American historian, born in Boston, MA, in 1706; died in Newport, RI, on the 26th of January 1748. He came of a distinguished Puritan family, two members of which have been ministers. He graduated at Harvard, and became pastor successively of a Baptist church in Boston; in Swansea, MA; and in Newport, RI. At the latter place he was a member of a society called “Company of the Redwood Library.” He delivered an address in 1738 entitled An Historical Discourse on the Civil and Religious Affairs of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, From the First Settlement to the End of the First Century. This was, for one hundred years, the sole history of Rhode Island. He published a series of papers relative to the history of the Baptists in America. See also “Liberty of Conscience in Rhode Island.”
