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Gc 974.5 H33n 1820235
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01067 5483
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/narragansettfrie00haza
THE Narragansett Friends' Meeting
IN THE XVIII CENTURY
WITH A CHAPTER ON QUAKER BEGINNINGS IN RHODE ISLAND
BY
CAROLINE HAZARD
Gout
bien on
rien
The Riverside Press
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1899
1820235
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY CAROLINE HAZARD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_ 3.50 -
PREFACE
THIS little book has grown from a paper read before the Rhode Island Historical Society in September, 1894. In present- ing it I mentioned the name of my master, the late Professor Diman, to whose inspir- ing teaching and example I owe an increas- ing debt of gratitude. And so I want to write his name here, knowing that his train- ing is an abiding force in the lives of his pupils.
1146191 C. H.
OAKWOODS IN PEACE DALE, R. I.
September 25, 1899.
.
CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER I. QUAKER BEGINNINGS IN RHODE
ISLAND . 3
Correspondence with Massachusetts. The ar- rival of the Woodhouse at Newport. Quakers driven from Massachusetts. Cruel laws. Mary Dyer and her companions. Her sentence and re- prieve. Her death.
CHAPTER II. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOUTH KINGSTOWN MONTHLY MEETING . 41 .
Disturbed conditions in Rhode Island. Visit of George Fox. The Greenwich meeting. The meeting divided.
CHAPTER III. THE MEETING-HOUSES . 59
. The records. The "Old Meeting-house." The Clerk and Treasurer. Westerly Meeting- houses. Matunuck Meeting-house. Richmond Meeting-house. Repairs and accounts. Youths' meetings.
CHAPTER IV. THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 77 Peter Davis. Stephen Hoxsie. Peleg Peck- ham. Thomas Hazard. The Overseers and Queries.
CHAPTER V. THE WORK OF THE MEETING . 95 Surrounding churches. Friends' discipline. New Lights. Temperance. Fighting. Suing at law. Debtors. Traveling.
vi
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI. THE WOMEN'S MEETING .
. 117
Clerks of the Women's meeting. Preaching Friends. Patience Greene. Marriages with dancing and vain mirth. Marriage in shifts.
CHAPTER VII. SLAVERY . . 139
John Woolman. Testimony of Richard Smith in 1757. The Rathbun case. Slavery in the Women's meeting.
CHAPTER VIII. THE REVOLUTION . 159
Jeffrey Watson's diary. Nailor Tom's diary. Sufferings by war. Good government. Results of the meeting.
I QUAKER BEGINNINGS IN RHODE ISLAND
I
Aquidneck's isle, Nantucket's lonely shores,
And Indian-haunted Narragansett saw The way-worn travellers round their camp-fire draw, Or heard the plashing of their weary oars. And every place whereon they rested grew Happier for pure and gracious womanhood, And men whose names for stainless honor stood, Founders of states and rulers wise and true.
WHITTIER.
THE first mention of Quakers in the re- cords of the Colony of Rhode Island occurs in the year 1657, when a letter arrived from the commissioners of the United Colonies addressed to the governor of Rhode Island :
The commiffioners being informed that divers Quakers are arrived this summer at Rode Ifland and entertained there, which may prove dangerous to the Col- lonies, thought meet to manifeft theire minds to the Governor there as follow- eth : -
GENT: - We suppofe you have un- derftood that the laft yeare a companie of Quakers arived at Bofton vpon noe other account than to difperfe theire pernicious
4
NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING opinions had they not been prevented by the prudent care of that Government, . whoe vpon that occafion commended it to the General Courts of the United Collon- ies that all Quakers Ranters & such no- torious heretiques might be prohibited coming amongft vs.1
The " prudent care " of the authorities of Boston and the Bay towns is well known. Fines, imprisonment, and whipping at the cart's tail all fell within the limits of pru- dence; and, not content with care for their own colony, the letter goes on to say :
We thinke noe care too great to pre- ferve us from such a peft, the contagion whereof (if received) within youer Col- lonie were dangerous, &c, to be defused to the other by means of the intercourfe especially to the place of trade amongft us - Wee therefore make it our requeft that you, as well as the reft of the Col- lonies take such order herein that youre naighbours may be freed from that dan- ger ; that you remove thofe Quakers that have been receaved, and for the future prohibite theire cominge amongft you.2
1 R. I. C. R., vol. i. p. 374. 2 R. I. C. R., vol. i. p. 374-375.
5
QUAKER BEGINNINGS
This letter is dated Boston, September 12, 1657, and signed "Simon Bradstreet, president." Mr. Bartlett, the learned com- piler of the Rhode Island Colonial Records, points out that while the commissioners demanded the expulsion of Quakers from Rhode Island, the Massachusetts govern- ment were sending Quakers into the col- ony, as in the case of Humphrey Norton.
