USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Somerset > History of the town of Somerset Massachusetts : Shawomet purchase 1677, incorporated 1790 > Part 5
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"A proud dame she was; bestowing every day in dressing herself near as much time as any gentry of the land : powdering her hair and painting her face and going with her necklaces, her jewels in her ears and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself her work was to make girdles of wampum and beeds.
"She had a kersey coat, covered with girdles of wampum from the loins upward. Her arms from her elbows and her hands were covered with bracelets. There were handfuls of necklasses around her neck and several sorts of jewels in her ears. She had fine red stockings and white shoes, her hair powdered and her face painted red."
FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE
WITH so many of the settlers of Shawomet, and of the
firstcomers to Swansea at Gardner's Neck, members of the Society of Friends, the dominant religious group of the region was, next to the original Baptists, the Quakers-to use the name which by long; tolerance of the Friends them- selves has grown respected of all the world.
The Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting was the meeting for this area, and it appears to have been gathered at Warren when, on the 13th day of the 8th month, 1732, Samuel Aldrich, one of the Friends appointed to inspect into the capacity and circumstance of Friends having a Monthly Meeting settled at Swansea (now Somerset) made report that he had been among Friends there, "and find them very unanimous therein, and is of the belief that it may be of service."
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HISTORY OF SOMERSET
"This meeting therefore agree that a Monthly Meeting be settled in Swansea, to be held on the first Second-day of the week in each month, and that those Friends who dwell on the northward of Tiverton, and are belonging to this Quarterly Meeting, shall be under the care of said Monthly Meeting in Swansea."
In pursuance of this authorization the present Friends' Church of Somerset began its existence as recorded in the minutes of its first clerk, Thomas Richardson :
"And in confirmation to the Quarterly Meeting order and settlement as aforesaid Friends have met. At our Monthly Meeting held in Swansea, the 6th day of the 9th month, 1732, and also settled our Preparative Meeting on the fifth day before the Monthly meeting and also appoint John Earle clerk."
But long before this, the Quakers of Swansea and Shawomet were meeting regularly nearer home, and by 1701 in a Meetinghouse of their own on land owned by John Shaw, later by Thomas Earle. By inference there would appear to have been a Meetinghouse previously to this, but it is def- initely recorded that on October 9, 1701, a committee was appointed to see about erecting such a building in the region then known as Wickapimpset, now Somerset Centre.
The building which this committee proceeded to build was the first church structure in Shawomet Lands. At the Quarterly Meeting of the next January, 1702, a collection was taken to defray the cost of the Meetinghouse which had been finished and was in use. Six years later, the land on which it stood was purchased from Thomas Earle on behalf of the Meeting by a committee composed of William Anthony, Richard Borden, Joseph Anthony Jr., Thomas Hicks of Portsmouth and Joseph Wanton of Tiverton.
On this site the Friends' Church of Somerset still stands, with the addition of a quarter acre purchased later of Eber Chace. On this enlarged lot the main part of the present church, 45 feet long, 30 feet wide and 18 feet high, was built in 1746-1747 at a cost of 759 pounds 19 shillings ; a commo- dious building and a large investment for a church two hundred years ago.
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NOTES ON FIRST CENTURY
This building, enlarged in 1872 and again in 1889, and altered and renovated from time to time, is the one now in use by the Friends' church, with close to two hundred years of age and service.
The congregation in the early building sat with the men on one side of the meeting room and the women on the other, with shutters dividing the two sides. The seats were high-backed and uncushioned. There was no heat. Until about 1885, there was no singing and this building in its early years frequently witnessed meetings in which the whole congregation sat throughout with no one moved to utter a word until the ministers and elders on the rising seats facing the audience rose to signify the meeting's end.
The burial ground in the rear of the building has many graves which in accordance with the humility of the early Quaker faith were not marked at all, and others that are marked by small undated stones. Others have stones bearing the names of persons noted in the early history of the Friends and the town.
Swansea Friends' Meeting kept to the system of resi- dent ministers from among its members until shortly before the death, in 1907, of Obadiah Chace, at the close of exactly sixty years as minister. This span of service, remark- able though it is, was equalled by Theophilus Shove in his ministry from 1736 to 1796. The first Benjamin Buffin- ton ministered twenty-nine years; the second forty-five.
