Founder of the State of Rhode Island, U.S., born in Wales; being a Puritan, fled the country to escape persecution, and settled in New England, where he hoped to enjoy the religious freedom he was denied at home, but was received with disfavour by the earlier settlers as, from his extreme views, a "troubler of Israel," and obliged to separate himself and establish a colony of his own, which he did at Providence by favour of an Indian tribe he had made friends of, and under a charter from the Long Parliament of England, obtained through Sir Henry Vane, where he extended to others the toleration he desired for himself; he was characterised by Milton, who knew him, as "that noble champion of religious liberty" (1600-1683).