opinions, Libertinism and lawlessness among us, w^ithout
any sufficient means of preventing or suppressing them
when introduced? Whether the final result of it ( as Master
Williams in his late dangerous, Licentious Book [ Marginal
note has A Bloudy Tenent\ determines) will not really
resolve it self into this detestable conclusion: That every
man, whether he be Jew, Turk, Pagan, Papist, Arminian,
Anabaptist, etc., ought to be left to his own free liberty of
conscience, without any coercion or restraint, to embrace
and publicly to profess what religion, opinion, church,
government, he pleaseth, and conceiveth to be truest.
120 RHODE ISLAXD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
thought never so erronious, false, seditious, detestable in
itself:"
"And whether such a government as this ought to be
embraced, much less established among us ( the sad effects
whereof we have already experimentally felt, by the late
dangerous increase of many Anabaptistical, Antinomian,
Heretical, Atheisticall opinions etc. . . lately breached,
preached and printed ... r "
That same month Mr. Prynne published a defense of the
National Church in the Independency Examined (E-257)
calling the Independent ideas, "Some Independent new-
minted objections." He hoped to convince, and reconcile
them to the State-Church, claiming that in their "new form
of government" the "Independents have not yet discovered
to the world the full truth of what they assert." Adam
Stewart in To M. S. Alias Two Brethren, October 3, 1644,
( E-20 ) and an anonymous writer in Faces A bout , October
21, (E-13), take the Independents severely to task for
their dangerous opinions which they find so confusing and
can not clearly distinguish from the Puritans of the more
conservative groups.
After the burning of The Bloudy Tenent by order of
Parliament, the principles of toleration, full liberty of
conscience, and rights of the individual were being discussed
with ever more vehemence and bitterness. The "Well-
wishers to Man" rose to a vigorous defence of the liberty of
"heresies, blasphemies and sedition." Defenders of the
principles so forcibly proclaimed by Mr. Williams came
forward with a noble courage. Most of them prudently
avoided a direct mention of W^illiams, even though they
borrowed copiously and paraphrased freely from his writ-
ings. Among these writers were John Goodwin in M. S. to
A.S., May 3, (E-45) ; Theomachia, September 2, ( E-12) ;
John the Baptist . . . or, A Necessity of Liberty of Con-
science, September 23, (E-12)5 Innocencies Triumph,
October 26fE-14); Henry Burton in A Vindication of
Churches Commonly Called Independents, November,
kOGER WILLIAMS AND THK ENGLISH REVOLUTION 121
(E- 1 7 ) j and Hez. Woodward in Inquiries into Our Miser-
ies, December, (E-22). In ./ Reply of the Tzvo Brethren
to A. S.y presumably by Philip Nye and Sidrach Simpson,
the authors came forward in defense of their associate
Roger Williams. John Saltmarsh in Dcizvnin^s of Light,
January 4, 1645, (E-1 168(3), under the section discussing
"Liberty Improved" presented Twelve points many of
which appear in the phraseology of The Bloudy Tenent.
A Short Anszver to A. S., the second part of Duply,
February 1645 (E-271), page 30, has a reference to The
Bloudy Tenent.
In Certain Brief Observations and Antiqueries on Master
Prin's Tzvelve Questions, October 4, (E-10), "A Well-
wisher" has a marginal note on Roger Williams, page 5,
dealing with Prynne's third query: "In this querie he
quotes a saying in a Booke called The Bloudy Tenent which
was written by one as contrary to this as the Indep^endents
as he is to the Presbyterians and they utterly disavow the
Booke." Henry Burton gave an Anszver to Mr. WilUain
Prynne^s Tzxelve Questions, November, ( E-I15 ), and as
friend of Roger Williams and Sir Henry Vane came out in
defense of full liberty of conscience: "I know the permitting
of so many different opinions in a country is usually objected
to as a Bug-bear of all confusion and a disturber in the
Civil State . . . Why should it breed greater confusion or
decompose the civil peace of England by permitting an
English Lutheran, Brownist, Antinomian, Anabaptist, Jew,
Turk or others, more than if they were of another nation:"
He continued, "I find no national church in the New Testa-
ment but several Independent ones." The ideas of the eight
queries on pages 24-25 were most fully expressed for first
time in The Bloudy Tenent on July 1 5.
