USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume IV > Part 7
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66. Arthur Tooker
John Roulstone
67. Nathan11 Carpenter
Francis Nicholson
68. John Hall
Nathanil Pain
69. George Barstoo Jun"
Benjamin ffuller
70. Paul Titus
Timothy Cricison
71. Jonathan French
The mark of
72. Jasiall Kindrek
Joseph Ormsbee
73. John Shory
The mark of
74. Sam1 Brown
Will X Cole
75. Israell Read, Senr
Joseph Wheton
76. Noah Butterworth
94. Zachariah Carpenter
95. Zachariah Read
78. Timothy Ide Jun"
96. Timothy Titus
79. Nicolas Pullen
97. Tho. Bowen
80. Thomas Lindley
98. Noah Peck
81. Nicolas Campe
99. John Robinson
82. Benje Titus
100. William Dryer
83. Dan11 Carpenter Jun"
Ebinezer Lyon
84. Ebine Bishup
Nathaniel Bosworth
85. Barach Bucklen
Timothy Carpenter
86. Isaac Bucklen
Like the mark of Judith Fuller
87. John Read Junr
the mark of Jam8:2 Carpenter Junr
88. Jonathan Ormsbee
Gershom Lake
89. John Bishup
Joseph Sabin
90. Joseph Pain
Thomas Fuller
91. Joseph Bucklen Joyner
Squire Allen
92. Sam11 Butterworth
John Wilmarth
The first man Mist we make 93
Joseph Allen
Daniell Hunt
James Walker"
John Hunt
[Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book II, pp. 164-167.]
These names, here published for the first time, undoubtedly repre- sent a very complete list of the male membership of the Rehoboth Congregational Church for the year 1715. This list contains names which appear in the Rehoboth records for the first time and others which are found in no other town record.
It is interesting to note that in this list of church members are found the names of all those known to have been associated with Mary (Peck) Butterworth in her extensive counterfeiting operations in Rehoboth, from 1716 to 1723, with the exception of her brothers Israel and Stephen who were then small boys, and Arthur Noble, who did not arrive in Rehoboth until 1722. For a complete account of these Rehoboth counterfeiting activities, see Early Rehoboth, vol. II, Chaps., IV and V.
The church members in the foregoing list who are known by record to have been involved in the Rehoboth counterfeiting headed by Mary (Peck) Butterworth, master counterfeiter, are: Daniel Smith, Esquire, Justice of the Peace, whose house the Court ordered searched for counterfeit plates; Daniel Hunt, weaver, innholder, and deputy sheriff, who "changed a pretty deal" of Mary's counter- feit money; Nicholas Campe, who admitted passing "about £300" of Mary's counterfeits; Mary's brother, Nicholas Peck, who was arrested at Newport, Rhode Island, for passing one of Mary's £5 counterfeits; and Nicholas Pullen, who passed two of her £5 coun- terfeits. Those who are recorded as having received Mary's coun-
77. Nathaniell Perry
46
Early Rehoboth
terfeit bills were Deacon John French, Josiah Carpenter, and John Bishop, potter.
Not much is known about the beginning of Mary (Peck) Butter- worth's counterfeiting in Rehoboth. The daughter of Joseph3 Peck, proprietor of the Rehoboth Inn at the "Sign of the Black Horse", she married John Butterworth, Jr., 1 Mar. 1710/11, and the start of her counterfeiting activities coincides with the building of the third Rehoboth meeting-house.
John Butterworth, Jr., Mary's husband, was a skillful house- wright, and if not actually in charge of the construction of this meeting-house, undoubtedly had an important part. The records show that he paid off some of his carpenters with counterfeit bills made by his wife Mary.
The Rehoboth Congregational Church now appears to have been the hot bed for Rehoboth counterfeiting activities. Mary (Peck) Butterworth's father, brothers, cousins, uncles, husband, and father-in-law, in addition to her relations on the distaff side, were all members of this church. There is no record known to the writer of anyone outside of this particular church being involved in this Rehoboth counterfeiting. There seems little doubt that directly or indirectly it was Mary (Peck) Butterworth's counterfeit money which paid a large part of the cost of building this third Rehoboth meeting house.
It also seems equally clear that without the active co-operation and influence of these church members, it would have been impossible for the wholesale counterfeiting of paper bills of credit to have con- tinued in Rehoboth for eight years before the strong arm of the law finally broke up the ring-without a single conviction-which is still more amazing.
