A history of Barrington, Rhode Island, Part 1

Author: Bicknell, Thomas Williams, 1834-1925. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Providence : Snow & Farnham, printers
Number of Pages: 1386


USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Barrington > A history of Barrington, Rhode Island > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49



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M. L.


REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION


ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00084 6573


Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015


https://archive.org/details/historyofbarring00bick_0


THOMAS WILLIAMS BICKNELL.


HISTIO


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حيات ى


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A HISTORY


OF


BARRINGTON


RHODE ISLAND


BY


THOMAS WILLIAMS BICKNELL


MEMBER OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY; THE SONS OF THE AMERI- CAN REVOLUTION, R. I .; THE ORDER OF PATRIOTS AND FOUNDERS, NEW YORK, N. Y .; THE BOSTONIAN SOCIETY OF BOSTON, MASS .; THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, D. C .; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND THE PENN- SYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY


PROVIDENCE SNOW & FARNHAM, PRINTERS 1898


LOTE


1565705


Copyright, 1898 BY THOMAS WILLIAMS BICKNELL All rights reserved


Published by Subscription


. Edition Limited


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A LOYAL SON OF BARRINGTON Dedicates


THIS HISTORY TO ITS NOBLE FOUNDERS


PREFACE


" GOOD old Barrington" extended from Narragansett Bay on the south, to Rehoboth on the north, and from Providence River on the west, to Palmer's and Warren Rivers on the east. The north line began at Providence River, near Silver Spring, and extended to a bound on Palmer's, River, north of Barneysville. This volume tells the story of the men who have lived, and the events that have been enacted, in this territory. The sources of information have been so various and widespread that I cannot note them, except to say that the Records of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies, of Sowams, of Swansea, and of Barrington, and MSS. loaned me, and those in my possession, have been the chief. Thanks are expressed to the many friends who have supplied valuable papers and important facts. Especially do I gladly recognize the services of Ebenezer Tiffany, Jr., Esq , who has aided me in collecting the material for the chapter on "The War of the Revolution," and for other parts of the work. I acknowledge also the assistance of the accomplished Record Commissioner of Providence, Edward Field, Esq., whose rare historic spirit and judgment I admire. For encouragement in undertaking and carrying the work to completion, "The Barrington Rural Improvement Associa- tion" stands first ; and foremost in the Association stood Irving M. Smith, Esq., who fell in the forefront of the active battle of life, while these pages existed only in the mind of the writer. Largely am I indebted to the good judgment and lively interest of a devoted wife, whose loving hopeful- ness was not permitted the satisfaction of seeing the work completed.


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V


PREFACE.


.


As appears, this volume covers the history of Barrington from 1621 to 1898, with the biographies of leading citizens, and brief outlines of genealogy. The actors and their acts constitute the warp and woof of the town's life, and few of the old towns, outside of Plymouth, have so worthy a record. Four governors of the Colony, Bradford, Prince, the two Winslows, father and son, and two of her military leaders, Capt. Myles Standish and Capt. Thomas Willett, were the founders of the Plantation which preceded the town. Mas- sasoit, " the great and good sachem " of the Wampanoags, was their friend, and deeded them the territory, "the garden of the Colony." The founders of the first Baptist church at Swansea, in Massachusetts, Myles, Willett, Brown, Butter- worth, Tanner, Carpenter, Kingsly, and Albee, were moral heroes, whose noble stand for conscience changed the char- acter of our colonial life. The same men, with others of like spirit, founded the town government on the basis of civil and religious freedom. Throughout these chapters will be found constant evidences of an honest yeomanry, "a nation's pride," liberty loving, God-fearing, working out in their indi- vidual, social, town, and church life, the problems of builders on new foundations. The Barrington of to-day, with its intelligent, prosperous, and happy people, its excellent schools, and its churches of a true and exalting faith, is not the growth of a day, but the product of the generous, sacri- ficing life and labors of three centuries in America. While I have sought diligently for the truth as to our ancestry, and have aimed to present their deeds and principles con- scientiously and accurately, I am more conscious than others can be of the possibility of errors and imperfections of human judgment, to cover which I invoke the indulgent charity of the present and coming time.


