Warwick (Rhode Island)

Warwick (Rhode Island), city in central Rhode Island. Warwick is located in Kent County, on Narragansett Bay, near Providence. It was the second largest city in the state, after Providence, at the 2000 census. The Theodore Francis Green Airport, the New England Institute of Technology (1940), and a community college are in the city. It is also the birthplace of Nathanael Greene, an American general in the American Revolution (1775-1783). Founded about 1642 by the English minister Samuel Gorton and known as Shawomet, the community was renamed in 1648 for Robert Rich, 2nd earl of Warwick. It was badly damaged during King Philip's War (1675-1676), a conflict between colonists and Native Americans (see Philip (Native American chief)). In an event foreshadowing the American Revolution, the British revenue ship Gaspée was burned nearby in Narragansett Bay by Americans in 1772. Population 87,123 (1980); 85,427 (1990); 85,808 (2000); 85,925 (2006).