CHAPTER XXVII.

Hireling Ministry none of Christ’s—the ministry—controversy with

George Fox—other writings—character as a writer—his general

character.

In the same year, 1652, in which the last mentioned book was published,

Mr. Williams printed a pamphlet, with the title, “The Hireling Ministry

none of Christ’s, or a Discourse touching the Propagating the Gospel of

Christ Jesus. Humbly presented to such pious and honorable hands, whom

the present debate thereof concerns. By Roger Williams, of Providence,

in New-England. London. Printed in the second month.” It is a small

quarto, of thirty-six pages. No copy is known to the writer to exist in

this country, except in the Library of the American Antiquarian Society,

in Worcester, which contains a duplicate. One of the copies was loaned

to the author, by the politeness of the Librarian.

This pamphlet is valuable, because it contains a more clear exposition

of Mr. Williams’ views respecting the ministry, than any other of his

works. It begins with an “Epistle Dedicatory, to all such honorable and

pious hands, whom the present debate touching the propagating of

Christ’s Gospel concerns; and to all such gentle Bereans, who, with

ingenious civility, desire to search, whether what’s presented

concerning Christ Jesus be so or not.” In this epistle, the author says,

“I have not been altogether a stranger to the learning of the Egyptians,

and have trod the hopefullest paths to worldly preferment, which, for

Christ’s sake, I have forsaken. I know what it is to study, to preach,

to be an elder, to be applauded, and yet also what it is to tug at the

oar, to dig with the spade and plough, and to labor and travel day and

night, amongst English, amongst barbarians.”

The chief purpose of the work is, to oppose a legal establishment of

religion, and the compulsory support of the clergy.

The principal points maintained are three: 1. There is now no ministry,

which is authorized to preach to the heathen, or to exercise pastoral

functions. 2. There ought to be a perfect liberty to all men to maintain

such worship and ministry as they please. 3. Ministers ought be

supported, by voluntary donations, and not by legal provision.

1. On the first point, he partially stated his views, in his preceding

works on the Bloody Tenet; but in this pamphlet, he expounds them more

fully. His opinions appear to have rested entirely on a misconception of

passages in the Revelations. He believed, that the “white troopers”

mentioned in the 6th and 19th chapters of Revelations, were the true

ministers, and that they were utterly routed, till after the slaying of

the witnesses and their resurrection. “The apostolical commission and

ministry is long since interrupted and discontinued, yet ever since the

beast Antichrist rose, the Lord Jesus hath stirred up the ministry of

prophecy, who must continue their witness and prophecy, until their

witness be finished, and slaughters, probably near approaching, be

accomplished.” “In the poor small span of my life, I desired to have

been a diligent and constant observer, and have been myself many ways

engaged, in city, in country, in court, in schools, in universities, in

churches, in Old and New-England; and yet cannot, in the holy presence

of God, bring in the result of a satisfying discovery, that either the

begetting ministry of the apostles or messengers to the churches, or the

feeding and nourishing ministry of pastors and teachers, according to

the first institution of the Lord Jesus, are yet restored and

extant.”—p. 4.

In his “Bloody Tenet made more Bloody,” he says, that “Christ Jesus

sends out preachers three ways: 1st. In his own person, as the twelve

and seventy. 2dly. By his visible, kingly power, left in the hands of

his true churches, and the officers and governors thereof. 3dly. Christ

Jesus, as King of the Church and Head of his body, during the

distractions of his house and kingdom, under Antichrist’s apostacy,

immediately by his own Holy Spirit, stirs up and sends out those fiery

witnesses to testify against Antichrist and his several

abominations.”—p. 99.

He says, in the work before us: “All (of what rank soever) that have

knowledge and utterance of heavenly mysteries, and therein are the

Lord’s prophets and witnesses against Antichrist, must prophesy against

false Christs, false faith, false love, false joy, false worship and

ministrations, false hope and false Heaven, which poor souls in a golden

dream expect and look for.

“This prophecy ought to be (chiefly) exercised among the saints, in the

companies, meetings and assemblies of the fellow-mourners, and witnesses

against the falsehoods of Antichrist. If any come in (as 1 Cor: 14,)

yea, if they come to _catch_, God will graciously more or less vouchsafe

to _catch them_, if he intends to save them.

“But for the going out to the nations, cities, towns, as to the nations,

cities, and towns of the world, unconverted, until the downfall of the

Papacy, (Rev. 18,) and so the mounting of the Lord Jesus and his white

troopers again (Rev. 19, &c.) for the going out to preach upon hire; for

the going out to convert sinners, and yet to hold communion with them as

saints in prayer; for the going out without such a powerful call from

Christ, as the twelve and the seventy had, or without such suitable

gifts as the first ministry was furnished with, and this especially

without a due knowledge of the prophecies to be fulfilled, I have no

faith to act, nor in the actings and ministries of others.”—pp. 21, 22.

He avers, nevertheless, that he had strong desires to labor for the good

of all men: “By the merciful assistance of the Most High, I have desired

to labor in Europe, in America, with English, with Barbarians, yea, and

also, I have longed after some trading with the Jews themselves, for

whose hard measure, I fear the nations and England hath yet a score to

pay.”—p. 13. He states his opinion, however, that no remarkable

conversion of the nations is yet to be expected, because smoke filled

the temple till Antichrist was overthrown. Rev. 15: 8.

In the “Bloody Tenet made more Bloody,” he says, on this subject, that

though he approved endeavors to teach the Indians, yet, “that any of the

ministers spoken of are furnished with true apostolical commission

(Matt. 28,) I see not, for these reasons: 1st. The ordinary ministry, is

not the apostolical, Eph. 4. 1 Cor. 12. 2dly. The churches of

New-England are not pure churches. 3dly. Men cannot preach to the

Indians in any propriety of their speech or language.”—p. 219.

These extracts sufficiently explain his views. It is remarkable, that a

man, whose mind was so strong and clear, on most subjects, should become

perplexed with such difficulties, in relation to the ministry and the

church. That the passages in the Apocalypse, to which he refers, do not

authorize his conclusions, we need not attempt to prove. He might well

deny, that most of the communities which then claimed to be Christian

churches, were entitled to the name; and might, with truth, maintain,

that a large proportion of those who professed, at that time, to be

ministers of Christ, were not sanctioned by his commission. But it did

not follow, that no church, formed according to the models furnished in

the New Testament, then existed, and that no true ministers could be

found. A company of true believers, united in one society, for worship,

for mutual watchfulness, for the maintenance of discipline, and for the

celebration of the ordinances, is a church. A pious man, who can teach

others, and who is moved, by a proper conviction of duty, and is

authorized by a church, to preach the Gospel, is a duly appointed

minister. It is manifest, from the tenor of the New Testament, that an

order of ministers was intended to be continued. The same ends for which

the first ministers were appointed,—the conversion of the impenitent,

and the edification of believers,—still require, that, ministers be

employed in the work of spreading and upholding Christianity. The same

means are to be employed,—the declaration of divine truth. The

supernatural gifts of the first ministers were necessary, as an

attestation of the truth of Christianity; but it was not by the

miracles, but by the truth, accompanied by the influences of the Holy

Spirit, that men were converted. The experience of modern missions

demonstrates, that men can learn to speak “with propriety” the languages

of the heathen, and that the Gospel, when preached now, in Burmah, or in

Hindostan, or in Greenland, or in our western forests, is “the power of

God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1: 16.

But it is needless to argue a point, so clear as this. Mr. Williams’

erroneous views on the subject before us, did not affect his feelings on

the great question of religious liberty. He was willing, that others

should establish churches and maintain ministers, if they chose. This is

the second point which we mentioned.

2. He says, “I desire not that liberty to myself, which I would not

freely and impartially weigh out to all the consciences of the world

beside. And, therefore, I do humbly conceive, that it is the will of the

Most High, and the express and absolute duty of the civil powers, to

proclaim an absolute freedom in all the three nations, yea, in all the

world, (were their power so large) that each town and division of

people, yea, and each person, may freely enjoy what worship, what

ministry, what maintenance to afford them, their soul desireth.”—p. 19.

In a subsequent page, he adds: “All these consciences (yea, the very

consciences of the Papists, Jews, &c. as I have proved at large in my

answer to Master Cotton’s washings) ought freely and impartially to be

permitted their several respective worships, their ministers of

worships, and what way of maintaining them, they freely choose.”

3. On the subject of maintenance, he strongly objects to a “stated

salary,” by which he evidently means a stipend, fixed and raised by law.

He contends, that ministers ought to be supported, like the first

preachers, by voluntary donations. He does not fully explain his views,

but it does not appear, that he had any objection to a fixed sum, or to

any particular mode of collecting it, provided that it was voluntarily

paid. The compulsory maintenance of the clergy, by tithes, and other

modes of taxation, without any concurrence of the persons taxed, was the

system against which he argued. He insisted, nevertheless, that

ministers are entitled to a maintenance, and that the members of a

church may be compelled, by the proper use of spiritual power, to

perform their duty, in contributing to the support of a minister. In the

“Bloody Tenet,” (p. 168) he says: “To that Scripture, Gal. 6: 6. ‘Let

him that is taught in the word make him that teacheth partake of all his

goods,’ I answer, that teaching was of persons converted, believers

entered into the school and family of Christ, the Church, which Church,

being rightly gathered, is also rightly invested with the power of the

Lord Jesus, to force every soul therein by spiritual weapons and

penalties to do its duty.”

The doctrines of Roger Williams, on this subject, as well as on the

general principle of liberty of conscience, are rapidly gaining the

victory over the old system. A legal provision for the clergy, by which

all the citizens are compelled to pay for the support of religious

teachers, whether they choose to hear them or not, is unjust in

principle, and pernicious in practice; producing discontent and odium

among the people, and tending to introduce mere worldly and mercenary

men into the ministry. Its effects, even in Massachusetts, have

convinced men, of all parties, of its inexpediency. It is a coincidence,

which the author views with pleasure, that, while this book has been

passing through the press, the citizens of Massachusetts have adopted an

amendment of the Constitution, which, in its results, will sweep away

the last relic of the old system. The principles of Roger Williams will

soon be triumphantly established in Massachusetts, and there will not

be, even in theory, any dominant and favored sect, in this venerable

commonwealth. In every other State in our Union, entire religious

freedom is enjoyed. In England, the march is onward. In a few years, her

establishment must fall, and religion be placed, where it should be,

under the protection of the Saviour, drawing her revenues from the

willing hands of his followers, and renewing her strength and beauty, by

taking her appropriate station, like the angel in the sun, high above

the contaminations of the earth.

The book before us ends, with what the author calls the “_summa

totalis_:”

“1st. The civil state is bound, before God, to take off that bond and

yoke of soul oppression [the national establishment] and to proclaim

free and impartial liberty to all the people of the three nations, to

choose and maintain what worship and ministry their souls and

consciences are persuaded of.

“2dly. The civil state is humbly to be implored to provide, in their

high wisdom, for the security of all these respective consciences, in

their respective meetings, assemblings, worshippings, preachings,

disputings, &c. and that civil peace, and the beauty of civility and

humanity, be maintained among the chief opposers and dissenters.

“3dly. It is the duty of all that are in authority, and of all that are

able, to countenance, and encourage and supply all such true volunteers,

as give and devote themselves to the service and ministry of Christ

Jesus in any kind; although it be also the duty, and will be the

practice, of all such, whom the Spirit of God sends upon any work of

Christ’s, rather to work, as Paul did among the Corinthians and

Thessalonians, than the work and service of their Lord and Master should

be neglected.” pp. 29, 30.

Mr. Williams is said to have published, in London, in the same year,

1652, a work, entitled, “Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and

their Preservatives.” Of this book, no copy has come to our knowledge.

The only remaining printed book of Mr. Williams, is his narrative of the

dispute with the Quakers. It is entitled, “George Fox digged out of his

Burrowes, or an Offer of Disputation on fourteen Proposals, made this

last Summer, 1672, (so called,) unto G. Fox, then present on

Rhode-Island, in New-England, by R. W. As also how (G. Fox slily

departing) the Disputation went on, being managed three Days at Newport,

on Rhode-Island, and one day at Providence, between John Stubs, John

Burnet, and William Edmundson, on the one Part, and R. W. on the other.

In which many Quotations out of G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes’ Book in Folio

are alleged. With an Appendix, of some Scores of G. F. his simple and

lame Answers to his Opposites, in that Book, quoted and replied to, by

R. W. of Providence, in N. E. Boston. Printed by John Foster, 1676.” It

is a small quarto volume, of 327 pages. Its execution is creditable to

the American press, at that early day.

The book is dedicated to the King, Charles II. in a courteous epistle,

in which Mr. Williams calls New-England a “miserable, cold, howling

wilderness,” yet says, that God “hath made it His glory, your Majesty’s

glory, and a glory to the English and Protestant name.”

