In order to completely follow the events of Robert Harper's life, the following extract
from A. L. Bowerman, BFH, pgs 35-37 is submitted:
ROBERT HARPER first appears in New England records when he married Deborah Perry 9d 3m (May) 1654
in Sandwich. About this time the first Quakers made their appearance at Sandwich and Robert Harper soon
joined the Society of Friends or he may even have been sympathetic to their cause before he left England
for they were being persecuted in Old England before the persecutions began in New England. In the 1658
land survey of Sandwich Robert Harper's name appears among Sandwich land owners. He is also described
as coming from "a family of famous Quaker preachers".
Going to Boston on business, he was jailed and received fifteen stripes there (was whipped) when his faith
was discovered. Harper was fined numerous times for refusing to take the "oath of fidelitie" because his new
faith opposed it. Those listed in the existing records of Plymouth Colony include: 5 June 1658 10 pounds along
with 12 others "all of Sandwich" including the names of Aliens, Greenfield, Kirby, Ure (sic), Gifford, Jenkins and
Perry; 4 June 1659 fined 11 pounds along with Aliens, Newland, Gifford, Ewer, Kirby, Jenkins and Perry; October
court 1659 fined 5 pounds; 8 June 1660 fined 5 pounds "Att the Court held att Plymouth" with Perry, Newland,
Aliens, Gifford, Wing, Ewer and Kirby; and in the October Court of 1660 Robert Harper and his wife were fined
4 pound "for being aft Quakers meetings" with Aliens, Newlands, Gifford, Dillingham, Soule, Elmes, Howland,
Gaunt, Butler, Jenkins, Kirbys, Swift, Smith and Hickes; October Court of 1660 "convicted for refusing to take the
oath of fidelitie at this Court" with Newland, Gifford, Aliens, Kirby and Jenkins. His fines in Sandwich amounted to
44 pounds (Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers 2:195) which stripped him of
house, land and all cattle except "one cow, which was so poor she was ready to dye".
"Fines on Sandwich residents alone reached an amazing total, over 1000 pounds in a 31 month period". These
fines were set by Marshall [George] Barlow and the value of the property seized was also set by Marshall Barlow,
not exactly very fair. Some of these fines were paid by confiscation of property, "some by loans from non Quakers
and some probably was finally canceled by Plymouth as uncollectible".
When persecution of Quakers in Boston had reached the point where four of them, including one woman, were
hanged, Harper was there to receive the body of the last one, William Leddra, and to see that it had decent burial.
The "Abstract of Letter from William Leddra Written to his Friends on the Day Before his Execution ...(from)
Boston gaol, the 13th of the First Month, 1660/1" (Hallowell 208:10 citing Sewell 312) would have been
written to among others, "our" Robert Harper. Frederick Freeman, 19th century historian of Cape Cod, felt that,
when Harper was whipped in Barnstable, he deserved it for his 'outrageous conduct' in calling Magistrate Wally 'a
pernicious liar' and 'a pitiable governor'. Freeman concluded "There can be no doubt that although distinguished in
later times for a peaceful and quiet spirit, this sect at the time exhibited too much of the usual zeal of new converts
for a new creed."
The Court at Plymouth must have been outraged by Harper's support for Leddra because this time they levied a
fine of 10 pounds and took away "the house and land of Robert Harper" and that of Tho. Johnson on 13 June 1660.
When Charles the Second became King in England about 1660 he decreed that the worst punishments such as
whippings and death be ceased but by this time Harper had spent all his fortune defending the Quaker missionaries.
After Deborah's death, Robert married as his second wife, Prudence Butler, the 20d 4th mo. (June) 1666. In
1685 permission was granted "to take up land," where now is East Falmouth, in the eastern portion of what was
then Saconnessett. Robert Harper was one of eight men listed as "purchasers from the Indians". Robert was still
living in August 1704 when he signed the marriage certificate of his granddaughter, Deborah (Bowerman) Gifford).
