This North Kingstown island helped secure religious liberty in RI. Now, you can buy it.

NORTH KINGSTOWN – In 1638, two years after being convicted of heresy and banished from Massachusetts, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams found himself the recipient of an unusual gift.

But it came with an ulterior motive that involved a herd of pesky goats that was known for eating every plant in sight.

In 2024, Williams' gift can be yours, although you'll have to pay almost a million dollars for it. And it still comes with an ulterior motive, though the specifics of that detail have changed in the last 396 years.

What was this gift given to Roger Williams?

A small island off the coast of North Kingstown, in part of Wickford Harbor.

While Williams got it for free, today's asking price is $899,000.

How did Roger Williams get Rabbit Island?

After founding Providence, Williams turned his attention farther south and established an outpost to trade with the Narragansetts in a spot just north of what would become the modern-day village of Wickford. T he Narragansetts spent summers on Wickford Cove , in an area called Cocumscussoc, to take advantage of the plentiful clams and fish.

The story goes that Williams kept goats at his trading post and that his goats repeatedly got into the garden of one leader of the Narragansetts, according to Robert Rouse, a member of the board of the Cocumscussoc Association, which runs a museum at the site.

The leader was a woman called Quaiapen, though she has been known by several names, including Matantuck, Magnus, Queen Sachem, Old Queen and Watowswokotaus. Her mother was the sister of Canonicus, the Narragansett sachem who befriended Williams when he was driven out of Massachusetts. Quaiapen married one of the sons of Canonicus, making her tribal royalty two ways.

Quaiapen had a simple solution to keep the goats out of her garden: She gave Williams the roughly 9-acre island off Cocumscussoc.

Said Rouse: "She gave him the island with the stipulation that he keep his goats on the island."

What English settlers knew as Queen Island became Goat Island, and, later, Babbitt Island, after a family that became prominent in North Kingstown. Repeated mispronunciation, especially by area children, morphed the name into today's Rabbit Island, said Rouse.

How did Rabbit Island help secure religious liberty in RI?

Apparently, Roger Williams kept his goats on the island, because there's no story of further trouble with Quaiapen's garden, but he would own the island for less than 20 years before politics intervened.

After Williams journeyed to England in 1643, the British Parliament granted him a patent that gave legal standing to the Rhode Island colony. However, folks outside Providence, especially in Newport, weren't happy being lumped into the new colony. William Coddington obtained a commission to govern Aquidneck and Conanicut islands in 1651, effectively cleaving the colony in two.

That same year, Williams sold his holdings at Cocumscussoc, including Rabbit Island, to trading competitor Richard Smith. He used the proceeds to help finance a return trip to England, which, in 1663, resulted in King Charles II granting the Rhode Island charter that famously includes the words "to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained ... with a full liberty in religious concernments."

Who owns Rabbit Island now?

Around the beginning of the 20th century, the Babbitt family owned Cocumscussoc Farm, as the area, including the island, became known. The farm passed to the Fox family, and then, through bankruptcy, to Providence's Vesta Underwear Company, which sold it in 1947 to John A. Lawson. A month before he died in 1960, Lawson donated the farm, including the island, to the Cocumscussoc Association, which operates the Smith's Castle historic site, as the house that Richard Smith built after buying the land from Roger Williams became known.

Why is the Cocumscussoc Association selling Rabbit Island now?

"This is a funding mechanism," said Rouse, who added the association needs money as it changes how it manages Smith's Castle as a museum.

"We are really going in a different direction," he said. "We're getting much more into education."

Adding programs with titles such as "Lost Voices," the association wants to focus on marginalized populations, including indigenous and enslaved people who are part of Cocumscussoc's history.

The association hopes that the sale of the island – followed by, perhaps, a donation to a land conservation organization – will provide money to improve programs.

Now, the 8.93-acre island is little more something that takes resources to manage as kayakers and other boaters who visit – and leave litter.

"We can't go out there anyway on tours," said Rouse. "We look at it as a potential liability that we'd like to get rid of. We consider it an asset not really central to our mission."

Can Rabbit Island be used for anything?

Real estate broker Jeanne Smith Haroian, of RE/MAX Professionals in East Greenwich, who is one of the agents for the island, said it hasn't been surveyed to see what its elevation is, though Rouse said it's tall enough that parts of it are above water all the time.

"Whether it's really build-able or not, we leave to the experts to determine," said Rouse. "We do not know. There's a lot of wetlands around it."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: This North Kingstown island helped secure religious liberty in RI. Now, you can buy it.