Rhode Island
Historical Society
Collections
Vol. XXXII
JANUARY, 1939
^^ fW^^
PEWTER FACTORY OF G. RICHARDSON AT THE CORNER PHENIX AVENUE AND NATICK ROAD IN CRANSTON, R. I.
Si'f Fcrgc' 1.
Photograph hx Mr. P. J . Franklin
Issued Quarterly
68 Waterman Street, Providence, Rhode Island
CONTENTS
pac;l;
G. Richardson, Cranston Pewterer
by Madelaine R. Brown, M.D. . . Cover & 1
Coojoot, a Graphite Mine
by Paul Francis Gleeson
The Journal of Capt. Tillinghast
The Records of Rhode Island
bv Edward H. West . . . . . 16
List of Members ...... 27
New Publications . . . . . . 32
Notes ........ 32
RHODE HISTORICAL
ISLAND
SOCIETY
COLLECTIONS
Vol. XXXIl
JANUARY, 1939
No. 1
Harry Parsons Cross, President William Davis Miller, Secretary
Robert T. Downs, Treasurer Howard M. Chapin, Librarian
The Society assumes no responsibility for the statements or the opinions of contributors.
G. Richardson, Cranston Pewterer
By Madelaine R. Brown, M.D.
G. Richardson has puzzled collectors of American pewter for many years. The name appears with both a Cranston and Boston touchmark and it has been assumed that he worked in both places. "Glennore Company" which appears on some pieces with "Cranston" remains shrouded in mystery. George Richardson can be found in Boston records from 1818-1830 and it is known where he lived and worked and that he died in 1830 at the age of 83\ The Cranston and Providence county records, however, have yielded no information until recently a George W. H. Richardson was found in the Cranston Tax Book for 1 860. He paid $1.50 on personal property worth $300.00. He does not appear either in the 1857 or 1870 book.
This information is due to Mrs. M. B. Nickerson of Cranston who had known a member of the Richardson family. She had been told where the factory was situated and that Mr. Richardson had failed in business. The fac-
^ Watkins, L. W. "George Richardson, Pewterer" Antiques 31:19+ April 1937.
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OLD PICTURE G. RICHARDSON S PEWTER FACTORY IN CRANSTON, R. I.
tory was used later for other purposes but must have been deserted by 1885 as shown by the engraving made at that time (picture above). The old mill stands by a brook between a waterfall and bridge along with two factory houses at the corner of Natick and Phenix Avenues, Crans- ton. The side walls are standing but not the end walls or roof (picture on cover).
The sugar bowls, tea pots, pint pot and pitcher bearing the Cranston mark are well made but appear to be of a late design and could hardly have been made before 1818 by the Boston G. Richardson. It therefore seems evident ihat there were two American pewterers by the name of George Richardson and whether they were related or not remains unknown.
v^
COOJOOT — A GRAPHITE MINE 3
Coojoot — A Graphite Mine Located in South Kingstown
Paul Francis Gleeson
On the west bank of the Narrow River between Middle Bridge and Bridgeton is located Side Hill Farm/ Here, in the town of South Kingstown, is the traditional site of the black lead or graphite mine called Coojoot.'
It has been alleged that the Indians made use of the graphite outcroppings in days before the coming of the white men — possibly as a source for a blacking material. The first mention of this black lead, or as it was sometimes referred to "black earth," is to be found in the writings of Roger Williams. In the "Key into the Language of America" he records the Indian word "Metewis" meaning "black earth."'' At the same time he makes a note of an Indian town named "Metewemesick"* as being situated in western Massachusetts. Trumbell, in editing a later edition of the "Key" interprets "black earth" as referring to plum-
^ In order to reach the mine site it is necessary, after leaving the road, to scramble over a gate and, crossing a field, to climb the hill for a short distance.
" There are at least three variants in the spelling of this word. a). On page 13 of his "Indian Names of Places in Rhode Island" Usher Parsons uses "Cajoot." b). "Cojoot" is used by Sidney S. Rider in "The Lands of Rhode Island as the Great Sachems Knew Them" page 140. It might be of interest to note that Mr. Rider misquotes Dr. Parsons to whom he attributes the spelling "Cajout." Dr. Parsons gives the name of the black lead mine as "Cajoot" [see above a).]. Rider page 141 c). On page 27 5 of Potter's "Early Histor}' of Narragansett" we find "Coojoot." The writer has used this third form as that is the one found in Potter's transcript of the first Pettiquamscut Deed.
^ Williams, Roger "Key into the Language of America", 1936 edition page 192.
^ Ibid.
///
4 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
bago or graphite/' In the same note he shows that in colo- nies other than Rhode Island there was an interest in the possible commercial exploitation of this mineral, — "In 1644, John Winthrop, Jun., had a grant of the hill at Tantousq, about 60 miles westward (from Boston), in which the black-leade is.""
This aforementioned deposit would probably be located somewhere near the town of Sturbridge, formerly an im- portant center for graphite.
The exact purpose for which the Indians used graphite is unknown. It is quite possible that it was used for color- ing purposes. Williams' references to "black earth" are included in his chapter entitled "Of their paintings." Here he writes, —
"They paint their Garments, &c.
The men paint their Faces in Warre.
Both Men and Women for pride, &c."'
And further, —
"It hath been the foolish Custome of all bar- barous Nations to paint and hgure their Faces and Bodies (as it hath been to our shame and griefe, wee may remember it of some of our Fore-Fathers in this Nation.)""
Still quoting from Williams we find that the Indians had the word "Mowi-sucki,"" meaning black. It is entirely possible then from the above that black might have been discovered occupying an important place in a seventeenth century Indian make-up box. It is also possible that the ingredients for this tinting preparation might have come from some black lead mine — possibly from Coojoot. If these suppositions be true we should not, following Wil-
^ Narragansett Club Publications, Vol. 1 page 207 n 367.
^ Ibid.
^Williams, op. cit. page 191.
Mbid. page 192.
■•^ Ibid, page 191.
COOJOOT A GRAPHITE MIXE 5
liams, refer to the Indians as "barbarous" for the term "fashionable" would be more suitable. In support of this we offer the following quotation taken from a contem- porary book, —
"He could not bear the sight of his own grey hairs, and therefore used a black-lead comb to discolor them."^"
Although the Indians may very well have had other sources for their graphite, the deposit at Coojoot seems to have been fairly well known in the middle sixteen hundreds. It is specifically referred to in the first Pettiquamscut Deed dated January 20, 1657 where we find that, —
"They also grant them all the black lead in this title and in a place called Coojoot.""
Both Judge Potter and Sidney Rider locate the above men- tioned deposit as being near the Pettiquamscut Rock and at the foot of Tower Hill.'' These requirements fit the situation of Side Hill Farm upon which is found the tradi- tional site of Coojoot.
The mention of the word Coojoot in the Pettiquamscut Deed is the only extant use of that word in the seventeenth century. The most probable explanation for this may pos- sibly be inferred from the following quotation taken out of a letter sent by John Winthrop to his son Fitz-John in England. Under the date of September 12, 1658 he writes from Boston, —
" — there is some blacklead digged, but not so much as they expected, it being very difficult to gett out of the rocks, which they are forced to break with fires, the rocks being very hard and not to be entered further than the fire maketh way, so as the charge hath beene so greate in dig-
^° Murray's Oxford English Dictionary, "V'ol. 1, pt. 2, page 894. ^^ Potter, E. R., "Early History of Narragansctt", page 275.
Rider, op. cit. pages 141-142.
6 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ging of it that I am like to have no profit by the same."^"
Although this does not refer to Coojoot, we can well imag- ine the same situation existing here in Rhode Island. The crude methods of extraction and the low quality of the graphite may have operated in such a way as to prevent the profitable exploitation of the deposit. It is certain that if Coojoot had been operated profitably there would have been many more references to it than have been found.
To find the next reference to these graphite deposits it is necessary to come down to 1 840. In this year Charles T. Jackson's "Report on the Geological and Agricultural Survey of the State of Rhode Island" contained the fol- lowing,—
"Tower Hill, in Kingston. Plumbago is found here in several places and has been wrought to some extent for supplying moulding dust for iron founders. Thirty tons of this substance have been raised at one time by digging only four feet into the rocks in the orchard, upon the hill side."^*
It may be inferred from the above that these deposits were worked to some extent for the benefit of local industry. Once again, however, it is probable that these operations were not on any large scale, possibly owing to the afore- mentioned profit angle.
Over half a century was to pass before another serious attempt was to be made at operating this mine. On Sep- tember 9, 1887 Jesse V. B. Watson sold the Side Hill Farm, which he had inherited from his ancestors, to a Mrs. Emma Carver. During her ownership Mrs. Carver executed a mining franchise to a graphite company which hoped to work the deposits. It is believed that this com-
^^ Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Fifth Series, \'ol. \ III, pages 49-50.
^* Jackson, C. T., "Report on the Geological and Agricultural Survey of the State of Rhode Island", 1840, page 89.
COOJOOT A GRAPHITE MINE 7
pany was responsible for extending and deepening the shafts as well as installing a narrow gauge railway to con- nect them. Although some mining was done and although an effort was made to float stock or bonds on the New York market, the venture was unsuccessful due to the heavy expense involved and the small chance for profit.
Side Hill Farm changed owners again when on October 9, 1908 it was purchased by Thomas G. Hazard, Jr. of Narragansett from Charles Carver and J. Henry Carver, Executors under the will of Emma Carver. A few years later during the World War when mineral prices were high some slight interest was shown in the possibility of reopening the mine. Once again, even in a period of boom prices, it was decided that the mine could not be operated profitably. Since the War the mine has been left undis- turbed and bushes and weeds have gradually begun to hide it from public view.' '
^'' Information contained in a letter to the writer from Mr. Thomas G. Hazard, jr., dated November 15, 1938.
8 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Journal of Capt. Tillinghast'
Thursday Providence Aug 23'^ 1804
At 7 "Clock started on our journey from R. Durfee arrivid at Fisher Tavern 1 5 Miles avery rougf stone & hilly, started @ Syz "^Clock: arivid at Eatons in Plainfield @ 7^ "Clock 15 miles the chief part of the rode good 30 miles
24th Started at 6^ "Clock Canterbury 4 miles situated on a plesent Hill Scotland meating house 6 miles Windham 4 miles the County Town arrived at Staniford (aj 10 "Clock rode good but very hilly the first 10 m. the land poor and full of small round stone found Wind- ham a very pleasent & handsome Town being Court day started at 12 "Clock pased over Windham Brige land poor for some distance at 3 "Clock stops @ J. Roses Tavern 1 0 miles from Windham past over Willymat- tock Brige the river being low saw that the bend of the river was entirely a flatt rock saw some good meadow
1. Capt. William E. Tillinghast, the author of this interesting, though hardly important, journal was a native of Providence. He was engaged in the West Indian trade during the last quarter of the eighteenth and the first two decades of the nineteenth centuries. At various times he was owner or part owner In many vessels, including the ship Fciir American, the brigs Hunter, Planter, Argus and Commerce, and the schooner Polly. He was on board the Planter when, as he expresses it, she "upset" off the coast of North Carolina.
Tillinghast was a descendant of Pardon Tillinghast who settled in Frenchtown during the latter years of the seventeenth century and would seem to have spent a good deal of his time ashore in that part of the state. He married Amey Mawney daughter of Pardon and Experience (Gardi- ner) Mawney of Frenchtown. It was to visit his wife's relations that this journey to New York State was made.
The journal is preserved in both its rough form and the rewritten "fair" copy. There are certain variations between the two, some of which are herewith noted. Capt. Tillinghast's life at sea is evidenced by much of the phraseology of the writing — but it cannot account for his erratic spelling. His ships papers and ledgers &c. are now in the John Carter Brown Library. W. D. M.
THE JOURNAL OF CAPT. TILLINGHAST 9
land on the banks of the river the up land in generall poor, at 5^ "Clock started from Roses in the town of Coventy in Tollon County for Woodbureys {Tavern)
34 East Hartford 1 0 miles arrived at 8 "Clock avery pleas- ent place and a good house & fare come down one every Steap hill rode narrow and high mountain on both sides
25th Started at 6^ "Clock arrived at Goodwins in the Capital of East Harford at 8 "Clock 8 miles and one from the Ferrey not any thing of good fare a very handsome place streat wide with a row of Elm trees in the midle. started at %V2 "Clock to the Ferrey 1 mile crosed the Ferrey which was much narrower then I expected to have found arrived at Lee's Tavern Har- ford City at 10 "Clock found it a much larger place then expect'^ and avery elegent Court House Business appeard to be brisk, started from Lee's at 3 "Clock a very poor fare for a City Tavern Stop*^ at Windsor at A-^A "Clock 7 miles started at 5 "Clock arrived at Suffield Col. Kent's lA mile south of the Meating house @ 7^ "Clock miles/Sixes Stage House/ the rodes good and land chief part of the way very sandy & poor timberd with Pines W. Burch & shrub Oak for 4 miles no house
Sunday 26th Started at 6 "Clock for Westfield through Springfield whare are plenty of Orchards and trees full of frute the hrst part of the rode good the latter part very bad crost over the Toll Brige and kep the river rode and the worst since our departure arrived at Eldriges Stage office Westfield @ 9]^ "Clock liy. miles it raining fast put up for the remainder of the day. N.B. enquire of Westfield feading Hills" to avoid the North Hampton rode or you will goe 20 miles further to Albaney then is necsary
27. Started at 9 "Clock after being well entertaind pro- ceded on the rode to beckett up the river Turnpike
2. \Vh;it are "feading Hills?"
10 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
rode to Pittsfield clost on the bank of the river and a very good rode arrived at Chester Whave is a very- good store of goods kept took the left hand rode stop at E. Leonard's G, mountains whare we could get nothing but damag'' shad'' & potatoes rest'' the Horses arrived at 1 "Clock 1 8 miles started at 3^^ °Clock started @ 3y2 "Clock arrived at Nobles at 6 "Clock in the Town of Washington rainy afternoon and poor Fare NB this day came over the Green mountains which has the appearence of the uncleard mountains of the west Indies and some very high the chief parts of this days ride through mountains but the rode much better than could be expect^
28th Started at 6JX "Clock for Mericks in Pittsfield arrived at 8>^ "Clock 38 miles from Westfield Reading Hills came down one steap Hill 1 mile Long in the valley Pittsfield is situated a very pleasent place and land good, found good far. Started at 10 'Clock at 12j/2 "Clock arriv'd at Colts in Lebenon a good Hour clost by the Springs went up and took a view of them and aperd to be good Boarding came over a mountain S'^ to be 1 34 "^ilc ^'"id ""i some places very steap walk up when on top ther is one of the handsomest prospect that I ever^saw the farms abought Lebenon laying on the side of a hill opposite the mountain walk'' down hill it being so steap did not think it safe to ride and gave us a good swet it being very hot 7j/2 miles from Mer- icks. started from Colts at 3^ "Clock a good hour, arrived at Coons 20 miles at 9 "Clock a dam'' Durty ugly house and no accomadations. N.B. 2 miles farther towards the City of Albany is a very good house rodes good
29th Started at 63^ "Clock crost the Ferrey arrived at Skin- ners in Albaney at 8^ "Clock pleasent Weather 7 miles much disapponted in the vew of the City the harbour
3. Rough copy states: "dined upon dam bad shad and potatoes . . . ."
C S. DEMAREST. \
^ ^^'^'O^'^-.,.
^ — 1^^^
/ UNION \
I COFFEE- !•
\ HOUSE. /
K -^ =.^
FORMERLY SIGN OF THE LION,
WATERFOKD^SARATOGA COUNTS.
12 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
is avery handsome elbow the Wharves all join except three gap ways for people to land a great many good stores on the whaves a great maney old fashion Dutch Buildings some handsome Churches Started at 3 "Clock arrived at Pearces in Troy at 4 °Clock a very pleasent place and good stores hear we crost the Ferrey 6 miles from Albaney started at 6 "Clock for Lanungburg arrivd at Johnson & Judsons Taven a good house 3 miles from Troy
30th at 6 "Clock stated crost the ferrey at Waterford whare is amost capitall Brige a building 4 arches proceded up to the Cohows on the Mohowk river took avew of the Falls the Banks on each side very high and allmost perpendicular the rock that forms the fall is allmost in a streight line cross the river after takeing a vew returnd to Warterford to Breckfast at S. Demarest Union Coffee House, at 9 "Clock started for Ballstown 20 miles stop at "^ tavern a poor house at
SY2 "Clock arrived at Jesse Patchen a bought one half mile to the Northward of the Court House found it a plesant place and land good —
31st This morning took in M" Mawney^ and started for Ballstown springs 2 miles at which place found Moses Titcomb Esq"" of S' Croix all most dead so low that scarsly to be under stood took a Drink of warter vew'' the place whare are a number of most elegent Bording Houses then proceded on for Saritoga 1 2 miles put up at M'' Lees inn took a drink of warter vew*^ the spring & Bathing house dined took M''* H. Tillinghast" and proced on to Northumberland. M'' Mawney & Almey"
+. The omission is Tillinghast's.
5. His wife's sister-in-law, wife of Peter Mawney (LeMoine) who died in Moreau, Saratoga County, New York in 1 868 aged 95.
6. Mrs. Hannah (Mawney) Tillinghast wife of Nicholas (NT). After his death she married Jeffrey Davis of Davisville, being his second wife.
7. Mrs. William E. Tillinghast.
14 RHODE ISLAXD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
returnd to Ballstown arrived early in the eavning at Cap' P. L. Mawney* at Beach mapple wood 12 miles found Peter & Nickholas welP. Nichlas building a new House found a much plesent a place then I expect"^ the rodes good but too narrow for our Carage the stumps interfering and the cross ways of logs maney of which we had to cross joilting most teribbey of which M"^* Tillinghast Complaind the land of clay and coverd with a very thin mould. Timber Pine Hemlock & mapple.
Sep'' P' This day walking round vewing the Cuntry at 9 °Clock tackled up went to sea Elisha Reynolds^° on the Bank of the North River 3 mile the bed of the river apperd to be entirly a flatt rock the river low and narrow a plenty of mud Tortoise found M' Reynolds a very agreable man returnd at 12^ "Clock this after- noon a Justic Court held by Major Scovill at which a great many assembl'^ and murderd Rum without dis- cretion found the Cuntry dry and very poor warter in generall So Ends this day
2d this day begins with very foggey morning (^ 9 "Clock clear & warm went to meating @ the School House clost at hand at 2 P M started for Glans Falls 8 miles one of the gratest curiositys that I have sean a number of Saw mills a good Brige and a wild looking place at 7 "Clock returnd Home and went to bed Monday Sep*" 3*^ This day begins with a foggey morning the midle part clear and very hot the latter part cloudy with light rain
Tuesday 4"' Sept. This day at 10 "Clock started for Ballstown 22 miles stop at Homes & Kamp at Congress springs went to vew the same found then the most curios of any that I had sean their being a hole in the
8. Possibly son of Peter named Pardon (P. L. M.)
9. See notes 5 and 6
10. Descendant of Col. Elisha Reynolds of South Kingstown.
THE JOURNAL OF CAPT. TILLIXGHAST 15
top of a Rock abought 10 or 12 Inches diameter and four feet deep whare we baled out the warter after diner started for Ballstown springs found on enquirey that M. Titcomb dec*^ on Saturday morning at 2 "Clock from thence to M'' Patchens whare I found Almey well that the spring warter would not answer for her to make use off
Wednesday 5th This day went down to ball town Court House to Traning took a vew of the Rigment returnd to M'" Patchens to diner and from their home and maid ready for a start in the morning
Thursday 6*^' This morning turnd out at day light got Brackfast and started for Northumberland leaving Amey at M''" Patchen to recute arrived at 2 "Clock 20 miles
Friday 7. this fornoon employd in cleaning Harness & Chase weather hott & dry — this afternoon went up to vew Fort Edward on the E. side of the N river found the remains of a large fort which appeard to be built of wood & dirt abought 20 feet high and a trench of the same width. 5 miles
Saturday 8. This day went to Gen'' Training at M*"" Hinckley's abought 600 Troops girls plenty in the Barn a Dancing returnd at 5^ "Clock plenty drunck this day 6^ mile Palmertown alis Northumberland
Sunday 9th This day very warm and dry went to meating with M'', E. Reynolds nothing worthy of notic this day"
Monday 1 0 this day begins very foggey and thick hevy-are made a Jack, help N. Tillinghast pack up his things and move to his own house in the afternoon put the mare in the Gig carried Hanah up found it late con- cludd to tarrey so Ends this day cloudy
Tuesday 1 1 This day begins with heavy rain, conpl'^ in cording up Beadsteds makeing bed winch &c so Ends this day continuing rainy
16 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Wednesday 1 2 This day begins with light spits of rain at 7 held up at 1 0 °Clock tackl'^ up and retund to P. L. M. compl*^ makeing hog pen & wash binch so Ends this day with cloudy weather
Thursday 1 3 This day commences with rainy weather the ground being clay makes it slippry as glass later part more moderate finish'^ hog pen so ends this day
Friday 14 This day commence cloudy at 12 °Clock clear greast wheeals and started for Balltown with M''s Maw- ney went in and took the shower bath at Lee's arrived at Balltown at sundown found A. T. so so
Saturday 15 This day fare weather tackl'' up took in Amey and proceded for Northumberland stop at Homes & Kamps after dinner proceded on stop at N. T arrived at P. L. M. at sunsett.
(To be continued)
The Records of Rhode Island.*
By Edward H. West
In order to understand the records of a state, it would seem as if one should first understand something about the history of that state, so I want to speak on Rhode Island's history before we take up the records.
