Roger Williams-10th Great Grandfather

Family History & Research
Repinski Family Tree
Dietz Family Line
Branches:
(1of 2): Repinski-Dietz-Brown-Smith-Sayles-Williams
(2 of 2): Repinski-Dietz-Brown-Smith-Waterman-Williams

Roger Williams
Founder of Rhode Island
10th great grandfather

I recently discovered that the man who founded the state of Rhode Island is one of my many ancestral great grandfathers while researching one of my family tree branches.

As I was doing my research, I discovered a family bible entry from a distant cousin that mapped out the pedigree from Roger to both of my 5th Great Grandparents. There were quite a few ancestors with the Smith surname around that era and the Bible entry explained how they were all related and who their spouses were. It is through this bible entry that I was able to trace back to Roger.

I am proud to be a 10th great grandson among many of his descendants.

I descend from him twice.

I look forward to meeting cousins whom I share blood with  and to hopefully meet others who share some of the same lines that I do from this great man who had such an impact on the history of Rhode Island and thus the early beginnings of our country.

Following is a brief history of and my link to this amazing ancestor who was a very important part of the history of our nation.

INTRODUCTION

Rhode Island founder Roger Williams was a remarkable man. He set the standard for separation of church and state that the nation adopted, and his vision and determination built the “lively experiment” that was and is the State of Rhode Island.

Roger Williams was also my 10th Great Grandfather.

How many people can say that they have an ancestral great grandfather that founded a state and a community and that has a National Memorial named for them??

The Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence Rhode Island commemorates the life of my 10th great grandfather. Some day soon I hope to visit this memorial. 

Roger Williams National Memorial was established by Congress in 1965 to commemorate Williams’s “outstanding contributions to the development of the principles of freedom in this country.” 

The memorial, a 4.5 acre urban greenspace located at the foot of College Hill in downtown Providence, includes a freshwater spring which was the center of the settlement of Providence Plantations founded by Williams in 1636.

 It is on this site that Williams, through word and action, fought for the ideal that religion must not be subject to regulation by the state but, instead, that it should be a matter of individual conscience. It was a remarkable journey that brought Williams to what is now the capital of Rhode Island and to where he put his beliefs into practice, giving “shelter for persons distressed of conscience.”

Visit the website of the Roger Williams National Memorial

MY LINEAGE TO ROGER WILLIAMS

Thanks to the Bible entry mentioned in the first part of the post (see photo below) and very detailed and concise genealogical biographies (see web link below) that detail the first four generations of their descendants, I have been able to verify my lineage from Roger and Mary all the way to my 6th great grandparents on both of the lines that I descend from, which would be the Sayles line and the Waterman/Winsor lines.

Roger Williams Genealogy through 1st four generations

Family Bible Chart showing lineage from Roger Williams to Lydia and Ziba and related lines

My first line is through his daughter Mary Sayles where he is my 10th great grandfather.

My second line is through daughter Mercy Waterman/ Winsor where he is my 10th great grandfather as well.

My 5th great grandparents are the ancestors that give me these two different amazing lines back to Roger:

Five Generations back, my 5th great grandparents, Ziba and Lydia, shared the same ancestral great grandparents.

Ziba Smith is the descendent of Daughter Mary Williams Sayles being the 3rd great grandson of Roger.

Lydia Waterman Smith is the descendent of daughter Mercy Williams Waterman also being the 3rd great granddaughter of Roger.

ROGER WILLIAMS

ROGER WILLIAMS-10TH GREAT GRANDFATHER

Line one would be from his daughter Mary Sayles

Line One

1. John is the son of Marlene Grace (Dietz) Repinski [& Maurice Repinski] 

2. Marlene is the daughter of Raymond Harold Dietz [& Maude Kosmeider] 

3. Raymond is the son of Henry Chester Dietz [& Grace Pope] 

4. Henry is the son of Eleanor May (Brown) Dietz [& Henry Dietz] 

5. Eleanor is the daughter of Mary E (Smith) Brown [& Chester Brown] 

6. Mary is the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Smith [& Martin Smith] 

7.* Mary is the daughter of Ziba Smith [& Lydia Waterman] 

8. Ziba is the son of Elizabeth (Sayles) Smith [& Simon Smith] 

9. Elizabeth is the daughter of Thomas Sayles [& Esther Sccott] 

10. Thomas is the son of John Sayles [& Elizabeth Olney] 

11. John is the son of Mary (Williams) Sayles [& John Sayles Sr.] 

12. Mary is the daughter of Roger Williams [& Mary Barnard] 

This makes Roger the tenth great grandfather of John.