The full list of ministers is a memorial of leading early families of the town as well as to lives of service. They were, with dates so far as known:
Abraham Chase, 1727 -; Sarah Chase, 1730 -; Ben- jamin Buffinton, 1731-1760, Job Chase, 1733 -; Isaac Chase, 1733-1750; Theophilus Shove, 1736-1796; Israel Buffinton, 1753 -; Hannah Chase, 1764-1775; Patience Brayton, 1768-1794 ; Philip Chase, 1870 -; Jonathan Chase, 1781-1824; Stephen Slade, 1784-1803; Benjamin Buffinton, 1784-1829; Abigail Lawton, 1802 -; Daniel Brayton, 1806-1836; Mary Buffinton, 1820 -; Mary Shove, 1838 -; Obadiah Chace, 1847-1907.
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HISTORY OF SOMERSET
In 1894 the church adopted the pastoral system, with pastors to date as follows :
Frank E. Jones, 1894-1901; Mead A. Kelsey, 1901-1905; 1 Jesse McPherson, 6 months; George B. Evans, 1906-1910; Oscar Mostrom, 1910-1912; Frank E. Jones, 1912-1926; William C. Hartnett, 1926-1931; Augustus W. Benedict, 1932-1937; Cecil E. and Mary P. Pearson, 1938-1939.
In Patience Brayton, minister from 1768 to 1794, Friends' Church possessed one of the unforgetable characters of this town: its first anti-slavery champion, and its first author whose writings appeared in book form.
The book, which the Meeting published in her memory in 1801, is a paper-bound volume of octavo size, with 142 pages. According to its title page it is: "A Short Account of The Life and Religious Labors of Patience Brayton, late of Swanzey, in the State of Massachusetts. Mostly Selected from Her Own Writings." It begins with an affectionate and admiring "Testimony" in the form of a short biography by the church, signed by its clerks, Daniel Brayton and Mary Earle. Following this are her reports on her travels, letters between herself and her husband and friends, discussing her work, and an address to King George III urging him to banish slavery from the British Kingdom.
Patience was the wife of Preserved Brayton, grandson of the Preserved Brayton who bought and settled on the Point in 1714. She struggled long with the problem of embracing her husband's religion before agreeing to marry him. But so thoroughly was she converted that almost immediately thereafter she was made minister of the meeting and followed its teachings wherever they led, in spite of a frail body and constant ill-health.
She began her anti-slavery work by persuading her husband to free his slaves. Others followed Preserved Brayton's example and in 1771, thirteen years after her marriage, she felt the call to larger fields. With the Meeting's approval, and the consent of her husband, which was no small sacrifice on his part since he was himself in poor health, she set out that year to visit every Friend's Meeting the whole length of the Atlantic coast, a journey which took over a year.
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NOTES ON FIRST CENTURY
Her reports show her often homesick and ill, but always keeping on, until she thought her mission done and she returned home in 1772. The next year a second calling took her throughout New England; and finally, in 1783 she set out on a journey to England where she staid four years waiting for an audience with George III and visiting the Friends' Meetings of the Kingdom. Failing of the audience, she addressed a memorial to the King and sailed for home, to spend the last six years of her life with her church.
The address to the monarch who had but lately lost the land she hailed from is full of fervor and the eloquence which must have made Somerset's first anti-slavery champion a powerful influence.
PETITION TO GEORGE III FROM PATIENCE BRAYTON
May the Almighty God save the King, and establish thee and thy seed after thee on thy throne here, and enable thee so to walk, as that when thou hast done with all things on this side of the grave, admittance may be obtained into the kingdom of everlasting rest and peace !
I have often thought of thee in my native land, and since my residence here have had to behold how the Lord on high hath blessed thy kingdom beyond other kingdoms of the earth; and earnest desires have been raised in my heart for thee, that thou mayest be the chosen of the God of heaven, to shew kindness unto those who are in distress; particularly by stopping the progress of slavery, and promoting the freedom of the enslaved Negroes in thy dominions, as far as lies in thy power ; so that thy righteous acts may never be erased from rememberance as long as the world endures-that he by whom kings reign and princes decree justice, may delight to establish the kingdom over- which thou presides, in righteousness, and that a door may be opened for other nations concerned in that unrighteous traffic to follow so laudable an example.
