A DRAFT OF BULLETED BIOGRAPHY OF ROGER WILLIAMS

1603-1615: Childhood

1615-1621: Working for Edward Coke

1621-1628: Education

1628-1630:  Chaplain for the Mashams

1631-1631: Boston/Salem

1631-1633: Plymouth

1633-1636: Salem

1636-1643:  First phase of building Rhode Island

1643-1653: Phase 2.

1653-1676: Struggling with uniting Rhode Island

1676-1683:  Last Years

Childhood:

Roger is born at Cow Lane, London.  His father, James, was a cloth merchant.  He  joined  “…the Merchant Taylors’ Company on 7 April 1587, by apprenticeship to Nicholas Treswell…”

 http://www.marcwkohler.com/?page_id=2285/       James and Alice, Roger’s mother, own an inn called The Harrow across the street from their home, which was also James’ business location.   Roger lives near the Smithfield Market, where executions were held.  It is believed that Roger witnessed executions.  When he was eight or nine, he witnessed the burning of Bartholomew Legate.  Roger was an avid reader, and he teaches himself stenography.  He attends the St. Sepulchre school. His education emphasized religious training as well as English and Latin. Some have suggested that Roger met John Smith at the church or at his mother’s public house. Smith returned to England in 1615, where he remained until his death in 1631.

1615-1621

Judge Sir Edward Coke meets Roger, and he learns that Roger can do stenography.  Roger becomes Coke’s secretary and stenographer for Coke’s courts and meetings. Coke had several young stenographers, and he sends them out to courts throughout London.  They would do stenography at the courts in London, and file final copies with Coke.  Coke write his Law Reports from these reports.  They are known as Coke’s Reports, which were an archive of judgments from cases he had attended, in which he had participated or about which he had been informed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Coke#Solicitor_General_and_Speaker

1621-1628: Roger’s name in Pembroke College register 1623: ROGER WILLIAMS NAME IN PEMBROKE COLLEGE

  • Sir Edward Coke supports Roger to go to the Charterhouse School and Pembroke College. Roger is one of only two students that Coke ever recommended to these schools. In 1624 Roger is one of three Charterhouse scholars chosen to be sent to university.  He stays at Cambridge through 1628.  He has learned Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and French.

to add to Dutch and Latin that he learned as a child. By this time, Roger had become a committed Puritan Separatist

1626: Oct. 24 Sir Francis Barrington and Sir William Masham are imprisoned for not paying into the King’s forced loan program.  They are not released until January 1628, and Francis dies on July 3.  He is lauded as a saint in the Puritan movement.

Later in 1628:  Roger decides to leave Pembroke.   Some historians say that Roger is ordained into the Church of England.  Others think that all he did was to sign the 39 Acts. What we do know that Gov. Winthrop of Bay Colony calls Roger a “godly minister.” a few years later. Roger takes a position as a domestic chaplain for the family of Sir William and Lady Elizabeth Masham.  They are members of a leading Puritan group in England.  Roger marries Mary Bernard, who is the daughter of Puritan clergyman, Richard Bernard.  Oppression of Puritans increased, and Roger and Mary leave England for New England on December 1, 1630.

NOTE ABOUT THE BARRINGTONS AND MASHAMS

Lady Joan Barrington, Elizabeth’s mother was one of Oliver Cromwell aunts, and the matron for the Cromwell-Barrington families. She arranged Oliver’s marriage to  Elizabeth Bourchier in 1621.  Her home becomes an important location for Parliamentary opposition to King Charles I.  Here is a list of some of the visitors that visited Otes Mansions:

Ministers:  Thomas Hooker, John Eliot, Hugh Peter, John Preston, JamesHarrison, Nicholas.Barnard,and.more

Members of Parliament and other politically active individuals:  John Hampden, Edward Whalley, John Bourchier, Gilbert Gerard, Williams Meux, Francis Harris, Richard Everard, Oliver St. John, who marries Elizabeth Masham’s daughter from her first marriage, and John Pym often comes and stays at Otes.

 July 1629

Roger attends a meeting of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Company meeting  at Sempringham castle .  He travels to the meeting on horseback with two well respected ministers of the time, Thomas Hooker and John Cotton.

1630-1631

Oppression against Puritans grows under Bishop Laud who will become the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633.  He has spies everywhere.  Roger and Mary decide to sail to the Bay Colony.  They arrive at the Bay Colony on February 5th or 9th, and Roger is “unanimously chosen teacher at the Boston church”  by the congregation there.  Roger “conscientiously refuses” to join because the church held communion with the Church of England. Roger wanted a complete separation. After spending a short time in Salem, Roger and Mary move to Plymouth where he speaks at the church, runs a trading post, and establishes a close relationship with the local tribes.   Roger and Mary’s first child is born in Plymouth in August of 1633, and later that fall the Williams moves back to Salem. Roger serves in several positions at the Salem Church

1633-1636
When Roger returns to the Salem, he angers the leaders of the Bay Colony  by insisting on speaking even in small groups against the rules of the colony.  He writes a tract questioning the rights of King Charles and his Charters.  He thinks that the colonists should negotiate and make a deal for any land that they acquire from tribes. He wants a complete separation from the Church of England, and he wants governments to stop being involved in enforcing the first four of the Commandments.  In October of 1635, he is banished from the colony. Roger is found guilty for advocating:

1st. That we have not our land by Patent from the King, but that the natives are the true owners of it, and that we ought to repent of such receiving it by Patent.

