"Alas, Mother! we have been murdering the Lord's people," - Edward Wanton

A smattering of facts:

”A society of Quakers built the third meetinghouse in 1678, at Belle House Neck, a peninsula in the North River near present Little's Bridge (Route 3A). This Quaker Society later moved upriver to the Edward Wanton shipyard and homestead farm. Much later the society moved its meetinghouse to the present location in Pembroke. Edward Wanton, a shipbuilder who became a Quaker, came to Scituate in 1661. He attracted many of this dissident controversial element in the region. They refused to take part in the town and colony governments or to swear an oath of fidelity to the king, would not attend the Congregational churches, did not register their vital statistics and conducted their own marriages. Harsh laws concerning the treatment of Quakers were passed in both Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies in 1658. The Quakers were repeatedly fined, tortured, imprisoned and banished from the colonies for infringements of the social order.”
(This information was taken from a publication by Cynthia Hagar Krusell; ISBN 0940628-43-0; entitled Plymouth County, 1685)

Edward Wanton Res. Boston 1658 In 1661, owned a farm of 80 acres a little below Dwelly's Creek in Scituate, Mass., and land on Cordwood Hill and Hooppole Hill. There were executions of Quakers in 1659, 1660, and 1661. He was an officer of the guard on one or more of these occasions. From Mr. Deane, in his history of Scitutate: "He became deeply sensible of the cruelty, injustice, and impolity of these emasures; was greatly moved by the firmness with which they submitted to death, and was won entirely by their addresses before their execution. He returned to his house saying, "Alas, Mother! we have been murdering the Lord's people," and, taking off his sword, put it by, with a solemn vow never to wear it again. From this time he took every opportunity to converse with the Friends, and soon resloved to become a teacher of their faith." It is said that he built the first Quaker meeting house in Massachusetts. Religion: Quaker