Roger Williams

Roger Williams was born in 1602 in London, England. The exact date is unknown as his birth records were destroyed when St. Sepulchre's Church burned during the Great Fire of London in 1666. His parents were James Williams (a merchant tailor in Smithfield) and Alice Pemberton. He is best known as the founder of the colony of Rhode Island as well as one of the first promoters of the idea of separation between church and state.

Early in his life he was apprenticed as a teen under Sir Edward Coke, the famous jurist; he was educated at Charter Schoolhouse under Coke's patronage. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Pembroke College in Cambridge, and excelled at language studies, learning Hebrew, Greek, Dutch, French, and Latin. It is said that years later, he tutored John Milton in Dutch and Native American languages in exchange for reviews of Hebrew.

While at Cambridge, Williams became a Puritan. After graduating, he became the chaplain to Sir William Masham. In April 1629, he proposed to Jane Whalley, but she declined. Later that year, on December 15, 1629, he married Mary Bernard, daughter of notable Puritan preacher and author Reverend Richard Bernard. They had six children, all born in America:

1. Mary Williams

2. Providence Williams

3. Freeborn Williams

4. Mercy Williams

5. Daniel Williams

6. Joseph Williams

Williams knew that Puritan leaders planned to migrate to the New World. He did not join the first wave, but he decided before the year ended that he could not remain in England under Archbishop William Laud's rigorous administration. He regarded the Church of England as corrupt and false, and he had arrived at the Separatist position by the time that he and his wife boarded the Lyon in early December 1630.

Upon his arrival, he was invited to serve as pastor to the Boston church, but declined due to its continued ties with the Church of England. He was then invited to Salem, a separatist church, and served there and in Plymouth Colony before being banished from Massachusetts; he disagreed with the colony's policies of taking Indian land without compensation and legally punishing impiety.

He then settled in Narragansett Bay and studied the language of the Narragansett Indians. He and his companions purchased land from the Narragansett and founded both the settlement of Providence and the colony of Rhode Island. The government of this territory featured a more open democracy than Massachusetts, including absolute freedom of religion and no established church. Williams would go on to found the first Baptist church in America before declaring himself an unaffiliated Christian "seeker," and would serve as president of the Rhode Island colony from 1654 to 1657.

He died on April 1, 1683 in Providence, Rhode Island and is buried there.

Gov/Founder of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Theologian; Author, Clergyman, Reverend, Preacher of the Gospel/ Statesman, Reverand, Minister, President of the colony, 1654-57, Preacher

Label: Minister

https://www.history.com/topics/reformation/roger-williams

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams