A Tale of Two Throckmorton Plots

The American Throckmorton plot worked out better than the one in Britain

I want to call your attention to Andrew Berg’s substack and an article we wrote titled: Our Ancestors Were Oppressed for Their Faith, and Twice Attempted a Coup. Andrew was the main writer and so he posted the complete article first at his blog. Here is a taste:

This wasn’t the first time the Throckmortons had tried to overthrow the government. In the 1583 Throckmorton Plot, the Throckmortons conspired to invite a Spanish invasion to overthrow the Protestant Queen Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. This plot also failed when Sir Francis Throckmorton was captured with incriminating evidence. He was tortured on the rack and executed in 1584. 

Why would a noble English family risk everything to try to overthrow an oppressive government…twice? 

Andrew and I share common ancestors in John and Rebecca Throckmorton who came to Massachusetts in 1631 on the same ship as Roger and Mary Williams. When he arrived, Roger Williams promptly challenged the authority of the church and the state by preaching that the church and the state should be separate. In Massachusetts at that time, such boldness earned him banishment from the colony. If not for the Narragansett Indians, that punishment from the Massachusetts authorities would have been a death sentence. In the harsh winter of 1636, Narragansett chiefs took in Williams and kept him alive.

After winter passed, Williams purchased land from his benefactors. Williams offered plots of land in what is now Providence to some of his friends and supporters in Massachusetts. Among them were John and Rebecca Throckmorton. They joined Williams in the establishment of Rhode Island. When Williams started the first Baptist church in America, the Throckmortons were there with him. Williams operated a trading post in the new city of Providence. John’s first Throckmorton plot was right next door to Williams; they were neighbors.

Throckmorton joined with Williams and the others in a civil government which established religious freedom. There were no religious tests for service or voting in Rhode Island. Eventually Throckmorton and Williams quarreled over Throckmorton’s conversion to the Society of Friends, but none of that mattered in the civil realm.

John Throckmorton went a different direction than his cousins back in England. Read the rest of our article at Andrew’s blog to get the rest of the story. Don’t get me wrong, the British Throckmortons didn’t have the options at the time that John had. I will say that I am glad John found his plot in America.

Cousin Andrew Berg serves with Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship in Central PA and has a MEd from Johns Hopkins University.

Go check out the article here.

Related article: John Throckmorton and separation of church and state