The Carpenter and Arnold Families of Rhode Island

A map of Providence, Rhode Island in 1664, with the properties of original settlers shown.

In my previous posts about two of my 9th great-grandfathers Samuel Gorton and Robert Coles, I mentioned another of my 9th great-grandfathers, William Carpenter, who lived in close proximity to Gorton and Coles in colonial Rhode Island. While Samuel and Robert were known for their unwillingness to conform, both in religion and in society, William Carpenter apparently lived an upstanding and controversy-free life as a founding settler of Rhode Island. He was the brother-in-law of Benedict Arnold, who served three times as the governor of Rhode Island, and William held a number of community roles during his lifetime. Rhode Island may have been the refuge of nonconformists and troublemakers, but for the Carpenter and Arnold families, it was a place to build a new and idealistic community and serve that community in leadership.

William Carpenter was born in 1610 in Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. Amesbury is a small but scenic village located near the River Avon, and is known for being the home of Stonehenge, the world-famous prehistoric megalithic monument and archaeological site. Recently, Amesbury was also declared to be England's oldest settlement.

Carbon dating of bones of aurochs – the giant cattle that were twice the size of today's bulls – at the Blick Mead dig site, has shown that Amesbury has been continually occupied for each millennium since 8,820BC. Older than Thatcham, occupied since 7,700BC, it is in effect where British history began. [source: The Guardian]

Stonehenge [Source]

Little is known of William's early years. His father was Richard Carpenter, likely from Amesbury or the area immediately surrounding it in Wiltshire, but his mother is not known.

In 1634, William married Elizabeth Arnold. Elizabeth, who was born about 1611 in Ilchester, Somerset, England, was the daughter of William Arnold and Christiana Peak. In the early 1600s, her father, William Arnold served as the warden of St. Mary's Church in Ilchester.

A contemporary view of St. Mary Major in Ilchester

[William] Arnold had been important to his church in England, and Samuel Gorton writes in Simplicity's Defence that Arnold had been a great professor of religion in the west of England. Once in the New World, he became one of the original 12 members to organize the first Baptist Church in Providence, founded by Roger Williams in 1638. This church was also the first Baptist church established in America. [source: Wikipedia]

It is unknown how William Carpenter and Elizabeth Arnold met. Ilchester and Amesbury are about an hour apart via car in the modern day, so it would have been a much longer journey in the 1600s. However, Ilchester was a market town, and it's possible that William went there on business of some sort. The Arnolds were influential in Ilchester and it's likely that William and Elizabeth settled near them after their marriage.

The distance between Amesbury and Ilchester, southwest of London

Elizabeth had two brothers, Stephen and Benedict, and one sister, Joanna. She also had two first cousins that were close with her family, Frances Hopkins and Thomas Hopkins, the children of Elizabeth's late aunt, Joanna Arnold Hopkins.

In 1635, the Arnold family decided to leave England and settle in the American colonies. No exact reason for this decision has been recorded, but most religious figures departing England at that time were Puritans who hoped to create churches that reformed the problems they saw in the Church of England.

Beginning in 1630 as many as 20,000 Puritans emigrated to America from England to gain the liberty to worship God as they chose. Most settled in New England, but some went as far as the West Indies. Theologically, the Puritans were "non-separating Congregationalists." Unlike the Pilgrims, who came to Massachusetts in 1620, the Puritans believed that the Church of England was a true church, though in need of major reforms. Every New England Congregational church was considered an independent entity, beholden to no hierarchy. The membership was composed, at least initially, of men and women who had undergone a conversion experience and could prove it to other members. Puritan leaders hoped (futilely, as it turned out) that, once their experiment was successful, England would imitate it by instituting a church order modeled after the New England Way. [source: Library of Congress]

Elizabeth's brother, Benedict Arnold, a future President and Governor of Rhode Island, wrote a memoir later in his life. In it he recalled his family's journey to America.

Memorandom my father and his family Sett Sayle ffrom Dartmouth in Old England, the first of May, friday &. Arrived In New England. June 24° Ano 1635. Merom. We came to Providence to Dwell the 20th of April 1636. per me Bennedict Arnold.

Together on this journey were William Arnold, his wife Christiana, and their four children, daughters Elizabeth (23) and Joanne (17), and sons Benedict (19) and William (12). They were accompanied by Elizabeth's husband, William Carpenter, Elizabeth's cousins, Thomas Hopkins (19) and Frances Hopkins (21), and Frances Hopkins' husband, William Mann. Also traveling with them were a family from nearby Yeovil, in Somerset. They were Stukeley Westcott and his wife Juliana, along with their six children. The relationship between the Arnold and Westcott families is unclear, but one of the Westcott children on that voyage, Damaris, would later marry Benedict Arnold in Rhode Island. The Arnold and Westcott families departed from Dartmouth, England on May 1, 1635 and arrived in Massachusetts on June 24, nearly a two-month journey across the Atlantic Ocean. 

In mid-1635, Massachusetts saw a great influx of emigrants from England. In June and July alone, at least fifteen ships arrived carrying new settlers. However, William Carpenter, my 9th great-grandfather, was the first person with the surname Carpenter to permanently settle in the American Colonies. 

The Arnold and Carpenter families lived first at Hingham, Massachusetts, about 15 miles south of Boston. They were in Hingham for less than a year, however, and soon moved on to Providence, Rhode Island, where they arrived on April 20, 1636. 

An artist's rendering of Roger Williams arriving in Providence, greeted by the Narragansett people

Providence Plantation was founded by Roger Williams and five fellow settlers sometime in the Spring of 1636. As mentioned in previous posts, Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts in 1635 due to his strong belief in the separation of church and state, something that ran counter to the very foundations of society in Massachusetts. The original Pilgrims and the Puritans that followed had come to the colonies specifically to create a godly society, and religion was at the center of their civic life. After his banishment, Roger Williams moved south into Narragansett territory, across the Sekonk River from Plymouth Plantation, where Massachusetts authorities had no jurisdiction. With Williams were four other men, William Harris, John Smith, Francis Wickes, and Thomas Angell. They were joined shortly thereafter by Joshua Verin, and the group negotiated with the Narragansetts for land in March 1636. 

The Arnolds and Carpenters arrived in Providence in April 1636. The connection between the Arnold/Carpenter family and Roger Williams isn't clear, but given how closely they followed Williams' path to Providence, it seems likely that they encountered each other in Massachusetts.  

William Carpenter and William Arnold's names are listed as original proprietors of Providence in a deed created by Roger Williams on October 8, 1638. There were fourteen men noted on this deed:

1. Roger Williams
2. Stukeley Westcott 
3. William Arnold
4. Thomas James
5. Robert Coles
6. John Greene
7. John Throckmorton
8. John Sweet
9. William Harris
10. William Carpenter
11. Thomas Olney
12. Francis Weston
13. Richard Waterman
14. Ezekiel Holyman

Included in this list was Stukeley Westcott, who had accompanied the Arnolds on their journey from England to the colonies. The Westcotts had initially gone to Salem after arriving in Massachusetts, and likely crossed paths with Roger Williams, who lived in Salem until his ouster in 1636. The Westcotts relocated to Providence in 1638, reuniting with the Arnold and Carpenter families. Also on this list of founders is my 9th great-grandfather, Robert Coles, who was at that point on a redemptive path after years of destructive behavior in Massachusetts.

The land that Roger Williams, and shortly thereafter, the Arnolds and Carpenters setttled, in modern-day Providence, was then the home of the Narragansett people. In his book The Arnold memorial; William Arnold of Providence and Pawtuxet, 1587-1675, and a genealogy of his descendants (pub. 1935), author Elisha Stephen Arnold said that William Arnold, "...felt for the Indians a conscientious kindliness and in his dealings with them was actuated by a sense of strictest justice." William Arnold, like Roger Williams, learned the Narragansett language and acted as interpreter for the native people with the English settlers on many occasions.