There is also an epistle “To the People called Quakers,” in which the

author says, “From my childhood, (now above threescore years) the Father

of Lights and Mercies touched my soul with a love to himself, to his

only-begotten, the true Lord Jesus, to his Holy Scriptures, &c. His

infinite wisdom hath given me to see the city, court and country, the

schools and universities of my native country, to converse with some

Turks, Jews, Papists, and all sorts of Protestants, and by books, to

know the affairs and religions of all countries, &c. My conclusion is,

that _Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee_ (Matt. 9) is one of

the joyfullest sounds that ever came to poor sinful ears.”

He says, “I have used some sharp, scripture language, but not (as

commonly you do) passionately and unjustly.”

He adds a letter “to those many learned and pious men whom G. Fox hath

so sillily and scornfully answered in his book in folio, especially to

those whose names I have been bold to mention in the Narrative and

Appendix, Mr. Richard Baxter, Mr. John Owen, &c.” In this letter is this

kind and liberal sentence: “As to matters in dispute between yourselves

and me, I willingly omitted them, as knowing, that many able and honest

seamen, in their observations of this sun (one picture of Christ Jesus)

differ sometimes in their reckonings, though uprightly aiming at, and

bound for, one port and harbor.”

Then follows the main body of the work, containing an interesting

account of the dispute, and a long and tedious examination of numerous

points of doctrine, which Mr. Fox and his friends maintained. We cannot

present an analysis of the book. It would afford neither profit nor

pleasure. Much of the discussion is a dispute about dark questions, and

many of Mr. Williams’ objections arose, probably, from the uncouth

phraseology with which Mr. Fox obscured his real meaning. Mr. Williams

might easily misunderstand his opponents, while they insisted so

strongly on the teachings of the inward light, on the formation of

Christ in the soul, and other similar doctrines. Mr. Fox, too, assumed

some positions, which none of the Friends would now approve. He

justified, for example, the abominable conduct of the females who

appeared naked in the streets, and contended that they acted under

divine inspiration. Mr. Williams said, “You shall never persuade souls

(not bewitched) that the Holy Spirit of God should persuade your women

and maidens to appear in public streets and assemblies stark naked.” Mr.

Fox replied, “We do believe thee in that dark, persecuting, bloody

spirit that thou and the New-England priests are bewitched in, you

cannot believe, that you are _naked_ from God, and his clothing, and

blind. And therefore hath the Lord in his power moved some of his sons

and daughters to go naked; yea, and they did tell them, in Oliver’s

days, and the Long Parliament’s, that God would strip them of their

Church profession, and of their power, as naked as they were. And so

they were true prophets and prophetesses to the nation, as many sober

men have confessed since, though thou and the old persecuting priests in

New-England remain in your blindness and nakedness.”[382] Mr. Williams

might well abhor Mr. Fox’s principles, if this had been a fair specimen

of their tendency.

Mr. Williams was accused by Mr. Fox and others of advocating

persecution, because he condemned the use of _Thee_ and _Thou_ to

superiors, as uncivil, and declared, that “a due and moderate restraint

and punishing of these incivilities (though pretending conscience) is as

far from persecution (properly so called) as that it is a duty and

command of God unto all mankind, first in families, and thence unto all

mankind societies.” p. 200. Mr. Williams did not reason on this point

with his usual clearness. If a man is conscientious about using the

terms Thee and Thou, and wearing his hat, he ought to be allowed to do

so, because these customs do not necessarily interfere with any other

man’s rights. But Mr. Williams viewed them as offences against civil

decorum, and thought that they should be restrained and punished as

such. He cannot, therefore, be justly accused of inconsistency in

relation to his principles of religious liberty. He probably had in his

view the offensive language, which some of the persons called Quakers

used toward magistrates and others.[383] It is, indeed, a curious

circumstance, that many of the early Quakers were remarkable for a

spirit of bitter railing. Mr. Baxter says: “The Quakers, in their shops,

when I go along London streets, say, ‘Alas! poor man, thou art yet in

darkness.’ They have oft come into the congregation, when I had liberty

to preach Christ’s Gospel, and cried out against me as a deceiver of the

people. They have followed me home, crying out in the streets, ‘The day

of the Lord is coming, when thou shalt perish as a deceiver.’ They have

stood in the market-place, and under my window year after year, crying

out to the people, ‘Take heed of your priests, they deceive your souls!’

and if they saw any one wear a lace or a rich clothing, they cried out

to me, ‘These are the fruit of thy ministry.’”[384] Similar scenes were

exhibited in this country. There was a remarkable contrast, at that

time, between the language and the general demeanor of the Quakers. They

used no force, and made no resistance, but they uttered, without stint,

the most virulent epithets. It might seem, that they had literally

adopted the counsel of Minerva to Achilles—not to unsheathe the sword,

but to reproach their adversaries with words:

“Μηδὲ ξιφος ἕλκεο χειρί,

Ἀλλ’ ήτοι έπεσιν μεν ονειδισον.”[385]

Mr. Williams, in writing his book, caught some of the same spirit, and

used a style of contemptuous bitterness, which was not natural to him.

Mr. Fox and Mr. Burnyeat replied in the same strain, though with more

coarseness. Their book is a quarto, of 489 pages. It is entitled, “A

New-England Firebrand Quenched,” &c. They filled twenty-four pages with

words and phrases culled from Mr. Williams’ book, with this preface: “A

catalogue of R. W’s. envious, malicious, scornful, railing stuff, false

accusations and blasphemies, which he foully and unchristianlike hath

scattered and dispersed through his book.” At the end are two letters,

the one from Mr. Coddington, and the other from Mr. Richard Scott, in

both of which Mr. Williams is spoken of with much harshness.

But we have done with these books. It would be well, for the reputation

of all the parties, if they could be forgotten.

We have thus reviewed all the printed books of Mr. Williams, of which we

have been able to obtain copies. Two or three treatises, which he wrote,

were not, it is presumed, printed. Among these, was the essay concerning

the patent, which excited the displeasure of the magistrates in

Massachusetts, before his banishment.[386] At the end of his Key, he

says, “I have further treated of these natives of New-England, and that

great point of their conversion, in a little additional discourse to

this.” This discourse we have never seen. In the letter to Governor

Bradstreet, (page 353 of this volume) Mr. Williams speaks of a

collection of heads of discourses preached to the “scattered English at

Narraganset,” and which Mr. Williams requests the Governor to assist him

in printing. It does not appear that it was printed. Dr. Holmes,

(Annals, vol. i. p. 411) says, “In the Prince Collection of MSS. are

heads of discourses, which he delivered to the Narraganset Indians.” An

ineffectual search has been made among the MSS. referred to, for these

heads of discourses, which may have been mislaid. They may be the same

as those mentioned in the letter to Governor Bradstreet.

There is said to be a MS. of one hundred and six quarto pages, in the

library of the Massachusetts Historical Society, entitled, “Esau and

Jacob’s Mystical Harmony,” &c. written in 1666, with a memorandum in Dr.

Stiles’ hand writing, “I suppose Roger Williams.” We have not had an

opportunity to examine this manuscript.

The letters of Mr. Williams were very numerous. He held an extensive

correspondence. Many of these letters are preserved, and many others are

referred to, which have perished.

Of the character of Mr. Williams, as a writer, those who have read the

letters and extracts from his books, contained in this volume, can form

a judgment. His style is very original and characteristic. It is the

outpouring of a full and ardent mind, too intent on the thought, to be

very careful of the expression. It is, consequently, not always correct;

but it is always clear and forcible. He exhibits ample learning, and

quotations from the classics are scattered through his writings, in an

easy and natural manner. He was very familiar with the Scriptures, which

he read in the original languages; though he, like most theological

writers of that time, was imperfectly acquainted with the laws of

interpretation. He had a very active imagination, and his style is full

of figures, always striking, and often happy, but not uniformly selected

and applied, with a pure taste. This liveliness of his fancy made him

fond of puns and quaint expressions, which he used, however, with no

design to amuse the reader, but to illustrate and enforce his meaning.

He had, indeed, a poetical mind, and some passages of his works remind

us of the magnificent periods of Milton and Taylor. The specimens of his

verses in his Key, though superior to much of the contemporary rhyme

contained in Morton’s Memorial and Mather’s Magnalia, are inferior, in

real poetic feeling and expression, to some paragraphs of his prose

works. He was one of those poets mentioned by Wordsworth,

“That are sown

By nature; men endowed with highest gifts,

The vision and the faculty divine,

Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse.”

His writings, in short, like those of all great minds, are a reflection

of his own character, and are marked with his excellencies and his

faults.

We must now close this book with a few observations concerning his

character. It is unnecessary to dwell minutely on this point, for no man

was ever more transparent; and those who have traced his history, have

had ample means of forming their own judgment.

His mental faculties were of a high order. His mind was strong, original

and independent. The clearness with which he discerned the true

principles of religious liberty, and the steadiness with which he

maintained them, in opposition to the general theory and practice of

that age, show a superior intellect. Few men are far in advance of their

contemporaries; and this is a wise arrangement of Providence, for such

men are not so immediately useful, as many others of inferior powers.

They are not understood—they offend the prejudices, and wound the

self-love of men. Their influence is of the nature of prophecy. They

plant principles, which are of slow growth, but which will eventually

produce rich fruit. Such individuals must be content to live for

posterity. They must be steadfast in upholding the truth, though amid

ingratitude and opposition, cheered by the bright prospect of future

triumph.

Mr. Williams was of this class of men, and his station in that class is

a proof of the elevation and vigor of his mind.

It is an evidence, also, of superior moral qualities. It requires a

spirit of self-sacrifice, a pure love of truth, a benevolent zeal for

the welfare of mankind, an elevation above selfish ends. All these

traits of character Mr. Williams possessed. He was sincerely pious. Love

to God dwelt habitually in his soul, and controlled his feelings and his

actions. In his books and letters, every topic takes a hue from his

piety. His magnanimous forgiveness of injuries, his zeal for the welfare

of all who sought his aid, his untiring benevolence towards the hapless

savages, his patriotic and self-denying toils for the prosperity of his

colony, all show the efficacy and fervor of those religious principles

which governed him. Mr. Callender said of him, “Mr. Williams appears, by

the whole course and tenor of his life and conduct here, to have been

one of the most disinterested men that ever lived, a most pious and

heavenly minded soul.”[387] Dr. Bentley says: “In Salem, every person

loved Mr. Williams. He had no personal enemies, under any pretence. All

valued his friendship. Kind treatment could win him, but opposition

could not conquer him. He was not afraid to stand alone for truth

against the world, and he had address enough with his firmness, never to

be forsaken by the friends he had ever gained. He had always a

tenderness of conscience, and feared every offence against moral truth.

He breathed the purest devotion. He was a friend of human nature,

forgiving, upright and pious. He understood the Indians better than any

man of his age. He made not so many converts, but he made more sincere

friends.”[388]

His religious principles were those of Calvin. His views of the

ordinances of the Gospel were, undoubtedly, after his baptism, those now

held by the Baptists. But he did not acknowledge himself as belonging to

any denomination; because he believed, that there are now neither true

churches, nor persons authorized to administer the ordinances.

His political principles were decidedly in favor of the rights of the

people. He not only displayed them, in the civil constitution of his

colony, but he repeatedly stated them in his books. Such passages as the

following contain his political creed:

“Kings and magistrates must be considered invested with no more power

than the people betrust them with.” “The sovereign power of all civil

authority is founded in the consent of the people.”[389]

The faults of Mr. Williams sprung, in part, from the imperfection of

human nature, and in part from his temperament and the constitution of

his mind. He was ardent, and his imagination was the most active of his

intellectual faculties. He sometimes adopted opinions, rather by a

sudden bound of the imagination, than by a regular process of reasoning.

His ardor, and his conscientious and fearless love of truth, impelled

him to act on his opinions, with a degree of energy and firmness which

exposed him to the charge of obstinacy. Such a man will occasionally

fall into error, and into rapid transitions, which will give to his

conduct the appearance of inconsistency. This was the case with Mr.

Williams, in some of his actions, but the inconsistency never affected

his great principles. These he never abandoned for a moment. His course

was steadily onward, like that of a planet, though disturbing causes

occasionally produced slight eccentricities.

In his domestic relations, he seems to have been amiable and happy. His

expressions of attachment to his family prove the strength of his

conjugal and parental affection. His children grew up to maturity. A

numerous posterity have arisen to bless his memory, and to feel pleasure

in the contemplation of his character and the diffusion of his fame.

He is dead, but his principles survive, and are destined to spread over

the earth. The State which he founded is his monument.[390] Her sons,

when asked for a record of Roger Williams, may point to her history,

unstained by a single act of persecution; to her prosperity, her perfect

freedom, her tranquil happiness, and may reply, in the spirit of the

epitaph on the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, in St. Paul’s Cathedral,

“_look around!_”

“Si monumentum quæris, circumspice.”

