William Arnold (settler) - Settling Providence and Pawtuxet

Settling Providence and Pawtuxet

Once in New England, Arnold joined a group of settlers from Hingham, Norfolk, England who were about to establish the new settlement of Hingham, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On 18 September 1635 the town of Hingham gave Arnold a 2-acre (8,100 m2) house lot "lying in the Town Street."

According to historian John Barry, William Arnold was banished from Hingham for reasons that were not religious, but the reason is not given, nor are any references. Years later, Arnold's son, Benedict, recorded in the family record, "Memm. We came to Providence to Dwell the 20th of April, 1636. per me Bennedict Arnold." The younger Arnold was using the place name of Providence loosely, since Providence had not yet been founded; the Arnolds actually settled with Roger Williams at Seekonk near the western edge of the Plymouth Colony (now Rehoboth, Massachusetts). That the Arnolds came here before arriving in Providence is borne out by a statement made by William Arnold in 1659: "for as much that I was one that the very first day entred with some others upon the land of providence, and so laid out my money to buy and helpe pay for it,..." The settlers could not remain in Seekonk, because Plymouth would then be harangued by Massachusetts for harboring its fugitives. The Plymouth governor Edward Winslow, gently urged Williams to move with his fellow settlers across the Seekonk River into the lands of the Narragansetts. Most historians agree that it was about June 1636 when the small group of settlers moved across the river, and settled on the bank of the Moshassuck River at a place that Roger Williams soon named Providence.

Arnold became one of the 13 original proprietors of Providence, and his initials appear second on the "initial deed" signed by Roger Williams in 1638, following the initials of his son Benedict's future father-in-law, Stukeley Westcott. He was assigned a house lot on what was later North Main Street, but his stay in this part of Providence was short. About 1638 he, his wife and children, his son-in-law William Carpenter, his nephew Thomas Hopkins and a few associates and all their families moved four miles (six km) south to the Pawtuxet River, at the far southern edge of Williams's Providence purchase. They settled at the ford where the Pequot Trail crossed the river, close to where the Warwick Avenue (US Hwy 1A/Hwy 117) bridge later crossed the river in the town of Cranston. Here Arnold remained until the end of his life. Though in some deeds he continued to be called "of Providence" after his move to Pawtuxet, this was before a dividing line had been created between the two localities, and he physically resided at the location called Pawtuxet.

William Arnold had been important to his church in England, and Samuel Gorton, in his work Simplicity's Defence..., wrote that Arnold had been a great professor of religion in the west of England. Once in the New World, Arnold became one of the original 12 members to organize the First Baptist Church in Providence in 1638. This church, founded by Roger Williams, was also the first Baptist church established in America.

Arnold had a good relationship with the native people, and in the words of Elisha S. Arnold, author of the family genealogy, "he felt for the Indians a conscientious kindliness and in his dealings with them was actuated by a sense of strictest justice." Also, like Roger Williams, he made an effort to learn their language and acted as interpreter many times, being paid, in one instance, 26 shillings for his services. Being able to communicate with the Indians, he was able to buy large tracts of land from them, and soon he and his sons owned nearly 10,000 acres (40 km2). In 1650 he paid more than three and a half pounds and his son Benedict paid five pounds, the highest taxes paid in the colony, implying that the Arnold family was among the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, families in the colony in terms of land holdings.