The Arnold contingent spent only a short time in Providence proper. They soon relocated about four miles south of town, along the Pawtuxet River. William Arnold was the first Englishman to settle in Pawtuxet, which later became the town of Cranston. He built a home in the wilderness about a mile north of the Pawtuxet Falls and was shortly followed by William Harris, William Carpenter, and Zachariah Rhodes (William's son-in-law). Rhodes and his brother-in-law Stephen Arnold built a grist mill near the falls and laid out what became known as the Arnold Road, which headed northward from Pawtuxet to join the Pequot Trail.

In 1639, William Arnold was one of twelve men who founded the first Baptist church in America. This church still exists and holds regular services. It is located at 75 North Main Street in Providence. While the church's website only mentions Roger Williams as their founder, in reality, it was a group effort that involved most of Providence's founding fathers. Church founders included Thomas Olney and Ezekiel Holyman. Holyman was the person who later baptized Roger Williams at the church. The group also included William Arnold, known throughout England and the Providence colony for his thoughtful study and practice of religion. As a religious leader and prominent landowner in the new settlements of Providence and Pawtuxet, Arnold held an important role in the community.

William Carpenter was also very involved in civic life. He was a carpenter by trade and built some of the homes in the Pawtuxet, including his own. He also acted as an surveyor of sorts, laying out paths for roads and bridges, and drawing boundary lines. He was appointed by Boston authorities as one of four men designated to keep the peace in Pawtuxet. He served as a commissioner and deputy for Providence to Rhode Island's General Court Assembly, acted as a warden (magistrate) in the General Court of Trials, served as town meeting moderator, and was elected to the Providence town council, just to name some of his roles. He also seems to have been a minister, as he performed the marriage ceremony for his daughter Priscilla to William Vincent.

William Carpenter and Elizabeth Arnold Carpenter raised their eight children in Pawtuxet.

1. Joseph Carpenter (b. 1635, d. 1683, m. (1) Hannah Carpenter (2) Anna Weeks)
2. Lydia Carpenter (b. 1638, d. 1711, m. Benjamin Smith)
3. Ephraim Carpenter (b. 1640, d. 1703, m. Susannah Harris)
4. Timothy Carpenter (b. 1643, d. 1726, m. Hannah Burton)
5. William Carpenter (b. 1645, d. 1676)
6. Priscilla Carpenter (b. 1648, d. 1690, m. William Vincent)
7. Silas Carpenter (b. 1650, d. 1695, m. Sarah Arnold)
8. Benjamin Carpenter (b. 1653, d. 1711, m. Mary Tillinghast)

Joseph Carpenter's wife was Hannah Carpenter, daughter of William Carpenter and Abigail Briant of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. While they had the same surname, they were not related.

Priscilla's husband, William Vincent, was her first cousin, the son of Frideswide Carpenter Vincent, William Carpenter's sister. 

Silas Carpenter's wife, Sarah Arnold, was the granddaughter of William Arnold and Christiana Peake, by their son Stephen. This means Silas and Sarah were first cousins once removed.

In 1640/1641, Providence, and the Arnolds/Carpenters by extension, faced one of the biggest problems to bedevil their new community. It was the arrival of my 9th great-grandfather Samuel Gorton, whose tumultuous journey through Rhode Island I chronicled in a previous post. The Arnolds and Carpenters were not fans of Gorton, to say the least.

Samuel Gorton. Not the most popular man in Rhode Island.

Having been banished from Aquidneck, Samuel Gorton and his followers came to Providence, where Gorton immediately made himself known by refusing to follow local regulations and stirring up the populace with his radical religious beliefs. Roger Williams did not allow Gorton to be recognized as a Providence resident, since Gorton fundamentally disagreed with the governmental systems Williams had created there.

The differences between Williams and Gorton were not on religious grounds but on the question of the concept of government. Gorton, in 1641, again attempted to be received in “town fellowship,” and again he was refused. The man who most strenuously opposed Gorton’s application at this time was William Arnold, who asserted that Gorton was “an insolent, railing and turbulent person” and that he had divided Providence “into parties aiming to drive away its founders.”

The bitter feelings that grew between Arnold and Gorton lasted for the lifetime of both men and were responsible for many of the disturbing events of the early period. Serious difficulties arose in Providence in November 1641, when a group of “eight men orderly chosen” rendered a decision against one of Gorton’s followers, Francis Weston, and attempted to confiscate his cattle. The Gortonists, which included Gorton, John Greene and Randall Holden, rallied behind Weston and rescued him and his cattle. A riot occurred as a result and blood was shed. Arnold and 12 others protested, and when Gorton and his followers moved into the Pawtuxet area three of the original Pawtuxet purchasers, William Arnold, Robert Cole and William Carpenter, as well as Benedict Arnold, William Arnold’s son, offered themselves and their land to the protection of Massachusetts in September 1642. [Source: Warwick Beacon, 2011]

When I wrote about Samuel Gorton, I reviewed a number of sources relating to the events that led up to the fateful raid on Shawomet. This assault by Massachusetts authorities resulted in the deaths of two women and the arrest and imprisonment of Gorton. What I did not fully realize at that time was that this raid was in fact a direct result of efforts by my Arnold, Coles, and Carpenter ancestors to take down Gorton.

The Arnolds, Coles, and Carpenter were highly offended by Gorton, who had moved with some of his adherents to Pawtuxet. They went to Boston and submitted themselves to the government and jurisdiction of Massachusetts on September 2, 1642. They were received by the General Court there and appointed justices of the peace. In doing this, these settlers allowed a foreign jurisdiction into the midst of the Providence government, a condition that lasted for 16 years. Gorton was unhappy about being under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and moved with his followers another 12 miles (19 km) farther south, settling beyond the limits of Massachusetts' jurisdiction at a place called Shawomet.

[Benedict] Arnold and his father had already become proficient in the Narragansett and Wampanoag languages, and both harbored an intense dislike of Gorton. They devised a scheme to undermine their adversary and to simultaneously obtain extensive lands from the local Indians. Gorton had purchased Shawomet from Miantonomi, the chief sachem of the Narragansett people. Minor sachems Ponham and Sacononoco had some control of the lands at Pawtuxet and Shawomet, and Arnold, acting as interpreter, took these chieftains to Governor John Winthrop in Boston and had them submit themselves and their lands to Massachusetts, claiming that the sale of Shawomet to Gorton was done "under duress." Now with a claim to Shawomet, Massachusetts directed Gorton and his followers to appear in Boston to answer "complaints" made by the two minor sachems. When Gorton refused, Massachusetts sent a party to Shawomet to arrest him and his neighbors. [Source: Wikipedia]

Gorton would ultimately be redeemed, but my Arnold and Carpenter ancestors were surely relieved that their plan to remove him from Rhode Island was, at least temporarily, successful. They would never fully be rid of him, though. Upon his return in 1648 to Shawomet, which was then renamed Warwick, Samuel Gorton had enough influence to be acknowledged as a major political figure in Rhode Island for the rest of his life. 

Benedict Arnold and his wife and children left Providence in 1651 to settle in Newport. In 1657, he was named President of the Rhode Island colony, succeeding Roger Williams. His father, William Arnold and his brother in law, William Carpenter, stayed in Pawtuxet with their families. [Note: Benedict Arnold was the great-grandfather of the infamous turncoat Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) who betrayed George Washington and defected to the British army during the Revolutionary War.]