APPENDIX.

NOTE A. p. 23.

On the subject of the relationship between Cromwell and Roger Williams,

an obliging antiquarian friend says:

“As to the relationship between Mr. Williams and Oliver Cromwell, I can

only say, that it was quite remote, if it existed at all. In the London

Review, for March, 1772, is a genealogy of the Cromwell family. As you

may not have seen this account, and as it may interest you, I will give

you an abridgment of it, that you may see how near related he was to the

Protector.

“The genealogy was extracted from Welch chronicles, about the year 1602,

to show the descent of Sir Henry Cromwell, who was then living. It

commences in the person of Glothyan, fifth Lord of Powes, who married

Morpeth, daughter and heiress of Edwin ap Tydwall, Lord of Cardigan, who

was lineally descended from Cavedig, of whom the county of Cardigan took

the name of Cavedigion. His son, Gwaith Voyd, was Lord of Cardigan,

Powes, Gwayte and Gwaynesaye. He died about 1066.

“From Gwynstan ap Gwaith, second son of the above Gwaith Voyd, was

lineally descended, through about thirteen generations, or in about four

hundred and forty years, Morgan Williams, who, in the reign of Henry

VIII., married the sister of Thomas Cromwell. This Morgan Williams had a

son Richard, who was knighted by Henry VIII., not by the name of

Williams, but by the name of Cromwell, after his uncle, whose heir he

became. This Sir Richard had a son Henry, who was knighted by Queen

Elizabeth in 1563, and married Joan, daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, and

had six sons and four daughters. The sons were Oliver, Robert, Henry,

Richard, Philip and Ralph. Oliver, the Protector, was the only son of

Robert, and born in the parish of St. John, in Huntingdon, April 25,

1599.

“The above will satisfy us, that the tradition in the family of their

being a connection by blood with the Protector, may be true. You will

see, however, that the connection was quite remote.”

Concerning the parents of Mr. Williams, I have discovered nothing. The

name “Roger Williams” occurs in Welsh genealogies, but without any clue

to guide us. I have written to Wales for information, but have received

no reply. A brother of Mr. Williams, named Robert, was one of the early

inhabitants of Providence, and was afterwards a schoolmaster in Newport.

He mentions, in one of his books, another brother, “a Turkey merchant.”

Richard Williams, who settled in Taunton, has been supposed to have been

a brother of Roger.

NOTE B. p. 54.

Our note respecting the Anabaptists must be brief. An Anabaptist is one

who baptizes again a person previously baptized. The Cathari, of the

third century, were accustomed to baptize again those who joined them

from other sects.—Murdock’s Mosheim, vol. i. p. 247. The name was early

applied to those who opposed infant baptism, and who baptized those who

joined them, though they had been baptized in infancy. The name, of

course, expressed the views of their opponents, and not their own,

because they did not consider such persons as having been baptized.

Of the history of the Anabaptists, (retaining this name for the sake of

convenience,) we cannot now speak. The odium and alarm which are alluded

to in the text, arose from the disturbances that occurred in Germany,

about the year 1535. It would be tedious to narrate these events; but it

may be stated, briefly, that the peasants, oppressed by their feudal

lords, made a desperate effort to obtain their freedom. Among them were

some Anabaptists, mingled with Lutherans, Catholics and others. They

obtained possession of the city of Munster, in Westphalia, and held it

about three years; but they were finally overpowered, and the war

terminated, after immense slaughter. It seems to have been a just

revolt, and a struggle for liberty; but it failed, and the leaders have

been stigmatized as fanatics, and as guilty of every species of crime.

The story has been told by their oppressors and enemies, and it is

entitled to very little credit. Mosheim seems to have been unable to

find words to express his abhorrence of the Anabaptists, to whom he

imputes most of the disorders of the Rustic War. Other writers are more

candid. Benedict (vol. i. pp. 246, 265) has vindicated the Baptists from

the charges which have been alleged against them in connection with that

war. Admitting that very dangerous doctrines were then avowed, and wrong

actions committed, it is unjust to make the Baptists of England and

America responsible for them. It would be as fair, to impute to

Pedobaptists all the atrocities of the Papal church. It is sufficient

for our present purpose, to prove, that the English and American

Baptists have never held the principles which have been ascribed to the

Anabaptists of Germany. The rejection of magistracy has been the most

prominent charge. A company of persons, called Anabaptists, in London,

published a Confession of Faith, about the year 1611, in which they say:

“The office of the magistrate is a permissive ordinance of God.” And in

the following article, they anticipated the doctrines of Roger Williams:

“The magistrate is not to meddle with religion, or matters of

conscience, nor to compel men to this or that form of religion; because

Christ is the King or Lawgiver of the church and conscience.”—Crosby,

vol. i. p. 71, appendix. In a “Confession of Faith of seven

congregations, or churches of Christ, in London, which are commonly, but

unjustly, called Anabaptists,” published in 1646, they say: “A civil

magistracy is an ordinance of God, set up by him for the punishment of

evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well; and that in all

lawful things, commanded by them, subjection ought to be given by us in

the Lord, not only for wrath, but for conscience sake; and that we are

to make supplications and prayers for kings, and for all that are in

authority, that under them we may live a quiet and peaceable life, in

all godliness and honesty.”—Crosby, vol. i. appendix, p. 23. These

extracts express the doctrines of the English Baptist churches on the

point in question. The principles of Roger Williams, respecting

religious and civil duties, are sufficiently exhibited in the Memoir.

They are the principles of the American Baptist churches, and have been

so from the beginning. In the Confession of Faith of the First Baptist

Church in Boston, founded in 1665, and the oldest church in what was

then the colony of Massachusetts, the church say: “We acknowledge

magistracy to be an ordinance of God, and to submit ourselves to them in

the Lord, not because of wrath only, but for conscience

sake.”—Winchell’s Historical Discourses, p. 10.

NOTE C. p. 74.

The following very interesting letter was first published in the first

volume of the Massachusetts Historical Collections:

“_Providence, June 22, 1670, (ut vulgo.)_

“Major Mason,[391]

“My honored, dear and ancient friend, my due respects and earnest

desires to God, for your eternal peace, &c.

“I crave your leave and patience to present you with some few

considerations, occasioned by the late transactions between your

colony and ours. The last year you were pleased, in one of your

lines to me, to tell me that you longed to see my face once more

before you died. I embraced your love, though I feared my old lame

bones, and yours, had arrested travelling in this world, and

therefore I was and am ready to lay hold on all occasions of

writing, as I do at present.

“The occasion, I confess, is sorrowful, because I see yourselves,

with others, embarked in a resolution to invade and despoil your

poor countrymen, in a wilderness, and your ancient friends, of our

temporal and soul liberties.

“It is sorrowful, also, because mine eye beholds a black and doleful

train of grievous, and, I fear, bloody consequences, at the heel of

this business, both to you and us. The Lord is righteous in all our

afflictions, that is a maxim; the Lord is gracious to all oppressed,

that is another; he is most gracious to the soul that cries and

waits on him: that is silver, tried in the fire seven times.

“Sir, I am not out of hopes, but that while your aged eyes and mine

are yet in their orbs, and not yet sunk down into their holes of

rottenness, we shall leave our friends and countrymen, our children

and relations, and this land, in peace, behind us. To this end, Sir,

please you with a calm and steady and a Christian hand, to hold the

balance and to weigh these few considerations, in much love and due

respect presented:

“First. When I was unkindly and unchristianly, as I believe, driven

from my house and land and wife and children, (in the midst of a

New-England winter, now about thirty-five years past,) at Salem,

that ever-honored Governor, Mr. Winthrop, privately wrote to me to

steer my course to the Narraganset Bay and Indians, for many high

and heavenly and public ends, encouraging me, from the freeness of

the place from any English claims or patents. I took his prudent

motion as a hint and voice from God, and waving all other thoughts

and motions, I steered my course from Salem (though in winter snow,

which I feel yet) unto these parts, wherein I may say Peniel, that

is, I have seen the face of God.

“Second. I first pitched, and begun to build and plant at Seekonk,

now Rehoboth, but I received a letter from my ancient friend, Mr.

Winslow, then Governor of Plymouth, professing his own and others’

love and respect to me, yet lovingly advising me, since I was fallen

into the edge of their bounds, and they were loth to displease the

Bay, to remove but to the other side of the water, and then, he

said, I had the country free before me, and might be as free as

themselves, and we should be loving neighbors together. These were

the joint understandings of these two eminently wise and Christian

Governors and others, in their day, together with their counsel and

advice as to the freedom and vacancy of this place, which in this

respect, and many other Providences of the Most Holy and Only Wise,

I called _Providence_.

“Third. Sometime after, the Plymouth great sachem, (Ousamaquin[392])

upon occasion, affirming that Providence was his land, and therefore

Plymouth’s land, and some resenting it, the then prudent and godly

Governor, Mr. Bradford, and others of his godly council, answered,

that if, after due examination, it should be found true what the

barbarian said, yet having, to my loss of a harvest that year, been

now (though by their gentle advice) as good as banished from

Plymouth as from the Massachusetts, and I had quietly and patiently

departed from them, at their motion, to the place where now I was, I

should not be molested and tossed up and down again, while they had

breath in their bodies; and surely, between those, my friends of the

Bay and Plymouth, I was sorely tossed, for one fourteen weeks, in a

bitter winter season, not knowing what bread of bed did mean, beside

the yearly loss of no small matter in my trading with English and

natives, being debarred from Boston, the chief mart and port of

New-England. God knows that many thousand pounds cannot repay the

very temporary losses I have sustained. It lies upon the

Massachusetts and me, yea, and other colonies joining with them, to

examine, with fear and trembling, before the eyes of flaming fire,

the true cause of all my sorrows and sufferings. It pleased the

Father of spirits to touch many hearts, dear to him, with some

relentings; amongst which, that great and pious soul, Mr. Winslow,

melted, and kindly visited me, at Providence, and put a piece of

gold into the hands of my wife, for our supply.

“Fourth. When, the next year after my banishment, the Lord drew the

bow of the Pequod war against the country, in which, Sir, the Lord

made yourself, with others, a blessed instrument of peace to all

New-England, I had my share of service to the whole land in that

Pequod business, inferior to very few that acted, for,

“1. Upon letters received from the Governor and Council at Boston,

requesting me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to break and

hinder the league labored for by the Pequods against the Mohegans,

and Pequods against the English, (excusing the not sending of

company and supplies, by the haste of the business,) the Lord helped

me immediately to put my life into my hand, and, scarce acquainting

my wife, to ship myself, all alone, in a poor canoe, and to cut

through a stormy wind, with great seas, every minute in hazard of

life, to the sachem’s house.

“2. Three days and nights my business forced me to lodge and mix

with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, whose hands and arms, methought,

wreaked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered and massacred by

them on Connecticut river, and from whom I could not but nightly

look for their bloody knives at my own throat also.

“3. When God wondrously preserved me, and helped me to break to

pieces the Pequods’ negotiation and design, and to make, and promote

and finish, by many travels and charges, the English league with the

Narragansets and Mohegans against the Pequods, and that the English

forces marched up to the Narraganset country against the Pequods, I

gladly entertained, at my house in Providence, the General Stoughton

and his officers, and used my utmost care that all his officers and

soldiers should be well accommodated with us.

“4. I marched up with them to the Narraganset sachems, and brought

my countrymen and the barbarians, sachems and captains, to a mutual

confidence and complacence, each in other.

“5. Though I was ready to have marched further, yet, upon agreement

that I should keep at Providence, as an agent between the Bay and

the army, I returned, and was interpreter and intelligencer,

constantly receiving and sending letters to the Governor and Council

at Boston, &c., in which work I judge it no impertinent digression

to recite (out of the many scores of letters, at times, from Mr.

Winthrop,) this one pious and heavenly prophecy, touching all

New-England, of that gallant man, viz: “If the Lord turn away his

face from our sins, and bless our endeavors and yours, at this time,

against our bloody enemy, we and our children shall long enjoy

peace, in this, our wilderness condition.” And himself and some

other of the Council motioned, and it was debated, whether or no I

had not merited, not only to be recalled from banishment, but also

to be honored with some remark of favor. It is known who hindered,

who never promoted the liberty of other men’s consciences. These

things, and ten times more, I could relate, to show that I am not a

stranger to the Pequod wars and lands, and possibly not far from the

merit of a foot of land in either country, which I have not.

