William Coddington

William Coddington (c. 1601 – 1 November 1678) was an early magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and later of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving as the Judge of Portsmouth, Judge of Newport, Governor of Portsmouth and Newport, Deputy Governor of the entire (four-town) colony, and then Governor of the colony. Born and raised in Lincolnshire, England, he accompanied the Winthrop Fleet in its voyage to New England in 1630, becoming an early leader in Boston. Here he built the first brick house, and became heavily involved in the local government as an assistant, treasurer, and magistrate.

Being fairly liberal in his political and religious views, he supported the dissident minister, Anne Hutchinson, whose religious opinions led to her banishment from the Massachusetts colony. Being politely dismissed from the colony, he was the lead signer of a compact to form a Christian based government away from Massachusetts. Encouraged by Roger Williams to settle on the Narragansett Bay, he and other supporters of Hutchinson bought Aquidneck Island of the Indians, and settled there, establishing the town of Pocasset, later named Portsmouth. He was named the first "Judge" of the colony, a Biblical term for Governor. A division in the leadership of this town occurred within a year, and he left with several others to establish the town of Newport at the south end of the island.

In short time, the towns of Portsmouth and Newport united, and Coddington was made, by continuous election, the governor of the island towns from 1640 to 1647. During this period, Roger Williams had gone to England to obtain a patent to bring the four Narragansett towns of Providence, Warwick, Portsmouth, and Newport under one government. Done without the consent of the island towns, these two towns resisted joining the mainland towns until 1647. Though Coddington was elected President of the united colony in 1648, he would not attend the meeting, and complaints against him prompted the presidency to go to Jeremy Clarke. Very unhappy with Williams' patent, Coddington returned to England where he was eventually able to obtain a commission, separating the island from the mainland towns, and making him governor of the island for an indefinite period. While initially welcomed as governor, complaints from both the mainland towns and members of the island towns prompted Roger Williams, John Clarke and William Dyer to go to England to have Coddington's commission revoked. Being successful, Dyer returned with the news in 1653, but disagreements kept the four towns from re-uniting until the following year.

With the revocation of his commission, Coddington withdrew from public life, focusing on his mercantile interests, and becoming a member of the Religious Society of Friends. After nearly two decades away from politics, he was elected Deputy Governor in 1673, then Governor the following year, serving two one-year terms. The relative calm of this period was shattered during his second year as governor of the colony, when King Philip's War erupted in June 1675, becoming the most catastrophic event in Rhode Island's colonial history. Though not re-elected in 1676, he was elected to a final term as governor of the colony in 1678 following the death of Governor Benedict Arnold. He died just a few months into this term, and was buried in the Coddington Cemetery on Farewell Street in Newport.

While criticized as being self-centered, and putting personal desires ahead of public concerns, Coddington was an able and competent administrator, and frequently the elected choice of the colony's freemen. Only a small number of governors and magistrates served for a comparable amount of time as the leader of the Rhode Island colony.

Read more about William Coddington:  England and Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Death, Family and Legacy