Roger Williams

1603 - 1683  (79 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 24 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Roger Williams
  Birth	21 Dec 1603	Long Lane, Middlesex, London, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	1 Apr 1683	Providence, Providence Co, Rhode Island, USA
  Siblings	1 Sibling
  + 1. Roger Williams,   b. 21 Dec 1603, Long Lane, Middlesex, London, England d. 1 Apr 1683, Providence, Providence Co, Rhode Island, USA  (Age 79 years) ▻ Mary Barnard,  m. 15 Dec 1629 + 2. Sydrack Williams,   b. 10 Jan 1600, St Sepulchre, London, England d. 29 Apr 1647, Barwick In Elmet, Yorkshire, England  (Age 47 years) ▻ Anne Tiller,  m. 10 Oct 1621
  Person ID	I318734	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	17 Oct 2001

  
  

  Father	James Williams,   b. Between 1562 and 1576, St. Albans, Hertsfordshire, England d. 7 Sep 1620, London, Middlesex, England (Age 58 years)
  Mother	Alice Pemberton,   b. 18 Feb 1563-1564, St. Alban's, Hertfordshire, England d. 1 Aug 1634, St Sepulchre, London, England (Age 70 years)
  Marriage	2 Jan 1597	St. Alban's, Hertfordshire, England
  Family ID	F127009	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Barnard   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	15 Dec 1629	High Laver Church, Essex, England
  Children	+ 1. Mary Williams,   b. Aug 1635, Salem, Essex Co, Massachusetts, USA d. 1681 (Age 45 years) + 2. Freeborn Williams,   b. 4 Oct 1635, Salem, Essex Co, Massachusetts, USA d. 10 Dec 1709, New Port, Rhode Island, NY (Age 74 years)   3. Providence Williams,   b. Sep 1638, Providence, Providence Co, Rhode Island, USA d. Mar 1687 (Age 48 years)   4. Mercy Williams,   b. 3 Jul 1640   d. Yes, date unknown   5. Daniel Williams,   b. 15 Feb 1642, Providence, Providence Co, Rhode Island, USA d. 14 May 1712 (Age 70 years)   6. Joseph Williams,   b. 12 Dec 1643, Providence, Providence Co, Rhode Island, USA d. 17 Aug 1724 (Age 80 years)   7. Sowwe Roger Williams,   b. 1645, Providence, Providence Co, Rhode Island, USA d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F127002	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Oct 2001

  
  

• Notes

  Ref. Farmer - Gen. Register of First Settlers of New England Boston 1829 Williams - Roger was born in Wales in 1599, was educated at Oxford, came to New England and arrived at Nantasket 5 Feb 1631, settled at Salem as a teaching elder with Rev Samuel Skelton, 12 April 12 April 1631; went that same year to Plymouth where he preached two years and returned to Salem in 1633 and was the sole pastor after Mr. Skelton's death. He was banished from the Mass. Colony in Nov 1635, went to Rhode Island in 1636, laid the foundation for that Colony, for which he went to England in 1643 for a charter, which he obtained and landed with it in Boston Sept. 1644, was in England from 1651-4 and on his return was chosen President of the Colony and remained in office until 1657. The earliest and boldest champion of rights of all men, " fully to have and enjoy their own judgements and consciences in matters of religious concernment". He died At Providence in April 1683, age 84 from: The State of Rhode Island web site, http://www.state.ri.us/rihist/earlyh.htm Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, the first real democracy, was born in London, England about 1602. This is an estimated date based on rather vague references made by him in later years ragarding his age. The parish records of St. Sepulchre's Church where he was christened were destroyed in the Great London Fire in 1666, so the exact date can not be determined. He was one of the four children of James Williams, Merchant Taylor, and his wife Alice, the daughter of Robert and Catherine (Stokes) Pemberton of St. Albans, Hertfordshire. He took orders in the Church of England and in 1629 accepted the post of chaplain to Sir William Masham at his manor house at Otes in Essex. His courtship of Jane Whalley was brought to an abrupt termination by the disapproval of her aunt, Lady Barrington. Stung by the rejection, the young clergyman became ill of a fever and was nursed back to health by Mary Barnard, a member of Lady Masham's household. She is believed to have been the daughter of the Reverend Richard Bernard (or Barnard) of Works hop in Nottinghamshire. Roger Williams and Mary Barnard were married at High Laver Church in Essex on December 15, 1629. Roger Williams' last years were spent in service to the community. He held the office of town clerk for many years. The precise date of his death is unknown, but it occurred sometime between January 16 and March 16, 1682-83. His funeral was attended with such honors as the town could provide and a salute of guns was fired over his grave. He was buried in the orchard in the rear of his homestead lot. Many years later, his remains were disinterred and placed in the tomb of a descendant in the North Burial Ground. In 1936 they were sealed within a bronze container and set into the base of the