The third meeting house frame was ordered to be raised on 26 June 1716. On 2 Feb. 1718/19, the meeting house was finished, for at a community meeting held on that date a committee reported the seating "to the constant hearers & community" and the report was accepted. At a town meeting held 13 May 1719, it was voted by the inhabitants that the "Seating done by the comittee is Regular" and that the committee "hereafter have the power of seating the meeting house for the Sabaths". It was further voted "that the Meeting house is the towns meeting house according to Propriaty. Daued Chaffee, Dan Bowen, John Bowen, Richard Bowen, Jr., & Leut. Samuel Peck all entered their protest against this vote" [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book II, pp. 169, 182, 183].
For the thirty-four years following the completion of the third meeting house in 1718, there is a conspicuous absence in the town records of any repair items for this building. In 1752 it was neces- sary to make extensive repairs, and on 21 May of that year a town meeting voted that the third meeting house roof be covered with new shingles treated with tar (pine pitch) and spanish brown; the south side (the front) be repaired with new clapboards, new win- dows, new sash glass *, etc. To pay the cost, a tax of £66-06-08
* The records show that the new window sash and all sash repairs were made at Newport, R. I.
47
The 1790 Map
was levied of which £40 was ordered laid upon twenty pews in the third meeting house to be paid by the persons taking the pews [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book III, pp. 131-133].
The same 1752 town meeting voted that Thomas Bowen, Esquire, was to have the first choice of pews in the third meeting house ex- cepting only the minister's pew. "He who had paid most in the first building of the third meeting house and also paid the highest tax in the country rate list of 1751, the cuntry rate list of 1716, and the town rate list for 1726, should have the next choice", and so on.
The records for the next twelve years show that there was little or no maintenance work on this third meeting house. By 1767 the meeting house had been built more than fifty years and the time had arrived for extensive repairs. For several years previous to this date the question had been spasmodically debated as to whether the town should pay for these repairs or give the building to the Congregational Church to be repaired at its expense. During the fifty-two years which had elapsed since the building of the third meeting house was started in 1715, the Baptists in Rehoboth had greatly increased in numbers and power and were not over-enthusi- astic, to say the least, about having the town spend money on a build- ing that was used principally as a church by the Congregationalists.
A town meeting was held in the meeting house on 21 Dec. 1767, but on account of the "extremity of the weather" was adjourned "to the house of Mr. James Daggett, Innholder". Here in this tavern the warrant was made out for a town meeting to be held 28 Mar. 1768. Of the six items of business to come before that meet- ing, the fourth was the question of repairing the meeting house [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book III, p. 273].
At a town meeting held in the meeting house at 9 o'clock in the morning, 28 Mar. 1768, the 4th article was taken up and the town "voted to give up [to the church] its rights and title in the meeting house in the West Presenct as their property only reserving [for the town] the privalidge to meet in it at their annual meeting or any other town meeting" [Ibid., Book III, p. 275].
This 1768 vote of the Rehoboth town meeting definitely ended the legal relationship between State and Church. The spiritual relationship had ended many years earlier.
When Rev. John Ellis came to Rehoboth in 1785 to become minister of the Congregational Church, the inhabitants of the First Precinct were by no means all Congregationalists. There were six or seven Baptist churches in the different parts of the town to which many of the precinct inhabitants belonged. The desks of some of these Baptist churches were supplied by men who had rushed from the "plow into the pulpit"-with scarcely learning enough to read their texts-and commenced open war upon the whole educated ministry-against "fat salaries" and "hireling priests". Aside from these things, others who were opposed to supporting the ministry by a town tax would, perhaps, have given voluntarily to a subscription for that purpose *.
* Bliss, History of Rehoboth (1836), p. 217.
48
Early Rehoboth
By 1791 the Baptists in Rehoboth so far outnumbered the Con- gregationalists that on 7 October of that year they were powerful enough to take the meeting house away from the Congregationalists and temporarily install as their preacher the Reverend Isaac Backus, the distinguished Baptist minister of Middleborough, and author of the History of the Baptists.
On 23 June 1792, the Senate and House of Representatives of the Massachusetts General Court passed an "Act to incorporate cer- tain Persons by the Name of the Congregational Society in the first Precinct in the Town of Rehoboth ... of which the Rev. John Ellis is the present pastor . . . repealing an act . .. in 1762". This act granted certain powers to the trustees. Seventy-one church members are named as incorporators, as follows:
John Hunt
Nathaniel Chaffee
Noah Perin
Nathaniel Titus
Benajah Sheldon
Oliver Starkweather
Nathan Read
Samuel Brown
Samuel Dixon
Ebenezer Carpenter
Jonathan Carpenter
Samuel Stephens
John Lindley
John Shorey
Stephen Russell
James Lee
Jacob Shorey
James French, jun.