The people living outside New England know very little about its history, that is to say the details which are so different from those of other parts of this country. And in picking out New England as an example, I do not except other sections of this country. I imagine that the people of the Southern States, although well versed in the history of their own section, know very little about the history of the north western states, while the people of California know very little about the history of Michigan.
♦Given at The National Genealogical Society, Washington, D. C, 19 March, 1938.
THE RECORDS OF RHODE ISLAND 1/
Of course we all learned a general idea of history before our high school days, but the time in school is too short to get any details, and when the time comes to look up ancestry, the history that we learned in school does not serve us very well.
One of my regrets is that there is practically no local history taught in the schools. Having occasion to go to Walpole, Massachusetts, some years ago, I found that the local historian there, who had written a very fine history of the town, every year presented a copy of the history to each high school graduate.
A genealogical book without any history in it makes rather dry reading, and this also applies to the family histories, written by so many people who seem to think that all that is necessary is to get dates. Do not be satisfied to write that such an ancestor was a colonel in the Revolu- tion : find out what he did. If there were those who thought that he was not efficient, put that in as well as their reasons. Should an ancestor help to found a new town, then try to get some of the town records. Anything like this will brighten up a family story in a surprising manner.
Early in 1630, there came to Boston, from England, a woman who did much to start the Colony of Rhode Island. This woman was Anne Hutchinson, who, with her husband, came over to what they supposed was a place for religious freedom, but they were mistaken. Boston did allow reli- gious freedom as long as you worshiped in the way that the judges and ministers said, but in no other way. It is doubtful if even the most advanced theological student of today can fully understand the differences in the beliefs of the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Anne Hutchinson was born much too soon, for she be- lieved in a woman's taking part in the religious discussions. She started to explain the sermons of the Sunday before to a few woman friends, and gradually the circle grew, until at times there were as many as eighty persons, both men and women, at her meetings. This did not suit the
18 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ministry of Boston, as her opinions did not coincide with theirs. Time will not permit us to go into the matter with any detail, but it is enough to say that there were many debates, court trials, church trials, the ex-communication of Anne Hutchinson, and more debates, until finally the Gen- eral Court gave orders that the heads of the families of Anne Hutchinson's followers, about seventy five in number, were to be disarmed, "in order to prevent riots."
These men were of all walks of life, some were mem- bers of the General Court, some merchants, while others were artisans.
It would seem as if some of these men had discussed the founding of a new colony even before the order of dis- armament came, and it is supposed that these meetings took place at the house of William Coddington, who was prob- ably the richest man of them all.
Dr. John Clark was one of the men who started off to find a site for their new colony, and they eventually chose what is now known as the Island of Rhode Island.
Originally they intended to settle on Long Island or else in Delaware, but by the advice of Roger Williams, they looked at the Island of Aquidneck, and after finding from Plymouth that the Island was not in their patent, they bought the Island from the Indians. The Colony of Rhode Island arose, not from any grant by the king, but by purchases.
Before leaving Boston, these men signed their Compact, and elected their officers.
The first town meeting in their new home was held 13 May 1638, and from that date to the present, we have an uninterrupted set of records.
At first all business was transacted at the town meetings, held quarterly, with many special meetings. But as the Colony grew, these meetings became too unweildly to transact everything, and so a Town Council was formed which transacted much of the business of the town, includ- ing the duties of a Probate Court.
THE RECORDS OF RHODE ISLAND 19
At the early town meetings many laws were made, some of them being still in force. The land laws are very inter- esting, and were changed as the occasion demanded.
One of the early laws concerned the price of land on the Island, which was set at two shillings per acre, which price was used as long as there was any land left to sell.
Because there was not an unlimited amount of land on the Island as there was on the mainland, the farms were com- paratively small, but the land was all used, while on sec- tions of the mainland, where large grants were given, much of the land was not used, and is not even today.
Eventually, as the number of inhabitants grew, land east of Connecticut was purchased and added to the Colony, this being settled by men from the Providence Plantations as well as men from the Island.
The first records of Rhode Island are to be found in Providence in a book containing the Compact, copies of the deeds of land purchased from the Indians, early lists of Freemen of the Colony, and many land grants and transac- tions of the early settlers. This book contains records from 1638 to about 1696.
There are also many other early records in Providence, all in charge of the Secretary of State. These consist of all records of the General Assembly, several books of land evidence, a very complete set of Revolutionary and Mari- time records, and thousands of petitions to the General Assembly, embracing every cause possible.
The first book of Portsmouth shows signs of wear, as some of its pages have been torn, and probably others are missing. This book contains the records of the early town meetings, as well as some deeds and wills. Here too are the first grants, so called. Not really grants, but assigned lots which were paid for.
From this book to date the town meeting records are complete, as are also the town council records.
The first book of Land Evidence covers transactions in land from 1 646 to 1 704. There are also a few wills in
20 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
this book. As some of the early grants and deeds were in Providence, John Sanford was ordered, in 1657, to tran- scribe them into the Portsmouth book. He died that year, and nothing was done about it until 1930, when the Town Council of Portsmouth, through the efforts of your speaker, appropriated money for photostats of these records. Ports- mouth has now practically a complete set of land records. The records of Newport are not in such good shape as those of Portsmouth, and with good reason. When the British left Rhode Island, the records were taken with them by the Tory Town Clerk of Newport. The vessel on which these records were carried was sunk off Hell Gate, and although she was soon raised and towed in, the records were wet. Newport sent a protest to the British officers in New York, and the records were returned, but in all prob- ability the boxes were not opened at once. In fact it was a number of years after that the Town Council of Newport hired a man to separate the pages. These records have all been mounted in silk, and it is very interesting to see the results of the salt water on the various kinds of paper and ink. Some of the records are as legible as the day on which they were written, while others are faded completely.
Middletown, set off from Newport in 1 744, has a com- plete set of records. In one of the Town Council books, the Town Clerk is ordered, in 1776, to place the records in a safe place, if danger threatens, which he probably did as they are still in existence.
The Island of Rhode Island was occupied by the British for three years, and they burned and tore down many buildings, but some one looked after the records, and by his foresight we have them today. It has always been a source of wonderment to me where the Portsmouth records were hidden during the occupation, as that town lost more buildings than either of the others. Besides the books of records there were many loose papers, and it would have been well, if all those in charge of records, in different parts of the country in after years, had followed the example
THE RECORDS OF RHODE ISLAND 21
set by these town clerks of Rhode Island, and guarded their records.
One very interesting page in both the Town Meeting and Town Council books of Portsmouth, is written in a very large and flowing hand, and undated. It reads —
"On Sunday ye 8th Day of December A.D. 1 776 About Eight Thousand Troops landed and took possession of the Island and Remained until Monday ye 25th Day of October A.D. 1779, for which time the Inhabitants were greatly Oppressed."
It is not necessary to state that during the occupation, no town business was transacted.
When I say the records are complete, I do not mean the vital records, although these are very much better than in most of the other sections of the country. Almost at the very first, both Rhode Island and Massachusetts passed laws for the recording of births, marriages and deaths, but there were no teeth in these laws and they were not enforced. Some of the people recorded everything, while others did not bother at all. I know of one man who recorded the births of half his children and his marriage, at one time, but did not go back to record the births of the rest of his children. In 1850 Rhode Island passed another law re- garding these vital records, so from that time the records are nearly complete.
The unit of government in Rhode Island was the town. Therefore all records pertaining to any one town are to be found in that town. This would seem to make it harder to trace people when compared to the county government of other states, and this is true in regards to travel. But the town council records with their inventories, wills and other probate papers, give information with an intimacy which is not found in the county records of other states.
The records of Bristol County, Little Compton and Tiverton start in 1747, as before that date those towns were in Massachusetts, where the earlier records are to be found. One has but to compare the probate records of these
22 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
towns before and after 1 747 to see the truth of my former statement.
North Kingston had a fire which damaged its early records, and although they have been repaired, many of the pages are oval in shape, and this in many cases, results in the loss of the name or date. This town is a hard one to work in, but if one sticks to it, a great deal can be found.
Two books of the town of Richmond are missing, and the story about this is that the town clerk of that period was very eccentric and kept the records in a box under a window. This caused talk among the town's people who wished their records kept in a safer place. They formed a committee to visit the town clerk and to reason with him. When he saw the men approaching he started to burn the books, and this is supposed to account for the missing books.
In the Providence city hall is a very fine collection of old papers called the Providence Town Papers. These comprise bills, receipts, deeds, laws, and all kinds of rec- ords imaginable, not only of the town of Providence, but of the whole state. These are mounted in silk and are indexed by subjects.
I will give one instance in which these papers were very valuable to me. Capt. Jonathan Brownell, who raised the first militia company in Portsmouth at the start of the Revolution, disappeared after the British troops came to Portsmouth, and I was unable to find any trace of him for several years, when he enlisted in Freetown. As I knew a man of his calibre would not hide, and as I could find no record of him with the Rhode Island troops, it was long a puzzle to me as to what had become of him during those years. A Quaker by birth, he was dismissed from meeting on account of having raised troops.
In the above mentioned Providence Town Papers, I found that he had come to Providence and had been taken down with the small-pox. There was a bill for doctor's care, nursing and medicine, and also the information that he had worked off most of this bill by going to war as sub-
THE RECORDS OF RHODE ISLAND 23
stitute for Moses Brown, a very prominent Rhode Island Quaker.
The Friends Records in Newport date from 1 657, and a vast amount of information is to be found in them.
I would like to show here a few of the early Portsmouth records.
In regard to land, the following law was passed in 1638: "It is ordered and agreed upon that every man's allot- ment recorded in this book shall be sufficient evidence for him and his, rightly to possess and enjoy."
At a General Court of Elections, Portsmouth, May 1647, is shown how these men regarded their records, and their feeling is not matched, to my knowledge, any where in this country.
"Be it enacted by these present Assemblie, that the Gen- eral Recorders office shall be in General, to have Coppies of all the records or Acts of the Generall Assemblie, Generall and particular Courts of Judicature, Rolls of the Freemen of the Colonie, Records, Sales and Bargains of Land, Wills and Testaments, and orders of the Townsmen touching the Intestate, Records of the Limetts and Bounds of Towns, their Highways, Driftways, Commons and Fencing, Privileges and Liberties. And for as much as matters of greatest concernment ought to be kept and pre- served with the greatest vigilance: Be it enacted that the Generall purchases (which are all we can show for our right to our Lands) and the Charter (which is that which gives us who are Subjects, right to exercise authority over one another ) be kept in a strong chest, having four several Locks annexed thereto, and that each town keep a key thereof, that so as there is a common right and interest therein, there may be no access unto them in a divided way (lest also they be divided ) but with a common consent. And let it further be enacted, that this chest be kept in the safest place in the Colonie: and the Generall Recorder, also, should have the key to the Room in which it is placed,"
It might be well to speak about the Rhode Island Char-
24 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ters. The one mentioned in the above record is the first charter. The second charter was granted in 1663. Much has been written about the Connecticut Charter and how it escaped the clutches of Andros, by way of the famous oak tree, but very little is heard of the Charter of Rhode Island, which is acknowledged to have been the most liberal of that of any of England's colonies. To be sure Andros demanded it, but never saw it. It was lost, found, on the way, lost again, and all kinds of excuses made, but it was safely hidden, and probably no one today knows where it really was during those troublesome years of Andros' reign. That it was safely hidden is shown by the fact that today it hangs, in a special safe, in the office of the Secretary of the State of Rhode Island.
In 1656 a law was passed forbidding any person to sell any liquor to an Indian, either "directly or indirectly," and it was made lawful for any person who met an Indian with liquor, to take it away from him.
In the early days strangers were not looked upon as desirable unless they bought land, or else brought a cer- tificate from their last legal place of abode, which showed, that in time of need, they would be taken back again. Those old settlers intended to keep their relief problems at a minimum.
In 1654 it was ordered "that no inhabitant shall enter- tain any Sojourner above one month without the approba- tion of the Towne."
In 1658 it is ordered "that Roger Williams shall have liberty of the Towne for to live with William Wodell house till the 5th of November en-suen the date hereof: and no longer by the Towne order."
In this Colony, Church and State were not united, and a man could worship as he saw fit, or not at all. This was looked upon as sinful by Massachusetts, and in 1695, Cotton Mather wrote "I believe there never was held such a variety of religions together on so small a spot as have been in that Colony" and again "the condition of the
THE RECORDS OF RHODE ISLAND 25
rising generation upon that Island is indeed lamentable." You can see by this that even in those days there was a "Youth Problem."
Real money was scarce, and in a tax list of 1671 it is seen that taxes were paid in wool, wampum, homespun cloth and cheese.
In 1713 a small piece of land on Watch Hill was left public "whereon the watch house now or late standeth." In 1733 two men petitioned the town for the use of this land for a wind mill. The town granted the request with the understanding that in time of war they could "build a watch house thereon for the defense and safety of the town."
After the Declaration of Independence was made and signed, copies were sent to each colony. That received by Rhode Island was copied by Southwick the printer, of Newport, and one of these printed copies was sent to each town, there to be read at a special town meeting. It was my good fortune to find the copy sent Portsmouth, and it is now framed and hanging in the Town Clerk's office, the only known copy in existence. In the records of the town meeting held 27 August 1776, is written in small, uphill writing, "the Declarayion of Independence was publically read."
As you have heard, the Island was occupied by the British, and some of the inhabitants suffered severely at their hands, but worse at the hands of the Tories. After the British troops left, the land of the Tories was confis- cated, and it would seem as if pressure was brought to bear upon the State to return this land. The following shows how this idea was received by Portsmouth. —
At a Town Meeting held 16 April 1783, the following instructions were given to the Deputies to the General Assembly —
"You will to the utmost of your power oppose all at- tempts that may or Shall be made to Induce or Persuade this State to make good or deliver up the Confiscated prop-
26 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
erty of persons who in this our late Contest with Britain have born arms against the United States, of America, or have Directly or Indirectly assisted Great Britain in her attempt to Subjacate America, or that has Deserted the Cause of America and taken Refuge or Sanctuary under the Crown or Dominion of the King of Great Britain or his arms."
"You will endeavor to get an Act passed at the General Assemblie to prevent all persons formerly Inhabitants of the United States who have born arms against the United States of America, or that have Directly or Indirectly assisted Great Britain in her late attempt to Subjacate America, or that has deserted the Cause of America and taken refuge or Sanctuary under the Crown or Dominion of the King of Great Britain or his arms, from becoming- Citizens of this State or Inhabitants thereof or Residing therein."
This town meeting must have been a rather lively one although nothing is said about it in the records, but in the record of the following meeting we find — 'Voted that the advice that Weston Hicks, Esquire, gave the town at the Town Meeting in April last. Respecting Refugees, Toryes and persons Disafected to the Present Government, was good and wholesome and tended to preserving of peace and good Order in the Town and the abovesaid meeting, and was Delivered by said Hicks in a Manner becoming a good Politician and a friend to his country and a Christian."
Probably one of the most peculiar records to be found in any town is in our scrap book in the Town Clerk's office. No one knows how it ever got in with the town papers, but there it is and no doubt will remain forever. It is entitled "A list of my fitts, to be given to my husband after I am gone," Then follows a long list of dates with the notation "I had a fitt" or "I had two fitts." This goes on for several years, and finally in a different handwriting is the fact that on that date, the writer of the list, "died in a htt."
LIST OF MEMBERS
27
List of Active Members of the Rhode Island
Historical Society
DECEMBER 1938
Mr. Frederick W. Aldred Mr. Edward K. Aldrich, Jr. Miss Lucv T. Aldrich Hon. Richard S. Aldrich Mr. Stuart M. Aldrich Mr. Devere Allen Mr. Philip Allen Miss Ada Almy Mrs. Everard x^ppleton Miss Marguerite Appleton Mr. Arthur H. Armington Miss Maude E. i\rmstrong Mrs. Edward E. Arnold Mr. Frederick W. Arnold Miss Mittie Arnold Mr. James H. Arthur Mr. Donald S. Babcock Mr. J. Earle Bacon Mr. Albert A. Baker Mrs. Charles K. Baker Mr. Harvev A. Baker Mrs. Horton Baker Mr. J. Willard Baker Miss Mary H. Balch Mrs. Sarah Minchin Barker Miss Sarah Dyer Barnes Mr. Fred H. Barrows Mr. Earl G. Batty Miss Marjorie L. Bean Mrs. Daniel Beckwith Mr. Henry L. P. Beckwith Mr. Frederic N. Beede Mr. Herbert G. Beede Mrs. Herbert G. Beede Mr. Robert J. Beede
Mr. Horace G. Belcher Mr. Charles P. Benns Mrs. Charles P. Benns Mr. Bruce M. Bigelow Mr. George E. Bixby Capt. William P. Blair Mr. Zenas W. Bliss G. Alder Blumer, M.D. Mr. J. J. Bodell Mr. Amos M. Bowcn Mr. Richard LeB. Bowen Rev. Arthur H. Bradford Mr. Claude R. Branch Rabbi William G. Braude Miss Alice Brayton Miss Susan S. Brayton Dr. R. G. Bressler Mr. Carl Bridenbaugh Miss Ida F. Bridgham Mrs. William E. Brigham Miss Eva St. C. Brightman Mrs. Clarence A. Brouwer Mr. Clarence Irving Brown Mr. Cyrus P. Brown Mr. Frank Hail Brown Mr. John Nicholas Brown Madelaine R. Brown, M.D. Mr. Wilbur D. Brown Capt. Ernest Henry Brownell Miss Madeleine M. Bubier Mr. Harris H. Bucklin Mr. Edward J. C. Bullock Mr. Mortimer L. Burbank Mr. Edwin A. Burlingame A. T. Butler, Esq.
28
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Col. G. Edward Buxton
Mrs. S. H. Cabot
Mrs. Edwin A. Cady
Mr. John H. Cady
Mrs. Charles A. Calder
Frank T. Calef, M.D.
Mrs. W. R. Callender
Mrs. Wallace Campbell
Mr. Thomas B. Card
Mrs. George W. Carr
Mrs. Marion P. Carter
Miss Anna H. Chace
Mr. Malcolm G. Chace
Mrs. Everitte S. Chaffee
Prof. Robert F. Chambers
Mr. Arthur D. Champlin
Mr. George B. Champlin
Miss Anna Chapin
Charles V. Chapin, M.D.
Mrs. Charles V. Chapin
Mr. Howard M. Chapin
Mr. Frederic L. Chase
Mr. Albert W. Claflin
Mrs. Edward S. Clark
Prof. Theodore Collier
Mrs. Clarkson A. Collins, Jr.
Mr. James C. Collins
Mrs. Mabel B. Comstock
Mrs. Charles D. Cook
Mr. Albert B. Coulters
Prof. \'erner W. Crane
Mr. Frank H. Cranston
George H. Crooker, M.D.
Mr. Harry Parsons Cross
Frank Anthony Cummings, M.D.
Mrs. Frank Anthony Cummings
Mr. Arthur Cushing
Prof. S. Foster Damon
Murray S. Danforth, M.D.
Mrs. Murray S. Danforth
Mr. William C. Dart
Mr. Foster B. Davis
Miss Marv Elliott Davis
Mrs. R. C. Davis
Prof. Edmund B. Delabarre
Mr. Paul C. DeWolf
Miss Alice S. Dexter
Miss Eunice W. Dexter
Mrs. Leroy E. Dickinson
Mr. Walter Frederick Dickinson
Miss Louise Diman
John E. Donley, M.D.
Mr. Louis W. Downes
Mrs. Louis W. Downes
Mrs. G. E. Downing
Mr. Robert T. Downs
Mrs. Charles E. Dudley
Miss Dorothy D. Dunlop
Mr. Henry A. DuVillard
Miss Margarethe L. Dwight
Miss Anna Jones Dyer
Col. H. Anthony Dyer
Mr. Charles G. Easton
Mr. Frederick W. Easton
Mr. Cyrus T. Eddy
Miss Isabel Eddy
Mrs. William Holden Eddy
Miss Harriet C. Edmonds
Mrs. Seeber Edwards
Mr. Walter Angell Edwards
Mr. Zenas H. Ellis
Mr. William Ely
Miss Mabel W. Ennis
Mr. William Wood Estes
Mrs. William Wood Estes
Mr. Charles W. Farnham
Mr. Royal Bailey Farnum
Mr. Walter F. Farrell
Mr. Augustus H. Fiske
Mrs. Charles Fletcher
Mr. Elliot Flint
Mr. Allan Forbes
Mr. Hovey T. Freeman
Hon. Joseph W. Freeman
Hon. G. Frederick Frost
Mr. R. Clinton Fuller
Frank T. Fulton, M.D.
Hon. Joseph H. Gainer
Mr. William Gammell
LIST OF MEMBERS
29
Mr. William Gammell, Jr.
Miss Abbie P. Gardner
Mrs. George Warren Gardner
Prof. Henry B. Gardner
Mrs. John T. Gardner
Mr. Preston Hicks Gardner
Mr. Daniel F. George
Mrs. Louis C. Gerry
Hon. Peter G. Gerry
Mrs. Peter G. Gerry
Mr. Robert H. I. Goddard
Rabbi Israel M. Goldman
Mr. George T. Gorton
Mr. Harry Hale Goss
Mrs. Richard Rathborne Graham
Mr. Eugene S. Graves
Mrs. Eugene S. Graves
Miss Eleanor B. Green
Hon. Theodore Francis Green
Mr. Denison W. Greene
Mrs. Joseph Warren Greene, Jr.
