Introduction to Roger Williams for Rebels, Radicals, and Rejects Panel Discussion
By Marc Kohler.
I have tried to capture Roger’s beginnings.
1603-1615: Childhood Roger’s father, James, was a cloth merchant and worked out of his home. His mother, Alice, owns an inn called The Harrow which is across the street from their home on Cow Lane. Roger attends school at Saint Sepulchre-without-Newgate Church, and which today is the largest Anglican church in London. He lived near the Smithfield Market. It was there where he witnessed executions, met immigrants, and learned the skill of bartering in action. This is a skill that will provide him a vocation for him. He learned Latin in school, and Dutch and possibly French from immigrants. He teaches himself stenography. He is a gifted linguist.
1615-1621: Working for Edward Coke Judge Sir Edward Coke meets Roger, and he learns that Roger can do stenography. Roger becomes one of Coke’s secretary and stenographer. Coke sent his stenographers to courts in London. Coke used their final copy to write his Law Reports. Coke selects only two of his stenographers to receive his support in their college years.
1621-1628: Education 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.
1628-1630: Chaplain for the Mashams He finds 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. Working for this family introduces the core of the leaders of the English Civil War. Elizabeth’s mother, Joan (Cromwell) Barrington grows to become the “mother” to Puritan ministers in England and America. She is Protector Oliver Cromwell’s Aunt. These connections will aid Roger in his building of “…the first democracy in the modern era. You can google this is be amazed who visited this this home.
“….Williams had created the freest society in the Western world. But he had only begun. He went on to reject the idea that God lent His authority to government. Instead, Williams made what in the 17th century was a revolutionary claim: “I infer that the sovereign, original, and foundation of civil power lies in the people.” The governments they establish, he wrote, “have no more power, nor for no longer time, than the civil power or people consenting and agreeing shall bedrest them with.” John Barry
Accomplishments and Extended Notes http://www.marcwkohler.com/?page_id=2466Bulleted
Bulleted Biography: http://www.marcwkohler.com/?page_id=2329