for her part she refused.” Roger Williams instructed the Providence residents to welcome them and "to walke wisely and justly towards them, so to make mercy eminent...." Coles occasionally fell out with his indigenous neighbors. In 1649, Nanheggen of Pawtuxet and Wesuontup of Mashapaug were accused of breaking into the Providence homes of Coles and Jane Sayers. Nanheggen, who was one of Coles's workers, was convicted by a jury while Wesuontup was acquitted. In 1652, Coles sold a mastiff dog to Ninigret, the sachem of the Niantic people. The dog ran away from Ninigret and returned to Coles who killed it, possibly to protect poultry or livestock. Coles was fined after Ninigret pressed charges. Family Robert Coles, whose ancestry remains unknown, was born probably in England. He and his first wife, Mary, appeared together for the first time in the records of the Roxbury church. Because Mary's death was recorded in an undated note in Roxbury church records, it is thought she died before he moved to Providence. His second wife, Mary Hawxhurst (–1656), was the daughter of Sampson Hawxhurst (1571–1627), vicar of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, and Elizabeth. After Robert Coles's death, Mary Hawxhurst married Matthias Harvey and moved to Oyster Bay on Long Island.Coles had at least seven children, four of whom were under 18 years of age when he died. His children by his first wife, Mary, were John Coles (m. Ann), Deliverance Coles (m. Richard Townsend), and Ann Coles (m. Henry Townsend). His children by his second wife, Mary Hawxhurst, were Daniel Coles (m. Mahershalalhasbaz Gorton, daughter of Samuel Gorton), Nathaniel Coles (m. Martha Jackson, Deborah Wright, Sarah Harcurt), Sarah Coles (m. Captain Thomas Townsend), and Captain Robert Coles Jr. (m. Mercy Wright). Coles died intestate in 1655 in Warwick, Providence Plantations. The Warwick town council settled his debts and distributed net assets of about £400 (about US$114,000 in 2022) to his heirs. The settlement included the sale of the "Mill of Warwick" and land in Pawtuxet to establish a trust worth £170 (about US$48,400 in 2022) for his minor children. Three of Coles's daughters married into the Townsend family. The Townsends came to Warwick after conflicts over religious liberty with authorities in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Ann Coles's husband, Henry Townsend, was fined and imprisoned more than once in New Netherland for hosting Quaker meetings and for political agitation. He signed the Flushing