USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Governors for three hundred years, 1638-1959; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 8
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A more formal code of regulations was drawn up, and Mr. Coddington was elected judge, three elders being connected with him in the administration of affairs. He held the office of judge a little more than one year. Portsmouth was at that time the chief settlement on the island. He was then appointed judge of Newport, and subsequently, when Portsmouth and Newport were united, in 1640, under one government, he was elected the first governor. It must be born in mind that originally the State consisted of four towns: Providence, settled in 1636, Portsmouth in 1638, Newport in 1639, and Warwick in 1642. Each town had an independent government at outset of the history of the State. Governor Coddington held his office from March 12, 1640, to May 19. 1647. The four towns were united in 1647 under a charter granted by the English Par-
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liament, and the title of the chief magistrate was "President." He was chosen the sec- ond President of the State, May 1648 to May 1649, however, the General Court would not engage him for failing to clear himself of certain accusations thus Jeremy Clarke served as President from May 1648 to May 1649. In September of this year he made an unsuccessful attempt to have Rhode Island included in the Confederacy of the United Colonies.
We find the record of the attempt thus made, in Hazard, II, pp. 99-100, as quoted by Drake in his History of Boston. We give the quaint language and spelling of those early days: Captain Alexander Partridge and Governor Coddington, "in behalfe of the Ilanders of Rhode Iland," requested that they might be "resceauied into combination with all the vnited Colonyes of New England." They were answered that Rhode Is- land was within the bounds of Plymouth; that their "present state was full of confusion and danger, haveing much disturbance amongist themselves and noe security from the In- dians; that though the Commissioners desired "in severall respects" to afford advice and held, all they could do then was to consider and advise how they might be accepted "vpon iust terms and with tender respect to their consciences." In 1651 Governor Coddington went to England, where he interested himself in promoting the prosperity of Rhode Island.
Governor Coddington was thrice married, first to Mary Mosely, who died in 1670, secondly to Mary, who died in 1647, and lastly to Anne Brinley who died in 1708. Governor Coddington was the father of thirteen children.
Married Mary Mosley, daughter of Richard, of Ouseden, County Suffolk, England, who came with him on his first arrival. By her he had Michael, baptised March 8, 1627, died in two weeks. Samuel baptised April 17, 1628, buried August 21, 1629.
Married His second wife, Mary, whose surname is unknown, about 1631; she died July 30, 1634 at Boston.
There were three children, a child born in England, Mary, baptised March 2, 1634 at Boston and Benajah baptised May 31, 1636 at Boston, and possibly others.
Married Anne Brinley, his third wife, the daughter of Thomas Brinley of Exon, Eng- land. The children of Governor Coddington and his wife by this marriage were:
William, born Jan. 18, 1651, later Governor died Feb. 4, 1689
Major Nathaniel, born May 23, 1653, died Jan., 1724 Mary, born May 16, 1654, died March, 1692-3
Thomas, born Nov. 5, 1655, died March 4, 1693-4 John, born Nov. 24, 1656, died June, 1680
Noah, born Dec. 12, 1658, death record unknown
Anne, born June, 1660, died soon after
Anne, born July 20, 1663, death record unknown
THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF
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WILLIAM CODDINGTON SR.
THIS DWELLING WAS
DEMOLISHED
ABOUT
1835
GOV. WILLIAM CODDINGTON HOUSE NEWPORT, R. I.
GRAVE IS LOCATED AT CODDINGTON CEMETERY, FAREWELL STREET, NEWPORT
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WILLIAM HUTCHINSON
Judge: 1639-1640.
Born: August 14, 1586 (Baptized) in Alford, Lincolnshire, England.
Died: 1642 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
Buried: Probably on his farm in Portsmouth.
HUTCHINSON, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, was born in Alford, Lincolnshire, England, August 14, 1586, and, with his mother, wife, and children, arrived in Boston, in the ship Griffin, September 18, 1634. He is represented as having been "a man of a good estate, and appears to have been a peaceable individual and much trusted, be- fore his wife, the celebrated Ann Hutchinson, involved him with her troubled course." The records of the First Church, Boston, under date of October 26, speak of the ad- mission of William Hutchinson, merchant, into its membership. He took the freeman's oath. March 4, 1635, and shortly afterward was honored with an election as a representa- tive of Boston in the General Court. He made himself useful in various ways in dis- charging the duties of civil office to which he was appointed. It does not fall within the scope of an article like this to give a detailed account of the famous "Antinoman" con- troversy Boston, in which Anne Hutchinson bore so conspicuous a part. A full ac- count of it may be found in Governor Arnold's History, vol. i, chap. ii. A sentence of banishment was pronounced against Mrs. Hutchinson, November 15, 1637, and she with her husband and family went first to Providence, and then to Aquidneck, now Rhode Island, early in the year 1639, and there the family took up their residence.