monument erected to his memory on Prospect Terrace. His statue gazes out over the city where his principles of freedom of thought and worship, separation of Church and State, and equality for all men, regardless of race or creed were first put into practice. He left no great estate of worldly goods, but this was his immortal legacy to the freedom of loving peoples of all the world. ___________________________________ Roger Williams was born in England between 1603 and 1606. He grew up a member of the privileged class and received a thorough liberal arts education from Sir Edward Coke, the great English jurist. Under Sir Edward's tutelage, Williams attended Cambridge, receiving his B.A. in 1627. He abandoned the study of law to become a priest in the Church of England. Williams was interested in the Puritan movement and the newly established Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was warmly welcomed to the New World by Massachusetts governor John Winthrop when he arrived in Boston. Williams was an adamant separatist and accepted a post as an assistant pastor in Salem, reputedly a friendly place. However, his teachings were deemed radical and he was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island in 1636 and secured a charter for Providence Plantation in 1664. His greatest gift to the colonies was his authorship of the declaration of the principle of religious liberty. Roger Williams died in 1683, around the age of 80. Three hundred years after his banishment from Massachusetts, a monument in his honor was erected in Providence, Rhode Island. Set in a public park once part of Williams's property, it reminds Rhode Islanders of their illustrious founder and champion of religious freedom. _______________________ The following is unconfimed information taken from; http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/8752/williams.html Generation No. 1 ROGER WILLIAMS was born 1602 in England, and died 1683 in Providence, Providence Co., Rhode Island. He married MARY BARNARD 12-15-1629, daughter of RICHARD BARNARD and . Children of ROGER WILLIAMS and MARY BARNARD are: i. MERCY WILLIAMS, b. 7-3-1640, Providence, Providence Co., Rhode Island. ii. MARY WILLIAMS, b. 8-1635, Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts; d. 1681; m. JOHN SAYLES, 1650. iii. FREEBORN WILLIAMS, b. 10-1635, Salem, Essex Co., Massachusetts; d. 12-10-1709; m. (1) THOMAS HART, 6-3-1658; m. (2) WALTER CLARKE, 3-6-1683. iv. PROVIDENCE WILLIAMS, b. 9-1638, Providence, Providence Co., Rhode Island; d. 3-1686. v. DANIEL WILLIAMS, b. 2-15-1641, Providence, Providence Co., Rhode Island; d. 5-14-1712; m. REBECCA RHODES, 12-7-1676. vi. JOSEPH WILLIAMS, b. 12-12-1643, Providence, Providence Co., Rhode Island; d. 8-17-1724; m. LYDIA OLNEY, 12-17-1669. vii. SOWWE ROGER WILLIAMS, b. 1645, Providence, Providence Co., Rhode Island. ______________________________ Christian zeal is aspersed by the Puritans of the North, who, as early as 1629 shipped John Morton5 and John and Samuel Brown6 back to England for no crime save that of eating Christmas pies and using the book of Common Prayer; who, in 1630, took away the citizenship of the Rev. William Bloxton,7 and compelled him to sell his property at an enormous sacrifice and move away because he was a minister of the Church of England; who, by 1680, had exiled every Episcopal minister in all New England but one-old Father Jordan, who was too poor and too "broken in fortune and in spirit to move;"8 who in 1644, in the very depths of winter, drove Roger Williams9 from his church in Salem, through the ice and snows of Massachusetts, to the Indian wilderness of Rhode Island, so that he did not "for fourteen weeks know what bed or bread did mean," and "had no house but a hollow tree;" who, in 1657, exiled Ann Breden, and whipped, imprisoned and mutilated her companions by slitting first one ear, then the other, and then "bored their tongues with red hot irons;" who, in 1659, imprisoned Wenlock Christison and twenty-seven of his companions, and rounded the catatogue of crimes by hanging Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson, William Seddra and Mary Dyer.10 5. McConneIl's Hist. of American Episcopal Church, p, 36. 6. Bancroft's History of the United States., p.349. 7. McConnell, p.39. 8. McConnell, p.39. 9. Bancroft, p.367-77. 