In 1658, Providence and Pawtuxet formally reunited. This period was a calm and peaceful one for the Providence community, and the Arnolds and Carpenters enjoyed nearly two decades without notable strife. This ended in dramatic fashion in 1675 with the start of King Philip's War, which was to devastate Rhode Island and all of the New England colonies. 

A colored woodcut from the 19th century depicting a scene from King Philip's War

King Philip’s War—also known as the First Indian War, the Great Narragansett War or Metacom’s Rebellion—took place in southern New England from 1675 to 1676. It was the Native Americans' last-ditch effort to avoid recognizing English authority and stop English settlement on their native lands. The war is named after the Wampanoag chief Metacom, later known as Philip or King Philip, who led the fourteen-month bloody rebellion. [Source: History.com] 

The war ravaged the New England region. Rhode Island was somewhat unique among the colonies in its relations with Native Americans. Roger Williams, from his earliest days in Rhode Island, advocated for fair treatment of Native Americans and Rhode Island's English settlers endeavored to live in peaceful coexistence with their Narragansett neighbors. In June 1675, the Wampanoag chief Metacom launched a series of raids on colonial towns, killing residents and burning homes. Initially, Rhode Island's leaders made efforts to maintain neutrality and negotiate peace, and the Narragansett people did not join the Wampanoags in their conflict with the English. However, both groups were inexorably drawn into the conflict as the violence spread.

On December 19, 1675, the Great Swamp Massacre took place in what is now West Kingston, Rhode Island. On that day, colonial militia forces preemptively attacked the Narragansett fort in order to prevent them from aligning with the Wampanoags. Somewhere between 300-600 Narragansetts were killed, including women, children, and the elderly. This shocking and unprovoked attack outraged the Narragansetts and brought them fully into the conflict. They joined forces with the Wampanoags and the allied Native American fighters began a campaign of destruction in Rhode Island. Over the next several months, the cities of Warwick, Providence, and Wickford were burned to the ground. 

A rendering of the burning of Providence

On January 27, 1676, William Carpenter's property was raided by a Native American group led by Canonchet, a Narragansett Sachem. It has been written that William Carpenter's son, William Jr., was killed during this attack. These accounts claims that William Carpenter built a block house that provided a strong defense against attacks, and his family and neighbors sheltered there while attempting to fight off a Native American assault in January 1676, but William Jr. and a household servant were both killed in the effort. This is not proven, however. William Jr. did die in January 1676, at age 23, but it's not conclusively known what caused his death.

On March 29, 1676, the Wampanoag forces sacked Providence, where the Arnold and Carpenter families were living. Having had advance warning that the Native American soldiers were approaching, all but about 30 of Providence's 500 residents fled to Aquidneck Island. 77-year old Roger Williams remained with a small group of men to face the attackers. The names of those who stayed with him were not recorded. It's possible that William Carpenter was among them, at age 66, or perhaps some of his sons. William Arnold was not there, having died the previous year. According to legend, Williams tried to reason with the Native Americans as they destroyed the town he founded. 

As Providence burned, a group of Native Americans from several tribes assembled on the banks of a salt cove across from the town. Williams walked out to talk with them across the water, his back to the burning town. The conversation between the warriors and the old minister lasted an hour. Roger Williams asked them why they burned and killed their kind neighbors. He told them, "This house of mine now burning before mine eyes hath lodged kindly some thousands of you these ten years." They said Rhode Island had joined the other colonies in the Great Swamp massacre. In a letter to his brother, Williams recounted his reply: I told them they … "had forgot they were mankind and ran around the country like wolves tearing the innocent and peaceable….They confessed they were in a strange way." Roger Williams then warned them that it was almost time to plant. The Indians said they didn’t care about planting; they would take food from the English. They argued some more, and finally Williams suggested he intervene to make peace. The Native Americans said they would spend the next month burning Plymouth Colony, and then they would talk to him. But they never used Rogers Williams’ services as a peacemaker. They did, however, tell him the safe way home. [Source: New England Historical Society]

Rhode Island's colonial government was unable to stop the bloodshed. However, on April 4, 1676 the General Assembly specifically requested the guidance of William Carpenter. " It was voted, that in these troublesome times and straits in the colony this assembly desiring to have the advice and concurrence of the most judicious inhabitant, do desire at there next sitting the company and counsel of William Carpenter." It's not known exactly what William might have done to help. The war ground on until August, when Metacom was killed. This brought an end to the violence, although a treaty marking the official end of the war would not be signed until April 1678.

After the war ended, William Carpenter returned to Providence and built a new home. Other family members who rebuilt in Providence included William's son Timothy with wife Hannah Burton, his daughter Priscilla with husband William Vincent, his son Silas with wife Sarah Arnold, his son Benjamin with wife Mary Tillinghast, his brother-in-law, Stephen Arnold with wife Sarah Smith, and his sister-in-law, Joanna Arnold Rhodes with husband Zachariah Rhodes.

The war was the greatest calamity in seventeenth-century New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history. In the space of little more than a year, 12 of the region's towns were destroyed and many more were damaged, the economy of Plymouth and Rhode Island Colonies was all but ruined and their population was decimated, losing one-tenth of all men available for military service. More than half of New England's towns were involved in conflict. Hundreds of Wampanoags and their allies were publicly executed or enslaved, and the Wampanoags were left effectively landless. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Arnold and Carpenter families were actively involved in rebuilding Providence after the war. The original settlers of Providence were largely elderly by this point, however. Roger Williams died in 1683. William Carpenter died on September 7, 1685, at age 75. Elizabeth Arnold Carpenter died a year and a half later, on February 22, 1687. Elizabeth's brother, Governor Benedict Arnold, died in 1678, but her sister Joanna and brother Stephen outlived her, dying in 1692 and 1699, respectively. All left many descendants.

A sketch of Providence dating from the early 1800s.

The material goods present at William’s home were inventoried after his death and appraised at £22. Listed among his belongings were many carpenter’s implements, including various types and sizes of saws and augers; chisels, plane irons, gouges, drawing knives, and adzes; a wainscot plough; a burr (drill or chisel); and a spokeshave. Despite the modest value of William’s personal estate, his tax assessments (on land, livestock, and saw mill he owned with sons Silas and Benjamin), were among the highest in Providence.

William Carpenter wrote a will on February 10, 1680, but he added a codicil after the death of his eldest son Joseph in 1683. This codicil indicated that Joseph had passed away and left his bequest to Joseph's son, Joseph Carpenter, Jr. Almost all bequests that William Carpenter made were of land, rights to subsequent land divisions, and rights of commoning (entitlements to pasturage on and/or divisions of common land). The amount of land he owned and willed to his descendants amounted to hundreds of acres. Also, William made a provision for his wife, Elizabeth, so that she would continue to live in comfort. He made bequests to all his surviving children, his daughters Lydia Smith and Priscilla Vincent, and his sons Silas, Benjamin, Timothy, and Ephraim. He also willed items to five of his grandchildren, Ephraim Carpenter, Jr. and Susanna Carpenter (children of Ephraim Carpenter), William Carpenter (eldest son of the deceased Joseph Carpenter), and Simon Smith and Joseph Smith (sons of Lydia Arnold Smith).

Most of William's descendants remained in the area near Providence after his death. There are still family members there to this day. However, William's two eldest sons, Joseph and Ephraim, moved to the Oyster Bay, New York area in the 1670s and set up milling operations in Musketa Cove, now known as Glen Cove. This branch of the Carpenter family would remain in New York for the next 200 years. Only then would the descendants of my third great-grandmother, Eliza Jane Carpenter Griffin, begin moving west.

Bad Puritans: Samuel Gorton, Robert Coles, and the Founding of Rhode Island (Part 2)

A painting by artist Jean Blackburn depicting the town of Providence in about 1650.

