USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume IV > Part 9
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60
Early Rehoboth
At a Rhode Island General Assembly held at Newport 16 June 1719, a committee appointed by the governments of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and the Colony of Rhode Island and Provi- dence Plantations reported that by agreement of the major part of the committee at their meeting held at Rehoboth 22 Oct. 1718 "the said line was fully settled and agreed and by them directed to be now by us run". This was a settlement of Rhode Island's northern boundary. The whole length of the eastern line between the old colony of Plymouth and Rhode Island was still unsettled and for many years was to be the subject of frequent and bitter controversy [Ibid., vol. IV, pp. 251, 252].
In 1729 the whole eastern boundary line controversy broke out into the open again when Capt. Joseph Brown and other inhabitants of Attleborough petitioned the Rhode Island General Assembly praying "that they might be annexed unto this government sup- posing themselves to be a part thereof". At a meeting of the General Assembly held at Warwick, 29 Dec. 1729, a committee was "chosen and impowered on the part of the government (at the charge of the petitioners) to settle the line betwixt this colony and Massa- chusetts from Pawtucket Falls north to the south line of said prov- ince and that a letter be sent to Massachusetts asking them to appoint a committee to join with our committee to settle said line; but in case they refuse or neglect to do so, then our commissioners to run it themselves, if they see cause; and in that case to be sent home to Great Britain in order to be decided" [Ibid., vol. IV, pp. 430-431].
Four years later the controversy over Attleborough "in that gore of land unjustly claimed by the Province of the Massachusetts Bay" finally came to a head when the Rhode Island General Assembly decided to refer the whole matter to the King for settlement.
3 Dec. 1733-At a Rhode Island General Assembly held at Newport it was voted "that the appeal to His Majesty (relating to the gore of land in controversy), presented to this Assembly is approved of and ordered forthwith to be sent home to His Majesty in Great Britain, signed by his honor [William Wanton] the governor" [Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. IV, p. 491].
9 Jan. 1736/7-The reply of Massachusetts to the Rhode Island appeal was presented to the Board of Trade claiming the whole tract east of Narra- gansett Bay and Pawtucket river under the Plymouth Colony patent, confirmed, as was contended, by the Royal Commissioners in 1664 [Arnold, Hist. of Rhode Island (1860), vol. II, p. 117].
10 May 1738-The Board of Trade reported to the Plantations Committee recommending that commissioners from the neighboring provinces be appointed by the King to determine the eastern boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts [Ibid., vol. II, p. 119].
31 Oct. 1739-At a Rhode Island General Assembly held at South Kingstown it was "voted that Peter Bourse [Assistant], Esq., write to the commis- sioners of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay and inform them that it is the resolution of this government to proceed no further in the con- troversy relating to the eastern bounds of this colony by choosing com- missioners, but wait for the King's commission in that affair" [Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. IV, p. 562].
4 Sept. 1740-The following "commissioners for marking out and settling
61
The 1795 Survey
Massachusetts Bay South Line
Senechataconet
Abbot's Run
Attleborough
Paturet Falls
Providence
den Point
Ship Yard
Tun cay
Seuconk
Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library
A section of the northeast corner of the map surveyed and drawn in 1741 for the Commissioners appointed by Royal Commission for "marking out and settling the boundaries between the Province of Massachusetts Bay and colony of Rhode Island eastward". The black line extending north from the Pawtucket Falls to the Massachusetts Bay line represents the boundary as set forth in the "Charter of the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England and America", granted by King Charles II in 1663. Cf. ante page 56.
An order in council dated 28 May 1746 confirmed by Royal decree this north easterly boundary line of Rhode Island. On 2 Dec. 1746 the Rhode Island Commissioners ran a line due north through Pawtucket Falls to the southern boundary of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Cf. post page 62.
The dotted lines on the map represent a survey made in 1845 by Mr. Borden under direction of the Commissioners of Massachusetts. In 1847 the line at the falls was moved east to take in the whole river north of the falls and for the first time this area became a part of Rhode Island.
