Was Roger Williams a Celebrity in England?                And did he get help from the gentry?                                  by Marc Kohler
Roger Williams Educational Foundation

Many historians write that Roger did everything on his own, and that Edward Coke(Pronounced Cook) and Francis Bacon did not help Roger or provide him any direct prestige or support.  The truth is that Roger acquired great prestige from these two, and many more::  James I, Charles II, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Vane the Younger, John Pym, Joan Barrington, Francis Barrington, John Milton, and many more.

Let me show you how Roger became so prestigious.

1603:  Roger was born to a family that have two businesses.  The first was a fabric importer or other fabric related business run by his father, James Williams. He was a member of .the Company of Taylors, an eleemosynary organization,  Alice Williams ran a tavern called The Harrow.  Alice ran the inn after James’ death in 1620.  Roger worked in their businesses.

I615 When Roger was twelve years old, he and Sir Edward Coke met.  We do not know how or where this meeting took place.  Here are descriptions of Coke which I have borrowed from Wikipedia.  I have added my notes, too.

Who was Sir Edward Coke?   Wikipedia  “Edward Coke was born in 1552… 

…He was appointed Solicitor General by Queen Elizabeth in 1592. She named him speaker of the House of Commons the following year, and in 1594 chose him over Francis Bacon to be attorney general.  Coke was knighted for his services in 1604. In 1606, Sir Edward became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and in 1613, he was appointed to be the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.  That move was a was a demotion, for at that time Coke was advocating the superiority of Common Law over the King…..”

“….During the 1580s Coke was employed by the Howards to counter lawyers employed by the Crown, who argued that the Howards' lands were forfeit owing to the treason of the 4th Duke. As well as defeating these direct attacks Coke travelled to Cardiff to answer a challenge by Francis Dacre, son of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre and uncle-in-law to the 4th Duke's three sons, Philip Howard and his two half-brothers, Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk and Lord William Howard – he proved that Dacre's evidence was false and had the case dismissed…in the now classic Shelley's Case in 1581, which created a rule in real property that is still used in some common law jurisdictions today; the case also established Coke's reputation as an attorney and case reporter…”

He was only 42 years old, and he served as Attorney General for ten years.  

COKE’S PRESTIGE  FOLLOWED ROGER EVERYWHERE HE WENT THROUGH HIS LIFE.

WIKI:“…On 20 June 1606, Coke was made a Serjeant-at-Law, a requirement for his elevation to Chief Justice of the Common Pleas which occurred on 30 June Coke was transferred from the Common Pleas, where he was succeeded by Hobart, to the Court of King's Bench on 25 October 1613, on the advice of Bacon, presumably because Bacon and the King felt that if he was moved from a court dedicated to protecting the rights of the people to one dedicated to the rights of the King, "his capacity for harm would be diminished…”  

Roger Williams started to work for Coke sometime in 1615.  Roger’s father and Coke worked out an arrangement so Roger could live in Coke’s residences.  In his position, he wrote stenography wrote his notes out to English.  Coke wrote his Reports in English and Latin.  I think that Roger learned Latin working for Coke, and not at college.  Now, who did Roger meet in those years?  He met King James, Francis Bacon, Charles II( as a child), and hundreds and hundreds of lawyers, litigants, ministers, and many, many, and many more.   

I have been reading Coke’s writings (Law Reports, and the four-volume Institutes of the Lawes of England), and I have been  amazed.  These are fantastic and extremely modern.  The writings of Coke are mentioned in discussions about his work, but until you read them, you will think that they are archaic and of no use for us today.  This is a distortion of Coke’s work.  Coke’s writings establish the creation of Common Law.  All of his writings are very modern. Reading his work is not terribly different from reading modern legal texts today.  Coke was making up, inventing, and innovating the whole nature of  Common Law.

In 1616, Roger must have been working for Coke when  Bacon convinced James to fire Coke and demote him. 

“…..The fact is, Lord Coke had [often] no authority for what he states, but I am afraid we should get rid of a great deal of what is considered law in Westminster Hall, if what Lord Coke says without authority is not law. He was one of the most eminent lawyers that ever presided as a judge in any court of justice….”

