Retired Providence College professor Keith Morton led a walk to Margaret’s Rock from his home on the Warren-Swansea border on August 2, 2025. The Rock is the purported location where Roger Williams was sheltered after his exile from Salem, MA in January, 1636 because of his “dangerous ideas” about the separation of the church and the state. Click here for a 40-minute video of Dr. Morton’s narrative on the walk.

(Above) Participants in the walk approach Margaret’s Rock and learn the story of how Williams was sheltered by the Massasoit Ousamequin for fourteen weeks while Pokanoket woman named “Margaret” by the English nursed him back to health before he went onto found Providence.

(Above) Morton reads the marker placed by the Roger William Family Association in 2011 after Sowams Heritage Area Project historian David Weed related how Williams wrote in his diary that “for fourteen weeks I knew neither bed nor board”, describing his stay at Margaret’s Rock.

(Above, left) Former senior director of policy at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island Eugenia Marks listens as Bob Paradis points out some of the marks on the Rock. (Above, center) An ancient oak tree that may have been alive at the time of Williams’ visit sits on the adjacent property. (Above, right) Members of the group learn about how some of the farmland is currently in use by Four Town Farm and the Rhode Island Food Bank.