On October 19, 1644, Mr. Prynne made .1 Full Reply,
fE-257), to the Independents and Sectarians giving a
survey of the grounds of the controversy since the appear-
ance of The Apologetical Narration by the Five Brethren
early in 1644 and including A Reply of the Tzco Brethren
122 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
to A. S. He severely condemned the ideas of full liberty of
conscience and separation of church and state, and fully
agreed with the church and state policy of New England
for "excommunicating and banishing those who will not
submit unto it."
In December there appeared two pamphlets making
references to 7V/<? Bloudy Tenent. Charles Blackwood in
the Storming of Antichrist^ December 28, (E-22(15),
page 1 6, referred to the "Bloudy Tenent of Truth" quoting
from it in defense of absolute liberty of conscience. And
George Gillespie in W holesonie Severity Reconciled zvith
Christian Liberty^ December 16, (E-24), with "the chief
arguments and exceptions used in the Bloudy Tenent . . .
examined," discussed the leading pamphlets that appeared
in 1644 in defense of coniplete liberty of conscience and
separation of church and state. A few quotations from his
pamphlet indicates the position he gave to the Bloudy
Tenent :
"I find no material arguments in him for liberty of
conscience, but what I found in the Bloudy Tenent, the
Compassionate Samaritan and M. S. to A. S."
In the Preface he said: "So liberty of conscience is a
sweet and taking word among the less discernnig sort of
godly people newly come out of the house of bondage, out
of the popish and Prelatical typranny 5 I say the less discern-
ing sort, because those of the godly who have their senses
exercised to discern good and evil know that liberty of
heresie and schism is not part of liberty of conscience." On
page 2, appears this objection: "that the magistrate ought
not to inflict any punishment nor put forth any coercive
power upon heretics or sectaries but on the contrary grant
them liberty and toleration . . . the very same is maintained
in some books printed ... in this year of conclusion, viz:
The Bloudy Tenent 5 Liberty of Conscience; The Com-
passionate Samaritan; John the Baptist; and Mr. Good-
win in his Theomachia, p. 50, and in his Innocencies
Triumph, p. 8." On page 12 appears this statement: "The
ROGER Wir.I.IAMS AND IHl-: ENGLISH REVOLUTIOX 123
most arrant maglignant answer in the words of Mr. Wil-
liams, Chap. 1 ()9-"Ci\il power or State of Israel was merely
hfi-urativ'e" in the Old Testament. Mr. Williams and the
Bloudy Tenent are mentioned on pages 13, 15, 16, 17, and
30^ and on page 18, is this significant quotation: "Christ's
ordinances put upon a whole city or a nation may more
civilize and moralize, but never Christianize them: says
Mr. Williams, Chap. 82."
The attitude of Gillespie and those other pamphleteers
who opposed and condemned the Independents and Sec-
taries and defended Parliament and xA.ssembly of Divines is
perhaps most clearly expressed in these word from George
Gillespie: complete liberty of conscience and the doctrines
of the sectaries is a "pernicious, God-provoking, Truth-
defacing, church ruinating, etc., state-shaking toleration.
The plain English of the question is. Whether the Chris-
tian magistrate be keeper of both Tables:"
In order fully to appreciate the influence of Roger
Williams in England it is necessary to have a more precise
knowledge of his acquaintances and associates and friends.
In 1671 Roger Williams wrote to John Cotton Jr., about
an incident which took place during his second visit to
England 1651-1654: "That excellent servant of God, Mr.
John Owen, ( called Dr. Owen ) told me before the General,
who sent for me about that very business," explained Mr.
Williams about the discussion they had of the Bloudy
Tenet Washed White by John Cotton in 164-7," that
before I landed himself and many others had answered Mr.
Cotton's book already."
