Samuel Gorton

Samuel Gorton (1593–1677), was an early settler and civic leader of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and President of the towns of Providence and Warwick. He was also theologically active, and the leader of a small sect of converts known as Gortonists or Gortonites. He had strong religious beliefs that were contrary to the established Puritan dogma and was very outspoken, and as a result he was frequently in trouble with the civil and church authorities in the New England colonies.