Rev. Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island

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Roger Williams

Also Known As: "Founder of Rhode Island", "Gov. Roger Williams", "Pioneer of Religious Liberty", ""Founder of Rhode Island"", ""Gov. Roger Williams"", ""Pioneer of Religious Liberty""
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Perhaps at, Long Lane, London, Middlesex, England
Death: April 01, 1683 (76-85)
Providence, (Present Providence County), Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Place of Burial: Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of James Williams and Alice Williams
Husband of Mary Williams
Father of Mary Sayles; Freeborn Clarke; Providence Williams; Mercy Winsor; Daniel Williams and 1 other
Brother of Catherine Davis (Williams); Sydrach Williams; Daniel Williams; Mary Billings; Robert Williams and 2 others

Occupation: Gov/Founder of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Theologian; Author, Clergyman, Reverend, Preacher of the Gospel/ Statesman, Reverand, Minister, President of the colony, 1654-57, Preacher, Governor, Founder of Rhode Island
Additional Information: Religious Figure. Educated at Cambridge University in England, he was a Calvinist minister who left England because of his disagreement with English principle of an established state church. He emigrated to New England in 1631, but rejected an invitation
Label: Minister
Minister: Religious figure. Educated at Cambridge University in England, he was a Calvinist minister who left England because of his disagreement with English principle of an established state church. He emigrated to New England in 1631, but rejected an invitation.
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Rev. Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island

Roger Williams was the founder of the colony of Rhode Island. Roger Williams was Governor of the Colony 1654 through 1658.


Biography

(Courtesy of womenhistory.blogspot)

"Roger Williams was born December 21, 1603 near London, England. He was a student of theology and languages, and was educated at Cambridge University. After suffering a painful rejection by the woman he had chosen to marry, the young clergyman became ill of fever and was nursed back to health by Mary Barnard, who is believed to have been the daughter of the Reverend Richard Barnard of Nottinghamshire.

Mary Barnard married Roger Williams on December 15, 1629 in Essex, England. The couple set sail on board the Lyon in December 1630, arriving in Boston February 5, 1631.

Two months later, Roger was called as minister to Salem, having refused to join with the congregation at Boston—where he told the startled Puritan elders that he would not serve a congregation that recognized the Church of England.

Roger Williams had become a Separatist. This enraged the Boston magistrates and pressure by them on the Salem authorities caused him to leave there in late summer and go to Plymouth. Here he was made welcome by the Separatist Pilgrims, and was admitted as a member of their church.

During the following years, Mary gave birth to six children. Roger held positions at various churches, but his religious beliefs were always considered radical. His belief that religion should not be imposed on citizens, and that Church and State should be separate entities was fine with the Pilgrims, but his views about the Native Americans and their land rights were not.

The Williams family returned to Salem in 1633. When Roger expressed the opinion that Massachusetts Bay Colony's charter was a breach of the rights of the native population, the Massachusetts magistrates found him guilty of spreading 'new and dangerous opinions.'

Roger Williams was given a decree of banishment October 9, 1635, because of his hostility toward the Church of England. He was ordered by the General Court to be banished from Massachusetts and was threatened with deportation back to England if he did not renounce his convictions. But he continued to express his controversial opinions.

Officials were sent to Salem to apprehend him, but he was gone. Warned by John Winthrop, he had hastily said goodbye to his wife and baby daughters and sought sanctuary with his friends in the Narragansett Tribe. There he purchased a large tract of land from the Native Americans on the Pantuxet River, and founded the settlement of Providence.

In Providence all peoples and religions were welcome. It soon became a safe haven for groups ranging from Quakers to Baptists to Jews. Williams guaranteed the separation of church and state and made sure that all land purchases were handled properly, and that the native tribes were treated humanely. The first law in America making slavery illegal was passed in Rhode Island on May 18, 1652.

In 1643, when the rights of his colony were coming under threat from its larger neighbors, Williams returned to England and secured a charter for the colony of Providence Plantation of Narragansett Bay, which also included Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick. During subsequent trips to England, the colony was renamed Rhode Island.

My Dearest Love

He wrote to his wife while abroad. "My dearest love and companion in this vale of tears, I send thee, though in winter, a handful of flowers made up in a little posy, for thy dear self and our dear children to look and smell on, when I, as grass of the field, shall be gone and withered."

At home in Providence after an absence of nearly 3 years, Roger Williams became President of the colony, which office he held from 1654 to 1658. He also served as Commissioner, Deputy, and on the Town Council for many years.

The royal charter of 1663 guaranteed complete religious liberty, established a self-governing colony with total autonomy, and strengthened Rhode Island's territorial claims. It was the most liberal charter to be issued by the mother country during the entire colonial era, and it served as Rhode Island's basic law until 1843.

Despite his efforts to avert it, war with the Native Americans broke out in 1676. Known as King Philip's War, it was a tragedy for white men and red. Providence, which for years had been spared, was threatened with destruction. Roger Williams went out to meet the invaders, but his arguments failed. He was told that because he was an honest man not a hair of his head would be harmed, but that the city should be burned.

Providence was burned on March 26, 1676. Mary Barnard Williams died that same year.

Roger Williams lived to see Providence rebuilt. He continued to preach, and the Colony grew through its acceptance of settlers of all religious persuasions. He died sometime between January 16 and March 16, 1683. His funeral was attended with such honors as the town could provide, and a salute of guns was fired over his grave.

He was buried in the orchard in the rear of his homestead lot. Many years later, his remains were disinterred and placed in the tomb of a descendant in the North Burial Ground. In 1936, they were sealed within a bronze container and set into the base of the monument erected to his memory on Prospect Terrace.

His statue gazes out over the city where his principles of freedom of thought and worship, separation of Church and State, and equality for all men, regardless of race or creed were first put into practice. He left no great estate of worldly goods, but this was his immortal legacy to the freedom of loving peoples of all the world."

Family

Roger Williams was born in London, and many historians cite 1603 as the probable year of his birth.[6] His birth records were destroyed when St. Sepulchre church burned during the Great Fire of London,[7] and his entry in American National Biography notes that Williams gave contradictory information about his age throughout his life.[8] His father was James Williams (1562–1620), a merchant tailor in Smithfield, and his mother was Alice Pemberton (1564–1635).

Williams took holy orders in the Church of England in connection with his studies, but he became a Puritan at Cambridge and thus ruined his chance for preferment in the Anglican church. After graduating from Cambridge, he became the chaplain to Sir William Masham. In April 1629, Williams proposed marriage to Jane Whalley, the niece of Lady Joan (Cromwell) Barrington, but she declined.[12] Later that year, he married Mary Bernard (1609–76), the daughter of Rev. Richard Bernard, a notable Puritan preacher and author; they were married at the Church of High Laver in Epping Forest, a few miles east of London.[13] They had six children, all born in America: Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel, and Joseph.

Williams knew that Puritan leaders planned to immigrate to the New World. He did not join the first wave of settlers, but later decided that he could not remain in England under the administration of Archbishop William Laud. Williams regarded the Church of England as corrupt and false, and he had arrived at the Separatist position by 1630; on December 1, he and his wife boarded the Boston-bound Lyon in Bristol.[14]

Marriage 1 Mary BARNARD b: ABT 1609. Married: 15 DEC 1629 in Essex, England.

The children of Roger Williams and Mary Barnard were:

  • i. Mary2 Williams, b. Aug 1633; m. John Sayles.
  • ii. Freeborn Williams, b. 4 Oct 1635; m. Thomas Hart; m. Walter Clarke.
  • iii. Providence Williams was born Sep 1638; he died Mar 1686 at age 47.
  • iv. Mercy Williams, b. 15 Jul 1640 at Providence, RI; m. Resolved Waterman; m. Samuel Winsor.
  • v. Daniel Williams, b. Feb 1641 at Providence, RI; m. Rebecca Rhodes.
  • vi. Joseph Williams, b. 12 Dec 1643 at Providence, RI; m. Lydia Olney.

Legacy

Williams' defense of the Native Americans, his accusations that Puritans had reproduced the "evils" of the Anglican Church, and his insistence that England pay the Native Americans for their land all put him at the center of many political debates during his life. He was considered an important historical figure of religious liberty at the time of American independence, and he was a key influence on the thinking of the Founding Fathers.

Tributes

Tributes to Williams include:

  • The 1936 commemorative Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar
  • Roger Williams National Memorial, a park in downtown Providence established in 1965
  • Roger Williams Park, Providence, Rhode Island, and the Roger Williams Park Zoo
  • Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island
  • Roger Williams Dining Hall at the University of Rhode Island
  • Roger Williams Inn, the main dining hall at the American Baptists' Green Lake Conference Center founded in 1943 in Green Lake, Wisconsin
  • Roger Williams Medical Center, a hospital in Providence
  • Rhode Island's representative statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol, added in 1872
  • A depiction of him on the International Monument to the Reformation in Geneva, along with other prominent reformers
  • Roger Williams Middle School, a public school in Providence
  • Pembroke College in Brown University was named for Williams' alma mater.