Mr. Thomas C. Greene
Mr. Ralph M. Greenlaw
Mr. William B. Greenough
Mr. Russell Grinnell
Mr. E. Tudor Gross
Mr. R. F. Haifenreffer
Miss Annette Mason Ham
Mrs. Livingston Ham
Mrs. Albert G. Harkness
Mr. Benjamin P. Harris
Mr. Edwin Harris
Miss Mary A. Harris
Mrs. Thomas Harris
Mr. Everett S. Hartwell
N. Darrell Harvey, M.D.
Mr. William A. Hathaway
Miss Caroline Hazard
Mr. Thomas G. Hazard, Jr.
Mr. Charles F. Heartman
Mrs. W. E. Heathcote
Mr. Coles Hegeman
Prof. James B. Hedges
Mr. Bernon E. Helme
Mr. Joseph G. Henshaw
Mr. Robert W. Herrick Mr. G. Burton Hibbert Mr. William A. Hill Mr. Frank L. Hincklev Mr. Richard A. Hoffman Mrs. William H. Hoffman Mrs. John S. Holbrook Mr. George J. Holden Mrs. John W. Holton Mrs. Albert Horton Mr. Charles A. Horton Mr. M. A. DeWolfe Howe Mr. Wallis E. Howe Mrs. William Erwin Hov Mrs. George H. Huddy,' Jr. Mr. Sidney D. Humphrey Mr. S. Foster Hunt Mr. Richard A. Hurley Mr. James H. Hvde Mrs. C. Oliver Is'elin Mr. Norman M. Isham Miss Mary A. Jack Mrs. Donald Eldredge Jackson Mrs. Edward P. Jastram Mr. Thomas A. fenckes Mrs. Edward L. Johnson Mr. William C. Johnson Mr. Llewellyn W. Jones Dr. Lewis H. Kalloch Mr. Francis B. Keenev Mr. Charles A. Keller Mr. Howard R. Kent Mr. Charles H. Keves Mr. H. Earle Kimball Lucius C. Kingman, M.D. Miss Adelaide Knight Mr. C. Prescott Knight, Jr. Mr. Robert L. Knight Mrs. Robert L. Knight Mr. Russell W. Knight Mrs. Dana Lawrence Miss Grace F. Leonard Mrs. Austin T. Lew Mr. Dexter L. Lewis Mr. Charles Warren Lippitt
30
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Mrs. Frances Pomeroy Lippitt
Mr. Gorton T. Lippitt
Mr. Arthur B. Lisle
Mrs. Arthur B. Lisle
Mr. Charles W. Littlefield
Mr. Ivory Littlefield
Rev. Augustus M. Lord
Mr. T. Robley Louttit
Mr. W. Easton Louttit, Jr.
Mr. David B. Lovell, Jr.'
Mr. Albert E. Lownes
Mr. Harold C. Lvman
Mr. Richard E. Lyman
Mr. George R. McAuslan
Mr. William A. McAuslan
Mrs. William A. McAuslan
Mr. Norman A. MacColl
Mr. William B. MacColl
Mr. Arthur M. McCrillis
Miss Grace E. Macdonald
Mr. Benjamin M. MacDougall
Miss Muriel McFee
Mr. Charles B. Mackinney
Mr. Ralph A. McLeod
Mr. Wayne McNally
Mrs. Herbert E. Maine
Mrs. William L. Manchester
Mr. Charles C. Marshall
Mr. Edgar W. Martin
Mrs. John F. Marvel
Mr. Harold Mason
Mr. John H. Mason
Mr. Archibald C. Matteson
Mr. William L. Mauran
Mrs. William L. Mauran
Mrs. Frank Everitt Maxwell
Mr. Harry V. Mayo
Mr. W. Granville Meader
Mrs. Charles H. Merriman
Mrs. E. Bruce Merriman
Mr. Harold T. Merriman
Mrs. L B. Merriman
Mrs. E. T. H. Metcalf
Mr. G. Pierce Metcalf
Mr. Houghton P. Metcalf
Mrs. L Harris Metcalf Hon. Jesse H. Metcalf Mrs. Jesse H. Metcalf Mr. Stephen O. Metcalf Mr. William Davis Miller Mrs. William Davis Miller Mr. George L. Miner Mr. Marshall Morgan Mr. George A. Moriarty, Jr. Mrs. William Robert Morrison Mrs. Bentley W. Morse Mr. Jarvis M. Morse Mr. Edward S. Moulton Mrs. Edward S. Moulton William M. Muncy, M.D. Walter L. Munro, M.D. Hon. Addison P. Munroe Mrs. Addison P. Munroe Mr. Walter M. Murdie Mr. George P. Newell Miss Eliza Taft Newton Mr. Roger Hale Newton Mr. Paul C. Nicholson Col. Samuel M. Nicholson Mrs. Raymond M. Nickerson Ira Hart Noyes, M.D. Miss Mary Olcott Mrs. Frank F. Olnev Mr. Harald W. Ost'by Mr. G. Richmond Parsons Mrs. G. Richmond Parsons Miss Mary H. Parsons Mr. Frederick S. Peck Mrs. Frederick S. Peck Mr. Horace M. Peck Mr. Stephen I. Peck Mr. William H. Peck Mr. William T. Peck Mrs. F. H. Peckham Katherine F. Peckham, M.D. Mr. Clarence E. Peirce Mr. John P. B. Peirce Mr. Charles M. Perry Mr. Howard B. Perry John M. Peters, M.I3.
LIST OF MEMBERS
31
Mr. Arthur L. Philbrick
Mr. Charles H. Philbrick
Mr. Alexander Van Cleve Phillips
Mr. Arthur S. Phillips
Mrs. Frank Nichols Phillips
Mr. Thomas L. Pierce
Mr. Albert H. Poland
Prof. Albert K. Potter
Dr. Arthur M. Potter
Mrs. Dexter B. Potter
Mrs. Thomas I. Hare Powel
Miss Ethelyn Irene Pray
Mrs. Howard W. Preston
Mr. Robert Spencer Preston
Miss Evelyn M. Purdy
Helen C. Putnam, M.D.
Mr. Patrick H. Quinn
Mrs. George R. Ramsbottom
Mrs. C. K. Rathbone
Hon. Elmer J. Rathbun
Mrs. Irving E. Raymond
Mr. Charles C. Remington
Mr. R. Foster Remolds
Mr. Dana Rice
Mr. Herbert W. Rice
Mrs. Herbert W. Rice
Mr. Henry Isaac Richmond
Mrs. Fred Robinson
Mr. Robert Rodman
Mr. William Greene Roelker
Mr. Kenneth Shaw Safe
Mrs. Harold P. Salisbury
Mrs. G. Coburn Sanctuary
Mrs. George C. Scott
Mrs. David Sands Seaman
Mr. Henrv M. Sessions
Miss Ellen D. Sharpe
Mr. Henrv D. Sharpe
Eliot A. Shaw, M.D.
Mrs. Frederick E. Shaw
Mrs. Philip C. Sheldon
Mr. Robert F. Shepard
Mr. Clarence E. Sherman
Mr. Harry B. Sherman
Mrs. Arthur F. Short
Mrs. Charles Sisson Mrs. Byron N. H. Smith Mrs. Charles H. Smith Mrs. Edwin C. Smith Mr. Howard B. Smith Joseph Smith, M.D. Hon. Nathaniel W. Smith R. Morton Smith, M.D. Mr. Walter B. Smith Mr. Ward E. Smith Miss Hattie O. E. Spaulding Hon. Ernest L. Sprague Mrs. James G. Staton Hon. Charles F. Stearns Mr. Thomas E. Steere Miss Maud Lyman Stevens Mr. Edward Clinton Stiness Mr. Charles C. Stover Mrs. Charles C. Stover Mr. Charles T. Straight Mr. Henry A. Street Mr. Frank H. Swan Hon. John W. Sweeney Dr. Walter I. Sweet Mrs. Walter I. Sweet Miss Louisa A. Sweetland Mr. Roval C. Taft Prof. Will S. Taylor Mrs. J. P. Thorndike Louisa Paine Tingley, M.D. Mr. F. L. Titsworth Mrs. William O. Todd Mrs. Stacy Tolman Mr. William J. Tully Mr. George R. L^rquhart Hon. William H. Vanderbilt Mr. William A. Viall Mrs. Helen C. \'ose Mrs. Arthur M. Walker Mr. A. Tingley Wall Mrs. Maurice K. Washburn Mr. Slater Washburn Mr. Frank E. Waterman Mrs. Lewis A. Waterman
32
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Prof. Arthur E. Watson
Col. Byron S. Watson
Mr. John J. Watson
Mr. W. L. Watson
Mrs. William B. Weeden
Mr. Richard Ward Greene Welling
Mr. John H. Wells
Mr. Philip C. Wentworth
Mrs. Philip C. Wentworth
Mr. Edward H. West
Mrs. Frank Williams Westcott
Mrs. Elizabeth N. White
Mr. Willis H. White
Mrs. Henry A. Whitmarsh
Mr. Frederick Bernays Wiener Mr. Frank J. Wilder Mr. Daniel L. Willmarth, Jr. Miss Amey L. Willson Mr. William A. Wing Mr. Wilson G. Wing Mrs. George P. Winship Rev. William Worthington Mr. Nathan M. Wright Mrs. Sydney L. Wright, Jr. Dr. Henry M. Wriston Mr. Lawrence C. Wroth Mr. Frederick W. York
New Publications of Rhode Island Interest
Mrs. Vera B. Hanson of Cranston has presented to the Society a typewritten genealogy of the family of John Irish many of whose descendants lived in Rhode Island.
First Presbyterian Church, Newport, R. I., 1888-1938, Fifty Years of History, is a pamphlet of 65 pages.
The Old Fall River Line by Roger W. McAdams is a volume of 190 pages.
Dorr Pamphlet No. 2, The Constitutional Convention That Never Met by Zechariah Chafee, Jr., is a pamphlet of 88 pages, published by the Booke Shop, Providence.
The Hero of Aquidneck, A Life of Dr. John Clarke by Wilbur Nelson, is a volume of 95 pages.
Cities in the Wilderness, including a study of colonial Newport, by Carl Bridenbaugh, was issued in December.
A Record of William Coddington, Esquire, by Elizabeth Nicholson White is a pamphlet of 24 pages.
Notes
Mrs. Philip C. Wentworth has been elected to member- ship in the Society.
*«
Rhode Island Historical Society
?-> 1"''
U\ Wi
C O L L E C T I O rf S . „ ,„ .
. RPN iV I9j.
H5=
Vol. XXXII
APRIL, 1939 ^oo,J^e-ogj^^
^'
FKAXCIS WAVLAND
Issued Quarterly
From Portrait in Sayles Hall
68 Waterman Street, Providence, Rhode Island
CONTENTS
PAGE
Francis Wayland
by William Greene Roelker . . . 33
New Publications of Rhode Island Interest . . 56
Notes ........ 56
Lawrance Langworthy, Pewterer
by Madelaine R. Brown . . . . 56
Treasurer's Report . . . . . . 61
RHODE '^¥^ ISLAND HISTORICAL \^^^^ SOCIETY
COLLECTIONS Vol. XXXII APRIL, 1939 No. 2
Harry Parsons Cross, President Robert T. Downs, Treasurer
William Davis Miller, Secretary Howard M. Chapin, Librarian
The Society assumes no responsibility for the statements or the opinions of contributors.
Francis Wayland
1796- 1865
President of Brown University and
Citizen of Providence
By William Greene Roelker*
The history of Providence during the thirty-eight years of Francis Wayland's residence shows that he was not only a successful president of Brown but a leading citizen.
As President of the University (1827-1855) he raised the standard of teaching to a high plane^ and materially developed Brown's resources. His own rise from humble circumstances had strengthened his belief in the right of every man to an equal opportunity in the business world, before the law, and in the halls of education. His whole
*A paper read before the Rhode Island Historical Society.
^ Justice Joseph Story of the Harvard law faculty said "that he could at once distinguish a graduate of Brown University by the facility with which he was able to analyze a lecture or a legal argument." Francis and H. L. Wayland, A Memoir of the Lije and Labors of Francis Wayland (N. Y., 1867), I, 236. Unless otherwise indicated quotations will be from the Memoir.
34 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
philosophy of life was expressed in his motto, "I go for the human race."
Liberty and knowledge, in the opinion of the day, were necessary for the success and preservation of American democracy. Wayland took a more advanced position. In this he differed from Jeiferson, Ticknor and Eliot, other proponents of the elective system. They were primarily interested in providing the best quality of education for students, — few or many, — who came to Virginia or Harv- ard seeking the higher learning. Wayland believed that each individual student should have the opportunity of pursuing such studies as would be of the greatest advan- tage to him in the course of life which he chose.
In pursuit of his ideal, Wayland initiated an elective system at Brown (1850), so arranged, that "every student might study what he chose, all that he chose, and nothing but what he chose."' This experiment started a controversy which has taken on new life in the present era of changing concepts about democracy and education. Whether the final judgment of Wayland will be that of Charles William Eliot, that he deserved a high place among the founders of the elective system, or that of Samuel Eliot Morison, who believes that Wayland's educational writings in favor of the addition of vocational training to the curriculum produced more mischief than any other tracts in the history of American education, it remains true that the fearless and self reliant thinking of Wayland precipitated an agitation which resulted in far-reaching educational modifications."* In a period when American education was undergoing a drastic change of form, he was, at least in the opinion of Dr. Thwing, one of the few college presidents who could also be called an educator.*
- Re fort to the Corforation of Broun Uniz'ersity, 1850 (Providence, 1850), 51.
^ James Burrill Angcll, "Founder's Dav at Chicago," Selected Addresses (N. v., 1912), 132.
■* Charles F. Thwing, .4 History of Higher E duration in America (N. Y., 1906), 316.
FRANCIS WAYLAND . 35
From the day of his arrival in Providence, Wayland identified himself with every enterprise which sought to promote the prosperity and sound morals of the community. He was a good citizen. He was chairman of the committee which reorganized the public schools ( 1828), an original trustee of Butler Hospital ( 1 844-64 ), an organizer of the Rhode Island Hospital (1863), a founder of the Provi- dence Dispensary (1829), active in prison reform, and in peace and temperance movements. In every public enter- prise Wayland's "presence was felt as no other man's was. All waited to hear the utterances of his voice," said Dr. Caswell. "It may justly be said that he stood among us as the first citizen of Rhode Island."
Francis Wayland was born in New York City ( 1796) three years after his father emigrated from Fromme, Somerset, England. Francis Senior, a successful currier, quickly allied himself with a group of Baptists, who en- couraged him to give up business to devote himself to the unremunerative life of a traveling preacher. Francis re- ceived his early education from his mother. She inspired him with an abhorrence of religious intolerance which characterized his whole life. Before entering Union College (Schenectady) as a sophomore (1811), he was a pupil of Daniel H. Barnes, one of the few real teachers of the time. Wayland minimized his college achievements. Yet Eliphalet Nott, President for sixty-two years (1804-66) continued to show an interest in him which was justified by his successful career. For the next three years he continued a stimulating association with Dr. Eli Burritt of Troy, under whose guidance he received the medical instruction which enabled him to obtain a license to practice (1816). Up to this time Wayland had shown little interest in reli- gious matters^ but the evangelical atmosphere of his sur- roundings almost demanded of every individual a religious experience, leading to a "conversion" as the prerequisite to baptism and admission to church membership. A revival conducted by the Rev. Luther Rice (Troy, 1816) was the
36 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
occasion of Wayland's conversion. His call to the religious life was so strong that he immediately gave up medicine and entered Andover Theological Seminary.
Wayland never forgot the grinding poverty of his year at Andover. Nevertheless, he felt more than compensated by the intellectual inspiration and training which he re- ceived from Moses Stuart (Yale 1799) Professor of the Sacred Languages. Stuart taught him to reason and to study and by example confirmed hiin in the habit of appealing directly to his Maker for spiritual guidance. At the end of the term Wayland was saved from a desperate situation by an appointment as tutor at Union College. For the next four years he learned from Dr. Nott the unique teaching methods and principles of college administration which had placed Union in the vanguard of the colleges.
Encouraged by Dr. Nott, himself a famous preacher, who assisted him in the preparation of his sermons, and further stimulated by another revival conducted by the Rev. Asahel Nettleton, Wayland looked forward to the day when he would have a church of his own. An oppor- tunity to preach in Boston led to an invitation to become the pastor of the First Baptist Church there. It was not an ideal situation, but Dr. Nott and Moses Stuart prevailed upon him to accept, since it would bring him nearer to Brown University, then the center of Baptist activities.
His pastorate was not entirely successful j the church did not prosper and the intellectual character of his ser- mons was unsuited to the congregation. But Wayland achieved a great personal success j the sermon on the Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enterprise (1823) made him a national figure among the Baptists. Delivered at a time of great interest in foreign missions, it ran through many editions. In spite of his growing fame, or perhaps because of it, he resigned from his church to accept the Professor- ship of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics at Union College. Just at this time President Asa Messer was forced
FRANCIS WAYLAND Z7
to resign from Brown University and Wayland immediately became the leading candidate for the position.
All of Wayland's experience had prepared him for the position of college president. Moses Stuart had subjected him to severe intellectual training j Eliphalet Nott had given him practical schooling in the art of teaching and in educational administration j five years in the pulpit had made him a powerful speaker. As a teacher he was simply a cog in another man's machine; as a preacher he did not have the control of his congregation which his administra- tive talent demanded; as President he could put into prac- tice his theories of education. The opportunity came. Wayland accepted. He was duly elected President of Brown University, December 1826.
The conditions at Brown were typical of the colleges of the day. Wayland's description is frequently quoted. "The condition of the college was not encouraging. The number of students was small. Discipline had been neglected. Difficulties had arisen between the president and the trus- tees, and between the president and some members of the faculty. In point of fact the college had not a high reputa- tion in the community, and probably did not deserve it."
His sons wrote, "It is clearly evident that Dr. Wayland had a distinct and clearly defined idea of what a college should be and could be made, and he did not delay an instant to apply to his theory the test of practice. . . . There was no mild and moderate transition from lax discipline and unchecked license to strict enforcement of law. The reform was instant and radical. President Wayland had not been in ofiice twenty-four hours before it was apparent to everybody that a new regime was already instituted."
W^ayland made new college laws, "But the soul of the new regime was not a code but a man — intense, fearless, strong in intellect and will. The influence upon the students was tremendous. He had a vast amount of power in him, made eifective by passion, wit, and a gift of trenchant
38 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
speech. . . ."' His first reforms were designed to render Study not a sham but a reality and discipline not a form but a fact.
The phrase "born teacher" is almost a synonym for Wayland. Up to this time a recitation system prevailed j the student was given a definite problem which he com- mitted to memory or a passage to translate which he recited to the teacher. There was no attempt at reasoning, no dis- cussion and review in classy the pupil was expected to depend on his memory alone.
One of the instructors of this period was accustomed to have the text book open before him, and as the student recited, to move his finger along the lines, striving to keep pace with the progress of the pupil. From time to time, as the recitation of the student outstripped the reading of the professor, he would look up — keeping his finger at the point which had been reached — and say, in a tone of mild reproof, "Not so fastj not quite so fast." With the passage of the years a certain rate of progress was established and it came to be an unwritten law that neither student nor teacher would attempt to accelerate it.
Wayland introduced an entirely new system at Brown, one which he had learned from Eliphalet Nott at Union College. The first principle of the Wayland method is to
^Walter C. Bronson, .4 History of Bro-uu University, 1764-1914 (Providence, 1914), 206.
"None hut those who witnessed the changes he wrought can fully appreciate what he did for the college in its standard of scholarship, in the tone of its discipline, in the increase in means of instruction, and in the self sacrificing spirit which he infused alike into its instruc- tors and its more immediate guardians. . . . He did not care especially to make the college popular, but he labored most earnestly to render it a school of thorough discipline and of sound education ... he displayed an ability and devotion that awakened universal admiration. The benefactors and friends of the institution took new courage, and the merchants of Providence stirred by his appeals on the true usage of wealth, began their contributions for its advance- ment." Obituary notice by Prof. Gammell, Nezv York Examiner and Chronicle.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 39
make the pupil understand the subject. To accomplish this, the student is required to make out an analysis or skeleton during study hour. In class he is expected to commence and, without assistance, proceed as long as may be required. In preparing in this manner the student is obliged to make himself master of the subject. He can lay aside the book and complete the train of thought in his own words. The object of an education is not, as many parents seem to believe, to get a student through college by going over a certain number of books, but to impart knowl- edge which shall be remembered, and to increase the in- tellectual capacity of the pupil by habitually calling into exercise as many of his powers and faculties as the circum- stances of the case will permit. This will most certainly be attained by uniting the view of the whole subject with perfectly free discussions in the class room. Wayland's whole teaching creed may be summed up in his statement, "To hear a scholar say a lesson is not to educate him. He who is not able to leave his mark upon a pupil never ought to have one."
Wayland had great success as a teacher. Judge B. F. Thomas '34 said, "Others may speak and think of the writer and scholar, my tribute is to the great teacher; . . . one who has the rarer faculty of drawing out and developing the mind of another, and making him work for himself. Rarest of all God's gifts to men." Silas Bailey '34 wrote, "His progress through either of his favorite sciences was that of a prince through his own dominions." C. F. Thurber '27 wrote, "The new system was the exact antipode of that which it displaced. It was in harmony with the spirit of the age, and yet sufficiently original to be called 'Wayland's'. "
In addition to his duties as teacher, every college presi- dent was called upon for a continual round of preaching, public speaking, visiting the sick and attending funerals. His most important duty was to secure the funds to finance his educational program. When Wayland came to Brown there were two buildings. University Hall and Hope Col-
40 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
ItgG. Largely through the gifts of Nicholas Brown , he secured the erection of Manning Hall (1835) as a chapel and library, Rhode Island Hall (1840), for the depart- ments of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, etc., a mansion house for the president, and the beautiiication of the college grounds.
