Williams, Roger (1603?-1683), was a clergyman, a founder of the colony of Rhode Island in America, and a strong supporter of religious and political liberty. He believed that people have a right to complete religious freedom, rather than mere religious toleration that can be denied at the government’s will. Williams helped establish a complete separation of church and state for Rhode Island. This example contributed greatly to the similar system of separation that was later adopted by framers of the Constitution of the United States.
Early life.
Williams was born in London, the son of a merchant tailor. As a youth, he became a scribe for Sir Edward Coke, a noted English lawyer and judge. Coke helped Williams enter Cambridge University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1627. In 1629, Williams became a chaplain in the household of a wealthy Puritan lord. The Puritans were Protestant reformers who advocated simpler forms of worship and stricter morals. By that time, Williams had become a religious Nonconformist—that is, he did not agree with principles of England’s official church, the Church of England. At the time, King Charles I and William Laud, bishop of London, were persecuting those who dissented from the Church of England. Williams associated with Nonconformists who were anxious to settle in New England, an area of English colonies in America. In 1629, Williams married Mary Barnard. They had six children.
In Massachusetts.
Williams and his wife moved to Massachusetts Bay Colony in America in 1631. Williams refused an invitation to become the minister of the Puritan church in Boston because he opposed its ties to the Church of England. Williams and his wife moved to Plymouth Colony but returned to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, when Williams became the minister of the church at Salem. There, many people accepted his desire to have a church that was independent of the Church of England and free from governmental interference in religious matters.
By this time, Williams had gained a reputation as a troublesome person. He argued that the royal charter did not justify taking land that belonged to the Indians, and he declared that people should not be punished for religious differences. Officials of Massachusetts Bay Colony acted to send Williams back to England. But he fled into the wilderness in early 1636. The Narragansett Indians provided Williams with land, and he founded Providence, later the capital of Rhode Island.
In Rhode Island.
Williams established a government for Providence based on the consent of the settlers and on complete freedom of religion. In 1643, the Puritan colonies—Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven—organized the New England Confederation. The confederation denied membership to Providence and the other towns in Rhode Island because of disagreement with their system of government and of religious freedom. To safeguard Rhode Island liberties and lands, Williams visited England in 1643 and secured a charter from the English government. Under this charter, Rhode Island adopted a system of government that included frequent elections, a flexible constitution, and home rule (local self-government). Williams revisited England in 1651 to save the colony from a rival claim.
Williams’s most famous work, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644), was published during his first visit to England. The book upheld his argument for the separation of church and state. He wrote it as part of a long dispute with John Cotton, a Puritan leader of Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the work, Williams explained his belief that the state’s intervention in religious matters spoiled the worship of God and ruined true religion.
From 1654 to 1657, Williams was president of the Rhode Island colony. In 1657, he contributed to Rhode Island’s decision to provide refuge for Quakers who had been banished from other colonies, even though he disagreed with their religious teachings.
Williams earned his living by farming and trading with the Indians. He knew the Indians well and compiled a dictionary of their language. He often acted as a mediator between them and the other colonies. But he served as a captain of the Providence militia and fought against the Indians during King Philip’s War (1675-1676).
Williams died in 1683 and was buried with military honors. Rhode Island later placed a statue of him in the U.S. Capitol.