In my last post, I wrote about my 9th great-grandfather Samuel Gorton, the religious leader and firebrand who founded Warwick, Rhode Island. While Gorton butted heads with nearly everyone he encountered, he was secure in his faith, his education, and in his commitment to a high moral standard. None of this can be said for my 9th great-grandfather Robert Coles. Robert was also a founding father of Rhode Island, and he was the father-in-law of Samuel Gorton's daughter Mahashalalhasbaz, but his route to Rhode Island took a very different path.

Robert Coles was born about 1605 in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. Nothing is known of his early years. His parents have not been conclusively identified, nor is there any indication of what Robert's trade may have been in England. In about 1629, Robert married a woman named Mary whose surname is unknown. In 1630, they emigrated to the British colonies in America. The place Robert lived undoubtedly influenced his decision to leave England.

Sudbury, England was a hotbed of Puritan sentiment during much of the 17th century. It was among the towns labelled "notorious wasps' nests of dissent." During the decade of the 1630s, many Sudbury families departed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. [Source: Great Migration Study Project, Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols I-III.]

One of these Puritan areas was the Stour River Valley, on the border between Essex and Suffolk. This valley, where John Winthrop lived, became known as a godly kingdom. John Cotton, who became vicar of St. Botolph’s parish in Boston in 1612, also advanced a Puritan agenda. His preaching drew many godly men and women (likely including Anne Hutchinson) from surrounding towns to hear him preach. [Source: Partnership of Historic Bostons]

Sudbury's location, northeast of London, is shown with a red pin

John Winthrop, a leader in the Puritan movement, and the future first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had a lot of influence in Suffolk. While the details of their association are not known, Robert Coles apparently subscribed to Winthrop's doctrine and his growing belief that Puritans must physically separate themselves from the seemingly corrupt Church of England.

As a young man, Winthrop became convinced that England was in trouble: Inflation coupled with population growth had led men to pursue wealth at the cost of their souls. Efforts to reform the Church of England had faltered. Zealous bishops hounded religious dissenters who resisted obeying the rules. Puritans like Winthrop were persecuted. As he worried about his future, Winthrop became intrigued by a new venture, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a commercial enterprise that offered the chance for religious freedom in the New World.

Winthrop struggled with the decision to abandon his homeland. He was keenly aware that hardships had claimed the lives of half the Pilgrims who had settled in Plymouth 10 years earlier. He had no illusions about the difficulties that lay ahead -- a hostile climate, bad food, sickness and isolation. When he survived a bad accident with his horse, he took this as a divine signal: God was calling him to create a holy community in the wilderness of New England. [Source: PBS]

Portrait of John Winthrop by an unknown artist

Winthrop signed on with the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 and spent the following year encouraging others to join him in emigrating to the new colonies. In 1630, he led a group of eleven ships that sailed from Yarmouth to Salem, the first five of which departed on April 8, and the rest in May. This group, called the Winthrop Fleet, included my 9th great-grandfather Robert Coles. After arriving at Salem in 1630, Robert and his wife Mary moved on to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where their first child, John Coles was born.

An illustration depicting the Winthrop Fleet arriving in Boston Harbor

Coles arrived in New England in the summer of 1630 as a passenger in the Winthrop Fleet, and was among the first settlers of the town of Roxbury. In October of that year he petitioned the Massachusetts Bay Colony's General Court in Boston to become a freeman and in 1631 he took the freeman's oath. He was a founding member of the First Church of Roxbury, which was a non-separating Congregationalist church established in 1631, and in 1632 he was one of two townsmen elected to represent Roxbury in the General Court. During his term, Massachusetts Bay became the first colony to adopt formal arbitration laws.

In 1633, Coles was in the first company, led by John Winthrop the Younger, that went to Agawam where he was granted a large home lot on the Ipswich River at present-day East and Cogswell Streets and 200 acres—a property now called Greenwood Farm—on the neck of land north of town. He moved to Salem in 1635 where he received a home lot in town and 300 acres of farmland south of Felton Hill "in the place where his cattle are by Brooksby. [Source: Wikipedia]

Robert and Mary had three children together:

1. John Coles (b. 1630; d. 1676; m. Ann)
2. Deliverance Coles (b. 1632; d. 1663; m. Richard Townsend)
3. Ann Coles (b. 1634; d. 1695; m. Henry Townsend)

If you were to just read the details above, it would be easy to assume Robert was a typical Puritan, involved in the work of settling new communities, filling civic and religious leadership roles, and parenting young children. However, the court records of the time tell a different story. Robert Coles was a notorious drunk, and between 1631 and 1634, his behavior escalated to the point that it placed him firmly outside the confines of what was acceptable to the Puritans. The Puritans, for all their rigidity and righteousness, were not inherently opposed to alcohol. The drinking of alcohol and its use for medicinal purposes were a commonplace part of early colonial life. What was unacceptable was public drunkenness and drinking on the Sabbath when one was meant to be in church. We don't know if Robert had a problem with alcohol prior to his arrival in New England, but once there, his tendencies landed him in hot water immediately.

In 1631, Coles was fined five marks (about £3 then and US$850 in 2022) for drunkenness aboard the Friendship and at Winnissimet, now Chelsea. The Friendship was carrying two hogsheads (more than 120 gallons) of flavored mead called metheglin. Coles's fellow carousers—who were not pious Puritans—included Edward Gibbons, a former polytheist "who chose rather to Dance about a May pole...than to hear a good Sermon" and Samuel Maverick, a wealthy Anglican "very ready to entertain strangers." In 1632, Coles was again fined for drunkenness, this time in Charlestown. In addition to his fine of £1 he was required to appear before the General Court and the Court of Assistants to publicly confess.

Coles was charged a third time for drunkenness in 1633, along with fellow settler John Shatswell, at Agawam. Shatswell was fined £2, but Coles was fined £10 (about US$2900 in 2022) for multiple offenses: drunkenness, encouraging Shatswell's wife to drink, and "intiseing her to incontinency and other misdemeanor." Coles was also sentenced "to stand with a whte sheete of pap on his back wherein a drunkard shalbe written in great letters, & stand therewith soe longe as the Court thinks meete...." [Source: Wikipedia] 

The Puritans were big fans of public punishment. They used shame as a tool to keep their communities in line. What was more shameful than being made to stand in a town square and be disciplined and chastised in front of ones neighbors? Puritan courts sentenced offenders to be restrained in bilboes, "a long heavy bolt or bar of iron having two sliding shackles, something like handcuffs, and a lock. In these shackles were thrust the legs of offenders or criminals, who were then locked in with a padlock. Sometimes a chain at one end of the bilboes attached both bilboes and prisoner to the floor or wall." [Source: Alice Morse Earle, "Curious Punishments of Bygone Days"]. Those convicted of crimes might be publicly whipped, branded, or made to stand in a visible place with a cleft stick secured to their tongue. Colonial law enforcers also liked to hang signs on sinners advertising their crimes, and then make them stand in town squares for some length of time wearing their signs. When that castigation proved insufficient, words or letters might be sewn onto their clothes, and the guilty party forced to wear it for a longer period. There are a number of instances of this kind of punishment in colonial records, including the following:

• In 1636, William Bacon was sentenced to stand in stocks wearing a large letter "D" for drunkenness.

• In 1639, Margaret Henderson of Boston was fined and sentenced to stand in the town center wearing a paper that declared her “ill behavior.”

• In 1656, a woman from Taunton and Plymouth was whipped, fined, and sentenced to wear a red "B" on her clothing to indicate the crime of blasphemy.

• In 1673, Widow Bradley of New London was sentenced to wear a paper pinned to her cap to advertise her shame.

