Chapter CCCLXX: Section 16: ) which reserves to the Empire the regulation of the (5)

The little that is known of the wanderings of Roger Williams
after his banishment from Salem, until his settlement at
Providence, is derived from a letter which he wrote more than
thirty years afterwards (June 22, 1670) to Major Mason, the
hero of the Pequot War. In that letter he says: "When I was
unkindly and unchristianly, as I believe, driven from my house
and land and wife and children, (in the midst of a New England
winter, now about thirty-five years past,) at Salem, that ever
honored Governor, Mr. Winthrop, privately wrote to me to steer
my course to Narragansett Bay and Indians, for many high and
heavenly and public ends, encouraging me, from the freeness of
the place from any English claims or patents. I took his
prudent motion as a hint and voice from God, and waving all
other thoughts and motions, I steered my course from Salem
(though in winter snow, which I feel yet) unto these parts,
wherein I may say Peniel, that is, I have seen the face of
God. … I first pitched, and began to build and plant at
Seekonk, now Rehoboth, but I received a letter from my ancient
friend, Mr. Winslow, then Governor of Plymouth, professing his
own and others love and respect to me, yet lovingly advising
me, since I was fallen into the edge of their bounds, and they
were loath to displease the Bay, to remove but to the other
side of the water, and then he said, I had the country free
before me, and might be as free as themselves, and we should
be loving neighbors together. These were the joint
understandings of these two eminently wise and Christian
Governors and others, in their day, together with their
counsel and advice as to the freedom and vacancy of this
place, which in this respect, and many other Providences of
the Most Holy and Only Wise, I called Providence. … Some time
after, the Plymouth great Sachem, (Oufamaquin,) upon occasion
affirming that Providence was his land, and therefore
Plymouth's land, and some resenting it, the then prudent and
godly Governor, Mr. Bradford, and others of his godly council,
answered, that if, after due examination, it should be found
true what the barbarian said, yet having to my loss of a
harvest that year, been now (though by their gentle advice) as
good as banished from Plymouth as from the Massachusetts, and
I had quietly and patiently departed from them, at their
motion to the place where now I was, I should not be molested
and tossed up and down again, while they had breath in their
bodies; and surely, between those, my friends of the Bay and
Plymouth, I was sorely tossed, for one fourteen weeks, in a
bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean,
beside the yearly loss of no small matter in my trading with
English and natives, being debarred from Boston, the chief
mart and port of New England."

_Letters of Roger Williams;
edited by J. R. Bartlett,
pages 335-336._

"According to the weight of authority, and the foregoing
extract, when Williams left Salem he made his way from there
by sea, coasting, probably, from place to place during the
'fourteen weeks' that 'he was sorely tossed,' and holding
intercourse with the native tribes, whose language he had
acquired, as we have before stated, during his residence at
Plymouth. Dr. Dexter and Professer Diman interpret this and
other references differently, and conclude that the journey
must have been by land. See Dexter, page 62, note; Nar. Club
Pub., Vol. II, page 87. Perhaps the true interpretation is
that the journey was partly by sea and partly by land; that
is, from the coast inward—to confer with the natives—was by
land, and the rest by sea."

_O. S. Straus,
Roger Williams,
chapter 5, and foot-note._

Mr. Hider, the well-known critical student of Rhode Island
history, has commented on the above passage in Mr. Straus's
work as follows: "The distance from Salem by sea to Seekonk
was across Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod Bay, the Atlantic
Ocean, Vineyard Sound, Buzzard's Bay, the Atlantic Ocean
again, and Narragansett Bay,—a distance scarcely less than 500
miles, in and out, by the line of the coast; all of which had
to be covered either in a birch bark canoe or in a shallop; if
in a canoe, then to be paddled, but if in a shallop, where did
Williams get it, and what became of it? history does not
answer. If Williams was in a boat sailing into Narragansett
Bay, 'the pleasure of the Most High to direct my steps into
the Bay' would become a positive absurdity unless the Most
High meant that Williams should jump overboard! He certainly
could have taken no steps in a boat. But if Williams was in a
boat, what sense could there be in his saying 'I was sorely
tossed for one fourteen weeks, in a bitter (hyperbole again)
winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean.' Did
they not have beds in boats, nor bread? As to the expression
in the Cotton Letter, it was his soul and not his body, which
was exposed to poverties, &c.; observe the quotation. … When
Mr. Straus in his foot-note, speaks of Williams's journey,
'partly by sea and partly by land, that is from the coast
inward, to confer with the natives,' he is dealing solely with
the imagination. No such conference ever took place."