10. Bancroft, pp.452 to 458. ____________ Cotton Mather says, "about the year 1630, there arrived here one Mr. Roger Williams; who being a preacher that had less light than fire in him, hath by his own sad example, preached unto us the danger of that evil which the apostle mentions in Rom. 10:2; 'They have a zeal, but not according to knowledge.'" (Magnalia Christi Americana, vol. II., p. 495) Henry Martyn Dexter, in his monograph, As to Roger Williams and His Banishment, Etc., (1876), goes further, "When [Williams] lived in Massachusetts, he was evidently a hot- headed youth, of determined perseverance, vast energy, considerable information, intense convictions, a decided taste for novelty, a hearty love of controversy, a habit of hasty speech with absolute carelessness of consequences, and a religious horror of all expediency. . ." (Christianity and Civilization, No. 1, Spring, 1982, pp. 237,238) John Quincy Adams would later call Williams "conscientiously contentious." _____________- from; http://www.wisecomp.com/ccl/NESettlers.htm JOHN, Ipswich, b. a. 1590, it is said, at Newent in Co. Gloucester, came, prob. in the ---Lion--- to Boston, Feb. 1631, with ----Roger Williams----, _______________________ one must wonder if the Elias Doughtie who signed the Remonstrance was related to the Rev. Doughty mentioned as follows; Baptist Principles and History Taken from The Baptist Reporter, October, 1851. <http://www.techplus.com/bkjv1611/bd0428.htm> All the more prominent Baptists of that period became such after their arrival in the New World. Roger Williams became a Baptist, for example, eight years after his arrival, and three years after his banishment from Massachusetts for his views of liberty of conscience, which were truly thought to “tend to Anabaptistry.” When he became convinced of the truth of our views in 1639, there was not a Baptist minister in the country to administer the ordinance. The little Baptist church formed in Weymouth, Mass., that same year, was broken up by the civil power: by fines, imprisonment, and banishment. Yet the year following, Hanserd Knollys, then first pastor in Dover, N.H., embraced baptist principles, and returning to England, spent a long and glorious life in their defence; dying at last, as Cotton Mather tells us, “a good man, in a good old age.” The Lady Moody, of Lynn, became a Baptist in 1642.... It is not generally known that, next to Rhode Island, New York, under the rule of the Dutch, was an early asylum for the persecuted Baptists. The first settlers of the “Empire State,” then a small Dutch colony, brought with them from Holland those principles of toleration, which forty years before, (1573) William I., Prince of Orange, the Father of Belgic liberty, and the friend of the Baptists, had succeeded in introducing into the constitution of the republic, in spite of the strenuous resistance of the clergy and nobles. Hence, as the Puritans, when driven by persecution from England, first sought refuge in Holland, so the persecuted Baptists and others in New England, sought refuge in “New Netherlands,” now New York. Long Island, from its greater convenience, or supposed security, was the part of New York especially settled by these fugitives from New England puritan intolerance. The first notice of this sort we have seen, relates to the celebrated Hanserd Knollys, the persecuted pastor of Dover, N. H., in 1641. Just before that good man was recalled to England, it seems, from Backus’s History, that he and others like-minded, had already purchased a plantation on Long Island, to which it is presumed they went without him. From Hoffman’s “Pioneers of New York” we learn the following facts. “In 1642 a band of religionists, led on by the ------Rev. Mr. Doughty------, Richard Smith, and others, who had followed the pilgrims from Old England to New England, were compelled to withdraw from the latter country by the persecution they received there, and after making formal application to the authorities of New Netherlands, they had a grant of land assigned to them, endowed with the usual privilege of free manors, free exercise of their religion, powers to plant towns, build churches, nominate magistrates, and administer civil and criminal jurisprudence. Six months later, Throgmorton, who had already been driven with ----Roger Williams----- from Massachusetts by the fiery Hugh Peters, procured permission to settle thirty-five families on the lands in Westchester County, now known as Throg’s Neck, which the New Netherlanders at that time named Vredeland, or, “Land of Peace.”–In the same year the----- Lady Moody----, with her minor son Sir Henry, and many followers, fled in a similar manner from New England to the asylum of New Netherlands, and founded the town of Gravezend, (now Gravesend) on Long Island. To which island Thomas Ffarrington, John Townsend, William Lawrence, John F. Ffirman, and others, were compelled, in the next twenty months, to remove with their families from New England, and after accepting a grant of land from the authorities of New Netherlands, enrolled themselves as liegemen of that province. The historian De Laet says, in speaking of this period of the history of New Netherlands, “Numbers, nay, whole towns, to escape from the insupportable government of New England, removed to New Netherlands, to enjoy that liberty denied them by their own countrymen.” It is worth stating in this connexion, adds Mr. Hoffman, that the Dutch language is at this very day still spoken in many of the localities of Long Island, by some of the descendants of these English emigrants. How many of the above emigrants were Baptists, we have not the means of knowing