American physician, born in Suffolk, England, on the 8th of October 1609; died in Newport, RI, on the 20th of April 1676. He emigrated to Boston in 1637, and, desiring more religious freedom than the colony afforded, he settled with others in Rhode Island, then called Aquidneck, in 1638. From 1651 to 1664 he was in England, acting as agent for the colony, and secured from Charles II. the charter which insured civil and religious liberty for Rhode Island. He is supposed to have drawn up the code of laws which governed the colony. For several terms he was elected to the general assembly, and it is said that he was the first to show, “in an actual government, that the best safeguard of personal right is Christian law.” He has been called the “Father of Rhode Island,” and also the “Father of American Baptists.”