Memorial in Roger Williams Square

Slate Rock is a prominent boulder on the west shore of the Seekonk River (near the current Gano Park) that was once one of Providence's most important historic landmarks.[67][68][69] It was believed to be the spot where the Narragansetts greeted Williams with the famous phrase "What cheer, netop?" The historic rock was accidentally blown up by city workers in 1877.[67][68] They were attempting to expose a buried portion of the stone, but used too much dynamite and it was "blasted to pieces."[67] A memorial in Roger Williams Square commemorates the location.[67][69][68]


Roger Williams Landing Place monument in Slate Rock Park aka Roger Williams Square, Providence Rhode Island.

www.geni.com/media/proxy?media_id=6000000199225880877&size=large

Source: < Wikimedia Commons > CC BY-SA 4.0


References

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams Primary sources:
    1. Williams, Roger. The Complete Writings of Roger Williams, 7 vols. 1963
    2. Williams, Roger. The Correspondence of Roger Williams, 2 vols. ed. by Glenn W. LaFantasie, 1988
    3. "Roger Williams (American religious leader)". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
    4. Roger Williams". History.com. A&E Television Networks. 2009. Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
    5. "Our History". American Baptist Churches USA. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
    6. "First Baptist Meetinghouse, 75 North Main Street, Providence, Providence County, RI". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
    7. Lawson, Russell M. (April 2, 2013). Encyclopedia of American Indian Issues Today [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-313-38145-4.
    8. Gaustad, Edwin S. (May 15, 2005). Roger Williams. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-976053-4.
    9. Winslow, Ola Elizabeth (1957). Master Roger Williams: A Biography. Macmillan. ISBN 9780374986827.
    10. LaFantasie, Glenn W. (1999). Garraty, John A.; Carnes, Mark C. (eds.). American National Biography. Vol. 23. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 497-501. ISBN 9780195127966.
    11. "Williams, Roger (WLMS623R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
    12. Pfeiffer, Robert H. (April 1955). "The Teaching of Hebrew in Colonial America". The Jewish Quarterly Review. pp. 363–73
    13. An Open Society: A Biography of Roger Williams
    14. Barry, John M. (2012). Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-02305-9. pp. 73-74, pp. 136-139.
    15. "Wife of Roger Williams: Founder of Providence Plantation". 5 October 2007. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
    16. ""A Brief history of Jacob Belfry" Page 40, 1888". Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
    17. Allison, Amy (2013). Roger Williams. Infobase Learning. ISBN 978-1-4381-4450-4.
    18. Barry, John M. (January 2012). "God, Government and Roger Williams' Big Idea". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
    19. Goff, John (September 16, 2009). Salem's Witch House: A Touchstone to Antiquity. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61423-286-5.
    20. Straus, Oscar Solomon (1894). Roger Williams; the Pioneer of Religious Liberty. Century Company. p. 30.
    21. Quoted in Edwin Gaustad,Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America Judson Press, 1999, pg. 28.
    22. LaFantasie, Glenn W., ed. The Correspondence of Roger Williams, University Press of New England, 1988, Vol. 1, pp.12–23.
    23. Cady, John Hutchins (1957). The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Providence, R.I. : Book Shop.
    24. An Album of Rhode Island History by Patrick T. Conley
    25. King, Henry Melville; Wilcox, Charles Field (1908). Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island. Townsend, F.H., Printer.
    26. Gaustad, Edwin S.,Liberty of Conscience (Judson Press, 1999), pg. 62
    27. Ernst, Roger Williams: New England Firebrand (Macmillan, 1932), pp. 227-228
    28. Jump up to: a b Warren, James A. (June 18, 2019). God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England. Simon and Schuster. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-5011-8042-2.
    29. Jump up to: a b J. Stanley, Lemons (2002). "Rhode Island and the Slave Trade" (PDF). Rhode Island History. 60 (4). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
    30. Jump up to: a b c "Slavery - Roger Williams Initiative". www.findingrogerwilliams.com. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
    31. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 28.
    32. Williams, Roger (May 15, 1637). "Letter to Sir Henry Vane and John Winthrop from Roger Williams- May 15, 1637". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
    33. Williams, Roger (June 21, 1637). "Letter to John Winthrop from Roger Williams- June 21, 2021". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
    34. Williams, Roger (July 15, 1637). "Letter to John Winthrop from Roger Williams- July 15, 1637". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
    35. Williams, Roger (July 31, 1637). "Letter to John Winthrop from Roger Williams- July 31, 1637". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
    36. Williams, Roger (February 28, 1638). "Letter to John Winthrop from Roger Williams- February 28, 1638". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
