 The situation was more complicated along the border with Rhode Island . Roger Williams settled in the area of Rehoboth in 1636 , near modern Pawtucket . He was forcibly evicted in order to maintain Plymouth 's claim to the area . Williams moved to the west side of the Pawtucket River to found the settlement of Providence , the nucleus for the colony of Rhode Island , which was formally established with the " Providence Plantations Patent " of 1644 . Various settlers from both Rhode Island and Plymouth began to settle along the area , and the exact nature of the western boundary of Plymouth became unclear . The issue was not fully resolved until the 1740s , long after the dissolution of Plymouth Colony itself . Rhode Island had received a patent for the area in 1693 , which had been disputed by Massachusetts Bay Colony . Rhode Island successfully defended the patent , and a royal decree in 1746 transferred the land to Rhode Island along the eastern shore of the Narragansett Bay , including the mainland portion of Newport County and all of modern Bristol County , Rhode Island . The border itself continued to be contested by Massachusetts , first as a colony and later as a state , until as late as 1898 , when the boundary was settled and ratified by both states . 
