Birth: Roger Williams was born about 1606 in London.
Death: He died after January 27, and before March 15,
1682/3, in Providence, Rhode Island.
Ship: Lyon, 1631
Life in England: He was the son of James and Alice
(Pemberton) Williams, one of four children. He received his degree from
Pembroke College, Cambridge University, in 1626–7. Mary Bernard,
daughter of Reverend Richard Bernard, was baptized at Worksop,
Nottinghamshire on September 24, 1607. Roger Williams was the chaplain
of Sir William Masham of Otes in High Laver, Essex, when he married Mary
Bernard.
Life in New England: Roger Williams and his wife settled
first in Massachusetts Bay. He refused to join the church there due to
some differences of religious opinion. He was briefly in Salem, and then
came in 1631 to Plymouth. After a promising beginning there, according
to William Bradford, he “began to fall into some strange opinions, and
from opinions to practice,” which led finally to his return to Salem in
1633. He was chosen teacher for the church in 1635, and then pastor.
Controversy again erupted, and in 1636 he left the colony, traveled
south and founded Providence, Rhode Island. In 1643–4, he returned to
England and obtained a government charter for Providence Plantations,
governing the colony for many years.
Family: Roger Williams married Mary Bernard on December
15, 1629, at High Laver, Essex and had six children. She died soon after
1683.
Children of Roger and Mary Williams:
- Mary was born in August 1633 in Plymouth. She married John Sayles by
1652 and had six children.
- Freeborn was born on October 1635 in Salem. She married (1) Thomas
Hart about 1661 and had three children. She married (2) Walter Clarke on
March 6, 1683, in Newport, Rhode Island, as his third wife but had no
children. She died December 10, 1709.
- Providence was born on September 1638. He died, unmarried, in 1686.
- Mercy was born about July 15, 1640, in Providence. She married (1)
Resolved Waterman and had five children and She married (2) Samuel
Winsor on January 2, 1676/7, in Providence and had three children.
- Daniel was born about February 15, 1641/2. He married Rebecca
(Rhodes) Power on December 2, 1676, and had seven children.
- Joseph was born in December 1643 in Providence. He married Lydia
Olney on December 17, 1669, and had six children.