:


THOMAS WILLIAMS BICKNELL.


PROVIDENCE, R, I.,


June 17, 1898.


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CONTENTS


CHAPTER.


I. BARRINGTON, ITS GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY ·


II. THE NORTHMEN IN NARRAGANSETT BAY 17


III. VERRAZZANO'S VISIT TO THE WAMPANOAGS 23


IV. THE WAMPANOAGS 30


V. WINSLOW'S VISITS TO MASSASSOIT AT SOWAMS


.


47


VI. THE SOWAMS PLANTATION .


5S


VII. SOWAMS RECORDS 75


VIII. SOWAMS AND BARRINGTON 90


IX. THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN MASSACHUSETTS II2


x. THE INCORPORATION OF SWANSEA 136


XI. EARLY EDUCATION IN SWANSEA


147


XII. SWANSEA RANKS . 157


XIII. PHILIP'S WAR . 162


XIV. FROM PLYMOUTH TO MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY . 16S


XV. GLEANINGS FROM TOWN AND PLYMOUTH COURT LEG- ISLATION .


.


XVI. INCORPORATION OF BARRINGTON . 172


IS3


XVII. THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH . 199


XVIII. BARRINGTON LEGISLATION FROM 1717 TO 1747


245


XIX. FROM MASSACHUSETTS BAY TO RHODE ISLAND


277


XX. BARRINGTON WITH PARTS ADJACENT INCORPORATED AS WARREN 2S4


XXI. BARRINGTON RESTORED IN 1770


.


292


XXII. TOWN CENSUS AND VALUATION


XXIII. BARRINGTON TAVERNS AND STAGE COACHES


307


XXIV. BARRINGTON IN THE REVOLUTION


. 322


XXV. DOMESTIC SLAVERY AND SLAVES


402


XXVI. BARRINGTON LEGISLATION ·


411


XXVII. THE UNITED CONGREGATIONAL SOCIETY


. 432


HIGHWAYS, FERRIES, AND BRIDGES


· 446


XXX. BARRINGTON MILITIA AND THE DORR WAR .


· 4SS


XXXI. BARRINGTON IN THE CIVIL WAR


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499 512


XXXIII. EDUCATION, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS


524


XXXIV. ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH


. 543


XXXV. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH


549


XXXVI. PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND SOCIETIES


. 551


XXXVII. BARRINGTON INDUSTRIES


555


XXXVIII. BARRINGTON CENTENNIALS


562


XXXIX. CENSUS RETURNS .


· 565


XL. BIOGRAPHIES AND GENEALOGIES


. 566


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XXVIII. XXIX. CEMETERIES ·


. · 464 . ·


XXXII. NEW BARRINGTON .


ILLUSTRATIONS


Facing title.


Ancient Stone House at Barneysville


Facing page 8


William Allin Residence, 1670


16


John Jenckes Residence


24


View of Town Beach and Rumstick


32


G. Howard Smith Residence


66


40


View from Princes Hill, looking north


48 56


George Lewis Smith Residence


66


64


Capt. Thomas Willett Chimney


72


View at Nayatt, looking south


88


John Jenckes


104


Maj .- Gen. Nelson A. Miles, U. S. A.


66


120


James Bowen


I28


William H. Smith


‹‹ 136


School and Schoolhouse, Dist. No. I, Barrington


66


152


Town Hall, exterior


66


66 168


Town Hall, interior


176


Joseph Mauran


66 192


John J. Allin Summer Cottage at Annawomscutt


200


Joshua Mauran


208


Congregational Meeting-House, exterior and interior 66


216


Matthew Watson Residence


66


224


Congregational Meeting-House and Parsonage


66


232


Lewis B. Smith ·


240


Carlo Mauran


248


School and Schoolhouse, Dist. No. 3, New Meadow Neck Kent Brown Residence


66


256


Rockedge, South Lawn, Annawomscutt


272


Ancient Map of Wampanoag Lands


66


66 280


Map of Original Town of Barrington


280


Centennial Committee


296


264


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Thomas Williams Bicknell


James Bowen Residence


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X


·


viii


ILLUSTRATIONS.


