78 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



thinking and persecuted persons, he met with some settlers 

 who called themselves Baptists and Straus says : " It is 

 not surprising that Williams should have felt a leaning 

 toward this sect which throughout its entire history 

 preached the gospel of love, abhorred and abstained from 

 persecution and preeminently maintained the rights of 

 conscience." Williams was baptized by one Ezekiel Holy- 

 man and then baptized ten others. " This event has been 

 generally looked upon as the establishment of the First 

 Baptist Church in America." But Williams could not be 

 contented with any creed which did not admit of full lib- 

 erty of conscience and was connected with this church only 

 about four months. For the rest of his life, more than 

 fifty years, " he did not acknowledge himself as belonging 

 to any denomination." 



After this long prelude in regard to what Roger 

 Williams was not, I will give a little sketch of his early 

 life and opinions. 



Of Roger Williams' very early life and parentage there 

 has been but little known. Until lately it was supposed that 

 he was a Welshman and educated at Oxford, similarity 

 of names being very confusing, but our fellow-townsman 

 Mr. Henry F. Waters, who is usually correct and who 

 leaves no stone unturned, has come to the conclusion 

 that he was born in London, in 1607, the son of James 

 and Alice Williams ; that he was elected a scholar of the 

 Charter House School June 25, 1621, and passed from 

 there to Pembroke College, Cambridge, June 29, 1623; 

 from which college he took his degree in 1626. At any 

 rate he was a well educated man and was versed in five 

 languages besides his own — French, Dutch, Latin, Greek 

 and Hebrew. He early attracted the attention of Sir 

 Edward Coke, the eminent jurist, who was always his 

 patron and friend. Mrs. Sadlier, Sir Edward's daughter, 



