The Cornell family of New England and New York began with the arrival from Saffron Walden, Essex, England of Thomas Cornell in Rhode Island in Boston in the 1630s. Cornell was a contemporary of Anne Hutchinson and was compelled to leave Puritan Boston due to the Antinomian Controversy for Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where he connected with Roger Williams. He was one of the earliest settlers of what was called Westchester, New York. Cornell was the progenitor of generations of leaders in law, academia, business, politics, and the arts. Descendants of this family include Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University, Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, photographer Alice Austen, and Bill Gates, among many others.