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THE PLANTING AND GROWTH OF PROVIDENCE.

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The unhappy disputes that raged in England, both in church and state, in the reigns of King James the First, and King Charles the First, although they were the immediate cause of infinite mischiefs in that kingdom, in the times they happened, yet were they also the remote cause of very great advantages to the English nation afterwards: Among which advantages, the peopling of New-England, occasioned by those disputes, may be esteemed one of the most considerable.

The first planting of New-England was begun by Mr. John Carver, and about one hundred other English subjects; who, being persecuted in England for not conforming in every punctilio to the established church, for the sake of worshipping God according to their consciences, left their native country, with all its conveniences and delights, and arrived at Cape Cod in the month of November, in the year 1620; where they landed in the depth of winter, having no houses or shelter to cover them from the injuries of the weather, endured incredible. hardships, and passed through unparallelled sufferings; and, supported only by a noble fortitude of mind, and the consciousness of well-doing, they gloriously effected the settlement of New Plymouth, the first of the New-England colonies.

Near ten years afterwards, in the year 1630, Mr. John Winthrop, with many other gentlemen, and about fifteen hundred people,2 left their native country for the same cause, and came

(1) At this point begins Governor Hopkins's narrative. The text followed in the reprint here given is that of the Providence Gazette, in its issues of January 12, 19, 26, February 2, 9, 16, March 16, 30, 1765. From pages 15 to 20 had previously appeared in the Gazette of October 20, 1762. (2) For the common reckoning of fifteen hundred," says Palfrey, "there is no earlier or better authority than the Charlestown records, compiled in 1664." ("History of New England," I. 313.) But this account, says Young, who reprints it in his "Chronicles of Massachusetts Bay," is "not a con

over first to Salem, and from thence to Charlestown, from whence they dispersed themselves to Dorchester, Watertown, and Boston, and effectually begun the settlement of the Massachusetts-Bay, the second of the New-England colonies. 1

With this second colony came over Mr. Roger Williams;2 of whose life, before his coming to America, we know little more, than that he had a liberal education; and was some time pupil of Sir Edward Coke, the famous English lawyer. Soon after his coming to Salem he was made assistant in the ministry to Mr. Samuel Skelton, the first minister of that town. Before he had been long in this station, some difference in opinion arose between Mr. Skelton and him, and to prevent its increase, Mr. Williams removed to Plymouth, and became minister3 of the church there; but some disputes happening here also between him and some of his church, he did not continue long with them, but in returned to Salem, and finding Mr. Skelton now in a declining state of health, he again assisted him in the ministry. After Mr. Skelton's death, which soon happened,1 Mr. Williams was made sole minister of the church of Salem, and continued so for some time, much esteemed as a preacher, and greatly

temporaneous document." "Its chronology, too, is all wrong." ("Chronicles," p. 387.) Instead of 1500, only about 980 have been figured up. See the table of arrivals in Young's "Chronicles," p. 310-11,

note.

(1) See Senator Foster's "Materials," elsewhere in this volume.

(2) The fleet which sailed with Winthrop arrived at Salem, June 12, 1630. Mr. Williams did not arrive until February 5, 1630-1.

(3) He was not "minister, but rather "assistant minister," (Morton's "New England's Memorial," Ed. 1826, p. 15).

(4) Mr. Skelton had been chosen "pastor" by the Salem church, and Francis Higginson "teacher,” on the same day (July 20, 1629). Mr. Higginson died Aug. 6, 1630. Mr. Skelton died August 2, 1634.

(5) "Sole minister." He apparently served without a formal settlement until 1635. Winthrop's entry in his journal under date of July 8, 1635, is that "the church had since called him to the office of a teacher." ("Winthrop's Journal," I, 194.) This is understood by Rev. Dr. Dexter to justify the inference that the ordination took place early in May, 1635. ("As to Roger Williams," p. 36, note).

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beloved by most of his church. Yet some of his tenets were looked upon as dangerous and heterodox, by the lesser, but ruling part of them.-Such were his asserting, "that the king of England had no right to take the lands in America, from the Indians and give them to his own subjects;" And also, "that an universal liberty of conscience ought to be allowed to all, in religious matters." For these opinions, Mr. Williams was at length called to an account, and openly justifying them, he was for this offence deprived of his ministry, and banished from Salem, and the Massachusetts colony. In consequence of this sentence, Mr. Williams was sent into the wilderness to shift for himself. But so great was the love of some of his church for him, that they would not forsake him even in this extreme distress; and twelve of them voluntarily went into exile, and the solitary wilderness with him.-Without any guide, but heaven, they wandered southward, and came to a place called Seaconk, and thinking they were now far enough removed from their offended brethren, designed to sit down there; But it seems, the fame of their heretical opinions had reached to Plymouth, and thereupon an officer was sent from thence to order them to depart out of that colony also.