Edward Coke’s Judicial and Parliamentary Positions  The blue headings are links to Wikipedia

England parliament (1589-1593)                                                                     Solicitor General and Speaker of the Parliament (1593-1594)                                                        

England attorney general (1594-1606),                                                             England Court of Common Pleas (1606-1613),                                

England Queen’s Bench Division (1613-1616)

Parliament (1620-1628),

COKE AND WILLIAMS WOULD REMAIN FRIENDS!                         ONE OF ROGER’S REGRETS WAS THAT HE DID NOT SAY FAREWELL TO COKE WHEN HE SAILED TO AMERICA.

COKE’S PRESTIGE  FOLLOWED ROGER EVERYWHERE HE WENT THROUGH HIS LIFE.

Here is something short about Francis Bacon’s influence on Roger.  Here are Bacon’s comments about: the separation of the church and state. This is long, but it shows that Bacon favored a separation between church and state.Roger must have read these words.

III.—OF UNITY IN RELIGION

 “….Concerning the means of procuring unity, men must beware that, in the procuring or muniting of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity and of human society. There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and temporal, and both have their due office and place in the maintenance of religion; but we may not take up the third sword, which is Mahomet’s sword, like unto it; that is, to propagate religion by wars, or, by sanguinary persecutions, to force consciences; except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or intermixture of practice against the state; much less to nourish seditions, to authorize conspiracies and rebellions, to put the sword into the people’s hands, and the like, tending to the subversion of all government, which is the ordinance of God; for this is but to dash the first table against the second, and so to consider men as Christians, as we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet, when he beheld the act of Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, exclaimed;—

“Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.”                                                           “To such heights of evil has religion been able to drive men.”

…..What would he have said, if he had known of the massacre in France,( St. Bartholomew Massacre 1572) or the powder treason of England? ….It was great blasphemy when the devil said, “I will ascend and be like the Highest but it is greater blasphemy to personate God, and bring him in saying, “I will descend, and be like the prince of darkness;” and what is it better, to make the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery of people, and subversion of states and governments….”  https://englishliterature.net/francis-bacon/of-unity-in-religion & https://usreligions.blogspot.com/2012/07/roger-williams-first-american-some.html

 

.WHEN ROGER WENT TO SCHOOL 1621-1628

          Here is part of Roger’s life which enhanced his prestige on his own.  Coke supported Roger to go to the prestigious Charterhouse School which had forty students. Coke supported him to go to Pembroke College, University of Cambridge.  Roger Williams impressed teachers and students in school.  He had a magnetic personality, and many times writers who  disliked his religious views,  all compliment him on is manor.

  When the students were registered, each registrant had a short description written in the registration book.   For, Roger, the only thing written was “Williams”

                                                                            

List of the people who Roger met while working as the Domestic Chaplain for the Masham family. 

      Here is a partial list of the men who visited Otes:

Ministers:  Thomas Hooker, John Eliot, Hugh Peter, John Preston, James Harrison, Nicholas Barnard, and more.

Members of Parliament and other politically active individuals:  John Hampden, who made country wide news in 1635 when he refused to pay the Ship Money tax, and his trial made lots of news,  John Bourchier(Regicide). Gilbert Gerard, Williams Meux, Francis Harris, Richard Everard, Oliver Cromwell (R), Oliver St. John, who marries Elizabeth Masham’s daughter from her first marriage, and John Pym often comes and stays at Otes. He goes on to fight with the Parliament army and dies in 1643 in battle. John Pym was one of the Five Members of Parliament who are going to be arrested by Charles I, Henry Ireton (R), Robert Barrington (MP), Edward Whalley was the son of Frances Cromwell,  an aunt of Oliver Cromwell.  His sister was Jane Whalley who was the lady that Roger wanted to marry.  She marries Rev. William Hooke, Henry Vane the Younger, 

 

 

Roger Williams started to work for Coke sometime in 1615.  Roger’s father and Coke worked out an arrangement where Roger would live in Coke’s residence. 

      At this time, everyone who was someone knew about Coke.  Why am I telling you this?  You cannot comprehend the life and work of Roger Williams without knowing Coke’s full life and work.  Roger worked six years of doing stenography for him. Also, during this time, Coke hired Puritan ministers for his properties.  Most RW experts believe that Coke remained a member of the Church of England.  He certainly supported Puritans.

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas

After that year, Sir Edward Coke became the biggest problem that James I had.  Here was a man who had served king and country for years, and he would lead a whole generation towards Civil War.   How come, no one talks about this?

I will add here that I will do a section on Francis Bacon.  He served both Elizabeth and James as one of their highest councilors.

 

 

 Here is what we are dealing with. 

Hundreds of people in England knew Roger Williams.