Christopher Feake and Mr. Greenhill are known to
have been closely associated with Mr. Williams during both
his visits to England. In Dissatisfaction Satisfied y Decem-
ber 22, 1653, (E-725) pages 17-18, John Goodwin pre-
sents a list of men who most probably were associates of
Williams on his second visit; he states that "Mr. John
Simpson, Mr. William Greenhill, Mr. Thomas Brooks,
124 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Mr. Hanserd Knollys, Mr. T. Harrison, Mr. Christopher
Feake, Mr. Richard Wallaston, Mr. Henry Jesse with
several others ... in November, 1651" subscribed to the
principles of people's sovereignty and separation of church
and state. Roger Williams arrived in London about Christ-
mas time 1651, and we know that he at once became a
member of the republican groups of London.
The ministers and magistrates of the United Colonies
in New England soon discovered that their "Sunshine"
pamphlets on Indian conversions were not sufficient to
eradicate the belief in England that they were not prose-
cuting their mission work with enough zeal. Consequently
they published several more pamphlets on Indian missions
for the English reading public. These pamphlets had a
three-fold aim: to praise their own mission work among
the Indians; to prove the statements of Mr. Williams in
1643-1644 false and slanderous in English eyesj and to
discredit the mission work of Roger Williams and his
fellow-colonists on the Narragansett Bay. The pamphlets
created a double falsehood, by giving a distorted view of
their own mission work and by making untrue statements
about Williams and his fellow-colonists.
Three pamphlets published under the auspices of the
"Corporation for Propagating the Gospel in New Eng-
land, Coopers Hall, London" and edited by Rev. Henry
Whitfield, late of New England, are of interest in this
sinister and rather unChristlike purpose of the New
England clergy: Tlie Light Appearing More and More
tozvards a Perfect Day, February, 1651 ( E-624) ; Strength
out of Weakness, August 4, 1652 (E-673); and Tear
of Repentance y May 21, 1653 (E-697). The only part of
the pamphlets of interest here is that which strives to
propagate a false view of the Indian mission work of the
settlers on the Narragansett Bay. In the first pamphlet
appears this statement by Eliot on page 23: "I advised
with Mr. Cotton and others . . . and this I propounded
ROGER WILLIAMS AXD THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION 125
. . . they shall he wholly governed by the Scriptures in all
things both in Church and State 3 they shall have no other
law-giver." In the second pamphlet, we are informed that
the covenant prepared for the Indians began: "We are the
sons of Adam 3 we and our forefathers have a long time
been lost in our sins." When Williams and others in Rhode
Island disagreed with this method of Indian conversion,
they fell under the curse of the United Colonies.
The Narragansett sachems did not receive Rev. Eliot
and other missionaries "well," but some of the subject
Indians did, "expressing likewise that they did not expect
their sachems would pray to God because they were so
proud." Eliot then condemned Gorton's company for being
an evil influence among the Indians, preventing their con-
version. Rev. William Leverich of Plymouth makes this
implied reference to Williams and his colony about "w^hat
singular conflicts I have met w^ithall in my travels amongst
our own countrymen, divers of them are transported with
their (though not singular) fancies, to the rejecting of all
churches and ordinances by a new cunning and . . . the
last but most pernicious plot of the Devil to undermine all
religion and introduce all Atheism and profaneness, if it
w^ere possible, together with which, I have observed a
spirit of Pharisaism and formality too, too evidently creep-
ing upon it." Although this is supposed to be an article on
Indian missions, its purpose needs no explanation.
Thomas Allen, formerly of New England, gives as his
testimony: "It seems that some of late have been so impu-
dently bold ( which I cannot sufiiciently w^onder at ) as to
report and publickly afiirm that there was no such thing as
preaching and dispensing of the Gospel among the natives
of New England . . . That there is such a WH)rk in hand
in New England . . . all the magistrates and ministers
and people in that place (Who know^ anvthing) will be
ready to attest" (See R. I. H. S. C. Vol. XXIV, No. 1,
pp. -ioff, and -1-9-54). Among the other persons who gave
their testimony in praise of Rev. John Eliot and against
126 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Roger Williams are Rev. John Eliot, John Enciicott, John
Wilson, who mentions Eliot 1 7 times in 5 pages, Anthony
Bessey, Thomas Mayhew, and William French.