He was soon chosen one of two town treasurers of the new settlement, and was judge or executive head of Portsmouth from April 30, 1639, to March 12, 1640. He died some time in the year 1642. For aught that appears to the contrary he was faith- ful and true to his wife through all the bitter controversy which terminated in her banishment from Boston. Sparks says of him: "Doubtless, as in his last days at the island he reviewed his pilgrimage, it must have seemed strange to him to find himself and his family cut off from fellowship with the companions of his youth, who, though still living with him on a foreign shore, which they had sought together for freedom of faith, had been divided by a wider barrier than the ocean. We do not know that he ever complained of his lot. Perhaps it was not to him so great a hardship as to us it appears."
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WILLIAM AND ANNE HUTCHINSON
The author has spent considerable time in an effort to establish the final resting place of Judge William Hutchinson, Executive Head of the Government, 1639-40, and it is with regret that, as we conclude our search, we must report failure. The search was exhaustive; however, successful to the establishment of the location of his land hold- ing in Portsmouth.
It is very probable that William Hutchinson was laid to rest somewhere on his Ports- mouth farm, as it was an established precedent that all the early settlers set aside a fam- ily burial ground on their property. In those early days of the first part of the seven- teenth century, stone cutters were few and far apart. Unfortunately, Rhode Island did not have anyone capable of this skilled art until the arrival of John Stevens in Newport about the year 1705. However, Mumford was the outstanding stone cutter at Boston, Mass., during the seventeenth century.
Here is the case of William Hutchinson who died in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1642, in his 56th year. Very possibly, no inscription was engraved on his tombstone, and as our story progresses, it should be understandable why a suitable marked headstone was not erected, for it was 63 years after his death that it was possible for the people of Rhode Island to have the services of a stone cutter. As you read the story of this family, it should be readily apparent, with the nearly complete annihilation of this family soon after the death of William Hutchinson, why the family or others did not remember.
The records reveal that William Hutchinson owned a large farm in Portsmouth, and its location is established as having been near the fork in the main Road between the Town Pond and the Great Cove. As part of this record, we are showing an early map of the original property holders of Portsmouth, R. I., and it is interesting to note, as one studies the map closely, and observes the present terrain, why the Hutchinsons and the Sanfords located where they did. It was within a very short distance of where that all important Compact was entered into, and the main land was accessible, both in the di- rection of Bristol and Tiverton. Later, we find the Sanfords operating a Ferry from the Cove across the Bay to Tiverton, which is now at the site of the Stone Bridge.
So much for that. Now some facts concerning the Hutchinsons. I do not mean to be indiscreet in these ramblings. However, from my personal observations regarding this family, it becomes very evident that Anne Hutchinson over-shadowed her husband's life, and made him most inconspicuous. She was a very conspicuous woman throughout her entire life. At Lincolnshire, England, Anne Marbury married William Hutchinson on August 9, 1612, and they raised a real large family: 14 children in all. In the year 1634, the Hutchinson family left England for America. They sailed on the ship "Grif- fin" and brought with them a large herd of cattle (about 100 in number) at the request of Governor Winthrop of Mass. They landed at Boston, Mass., on September 18, 1634, where they lived for nearly 4 years.
Anne Hutchinson became widely known for her kind and helpful service as a mid- wife to many young mothers, and her medical resourcefulness was extended to both sexes. She apparently was a born leader, for it seems that she was endowed with indescribable qualities which magnetized her very existence.
Her large pretentious home in Boston was often the meeting place of the women of Boston, to discuss the questions of State and Church, and soon brought many prominent and leading men of the Colony into the Anne Hutchinson fold. Her teachings were fast becoming a reality, and she was conducting the first open forum in America.
