The exhibit mentions nothing about Williams when he was the youngsters' age. Of his childhood, a biographical outline on the wall gives just the approximate date of his birth, as the second son of James and Alice Williams.
    The time is 1603; the place, London, England. One hundred and seventy two years will elapse before George Washington and the American colonists have their revolutionary fight with King George's army. William Shakespeare is alive and enjoying great success. Queen Elizabeth dies in March.
    This is a time of ferment in England. Heretics are burned at the stake. Protestantism in the form of the Church of England rules. Religion represents the great force of change that technology will be 350 years later.
    Sir Edward Coke, a strong Anglican, befriends Williams after spotting him as a bright young man recording sermons in shorthand in St. Sepulchre's Parish. Coke sends Williams to a preparatory school, Charterhouse, and then to Cambridge University. Cambridge is an orthodox Protestant place with a strong bent against the Puritanism that Williams soon will embrace. Centuries later, historians will puzzle over why at this time Williams began to favor the views of the liberal wing of the Church of England, and why he eventually became disillusioned with even the Puritan outlook.
    The Great Plague is killing many, but Williams escapes illness and graduates from Cambridge in 1627. Then he becomes the resident chaplain for a wealthy family. Here he lives amidst Parliament's Puritan leaders, including those interested in colonizing America. He meets Oliver Cromwell, the man who will become England's head of state. (Historians will later suggest that Williams was perhaps something of a social climber at this time.)
    As family chaplain, Williams lets his heart go out to one of his employer's relatives, Jane Whalley, and his early writings concern her. Lady Joan Barrington, her aunt -- and also that of Oliver Cromwell -- will not tolerate Williams's thoughts of love and marriage for her niece. In the spring of 1629, Lady Joan ends the whole matter abruptly.
    On realizing that he and Jane will never be married, Williams writes, "We hope to live together in the heavens, though ye Lord have denied that union on earth." By year's end, he finds another love, Mary Barnard. They marry, and within a year they have set sail on the Lyon for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On Feb. 5, 1631, Gov. John Winthrop greets the Lyon in Nantasket, south of Boston, after a 57-day voyage. Winthrop's greeting is mostly for the cargo of salt pork and salt beef. Still, he notes in his journal that among the 20 passengers there are "a godly minister" and his wife. Roger was 27; Mary, 21.