Line two would be from his daughter Mercy Waterman Winsor

Line Two

1. John is the son of Marlene Grace (Dietz) Repinski [& Maurice Repinski] 

2. Marlene is the daughter of Raymond Harold Dietz [& Maude Kosmeider] 

3. Raymond is the son of Henry Chester Dietz [& Grace Pope] 

4. Henry is the son of Eleanor May (Brown) Dietz [& Henry Dietz] 

5. Eleanor is the daughter of Mary E (Smith) Brown [& Chester Brown] 

6. Mary is the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Smith [& Martin Smith] 

7.* Mary is the daughter of Lydia (Waterman) Smith [& Ziba Smith] 

8. Lydia is the daughter of Andrew Waterman [& Margarette Foster] 

9. Andrew is the son of Resolved Waterman III [& Lydia Mathewson] 

10. Resolved is the son of Resolved Waterman II [& Ann Harris] 

11. Resolved is the son of Mercy (Williams) Waterman Winsor [& Resolved Waterman I] 

12. Mercy is the daughter of Roger Williams [ & Mary Barnard]

This makes Roger the tenth great grandfather of John.

During my research into this post, I discovered that four of my 7th Great Grandparent's (Resolved Waterman and Lydia Mathewson) children all died from Feb 11th to Feb 22, 1744. 

They varied in age from three to eleven. I deduced that their deaths must have been some kind of colonial era disease that took their lives at such a young age. 

After digging into a few different sites on maladies of the 1700's I came to the conclusion that it was most likely diphtheria or yellow fever that killed them. How tragic to loose four children all at once...I can not even imagine the pain and heartache that they endured watching them die one by one. This discovery also makes me feel so very lucky that my line survived out of the four that did not. Further reading on the illnesses of that period made me shutter as to how many people were killed by diseases back then. How lucky we all really are in this day and age.

The family history page on my Waterman line that shows the children of Resolved and Lydia and how four died in 1744.

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ROGER WILLIAMS

Reverend Roger Williams

Born about 1606 in London, England

ANCESTORS 

Son of James Williams and Alice (Pemberton) Williams

Brother of Catherine Williams, Sydrack Williams and Robert Williams

Husband of Mary (Barnard) Williams — married 15 Dec 1629 in Hatfield, Essex, England

DESCENDANTS 

Father of:

 Mary (Williams) Sayles (10th GGM)

Freeborn (Williams) Clark

 Providence Williams

Mercy (Williams) Waterman Winsor (10th GGM)

Daniel Williams 

Joseph Williams

Died 1 Apr 1683 in Providence, Rhode Island

I have to admit that I had never heard about Roger in my history classes when I was in school. 

It is possible had I been born in or around the state of Rhode Island that this man's name would have been part of my learning, but being from Wisconsin, his name was never mentioned. 

Roger's legacy would be such that the idea of "Religious Freedom" would never be the same after he and his ideas came fourth.

My ancestral great grandfather was a Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. 

He was a staunch advocate for religious freedom, separation of church and state, and fair dealings with American Indians, and he was one of the first abolitionists.

Williams was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for spreading "new and dangerous ideas", and he established the Providence Plantations in 1636 as a refuge offering what he called "liberty of conscience". 

In 1638, he founded the First Baptist Church in America, also known as the First Baptist Church of Providence.

The first Baptist Church in Providence Rhode Island USA

Following the link below will give the history of this church.

The First Baptist Chuch in America

He was also a linguist concerning Indian languages and author concerning them, and he organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the American colonies.

Early life

ROGER WILLIAMS was born in London, circa 1603, the son of James and Alice (Pemberton) Williams. James, the son of Mark and Agnes (Audley) Williams was a "merchant Tailor" (an importer and trader) and probably a man of some importance. 

His will, proved 19 November 1621, left, in addition to bequests to his "loving wife, Alice," to his sons, Sydrach, Roger and Robert, and to his daughter Catherine, money and bread to the poor in various sections of London.

