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c.1603-1683, clergyman, advocate of religious freedom, founder of Rhode Island b. London. A protégé of Sir Edward Coke, he graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1627 and took Anglican orders. He early espoused Puritanism and emigrated to the Massachuset ....

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.... of powerful friends such as Sir Henry Vane, he obtained from the Long Parliament a patent uniting the Rhode Island towns of Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick with Providence. In 1651, William Coddington secured a commission annulling the patent, but Williams, with John Clarke hastened again to England and had the patent of 1644 restored. On his return in 1654, Williams was elected president of the colony and served three terms. Always a trusted friend of the Native Americans, he often used his good offices in maintaining peaceful relations with them. But he was unable to prevent the outbreak of King Philip's War, in which he served as a capta ....