_S. S. Rider,
Roger Williams
(Book Notes, volume 11, page 148)._

{2637}

It was the opinion of Prof. Gammell that, when Roger Williams
fled from Salem, "he made his way through the forest to the
lodges of the Pokanokets, who occupied the country north from
Mount Hope as far as Charles River. Ousemaguin, or Massasoit,
the famous chief of this tribe, had known Mr. Williams when he
lived in Plymouth, and had often received presents and tokens
of kindness at his hands; and now, in the days of his
friendless exile, the aged chief welcomed him to his cabin at
Mount Hope, and extended to him the protection and aid he
required. He granted to him a tract of land on the Seekonk
River, to which, at the opening of spring, he repaired, and
where 'he pitched and began to build and plant ' [near the
beautiful bend in the river, now known as 'Manton's Cove,' a
short distance above the upper bridge, directly eastward of
Providence.—Foot-note]. At this place, also, at the same time,
he was joined by a number of his friends from Salem. … But
scarcely had the first dwelling been raised … when he was
again disturbed, and obliged to move still further from
Christian neighbors and the dwellings of civilized men," as
related in his letter quoted above. "He accordingly soon
abandoned the fields which he had planted, and the dwelling he
had begun to build, and embarked in a canoe upon the Seekonk
River, in quest of another spot where, unmolested, he might
rear a home and plant a separate colony. There were five
others, who, having joined him at Seekonk, bore him company."
Coasting along the stream and "round the headlands now known
as Fox Point and India Point, up the harbor, to the mouth of
the Mooshausic River," he landed, and, "upon the beautiful
slope of the hill that ascends from the river, he descried the
spring around which he commenced the first 'plantations of
Providence.' It was in the latter part of June, 1636, as well
as can be ascertained, that Roger Williams and his companions
began the settlement at the mouth of the Mooshausic River. A
little north of what is now the centre of the city, the spring
is still pointed out, which drew the attention of the humble
voyagers from Seekonk. Here, after so many wanderings, was the
weary exile to find a home, and to lay the foundations of a
city, which should be a perpetual memorial of pious gratitude
to the superintending Providence which had protected him and
guided him to the spot. … The spot at which he had landed …
was within the territory belonging to the Narragansetts.
Canonicus, the aged chief of the tribe, and Miantonomo, his
nephew, had visited the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts
Bay, while Williams resided there, and had learned to regard
him, in virtue of his being a minister, as one of the sachems
of the English. He had also taken special pains to conciliate
their good-will and gain their confidence. … Indeed, there is
reason to believe that, at an early period after his arrival
in New England, on finding himself so widely at variance with
his Puritan brethren, he conceived the design of withdrawing
from the colonies, and settling among the Indians, that he
might labor as a missionary. … In all his dealings with the
Indians, Mr. Williams was governed by a strict regard to the
rights which, he had always contended, belonged to them as the
sole proprietors of the soil. … It was by his influence, and
at his expense, that the purchase was procured from Canonicus
and Miantonomo, who partook largely of the shyness and
jealousy of the English so common to their tribe. He says, 'It
was not thousands nor tens of thousands of money that could
have bought of them an English entrance into this bay.'"

_W. Gammell,
Life of Roger Williams
(Library of American Biographies,
series 2, volume 4), chapters 6-7._

ALSO IN:
_S. G. Arnold,
History of Rhode Island,
volume 1, chapters 1 and 4._

_W. R Staples,
Annals of Providence,
chapter 1._

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1636-1661,
Sale and gift of lands by the Indians to Roger Williams.
His conveyance of the same to his associates.

"The first object of Mr. Williams would naturally be, to
obtain from the sachems a grant of land for his new colony. He
probably visited them, and received a verbal cession of the
territory, which, two years afterwards, was formally conveyed
to him by a deed, This instrument may properly be quoted here.
'At Narraganset, the 24th of the first month, commonly called
March, the second year of the plantation or planting at
Moshassuck, or Providence [1638]; Memorandum, that we,
Canonicus and Miantinomo, the two chief sachems of
Narraganset, having two years since sold unto Roger Williams
the lands and meadows upon the two fresh rivers, called
Moshassuck and Wanasquatucket, do now, by these presents,
establish and confirm the bounds of these lands, from the
river and fields of Pawtucket, the great hill of
Notaquoncanot, on the northwest, and the town of Mashapaug, on
the west. We also in consideration of the many kindnesses and
services he hath continually done for us, both with our
friends of Massachusetts, as also at Connecticut, and Apaum,
or Plymouth, we do freely give unto him all that land from
those rivers reaching to Pawtuxet river; as also the grass and
meadows upon the said Pawtuxet river. In witness whereof, we
have hereunto set our hands. [The mark (a bow) of Canonicus.
The mark (an arrow) of Miantonomo]. In the presence of [The
mark of Sohash. The mark of Alsomunsit].' … The lands thus
ceded to Mr. Williams he conveyed to twelve men, who
accompanied, or soon joined, him, reserving for himself an
equal part only." Twenty-three years later, on the 20th of
December, 1661, he executed a more formal deed of conveyance
to his associates and their heirs of the lands which had
unquestionably been partly sold and partly given to himself
personally by the Indians. This latter instrument was in the
following words. "'Be it known unto all men by these presents,
that I, Roger Williams, of the town of Providence, in the
Narraganset Bay, in New England, having, in the year one
thousand six hundred thirty-four, and in the year one thousand
six hundred thirty-five had several treaties with Canonicus
and Miantinomo, the two chief sachems of the Narraganset, and
in the end purchased of them the lands and meadows upon the
two fresh rivers called Moshassuck and Wanasquatucket, the two
sachems having, by a deed under their hands, two years after
the sale thereof, established and confirmed the bounds of
these lands from the rivers and fields of Pawtucket, the great
hill of Notaquoncanot on the northwest, and the town of
Mashapaug on the west, notwithstanding I had the frequent
promise of Miantinomo, my kind friend, that it should not be
land that I should want about these bounds mentioned, provided
that I satisfied the Indians there inhabiting. I having made
covenant of peaceable neighborhood with all the sachems and
natives round about us, and having, of a sense of God's
merciful Providence unto me in my distress, called the place
Providence, I desired it might be for a shelter for persons
distressed for conscience.
{2638}
I then considering the condition of divers of my distressed
countrymen, I communicated my said purchase unto my loving
friends, John Throckmorton, William Arnold, William Harris,
Stukely Westcott, John Greene, Senior, Thomas Olney, Senior,
Richard Waterman, and others, who then desired to take shelter
here with me, and in succession unto so many others as we
should receive into the fellowship and society of enjoying and
disposing of the said purchase; and besides the first that
were admitted, our town records declare, that afterwards we
received Chad Brown, William Field, Thomas Harris, Senior,
William Wickenden, Robert Williams, Gregory Dexter, and
others, as our town book declares; and whereas, by God's
merciful assistance, I was the procurer of the purchase, not
by monies nor payment, the natives being so shy and jealous
that monies could not do it, but by that language,
acquaintance and favor with the natives, and other advantages,
which it pleased God to give me, and also bore the charges and
venture of all the gratuities, which I gave to the great
sachems and other sachems and natives round about us, and lay
engaged for a loving and peaceable neighborhood with them, to
my great charge and travel; it was therefore thought fit by
some loving friends, that I should receive some loving
consideration and gratuity, and it was agreed between us, that
every person, that should be admitted into the fellowship of
enjoying land and disposing of the purchase, should pay thirty
shillings unto the public stock; and first, about thirty
pounds should be paid unto myself, by thirty shillings a
person, as they were admitted; this sum I received, and in
love to my friends, and with respect to a town and place of
succor for the distressed as aforesaid, I do acknowledge the
said sum and payment as full satisfaction; and whereas in the
year one thousand six hundred and thirty-seven, so called, I
delivered the deed subscribed by the two aforesaid chief
sachems, so much thereof as concerneth the aforementioned
lands, from myself and from my heirs, unto the whole number of
the purchasers, with all my power, right and title therein,
reserving only unto myself one single share equal unto any of
the rest of that number; I now again, in a more formal way,
under my hand and seal, confirm my former resignation of that
deed of the lands aforesaid, and bind myself, my heirs, my
executors, my administrators and assigns, never to molest any
of the said persons already received, or hereafter to be
received, into the society of purchasers, as aforesaid; but
that they, their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns,
shall at all times quietly and peaceably enjoy the premises
and every part thereof, and I do further by these presents
bind myself, my heirs, my executors, my administrators and
assigns never to lay any claim, nor cause any claim to be
laid, to any of the lands aforementioned, or unto any part or
parcel thereof, more than unto my own single share, by virtue
or pretence of any former bargain, sale or mortgage
whatsoever, or jointures, thirds or entails made by me, the
said Roger Williams, or of any other person, either for, by,
through or under me. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the twentieth day of December, in the
present year one thousand six hundred sixty-one. Roger
Williams.' … From this document, it appears, that the twelve
persons to whom the lands, on the Moshassuck and
Wanasquatucket rivers, were conveyed by Mr. Williams, did not
pay him any part of the thirty pounds, which he received; but
that the sum of thirty shillings was exacted of every person
who was afterwards admitted, to form a common stock. From this
stock, thirty pounds were paid to Mr. Williams, for the
reasons mentioned in the instrument last quoted."

