Royal Charter of 1663
| Rhode Island Royal Charter | |
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| Created | July 1663 |
| Location | Rhode Island State House, Providence |
| Author(s) | John Clarke |
| Signatories | King Charles II of England |
| Purpose | Establish the government of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations |
The Rhode Island Royal Charter was a document providing royal recognition to the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, approved by England's King Charles II in July 1663. It provided a life for America and outlined many freedoms for the inhabitants of that colony. It was the guiding document for the government of Rhode Island over a period of 180 years, and was the oldest constitutional charter in the world at the time of its retirement in 1843.
The charter contains unique provisions which make it significantly different from the charters granted to the other English colonies. It gave the colonists freedom to elect their own governor and write their own laws, within very broad guidelines, and also stipulated that no person residing in the colony could be "molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any differences in opinion in matters of religion."
The charter was not replaced until 1843, after serving for nearly two centuries as the guiding force of the Colony and then the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Historian Thomas Bicknell described it as "the grandest instrument of human liberty ever constructed."
What became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations began as a few scattered settlements of fugitives fleeing from the persecution of other colonies. The scattered cabins along the river or bay became small villages, and eventually the villages grew into towns, each with its own government and laws. Greatly threatened by their ambitious and vindictive external neighbors, the towns banded together under the Patent of 1643/4, recognizing their corporate existence, and compelling recognition from their neighbors as well. The freedoms granted by the patent were, in the early days, a source of weakness, and in essence legalized a collection of independent corporations rather than creating a sovereign power resting upon the popular will. The patent produced a confederacy, but not a union. Its defects were seen in the ability of William Coddington to separate the island towns from the government of the mainland towns under a commission he obtained from the crown in 1651.
It was Coddington's very commission that sent Dr. John Clarke to England to have the instrument revoked. Finding success in this endeavor in 1653, Clarke remained in England for the next decade, and became the agent to represent the interests of the fledgling Rhode Island colony before the crown. As the ideas of a government of liberty filled the minds of the Rhode Island colonists, their leaders formed the ideas into letters drafted by the commissioners and forwarded to Clarke. With the end of the English Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell and the accession to the throne of Charles II, the time had come for Rhode Island, and its venerable agent in England, to seek an audience with the King, and present the desires of the Rhode Island settlers.
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