Conimicut Village
Conimicut Village (and its environs)
By Don D’Amato
Introduction
Conimicut, a thriving and picturesque area
along Warwick’s shore, is one of the villages that can trace its
history back to the founding of Warwick in 1643. The story begins with
Samuel Gorton and his followers and their quest to find a safe haven
where they could practice their beliefs without persecution. Samuel
Gorton, Warwick’s charismatic founder, was one of Rhode Island’s most
fascinating and enigmatic characters. To characterize him as a
controversial and quarrelsome figure borders on understatement.
Upon
arriving in Massachusetts in 1637, he quickly antagonized an impressive
list of influential and powerful persons in 17th century New England.
Gorton, a brilliant, but unorthodox, self proclaimed, preacher severely
criticized the religious doctrines of the Boston and Plymouth Puritans
and opposed their right to rule in Massachusetts. According to his
biographers, Gorton was born to a working class family in England in
1592. Lacking the opportunity to get a formal education, Gorton managed
to obtain a most unorthodox accumulation of knowledge. He not only
could read English, but became proficient in Greek and Latin, and
before being in America very long, had mastered the Indian language.
Like many of his contemporaries in the new World, his main interests
were in Scripture and in English Common Law. Without the benefit of
formal training, he memorized some of the obscure biblical passages and
interpreted them without seeking established ecclesiastical authority.
This was not uncommon at the time, but Gorton often carried his beliefs
to the extreme.
He classified himself as an Ultra-Puritan. He
felt as many others did that there was no necessity for bishops to act
as intermediaries and believed that people were guided by God’s spirit
directly. He preached that all should be able to worship as they
pleased and that all men and women, not just the Elders or the
ordained, had the right to preach. For this, and for his insistence
that there should be a separation of church and state and that the New
England Colonies were not correct in their practice of English Common
law, he quickly incurred the wrath of the Puritan Elders in Boston and
Plymouth. For a time his brilliance and appeal were tolerated, but as
he challenged all authority he was banished from Massachusetts and
eventually made his way to Providence. His views on government and
legal rights soon led him to quarrel with a number of leaders in the
community and he made enemies, among whom were William Arnold, William
Harris and other founders of Pawtuxet village, now shared by the Cities
of Warwick and Cranston.
Mainly because of Arnold, Gorton's
attempt to be admitted as a freeman in Providence failed. William
Arnold, one of the five "disposers," as the men were called who handled
such applications, strongly opposed Gorton, and was successful in
keeping him from becoming a citizen of Providence. Arnold, on May 25,
1641, wrote that Gorton, "showed himself an insolent, railing and
turbulent person."
Even Roger Williams, usually a tolerant man,
found Gorton troublesome. Roger Williams, in a letter to Governor
Winthrop, dated “Providence 1640” says, "Master Gorton having abused
high and low at Aquidnick, is now bewitching and bemadding poor
Providence, with his uncleane and foul censures of all the ministers of
this country...and also denying all visible and externall ordinances..."
Williams
and a few others refused to admit Gorton as an inhabitant with town
privileges. Despite this opposition, Gorton's followers grew, causing
Williams to remark to Winthrop, "Yet the tide is too strong against us,
and I feare it will force me to little Patience, a little isle next to
your Prudence..."
The differences between Williams and Gorton
were not on religious grounds but on the question of the concept of
government. Gorton, in 1641, again attempted to be received in "town
fellowship" and again he was refused. The man who most strenuously
opposed Gorton's application at this time was William Arnold, who
asserted that Gorton was had divided Providence "into parties aiming to
drive away its founders...."
The bitter feelings that grew between
Arnold and Gorton lasted for the lifetime of both men and were
responsible for many of the disturbing events of the early period.
Gorton
and his followers moved into the Pawtuxet area, three of the original
Pawtuxet purchasers, William Arnold, Robert Cole, William Carpenter, as
well as Benedict Arnold, William Arnold's son, offered themselves and
their land to the protection of Massachusetts in Sept. 1642. This move
was to keep Gorton from settling in Rhode Island.