Atherton Trading Company
The Atherton Trading Company was formed in 1659; with Humphrey Atherton and John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut at the helm. Critics from the Colony of Rhode Island alleged that Humphrey Atherton had kept one signatory, the Narragansett sachem Pessicus’s younger brother drunk for several days and took him to Boston in order to secure perceived "rights" to the land at little expense. The company obtained a large tract of land north of Kingston, of land on Boston Neck, above Wickford. The Commissioners of the New England Confederation were opposed to the dissenters in Rhode Island, and  colluded with the Atherton Trading Company by imposing a heavy fine on the Niantic for an infraction by certain members of their tribe. This event became known as the Atherton Purchase. In 1660, commissioners of the New England Confederation, of whom John Winthrop, Jr. was one, transferred ownership of the mortgage of Pessicus's land to the Atherton Trading Company for 735 fathoms of Wampum. The company then foreclosed on the mortgage. The land included the Narragansett property within the bounds of the Colony of Rhode Island. Rhode Island found this transference of land to be illegal and prevented the  resale for several years. The list of proprietors dated Oct 13, 1660 also included Thomas Willett, later to be the first Mayor of New York City. The conflicting purchase claims were settled in 1679, after Humphrey Atherton’s death. His son Jonathan Atherton and Thomas Dean and all his rights to Narragansett Neck. The company, which by then had changed its name to "Proprietors of the Narragansett Country," eventually did sell of the land to Huguenot immigrants who began a colony there called Frenchtown. The Huguenots lost the land when, in 1688, a Royal Commission determined the Atherton claim to  be illegal. However the dispute remained ongoing in 1708. Neighboring land speculation. John Hull, along with other Boston Merchants acquired a land grant in 1657, south of Wickford, known as the Pettaquamscutt Purchase, (later South Kingstown) from the Indian sachems in 1657. Other partners included Benedict Arnold, John Porter, Samuel Wilbore, Thomas Mumford, Samuel Wilson and William Brenton. This preceded the Atherton Trading Company. It too was declared illegal by the Royal Commission of 1688. Some documents refer to there being an overlap with the two claims.