The World of Mary and Roger Williams

Join us for a virtual program with Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer to learn more about Mary and Roger Williams, the influential seventeenth-century couple whose lives left an indelible impact on New England.

Roger Williams, an English immigrant to New England, was famously banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 for his “new and dangerous opinions” on religious freedom, the separation of church and state, and Indigenous land rights. Following his banishment, Williams settled the town of Providence with the permission of the Narragansett Sachems, creating a colony that was arguably the freest in the western world.

The traditional narrative centers Roger Williams as a lone “hero" in the founding of Providence, but none of it would have been possible without his wife, Mary Williams. For years at a time, Mary was the head of the Williams family, and she played a central role in colony affairs. Part of the challenge of telling Mary's story in her own words is that she left behind so few of them, especially compared to her husband.

As you will learn, Dr. Carrington-Farmer shines new light on Mary and Roger Williams in her recent essay “More than Roger’s Wife” in the New England Quarterly (2024) and her anthology, Roger Williams and His World (2025).

Email any questions to programs@14beacon.org.

SPEAKER BIO

Dr. Charlotte Carrington-Farmer is Professor of History at Roger Williams University. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge and specializes in early American history. Her book, Roger Williams and His World (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, Jan. 2025), sets Roger Williams in his wider Atlantic world context. Her research centers on dissent in seventeenth-century New England, and she has published book chapters on Thomas Morton and Roger Williams, and an article on Mary Williams. She has also published a journal article and two book chapters on equines in colonial New England and the early modern Atlantic world. Her current book project is titled: Equine Empire: Horses and the Making of the Atlantic World. She is active in the field of public history and has received funding and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Yale University, the Mellon Foundation, and the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium.