USA > Rhode Island > The correspondence of the colonial governors of Rhode Island, 1723-1775, Vol. I > Part 1
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THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNORS OF RHODE ISLAND 1723-1775
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THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNORS OF RHODE ISLAND 1723-1775
Published by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
EDITED BY GERTRUDE SELWYN KIMBALL
IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I
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The Riverside Press
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside press, Cambridge 1902
COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published December, 1902
TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE HONORED MEN FROM WHOM HAS COME DOWN A PRECIOUS LEGACY THESE VOLUMES ARE Dedicated IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE BY THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS
PREFACE
IN presenting to the public these volumes of the Correspondence of the Colonial Governors of Rhode Island, the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island are fulfilling one purpose for which their Society was founded, namely, " To perpetuate the memory of those honored men whose sacrifices and labors in Colonial times potentially aided in laying the foun- dations of a great Republic " and " To collect and preserve the records of their sacrifices." With this purpose at heart, the Society has gladly availed itself of the opportunity to place before the general reader these letters, which have been almost inaccessible in the archives of the State. This is done with the hope of increasing in those of the present day the feeling of patriotism and the knowledge of " the sturdy independence of character and love of liberty regulated by law" which animated these heroic an- cestors in their sacrifices for the great principles which they exemplified in their lives and for which they contended.
JEANIE LIPPITT WEEDEN,
SARAH PERKINS J. BABCOCK, HELEN HAZARD BACON, Committee on Publication.
October 27, 1902.
INTRODUCTION
THE manuscript correspondence of the governors of Rhode Island, from which these documents are copied, is preserved in a series of twenty-eight folio volumes, in the archive-room of the state. They cover the years from 1729 to 1839, and contain a mass of the most varied information, of widely dif- fering degrees of value. It is a matter for regret and aston- ishment that the official correspondence of the colony of Rhode Island for the sixty-four years antedating 1729 should have completely disappeared.
The aim of these volumes is to present all the available material in this series which lies between 1729 and 1775, and which has not heretofore been printed. The greater part of the letters have been taken from the series just mentioned. Six are copied from a volume of manuscripts in the custody of the state entitled, Papers Relating to the Old French War, 1755-1761. Others were found in certain blank-books which had been used for keeping the various accounts current of the colonial administration; or amid bundles of loose papers, of an extremely miscellaneous nature. A few are in a volume of manuscript Orders in Council. Two were taken from the volumes of transcripts from the Public Record Office, which are in the possession of the John Carter Brown Library. Seven were obtained through the courtesy of the librarian of the Rhode Island Historical Society, from manuscripts in the possession of the society. This material consists of letters to and from the colonial governors, together with documents which came into their hands in the form of enclosures.
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A considerable number of the letters now in the archives were printed by Mr. John R. Bartlett, in his edition of the Colonial Records of Rhode Island, and such letters (with very few exceptions) have been omitted from this collection ; but occasionally, a letter of great importance, or one neces- sary for a proper understanding of other letters, has been reprinted.
The series ends with the close of Governor Wanton's last administration, in 1775, when the revolutionary era may fairly be said to begin in Rhode Island.
It has been thought that the value of the letters would be enhanced by following the spelling and punctuation of the eighteenth century. Whatever may give us the atmosphere of a bygone age is of importance to us, and for this reason it seems well worth our while to preserve the eccentric ortho- graphy, as well as the quaint phrases, of the original docu- ments. Great care has been taken to reproduce individual peculiarities of this sort, and it will be seen that the oft-re- peated assertion respecting the illiteracy of the early Rhode- Islanders finds occasional illustration in these pages.
An Appendix gives a list of those letters printed in the Colonial Records of Rhode Island, chronologically arranged.