Rehobothe.
hce Township
For Point
62
Early Rehoboth
the boundaries between the Province of the Massachusetts Bay and the colony of Rhode Island, eastward" were appointed by Royal Commis- sion; "our trusty and well beloved Cadwallader Colden*, Abraham Vanhorn, Philip Livingston, Archibald Kennedy*, and James De Lancey, Esquires, of the Province of New York; our trusty and well beloved John Hamilton, John Wells, John Reading, Cornelius Vanhorn, and William Provost, Esquires, of the Province of New Jersey; and our trusty and well beloved William Skene*, William Shirreff*, Henry Cope, Erasmus James Philips* and Otho Hamilton*, Esquires, of the Province of Nova Scotia " [The Royal Commission, Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. IV, p. 587].
7 Apr. 1741-The first meeting of the boundary line Commissioners was held at Providence, selected in England as the most convenient place for the various meetings. Five or more Commissioners were to constitute a quorum. Under the Royal Charter of 1663, Rhode Island claimed from a point three miles east-north-east of Assonet, due south to the ocean, and westerly to Fox Point; thence by the east bank of the river to Pawtucket falls, and thence due north to the Massachusetts line. Massachusetts claimed to "the middle of the east passage of Narra- gansett Bay, and so up the Pawtucket River to the starting point of the northern line of Rhode Island as run in 1719 to be the proper boundary of the two colonies".
Two surveyors, James Helme of South Kingstown, and William Chandler of Thompson, Connecticut, were appointed to prepare a map of the whole of Rhode Island as well as the territory in dispute, and "a map or draught of the boundaries agreed upon" [Whitehall letter and Royal Commission Report, Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. IV, pp. 586-590].
30 June 1741-The work of the commissioners was finished and the judgment of the court filed. Ruling that Narragansett Bay ended at Bullock's Point, it gave Rhode Island all the land within three miles of the shore south and east of a line measured three miles north-east from Bullock's Point Neck and set up five bounds to the south and east from which the three mile lines were to be run to mark the eastern boundary. Running northerly from the southwest corner of Bullock's Point Neck, the high water mark to Pawtucket falls was to be the dividing line and from the falls a due north line to the established southern line of Massachusetts was to complete the boundary [Commissioners' Report].
27 Aug. 1741-Massachusetts decided to appeal from every part of the court's judgment. Rhode Island objected to the Narragansett Bay limit at Bullock's Point Neck instead of Fox Point as locating the mouth of Providence River, and to the decision that Assonet was not the north- east point of the bay, resulting in a small territory being assigned to her, appealed from that portion of the judgment, but "accepted the ramain- der, along the east shore to Pawtucket falls and from thence due north to the Massachusetts line"t [Commissioners' Report].
All appeals from the Commissioners' finding having been rejected, an order in council under date of 28 May 1746 confirmed by Royal decree the eastern boundary line of Rhode Island. While Rhode Island did not gain as much territory as it thought it was entitled to on the southern end of the boundary line, the boundary on the
* These men signed the surveyor's map annexed to the Commissioners' final report.
t On 17 Sept. 1741, Cadwallader Colden, Esq., chairman of the Commission, sent the original report to the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State, by the Ship Sarah of Boston, Alexander Watts, master. Two copies were made of the original report. One is in the Massachusetts archives and the other in the Rhode Island archives. The John Carter Brown Library has a third copy, dated 27 Oct. 1845, transcribed from the original report preserved in the State Paper Office, London, America No. 378. Robert Lemon, Chief Clerk in his Majesty's State Paper Office, made the copy by special permission.
63
The 1795 Survey
northern end was settled exactly as set forth in the Colony's 1663 charter.
At a Rhode Island General Assembly held at Providence 11 Nov. 1746, five commissioners were appointed to "join with such other commissioners as are or shall be appointed by the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay in marking out the several boundaries and running the several lines agreeably to his Majesties said determination . . . to meet at Pawtucket Falls 2 December next and begin said service" [Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. V, p. 197].