precisely; but Knollys, Throgmorton, and the -----Lady Moody----- it is known were so, and these were the heads of three separate companies. Why Throgmorton should have left Providence for Long Island, is uncertain. It might be from the difficulty mentioned by -----Roger Williams------, as the ground of his appointment, in September of that very year, to go to England for a charter–the “frequent exceptions against Providence men, that we had no authority of civil government.” How wonderful are the ways of God! ---Roger Williams-----, as a banished man, was denied the privilege of sailing on that occasion from the port of Boston. Obliged thus, in the spring of 1643 to go to Manhattan, now New York, to find a passage, he came there just in season, by his generous mediation, to put an end to the war then raging between the Indians and the Dutch–in which the famous Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and her family perished, and the dwelling of Lady Moody was assailed. Of the last named excellent woman, who so mercifully escaped destruction, and of whom it would be gratifying to know more, we have this honourable account from Winthrop’s Journal–coloured, of course, by the strong prejudice of the age against the Baptists. “----The Lady Mood-----, a wise and anciently religious woman, being taken in the error of denying baptism to infants, was dealt withal by many of the elders and others, and admonished by the church of Salem, (whereof she was a member;) but persisting still, and to avoid further trouble, she removed to the Dutch, against the advice of all her friends. Many others, infected with anabaptism, removed thither also.” Vol. ii., pp. 123, 124. -------------- From the Roger Williams Family Association <http://www.mouseworks.net/rogerwilliams/biography.htm> ROGER WILLIAMS was born in London, circa 1604, the son of James and Alice (Pemberton) Williams. James, the son of Mark and Agnes (Audley) Williams was a "merchant Tailor" (an importer and trader) and probably a man of some importance. His will, proved 19 November 1621, left, in addition to bequests to his "loving wife, Alice," to his sons, Sydrach, Roger and Robert, and to his daughter Catherine, money and bread to the poor in various sections of London. The will of Alice (Pemberton) Williams was admitted to probate 26 January 1634. Among other bequests, she left the sum of Ten Pounds yearly for twenty years to her son, Roger Williams, "now beyond the seas." She further provided that if Roger predeceased her, "what remaineth thereof unpaid ... shall be paid to his wife and daughter...." Obviously, by the time of her death, Roger's mother was aware of the birth in America in 1633 of her grandchild, Mary Williams. Roger's youth was spent in the parish of "St. Sepulchre's, without Newgate, London." While a young man, he must have been aware of the numerous burnings at the stake that had taken place at nearby Smithfield of so-called Puritans or heretics. This probably influenced his later strong beliefs in civic and religious liberty. During his teens, Roger Williams came to the attention of Sir Edward Coke, a brilliant lawyer and one-time Chief Justice of England, through whose influence he was enrolled at Sutton's Hospital, a part of Charter House, a school in London. He next entered Pembroke College at Cambridge University from which he graduated in 1627. All of the literature currently available at Pembroke to prospective students mentions Roger Williams, his part in the Reformation, and his founding of the Colony of Rhode Island. At Pembroke, he was one of eight granted scholarships based on excellence in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Pembroke College in Providence, once the women's college of Brown University, was named after Pembroke at Cambridge in honor of Roger Williams. In the years after he left Cambridge, Roger Williams was Chaplain to a wealthy family, and on 15 December 1629, he married MARY BARNARD at the Church of High Laver, Essex, England. Even at this time, he became a controversial figure because of his ideas on freedom of worship. And so, in 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Roger thought it expedient to leave England. He arrived, with Mary, on 5 February 1631 at Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their passage was aboard the ship Lyon (Lion). He preached first at Salem, then at Plymouth, then back to Salem, always at odds with the structured Puritans. When he was about to be deported back to England, Roger fled southwest out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was befriended by local Indians and eventually settled at the headwaters of what is now Narragansett Bay, after he learned that his first settlement on the east bank of the Seekonk River was within the boundaries of the Plymouth Colony. Roger purchased land from the Narragansett Chiefs, Canonicus and Miantonomi and named his settlement Providence in thanks to God. The original deed remains in the Archives of