Roger Williams, who was then in England, read these
pamphlets when they came off the press. Cromwell, Bail-
lie, Edwards, Thoroughgood and many others made it
their special duty to confer with Mr. Williams about these
pamphlets, and the Indian mission work. Of this he gives a
hint in his letters. In 1654, soon after his return to Provi-
dence, Williams had occasion to intercede for the Indians
and pre\'ent a threatening Indian slaughter. He wrote to
the General Court of Massachusetts: "We have in these
parts a sound of your meditating of a war against these
natives ... At m\' last departure for England I was
importuned by the Narragansett sachems, and especially
by Ninigret, to present their petition to the high sachems
of England, that they might not be forced from their reli-
gion^ and for not changing their religion be invaded by
war; for they said they were daily visited by Indians that
came from about the Massachusetts that if they would not
pray they should be destroyed by war. With these peti-
tions I acquainted, in private discourses, divers of the chiefs
of our nation, and especially his Highness, who, in many
discourses I had with him, never expressed the least tittle
of displeasure, as hath been reported . . . and after hear-
ing of yourselves and us, it hath pleased his Highness and
Council to grant amongst other favors to this colony, some
expressly concerning the very Indians, the native inhabi-
tants of this jurisdiction."
"I pray it may be remembered . . . how all England
and other nations ring with the glorious conversion of the
Indians of New England. You know how many books are
dispersed throughout the nation on the subject ( in some of
them the Narragansett chief sachems are publicly branded
for refusing to pray and be converted ) ... all the pulpits
in England have been commanded to sound of this glori-
ous work ( I speaks not ironically, but only mention what
K(M;1-;K WILLIAMS AM) THK KXCLISH RK\'()LLTI()X 127
all the printed books mention), and that by the highest
command and authorit\' of Parliament, the church wardens
went from house to house to gather supplies for this
work." But unfortunately Roger Williams was to find
upon his return not a glorious con\'ersion, but instead the
four L'^niteci Colonies meditating an Indian war.
Professor William Haller of Barnard College, New
York Cit\', recenth' sent me a list of paniphlets containing
references to 77.v Bloudy Tenent^ with permission to
record them in the R. I. H. S. Collections. Most of the
works on the list sent by Professor Haller are in the McAl-
pin Collection of I'nion Seminar}'. I shall recorci his mate-
rial as he sent it to me. Six of the pamplets were published
in 1644: Herbert Palmer, Glass of GotPs Providence,
13 August. ''Some bookes . . . plead for Poper\', Judaisme,
Turcisme, Paganisme, and all manner of false Religions."