On 6 Jan. 1746/7, the Rhode Island boundary line commissioners, appointed 11 Nov. 1746, reported to a General Assembly held at Providence that they had met at Pawtucket Falls on 2 Dec. 1746 in the expectation of meeting the Province of Massachusetts Bay com- missioners, but as they did not appear, proceeded to run a due north line from Pawtucket Falls to the south boundary of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the following manner:
"From a certain point on the southern side of Pawtucket Falls, where we erected a monument of stones with a stake thereon, we ran a meridian line which directly passed through said falls to a walnut tree on the northerly side of said falls; then to a pitch pine tree, then to a small white oak, then to a grey oak, then to a small pitch pine tree, then to a black oak, then to a large white oak near the river called Abbott's Run . .. then to divers other marked trees in the said course to the extremity of the said line . . . at or near the place where was formerly erected a stake called [Nathaniel] Wood- ward's and [Solomon] Saffery's Stake as one remarkable south boundary of said Province, and from whence run a west line making an allowance of eight de- grees and an half as west variation of the magnetic needle from the true meridian it being the course of the said Province according to their charter . .. we then extended the said north line . . . till it intersected the said west line and upon the point of its intersection erected a monument of stones , as the north east boundary of that tract of land commonly called the Gore .. . " [Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. V, pp. 199-201].
All of the territory west of this meridian line from the Pawtucket Falls to the southerly line of Massachusetts now belonged to Rhode Island, and all of the territory east of this line belonged to Massa- chusetts. Rhode Island proceeded to take possession of some thirty- four square miles of land in the Attleborough Gore, but made no mention of turning over to Massachusetts the small piece of terri- tory between the Attleborough line and Pawtucket Falls that was now on the east side of the new boundary line.
An act was passed at a Rhode Island General Assembly held at Providence, 27 Jan. 1746/7, incorporating the inhabitants of the lands lately taken into the colony by the settlement of the eastern boundaries. These lands were set off into five townships*, with the inhabitants thereon, as follows: That part heretofore called Bristol, incorporated into a township by the name of Bristol; that part heretofore known as part of Tiverton, with a part of Dartmouth and Freetown adjoining, incorporated as the township of Tiverton;
" The areas of these new townships and the numbers of inhabitants were: Bristol, about 10 square miles, or 6,400 acres, and 1,069 inhabitants; Tiverton, about 43 square miles, or 27,520 acres, and 1,040 inhabitants; Little Compton, about 21 square miles, or 13,440 acres, and 1,152 inhabitants; Warren, about 14 square miles, or 8,960 acres, and 680 inhabitants; Cumberland, about 34 square miles, or 21,760 acres, and 806 inhabitants. Totals :- about 122 square miles, or 78,080 acres, and 4,747 inhabitants [Census of 1748].
64
Early Rehoboth
that part heretofore a part of Little Compton, and a part of Dart- mouth thereto adjoining, incorporated as the township of Little Compton, and that the line which formerly divided Tiverton from Little Compton be extended easterly to the colony line and the whole to be the dividing lines between the said towns; and that part which heretofore has been a part of Swansey and Barrington, with a small part of Rehoboth there adjoining, incorporated as the township of Warren; and that part which has been commonly called the Gore of Land be incorporated as the township of Cumberland [Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. V, pp. 204-206].
Skipping ahead twenty-three years to 11 September 1769, we find the old dispute respecting Rhode Island's northern boundary, settled fifty years earlier, suddenly flaring up again when at a Rhode Island General Assembly held at East Greenwich, Moses Brown, one of the deputies of the Town of Providence, moved that a com- mittee be appointed "to collect and study the papers respecting the northern line of the colony; that from the best information there may easily be added to the colony a very considerable tract of land the inhabitants of which want to be inhabitants of this colony and not be harrassed with taxes in a Province that they think has no right to govern them" [Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. VI, p. 600].