_J. D. Knowles,
Memoir of Roger Williams,
chapter 8._

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1637.
The Pequot War.

"Williams was banished in 1636 and settled at Providence. The
Pequot war took place the next year following. The Pequots
were a powerful tribe of Indians, dwelling … in the valley of
the Thames at the easterly end of Connecticut, and holding the
lands west to the river of that name. The parties to this war
were, the Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut colonies,
assisted by the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes of Indians on
one side, against the Pequots, single-handed, on the other.
The Pequots undertook to make an alliance with the
Narragansetts and the Mohegans (Hubbard's Indian Wars, 1677,
page 118), and but for Williams would have succeeded, (Narr.
Club, volume 6, page 269). Williams had obtained a powerful
influence over Canonicus and Miantinomi, the great Sachems of
the Narragansetts, (Narr. Club, volume 6, page 17,) and
Massachusetts having just banished him, sent at once to him to
prevent if possible this alliance, (Narr. Club, volume 6, page
269). By his influence a treaty of alliance was made with
Miantinomi, Williams being employed by both sides as a friend,
the treaty was deposited with him and he was made interpreter
by Massachusetts for the Indians upon their motion,
(Winthrop's Hist. N. E., 1853, volume 1, page 237). The
Narragansetts, the Mohegans, the Niantics, the Nipmucs, and
the Cowesets, were by this treaty either neutrals or fought
actively for the English in the war."

_S. S. Rider,
Political results of the Banishment of Williams
(Book Notes, volume 8, number 17)._

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1637.

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1638-1640.
The purchase, the settlement, and the naming of the island.
The founding of Newport.

Early in the spring of 1638, while Mrs. Anne Hutchinson was
undergoing imprisonment at Boston (see MASSACHUSETTS: A. D.
1636-1638), "Mr's. Hutchinson's husband, Coddington, John
Clarke, educated a physician, and other principal persons of
the Hutchinsonian party, were given to understand that, unless
they removed of their own accord, proceedings would be taken
to compel them to do so. They sent, therefore, to seck a place
of settlement, and found one in Plymouth patent; but, as the
magistrates of that colony declined to allow them an
independent organization, they presently purchased of the
Narragansets, by the recommendation of Williams, the beautiful
and fertile Is]and of Aquiday [or Aquetnet, or Aquidneck]. The
price was 40 fathoms of white wampum; for the additional
gratuity of ten coats and twenty hoes, the present inhabitants
agreed to remove. The purchasers called it the Isle of
Rhodes—a name presently changed by use to Rhode Island.
Nineteen persons, having signed a covenant 'to incorporate
themselves into a body politic,' and to submit to 'our Lord
Jesus Christ,' and to his 'most perfect and absolute laws,'
began a settlement at its northern end, with Coddington as
their judge or chief magistrate, and three elders to assist
him. They were soon joined by others from Boston; but those
who were 'of the rigid separation, and savored Anabaptism,'
removed to Providence, which now began to be well peopled."

