England, so far as the Nature and Constitution of the place will admit. And always reserving to the said Earl, and Commissioners, and their successors, Power and Authority for to dispose the general Government of that, as it stands in Relation to the rest of the Plantations in America as they shall conceive from Time to Time, most conducing to the general Good of the said Plantations, the Honour of his Majesty, and the Service of the State. And the said Earl and Commissioners, do further authorize, that the aforesaid Inhabitants, for the better transacting of their public Affairs to make and use a public Seal as the known Seal of Providence-Plantations, in the Narraganset-Bay, in New-England. In Testimony whereof, the said Robert Earl of Warwick, and Commissioners, have hereunto set their Hands and Seals, the Fourteenth Day of March, in the Nineteenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King Charles, and in the Year of our Lord God, 1643.
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Robert Warwick, Philip Pembroke, Say and Seal, P. Wharton, Arthur Haslerig, Cor. Holland, |
H. Vane, Sam Vassal, John Rolle, Miles Corbet, W. Spurstow. |
Charles the Second, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all to whome these presents shall come, greeting: Whereas wee have been informed, by the humble petition of our trustie and well beloved subject, John Clarke, on the behalf of Benjamine Arnold, William Brenton, William Codington, Nicholas Easton, William Boulston, John Porter, John Smith, Samuell Gorton, John Weeks, Roger Williams, Thomas Olnie, Gregorie Dexter, John Cogeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall Holden, John Greene, John Roome, Samuell Wildbore, William Ffield, James Barker, Richard Tew, Thomas Harris, and William Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers and ffree inhabitants of our island, called Rhode-Island, and the rest of the colonie of Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, in New-England, in America, that they, pursueing, with peaceable and loyall mindes, their sober, serious and religious intentions, of godlie edifieing themselves, and one another, in the holie Christian ffaith and worshipp as they were perswaded; together with the gaineing over and conversione of the poore ignorant Indian natives, in those partes of America,
- ↑ The Charter in “The Manual with Rules and orders for the use of the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island. 1889-’90. Prepared in accordance with a Resolution of the General Assembly by Samuel H. Cross, Sec’y of State, 1889.” pp. 49–64.
- ↑ The commonwealth of England had claimed the right, in 1651, to appoint a governor for Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, with a provincial council, to be elected by the freeholders and accepted by himself. After the restoration an agent was sent to England, who obtained this charter from Charles II.
