Herodias Gardiner
| Herodias Gardiner | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1623 England |
| Died | after 1674 |
| Other names | Herodias Long Herodias Hicks Herodias Porter Horrod/Harrud...etc. |
| Occupation | Mother, missionary |
| Spouse(s) | (1) John Hicks (2) George Gardiner (3) John Porter |
| Children |
|
Herodias Gardiner (c. 1623 - after 1674), born Herodias Long, was the wife of three early settlers of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and was also a zealous Quaker evangelist who was whipped in Massachusetts for sharing her religious testimony with others in her former home town of Weymouth. Possibly from Somersetshire in England, and married at the age of 13 or 14 in London, she was unhappily brought to the American colonies by her first husband, John Hicks, where they settled in Weymouth. The couple had two known children, and moved to the Rhode Island Colony, but she soon separated from her husband, and looking for maintenance, settled in Newport with George Gardiner, with whom she lived for about 20 years as his common-law wife.
In 1658 she and a friend made a difficult journey to Massachusetts to present their Quaker message, and they were brought before the Governor, then whipped and imprisoned. A few years later, in 1665, Herodias left Gardiner, and went to live with prominent and wealthy John Porter in the Narragansett country west of the Narragansett Bay. She left behind many court records documenting her marital turmoils. She had nine known children with her first two husbands, and has many descendants.
Herodias Long was born in England about 1623, but her place of nativity is not known. One possibility for her place of origin is Somersetshire, where in early 1639 John Aylesford, who owned land in Little Ockenbury, and in the Barbadoes, left a legacy of five pounds to Odias Long. According to her testimony in court many years later, she was sent to London following the death of her father, and here, unknown to her friends, she married John Hicks. She was 13 or 14 years old when they were married at Saint Faith's Church ("under Saint Paul's"), and their marriage licence was dated 14 March 1636/7. Shortly after their marriage, to her "great grief," they immigrated to New England, and settled in Weymouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Here they lived until about 1640, when they moved to Aquidneck Island, probably settling in the town of Newport. They had two children together, but soon after moving to Rhode Island differences arose between them, and Herodias separated from Hicks, and consummated a relationship with George Gardiner, with whom she lived for the next 20 years as his common law wife. Hicks went off to live with the Dutch, and was in the process of obtaining a divorce from her in Rhode Island in December 1643, when he sent a letter from Flushing, New Netherland to Rhode Island magistrate John Coggeshall. Hicks also eventually obtained a divorce from her in New Netherland, charging her with adultery.
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Wikipedia