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Shortly after the settlement of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636, the land within the present-day streets of Olney, Hope, Wickenden, and Main was known to have been the site of "shares" or "home lots" of five acres each belonging to Roger Williams and the other original settlers of the town. Because the precise location of these homesteads had remained in doubt for some time, Charles Hopkins undertook to pinpoint their location in this volume. Drawing on a small book from the year 1660 in the handwriting of Roger Williams, which the compiler discovered in the office of the City Clerk, he was able to resolve the mystery of the location and ownership of the home lots once and for all.

At the outset, The Home Lots recapitulates the settlement of Providence by Roger Williams and his followers, complete with transcriptions of the deed signed by Williams, Benedict Arnold, and the Sachems of the Narragansetts, as well as diagrams and related documents showing the division of the land into home lots. The balance of the volume consists of short biographical and genealogical essays of the following owners of the lots, virtually all of them containing references to the settlers' origins in England: Daniel Abbott, Thomas Angell, Benedict Arnold, William Arnold, Hugh Bewit, Chad Brown, William Burrows, William Carpenter, Robert Cole, Alice Daniels, Gregory Dexter, John Field, William Field, Adam Goodwin, John Greene, Sr., John Greene, Jr., Thomas Harris, William Harris, Edward Hart, William Hawkins, Ezekiel Holliman, Thomas Hopkins, Thomas James, John Lippitt, William Mann, Edward Manton, Thomas Olney, Thomas Painter, Nicholas Power, Widow Reeve, William Reynolds, George Rickard, Richard Scott, Jane Sears, John Smith, John Sweet, John Throckmorton, Joane Tyler, Christopher Unthank, Joshua Verin, Matthew Waller, John Warner, Richard Waterman, Robert West, Stukely Westcott, Francis Weston, Matthew Weston, William Wickenden, Francis Wickes, Robert Williams, Roger Williams, and Joshua Winson.