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EX TO EARLY RECORDS TOWN OF PROVIDENCE VOLUMES IXXI
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Cornell University Library
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028840242
Providence, R.I. Record commissioners.
INDEX TO THE EARLY RECORDS
OF THE
TOWN OF PROVIDENCE
VOLUMES I-XXI
Containing also a summary of the contents of the volumes and an appendix of documented research data to date on Providence and other early seventeenth century Rhode Island families
By RICHARD LEBARON BOWEN President of the Rhode Island Historical Society
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A, 852156 COPYRIGHT 1949 BY RICHARD LEBARON BOWEN All rights reserved
Printed By THE OXFORD PRESS Printers for the City of Providence
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CITY
OF PROVIDENCE WHAT CHEER
FOUNDED INCORPORATED 1832
THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE
State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
This volume is printed under authority of the following ordinance passed by the City Council of Providence, approved 20 January 1949:
"CHAPTER 200
"No. 59-An Ordinance Amending the appropriation Ordinance, Chap- ter 128, by Adding the Sum of Two Thousand ($2,000) Dollars to the Appropriation Contained Therein for City Clerk, Item 1."
The Rhode Island Historical Society expresses its sincere apprecia- tion to the Honorable Dennis J. Roberts, Mayor of the City of Providence, for his assistance in the publication of this consolidated index to the twenty-one volumes of the Early Records of the Town of Providence, and to the Providence City Council for its co-operation in appropriating the money necessary to defray the cost of printing and binding.
RICHARD LEBARON BOWEN President
WILLIAM GREENE ROELKER Director
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Committee on Publication
CHARLES BALDWIN MACKINNEY ADDISON PIERCE MUNROE PAUL COE NICHOLSON HENRY DEXTER SHARPE LAWRENCE COUNSELMAN WROTH
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CONTENTS
Page
Summary of contents of the twenty-one volumes of the Early Records of the Town of Providence. 1
Table showing the earliest and latest records in each of the twenty- one volumes 8
Index to Persons (Whites, Indians, and Negroes) in volumes I to XVII inclusive and volumes XX and XXI 9
Index to places, including Indian names. 60
Index to persons in volumes XVIII and XIX. These are North Burial Ground records and are not a part of the early town records. 71
Appendix containing documented research data to date on Provi- dence and other early Rhode Island families 87
V
PREFACE
The City of Providence, Rhode Island, in its twenty-one printed volumes of The Early Records of the Town of Providence, has what is probably the finest and most complete set of transcribed verbatim early records of any town in New England. These volumes contain 5156 printed pages of an estimated total of 2,080,000 words. Of this total, 806 printed pages of approximately 300,000 words are North Burial Ground records which are in volumes XVIII and XIX.
It is impossible to over-emphasize the value of these early Providence records. Outside of the territory of the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, nothing exactly like them is to be found in any town in New England. All other towns were integral parts of the colony in which they were first established, while Providence, originally a town founded by Roger Williams in 1636, did not become part of a colony until 19 Mar. 1643/4 when Roger Williams obtained a patent for Providence Plantations under which the towns of Providence, Ports- mouth, and Newport became a colony; consequently the early Providence records contain all the usual town records and in addition many more that are properly those of a colony.
These records, therefore, are not only the source for the history of the Town of Providence but also for the State of Rhode Island, and in no small measure are the foundation for all seventeenth-century political, religious, educational, and social history of this general area.
In 1800 the Town of Providence ordered a copy made of its first three manuscript record books. No attempt was made to reproduce the original spelling. At best the finished copy was a careless transcript containing many errors, as so frequently pointed out by subsequent Record Commissioners. Some ninety years later, the Providence City Council directed the then Record Commissioners to commence a new verbatim transcript of the town's manuscript record books. The first printed volume of transcripts was published in 1892. From that time on for a period of twenty-three years, the work of transcribing proceeded under the direction of the various Record Commissioners until the twenty-first and final printed volume was published in 1915.
