OCTOBER 2006 MEETING – Speaker: Ranger John McNiff

Our speaker for the October meeting was John MCNIFF, Park Ranger for the Roger WILLIAMS Memorial, in Providence. Those who were in attendance listened intently as Mr. MCNIFF described the life of the founder of our state with an exuberance that captivated the audience.

Roger WILLIAMS was born in London in 1604, attended Pembroke College, which was part of Cambridge University, and was ordained an Anglican minister. He soon found himself at odds with the hierarchy and in 1631 he immigrated to Massachusetts and found work as a teacher in Salem. His nonconformist religious views attracted the attention of the Puritans who ran the Massachusetts Bay Colony and he left for Plymouth. He continued to proclaim that secular authority had no jurisdiction over private religious beliefs and was brought into a Massachusetts court and charged with spreading “diverse, new and dangerous opinions” that questioned the Church. He also caused further agitation in the colony by maintaining that the European settlers should purchase, not seize, the land of the Native Americans.

Resisting public opinion, he stubbornly refused to renounce his nonconformist religious beliefs and in 1636 was forced to remove himself to Seekonk where he was again banished and escaped to what is now Rhode Island. Here he established a settlement as a stronghold of religious liberty on land that was deeded to him by the Narragansett Indians. He named it Providence, in recognition of “God’s merciful providence to him in his distress.” He befriended the tribes in the area and declared: “Nature knows no difference between Europeans and Native Indians in blood, birth and bodies.”

He found no sects that believed in religious freedom, therefore he referred to himself as a “seeker” of truth rather than a member of an established religion. His legacy is one of forbearance, respect and tolerance. The law that exiled WILLIAMS was not repealed until 1936 when the Massachusetts House passed Bill 488 ending 300 years of exile.

DID YOU KNOW?

• There was no known image, painted or sketched, of Roger WILLIAMS during his lifetime. The statue at Roger WILLIAMS University actually features the face of Boston Red Sox slugger Ted WILLIAMS.
• Roger WILLIAMS was a Christian. He started out as an ordained minister of the Church of England and became a Puritan before he left England in 1631. After his arrival in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he broke with the Puritans and became a Separatist. In 1638 he helped to establish the First Baptist Church in America, located in Providence. He eventually became dissatisfied with all organized religions and became a “seeker.”
• In December 1629, he married Mary BARNARD at All Saints Church in High Laver, England. She sailed with him to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in December, 1630. They had six children.
• His house stood on a lot across the street from the current Roger WILLIAMS Memorial. It was burned during the King Philip’s War in 1676.
• He spoke at least seven languages: English, French, Latin, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew and Narragansett.
• He died in 1683 at approximately 80 years of age.
• He was first buried behind his house on Towne Street at what is now North Main Street. In 1860 his remains were moved to a family crypt in the Old North Burial Ground. In 1936, to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of Providence, a committee raised funds and interred the remains under the statue of Roger Williams that is located at Prospect Terrace, overlooking the city.

VISIT THE MUSEUM ON THE WEB:

ROGER WILLIAMS NATIONAL MEMORIAL PARK
Other pictures from this October 2006 Pot Luck meeting:
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