Charles F. Thurber '27 reported that the library "was kept in one of the projection rooms in University Hall, and was almost a terra incog^nita to many of the students." Hon. Charles Evans Hughes '81 quotes Wayland as say- ing, "the library consisted of books 'old, few and miscella- neous — such in general, as had been gleamed by solicita- tion from private libraries, where they were considered as of no value.' '"
Wayland immediately began the improvement of the library by devoting certain college fees to the purchase of books. The corporation voted ( 1831 ) to raise the sum of $25,000, the income only to be used to acquire books and philosophical apparatus. He was able to report to the cor- poration fourteen years later, a library of 20,000 volumes which in 1849 had grown to 30,000. Wayland had an Interest in libraries generally j he was one of the founders of the Providence Athenaeum, dedicated by him July 1 1 , 1838 and it was his offer to the Town of Wayland ( Mass. ) of a gift of $500, provided a similar amount was raised by
*' Nicholas Brown, the most influential trustee, and patron of the college, was a strong supporter of Wa\land. When Wayland's nomination was being considered, Brown wrote him at Schenectady, "Should they [the Corporation] flatter me with the opportunit\' of making the nomination of him on whom their minds are so universally agreed, it will prove highly gratifying. And 1 shall take the liberty of using the name of the late Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston to which there will not be a dissenting voice." Letter from Nicholas Brown, Providence, R. I., to the Reverend and Mr. Francis Wa\'land, Jr., Oct. 13,1 826, in Brown University Archives.
' The Sesqui-Cenfefinial of Bro':c/i University 1764-19 1 4 (Prov- idence, 1915), 181.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 41
the people, which led to the starting of the Massachusetts free library system.^
Within a year of his coming to Providence Wayland was made chairman of a committee to consider the public school system. The report, written by Wayland, stated as its basic principle that if money is contributed by every citizen, the school system should be so arranged that every contributor should have an equal share of that instruction which "he assists to maintain."'' At this point, he asks a significant question, "Is not education a commodity which all classes want?" Why not then furnish it of such quality that all may enjoy it together? By furnishing valuable courses of public instruction the rich will enjoy its advan- tages and surely it cannot injure the middle classes or the poor. It is plain that his mind was even then working along the lines of a utilitarian education for all men according to their desires j a classical education for the men who wished to enter a profession, and a practical education for those who wished to equip themselves for a practical life. He was developing an educational philosophy which led him to say (1856 ), "We do well to revere the genius of Milton, Dante or Goethe. But there is talent in a cotton mill as well as in an epic."^'^
Busy as he was with university duties and civic activities and saddened by the death of his wife, Wayland found time to write. The Elements of Moral Science (1835) was de- signed to take the place in the schools and colleges of the works of William Paley which were unsatisfactory to Way- land because of their extreme utilitarianism. His success in striking a new note is shown by the comment of a friend:
^ "From this law, and from the action of Dr. Wayland which gave rise to it, have sprung the magnificent free libraries which now enrich Boston, Worcester, . . . . " Editorial, Boston Transcript, July 8, 1916.
^ F. Wayland, Chairman, "Report of Committee on Public Schools, April 1828," Barnard's American Journal of Education, July 1828, III, 386-388.
^^'^ Address to Free Academy, (Norwich, Conn., 1856).
42 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
"I give thanks to God, that I see nothing in you of that parleying with the world which is so fatal to Paley." The Moral Science was a success, reaching a circulation of over one hundred thousand copies. It was republished in Eng- land and translated into Sgau Karen, a language of southern Burma (1885).
The Elements of Political Economy (1837) never achieved the popularity of the Moral Science^ probably because is was concerned with more controversial subjects. Wayland had the courage to advocate free trade, although Rhode Island in general and his trustees in particular, were the favored beneficiaries of the protective tariff.
Wayland was tired in the Spring of 1 840 and with good reason. He went abroad in the summer to recuperate and to study European methods of education. His health pre- vented his going to Germany or Italy and he did not accom- plish all that he hoped. But his trip had one very important effect j it made him "more doggedly a Democrat and a Puritan." Much that he saw seemed to him like a puppet show, even the burial of Napoleon's remains in the Hotel des Invalides, — and he was a great admirer of Napoleon. Versailles gave him an impression of "royal magnificence," the gardens most of all, "But the whole cost . . . forty millions sterling. This sum would have constructed thir- teen canals each as expensive as the Erie Canal, and would before this time have doubled or trebled the wealth of France."
He did not think much of the French, "All my dealing with them has shown me more and more their disposition to lying and dishonesty. . . . They treat Americans better than they do Englishmen. The one they cheat kindly, the other surlily but both are considered, I think, in the nature of victims." Of which remark J. R. Dennet wrote, "One would almost think him a Frenchman describing New York."^^
1' The Nation, X November 28, 1867, 430.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 43
Wayland was away from familiar surroundings for the first time and the strangeness of everything emphasized his opinion "that Americans know not their own mercies." All the pomp and show, — he stood in a gallery while the royal cortege and the peers and peeresses passed on their way to the opening of Parliament by Queen Victoria — brought out the innate Puritan in him. "I love simple manners, simple tastes, a simple government, which has very little to do, which leaves everything possible to be done by the in- dividual, and which stimulates talent of every kind, not by patronage, but by giving talent free exercise, and leaving it to its own resources 5 a government of which the constitution may remain firm as adamant, while the men who administer it may be changed every year by the popular will."
In all considerations of Wayland's reactions to Europe it must be remembered that he came from plain stock and that he was a Baptist. "We are a muidling-interest people," he said, "and there is no better interest. It is most absurd for us to aim at the aristocracy j they do not want our kind of religion." Although Wayland was the leading Baptist of his day he held fast to the nonsectarian policy on which Brown was founded. He once said in chapel, "In address- ing you, I am of no sect."
Wayland was a democrat, — - spelled with a small d. Every class division, every evidence of control by govern- ment which imposed on the rights of the individual was contrary to that spirit which made him adopt as his watch- word, "I go for the human race."
With such a creed it is easy to understand his reactions to Oxford with its beautiful buildings set in lovely grounds. "It is a place where you would love to dwell," he said. "But when one reflects on the immense wealth of its estab- lishment and remembers that this was designed to promote the prosecution of science and the advancement of learning, and not for the cultivation of luxurious easej when one remembers that it was for the education of the people of England, and not a part of them, and that it is now used for
44 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
the good of a part, and is the avenue to all social and pro- fessional standing, I cannot think of it with unmixed respect. It seems to me a monstrous perversion. ... I do not speak of the present incumbents . . . but of the system. Of this 1 cannot speak in terms of too great disapprobation. It seemed to me to be cultivating narrowness rather than expansiveness of mind, and to be conferring rather a fragment of education than an enlarged view of human knowledge."
Wayland was resentful of such a system, one which denied his fundamental belief in the equal rights of man. All of his inborn democratic instincts cried out against any such limitation and forced him to the proclamation of the keystone principle of his creed: "No man can be denied the right to such an education as he may choose." Democ- racy supposes that the object of society is simple, that it is to confirm every man in the enjoyment of all the innocent results of the use of his faculties. Beyond this, democratic society does not interfere. It leaves the individual to work out his own destiny j every man is the architect of his own fortunes j to such a man knowledge is a matter of imperative necessity.^'
Sixty years later Charles Evans Hughes thus described Wayland's position: "To Wayland's prophetic eye the educational scheme of the time appeared far from satis- factory. He had the vision of democracy and of its educa- tional as well as spiritual needs. He had little patience with the fetters of the old curriculum, and was not content with such advance as had been made in enlarging the scope of college work. . . ."^^
On his return from Europe Wayland attempted to in- troduce the system of free electives which he had been nursing in his mind for many years. At first he had high hopes of success. The trustees went through the motions of appointing committees to study his recommendations.
^'' Education Demanded by the Peofle of the United States (Schenec- tady, 1 854), 22.
^^ T he Sesqui-Centefmial oj Brozvn Uniz'ersity, 183.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 45
But as time passed and nothing was done he became dis- couraged and resigned at Commencement, September 1 849. He probably did not intend to go through with it, but the trustees completely surrendered and he agreed to remain provided he could reorganize the college on his own plan. A committee was appointed to raise $ 1 25,000, the amount which he felt would be necessary to carry out his plans, and in due course the money was secured, though not without the usual struggle. Another committee, of which Wayland was chairman, submitted an elaborate plan of reorganiza- tion, March 8, 1850.
We need not here concern ourselves with the details of this plan which included the establishment of a law school, a normal school, an agricultural school, and the payment of the professors on a fee basis. The important provision was that every student might study what he chose^ all that he chose, and nothing but what he chose.
This plan broke wide open the "straitjacket" of the classical education ^ it established a free elective system nineteen years before Eliot was elected president of Harv- ard and a third of a century before he was able to announce that the plan was effective. It was not original with Wayland, — Jefferson, Ticknor, and Nott had the same ideas. It was Wayland's good luck and the good fortune of the cause of broader education that he had been for twenty- two years a successful president of Brown University. In addition he had been for years at the head of every forward movement in Rhode Island. He was accustomed to lead and others to follow. Without these advantages, Wayland never would have been able to institute such radical changes in an eighty-year old University in a conservative com- munity like Providence.
^* Limitations of space prevent a complete discussion of the results of Wayland's experiment. For a brief summary see page 5 3.
46 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
We have briefly reviewed Wayland's career. Let us now see what kind of man he was. It is not easy to answer that question directly. The principal sources of material are the Memoir written by his sons two years after his death, and various laudatory discourses delivered by intimate friends. Of the Francis Wayland, by a pupil James O. Murray '50, Sidney S. Rider wrote, "there appears to be in it nothing not before known. It is a picture of Wayland in his Sunday clothes. His was a rugged character in many ways and would well bear exhibition. Why not give us a look at him as he was?" We shall try to read between the lines of the published material, — unfortunately most of the original correspondence has disappeared, — to attempt to find the real Wayland.
Let us examine him through the eyes of one who knew him intimately, his pupil and colleague, later well known as the President of the University of Michigan, James B. Angell, Brown '49. "No one could look upon that tall spare form, which had not then attained the corpulence of later years, upon that massive forehead, those piercing dark eyes glancing through the shaggy over-hanging brows, that prominent nose, and those firm lips, without feeling in- stinctively that Dr. Wayland was born to command."'' Many observers commented on his striking countenance, which would have made him "an admirable model for Jupiter Tonans." His step was elastic, his form erect and his bearing manly and dignified. His massive frame never made him slow, "he was more rapid in motion and utterance than smaller men, as a planet goes swifter than a dart. In his momentum the velocity was equal to the weight."'" The spirit which animated him seemed to lift him above every- thing selfish and mean, he impressed himself on all who came within the sphere of his influence, and his very appear-
^■' jamcs B. Angell, "The Late President Wayland," Hours at Home, December 1865, II, 189.
^''' Cyrus Augustus Bartol, "The Good Man," Monthly Religious Mag- azine, November 1865, XXX1\', 265.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 47
ance gave him an ascendance over others which ensured their obedience. His influence over young men arose partly from his magnetic presence, but mainly from that "imperial spirit corresponding with the external presence, the exist- ence and power of which everyone perceived who came in contact with him."'' Through the turgid Victorian elo- quence of the Rev. Cyrus Augustus Bartol shines a vivid personality of great force. Many there are who say that no idea of the man can be gleaned from his writings, that no summary of his personal characteristics can convey any adequate picture of him. "What power there is in his very presence," wrote John L. Diman '51, "defying all descrip- tion, as the most speaking faces defy the art of the photog- rapher, what reserved force, sleeping in silent depths till stirred by great occasion . . . the terrific frown that clouds his brow, those grand unbidden rushes of emotion that would sometimes shake his great frame and choke his utterance . . . ."'" "He was a king by divine anointing," said Cyrus A. Bartol — "one of those few whose aspects drew attention and fixed every eye. From some persons we know not how, by a sort of elemental energy, a thrill passes. A slight shudder, half of fear, half of strange attraction goes through us in their presence. Besides Daniel Webster I know not who else . . . was so charged for this galvanic shock . . . the judgment seat, shone in his eyes . . . nobody could doubt he was President . . . this gift thus nursed into a virtue was the secret of his extraordinary success in his administration."
Wayland's magnetism served him well in his hours of ease. His healthy nature, full of joyousness and genial impulses showed itself in sparkling wit and quick repartee, "silver facings on the garment of duty," said his associate Professor George I. Chace. "Once freed from oflicial
^' BarnartPs American Journal of Education, December 1863, XIII,
775.
1* lohn L. Diman, "The Late President Wayland," Atlantic Motithly,
lanuarv 1868, XXI, 70.
48 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
harness his intercourse with all was marked by geniality of conversation and manner," wrote William L. Stone, "his sense of the ludicrous was most keen ... his appreciation of wit in others was quick and his quiet drollery irresistible." Wayland did not go often into society, but he had a very real sense of the social obligations incident to his position as president. Most of the persons of literary prominence who visited Providence were invited to his house and it was his regular practice to gather round him his colleagues and others who came to consult him in regard to the affairs of the college. On such occasions, related Professor Gammell, "his rare social powers showed to great advantage," then his conversation was brilliant, he called on the vast fund of anecdotes and stories of which he had such a store as has "often given celebrity to literary men as 'Table Talkers.' "
Work came first with Wayland; he was in the habit of saying, "Nothing can stand before days' works." He wrote of himself, "I am a perfect dray-horse. I am in harness morning to night and from one year to another and am never turned out for recreation." As a matter of fact he preferred to work no matter how much he might say to the contrary. His wife wrote, "Your brother is well but con- stantly occupied. . . . He has too much love of work not to be always busy. He never has any leisure, for if others fail in the performance of their duties, he supplies the deficiency by additional labor on his own part." His real feelings appear in the obvious anger shown in his letter to Dr. Stowe from London (1841), "I do not think any minister has any right to spend six months in Europe for the mere purpose of sight-seeing. All talk about mental improve- ment is merest fudge, ... if I live to return I shall set my face against the practice as wicked." This continuing sense of personal responsibility governed all his actions but he did not know how to break away. "Were I my own man, with power to arrange my time for myself, and to throw off care at intervals, ... I could do twice what I do, and be as elastic as need be." From a modern point of view this is
FRANCIS WAYLAND 49
merely wishful thinking, for had he the inclination there is no doubt that he could have made the necessary arrange- ments with the corporation which gave him such splendid support.
Gardening, walking, and wood chopping were the only relaxations he permitted himself. Wayland was a born gardener, and he was never more happy nor appeared to better advantage than when among the flowers and vege- tables which he cultivated with his own hands. His garden diary and correspondence are very human documents, filled with such entries as, "Beans picked today, beets in a day or two" and "I must acknowledge that you beat us in Hubbard squashes." Like all real gardeners he entertained his friends by showing them the products of his skill and labor, the first green peas, the last and most beautiful dahlia j hardly a visitor left his gate without some trophy pressed on him by his enthusiastic host. In the winter he sawed wood or took a walk in the country. He was not a solitary walker, walking for the joy of itj he always wanted company, choosing for his companions members of the faculty. "In these walks . . . he would often do all the talking himself, especially when accompanied only by his juniors .
5>
During his life and since men have commented on the freshness of Wayland's mind ; just recently President Wris- ton who had been reading Thoughts on the Present Col- legiate System in the United States, spoke of Wayland's fresh approach to the old problem of education. His sons, Francis '46 and Heman Lincoln '49, both his pupils, wrote "perhaps no quality of his mind was more striking than its freshness. He had no traditional anecdotes handed down from class to class."
It was not until middle life that Wayland wrote on moral philosophy and moral science, subjects which he had been teaching for many years. "When I commenced the under- taking I attempted to read extensively, but soon found it
50 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SO difficult to arrive at any definite results in this manner that the necessities of my situation obliged me to rely upon my own reflection."^"
The explanation of Wayland's self-dependence lies in his theory of knowledge. He agreed with Locke that knowledge of matter came from perception and knowledge of mind from consciousness. But he believed that the mind is further endowed with a suggestive power from which arise intuitive cognitions, occasioned by the ideas of con- sciousness and perception, but neither produced by them nor in any sense similar to them.'" These original suggestions, which are clear and definite, lie at the foundation of all sub- sequent knowledge. "We know them to be true, without the intervention of any other media. The intellect with which we are created vouches for their truth and we cannot conceive of them to be false. "'"^ In this statement lies the explanation of an answer made to a student who would not accept any demonstration of the truth of a certain axiom. Wayland said, "How do we know it to be true? By our own innate, inborn, gumption."
Wayland's mind was essentially practical and in his writings little attention is given to purely speculative ques- tions. He unfolds and illustrates important truths, which "in ethics and for the most part in metaphysics," as Pro- fessor Chace says, "approximate so closely to intuition that little is needed beyond their exact and clear statement. . . . The most extended inference to be found in all his writings is covered by his favorite word 'hence' . . . ."
Wayland's ethics are developed from Bishop Butler's theory of the conscience and a strict interpretation of the Scriptures. The conscience, Wayland believed, is an intui- tive faculty of the mind by which the moral quality of any
^'■' Francis Wayland, The Elements oj Moral Science (Boston, 1835), Preface, 5.
-° Francis Wavland, The Elements oj Intellectual Philosophy (Boston, 1854), 137.
-^ Ibid., 174.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 51
action is discerned. Every act of man affects the happiness and rights of another. If the nature of such an action is candidly considered, its moral quality will be perceived j it is either right or wrong. The conscience has an impulse and a subjective affection to do right and to so restrict one's actions as not to interfere with the happiness of others.
Following the principles of his teacher Moses Stuart, Wayland placed the Bible at the mast head of his faith. Professor Chace reports him as saying, "Any doubt con- cerning Christianity as a pillar of hope would be to me a greater calamity than the sinking of a continent." Chace expressed his own opinion that "It was only in the moral nature of man supplemented by the new forces imported into it by Christianity that he [Wayland]\ found assured ground for faith in man's continued progress." He wrote, "The gospel is radical enough for me," for "the ideas of revelation are not human but divine ideas, the conceptions of the infinite God. It seems to me they are not subjects for human logic and that by applying reason to them we are led into an absurdity." He stood firmly by the teach- ings of the Bible and believed the greatest advance of which man was capable was secured by obedience to "the inspired wisdom."
Wayland based his daily judgments on God. "He was pre-eminently a -praying man. He talked with God. To the last day of my life shall I remember that great frame bending at my side, and that beseeching voice, and that importunate pouring forth from the depths of his soul, such prayer as only he could frame ... he talked with God," wrote the Rev. W. McKenzie. Isaac Davis, who traveled with Wayland in Europe, reported that he tested every action, saying, "Davis, if Christ were on earth and present here would he attend this exhibition?"
52 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
"At the top of College Hill Dr. Wayland was ruling with a rod of iron," writes an old graduate. Wayland acquired a reputation as a stern disciplinarian and a hard task master. In his defense it is only fair to quote a contemporary opinion, "If the rules of labor and conduct which he enforced, were sometimes deemed unduly severe, they were such as he prescribed for himself and which he consistently followed." Congdon '4 1 writes, "He was disobeyed in fear and trem- bling ... he had a heavy foot for a student's door when it was not promptly opened after his official knock.""" "The Reverend and Respected Sir," as Dearth '54 calls him in his diary, was not always courteous. Attempting to explain his absence Dearth joined a group of students but "after answering a few questions he [Wayland] began to walk off into his office with great coolness and disregard to us under- graduates. I tried to speak to him; but had to follow him into his room to say a couple of words, for he wouldn't be stopped. Characteristic.""' ' "In his last years . . . Wayland seems to have grown somewhat autocratic and arbitrary," Bronson reports President Angell as saying in a personal interview (Providence 1914) "that he was often imperious and rough, sometimes unreasonable and unjust j especially was he jealous of his authority — question that, and he swelled with anger. Weariness with routine made him more and more brusque toward the end.""'*
But Wayland had a human side to his nature although "very few knew the depth of his heart or his genial nature." Behind the front necessary to his position as president and under his "Sunday clothes" was just a plain man. (He sat in the kitchen in his shirt sleeves. It was notorious that
-- C. T. Congdon, Reminiscences of a Journalist (Boston, 1880), 92. '■^ W. G. Dearth, Praeterita, Journal of Acts and Thoughts, 1 8 54-5 5 ; October 13, 1854, MS. Brown University Archives. "* Bronson, of. cit., 247.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 53
he "used tobacco.")"' While on active duty at college he was obliged to maintain an attitude j when off duty he could allow the benevolence of his real nature to be seen. He was a fatherly man, enjoying all the pleasures of parent- hood j he walked with his sons, he taught them the Bible, he read them such old favorites as Sandford and Merton, and Robinson Crusoe^ and he rolled on the floor with them encouraging "their wild delight when they were allowed to think they had conquered their father." This fatherliness he carried into his personal relationship with the students — out of hours. "Look at him — you would not wish to encounter his rebuff or his frown. But go to his study, state your perplexity, not another man of all your acquaintance would listen more attentively nor help you more truly and kindly."
