The McPherson Group

 

Coventry is the largest town in Rhode Island and is bordered to the north by Foster, Scituate, and Cranston; on the east by West Warwick; on the south by East and West Greenwich and on the west by Connecticut. It is believed that the original settlers were from Coventry, England.

The land that now makes up Coventry once belonged to the Narragansett Tribe of Indians. In 1642, however, Samuel Gorton and other men purchased it from the Indian Chief Miantonomi. They paid a price equal to 36 pounds of English money for the land, which encompassed the current day towns of Coventry, West Warwick, and most of the City of Warwick.

In 1677, after King Phillip’s War, the land in the western section began to be developed by a few pioneers. The many brooks and waterways were used to run gristmills and saw mills and by 1741 there were an estimated one hundred families living in the wilderness area, which is now Coventry. Because the seat of government was so far away in Narragansett, a petition was filed in 1741 for separation from the Town of Warwick. The boundary line was established in August, 1741. In 1800 Coventry was primarily an agricultural town, but as the century progressed the textile industry had its effect and many small textile mills were built along the Pawtuxet River. As the textile industry declined, so did the villages based around the mills, but a few of the mills are still present today.

Today Coventry remains the largest landmass in Rhode Island covering over 64 square miles and 2.6 miles of inland water. The western and central areas of Coventry are rural in nature but the eastern section is one of the most rapidly growing residential communities in the State.