Scope and Content Note
The records of the Rhode Island General Assembly span the years 1653-1747. They consist of two separate groups of minutes, acts, and proceedings of Rhode Island’s colonial legislature sitting at various towns. One set dated 1653-1747, provides almost unbroken chronological coverage of General Assembly affairs. The second group is dated 1699-1700, 1704, 1731, and 1744-1747.
Providence united with the towns of Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick in 1647 to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. In 1663, King Charles II granted Rhode Island a second royal charter providing for the greatest degree of local self-government of any English colony. These records document the legislative and judicial histories of the four towns as well as the colony as a whole.