Chapter XVIII

Mr. Coddington—letters to John Winthrop—execution of Charles I.

The unhappy dissensions, which arose among the leading men on Rhode-Island, were a source of disquietude to Mr. Williams, and of injury to the whole colony. The fierce controversy then maintained between the King and Parliament, in England, had some share in the difficulties between Mr. Coddington and his friends. Mr. Coddington was attached to the King, and was disposed to uphold his interest in the colony.

The following letter to Mr. Winthrop, which is without date, but which appears, from internal evidence, to have been written about the commencement of the year 1648–9, refers to these dissensions, and displays the pacific temper of Mr. Williams:

“For his much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at his house
at Nameug, these.

“_Cawcawmsqussick._

“Sir,

“Best salutations presented to you both, with humble desires, that,
since it pleaseth God to hinder your presence this way, he may
please, for his infinite mercy’s sake, in his Son’s blood, to
further our eternal meeting in the presence of him that sits upon
the throne, and the Lamb forever; and that the hope thereof may be
living, and bring forth the fruits of love where it is possible, and
of lamenting for obstructions. Sir, the affairs of our country
(Vaderland, as the Dutch speak) would have afforded us much
conference. The merciful Lord help us to make up in prayer to his
holy majesty, &c. Sir, for this land, our poor colony is in civil
dissension. Their last meetings, at which I have not been, have
fallen into factions; Mr. Coddington and Captain Partridge, &c. are
the heads of the one, and Captain Clarke, Mr. Easton, &c. the heads
of the other faction. I receive letters from both, inviting me, &c.
but I resolve (if the Lord please) not to engage, unless with great
hopes of peace-making. The peace makers are sons of God. Our
neighbors, the Narragansets, are now consulting, and making peag, to
carry, within a few weeks, another payment. Sir, about a month
since, one William Badger, a seaman, and now a planter at William
Field’s farm, near Providence, passed by me, travelling to the
Seabrook. I have received letters since from Captain Mason, to whom
I wrote by him, and hear nothing of him. I fear he miscarried, for
he was alone, without a guide. And, since I mention Captain Mason,
worthy Sir, I humbly beg of the Father of Lights to guide you, in
your converse and neighborhood with him. In his letters to me, he
tells me of some extraordinary lifts against Uncas, and that he will
favor him, but no more than religion and reason bid him. He
promiseth to visit me, in his passage, this summer, eastward, (I
guess he means toward Plymouth.) I shall then argue, if God will,
many things, and how it stands with religion and reason, that such a
monstrous hurry and affrightment should be offered to an English
town, either by Indians or English, unpunished. Sir, you have seen
many parts of this world’s snowball, and never found aught but
vanity and vexation. At Nameug shall you find no more, except in the
fountain of living waters. Sir, heap coals of fire on Captain
Mason’s head; conquer evil with good, but be not cowardly, and
overcome with any evil.

“If you have by you the Trial of Wits, at convenience, spare it me a
few days. However, study, as the Lord commands, your quietness, for
which I shall ever pray and endeavor.

“Your worship’s unfeigned,
“ROGER WILLIAMS.”

Mr. Coddington, having failed in his endeavors to detach the island from the colony, and unite it to Plymouth, resolved to proceed to England, and procure a separate charter for the island. The following letter, dated January 29, 1648–9, mentions his departure, without any allusion to his object, which, perhaps, was not then known:

“For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at Nameug.

“_Cawcawmsqussick, 29, 11, 48_, (_so called_.)

“Sir,

“Best salutations and wishes to the Father of mercies for your
worthy self, yoke fellow, sister, &c. It must be so in this world’s
sea. Sicut fluctus fluctum, sic luctus luctum sequitur. And every
day hath his sufficiency or fulness of evil to all the children of
the first sinful man; no persons, no places, exempted from the reach
of the first curse. My humble desire is to the most righteous and
only wise Judge, that the wood of Christ’s gallows (as in Moses’
act) may be cast into all your and our bitter waters, that they be
sweet and wholesome instructers of the fruits of sin, the sorrows of
others abroad, (in our England’s Aceldama,) our own deservings to
feel upon ourselves, bodies and souls, (wives and children also,)
not by barbarians, but devils, and that eternally, sorrows
inexpressible, inconceivable, and yet, if Christ’s religion be true,
unavoidable, but by the blood of a Savior, &c. Sir, pardon me, this
is not the matter. Sir, your letters I speedily despatched by a
messenger on purpose. For a place, I know indeed of one in Plymouth
claim, and would specify, but that your spirit being troubled,
countermanded it again, in your postscript concerning Elderkin, whom
I will, if God will, effectually labor with, and write the issue
with speed. All our neighbors, the barbarians, run up and down, and
consult; partly suspecting like dealings; partly ready to fall upon
the Mohegans, at your word, and a world of foolish agitations, I
could trouble you with, but I told the chiefest yesterday, that it
is not our manner to be rash, and that you will be silent till your
father and other ancient sachems speak first, &c. Sir, concerning
the bags of ore, it is of Rhode-Island, where is certainly affirmed
to be both gold and silver ore, upon trial. Mr. Coddington went to
the Bay, with his daughter, for England, and left Captain Partridge
in trust with all, the last week, at Newport. George Wright, alias
Captain Wright, stabbed with a pike, Walter Lettice, at Newport, and
is in prison; the other, if not dead, not like to live.