Being now quite forlorn, this officer kindly informed them that the arm of the bay, 6 then near them, was the western boundary of the Plymouth colony. They therefore once more removed, and found means to transport themselves over this arm of the bay, now called Seaconk river, and came to a place by the Indians called Moshasuck. As they now found them

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(1)On this point see Kent's "Commentaries on American law." III, 463-73. (2) See Appendix II.

(3) See Appendix I.

(4) See page 19 for their names.

(5) The authority for this period of Mr. Williams's history is his well-known

letter to Major John Mason, dated January 22, 1670.

Club Publications, VI, 333-50.)

(6) The Blackstone or Seekonk river.

(7) Probably in April or May, 1636.

(Narragansett

selves in the country of the Narragansett Indians, Mr. Williams applied to the sachem or king of that people, whose name was Conanicus, truly stated his unhappy case to him, and begged his protection, which this noble prince kindly granted to him and his associates, and also generously made them a present1 of all that neck of land lying between the mouths of Pawtucket and Moshasuck rivers, that they might sit down in peace upon it and enjoy it forever. Upon this neck of land, given them by the beneficent sachem, they settled themselves in the best manner their very poor, and truly deplorable circumstances would admit of; being quite destitute of every necessary, as well as conveniency of life, and entirely cut off from all communication with every part of mankind, except the savages. Even those, with whom they had so lately left their native country, for the same cause of religion, were now become their greatest persecutors and most cruel enemies. This settlement was the feeble beginning of the third New-England colony, first planted some time in the year 1634, by the renowned and worthy Mr. Roger Williams, and his twelve poor suffering companions, namely, John

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(1) The deed, dated March 24, 1638, confirms the grant made two years before. The original is preserved in the office of the recorder of deeds, in the Providence City Hall. For a copy, see Staples's "Annals of the town of Providence,” p. 26–27; also R. I. Col. Records, I. 18-19.

These early Indian deeds (of 1638, 1639, and 1659), have recently been transcribed and republished, with extraordinary care, by Mr. F. A. Arnold, in the Narragansett Historical Register, II, 222-25, 287-97, and also separately published in pamphlet form.

(2) This date should, of course, be 1636. Consequently also, the colony was the fourth and not the third. The same mistake was made by Callender, (p. 73), in 1739. These writers were doubtless misled by the language of Mr. Williams in a deed dated December 20, 1661, in which he speaks of negotiations with the Narragansett sachems in 1634 and 1635, before leaving Salem. (R. I. Col. Records, I. 22.) Hubbard's "New England" gives the date 1634 to the chapter as a whole (chapter 30), which details the "Disturbance occasioned by Mr. Roger Williams."

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Throckmorton, 1 William Arnold, William Harris, Stukely Westcot, John Greene, Thomas Olney, Richard Waterman, Thomas James, Robert Cole, William Carpenter, Francis Weston and Ezekiel Holliman.

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This small company Mr. Williams formed into a church, and on that occasion piously observed to his brethren, that the Providence of God had found out a place for them among savages, where they might peaceably worship God according to their consciences; a privilege which had been denied them in all the Christian countries they had ever been in.—In thankfulness for this greatest of blessings, he named the place where they were settled, PROVIDENCE. As they were all fully sensible of the horrid mischiefs and atrocious sin of persecution, they established an universal liberty of conscience, as well for all others who should come and settle with them, as for themselves: And this natural right of all mankind, has been inviolably maintained throughout the colony to this day. Liberty

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(1) Throckmorton, Westcott, Olney, James and Holliman were from the Salem church. See letter of Rev. Hugh Peter, July 1, 1639, printed in Knowles's "Roger Williams," p. 176-177. He spells the first of these names "Throgmorton."

(2) William Arnold was brother to Thomas Arnold, from whom Governor Hopkins (the narrator) was a descendant in the fifth generation.

(3) The name is spelled "Westcott" in the R. I. Col. Records, I. 21.

(4) Commonly written "Coles."

(5) Probably some time in March, 1639. See Hague's "Historical discourse," 1839, p. 32; also Stanford's manuscript history of the First Baptist Church; compare also Winthrop's Journal, I. 352-53.

(6) This period is lacking in the Gazette's version.

(7) The maintenance of this right in Rhode Island was destined to meet with some severe trials, which, however, it successfully encountered. When in the latter half of the century, the excesses of the Quakers were distracting Rhode Island as well as Massachusetts, Roger Williams wrote, (1676): "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." [Narragansett Club, V. 307. Compare also V. 309-11.] Yet this idea was never embodied in official action by the Rhode Island colony. In 1658, answer was returned by the General Assembly to the Massachusetts government, that "Whereas freedom of different consciences, to be pro

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