He hath grievously afflicted
me (by God's permission) by infatuating or bewitching three or four who
live in a corner of my parish with Quaker notions, [who] now hold a
separate meeting by themselves." [Footnote: Rev. S. Danforth, 1720.
_Mass. Hist. Coll._ fourth series, i.]
The heretics, on their side, were filled with the same stubborn spirit
which had caused them "obstinately and proudly" to "persecute" Norton and
Endicott in earlier days. In 1722 godly preachers were settled at
Dartmouth and Tiverton, under the act, the majority of whose people were
Quakers and Baptists; and the Friends tell their own story in a petition
they presented to the crown in 1724: "That the said Joseph Anthony and
John Siffon were appointed assessors of the taxes for the said town of
Tiverton, and the said John Akin and said Philip Tabor for the town of
Dartmouth, but some of the said assessors being of the people called
Quakers, and others of them also dissenting from the Presbyterians and
Independents, and greatest part of the inhabitants of the said towns being
also Quakers or Anabaptists ... the said assessors duly assessed the other
taxes ... relating to the support of government ... yet they could not in
conscience assess any of the inhabitants of the said towns anything for or
towards the maintenance of any ministers.
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