_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 9._

{2639}

"This little colony increased rapidly, so that in the
following spring some of their number moved to the south-west
part of the island and began the settlement of Newport. The
northern part of the island which was first occupied was
called Portsmouth. Both towns, however, were considered, as
they were in fact, as belonging to the same colony. To this
settlement, also, came Anne Hutchinson with her husband and
family after they had been banished from Massachusetts. There
is no record that in this atmosphere of freedom she occasioned
any trouble or disturbance. Here she led a quiet and peaceable
life until the death of her husband in 1642, when she removed
to the neighborhood of New York, where she and all the members
of her family, sixteen in number, were murdered by the
Indians, with the exception of one daughter, who was taken
into captivity. In imitation of the form of government which
existed under the judges of Israel, during the period of the
Hebrew Commonwealth, the two settlements, Rhode Island and
Portsmouth, chose Coddington to be their magistrate, with the
title of Judge, and a few months afterward they elected three
elders to assist him. This form of government continued until
1640."

_O. S. Straus,
Roger Williams,
chapter 6._

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1638-1647.
The Constitution of Providence Plantation.
The charter and the Union.
Religious liberty as understood by Roger Williams.

"The colonists of Plymouth had formed their social compact in
the cabin of the Mayflower. The colonists of Providence formed
theirs on the banks of the Mooshausick. 'We, whose names are
hereunder,' it reads, 'desirous to inhabit in the town of
Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active or
passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be
made for public good for the body, in an orderly way, by the
major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of families,
incorporated together into a town fellowship, and such others
as they shall admit unto them only in civil things.' Never
before, since the establishment of Christianity, has the
separation of Church from State been definitely marked out by
this limitation of the authority of the magistrate to civil
things; and never, perhaps, in the whole course of history,
was a fundamental principle so vigorously observed.
Massachusetts looked upon the experiment with jealousy and
distrust, and when ignorant or restless men confounded the
right of individual opinion in religious matters with a right
of independent action in civil matters, those who had
condemned Roger Williams to banishment, eagerly proclaimed
that no well ordered government could exist in connection with
liberty of conscience. … Questions of jurisdiction also arose.
Massachusetts could not bring herself to look upon her sister
with a friendly eye, and Plymouth was soon to be merged in
Massachusetts. It was easy to foresee that there would he
bickerings and jealousies, if not open contention between
them. Still the little Colony grew apace. The first church was
founded in 1639. To meet the wants of an increased population
the government was changed, and five disposers or selectmen
charged with the principal functions of administration,
subject, however, to the superior authority of monthly town
meetings; so early and so naturally did municipal institutions
take root in English colonies. A vital point was yet
untouched. Williams, indeed, held that the Indians, as
original occupants of the soil, were the only legal owners of
it, and carrying his principle into all his dealings with the
natives, bought of them the land on which he planted his
Colony. The Plymouth and Massachusetts colonists, also, bought
their land of the natives, but in their intercourse with the
whites founded their claim upon royal charter. They even went
so far as to apply for a charter covering all the territory of
the new Colony. Meanwhile two other colonies had been planted
on the shores of the Narragansett Bay: the Colony of
Aquidnick, on the Island of Rhode Island, and the colony of
Warwick. The sense of a common danger united them, and, in
1643, they appointed Roger Williams their agent to repair to
England and apply for a royal charter. It has been treasured
up as a bitter memory that he was compelled to seek a
conveyance in New York, for Massachusetts would not allow him
to pass through her territories. His negotiations were crowned
with full success. … He found the King at open war with the
Parliament, and the administration of the colonies entrusted
to the Earl of Warwick and a joint committee of the two
Houses. Of the details of the negotiation little is known, but
on the 14th of March of the following year [1644], a 'free and
absolute charter was granted as the Incorporation of
Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay in New England.' …
Civil government and civil laws were the only government and
laws which it recognized; and the absence of any allusion to
religious freedom in it shows how firmly and wisely Williams
avoided every form of expression which might seem to recognize
the power to grant or to deny that inalienable right. … Yet
more than three years were allowed to pass before it went into
full force as a bond of union for the four towns. Then, in
May, 1647, the corporators met at Portsmouth in General Court
of Election, and, accepting the charter, proceeded to organize
a government in harmony with its provisions. Warwick, although
not named in the charter, was admitted to the same privileges
with her larger and more flourishing sisters. This new
government was in reality a government of the people, to whose
final decision in their General Assembly all questions were
submitted. 'And now,' says the preamble to the code, … 'it is
agreed by this present Assembly thus incorporate and by this
present act declared, that the form of government established
in Providence Plantations is Democratical.'"

