fellow Quakers to join him in America. He met there with John Fenwick and obtained a patent for one thousand acres within his new colony of West Jersey. “You will never regret your decision to situate your plantation there,” Richard had assured Fenwick and his associates.

16 In May of 1679, Richard divided his thousand acres into five equal tracts and distributed them to his sons. “You must build your own lives but let this be your start” he told them. Satisfied that he had provided for his family and made adequate provisions for their future happiness, Richard died just four and a half years later.

17 “This is the cruelest hardship that I have ever had to endure,” Abigail confided to her children. “Still, after many separations, the Lord has always been faithful to reunite us in the end,” she told them as the tears trickled down her cheeks.

18 Now these are the generations of Richard Lippincott, a righteous man before the Lord:

19 Richard and Abigail Lippincott were the parents of Remembrance, John, Abigail, Restore, Freedom, Increase, Jacob and Preserved.

20 Restore was the forefather of Richard Milhous Nixon and many others.

21 Freedom was the father of Samuel, Thomas, Judith, Mary and Freedom.

22 Freedom Lippincott married Elizabeth Wills, and they had children together. 

Journeys (1661-1765) - Chapter 1: 1661-1675, A Bristol merchant and his son

Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred … unto a land that I will show thee (Genesis 12:1)

Robert Cann’s father had been mayor of Bristol when the king had been beheaded and the Commonwealth was proclaimed. As a consequence, Robert was doing all that he could now to ingratiate himself with the newly restored King Charles II to protect his family’s interests in that city. Sure, he was wealthy, but he knew that that would be of little consequence if he was regarded as an enemy by the new regime.

2 “Why are you lending money to the king that you know will never be repaid?” his son asked him. “John, we must demonstrate our friendship and support,” Robert explained. “The king has the power of life and death, both for us and our commerce.” “If we’re paying the king for his favors, does not that make him a whore?” John demanded. “I would not say such things aloud, son,” his father warned him.

3 In spite of his son’s misgivings, Robert’s strategy bore substantial fruit in 1662. He became mayor and received a knighthood from the king. Then, that fall, came even more obvious proof that he had been right to court the king’s favor. Charles II made him Baronet Cann of Compton Green.

4 Even so, as his wealth and prestige continued to grow, Robert’s desire for ostentation and approbation grew with it. “We are the first family of Bristol, and we must act like it,” he told his wife and children. By the close of the decade, he had completed construction of a magnificent new home at Stoke Bishop. In addition to that stupendous piece of real estate, Robert could also boast about his home in Bristol proper and his sugar plantation in Barbados.

5 There were, however, storm clouds on the horizon. John posed a direct threat to his father’s interests in England. Like his maternal grandfather and namesake, he was a vocal nonconformist; and Charles II was not enamored of anything which threatened the prosperity and tranquility of his realm.

6 In short, John simply was not enchanted with the life which his father had carved out for himself and his family in Bristol. “It is all so superficial and transient,” he explained to his new friend. “Though, I believe your father is kindly disposed towards our beliefs,” John Fenwick replied. “Yes, at least he tolerates our Society,” Cann admitted. “Unhappily, as you well know, there are not many here who are so tolerant,” Fenwick reminded him.

7 “That is why I am so interested in your venture in West Jersey,” Cann continued. “Are you certain that you are willing to give up your advantages here?” Fenwick pressed. “I am a simple tailor, and I am content with that,” Cann persisted. “We will be leaving for America soon,” Fenwick told him. “And Mary and I still want to be aboard that ship when it departs England,” Cann assured him.

8 Thus it was that, in the summer of 1675, John Cann met Fenwick and the other Quaker emigrants in London. And, at the end of July, they set sail aboard The Griffin for West Jersey.

9 They reached their destination in early October. “We will find peace here,” Fenwick assured them all. 

10 Now these are the generations of Robert Cann of Bristol, England:

11 Robert married his cousin Deliverance Cann, the daughter of the Reverend John Cann (the leader of the English Nonconformists in the Netherlands). Together, Robert and Deliverance had a son whom they named after her father.