• In the 1600s, a Massachusetts court legislated that if someone twice interrupted a preacher during worship, they had to pay a fine of five pounds and stand on a 4-foot block wearing a sign that read, ‘WANTON GOSPELLER.’

One of the most famous of these punishments was the one given to my 9th great-grandfather Robert Coles. After many previous convictions, and apparently no change in his behavior, in 1634, a court in Roxbury delivered a severe verdict.

The court orders that Coles, for drunkenness by him committed at Roxbury shall be disfranchized, weare about his necke & soe to hange upon his outward garment a D made of redd clothe & sett upon white, to contynue this for a yeare & not to leave it off at any tyme when hee comes amongst company.... [Source: Records of the Court of Assistants of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1630–1692. Vol. 2. Boston: Suffolk County]

An illustration showing various forms of Puritan punishment, which includes a man, perhaps Robert Cole, wearing a scarlet "D" [source]

Robert was stripped of his right to vote, and for a year, he had to wear a large red "D" sewn onto a white background on his clothes, as a symbol of his persistent drunkenness. If this sounds familiar, it is because this punishment was an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne based the sanctions imposed upon his heroine, Hester Prynne, on several historical sources, including that of an English man named William Prynne, whose face was branded with the letters "S" and "L" after he criticized an archbishop. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne gave Hester a sentence more like those handed down in colonial America, where convicts were made to wear signs, and specifically the one given to Robert Coles, who was sentenced to wear a scarlet letter emblazoned on his clothes.

From 1634 to 1635, Robert wore his scarlet "D." After living for some time in Roxbury and Agawam (later Ipswich), in 1635 Robert took up residence in Salem. In December 1635, Robert was granted 300 acres of land just west of central Salem. With his holdings across three Massachusetts communities, Robert now owned a considerable amount of land. He made enough money farming those lands and with milling operations that he prospered despite his many convictions.

Another notable resident in Salem in 1635 was Roger Williams. Williams would shortly become one of the founding fathers of Rhode Island, as discussed in my previous post about Samuel Gorton. Williams believed in the separation of church and state, something the Puritans vehemently opposed. Their whole raison d'être in the colonies was to create a pure society based on their religious beliefs, and they considered Williams' teachings dangerous and heretical. Williams was forced out of Salem during a blizzard in 1636, and he fled southward, establishing the Providence Plantation in Spring of that year. It is not known whether Williams and Coles interacted during their overlapping time in Salem, or whether Coles was, at that time, drawn to Williams' religious persuasions, but it seems likely. Robert Coles followed Roger Williams to Providence in 1637.

An illustration depicting Roger Williams welcoming settlers to Providence

Between his final known conviction in 1634, and his departure for Providence in 1637, life was rocky for Robert Coles. He may have stopped drinking to excess, for he was not in court on such charges after 1634. However, it seems that his wife, Mary, may have followed in his footsteps. In 1634, Robert and Mary were excommunicated from their church in Roxbury, and the parish noted in its records that Mary "did too much favor his ways, yet not as to incur any just blame, she lived an aflicted life, by reason of his vnsetlednesse [unsettledness] & removing fro place to place." [Source: Boston Registry Department (1884). Records relating to the early history of Boston. Vol. 6]. It is not clear when Mary died, but it was likely sometime between her daughter Ann's birth in 1634 and Robert's move to Salem in 1635. Mary would have been young at the time of her death, probably in her late 20s. She left behind three children under the age of five.

In about 1637, before departing Salem for Providence, Robert married again. His second wife, Mary Hawxhurst, was the daughter of Sampson Hawxhurst, the vicar of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, and his wife Elizabeth. Mary also emigrated to the colonies with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, traveling with her brother, Christopher Hawxhurst. Robert and Mary had five children together.

1. Daniel Coles (b. 1637; d. 1692; m. Mahahshalalhasbaz Gorton)
2. Elizabeth Coles (b. 1639; m. John Townsend)
3. Nathaniel Coles (b. 1642; d. 1678, m. (1) Martha Jackson (2) Deborah Wright)
4. Sarah Coles (b. 1646; d. 1692; m. Thomas Townsend)
5. Robert Coles (b. 1648; d. 1715; m. Mercy Wright)

You may notice that all four of Robert Coles' daughters married men with the surname Townsend. Three of these men, John, Henry, and Richard Townsend, were known to be brothers. However, Thomas Townsend, who married Sarah Coles, is not believed to be closely related to them. 

You may also notice that Robert's two youngest sons married women with the surname Wright. Deborah and Mercy Wright were sisters, the daughters of Nicholas Wright and his wife Ann. Their brother, John Wright, married Mary Townsend, the daughter of Ann Coles. So, three Townsend siblings married three Coles siblings, and three Wright siblings married two Coles siblings and a child of a sibling.

Daniel Coles was one of the two Coles siblings who did not marry a Wright or a Townsend. He married Mahahshalalhasbaz Gorton, daughter of Samuel Gorton. I descend from their son Samuel Coles. However, I also descend from Daniel's sister Ann Coles, via her daughter, Susannah Townsend. This means Robert Coles is my 9th great-grandfather on two different lines of my family tree.

A chart showing how I descend from my 9th great-grandfathers, Robert Coles and Samuel Gorton,
ending with my second great-grandfather, John Thorne Griffin.

In 1637, Robert left Salem and followed Roger Williams to Providence. He brought with him his wife, Mary, and his four small children. The youngest, Daniel, was born not long before the move. 

In 1638, Robert was recorded as a founding member of the church in Providence, the first Baptist church in the colonies. The minister, Ezekiel Holliman, baptized Roger Williams, Robert Coles, and about a dozen other men at the first gathering of church members. In this small group of men was William Carpenter, who is also my 9th great-grandfather on a different (but connected) family line.

William Carpenter's great-grandson, Timothy Carpenter, married Phebe Coles,
great-granddaughter of Robert Coles.

Robert Coles was one of the first 13 settlers of Providence.

Each of the original proprietors received a narrow, five- or six-acre, river-front home lot that stretched eastward from Towne Street, now Main Street, to "a highway," now Hope Street in present-day College Hill, Providence, and they received shares of upland and meadow on the south side of town. Robert Coles's home lot was on the Great Salt Cove between the lots of Thomas Olney and William Carpenter and along the ancient "highway" called the Wampanoag trail, now Meeting Street. The land granted to him south of town laid east of Mashapaug Pond. [Source: Wikipedia]

The plan showing the original division of home lots in Providence.
Robert Coles' lot is 20th from the top, right next to William Carpenter.

In fall of 1638, Robert also built a home on the Pawtuxet River in what is now Pawtuxet Village. In 1640, he signed the Plantation Agreement at Providence, an accord that amended the 1637 Providence Agreement. This agreement was one of the first compacts regarding governance in the colonies, and was a precursor to the United States Constitution. Notably, among the 39 signers of the agreement were two women, a radical statement during a time in which women were not included in government and were not permitted to vote. As mentioned in my post about Samuel Gorton, the founders of Rhode Island were ahead of their time in favoring rights for women and honest dealings with their Native American neighbors.

In addition to being one of the first political compacts, the Providence Agreement also contains the first expression in the new world of the separation of church and state—achieved by limiting the town meeting to “civil things.” [Source: Charles Evans, “Oaths of Allegiance in Colonial New England"]

By 1648, Robert had moved to Warwick, Rhode Island, the town founded by my 9th great-grandfather, Samuel Gorton. Robert operated a mill in Warwick and lived there until his death in 1654.