Outside of small intermittent complaints, not too much is heard about the boundary line question for the next quarter of a century, until at a Rhode Island General Assembly held at Newport on the first Wednesday in May 1791, Hon. William Bradford, Speaker of the House, Jabez Bowen, and Moses Brown were appointed com- missioners to meet with the Massachusetts commissioners to de- termine the northern boundary line between the two states. The commissioners from the two states made their report to the Rhode Island General Assembly held at Providence on the last Monday in February 1792. Dated at Wrentham 17 Aug. 1791, the report states "that being of different opinions and therefore not able to settle the line, [we] do agree to recommend to the said states to sub- mit the matter in dispute to indifferent men of the neighboring states, as to unite in an application to Congress to settle the same". They agreed to "leave the line from Pawtucket Falls to be run and settled when the north line is settled " [Bartlett, Rhode Island Colony Records, vol. X, pp. 433, 474].
It will be remembered that this north line through the Pawtucket Falls was fixed by Royal decree of 1746 as being the east line of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations under its charter of 1663, and that the Rhode Island commissioners immediately ran this line to its intersection with the south line of Massachusetts which had been settled in 1719. This north line through the falls gave to Massachusetts the narrow strip of land and section of the Black- stone River above the falls as shown on the 1795 Rehoboth map.
Long before 1792, the river at Pawtucket Falls had become very valuable to Rhode Island on account of its water-power. Joseph Jencks had built the first mills on the river-a forge and sawmill
65
The 1795 Survey
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A 1949 map showing a section of Pawtucket and Central Falls, R. I., compiled by Thomas E. Harding, Pawtucket City Engineer. The broken line extending due north from the east abutment of the Main Street bridge at Pawtucket Falls to the southern line of Massachusetts is the boundary line as specified in the Rhode Island Charter of 1663 and confirmed by Royal decree in 1746.
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The position of this meridian line coincides exactly with the line shown on the Rehoboth Map of 1795 and the U. S. Geographical Map of 1944. The territory east of this line was in the village of Pawtucket, town of Rehoboth, Province of the Massachusetts Bay, and that west of the line was in the colony of Rhode Island. Consequently, the old Slater Mill and all of the other mills north of the Pawtucket Falls on either side of the Blackstone River to the Attleborough line were in the old town of Rehoboth.
66
Early Rehoboth
on the west side of the falls by 1671. The lower dam above the falls was built by the proprietors on both sides of the river as early as 1718. It was a substitute for two earlier dams, one on the west- ern side extending three quarters of the way across the river, and the other a separate dam for a sawmill on the east side. About the year 1714 a canal for a fish passage, later known as Sergeant's Trench, was dug around the western end of the lower dam com- mencing at a point above the dam and emptying into the river about ten rods below the dam.
As a fish passage this canal was a failure and an anchor mill and dam were built across it about the year 1730. Between that time and 1790, several more mills and dams were built. In 1792 another dam was built across the river above the head of Sergeant's Trench and almost twenty rods above the lower dam. The mills on the upper dam and those on Sergeant's Trench were supplied with water by flumes from the flooded area above the dam.
Considerable Rhode Island capital had been invested in dams and mills along the river at the Pawtucket Falls. Moses Brown of Providence was one of the largest investors and it will be noted that it was he who in 1769 re-opened the north boundary line con- troversy which had been settled in 1719. In 1792 we find him also a member of the Rhode Island boundary line commission agreeing with a similar commission from Massachusetts to defer running the line north from Pawtucket Falls until the northern boundary line was settled. At this same time he had a cotton mill in operation near the falls and the following year financed building the Slater Mill north of the falls.
The voluminous 1741 report of the Court of Commissioners ap- pointed to settle the easterly boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts is accompanied by a map "Drawn by a scale of 150 chains * to an inch with a variation of 8° 30' west from the north. By order of His Majesty's Court of Commissioners, James Helme and William Chandler, Surveyors. Providence, 24 June 1741-A true copy of the map referred to in our proceedings and ordered to be annexed to a copy of the record". This map was signed by Cadwallader Colden and the other five commissioners, 8 Sept. 1741.
The Pawtucket Falls section of this map, illustrated on another page, is very inaccurate. It erroneously shows practically the whole of the river from the east abutment of the bridge to the Attle- borough line to be west of the north line from the falls and therefore in Rhode Island, and not east of the line and in Massachusetts as is correctly shown on the 1795 Rehoboth map.