_G. W. Greene,
Short History of Rhode Island,
chapters 3 and 5._

"The form of government being settled, they now prepared such
laws as were necessary to enforce the due administration of
it: but the popular approbation their laws must receive,
before they were valid, made this a work of time; however,
they were so industrious in it, that in the month of May,
1647, they completed a regular body of laws, taken chiefly
from the laws of England, adding a very few of their own
forming, which the circumstances and exigencies of their
present condition required.
{2640}
These laws, for securing of right, for determining
controversies, for preserving order, suppressing vice, and
punishing offenders, were, at least, equal to the laws of any
of the neighbouring colonies; and infinitely exceeded those of
all other Christian countries at that time in this
particular,—that they left the conscience free, and did not
punish men for worshipping God in the way, they were
persuaded, he required. … It was often objected to Mr.
Williams, that such great liberty in religious matters, tended
to licentiousness, and every kind of disorder: To such
objections I will give the answer he himself made, in his own
words [Letter to the Town of Providence, January, 1654-5].
'Loving Friends and Neighbours, It pleaseth God yet to
continue this great liberty of our town meetings, for which,
we ought to be humbly thankful, and to improve these liberties
to the praise of the Giver, and to the peace and welfare of
the town and colony, without our own private ends. I thought
it my duty, to present you with this my impartial testimony,
and answer to a paper sent you the other day from my
brother,—"That it is blood-guiltiness, and against the rule of
the gospel, to execute judgment upon transgressors, against
the private or public weal." That ever I should speak or write
a tittle that tends to such an infinite liberty of conscience,
is a mistake; and which I have ever disclaimed and abhorred.
To prevent such mistakes, I at present shall only propose this
case.—There goes many a ship to sea, with many a hundred souls
in one ship, whose weal and wo is common; and is a true
picture of a commonwealth, or an human combination, or
society. It hath fallen out sometimes, that both Papists and
Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be embarked into one ship.
Upon which supposal, I do affirm, that all the liberty of
conscience that ever I pleaded for, turns upon these two
hinges, that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks,
be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship; nor,
secondly, compelled from their own particular prayers or
worship, if they practise any. I further add, that I never
denied that, notwithstanding this liberty, the commander of
the ship ought to command the ship's course; yea, and also to
command that justice, peace, and sobriety, be kept and
practised, both among the seamen and all the passengers. If
any seamen refuse to perform their service, or passengers to
pay their freight;—if any refuse to help in person or purse,
towards the common charges, or defence;—if any refuse to obey
the common laws and orders of the ship, concerning their
common peace and preservation;—if any shall mutiny and rise up
against their commanders, and officers;—if any shall preach or
write, that there ought to be no commanders, nor officers,
because all are equal in Christ, therefore no masters, nor
officers, no laws, nor orders, no corrections nor
punishments—I say I never denied, but in such cases, whatever
is pretended, the commander or commanders may judge, resist,
compel, and punish such transgressors, according to their
deserts and merits. This, if seriously and honestly minded,
may, if it so please the Father of lights, let in some light,
to such as willingly shut not their eyes. I remain, studious
of our common peace and liberty,—Roger Williams.' This
religious liberty was not only asserted in words, but
uniformly adhered to and practised; for in the year. 1656,
soon after the Quakers made their first appearance in New
England, and at which most of these colonies were greatly
alarmed and offended;. Those at that time called the four
united colonies, which were the Massachusetts, Plymouth,
Connecticut, and New Haven, wrote to this colony, to join with
them in taking effectual methods to suppress them, and prevent
their pernicious doctrines being spread and propagated in the
country.—To this request the Assembly of this colony gave the
following worthy answer; 'We shall strictly adhere to the
foundation principle on which this colony was first settled;.
to wit, that every man who submits peaceably to the civil
authority, may peaceably worship God according to the dictates
of his own conscience, without molestation.' And not to the
people of the neighbouring governments only, was this
principle owned; but it was asserted in their applications to
the ruling powers in the mother country; for in the year 1659,
in an address of this colony to Richard Cromwell, then lord
protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, there is this
paragraph,—'May it please your highness to know, that this
poor colony of Providence Plantations, mostly consists of a
birth and breeding of the providence of the Most High.—We
being an outcast people, formerly from our mother nation, in
the bishops' days; and since from the rest of the New English
over-zealous colonies: Our frame being much like the present
frame and constitution of our dearest mother England; bearing
with the several judgments, and consciences, each of other, in
all the towns of our colony.—The which our neighbour colonies
do not; which is the only cause of their great offence against
us.' But as every human felicity has some attendant
misfortune, so the people's enjoyment of very great liberty,
hath ever been found to produce some disorders, factions, and
parties amongst them. … It must be confessed, the historians
and ministers of the neighbouring colonies, in all their
writings for a long time, represented the inhabitants of this
colony as a company of people who lived without any order, and
quite regardless of all religion; and this, principally,
because they allowed an unlimited liberty of conscience, which
was then interpreted to be profane licentiousness, as though
religion could not subsist without the support of human laws,
and Christians must cease to be so, if they suffered any of
different sentiments to live in the same country with them.
Nor is it to be wondered at, if many among them that first
came hither, being tinctured with the same bitter spirit,
should create much disturbance; nor that others, when got
clear of the fear of censure and punishment should relax too
much, and behave as though they were become indifferent about
religion itself. With people of both these characters, the
fathers of this colony had to contend. …In this age it seemed
to be doubted whether a civil government could be kept up and
supported without some particular mode of religion was
established by its laws, and guarded by penalties and tests:
And for determining this doubt, by an actual trial, appears to
have been the principal motive with King Charles the Second,
for granting free liberty of conscience to the people of this
colony, by his charter of 1663,—in which he makes use of these
words: 'That they might hold forth a lively experiment, that a
most flourishing civil state may stand, and best be
maintained, and that amongst our English subjects, with a full
liberty in religious concernments. And that true piety,
rightly grounded on gospel principles, will give the best and
greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts
of men the strongest obligations to true loyalty.'"

_Stephen Hopkins,
Historical Account of the Planting and Growth of Providence
(Massachusetts Historical Society Collections,
2d Series, volume 9)._

ALSO IN:
_S. G. Arnold,
History of Rhode Island,
volume 1, chapter 4._

_Records of the Colony of Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations,
volume 1._

{2641}

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1639.
The first Baptist Church.

