Henry Vane (1613 to 1662)
Congregational Church
Puritan Convert Beheaded for Treason.
Birth of Henry Vane, who at 15 was converted to Puritanism, and at 22 emigrated to Massachusetts. The same year he was elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; but two years later was recalled to England. Here he was knighted, married the daughter of Christopher Wray, entered Parliament, and in 1643 helped Roger Williams obtain a charter for Rhode Island. But in 1656 his fortunes changed and he was imprisoned for four months. Four years later he was again arrested and sent to the Tower, where in 1662 he was tried for treason, condemned and beheaded for his part on Parliament's side in the English Civil War.