When minister Roger Williams fled into the frozen wilderness in the winter of 1636 after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he set out to create a sanctuary where civil state power stopped at the threshold of human conscience. Purchasing land from the Narragansett sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi, he founded Providence—a settlement that grew into the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Our family tree is woven deeply into this noble experiment. Across the 17th century, our direct ancestors were among the original dissenters, proprietors, civic leaders, and Quaker martyrs who stood side by side with Roger Williams to build the world's first secular democracy.
Roger Williams: The Visionary at the Center
- Banishment for Conscience: Exiled from Massachusetts in 1635 for declaring that magistrates had no authority over a person’s religious beliefs.
- Respect for Native Sovereignty: Refused to claim land by royal grant alone, choosing instead to negotiate and purchase Providence directly from the Narragansett tribe.
- Separation of Church & State: Drafted government charters establishing complete freedom of conscience and strict boundaries between civil laws and spiritual faith.
- Pioneer of the Baptist Faith: Co-founded the first Baptist church in America at Providence in 1638.
Direct Kinship and Alliances with Roger Williams
We share direct kinship, blood intermarriages, and close political ties with Roger Williams through multiple early Rhode Island pioneer lines:
- The Greene Connection: Our 9th great-grandparents Dr. John Greene and Joan Tattersall were two of Roger Williams's closest allies. Dr. John Greene was one of the original 12 recipients of the Providence land grant in 1638 and co-founded Warwick. Through generational intermarriages across the Greene, Holden, and Randall lines, our branch links directly into Roger Williams’s lineage via his daughter, Mercy Williams.
- The Quaker Martyr Connection: Our 9th great-grandfather Christopher Holder was a fearless Quaker minister who arrived in New England in 1656. Brutally persecuted by Massachusetts authorities—who cut off his right ear and imprisoned him—Holder held fast to his faith. He worked closely with Roger Williams in Rhode Island, where religious liberty was protected. Holder married Mary Scott (daughter of Richard Scott and Catharine Marbury, sister to Anne Hutchinson). Catharine Scott and Roger Williams maintained a famous, spirited theological correspondence, and through the Scott family intermarriages, Christopher Holder’s line ties directly into the broader Roger Williams network.
- The Coggeshall / Bull / Hutchinson Network: Our ancestors John Coggeshall (first President of Rhode Island), Gov. Henry Bull, and religious reformer Anne Hutchinson were exiled from Boston during the Antinomian Controversy. Guided by Williams’s vision, they established the Aquidneck Island settlements (Portsmouth and Newport), binding their families through generational intermarriages (Capt. Jireh Bull, Ephraim Bull, and Mary Bull).
Our Rhode Island Ancestors & Relatives
Relative / Ancestor | Historical Role & Colony Connection | Connection to Roger Williams |
Dr. John Greene & Joan Tattersall | Original 12 Providence Proprietors (1638); Founder of Warwick. | Close political ally; shared land patents; direct family intermarriages. |
Christopher Holder | 9th Great-Grandfather; pioneer Quaker minister and author of the 1657 Declaration of Faith. | Found refuge under Williams's religious liberty policies; tied through the Scott family network. |
John Coggeshall & John Coggeshall Jr. | 1st President of Rhode Island Colony (1647); Founder of Newport. | Co-drafter of the 1647 Royal Charter unifying Providence with Aquidneck. |
Governor Henry Bull, Capt. Jireh Bull, Ephraim Bull, Mary Bull | Early Newport Settlers; Governor of Rhode Island (1685, 1690); Garrison operator. | Champions of religious liberty; military and civic allies during King Philip's War. |
Anne Hutchinson | Religious Dissenter & Founder of Portsmouth (1638). | Co-instigator of liberty of conscience in New England; close ally of Williams. |
John Isaac Sweet & James Isaac Sweet | Early Providence & Prudence Island Settlers. | Neighbors to Williams on Prudence Island; signed early colonial petitions. |
Stephen Hopkins | Colonial Merchant & Signer of the Declaration of Independence. | Descendant of early Providence settlers, keeping Williams’s legacy alive in 1776. |
Christopher Smith | Early Providence Settler (1646). | Admitted as a Freeman of Providence directly under Williams’s administration. |
Richard Maxson | Pioneer blacksmith of Portsmouth (1638). | Fled Massachusetts Bay with the Hutchinson-Coggeshall-Bull group. |
Capt. John Gardiner & Peleg Mumford II | Narragansett / South Kingstown Leaders. | Settled the Pettaquamscutt Purchase, expanding the colony southward. |
Tristram Dodge & Mary Rathbone | Founders of Block Island (New Shoreham, 1661). | Extended Rhode Island’s maritime borders under the unified charter. |
Henry Matteson | Early East Greenwich Pioneer (1677). | Took the oath of allegiance in Rhode Island following King Philip’s War. |
The Crucible of Conscience: Our Family Narrative
In the bitter winter of 1636, Roger Williams fled into the wilderness to escape the long arm of Massachusetts law. When he purchased the lands of Providence from the Narragansett sachems, he created a haven for those who believed that faith could not be forced by a magistrate's sword.
