Roger Williams migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 3, p. 2007) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm
Biography
Roger Williams is Notable.
Roger Williams was born in the City of London, England.
Reverend Roger Williams, President of Rhode Island Colony 1654-57, was born in London, but no record of the exact date survives, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography guesses c.1606.[1] He was the son of James Williams (d. 1621) and Alice Pemberton (d. 1625), daughter of Robert Pemberton and Catherine Stokes (sister of Roger Stokes).[2] According to the records of the Roger Williams Family Association, published as Roger Williams of Providence, R.I., he was born about 1601 in London, but the great fire of London destroyed the church which housed all the birth and baptism records of the family.[2]
His godfather was his uncle Roger Pemberton Pemberton-1404. Roger Pemberton's will dated 13 Dec 1624 named godson Roger Williams to have 10 pounds English money. [3]
Some family trees claim a birth of 21 Dec 1603 at Long Lane, London, Middlesex, England [4] and christening at St. Sepulchre, London Christ Church Greyfriars Newgate, London, England or High Laver, Essex, England. The register for St. Sepulchre with the earliest dating has been lost, and the relevant records are not available at familysearch.org nor on ancestry.com in London Area registers. St. Sepulchre Holborn records begin in 1662.
Roger's father was a merchant tailor of London.[2] His siblings were: Sydrach, Catherine and Robert.[2]
As a teenager, Roger was associated with Sir Edward Coke, who employed Williams to take notes of sermons and speeches in Star Chamber, an English court which sat at the royal Palace of Westminster. Through Coke's influence, he matriculated at Pembroke College in 1624, receiving a BA in 1627.[1]
He left Cambridge in 1628/9 to enter the Essex household of Sir William Masham as a family chaplain. He married, on 15 Dec 1629 at High Laver Church, Essex, England.[2], Mary Bernard (bap. 1609, d. in or after 1676), the daughter of the clergyman and religious writer Richard Bernard, who was serving as a maid in the Masham household.[1][5]
Roger Williams migrated from England to Colonial America.
He met with other dissenters Thomas Hooker and John Cotton and they discussed with other dissenting clergy to invest in the Massachusetts Bay Company and migrate to the New World. He migrated with his wife in 1631 on the Lyon, residing initially at Salem, then Plymouth, back to Salem in 1633 and finally to Providence, Rhode Island by 1636.[1]
Roger Williams established what would become Rhode Island, having been banished from Salem and Plymouth for the quality of his preaching. "His favorite theme was liberty of conscience in religious matters, and that civil magistrates as such have no power in the church, and that Christians as such are subject to no laws or control, but those of King Jesus." This did not go over well with church and civil leaders.[6]
At the time of the burning of Providence by the Wampanoag during King Philip's War, Roger Williams, who was also an Indian interpreter, along with Valentine Whitman parlayed with the Indians but was unable to prevent the burning of the town.[7]
In 1643 "Roger Williams of Providence in New England" published (in London) "A Key into the Language of America".[8]
His exact date of death is not known, but he died between 27 Jan 1682/3 and 15 March 1682/3 on his Providence farm.[9][1]
He was originally buried in the orchard behind his homestead. Many years later his remains were disinterred and placed in the tomb of a descendant at the North Burial Ground in Providence [Stephen Randall's tomb, placed there about 1860]. In 1939, his remains were interred under his statue at Prospect Terrace, his third and current resting place.
[10]
The monument on Prospect Terrace, Providence, was dedicated June 29, 1939, by the Roger Williams Memorial Association. [2][11]
There is also a Cenotaph at the Williams Family Cemetery , Providence, Rhode Island.[12]
↑ Anderson, Robert Charles, Roger WilliamsThe Great Migration Begins Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Pages 2007-10 ) Online database accessed February 5, 2015: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010.
↑
Memorial:
"Find a Grave", database with images,
Find A Grave: Memorial #1110 (accessed 26 March 2024),
Memorial page for Roger Williams (21 Dec 1600-1 Apr 1683), citing Prospect Terrace Park, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.
↑
Memorial:
"Find a Grave", database with images,
Find A Grave: Memorial #19715819 (accessed 26 March 2024),
Memorial page for Roger Williams (21 Dec 1600-1 Apr 1683), citing Williams Family Cemetery, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.
↑ Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 for Roger Williams children Vol. 02: Providence County: Births, Marriages, Deaths
↑ Find A Grave, database and images : accessed 28 July 2019, memorial page for Mary Williams Sayles (8 Mar 1633–1681), Find A Grave: Memorial #19727534, citing Easton Lot, Middletown, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by Scout (contributor 47319613).