The first American map of Rhode Island was made by Caleb Harris and published in 1795 by Carter & Wilkinson, Providence. In the preparation of this map, Harris clearly copied much from the 1741 survey made by James Helme and William Chandler for the Court of Commissioners. Whether accidentally or inten-
* In the old land measure, 100 links equals 66 feet, or 4 rods equals 1 chain, and 150 chains equals 600 rods. Therefore, the scale of 150 chains equals 600 rods, or 9,900 feet, or 1.87 miles to one inch.
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Courtesy of the R. I. Historical Society
The northeast corner of "A Map of the State of Rhode Island, by Caleb Harris, taken mostly from surveys, Harding Harris delineav't". Engraved by Carter & Wilkinson, Providence, 1795. This is the earliest American map of the State of Rhode Island and measures 16 by 2114 inches.
At Pawtucket Falls, Harris not only perpetuated the error in the river location on the Royal Commissioners' map of 1741 (page 61) but enlarged on it by moving both the Pawtucket (Blackstone) and Abbot's Run Rivers considerably further west into Rhode Island. For the next forty years and more, Rhode Island map makers copied the Harris map, always showing the rivers well west of the due north line from the Pawtucket Falls. On the Lockwood map of 1819 (page 67), the due north line from the falls is started so far south and east of the falls that the bridge and four mills on the east bank of the Blackstone River are shown as being in Rhode Island.
= - Today &wany Brook DarBed "The Seven. Wiestand for called from its beingthat dellance from Fox Point. youfindunders
Wamafnaturket River.
67
The 1795 Survey
tionally, Harris made one important change in his map and that was to move the Pawtucket (Blackstone) and Abbot's Run Rivers considerably further west into Rhode Island than is shown on the 1741 map. This was to be repeated over and over again on Rhode Island maps drawn during the next half century. Some of the more important early maps * were those of 1795, 1796, 1804, 1819, 1822, and 1828. The 1819 map by Benoni Lockwood for the Rhode Island Gazetteer leans the most favorably towards Rhode Island by moving west into that state not only the river, but the falls, bridge, and seven cotton mills.
In 1847 the commissioners of Massachusetts and Rhode Island ascertained, established in ten parts, and marked by stone monu- ments the boundary lines between the two states, the first three being as follows: (1) from the northwest corner of Rhode Island on the Connecticut line easterly in a straight line 21.5 miles to Burnt Swamp Corner in Wrentham; (2) thence due south to the center of the Blackstone River about six rods east of the bridge at Central Falls; (3) thence following the rivers southerly, generally on the east banks, to Bullock's Neck t.
As established in 1847, the northern end of the eastern boundary line was considerably different from that of the Rhode Island charter of 1663 which directed that the line should run due north through the Pawtucket Falls until it met the southern boundary line of Massachusetts and then turn west to the Connecticut line. In 1847 the commissioners first ran the southern boundary line of Massachusetts, beginning at the northwest corner of Rhode Island on the Connecticut line and running easterly to Burnt Swamp Corner in Wrentham, and from this corner due south to the center of the Blackstone River, about six rods east of the bridge at Central
* A Map of the State of Rhode Island, "taken mostly from Surveys by Caleb Harris", was engraved in Boston for Carter & Wilkinson, Providence, 1795. This map shows the eastern boundary line of Rhode Island running due north from the east abutment of the bridge at Pawtucket Falls to the southern boundary line of Massachusetts. The river above the falls, to a point considerably beyond its confluence with the Abbot's Run, is called Pawtucket River, changing to Blackstone River still farther north. All of the river from the Pawtucket Falls north is shown on the west of the north line from the east abutment of the bridge and in Rhode Island. On this map the river is moved to the west further into Rhode Island from its location as shown on the Commissioners' map of 1741.
A Map of Rhode Island, "drawn and engraved by Joseph Scott", published at Philadelphia, December 1795, by F. & R. Bailey. This is said to be the second American Rhode Island map published.
A Map of Rhode Island, by Arrowsmith & Lewis, published at Boston, 1804. This is said to be the sixth American map of Rhode Island.
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