The Quakers who caused this concern of mind to the honorable commissioners had come to Aquidneck from England, and had been kindly received. Indeed, they could hardly have found a place in the world of that day where more people, by inheritance and tradition, would have been inclined to welcome them. The town of Newport was not yet twenty years old, being an offshoot from the first settlement on the island at Portsmouth. It was Portsmouth which gave Mrs. Hutchinson an asylum when her teach- ing had become too mystical for the rigid theology of Boston. " With her," says Pro- fessor Diman, " religion was less a creed than an inner experience; to her enthusi- astic faith, the Holy Ghost seemed actually to unite itself with the soul of the justified person."1 Nicholas Easton, who built the
1 Sir Henry Vane, J. L. Diman, Orations and Essays.
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NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
first house at Newport, seems to have shared her beliefs, though doubtless with differ- ences, for Rhode Island soon became famous for its divergence of opinion. Ac- cording to Winthrop, he was " a man very bold, though ignorant," and much exercised on the question of man's will and God's sovereignty. He maintained " that man has no power or will of himfelf, but as he is acted upon by God. Being shown what blasphemous confequence would follow here- vpon, they profeffed to abhor the confe- quences, but ftill defended the propofitions which," Winthrop adds, "difcovered their ignorance."1 Samuel Gorton, also a mystic, had been found even too mystical for the company on the island, and, after a short and troublous sojourn at Portsmouth, be- took himself and his doctrines across the Bay, where he founded Warwick. So the spiritual atmosphere of the island was pre- pared for the arrival of Friends in 1657 far more than any of the other settlements could have been.
The reply of the colony of Rhode Island to the letter of the commissioners shows the curious mixture of liberality and prejudice
1 Arnold's History of Rhode Island, p. 152.
7
QUAKER BEGINNINGS
characteristic of the founders. Benedict Arnold was president of the colony, and he, with William Baulston, Randall Houlden, as he writes his name, Arthur Fenner and William Field, sign the very interesting letter which was sent in reply, dated Octo- ber 13, 1657 : -
Our defires are, they declare, in all things poffible, to purfue after and keep fayre and loveinge correfpondence and entercourfe with all the collonys, and with all our countrymen in New England, by giving juftice to any that demand it among us, and by returning fuch as make efcape from you, or from other colonys, being fuch as fly from the hands of juf- tice for matters of crime done or committed amongft you, &c. And as concerning thefe quakers (so called) which are now amongft us, we have no law among us whereby to punifh any for only declaring by words, &c, theire mindes and underftandings concerning the things and ways of God as to falvation and an eternal condition.
Here we have a distinct declaration of the limits of the civil power, a declaration as far in advance of the times as Roger
8 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
Williams himself, and breathing his spirit, if not actually inspired by him. And yet, immediately following this noble sentence, the letter continues in the spirit of its own day : -
And, moreover, we find that in thofe places where thefe people aforefaid in this coloney are moft of all suffered to declare themfelves freely, and are only oppofed by arguments in difcourfe, there they leaft of all defire to come, and we are informed that they begin to loath this place, for that they are not oppofed by the civill authority, but with all patience and meek- nefs are suffered to fay over their pre- tended revelations and admonitions, nor are they like or able to gain many more to their way . . . and yet we conceive that their doctrines tend to very abfolute cutting downe and overturninge religious and civill government among men if gen- erally received.