    37. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 32.
    38. Jump up to: a b c Gallay, Alan (January 1, 2009). Indian Slavery in Colonial America. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 40–42. ISBN 978-0-8032-2200-7.
    39. Williams, Roger (July 10, 1637). "Letter to John Winthrop From Roger Williams July 10, 1637 (2)". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
    40. Jump up to: a b Williams, Roger (August 12, 1637). "Letter to John Winthrop From Roger Williams- August 12, 1637". Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
    41. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 68-69.
    42. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 74.
    43. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 37.
    44. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 104.
    45. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 37.
    46. PBS. Africans in America: the Terrible Transformation. "From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery." Accessed September 13, 2011.
    47. McLoughlin, William G. Rhode Island: A History (W.W. Norton, 1978), p. 26.
    48. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 151.
    49. Clark-Pujara, Christy (2018). Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island. New York University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-4798-5563-6. Project MUSE book 49199.
    50. Newell, Margret Ellen (2015). Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 170-171.
    51. "Newport Notables". Redwood Library. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
    52. Clifton E. Olmstead (1960): History of Religion in the United States. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., p. 106
    53. Mandell, Daniel R. (September 1, 2010). King Philip's War: Colonial Expansion, Native Resistance, and the End of Indian Sovereignty. JHU Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-8018-9948-5.
    54. "Roger Williams Biography". www.rogerwilliams.org. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
    55. Jump up to: a b "Today in History - February 5". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
    56. Bryant, Sparkle (October 19, 2015). "The Tree Root That Ate Roger Williams". NPS News Releases. National Park Service. Archived from the original on April 8, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
    57. Rhode Island Historical Society, "Body, Body, Who's Got the Body? Where in the World IS Roger Williams", New and Notes, (Spring/Winter, 2008), pg. 4.
    58. Hall (1998). Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty. University of Illinois Press. p. 77.
    59. Barry, John M. (January 2012). "God, Government and Roger Williams' Big Idea". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
    60. "Everson and the Wall of Separation". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. Pew Research Center. May 14, 2009. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
    61. Lemons, Stanley. "Roger Williams Champion of Religious Liberty". Providence, RI City Archives. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
    62. Chana B. Cox (2006). Liberty: God's Gift to Humanity. Lexington Books. p. 26. ISBN 9780739114421. Archived from the original on February 27, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
    63. James Emanuel Ernst, Roger Williams, New England Firebrand (Macmillan Co., Rhode Island, 1932), pg. 246 [1] Archived 4 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
    64. Publications of the Narragansett Club, vol. ii
    65. Mason-Brown, Lucas (July 11, 2012). "Cracking the Code: Infant Baptism and Roger Williams". JCB Books Speak. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
    66. Fischer, Suzanne (April 9, 2012). "Personal Tech for the 17th Century". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
    67. McKinney, Michael (March 2012). "Reading Outside the Lines" (PDF). The Providence Journal. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
    68. Mason-Brown, Lucas (July 11, 2012). "Cracking the Code: Infant Baptism and Roger Williams". JCB Books Speak. Brown University. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
    69. Jump up to: a b c d "Roger Williams's Landing Place Monument". Quahog dot org. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
    70. Jump up to: a b c "Slate Rock Park". Sowams Heritage Area. January 14, 2019. Archived from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
    71. Jump up to: a b Shamgochian, John (August 3, 2020). "Slate Rock, The Landing Place of Roger Williams". Rhode Island Historical Society. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
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Rev. Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island's Timeline

1602
December 24, 1602
St. Sepulchre, London, Middlesex, England
December 24, 1602
St Sepulchre, Newgate, London, England
December 24, 1602
St Sepulchre, Newgate, London, England
1602
Perhaps at, Long Lane, London, Middlesex, England
1621
1621
- 1624
Age 19
Charterhouse, Godalming, Surrey, England (United Kingdom)
1624
1624
- 1627
Age 22
Pembroke College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England (United Kingdom)
1624
Age 22
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom
1630
1630
Age 28
Freeman 19 Oct, Massachusetts Colony, MA