Williams, Roger (c. 1603–1683)

American colonist, founder of the Rhode Island colony in 1636, based on democracy and complete religious freedom. He tried to maintain good relations with the Indians of the region, although he fought against them in the Pequot War and King Philip's War.

Williams was born in London, England, and educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge. He came to America as a Puritan minister in Massachusets in 1631 but was banished from the colony in 1635 for his ‘dangerous opinions’; he deplored theocracy and advocated separation of church and state. He then founded the city of Providence in 1636, disavowed Puritanism in 1639, and returned to England to secure a patent with full religious freedom for his colony in the face of threats from the Puritans. He subsequently returned to Rhode Island and was the colony's president 1654–57; there he founded the first Baptist Church in America.