“Sir, yours ever, in all unfeigned respect, &c.
“ROGER WILLIAMS.

“I want wax to seal, otherwise I would have expressed something,
which I reserve till another season, if the Lord will.”

In March following, Mr. Williams again wrote to Mr. Winthrop. In this letter, he mentioned, that he had been elected Deputy President, in consequence of the absence of Mr. Coddington.

“For the worshipful, his kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at Nameug.

“_Cawcawmsqussick, 1, 48 (so called.)_

“Sir,

“Best respects and love presented, and thanks hearty for your
letters, former and latter, all now received. I am again importuned
by our neighbor sachems, having heard of Wequashcook’s carrying of
peag to Captain Mason, to pray you to inform them whether that peag
be part of the payment; because Wequashcook and his company refuse
to pay. They desire me also to write to the Bay about it, which I
defer to do until their payments go, which are something delayed
because of the death of Ninigret’s wife’s mother, which is the same
you write of, Wequashcook’s mother, and it is now qunnantacaun, that
is, lamentation. Sir, since I wrote to you, our four towns met by
deputies, six out of a town. This Court last week wrote to me
information of their choice of myself Deputy President, in the
absence of the President, who, whether they have fixed on yourself,
or Mr. Coddington’s faction prevail to keep his name in, now gone
for England, I cannot yet learn, but I have excused myself for some
reasons, and I hope they have chosen better. I wrote to them about
an act of oblivion, which, blessed be the God of peace, they have
past, and have appointed a Court of election in the third month, at
Warwick. Sir, I am exceeding glad of your beginnings at Pawcatuck. I
pray fail not to inquire whether there, or from Mohegan or
Connecticut, you can help me to one hundred bushels of Indian corn.
To your dear yokefellow and sister respective salutation. The sun of
righteousness graciously shine on you. I desire, unfeignedly, to be
your worship’s unfeigned in love,

“R. W.

“The sachems pray you to tell them whether their peag will be sold
at under rates, as Pumhommin, coming two days since from the Bay,
informs them, viz. that they must pay great black at thirteen to the
penny, and small black at fifteen, and white eight to the penny. I
tell them the last year it was measured, and so word was sent to me
they should pay it by measure.”

Another letter, written about this time, will be inserted here. It treats of the usual topic, the rights and interests of the Indians:

“For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at Pequod.[266]

“Sir,

“I am the more easily persuaded by this barbarian prince, Ninigret,
to trouble you so often, that I may the oftener hear of your
welfare, and at present how it pleased God to bring you home to
yours again. Upon your word, Ninigret prays you to send him word,
whether within ten days of this 5th of the week present, you will
please to meet him at Wequatucket, so it be when Mr. Stanton is
present. He would confer about Mr. Eliot’s letter and coat, about
Wequashcook’s usurping at Pawcatuck, about his present hunting,
about the present disposal of the Pequod fields, about his letters
to the Bay, which, in your name, I have almost persuaded to suspend
until the meeting of the commissioners at Boston. Here is now a
great hurry made by Anquontis, one of those petty sachems, of whom
Mr. Eliot wrote to you and me. He hath offered great abuse to one of
the chief, and Ninigret is now going to Conanicut about him. I
persuade not to engage themselves, but to send him to the Bay with
my letter. Sir, loving respects to Mrs. Winthrop, Mrs. Lake, whom
God graciously, with your loving self and yours, bind up in the
bundle of that life, which is eternal in Christ Jesus, in whom I
desire to be,

“Yours ever,
“ROGER WILLIAMS.”

The following letter alludes to a narrow escape from death, which Mr. Williams met with, in his passage in a canoe, from Providence to Narraganset. His habitual piety is here exhibited in a manner the more satisfactory, because it is evidently the unstudied emanation of his feelings:

“For the worshipful Mr. John Winthrop, at Pequod.