↑ Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 for Roger Williams children Vol. 02: Providence County: Births, Marriages, Deaths
↑ Find A Grave, database and images : accessed 28 July 2019, memorial page for Freeborn Williams Clarke (4 Oct 1635–10 Jan 1710), Find A Grave: Memorial #12221429, citing Clifton Burying Ground, Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by Jen Snoots (contributor 4661415).
↑ Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 for Roger Williams children Vol. 02: Providence County: Births, Marriages, Deaths
↑ Find A Grave, database and images : accessed 28 July 2019, memorial page for Providence Williams (16 Sep 1638–Mar 1686), Find A Grave: Memorial #17477451, citing Williams Family Cemetery, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave (contributor 8).
↑ Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 for Roger Williams children Vol. 02: Providence County: Births, Marriages, Deaths
↑ Find A Grave, database and images : accessed 28 July 2019, memorial page for Mercy Williams Winsor (15 Jul 1640–19 Sep 1705), Find A Grave: Memorial #17477493, citing Williams Family Cemetery, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by Linda Ogren (contributor 47657928).
↑ Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 for Daniel Williams Vol. 02: Providence County: Births, Marriages, Deaths
↑ Find A Grave, database and images : accessed 28 July 2019, memorial page for Daniel Williams (15 Feb 1641–14 May 1712), Find A Grave: Memorial #17477316, citing Williams Family Cemetery, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by Linda Ogren (contributor 47657928.
↑ Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 for Roger Williams children Vol. 02: Providence County: Births, Marriages, Deaths
↑ Find A Grave, database and images : accessed 28 July 2019, memorial page for Joseph Williams (12 Dec 1643–17 Aug 1724), Find A Grave: Memorial #17142392, citing Williams Family Cemetery, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by Robin Page (contributor 47347883).
See also:
Stephen, Sir Leslie, ed. Dictionary of National Biography, 1921–1922/i. iVolumes 1–22./i London, England: Oxford University Press, 1921–1922. Dictionary of National Biography, 1921–1922, Oxford University Press, London, England. Volume: Vol 21
The American Genealogist, volume 28 (1953): pages 197-208. "Roger Williams," by Winifred Lovering Holman.
Smith, Joseph Jencks. Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1647-1800 (Preston and Rounds Co., Providence, R.I., 1900) Page 2: "1649. May. To have left to sell a little Wine or Strong Water to some natives in their sickness: Mr. Roger Williams."
Hodges, Jr., Almon D., Notes Concerning Roger Williams, NEHGR (NEHGS, Boston, 1899) Vol. 53, Page 60-4.
"Today in History - February 5 - Roger Williams, Rhode Island Founder" Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved July 12, 2023. online
"Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth from the Flight of the Pilgrims into Holland in the Year 1608, to the Union of that Colony with Massachusetts in 1692 volume 1", Francis Baylies 1866. Mentions Roger Williams being related to Oliver Cromwell - page 284, second paragraph. Internet Archive link ;Internet Archive pdf
"Today in History - October 9, 1635: A Banishment Leads To Providence , published , October 8, 2024 online
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Came to fix a broken <ref> tag and reorganized the FindAGrave refs and burial notes.
There is also a copy from FindAGrave of Biography by: Stuthehistoryguy as posted on Find A Grave: Memorial #1110 (accessed on 15 Feb 2020)
I suggest it be deleted.
Please review the newly attached Williams-19675 the vital dates were recently changed and then attached to this Roger Williams as a son. Would appear a detach is needed. Thank You
Thanks Beryl, fixed. And thanks for the updates to this profile, nice work! It appears the "spare child" came in with the most recent merge. I've detached him, and restored his original bio.
It is about him, but it sounds a lot like a bit of a fairy tale. I can't find anything to corroborate it. Perhaps checking with Brown University's museum would be worthwhile?
I did look it up, which is why I asked, and appears real, you can still see the root, there other sources for it as well.
And while the tree may not have eaten him. As the body went back to nature it's nutrients would have fed the tree, Which the apples would be grown in...
The root has been preserved and now appears on the hands of the Rhode Island Historical Society
The "Rhode Island Historical Society Collections", Vol. 1, published in 1827, contains a sketch of his life and "A Key Into The Language of America..." that Roger Williams wrote and published in 1643. See https://books.google.com/books?id=MnQUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9
Williams-124981 and Williams-934 appear to represent the same person because: I had not been able to find the profile of Roger Willaims previously, so I created one.