* * * *
A writer in the Nation thus characterized Dr. Wayland at the time of the publication of the Memoir (1867): "Morally considered, he was a man to be much admired; admirable rather than very lovable perhaps, but certainly admirable, doing with all his might every duty which he thought to be laid upon him. The cause of good education, of good morals, had his intellectual, laborious, self-sacrific- ing service from his youth till his death \ and if it is true that he is not to be remembered by many generations, yet while he is remembered he will be known as he would best liked to be known, — as a man who in his own generation worked hard to do good and did good."'
Francis Wayland's fame does not rest on his desire to do good, nor on his striking personality. He is remem- bered because of his bold experiment introducing the elec- tive system at Brown University.
^^ A student relates that when crossing the Campus he was startled by
hearing a call in a Boanerges voice, " 'C have you a chew of tobacco'
for the doctor was a shameless consumer of the weed." Congdon, op. cit.^ 94.
-^ J. L. Dennett, loc. cit., +31.
54 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
In an article of this length it is impossible to follow through all the consequences of his experiment. Briefly, it may be said that the immediate effect was an increase in enrollment and scholastic activity, but this did not last. Wayland had tried to do too much. His program was inadequately financed and met with the passive resistance of the faculty and board of trustees. Struggling practically single-handed, he wore himself out and ill-health forced his resignation. With scarcely concealed satisfaction the college returned to the old system.
In the long run his attempt had far reaching effects. Late in the nineteenth century a few leading educators, notably Charles William Eliot, found in the elective sys- tem the panacea for all educational ills. They gave high place to Jefferson, Ticknor, and Wayland as the pioneers in the movement. Followed to its logical conclusion the part of Wayland's formula which deinanded that a student might study "what he chose, all that he chose" necessitated giving a large number of courses in specific subjects for specific purposes, i.e., to help young men become better farmers, mechanics or merchants. As Professor Morison says "even a cursory inspection of their catalogues" shows that many state universities are following this principle today."' Not to mention the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, the Pulitzer School of Journalism, etc.
The second part of Wayland's formula eliminated all required courses; a student might study "nothing but what he chose." At Harvard in 1900, an extreme example, after
~' Harvard never went as far as some of the others, nor quite succumbed to the demand for vocational training. Morison writes, "Eliot's greatest service to the country was to leap on the hack of this wild mustang which Wavland had branded, and to break it into the civilized if somewhat jittery paces of the Harvard elective system. He managed to give the public what it wanted, without completely sacrificing Thomas Jefferson's ideal of training an intellectual aristocracy to serve a political democracy." Samuel F.liot Morison, Three Centuries of Harzuir^I (Cambridge, 1937), 288.
FRANCIS WAYLAND 55
passing one required course in English, a student might meet the requirements for a degree by passing a given num- ber of courses, elementary or advanced, selected at will from any part of the catalogue and absolutely unrelated to each other. The accumulation of a certain number of credits earned an A.B. degree and admission "to the fellow- ship of educated men."
Recently the tide has set strongly in the other direction. For some time Harvard has required candidates for honors to work under the supervision of a tutor in a field of con- centration and to pass a general comprehensive examina- tion. Brown has recently reduced by twenty per cent the number of courses in an effort to bring the students into closer stimulating contacts with mature faculty minds, and to urge them to do more reading and writing.
The problem of the higher education is still under dis- cussion. Some continue to cling to the opinion held by Wayland and Eliot that every man should choose for him- self the educational food which he would eat, even at the risk of mental indigestion. Others think that some sort of a diet should be prescribed by the college. The value of Wayland's experiment is in no way diminished by the differences of current opinion. Let it be said to his ever- lasting credit, that he faced the problem as he saw it and met it with courage.
56 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
New Publications of Rhode Island Interest
The Society of Colonial Wars issued in December a leaflet of eleven pages on John Albro's Deposition of 1705 in regard to the purchase of Aquidneck.
Notes
The following persons have been elected to membership in the Society:
Mr. Charles J. Hill
Mr. Wilfred C. Murphy
Three Examples of the Work of Lawrance Langworthy, Newport Pewterer
By Madelaine R. Brown, M.D.
The earliest Rhode Island pewterer who has left known examples of his work is Lawrance Langworthy of Newport. He worked first in Exeter, England j and in the Exeter Museum, Devonshire, is a plate bearing his touch mark and the date 1719. By 1731 he had moved to Newport as evidenced by the Supreme Court Records naming him as pewterer and plaintiff in a law suit.^
He did not come to America for religious reasons since he remained a member of the Anglican Church and became
^ Colket, M. B., "Lawrence Langworthy, Pewterer" The American Genealogist: 15, p. 1. July 1938.
LAWRANCE LANGWORTHY 57
a vestryman of Trinity Church, Newport. It is supposed that he came for business reasons and to Newport, because the only other Langworthy known to have come to this country was Andrew Langworthy, a citizen of Newport as early as 1652.
Lawrance Langworthy had two children, Mary and Southcott. Mary married Daniel Pierce and he and South- cott went into business together as braziers in Newport. The Langworthy name was carried on only one generation further for Southcott's only son was severely injured in the Revolutionary War and left no descendants.
Mr. Colket prints Lawrance's will probated 1739 which shows that he left a very substantial estate for that day.' The tombstone of Lawrance and his wife, Mary, is in the Island cemetery, New^port, and is believed by Mr. Howard Chapin to bear the only example of an impaled coat of arms in colonial Rhode Island. The birth place of Lawrance is given as Ashburton and of Mary as Dartmouth, both of Devonshire. It is probable that she was Mary Southcott since this was the name of a prominent gentry family of Devonshire and both Langworthy children named sons Southcott. Mr. Williani Langworthy of Hamilton, New York, descendant of Andrew Langworthy, has made a search of the Ashburton parish records without being able to trace the Langworthy ancestry.
In 1936 a bell metal, three-legged pot turned up in the possession of Mrs. Benjamin Blake of Weston, Massachu- setts. This bears the mark "L. Langworthy 1730" on the handle. In the spring of 1938 a similar pot with the mark "L. L. Newport" was discovered in the possession of Mr. Lewis Wiggin of Northampton, Massachusetts and due to the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Franklin of Needham, one marked identically with Mrs. Blake's was located in the collection of the late Mr. Albert Bowman of Spring- held, Vermont. It is of interest that all of these pots were found in the Connecticut valley possibly indicating an early maritime trade route.
58
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The handles of both pots where they were attached have a defect blotting out the "L" of Langworthy. The fact that two examples dated 1730 have been found in this country leads one to suppose that the maker began work in Newport at this time. Outside of a spoon handle by Joseph
TOUCH MARK OF LANGWORTHY
FROM COLKET, IN AMER.
GENEALOGIST
TOUCH MARK OF LANGWORTHY ON PEWTER PLATE IN EXETER MUSEUM, EXETER, ENGLAND
LAWRANCE LANGVVORTHY
59
LANGWORTHY PEWTER PLATE IN EXETER MUSEUM, EXETER, ENGLAND
Copeland of Chuckatuck, Virginia, recently excavated at Jamestown", these pots by Langworthy remain the earliest known examples of an American pewterer's work. Cope- land's touch mark dated 1675 is strikingly similar in type to Langworthy's English mark, although the two men be- gan work forty-four years apart on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
There are several bell metal pots of the same type in Newport at present, two of which bear simply "Newport" on the handles. One is in the Newport Historical Society and the other in the Winton-Lyman-Hazard House. These were probably made either by Lawrance or his son, Southcott, but unfortunately no pewter made in this coun- try by the former has been discovered.
- Bailev, W., "Joseph Copeland, 17th Century Pewterer" Antiques: 23, p. 188 April 1938.
60
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
I'hulo by Mr. P. J. F,u,nkHn I.ANGWOR THY BELL METAL POT
Oziiicd by Mr. Lr^cis A'. Wiggin, N iirthaiiiptO}i , Mass.
Photo by Mr. P. J. Franklin LANGUORrHY BELL METAL POTS Ozviied by Ozincd by
Dr. Madelaine Broicn Mrs. Benjamin Blake
treasurer's report 61
Rhode Island Historical Society Treasurer's Report
INCOME ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR 1938
Receipis
Annual Dues $2,090.00
Dividends and Interest 3,390.56
Rental of Rooms 1 00.00
Newspaper Account 1 2.50
State Appropriation 1,500.00
Surplus Income Account 686.50
$7,779.56
Expenditures
Binding $ 32.10
Books 326.01
Electric Light and Gas 73.90
Lectures 82.71
Expenses 48.1 8
Grounds and Building 6.5 5
Heating 700.85
Insurance 225.00
Publications 504.12
Salaries 5,580.00
Supplies 133.84
Telephone 58.30
Water 8.00
$7,779.56
62 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
STATEMENT OF CONDITION, DECEMBER 31, 1938
4,000.00
Assets
Grounds and Building $ 25,000.00
Investments:
$3,000. Centra] Mfg. District $3,000.00
4,000. Dominion of Canada, 5s, 1952 4,003.91
4,000. Minn. Power & Light Co., 1st 5s, 195 5 3,930.00
2,000. Ohio Power Co., 1st &Ref. 5s, 1952 1,974.00
1,000. TexasP. &L., Ist&Ref. 5s, 1956 1,021.25
1,000. Pennsylvania R. R., Deb. 4>ls, 1970 922.50 1,000. Penn. Water & Power Co., 1st 5s, 1940 1,005.42
5,000. Bethlehem Steel Corp. 4i^s, I960 5,225.00
3,000. Western Mass. Com. 3'4s, 1946 3,086.25
3,000. Consolidated G.as Co.' of N. Y. 3>4s,
1 946 3,131.25
4,000. BroadwavExch.Corp. 1st Mtge. Cert. ^
1950
8 shs. Class A Broadway Exch. Corp.
$ 500. Pennsylvania Railroad Co. 334s, 1952 500.00
500. New York Central Railroad Co. 3^s,
1952 509.39
1,000. Gulf State Utilities Co., 4s, 1966 1,060.50
54 shs. New York Central Railroad Co 3,654.62
30 shs. Lehigh Valley Railroad Co 2,1 12.50
7 shs. Lehigh Valley Coal Co 23 5.39
125 shs. Pennsylvania Railroad Co 7,638.3 5
40 shs. Wisconsin Electric Power Co., Pfd 3,900.00
70 shs. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. 6,591.72
350 shs. Providence Gas Co. 5,75 5.68
1 5 shs. Providence National Bank ) . _ . , , ^
15 shs. Providence Nat'l Corp. Trust Cert.(
45 shs. Blackstone Canal National Bank 1,050.00
52 shs. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rv. Co.
Com '. 6,247.85
45 shs. Public Service of N. J., 5s, Cum. Pfd. 4,317.63
22 shs. Continental Can 1,446.02
40 shs. Bankers Trust Co. of N. Y 2,61 5.00
2 shs. Guaranty Trust Co. of N. Y 706.00
. Savings Account 2,000.00
83,153.85
Cash on hand 3,193.96
$111,347.81
treasurer's report 63
Liabilities Equipment Fund $ 2 5,000.00
Permanent Endowment Fund:
■ Samuel M. Noyes $12,000.00
Henry J. Steere 10,000.00
James H. Bugbee 6,000.00
Charles H. Smith 5,000.00
William H. Potter 3,000.00
Charles W. Parsons 4,000.00
Esek A. Jillson 2,000.00
John Wilson Smith 1 ,000.00
William G. Weld 1,000.00
Charles C. Hoskins 1 ,000.00
Charles H. Atwood 1,000.00
Edwin P. Anthony 4,000.00
John F. Street 1,000.00
George L. Shepley 5,000.00
Franklin Lyceum Memorial 734.52
Sarah P. Blake 124.00
56,858.52
Publication Fund:
Robert P. Brown 2,000.00
Ira P. Peck 1 ,000.00
William Gammell 1,000.00
Albert J. Jones 1,000.00
William Ely 1,000.00
Julia Bullock 500.00
Charles H. Smith 100.00
6,600.00
Life Membership 5,600.00
Book Fund 3,0 1 2.41
Reserve 926.60
Revolving Publication Fund 257.95
Surplus 12,583.65
Surplus Income Account 508.68
$111,347.81
64 RHODE ISLAND (HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PRINCIPAL ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR 1938
Receipts
Indianapolis Power & Light $ 1,040.00
Reserve Fund 5 19.86
Revolving Publication Fund 2.50
$ 1,562.36 Balance January 1, 1938 2,344.56
$3,906.92
Payments
Gulf State Utilities $ 1,060.50
Reserve Fund 285.14
$1,345.64 Balance January 1, 1939 2,561.28
$3,906.92
Respectfully submitted,
Robert T. Downs,
Treasurer
January 1939
Rhode Island Historical Society
Col leg
(3^ >^/yi-n;M^z!iz2i.im/ ^ ^ Ky[Sk.SAA.\ 9 J.
JIIK KI-KKrVVOOI) KNGRAVING OF THE GREAT STORM OF 1815
Trniii original in the Socifiy's library
Issued Quarterly
68 Waterman Street, Providence, Rhode Island
CONTENTS
PAGE
September Gale of 1 8 1 5 . . . . . cover
The Signing of the Compact and
The Purchase of Aquidneck
by Edward H. West 65
Providence Letters of Marque of 1812 . . 78
The Journal of Capt. Tillinghast . . . 80
Early Ship Protests ...... 84
The Arms of Richard Scott
by Richard Le Baron Bowen . . . 87
RHODE ^^¥|^ ISLAND HISTORICAL ^^^mj SOCIETY
COLLECTIONS
Vol. XXXII JULY, 1939 No. 3
Harry Parsons Cross, Presideyit Robert T. Downs, Treasurer
William Davis Miller, Secretary Howard M. Chapin, Librarian
The Society assumes no responsibility for the statements or the opinions of contributors.
The Signing of the Compact
and The Purchase of Aquidneck
By Edward H. West
The so-called Portsmouth Compact has claimed the attention of many historians, and all have praised it, both for its civil and its religious aspects. There has been a difference of opinion, however, as to where it was drawn up, some few claiming it was made in Providence, while the majority give Boston as the place where it was made and signed. No one gives any sufficient reason for his belief in either place.
Aside from the date of the Compact (7 March 1637/8 ), there are two records which give considerable information on this subject, and definitely indicate that the document was drawn before the men who signed it left Boston.
First, there is the letter from Thomas Dudley to John Winthrop, dated 19 of ye 12 1637', which says "In answer
^ Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. Ser. 4, v. 7.
p^|i-;.f^^/^£%^i'.r
r' /
.■<-'
THE COMPACT RECORDS OF THE ISLAND OF R. I., PAGE ONE
THE SIGNING OF THE COMPACT 67
to yours, and to what Mr. Coddington hath by word men- tioned, I say as foUoweth, that I am content himself, Mr. Wildbore, Mr. Coggeshall, Goodman Freeborne & Richard Carder shall have lycense to depart out of the Patent, within a month from hence following ( this '-jcould be 19 Maixh 1637/8) and after to retourne at their pleasures to remove their famyles, so it be within half a yeare from this date, — only Mr. Coddington and Mr. Wildbore are to come & goe, & trade & comerce, and take their own tyme for removall of their famyles. Likewise Serjeant Hutchinson & Serjeant Boston and John Porter, I consent to their departure and the release of their fines, provided that they shall depart before the thirteenth of the next month, & not return any more ."
This shows that William Coddington had been making- plans for removal for some time before the date of Dudley's letter, and although he was favored in Dudley's letter, and subsequent records show that he never broke off entirely with the Bay Colony, it was for his own advancement and proht that he w^as at the head of the movement for removal to another place. As to the last three names mentioned in this letter, Dudley insists that they shall leave before the thirteenth of March, the first definite date found in regard to their removal.
Second, at the meeting of the General Court, 12th 1 mo 1637/8', it is shown that "Mr. Coddington, Mr. John Coggeshall, William Baulston, Edward Hutchinson, Sam- uel Wilbore, John Porter, John Compton, Henry Bull, Philip Sherman, William Freeborne & Richard Carder, having license to depart, summons is to go out for them to appear (if they not be gone before) at the next Court." Although this has been mentioned in most accounts of that time, very little attention has been paid to the w^ording of the Warrant which follows the above record, which reads —
"Whereas you have desired and obtained a license to remove your selves & your families out of this jurisdiction,
- Mass. Coll. Records, v. I .
r.^i
/
.a
>,/«.„. ^/>--''^ ./.^^-A'.'J-.-^^^.
RECORDS OF THE ISLAND OF R. I., PAGE TWO
THE SIGNING OF THE COMPACT 69
& for that information hath been given to this Court that your intent is only to withdraw your selves for a season, that you may avoid the censure of the Court in some things which may bee objected against you, the Court therefore order that you depart according to the license given you, so as your families may be removed before the next General Court." From this second record it would seem as if Dudley looked ahead to the date of the sitting of the Court when he specified that the last three men mentioned in his letter, should be gone before the thirteenth of March. They could not leave before they procured their license to go, which could not be obtained before the Court met on the 12th, hence all signers of the Compact must have been in Boston on the 7th, the date on which it was signed.
It is unfortunate that we have only John Clarke's account of the journey to the Island of Aquidneck, as he left out many things that we would like to know. This journey has not been given serious thought by any of the historians except Mr. Howard M. Chapin, in his Documentary History of Rhode Island.
John Clarke says that they left Boston in the Spring"", which I do not think can be taken seriously, as to the date, especially as Winthrop says in regard to that season "This was a very hard winter. The snow lay from November 4 to March 23 half a yard deep about the Massachusetts — and the spring was very backward." With the snow on the ground, or melting, it would have been more than two days journey to Providence. After they arrived there the situa- tion had to be talked over with Roger Williams. Then, on his advice, Roger Williams, John Clarke, and two others (why did he not give their names? ) journeyed to Plymouth to determine what land they could procure j all of which took time.
According to John Clarke^, the vessel, which had sailed from Boston bearing some members of the party around
^ 111 Newes from New England, Dr. John Clarke.
70 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Cape Cod, was expected in Providence, but had not arrived when the party left for Plymouth. From this same source we learn that after the mission was accomplished at Ply- mouth the committee returned to Providence. John Clarke gives no detail of the purchase of Aquidneck, and possibly he was not at Narragansett when the purchase was made, but fortunately there is a deposition made by William Codding- ton^ in which can be found many of the details.
Coddington describes in the deposition how they went to the Island and saw the Indian Sachem there, who in- formed them that they would have to see the Chief Sachems at Narragansett "whereupon this deponant, with some others, went from Aquidneck Island unto the Narragansett to the said Sachems." Of the "some others" we have Roger Williams who drew up the deed, Randal Houlden who witnessed it, as well as John Sanford, John Porter, Richard Carder, and William Dyre, alJ making depositions in regard to the gift of the little island to William Dyre'\
Taking all the above into consideration, the journey of the vessel around Cape Cod to Providence, then the trip from Providence to Aquidneck and thence to Narragansett, where the sale of Aquidneck was made on the 24th of March, twelve days after they had obtained their license to depart, it is certain that of the twelve days, very few could have been spent in Boston, and consequently the departure from Boston must have been made very soon after the license to depart was procured.
It is very probable that the trip from Providence to Aquidneck and Narragansett was made in the vessel that brought some of the party around the Cape. As both Codd- ington and Wilbore are referred to in Dudley's letter as being in "trade and comerce," it is possible that the vessel belonged to one of them. Or, as we learn from the note book of Thomas Letchford^ that John Coggeshall, William Hutchinson, Thomas Savage, and William Dyre were part
* Rhode Island Col. Records, 1-51. = Rhode Island Col. Records, 1-267.
THE SIGNING OF THE COMPACT 71
owners of a wharf and warehouse in Boston, it may have been a vessel belonging to one, or more, of these men. That the vessel returned to Aquidneck from Narragansett, is shown by the deposition of William Coddington" which says — "I doe affirm that wee the Purchasers of Rhode Island (my selfe being the chief) William Dyre desiring a spot of land of us as we passed by it, after we had purchased the said Island, did grant him our Right in the said island & named it Dyres Island." Had they returned to Provi- dence from Narragansett, they would not have seen this island, as it lies between Aquidneck and Prudence Islands, far off their course had they sailed to Providence.
No doubt some of the men started in immediately to clear the land around the cove ( called Sanf ords Cove in some of the early records) for their new settlement, their families possibly staying in Providence while this work was going on. Certainlv much work had to be done on the Island between the 24th of March, when they purchased it, and the 13th of May, when they held their first town meeting. Probably the land was cleared around the cove and the settlement was made before thought was given to laws or anything else. And it appears, from the records, that this first settlement was temporary, as — "//;<? Towne shall be budded at the springe" according to the second record made at this first meeting. After they had erected some sort of Shelter they began to think about laws, as well as the legal allotments of their land, and from that time their records show that laws were made as the occasion demanded.
In regard to the signers of the Compact two questions arise, one of which has been discussed several times by as many historians j but never, to my knowledge, has the second been mentioned.
The first question involves the names that have been erased from the bottom of the Compact, Thomas Clarke, John Johnson, William Hall, and John Brightman. These
^ Note Book of Thomas Lctchford, American Antiquarian Soc.
^ <? i i. Q"> f » •« '■ '"^l '•■ h f
■■"•^tJ-. ♦' c^_-.«x- #-ti«. »V»-»»'^
RECORDS OF THE ISLAND OF R. I., PAGE THREE
■i? /?
ASPINVVALL S NOTARIAL RECORDS
^/
JOHN CLARKE TO THE GENERAL COURT
THE SIGNING OF THE COMPACT 77i
men, with the exception of Brightman, were all admitted Inhabitants of the Colony, 20 May 1638, at the third meet- ing of the settlers, and were among the first nine men admitted. Taking the known records of these men, we find that with the exception of Johnson, no mention of them is made before the date of their admission, either in the Bay Colony^ or Plymouth. In fact nothing further can be found of John Brightman, and I think that we can safely leave him out of all further consideration.
