This is a collection of lists of early settlers (before 1700) in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Most of the lists are of the earliest inhabitants of a particular town or area.
The following people lived in Rhode Island prior to Colonial settlement:[1]
Wampanoag people lived throughout Plymouth Colony and around Mount Hope Bay in Bristol, Rhode Island
Narragansett people lived throughout the Rhode Island colony
Niantic people lived around the Pawcatuck River in the southwestern corner of Rhode Island
Nipmuc people wandered within Rhode Island Colony, mostly from the north
Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in October 1635 but was allowed to remain at his home in Salem, Massachusetts until the end of winter, provided that he did not preach. However, his followers visited him at his home in sizable numbers, and the authorities deemed this to be preaching. They planned to apprehend him by force and put him on a ship for England in January 1636, but magistrate John Winthrop warned him privately, and he slipped away from Salem in the dead of winter to find shelter with the Wampanoags. He bought a parcel of land in Seekonk from Wampanoag sachem Massasoit which was at the western edge of the Plymouth Colony (now Rehoboth, Massachusetts). In a 1677 statement, Williams mentioned the four who were with him at Seekonk. The five members of the group were:[3][4][5]
In the spring of 1636, Williams and his company planted crops at Seekonk but were informed in a gentle letter from Governor Edward Winslow of Plymouth that they were within Plymouth's jurisdiction, and this fact would cause difficulties with the Massachusetts authorities. Without urgency, Winslow suggested that Williams and his group move across the Seekonk River into the territory of the Narragansetts, where no colony had any claim. Joshua Verin wrote a statement in 1650 mentioning "we six which came first to Providence", suggesting that he was the next to join the original five.[6] Also, Benedict Arnold later wrote, "We came to Providence to Dwell the 20th of April, 1636". The traditional date of the settlement of Providence has been given as about June 20, 1636, but this does not take into account the Arnold record. More recent analysis of the settling of Providence suggests that Williams likely negotiated with the Narragansetts for land in March 1636, and that he and his party actually settled the land in April 1636 along with the Arnold family.[7] It is likely that the following people were the original settlers in the Narragansett territory at Providence Plantations:[8]
The Arnold party, including:
Several young men were admitted as inhabitants to Providence before the settlement was a year old, but they were discontented with their position and wanted to be able to vote and otherwise have equality with the older settlers. The following resolution was adopted in a town meeting on August 20, 1637 and is sometimes called the "civil compact." The 1637 date was on the original town records, but when they were transcribed in 1800, the page containing that date was missing. The text of the resolution is as follows:
We, whose names are hereunder, desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of our body, in an orderly way, by the major assent of the present inhabitants, master of families, incorporated together into a town fellowship, and others whom they shall admit unto them only in civil things.[10]
Those named in a deed from Roger Williams, dated about October 8, 1638:[11]
Those settlers who left Providence to settle on the north side of the Pawtuxet River about 1638, putting themselves under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1642 to 1658:[21][22][23][24]
Those 39 Providence settlers who signed an agreement to form a government on July 27, 1640:[25]
Those early settlers who had trading posts in the area of Wickford in what was then the "Narragansett country" and later a part of North Kingstown, Rhode Island:[26][27]
Supporters of Anne Hutchinson who signed the Portsmouth Compact, dated March 7, 1638:[28]
The last four names on the list were crossed out, but these men nevertheless came to Portsmouth or Newport.
The following individuals were among the earliest settlers of Aquidneck Island in the Narragansett Bay; the island was officially named Rhode Island by 1644,[29] from which the entire colony eventually took its name. The first group of 58 names appears to be settlers of Pocasset (later Portsmouth), while the second group of 42 appears to be settlers of Newport. These two lists come from Bartlett's Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, and apparently they were compiled and incorporated into the town records of Newport on November 25, 1639. The actual arrival dates of the individuals likely span over several months during 1638; a few individuals have legible dates next to their names, while several others have illegible dates.[30]
A Catalogue of such who, by the Generall consent of the Company were admitted to be Inhabytants of the Island now called Aqueedneck, having submitted themselves to the Government that is or shall be established, according to the word of God therein [1638]
"Inhabitants admitted at the Town of Nieu-port since the 20th of the 3:1638" (since 20 May 1638)
Those Portsmouth settlers who remained after the group left to found Newport and who signed an agreement for a government on April 30, 1639:[31]
Those who signed an agreement for a new government on April 28, 1639:[32]
Those who purchased the land from the Indians on January 12, 1642:[33]
Those who purchased the Pettaquamscutt lands (later South Kingstown) from the Indian sachems in 1657:[34]
Original purchasers:
Later purchasers:[35]
In 1659 a second group set up the Atherton Trading Company, with perceived rights to land in Narragansett, in an area south of the North Kingstown, which included Wickford. Their claim was declared void years later.
The original purchasers of Block Island in April 1661, whose names appear on a plaque at the north end of the island:
The early settlers whose names appear on the plaque:[36]
The early Rhode Island inhabitants named in the Rhode Island Royal Charter, dated July 8, 1663 and signed with the royal seal by King Charles II; this charter was the basis for Rhode Island's government for nearly two centuries:[37]
Assistants:
Others named in the document:
Westerly, at first called Misquamicut, was purchased on 27 August 1661 by the following Newport men:
Of these men, only John Crandall appears to have settled in Westerly.
Westerly inhabitants appearing in the town records of 18 May 1669:[38]
During the devastating events of King Philip's War (1675-1676), the Rhode Island General Assembly sought the counsel of 16 prominent citizens of the colony with the resolution, "Voted that in these troublesome times and straites in this Collony, this Assembly desiringe to have the advice and concurrance of the most juditious inhabitants, if it may be had for the good of the whole, doe desire at their next sittinge the Company and Councill of":[39]
At a meeting of the General Assembly in Newport in May 1677, the following 48 individuals were granted 100-acre tracts in East Greenwich "for the services rendered during King Philip's War."[40]
Bristol's early history began as a commercial enterprise when John Gorham was awarded 100 acres of land if it could be "honorably purchased from the indians."[41] Gorham's enterprise succeeded on 18 Sep 1680 when four proprietors were awarded the deed to Mt. Hope Lands:[42]
On 27 Aug 1680, twelve men signed Articles agreeing to purchase lands:
On 1 Sep 1681, more than 60 families were present at the first town meeting and named these lands Bristol after Bristol, England.[44] Bristol was originally part of Massachusetts, but it became part of Rhode Island when disputed lands were awarded to the Colony of Rhode Island in 1747.[45]
French Huguenots settled in what is now East Greenwich in 1687. On 12 October 1686, an agreement was signed between the following, representing the French settlers and the land owners:
Representing Land Owners
Representing Huguenot Settlers
Those who signed the agreement
The following individuals signed the follow-on agreement, usually giving only their surname, and these same names are found on a plat map of the settlement.
Also on the map are two additional lots: "La terre pour L'Eglise" (land for the church) and "La terr pour L'ecolle" (land for the school). Almost all of these people left Rhode Island to settle in Massachusetts and New York following some severe civil clashes with the English settlers. Two families remained on their original land, however:
The Ayrault family moved to Newport.[46]
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