Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, the first real democracy, was born in London, England about 1603. This is an estimated date based on rather vague references made by him in later years regarding his age. The parish records of St. Sepulchre's Church where he was christened were destroyed in the Great London Fire in 1666, so the exact date can not be determined.

    He was one of the four children of James Williams, merchant tailor, and his wife Alice, the daughter of Robert and Catherine (Stokes) Pemberton of St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England. Roger Williams grew up in the old Holborn section of London, near the great Smithfield plain, where fairs were held and religious dissenters were burned at the stake.

    While still a young, impressionable boy, he probably witnessed the last of these gruesome spectacles in 1611-12. His sympathies with the Puritan religious movement may well have been aroused at that time.