The General Court, at its meeting of 12th 1 mo 1637/8, warns John Johnson of Mount WoUaston, one of "Mr. Coddington's men, to be removed before the next Court." This shows that he was probably William Coddington's farmer, and would not have been in a position to purchase land with the others. As no mention is made of Thomas Clarke and William Hall in the Boston records, it is very probable that they arrived in Boston while the Hutchinson controversy was going on, in fact they may have arrived in November on the ship with John Clarke, and may have been among those who were given permission to land. A suggestion has been made that possibly their names were erased when they left the Island, but both Clarke and Hall stayed on the Island until they died, Clarke in 1674 and Hall in 1675. There seems also to be a mistaken idea as to the town to which these men were admitted, Newport being the place mentioned in some accounts, when in fact, at the time they were admitted, Newport had not been thought of, and at the time of their admittance the only settlement was at the north end of the island.
With these facts, and the question following, it would seem as if these men were not among the first settlers of the Island, and were not the original signers of the Compacty and that their names were added through some mistake, or possibly some one had them sign their names for an un- known reason of his own, later crossing them out.
The mere fact that these men were admitted Inhabitants, instead as Proprietors or Freemen, as were the signers of
74 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
the Compact, shows that their names have no place on the Compact.
The second question I wish to bring up concerns the deposition made by William Coddington, 14 April 1652', when he said "Whereas there was an agreement of eighteen persons to make purchase of some place to the southward for a plantation." Had he forgotten just how many men there were, or had he purposely left one of the signers out, and if so, which one.'^
In the margins of the pages recording the first nine meetings on the Island (13th 3mo 1638 to 2nd llmo 1638), there is a list of names, apparently those of the men who attended the meetings. Of the signers of the Compact , all but two, William Aspinwall and Thomas Savage, are mentioned at the majority of those meetings. We know that William Aspinwall was on the Island, although it is shown that he was not in the good graces of the Coddington followers. This does not seem strange as he was always getting into trouble with some one, but it is certain that he was on the Island for some time, the latest time his name appearing on the records being 16th 12 mo 1639. On the 10th of the same month he was granted 200 acres of land near Sandy Point, but no further mention of this land is made until 1661, when it is called in "the possession of Edward Hutchinson."
Of Thomas Savage there is no record on the Island except when he is mentioned in the 1641 list of Freemen, but it is in the Boston records that we find most about him. Although he was among those disarmed, he does not appear in the record of those who had license to depart. From the Boston Town Records we find that he bought land at Muddy River, 21st 11 mo 1638, that he was mentioned three times in 1640 in connection with land grants in the Bay Colony, and that he paid for land in 1642. Aside from this we find that his wife, who was a daughter of Anne Hutchinson, had children born and baptized in Boston in 1638 and 1639, as well as in
' Rhode Island Col. Records, 1-50.
THE SIGNING OF THE COMPACT 75
1 643, SO it would appear that his stay at Aquidneck (if any) was very short. It seems to me that if William Coddington had meant to leave out one of the signers, Thomas Savage was the one.
There is a line apparently drawn through the name of Thomas Savage on the Compact, but this probably is of no consequence, as the names of John Clarke and John Cogge- shall also have lines through them, and certainly their place in the Colony can not be questioned.
None of the various historians ever tried to name the writer of the Compact until Thomas Bicknell, in his "Story of Dr. John Clarke" said that it was probably written by Clarke. Dr. Wilbur Nelson in his "Hero of Aquidneck" says that Dr. Clarke did write the Compact. Unfortunately Dr. Nelson has followed Bicknell too closely, and evidently has not studied the original records at all, or he would not also have said that William Dyre was elected Clerk at the time of the signing of the Compact^ nor that the Island was purchased at Providence.
Very probably Bicknell, himself, did not use the original records of Rhode Island, but depended on Bartlett's tran- scriptions, which are full of errors. William Aspinwall was appointed secretary on the day that the Compact was signed, as is shown on Page 2 of the Records of the Island of Rhode Island. On Page 3 of the same book, are the first records made on the Island, 13 May 1638, and at the top of the page, in the handwriting of William Dyre, who wrote the records for many months, is the agreement that Dyre is to be clerk. The deposition of William Coddington, already mentioned, shows that the Island was purchased at Narra- gansett, not Providence.
It seems strange that Bicknell based the probability of John Clarke's having written the Compact mainly on the strength of "its religious sentiment." At the time when the Compact was written, the Bay Colony had just suppressed the followers of Anne Hutchinson in what appears to have been the beginning of a religious war. Then every family
76 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
depended on and studied the Bible as an answer to all problems. Henry Leland Chapman*' states the condition of the people of that time as follows "Religion, and religion in its most intellectual and theological aspect, was the com- mon vocation of the people, and they hurried through what might be called the exacting chores of life in order that they might give themselves to frequent and protracted seasons of worship and religious instruction, and theological dis- putation." How, under these conditions, can it be said that any one man wrote a paper with "religious sentiment," and that man be named, without proof?
The admirers of John Clarke must not forget that William Coddington was at the head of the movement to found a new colony, and that everything was done at Cod- dington's orders, notwithstanding the statement of John Clarke ■', that it was at Clarke's suggestion that the decision was made to move from the Bay Colony. While it is to Anne Hutchinson that the credit of the founding of Rhode Island must be given, for it was the quality of her disarmed follow- ers that led to the founding of a separate colony, which under other men would probably have been absorbed by either Massachusetts or Connecticut or both j none the less it is to William Coddington that the credit of the actual founding of the colony must be made, as it was through his wealth and influence (in spite of some of his later acts) that other men of influence settled there, and eventually developd what is now the State of Rhode Island. Does it not seem strange that a young man like John Clarke, without previous experience in a wild country, such as ours was when he arrived, should have been given the authority that he seems to assume in his tract^? As he did not arrive in Boston until November 1637, he had no knowledge of the heat of the previous summer, and certainly could not have told, from his own experience, that the following winter was unusually severe. His mention of "some others" who accompanied him is certainly not definite, and one can not tell whether they
® Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, Prof. Henry Leland Chapman.
THE SIGNING OF THE COMPACT 77
were new arrivals or men who had been in the Bay Colony for some time. It does not seem possible that any of the Boston men, who were connected with the removal, would think of a new colony to the north, as John Clarke implies, as they all had been in the Bay Colony long enough to know how much farther north they must go to escape the jurisdic- tion of the Bay, and it would seem as if this northern trip was made by newcomers who were ignorant of the true con- ditions of the country. It will be noticed that John Clarke" makes no mention of the Cojupact, or any other agreement, except the one which provided that some of the party should travel by land while the vessel went around Cape Cod. I am convinced that had John Clarke drawn up, or written the Compact y he most certainly would have mentioned it in his tract, and he claims no credit for the authorship.
Before John Clarke arrived in Boston, a "Petition or Remonstrance" against the conviction of Wheelwright, was presented to the General Court.''' ^"'^^ Although the Petition was presented in March 1636/7, it was not used by the Court until the following November, and was then used against the signers ( who numbered over sixty') and was really the cause of the disarming of the followers of Anne Hutchinson.
A reading of this Petition will show that it has a religious sentiment, with frequent Bible references, as did most of the papers of that time, including the Compact. Unfor- tunately the Petition has been lost, although it is reproduced in the story told by Welde, as well as in a footnote in Winthrop's history,'"*' " and we have the word of both Welde and Winthrop that this Petition was written by William Aspinwall, one of the signers of the Compact, a man well known as a writer, who, when he was permitted to return to Boston, was made Clerk of the Court, as well as a Notary Public.
" Rise, Reign and Ruin, Thomas Welde. ^^ Antinomianism, Charles Francis Adams. '^ History of New England, John Winthrop.
78 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
A comparison of the handwriting of the CoiJipact and the handwritings of William Aspinwall, as seen on the second page of the Record book, as well as in the extract taken from his Notarial Records, shows, without any doubt, that the Compact, as shown in the Record book, was certainly written by William Aspinwall, while the extract from John Clarke's letter shows that he could not have written this copy of the Compact. In absence of proof of Clarke's authorship it would be well to give credit to Aspinwall, who, as secretary of the body, and a lawyer, would naturally have been the one to have drawn up this document.
The intention of this article is not to belittle John Clarke, but to give credit where it is due. Dr. Clarke has a very fine monument in the Charter which he procured for this Colony, but the records fail to disclose the very prominent part which some claim that he had in the early life of this Colony. And after all it is the official records that we must use in order to know the truth, anything else is conjecture, and if one uses too much of that the results are bound to be distorted, and although we may have a very pleasing story, it is not history. It depends on what we want — a good story or history — on what we shall base our facts, or how we shall read the records.
Providence Letters of Marque Issued in the War of 1812
Abstract of Commissions of Letter of Marque &c issued in the District of Providence in the State of Rhode Island & from the 1 2 May 1 8 1 3 to the 12 September 1814.
58, Geo. P. Stevenson, John HoUins, Michael McBlair and John S. Hollins, owners, issued August 14, 1813, Schooner Sparrow, Commander Ezekiel Hall, first lieuten- ant Daniel Chace, 83 90/95 tons, 16 men, 1 carriage gun, sureties George I. Brown, Thomas P. Ives.
PROVIDENCE LETTERS OF MARQUE 79
59, Moses Eddy, Saml Eddy, Benj & Joseph Comstock, owners, issued October 16, 1813, Sloop Juno, Comman- der William Comstock, first lieutenant Geo. L. Brown, 54 75/95 tons, 5 men, 1 carriage gun, 1 swivel, sureties Samuel Currie, James Currie.
60, Isaac Bowen, Jr., Saml Currie, Richd Olney, Jereh Munro, owners, issued October 18, 1813, Sloop Huntress, Commander James Currie, first lieutenant Wm. Arnold, 99 51/95 tons, 8 men, 2 carriage guns, sureties Moses Eddy, Wm. Comstock.
922, Geo. Coggeshall, E. Minor Jr., David Miles, Wm. Strong, Wm. M. Miles, John J. Minor, Jonathan Law- rence, Jr., owners, issued November 9, 1813, schooner David Porter, Commander George Coggeshall, first lieu- tenant Saml. McNicholes, 192 33/95 tons, 30 men, 6 car- riage guns, sureties Edward Carrington, Hy P. Franklin.
923, John Richard, James Case owners, issued Novem- ber 22, 1813, Schooner \'iper, commander Domingo Dithurbide, first lieutenant Wm. Earle, 303 37/95 tons, 40 men, 4 carriage guns, 20 muskets, sureties Frederick Brunei, Gurdon S. Mumford.
Sept 12, 1814
Thos Coles Col
924, Peter H. Schenck & Martin W. Brett, owners, issued December 13, 1814, Brig Morgiana, commander George H. Fellows, first lieutenant John Hariltor, 270 43/95 tons, 100 men, 14 carriage, sureties Henry Cowing, George Weeden.
925, William Keith, Isaac Jenny & x\bijah Luce, owners, issued December 27, 1814, Schooner "Sine qua non" alias William commander Abijah Luce, first lieutenant Joseph Breck, 1 73 85/95 tons, 80 men, 7 carriage, sureties Wheeler Martin, William Valentine.
926, Peter H. Schenck & Martin W. Brett owners, issued January 2, 1815, Brig Scourge, Commander Charles W.
80 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Wooster, first lieutenant Lothrop Turner, 250 tons, 110 men, 9 carriage sureties Henry Cowing, George Weeden.
Jany 10, 1815 Thos Coles Col
(From Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts, X\'II, 115.) Note: The numbers are apparently federal, not local, numbering.
— Editor
The Journal of Capt. Tillinghast
(concluded fro>ii Page 1 6)
Sunday 1 6 This day fair weather went over to sea M'" Rokes try'' for to shute some Pigeons but could not get aney went to drive up the Horses found they had got out of the Pasture returnd and sent Peter Fisher out but could not find them this afternon went out took another look but could not find them rain this night singin shooll at the hall this afternoon
Monday 1 7 This day commences cloudy took up staks at 9 "Clock went in persute of the Horses at which time it began to rain went through the woods to M'' Grangers whare we heard of them Col. Berry having tawn them up this morning on the rode to Troy M' G. offerd a Horse sent S. Scovill after them returnd home at 12 "Clock continued rainy all the time later past light squalls of rain so ends this day cloudy
Tuesday 1 8''' This day commences fair weather after brackfast took the Gig went down to Gen" Gansiford saw a most capitall saw mill with a gang of 1 3 saws and a good Grist mill plenty of Logs Boards & Plank stop at Cap' Thompson mill a gang of 1 5 saws returnd to Dinner after which took the Chaise and started for Balltown arrived at sunsett so Ends this day
Wednesday 1 9 This day commences with heavy rain at 1 0 "Clock more moderate light squalls and rain at 1 2 "Clock started for Northumberland stop at Homes found no letters started on just as we enterd on the planes began
THE JOURNAL OF CAPT. TILLINGHAST 81
to rain very fast attended with Thunder & lightning continued untill a cross them (the plains) then held up. obliged to get out going up hill it being clay and very slippery all most impossible to get up or down arrived at dark at P. L, M. 20 mile so End this day
Thursday Sep"" 20*'' This day commences foggey & flying clouds at 1 1 "Clock tackl'' up and went down to E. Rey- nolds P. L. M. Z. M. A. M. & W. E. T. was very agreably entertaind. Rost Pig & a most execlent loin of Veal for dinner this day at 9 "Clock returnd very cold and heavy frost this night so ends this day
Friday 2 1 This day fair weather and moderate over hauld the Carriages greast Wheals moved the Chain farther back on the thourong Braces at 5 "Clock tackl'' up and took in Amey and went up to N. Tillinghast so ends this day fair weather
Saturday 22 This day commences fair weather after brack- fast got into a Waggon and went down to P. L. M. help him get a frame for a Chaise house and carted two loads of slabs from Thompsons mills at night returnd to N. T. so Ends this day
Sunday 23 This day commences fair weather tackl'' up went down to P. L. M. and he & Mrs. Mawney joind us went up to Glans falls at night returnd by Cadwell's to N. T. so Ends this day
Monday 24 This day commences fair weather in the morning went down to P. L. M. to help build a Chaise house at night returnd to N. T. after compleating the house & boarding up part of the Barn so Ends this day fair weather and cold nights
Tuesday 25 This day commences fair weather at 10 °Clock started for P. L. M. help build two mangers at 2 °Clock started for Fort Edward crost the river at CoF Rogers attended the Lodge at 1 1 "Clock arrived home after being politly treated So Ends this day
82 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Wednesday 26 This day commences fair weather went to work reparing Barn building fowell house in the after- noon H. & A. came down at night returnd with them so ends this day
Thursday 27 This day commences with cloudy weather at 10 "Clock clear went out with N. to the foot of Palmer Town mountains returnd at 3 "Clock P. M. found Amey & Hanah employd at blagarding each other so ends this day with flying clouds
Friday 28 This day commences fair weather walkd down to P. L. M. with N. found he had gone to Troy nothing remarkable this day
Saturday 29 This day commences fair weather & could greast wheals brushd Chaise &c at 10 "Clock started for Glans Falls arrived at 1 " Clock at Twings 7 miles at 2y2 "Clock started for Lake George arrived at Stiles Inn @ 5 "Clock 9 miles on the west side of the Lake one mile from the head a good House & fared well so ends this day clear & cold strong gales at North
Sunday Sep 30, 1804 This day commences fair wether light air at South get ready to goe down to dimond Island 14 miles at 8 "Clock strong breazes at N W. gave up the idea of going oif on the Lake went out to vew the remains of the old fort Prince William Henry with the old Buring grounds saw the remains of the French intrenchment that whare hove up at the time the Fort surrenderd found some of the wall and old timber that formerly composed the brest work. The Buring ground aboutht 4 Akers. at 3 "Clock started to return stop* at the head of the Lake to vew Fort George the walls of which are of stone & lime coverd with dirt and are in a maner all standing two miles from this on the rode East side is Blody pond whare the Indians murderd the English at the time they surrenderd to the French stop at Wing rested then started for N. T.
THE JOURNAL OF CAPT. TILLINGHAST 83
arrived at 8 ''Clock cloudy & cold so ends this day — spits of Snow
Monday Oct. 1 This day commences cloudy litle or no wind & could after brakfast walkd down to P. L. M. this da\' the roade was apprised that runs back of the House at 500 $ which occasiond a long dispute and the most simple argument and many unjust occasiond by party returnd to N, T. at 12 "Clock at night so End this day
Tuesday Oct. 2. This day commences fair weather at 10 °Clock started with P. L. M. dined at Leas Saritogo went on to Balltown spring from their to the Post office then to the Court House then to T. Patchens whare we taried for the night found that the people had left the spring So Ends this day
Wednesday Oct. 3. This day commences fair weather after Brackfast went down to the Court House from thence by the way of Balltown Springs to W Leas at Saritoga dined then precede on arrived at N T. at 5 °Clock enquired at the Post office for Letters found none so ends this day fair weather
Thursday Oct. 4. This day commences fair weather turn'd out early kil'^ a pig maid a good dinner at 5 3^ "Clock caught the mare found one of her fore legs much chafed appeard to have ben done by tying her head & foot when or whare I cannot learn went down to P. L. M. found the house full debating upon the rode disputes runing high so ends this day
Friday 5 This day commences Cloudy weather found the mares leg sweld and some stiff light rains cleand Har- ness this afternoon went with P. L. M. and M"' Cooper to view Bightley's Spring on approaching the creek smellt the spring some distance smelt much like Bilg warter on tasting it resembled gun powder & warter got caught in the rain returnd at 7 °Clock so Ends this day Amey & M" Mawney at Doct' Ellis
84 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Saturday 6 This day commences cloudy with light rain in the afternoon went up to N T sent the Mare to get shodd wash'^ her Leg found it some better so Ends this Day
Sunday 7 Oct This day commences Cloudy with squalls of rain at ^ past 1 1 "Clock tackled up the Chaise Hanah & Amey startd for a Methodis mariage & Meating got in sight of the house found they had turnd out all ex- cept those that belong'^ to the meating they return*^ home. Nicholass & myself on foot so Ends this day fair wether
11. So Tillinghast ended manv an entrv in his ship's logs. Other entries in the journal are also reminiscent of his life at sea.
Early Ship Protests
(continued from vol. XXIX, fage 32 )
These ship protests are entered in the second volume of Rhode Island Land Evidences which are in the
State Archives.
By this publick Instrument of proteste be it known . . . this day the two & twentieth of March 1701 . . . Came unto mee Weston Clarke publick Recorder ... of the Collony of Rhoad Island . . . Benj. Ellery Master of the Ship Thomas & Susanah'" Burden About one hundred & Seventy tons belonging to the Island of Barbados in the west Indies the Sd Master declared . . . that in his voyage Coming from Saltatudos"'" & bound for Virginia Meatting with A Squall of wind Lost his fore top mast as Allso in the Lattitude of thirty three had a greatt Storme & in Sd storme Sprung his Maine & fore Mast the wind hanging in the westerne Bord was Driven farr to the Northward by the wind & Currants & Did after Sd Storme Endevour to gitt Some port in Order to Repaire his Sd Ship with
EARLY SHIP PROTESTS 85
Masts which proved to be rhoad Island & the Sd Master Not knowing what Damage is done . . . Doth thare fore in Such Cases provided SoUomly . . . protest Against the Sd Seas & badness of Weather for All & Every parte of the Damages Done . . . thare by unto the Sd vessell . . . or unto . . . every part of hir Cargo . . . Entred in the publick Records . . . the day & yeare Above Written
Samll Cranston Govr
Benjamin Ellery, master; Benjamin Church, mate; and William Hackney, boatswain acknowledged this instru- ment. (11,146) By this Publick Instrumt of Protest be it known & mani- fest that this day being the Seventh of September one thousand seven hundred and two Came before me Weston Clark publick Recorder . . . John Cranston master of the Sloop Elizabeth and Sarah burthen about seventy tons and Belonging to the Towne of Newport on Rhoad Island . . . the said Master declared . , . that being at anchor in Caroloine bay in the Island of Barbados on the Evleventh day of august Last past was by Stress of winds and weather forst from his Anchors One of his Cables parting the other he was forst to Lett slip & send one hand in his boat on shoar but the Storme . . . continewing soe Vilently all that day & night following that I could not gett in nor feth
"■' Benjamin Ellery was a Newport man. The reason that his ship hailed from Barbadoes may have been because he had just purchased her there. On Feb. 2, 1702/3 this vessel was commissioned a privateer, at which time her tonnage was estimated at 180 tons.
^^ Salt Tortudas or Salt Tortugas, an island in the West Indies where salt was obtained, can be identified as the island of Tortuga that lies in latitude 1 1 ° N off the Coast of Venezuela, cf. Boston News Letter Dec. 1 , 1748. The English Pilot (p. 54, Fourth Book, London 175 3) referring to the island of Tortugas which lies in 11° N off the west end of Margarita says: "And there is more salt than a thousand sail of ships can carry. All the Land from the Salt Pond to the Roads where Ships lie is hard strong Ground, but about a league E Ward the shore is sanday and even level with the sea water (where there is very good white salt to be had) by reason the Land is Low."