This letter was addressed " to the much honoured the General Court sitting at Bos- ton for the Collony of Maffachusetts." 1 Thus, while agreeing with the Massachu- setts authorities as to the evil influence of
1 R. I. C. R., vol. i. p. 378.
9
QUAKER BEGINNINGS
the Quakers, the Rhode Island men held fast to their principle of religious liberty. Six months later the question was taken up by the general assembly sitting at Ports- mouth, and a letter was sent " To the much honored John Endicott, Governor of the Massachusetts," which is even more explicit. Quakers, this letter declares, " are generally conceived pernicious, either intentionally, or at least wise in efect, even to the cor- ruptinge of good manners and difturbinge the common peace and focieties of the places where they arife or refort unto," etc. " Now, whereas freedom of different con- fciences, to be protected from inforcements was the principle ground of our Charter both with respect to our humble fute for it, as alfo to the true intent of the Honor- able and renowned parleiment of England in grantinge of the same to us; which free- dom we still prize as the greateft hapiness that men can pofefs in this world :
" Therefore we shall for the prefervation of our civill peace and order the more feri- ously take notice," the letter continues, to have Quakers conform in all civil things, "as traynings, watchings and such other ingadgements," and will inquire from Eng-
IO NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
land as to a proper course to pursue, being informed that many Quakers are " suffered to live in England, yea, even in the heart of the nation." John Sandford, clerk of the assembly, signs this letter, but here again the spirit, if not the hand, of Roger Wil- liams is evident. No one could prize more than he the " freedom of different con- fciences," and no one was more ready to extend this "greateft hapiness that men can pofefs in this world " to others.
The Quakers who were the subjects of these letters from Massachusetts arrived at Newport in the little ship Woodhouse, Robert Fowler master, during the summer of 1657.1 He was a North of England man, and, while building his ship, became con- vinced, and had a divine intimation, that the ship he was then building should be de- voted to the use of the society he had joined. In July of the previous year, (1656), Mary Fisher and Anne Austin “ ar- rived in the road before Boston before ever a law was made there against Quakers," Sewel says, "and yet they were very ill treated." They were searched before they landed, and about one hundred books taken
1 Appendix : A Quaker's Sea Journal.
II
QUAKER BEGINNINGS
from their trunks and chests and burned by the hangman. They were then committed to jail as Quakers, because one of them in speaking to the deputy governor, Richard Bellingham, said thee instead of you, which he asserted was proof enough. They were stripped and searched under pretence of finding some evidence of witchcraft, and kept without light, the windows being boarded up to prevent any communication with them. Nor was any food provided for them till Nicholas Upsal " was so concerned about it (liberty being denied to send them provisions) that he purchased it of the jailor at the rate of five shillings a week, lest they should have starved." After five weeks of this treatment, a shipmaster was bound in one hundred pounds' bond to carry them back to England, and the jailor kept their beds and their Bibles for his fee. Scarcely a month after the arrival of these two fear- less women, eight more Friends arrived, and were treated in the same manner, and sent back after eleven weeks in the Boston jail.1
It was at this juncture that Robert Fow- ler came to London with his offer of the new ship, and found five of the Friends who
Sewel's History, vol. i. pp. 210, 211.
I2 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
had been sent back from Boston determined to go once more. Six other Friends joined them, and the little company made ready to sail from Southampton. The captain's mind almost failed him, but, encouraged by George Fox, he writes: "I received the Lord's servants on board, who came with them, with a mighty hand and an out- stretched arm." Fowler has left an account of this voyage, called " A True Relation of the Voyage undertaken by me, Robert Fow- ler, with my small veffel called the ' Wood- houfe;' but performed by the Lord, like as he did Noah's Ark, wherein he shut up a few righteous perfons, and landed them safe even at the hill of Ararat." Besides Fowler, the master, the crew consisted of only two men and three boys, and he de- clares that they made none of the usual observations, but waited daily upon the Lord, for "we see the Lord leading our veffel even as it were a man leading a horse by the head." The voyage took two months, and our respect for Fowler's seamanship is justified by the fact that New Amsterdam was the first port they sighted. Here they landed five passengers, while with the re- maining six the Woodhouse proceeded to
13
QUAKER BEGINNINGS
Rhode Island, or, as we should now say, Newport, where " we were received with much joy of heart," one of the Friends writes.
Mary Clark was one of these passengers, who had left her husband, a merchant tailor in London, with her children, and went to Boston " to warn these persecutors to desist from their iniquity; but after she had delivered her message, she was unmer- cifully rewarded with twenty stripes of a whip with three cords, on her naked back, and detained prisoner about twelve weeks in the winter season. The cords of these whips," Sewel adds, "were commonly as thick as a man's little finger, having each some knots at the end; and the stick was sometimes so long that the hangman made use of both his hands to strike the harder."