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Anne Hutchinson was a most serious-minded person, and she presided at all the meet- ings and set the keynote of the thinking body of the people of Boston, Mass. Among her many ardent followers were William Coddington, who later became Governor of Rhode Island, and Sir Henry Vane, and many of the Aquidneck delegation. She evidently held sway for 4 years: 1634 to 1638. Her teachings inculcated absolute exercise of Religious Freedom, as a basic principle of a free state, when, at the height of her career came the "Antinomian Controversy". In Anne Hutchinson's time, it meant rejecting the literal law of the Old Testament for the Spiritual Gospel of the New. So, on March 1, 1636, Anne Hutchinson was notified of her excommunication, and three days later, she was no- tified by the magistrates that a sentence of banishment would go into effect at the end of March, 1638.
On the first day of April, 1638, William and Anne Hutchinson with their children. set forth to make the 60-mile trip overland by way of Providence to Portsmouth, R. I. It was a six-day journey. The children that accompanied them on the trip were: Francis, age 18; Bridget, Samuel, Anne, Maria, Katherine, William, Susan, and 2-year-old, Zury- ell. Their eldest son, Edward, remained behind.
In July, 1639, Edward applied for permission to sell the home of his parents in Bos- ton and on his return to England he lived with his uncle, Richard, who was a linen draper in London, England.
In 1642, at Portsmouth, R. I., Anne Hutchinson suffered her great personal loss: the death of her loyal husband, William Hutchinson, 56 years of age, at their home near the fork in the old main road, just across and south of the Town Pond. Soon after his death, Anne Hutchinson gathered her young children, and started forth on the last stage of her wanderings, to Long Island, New York, and here she settled at Brouck's Land. Later, she moved from Long Island to the Mainland, sometime in 1643. With unfailing friend- liness, she welcomed the Indians as her neighbors.
The Indians and the Dutch settlers on Long Island began anew the second stage of their feud, and after making a friendly call at the Hutchinson Home, the Indians killed her, her son-in-law, Mr. Collins, and all the family: 16 in all. Little Zuryell and her sister Susan were picking blueberries at the time of the massacre. Both were found, and little Zuryell was made a horrifying sacrifice and was tomahawked to death. Susan's life was spared, and she was raised by the Indians for the next 2 years. Here again, there is no record where the family is buried.
In 1645, when a peace treaty was effected, one of the obligations was to return Su- san. It is evident that the Indians treated her well. She was returned to the Dutch, and eventually, returned to Rhode Island. Here she grew into womanhood, and married John Cole of North Kingstown, and became the mother of a large family. Death records of North Kingstown indicate that John Cole died in the late 1600's, as well as his wife, Susannah Hutchinson.
In front of the State House in Boston there is a statue of Anne Hutchinson with head high, lips proudly curved, poise erect and imperious (majestic) , one hand holding the Bible and the other hand resting on the shoulder of her young daughter. She stands as when she paused on the threshold of the Church that had rejected her and proclaimed, "Better be cast out of the Church than to deny Christ". It is an interest- ing example of the irony of history: that the statue of Anne Hutchinson should now oc- cupy a place of honor in front of the present meeting place of the General Court of Massachusetts which had cast her out.
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WILLIAM HUTCHINSON
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ANNE AND WILLIAM HUTCHINSON AT PORTSMOUTH, R. I.
Governor William Hutchinson, Judge of Portsmouth, April 30, 1639 to March 12, 1640. He was given several grants of land for himself and family, between Town Pond and Great Cove at Portsmouth, R. I. He built a home here for his family. The house stood near a fork in the old main road, just south of Town Pond. No deeds were given of the early land grants. The Indian deed to the Island was in William Coddington's name and the guarantee in the ownership of the individual settlers was merely in the en- tries made in the town record.
It is a possibility that Governor William Hutchinson was buried on his home land in Portsmouth, R. I., as no grave can be located in the Common Ground at Newport where so many of the leading men are buried.
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ROGER WILLIAMS
Chief Officer and President. Chief Officer 1645-1647, President 1654 to May 1657. * Born: Circa 1599 in Wales.
Died: Between Jan. 16 and Apr. 1683 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Buried: Providence, R. I. Underneath Roger William's Monument, near Prospect Terrace.
WILLIAMS. ROGER, founder of Rhode Island, b. in Wales in 1599: d. in Rhode Island early in 1683. Little is known of his family or his early life. He seems to have been em- ployed in some capacity by the great lawyer Sir Edward Coke, who placed him at the Charterhouse school in 1621, and afterward at Pembroke college, Cambridge, where he took a degree. He was admitted to orders in the Church of England, but soon became the friend and companion of John Cotton and Thomas Hooker, and adopted the most advanced views of the Puritan party.
He embarked at Bristol, 1 Dec., 1630, in the ship "Lion," and on 5 Feb., 1631, ar- rived at Boston. He had then been recently married, but of his wife's early history very little is known. He was distinguished as an eloquent preacher and ripe scholar, and soon after his arrival in Massachusetts he was invited to the church at Salem, as assistant to the pastor. Mr. Skelton. But rumors of his heretical opinions were already abroad. It was said that he had declared the ministers at Boston blameworthy for not formally pro- claiming their penitence for ever having lived in communion with the Church of Eng- land, and that he denied the right of magistrates to inflict punishment for Sabbath- breaking, or "any other offence that was a breach of the first table." In spite of opposi- tion based upon these charges, Mr. Williams was settled, 12 April, 1631, as assistant or teacher in the Salem church. But he found his position there so uncomfortable, that before the end of the summer he thought it best to seek shelter under the more tolerant jurisdiction of the Plymouth colony.
At Plymouth he was settled in August, 1631, as assistant to the pastor, Ralph Smith. Here he made his first acquaintance with the chiefs of the Wampanoags and Narragan- setts, and, being an excellent linguist, soon learned to talk in the language of these In- dians. About this time he was first suspected of the "heresy of Anabaptism."
For such an aggressive and vigorous thinker the field of action at Plymouth seemed too narrow, and in 1633 he returned to Salem, followed by several members of the con- gregation who had become devotedly attached to him. In 1634 he was settled as pastor
* Early traditions state that Mr. Williams was born in Wales, in 1599. The place of his birth, and the character of his parents, are unknown. It may be easily believed that he was a native of Wales. He possessed the Welch temperament -excitable and ardent feelings, generosity, courage, and firmness, which sometimes, perhaps, had a touch of obstinacy. It has been supposed that he was a relative of Oliver Cromwell, one of whose ancestors was named Williams.
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of the church in Salem. There he soon got into trouble by denying the validity of the charter granted in 1629 by Charles I. to the Company of Massachusetts Bay. He main- tained that the land belonged to the Indians, and not to the king of England, who there- fore had no right to give it away.
The promulgation of this view seemed dangerous to the founders of Massachusetts, who were in many ways incurring the risk of arousing the hostility of the king, and were therefore anxious to avoid offending him on such a point as this. It was likely to be in- terpreted in England as indicating an intention on the part of the settlers of Massachu- setts to throw off their allegiance, and accordingly they hastened to condemn Mr. Wil- liams and his views. This purely political question was complicated with disputes aris- ing from Mr. Williams's advanced opinions on toleration. He maintained that "no human power had the right to intermeddle in matters of conscience; and that neither church nor state, neither bishop nor king, may prescribe the smallest iota of religious faith." For this he maintained, "man is responsible to God alone."
He also denounced the law requiring every man to contribute to the support of the church, and he doubted the right of the colony to administer the so-called "freeman's oath," which was virtually a transfer of allegiance from King Charles to the government of Massachusetts. The ministers, with his friends, Cotton and Hooker at their head, sent a committee to Salem to censure him; but he denied their spiritual jurisdiction, and declared his determination to "remove the yoke of soul-oppression."
In July, 1635, he was summoned before the general court at Boston to answer to charges of heresy. In October he was ordered to quit the colony within six weeks, but permission was presently granted for him to remain until spring. It was then reported that many people in Salem, "taken with an apprehension of his godliness," repaired to his house for religious instruction, and that they meditated withdrawing from Massa- chusetts and founding a colony upon Narragansett bay, in which the principle of reli- gious toleration should be strictly upheld.