The colonial governor was at once the representative of the Crown before his colony and of his colony before the Crown ; and this held true whether he was appointed to his office by the Crown, or whether he was elected by the people of the colony, - as was the case in Connecticut and Rhode Island in the eighteenth century. Under either alternative the governor was the medium of official intercourse, - in all the colonies he was called upon to answer to the home gov- ernment for the proceedings of the colonists within his juris- diction. To him instructions were sent by the Lords of Trade, or by the Secretary of State, as to the course of pol- icy to be adopted by the colony. He was told which forms of development were to be encouraged and which were to be repressed, and he was expected to report at short intervals
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to the home government. The revenue officials of the Crown looked to the governor for support in the fulfilment of their duties, and it is only fair to say, in this connection, that to this same fountain-head of authority the Rhode Island smugglers looked, with an assured confidence, the happy result of long experience, that their governor could be relied upon to temper justice with mercy. The governors of the charter colonies - Rhode Island and Connecticut - were elected annually by the people, and instructed by the As- sembly, and, naturally, they leaned for support upon their constituents rather than upon the English government.
The cases in which the executive of a popular constituency, the government of whose colony was conducted according to the terms of a charter, would have occasion to consult the Plantation Office would be few in comparison with those aris- ing in a Crown colony. The correspondence of the Rhode Island governors shows an almost complete absence of that atmosphere of local political intrigue which so constantly recurs in the despatches of the governors of New York and Pennsylvania. The Ward-Hopkins feud, which for years divided families and embittered neighbors, made no impres- sion upon the official correspondence with the mother country.
The letters of the Rhode Island governors, then, deal almost entirely with what may be called the external rela- tions of the colony. In matters concerning two or more colonies, for instance, were the subject of discussion bound- aries, or military levies, or rights of jurisdiction, each party concerned hastened to lay before the Lords of Trade the claims of his colony to consideration. Or, did some special feature of the colonial administration attract attention in England, special inquiries on that subject were made of the colonial governor.
While the governor was the channel of communication, in Rhode Island the ordinary course of procedure was this. A committee was appointed by the General Assembly to draw
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up a letter embodying the facts relating to some subject of interest or importance. . The letter was then presented to the Assembly in the form of a report ; a vote of approval, or disapproval, was passed, and the governor was instructed to write accordingly. For example, in the sessions of October, 1744, it was voted that " Whereas, the committee appointed to prepare the draught of a letter of instructions to be sent to the agent of this colony, in Great Britain, for him to oppose the taking away our charter privileges, did present the same for the consideration of this Assembly ; the said draught be, and it is hereby accepted and approved of, and that three fair copies thereof, be signed by His Honor, the Governor, and sent in three different vessels, to the said agent, as soon as may be." 1
It will be here observed that the correspondence of the colonial governor with the Plantation Office was not always a direct personal communication. Often it was so, but fre- quently - and more frequently in the later period of colonial existence -the observations of the governor were addressed to the colonial agent in London, and by him brought to the attention of the Lords of Trade, or of the Lords of the Treasury, or of prominent members of Parliament, as best befitted the occasion. The agent acted with the governor as a medium of intercourse with the home government. He was accountable to the colony Assembly, by whom he was formally accredited, and from whom he received a somewhat precarious and intermittent salary in return for his services. In the correspondence of the Governor and Company of Rhode Island with the successive colonial agents at London we have an interesting aspect of our colonial history, which has never yet been adequately worked out, and the historical importance of which is always underestimated, and that is,
1 See Col. Rec. of R. I., V. 97, and the Assembly's letter on p. 284 of this volume. Other instances may be found in Col. Rec., V. 157, 180, 190, 278, 282-284, and with equal frequency throughout the years covered by this volume.
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the influence of English life and thought and politics - in a word, of English contemporary history - upon the history of the colonies. This influence was undoubtedly very great. Because we have naturally and inevitably studied the mili- tary aspects of our history more thoroughly than its institu- tional, economic, or social sides, therefore the influence which England exerted upon American history embodies it- self to our minds in the antagonistic guise of a tax upon tea, or a series of Navigation Acts. But there was another sort of influence exerted by England, - one which is not to be found in the statute-books, an influence exerted for the most part unobtrusively and indirectly, and yet one which bore an important share in moulding and developing the Ameri- can type of the Anglo-Saxon race. English precedent and example were all-powerful with the American colonist. The traditions of the Atlantic seaboard were those of England, whether the colonist raised his voice for civic freedom, or anathematized the hereditary enemies of his race. Richard Partridge, writing against the Sugar Act of 1733, " because of the levying a Subsidy upon a Free People without their Knowledge [and] agst. their consent, who have the libertys and Imminitys granted them [of] Natural born Subjects, and when they have enough to do to raise Taxes for their own Support,"1 presents the good old English point of view no less surely than does Major Samuel Angell of the Rhode Island militia, when he writes to Governor Hopkins of the alleged atrocities committed by the French at Oswego, “if Such Usage Wont Rais the Sperrits and Warm the Blood of Old Olivers Sons I know not What Will." 2 The colonist received alike his political creed and his household furniture, his library and the fashion of his garments, from London. The very statutes of the colonial assembly speak of England as "home." 3 Communication with the mother country,
