Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/233

CHAPTER XVI INCORPORATION OF BARRINGTON. Swansea Foundation Principles — The Congregational Element — Reasons for a New Church and Town — Attitude of the Bay Colony — Petition of People on " The Westward End of Swansea " — Oppo- sition of Swansea — Remonstrance of Town — Hearing Before the General Court — Decision Adverse — Second Petition — Action of Town — Final Action of Court in 1717 — New Town Called Barring- ton — Wh' so Named. SWANSEA was incorporated in 1667, on the broad prin- ciples of civil and religious freedom ; the town protected religious institutions but did not maintain them. The sym- pathy for Mr. Myles and his associates, who had suffered persecution in Wales and in the Bay Colony, had allied to his church many of Congregational beliefs and tendencies. Of these were the Browns, the Willetts, and others who were drawn to the support of the church by Mr. Myles's liberal views, inasmuch as he not only tolerated, but practised infant baptism and received pedobaptists to the sacraments of the church. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had protested with- out avail to her sister colony, Plymouth, whose mild treatment of the Baptists was occasion of great anxiety to the orthodox brethren at Boston, including the Mathers and the Wilsons. With the exception of Governor Prince, who was not as lib- eral as the others, the government at Plymouth was in gen- eral accord with the experiment of a Baptist Church in the colony and v/as willing to tolerate it, provided it did not menace the rights and privileges of "the standing order" in the community. The Browns and Willetts stood as a pro- tecting wall between Mr. Myles and his enemies in both col- onies. They saw the injustice of requiring the whole people to be taxed for the support of any church, as was the cus-