The early years of Robert's life in the New England colonies are so strikingly different than his later years. He grew from a repeat offender, in and out of court, censured for his drunkenness to the point that his punishment inspired a major work of American literature, to an upstanding founding father of the capital of Rhode Island. Sometime between 1634 and 1637, Robert, "seems to have reformed... and there is certainly nothing in the Providence town records or those of Warwick, where he afterwards resided, to indicate that he did not lead a perfectly correct life in both places." [Source: The MacDonough-Hackstaff Ancestry, Rodney MacDonough]. At the time of Robert's death, he was a major landowner in Rhode Island. He left an estate valued at more than £500, a large amount in those times. Not enough has been written about Robert's personal and religious convictions, and what may have inspired him to turn his life around, but by the time he arrived in Rhode Island, he was clearly a changed man.

After Robert's death, his wife Mary married Matthias Harvye. In 1661, they moved to Oyster Bay, on Long Island, in New York. All of her children went with them, either in 1661 or in the years that followed. Three of Mary and Robert's sons founded the community of Musketa Cove, now Glen Cove. In Oyster Bay, Musketa Cove, and in Flushing, Queens, where some of the family later moved, several really fascinating branches of my family converge. The Townsend, Feakes, and Bowne families were Quakers, considered radical and unlawful, and persecuted for their beliefs. Continuing the legacy of their forbearers in Rhode Island, these families fought fiercely for their right to practice religion as they saw fit, enduing imprisonment, banishment, and myriad other challenges. I'll talk about them in future posts.

According to Wikipedia, some of Robert Coles' notable descendants include the following:

• Walter Chrysler, who founded the Chrysler Corporation
• Novelist Miriam Coles Harris
• American Revolutionary War spies Robert Townsend and Sally Townsend, who were siblings and members of the secret Culper Ring
• Spy Jesse Coles, who was captured while carrying a message to General Washington
• Robert R. Coles, chairman of the Hayden Planetarium

This concludes the series on my "bad Puritan" ancestors, Samuel Gorton and Robert Coles. Neither one fit into Puritan society, whether due to their unconventional religious beliefs, or their inability to abide by Puritanical law. Gorton, Coles, and many others like them, ended up in Rhode Island, a safe haven for those who found themselves outside the strict and rigid communities established in Massachusetts. The cities founded in Rhode Island by religious dissidents, notably Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Samuel Gorton, paved the path for a future America, one that endeavored to separate government from religion and truly allow its citizens freedom of worship. The fulfillment of that promise was a long way off, and some may say we're still working on it today, but the early Rhode Island communities firmly set a stake in the ground for those ideals.

Bad Puritans: Samuel Gorton, Robert Coles, and the Founding of Rhode Island (Part 1)

Samuel Gorton (artist unknown)

In Colonial America, clashing loyalties and disparate religious beliefs often resulted in breakaway groups of colonists departing to form new settlements.

The earliest English immigrants to the British colonies were typically separatists; Puritans so extreme that they had to cross an ocean and start a new civilization in order to adequately distance themselves from an English church they viewed as ungodly and corrupt. In history class, we learn that the Puritans came to America seeking religious freedom, and this is partially correct, but that freedom only extended to those who worshipped like they did. They were incredibly intolerant of those who practiced other forms of Christianity. Anglicans, Quakers, and Antinomians were not welcome in Puritan societies. Any behavior that deviated from the strict, scripture-based laws of these new colonies was punished harshly and publicly. As the 1600s progressed, and more people started arriving from England, inevitably not all of them fit into the world the separatists had created, leading to increased conflict.

Another issue that festered in the background during these first decades in America was the issue of ultimate authority. Early voyages to America had been organized by religious groups or leaders, with the support of a benefactor, but these organizations did not necessarily communicate with each other or have the foresight to work together. Colonists sometimes arrived to create a community in a particular location, only to find it already taken. There were competing interests, both in England and the colonies, and companies sponsoring immigrants morphed, dissolved, or merged in ways that made governance challenging for those living in disputed areas. The colonies were not one big country with different cities and states, as New England is now. It was essentially a patchwork of small countries, governed by different parties in England, with rules enforced by local leaders, and not necessarily welcoming to new settlers. In short, everyone could not just get along. It was complicated.

Map of New England printed by John Seller John in 1675 CE, based on William Reed's original survey of 1665 CE.

When my 9th great-grandfather, Samuel Gorton, arrived in Massachusetts in 1637, the settlements there were reeling from the Antinomian Controversy. This controversy set the followers of radical minister John Cotton, namely the strident Anne Hutchinson and her brother-in-law John Wheelwright, against traditional Puritans, like Massachusetts Bay Company Governor John Winthrop. I discussed this moment in history in my post about my 11th great-grandfather Robert Moulton, who was disarmed in Salem for supporting Anne Hutchinson's right to worship as she desired. Cotton, Wheelwright, and Hutchinson were gathering followers as they evangelized, teaching that strict obedience was unnecessary for salvation, and that faith alone was the answer. The Puritans thought they were heretics and chased them out of Massachusetts. The animosity their proselytizing created was a true crisis for this young colony.

To further set the stage, in the 1630s, Rhode Island did not yet exist. Scattered communities had been established, largely as outposts for those not welcome in Massachusetts, but there was not yet connective thread between them.

Although the Puritan British theologian Roger Williams is often given the sole role of founder of Rhode Island, the colony was in fact settled by five independent and combative sets of people between 1636 and 1642. They were all English, and most of them began their colonial experiences in Massachusetts Bay colony but were banished for various reasons. Roger Williams' group was the earliest: In 1636, he settled in what would become Providence on the north end of Narragansett Bay, after he was kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay colony. [source: ThoughtCo]

The early Rhode Island settlements included Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick.

The settlement at Providence along the Narragansett Bay, established by Williams and his followers in 1636, soon became a haven for religious dissidents. In 1644 Williams obtained a patent for the colony of Providence Plantations, later Rhode Island. [source: Library of Congress]

Meanwhile, another community was taking shape on an island off the coast, founded by William Coddington.

In 1637 he [Coddington] supported the controversial antinomian religious tenets of Anne Hutchinson, and as a result he and his followers were obliged to leave Massachusetts for the island of Aquidneck (Rhode Island) in Narragansett Bay. Coddington established a government based on Old Testament precepts in a settlement that he led at Pocasset (Portsmouth) on the northern part of Aquidneck. Anne Hutchinson had also settled in Portsmouth after she was banished from Massachusetts, but Coddington became embroiled in a dispute with her and moved his settlement to Newport in 1639. Although Portsmouth and Newport were united the next year, with Coddington elected governor, his hopes to maintain the island of Aquidneck as a separate colony were thwarted in 1644, when the English colonist Roger Williams obtained a patent uniting his Providence plantations with Aquidneck. [source: Brittanica]

For more information on this fascinating period in early America, I recommend listening to The Other States of America History Podcast's episode Rhode Island Versus Providence Plantations: Shawomet, Portsmouth, Newport and Providence (1643-1663).

A painting by artist Jean Blackburn depicting the town of Providence about 1650.

Warwick, the last of the early Rhode Island communities, was founded in 1642 by Samuel Gorton. But let's back up a moment and properly meet Samuel. I'll start this by saying that it has been a thrill to learn of my connection to Samuel Gorton. Ancestors like this, who bucked every convention and blazed their own trail, are my very favorites. Samuel Gorton was smart, driven, and absolutely unwilling to compromise his beliefs or acquiesce to the prevailing rules of the American colonies. Essentially, he helped found Rhode Island after making himself unwelcome anywhere else.

Samuel was born in 1593 in Lancashire, England and baptized in Manchester. His parents are not conclusively known, but they appear to have been affluent, for young Samuel was afforded private tutors and had an excellent education, including training in law. By the late 1620s, he had moved to London where he worked as a "clothier," likely owning a clothing shop. He seems to have done well for himself, as he was able to marry a young woman from a prosperous London family.