86 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
the place wee came from the next day following I diet my Endever to gett in but in Vaine the storme being soe Vilent & when I saw that thare was no possibelety of geting into the bay I and about seaven of the Clock on the twelf Day of august Stand away to the northward in order for Rhoad Island having that day overhaled my provitions and found it short not more on bord then five peses met'' for Men & boys the Sd master not knowing what Damage may be done or Sustayneg Either to the Owners fraighters merchants of this said Sloop by her proseeding hether be- fore taking in her Laading or Clering according to Law at the usuale place of Officers Doth therefore according to the useuale Custom of Marrin affairs and the Laws thereof in such cases provided Solomnly . . . protest against the Sd Storme . . . for all and Every part of the Damage done . . . there by unto the owners freighters & merchants . . . done by mee ... on board the Sd Sloop . . , this present Vouage
John Cranston
Sworne''' the day and yeare Above Written Before mee
Samll Cranston Gov ( II, 169)
"' meat
"^ John Brown and Francis Pope sign as witnesses.
87
The Arms of Richard Scott
By Richard LeBaron Bowen
It is claimed, but not proved, that the Richard^ Scott* of Glemsford, co. Suffolk, England, who emigrated to New England, was admitted to the church at Boston, 28 August 1 634, removed to Providence, R. I., was descended from the family of Scott of Scott's Hall, county of Kent, England.
Arms: Silver three Catherine wheels sable ^
a border engrailed gules. Crest: A demi griffin segreant sable ^ beaked and legged gold.'\
*Richard' Scott, d. aht. 1680. [Austin, Gen. Diet. R. /., page 372.] John- Scott, eldest son, d. 1677, said to have been shot by an Indian while standing in the doorway of his own house at Pawtucket Ferry. [Austin, Gen. Diet. R. /., page 372.] JoHN^ 5coTT, eldest son, b. 1664; his mother m. (2) 1678, when he was 14 yrs. old ; his grandfather Richard d. when he was 1 6 years old; m. Elizabeth, dau. of Edward and Elizabeth Wanton; sister of Col. John Wanton, and also aunt of Gideon Wanton, both Gov- ernors of Rhode Island. \ Austin, Gen. Dirt. R. I., pages 373 and 215]. Catherine'* Scott, 3rd dau. and child, m. 1719, Godfrey Mat- bone, Newport, R. I., merchant. '\Burke's General Armory, page 906.
88 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Among the documents in the library of Frederick S. Peck, of Belton Court, Barrington, R. L, a descendant of Richard^ Scott, is the original deed given by John'' Scott, grandson of Richard^ Scott, dated 1712, signed by John and his wife Elizabeth, and sealed with red sealing wax. On examination of these wax seals the present writer dis- covered that the seal of John was of the conventional knurl design, while the seal of his wife Elizabeth was an armorial seal of three Catherine wheels ^ a border engratledy the same heraldic charges as on the arms of Scott of Scott's Hall. The shield shows no tinctures. Over the helm is a crest which is a griffin's head erased.
This is the first and only known American evidence showing that the Richard^ Scott family of Providence, R. I., claimed connection with the Scott family of County Kent, England, which fact is now printed for the first time. It is also the discovery of a new coat of arms used in the English Colony of Rhode Island.
The Scott seal on this deed is apparently considerably older than the 1712 date on which it was used, and undoubtedly was cut in England, for on comparison the mantling and general characteristics are found to be very similar to the seal used by Richard" Smith, Jr., in 1671 on a letter to John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut, ijl
John'' Scott was a Quaker, which may have been the reason why he did not use his armorial seal. It was fortu- nate for those living 227 years after, however, that he permitted his wife to use it. Martin B. Scott,^ writing of the family in 1868, says:
"Had Richard Scott brought with him seals, or other emblems of his ancestry, a rigid Quaker of those times would have esteemed it a merit to destroy them j for scarcely a portrait is presented of the great and eminent Quakers of early times, so utterly did they detest the fashions of the world."
%Original letter in Winthrop Papers, Xo\. 1 8, page 96, Mass. Hist. Soc. * N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, \'ol. 22, page 17.
THE ARMS OF RICHARD SCOTT 89
This Quaker theory does not quite satisfactorily explain, however, why John"* Scott used a plain seal, and his wife used his armorial seal, for the reason that her family, the Wanton's, besides furnishing four colonial governors, is known as the family of "Fighting Quakers." [A^. E. Hist. Gen. Register^ Vol. 60, p. 174.]
Howard M. Chapin in Colonial Heraldry ^ page 40, cites a somewhat similar case, where in 1 660 Richard Morris of Portsmouth, R. I., sealed a deed with some convenient plain object, and his wife Mary sealed the deed with an armorial seal, a bend cottised three crescents. These arms are not listed under Morris in Burke. The witnesses to the deed were William Dyre (alias Dyer ) and William Baul- stone, but the arms are not found in Burke under the name of Dyer nor Baulstone. In the Gore Roll^ No. 29, how- ever, is found a coat of the same charges for Gillis Dyer, colonel of the Governor's Life Guard and Sheriif of the County of Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay, under date of 1713.
Mr. William Allan Dyer has recently discovered a third use of these arms in America. "In the Massachusetts Archives [Vol. 129, p. 163] there is a power of attorney executed on 20 August 1688, by Mary Dyer of Sussex in Pennsylvania, widow of William Dyer, in favor of her son William Dyer. Mary Dyer signed and sealed this document in the presence of John Redwood and Samuel Atkins and used an armorial seal a bend cottised three crescents y impaling a jess dance tty between three mullets. It is indeed significant that another use of these arms by a member of the Dyer family has been discovered. The identity of William Dyer of Sussex has been established, as Major William Dyer, son of William Dyer, one of the founders of Newport." \R. I. H. S. Collections^ Vol, 26, p. 76.]
The following is an abstract of the deed:
JOHN SCOTT of Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, for £600 current money deeded to Charles Dyere of Dart-
PHOTOSTATIC ENLARGEMENT OF SCOTT SEALS ON THE DEED
OF JOHN SCOTT AND WIFE ELIZABETH, OF NEWPORT, R. I.,
TO CHARLES DYRE, OF DARTMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS,
DATED 25 JULY 1712.
From the Original Deed Ozoieii f>\ Frederick S. Peck BeUon Court, Barrington, R. I.
THE ARMS OF RICHARD SCOTT 91
mouth, in the Countv of Bristol & Province of Massachu- setts, Blacksmith, a Mansion house and 1 13 acres of land in Providence, about three miles from the salt water harbor in Providence, being the northern part of Antashutuck Minor Neck upon Neosaconkonit River, on the western, southern, and south eastern side of the river j also, two lots containing about 12 acres; a meadow containing 3 or 4 acres; a piece of Salt meadow containing 7 or 8 acres, and a piece of upland," etc. Together with all and singular the Rights, Liberties, Privileges, including Improvements, Outhouses, Gardens, Orchards, Fences, Ways, Wastes, Water Easments and Appurtenances to said house, lands, etc.
IN WITNESS whereof the sd John Scott hath here- unto Sett his hand & Seal this five & Twentieth Day of July in the Eleventh year of or Soveraign Lady Ann by the Grace of God of Great Britain & Ireland Queen, etc. Annog Domi 1712
Sealed & Delivered in presence of
Joseph Fay John Scott (Seal)
Tho. Makin Elizabeth Scott (Seal)
[Prov. Deeds, Book 2, pp. 347-8]
To guard against the loss of this deed, or damage to the seal, with the consequent loss of the evidence, steps have been taken to make a proper record.''
^ These smaller parcels of land were deeded bv Dver 30 April 1713 to Nathaniel Browne, of Rehoboth, Mass., described as formerly belonging to Richard Scott. [Proz\ Deeds, Book 2, pages 300-2.]
''At a meeting of the Heraldry Committee of the Nezv Efi gland Historic Genealogical Society held 29 April 1939, the seal on this original Scott deed was carefully examined uncier a magnifying glass bv all the members of the Committee, Robert Dixon Weston, Harold Bowditch, M.D., George Andrews Moriarty, F.S.A., Rev. Arthur Adams, F.S.A., Richard LeBaron Bowen ; and by Anthony R. Wagner, F.S.A., Portcullis Pursui- vant, of the College of Arms, London, England, and previously by Howard Millar Chapin, and the arms on the seal were found to be three Catherine zcheels, a border engrailed, being the same heraldic charges as on the arms of the familv of Scott, of Scott's Hall, co. Kent, England, and this fact was recorded in the records of the Heraldry Committee.
92 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Antiques for February 1933 contained an illustration of a silver mug owned by Rev. Malbone H. Brickhead of Wynnewood, Pa., engraved with an impaled coat of arms, gold two bendlets compony gules and ermine for Malbone, impaling Silver on a jess between three Catherine wheels as many lambs f ass ant for Scott. Under the arms are engraved "Godfrey Malbone, 1 742."
The Collections' for July 1933 under Heraldic NoteSy reproduced the picture of this silver mug, and said:
"The arms of Scott as engraved on the silver mug are the same as those of Thomas Scott of Great Barr, in Staffordshire, as illustrated on page 299 of the 1724 edition (also in edition of 1679) of Guillim's Display of Heraldry. In the text these arms are given as argent on a jess gules, cottised a%ure, three lambs of the first, between as many Katherine- wheels sable, but in the illustration the cottises are omitted. Dr. Bowditch suggests that the engraver may have merely turned to Guillim for a Scott coat, found that of Scott of Great Barr, Staffordshire, and then, overlooking the cottises in the description, copied Guillim's wood cut. He may have shaded the fees for artistic effect."
The discovery of this Godfrey Malbone mug of 1742 with the impaled Scott arms of a descendant of Richard^ Scott in the fourth generation, the earliest record, and at that time the only known record of this family having used arms in America, was, to say the least, a shock to the genealogists who had been working on this Scott pedigree, for instead of being the arms of the family of Kent, they were the arms of another family in England by the same name, settled some two hundred miles north west in Staffordshire.
The use of these Staffordshire arms on this Malbone
' R. I. Hist. Sac. CrAlectio/is, Col. 26, pages 98-100.
THE ARMS OF RICHARD SCOTT 93
mug made no sense, for as far as known, none of Richard^ Scott's family came from as far north in England as Staffordshire, so here was a record of apparently the wrong arms being used, and the explaining away of this fact was just one more problem for the genealogist.
Now that we know that in 1712 John ' Scott owned a Scott seal," thirty years before his son-in-law's silver mug was engraved in 1 742 with an entirely different Scott coat of arms, we realize that Dr. Bowditch was right when he said in 1933 that the engraver didn't know the Scott coat and simply copied it out of Guillim. At any rate, the engraver evidently did not read the printed blazon, for the coat is incorrectly drawn in Guillim and incorrectly engraved on the cup. See illustration. Incidentally, it is the only Scott coat of arms in the book, so the engraver had to use this one or nothing. Also, which is interesting, Guillim lists no Malbone arms.
The date of 1 742 on this silver mug seems to be sig- nificant, for on 29 April 1 742 Godfrey Malbone, of New- port, merchant, purchased a farm of 366 acres with build- ings, improvements, etc., at Jamestown, R. I., from Col. Francis Brinley," of Newport, for £10,248.
Malbone seems to have been setting up a pretentious establishment in Jamestown, and it might be that his merchant friends in Newport took this occasion to present him with an engraved heraldic mug. In that case, it might well have been kept a secret from both Malbone and his wife, which might account for the use of the wrong Scott arms.
Summary.
The possession of this Scott seal in 1712 by the wife of John" Scott, the grandson of Richard', the emigrant, proves conclusively that the early members of this family
^ Photostat of the seals and signatures in R. I. H. S. M. XI, 11+. ® Austin, Gen. Diet, of R. /., page 25 7.
94
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Chap. VI.
A Display 0.
*' He beareth Argent^ ** on a Fefs Gules ^ cotti- *' fed Azure, three Lambs " of the F/r//, between as " many Kj^thertne-v^'\\tt\i " Sdle^ by the Name of " Scott ; and is born by *' ThomM Scott of Great- " Barr in Staffordjhire ^ " Gent.
PAGE 299, guillim's display of heraldry.
3
in America were using the arms of the Kentish family of Scott, of Scott's Hall. This Rhode Island seal is apparently earlier than the date of the deed on which it was used, because it shows wear, and so it may have been brought over from England, Even if it were cut in America, it would have been necessary for the family to have furnished the seal cutter with the blazon of the arms, for the reason that these particular arms do not appear in any of the six editions of Guillim from 1610 to 1724, nor is the present writer able to find the coat in any of the other less common early heraldic books." Guillim's Display of Heraldry was
^" An early "Scotte (Kent, added)" coat, 3 Catherine wheels, a border engrailed, called 'Hate Tudor,''' is shown on p. 200, Harl. MS. No. 6163, in Tzco Tudor Books of Arfns, ed. by Joseph Foster, De Walden Library, 1904. This coat is perhaps a century earlier than the date Foster assigns to it, for Anthony R. Wagner, F.S.A., of the College of Arms, London, England, identifies this MS. in his new book. Historic Heraldry of Britain, p. 30, as: "Peter Le Neve's Book (British Museum MS. Harl. 6163). Painted Book c. 1490 and later, of some 2000 coats, incorporating a good deal of earlier 1 5th century matter."
THE ARMS OF RICHARD SCOTT 95
the principal heraldic book used in America in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries,
Glemsjordy where Richard^ Scott's father Edward was located, is a parish in the hundred of Babergh in the county of Suffolk, in the archdeaconry of Sudbury, and diocese of Norwich, and is located in the southwestern corner of Suffolk, within about a mile of the northern boundary of the county of Essex.
Smeeth, where the Scotts of Scott's Hall were located, is a parish in the franchise and barony of Bircholt, lathe of Shepway, county of Kent, in the "peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury," and is situated in the southeastern part of the county, about seven miles from the English Channel, and about thirty-five miles southeast of the southern boundary line of the county of Essex.
Glemsford, Suffolk, is about eighty miles north of Smeethy Kent. It is claimed that Richard' Scott's great grandfather, Edward Scott, moved from Kent and settled in Suffolk about 1575.
On the following page is a pedigree chart of the Richard Scott Family which shows clearly where it is necessary to do additional English research. This pedigree should cer- tainly be traceable, for the parish registers of Glemsford, CO, Suffolk, are extant and commence in 1550, and the proved part of the American end of the pedigree extends back into England to a time when people of this social and economic class left wills. Furthermore, it is known that there were Scotts settled early in Suffolk for a John Skott was assessed for the Subsidy at Glemsford in 1 524,
96
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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First four generations of this pedigree from MSS. who is writing a Soott Genealogj'.
*Mentioned in will of George Scott, of London
[AT. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., Vol. 51.
254.]
Notes of Edward N. Duiilap. Merchant. [Campbell. 51.] J^Iuseiim MSS.
tFrederick's Descendants. [Daw's Suffolk Collections. British Add. 19148, P. 25640.]. Here printed for first time.
tCf. The Visitations of Kent in 1530-1, p. 17.
§Cf. The Visitations of Kent in 1574, p. 30; also. The J'isitations of Kent in 166S 1668, p. 145.
f
Rhode Island
Historical Society
Collections
Vol. XXXII
OCTOBER, 1939
No. 4
hoof, and the other has exactly the shape and size bl' ar'' ■ ^.^
human foot, even the mark of a great toe being pointed 'i f' ^\ out by the lad who explained to me the story. The steps ''''' ''
are three paces apart, and appear thus — ■■^/>/
The " Devil's foot marks," near Wickford.
FROM THE REPORT ON THE GEOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND BY CHARLES T. JACKSON, 1840, PAGE 87.
See page 116 of this issue of the Collections.
Issued Quarterly
68 Waterman Street, Providence, Rhode Island
CONTENTS
PAGE
The "Devil's foot marks" ..... Cover
Pawtuxet and the Rhodes Family
by Horace G. Belcher . . . . 97
New Interpretations of the Records of the Island of Rhode Island by Edward H. West 107
New Publications of Rhode Island Interest . 116
Notes . . . . . . . .116
A Journal of my Visits to Rhode Island April 17, 1776. by W. Rogers . . . . . .117
RHODE «^E ISLAND HISTORICAL ^^my SOCIETY
COLLECTIONS Vol. XXXII OCTOBER, 1939 No. 4
Harry Parsons Cross, President Robert T. Downs, Treasurer
William Davis Miller, Secretary Howard M. Chapin, Librarian
The Society assumes no responsibility for the statements or the opinions of contributors.
Pawtuxct and the Rhodes Family
By Horace G. Belcher
To the casual passer-by on busy Narragansett Boulevard or on Main street where the Greenwich post road begins on the Warwick side of Pawtuxet it was nothing more than wreckers tearing down an old house last March. But to the few that know Old Pawtuxet it was the destruction of a symbol of Pawtuxet's past glory. For some of the most vital phases of Pawtuxet's history had their origin in that house.
From it came a family group of manufacturers and mer- chants who controlled the prosperity and swayed the destiny of Pawtuxet for more than a half century, changing it from a shipping port to a mill village, replacing its declining West Indies trade with the clutter of looms at Pawtuxet Falls, at Bellefonte, Natick, Albion, Wickford and else- where, building homes for themselves still distinguished for architectural beauty and so stamping their family indi- viduality on the old village that it might well have been called "Rhodesville" instead of by the Indian name for "Little Falls" by which it has been known since its history began, just over three centuries ago.
98 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The return of the old place to the sleepy country village it remained until Edgewood began to grow up to it on the Cranston side and Lakewood on the Warwick, followed the ending of its industrial era when the Rhodes family ceased operation of the mills and when its members who had led this activity passed on or removed from Pawtuxet.
The house, one of the oldest of the group of Rhodes houses built in or near Pawtuxet village, stood at the bottom of Main street hill, first in the long line of dwellings ex- tending along the west side of the old post road to Connec- ticut and New York. At the time of the Revolution it was the home of Captain Robert Rhodes, merchant and ship owner. Here were born Gen. Christopher and Col. William Rhodes who founded the manufacturing dynasty that brought to Pawtuxet a century or more ago, wealth and prosperity to replace the shipping trade for which it had been noted since long before the Revolutionary War.
From this house spread a wide influence. In the mansion next door, built by one of the sons born in the old house, the Providence Journal's most distinguished editor and Rhode Island's best known Secretary of State married into the family. The next house, up the hill, has a plate stating that the north end was built by James Rhodes in 1 734, the south end added in 1 774 by Malachi Rhodes. It is said that at one time every house on this side of the old post road from Pawtuxet bridge to the Golden Ball Inn, now the Cole farmhouse at the edge of Lakewood, was owned and occu- pied by a Rhodes.
The old house was a fine looking dwelling in its day, solid and substantial, expressing the plain, old-fashioned rugged individuality of Colonial times. Up to the opening of the century its front door had a remarkably fine brass knocker and the house expressed dignity and worth. In later years it grew seedy and neglected, yet it was in sur- prisingly good condition at the end.
Its age was uncertain. During the Rhode Island Tercen- tenary a tablet was placed on it reading "Built by James
PAWTUXKT RHODKS FAMILY 99
Rhodes, 1674." This was removed when the historical committee responsible was reminded that records show every house in the Pawtuxet settlement was burned by Nar- ragansett Indians in January, 1676, during King Philip's War. And James Rhodes, son of Malachi and father of Robert, was born in 1711.
The land on which it stood was a part of that given by William Arnold, Pawtuxet's first settler, to his youngest daughter, Joanna, on her wedding day, March 6, 1 646, when she married Zachariah Rhodes, who had been living at Rehoboth, where his name appears with an estate of 50 pounds in the tax list of 58 inhabitants that year.
The land has remained in possession of the Rhodes family or its connections ever since, finally coming back to an Arnold. The original deed was made at Boston, for the Pawtuxet settlers led by Arnold, had then placed them- selves under jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Rhodes lands extended to Spring Green in one direction, to Norwood and beyond in another, as well as on the Cranston side of the Pawtuxet River. The family was a prolific one and as the eldest sons in earlier generations were named Malachi and in later generations James, it is not easy to follow. At one time, to judge from Revolution- ary muster rolls, Pawtuxet must have been almost filled with Rhodes, leaving scant room for the Aborns — pro- nounced Eb-on in Pawtuxet until in recent years — the Sheldons, Remingtons, Smiths.
Zachariah Rhodes was drowned "off Pawtuxet shoare" in 1665. In his will he left to his sons Zachariah, Malachi and John when they should reach the age of 21 years, "the lands south of the Pawtuxet river." Malachi died in 1682, leaving to his son Malachi "all housing and lands and half of his movables and chattels." This Malachi died August 17, 1714, leaving to his son James among other things, "Two acres adjoining on Pawtuxet river against the falls," undoubtedly including the site of the old house.
James was father of Robert, who was living in the house
100 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
at the time of the Revolution. The date of its building must have been after 1711, for a map of the "Proprietor's lots south of the river at Pawtuxet," drawn by William Hopkins and dated June 28 of that year shows no house on the west side of the old post road, although "John Rhodes house" is written on a lot opposite this location. The John Rhodes lot was intersected by Peck lane, leading to the town wharf, the house being on the section nearest Pawtuxet bridge.
When Narragansett Boulevard was laid out through Pawtuxet, a small building of evident great age, used in its later years as a bakery, was torn down to clear the tip of the V where Main street and the boulevard joined near Pawtuxet bridge. This building may have been the old John Rhodes house.
James Rhodes deeded September 6, 1770, to his son Robert, "a certain house and lot of land situate being in Pawtuxet in Warwick, about where he now dwells," which proved the house was built before that year. The 70-foot lot was bounded on three sides by land of James Rhodes, the fourth boundary being the post road. Robert Rhodes deeded it to his son Christopher, September 19, 1820, de- scribing it as "the mansion house and estate whereon I now live." The deed was filed in 1821, after Robert's death. The property is now owned by the estate of George C. Arnold.