The will of Alice (Pemberton) Williams was admitted to probate 26 January 1634. Among other bequests, she left the sum of Ten Pounds yearly for twenty years to her son, Roger Williams, "now beyond the seas." She further provided that if Roger predeceased her, "what remaineth thereof unpaid ... shall be paid to his wife and daughter.. .." Obviously, by the time of her death, Roger's mother was aware of the birth in America in 1633 of her grandchild, Mary Williams.

Roger's youth was spent in the parish of "St. Sepulchre's, without Newgate, London." While a young man, he must have been aware of the numerous burnings at the stake that had taken place at nearby Smithfield of so-called Puritans or heretics. This probably influenced his later strong beliefs in civic and religious liberty.

During his teens, Roger Williams came to the attention of Sir Edward Coke, a brilliant lawyer and one-time Chief Justice of England, through whose influence he was enrolled at Sutton's Hospital, a part of Charter House, a school in London. He next entered Pembroke College at Cambridge University from which he graduated in 1627. All of the literature currently available at Pembroke to prospective students mentions Roger Williams, his part in the Reformation, and his founding of the Colony of Rhode Island. At Pembroke, he was one of eight granted scholarships based on excellence in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Pembroke College in Providence, once the women's college of Brown University, was named after Pembroke at Cambridge in honor of Roger Williams.

Marriage & Controversial Beginnings In North America

In the years after he left Cambridge, Roger Williams was Chaplain to a wealthy family, and on 15 December 1629, he married MARY BARNARD at the Church of High Laver, Essex, England. Even at this time, he became a controversial figure because of his ideas on freedom of worship. 

And so, in 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Roger thought it expedient to leave England. 

He arrived, with Mary, on 5 February 1631 at Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their passage was aboard the ship Lyon (Lion).

He preached first at Salem, then at Plymouth, then back to Salem, always at odds with the structured Puritans. When he was about to be deported back to England, Roger fled southwest out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was befriended by local Indians and eventually settled at the headwaters of what is now Narragansett Bay, after he learned that his first settlement on the east bank of the Seekonk River was within the boundaries of the Plymouth Colony.

Children

Roger and Mary (Barnard) Williams were the parents of six children, all born in America:

(My 10th Great Grandmother & Grandfather)

1. MARY, born at Plymouth, Plymouth Colony, August 1633, died 1684; married JOHN SAYLES in 1650; six children. John and Mary Sayles lived on Aquidneck Island and are buried near Easton's Beach, Middletown, Rhode Island.

2. FREEBORN, born at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, 4 October 1635, died 10 January 1710; married first THOMAS HART, died 1671; four children. There were no children of Freeborn's second marriage to WALTER CLARKE, a Governor of Newport.

3. PROVIDENCE, born at Providence, September 1638, died March 1686; never married.

(My 10th Great Grandmother & Grandfather)

4. MERCY, born at Providence, 15 July 1640, died circa 1705; married first in 1659 RESOLVED WATERMAN, born July 1638, died August 1670; five children. Mercy married second SAMUEL WINSOR, born 1644, died 19 September 1705; three children.

5. DANIEL, born at Providence, February 1641 "counting years to begin about ye 25 of March so yt he was borne above a year & half after Mercy (Carpenter, Roger Williams), died 14 May 1712; married 7 December 1676 REBECCA (RHODES) POWER, died 1727, widow of Nicholas Power; six children.

6. JOSEPH, born at Providence, 12 December 1643, died 17 August 1724; married LYDIA OLNEY, born 1645, died 9 September 1724; six children.

(Lydia Olney would be my 9th great aunt twice as she was the sister of my 9th great grandfather, Thomas Only)

Providence 

Providence Plantation

Roger purchased land from the Narragansett Chiefs, Canonicus and Miantonomi and named his settlement Providence in thanks to God. The original deed remains in the Archives of the City of Providence.

Roger Williams made two trips back to England during his lifetime. 

The first in June or July 1643 was to obtain a Charter for his colony to forestall the attempt of neighboring colonies to take over Providence. 

He returned with a Charter for "the Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay" which incorporated Providence, Newport and Portsmouth. 

During this voyage, he produced his best-known literary work -- Key into the Languages of America, which when published in London in 1643, made him the authority on American Indians.

