June' following, and unable to perform the duties of his pulpit, he ["wrote to his church a protestation that he could not communicate with the churches in the bay, neither would he communicate with them, except they would refuse communication with the rest,"]-at which the whole church were much grieved.* This was an extraordinary stage. It marks a decision, though at the same time an eccentricity, of character. His being willing to break from his church can be accounted for only from his having had on his mind a full conviction that it was inevitable, and that he would be obliged to leave the colony of Massachusetts and to seek an asylum in Plymouth colony, or in the Narragansett country, among the Indians whom he had [illegible] there in the preceding year. In November, 1635, Mr. Williams was again,-for the third time-under censure before the General Court, and all the ministers of the colony who had been desired to attend. [He was charged with the said two letters, that to the churches, complaining of the magistrates for injustice, extreme oppression, etc., and the other to his own church, to persuade them to renounce communion with all the churches in the Bay, as full of anti-christian pollution, &c. He justified both these letters, and maintained all his opinions"] "for which he had been called in question," and being offered further conference or disputation and a month's respite, he chose to dispute presently. So, Mr. Hooker was appointed to dispute with him, but to no purpose. He was therefore sentenced the

(1) Winthrop, I. 198. The entry, however, occurs under August 16, 1635, and not in June.

(2) Winthrop's language in this case is: "But the whole church was grieved herewith." (I. 198). Compare Dexter's note, ("As to Roger Williams,” p. 43-45).

(3) Winthrop says that he and others "were intended to erect a plantation about the Narragansett Bay." (I. 209.)

(4) The date should be October. For this discrepancy, see Note. It is to be noted that the account is still taken from Winthrop. (I. 204).

(5) This letter is mentioned by Winthrop, (I. 195). "Upon this the church of Salem write," etc.

(6) This was Rev. Thomas Hooker, minister of Cambridge, founder of Hartford, Conn., in the same year.

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next morning to depart the jurisdiction in six weeks. The sentence was read to him by Govr. Haynes. Mr. Winthrop writes: "all the ministers save one approving the sentence," and that "he at his return home, refused communion with his own church, who openly disclaimed his errors, and wrote an humble submission to the magistrates, acknowledging their fault in joining with Mr. Williams in that letter to the churches against them, &c. Under these circumstances he retired to a separate worship.* * "Measures," [says Bentley], "were taken to seize him privately and transport him" to England, "but he had friends to inform him, and he left the colony in January, 1636." To prevent [his] being taken, he was obliged to keep concealed, and suffered inexpressible hardships during that winter. It is not precisely known where

or how Mr. Williams passed the first four months after his banishment. The best account we have of it is in his letter" to Major Mason, dated at Providence, Jan. 22, 1670, where it is transiently [sic] mentioned.

"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

(1) Winthrop's language is: "So, the next morning the court sentenced him," etc. (I. 204). This would make the date Oct. 9, according to Dr. Dexter, ("As to Roger Williams," p. 58), or Oct. 8, according to Professor Diman, (Narragansett Club Pub., II. 239).

See

(2) The language of the sentence is: "shall depte out of this jurisdiccon within sixe weekes nowe nexte ensueing." (Mass Col. Rec., I. 161.) (3) "Save one." It would be interesting to know who the "one" was. Dr. Dexter's note, concerning the supposition that it was Mr. Cotton. ("As to Roger Williams," p. 59).

(4)This," says Bentley, "was a separation, against the laws." (p. 249). (5) See Winthrop, I. 209-10.

(6) Printed in Narragansett Club Pub., VI. 335-38.

(7) Mr. James Russell Lowell, commenting on the correspondence which passed between these friends, who yet differed irreconcilably in their doctrines, says: "There are two men, above all others, for whom our respect is heightened by these letters,-the elder John Winthrop and

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wrote to me to steer my course to Narragansett-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 loath 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), 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

Roger Williams." Williams' "affection" he adds," for the two Winthrops is evidently of the warmest." ("Among my books," 1st series, p. 246.) (1)I. e., waiving.

(2) He was joined by John Smith, who had been living at what is now Ponkapog, in Canton, (see letters of Job Smith), and this may perhaps indicate in part what was Williams's "course" from Salem to Seekonk. (3) He bought from Ousamequin a title to the land on which he here built. (Knowles's "Roger Williams," p. 100). This location, according to Moses Brown, was above the present Central Bridge. R. I. Register, 1828. (4) But since then East Providence, R. I.