Samuel Gorton was married before January 11, 1629/30 to Mary Mayplet, the daughter of haberdasher John Mayplet. Mary was the granddaughter of the Reverend John Mayplet, Rector of Great Leighs Parish in Essex, Vicar of Northolt in Middlesex, and a writer on the topics of natural history and astrology. Her brother was Dr. John Mayplet, physician to King Charles II. [source: Wikipedia]

Mary was also educated and could both read and write, skills that were not typically prioritized for women during that time. Samuel and Mary had nine children together, the eldest two born in England.

1. Samuel Gorton (b. 1630; d. 1723; m. Susanna Burton)
2. Mary Gorton (b. 1631; d. 1688; m. (1) Peter Greene (2) John Sanford)
3. Sarah Gorton (b. 1638; m. William Mace (or Mayes))
4. John Gorton (b. 1640; d. 1714; m. Margaret Wheaton)
5. Elizabeth Gorton (b. 1641; d. 1704; m. John Crandall)
6. Mahashalalhasbaz* Gorton (b. 1642; d. 1692; m. Daniel Coles)
7. Anna Gorton (b. 1644; d. 1734; m. Daniel Warner)
8. Susanna Gorton (b. 1649; d. 1734; m. Benjamin Barton)
9. Benjamin Gorton (b. 1650; d. 1699; m. Sarah Carder)

*Mahashalalhasbaz is a Bibilical name. Maher Shalal Hash Baz was a child of Isaiah and his wife, the prophetess. The name was a prophecy given by God, literally meaning "In making speed to the spoil he hastens the prey."

Samuel's life would come to be defined by his particular religious beliefs, which did not align with any of the prevailing forms of Christianity at the time. In comparing his orthodoxy to other religions, it was perhaps most similar to Quakerism, but definitely unique to Gorton. 

[Gorton] rejected any partnership between religion and the civil authorities and any outward trappings of worship, denied the Trinity, accepted the divinity of Christ, rejected a “hireling ministry” (i.e., a paid clergy), and asserted that he was the mere instrument by which the Holy Spirit spoke to his followers. [source: RIHeritageHallofFame] 

Gorton also sponsored one of the first laws for the emancipation of slaves. He believed in freedom of worship and even was willing to grant that right to Quakers. He felt that immortality depended on the total character. He opposed rituals and denied the doctrine of the Trinity. Gorton was a compelling lay preacher and a brilliant scholar and dubbed himself ‘professor of the mysteries of Christ.' [source: Robert F. Huber, “Gorton Gets the Boot,” The Howland Quarterly, Vol. 65, No. 4, (December, 2000).]

Samuel had strong religious beliefs but sometimes little patience for his neighbors. Perhaps due to his high level of education and success in business, and likely owing to his absolute certainty about the divine, he repeatedly engaged in conflicts with those he found ignorant, unlawful, or disrespectful. While these sorts of incidents were not documented until he arrived in Massachusetts, it's fairly certain they occurred before he departed for the colonies, as well. The English did not appreciate the fervor of the Puritans, and they likely felt the same about Samuel Gorton and his proselytizing. Given Samuel's financial security in London, his departure for the colonies seems to have based in a quest for religious freedom, and the opportunity to gather like-minded supporters.

A depiction of the type of ship that would have brought the Gortons to the colonies

In late 1636 or early 1637, Samuel, Mary, and their two children sailed from London to Boston. Samuel arrived in Massachusetts with out-of-the-box religious persuasions and a personality that was an acquired taste. Neither went down well with the Bostonians.

Perhaps my favorite publication about Samuel Gorton is the New England Historical Society's article, Samuel Gorton Insults the Puritans, Goes to Jail, Founds Warwick, R.I., with the tagline, "He believed in equality for all, but he was obnoxious about it." The URL for this article includes, "Samuel Gorton and His Gortonites Create a Church Amongst the Jack an Apes." It is hilarious, and makes light of the many years in which Samuel engaged in rather outrageous conflicts with neighbors, the Massachusetts Bay Company, Roger Williams, and anyone who got in his way. However, recent history has reconsidered the longstanding view of Gorton as the ultimate antagonist in early New England. 

The "cantankerous", "contumacious" and "obnoxious" Samuel Gorton has been subject to misrepresentation by the historians of four centuries. He is most commonly described as "bewitching and bemadding" not only Providence but the whole of southern New England. Edward Winslow's contemporaneous Hypocrisie Unmasked is the usual starting point for those seeking an introduction to Samuel Gorton, appearing as it does to consist of testimony from several sources, including John Winthrop, of Gorton's "mutinous ...seditious ...uncivil ....riotous" and "licentious" behaviour. But Hypocrisie Unmasked was composed at the specific request of the government of Massachusetts with the expressed purpose of discrediting Gorton before the English government. Gorton's own testimony in Simplicities Defence and elsewhere tells a different story, which whilst not contradicted in his lifetime, or since, has not been thoroughly researched in its own right. Far from being the "dangerous" and "crazed thinker" of tradition Samuel Gorton was in fact a "strenuous beneficent force", whose importance to the independence of the colony of Rhode Island, and his courage in securing it, was matched only by Roger Williams. [source: G. J. Gadman, "A strenuous beneficent force": The Case for Revision of the Career of Samuel Gorton, Rhode Island Radical']

Samuel and his family landed in Boston and soon moved to Plymouth Colony. There, in addition to attending the local church, Samuel began to gather with others in his home to share his own personal theology. These meetings were open to those frequently marginalized in Puritan churches, including women. Having just expelled Anne Hutchinson, Massachusetts religious and civil authorities were wary of another charismatic leader preaching a belief system that differed from theirs. They asked Samuel's landlord to evict him. At the same time, Samuel was testifying in court in defense of his household's maid, who was being threatened with banishment for smiling in church. Since he was there, local officials took the opportunity to enforce his eviction. Samuel "challenged the court for abusing procedure and appealed to the people to 'stand for your liberty'. For this he was accused of "sedition" and "mutiny", fined £20 and banished." [Source: FamousAmericans] Samuel and two of his supporters, John Wickes and Thomas Wickes, were given 14 days to leave Massachusetts entirely. Unfortunately, this eviction occurred during a terrible winter blizzard, and while the men were able to entice neighbors to take in their wives and children, Samuel, John, and Thomas were forced out into extreme weather to find shelter in unsettled wilderness.

Samuel headed to the colony at Portsmouth that had been founded in 1638 by religious dissenters from Massachusetts Bay Colony, including John Clarke, William Coddington, and the infamous Anne Hutchinson. Samuel and his family settled on some land there, but soon ran into trouble again. Samuel immediately got involved in a simmering feud regarding the separation of Portsmouth and Newport, making no friends in the process. Also, there was apparently a bit of a racket going in Portsmouth, where farmers would cut the fences of other farmers, allowing their neighbors' cattle to roam freely. Then, they would complain that the cows had damaged their property and demand compensation. When this happened to Samuel, did he pay the fine and move on? Of course not. This was exactly the kind of dishonest and unlawful behavior that Samuel hated with a passion (and frankly, this sentiment still runs in the family). He went to court over the matter, made indignant and passionate speeches in his defense, refused to back down, and when the court fined him, Samuel called them "asses." He called his neighbors "jack-an-apes" and "saucy boys." He was not having any of it. For his trouble, he was whipped and banished.

William Coddington sits as judge in the trial of Samuel Gorton in colonial Rhode Island
(artwork created in 1876)

Samuel moved on to Providence, founded by Roger Williams, but once there, he refused to accept the authority of the colonial government, as he believed that only England and the King had jurisdiction. Roger Williams refused to grant him freeman status because he would not submit to colonial authority or denounce his behavior in Portsmouth. Tensions grew between Gorton's supporters, who numbered quite a large group at this point, and Providence authorities. It erupted into a street riot in November 1641, at which point Gorton fled south for Pawtuxet, rightly fearing retribution.