Christopher Holder and John Copeland, passengers on the Woodhouse, who had been banished from Boston the previous year, also pushed their way into the colony. Holder endeavored to speak a few words at Salem " after the priest was done," but was hauled out of church by the hair of his head, and a glove and handkerchief thrust into his mouth. From Salem he was sent
14 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
to Boston, where whipping and cruel im- prisonment awaited him.
Thus early did the passengers of the Woodhouse bear testimony against the ty- rannical laws in the Massachusetts.
Mary Fisher, one of the two first Friends who came, had an experience of more Chris- tian treatment from the Mohammedan sul- tan a few years later, when in 1660 she journeyed in the East, and at Adrianople went " alone into the camp and got some- body to go to the tent of the grand vizier to tell him an English woman was come who had something to declare from the great God to the sultan." He procured an audience for her the next morning, and coming to the camp alone as before, she was received as became an ambassador. She hesitated to speak, " mightily ponder- ing what she might say," when the sultan inquired " if she desired that any might go aside," and when she answered no, " bade her speak the word of the Lord to them and not to fear, for they had good hearts and could hear it." The Turks listened with respect till she had done, and the sul- tan said she had spoken the truth. He de- sired her to stay in the country, " saying
15
QUAKER BEGINNINGS
that they could not but respect such a one as should take so much pains to come to them so far as from England with a mes- sage from the Lord God." He offered her a guard to conduct her to Constantinople, which she refused, though the sultan pressed it upon her, saying it was in respect to her, for he would not she should come to the least hurt in his dominions. But she per- sisted in declining it, and arrived in Con- stantinople " without the least hurt or scoff," and returned safe to England.1
What a contrast to the return to England from New England, only four years before, after public whipping and untold indignities, and all manner of hardship !
Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh, also of the Woodhouse company, bore public testimony in Boston, and it was of William Brand, of that same heroic company, that John Norton said, when he lay almost dead after repeated and cruel whippings, " W. Brand endeavored to beat our gospel ordi- nances black and blue, if then he be beaten black and blue it is but just upon him; and I will appear in his behalf that did so." This Norton added because the people were
1 Sewel's History, vol. i. p. 328.
16 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
exasperated at this cruelty, and " caused such a cry that the governor sent his sur- geon to the prison to see what might be done." 1
Sewel's History, in which these things are recorded, was written by a Dutchman, a learned Quaker of Amsterdam, whose grand- father was one of the Englishmen who left home for conscience' sake. His knowledge of Greek, Latin, English, French, and High Dutch was acquired " while throwing the shuttle in the loom, during his apprentice- ship to a stuff maker." He wrote a diction- ary and grammar of his own language, and translated many treatises. His "History of the Rise, Increase and Progress of the Christian People called Quakers " was writ- ten in Low Dutch, and translated by him- self into English. The first English edition was published in 1722 in London. “ I do not pretend to elegancy in the English tongue," he says, " for being a foreigner and never having been in England but about the space of ten months, and that nearly fifty years ago, it ought not to be expected that I should write English so well as Dutch, my native tongue." But his Eng.
1 Sewel, History, vol. i. p. 254.
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QUAKER BEGINNINGS
lish needs little apology. It is direct, sim- ple, and forcible, perhaps far better than if he had attempted the " elegancy " of his time. The documents he has preserved are invaluable, and his own comments so apposite that his work is the standard au- thority to-day on the history of Friends, no less than when it was published. Long- fellow studied it so closely for his New England Tragedy of John Endicott, that whole passages are simply paraphrases from Sewel, as, for instance, this speech of Nor- ton's : -
" Now hear me,
This William Brand of yours has tried to beat Our Gospel Ordinances black and blue ; And, if he has been beaten in like manner, It is but justice, and I will appear In his behalf that did so."
