How did Rhode Island come into being?

An early English settler in North America was a clergyman, Roger Williams. He disagreed with the Puritan form of religion, and eventually was ordered back to England. Instead of obeying, he slipped away, bought some land from an Indian tribe and founded his own colony in 1636. Others seeking religious freedom joined him and soon four communities were thriving. Williams went to England and obtained a Charter which enables him to join the four settlements together into a loose federation which came to be known as ‘Rhode Island’.