Coddington
WILLIAM, the founder of the colony of Rhode Island; born in England, in 1601, and arrived in Massachusetts in 1630. He remained in 1 CODE Boston for several years, but disagreements with the authorities caused him to remove in 1638 to Aquidneck, or Rhode Island, where he founded a colony to be governed "by the laws of the Lord Jesus Christ." This scheme was soon abandoned, and in 1640 he himself was chosen governor. He was unable to secure the reception of Rhode Island into the colonial confederacy. In 1674 and 1675 he was again elected governor. He died in 1678.