To prevent this movement, it was decided to send him back to England. He was again summoned to Boston, but refused to obey the summons, whereupon the magistrates sent to Salem a warrant for his arrest. He suspected what was coming, and left his home before the officers arrived. He made his way through the wilderness to the wigwams of the Pokanokets, who dwelt between Charles river and Mount Hope bay. Their chief, Massasoit, granted him a tract of land on Seekonk river. There. in the spring, he was joined by friends from Salem, and they began to build; but, in order to avoid any com- plication with the Plymouth colony, they moved to the site of Providence, where they made their first settlement in June. 1636. This territory was granted to Mr. Williams by the Narragansett chiefs. Canonicus and Miantonomoh. His influence over these Indians was great, and it soon enabled him to perform for the infant colonies a service that no other man in New England could have undertaken with any hope of success; he de- tached the powerful tribe of Narragansetts from the league that the Pequot sachem Sas- sacus was forming for the purpose of destroying all the English settlements. The effect of Mr. Williams's diplomacy was to leave the Pequots to fight without allies, and the Eng- lish soon exterminated them.
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During the Pequot war the magistrates of the colony that had banished him sought his counsel, and he gave it freely. In 1628 he assisted John Clarke and William Codding- ton in negotiating the purchase of Aquidneck, or Rhode Island, for which the Indians were liberally paid. True to his principle of toleration, while he opposed the opinions of that restless agitator, Samuel Gorton, he refused to join in the movement for expelling him from Providence.
In 1643 he went to England and obtained the charter for the Rhode Island and Providence settlements, dated 14 March, 1644. While in England he published his "Key into the Language of America" (London, 1643) , a work of great value on the speech of the New England Indians. He also wrote and published anonymously his famous book "The Bloody Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience" (London, 1644) . In this book the doctrines of religious freedom are ably and attractively presented in the form of a dialogue between Truth and Peace. It was dedicated to the parliament, then wag- ing war against the king, and it attracted general attention from its great literary merit as well as from the nature of the subject. It was answered by Mr. Cotton's book entitled "The Bloody Tenent washed and made White in the Blood of the Lamb" (London. 1647). After a while Mr. Williams published an effective rejoinder entitled "The Bloody Tenent made yet more Bloody by Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to wash it White" (London, 1652) . The controversy was conducted on both sides with a candor and courtesy very rare in those times.
While in London, in 1644, Mr. Williams also published a reply to Mr. Cotton's state- ment of the reasons for his banishment. This admirable book, a small quarto of forty- seven pages, entitled "Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered," is now exceedingly rare. Mr. Williams landed in Boston, 17 Sept., 1644, with a letter signed by several members of parliament, which was virtually a safe-conduct for his passage through Massa- chusetts territory. Through his exertions a treaty was made with the Narragansetts, 4 Aug., 1645, which saved New England from the horrors of an Indian war.
In order to obtain the abrogation of the commission of William Coddington as gov- ernor of the islands of Rhode Island and Conanicut. Mr. Williams sailed in November, 1651. for England. in company with John Clarke. Through the aid of Sir Henry Vane this mission was successful. While in England. Mr. Williams spent several weeks at Vane's country house in Lincolnshire, and he saw much of Cromwell and Milton. At this time he wrote and published his "Hireling Ministry None of Christ's" (London, 1652), which is an able argument against an established church and the support of the clergy by taxation. In the same year he published "Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives."
He returned to Providence in 1654 and took part in the reorganization of the co- lonial government in that year. He was chosen, 12 Sept .. 1654, president of the colony. and held that office until May, 1658. During this time he secured the toleration of the Quakers, who were beginning to come to New England, and on this occasion he was again brought into conflict with the government of Massachusetts. A new charter was granted to Rhode Island, 8 July, 1663, under which Benedict Arnold was first governor and Roger Williams one of the assistants. This charter established such a liberal repub-
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lican government that the Revolution in 1776 made no change in it, and it was not su- perseded until 1842. (See Dorr, Thomas Wilson.)
Mr. Williams in 1663 was appointed commissioner for settling the eastern boundary, which had long been the subject of dispute with both Plymouth and Massachusetts. For the next fourteen years he was most of the time either a representative or an assistant.
In 1672 he was engaged in his famous controversy with the Quakers, of whose doc- trines and manners he strongly disapproved, though he steadfastly refused to persecute them. George Fox was then in Newport, and Mr. Williams challenged him to a public discussion of fourteen theological propositions. Fox left the colony before the challenge had been delivered to him, but it was accepted by three Quaker champions, John Stubbs, John Burnet, and William Edmundson.
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