"There can be little doubt, as to what were the religious
tenets of the first settlers of Providence. At the time of
their removal here, they were members of Plymouth and
Massachusetts churches. Those churches, as it respects
government, were Independent or Congregational, in doctrine,
moderately Calvinistic and with regard to ceremonies,
Pedobaptists. The settlers of Providence, did not cease to be
members of those churches, by their removal, nor did the fact
of their being members, constitute them a church, after it.
They could not form themselves into a church of the faith and
order of the Plymouth and Massachusetts churches, until
dismissed from them; and after such dismissal, some covenant
or agreement among themselves was necessary in order to effect
it. That they met for public worship is beyond a doubt; but
such meetings, though frequent and regular, would not make
them a church. Among the first thirteen, were two ordained
ministers, Roger Williams and Thomas James. That they preached
to the settlers is quite probable, but there is no evidence of
any intent to form a church, previous to March 1689. When they
did attempt it, they had ceased to be Pedobaptists, for
Ezekiel Holyman, a layman, had baptized Roger Williams, by
immersion, and Mr. Williams afterwards had baptized Mr.
Holyman and several others of the company, in the same manner.
By this act they disowned the churches of which they had been
members, and for this, they were soon excommunicated, by those
churches. After being thus baptized, they formed a church and
called Mr. Williams to be their pastor. This was the first
church gathered in Providence. It has continued to the present
day, and is now known as The First Baptist Church. … Mr.
Williams held the pastoral office about four years, and then
resigned the same. Mr. Holyman was his colleague. … A letter
of Richard Scott, appended to 'A New England Fire-Brand
Quenched,' and published about 1678, states that Mr. Williams
left the Baptists and turned Seeker, a few months after he was
baptized. Mr. Scott was a member of the Baptist church for
some time, but at the date of this letter, had united with the
Friends. According to Mr. Williams' new views as a Seeker,
there was no regularly constituted church on earth, nor any
person authorized to administer any church ordinance, nor
could there be, until new apostles should be sent by the Great
Head of the church, for whose coming he was seeking. He was
not alone in these opinions. Many in his day believed that the
ministry and ordinances of the christian church were
irretrievably lost, during the papal usurpation. It has been
supposed, by some, that Mr. Williams held these opinions while
in Massachusetts, and that this was the reason he denied the
church of England to be a true church, and withdrew from his
connexion with the Salem church. Aside from the statement of
Mr. Scott, above quoted, that Mr. Williams turned Seeker,
after he joined the Baptists and walked with them some months,
the supposition is shown to be groundless, by his
administering baptism in Providence, as before stated, and
joining with the first Baptist church there. These acts he
could not have performed, had he then been a Seeker."

_W. R. Staples,
Annals of the town of Providence,
chapter 7._

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1641-1647.
Samuel Gorton and the Warwick Plantation.

"Among the supporters of Mrs. Hutchinson, after her arrival at
Aquedneck, was a sincere and courageous, but incoherent and
crotchetty man named Samuel Gorton. In the denunciatory
language of that day he was called a 'proud and pestilent
seducer,' or, fas the modern newspaper would say, a 'crank.'
It is well to make due allowances for the prejudice so
conspicuous in the accounts given by his enemies, who felt
obliged to justify their harsh treatment of him. But we have
also his own writings from which to form an opinion as to his
character and views. … Himself a London clothier, and thanking
God that he had not been brought up in 'the schools of human
learning,' he set up as a preacher without ordination, and
styled himself 'professor of the mysteries of Christ.' He
seems to have cherished that doctrine of private inspiration
which the Puritans especially abhorred. … Gorton's temperament
was such as to keep him always in an atmosphere of strife.
Other heresiarchs suffered persecution in Massachusetts, but
Gorton was in hot water everywhere. His arrival in any
community was the signal for an immediate disturbance of the
peace. His troubles began in Plymouth, where the wife of the
pastor preferred his teachings to those of her husband. In
1638 he fled to Aquedneck, where his first achievement was a
schism among Mrs. Hutchinson's followers, which ended in some
staying to found the town of Portsmouth while others went away
to found Newport. Presently Portsmouth found him intolerable,
flogged and banished him, and after his departure was able to
make up its quarrel with Newport. He next made his way with a
few followers to Pawtuxet, within the jurisdiction of
Providence, and now it is the broad-minded and gentle Roger
Williams who complains of his 'bewitching and madding poor
Providence.' … Williams disapproved of Gorton, but was true to
his principles of toleration and would not take part in any
attempt to silence him. But in 1641 we find thirteen leading
citizens of Providence, headed by William Arnold, sending a
memorial to Boston, asking for assistance and counsel in
regard to this disturber of the peace. How was Massachusetts
to treat such an appeal? She could not presume to meddle with
the affair unless she could have permanent jurisdiction over
Pawtuxet; otherwise she was a mere intruder. … Whatever might
be the abstract merits of Gorton's opinions, his conduct was
politically dangerous; and accordingly the jurisdiction over
Pawtuxet was formally conceded to Massachusetts.
{2642}
Thereupon that colony, assuming jurisdiction, summoned Gorton
and his men to Boston, to prove their title to the lands they
occupied. They of course regarded the summons as a flagrant
usurpation of authority, and instead of obeying it they
withdrew to Shawomet [Warwick], on the western shore of
Narragansett bay, where they bought a tract of land from the
principal sachem of the Narragansetts, Miantonomo."