the City of Providence. Roger Williams made two trips back to England during his lifetime. The first in June or July 1643 was to obtain a Charter for his colony to forestall the attempt of neighboring colonies to take over Providence. He returned with a Charter for "the Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay" which incorporated Providence, Newport and Portsmouth. During this voyage, he produced his best-known literary work -- Key into the Languages of America, which when published in London in 1643, made him the authority on American Indians. On his return, Roger Williams started a trading post at Cocumscussoc (now North Kingstown) where he traded with the Indians and was known for his peacemaking between the neighboring colonists and the Indians. But again colony affairs interfered, and in 1651 he sold his trading post and returned to England with John Clarke (a Newport preacher) in order to have the Charter confirmed. Because of family responsibilities, he returned sometime before 1654. John Clarke finally obtained the Royal Charter from Charles II on 8 July 1663, thereby averting further trouble with William Coddington and some colonists at Newport, who had previously obtained a charter for a separate colony. Roger Williams was Governor of the Colony 1654 through 1658. During the later years of his life, he saw almost all of Providence burned during King Philip's War, 1675-1676. He lived to see Providence rebuilt. He continued to preach, and the Colony grew through its acceptance of settlers of all religious persuasions. The two volumes of the correspondence of Roger Williams recently published by the Rhode Island Historical Society, Glenn W. LaFantasie, Editor, present an excellent picture of his philosophy and personality. Unfortunately, there was no known painting made of him during his lifetime, although many artists and sculptors have portrayed him as they envision him. Roger and Mary (Barnard) Williams were the parents of six children, all born in America: 1. MARY, born at Plymouth, Plymouth Colony, August 1633, died 1684; married JOHN SAYLES in 1650; six children. John and Mary Sayles lived on Aquidneck Island and are buried near Easton's Beach, Middletown, Rhode Island. 2. FREEBORN, born at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 4 October 1635, died 10 January 1710; married first THOMAS HART, died 1671; four children. There were no children of Freeborn's second marriage to WALTER CLARKE, a Governor of Newport. 3. PROVIDENCE, born at Providence, September 1638, died March 1686; never married. 4. MERCY, born at Providence, 15 July 1640, died circa 1705; married first in 1659 RESOLVED WATERMAN, born July 1638, died August 1670; five children. Mercy married second SAMUEL WINSOR, born 1644, died 19 September 1705; three children. 5. DANIEL, born at Providence, February 1641 "counting years to begin about ye 25 of March so yt he was borne above a year & half after Mercy (Carpenter, Roger Williams), died 14 May 1712; married 7 December 1676 REBECCA (RHODES) POWER, died 1727, widow of Nicholas Power; six children. 6. JOSEPH, born at Providence, 12 December 1643, died 17 August 1724; married LYDIA OLNEY, born 1645, died 9 September 1724; six children. Roger Williams died at Providence between 16 January and 16 April 1683/84, his wife Mary having predeceased him in 1676. His descendants have contributed in many ways, first to the establishment of an independent Colony, later to the establishment of an independent state in a united nation. The United States of America has maintained the reality of separation of church and state which Roger Williams envisioned, and ordained in his settlement at Providence. Sources: Carpenter, Edmund J., Litt.D., Roger Williams, New York, 1909; Anthony, Bertha W., Roger Williams of Providence, RI, Vol. II, Cranston, RI, 1966; Haley, John Williams, The Old Stone Bank History of Rhode Island , Vol. IV, Providence, 1944; Hall, May Emery, Roger Williams, Boston, 1917. SUGGESTED READING Master Roger Williams, A Biography (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1957) by Ola Elizabeth Winslow. Roger Williams, A Contribution to the American Tradition (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc, Indianapolis and New York, 1953) by Perry Miller. The Irrepressible Democrat, Roger Williams (The Ronald Press Company, New York, 1940) by Samuel Brockunier. Roger Williams, New England Firebrand (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1932) by James Ernst. The Correspondence of Roger Williams (Brown University Press, Providence, 1988) by Glenn W. LaFantasie. Descendants of Roger Williams - Book I - Waterman & Winsor Lines (Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore, 1991) by Dorothy Higson White and Kay Kirlin Moore. ___________ http://automaticwriting.com/Chapter_35/chapter_35.html "The expulsion of Williams and the Antinomians left Massachusetts a safer but duller place. It distressed Governor Winthrop to find that Williams gave