“5. Considering (upon frequent exceptions against Providence men)

that we had no authority for civil government, I went purposely to

England, and upon my report and petition, the Parliament granted us

a charter of government for these parts, so judged vacant on all

hands. And upon this, the country about us was more friendly, and

wrote to us, and treated us as an authorized colony; only the

difference of our consciences much obstructed. The bounds of this,

our first charter, I (having occular knowledge of persons, places

and transactions) did honestly and conscientiously, as in the holy

presence of God, draw up from Pawcatuck river, which I then

believed, and still do, is free from all English claims and

conquests; for although there were some Pequods on this side the

river, who, by reason of some sachems’ marriages with some on this

side, lived in a kind of neutrality with both sides, yet, upon the

breaking out of the war, they relinquished their land to the

possession of their enemies, the Narragansets and Nianticks, and

their land never came into the condition of the lands on the other

side, which the English, by conquest, challenged; so that I must

still affirm, as in God’s holy presence, I tenderly waved to touch a

foot of land in which I knew the Pequod wars were maintained and

were properly Pequod, being a gallant country; and from Pawcatuck

river hitherward, being but a patch of ground, full of troublesome

inhabitants, I did, as I judged, inoffensively, draw our poor and

inconsiderable line.

“It is true, when at Portsmouth, on Rhode-Island, some of ours, in a

General Assembly, motioned their planting on this side Pawcatuck. I,

hearing that some of the Massachusetts reckoned this land theirs, by

conquest, dissuaded from the motion, until the matter should be

amicably debated and composed; for though I questioned not our

right, &c., yet I feared it would be inexpedient and offensive, and

procreative of these heats and fires, to the dishonoring of the

King’s Majesty, and the dishonoring and blaspheming of God and of

religion in the eyes of the English and barbarians about us.

“6. Some time after the Pequod war and our charter from the

Parliament, the government of Massachusetts wrote to myself (then

chief officer in this colony) of their receiving of a patent from

the Parliament for these vacant lands, as an addition to the

Massachusetts, &c., and thereupon requesting me to exercise no more

authority, &c., for, they wrote, their charter was granted some few

weeks before ours. I returned, what I believed righteous and

weighty, to the hands of my true friend, Mr. Winthrop, the first

mover of my coming into these parts, and to that answer of mine I

never received the least reply; only it is certain, that, at Mr.

Gorton’s complaint against the Massachusetts, the Lord High Admiral,

President, said, openly, in a full meeting of the commissioners,

that he knew no other charter for these parts than what Mr. Williams

had obtained, and he was sure that charter, which the Massachusetts

Englishmen pretended, had never passed the table.

“7. Upon our humble address, by our agent, Mr. Clarke, to his

Majesty, and his gracious promise of renewing our former charter,

Mr. Winthrop, upon some mistake, had entrenched upon our line, and

not only so, but, as it is said, upon the lines of other charters

also. Upon Mr. Clarke’s complaint, your grant was called in again,

and it had never been returned, but upon a report that the agents,

Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Clarke, were agreed, by mediation of friends,

(and it is true, they came to a solemn agreement, under hands and

seals,) which agreement was never violated on our part.

“8. But the King’s Majesty sending his commissioners (among other of

his royal purposes) to reconcile the differences of, and to settle

the bounds between the colonies, yourselves know how the King

himself therefore hath given a decision to this controversy.

Accordingly, the King’s Majesty’s aforesaid commissioners at Rhode

Island, (where, as a commissioner for this colony, I transacted with

them, as did also commissioners from Plymouth,) they composed a

controversy between Plymouth and us, and settled the bounds between

us, in which we rest.

“9. However you satisfy yourselves with the Pequod conquest; with

the sealing of your charter some few weeks before ours; with the

complaints of particular men to your colony; yet, upon a due and

serious examination of the matter, in the sight of God, you will

find the business at bottom to be,

“First, a depraved appetite after the great vanities, dreams and

shadows of this vanishing life, great portions of land, land in this

wilderness, as if men were in as great necessity and danger for want

of great portions of land, as poor, hungry, thirsty seamen have,

after a sick and stormy, a long and starving passage. This is one of

the gods of New-England, which the living and most high Eternal will

destroy and famish.

“2. An unneighborly and unchristian intrusion upon us, as being the

weaker, contrary to your laws, as well as ours, concerning

purchasing of lands without the consent of the General Court. This I

told Major Atherton, at his first going up to the Narraganset about

this business. I refused all their proffers of land, and refused to

interpret for them to the sachems.

“3. From these violations and intrusions arise the complaint of many

privateers, not dealing as they would be dealt with, according to

law of nature, the law of the prophets and Christ Jesus, complaining

against others, in a design, when they themselves are delinquents

and wrong doers. I could aggravate this many ways with Scripture

rhetoric and similitudes, but I see need of anodynes, (as physicians

speak,) and not of irritations. Only this I must crave leave to say,

that it looks like a prodigy or monster, that countrymen among

savages in a wilderness; that professors of God and one Mediator, of

an eternal life, and that this is like a dream, should not be

content with those vast and large tracts which all the other

colonies have, (like platters and tables full of dainties,) but pull

and snatch away their poor neighbors’ bit or crust; and a crust it

is, and a dry, hard one, too, because of the natives’ continual

troubles, trials and vexations.

“10. Alas! Sir, in calm midnight thoughts, what are these leaves and

flowers, and smoke and shadows, and dreams of earthly nothings,

about which we poor fools and children, as David saith, disquiet

ourselves in vain? Alas! what is all the scuffling of this world

for, but, _come, will you smoke it_? What are all the contentions

and wars of this world about, generally, but for greater dishes and

bowls of porridge, of which, if we believe God’s Spirit in

Scripture, Esau and Jacob were types? Esau will part with the

heavenly birthright for his supping, after his hunting, for god

belly; and Jacob will part with his porridge for an eternal

inheritance. O Lord, give me to make Jacob’s and Mary’s choice,

which shall never be taken from me.

“11. How much sweeter is the counsel of the Son of God, to mind

first the matters of his kingdom; to take no care for to-morrow; to

pluck out, cut off and fling away right eyes, hands and feet, rather

than to be cast whole into hell-fire; to consider the ravens and the

lilies whom a heavenly Father so clothes and feeds; and the counsel

of his servant Paul, to roll our cares, for this life also, upon the

most high Lord, steward of his people, the eternal God; to be

content with food and raiment; to mind not our own, but every man

the things of another; yea, and to suffer wrong, and part with what

we judge is right, yea, our lives and (as poor women martyrs have

said) as many as there be hairs upon our heads, for the name of God

and the son of God his sake. This is humanity, yea this is

Christianity. The rest is but formality and picture, courteous

idolatry and Jewish and Popish blasphemy against the Christian

religion, the Father of spirits and his Son, the Lord Jesus.

Besides, Sir, the matter with us is not about these children’s toys

of land, meadows, cattle, government, &c. But here, all over this

colony, a great number of weak and distressed souls, scattered, are

flying hither from Old and New-England, the Most High and Only Wise

hath, in his infinite wisdom, provided this country and this corner

as a shelter for the poor and persecuted, according to their several

persuasions. And thus that heavenly man, Mr. Haynes, Governor of

Connecticut, though he pronounced the sentence of my long banishment

against me, at Cambridge, then Newtown, yet said unto me, in his own

house at Hartford, being then in some difference with the Bay: “I

think, Mr. Williams, I must now confess to you, that the most wise

God hath provided and cut out this part of his world for a refuge

and receptacle for all sorts of consciences. I am now under a cloud,

and my brother Hooker; with the Bay, as you have been, we have

removed from them thus far, and yet they are not satisfied.”

“Thus, Sir, the King’s Majesty, though his father’s and his own

conscience favored Lord Bishops, which their father and grandfather

King James, whom I have spoke with, sore against his will, also did,

yet all the world may see, by his Majesty’s declarations and

engagements before his return, and his declarations and Parliament

speeches since, and many suitable actings, how the Father of spirits

hath mightily impressed and touched his royal spirit, though the

Bishops much disturbed him, with deep inclination of favor and

gentleness to different consciences and apprehensions as to the

invisible King and way of his worship. Hence he hath vouchsafed his

royal promise under his hand and broad seal, that no person in this

colony shall be molested or questioned for the matters of his

conscience to God, so he be loyal and keep the civil peace. Sir, we

must part with lands and lives before we part with such a jewel. I

judge you may yield some land and the government of it to us, and

we, for peace sake, the like to you, as being but subjects to one

king, &c. and I think the King’s Majesty would thank us, for many

reasons. But to part with this jewel, we may as soon do it as the

Jews with the favor of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes. Yourselves

pretend liberty of conscience, but alas! it is but self, the great

god self, only to yourselves. The King’s Majesty winks at Barbadoes,

where Jews and all sorts of Christian and Antichristian persuasions

are free, but our grant, some few weeks after yours sealed, though

granted as soon, if not before yours, is crowned with the King’s

extraordinary favor to this colony, as being a banished one, in

which his Majesty declared himself that he would experiment, whether

civil government could consist with such liberty of conscience. This

his Majesty’s grant was startled at by his Majesty’s high officers

of state, who were to view it in course before the sealing, but

fearing the lion’s roaring, they couched, against their wills, in

obedience to his Majesty’s pleasure.

“Some of yours, as I heard lately, told tales to the Archbishop of

Canterbury, viz. that we are a profane people, and do not keep the

Sabbath, but some do plough, &c. But, first, you told him not how we

suffer freely all other persuasions, yea the common prayer, which

yourselves will not suffer. If you say you will, you confess you

must suffer more, as we do.

“2. You know this is but a color to your design, for, first, you

know that all England itself (after the formality and superstition

of morning and evening prayer) play away their Sabbath. 2d. You know

yourselves do not keep the Sabbath, that is the seventh day, &c.

“3. You know that famous Calvin and thousands more held it but

ceremonial and figurative, from Colossians 2, &c. and vanished; and

that the day of worship was alterable at the churches’ pleasure.

Thus also all the Romanists confess, saying, viz. that there is no

express scripture, first, for infants’ baptisms; nor, second, for

abolishing the seventh day, and instituting of the eighth day

worship, but that it is at the churches’ pleasure.

“4. You know, that generally, all this whole colony observe the

first day, only here and there one out of conscience, another out of

covetousness, make no conscience of it.

“5. You know the greatest part of the world make no conscience of a

seventh day. The next part of the world, Turks, Jews and Christians,

keep three different days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday for their

Sabbath and day of worship, and every one maintains his own by the

longest sword.

“6. I have offered, and do, by these presents, to discuss by

disputation, writing or printing, among other points of differences,

these three positions; first, that forced worship stinks in God’s

nostrils. 2d. That it denies Christ Jesus yet to be come, and makes

the church yet national, figurative and ceremonial. 3d. That in

these flames about religion, as his Majesty, his father and

grandfather have yielded, there is no other prudent, Christian way

of preserving peace in the world, but by permission of differing

consciences. Accordingly, I do now offer to dispute these points and

other points of difference, if you please, at Hartford, Boston and

Plymouth. For the manner of the dispute and the discussion, if you

think fit, one whole day each month in summer, at each place, by

course, I am ready, if the Lord permit, and, as I humbly hope,

assist me.

“It is said, that you intend not to invade our spiritual or civil

liberties, but only (under the advantage of first sealing your

charter) to right the privateers that petition to you. It is said,

also, that if you had but Mishquomacuck and Narraganset lands

quietly yielded, you would stop at Coweset, &c. Oh, Sir, what do

these thoughts preach, but that private cabins rule all, whatever

become of the ship of common safety and religion, which is so much

pretended in New-England? Sir, I have heard further, and by some

that say they know, that something deeper than all which hath been

mentioned lies in the three colonies’ breasts and consultations. I

judge it not fit to commit such matter to the trust of paper, &c.

but only beseech the Father of spirits to guide our poor bewildered

spirits, for his name and mercy sake.

“15. Whereas our case seems to be the case of Paul appealing to

Cæsar against the plots of his religious, zealous adversaries, I

hear you pass not of our petitions and appeals to his Majesty, for

partly you think the King will not own a profane people that do not

keep the Sabbath; partly you think that the King incompetent judge,

but you will force him to law also, to confirm your first-born Esau,

though Jacob had him by the heels, and in God’s holy time must carry

the birthright and inheritance. I judge your surmise is a dangerous

mistake, for patents, grants and charters, and such like royal

favors, are not laws of England, and acts of Parliament, nor matters

of propriety and _meum_ and _tuum_ between the King and his

subjects, which, as the times have been, have been sometimes triable

in inferior Courts; but such kind of grants have been like high

offices in England, of high honor, and ten, yea twenty thousand

pounds gain per annum, yet revocable or curtable upon pleasure,

according to the King’s better information, or upon his Majesty’s

sight, or misbehavior, ingratefulness, or designs fraudulently

plotted, private and distinct from him.

“16. Sir, I lament that such designs should be carried on at such a

time, while we are stript and whipt, and are still under (the whole

country) the dreadful rods of God, in our wheat, hay, corn, cattle,

shipping, trading, bodies and lives; when, on the other side of the

water, all sorts of consciences (yours and ours) are frying in the

Bishops’ pan and furnace; when the French and Romish Jesuits, the

firebrands of the world for their god belly sake, are kindling at

our back, in this country, especially with the Mohawks and Mohegans,

against us, of which I know and have daily information.

“17. If any please to say, is there no medicine for this malady?

Must the nakedness of New-England, like some notorious strumpet, be

prostituted to the blaspheming eyes of all nations? Must we be put

to plead before his Majesty, and consequently the Lord Bishops, our

common enemies, &c. I answer, the Father of mercies and God of all

consolations hath graciously discovered to me, as I believe, a

remedy, which, if taken, will quiet all minds, yours and ours, will

keep yours and ours in quiet possession and enjoyment of their

lands, which you all have so dearly bought and purchased in this

barbarous country, and so long possessed amongst these wild savages;

will preserve you both in the liberties and honors of your charters

and governments, without the least impeachment of yielding one to

another; with a strong curb also to those wild barbarians and all

the barbarians of this country, without troubling of compromisers

and arbitrators between you; without any delay, or long and

chargeable and grievous address to our King’s Majesty, whose gentle

and serene soul must needs be afflicted to be troubled again with

us. If you please to ask me what my prescription is, I will not put

you off to Christian moderation or Christian humility, or Christian

prudence, or Christian love, or Christian self-denial, or Christian

contention or patience. For I design a civil, a humane and political

medicine, which, if the God of Heaven please to bless, you will find

it effectual to all the ends I have proposed. Only I must crave your

pardon, both parties of you, if I judge it not fit to discover it at

present. I know you are both of you hot; I fear myself, also. If

both desire, in a loving and calm spirit, to enjoy your rights, I

promise you, with God’s help, to help you to them, in a fair and

sweet and easy way. My receipt will not please you all. If it should

so please God to frown upon us that you should not like it, I can

but humbly mourn, and say with the prophet, that which must perish

must perish. And as to myself, in endeavoring after your temporal

and spiritual peace, I humbly desire to say, if I perish, I perish.

It is but a shadow vanished, a bubble broke, a dream finished.

Eternity will pay for all.

“Sir, I am your old and true friend and servant,

“R. W.

“To my honored and ancient friend, Mr. Thomas Prince, Governor of

Plymouth Colony, these present. And by his honored hand this copy,

sent to Connecticut, whom it most concerneth, I humbly present to

the General Court of Plymouth, when next assembled.”

The following documents are inserted here, as belonging to the history

of Roger Williams, though a suitable opportunity did not occur to insert

them in the text.

The subjoined letter was copied for Mr. Backus, by the late Judge

Howell, of Providence, and was accompanied by the following note, in his

hand writing: “This remonstrance was sent in to the town, upon their

concluding to divide among themselves certain common lands, out of which

R. Williams wanted some to remain still common, for the town afterwards

to give occasionally to such as fled to them, or were banished for

conscience sake, as he at first gave it all to them.”

“Loving friends and neighbors,

“I have again considered on these papers, and find many considerable

things in both of them. My desire is, that after a friendly debate

of particulars, every man may sit down and rest in quiet with the

final sentence and determination of the town, for all experience

tells us that public peace and love is better than abundance of corn

and cattle, &c. I have one only motion and petition, which I

earnestly pray the town to lay to heart, as ever they look for a

blessing from God on the town, on your families, your corn and

cattle, and your children after you; it is this, that after you have

got over the black brook of some soul bondage yourselves, you tear

not down the bridge after you, by leaving no small pittance for

distressed souls that may come after you. What though your division

or allotment be never so small, yet ourselves know that some men’s

distresses are such, that a piece of a dry crust and a dish of cold

water, is sweet, which if this town will give sincerely unto God,

(setting aside some little portions for other distressed souls to

get bread on) you know who hath engaged His heavenly word for your

reward and recompense.

“Yours, ROGER WILLIAMS.

To the town of Providence.”

The following letter is an honorable evidence of his benevolent spirit:

“_Nar. 22, 11, 50, (so called.)_

“Well beloved friends,

“Loving respects to each of you presented, with hearty desires of

your present and eternal peace. I am sorry that I am occasioned to

trouble you in the midst of many your other troubles, yet upon the

experience of your wonted loving-kindness and gentleness toward all

men and myself also, I pray you hear me patiently. I had proposed to

have personally attended this Court, and to have presented, myself,

these few requests following, but being much lamed and broken with

such travels, I am forced to present you in writing these five

requests. The first four concern others living and dead amongst us;

the fifth, concerns myself.

“First, then, I pray be pleased to review the propositions between

us and our dead friend, John Smith; and since it hath pleased the

God of all mercies, to vouchsafe this town and others such a mercy,

by his means, I beseech you study how to put an end to that

controversy depending between us and him, (as I may so speak) and

his; ’tis true, you have referred that business to some of our

loving neighbors amongst you; but since there are some obstructions,

I beseech you put forth your wisdoms, who know more ways to the wood

than one. Ease the first, and appoint others, or some other course,

that the dead clamor not from his grave against us, but that the

country about us may say, that Providence is not only a wise, but a

grateful people to the God of mercies, and all his instruments of

mercy towards us.

“My second request concerns the dead still. I understand, that one

of the orphans of our dead friend, Daniel Abbott, is likely (as she

herself told me) to be disposed of in marriage. ’Tis true she is now

come to some years, but who knows not what need the poor maid hath

of your fatherly care, counsel and direction. I would not disparage

the young man (for I hear he hath been laborious) yet with your

leave, I might say, I doubt not you will not give your daughters in

marriage to such, whose lives have been in such a course, without

some good assurance and certificate of his not being engaged to

other women, or otherways criminous, as also of his resolution to

forsake his former course, lest (this inquiry being neglected) the

maid and ourselves repent when misery hath befallen her, and a just

reproof and charges befall ourselves, of which we have no need.

“For, thirdly, I crave your consideration of that lamentable object

(what shall I say, of all our censure or pity, I am sure) of all our

wonder and astonishment, Mrs. Weston. My experience of the

distempers of persons elsewhere, makes me confident, that although

not in all things, yet in a great measure, she is a distracted

woman. My request is, that you would be pleased to take what is left

of hers into your own hands, and appoint some to order it for her

supply, and if it may be, let some public act of mercy to her

necessities, stand upon record amongst the merciful acts of a

merciful town, that hath received many mercies from heaven, and

remember that we know not how soon our wives may be widows, and our

children orphans, yea, and ourselves be deprived of all or most of

our reason, before we go from hence, except mercy from the God of

mercies prevent it.

“Fourthly. Let me crave your patience, while once more I lead your

consideration to the grave, amongst the dead, the widows and the

fatherless. From some neighbors and the widow Mann herself, I

understand, that notwithstanding her motherly affection, which will

make all burthens lighter for her children’s good, yet she is not

without fears, that if the town be not favorable to her in after

times, some hard measure and pressures may befall her. My request

is, therefore, that it would please you to appoint some of

yourselves to review the will, and to consider whether the pains of

the father, deceased, or want of time, hath not occasioned him to

leave some of his purposes and desires imperfect, as also to propose

to the town wherein, according to the rules of justice and mercy,

what the deceased intended, may be perfected, for the greater

comfort both of his widow and orphans.

“Fifth. My last request concerns myself. I cannot be so unthankful

to you, and so insensible of mine own and family’s comfort, as not

to take notice of your continued and constant love and care in your

many public and solemn orders for the payment of that money due unto

me about the charter: ’tis true I have never demanded it; yea, I

have been truly desirous that it might have been laid out for some

further public benefit in each town, but observing your loving

resolution to the contrary, I have at last resolved to write unto

you (as I have also lately done to Portsmouth and Newport) about the

better ordering it to my advantage. I have here (through God’s

providence) convenience of improving some goats; my request is,

therefore, that if it may be without much trouble, you would please

to order the payment of it in cattle of that kind. I have been

solicited and have promised my help, about iron works, when the

matter is ripe, earnestly desirous every way to further the good of

the town of Providence, to which I am so much engaged, and to

yourselves the loving inhabitants thereof, to whom I desire to be

“Your truly loving and ever faithful,

“ROGER WILLIAMS.

“For my well beloved and much respected, the inhabitants of the town

of Providence.

“To Mr. Robert Williams and Mr. Thomas Harris, deputies, or either

of them.”

* * * * *

[Copied from 3 His. Col. i. p. 178.]

“_Cawcawmsqussick, 11, 7, 48, (so called.)_

“Dear and worthy Sir,

“Best salutations to you both and loving sister premised, wishing

you eternal peace in the only Prince of it. I have longed to hear

from you and to send to you since this storm arose. The report was

(as most commonly all Indian reports are) absolutely false, of my

removing my goods, or the least rag, &c. A fortnight since, I heard

of the Mohawks coming to Pawcatuck, their rendezvous; that they were

provoked by Uncas’ wronging and robbing some Pawcatuck Indians the

last year, and that he had dared the Mohawks, threatening, if they

came, to set his ground with gobbets of their flesh; that our

neighbors had given them play, (as they do every year;) yet withal I

heard they were divided; some resolved to proceed, others pleaded

their hunting season. We have here one Waupinhommin, a proud,

desperate abuser of us, and a firebrand to stir up the natives

against us, who makes it all his trade to run between the Mohawks

and these, and (being a captain also himself) renders the Mohawks

more terrible and powerful than the English. Between him and the

chief sachems hath been great consultations, and to my knowledge, he

hath persuaded them to desert their country and become one

rebellious body or rout with the Mohawks, and so to defy the

English, &c. I have sent also what I can inform to the

commissioners. At present, (through mercy) we are in peace.

“Sir, I desire to be ever

“Yours in Christ Jesus,

“ROGER WILLIAMS.

“The letter I have sent by Warwick, twenty miles nearer than by

Seekonk.

“For his much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at his house,

in Nameag, these.”

* * * * *

“Loving friends and neighbors,

“Divers of yourselves have so cried out, of the contentions of your

late meetings, that (studying my quietness) I thought fit to present

you with these few lines. Two words I pray you to consider. First,

as to this plantation of Providence: then as to some new plantation,

if it shall please the same God of mercies who provided this, to

provide another in mercy for us. 1. As to this town, although I have

been called out, of late, to declare my understanding as to the

bounds of Providence and Pawtuxet; and, although divers have lands

and meadows in possession beyond these bounds, yet I hope that none

of you think me so senseless as to put on any barbarian to molest an

Englishman, or to demand a farthing of any of you.

“2. If any do (as formerly some have done, and divers have given

gratuities, as Mr. Field, about Notaquoncanot and others,) I

promise, that as I have been assistant to satisfy and pacify the

natives round about us, so I hope I shall still while I live be

helpful to any of you that may have occasion to use me.

“Now, as to some new plantation, I desire to propose that which may

quench contention, may accommodate such who want, and may also

return monies unto such as have of late disbursed.

“To this purpose, I desire that we be patient, and torment not

ourselves and the natives, (sachems and people,) putting them upon

mischievous remedies, with the great noise of twenty miles new or

old purchase.

“Let us consider, if Niswosakit and Wayunckeke, and the land

thereabout, may not afford a new and comfortable plantation, which

we may go through with an effectual endeavor for true public good.

To this end, I pray you consider, that the inhabitants of these

parts, with most of the Coweset and Nipmucks, have long since

forsaken the Narraganset sachems and subjected themselves to the

Massachusetts. And yet they are free to sell their lands to any whom

the Massachusetts shall not protest against. To this end (observing

their often flights, and to stop their running to the Massachusetts)

I have parlied with them, and find that about thirty pounds will

cause them to leave those parts, and yield peaceable possession. I

suppose, then, that the town may do well to give leave to about

twenty of your inhabitants (of which I offer to be one, and know

others willing) to lay down thirty shillings a man toward the

purchase. Let every one of this number have liberty to remove

himself, or to place a child or friend there. Let every person who

shall afterward be received into the purchase lay down thirty

shillings, as hath been done in Providence, which may be paid (by

some order agreed on) to such as lately have disbursed monies unto

the effecting of this. I offer, gratis, my time and pains, in hope

that such as want may have a comfortable supply amongst us, and

others made room for, who may be glad of shelter also.

“Yours to serve you,

“ROGER WILLIAMS.

“27, 8, 60 (_so called_.)”

* * * * *

“_Providence, 13, 10, 61 (so called.)_

“1. I testify and declare, in the holy presence of God, that when at

my first coming into these parts, I obtained the lands of Seekonk of

Ousamaquin, the then chief sachem on that side, the Governor of

Plymouth (Mr. Winslow) wrote to me, in the name of their government,

their claim of Seekonk to be in their jurisdiction, as also their

advice to remove but over the river unto this side, (where now, by

God’s merciful providence, we are,) and then I should be out of

their claim, and be as free as themselves, and loving neighbors

together.

“2. After I had obtained this place, now called Providence, of

Canonicus and Miantinomo, the chief Narraganset sachems deceased,

Ousamaquin, the sachem aforesaid, also deceased, laid his claim to

this place also. This forced me to repair to the Narraganset sachems

aforesaid, who declared that Ousamaquin was their subject, and had

solemnly himself, in person, with , subjected himself and his

lands unto them at the Narraganset: only now he seemed to revolt

from his loyalties under the shelter of the English at Plymouth.

“3. This I declared from the Narraganset sachems to Ousamaquin, who,

without any stick, acknowledged it to be true that he had so

subjected as the Narraganset sachems affirmed; but withal, he

affirmed that he was not subdued by war, which himself and his

father had maintained against the Narragansets, but God, said he,

subdued me by a plague, which swept away my people, and forced me to

yield.

“4. This conviction and confession of his, together with gratuities

to himself and brethren and followers, made him often profess, that

he was pleased that I should here be his neighbor, and that rather

because he and I had been great friends at Plymouth, and also

because that his and my friends at Plymouth advised him to be at

peace and friendship with me, and he hoped that our children after

us would be good friends together.

“5. And whereas, there hath been often spread of Providence falling

within Plymouth jurisdiction, by virtue of Ousamaquin’s claims, I

add unto the testimony abovesaid, that the Governor, Mr. Bradford,

and other of their magistrates, declared unto me, both by conference

and writing, that they and their government were satisfied, and

resolved never to molest Providence, nor to claim beyond Seekonk,

but to continue loving friends and neighbors (amongst the

barbarians) together.

“This is the true sum and substance of many passages between our

countrymen of Plymouth and Ousamaquin and me.

ROGER WILLIAMS.”

* * * * *

[Copied from 3 His. Col. i. p. 70.]

“_Providence, 16, 8, 76, (ut vulgo.)_

“Sir,

“With my humble and loving respects to yourself and other honored

friends, &c. I thought fit to tell you what the providence of the

Most High hath brought to my hand the evening before yesterday. Two

Indian children were brought to me by one Thomas Clements, who had

his house burnt on the other side of the river. He was in his

orchard, and two Indian children came boldly to him, the boy being

about seven or eight, and the girl (his sister) three or four years

old. The boy tells me, that a youth, one Mittonan, brought them to

the sight of Thomas Clements, and bid them go to that man, and he

would give them bread. He saith his father and mother were taken by

the Pequods and Mohegans about ten weeks ago, as they were clamming

(with many more Indians) at Coweset; that their dwelling was and is

at a place called Mittaubscut; that it is upon a branch of Pawtuxet

river, to Coweset (their nearest salt water) about seven or eight

miles; that there are about twenty houses. I cannot learn of him

that there are above twenty men, beside women and children; that

they live on ground-nuts, &c. and deer; that Aawaysewaukit is their

sachem; and twelve days ago he sent his son, Wunnawmeneeskat, to

Uncas, with a present of a basket or two of wampum. I know this

sachem is much related to Plymouth, to whom he is said to be

subject, but he said, (as all of them do) [he] deposited his land. I

know what bargains he made with the Browns and Willets and

Rhode-Island and Providence men, and the controversies between the

Narragansets and them, about those lands. I know the talk abroad of

the right of the three united colonies (by conquest) to this land,

and the plea of Rhode-Island by the charter and commissioners. I

humbly desire that this party may be brought in; the country

improved (if God in mercy so please;) the English not differ about

it and complaints run to the King (to unknown trouble, charge and

hazard, &c.) and therefore I humbly beg of God that a committee from

the four colonies may (by way of prudent and godly wisdom) prevent

many inconveniences and mischiefs. I write the sum of this to the

Governors of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, and humbly beg of the

Father of mercies to guide you in mercy, for his mercy sake.

“Sir, your unworthy,

“R. W.

“Excuse my want of paper.

“This boy saith, there is another town to the northeast of them,

with more houses than twenty, who, ’tis like, correspond to the

eastward.

“To the much honored the Governor Leverett, at Boston, or the

Governor Winslow, at Plymouth, present.”

* * * * *

The following document was presented to the Court of Commissioners,

mentioned on page 298 of this volume. It is inserted as valuable, though

mutilated and containing severe remarks on Mr. Harris’ conduct:

“The following is a true copy of an original manuscript, which is in

the hand writing of Roger Williams, and contains all that is written

on one sheet in my possession: the remainder of the original must

have been contained in another sheet which was attached, but that is

unfortunately lost, it never having come into my possession. The

original is much worn and broken in the folds, and several lines

required great care and attention to trace them, but I am confident

that all that is written here is contained in the original.

“JOHN HOWLAND.

_Providence, January 30, 1832._”

“_Providence, 18, 8, 1677, (ut vulgo.)_

“Honored Gentlemen,

“My humble respects presented, with congratulations and prayers to

the Most High, for your merciful preservations in and through these

late bloody and burning times, the peaceable travelling and

assembling amongst the ruins and rubbish of these late desolations,

which the Most High hath justly brought upon us. I crave your gently

leave to tell you, that I humbly conceive I am called of God to

present your wisdoms with what light I can, to make your

difficulties and travails the easier. I am sore grieved that a

self-seeking contentious soul, who has long afflicted this town and

colony, should now, with his unseasonable and unjust clamor, afflict

our Royal Sovereign, his honorable Council, New and Old England, and

now your honored selves, with these his contentious courses. For

myself, it hath pleased God to vouchsafe me knowledge and experience

of his providences in these parts, so that I should be ungratefully

and treacherously silent at such a time. When his Majesty’s

Commissioners, Col. Nichols, &c. were here, I was chosen by this

colony, one of the commissioners to treat with them and with the

commissioners from Plymouth, who then were their honored Governor

deceased, and honored present Governor, about our bounds. It then

pleased the Father of mercies, in whose most high and holy hands the

hearts of all men are, to give me such favor in their eyes, that

afterward, at a great assembly at Warwick, where (that firebrand)

Philip, his whole country, was challenged by the Narraganset

sachems, I was sent for, and declared such transactions between old

Canonicus and Ousamaquin, that the commissioners were satisfied, and

confirmed unto the ungrateful monster his country. The Narraganset

sachems (prompted by some English) told the commissioners, that Mr.

Williams was but one witness, but the commissioners answered that

they had such experience of my knowledge in these parts, and

fidelity, that they valued my testimony as much as twenty witnesses.

“Among so many passages since W. Har. (so long ago) kindled the

fires of contention, give me leave to trouble you with one, when if

W. H. had any desire by equal and peaceable converse with men, this

fire had been quenched; our General Court, Mishauntatuk men and W.

Har. agreed that arbitration should heal this old sore. Arbitrators

were chosen, and Mr. Thomas Willet was chosen umpire. He, when they

met, told them that the arbitrators should consider every plea with

equity, and allot to every one what the arbitrators’ consciences

told them was right and equal. Mishauntatuk men yielded, W.

Carpenter, then one with W. Har., yielded. W. Har. cried out no; he

was resolved, all or none; so the honored soul, Mr. Willet (as he

himself told me) could not proceed, but was forced to draw up a

protest to acquit himself and the arbitrators from this trust, that

the obstruction might only be laid on W. Har. his shoulders,

concerning whom a volume might be written, of his furious, covetous,

and contentious domineering over his poor neighbors. I have

presented a character of him to his Majesty, (in defence of myself

against him) in my narrative against George Fox, printed at Boston.

I think it not seasonable here to trouble your patience with

particulars as to the matter. I humbly refer myself to my large

testimony, given in writing, at a Court of Trials on the Island,

before the honored gentleman, deceased, Mr. W. Brenton, then

Governor. At the same time Mr. William Arnold, father to our honored

present Governor, and Stukely Westcott, father to our Governor’s

wife, gave in their testimony with mine, and W. Har. was cast. In

that testimony, I declare not only how unrighteous, but also how

simple is W. Harris his ground of pleading, viz. after Miantinomo

had set us our bounds here in his own person, because of the envious

clamors of some against myself, one amongst us (not I) recorded a

testimony or memorandum of a courtesy added (upon request) by the

sachem, in these words, _up stream without limits_. The courtesy was

requested and granted, that being shortened in bounds by the sachem

because of the Indians about us, it might be no offence if our few

cows fed up the rivers where nobody dwelt, and home again at night.

This hasty, unadvised memorandum W. H. interprets of bounds set to

our town by the sachems; but he would set no bounds to our cattle,

but up the streams so far as they branched or run, so far all the

meadows, and at last all the uplands, must be drawn into this

accidental courtesy, and yet, upon no consideration given, nor the

sachem’s knowledge or hand, nor witnesses, nor date, nor for what

term of time this kindness should continue.

“Second. In my testimony, I have declared that Miantinomo having set

such short bounds (because of the Indians) upon my motion, payments

were given by us to Alexander and Philip, and the Narraganset

sachems, near two hundred and fifty pounds, in their pay, for inland

enlargements, according to leave granted us by the General Court

upon our petition. This after purchase and satisfaction to all

claimers, W. Harris puts a rotten title upon it, and calls it

confirmation, a confirmation of the title and grant of _up streams

without limits_; but all the sachems and Indians, when they heard of

such an interpretation, they cried _commoobin_, lying and stealing,

as such a cheat as stunk in their pagan nostrils.

“Honored Sirs, let me now add to my testimony, a list of several

persons which the right and disposing of all or considerable part of

these Narragansets, and Coweset, and Nipmuck lands, &c.

“First. The colony of Connecticut, by the King’s grant and charter,

by the late wars, wherein they were honorably assistant.

“Second. The colony of Plymouth, by virtue of Tacommaicon’s

surrender of his person and lands to their protection, and I have

seen a letter from the present Governor Winslow, to Mr. Richard

Smith, about the matter.

“Third. The colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, by

grant from his Majesty and confirmation from his Majesty’s

commissioners, who called these lands the King’s Province, and

committed the ordering of it to this colony, until his Majesty

further order.

“Fourth. Many eminent gentlemen of the Massachusetts and other

colonies, claim by a mortgage and forfeiture of all lands belonging

to Narraganset.

“Fifth. Our honored Governor, Mr. Arnold, and divers with him, are

out of a round sum of money and cost, about a purchase from

Tacummanan.

“Sixth. The like claim was and is made by Mr. John Brown, and Mr.

Thomas Willet, honored gentlemen and their successors, * * * from

purchase with Tacummanan, and I have seen their deeds, and Col.

Nichols his confirmation of them, under hand and seal, in the name

of the King’s Majesty.

“Seventh. Wm. Harris pleads _up streams without limits_, and

confirmation from the other sachems of the _up streams, &c._

“Eighth. Mishuntatuk men claim by purchase from Indians by

possession, buildings, &c. * * * * [worn out and oblit.] * * *

“Ninth. Captain Hubbard and some others, of Hingham * * * by

purchase from the Indians.

“Tenth. John Tours, of Hingham, by three purchases from Indians.

“Eleventh. William Vaughan, of Newport, and others, by Indian

purchase.

[The next following No. is 13: there is no 12.]

“Thirteenth. Randall, of Scituate,[393] and White, of Taunton, and

others, by purchase from Indians.

“Fourteenth. Edward Inman, of Providence, by purchase from the

natives.

“Fifteenth. The town of Warwick, who challenge twenty miles, about

part of which, Will. Harris contending with them, it is said, was

the first occasion of W. Har. falling in love with this his

monstrous Diana _up streams without limits_, that so he might

antedate and prevent (as he speaks) the blades of Warwick.

“Sixteenth. The town of Providence, by virtue of Canonicus’ and

Miantinomo’s grant renewed to me again and again, viz. of as large a

plantation and accommodation as any town in the country of

New-England. It is known what favor God pleased to give me with old

Canonicus, (though at a dear-bought rate) so that I had what I would

(so that I observed my times of moderation;) but two or three

envious and ungrateful souls among us cried out, What is R.

Williams? We will have the sachem come and set our bounds for us;

which he did, and (because of his Indians round about us) so sudden

and so short, that we were forced to petition to our General Court

for enlargement.

“Honored Sirs, there be other claims, and therefore I presume your

wisdoms will send forth your proclamations to all the colonies, that

all the claims may come in before your next meeting; and Oh that it

would please the Most High to move the colonies’ hearts to empower

you, and move your hearts to be willing, (being honorably rewarded)

and the hearts of the claimers to acquiesce and rest in your

determination. And Oh let not the colonies of Connecticut and

Rhode-Island to be offended, if I humbly beseech them, for God’s

sake, for the King’s sake, for the country of New-England’s sake,

and for their own souls’ and selves’ and posterity’s sakes, to

prevent any more complaints and clamors to the King’s Majesty, and

agree to submit their differences to the wisdoms of such solemn

commissioners chosen out of the whole country. I know there are

objections, but also know that love to God, love to the country and

posterity, will conquer greater matters, and I believe the King’s

Majesty, himself, will give us thanks for sparing him and his

honorable Council from being troubled with us.