1 See letter of February 28, 1733.
2 See letter of September 5, 1756.
8 See Col. Rec. of R. I., V. 60, 117.
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though slow, was continuous. Especially was this true of a seafaring population like that of Rhode Island, many of whose wealthy merchants had crossed the Atlantic in their own good ships. English protection was given and received as a matter of course. English supervision of the details of colonial life was, on the whole, far-reaching, thorough, and beneficent.
The governors of the colonies were - as our letters tes- tify - the most important channel of communication with England. Their information from home presented two points of view. First, that of the Lords of Trade, upon whom devolved the business of colonial administration. This body had in its custody all the records, grants, and papers relating to the colonies. The Lords were required to ascer- tain what were the principal products and industries, to exact frequent reports from the various governors, to keep the run of desirable incumbents for colonial offices, to be informed as to the action of the colonial Assemblies, and to give ear to complaints from any source. Governors were in- structed to correspond both with the Lords of Trade and with one of the principal secretaries of state; and although this procedure was changed for a short time (1752-1766), it was to these officials that the governors usually wrote during the later colonial period. That this correspondence was maintained on both sides with unfailing regularity is notori- ously not the case. Many men of distinction served on the Commission for Trade and Plantations, and many served faithfully and well. On the other hand - and especially during Walpole's long ascendency 1 - there intervened peri- ods of what Burke described as "salutary neglect." It is said that the Duke of Newcastle, when Secretary of State, had a closet full of despatches from American governors which had lain unopened for years, and the wits of a later generation declared that George Grenville lost America be-
1 From 1721 to 1742.
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cause he was so foolish as to read the American de- spatches.
The second point of view introduced to the colonial gov- ernor was that of the agent who represented the colony's interests at London. His position demanded that the agent should be a man of affairs, of experience and judg- ment, possessing common sense, discretion, and tact, - alive to the needs of his colony, yet not offensively importunate to those in the great world whose interest he should find it necessary to secure. It is evident that the charter colonies stood in especial need of such an intermediary. The condi- tions of their government forbade that there should be any personal influence exerted by their executive upon the official world of London. Yet never has there been a time when per- sonal influence counted for so much in English political life as in the first three quarters of the eighteenth century. The royal governor, the appointee of the Crown, had, necessarily, a more or less powerful coterie of friends in England. For the charter governments, such friends must be acquired and maintained by the persistent efforts of the colonial agent.
It will be found that a large proportion of the letters here printed are those of the two agents for Rhode Island, Rich- ard Partridge and Joseph Sherwood, who served her during this period. Both these men were members of the Society of Friends, as were many prosperous and influential Rhode Islanders. Partridge was the son of Lieutenant-Governor William Partridge of New Hampshire, who was a man of considerable enterprise and dexterity. He was put forward by the popular party in that province to act against Lieuten- ant-Governor Usher, who had been appointed in the interest of the heirs of the Mason, or Allen, claim. " Partridge was," says Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire, " a native of Portsmouth, a shipwright, of an extraordinary mechanical genius, of a politic turn of mind, and a popular man."1 His
