On February 5, 1631, Roger Williams arrived in Boston from London after 56 days at sea on the Lyon. He was a Puritan, and later a Baptist who was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the colony of Massachusetts because they thought that he was spreading “new and dangerous ideas” to his congregants. Williams fled the Massachusetts colony under the threat of impending arrest and shipment to an English prison; he began the settlement of Providence Plantation in 1636 as a refuge offering freedom of conscience. ABHS has many books about Roger Williams and many more of his writings and letters.
