Williams, Roger

Williams, Roger (c.1603–83), champion of religious toleration. Though apparently ordained in the C of E, he sailed for N. America in 1630 in search of religious liberty. When he found restrictions on religious freedom in Boston, he set up a schismatic Church. In 1635 he was ordered to leave Massachusetts and took refuge among the Indians outside the state, founding a settlement which he called ‘Providence’ (1636). Here he established the first Baptist Church in America. He returned to England to secure a charter for the colony (later called ‘Rhode Island’). Its constitution included wide religious latitude, and when the Quakers came to America in 1656 Williams granted them political toleration, though he attacked their doctrines.