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HISTORY OF SOMERSET
The hearts of all men are in the power of God, and he by thy means may turn the hearts of other princes to feel for those highly injured and deeply distressed people, so as to rise up and unite in the same benevolent design: and it is my faith, that the first of them who shall publicly assert their cause, and open a door for their deliverance, the Lord of the whole earth will distinguish by his peculiar favour, and give to rejoice in the experience, that it is indeed righteousness alone that truly exalteth a nation.
I had to believe several years before I left my native country, that the Lord would give thee an offer to take the lead; but that if thou refused, he would chuse another to set up the standard of righteousness on this occasion, wherein so large a part of the inhabitants of the earth are concerned ; many of whom are now groaning in thy domin- ions under oppression sufficiently grievous, as I have thought, to affect the hearts even of the most obdurate.
Mayest thou, oh King, be earnest in supplication as one formerly was, whom the Lord Most High called his servant, who said, "Take from me a stony heart and give me a heart of flesh," that as Christ has declared, "They that ask shall receive," thine may be tendered and enlarged to desire and promote the good, not only of thy own people, but of the nations around thee ; and that thou mayest be enabled in the time of extremity, to which we are all approaching, to appeal to the searcher of the heart as good King Hezekiah, did, "Thou knowest how I walked before thee, with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight."
To be thus conscious, that thou hast not turned a deaf ear to the cry of the poor and distressed, will then be an experience far more enriching than any which the splendor of a temporal crown can afford; because he the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords hath said, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." Oh King, thou art entrusted with great ability to do good under him, who of one blood created all nations, not to oppress and destroy one another, but to lend a hand of assistance where it is needed in our several stations; that looking down on the mutual kindness and endeavour of his children to promote each other's happiness, he may delight to open the windows of
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NOTES ON FIRST CENTURY
heaven, and to add to the temperate enjoyment of his temporal gifts, the blessing of his divine saviour.
Under the influence of this, as I have been sometimes led to pray for thy prosperity, it hath been opened to my understanding, that the Lord did love thee, and that if thou wert faithful in the promotion of righteousness, he would bless thee as he did King Solomon, with both spiritual and temporal riches, the dew of heaven and fatness of the earth; for the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, and he giveth it unto whomsoever it pleaseth him. It is the righteous who are to enjoy it as an inheritance from him, and delight themselves in abundance of peace; and oh that thou mayest be of the number, by promoting an extension of mercy to the injured and oppressed Africans.
In the hours of solid retirement I have been often much affected in viewing their distresses, and since I have been in this nation, have believed it required of me as a duty to lay their deplorable case before thee, intreating thy inter- position on their behalf; that in the day of inquisition for blood thou mayest stand clear in the sight of God, by whom not the sayers but the doers of the law will be justified ; those who obey his injunctions will partake of his promises, and such as sow plentifully in faith, will reap accordingly in peace and joy.
So wisheth my heart for thee oh King !
Be pleased to accept favourably this disinterested Pe- tition; and remember that the Almighty Ruler of the uni- verse, though heaven is his throne and the earth his foot- stool, is not unmindful of the poorest among men, but graciously condescends to hear and answer their petition, having declared that "for the cry of the poor and sighing of the needy he will arise."
PATIENCE BRAYTON.
London, 23d of 7th mo. 1787.
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HISTORY OF SOMERSET
HENRY BOWERS - JOHN A. BURGESS HOUSE
JOHN BOURNE HOUSE "1720-1730"
2
THE REVOLUTION
THE Lexington alarm which reached the Taunton's shores
in the early evening of April 19, 1775, brought no great surprise. The same Minute Man organization which had turned out that morning at Lexington Green and Con- cord's Old North Bridge existed in every Bristol County settlement. Men of Bowers Shore, Brayton's Point and Egypt, as well as of the rest of Swansea, Dighton, Reho- both, Freetown and all the region round had been drilling on open lots of summer evenings, or practicing the manual of arms on barn floors throughout the winter, for upwards of two years. In Shawomet Lands, as elsewhere, muskets had been listed, bullets cast and powder and flints stored in accordance with orders from the Massachusetts Commit- tee of Safety.
A full ten days before blood was spilled at Lexington, the open Revolution had almost been begun at Assonet by Bristol County Men.
