William Coddington

Background

William Coddington was born about 1601 in Boston, England. He was the son of Robert and Margaret Coddington of Marston.

Career

At about the same time as John Winthrop in 1630, Coddington came to Massachusetts as an Assistant (director) in the Bay Company. He himself relates that he built in Boston the first good (brick) house. On August 6, 1633 he was chosen with others to oversee the building of a sufficient cart bridge over Muddy River and another over Stony River. In March 1635 he was appointed to the committee on military affairs.

During 1634-1636 he was the Bay Company’s treasurer, and in 1636-1637 was a deputy. In a secular way he was of the John Winthrop order, shrewd and conservative; but in the way of religion he differed therefrom, being touched with the new spirit—a spirit found rather among the poor and lowly than among the rich and mighty. A devotee of this spirit in the Bay Company was Mistress Anne Hutchinson and when in 1637 she was haled before the Massachusetts General Court for “traducing the ministers and their ministry in this country, ” Coddington was bold enough to enter protest in her behalf. Anne Hutchinson was banished. As for Coddington, banishment did not at once overtake him, but in 1638 he, together with Dr. John Clarke and other liberals, withdrew to the island of Aquidneck (Rhode Island) which by help of Roger Williams had been purchased from the Narragansett Indian chiefs Canonicus and Miantonomo.

Here at Pocasset (Portsmouth) they set up an Old Testament government of Judge and Elders, electing Coddington judge. But hither straightway came Anne Hutchinson and that archheretic of early New England, Samuel Gorton; whereupon in 1639 the Coddington party in some dismay betook themselves to the south side of Aquidneck and on May 16 founded Newport. For a time Portsmouth and Newport maintained a divided life, but in 1639-1640 they combined, formally declaring the new commonwealth a “Democracie or Popular Government” under the “Powre of the Body of Freemen orderly assembled, or the major part of them”; and “none [was to] be accounted a delinquent for Doctrine. ” Coddington was then elected governor. His steadfast aim thenceforward was to keep his colony of Aquidneck an independent factor, and of that factor to keep himself the head.

In 1644 Roger Williams secured from Parliament a patent uniting Aquidneck, or Rhode Island, to his own mainland settlement of Providence Plantations. This patent Coddington in 1651 succeeded in having set aside, so far as Aquidneck was concerned, by obtaining a patent creating Aquidneck a distinct colony with himself as governor in perpetuity. In consequence, not only were Williams and Providence Plantations alienated, but in large degree Coddington’s own followers, and, in October 1652, Parliament annulled the grant.

Coddington thereupon fled to Boston and temporized; but at length in 1656, during the régime of Oliver Cromwell, resigned in into his high pretensions. As a would-be autocrat, Coddington tried every shift and failed. He made divers overtures to be taken, with his colony, under the shelter of the New England Confederation, and he sought the support of the Dutch of New Netherland under Peter Stuyvesant. Failure, however, did not attend him as a merchant. At Newport, prior to 1651, he built a “towne house, ” and he conducted a large Newport estate on which he bred sheep, cattle, and horses; the latter for shipment to Barbados.

Late in life he espoused Quakerism, and thus having clarified himself anew, was, in 1674, 1675, and 1678, honored with the chief magistracy of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations as reconstituted under Charles II in 1663.

Achievements

• William Coddington became a successful merchant and was highly regarded for the organization of the colony of Rhode Island and foundation of the town of Portsmouth and the town of Newport.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A demonstration of true love unto you the rulers of the colony of the Massachusets sic in New-England: shewing to you that now in authority the ... Lord's dealings with them in his severe...

    (Title: A demonstration of true love unto you the rulers o...)

  • An Answer To A Letter Sent From Mr. Coddington Of Rhode Island, To Governor Leveret Of Boston In What Concerns R. W. Of Providence

Religion

Coddington was a member of the Religious Society of Friends.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• “A poor man came to Mr. Coddington in these late bloody distresses and offers to buy a bushel of corn for his poor Wife and Children in great want. Mr. Coddington, though abounding, would not let this poor soul have a bushel except he would pay him a week’s work for it. . Alas why doth the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Doctors, Presbyters, Independents, Baptists, Foxians prate of the Christian’s name, and new and old England talk of Religion ?” - Roger Williams

Connections

Coddington was thrice married: to Mary Mosely, who died in 1630; to Mary, who died in 1647; to Anne Brinley, who died in 1708. He had thirteen children.

Father:

Robert Mosely

Mother:

Margaret Coddington

Spouse:

Anne Brinley

Spouse:

Mary Mosely

Spouse:

Mary Coddington

References

• William Coddington in Rhode Island Colonial Affairs (Classic Reprint)