Born: December 21, 1603, Long Lane, Lon­don, Mid­dlesex, Eng­land.

Died: April 1, 1683, Pro­vi­dence, Rhode Is­land.

Buried: Un­der his sta­tue in Pros­pect Ter­race Park, Pro­vi­dence, Rhode Is­land.

Williams at­tend­ed Cam­bridge Un­i­ver­si­ty, and em­i­grat­ed to Amer­i­ca in 1630. Due to dis­agree­ments with the lo­cal au­thor­i­ties, he fled to Rhode Is­land in 1636. In 1644, he ob­tained a char­ter for the Pro­vi­dence Plant­a­tions, to which per­se­cut­ed Jews, Quak­ers, and other mi­nor­i­ties flocked. Though not known as a hymn writ­er, Will­iams in­clud­ed a num­ber of mor­al­is­tic po­ems in his stu­dy of the Nar­ra­gan­sett In­di­an lan­guage (A Key into the Lan­guage of Amer­i­ca, 1643).

Hymns

  1. God Makes a Path
  2. If Birds That Nei­ther Sow Nor Reap
  3. When Sun Doth Rise