The Essex Gazette of Salem printed the story on April 18, 1775 :
Boston, Monday, April 17th
"A letter from Taunton dated last Friday, mentions that on the Monday before (April 10) parties of Minute Men, etc., from every town in that county, with arms and ammunition, met at Freetown early that morning in order to take Col. Gilbert, but he had fled on board the man-of-war at Newport.
"They then divided into parties and took twenty-nine Tories who had signed enlistments and received arms in the colonel's company to join the king's troops. They also took thirty-five muskets, two case bottles of powder, and a basket of bullets, all which they brought to Taunton the same afternoon, where the prisoners were separately ex- amined, eighteen of whom made such humble acknowledg-
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HISTORY OF SOMERSET
ments of their past bad conduct and solemn promise to behave better for the future they were dismissed, but the other eleven being obstinate and insulting, a party were ordered to carry them to Simsbury Mines, but they were sufficiently humbled before they had got fourteen miles on their way thither, upon which they were brought back next day, and after signing proper articles to behave better in the future, were escorted to Freetown.
"There were upwards of two thousand men embodied there on Monday."
This foray occurred on April 9 and 10, and had either Minute Men or the guard of twenty-five armed Tories around Colonel Gilbert's house fired one impulsive shot the Revolution would have dated from April 10, with men of Shawomet Lands sharing the fame.
Now word was come by way of the same alarm system which had sent Paul Revere riding the night before, that the Minute Men were to assemble to the aid of Boston. Almost without exception every Bristol County town had a com- pany of men on the road Boston-bound before midnight on the 20th. The Swansea contingent joined with that of Re- hoboth, making a total of six companies which the Reverend William Emerson, seeing them arrive at Cambridge the next day, said compared well in appearance and equipment with the British regulars.
Swansea the next morning warned a special town meeting to be held on the following day, April 21. At this meeting two votes passed were:
"That 40 guns, 250 pounds of powder, 750 pounds of bread, and 600 flints be provided. The committee of inspec- tion shall provide provisions and all other necessities for the poor upon any special emergency. That 50 men be en- listed to be ready at a minute's warning, and paid three shillings a week for exercising two half days a week, and six dollars bounty if called out of town. The officers to have the same as Rehoboth pays its officers."
"That we keep a post to ride to Boston (and leave it to the selectmen how often) for the best intelligence that can be had there."
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THE REVOLUTION
In the eight years that followed, the war bore hard on the thriving settlement. From the first it was realized that Slade's Ferry was a crucial point. In December of 1776, the British fleet captured Newport and soon occupied all of the island of Rhode Island. Immediately, an artillery company under Captain Fales of Taunton was posted at the Ferry.
This company was gradually replaced by a company under Captain Peleg Sherman, resident of the Shawomet portion of the town, and made up principally of local men. This second force remained on guard at Slade's Ferry from January 6, 1777, to June 5 of the same year and was then transferred to Bristol. Peleg Sherman afterwards became a colonel and was placed in charge of regional commissary. His home, in the future Pottersville section, was at times used to quarter the local troops.
Captain Sherman's transfer left these shores virtually unprotected, and although the British had shown no inten- tion to molest the town its people were uneasy. Captain Philip Slade was therefore selected to wait on General Sullivan "to represent to him the fenceless condition of the town and pray him to be pleased to order a guard for us against our enemies in Rhode Island." Philip Slade was one of the town's diplomatists. The following year he was ap- pointed one of the committee "to confer with General Gates at Providence upon some measures for the safety of the town." He was twice a representative of the town before the Provincial Congress at Concord; and a delegate, along with Jerathmel Bowers, to represent the town at Cambridge in the forming of a new state constitution.
The alarm over the danger to Somerset shores was reasonable. On May 25, 1778, a British detachment came up the bay, landed at Fall River and burned its grist mill. Freetown Minute Men repulsed the attack with muskets and cannon, one shot decapitating a British soldier as his boat pulled away. His comrades tossed him overboard and his body, coming ashore next day on Brayton's Point, now lies beneath the later constructed dock of the old railroad ferry connecting with Ferry street. Two British soldiers
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HISTORY OF SOMERSET
are buried in the Slade Cemetery near the end of Bright- man's bridge in graves marked by small undated stones. They died in the Ferry house from causes and on a date not recorded. The Slade family had them buried in its cemetery, and descendants recall the fact.
Except for a later invasion of Brayton's Point to seize Obadiah Slade, the landing at Fall River was the nearest the British ever came in force to Somerset shores. Slade's Ferry remained unmolested, perhaps because of the al- most constant guard stationed there.
By the middle of summer, 1778, the only part of the Colonies held by the British, aside from Manhattan Island and a few posts on the western frontier, was Newport and the Island of Rhode Island. Washington determined to make an effort for the Island's recovery and assigned to the task the Revolution's ablest general, next to Washington himself, General Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island. With him was to cooperate count d'Estaing, lately arrived in American waters with a French fleet.
General Sullivan's force consisted of 1500 regulars, which he proceeded to reinforce with large enlistments of volunteers from the surrounding territory, large contin- gents of these passing over Slade's Ferry on the way to the island. The army that fought the subsequent battles on Rhode Island accounts for a large majority of the Bristol County quota in Revolutionary records. A Swansea unit of the forces numbering 40 was led by Captain Job Slade. There were numerous other enlistments besides these.
August 8 of 1778 came with Sullivan's forces gathered and ready to spring, but day after day passed and d'Es- taing's fleet did not appear. No satisfactory explanation of the delay has ever been made. Meanwhile, the British learned of the Continentals' plans and began a campaign to sweep the surrounding waters free from American ship- ping.
This aggressive blockade, though the British ships did not invade the waters of Somerset, was the death blow to its shipping for the balance of the war. With it, ended the town's greatest business, the commerce of Henry
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THE REVOLUTION
Bowers. At the opening of the war Henry Bowers had owned or employed 110 vessels. They circled the world with their trade. Bowers Shores "was the principal depot for West India imports north of New York, and from Bowers Shore to Boston was an endless procession of heavy wagons going and returning with merchandise."
Now all this activity was stilled and Henry Bowers was ruined. Although a Quaker by religion, this great mer- chant of Shawomet Lands was wholehearted in his support of the Revolution. The pay of soldiers and the support of their families in the vicinity often came from his pockets. His warehouses were always open to the needs of the cause. On more than one occasion he gave food, bankets and shoes for whole regiments of the Colonials.
In the end he paid everything he had for the success of the Cause. This early Somerset merchant in the "plain" Quaker garb was one of the heroes of the American Revolu- tion.
By the 8th of August General Greene despaired of the French Fleet's help, and on the 9th ordered the attack on Butts' Hill at the northern end of the Island, which was successful. This was the battle of the Revolution which engaged more Bristol County men than any other. No record exists of who from Swansea took part.
The next day, August 10th, d'Estaing's fleet appeared. The fleets engaged, as Colonel Joseph Durfee of that sec- tion of Freetown which later became Fall River records, "in a very bloody battle with many broadsides exchanged." But as the battle rose so did the winds of the hurricane long known as the Great August Storm; the two fleets were separated, "and many who escaped the cannon's mouth found a watery grave."
The British fleet withdrew to New York and the French fleet to Boston for repairs. D'Estaing never return- ed. The Colonial force took Hunneman's Hill ; but it was the most they could do. As they drew closer to Newport Pigot's force of 6000 regulars made their strength felt, and on August 29 the American force withdrew from the Island.
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HISTORY OF SOMERSET
It is the estimate of history, however, that although he won no consequential battle General Greene won the campaign. With the Provincials holding Tiverton and the Narrows, together with Little Compton and the Rhode Island mainland, encirclement was complete. Supplies of food were hard for the British forces to get. Tories, and Colonials to whom British prices seemed more important than the Cause, had an increasingly hard time delivering the herds they collected and drove across country to points on the bay.
The Elizabeth Islands were ravaged for sheep and cattle, one British raid on Martha's Vineyard island captur- ing 10,000 sheep and 300 oxen. On September 5, Pigot sent Capt. Charles Grey to attack New Bedford, then still called Dartmouth; and Grey burned all shipping in the harbor, together with twenty-three stores and warehouses and twelve homes in the town. The inhabitants drove off the at- tackers and immediately Swansea and surrounding towns sent forces to their aid. These arrived on September 7, but were not needed.
This was the last British assault in this region. On October 29, 1779, after months of ineffectual idleness, the British withdrew to New York, completely evacuating the Island.
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