The copying of these original manuscript record books is of the same high quality as Dr. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff's 1853 and 1854 trans-
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Preface
cripts of the manuscript records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; his 1855 and 1857 transcripts of the manuscript records of the Colony of New Plymouth; and the additional volumes of that colony's records completed by David Pulsifer in 1861.
Each volume of the printed Providence records contains four sepa- rate indexes,-subjects, miscellaneous, proper names, and Indian names. In all volumes, except XVII, each surname is indexed separately under its phonetic spelling. This is decidedly confusing and difficult to follow, for most of the surnames, even the more common ones, due to the char- acteristic spellings of the period, are spelled in many different ways. In most cases, however, there is no particular difficulty in assembling these names under the commonly accepted spelling.
Some of the names and numbers of spelling are: Balcolm, 19; Ballou, 23; Crawford, 18; Esten, 23; Mathewson, 16; Mowry, 21; Har- rington, 19; Hawkins, 22; and such simple names as Olney, 12. In order to find any particular name it is necessary to read carefully each entry under the particular letter in each of twenty volumes. In the case of Fenner (or Venner as it is sometimes called) , which appears under the letters "F" and "V", it is necessary to read the two alphabet letters in each index in twenty volumes. Only in the index of volume XVII are the surnames grouped under the commonly accepted spellings followed by the variant spellings, which are not cross-indexed.
One name, however,-that of "Eustance"-is especially confusing. We know that this is a Welsh name, for on 27 Apr. 1668, Thomas Hop- kins, Surveyor, "Laid out for the town, 5 acres of land that he had had of Roger Williams, joining unto the land of Astin Thomas the Welch mans which is by the highway which goeth to pautuckitt" (vol. III, p. 123) .
John Osborne Austin, who did considerable work on this family (Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, p. 294), said that "Estance Thomas" sold land to John Pitt on 23 Dec. 1668; also, that the Welshman generally signed his name "Eustance Thomas," but sometimes "Thomas Eustance," and when he and his son signed together he called himself "Eustance Thomas" and his son "Thomas Eustance."
The peculiar difficulty of Welsh genealogy is that no surnames existed until Tudor times; that many families did not adopt surnames until still later; and that the names which they finally adopted were almost always patronymics, as, for example, Thomas the son of Eustance would call himself Thomas ap Eustance, or Thomas Eustance. The descendants of the second generation used Eustance as a surname, being
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Preface
called also Estance and finally Esten, which was the family name of the head of the Pawtucket, North Providence, Rhode Island, family in 1800.
Volumes XVIII and XIX are official records and documents of the North Burial Ground with entries in volume XVIII as late as 6 Dec. 1888 and in volume XIX as late as 27 Dec. 1899. Both volumes are compilations and not transcripts of original records; therefore, they are not a part of and have no place among these volumes of early Providence town records. Eliminating these two volumes of North Burial Ground records, the printed early Providence town records actually consist of nineteen volumes of original records-from the settlement of Providence in 1636 to the year 1750-a period of about 114 years.
The commissioners transcribed the early Providence records with no regard to the orderly sequence of original volumes, so that the printed volume numbers do not record in chronological order the events of the history of the town. For instance, many early records are found in printed volume XV which should have been numbered among the first three or four volumes.
The title pages of a few of the printed volumes carry what purport to be the dates of the volume's earliest and latest records. The Com- missioners apparently left this dating to the printer, who simply copied the dates of the documents shown on the first and last printed pages. Consequently, the range of dates shown on the title pages cannot be depended on, for the simple reason that the original records are not all in chronological order and the earliest and latest dates may be anywhere in the book.
The separate indexes in the twenty-one printed volumes appear to have been carefully prepared, and only a few typographical and other errors have been found. One important omission from the index has been discovered, however, and that is Providence Town Paper No. 0227 in volume XV. In order to discuss this important document in greater detail, the Commissioners printed it in the preface instead of in the body of the book, with the result that 151 surnames, including those of most of the men who were in Providence during the first fifty years of the settlement, were omitted from the index.
For thirty-three years, ever since the twenty-first and final volume of the Early Records of the Town of Providence was published in 1915, there has been an urgent need for a consolidated index to this valuable work; an index that would list in one alphabet the thousands of surnames in these records and also show separately a consolidated list of place- names, particularly of towns.