“Honored gentlemen, if his Majesty and honorable Council knew how

against all law of England, Wm. Harris thus affects New and Old

England, viz. that a vast country should be purchased, and yet be

but a poor courtesy from one sachem, who understood no such thing,

nor they that begged it of him, who had not, nor asked any

consideration for it, who was not desired to set his hand to it, nor

did; nor are there the hands of witnesses, but the parties

themselves, nor no date, nor term of time, for the use of feeding

cows, up streams without limits, and yet these words, (_up streams

without limits_) by a sudden and unwary hand so written, must be the

ground of W. Har. this raising a fire about these thirty years

unquenchable. If his Majesty and Council knew how many of his good

subjects are claimers and competitors to these lands and meadows up

the streams of Pawtuxet and Pawtucket, though only one comes thus

clamoring to him, to cheat all the rest. If his Majesty and Council

knew this confirmation W. H. talks of, what a grand cheat it is,

stinking in the nostrils of all Indians, who subscribed to and only

confirmed only such bounds as were formerly given us, and W. Harris

clamors that they confirmed Miantinomo’s grant of up streams without

limits, a thing which they abhor to hear of, and (amongst others)

was one great occasion of their late great burning and slaughtering

of us.” * * * *

* * * * *

“_Narraganset, 10th June, 1682 (ut vulgo.)_

“I testify, as in the presence of the all-making and all-seeing God,

that about fifty years since, I coming into this Narraganset

country, I found a great contest between three sachems, two (to wit,

Canonicus and Miantinomo) were against Ousamaquin, on Plymouth side,

I was forced to travel between them three, to pacify, to satisfy all

their and their dependents’ spirits of my honest intentions to live

peaceably by them. I testify, that it was the general and constant

declaration, that Canonicus his father had three sons, whereof

Canonicus was the heir, and his youngest brother’s son, Miantinomo,

(because of youth,) was his marshal and executioner, and did nothing

without his uncle Canonicus’ consent; 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 any thing out of Canonicus

but by gift. I also profess, that, very inquisitive of what the

title or denomination Narraganset should come, I heard that

Narraganset was so named from a little island between Puttiquomscut

and Musquomacuk on the sea and fresh water side. I went on purpose

to see it; and about the place called Sugar-Loaf Hill, I saw it, and

was within a pole of it, but could not learn why it was called

Narraganset. I had learnt, that the Massachusetts was called so,

from the Blue Hills, a little island thereabout; and Canonicus’

father and ancestors, living in those southern parts, transferred

and brought their authority and name into those northern parts, all

along by the sea-side, as appears by the great destruction of wood

all along near the sea-side; and I desire posterity to see the

gracious hand of the Most High, (in whose hands are all hearts) that

when the hearts of my countrymen and friends and brethren failed me,

his infinite wisdom and merits stirred up the barbarous heart of

Canonicus to love me as his son to his last gasp, by which means I

had not only Miantinomo and all the lowest sachems my friends, but

Ousamaquin also, who, because of my great friendship with him at

Plymouth, and the authority of Canonicus, consented freely, being

also well gratified by me, to the Governor Winthrop and my enjoyment

of Prudence, yea of Providence itself, and all the other lands I

procured of Canonicus which were upon the point, and in effect

whatsoever I desired of him; and I never denied him or Miantinomo

whatever they desired of me as to goods or gifts or use of my boats

or pinnace, and the travels of my own person, day and night, which,

though men know not, nor care to know, yet the all-seeing Eye hath

seen it, and his all-powerful hand hath helped me. Blessed be his

holy name to eternity.

ROGER WILLIAMS.”

“September 28th, 1704. I then, being at the house of Mr. Nathaniel

Coddington, there being presented with this written paper, which I

attest, upon oath, to be my father’s own hand writing.

JOSEPH WILLIAMS, _Assistant_.”

“February 11th, 1705. True copy of the original, placed to record,

and examined per me.

“WESTON CLARKE, _Recorder_.”

NOTE D. p. 180.

[From Hazard’s State Papers, vol. i.]

Report of Arbitrators at Providence, containing proposals for a form of

government:

_“Providence, the 27th of the 5th month,_ }

_in the year (so called) 1640._ }

“We, Robert Coles, Chad Browne, William Harris, and John Warren,

being freely chosen by the consent of our loving friends and

neighbors, the inhabitants of this town of Providence, having many

differences amongst us, they being freely willing, and also bound

themselves to stand to our arbitration, in all differences amongst

us, to rest contented in our determination, being so betrusted, we

have seriously and carefully endeavored to weigh and consider all

these differences, being desirous to bring to unity and peace,

although our abilities are far short in the due examination of such

weighty things, yet so far as we conceive in laying all things

together, we have gone the fairest and the equallest way to produce

our peace.

“I. Agreed. We have, with one consent, agreed, that in the parting

those particular proprieties which some of our friends and neighbors

have in Pawtuxet from the general common of our town of Providence,

to run upon a straight line upon a fresh spring, being in the gully

at the head of that cove, running by that point of land called

Sassafras, unto the town of Mashapaug, to an oak tree standing near

unto the corn-field, being at this time the nearest corn-field unto

Pawtuxet, the oak tree having four marks with an axe, till some

other landmark be set for a certain bound. Also we agree, that if

any meadow ground lying and joining to that meadow that borders upon

the river of Pawtuxet, come within the aforesaid line, which will

not come within a straight line from long cove to the marked tree,

then for that meadow to belong to Pawtuxet, and so beyond the town

of Mashapaug from the oak tree between the two fresh rivers Pawtuxet

and Wanasquatucket, of an even distance.

“II. Agreed. We have with one consent agreed that for the disposing

of those lands that shall be disposed, belonging to this town of

Providence, to be in the whole inhabitants by the choice of five men

for general disposal, to be betrusted with disposal of lands and

also of the town’s stock, and all general things, and not to receive

in any in six days as townsmen, but first to give the inhabitants

notice to consider if any have just cause to show against the

receiving of him, as you can apprehend, and to receive none but such

as subscribe to this our determination. Also we agree, that if any

of our neighbors do apprehend himself wronged by these or any of

these five disposers, that at the general town meeting he may have a

trial.

“Also, we agree for the town to choose, beside the other five men,

one or more to keep record of all things belonging to the town and

lying in common.

“We agree, as formerly hath been the liberties of the town, so still

to hold forth liberty of conscience.

“III. Agreed, that after many considerations and consultations of

our own State and also of other States abroad, in way of government,

we apprehend no way so suitable to our condition as government by

way of arbitration. But if men agree themselves by arbitration, no

State we know of disallows that, neither do we. But if men refuse

that which is but common humanity between man and man, then to

compel such unreasonable persons to a reasonable way, we agree that

the five disposers shall have power to compel him either to choose

two men himself, or if he refuse, for them to choose two men to

arbitrate his cause, and if these four men chosen by every party do

end the cause, then to see their determination performed, and the

faultive to pay the arbitrators for their time spent in it. But if

these four men do not end it, then for the five disposers to choose

three men to put an end to it. And for the certainty hereof we agree

the major part of the five disposers to choose the three men, and

the major part of the three men to end the cause, having power from

the five disposers, by a note under their hand, to perform it; and

the faultive not agreeing in the first to pay the charge of the

last, and for the arbitrators to follow no employment until the

cause be ended, without consent of the whole that have to do with

the cause.

“Instance. In the first arbitration, the offender may offer

reasonable terms of peace, and the offended may exact upon him, and

refuse and trouble men beyond reasonable satisfaction; so for the

last arbitrators to judge where the fault was, in not agreeing in

the first, to pay the charge in the last.

“IV. Agreed, that if any person damnify any man, either in goods or

good name, and the person offended follow not the cause upon the

offender, that if any person give notice to the five disposers, they

shall call the party delinquent to answer by arbitration.

“Instance. Thus, if any person abuse another in person or goods, may

be for peace sake a man will at present put it up, and it may so be

resolve to revenge: therefore, for the peace of the State, the

disposers are to look to it in the first place.

“V. Agreed, for all the whole inhabitants to combine ourselves to

assist any man in the pursuit of any party delinquent, with all our

best endeavors to attack him; but if any man raise a hubbub, and

there be no just cause, then for the party that raised the hubbub to

satisfy men for their time lost in it.

“VI. Agreed, that if any man have a difference with any of the five,

then he may have the clerk call the town together at his for a

trial.

“Instance. It may be a man may be to depart the land, or to a far

part of the land, or his estate may lie upon a speedy trial, or the

like case may fall out.

“VII. Agreed, that the town, by five men, shall give every man a

deed of all his lands lying within the bounds of the plantation to

hold it by for after ages.

“VIII. Agreed, that the five disposers shall, from the date hereof,

meet every month day upon general things, and at the quarter day to

yield a new choice, and give up their old accounts.

“IX. Agreed, that the clerk shall call the five disposers together

at the month day, and the general town together every quarter, to

meet upon general occasions, from the date hereof.

“X. Agreed, that the clerk is to receive for every cause that comes

to the town for a trial, 4_d._; for making each deed, 12_d._; and to

give up the book to the town at the year’s end, and yield to a new

choice.

“XI. Agreed, that all acts of disposal on both sides to stand

since the difference.

“XII. Agreed, that every man who hath not paid in his purchase money

for his plantation, shall make up his 10_s._ to be 30_s._ equal with

the first purchases; and for all that are received townsmen

hereafter to pay the like sum of money to the town stock.

“These being those things we have generally concluded on for our

peace, we desiring our loving friends to receive as our absolute

determination, laying ourselves down as subject to it.”

NOTE E. page 198.

_The first Charter, copied from 2 His. Coll. ix. pp. 185–8._

“Whereas, by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons, now assembled in

Parliament, bearing date the second day of November, Anno Domini

1643, Robert, Earl of Warwick, is constituted, and ordained governor

in chief, and lord high admiral of all those islands and other

plantations inhabited or planted by, or belonging to any his Majesty

the King of England’s subjects, (or which hereafter may be inhabited

and planted by, or belong to them) within the bounds, and upon the

coasts of America:

“And whereas the said Lords have thought fit and thereby ordained

that Philip Earl of Pembroke, Edward Earl of Manchester, William

Viscount, Say and Seal, Philip Lord Wharton, John Lord Rolle,

members of the House of Peers; Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Baronet, Sir

Arthur Haslerig, Baronet, Sir Henry Vane, jr. Knight, Sir Benjamin

Rudyard, Knight, John Pym, Oliver Cromwell, Dennis Bond, Miles

Corbet, Cornelius Holland, Samuel Vassal, John Rolle, and William

Spurstow, Esqrs. members of the House of Commons, should be

commissioners to join in aid and assistance with the said Earl. And

whereas, for the better government and defence, it is thereby

ordained, that the aforesaid governor and commissioners, or the

greater number of them, shall have power, and authority, from time

to time, to nominate, appoint, and constitute all such subordinate

governors, counsellors, commanders, officers, and agents, as they

shall judge to be best affected, and most fit, and serviceable for

the said islands and plantations; and to provide for, order and

dispose all things, which they shall, from time to time, find most

advantageous for the said plantations: and for the better security

of the owners and inhabitants thereof, to assign, ratify, and

confirm, so much of their aforementioned authority and power, and in

such manner, and to such persons, as they shall judge to be fit for

the better governing and preserving of the said plantations and

islands, from open violences and private disturbances and

distractions. And whereas there is a tract of land in the continent

of America aforesaid, called by the name of Narraganset Bay,

bordering northward and northeast on the patent of Massachusetts,

east and southeast on Plymouth patent, south on the ocean, and on

the west and northwest by the Indians called Nahigganneucks, alias

Narragansets, the whole tract extending about twenty-five English

miles, unto the Pequod river and country.

“And whereas, well affected and industrious English inhabitants, of

the towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Newport, in the tract

aforesaid, have adventured to make a nearer neighborhood and society

with the great body of the Narragansets, which may, in time, by the

blessing of God upon their endeavors, lay a sure foundation of

happiness to all America; and have also purchased, and are

purchasing of and amongst the natives, some other places, which may

be convenient, both for plantations, and also for building of ships,

supply of pipe staves, and other merchandise.

“And whereas the said English have represented their desire to the

said Earl, and commissioners, to have their hopeful beginnings

approved and confirmed, by granting unto them a free charter of

civil incorporation and government; that they may order and govern

their plantation in such a manner, as to maintain justice and peace,

both among themselves, and towards all men with whom they shall have

to do. In due consideration of the said premises, the said Robert,

Earl of Warwick, governor in chief, and lord high admiral of the

said plantations, and the greater number of the said commissioners,

whose names and seals are hereunder written and subjoined, out of a

desire to encourage the good beginnings of the said planters, do, by

the authority of the aforesaid ordinance of the Lords and Commons,

give, grant, and confirm, to the aforesaid inhabitants of the towns

of Providence, Portsmouth and Newport, a free and absolute charter

of incorporation, to be known by the name of _The Incorporation of

Providence Plantation, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England_.