(5) The freedom and vacancy of this place." It is not necessary to question the sincerity of either the Massachusetts or Plymouth governor in this matter. No sooner, however, did it appear that a few straggling settlements around Narragansett Bay were crystallizing into a "body politic," than the agitation of the land claims began which more than half a century was required to settle. See page 17, ante.

(6) Otherwise known as Massasoit."

(7) Winslow was governor of Plymouth colony in 1636; Bradford from March, 1637. Ousamequin's claim, therefore, was subsequent to the latter date.

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 or bed did mean :" * * * “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." When Roger Williams first came to Providence in the year 1634, he was accompanied only by a young domestic [illegible] of his family, named Thomas Angell. They embarked

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(1)From this reference to "a harvest," Knowles draws the inference that he did not cross to the Providence side of the river "till the middle, perhaps, of June." (Knowles's "Roger Williams," p. 103). The first entry on the Providence records is dated June 16, 1636. (R. I. Col. Records, I. 12). (2) Mr. Williams's honorable method of dealing with the Indians, in obtaining grants of land, was not an inexpensive one, as appears from the language of the deeds, (R. I. Col. Records, I. 19, 25); and undoubtedly diminished very sensibly his already slender resources.

(3) The date is wrong. It should be 1636.

(4) The ancestor of a numerous family. The location of his home lot is perpetuated by the name of Angell Street. A decendant in the fourth generation, (Nathan Angell), married a sister of Governor Hopkins.

(5) There is an obvious discrepancy between the account here given and nearly every other printed account of this episode, (See, however, Stone's "John Howland," p. 344), connected as it is with the salutation, "What Cheer." The other writers referred to, make this to have occurred on the occasion of the final removal from the Seekonk settlement to the location at Moshassuck, and represent that his five companions were with him. This account states that only one, (Thomas Angell), was with him, and that it was on the occasion of a reconnoitring voyage. Yet, although Governor Hopkins does not in his printed "Historical account "allude to these details, he was Mr. Foster's authority for this statement, as appears from the deposition of June 6, 1821, already alluded to, (preserved in the "Foster Papers," VI. 19). He says: "In one of those interviews he told me that Thomas Angell, one of the first settlers and purchasers of Providence, when a young lad belonging to and living in the family of Roger Williams, the founder and afterwards the president of the state for some years, came with him, the said Williams, in a canoe down See

in a canoe from the Secconk side of the river, and going towards the southern extremity of the land, between Seeconk and Moshawsuck Rivers, when they came opposite a certain cove, some distance above what is now called India Point, they were in a friendly manner saluted by some of the Indians, by the words "What Cheer." Which from that circumstance they named What Cheer Cove, so called on the records of this town, by which name it has ever since been known. Mr. Williams went round Fox-point, and up Moshawsuck River, till they came opposite an excellent and beautiful spring, rising out of the ground, at the bottom of the hill, and running into the river, a little southwest of where the Episcopal Church, now stands. Gov. Hutchinson says that "the inhabitants have a veneration for" this "spring, which runs from the hill into the river, above the great bridge. The sight of this spring caused him to stop his canoe and land there."

Mr. Williams afterwards settled and built his house on the lot which contains this spring, which he sold to Gideon Crawford, (a gentleman who came from Scotland), and which is now owned by some of Mr. Crawford's descendants. He

konk river on Mr. Williams' first visit to the Indians settled at Moshassuck, (now Providence), in the former part of the same year in which Mr. Williams first came to settle with his family there; no other person except the said Thomas Angell, being then in company with him.” He then goes on to mention the salutation "What Cheer," as given by the Indians. There is every reason to consider this the true version of this interesting affair.

(1) To quote still farther from the deposition just cited, Governor Hopkins stated that Mr. Williams made signs to the Indians that he would meet them on the western shore of the neck of land on which they (the Indians) then were; going himself in the canoe, by water, round Fox Point. Which he accordingly did and met the Indians at the famous rock and spring." (Foster Papers, VI. 19).

(2) St. John's Church.

(3) Hutchinson's "History of the colony of Massachusetts Bay," I. 38. (4) Gideon Crawford "sent some of the first vessels from this port to the West Indies." Among the effects enumerated in his widow's will, (she died 1712), are“ 63 Bookes." (Dorr's "Providence." p. 166).

(5) "Now owned." As has already been indicated, the exact year in which this was written is not known. Perhaps about 1820.