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Preface
To supply this need, a consolidated index of white persons, Indians, negroes, and places is presented in the following pages. This index is compiled from the separate indexes in the twenty-one volumes, all of which seem to have been accurately prepared. All detected errors or omissions have been corrected; also, the 151 names in Providence Town Paper No. 0227, omitted from the index of volume XV, have been added.
The surnames are indexed under the commonly accepted spellings, followed by the variant spellings, each of which is also cross-indexed. There is a total of 5188 names of different white persons, 240 Indian names, 8 negro, and 2 Biblical names. Of the 5188 names of persons, 3057 are in nineteen volumes and 2131 are in the North Burial Ground records, volumes XVIII and XIX. These two volumes are indexed separately and the names appear on the last pages of this consolidated index.
The early Providence town records are rich in many variant spellings of Narragansett Indian names many of which were written by Roger Williams. For instance, Neotaconconitt is spelled in thirty-five different ways in the original records, varying from twelve to fifteen letters.
The Indians had no written language, consequently the student of Algonquin Indian place-names is dependent on the white man's spelling of words in what to him was a guttural foreign language. As would be expected, some of the early settlers had a sharper sense of sounds than others. The venerable William Brooks Cabot of Boston, well known authority on Algonquin Indian place-names, once told me that "Roger Williams had a much 'sharper' ear for Indian names than did John Eliot who wrote the Indian Bible." This being true, it naturally follows that the "sharper" the ear the more vowels recorded, and that the more different spellings there are of the same Indian word the better the chance of translation by the Algonquin student, to whom only the verbatim record spellings are of value.
In the following index will be found verbatim spellings of some 240 Narragansett Indian names, forming what is probably the largest complete single group list yet published. To save needless repetition, these Indian names were indexed only once, either under the heading "Indians" or "Places", whichever was the more convenient.
The towns listed in the index of places are of great importance to the historian. This is especially true of Newport, for during King Philip's Indian War (1675-1676) all the population of Providence, with the ex- ception of a few able-bodied men ("27 who stayed and went not away") , fled to the Island of Rhode Island. Practically all the inhabitants of Swansea and most of the families of Rehoboth, with the exception of
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Preface
those in the garrison houses, also fled to the Island. During the period in which these inhabitants remained at the Island there were the usual births, marriages, deaths, real estate and other business transactions, many of which were recorded in these Providence town records.
When the British troops evacuated Newport in 1778, they carried away all the town records. The barge on which these were being trans- ported sank near Hell Gate, New York. The records were later recovered and still later returned to Newport, but the action of the salt water had destroyed the greater part of the manuscript pages. In view of the loss of these records, the 411 Newport references in this index, generally overlooked by historians, fill in many gaps and greatly supplement the few remaining original Newport records.
An extremely valuable adjunct to this book, and a great time-saver for the searcher, is the useful date table, facing the first page of the index, which shows at a glance the year of the earliest and latest record in each volume. Many of the same given names in this index represent three generations, grandfather, father, and son. If, for instance, the searcher is interested only in the grandfather who was alive between the years 1636 and 1670, then it is necessary for him to look only at the date table to ascertain the volumes in that date range. Without this date table it would be necessary for him to waste much valuable time in examining the references in all volumes.
Five years before the first of the twenty-one volumes of verbatim early records of the Town of Providence was published in 1892, John Osborne Austin, a life member of the Rhode Island Historical Society, published his excellent Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island. This work is to Rhode Island what James Savage's Genealogical Dictionary is to New England, and the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, by Noyes, Libby, and Davis, is to the Maine coast.
Mr. Austin compiled and published the genealogies of 485 Rhode Island families, of which 392 were carried out to three generations and 93 to four generations. One of his principal sources for this monumental work was the Providence town records. He had access to the inaccurate 1800 copy of the first three Providence town record books but was obliged to read the remaining records in the original manuscript. Had he com- piled his Dictionary thirty years later, he would have had the benefit of the printed verbatim transcripts of these manuscript records which bring to light much source material not contained in his Dictionary. For more about these Rhode Island families, see Appendix, page 81.
This consolidated index shows that among the early Providence settlers there were persons of 728 different surnames. As Mr. Austin
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Preface
compiled the genealogies of only 485 families from the whole of Rhode Island, it is apparent from this index that there are ample data for the compilation of an additional several hundred families. Also, by. the use of the index, it is comparatively easy to make many additions and cor- rections to the family records as compiled by Mr. Austin and to document his undocumented work.
Historians know that without an understanding of the genealogical relationship of the people, no adequate town history can be written. Town histories are the sources for state histories, which in turn are sources for United States history. Therefore, for the historians of seven- teenth-century political, religious, educational, and social history of the Town of Providence and the State of Rhode Island, and for all genealo- gists, the following index containing 3057 names of different persons in early Providence from 1636 to 1750 is an important key to indispensable source material.
In my work on the history of Rehoboth, I found the town so closely connected with the Town of Providence that it was necessary to make a consolidated index of the early Providence Town Records. This index proved so invaluable to me that I presented the manuscript to the Rhode Island Historical Society and persuaded the City of Providence to finance its printing in order that it might be published for the benefit of other students of seventeenth century New England history.
This index has been checked three times, and no effort has been spared to make it as accurate as possible. In its preparation I am in- debted to my secretary, Miss Olive B. Weavill, who typed and assembled the index cards and to whom much credit is due for her careful work.
RICHARD LEBARON BOWEN
Providence, Rhode Island,
25 February 1949
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE TWENTY- ONE VOLUMES OF EARLY RECORDS OF THE TOWN OF PROVIDENCE AS TRANSCRIBED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE RECORD COMMISSIONERS AND PRINTED UNDER AUTHORITY OF THE PROVIDENCE CITY COUNCIL, FROM 1892 TO 1915.
VOL. I
This is the "First Book of the Town of Providence", otherwise called the "Long Old Book with Parchment Cover", and contains town meet- ings, births, deeds, and miscellaneous records. The original leaves in this book are now inlaid in sheets of strong paper and the whole sub- stantially bound in green leather. The earliest date in this volume is "first week in August 1633" (birth of Roger Williams' daughter at Ply- mouth) on page 7; the latest date, "October 2, 1712", an indorsement on the back of a deed dated "1663", is on page 63. The transcript of this book, 111 pages of printed records, was published in 1892.
VOL. II
This is the "Second Book of the Town of Providence", otherwise called the "Town Old Book", the "Old Burnt Book", and sometimes called the "Book with Brass Clasps". Facsimilies of the 19 Apr. 1645 agreement and signatures of 37 of the so-called Providence "25-acre" men are illustrated. The earliest date in this volume is "Last of 10th mon. [December] 1635", on page 155 (Appendix) ; the latest date, "Sep- tember 15, 1675", is on page 35. At the end of this volume is a nine-page Appendix giving extracts from Staples' Annals of Providence referring to the Providence Charter. The names in this Appendix are included in this consolidated index. The transcript of this book, 159 pages of printed records, was published in 1893.
VOL. III
This is part of the "Third Book of the Town of Providence", other- wise called the "Book with Brass Clasps". The earliest date in this volume is "8 of 8 mo. [October] 1638", on page 90; the latest date, "May 13, 1731", is on page 146. The transcript of this book, 250 pages of printed records, was published in 1893.
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Summary of Volumes
VOL. IV
This is part of the "Third Book of the Town of Providence", other- wise called the "Book with Brass Clasps", and contains principally deeds. The earliest date in this volume is "15 of 12 month [February] 1644", on page 160; the latest date, "April 5, 1717", is on page 88. The trans- cript of this book, 260 pages of printed records, was published in 1893.
VOL. V
This is part of the "Third Book of the Town of Providence", other- wise called the "Book with Brass Clasps", and contains deeds, marriage, birth, and death records. The earliest date in this volume is "March 24, 1638", on page 296; the latest date, "September 3, 1721", is on page 269. On page 260 are the birth records of the children of James and Mary Brown. One of these children, Obadiah, was born 2 Oct. 1712. Following this is another line reading: "he Departed this Life the 17th Day of June 1762 at his Seat in Glocester". The transcript of this book, 340 pages of printed records, was published in 1894.