View of Barrington Centre, looking south


Facing page 304


View from Central Bridge, looking west


66 312


Royal D. Horton Residence


320


Lewis B. Smith Residence


328


Elizabeth W. Bicknell


336


Gen. Thomas Allin Residence


34


Paul Mumford


352


Amy Horn


66 360


Suchet Mauran


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368


Leonard Bosworth


66


376


Alfred Drown


384


William R. Martin


66 392


Hessian Musket


.. 66


396


School and Schoolhouse, Dist. No. 4, Drownville


. 6 tos


Driveway to Rockedge, Annawomscutt .


66


60 424


New England Steam Brick Works .


66 66


452


Ancient Training Field and Cemetery, Tyler's Point


66


464


Allin Bicknell .


66


66


496


George Lewis Smith


66


504


Nathaniel C. Smith .


66


512


School and Schoolhouse, Dist. No. 2, Nayatt


66


6.


520


High School and Schoolroom


66


528


St. Andrew's Industrial School


66


536


St. John's Episcopal Church


66


66


552


Joseph U. Starkweather


66


560


George T. Baker


66


568


William E. Colley .


66


576


View at Drownville, looking north


66


584


Mr. Bicknell in his Library


66


592


Autographs


600


.


4SS


Charles F. Anthony Residence


Irving M. Smith


66


544


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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON


CHAPTER I


The Geography of Barrington - Its Geology- Glacial Action - Rivers --- Ponds - Hundred Acre Cove -An Analysis of Soil - Original Bounds - Changes in Jurisdiction - Indian Localities and Names - Historic Sites - Houses and Localities of Special Interest.


B ARRINGTON is a bi-peninsular town, extending south- ward into Narragansett Bay. It has the towns of East Providence, Seekonk, and Swansea on the north. The waters of Palmer's and Warren Rivers wash its eastern shores and sep- arate the territory from Swansea and Warren. Narragansett Bay lies to the south and the bay and the town of East Prov- idence form its western boundary. The eastern peninsula occupies one-third of the acreage of the town and the west- ern two-thirds. Its area is nine and three-tenths square miles. Its salt water tidal line is about twelve miles long.


Rivers, Creeks, Coves, and Ponds. - Barrington River ; Mouscochuck Creek ; Annawomscutt Creek ; Smith's Cove ; Drown's Cove; Bullock's Cove; Hundred Acre Cove ; and Prince's Pond.


Points. - Bullock's, Allin's, Nayatt, Rumstick, Adams', Tyler's, Martin's, The Tongue.


Hills. - Nockum, Bicknell's, and Prince's. Prince's Hill is named for Governor Prince of Plymouth, one of the orig- inal proprietors.


Rocks. - Allin's and Rumstick.


Woods. - The Long Swamp, the Dead Swamp, the Pine Woods, and Nayatt.


Springs. - Scamscammuck near Rumstick, Tom's Spring at Nayatt.


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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.


Geologically, Barrington owes its existence to the last gla- cial period or ice age. Let us trace its formation. The rock stratum which underlies this section is a conglomerate of small pebbles or fine gravels, held together by a grey, blue or black paste or cement. An excellent specimen of this rock may be seen in the only elevated ledge in Barrington, at Drownville, on which the water tank of the Drownville Water Works stands. This ledge contains very coarse peb- bles and was thrown up from the general sea or ocean level by the contraction of the earth's crust. Imagine then this aqueous, pudding-like rock lying near the shore of an ancient sea or ocean. Think of the earth cooling down and wrink- ling into folds in the process of cooling, and you will, by your mind's eye, see the ocean's bed, breaking its level and some parts of it rising into hills and mountains and some parts sinking into valleys and deep sea channels. The Rhode Island hills and valleys were then formed and all the rocky peaks or knolls were then lifted up, very much higher than we see them to-day. Mount Hope, which is now only about 200 feet in height, may have been twice or three times its present height, when this breaking up of the earth's crust of Rhode Island took place. Call this action, if you like, the fracture or ploughing up of the sea floor on which our town lies. There was nothing then to have been seen but a salt sea and rocky, craggy peaks rising like islands above its surface. The breaking-up ploughshare has done its work. Now we need a great harrow to cut down the rough hills and fill up the shallower water spaces. The great leveller of the earth is the glacier. The ice age came and buried our sec- tion under snow and ice to the depth of thousands of feet. In the White Mountain region of New Hampshire, the ice stood as high as the top of Mt. Washington. Europe, Asia and North America were covered under the northern ice- sheet as low as Providence, say 40°, north latitude. The ice began to flow southward towards the warmer latitudes, breaking down in its movement the rough crags, the rocky hills, and mountains, grinding the softer rocks to fine clay,


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MIT


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GLACIAL ACTION.


sands, gravel, pebbles and boulders, and carrying vast loads of this rocky material, dumping it into the sea and thus fill- ing up the shallower sections. The marks of these great glacial carriers are seen on all the permanent rocks on the banks of our streams and are called striae, or wheel-tracks of the great machine we call a glacier. Fine specimens of these striae may be seen on the ledges by the side of Provi- dence River at and south of Silver Spring and north of Riverside. As these lines and furrows run north and south, they tell us plainly that the ice-flow was southward towards the Atlantic.


The particular glacier, which used Barrington as its dumping ground, had its home probably in Worcester County ; possibly at the summit of old Wachusett Mountain. The clay pits of Nayatt, the sands of New Meadow Neck, and the gravel banks extending from Long Swamp to Rumstick and thence to Nayatt are from Southern or Central Massa- chusetts. We owe our subsoil and substrata to the Old Bay State, but we found them here on our own solid, sea-formed, rocky base. The glacial smoothing plane not only cut down our hills and smoothed off their surfaces, but it brought and dumped large and small rocks that were picked up on the way, ground down and smoothed in the movement of the tremendous gravity machine, and the fields, in all parts of the town, bear witness to the work of this carrier plane. The boulders on our farms are the deposit of the ice, as are the sands and clay beneath the soil, and whether of slate, granite, quartz, iron, or whatever other formation, may be in many cases traced to the ledges in Massachusetts on the north. There is not a Barrington boy that has not seen the black, heavy ironstones of the field. There are some in town that will weigh fifty pounds. On Beacon Hill, Provi- dence, where I now live, I have seen these stones that were two feet in diameter. On the island of Rhode Island, they are the size of cannon balls. These stones or boulders all came from Iron Mine Hill, in Cumberland, and though rough when broken from the original ledge, were smoothed


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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.


down in the carriage of a few miles to Providence. The width of the deposit of the Cumberland iron stones is about eight miles, including both sides of the Bay, Kent and Bristol Counties. The most interesting boulder in Barring- ton is that which landed on the south end of the grey-wacke ledge at Drownville near the water tank. As this great stone of near an hundred tons is a conglomerate or pudding stone, it may have been lifted from the north end of the ledge on which it stands and carried by the ice to the south end and there deposited, when the glacier melted and receded to its northern home. The gravel bank from Long Swamp to Rumstick and Nayatt Points is a medial moraine, called in common language a "hog-back," and forms an excellent foundation for road-building. Near Boston, this kind of gravel is mixed with a peculiar cement, which makes it an excellent surface dressing for common roads.


As the glacier receded, it left the solid land it had formed and channels for the water, which came in plentiful supplies from the melting ice rivers of the north. On the authority of geologists, our coast line extended into the Atlantic, some forty miles beyond its present bounds, and Block Island was a part of the main land. The site of our famous watering place, Newport, was, at the close of the ice age, as far from the ocean as it is from Boston, and the site of Boston was inland forty miles, so that the ocean was not visible from the summit of the Blue Hills, then supposed to be fifteen hun- dred feet in height. Since that period, the ocean has washed away all the diluvial deposit or dump, until the Atlantic has reached the rocky barriers of the old rocks which say, "Thus far shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."


Providence, Barrington, Warren, Palmer's and Taunton Rivers are the deeper channels cut out by the glaciers, into which the waters of the ocean ebb and flow. They are sunken rivers, pouring into salt water the small quantities of fresh water, which flow into them from their tributary streams. Prince's Pond, which in my boyhood used to be


5


GLACIAL PRODUCTS.


called "the bottomless pond," was probably formed by stranded ice, which finally melted away, leaving a deep hole where it lay, which has become partially filled by the wash from the hills around. The bog on the north and east of Prince's Pond which is a fine quality of peat from five to twelve feet thick, and was formerly used for fuel in Barring- ton, is a vegetable deposit, which has accumulated simulta- neously with the deposit of other soils, on the upper surface of the glacial drifts. The clay under the swamps at Nayatt and along the Mouscochuck Creek, used so extensively for brick-making, was a deposit of the finer flour-like grinding of the glacier, and is usually found in the vicinity of mo- rasses. In due time, after the melting away of the glacier and the approach of the warm period, vegetation began to appear such as lichens, mosses and ferns ; then the firs, spruces, hemlocks, and pines ; and most likely a large torrid growth, until the land about us had become fit, by the crea- tion of soil, for man's use and habitation. Imagination can- not picture the beasts, birds, reptiles, and insects of the forests, the fishes that swam in our streams, and amphibians that sported on their banks. Man came at last and found it much as we see it to-day, only changed in this that the land was covered with forests, and the seasons quite unlike ours. Who was the first Barringtonian we leave for some follower of Darwin to tell us, whether he descended from the gods or ascended from the apes. Certain it is that he must have thanked his stars as we do that his lines were cast on so goodly shores and that he had such a lovely heritage.


Hundred Acre Cove, at the head of Barrington River, has been a puzzle to many, geologically, from the fact that the bottom of the cove shows indisputable evidence of having once been a pine forest. The stumps, roots, and trunks of pines can be seen now in various parts of the cove, and the stump fences on New Meadow Neck were drawn from the shores and waters of the cove. What is the explanation ? At the close of the ice age this cove was probably like Prince's Pond the resting place of a vast ice fragment, which


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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.


melted away; then came salt and fresh water vegetation, and a bog was formed on a very soft foundation. This bog, like the thatch beds and salt meadows of that part of the river, rested on a mud and vegetable growth below and finally be- came fit for tree growth, and a forest of pine was the next development, standing on a very shaky and uncertain base. The weight of the forest increased with the growth and gradually caused the mass below to become consolidated and the forest to sink below the level of the salt water. The action of the salt water destroyed the tree growth, and the whole mass finally compacted below the level of the low water line of the river. Such subsidences of land are com- mon in many parts of the world.


AN ANALYSIS OF SOIL.


From the Joshua Bicknell Farm, near the Congregational Church.


An analysis of soils, made by Dr. Charles T. Jackson, State Geologist, 1839, gave the following results :


Mechanical Separation.


"No. I. Pebbles of Sienite ... 48 ..


No. 2. Sand 125.


No. 3. Fine Loam S47 .


1000.


Chemical Analysis of 100 Grains of Fine Loam.


Water 1.9


Vegetable matter 5.6


Insoluble Silicates 85.3


Alumina and Iron 4.9


Salts of lime 1 .9


99.6


The area of Barrington at the date of its separation from the mother town, Swansea, in 1718, was much larger than at present. Rehoboth, on the north of Swansea, was a town about eight miles square and the south line of that town, which was the north line of Swansea, extended from the Pawtucket or Providence River, on a nearly east and west line to the Shawomet Purchase, or Somerset. This bound- ary line began at Providence River, near the present Silver Spring Station, on the P. W. & B. R. R., and extended east-


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TERRITORY AND GOVERNMENT.


ward, crossing Barrington River not far from Runen's Bridge, and crossing Palmer's River, north of the present village of Barneysville. When the people living on the westward end of Swansea petitioned for a new town in the year 1711, they asked the Massachusetts Court "To grant us a township according to the limits of Capt. Samuel Low's Military Company in Swansea." This included all the terri- tory of the old town, west of Palmer's River, and when the boundary line of Barrington was fixed in 1717, the eastern bounds of the town extended from Rumstick Point to Myles Bridge, with all the lands in the Swansea grant included in New Meadow Neck and Peebee's Neck to the west of that line, including territory now embraced in the towns of Swansea, Seekonk, and East Providence.


Barrington was once Ancient Sowams, occupied by the Wampanoags, and was the dwelling place of their Chief, Massassoit.


In 1653, Massassoit deeded the territory with other lands to the proprietors of Ancient Sowams, under the jurisdiction of Plymouth Colony. In 1667, Swansea, which included Barrington, was incorporated by Plymouth Colony, and con- tinued under the government of Plymouth until 1691.


In 1685, Bristol County was incorporated and Swansea became a town of Bristol County, Plymouth Colony.


In 1691, Plymouth Colony was united with Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Swansea came under the government of Massachusetts Colony.


In October, 1717, Barrington was set off from Swansea and incorporated under its present name, as a town in Bris- tol County, Massachusetts Colony.


In 1747, Barrington, a part of Swansea, now Warren, and Bristol, were set from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, Bar- rington was united with the territory taken from Swansea, and called Warren, and the two towns formed Bristol County, R. I., with Bristol the shire town.


In 1770, Barrington was set off from Warren, with boundary lines substantially as at the present time.


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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.


Since its occupation by the whites, the people living on this territory have been under the government of three col- onies, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Rhode Island, have lived in three counties, Plymouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, and Bristol, R. I., and have borne three township names, Swansea, Barrington, Warren, and Barrington for the second time.


James I. and Charles I. were Kings of England and the Colonies when Massassoit was Sachem of Sowams. Crom- well ruled England when Sowams was made a proprietary. Charles the Second was King when Swansea was incorpo- rated. William and Mary were on the throne when Plymouth Colony was merged into Massachusetts Bay Colony. George I. was King when Barrington was first incorporated, in 1717 ; George II., when we were made Warren, and George III., when Barrington was restored in 1770.


When the Plymouth settlers first visited this territory, in 1621, they found it owned and occupied by the tribe of In- dians known as the Wampanoags, under their Chief, Osa- mequin or Massassoit. The Indian name of the country, between Plymouth and Narragansett Bay, of which the ter- ritory of Barrington was a part, was called Pokanoket. Bar- rington was known as Sowams, and on its soil was the dwel- ling of the great Sachem, Massassoit. Besides Pokanoket, the name of the Indian country, and Sowams, the residence of the Chief of the Wampanoags, the Indians have left us several names of places which are readily identified and are worthy of preservation. as memorials of this once great tribe. 1


WAMPANOAG. - The name of the tribe that occupied the


1 As the Wampanoags had no written language, the spelling of Indian words rests solely on the authority of the clerks or writers, who translated into English the sounds of the Indian language as it was spoken by the natives. Hence arises the variety of spell- ing the same word as understood by different persons. Our ancestors were in the habit of emphasizing words by the use of double letters, as in the words Narragansett, Massas- soit, Peebee. In the spelling of Indian names, I have endeavored to follow the best authority, eliminating the redundant t in words whose general use has not established the form.


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ANCIENT STONE HOUSE, NEAR MYLES BRIDGE.


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INDIAN NAMES.


territory east of Narragansett Bay. The word means, The people of the East land, Tooker.


POKANOKET. - The name of the whole territory occupied by the Wampanoags and associate tribes. Its original boundaries cannot be easily defined, although in its later limits it included Bristol County, Rhode Island, and the western part of Bristol County, Massachusetts, embracing the towns of Bristol, Warren, Barrington, East Providence, Seekonk, Rehoboth, Swansea, Pawtucket, Cumberland, Som- erset, Dighton, Taunton, with other towns east of the Taun- ton River. Meaning, Cleared land, or country, Tooker.




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