_J. Fiske,
The Beginnings of New England,
pages 163-168._

"Soon afterward, by the surrender to Massachusetts of a
subordinate Indian chief, who claimed the territory …
purchased by Gorton of Miantonomi [or Miantonomo], that
Government made a demand of jurisdiction there also; and as
Gorton refused their summons to appear at Boston,
Massachusetts sent soldiers, and captured the inhabitants in
their homes, took them to Boston, tried them, and sentenced
the greater part of them to imprisonment for blasphemous
language to the Massachusetts authorities. They were finally
liberated, and banished; and as Warwick was included in the
forbidden territory, they went to Rhode Island. Gorton and two
of his friends soon afterward went to England." Subsequently,
when, in 1647, the government of Providence Plantations was
organized under the charter which Roger Williams had procured
in England in 1644, "Warwick, whither Gorton and his followers
had now returned, though not named in the charter, was
admitted to its privileges."

_C. Deane,
New England
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 3, chapter 9)._

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1651-1652.
Coddington's usurpation.
Second mission of Roger Williams to England.
Restoration of the Charter.
First enactment against Slavery.

In 1651, William Coddington, who had been chosen President
some time before, but who had gone to England without legally
entering the office, succeeded by some means in obtaining from
the Council of State a commission which appointed him governor
of Rhode Island and Connecticut for life, with a council of
six to assist him in the government. This apparently annulled
the charter of the colony. Again the colony appealed to Roger
Williams to plead its cause in England and again he crossed
the ocean, "obtaining a hard-wrung leave to embark at Boston.
… In the same ship went John Clarke, as agent for the Island
towns, to ask for the revocation of Coddington's commission.
On the success of their application hung the fate of the
Colony. Meanwhile the Island towns submitted silently to
Coddington's usurpation, and the main-land towns continued to
govern themselves by their old laws, and meet and deliberate
as they had done before in their General Assembly. It was in
the midst of these dangers and dissensions that on the 19th of
May, in the session of 1652, it was 'enacted and ordered …
that no black mankind or white being forced by covenant, bond
or otherwise shall be held to service longer than ten years,'
and that 'that man that will not let them go free, or shall
sell them any else where to that end that they may be enslaved
to others for a longer time, hee or they shall forfeit to the
Colonie forty pounds.' This was the first legislation
concerning slavery on this continent. If forty pounds should
seem a small penalty, let us remember that the price of a
slave was but twenty. If it should be objected that the act
was imperfectly enforced, let us remember how honorable a
thing it is to have been the first to solemn]y recognize a
great principle. Soul liberty had borne her first fruits. …
Welcome tidings came in September, and still more welcome in
October. Williams and Clarke … had obtained, first, permission
for the colony to act under the charter until the final
decision of the controversy, and a few weeks later the
revocation of Coddington's commission. The charter was fully
restored."

_G. W. Greene,
Short History of Rhode Island,
chapter 6._

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1656.
Refusal to join in the persecution of Quakers.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1656-1661.

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1660-1663.
The Charter from Charles II,
and the boundary conflicts with Connecticut.

"At its first meeting after the King [Charles II.] came to
enjoy his own again, the government of Rhode Island caused him
to be proclaimed, and commissioned Clarke [agent of the colony
in England] to prosecute its interests at court, which he
accordingly proceeded to do. … He was intrusted with his suit
about a year before Winthrop's arrival in England; but
Winthrop [the younger, who went to England on behalf of
Connecticut] had been there several months, attending to his
business, before he heard anything of the designs of Clarke.
His charter of Connecticut had passed through the preliminary
forms, and was awaiting the great seal, when it was arrested
in consequence of representations made by the agent from Rhode
Island. … Winthrop, in his new charter, had used the words
'bounded on the east by the Narrogancett River, commonly
called Narrogancett Bay, where the said river falleth into the
sea.' To this identity between Narragansett River and
Narragansett Bay Clarke objected, as will be presently
explained. A third party was interested in the settlement of
the eastern boundary of Connecticut. This was the Atherton
Company, so called from Humphrey Atherton of Dorchester, one
of the partners. They had bought of the natives a tract of
land on the western side of Narragansett Bay; and when they
heard that Connecticut was soliciting a charter, they
naturally desired that their property should be placed under
the government of that colony, rather than under the unstable
government of Rhode Island. Winthrop, who was himself one of
the associates, wrote from London that the arrangement he had
made accorded with their wish. Rhode Island, however,
maintained that the lands of the Atherton purchase belonged to
her jurisdiction. … When Winthrop thought that he had secured
for Connecticut a territory extending eastward to Narragansett
Bay, Clarke had obtained for Rhode Island the promise of a
charter which pushed its boundary westward to the Paucatuck
River, so as to include in the latter colony a tract 25 miles
wide, and extending in length from the southern border of
Massachusetts to the sea. The interference of the charters
with each other endangered both. The agents entered into a
negotiation which issued, after several months, in a
composition effected by the award of four arbiters. Two
articles of it were material. One was that Paucatuck River
should 'be the certain bounds between the two colonies, which
said river should, for the future, be also called, alias,
Narrogansett, or Narrogansett River.' The other allowed the
Atherton Company to choose 'to which of those colonies they
would belong.' The undesirable consequences of a dispute were
thus averted; though to say that 'Paucatuck River' meant
Narragansett Bay was much the same as to give to the Thames
the name of the British Channel; and if the agreement between
the agents should stand, Connecticut would be sadly curtailed
of her domain."
{2643}
On the 8th of July, 1663, "Clarke's charter, which the King
probably did not know that he had been contradicting, passed
the seals. It created 'a body corporate and politic, in fact
and name, by the name of the Governor and Company of the
English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in
New England in America.' Similar to the charter of Connecticut
in grants marked by a liberality hitherto unexampled, it added
to them the extraordinary provision that 'no person within the
said colony, at any time thereafter, should be anywise
molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any
difference of opinion in matters of religion which did not
actually disturb the civil peace of the said colony.' …
Matters were now all ripe for a conflict of jurisdiction
between Rhode Island and Connecticut. Using the privilege of
choice secured by the compact between the agents, the Atherton
Company elected to place their lands, including a settlement
known by the name of Wickford, under the government of the
latter colony. Rhode Island enacted that all persons presuming
to settle there without her leave should be 'taken and
imprisoned for such their contempt.' … This proved to be the
beginning of a series of provocations and reprisals between
the inharmonious neighbors."

