Newport was founded in 1639 on Aquidneck Island, another name given to Rhode Island. Its eight founders and first officers were Nicholas Easton, William Coddington, John Clarke, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, Jeremy Clark, Thomas Hazard, and Henry Bull. Many of these people were part of the settlement at Portsmouth, along with Anne Hutchinson and her followers. They separated within a year of that settling Portsmouth, so Coddington and the others began the settlement of Newport on the southern side of the island.