Ebenezer Bishop
Simeon Read
Ebenezer French
Jesse Perin
Eliphalet Slack
Nathan Daggett Abel Shorey
Moses Walker
Samuel Smith
Elijah Kent
Abial Read
Abel Shorey, 2d
Oliver Read
David Cooper
David Robinson
Richard Whitaker
Simeon Goffe
Peter Whitaker
Nathaniel Brown
Remember Kent
Amos Whitaker
Nathaniel Read
David Kennedy
Jonathan Brown
Jonathan Robinson
Comfort Bishop
Daniel Chaffee
Elisha Carpenter
John Comer
Moses Walker, jun.
Asahel Carpenter
Lewis Walker
David Newman
Daniel Carpenter
George Allen
Samuel Brown, jun.
James Mason
Nathan Read, jun.
Josiah Brown
David Perin
Peter Hunt
Ephraim Carpenter
Ephraim Starkweather
Nathaniel Hunt
Otis Walker
Ephraim Walker
Josiah Hunt
Noah Robinson
James French
Daniel Perin
Edward Ide
John French
Thomas Perin
[Private and Special Statutes of Mass. (1780-1805), vol. I, p. 371.]
Four days earlier, 19 June 1792, the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the Massachusetts General Court passed an "Act to repeal an act passed in 1761" granting certain priviledges to the "Catholic Congregational Church and Society in the second Pre- cinct in the Town of Rehoboth ... It appears to this Court that this Congregational Church and Society of which the Rev. Robert Rogerson is the present minister have built a meeting house at their own expense and are in possession of considerable real estate gener- ously given by Ephraim Hunt, deceased, for the purpose of support- ing the Congregational ministry in said church". Eighty-eight church members are named as the incorporators, as follows:
Rev. Robert Rogerson
Joshua Smith John Brown Ephraim Bliss Seth Knap
Jacob Cushing Ezekiel Kent Ephraim Turner Samuel Read Joshua Read
James Bliss, 2d.
Simeon Bliss Joseph Smith Ebenezer Fuller
Nathaniel Fuller
49
Samuel Bullock
Abel Perry
Abiah Bliss Thomas Carpenter, 2d
Samuel Bliss, 2d.
Josiah Cushing Joshua Bliss, 2d Obadiah Bliss John Adams
Nathan Bliss Peter Reed
Amos Lane
Daniel Willmarth
Samuel Bliss
Aaron Fuller
David Cushing
Isaac Fowler
Uriel Bowen
Thomas Carpenter, 3d
Peter Bliss
James Bliss
Nathaniel Pierce
Ezekiel Reed
Joshua Smith, jun.
Eleazer Bullock
Ezra Perry
Abdiel Bliss, jun.
Samuel Smith, 2d
Elisha Allen
David Bliss, 2d.
Wilks Walker
Joseph Kent
Isaiah Allen
John Rogerson
Daniel Martin
Abel Bliss
Ebenezer Short Nathan Smith
Christopher Carpenter
James Carpenter, 2d.
Joseph Wheaton
Robert Follet
Thomas Lincoln
William Bullock
Lewis Ormsbe
Stephen Carpenter
Ephraim Bliss, jun.
Abial Bliss, jun.
Robert King
Samuel Carpenter
Ezra Perry, jun.
Joshua Carpenter
Abiah Carpenter
Timothy Perry
Nathaniel Bliss
Thomas Carpenter, 4th
Isaac Burr
William Bliss
Joseph Wheaton, 2d.
Nathan Munroe
Philip Walker
Jonathan Bliss, jun.
[Private and Special Statutes of Mass. (1780-1805), vol. I, p. 367.]
This second precinct church, of which the Reverend Robert Rogerson was the minister, was built in 1773 and was known as the "Yellow Meeting House" .* It stood in the northerly point of the cemetery lot t north of the present Rehoboth village. It was the second meeting house built in the easterly part of the town and replaced the Palmer's River meeting house, which was finished about 1720.
As there were only two Congregational Churches in Rehoboth in 1792, these lists are of great value to genealogists and students of church history, for besides recording the names of the town's 159 Congregationalists, the lists also contain many names which appear nowhere else in the Rehoboth town records. As the two meeting houses were some five miles apart, the lists show in what part of the widely spread-out town the different individuals resided-informa- tion that appears in no other record.