1 Vol. I. 297.
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commission as lieutenant-governor was obtained by the in- terest of Sir Henry Ashurst, and was dated June 6, 1696. We also hear of him in quite another connection. In 1696 the Lords of Trade appointed four commissioners to investi- gate the conditions of the timber supply and naval stores which New England might be expected to produce, and to encourage the colonists to foster such an industry. The two commissioners appointed on behalf of the colonies were William Partridge and Robert Lamb, who were recom- mended by Sir Henry Ashurst. They were to "introduce trade with New England in whatever naval materials that province could produce fit for the use of the royal navy." It is certain that Partridge made a very good profit for him- self as well as for the colonies out of the timber trade, and even had the temerity to send his masts to Portugal. Lord Bellomont wrote home, in 1700, in a state of intense indig- nation, that Partridge had " openly boasted of a voyage by which an outlay of less than £300 netted for him £1600 at Lisbon, and that he had set all the country agog." Partridge protested that his acts were misrepresented, and that he only sent to Portugal such inferior cargoes as were not good enough for the Royal Navy ; and it is probable that he was backed by friends at court, since the Lords of Trade allowed his ships to pass.1 It was probably through the interest of his London friends that Governor Partridge 2 established his son Richard as a London merchant. His daughter Mary mar-
1 This account is taken from J. H. U. Studies, extra volume XVII., " Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America," by Eleanor L. Lord.
2 An inscription on a monument in the burying-ground of the first parish in Newbury states that "the very Honorable William Partridge Esqr sustained the government of New Hampshire for several years and departed this life the 3d of Jan. 172g, in the 75th year of his age." He probably moved to Newbury about 1715, as he was received into the First Church in that year. According to the entry in his family Bible, his son Richard was born on "the 3d day of Dec. 1681 at ¿ past 3 P. M." Hist. and Gen. Reg., XIII. 265.
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ried Governor Jonathan Belcher of Massachusetts, himself a bit of a courtier, and a warm friend of Richard Partridge. It was due to his brother-in-law's exertion among the Quakers of Yorkshire (so ran the story) that the money for Belcher's commission as Governor of New Jersey was forthcoming, in later years.1 In the June sessions of 1715 the Assembly of Rhode Island took into consideration " the necessity there is for this colony to impower an agent in England, to trans- act for this colony all their concerns, which they have beyond seas, in Great Britain, &c., and the damage that hath accrued to this colony for want thereof ; " whereupon the Assembly enacted " that Mr. Richard Partridge, of London, in Great Britain, &c. be empowered as an agent from this colony, to represent this colony before the King and council, or otherwise, as the affairs of this colony shall require ; and to be allowed for his salary, for the performance of what is needful in the premises, £40 per annum, during his officiat- ing in the said capacity." 2
Partridge held this appointment until his death, in 1759. At times during these years he represented Connecticut and New Jersey, as well as Rhode Island.
Through his letters and those of his successor, Sher- wood, a London attorney, the governors are informed of the details of English political life, the town-talk of London, the ups and downs of party politics, the personal disposition and temper of the leading men of affairs, the drift of public opinion, the relations of the Continental powers to one an- other and to England. Were one to judge of Partridge's standing in the official world of London from his own letters, he would seem to have been a man of discretion and good sense, who gave great attention to detail, and was possessed of a certain tact which suggests his father's "politic turn of mind," and which carried him into a sort of intimacy with the under-officials of the great departments of state.
1 See Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 6 ser., VI., preface.
2 Col. Rec. of R. I., IV. 187.
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We find him securing legal advice for the colony,1 and offering shrewd and timely suggestions as to the policy to be observed by the colonial government.2 He assures the gov- ernor and Assembly of his untiring zeal for their interests. He drops a word of warning now and then. Not infre- quently he adopts a tone of instruction and remonstrance which savors of peremptoriness toward the traders and farm- ers across the sea.3 Communication was slow and difficult ; indeed, most letters were written in duplicate. Under these circumstances the success with which the colony's business was conducted depended largely upon the personal abilities of the agent. His powers were necessarily elastic. The letter of agency issued to Sherwood in 1759 purports to " enable him to transact perform and finish all such Busi- nesses of the said Colony as may be committed to him." Both Partridge and Sherwood frequently ask to be instructed respecting the course of action desired by the Assembly, and carefully disclaim responsibility 4 in the colony's affairs. On the other hand, we find throughout the Records of Assembly resolutions appointing a committee to draw up instructions for the agent,5 to whom are sent pressing solicitations that he should urgently forward the colony's interests.6
Services of particular importance were felt to deserve spe- cial remuneration. The agent's salary was not munificent, and further, would seem to have been usually in arrears. Partridge writes, in 1741, and sends his account with the colony, showing a balance of £213 in his favor, which he hopes " will be remitted in due time, with a further Supply
