Roger Williams (theolgian)

Roger Williams
Roger Williams statue by Franklin Simmons
9th President of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
In office 1654–1657
Preceded by	Nicholas Easton
Succeeded by	Benedict Arnold
Personal details
Born	21 December 1603 London, England
Died	between 27 January and 15 March 1683 (aged 79) Providence, Rhode Island
Spouse(s)	Mary Barnard
Children	6
Alma mater	Pembroke College, Cambridge
Occupation	Reformed minister, statesman, author, Reformed Baptist preacher
Signature

Roger Williams (c. 21 December 1603 – between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was a Puritan minister, English Reformed theologian, and Reformed Baptist who founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was a staunch advocate for religious freedom, separation of church and state, and fair dealings with American Indians, and he was one of the first abolitionists.

Williams was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for spreading "new and dangerous ideas", and he began settling the Providence Plantations as a refuge offering what he called "liberty of conscience" in 1636. In 1638, he founded the First Baptist Church in America, also known as the First Baptist Church of Providence. He was a student of Native American languages, and he organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the British American colonies.

Roger Williams was born in London around 1603, though the exact date is unknown because his birth records were destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666 when St Sepulchre's Church was burned. His father James Williams (1562–1620) was a merchant tailor in Smithfield, and his mother was Alice Pemberton (1564–1635). He had a spiritual conversion at an early age, of which his father disapproved.

As a teen, Williams was apprenticed under Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) the famous jurist. He was educated at Charterhouse School under Coke's patronage, and also at Pembroke College, Cambridge (Bachelor of Arts, 1627). He seemed to have a gift for languages and early acquired familiarity with Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Dutch, and French. Years later, he tutored John Milton in Dutch in exchange for refresher lessons in Hebrew.