In 1807 the Congregational Society in the First Precinct voted to build a new meeting house (the present Newman Congregational Church) if the society could raise a sufficient sum of money by the sale of pews. The new building, 42 feet 8 inches wide by 54 feet 4 inches long, was built in 1810 at a cost of $4,488.91. To provide basement rooms, the building was raised six feet in 1890, and after the alterations were completed the church was re-dedicated on 17 May 1891.₺
* For a more detailed account of this meeting house, see Early Rehoboth, vol. I, p. 142.
t The cemetery was on the higher ground south of the "Yellow Meeting House". Near the brow of this rise in land is the grave of Rev. Robert Rogerson; farther east towards the present Bay State Road stands a small white marble monument on which is inscribed: "An infant son of Samuel & Lydia Carpenter, died Aug. 22, 1774, Aged 14 hours-It was the first laid in this burying place". # For a complete account of this dedication, see "The Old White Church Celebrates its 275th Birthday", The Providence Sunday Journal, 5 Oct. 1919.
Jonathan Bliss Abdiel Bliss
Oliver Bliss
Thomas Smith
Abel Carpenter, 2d.
Joseph Willmarth
David Bliss
Christopher Blanding
David Newman Samuel Newman Kent Bullock
The 1790 Map
50
Early Rehoboth
In 1812 the town of Rehoboth was divided into two towns. By an act of the Massachusetts Legislature passed on 26 February of that year, the west part was incorporated into a distinct township which resumed its ancient name of Seekonk. The east part retained the name of Rehoboth and is the present town of that name.
In 1814 the old meeting house (built in 1716) was torn down and the timbers, planking, and finish used to build a new Seekonk town house on the westerly side of the present Pawtucket Avenue, some half a mile south of the new meeting house. This town house, still standing (1948), is a 112-story building 3612 feet wide by 50 feet long, with 14-foot posts. With the exception of larger size glass in the window sash, this building presents the same exterior appearance as when originally built 134 years ago.
The first town meeting was held in the new Seekonk Town House on 7 Nov. 1814. The building committee reported that the building had cost $1,213.66 and that "as much had been done this fall as was necessary ... considering the lateness of the season and the ex- treme high price of lumber" [Seekonk Town Records, Book I, p. 90]. Capt. Lemuel Bishop was the builder and received $69.31 for tearing down the old meeting house. The net proceeds from wrecking this building were $120.20 which sum was applied towards the cost of building the new town house.
While the new Seekonk town house was built principally from the timber, plank, and other materials from the third meeting house built in 1716, it is interesting to note that part of the materials for this building were obtained from the second meeting house, finished in 1680, and that this building contained lumber that was in the first meeting house, finished about 1648-all of which suggests that this old Seekonk town house probably contains lumber that did service in each of the three meeting houses, the first of which was built three centuries ago.
50
Early Rehoboth
In 1812 the town of Rehoboth was divided into two towns. By an act of the Massachusetts Legislature passed on 26 February of that year, the west part was incorporated into a distinct township which resumed its ancient name of Seekonk. The east part retained the name of Rehoboth and is the present town of that name.
In 1814 the old meeting house (built in 1716) was torn down and the timbers, planking, and finish used to build a new Seekonk town house on the westerly side of the present Pawtucket Avenue, some half a mile south of the new meeting house. This town house, still standing (1948), is a 172-story building 3612 feet wide by 50 feet long, with 14-foot posts. With the exception of larger size glass in the window sash, this building presents the same exterior appearance as when originally built 134 years ago.
The first town meeting was held in the new Seekonk Town House on 7 Nov. 1814. The building committee reported that the building had cost $1,213.66 and that "as much had been done this fall as was necessary ... considering the lateness of the season and the ex- treme high price of lumber" [Seekonk Town Records, Book I, p. 90]. Capt. Lemuel Bishop was the builder and received $69.31 for tearing down the old meeting house. The net proceeds from wrecking this building were $120.20 which sum was applied towards the cost of building the new town house.
While the new Seekonk town house was built principally from the timber, plank, and other materials from the third meeting house built in 1716, it is interesting to note that part of the materials for this building were obtained from the second meeting house, finished in 1680, and that this building contained lumber that was in the first meeting house, finished about 1648-all of which suggests that this old Seekonk town house probably contains lumber that did service in each of the three meeting houses, the first of which was built three centuries ago.
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A Further Desistion of this Plan besides What is Described on the Lines ... the Black Lives Low Down in the body of the Plan are Descriptive of the Rivers Loves and Fonds contained in Town . ---
The Pricked fines on the Han are Descriptive of the Principle Roads that are Traveled Through Town but their is of large Number of trop Roads and Fonds not Laid Down on the Plan ... ---
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The Jorge Black Line above Pawtucket Bridg is Descriptive of Pawtucket Rives Which the State of Robillard chim as the Line the Small Black Line hypments the Line agreeable as the formmitioners Ren the Same from vail fatto Which Now Runs A 6'8 and Their is A Grist Milk & Boutting Mill and A Manufactory for thekey bleeth on the Beauty and. . .. .. The Refund Distance from the fanter of the town to Boston is 40 Miles and from Said Center to Jaunton Court house
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11 This March 11 with the Letter & by the Same it Boys The Black Lives Represent the Bridges. The Meeting houps and Hill and Iron works are all Marked on the Plan .. . ..
