Roger Williams (theologian)

Roger Williams
Roger Williams statue by Franklin Simmons
Chief Officer of Providence and Warwick
In office 1644–1647
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	Minister, Statesman, Author, Preacher
Religion	originally Reformed (Puritan); then Baptist (Reformed Baptist)
Signature

Roger Williams (c. 21 December 1603 – between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was a Puritan, an English Reformed theologian, and later a Reformed Baptist who was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the colony of Massachusetts because local officials thought that he was spreading "new and dangerous ideas" to his congregants. Williams fled the Massachusetts colony under the threat of impending arrest and shipment to an English prison; he began the settlement of Providence Plantation in 1636 as a refuge offering freedom of conscience.

Williams was the 1638 founder of the First Baptist Church in America, also known as the First Baptist Church of Providence.

Williams was also a student of Native American languages, an early advocate for fair dealings with American Indians, and one of the first abolitionists in North America, having organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the British American colonies. He is best remembered as the originator of the principle of separation of church and state.

Roger Williams was born in London around 1603; however, the exact date has not been established by scholars 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 (now part of London); his mother was Alice Pemberton (1564–1635). At an early age, Williams had a spiritual conversion of which his father disapproved.

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