The zeal of Endicott, and " priest Nor- ton," as Sewel calls him, for the suppression of heresy, is too well known to require set- ting forth in this place. It must be re- membered what times they lived in, and the fact that their theology practically made the world, not God's world, but the devil's. Thus many seriously believed that, in coming to a new country inhabited by heathen, they were come to the territory of Satan, and
18 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
consequently had to fight the powers of darkness with every weapon possible. The laws of the colony of New Plymouth con- tain among the " offences capitall," under which head wilful murder, burning of houses and ships, with gross offences against morality, are classed, an offence which is described as a " Solemn Compaction or con- versing with the divell by way of witchcraft conjuracon or the like." A community which conceived it possible for persons to make this " Solemn Compaction " could not be expected to judge leniently opinions dif- fering from their own. Under the theo- cratic theory of government, the civil arm was bound to attend to morals, and what was a more deadly sin than heresy? The special offences of the Quakers were set forth in an act made at a General Court held at Boston the 20th of October, 1658, in which the legislation of two years against the Quakers culminated. Following acts which provided for whipping and the cut- ting off of ears, this act of 1658 provided for the arrest without warrant of any Quaker by any constable or selectman, who should commit the Quaker to close jail without bail, until the next court, when he should
19
QUAKER BEGINNINGS
be tried, and, being proved a Quaker, should be banished on pain of death. A legal trial was, by a law made in the same year, ad- judged to be a trial by a court of three magistrates without jury, who had power to hang at pleasure. This law was made by so small a majority, only one vote Sewel says, that the magistrates were constrained to add, " to be tried by special jury." Long- fellow sums up the legislation very accu- rately in " John Endicott ": -
" Whereas a cursed set of Heretics Has lately risen commonly called Quakers, Who take upon themselves to be commissioned Immediately from God, and furthermore Infallibly assisted by the Spirit To write and utter blasphemous opinions, Despising Government and the order of God In church and commonwealth and speaking evil Of Dignities, reproaching and reviling The Magistrates and Ministers, and seeking To turn the people from their faith, and thus Gain proselytes to their pernicious ways ; - This court considering the premises, And to prevent like mischief which is wrought By their means in our land, doth hereby order That whatsoever master or commander Of any ship, bark, pink or catch shall bring To any roadstead, harbor, creek or cove Within this jurisdiction any Quakers Or other blasphemous Heretics, shall pay Unto the Treasurer of the Commonwealth One hundred pounds, and in default thereof
20
NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING Be put in prison and continue there Till the said sum be satisfied and paid."
·
" If any one within this jurisdiction Shall henceforth entertain, or shall conceal Quakers, or other blasphemous Heretics, Knowing them so to be, every such person Shall forfeit to the country forty shillings For each hour's entertainment or concealment, And shall be sent to prison, as aforesaid, Until the forfeiture be wholly paid." · " And it is further ordered and enacted, If any Quaker, or Quakers, shall presume To come henceforth into this jurisdiction, Every male Quaker for the first offence Shall have one ear cut off; and shall be kept At labor in the Workhouse till such time As he be sent away at his own charge. And for the repetition of the offence Shall have his other ear cut off, and then Be branded in the palm of his right hand. And every woman Quaker shall be whipt Severely in three towns; and every Quaker, Or he or she, that shall for a third time Herein again offend, shall have their tongues Bored through with a hot iron, and shall be Sentenced to Banishment on pain of deathı."
Nor did these cruel laws end here, for the magistrates were alive to the disap- proval of the larger minded of the people, as Nicholas Upsall, who sent food to the starving Quakeresses, found to his cost. A clause was added for the special benefit of such men.
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QUAKER BEGINNINGS
" Every inhabitant of this Jurisdiction Who shall defend the horrible opinions Of Quakers, by denying due respect To equals and superiors, and withdrawing From Church Assemblies, and thereby approving The abusive and destructive practices Of this accursed sect, in opposition To all the orthodox received opinions Of godly men, shall be forthwith committed Unto close prison for one month ; and then Refusing to retract and to reform The opinions as aforesaid, he shall be Sentenced to Banishment on pain of Death.
By the Court. Edward Rawson, Secretary."
Nicholas Upsall could not forbear to pro- test against the early laws, for Longfellow's summary covers two years' legislation, and warned the magistrates, not only of the unreasonableness of their proceedings, but to take care they be not found fighting against God. But this was taken so ill that he was fined, and imprisoned for not coming to church, and finally banished in the winter season.
" Coming at length to Rhode Island, he met an Indian prince," Sewel says, " who having understood how he had been dealt with, behaved himself very kindly, and told him, if he would live with him, he would make him a warm house, and further said, 'What a God
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