Another rendering of Gorton in court, by Granger

Pawtuxet wanted nothing to do with Samuel, whose reputation preceded him. Despite being well outside the boundaries of Massachusetts, Pawtuxet officials appealed to the Massachusetts Bay Company to come and get Samuel, offering to allow them jurisdiction in Pawtuxet. Samuel got the message and split, but where was a radical religious leader and his band of followers to go, having been exiled from the entirety of Massachusetts and three separate communities in the future Rhode Island?

Samuel found a refuge at Shawomet (later Warwick), which was five miles south of Pawtuxet and thirty miles beyond the Massachusetts border, thus theoretically safe from threats. He and his supporters purchased land from the native Narragansett people living nearby, and hoped to set up a permanent refuge, living in harmony with their Narragansett neighbors. However, the officials in Pawtuxet felt Samuel was still too close for comfort. They enticed two Narragansett sachems to complain to the Massachusetts Bay Company that their lands had been stolen, not purchased. Gorton was summoned to Boston to respond to the accusation, but because Samuel did not recognize colonial governments, he refused to go. In September 1643, Massachusetts sent forty soldiers to Shawomet, where they attacked the village, causing panic and the deaths of two women. After a standoff, Samuel and several supporters were arrested and marched back to Boston. "The attack by Massachusetts soldiers on the Gortonists in Shawomet in 1643 has been called one of the greatest crimes of the colonial period." [source: Warwick Beacon]

Attack on Shawomet by soldiers from Massachusetts in 1643 (Scribner's Popular History of the United States, 1898, by William Cullen Bryant, Sydney Howard Gay, Noah Brooks)

In Boston, Samuel was tried and quickly convicted. The magistrates were divided on whether he should get a death sentence, so instead he was shipped to Charlestown, put in irons, and sentenced to work. However, Gorton could not keep quiet. Even as a prisoner, he was still allowed to go to church, and he regaled everyone he encountered there with tales of his mistreatment and the corrupt Massachusetts court. The magistrates were not about to let this spiral into an uprising, so they released Gorton and again gave him 14 days to get out of Massachusetts, but declared he could not return to Providence or Shawomet. And then they changed the amount of time he had to vacate the colony to two hours. 

The colonial leaders in Boston also took this moment to shore up their power in Rhode Island by turning Native American groups against each other in order to weaken their influence.

The Boston authorities, seeking to make their claim even more secure by dividing the Indians, decided to eliminate Miantonomi [leader of the Narragansett people] as well. They prevailed upon Uncas, chief sachem of the Mohegans, to make war on the Narragansetts, and promised him help and money. Miantonomi and his warriors were led into a trap and Miantonomi was captured. The Mohegan sachem Uncas, seeking to curry even more favor with the English, beheaded Miantonomi, and sent the grisly trophy to Boston. This proved to be Boston’s undoing in Shawomet, for when Samuel Gorton returned to get his belongings, he was greeted by sadder but wiser groups. Indians, angered at the Massachusetts authorities for the part they played in the disgraceful treatment of Miantonomi, felt that any treaties with the Massachusetts authorities were no longer binding on them. Because Gorton was freed, they believed he had more power than the Massachusetts authorities. Gorton easily persuaded the Narragansetts to sign a treaty placing themselves under the protection of the King of England, and to confirm his claims to Shawomet. [source: Warwick Beacon]

Samuel temporarily returned to Portsmouth, where William Coddington gave him refuge, despite their past conflicts. However, it became clear that Coddington could not truly protect Samuel from his many enemies, and Portsmouth would be no safe haven. Samuel decided his only option was to sail to England, along with several of his followers, and attempt to garner support from someone of importance there.

In the four years he spent in England, away from his family and followers, who remained at Shawomet, Gorton was productive. He wrote extensively about his faith and his experiences in the colonies, including, in 1646, a tract titled Simplicity's Defence Against Seven Headed Policy, which dealt specifically with the injustices inflicted upon the settlers at Shawomet. Working his connections, Samuel was able to garner support for Shawomet from Robert Rich, the second Earl of Warwick, who wrote him a letter authorizing safe passage back to Shawomet, and endorsed his quest to receive a royal charter for the settlement. In 1648, bearing this letter, Samuel sailed boldly into Boston Harbor. He was immediately arrested.

Artwork depicting the moment Gorton gave Warwick's letter to Massachusetts authorities 

Once the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorities saw Gorton's official order of protection for Shawomet, signed by the Earl of Warwick, they had no choice but to release him and allow him to continue to Shawomet. Samuel returned to Shawomet victorious. He was greeted as a hero by his supporters, and they promptly renamed Shawomet in honor of the Earl who gave them legitimacy and protection, Warwick.

Gorton's views on the role of government had transformed markedly during his time in England. He became actively involved in roles that he had previously criticized, now that his settlement of Warwick was secured by royal decree. The separate settlements of Providence Plantations, Portsmouth, Newport, and now Warwick all came together under a fragile government, choosing John Coggeshall as its first President in 1647 and calling itself the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. With his success in England, Gorton was seen as a leader in the colony and he was chosen as the Warwick assistant (magistrate) in 1649 under colonial President John Smith, also from Warwick. Both Gorton and Smith declined their positions but were fined for doing so; they both ultimately served and their fines were remitted. [Source: Wikipedia]

Samuel Gorton spent the rest of his life in Warwick, engaging in a number of leadership and regional government roles. In 1651, he was chosen as President of the Rhode Island colony. During this time, he wrote a bold statute that was ahead of its time, an act calling for the emancipation of slaves.

As early as 1652, Warwick’s founder, Samuel Gorton, then president of the colony, called for a general assembly that ordered that “no slave, black or white, could be held in servitude for more than ten years.” This was one of the first laws in English colonies to provide for emancipation. After a great deal of deliberation and discussion in the press, Rhode Island called for freedom for “all children born of slave mothers” after the first of March 1784. [Source: Cranston Herald]

In the spring of 1677, Warwick was destroyed during King Philip's War. The townspeople, who fled ahead of the violence, returned to a community that had been burned to the ground and had to be completely rebuilt.

The grave of Samuel Gorton

Samuel Gorton died in late 1677, after having returned to Warwick and supported rebuilding efforts. He was about 84 years old. It is not known precisely when his wife Mary died, but she was still alive in April 1670, when her brother John mentioned her in his will. They left nine children, including my 9th great-grandmother, Mahashalalhasbaz Gorton Coles, and numerous grandchildren, including my 8th great-grandfather, Samuel Coles.

Early Rhode Island historian Samuel G. Arnold would write of Samuel Gorton, “He was one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. His career furnishes an apt illustration of radicalism in action, which may spring from ultra-conservatism in theory. The turbulence of his earlier history was the result of a disregard for existing law, because it was not based upon what he held to be the only legitimate source of power—the assent of the supreme authority in England. He denied the right of a people to self-government, and contended for his views with the vigor of an unrivalled intellect and the strength of an ungoverned passion. But when this point was conceded, by the securing of a Patent, no man was more submissive to delegated law. His astuteness of mind and his Biblical learning made him a formidable opponent of the Puritan hierarchy, while his ardent love of liberty, when it was once guaranteed, caused him to embrace with fervor the principles that gave origin to Rhode Island.” [source: Small State Big History] 

I'm also related to another notable figure in the history of Rhode Island, Robert Coles. My 9th great grandfather will be the subject of my next post. In addition to his role in the founding of Rhode Island, Robert was the inspiration for a work of classic American literature.

(Continue to Part 2 of this story here)