_J. G. Palfrey,
Compendious History of New England,
book 2, chapter 12 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_S. S. Rider,
Book Notes,
volume 10, pages 109-110. _

_S. G. Arnold,
History of Rhode Island,
chapter 8 (volume 1)._

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1674-1678.
King Philip's War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1674-1675; 1675; 1676-1678.

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1683.
Death of Roger Williams.
Estimates of his character.

Roger Williams, having given all to his colony, seems to have
died without property, dependent upon his children. His son,
Daniel, in a letter written in 1710, says: "He never gave me
but about three acres of land, and but a little afore he
deceased. It looked hard, that out of so much at his
disposing, that I should have so little, and he so little. …
If a covetous man had that opportunity as he had, most of this
town would have been his tenants." "Of the immediate cause and
exact time of Mr. Williams' death we are not informed. It is
certain, however, that he died at some time between January
16, 1682-3, and May 10, 1683. … He was in the 84th year of his
age."

_J. D. Knowles,
Memoir of Roger Williams,
pages 111 and 354._

"We call those great who have devoted their lives to some
noble cause, and have thereby influenced for the better the
course of events. Measured by that standard, Roger Williams
deserves a high niche in the temple of fame, alongside of the
greatest reformers who mark epochs in the world's history. He
was not the first to discover the principles of religious
liberty, but he was the first to proclaim them in all their
plenitude, and to found and build up a political community
with those principles as the basis of its organization. The
influence and effect of his 'lively experiment' of religious
liberty and democratic government upon the political system of
our country, and throughout the civilized world, are admirably
stated by Professor Gervinus in his 'Introduction to the
History of the Nineteenth Century.' He says: 'Roger Williams
founded in 1636 a small new society in Rhode Island, upon the
principles of entire liberty of conscience, and the
uncontrolled power of the majority in secular affairs. The
theories of freedom in Church and State, taught in the schools
of philosophy in Europe, were here brought into practice in
the government of a small community. It was prophesied that
the democratic attempts to obtain universal suffrage, a
general elective franchise, annual parliaments, entire
religious freedom, and the Miltonian right of schism would be
of short duration. But these institutions have not only
maintained themselves here, but have spread over the whole
union. They have superseded the aristocratic commencements of
Carolina and of New York, the high-church party in Virginia,
the theocracy in Massachusetts, and the monarchy throughout
America; they have given laws to one quarter of the globe,
and, dreaded for their moral influence, they stand in the
background of every democratic struggle in Europe.'"

_O. S. Straus,
Roger Williams,
page 233._

"Roger Williams, as all know, was the prophet of complete
religious toleration in America. … That as no man he was
'conscientiously contentious' I should naturally be among the
last to deny; most men who contribute materially towards
bringing about great changes, religious or moral, are
'conscientiously contentious.' Were they not so they would not
accomplish the work they are here to do."

_C. F. Adams,
Massachusetts: its Historians and its History,
page 25._

"The world, having at last nearly caught up with him, seems
ready to vote—though with a peculiarly respectable minority in
opposition—that Roger Williams was after all a great man, one
of the true heroes, seers, world–movers, of these latter ages.
Perhaps one explanation of the pleasure which we take in now
looking upon him, as he looms up among his contemporaries in
New England, may be that the eye of the observer, rather
fatigued by the monotony of so vast a throng of sages and
saints, all quite immaculate, all equally prim and still in
their Puritan starch and uniform, all equally automatic and
freezing, finds a relief in the easy swing of this man's gait,
the limberness of his personal movement, his escape from the
pasteboard proprieties, his spontaneity, his impetuosity, his
indiscretions, his frank acknowledgments that he really had a
few things yet to learn. Somehow, too, though he sorely vexed
the souls of the judicious in his time, and evoked from them
words of dreadful reprehension, the best of them loved him;
for indeed this headstrong, measureless man, with his flashes
of Welsh fire, was in the grain of him a noble fellow; 'a
man,' as Edward Winslow said, 'lovely in his carriage.' … From
his early manhood even down to his late old age. Roger
Williams stands in New England a mighty and benignant form,
always pleading for some magnanimous idea, some tender
charity, the rectification of some wrong, the exercise of some
sort of forbearance toward men's bodies or souls. It was one
of his vexatious peculiarities, that he could do nothing by
halves—even in logic. Having established his major and his
minor premises, he utterly lacked the accommodating judgment
which would have enabled him to stop there and go no further
whenever it seemed that the concluding member of his syllogism
was likely to annoy the brethren. To this frailty in his
organization is due the fact that he often seemed to his
contemporaries an impracticable person, presumptuous,
turbulent, even seditious."

_M. C. Tyler,
History of American Literature,
chapter 9, section 4._

{2644}

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1686.
The consolidation of New England
under Governor-general Andros.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1686.

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1689-1701.
The charter government reinstated and confirmed.

See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1689-1701.

RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1690.
King William's War.
The first Colonial Congress.

See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690;
and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690.