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Descendants of Roger Williams

Generation No. 1

1. ROGER² WILLIAMS (JAMES¹) was born Abt. 1603 in London, England, and died 1683 in Providence, RI. He married MARY BARNARD December 15, 1629 in England, daughter of RICHARD BERNARD.

Notes for ROGER WILLIAMS:
Roger Williams was a radical Puritan thinker and founder of the colony of Rhode Island. Intellectually brilliant, he graduated (1627) from Cambridge and was ordained in the Church of England. His developing Puritanism, however, alienated him from the church and in the first year of the Puritan migration to New England, he left England with family, arriving at Boston in 1631. He refused the ministry of the Boston congregation because it had not formally separated from the English church. Hemoved to Salem, to Plymouth, and back to Salem, arousing controversy withhis strange opinions. He insisted that the lands fiven to Mass. and Plymouth belonged to the Indians and denied that govt could enforce religious laws. The rulers of Puritan Mass expelled Williams from the colony and fled to the Indians on Narragansett Bay. He bought land and named the tiny settlement Providence.

Williams made RI a Haven for heterodoxy. He secured a patent for the colony from Parliament, helped establish a representative govt with complete religious freedom, was governor of the colony from 1654-1657. He helped to found the first Baptist congregation in America, and his work among the Indians earned their friendship and loyalty. He wrote several published papers.

Notes for MARY BARNARD:
Prior to meeting Roger Williams, Mary was a maid (companion) to Lady Johanna Altham.

Children of ROGER WILLIAMS and MARY BARNARD are:

2.	i.	MARY³ WILLIAMS, b. August 1633, Salem, MA; d. 1684.
3.	ii.	MERCY WILLIAMS, b. July 15, 1640, Providence, RI; d. 1705, Providence, RI.
4.	iii.	DANIEL WILLIAMS, b. February 15, 1640/41, Providence, RI; d. May 14, 1711, Providence, RI.
	iv.	FREEBORN WILLIAMS, b. October 1635, Salem, MA; d. January 10, 1709/10; m. (1) THOMAS HART; m. (2) WALTER CLARKE, March 6, 1682/83.
	v.	PROVIDENCE WILLIAMS, b. September 1638, Providence, RI; d. March 1685/86, Newport, RI.

Notes for PROVIDENCE WILLIAMS:
Providence never married

vi.

JOSEPH WILLIAMS, b. December 12, 1643, Providence, RI; d. August 17, 1724, Providence, RI; m. LYDIA OLNEY, November 26, 1669.

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