sanctuary to Mrs. Hutchinson in Narragansett Bay, and that the two of them were hatching new heretical doctrines; 'It was apparent,' he concluded, 'that God had given them up to strange delusions'"[1] He saw the hand of God at work on Mrs. H. again in 1643 when she and her family were massacred by Indians. One of the "strange delusions" was about baptism. Anne Hutchinson's sister "...convinced Williams that infant baptism was not commanded in Scripture and that only those capable of confessing their faith and experience of grace should be baptized. (Anabaptism strikes again.) That fall or winter, Williams and ten others... recanted their infant baptism and baptized each other by total immersion. "This was the first Baptist Church in America and the church thus founded and led by Williams still bears that name, though Williams, characteristically, left the church after four months because he began to have doubts about the validity of baptism by immersion as the true basis of church order. Thereafter he called himself a "Seeker" and never joined any church. At first the theology of the First Baptist Church was Calvinistic, but in 1652 the church divided over the doctrine of predestination. Those who held that Christ died so that all could be saved, not just the elect, thereupon became Arminian Baptists. At the same time, they adopted the ritual of 'laying on of hands'..., which made them 'Six Principle' Baptists as opposed to the old Five Principle (or Particular, predestinarian) Baptists. Two decades later, another group of Baptists... adopted Saturday as the rightful day of worship and split off to form the first Seventh Day Baptist churches in America. This perfectionist (and literalist) search for the most pure form of faith and worship produced as much confusion and fragmentation in Rhode Island's religious life as the principles of democracy and religious liberty produced in the colony's civil affairs."[5] _____________________ Roger Williams departed Salem, Massachusetts in the midst of a gloomy, winter landscape, just as the sun was setting. Snow carpeted the forest floor, and a cruel wind whipped through the dark and forbidding trees: Thus a 19th Century artist (1) set about portraying the banishment of Roger Williams. This episode marked the start of a journey which led to the founding of a civil government permitting unlimited toleration of religions and where no one could be punished for following the dictates of conscience. In 1636 his small settlement on the Narragansett Bay at the Seekonk and Providence Rivers created the force which within a short period of time became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Williams the puritan minister, banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his belief in Liberty of Conscience, could now demonstrate that his settlement, with HOPE IN THE DIVINE, was able to stand its ground against external dangers and internal confusion. While he was living in Massachusetts he had cultivated an acquaintance with the Indians and before he left that colony he had met Canonicus and Massasoit. This friendship with the Indians was the key to how Williams was able to plan his new settlement within the very center of Indian Territory. In the fall of 1635, Williams had denounced the rules of Massachusetts. He was summoned to court to answer charges on his denunciation of the "freeman's oath" which he saw as a transfer of allegiance from King Charles I to the government of Massachusetts. His refusal to obey that summons caused him to flee through the wilderness to the Mount Hope Bay and the kingdom of Massasoit. This great Wampanoag sachem granted Williams a tract of land on the Seekonk River. There he was joined by friends from Salem and they began to build; however in order to avoid any complication with the Plymouth Colony they crossed the Seekonk and moved to the site of Providence where they made their first permanent settlement in June, 1636. Williams' friendship with the Indians, and their respect from him, derived from his firm belief that "nature knows no difference between European and American (Indian) in blood, birth, bodies.." He did not share the contempt of the English for the"Savage". Williams traded and preached with the Indian, taking the trouble to learn their language. The new settlements within the Narragansett Bay area provided a unique opportunity for religious liberty and it also gave many enterprising individuals an opportunity to succeed in business. In 1643, these loosely knit settlements in the Narragansett Bay area recognized the need for some form of central government. That following year Williams was able to arrange for a patent or legal document which gave political sovereignty to these settlements and for the first time the inhabitants of the region were joined together into a single body politic. Roger Williams, founder, led the development of political and religious liberty, and practical democracy. We must not forget his friends Massasoit,