Thomas Hill, Sedson for EnglcDnPs Deepe- Refection,
13 Aug., "opening a doore . . . even for Jewes, Turkes,
anci any whomsoe\'er"; the marginal note says "See
Blooci}' Tenent." Anon, ( probabh" b\' someone in John
Goodwin's crowd, but neither Goodwin nor Henr\' Robin-
son ) Certain brief e (jbservations^ 4 Oct., see p. 5: Mar-
gin — "a Booke calleci the Bloudy Tenefit.^^ The Independ-
ent disavows Williams. ( George Gillespie. See McAlpin
Catalogue ) A Late Dialogue, 30 Oct., cites Bloudy Ten-
ent — Co})ipassio>nite Saniaritane, John the Baptist , TJieo-
}}iac1ua.{ Henry Robinson ).\ns\j:er to M/-. William Prynn,
1 Nov., on page 27 recommends B. T. — Comp. Sam. — J.
the B. And Charles Blackwood, Stor/ning of .h/tichrist,
28 Dec, cites B. T., M. S. to A. S. and Theouiachia.
Five other pamphlets containing references to Mr. Wil-
liams were published in 1645: George Gillespie, 11 hole-
some Se-veritx Recon'iledy 8 Jan., Bloudy 'Penoit is men-
tioned in title and repeated at length in text. ( Henr\' Rob-
inson ) Short A)isi:er to A. S. (Adam Stewart i 3 b'eb.,
refers to Bloudy Pe>ie)it on page 3(1. F.phraim Pagitt, I ler-
V
128 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
esiographyy 8 May, refers to the Bloiidy Tenent and also
to Milton. (Richard Overton) Sacred Decretal I, 31 May,
refers to the Bloudy Tenent in the opening pages. Richard
Baillie, Errours arid Indurations^ 30 July, uses the phrase
about Turks, Jews, etc. And Thomas Edwards, Casting
Doiim^ 28 July, 1647, has frequent references to the
Bloudy Tenent. (Professor Haller has identified Answer
to Mr. William Prynn and Short Answer to A. S. as the
works of Henry Robinson.)
No definitive conclusions on the influence of Roger Wil-
liams and his pamphlets in the English Civil War and
Revolution of 1 648 can as yet be drawn from the materials
presented in this article and that of R. I. H. S. C, Vol.
XXIV, January, 1931. A great deal of research in the
Commonwealth pamphlet collections of Union Seminary,
Yale, Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the British
Museum is still to be done before this question can be
finally decided. Nevertheless, the conclusion of Professor
Dunning may be tentatively accepted, that T/ie Bloudy
Tenent "derived its principles and its form from his Amer-
ican experience" and "expressed essentially the resolution
of a body of religious sectaries, . . '. and the fuller implica-
tions of the theory which the work embodied were revealed
in the political revolution which was effected in 1647-1648
by the Army."
Among the State Papers of the Public Record Ofiice,
London, Admiralty Commission 18, Vol. 115, No. 132,
appears a letter from Capt. Joseph Ames, Winsley, Spit-
head. The letter was sent to his Highness, Lord Protector
Cromwell, from Falmouth, on October 10, 1655. Capt.
Ames arrived the day before with twelve sails of New-
foundlanders and awaits orders. The letter to his High-
ness was accompanied "with a young deer that came from
Mr. Williams, President in Providence Plantations in
New-England."
129
New Publications of Rhode Island Interest
The Narrative of American Voyages of Captain William
Owen, R. N., which is printed in the March, 1931, issue
of the Bulletin of the Neve York Public Library, contains
ten pages relating to his visit to Rhode Island in August,
1767. Among other comments he wrote: "The private
people are cunning, deceitful and selfish" . . , , "Their
Magistrates are partial and corrupt j and it is folly to
expect justice in their Courts of Judicature" . . . , and
"Rhode Island used to be celebrated for the beauty of its
women ..."
Margaret Fuller, by Margaret Bell, with an introduc-
tion by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, is a volume of 320
pages recently issued by Charles Boni.
Antiques for April, 1931, contains an article with illus-
trations of some Rhode Island silver spoons.
A genealogy of the Niles family of Rhode Island
appears in the April, 1931, issue of the New England His-
torical and Genealogical Register.
The Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1929,
page 286, contains an account of the Gulf Stream, in which
it is related that because the Rhode Island sea captains of
about 1770 were acquainted with the course of the Gulf
Stream, they were abJe to make the westward trip across
the Atlantic in about two weeks less time than the English
packets.
The Society has obtained from the American Antiquarian
Society a photostat of a rare poem by Jemima Wilkinson^
entitled "A Wonderful Dream."
^See R. I. H. S. C, vol. XXIV p. 60.
130 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Bequest
Mr. \'ictor Will3our, for many \ears a member of the
Societ\% died on May 17, 1931. He left a bequest of
$20,000, to the Society, to be paid at the death of his
sister, and to be known as the Charles and Sarah Howe
Wilbour Fund, in memory of his grandparents.
Queen's Fort
Mr. Marsden J. Perry has generously presented to the
Society a tract of some iifty-three acres in North Kings-
town and Exeter, containing the famous Queen's Fort,
which is to be held by the Societ}' a> a permanent public
historic park.
