Roger
Williams was
born in London, England
in 1604. After being educated at Charterhouse
School and Pembroke College, Cambridge,
Williams was ordained as an Anglican priest.
He gradually became an extreme Puritan and in 1631 joined the English
colony led by John Winthrop in Massachusetts
Bay. Williams objected to the royal charter of Massachusetts because
it contained a lie when it claimed that England first discovered the
region. Williams argued that the king had no right to grant the land
to the settlers and that it should be purchased from the Native Americans.
Although John Winthrop accepted the
truth of this argument, he feared that if the king heard about what
Williams was saying he might take back control of the colony and bring
an end to this Puritan republic. Winthrop therefore decided to banish
Williams from the colony.
Williams and his followers moved to Rhode Island where they purchased
land from the Narragansett Indians at Providence. Williams established
a democratic society and a haven of religious toleration and admitted
Jews and Quakers
into the colony. Anne Hutchinson,
who had been banished by John Winthrop
from the Massachusetts colony, also joined Williams on Rhode Island.
Williams, who was president of the Rode Island colony until 1658,
wrote several books including Key to the
Language of America (1643), The
Bloody Persecution for Cause of Conscience (1644), Christenings
Make Not Christians (1645) and George
Fox Digged Out of his Burrows (1676). Roger Williams died
in 1683.
(1)
William
Bradford, History of the Plymouth Plantation (1651)
Roger Williams, a man godly
and zealous, having many precious parts but very unsettled in judgment,
came over first to the Massachusetts; but upon some discontent left
that place and came hither, where he was friendly entertained according
to their poor ability, and exercised his gifts among them and after
some time was admitted a member of the church; and his teaching well
approved, for the benefit whereof I still bless God and am thankful
to him even for his sharpest admonitions and reproofs so far as they
agreed with truth.
He began to fall into some strange opinions, and from opinion to practice,
which caused some controversy between the church and him. He moved
to the church of Salem but soon fell into more things there. He is
to be pitied and prayed for; and so I shall leave the matter and desire
the Lord to show him his errors and reduce him into the way of truth.
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