VOL. VI
This is part of "Will Book No. 1", otherwise called the "First Book for Providence Town Council Particular Use", and contains principally wills. The earliest date in this volume is "August 17, 1670", on page 102; the latest date, "March 10, 1720/1", is on page 193. The transcript of this book, 290 pages of printed records, was published in 1894.
VOL. VII
This is part of "Will Book No. 1", otherwise called the "First Book for Providence Town Council Particular Use". The earliest date in this volume is "May 31, 1665", on page 227; the latest date, "Jan. 7, 1717/8", is on page 199. The transcript of this book, 228 pages of printed records, was published in 1894.
VOL. VIII
This is part of the "Book of Records of Town Meetings No. 3, 1677 to 1750, and other Papers". Both of these dates given on the title page are incorrect. The earliest date in this volume is "April 27, 1676", on page 11; the latest date, "July 7, 1709", is on page 10. The transcript of this book, 179 pages of printed records, was published in 1895.
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Summary of Volumes
VOL. IX
This is part of the "Book of Records of Town Meeting No. 3, 1677 to 1750, and other Papers". The first date given on the title page is incorrect. The earliest date in this volume is "14 June 1678", on page 188; the latest date, "December 5, 1750", is on page 103. The transcript of this book, 201 pages of printed records, was published in 1895.
VOL. X
This is the "Book Called Town Council No. 1, 1692 to 1714". The first date given on the title page is incorrect. The earliest date in this volume is "May 23, 1685", on page 17; the latest date, "June 25, 1714", is on page 137. The transcript of this book, 137 pages of printed records, was published in 1896.
VOL. XI
This is the "Book of Records Designated as 'Town Meeting No. 1, 1692 to 1715'". The earliest date in this volume is "June 6, 1692", on page 1; the latest date, "October 27, 1715", is on page 177. The trans- cript of this book, 184 pages of printed records, was published in 1896.
VOL. XII
This is the "Book Called Town Council No. 2, 1715 to 1732". Both dates given on the title page are incorrect. The earliest date in this volume is "January 18, 1715/6", on page 47; the latest date, "February 2, 1735/6", is on page 42. The transcript of this book, 96 pages of printed records, was published in 1897.
VOL. XIII
This is the "Book Called Town Meeting No. 2, 1716 to 1721". The second date given on the title page is incorrect. The earliest date in this volume is "January 27, 1715/6", on page 2; the latest date, "February 22, 1725/6", is on page 25. The transcript of this book, 67 pages of printed records, was published in 1897.
In the preface to this volume the Commissioners say that there is "no separate index to Indian names, since very few occur in this volume". What they did not say is that these few Indian names are included in the index of persons, which is true in several other volumes.
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Summary of Volumes
VOL. XIV
This is the "First Book for the Recording of Deeds and Called Deed Book No. 1". Facsimilies of the surveys of several tracts of land are illustrated. The earliest date in this volume is "October 17, 1643", on page 251; the latest date, "February 2, 1708/9", is on page 74. The transcript of this book, 299 pages of printed records, was published in 1899.
VOL. XV
This is the "Providence Town Papers Vol. I, 1639 to April 1682, Nos. 01-0367". Illustrations include facsimilies of a warrant and letters written by Roger Williams. Both dates given on the title page are incorrect. The earliest date in this volume is "Last of 10th month [December] 1635", on page 1; the latest date, "May 24, 1705", is on page 238. The transcript of this book, 241 pages of printed records, was published in 1899.
In the preface to this volume of transcripts, the Record Commis- sioners say that "Every paper in the manuscript volume has been included in the body of the printed volume with one exception, viz., No. 0227 which has been inserted here in the preface as a better place for dis- cussion and explanation which the Commissioners felt should accom- pany it".
The result of placing this important paper in the preface was that the 151 names on this document, containing those of most of the men of Providence for the first fifty years of the settlement, do not appear in the index of this volume XV. These names have all been added to this consolidated index.
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