Quaker Minister

Parents: Robert Feake (1602–1648) and Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake (1609–c.1673). Spouse: John Bowne I (1627–1696), married May 7, 1656. Children: John Bowne II (1657–1673), Elizabeth Bowne (1658–1721), Mary Bowne (1660–1727), Abigail Bowne (1662–1688), Hannah Bowne (1665–1707), Samuel Bowne (1667–1745), Dorothy Bowne (1669–1690), and Martha Joanna Bowne (1673–1750)

Kinship: Eighth great-grandmother of the post–World War II Smith generation.

Family Background and Early Life Hannah Feake was born in 1637 in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony, the daughter of Captain Robert Feake and Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake. Her mother was the niece of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts and cousin of Governor Robert Winthrop of Connecticut, placing Hannah within one of the most prominent Puritan families in New England.

The Feakes settled in Greenwich, Connecticut, where family tensions and religious controversies drew them into disputes with colonial authorities. Elizabeth Fones Feake, an independent-minded woman whose remarriage without formal approval caused scandal among Puritan leaders, exposed her daughter to unorthodox and tolerant religious circles. This early atmosphere of dissent shaped Hannah’s spiritual outlook.

Marriage and Settlement in Flushing In 1656 Hannah married John Bowne, an English-born merchant recently arrived in New England. They first lived in New Amsterdam and soon afterward in Flushing, Long Island, a mixed Dutch and English settlement under the control of the Dutch West India Company. By the early 1660s, both Hannah and John had become convinced Friends (Quakers), at a time when the movement was still proscribed by both Dutch and English colonial governments.

Their home in Flushing became a center for worship among the local Quaker community. The meetings were often attended by traveling ministers from England, and Hannah herself became recognized as a gifted preacher.

Quaker Convincement and Ministry Hannah Feake Bowne was among the earliest female Quaker ministers in the American colonies. Contemporary correspondence and later Quaker journals refer to her as “a tender woman in the Truth,” whose speech and conduct influenced many. Family and meeting records indicate that she was active in visiting nearby meetings in Oyster Bay, Westchester, and the mainland colonies.

It was through her witness that her husband John was fully convinced of the Friends’ faith. Their partnership was both spiritual and practical: while John provided their home for worship, Hannah ministered among the small group of early Friends in Flushing, strengthening them amid persecution.

Persecution under Stuyvesant Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s 1656 ordinance forbidding unauthorized religious meetings targeted the growing Quaker presence on Long Island. In 1662, after Hannah had been holding meetings in their house for several years, John was arrested and imprisoned for defying the edict. Quaker tradition and several later accounts credit Hannah’s calm and steadfast support as decisive during this crisis.

While John was imprisoned in New Amsterdam and later deported to the Netherlands for trial, Hannah maintained their household and continued to host meetings. Friends’ correspondence from England and Holland refers to her hospitality and her “faithfulness in tribulation.”

Later Years and Death After John’s return in 1663, vindicated by the Dutch West India Company’s decree guaranteeing religious freedom, Hannah continued her ministry quietly in Flushing. She bore eight children, all raised within the Quaker faith.

In 1675, Hannah felt called to undertake a religious visit to England. She traveled to London and later to Ireland and the Netherlands, preaching and visiting Friends. John joined her in Europe in 1676. While in London, she fell ill and died on January 31, 1677/8 (Old Style), at the home of John and Mary Elson. She was forty years old.

She was buried in Bunhill Fields in London, a notable burial ground for nonconformists where George Fox is also interred. er example as a minister, wife, and mother left a deep impression on early Quaker memory; later Friends viewed her as one of the spiritual foremothers of their movement in America.

Legacy Hannah Feake Bowne’s life illustrates the intersection of Puritan lineage and Quaker conviction. Through her courage and teaching, she helped plant the Society of Friends in New Netherland and embodied the Quaker belief in the equality of women in ministry. The religious liberty secured through her husband’s trial owed much to her faith and persistence.