“_Narraganset, 9, 3, 49, (so called.)_

“Sir,

“Best salutations and wishes presented to your dearest, with
yourself, &c. These enclosed came to my hand in two several letters
from the Bay enclosed, your brother in a letter from him, requesting
my help, &c. I have, therefore, speeded them by the sachems, who
will, therefore, expect some word of tidings from the Bay, which you
may please to signify, in one line to me. Whatever you hear, or can
well collect, will be any word of tidings, &c., by which occasion
(if you have occasion) you may well rescribe. Benedict was desired
by the magistrates in the Bay to take special care to charge
Wequashcook, concerning[267] ——. He hath requested this task from
me, which this morning I purpose to do (with God’s help) carefully.
Sir, two days since, my boat not being fitted, coming from
Providence, I was (in articulo temporis) snatched by a merciful,
and, some say, a miraculous hand, from the jaws of death. The canoe
being overset, some goods, to some value, were sunk, some whereof I
hope, if God please, to recover. However, blessed be God, and
blessed are such whom he correcteth and teacheth in him. Yours he
graciously make me, though unworthy.

“ROGER WILLIAMS.”

The following letter is worthy of notice, as affording a slight intimation of that deficiency of paper and other articles, which the exclusion from intercourse with Boston occasioned. This letter was written on the envelope, or blank side, of one addressed to the writer, as is evident from the direction, which stood originally thus: “To my much respected friend, Mr. Roger Williams.” Mr. Williams struck out his own name, and put in the place of it, “John Winthrop, at Pequod,” in a blacker ink.

“To my much respected friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at Pequod.

“_13, 3, 49, (so called.)_

“Sir,
“Salutations, &c.

“Your last letter, which you mention, I sent by the way of the
English, since I came hither from Providence. I know of no letter of
yours, that came back, as you write. One of mine to yourself, when
you were in the Bay, was met by the peag messengers from the Bay,
and brought by them again to my hand, because, as they conceived,
the whole about Uncas, his wounding, was not yet, as then, known,
which, at your coming hither, by the English relation, was
perfected. Tidings from Uncas are, that the English come from the
Bay to Hartford about Uncas, and are appointed to take this way, and
to take Ninigret with them. Aquawoce (Wepiteammock) is at the point
of death. Expectat nos mors ubique; cur non nos mortem? In life and
death the Son of God shine on us. In him,

“Yours I desire to be, ever unfeigned,
“ROGER WILLIAMS.”

In May, 1649, the General Court met at Warwick, when Mr. John Smith was chosen President, Mr. Williams having, as it appears declined a re-election. Among the assistants chosen, was Mr. Gorton. Mr. Williams was chosen “to take a view of the records delivered into the Court by Mr. William Dyre,” referring, probably, to his complaints against Mr. Coddington. These complaints were again presented to the Court, but were deferred, in consequence, we may suppose, of the absence of Mr. Coddington.

At this Court, a law was made, that if a President should be elected, and should refuse to serve, he should be fined ten pounds, and an assistant, in like circumstances, five pounds. We may infer, from this law, that the men of those times were either too humble to covet the honors, or too poor to sustain the expenses, of office. The want of ambition may, perhaps, be fairly considered, as the chief cause. It would be happy for our country, if a portion of this temper of our ancestors, were inherited by their descendants. The furious struggle for power is one of the most ominous evils in our free republic.

The following letter from Mr. Williams was written a few days after the session of the Court. It is interesting, for several reasons. The excellent regulation, forbidding the sale or gift of spirituous liquors to the natives, except at the discretion of Mr. Williams, shows, at once, the wise and humane policy of the colony towards the natives, and the confidence which they placed in him.

This letter is remarkable, too, for the notice which it contains of the execution of Charles I., who, on the 30th of January preceding, was beheaded at Whitehall, in pursuance of the sentence of his judges. That Charles had forfeited his crown, will scarcely be denied by any man at the present day, unless he be an advocate for arbitrary rule. That the unhappy King did not deserve to die, will now, perhaps, with almost equal unanimity, be maintained, except by those whose political principles bias their judgment, and silence the emotions of their hearts. Of the inexpediency of the execution, the effects are the best proof. The reaction, which was produced in the feelings of the nation, was, doubtless, one of the causes of the restoration, and of the consequent evils. The letter was endorsed by Mr. Winthrop, “Mr. Williams, of the high news about the King.”

“For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at Nameug, these.

“_Nar. 26, 3, 49, (so called.)_

“Sir,

“Loving respects to your dear self, and dearest, &c. This last of
the week, in the morning, your man and all his charge are come just
now to me in safety. I, myself, also came hither late last night,
and wet, from Warwick, where this colony met, and upon discharge of
my service, we chose Mr. Joseph Smith, of Warwick, (the merchant or
shop-keeper that lived at Boston) for this year, President. Some
were bold (though Capt. Clarke was gone to the Bay and absent) to
use your name, and generally applauded and earnestly desired, in
case of any possible stretching our bounds to you, or your drawing
near to us, though but to Pawcatuck. One law passed, that the
natives should no longer abuse us, but that their black should go
with us, as with themselves, at four per penny. All wines and strong
waters forbidden the natives throughout the colony, only a privilege
betrusted in my hand, to spare a little for necessities, &c.

