John Coggeshall

John Coggeshall (1601 – 27 November 1647) was one of the founders of Rhode Island and the first President of all four towns in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Coming from Essex, England as a successful merchant in the silk trade, Coggeshall arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632 and quickly assumed a number of roles in the colonial government. In the mid 1630s he became a supporter of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson. When Hutchinson was tried as a heretic in 1637, Coggeshall was one of three deputies who voted for her acquittal. Hutchinson was banished from the colony in 1638, and the three deputies who voted for her acquittal were also compelled to depart.

Before leaving Boston, Coggeshall and many other Hutchinson supporters signed a compact in March 1638 agreeing to form a government based on the individual consent of the inhabitants. They then established the new colony of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island, also called Rhode Island, in the Narragansett Bay, later one of four towns comprising the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Coggeshall was once again very active in civil affairs, but a rift in the leadership of the colony caused him and several other leaders to leave in 1639, and move to the south end of the island, establishing the town of Newport. The two towns of Portsmouth and Newport reunited in 1640 under the leadership of William Coddington, and Coggeshall was his assistant until 1647 when the two towns of Rhode Island united to form a common government with the towns of Providence and Warwick, and Coggeshall was elected President of the entire colony of four towns. His tenure was very short due to his death later the same year, but during his administration many excellent laws were established, becoming the legal basis for both the colony and state of Rhode Island.