2d. That it is not lawful to call a wicked person to swear, to pray, as being actions of God’s worship.

3d. That it is not lawful to heare any of the Ministers of the Parish Assemblies in England.

4th. That the civil magistrates power extends only to the Bodies and Goods and outward state of man as stated in the Second Table of the Ten Commandments.

 1636
In January Roger learns from John Winthrop that soldiers are coming to arrest him.  He flees South.  With the help of the local tribes, he makes the walk to Warren, RI.   Sachem Ousamequin  allows Roger and his group to stay in Seekonk.  Plymouth claims that the land is theirs, so Roger must move. Sachems Canonicus and his nephew, Miantonomi, of the Narragansett, agree to allow Roger to come west “… and therefore I declare to posterity, that were it not for the favor God gave me with Canonicus, none of these parts, no, not Rhode Island, had been purchased or obtained, for I never got anything out of Canonicus but by gift..”   There is a signed deed which plays key roles in the history of Rhode Island.

 1637  The First Providence Agreement   
The First Providence Agreement among the residents of Providence is signed:  August the 20th “…We whose names are hereunder, desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of the body in an orderly way, by the major consent of the present inhabitants, masters of families — incorporated together in a Towne fellowship, and others whom they shall admit unto them only in civil things…” Richard Scott, Edward Cope, William Reynolds, Thomas Angell, by his mark. by his mark, Chad Browne, Thomas Harris, + John Warner, by his mark, John Field, + Francis Weekes, + by his mark, by his mark, George Rickard, Benedict Arnold, Joshua Winsor, William Wickendon. Constitutionalism has its birth.  There is no mention of God in the agreement.

1636-1637:
The Pequot War occurs between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists, and their allies.  Roger spends three days negotiating with the Narragansett while the Pequots argue against him. In the end, the Narragansett elect to side with the colonists.  The Pequot are destroyed.  In one major attack, the colonists set fire to a fort filled with 700 Pequot men, women, and children.

1637: Roger Williams opens trading post in the “heart of Narragansett country” in North Kingstown. Roger William’s Marker  Inscription:    “….In 1637 near this spot, ROGER WILLIAMS set up a trading post where he dwelt for many years, trading and treating with the Narragansett Indians. His dealings so completely won and held the friendliness of the powerful Narragansett sachems that for more than a generation the white settlements of Rhode Island were spared to become a flourishing State….”

1638                                                                                  In Providence, Roger meets with Particular Baptists who have been banished by Massachusetts. He joins their group, but after a few months, he gives up his membership.  He calls himself a “Seeker.”

John Clarke has started a Baptist church in Newport.  Chad Brown (Called “Chaddus”) takes over as minister when Roger steps away.

1640:  The Plantation Agreement at Providence

Citizens of Providence sign The Plantation Agreement at Providence forming “..a pure democracy, which for the first time guarded jealously the rights of conscience by ignoring any power in the body politic to interfere with those matters that alone concern man and his Maker.”-Arnold

 1643: Roger travels to England to fight for a charter for Rhode Island. Due to the English Civil War, Parliament is the functioning government, and Roger has friends in Parliament.  Oliver Cromwell and Henry Vane the Younger give Roger support. On March 14, 1644, Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Plantations grants Rhode Island Charter, also called a Patent.  On the ship sailing to England, Roger writes his first book: A Key into the Language of America known as A help to the Language of the Natives in that part of America called New England. It is a translation of Algonquin, and a discussion of the cultures of both the indigenous people but Europeans as well.  A year later, Roger completes his best-known book: The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace.  Factions in Parliament order that it be burned.  He will write twelve more books.

1647   May, Acts and Orders of 1647 also called The 1647Code of Laws for Providence Plantations is signed.   “…Made and agreed upon at the General Court of Election, held at Portsmouth, in Rhode Island, for the Colonies and province of Providence…’  The evolution of the democratic state continues.  It includes:  “…Forasmuch as the consciences of sundry men, truly conscienable, may scruple the giving or taking of an oath, and it would be noways suitable to the nature and constitution of our place (who professeth ourselves to be men of different consciences, and no one wiling to force another) to Debar such as cannot do so, eyther from bearing office amongst vs, or from giving in testimony in a case depending…”  The document has many innovations.

1652:  Roger, John Clarke, and Mr. and Mrs. John Dyer travel to England to stop Coddington’s efforts to form a colony in the Aquidneck islands, and attempt to receive a stronger Charter.  Clarke stays in London,  and the English Council of State agrees with Roger against Coddington.   Roger writes that he had “the confirmation of the charter.”  Roger connects with the Masham’s children, Oliver Cromwell, and Henry Vane,  Coke’s daughter, Anne Sadleir, and others.

1653-1658: Oliver Cromwell becomes the Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The instrument of Government or Constitution has the order that there be freedom of religion except for Catholicsm and Atheism. These are the core beliefs and aims of all that Roger Williams had worked for

1654-75 Roger is elected president of the combined colonies of Providence, Newport, Narragansett, and Warwick. Then, he is elected as a Commissioner. Then, he serves as Deputy, Finally, he serves on Providence Town Council.

1675-76:  King Philip’s  war is the deadliest war per capita in the history of America   .  In the space of little more than a year, twelve of the region’s towns are destroyed and many more are damaged. Providence is burned to the ground.  Roger’s home is destroyed.   Roger serves in the local militia.  With devastation all around them, a group of residents of Providence send surviving tribal members into involuntary indenture.

1676:  Mary Williams dies.

1683: Roger dies.