12 And John begat William. Then William married Jane Lewis, and they had a daughter named Susanna.

13 Susanna married James McMasters and had sons: David, Daniel, William, Andrew, Samuel, Jonathan, Simeon and Lewis. 

Chapter 12: 1638-1660, The spiritual journey of a man and his family

Unfortunately, the Howland brothers weren’t the only ones having problems with the established church. In the summer of 1638, Richard Lippincott arrived in Boston from England aboard The Martin. It had only been a few years previous that John Winthrop and his associates had founded their “city on a hill,” but Boston was well on its way to becoming the nerve center of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He settled first at Dorchester and was quickly confirmed to be a member of the established church there.

2 A little over a year later, he married Goody Abigail after going through the rigors of a Puritan courtship and was declared to be a freeman by the court in Boston. Their first son was born there the following year. “I will call him ‘Remembrance’ in honor of the memories I have of my native country,” Richard declared. “If the good man that is my husband so desires to name our son, then let him forever be known by that name,” Abigail agreed.

3 Their happiness, however, was interrupted by Richard’s increasing distaste for the strictures on life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In short, Richard had begun to regard the practices of the established church as too stiff, formal and steeped in beliefs and traditions that he could not find in Scripture.

4 “They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power of it!” he declared to Abigail one day. “They have turned the freedom which we have in Christ into heavy chains that bind us to the temporal things of this earth,” he continued.

5 Over the years that followed, things only got worse for Richard. His statements about his personal convictions became more public and more strident over that time. Finally, in 1651, he was formally excommunicated from the established church.

6 The following year, Richard, Abigail and the children had had enough and returned to England. Another son was soon born there, and Richard decided to name him ‘Restore’ to commemorate their homecoming. “We have been restored to the land and happiness which gave birth to us!” he declared. Once again, however, their happiness would prove to be short-lived.

7 It was about this time that Richard and Abigail met a lady named Margaret Fell. Like them, Margaret had grown very disenchanted with the established church and its teachings. “I know of a man who has opened the pages of a new book to our understanding – the book of Jesus Christ,” she told them. Eager to hear more about this new way, Richard and Abigail were pleased to be introduced to her friend George Fox and hear his message.

8 In the midst of a large gathering of the citizens of Plymouth (where he and Abigail were then residing), Richard declared that “Christ is the Word of God, and the Bible represents a piece of God’s mind!”

9 Unfortunately, the mayor overheard the remark and had him arrested and imprisoned for his “blasphemous and dangerous heresy.” Nevertheless, Richard was able to secure his release within a short time and rejoiced in the persecution which he had been subjected to for Christ’s sake.

10 In fact, when another son was welcomed into their family that fall, Richard named him ‘Freedom’ in commemoration of the event. “God has seen my suffering and rewarded me with Freedom,” he told his friends and neighbors. “Hereafter, we shall be devoted to following the light which God has revealed to us whatever the consequences may be,” Richard promised.

11 The mayor of Plymouth, however, was just as determined as Richard. In 1660, while attending another meeting of the Quakers there, Richard was once again arrested and imprisoned. Indeed, many of the leading members of the community found themselves in the same circumstances that year.

12 Fortunately for Richard and his friends, the Commonwealth had ended a few months before; and the monarchy had been restored in the person of King Charles II. The new king did not like extremes and disliked bullying and persecution, and Margaret Fell decided to appeal to him on behalf of her brethren who were then languishing in prison.

13 Toward that end, she wrote a letter to the king explaining both the movement and the various persecutions to which its members had been subjected to during the interregnum. She said: “As a people, we have been hated and despised. Many people have spoken against us and have said that we are not fit to live. Thus, we have suffered as a people and have been imprisoned, whipped and subjected to the spoiling of our goods.”

14 Fell continued: “We, nevertheless, openly declare our fidelity to the king and our desire for peace, love and unity among all people. We, therefore, humbly petition you to cause our friends to be released from the Prisons and so keep their innocent blood from staining your hands.”

15 Because of that letter, Richard and many other Quakers were released from prison later that year. “The things which we suffered in Massachusetts look insignificant when compared to what we have suffered here,” Richard told Abigail when he returned home. “And, I’ve heard that Roger Williams has founded a new and more tolerant colony there in our absence,” he continued.

16 “What are you saying, husband?” Abigail asked. “I am saying that I think that we should leave England for good and return to America.” “I have devoted my life to God, and to you and our children,” she began. “I will follow you to the ends of the earth!” With tears welling up in his eyes, Richard embraced his wife; and they began making the necessary preparations for yet another trip across the Atlantic Ocean.