Christopher Holder had arrived to Boston, Massachusetts,…

Christopher Holder had arrived to Boston, Massachusetts, aboard the Speedwell, landing on July 27, 1656.

He and seven other passengers had been listed with a “Q” (for Quaker) beside their names, because at this time, the Puritans in England and in the English colonies are persecuting Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends.

The port authorities, alerted to the presence of the Quakers, had searched the ship before anyone disembarked.

Governor John Endicott had ordered that they be brought directly to court.

Holder and another member of the group, John Copeland, had displayed a thorough knowledge of the Bible and the law as they testified in court.

Holder has been put in jail to await the next available ship to take the Quakers back to England.

While they are still in the jail, Mary Dyer and Anne Burden, two other Friends, arrive in another ship and are arrested on the spot.

The authorities in the Massachusetts Bay Colony consider the teachings of the Quakers both heretical and blasphemous.

They apparently want to put Quakers on alert that they are not welcome here.

Eventually Holder and the seven who had come with him are deported to England.