Portsmouth and Newport) and for the smaller neighboring island of Conanicut (later Jamestown), with him as governor. Vane gave his consent to this, thus annulling the patent given to Roger Williams several years earlier. He thought that Coddington would be a wise and effective chief magistrate and permitted him to serve as governor for an indefinite period, subject to the will of Parliament. To complete the government, Coddington was to have a council of six men, elected by popular vote of the freemen. Coddington spent nearly three years in England, and he met and married Anne Brinley while there. She was the daughter of Thomas Brinley, auditor to Kings Charles I and Charles II, and sister of Francis Brinley, who settled in Newport in 1652 and built a large structure that later became the White Horse Tavern on land he obtained from the Coddingtons. In August 1651, Coddington returned to the island. Henry Bull of Newport said that he was welcomed upon his return from England, and that the majority of people accepted him as governor. With his new commission, Coddington once again unsuccessfully sought a place for Rhode Island in the New England Confederation, consisting of the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. Most writers and historians consider Coddington's efforts to be treasonous, particularly those writers who are sympathetic to the Providence and Warwick settlers, including Samuel G. Arnold. Historian Thomas Bicknell, on the other hand, takes a minority position by suggesting that Coddington's actions were totally justified, and he accuses Roger Williams of usurping Coddington's successful island government with the Patent of 1643. Bicknell asserts that Coddington had been the chief magistrate of a flourishing island of nearly 1,000 inhabitants, while the combined population of Providence and Warwick was about 200. In Bicknell's view, Roger Williams went to London in 1643, without advice or instructions, and returned in September 1644 with a patent for the colony, without the knowledge or consent of the island population. Regardless, the island government resisted the patent for several years until 1647, when they yielded to the patent and merged with the mainland government. Revocation of commission Criticism soon arose concerning Coddington. The venerable Dr. John Clarke voiced his opposition to the island governor, and he and William Dyer were sent to England as agents of the discontents to get the Coddington commission revoked. Simultaneously, the mainland towns of Providence and