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The actual Survey of the Four Was Taken in the Months of February and Mares Last Post ..... -- all But 3061 Ross between this Town and dancey Which was Run about four years Since Rehoboth May 26. 00 1795-
Phanuel Bifhup Ahmedkrick Brown
Committee for 4 Jours David aterry Jun of Rehobons Elhanah Franckyps:"
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A Scale of 200 Rods to an Sichi.
To face page 50, EARLY REHOBOTH, vol.IV.
Deuil'
CHAPTER III
THE 1795 SURVEY
In 1794 Massachusetts directed by law that "accurate" plans, drawn "to a scale of 200 rods to an inch", be made of each town and district in the Commonwealth, and that these be filed in the Secre- tary's Office. With the exception of the town of Chelsea, plans were drawn of all of the towns and duly filed as directed and are now in the Secretary's Office, Division of Archives, Town Plans (1794), vols. I to XVI. These plans were later used as a basis for the maps of Massachusetts proper and the district of Maine, published and dis- tributed in 1801.
Complying with the new law of 1794, a survey of the town of Rehoboth was made under the direction of a committee consisting of Capt. Phanuel Bishop, Frederick Drown, Valentine Martin, David Perry, and Elkanah French, Jr., who signed the finished map on 25 May 1795. The name of the surveyor does not appear on the map.
This is the earliest known map of the township of Rehoboth and is here published for the first time. Made one hundred and fifty- three years ago, a period equal to the lifetime of five or six genera- tions, this town survey adds considerable new data not found in any written record.
From the map title we learn that with the exception of the survey of 3,061 rods between Rehoboth and Swanzey, made about 1791, the actual surveying of the town was done in the months of February and March, 1795. We further learn from the title that
"the large black line above Pawtucket Bridge [at the falls] is Descriptive of Rhode Island claim as the Line. The Small Black Line Represents the Line agreeable as the Commissioner's Run the Same [1746] from Said falls which Now Runs N 6° E and there is A Grist Mill & Boulting Mill and a Manu- factory for making Cloth on the Disputed Land".
This map notation calls attention to a small piece of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, territory held for many years by Rhode Island, without that state ever having made formal claim to it. It was the only piece of territory taken from Rhode Island under its charter of 1663 and given to Plymouth Colony, and later confirmed to Massa- chusetts Colony by Royal decree of 1746. Strange as it may seem, this highly important little piece of land has escaped the attention of historians, consequently no mention of it appears in any of the history books.
The territory involved consisted of about a mile and one-quarter section of the Blackstone River extending from the Pawtucket Falls north to the Attleborough line, together with a long narrow strip of land lying along the west bank of the river. This Rehoboth terri-
51
52
Early Rehoboth
tory in the possession of North Providence, Rhode Island, is best described as in the shape of an archer's long bow, the string part of which extended north from the Pawtucket Falls about one and a quarter miles, and the bow proper representing the full width of the Blackstone River to the east shore. The land area was about 44 acres, and the water area about 28 acres, a total of about one-tenth of a square mile *.
Although the territory involved had only the acreage of an ordi- nary farm, nevertheless its possession was extremely important for this section of the Blackstone River with its dams and water-power, together with an almost equally long narrow strip of land on the west bank of the river, was one of the important manufacturing sites in New England in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. On this narrow strip of land stood the Slater Mill, the first successful water power cotton mill built in the United States, and also a boulting mill which is said to have been the first flour mill erected.
For upwards of one hundred and fifty years the history books have been erroneously telling us that these mills were built on Rhode Island soil which statement has no basis in fact for the land on which they were erected was not in Rhode Island but in the township of Rehoboth, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was not a part of Rhode Island until 1847, as will be shown in the following pages. The fact that the Blackstone River and the land on both sides from the Pawtucket Falls to the Attleborough line was in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and not in North Providence, Rhode Island, makes it necessary to re-write much of the cotton manufacturing history for the period, particularly the cotton statistics.
In order to understand the boundary line situation at Pawtucket Falls, it is necessary to go back to the beginning and review briefly the whole boundary line controversy, first between Rhode Island and Plymouth Colonies, and finally between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The river above the falls was first called Pawtucket and later Blackstone.
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