Christian Reformers And Mystics Codexery

Roger Williams

Puritan minister turned Seeker who founded Providence as a haven for liberty of conscience.

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Roger Williams

via Wikipedia: Roger Williams · see source

Roger Williams was an English-born minister who founded Providence Plantations, later part of Rhode Island, after being banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views.[1][2] The First Amendment's principles regarding religious tolerance and civil government were directly shaped by Williams's ideas.[2] A Key into the Language of America, published in 1643, was the initial English-language book-length examination of a Native American tongue.[3][4][5]

Life and work

Williams was born in London around 1603, the son of merchant tailor James Williams and Alice Pemberton.[6] He studied at Charterhouse School under Sir Edward Coke and later earned a Bachelor of Arts from Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1627.[7] After taking holy orders, he became a Puritan and married Mary Bernard in 1629.[8][9] He moved to Plymouth Colony, where he preached and questioned colonial charters that did not include purchasing Native American land.[10][11]

Williams fled during a blizzard in January 1636 and was sheltered by the Wampanoags under Sachem Massasoit.[12] In spring 1636, he purchased land from sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi and established Providence Plantations.[13][14][15] He founded the First Baptist Church in America in 1638 but later became a "seeker" who did not affiliate with any specific church.[2][16][17] During King Philip's War, Williams served as captain of Providence's militia, and his home was burned when Narragansetts destroyed the town in 1676.[18]

After arriving in Boston on February 5, 1631, Williams turned down a church position because he viewed the congregation as "an unseparated church".[19][20] In October 1635, the General Court found Williams guilty of sedition and heresy and issued an order for his banishment.[21]

What the cited sources add

A 2008 HuffPost article notes that King Charles II expressed willingness to "experiment" with whether "civil government could consist with such liberty of conscience" in Rhode Island's charter.[22] The same source states that Rhode Island became the first colony to break with the crown in May 1776.[22] Williams's letters to Governor John Winthrop during the Pequot War show he requested that Pequot women and children be spared from enslavement and pleaded that their indenture not be permanent.[23] Newell's 2015 work further notes that Williams's own son moved additional captives to Newport for sale.[24][25]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Roger Williams (American religious leader)" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barry, "Roger Williams, America's First Rebel", 2012-05-02; "Roger Williams, the First Amendment and the Presidential Campaign", HuffPost, 2008-07-29; "Our History", American Baptist Churches USA; "First Baptist Meetinghouse, 75 North Main Street, Providence, Providence County, RI", Library of Congress (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lawson, "Encyclopedia of American Indian Issues Today [2 volumes]", ABC-CLIO, 2013-04-02, p. 181 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gaustad, Edwin S.,Liberty of Conscience (Judson Press, 1999), pg. 62; Ernst, Roger Williams: New England Firebrand (Macmillan, 1932), pp. 227-228 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Warren, "God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England", Simon and Schuster, 2019-06-18, p. 150 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gaustad, "Roger Williams", Oxford University Press, 2005-05-15; Winslow, 1957, p.10; LaFantasie, "American National Biography", Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 497–501; Brockunier, p. 286 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barry, John M. (2012). Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. New York: Viking. . pp. 73-74, pp. 136–139 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Wife of Roger Williams: Founder of Providence Plantation", 5 October 2007; "Roger Williams, A Brief Biography", Roger Williams Family Association, 1997 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Straus, "Roger Williams; the Pioneer of Religious Liberty", Century Company, 1894, p. 30 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Quoted in Edwin Gaustad,Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America Judson Press, 1999, pg. 28. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Winslow, 1957, p. 209, 282 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: LaFantasie, Correspondence of Roger Williams, 2:750, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89067603969?urlappend=%3Bseq=388 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cady, "The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950", Providence, R.I. : Book Shop, 1957 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: An Album of Rhode Island History by Patrick T. Conley (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  16. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: King, "Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island", Townsend, F.H., Printer, 1908 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  17. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clifton E. Olmstead (1960): History of Religion in the United States. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., p. 106 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  18. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mandell, "King Philip's War: Colonial Expansion, Native Resistance, and the End of Indian Sovereignty", JHU Press, 2010-09-01, p. 100 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  19. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Allison, "Roger Williams", Infobase Learning, 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  20. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barry, "God, Government and Roger Williams' Big Idea", Smithsonian, January 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  21. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: LaFantasie, Glenn W., ed. The Correspondence of Roger Williams, University Press of New England, 1988, Vol. 1, pp.12–23. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  22. "Roger Williams, the First Amendment and the Presidential Campaign", HuffPost, 2008-07-29. facts only, no text reused. huffpost.com
  23. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: J. Stanley, "Rhode Island and the Slave Trade", Rhode Island History, 2002; "Slavery - Roger Williams Initiative", www.findingrogerwilliams.com; Newell, "Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery", Cornell University Press, 2015, p. 28; Williams, "Letter to Sir Henry Vane and John Winthrop from Roger Williams- May 15, 1637", Massachusetts Historical Society, May 15, 1637; Williams, "Letter to John Winthrop from Roger Williams- June 21, 2021", Massachusetts Historical Society, June 21, 1637; W en.wikipedia.org
  24. Wikipedia, "Roger Williams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Newell, "Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery", Cornell University Press, 2015, p. 170–171 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  25. Open Library record, ISBN 9780801456480 ("Brethren by Nature"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Roger Williams (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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