On his return, Roger Williams started a trading post at Cocumscussoc (now North Kingstown) where he traded with the Indians and was known for his peacemaking between the neighboring colonists and the Indians. 

But again colony affairs interfered, and in 1651 he sold his trading post and returned to England with John Clarke (a Newport preacher) in order to have the Charter confirmed.

 Because of family responsibilities, he returned sometime before 1654. 

John Clarke finally obtained the Royal Charter from Charles II on 8 July 1663, thereby averting further trouble with William Coddington and some colonists at Newport, who had previously obtained a charter for a separate colony.

Later Years

Roger Williams was Governor of the Colony 1654 through 1658. 

During the later years of his life, he saw almost all of Providence burned during King Philip's War, 1675-1676. He lived to see Providence rebuilt. He continued to preach, and the Colony grew through its acceptance of settlers of all religious persuasions. 

The two volumes of the correspondence of Roger Williams recently published by the Rhode Island Historical Society, Glenn W. LaFantasie, Editor, present an excellent picture of his philosophy and personality. 

Unfortunately, there was no known painting made of him during his lifetime, although many artists and sculptors have portrayed him as they envision him.

Death

Roger Williams died at Providence between 16 January and 16 April 1683/84, his wife Mary having predeceased him in 1676. 

His descendants have contributed in many ways, first to the establishment of an independent Colony, later to the establishment of an independent state in a united nation. 

The United States of America has maintained the reality of separation of church and state which Roger Williams envisioned, and ordained in his settlement at Providence.

Providence, Rhode Island: Grave of Roger Williams

According to historical documents and stories, a tree ate part of the remains of Roger Williams, and what was left was disinterred and moved beneath this monument to the Rhode Island founder.

 

Prospect Terrace Park

Address:

188 Pratt St, Providence, RI

Legacy 

In addition to myself and my siblings, Roger's descendants are many and include the following people that have gained quite a bit more fame than myself:

Gail Borden III

Inventor of Condensed Milk, Founder of the Borden Company

4th great-grandson

My 5th cousin 6 times removed

Julia (Ward) Howe

Author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”

5th great-granddaughter

 My 6th cousin 5 times removed

Gloria Vanderbilt

Fashion Designer

8th great-granddaughter

 My 9th cousin 2 times removed

David Angell

TV Producer - 9/11 Victim

8th great-grandson

 My 9th cousin 2 times removed

(David and I have the most lines in common and are descended from the same lines from Roger all the way to Andrew and Margaret Foster Waterman)

Anderson Cooper

Television Journalist

9th great-grandson

My 10th cousin 1 time removed

Sarah Palin

9th Governor of Alaska

10th great-granddaughter

My 11th Cousin

Elisabeth Shue

TV and Movie Actress

11th great-granddaughter

My 11th cousin 1 time removed

Andrew Shue

TV Actor

11th great-grandson

My 11th cousin 1 time removed

End Notes

So as one can see, Roger's contribution to the history of the world were many:

Separation of Church & State

Founder of Rhode Island

Ancestor of many of us

Rest in peace Great Grandfather.

 I am so very proud to have your blood flowing through my veins.

On a last lighter note, there is also the story of the Apple Tree root that grew inside of Roger's coffin.

One can read the story here:

The tree root that ate my 10th Great Grandfather

Sources for this story:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/god-government-and-roger-williams-big-idea-6291280/
http://www.rogerwilliams.org/genealogy/4-gen0001.htm
http://www.rogerwilliams.org/biography.htm
https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=10666+roger+williams&ahnum=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Williams-934
https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/586879/shared-family-establishes-eleanors-lineage-ancestry-family
https://books.google.com/books?id=VLhYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA736&lpg=PA736&dq=waterman+children+dying+in+1744&source=bl&ots=hUS6Et3_OR&sig=aC-CS0KBw_N4CiVL46kipgc9i6A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOrqXhorrfAhXszIMKHZPqAKgQ6AEwAXoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=waterman%20children%20dying%20in%201744&f=false

Carpenter, Edmund J., Litt.D., Roger Williams, New York, 1909; Anthony, Bertha W., Roger Williams of Providence, RI, Vol. II, Cranston, RI, 1966; Haley, John Williams, The Old Stone Bank History of Rhode Island, Vol. IV, Providence, 1944; Hall, May Emery, Roger Williams, Boston, 1917.