The town was named after a British naval hero, Admiral Sir Peter Warren. Warren was the original site of the Indian village of Sowams and the home of Wampanoag Sachem Massasoit. As early as 1632, a trading post was established at Sowams by the Plymouth settlers. In 1636, Roger Williams, banished from Salem, fled to Sowams where he was sheltered by Massasoit until he settled at Providence. After the death of Massasoit, relations between the Indians and the settlers became strained, leading to King Philip's War in 1638. In the mid 1700s the town was well known as a whaling port, and ship-building became an important industry. The Revolutionary War seriously affected Warren's commercial prosperity, and the town suffered British raids in 1778 along with the rest of the region. Warren was the original home of Brown University, founded in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island. The school registered its first students in 1765. Brown was the Baptist answer to Congregationalist Yale and Harvard, Presbyterian Princeton, and Episcopalian Penn and Columbia. At the time, it was the only one of these schools that welcomed students of all religious persuasions (following the example of Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island in 1636 on the same principle). Within the decade after the Revolution commerce revived, and until the middle of the 19th century, Warren was famous for the fine vessels launched from its yards. These vessels, largely commanded by Warren men and operated by Warren crews, engaged in whaling, merchant service, and the West India trade. With the decline of the whaling industry and related seafaring commerce toward the middle of the 19th century, business attention turned to textile manufacturing. Warren's first cotton mill was erected by the Warren Manufacturing Company in 1847. Further mills and factories developed during and after the Civil War, attracting an immigrant work force. Presently Warren is home to several waterfront businesses such as Blount Marine, Blount Seafood, Anchorage Inc. (Dyer Boats), etc. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren%2C_Rhode_Island