1 E. g., letters of July 10, 1732 ; 4th mo. 29, 1734; and December 31, 1736.
2 See letters of February 4, 1732, and 3 mo. 28, and July 28, 1743.
3 See letters of July 14, 1742; May 8, 1744 ; February 6, 1745.
4 See letters of May 2, 1740 ; May 20, 1748 ; June 8, 1763.
5 See Col. Rec. of R. I., V. 79, 93, 97.
6 See Col. Rec. of R. I., VI. 322, 411, 433, 463.
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to enable me to prosecute the Affairs of the Government and which will be very acceptable to me ;" 1 and again in 1744, respecting an obnoxious bill before Parliament, he writes for instructions "together with Suitable Remittances, for its pitty the Cause shod be Starved. It being now a Consider- able time since I have received anything from Rhode Is- land." 2 On June 15, when the termination of the long- vexed question of the Massachusetts boundary seemed to be actually in sight, Partridge refers to an assurance made him nine years earlier " of the Assemblys Benevolence when the Boundary Cause was over," and leaves the sequel "to their Generosity."
This "Boundary Cause " absorbed much of Partridge's time and attention from the first appeal to the King in Council, in 1734, down to the final decision, in 1746. The dispute was a legacy from the times of the Plymouth Colony, and was involved in unavoidable confusion, arising from ob- scurely worded grants, framed by men whose notions of the territory they were parcelling out were of the vaguest possi- ble description. It was impossible to lay down definite lines of demarcation according to the terms of the charters. One wonders, not that there were boundary disputes, but that the conflicting claims were ever adjusted. There were, however, practical standards of adjustment. The sturdy New Eng- land settlers who took up the land soon came to regard pos- session and immunity from taxes as the two determining conditions of their allegiance. There grew up along the disputed territory of the Attleborough gore a lawless popula- tion, only too ready to resort to intimidation and violence under the cover of a disputed right of jurisdiction.3 Each deed of violence brought reprisals, and the northeastern corner of the colony became a veritable debatable land.
In 1733 the Rhode Island Assembly voted to petition the
1 See letter of May 15, 1741. 2 See letter of May 8, 1744.
8 See Jonathan Draper's Deposition, March 5, 1734, p. 50.
1
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King for a settlement of the dispute. The claim set forth was to the gore already mentioned, and to a boundary three miles to the east of Narragansett Bay, according to the terms of the charter. The result was that commissioners from New York, New Jersey, and Nova Scotia were appointed, in 1741, to hear the case and to decide the points at issue.1 They gave Rhode Island the gore, but only a portion of the territory east of Narragansett Bay which she had claimed. The Massachusetts claims were set entirely on one side. Both colonies appealed from the decision : Rhode Island because she hoped for more territory on the east, and Mas- sachusetts, from the decision in every particular. After two years of hearings and rehearings before the Plantation Com- mittee of the Privy Council, the decision of the commission was confirmed.2 In the February following, Massachusetts petitioned for a rehearing, and Partridge immediately filed a counter-petition to prevent this "Fraudulent and Clandes- tine Measure." The rehearing was denied, and in May, 1746, Partridge writes to Rhode Island that at length the Order in Council, confirming the judgment of 1741, is obtained. But there was still a long while to wait before the patient agent received his "handsom Gratuity," promised in 1734.3 Six- teen years later (in August, 1750) he writes Governor Greene that he charges £300 for his "Extraordinary Trouble in the Boundary Affair for what the Gov! then for the time being gave me Expectation I should be considered in, and which I hope the Colony will Judge but reasonable." Throughout the letters of Partridge and of Sherwood, we find almost complete unanimity of feeling between them and the colo- nial government. Remonstrances on the lack of remittances occur. Sherwood seems to have been hardly judged for his
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