Notes
The following persons ha\'e been admitted to n^ember-
ship in the Societ}':
I\Irs. foshua M. Addcman Mr. Ernest A. Harris
Mrs. Wallace Campbell Rev. Anthony R. Parshley
IVIrs. Howard L. Anthony Mrs. Austin T. Levy
Mr. Emil G. Pieper Hon. Ernest L. Sprague
Mrs. William H. Hoffman Mrs. James A. Nealey
Mrs. Sarah Minchin Barker Miss Marv H. Parsons
Mr. Allan Forbes
ONE OF F1\F. Sll.VKR SPOON? MARKED A. M. L., FOR
ARNOLD AND MARY LEW IS OF EXE lER WHO WERE
MARRIED OCTOF.ER 10, 1S22.
These spoons were made out of coin silver by
Robert Reynolds of Exeter, R. 1., and were
rcccntlv presented to the Society by Miss Alice
P'rv of Willimantic, Connecticut.
132
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Heraldic Notes
BOWEN
Armorial tombstones mark the graves of Jabez Bowen
of Rehoboth, Mass., who died in 1 770, aged 74, and of his
wife, Huldah, who died in 1754. These stones are in the
old Rehoboth burial ground, near Rumford in East Prov-
idence. The arms are "A stag trippant pierced in the back
by an arrow," with the crest "A stag's head erased." The
carving on the stone in memory of Huldah is much more
obliterated by the ravages of time than the carving on
Jabez' stone.
Burke gives "Azure a stag argent with an arrow stuck in
the back and attired or" for the Bowens of Kittle Hill and
Swansea, co. Glamorgan, but with a different crest. Burke
also gives a variant coat "Gules a stag trippant argent
pierced in the back with an arrow and attired or" as granted
in 1812 to the Bowens of Milford, co. Mayo. The crest is
different, and the change of the field from azure to gules
was evidentlv "for difference."
HKRALDIC NOTES
133
The Jabez Bowen of this armorial tombstone was born
in 1696, the son of Dr. Richard Bowen (±1658-1736),
son of Thomas Bowen of Salem, son of Richard Bowen of
Rehoboth, who is said to have come from Swansea, co.
Glamorgan.
JONES
^
1
V
^
x'
^
William Jones, Senr., of Wellington in Great Britain,
died on September 26, 1 739, aged 59 years, and was buried
in what is now East Providence, where his grave is marked
by an armorial tombstone. The arms are "A stag statant
impaling a quartered coat, 1 and 4 per pale, 2 and 3 a
bend," with the crest "A stag's head."
Burke gives "Sable a buck passant argent attired or" for
the Jones of Esthall, co. Oxford, 1634, descended from
the Jones of co. Flint, and "Sable a stag standing at gaze
argent, attired and unguled or" for the Jones of co. Mon-
mouth. The three crests differ. Apparently "Sable a stag
argent" was the parent coat of one family of Jones of
Wales.
134
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
List of Active Members of the Rhode Island
Historical Society.
June, 1931.
Mrs. Joshua M. Addeman
Mr. David C. Adclmaa
Mr. Frederick W. Aldred
Mr. Charles T. Aldrich
Mr. Edward K. Aldrich, Jr.
Miss Lucy T. Aldrich
Hon. Richard S. Aldrich
Mr. Francis O. Allen
Mr. Frederick W. Allen
Mr. Philip Allen
Miss Ada Almy
Miss Anna L. Andrews
Mr. Walter F. Angell
Mrs. Howard L. Anthony
Mrs. Everard Appleton
Mr. John B. Archer
Mr. Arthur H. Armington
Miss Maude E. Armstrong
Mrs. Edward E. Arnold
Mr. Frederick W. Arnold
Miss Mittie Arnold
Mr. James H. Arthur
Mr. Donald S. Babcock
Mr. Albert A. Baker
Mrs. Charles K. Baker
Mr. Harvev A. Baker
Mr. J. Wil'lard Baker
Miss Marv H. Balch
Mrs. Walter S. Ball
Mr. Frederick D. Ballou
Rev. Clarence A. Barbour
Mrs. Sarah Minchin Barker