Unto which is subjoyned the fifteen proposals of the Ministers.
London, 1652. 4to.
He returned to Providence in 1654, and in September, shortly after his arrival, was elected President or Governor of Rhode Island, one of the thirteen original states of the Union, and the first to accord Jews rights and privileges similar to other colonists. He held office until May, 1658, and it is worthy of note that one who took a significant part in securing the admission of Jews to England in the Old World, was the founder of a state in New England in the New World, which was the first to grant equal rights to Jews at a time when he was its President. He died at Providence in the early part of April, 1683.[¹]
[¹] Roger Williams, The Pioneer of Religious Liberty. By Oscar S. Straus.... New York.... 1894.
In 1899 a tablet, with the following inscription:—
In Memory of Roger Williams,
Formerly a Scholar of Charterhouse
Founder of the State of Rhode Island, and the
Pioneer of Religious Liberty in America. Placed here by
Oscar S. Straus, United States Minister to Turkey, 1899.
was presented to the Charterhouse, where Williams was a scholar in the year 1624.
In 1649 two Baptists of Amsterdam, Johanna Cartwright and her son Ebenezer, presented a petition to Lord Fairfax (1612–71) and the “generall Councell of Officers” in favour of the Jews (Appendix xxix). Religious fervour had been stirred to a high pitch, and there were few men whose minds had not been influenced by Messianic beliefs and other religious and mystical ideas.
John Harrison (fl. 1630), a famous traveller and diplomatist, envoy to Barbary, published The Messiah already come, etc. (Appendix xxx). He took a lively interest in the disputes which arose between partisans of the new Puritan movement and those who adhered to the old doctrines, besides dwelling on the question of religious liberty, and he argued that so long as the Jews were not equal in their rights to others as a nation, “the heart will be filled with violence.”
John Dury (Durie), the ubiquitous Protestant divine, who travelled much and endeavoured to bring together all sections of Protestantism, was a great friend of the Jews. He was one of those who drew up the “Westminster Confession” and “Catechisms.” In 1649 –50 he wrote An Epistolicall Discourse of Mr. Iohn Dury, to Mr. Thorowgood, concerning his conjecture that the Americans are descended from the Israelites (Appendix xxxi), and during his stay at Cassel, in Germany, A Case of Conscience, Whether it be lawful to admit Jews into a Christian Commonwealth? (Appendix xxxii).[¹]