1644 RHODE ISLAND CHARTER
1644 Rhode Island Charter
Posted on March 24, 2020 by Marc Kohler
Official Title: “Incorporation of Providence Plantations, in the
Narraganset-Bay, in New England.”2er
The Rhode Island Charter of 1644 to Roger Williams: Our much Honored Friends. Taking notice, some of us of long time, of Mr. Roger Williams his good affections and Conscience, and of his sufferings by our Common enemies and Oppressors of god’s people, the prelates, as also of his great industry and treasure in his printed Indian Labors in your parts, the like whereof we have not seen extant from any part of America, and in which respect it hath pleased both houses of Parliament freely to grant unto him and Friends with him a Free and absolute charter of Civil government for those parts of his abode and withal sorrowfully resenting, that amongst good men (our friends) driven to the ends of the world, exercised with the trials of a wilderness, and who mutually give good testimony each of other, as we observe you do of him, and he abundantly of you, there should be such a distance; we thought it fit, upon divers considerations, to profess our great desires of both your utmost endeavors of nearer closing, and of ready expressing of those good affections, which we perceive you bear each to other, in the actual performances of all friendly offices: the rather because of those bad neighbors you are like to find too near unto you in Virginia, and the unfriendly visits from the west of England and from Ireland; that have so ever it may please the most high to shake our foundations, yet the report of your peaceable and prosperous plantations may be some refreshing to your faithful friends,
signed by North Humberland, Robert Harley, Sir William Masham (Ralph Cudworth’s son-in-law), John Gurdon, Cor. Holland, J. Blakiston, P, Wharton, Thomas Barrington, Oliver St. John, Issac Pennington, Gil Pykering, and Miles Corbet. To the Right Worshipful The Governor and Assistants and the rest of our worthy friends in the Plantation of Massachusetts Bay in New England.
This was added to the Charter: “….The acceptance of Roger Williams and his being awarded the above said charter in actuality created more diversification as to the characterization of boundaries. However, as the well known tactic of sect diversification by territory in regards of the kinds of pluralism, was clearly a method of performance, in actuality these tactics were of no consequence avail as the original founders had deemed that all of the land mass in the new Promised land was unto all of the people, sanctuary with liberty of conscience…”
This version of the 1644 Charter came from Donald Whitcomb. Mr. Whitcomb’s ancestor, Minister Ralph Cudworth, knew Roger Williams, and his daughter, Damaris Cudworth Masham married Francis Masham, one of the signers, who was the grandson of Sir William and Lady Elizabeth Masham. From Circa 1627-1630, Roger was their Domestic Chaplain. When John Locke returned from Holland in 1888, he rented a room in the Masham mansion, Otes. The major mentor in Locke’s life was Robert Boyle, the scientist who put forward Boyle’s Law. Mr. Boyle and Ralph Cudworth were close friends, and were leaders of the Cambridge Platonists, and were active in East Anglia, which included Essex County. In fact, Ralph’s brother was General James Cudworth (1612–82) who was Assistant Governor (1756–8, 1674–80) and Deputy Governor (1681–2) of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, and four-times Commissioner of the United Colonies (1657–81). When John Locke retuned from Holland in 1688, he resided in Otes. This mansion where Roger Williams was a Domestic Chaplain from 1626-1630, and Locke’s landlord’s were Sir Francis and Lady Desmaris Cudworh Masham. Francis was the grandson ot William and Elizabeth. This proves that while Cudworth was a strong Anglican, he and everyone around him knew Roger Williams and his work. This is important for Locke never mentions Roger, and mentions Oliver Cromwell twice. He mentions him in a story about Parliament trying ot arrest him in 1644, and when he mentions two evil tyrants and revolutionaries: Jack Cade and Oliver. Our Founders, too, only mention Oliver as a very evil tyrant. So, Locke’s ignoring Roger was not because Roger lacked standing the the issues of freedom, but because England turned their back on the twenty years of their civil war was obliterated from their history. Here is what Theodore Roosevelt said about that era:
“……Cromwell lived in an age when it was not possible to realize a government based upon those large principles of social, political, and religious liberty in which — at any rate, during his earlier years — he sincerely believed; but the movement of which he was the head was the first of the great movements which, marching along essentially the same lines, have produced the English-speaking world as we at present know it…..” Theodore Roosevelt, Oliver Cromwell