Our ancestors Dr. John Greene and his wife Joan Tattersall were among the very first to answer the call, joining Williams as two of the original twelve proprietors who laid out the town of Providence. Soon after, when the Puritan government in Boston exiled Anne Hutchinson, John Coggeshall, and Governor Henry Bull, these brave dissenters moved south to establish Portsmouth and Newport. Richard Maxson fired up his forge to make the iron fittings for their homes, while John Isaac Sweet and James Isaac Sweet farmed and traded along the shores of Prudence Island right alongside Roger Williams.
When the Quaker message reached New England's shores, our 9th great-grandfather Christopher Holder became one of its most courageous voices. Though Puritan authorities severed his right ear and locked him in heavy irons, Holder found sanctuary in Rhode Island under the protection of Williams’s laws. His marriage into the Scott family bound him directly to Catharine Scott and Anne Hutchinson, anchoring our family in the courageous struggle for spiritual freedom.
By 1647, facing military threats from neighboring colonies, John Coggeshall served as Rhode Island’s first President, joining hands with Roger Williams and Dr. John Greene to secure a Royal Charter that legally bound Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick together.
Through generations of hardship—including King Philip's War, which destroyed Capt. Jireh Bull's stone garrison house and burned Williams's own home in Providence—our family held fast to the land. Out on Block Island, Tristram Dodge and Mary Rathbone built a maritime outpost, while Capt. John Gardiner, Peleg Mumford II, and Henry Matteson carved farms out of the southern woods.
More than a century later, that same unyielding spirit burned brightly when their direct descendant Stephen Hopkins placed his hand to the Declaration of Independence in 1776—fulfilling the radical promise of liberty that Roger Williams and our ancestors had planted in Rhode Island soil.
ADDENDA
The connection between Drifting Cowboy and Mercy Williams (1640–1705), the daughter of Roger Williams, comes through the intermarriages between the Greene, Holden, and Randall lines in early Rhode Island.
Mercy Williams married Resolution Waterman, and after his passing, she married Samuel Winsor. Their descendants intermarried with the extended family of our 9th great-grandparents, Dr. John Greene and Joan Tattersall.
Here is how that genealogical bridge connects down our family line:
The Lineage Bridge: From Roger Williams to Our Line
Roger Williams (1603–1683) === Mary Barnard (1609–1676)
|
v
Mercy Williams (1640–1705)
(m. Resolution Waterman)
|
v
[Waterman / Winsor / Randall Lines]
|
v
[Intermarriage into the Greene & Holden Descendant Branches]
|
v
Dr. John Greene (1597–1658) === Joan Tattersall (1598–1635)
| (Our 9th Great-Grandparents)
v
[Our Direct Rhode Island Line]
|
v
Lydia Corinna Brown (1891–1971)
|
v
[Drifting Cowboy]
How the Relationship Breakdown Works
- Through Kinship & In-Law Alliances: Mercy Williams is our cousin / relative via collateral marriage lines. Because her descendants merged into the same tight-knit Narragansett Bay family network as our direct Greene and Holden ancestors, you share direct blood ties to her extended family and her father, Roger Williams.
- Direct Ancestral Line: Our direct, verified bloodline runs straight up through Dr. John Greene and Joan Tattersall, who were Roger's closest partners, co-founders of Warwick, and co-proprietors of Providence.
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