M Smith, the PGM project will sometimes categorize a PGM-related profile such as a parent or child as "PGM Adjunct" and manage & project-protect them even though they did not emigrate to New England. Usually this is only done when there has been (or seems to be a strong risk of) unsourced editing or conflating i.e. it is done to protect a profile from being mangled. Other than that we don't typically take on profiles that don't meet regular PGM criteria.
The first version of your comment didn't have the word "managing" in it which is, I think, why Joe made his comment below regarding solidity of parentage.
Roger Williams arrived in Boston on February 5, 1631 aboard the Lyon, part of the Winthrop Fleet. He rebelled against John Winthrop’s insistence that the state enforce God’s Laws. As a minister of the Salem church, this was quite a rebellion. Williams’ understood that should the state enforce God’s laws, humans would enforce God’s laws and they would be mistaken and would eventually corrupt the Puritan Church of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans had already left one corrupt church, The Church of England.
The authories in the Massachusetts believed that his views would eventually infect the entire Colony. To prevent that from happening they banished him from the colony on October 6, 1635. They relented and allowed him to stay until spring on the condition that he not preach publicly. He kept quiet in public, but not in private. The leaders in Boston learned of this and banished him in January. A friend warned him that enforcers were coming to expell him. He fled in a blizzard, but the Indians gave him refuge through the winter. In the spring he made his way down the coast to Narragansett Bay and Providence.
There he called for religious freedom and linked to to individual liberty. Source: Barry, John M. Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. New York: Penguin Books, 2012, 1-6.
Williams-14140 and Williams-934 appear to represent the same person because: apparently was intended to be same family grouping...the submitter still had 3 files on rootsweb trees with same data. But see my notes explaining the error on Mary's surname as Sayles rather the husband Sayles ... than Barnard.
I saw no reference to John M. Barry's "Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty," printed in 2012. A pretty good read considering the times in which we live. A little irony, Williams worshiped at the same St. Sepulchre church in London in his youth as did John Winthrop's sister Anne Fones and her family. There is a statue in Williams' honor as part of the Reformation Wall in Geneva, Switzerland w/ other prominent figures of early Protestantism. Finally, a plug for Resolved Waterman as the first husband of Mercy Williams. Thanks. D. Jenkins
Acadian heritage connections:
Roger is
18 degrees from Beyoncé Knowles, 18 degrees from Jean Béliveau, 18 degrees from Madonna Ciccone, 17 degrees from Rhéal Cormier, 17 degrees from Joseph Drouin, 19 degrees from Jack Kerouac, 14 degrees from Anne Murray, 18 degrees from Matt LeBlanc, 16 degrees from Roméo LeBlanc, 17 degrees from Azilda Marchand, 15 degrees from Marie Travers and 18 degrees from Clarence White
on our single family tree.
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There is also a copy from FindAGrave of Biography by: Stuthehistoryguy as posted on Find A Grave: Memorial #1110 (accessed on 15 Feb 2020) I suggest it be deleted.
edited by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
Thomas Angell of Lyme Connecticut
William Warman of Lyme Connecticut And Roger Willams of Lyme Connecticut
Connected ?
Answer an Anglo-Saxon settlement it was known as Verlamacaestir
Read the monks writings of St. Albans Abbey
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022982/1877-07-14/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1875&sort=date&rows=20&words=Roger&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=8&state=Arkansas&date2=1877&proxtext=rogers&y=7&x=23&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=6
Is this story about him? If so maybe worth adding the article.. lol gave him quite the interesting ending a few years later...lol
And while the tree may not have eaten him. As the body went back to nature it's nutrients would have fed the tree, Which the apples would be grown in...
The root has been preserved and now appears on the hands of the Rhode Island Historical Society
https://www.nps.gov/rowi/learn/news/the-tree-root-that-ate-roger-williams.htm
https://www.rihs.org/the-root-of-the-matter/
Also see Roger Williams Online Gallery
edited by Rick Pierpont
edited by [Living Smith]
The first version of your comment didn't have the word "managing" in it which is, I think, why Joe made his comment below regarding solidity of parentage.
The authories in the Massachusetts believed that his views would eventually infect the entire Colony. To prevent that from happening they banished him from the colony on October 6, 1635. They relented and allowed him to stay until spring on the condition that he not preach publicly. He kept quiet in public, but not in private. The leaders in Boston learned of this and banished him in January. A friend warned him that enforcers were coming to expell him. He fled in a blizzard, but the Indians gave him refuge through the winter. In the spring he made his way down the coast to Narragansett Bay and Providence.
There he called for religious freedom and linked to to individual liberty. Source: Barry, John M. Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. New York: Penguin Books, 2012, 1-6.
edited by [Living Dunn]