USA > Rhode Island > A history of Block Island : from its discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876 > Part 22
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Lieutenant Terry did not remain many years upon Block Island, but removed to Freetown, Mass., near Fall River, and there spent the remainder of his days. His military abilities were there appreciated. He was elected
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THOMAS TERRY.
selectman of the town in 1685-6-9-70, and 1700; "was made a deputy to the court at Plymouth in 1689, and 1690; and to the Council of War in 1690; " and in proof of the confidence in his bravery he was honored in 1686 "with the rank and commission of a Lieutenant, em- powered to command all the militia of the town." (Gen. E. W. Peirce.)
It is evident from the traits of character seen in him that he was born a hero, and only needed the occasion and circumstances to have taken rank with the most suc- cessful generals. He died in Freetown about the year 1704, and was buried near his house on Bryant's Neck. As long as Block Island has descendants from the first settlers, so long will memory owe a debt of gratitude to the name of Lieut. Thomas Terry for his tactics and hero- ism in subduing the hostile Indians that threatened to exterminate the little pilgrim colony of early settlers.
Mr. Terry's descendants are still living in Freetown. He left there three sons, Thomas, John, and Benjamin. Thomas, like his father, became lieutenant of the town militia, in 1715; representative to the General Court in 1725; assessor, selectman more than twenty years, and in 1757 was the first justice of the peace elected in Free- town, and was known as "Justice Terry." The maiden name of his widow was Anna Williams.
Col. Abiel Terry was the son of Justice Terry, and seems to have inherited all the virtues of his father and grandfather, as well as the offices which they filled. It is said of him that after having held the office of lieutenant of the local militia, he was promoted to the post of "Lieu- tenant-Colonel of the Second Regiment in the local mili- tia of Bristol County." He was an extensive owner of slaves, and died from a fall from a horse near Weir bridge. He is mentioned by Niles as the son of the Block Island Terry, but by mistake, for he was grandson ·
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
instead, born in 1714, and forty-six years old at the date of Niles' mention.
Lieut. Thomas Terry of Block Island had a son John, who had a son John, who had a son Zephaniah, who had a son Silas, who was the father of the present Manasseh S. Terry, Esq., of Freetown, to whom, and to Gen. E. W. Peirce of the same place we are indebted for much of the above information.
JOHN RATHBONE.
We find his name among those who met at the house of John Alcock, M. D., in Roxbury, Mass., August 17th, 1660, there to confer about the purchase of Block Island. His father, of the same name, is said to have come from England to America in the Speedwell, a vessel accompa- nying the Mayflower, in 1620, and to have settled on Rhode Island. His son therefore, of whom we are speak- ing, was a descendant from the Pilgrims. In 1664 he was one of the number whom Capt. James Sands and Joseph Kent, in behalf of Block Island, presented to the Rhode Island General Assembly for admission as freemen. In 1683 he occupied a place in the Rhode Island General Assembly, as representative from Block Island; in 1686 was one of the petitioners to the king of Great Britain in reference to the " Quo Warranto," and in 1688 was one of the Grand Jury of Rhode Island.
In the year 1689, in the month of July, Mr. Rathbone had a very narrow escape from the French, who were then pillaging the Island. "They inquired of some one or more of the people, who were the likeliest among them to have money ? They told them of John Rathbone who was the most likely." From this we learn that he was in good circumstances. The French proceeded to capture him, and demanded of him, as they supposed, his money. The captive denied his having any besides a trifling sum.
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JOHN RATHBONE.
They endeavored to make him confess that he had more, and to deliver it to them, by tying him up and whipping him barbarously. While they were doing all this to an innocent man whom they mistook for the moneyed John Rathbone, the latter made his escape with his treasure.
He indeed then had a son by the name of John, who, by bearing his father's name, and by submitting to this terrible scourging, shielded his father and saved him from being robbed. This son probably lived in the house which stood near his father's, as the locations are still known by the descendants of the first settler.
