GORTON, SAMUEL (SAMUELL): English sectary and founder of the Gortonites; b. at Gorton (3 m. e. of Manchester), Eng., c. 1592; d. at Warwick, R. I., Nov. or Dec., 1677. He received a good education from private tutors and learned to read the Bible in the original tongues. When about twentyfive he began business in London on his own account as a "clothier," i.e., a finisher of cloth after weaving. Being very unconventional in his religious views, he emigrated to America " to enjoy libertie of conscience in respect to faith towards God, and for no other end." He arrived in Boston in Mar., 1636 or 1637. But he did not find what he sought there, and so soon removed to Plymouth, where he did better for a while until what he considered unjust treatment of a servant led him to criticize publicly the magistracy, and in consequence he was, in Dec. of 1638, banished on a charge of contumacy. He then went to Rhode Island. But here again his independent views on State and Church got him into trouble, and in 1641 he was imprisoned and banished, probably after a public whipping at Portsmouth. He then went to Providence. In Jan., 1643, he and his followers retired to Shawomet, where be bought land of Miantonomi, head sachem of the Narragansetts, and two undersachems. The latter two were induced by the enemies of Gorton to deny that he had ever bought the land. This involved Gorton with the commonwealth of Massachusetts, to which the alleged misused Indians appealed. Accordingly he was summoned to Boston, Sept. 12, 1643, and because he and his followers refused, they were compelled by force of arms to obey. The general court of Massachusetts condemned him and six of of his followers to imprisonment, Nov. 3, 1643, but on Mar. 7, 1644, they were released and banished. Gorton went to Portsmouth, and in 1646 to England, where he pleaded his cause so successfully that he returned with an order from the earl of Warwick to the Massachusetts magistrates that the Shawomet colony should be free from interference. He renamed his colony Warwick. He was held in the highest esteem by his fellow citizens, and was honored by positions of trust.
Gorton stood politically for English law and citizenslup in the English colonies, and advocated that, while the latter should purchase their lands from the Indians, they yet should have charters from England. Religiously he stood for the right of private judgment, and maintained the following distinctive views: (1) He denied the doctrine of the Trinity, but declared that Christ was God and the only proper object of worship. (2) He declared against a "hireling ministry," and affirmed that there peas no fitness in a class of men paid for ministerial functions, as each man was his own priest. (3) He would do away with all outward ordinances. (4) He taught a conditional immortality wholly dependent on the character of the individual. With such views, which he boldly affirmed, it was no wonder that he had perpetual strife with the clerical and political powers in the colonies. It is claimed that for a hundred years after his death there were adherents of his views, but he did not organize any sect. To do so would have been contrary to his principles.
Gorton published several controversial tracts in advocacy of his political and religious views. The best known is his Simplicities Defence against SevenHeaded Policy (London, 1646, written while there to defend his cause, reprinted as vol. ii. in the Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, 1835, also in Force's Historical Tracts,
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Bibliography: An introduction to the Simplicities Dofence, ut sup., contains much material, in Collections, ut sup.. vol. ii. 9-20, cf. vol. iv. 89-92; J. Sparks. Library of American Biography, 2d ser., v. 315-411, 15 vols., Boston, 1847--55. Consult also: T. Hutchinson, Hist. of Massachusetts Bay, i. 117-124, 549, Boston, 1785; J. Winthrop, Hist. of New England, ed. J. Savage, ii. 57, 295-299, ib. 1853; DNB, xxii. 251-253.
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