(Above) Roger Williams is recognized by a plaque and a list of “Old Boys” on the walls of the Charterhouse that he attended in the early 1620s. Williams grew up in Smithfiled in the early 1600s before moving to America in 1631.
Click here for a four-minute video about Williams’ early life in Smithfield, London. Click here for a 55-minute video of a tour of Smithfield. Click here for a web page and video about Roger Williams in England by Dr. Carrington-Farmer and John McNiff.
(Above) The Charterhouse, shown today and in the 18th century, was a boarding school founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Smithfield, London.
(Above) Smithfield established itself as London’s livestock market, remaining so for almost 1,000 years. Today, it is now London’s only remaining wholesale market in continuous operation since medieval times.
(Above and below, left) Part of the main entrance to the 13th century St. Barholomew’s Church with its half-timbered, late 16th-century, Tudor frontage remains at West Smithfield in the neighborhood where Williams grew up. Hundreds were burned at the stake in front of this church while Williams was a young boy.
(Above and below, right) Captain John Smith, who settled Jamestown in 1609, often returned to London’s St. Sepulcher-without-Newgate Church where Williams was christened in 1603, In 1616, Sir Thomas Dale, Deputy Governor of the Virginia Colony returned from Virginia with John Rolfe’s new bride, Pocahontas, who Smith met in 1607. Smith died in 1631, the same year Williams left for America, and was buried in the churchyard.
