Some of the formatting in my previous message didn't survive posting to this
list. For the sake of clarity, it is repeated below, with formatting
revisions:
Lloyd wrote:
<< Perhaps a discussion of William of Providence's relationship with Roger
Williams and the founding of the Baptist church? Or is this just legend? >>
Various records indicate that the relationship between William1 Carpenter of
Providence and Roger Williams was complex and at times contentious.
Carpenter, whose father-in-law, William Arnold, had many land disputes with
his
neighbors, typically sided with the older man. Though respected for his
abilities--Carpenter was perennially elected to important civic offices--he
and
Arnold were often at odds in politics and religion with Roger Williams and
others
at Providence.
The following two paragraphs are taken from my sketch "William Carpenter of
Providence, Rhode Island" (online at
http://members.cox.net/jrcrin001/Wm1-Providence.pdf):
"Repeating (imperfectly) Benedict's history of the Baptists, D. H. Carpenter
names eleven men, including William Carpenter, as founders, at Providence
between 3 August 1638 and 16 March 1638/9, of the first Baptist church in
America (see Baptist Hist 1:473, 475; Carpenter [1901] 16). Benedict's
account of
the baptisms that occurred on the latter date, however, does not accurately
represent the description in Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop's journal
(the only known contemporaneous record). The latter identifies the
participants
only as Roger Williams, 'one [Ezekiel] Holyman, . . . and some ten more'
(see WJ 286). An 1876 article about Roger Williams (John C. C. Clarke, ' The
Pioneer Baptist Statesman') challenges Benedict: ' Who those ten were, is
entirely unknown. . . . No records of their society or church remain. Mr.
Benedict
gave twelve names, and his error has been widely copied without questioning.
Mr. Benedict gives the names of twelve of the first thirteen proprietors, as
named in Williams's deed, omitting, however, Mr. Throckmorton, who was an
undoubted Baptist. Mr. [Isaac] Backus [_A History of New England with
Particular
Reference to the . . . Baptists_, 2nd ed. (1871)] is against Benedict as to
Waterman and Weston; and Roger Williams sets aside Arnold and Carpenter.
Probably the first twelve were of the following names, viz., Messrs. Brown,
Olney,
Scott, Throckmorton, Westcott, Holiman, Williams, and their wives and the
widow Reeves' (BQ 10:199, 204). Williams, in a letter to the General Court
at
Boston, depicts Arnold and Carpenter as ' very far allso in religion from
you,
if you knew all' (RWCorr 444). The assertion that William Carpenter was a
founder of the church at Providence is therefore groundless. . . .
"Over the years, William Carpenter joined with William Arnold, 'most
ruthless
of the Pawtuxet proprietors,' and with the contentious, 'inordinately
ambitious' William Harris, another Pawtuxet proprietor, in various
land-grabbing
schemes and political maneuvers (Irrepressible Democrat 134, 258-60, 269,
278)."
The following excerpts from Roger Williams's aforementioned letter to Boston
authorities (dated in 1655, when Providence was under Massachusetts
jurisdiction) describe Carpenter and Arnold as impediments to "all order and
authority":
"Thirdly, concerning four English families at Pawtuxet, may it please you to
remember that two controversies they have long (under your name) maintained
with us, to a constant obstructing of all order and authority amongst us. .
. .
"And, therefore, (lastly) be pleased to know, that there are (upon the
point)
but two families which are so obstructive and destructive to an equal
proceeding of civil order amongst us; for one of these four families,
Stephen
Arnold, desires to be uniform with us; a second, Zacharie Rhodes, being in
the
way of dipping is (potentially) banished by you. Only William Arnold and
William Carpenter, (very far, also, in religion, from you, if you knew all)
they
have some color, yet in a late conference, they all plead that all the
obstacle
is their offending of yourselves."
Gene Z.
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