Rhode Island colony was founded near present-day Newport, on what is now commonly called Aquidneck Island, the largest of several islands in Narragansett Bay.

It is unclear how Aquidneck Island came to be known as Rhode Island, although there are two popular theories.

The earliest documented use of the name " Rhode Island " for Aquidneck was in 1637, by Roger Williams.

The largest is Aquidneck Island, shared by the municipalities of Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth.

In 1638, after conferring with Williams, Anne Hutchinson, William Coddington, John Clarke, Philip Sherman, and other religious dissidents settled on Aquidneck Island ( then known as Rhode Island ), which was purchased from the local natives, who called it Pocasset.

A combined Franco-American force fought to drive them off of Aquidneck Island.

* August 29 – American Revolutionary War: The tactically inconclusive Battle of Rhode Island takes place, after which the Continental Army abandons its position on Aquidneck Island.

One of them, John Clarke, learned from Williams that Aquidneck Island might be purchased from the Narragansetts.

Also, by then, the settlers on Aquidneck Island had renamed their island " Rhode Island ".

Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States.

It is the largest city on Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay.

Aquidneck Island is home to many beaches, public and private.

* Secondary schools: Portsmouth Abbey School ( Portsmouth ), St. George's School ( Middletown ), Thompson Middle School, Rogers High School, Newport Area Career and Technical Center, Aquidneck Island Adult Learning Center.

The county consists of Aquidneck Island, Conanicut Island, Prudence Island, and the easternmost portion of the state on the mainland.

Route 177 runs west into Rhode Island linking Tiverton and Little Compton, and Aquidneck Island ( The Newport area / Newport County ) with the Fall River-New Bedford area.

Portions of the films Me, Myself and Irene, American General, Evening, Dan in Real Life and Moonrise Kingdom were filmed in Jamestown, as well as in various nearby Aquidneck Island towns, such as Middletown and Newport.

Master Gorton, having foully abused high and low at Aquidneck is now bewitching and bemaddening poor Providence, both with his unclean and foul censures of all the ministers of this country ( for which myself have in Christ's name withstood him ), and also denying all visible and external ordinances in depth of Familism: almost all suck in his poison, as at first they did at Aquidneck.

Newport State Airport, a public-use general aviation airport and the only airport on Aquidneck Island, is located in Middletown.

Tiverton is located on the eastern shore of Narragansett Bay, across the Sakonnet River from Aquidneck Island ( also known as the Island of Rhode Island ).

" Providence Plantations " refers to the mainland portion of the state which was originally all part of the town of Providence and " Rhode Island " referring to Aquidneck Island on which Newport is located.

Newport, the home of the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and a major United States Navy training center, is located at the south end of Aquidneck Island, on the ocean.

Aquidneck Island, located in the U. S. state of Rhode Island, is the largest island in Narragansett Bay.

The island's official name is Rhode Island, and the common use of name " Aquidneck Island " helps distinguish the island from the state.

It is recorded that the Narragansett Sachems, Canonicus and his nephew, Miantonomi, who were in control of the island at the time, signed a " deed " for Aquidneck Island.

Thus, Aquidneck Island may be one of the few places in the United States that is truly in keeping with Native traditions.

" Aquidneck " is derived from the Narragansett name for the island, aquidnet.

Other sources claim Aquidneck is a Native word meaning " Isle of Peace.

It is unclear how Aquidneck Island came to be known as Rhode Island.

Although it is unclear to which island Verrazzano was referring, the pilgrims who later colonized the area decided to apply the moniker " Rhode Island " to Aquidneck Island.

Another popular origin theory is based on the fact that Adriaen Block, during his 1614 expedition, passed by Aquidneck Island, described in a 1625 account of his travels as " an island of reddish appearance " ( in 17th century Dutch, " een rodlich Eylande ").

The entire State is now commonly referred to as " Rhode Island ", and the term " Aquidneck Island " is used commonly to refer to the island, even though the official name of Aquidneck is still " Rhode Island ".

At the turn of the 20th Century the site was home to Aquidneck Park, a horse racing track.

Next, the Aquidneck was infected with smallpox, leading to the death of three of the crew.

For about three years of that war, December 1776 – October 1779, Rhode Island proper ( now known as Aquidneck Island ) was occupied by the British.

Of over thirty islands in the Bay, the three largest ones are Aquidneck Island, Conanicut Island, and Prudence Island.

Edward A. Sherman Publishing Company, the family-owned publisher of the Daily News, also prints three free weekly newspapers in southern Rhode Island: Mercury, a Wednesday alternative weekly covering Bristol, Newport and Washington counties ; the Friday Newport Navlog, the U. S. Navy's oldest base newspaper ( founded 1901 ), covering Naval Station Newport ; and Ocean State Independent, mailed to non-Daily News subscribers on Aquidneck Island.

Unfortunately, when the parts of the colony were reunited, the Aquidneck towns refused to accept the law and it became a dead letter.

Jamestown and the towns on Aquidneck Island are sometimes known as " The Islands " along with Block Island.

Because of this, the island towns ignored the 1643 patent, and on 13 April 1644 the General Assembly of the two towns renamed the island from Aquidneck to the " Isle of Rhodes " or Rhode Island.

They then established the new colony of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island, also called Rhode Island, in the Narragansett Bay, later one of four towns comprising the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

He used local materials, salvaged materials from the Aquidneck and local workforce.

North-to-south cuts gouged by the ice can be seen clearly on the map: they form the West Passage that separates Conanicut Island from the western mainland and the East Passage that now separates Conanicut Island from Aquidneck Island.

During the American Revolution Aquidneck Island was occupied by the British from 1776 to 1779.

In 1637, the Baptist leader Anne Hutchinson purchased land on Aquidneck Island from the Native Americans, settling in Pocasset, now known as Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

The second of the plantation colonies on the mainland ( following Anne Hutchinson ’ s 1638 colony of Portsmouth and the 1639 colony of Newport founded by Coddington and Clarke ; both on Aquidneck or Rhode Island ) was Samuel Gorton ’ s Shawomet Purchase of 1642 from the Narragansetts.

Clarke learned from Roger Williams that Aquidneck Island ( Rhode Island ) was available, and he, William Coddington, and other settlers purchased it from the Narragansetts.

Hutchinson and her followers emigrated to Rhode Island in 1638, bought Aquidneck Island from the Native Americans, and founded the town of Pocasset ( now Portsmouth.

On the evening of May 24 he ordered a force of 500 British and Hessian soldiers under the command of the 22nd Regiment's Lieutenant Colonel James Campbell to march to the northern end of Aquidneck Island, from where they took whaleboats across to the mainland.

On 6 March 1650 Coddington presented his petition for an independent colonial government on Aquidneck Island, free from the claims of Plymouth and free from union with Providence.

Coddington was usually at odds with Roger Williams, who described him in a letter, several years after the founding of Portsmouth ( 1638 ) as, "... a worldly man, a selfish man, nothing for public, but all for himself and private ..." While highly critical of Coddington for obtaining a commission to govern Aquidneck Island separately from Providence and Warwick, Rhode Island historian and Lieutenant Governor Samuel G. Arnold had this to say of him: " He was a man of vigorous intellect, of strong passions, earnest in whatever he undertood, and self-reliant in all his actions.

Another tourist railroad, the Old Colony and Newport Scenic Railway operates on part of the former Old Colony Railroad network from Newport, Rhode Island on Aquidneck Island.

It separates Aquidneck Island from the eastern portion of Newport County.

In 1805, a charter was granted to the Rhode Island Turnpike corporation, which constructed a road from Portsmouth center to the Bristol Ferry at the north end of Aquidneck Island.