“Sir, tidings are high from England; many ships from many parts say,
and a Bristol ship, come to the Isle of Shoals within a few days,
confirms, that the King and many great Lords and Parliament men are
beheaded. London was shut up on the day of execution, not a door to
be opened, &c. The States of Holland and the Prince of Orange
(forced by them) consented to proceedings. It is said Mr. Peters
preached (after the fashion of England) the funeral sermon to the
King, after sentence, out of the terrible denunciation to the King
of Babylon. Esa. 14: 18, &c.

“Your letter to your brother I delivered to Mr. Gold, (going to
Boston;) this weather, I presume, hinders. Mr. Andrews, a gentleman
of Warwick, told me, that he came from the Bay, where he heard that
the Bay had proclaimed war with the Narragansets. I hope it is but
mistaken; and yet all under, and while we are under the sun, nothing
but vanity and vexation.

“The most glorious Sun of Righteousness shine graciously on us. In
him I desire to be, Sir, ever yours,

“ROGER WILLIAMS.”

The following letter is, on many accounts, honorable to Mr. Williams. It needs no comment:

“_Cawcawmsqussick, 13, 4, 49, (so called.)_

“Sir,

“Best salutations, &c. The last night one of Wequashcook’s Pequods
brought me, very privately, letters from Capt. Mason, (and, as he
said, from Uncas and Wequashcook.) The letters are kind to myself,
acknowledging loving letters (and tokens, which, upon the burning of
his house,) he had received from me, &c.; but terrible to all these
natives, especially to the sachems, and most of all, to Ninigret.
The purport of the letters and concurrence of circumstances, seem to
me to imply some present conclusions (from Connecticut) of
hostility, and I question whether or no present and speedy, before
the meeting of commissioners, which I saw lately from the Court,
under Mr. Nowell’s hand, was not to be till the 7th month. The
murdering of Uncas is alleged by stabbing, and since attempted by
witches, &c. The conclusion is therefore ruin. The words of the
letter are: ‘If nothing but blood will satisfy them, I doubt not but
they may have their fill; and again, I perceive such an obstinate
wilfulness, joined with desperate malicious practices, that I think
and believe _they are sealed to destruction_.’ Sir, there are many
devices in a man’s heart, but the counsel of Jehovah shall stand. If
he have a holy and righteous purpose to make us drink of our
mother’s cup, the holiness, nor power, nor policy of New-England,
can stop his hand: He be pleased to prevent it, if not to sweeten
it.

“Sir, I pray, if you have aught, signify in a line, and you shall
not fail of my poor papers and prayers.

“Your unfeigned,
“R. W.

“Your letters and friends were here some days with me. This last
choice at Warwick (according to my soul’s wish and endeavor) hath
given me rest. Others are chosen, Mr. John Clarke, at Newport, to
whom, and all my friends on the island, I wrote effectually. Thither
they went. I have heard nothing since. If power had been with me,
such a work of mercy, (although to strangers) I hope, by the Lord’s
assistance, shall not escape me; and I have promised my assistance
to Mr. Clarke and others, at Newport, if any blame or damage befal
them from the colony or elsewhere.

“Sir, I forgot to thank you for the pamphlets, although (not having
been lately at Providence) I have them not; but I have sent for
them. I have here now with me my eldest daughter, of seventeen. Her
younger sister, of fifteen, hath had nature’s course before her,
which she wanting, a flux of rheum hath much affected her head and
right eye; she hath taken much physic, and been let blood, but yet
no change. She is advised by some to the Bay. I pray advise me to
whom you judge fittest to address unto of the Bay physicians.

“Sir, I hear a smith of your town hath left you, and saith I sent
for him. It is most untrue, though we want one at Providence, yet I
should condemn in myself, or any, to invite any convenience or
commodity from our friends. I know him not, nor ever spake (to my
knowledge) about him. Mr. Throgmorton hath lately brought in some
corn from Hemstead and those parts, but extraordinary dear. I pay
him 6_s._ for Indian, and 8_s._ for wheat. These rains, if God
please to give peace, promise hopes of plenty.

“Two days since, letters from my brother. He saith a ship was come
to the Bay from England. She was not come yet in the river. A
lighter went aboard, and brought the confirmation of the King’s
death, but no other particulars. The everlasting King of kings shine
on us, &c.”