Together with full power and authority, to rule themselves, and such

others as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the said tract

of land, by such a form of civil government, as by voluntary consent

of all, or the greater part of them, they shall find most suitable

to their estate and condition; and, for that end, to make and ordain

such civil laws and constitutions, and to inflict such punishments

upon transgressors, and for execution thereof, so to place, and

displace officers of justice, as they, or the greatest part of them,

shall by free consent agree unto. _Provided_, _nevertheless_, that

the said laws, constitutions, and punishments, for the civil

government of the said plantations, be conformable to the laws of

England, so far as the nature and constitution of the place will

admit. And always reserving to the said Earl, and commissioners, and

their successors, power and authority for to dispose the general

government of that, as it stands in relation to the rest of the

plantations in America, as they shall conceive, from time to time,

most conducing to the general good of the said plantations, the

honor of his Majesty, and the service of the State. And the said

Earl and commissioners do further authorize, that the aforesaid

inhabitants, for the better transacting of their public affairs, to

make and use a public seal, as the known seal of the Providence

Plantations, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England. In testimony

whereof, the said Robert, Earl of Warwick, and commissioners, have

hereunto set their hands and seals, the fourteenth day of March, in

the nineteenth year of our sovereign lord King Charles, and in the

year of our Lord God, 1643.

ROBERT WARWICK,

PHILIP PEMBROKE,

SAY AND SEAL,

P. WHARTON,

ARTHUR HASLERIG,

COR. HOLLAND,

H. VANE,

SAM. VASSAL,

JOHN ROLLE,

MILES CORBET,

W. SPURSTOW.[394]”

NOTE F. page 226.

The following document, written, evidently, by Mr. Williams, is an

appropriate introduction to the charter of the town of Providence.

“To our loving and well-betrusted friends and neighbors, Gregory Dexter,

William Wickenden, Thomas Olney, Robert Williams, Richard Waterman,

Roger Williams, William Field, John Greene, John Smith, John Shippett.

“We, the greater part of the inhabitants of this plantation of

Providence, having orderly chosen you at our town meeting this 16th of

the 3d mo. 1647, to appear for us, at the General Court of this colony,

to be held at Portsmouth, on Rhode-Island, upon the 18th of this inst.

month, desiring the Lord’s providence for your safe arrival there, we

all voluntarily assenting, do hereby give you full power and authority

as followeth: First, to act and vote for us respectively or otherwise,

as if we ourselves were in person, for the settling of this General

Court for the present, and for the composing of it into any figure for

the future, as cause shall require. Secondly, to act and vote for us as

aforesaid in the choice of all general officers, as need shall require.

Thirdly, if the General Court shall consist of but ten men for each

town, then you are to act accordingly for this town; and if the General

Court shall be reduced into a fewer number, which, for divers

considerations, we conceive may be for the best, then we give you full

power to choose from among yourselves, such a number of our loving

neighbors as shall answer the same figure, unto whom, being orderly

chosen by you, we do give you power to transfer this our commission,

giving of them full power to act and vote for us, the inhabitants of

this plantation, in all general affairs, and for the settling of the

island in peace and union, and for all matters that shall concern this

particular town, desiring a careful respect unto these ensuing

instructions. But, if the Court shall consist of ten of each town, then

our desires are, that this our commission, with the ensuing

instructions, may remain entire in your hands.

“First. That we may have a true copy of our charter assigned unto us by

the General Court, for the proper use of our plantation.

“Secondly. We do voluntarily and are freely willing to receive and be

governed by the laws of England, together with the way of administration

of them, so far as the nature and constitution of this plantation will

admit, desiring, so far as possibly may be, to hold a correspondency

with the whole colony in that model that hath been lately shown unto us

by our worthy friends of the island, if the General Court shall complete

and confirm the same, or any other model as the General Court shall

agree upon according to our charter.

“Thirdly. We desire to have full power, and authority to transact all

our home affairs, to try all manner of causes or cases, and to execute

all manner of executions entirely within ourselves, excepting such cases

and executions as the colony shall be pleased to reserve to general

trials and executions.

“Fourthly. We desire to have full power and authority to choose, ordain,

authorize and confirm, all our particular town officers, and also that

the said officers shall be responsible unto our particular town, and

that there may be no intermixture of general and particular officers,

but that all may know their bounds and limits.

“Fifthly. We desire to have an exact and orderly way open for appeals

unto General Courts, that so, if any shall be justly grieved at any

sentence passed or otherwise, he or they may make their lawful charge

for relief there.

“Lastly. Whereas, it was hinted in that which our worthy friends

unto us, that each town should have a charter of civil

incorporation, apart, for the transacting of particular affairs, if the

Court shall proceed so far as to agitate and order the same, then we

give you full power, on our behalf, to move and procure any thing beside

these instructions, that in your wisdom you conceive may tend unto the

general peace or union of the colony and our own particular liberties

and privileges, provided you do all, _or the most of you, unanimously_

agree therein, and always reserving our equal votes and equal privileges

in the general.

“Thus betrusting you with the premises, we commit you unto the

protection and direction of the Almighty, wishing you a comfortable

voyage, a happy success, and a safe return unto us again.

“Your thankful friends and neighbors,

“ROGER WILLIAMS,

_Moderator_.”

_Charter of the Town of Providence._

“Whereas, by virtue of a free and absolute charter of civil

incorporation, granted to the free inhabitants of this colony of

Providence, by the Right Honorable Robert, Earl of Warwick, Governor in

Chief, with the rest of the honorable commoners, bearing date the 14th

day of March, anno. 1643, giving and granting full powers and authority

unto the said inhabitants to govern themselves and such others as shall

come among them, as also to make, constitute and ordain such laws,

orders and constitutions, and to inflict such punishments and penalties,

as is conformable to the laws of England, so near as the nature and

constitution of the place will admit, and which may best suit the estate

and condition thereof, and whereas the said towns of Providence,

Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick are far remote each from other, whereby

so often and free intercourse of help in deciding of difference and

trying of causes and the like cannot easily and at all times be had and

procured of that kind is requisite; therefore, upon the petition and

humble request of the freemen of the town of Providence, exhibited unto

this present session of General Assembly, wherein they desire freedom

and liberty to incorporate themselves into a body politic, and we, the

said Assembly, having duly weighed and seriously considered the

premises, and being willing and ready to provide for the ease and

liberty of the people, have thought fit, and by the authority aforesaid

and by these presents, do give, grant and confirm unto the free

inhabitants of the town of Providence, a free and absolute charter of

civil incorporation and government, to be known by the Incorporation of

Providence Plantation, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England, together

with full power and authority to govern and rule themselves, and such

others, as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the said

Plantation, by such a form of civil government, as by voluntary consent

of all, or the greater part of them, shall be found most suitable unto

their estate and condition, and to that end to make and ordain such

civil orders and constitutions, to inflict such punishments upon

transgressors, and for execution thereof, and of the common statute laws

of the colony, agreed unto, and the penalties, and so many of them as

are not annexed already unto the colony Court of Trials, so to place and

displace officers of justice, as they, or the greater part of them,

shall, by one consent, agree unto. Provided, nevertheless, that the said

laws, constitutions, and punishments, for the civil government of the

said Plantation, be conformable to the laws of England, so far as the

nature and constitution of the place will admit, yet always reserving to

the aforesaid General Assembly, power and authority so to dispose the

general government of that plantation, as it stands in reference to the

rest of the plantation, as they shall conceive, from time to time, most

conducing to the general good of the said plantation. And we, the said

Assembly, do further authorize the aforesaid inhabitants to elect and

engage such aforesaid officers upon the first second day of June

annually. And moreover, we authorize the said inhabitants, for the

better transacting of their public affairs, to make and use a public

seal, as the known seal of Providence Plantation, in the Narraganset

Bay, in New-England. In testimony whereof, we, the said General

Assembly, have hereunto set our hands and seal, the 14th of March, Anno

1648.

“JOHN WARNER,

“_Clerk of the Assembly_.

_Portsmouth_.”

“The foregoing is as correct a copy of the charter of the town of

Providence, as could be made from that on parchment in the Town Clerk’s

office, taken this day, by and with the assistance of a copy, in the

hand writing of Joseph Brown, son of Henry, and brother to Richard

Brown, who was proprietors’ clerk. The parchment original not now being

in all parts legible, the said copy I judge to be taken more than sixty

years ago, and was of great use in decyphering that in the office.

“MOSES BROWN.

_20th 12th mo. 1810._”

NOTE G. page 319.

_Charter of Rhode-Island. granted by King Charles II. on the 8th of

July, 1663._

“Quintadecima pars Patentium Anno Regni Regis Caroli Secundi

Quintodecimo.

“Charles the Second, by the grace of God, &c., to all to whom these

presents shall come, greeting: Whereas we have been informed, by the

petition of our trusty and well-beloved subjects, John Clarke, on the

behalf of Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, William Coddington, Nicholas

Easton, William Boulston, John Porter, John Smith, Samuel Gorton, John

Weekes, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall,

Joseph Clarke, Randall Houlden, John Greene, John Roome, Samuel

Wildbore, William Field, James Barker, Richard Tew, Thomas Harris, and

William Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers and free inhabitants of our

island, called Rhode-Island, and the rest of the colony of Providence

Plantations, in the Narraganset Bay, in New-England, in America: That

they, pursuing with peace and loyal minds their sober, serious and

religious intentions, of godly edifying themselves and one another in

the holy Christian faith and worship, as they were persuaded, together

with the gaining over and conversion of the poor ignorant Indian

natives, in those parts of America, to the sincere profession and

obedience of the same faith and worship, did not only, by the consent

and good encouragement of our royal progenitors, transport themselves

out of this kingdom of England, into America; but also, since their

arrival there, after their first settlement amongst other of our

subjects in those parts, for the avoiding of discord, and these many

evils which were likely to ensue upon those, our subjects, not being

able to bear, in those remote parts, their different apprehensions in

religious concernments: and in pursuance of the aforesaid ends, did once

again leave their desirable stations and habitations, and, with

excessive labor and travail, hazard and charge, did transplant

themselves into the midst of the Indian natives, who, as we are

informed, are the most potent princes and people of all that country;

where, by the good providences of God (from whom the plantations have

taken their name) upon their labor and industry, they have not only been

preserved to admiration, but have increased and prospered, and are

seized and possessed, by purchase and consent of said natives, to their

full content, of such lands, islands, rivers, harbors, and roads, as are

very convenient, both for plantations and also for building of ships,

supplying of pipe-staves and other merchandise, which lie very

commodious, in many respects, for commerce, and to accommodate our

southern plantations, and may much advance the trade of this our realm,

and greatly enlarge the territories thereof; they having, by near

neighborhood to, and friendly society with, the great body of

Narraganset Indians, given them encouragement, of their own accord, to

subject themselves, their people and land unto us; whereby, as is hoped,

there may, in time, by the blessing of God upon their endeavors, be laid

a sure foundation of happiness to all America:

“And whereas, in their humble address, they have freely declared, that

it is much on their hearts (if they be permitted) to hold forth a lively

experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand, and best be

maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in

religious concernments; and that true piety, rightly grounded upon

Gospel principles, will give the best and greatest security to

sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations

to true loyalty:

“Now know ye, that we, being willing to encourage the hopeful

undertaking of our said loyal and loving subjects, and to secure them in

the free exercise and enjoyment of all the civil and religious rights

appertaining to them, as our loving subjects, and to preserve unto them

that liberty in the true Christian faith and worship of God, which they

have sought, with so much travail, and with peaceable minds and loyal

subjection to our royal progenitors and ourselves, to enjoy; and because

some of the people and inhabitants of the same colony cannot, in their

private opinion, conform to the public exercise of religion, according

to the liturgy, form and ceremonies of the Church of England, to take or

subscribe the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf;

and for that the same, by reason of the remote distances of those

places, will, as we hope, be no breach of the unity and uniformity

established in this nation, have therefore thought fit, and do hereby

publish, grant, ordain, and declare, that our royal will and pleasure

is:

“That no person, within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be

anywise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any

differences in opinion in matters of religion, who do not actually

disturb the civil peace of our said colony; but that all and every

person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter,

freely and fully have and enjoy his own and their judgments and

consciences, in matters of religious concernments, throughout the tract

of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and

quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness,

nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others; any law,

statute, or clause therein contained, or to be contained, usage, or

custom of this realm, to the contrary hereof, in anywise

notwithstanding.

“And that they may be in the better capacity to defend themselves, in

their just rights and liberties, against all the enemies of the

Christian faith, and others, in all respects, we have further thought

fit, and at the humble petition of the persons aforesaid, are graciously

pleased to declare,