The wreckers who tore down the old house found only four large timbers showing signs of having been hewed out with an adze, these all being in the roof. The others had come from a saw mill and show very close joining. The Malachi Rhodes who died in 1714 owned one-half of a saw mill. He was a Deputy in the General Assembly in 1707, '08 and 1709, and in 1713 was appointed by the Assembly on the committee for making the public road from the Pawtucket River to the Pawcatuck River at Westerly, straight and passable. He saw to it that this improvement was applied to the section crossing the Pawtuxet at Paw-
PAWTUXET RHODES FAMILY 101
tuxet bridge and running up Pawtuxet hill, past this old house.
The house had a direct view down Peck lane, laid out in 1 734 as a town road, but existing long before this as an approach to the water front, where the town laid out two slips 20 feet wide at which Capt. Rhodes must often have seen his coasting and West Indies trade vessels moored. The lane still maintains its two-century record of never having been paved.
Robert Rhodes, termed Esquire in the old records to show his social station as a gentleman and a man of sub- stance, got his title of Captain from service in the Pawtuxet Rangers, a military company incorporated in 1774 and serving in the fort on Pawtuxet Neck and elsewhere during the Revolutionary War. The company was in Gen. Sulli- van's army at the battle of Rhode Island, August 29, 1 779 and Captain Rhodes was with it.
He had ownership in vessels sailing from Pawtuxet be- fore and after the Revolution, for Pawtuxet was a port of entry from 1790 when the Providence Custom House was established with a resident Surveyor at Pawtuxet, until 1912 and had a large trade with the West Indies dating back to the early part of the Eighteenth Century. It fitted out privateers during the Revolution and as late as 1 832 some 30 schooners and brigs were registered as belonging- there.
In 1790, when Zachariah Rhodes was Surveyor at the port, Capt. Rhodes was one of the owners of the sloop Sally, 46 feet 4 inches, 31 tons, built at Warren, 1785; and the Betsey, 86 tons, built at Harrington in 1 788, sharing owner- ship in both with James Rhodes, "of Warwick, merchant." In 1 792 he registered the Nancy, 23 tons, built at Rehoboth, 1790, with James Rhodes, Jr. "of Warwick, Esq." as co- owner. And he had other vessels as well. In the floor of the house was found a board six feet long and about eight inches wide, in which was cut in gilded letters, the name "Washington," apparently a ship's name board.
102 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
His son, Christopher, born August 16, 1776, was for five or six years before coming of age, on one or another of his father's vessels in the coasting and West Indies trade in which so many Pawtuxet vessels were then engaged that most Pawtuxet boys went to sea as a matter of course. Christopher was later in business with his father, their general store being on the ground floor of the old home- stead just torn down.
Christopher and his brothers, William and James, all were born in the old house and all became leaders in Rhode Island manufacturing in the period when this State turned from shipping to looms. Christopher and William, as C. & W. Rhodes operated mills at Pawtuxet Falls, where the water privilege was first utilized by Zachary Rhodes, son-in-law ; Stephen Arnold, son and Joseph Carpenter, son-in-law of old William Arnold, their grist mill being run for nearly two centuries.
C. & W. Rhodes built at Bellefonte, where they suc- ceeded so well that they extended their business to Natick, where they owned about half the village for 45 years. From 1820 to 1823 they leased the Crompton mills, now the Crompton Company and later they had mills at Wickford and at Albion.
At Natick, when the first Natick mill was built, they were members of the company building it. In July, 1815, the first Natick Company was succeeded by three, one of theni being the Rhodes-Natick Company. They retained one mill with 30 looms for making cotton cloth, and also had a grist mill and several tenement houses for the mill help. They sold this company in 1852 to A. & W. Sprague.
In the Bellefonte mill they are said to have made the first of the red tablecloths for years so popular on the kitchen tables of American working men and farmers. These were dyed a Turkey red, which gave the mill its local name of "Turkey red" still heard, although the niill was long since taken over for other uses.
Incidental to their manufacturing operations they estab-
PAWTUXfclT- RHODES FAMILY 103
lished the Pawtuxet Bank in October, 1814, erecting for its home the brick buildmg still standing at Main and Bank streets, a stone's throw from the Rhodes houses. Gen. Christopher Rhodes was its president from 184-7 until his death in 1861. The bank removed to Providence when the Rhodes firm extended its interests outside Pawtuxet and was located on lower Westminster street from 1 845 until is closed in 1 872. It was finally wound up in 1 882.
The old bank vault, closed with a door of thick iron plates and locked with a massive key about nine inches long, is still in the old bank building.
The bank building, the long house and the tenement house beside it on Cole street, both built for mill tenements for the mill on the Warwick end of Pawtuxet Falls and the Rhodes residences are all that remains as reminders of Pawtuxet's prosperity as a mill village. The Warwick mill burned in 1 859.
James Rhodes headed the hrm of James Rhodes and Sons, who at one tinie operated the Pawtuxet mill and who are said to have made the first broadcloth in Rhode Island. His one sister was the mother of Robert Rhodes Stafford, who as Stafford & Co. also operated the mills at either end of Pawtuxet Falls. James Rhodes was engaged in business at Pawtuxet for 60 years. As the Honorable James Rhodes, he was a Presidential elector in 1808, the sixth Presidential election, casting his vote for the Federalist candidates, Charles C. Pinkney of South Carolina for President, Rufus King of New York for \lce President. He was several times a member of his party's conventions.
Each of the three built mansions still notable for beauty of design and finish and each of the three exercised a wide influence in the community and in the State. P'or genera- tion after generation they controlled the destiny of Paw- tuxet and made the Warwick half the more important and the business centre.
The Christopher Rhodes house, still standing beside the old homestead, dwarfed it in size and in its design is a fine
104 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
example of the Federalist period, although its situation on the sidewalk line and with others close on either side, de- tracts from its beauty. A drawing of its front door is shown in Antoinette F. Downing's "Early Homes of Rhode Island," where its date is given as 1 800.
G^n. Rhodes married Betsey Allen of South Kingstown. In this mansion one daughter, Eliza A., married John R. Bartlett, Secretary of State from 1855 to 1872, the longest term of any secretary under the constitution. He is remem- bered for his 10-volume compilation of the Rhode Island Colonial Records from the founding of the colony to 1 792. He was the father of Rear Admiral John R. Bartlett, U. S. Navy, who spent much of his boyhood in the old house at Pawtuxet.
Another daughter, Sarah A., here married Henry B. Anthony, editor of the Providence Journal from 1838 to 1859 when he was elected United States Senator, a post he held for a quarter-century until his death, September 2, 1884. In 1849 and again in 1850 he had been elected Governor of Rhode Island, declining a third term.
The third daughter married Joshua Mauran of Provi- dence.
Gen. Christopher Rhodes got his title from election as Brigadier General of the Fourth Brigade of R. I. Militia in May, 1809. From May, 1828 to October, 1831, he represented Warwick in the General Assembly. From an early period he interested himself in the substitution of penitentiary punishments in place of the whipping post and pillory, then in use here.
In October, 1835 he was appointed by the General As- sembly one of the building committee for erection of the State Prison near the Cove in Providence and on its com- pletion was appointed one of its inspectors, an office he held until May, 1847. The State Prison stood near the site of the Rhode Island College of Education, at the foot of Capitol hill.
Mrs. Downing's book places the building of the home of
PAWTUXET RHODES FAMILY 105
Col, William Rhodes, the junior partner, as probably about the time of his marriage in 1803 to Sarah Arnold. It is an imposingly large square-hipped roofed mansion standing well back from Main street nearly opposite Atlantic Ave- nue, at the edge of the village and is now owned by Joseph W. Grimes. The notably beautiful front and back parlors are shown in illustrations and the small gable-roofed porch is described in Mrs. Downing's book. The Christopher Rhodes house also contains an especially fine fireplace.
The grounds of the William Rhodes house are extensive, running to the Pawtuxet river. There was a story in Paw- tuxet, years ago, that Col. Rhodes was responsible for that isolation which for so many years after the mills there ceased to run steadily, overcame the old place. It was said that when the Providence and Stonington Railroad was laid out, the engineers first planned to run it direct to the bay shore where the Harbor Junction line later reached it.
This would have sent the line through the present Lake- wood and across the edge of Col. Rhodes' estate, to get to Pawtuxet and thence up the bay shore. The story goes that the opposition of Col. Rhodes was influential enough to change the route to the swing through Auburn which the railroad has ever since maintained, the result being to send Pawtuxet into a somnolence from which it did not emerge until the growth of Edgewood reached it, many years later.
Col. Rhodes was a director in the Pawtuxet Bank and was president of the Weybosset Bank in Providence from its founding in 1831 until his death in 1 854.
Col. William Rhodes commanded the Pawtuxet Rangers but had retired when the organization was incorporated in 1812 as the Pawtuxet Artillery. In 1814, during the sec- ond war with England, the company appointed a committee to inform him of "the unanimous desire of the members of the Corps that he should resume the Command of the same, Perticulerly at the present critical Juncture."
The committee reported "that Col. William Rhodes had assented to become a member of the Corpse on the Condi-
106 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
tion of not being fineable for absence when the Company meet for exercising."
Robert Rhodes Stafford was then chosen Major, Sion A. Rhodes, Clerk and Treasurer, Charles Rhodes, second sergeant, Arnold Rhodes, third sergeant, Benjamin Rhodes, fourth sergeant.
The Pawtuxet Artillery manned the old fort on Paw- tuxet Neck as its predecessor, the Pawtuxet Rangers had done during the Revolution. It lasted until 1847, four years after the State built for it a stone walled armory still standing at Bank and Remington streets, on the Warwick side of the village. Its two field pieces, which local tradi- tion says came from the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, may be seen today in niches on either side of the main door- way to the armory of the Kentish Artillery on Main street, Apponaug. Henry Butler, Providence merchant living at Pawtuxet was its last Colonel, and maintaining the family tradition to the end — Christopher Rhodes its last Lieu- tenant Colonel.
James Rhodes, the oldest, was the first of the brothers to build a mansion. His was a two-story dwelling, erected about 1790 and standing where a garage is now located, next to the home of Capt. Robert Rhodes, close to the mill and near Pawtuxet Falls. The James Rhodes house was burned in the great Pawtuxet fire of May 2, 1 859, when 28 houses were ablaze at one time. The mill on the Warwick side of the falls also burned, the fire originating there and jumping the bridge. The mill was then owned by John T. Rhodes, the heirs of Peleg A. Rhodes and the heirs of Capt. Pardon Sheldon. The mill on the Cranston side of the falls burned on the night of January 25, 1875.
The Warwick mill was built for a woolen mill, and at one time was rented by James Rhodes for the manufacture of cotton.
James Rhodes built on his farm which he named Choppe- quonsett, a short distance below the Ephraim Bowen house, between Fair street and Narragansett Bay, a large house of
RECORDS OF THE ISLAND OF RHODK ISLAND 107
different design from the others, but no less notable. The walls of its reception rooms were covered with hand printed wall paper made in England, which today would be con- sidered museum pieces. This house was the most elaborate of the three built by Christopher, William and James.
The Rhodes family sold this estate in 1844, later owners being Gen. Charles S. James, inventor of the James rifled cannon and Nicholas Brown, whose wife planted many of the trees which made the estate so beautiful. Carrying a bag of white stones she walked about the grounds, throw- ing a stone over her shoulder at intervals. Wherever a stone fell, there was a tree of the evergreen family planted. The house was later bought by a group of prominent Prov- idence men headed by Col. William Goddard, for a country club, but burned soon afterward.
The Wyman school now stands near its site and the south part of the old farm is the present Gaspee Plateau. The other part of the farm, containing St. Peter's Church, is also a real estate development already well built up.
Where Pawtuxet once seemed filled with Rhodes, only one family related to this group of manufacturers and merchants now remains on the Warwick side of the Paw- tuxet river. And now the house that represented their start in industry, is gone.
New Interpretations of the Records of the Island of Rhode Island
By Edward H. West
When the Island of Aquidneck was settled it was prob- ably done without any definite plans for future expansion, and the flrst settlement was made close to the first good landing place they found and possibly where a clearing could be made without too much difiiculty. The site of
108 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Newport was bound to be settled upon because of the splen- did harbor there, but it is doubtful if any of the settlers saw that harbor until long after they had built their homes near the cove where they first landed.
Before the first year was over the number of inhabitants had increased greatly and, although Thomas Bicknell says there are no records of any denominational differences, it is unreasonable to suppose that three such determined leaders as William Coddington, Samuel Gorton and Anne Hutchinson, each with altogether different ideas, could get along together in such a small place. Each of them had his own following, and a combination of any two of these factions was bound to overpower the other. That is what actually happened. The Gorton and Hutchinson factions combined, for the time being, were enough to overthrow the influence of William Coddington, a condition which resulted in the founding of Newport by the Coddington group.
In a letter to John Winthrop, dated 9 Dec. 1639, William Coddington says about this factional difference and his overthrow, "It was hatched when I was last in the Baye." This was probably about the 9th April 1639, as it was on that date that William Coddington sold to William Tynge, for a mere thirteen hundred pounds, all his houses and lands in Boston and Mount Wollaston. Per- haps it would be well to digress from the Island records and to refer to the Boston records to show the reader who believes that all transactions of those early days were as honest and simple as one could wish, that politics and in- trigue were not then unknown or unpracticed.
The day after the sale of the Coddington property, it was mortgaged by Tynge to Coddington, but this was not all, as an agreement was made whereby William Codding- ton was to have a right to cut, reap and thresh all his corn now planted. Also to have liberty to plant a great part of this land "this spring," as well as cut, reap and thresh the corn, with chamber room to put it in. Also cellar room for
RECORDS OF THE ISLAND OF RHODE ISLAND 109
milk, house room for servants, and house room forTHTHy head of cattle until the end of the next whiter, and liberty to "fetch away" all his cut wood, timber, and felled trees. When one reads the dedication of John Callender's "Dis- course" it is plainly seen that Callender had not read the "Note Book of Thomas Letchford," in which the sale, mortgage and agreement between William Coddington and William Tynge is recorded. Callender said that Coddington "Quitted his large property and improvements at Braintree for peace sake," but he certainly kept control of it for some time after he "quitted."
From the records of the Island it is impossible to tell just when the trouble started, but at a meeting of the freemen, the 6th 2nd mo 1639, when a place for the impounding of cattle was ordered, it was ordered to be "sett up in some convenient place to each towne." From this it would seem that already another town had at least been discussed. The records of the meeting held the 28th 2nd mo 1639 are very scant, and we will have to draw on conjecture to get any idea of what happened at this meeting, which caused the Coddington faction to withdraw and to found a new town. Perhaps William Coddington had not returned from "the Baye," and was absent from this meeting, thus giving the conspirators an opportunity to change the form of govern- ment. According to the records, the only business brought up concerned a debt owed Jeffrey Champlin and William Cowlie by William Aspinwall, for which a warrant was granted for an attachment on the shallop owned by Aspin- wall. This, as far as William Dyre, the clerk, was con- cerned, was all the business transacted, and it is very prob- able that he closed the book, and left the meeting. It is also very probable that the friends of Coddington held a meeting elsewhere, for their argument to "Propogate a Plantation in the midst of the Island or elsewhere" was supposedly written on that same day. There can be no doubt that those remaining at the meeting held an election, and elected William Hutchinson the Judge, and also other
110 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
officers. But as they had no book to record their minutes, this formality was done away with until they procured a book. The hrst records in this new book, now called the "First Book of Portsmouth," tell one of the most peculiar stories of those days, and they will be taken up in a future article.
One of the strange things about the Agreement made by the Coddington faction, is the fact that it was never signed. To be sure it bears the names of nine men, but they were all written by William Dyre at a much later date. This peculiar condition of the records has not been especially mentioned in the various accounts of those times, ( with the exception of Mr. Howard M. Chapin, in his "Docunientary History of Rhode Island," and he did not tell the whole of the story ) but seems to the present writer to be very signi- ficant. The agreement was written on a fresh page, as if Dyre was bound to have the new plantation start with a clean sheet, but a close study will show that he must have turned over several leaves of the book before starting to WTite the records of Newport. The above agreement is to be found on page 1 1 , and at the bottom of page 1 4 is the following note — "These two leaves were torne out by ye G Court March ye 16 1641 & these two forgoing containe the same orders being again written." Now that was written on these two leaves that the Court took exception to? That is a question never to be answered^ nor can one tell how much of those two leaves were "againe written," or whether it was written from memory or from the two leaves. If from memory it may have been inaccurate. One other fact about the names under the agreement is that Dyre did not use the same kind of ink as was used in the body of the agreement, but used the ink with which the "two leaves" are written, hence the names were probably not written until the two leaves were "againe written," over two years after the agreement was supposedly made.
As so much has been said about page 1 1 in the Records of the Island of Rhode Island, I think that it would be well
RECORDS OF THE ISLAND OF RHODE ISLAND 111
to bring up another subject which is based on the material found on that same page. The name Pocasset is supposed by most people to indicate the town of Portsmouth. How much proof have we that Portsmouth was ever called Pocasset: Certainly none from any of the letters of Cod- dington, nor from the Journal of John Winthrop, who always referred to the Island as "Aquiday." The name occurs twice on page 1 1 , first at the top of the page and then in the stated bounds of Newport as "Lands lying North- ward & Eastward from sd Towne towards Pocassett for the space of hve miles." Note that it does not say towards the Tozvne of Pocassett. The name occurs in the records of a meeting held the 25th 9 mo 1639, at Newport, when it was ordered "that those Commissioners formerly appointed to negotiate the Business with our Brethren of Pocassett." This was three months after the freemen of the upper end of the Island had voted to call that town Portsmouth. There is but one other mention of the sanie in the records, and that is in the division of the land of William Coddington in 1640, where Pocasset highway is mentioned as a bound. John Callender, in his Discourse, does not go so far as to give this name to the town, but supposes it to mean the upper end of the Island. Most writers have spoken of Portsmouth as first being called Pocasset, seemingly because some one else said it. If this name was given to the town, would it not have been used in the records (it is always spoken of in the records as "this town") and in the letters of the times: And if it was so named would not the freemen have voted to change the name to Portsmouth, and not just have agreed "to call this town Portsmouth":
Perhaps the answer to this lies in an order in the First Book of Portsmouth, when, at a meeting held on the 4th of the 12 mo ( 1640 ) in one of the torn records is the fol- lowing —
"it is ordered that Mr Porter to lay out for Mr Samuel Hutchinson in the south east neck in the Comon ( fence)
112 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
unto them both Ruphus Barton to have Mr Samuel Hutchinson to lye next of Seven Acres in PoeChasset feil(d)"
This south east neck in the Comon fence is the neck which ends with Hummock Point. This can be seen from a deed dated 16 Dec. 1659 (First Book, 309) Richard Bulgar to Richard Hart, "3 acres in the south east neck of the place commonly called the Comon fence, bounded on the north by land of Richard Bulgar, on the east by the Pocasset river, on the south by a salt pond and a beach, and on the west by the Great cove." Peter Talman acquired this land with other lots, and Peter Talman Jun. sold it to Thomas Durfee, 8 June 1683 (R. I.L. E., 1-169). The deed reads as follows — "in the place commonly called the Comon fence — 8 acres — bounded northerly by the land of Richard Bulgar, easterly by the Pocasset river, southwardly by the hummock Comonly called Samuel Hutchinsons hummock, westwardly by the great cove."
This gives us without any doubt the location of Pocasset Field, on the Pocasset River j the nearest field to the place called Pocasset, later the Pocasset Purchase. It is this field which I believe was meant when reference was made to Pocasset in the early records. It was not a town, but a defi- nite location to which they could refer, as "in the direction of," or "the highway to." A peculiarity about the word Pocasset at the top of page 1 1 , is that it appears to have been written with the same ink as the later entries, and not the ink used in the agreement. From the above evidence I believe that the name Pocasset should never be applied to Portsmouth, as a town, and if used at all, should be applied to part of the first, or temporary settlement. I say tempo- rary, although it was probably not regarded as such when it was started, but it proved so when the permanent town developed a little farther south, and the former settlement became farm land.
Another popular misconception concerns "the spring" which is mentioned in the early records, the general idea
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114 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
being that Founders' Brook ( as it is called today ) was the spring referred to in all the records. A study of the two sets of records will readily show that this is not so and that there were really two springs, some distance apart. The second order made at the hrst meeting held on the Island, 13th 3rd mo 1638, says "it is also ordered that the Towne shall be builded at the spring, and Mr William Hutchin- son is granted and to have six lots for himself & his children, Layd out at the great Cove." The third order says "also that a Generall ffence to be made from Baye to Baye, Above the head of the spring, with five rayles." Had the spring (now called Founders' Brook ) which is mentioned so many times in the "First Book" in regard to the location of the town lots, been meant, the Common Fence would have been located near the present Sprague Street, a condition which could not easily be fulfilled according to the description of the land in the deed of Nicholas Easton. This deed de- scribes Easton's lot as being bounded on the Great Cove, and lying partly within and partly without the Common Fence. This spring is now nearly dried up, but the head of it is still seen in the form of a pool.
It must be remembered that when the settlement was first made there were less than twenty-five families, and the site picked out for the town was amply sufiicient. But with the advent of many more people, this place proved too small and after the founding of Newport the town was built along the second spring, which is now called Founders' Brook. Evidence of this can be found in the "First Book" which although torn, still gives an idea of the number of house lots granted along this brook in the first few months, after the separation.
When the first settlers sold their lands the deeds were very vague, and it is almost impossible to locate the sites with any degree of accuracy. The sites marked on the ac- companying map will give a general idea of where the