Excerpt from Footprints of Roger Williams In all the early history of New England, no one name stands out so prominent to-day in the eyes of the civilized world, as that of the illustrious founder of Rhode Island and Providence. Plantations. Two hundred and fifty years have elapsed since he landed upon these shores; and the great principles which he annunciated and developed of civil and religious freedom, have come to be the foundation of every democratic republic in Christendom. The great civic anniversary, to which thousands are looking forward with quick ened zeal, will tend to bring out facts and illustrations pertaining to his early life and subsequent career, which have heretofore perhaps been obscure and unknown. The only thing that seems settled in regard to the early surroundings of Roger Williams is that he was of Welsh origin. It has always been supposed that he was of humble parentage, the place of his birth being unknown, and the date uncertain. It occurred to the writer during a recent vacation to make some investigations on this point, the clue having been furnished him by the late J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., of Boston. He first visited the rooms of the New England Historic- Genealogical Society, No. 18 Somerset Street, where, through the courtesy of the Librarian (all librarians are courteous), he was permitted to examine the "Publications of the Harleian Society," of London, consisting of a series of pedigrees and heralds' visitations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.