In 1696, Thomas, William, John, and Joseph, probably sons of the original settler, together with several other Block Island names, by the same Assembly, were admitted freemen of the colony of Rhode Island.
In 1688, William Rathbone was appointed by the col- ony as constable for Block Island.
In 1700, Thomas Rathbone was representative in the General Assembly, from Block Island, and held that office several years.
In 1709, John Rathbone, Jr., of Block Island, was ad- mitted freeman of the Rhode Island colony. Twenty-five years afterward another of the same name was admitted, together with Edward Sands, Samuel Dodge, Daniel Dickens, William Dodge, Jr., and John Mitchell, " all of New Shoreham."
In 1711, Capt. Thomas Rathbone represented Block Island in the General Assembly, and also in the year 1731.
In 1720, Thomas Rathbone, Jr., was admitted freeman of Block Island and the colony of Rhode Island.
In 1741, Nathaniel Rathbone, together with Robert Hull and Samuel Dunn, was admitted freeman of Rhode Island colony, from New Shoreham.
In 1759, John Rathbone, "son of John, late of New Shoreham," was admitted freeman of Exeter, R. I. He
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
was probably the son John Rathbone, Jr., mentioned above, and in 1709 admitted freeman. It is more than possible that he bore the name of his grandfather, the first Rathbone of the Island.
This succession of Rathbones brings us within the limits of a valuable old bible record now in the possession of Mr. Walter Rathbone Mott, an aged relative of the above individuals, and a respected citizen of Block Island. This bible, printed at Oxford in 1725, was owned by Samuel Rathbone in 1743, and from him was bequeathed to his son Samuel, and after him to Walter, the son of the latter Samuel. Walter, at his death, gave it to his daughter, Mrs. Catharine R. Mott, and to his grandson, Walter R. Mott, the present owner. Unlike too many bibles at the present time which are kept to show gilt, and gather dust, it was
" The family bible that lay on the stand,"
and was used until its first binding was worn off, and many years ago was rebound; a quarto whose well-worn corners, and carefully preserved leaves, like others of the same character on Block Island, speaks well for the de- voted little band of Pilgrims around whose hearth-stones, amid savages, beyond protection from the main-land, the husband, the father, the mother, and the children read and worshiped, and prayed for protection, while the war- whoop of the Indian and the "voice of many waters " commingled with the howling winds that were shaking their doors and windows.
Samuel Rathbone, born August 3, 1672, died Jan. 24, 1757, aged 85 years. He was the father of the Samuel who owned the bible above-mentioned.
In April, 1705, Samuel Rathbone, Jr., was born on Block Island, and in the year 1755, at the age of fifty, was a member of the Rhode Island Assembly, as repre- sentative of the Island. He died Jan. 24, 1780, aged 75
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JOHN RATHBONE.
years. In 1775, and 1776, he was lieutenant in Capt. John Sands' company of militia here.
In June, 1734, Walter, son of Samuel Rathbone, Jr., was born, and in the year 1757, together with Oliver Ring Rose, and William Willis, was admitted freeman, and in the year 1774, he was representative of Block Island in the General Assembly, and in the same year was appointed by the Islanders, at a town meeting, as one of a committee "to give the closest attention to every thing which concerns the liberties of America." They were to resist vigorously the duty on tea, enforced by England. Walter, for sixty years, was town clerk.
In May, 1768, James and Catharine Rathbone, twins, and children of Walter, were born. Their sister Hannah married Mr. Archibald Millikin, and her granddaughter became the wife of the Hon. Nicholas Ball, proprietor of the Ocean View Hotel. Samuel Rathbone was father of Capt. Thomas Rathbone, now living upon the Island.
The above clew, leading us back more than two centu- ries, may be gratifying to those who would trace the liv- ing descendants' relation to the first Rathbone who settled upon the Island, and it may assist in tracing out the vari- ous branches of the Rathbone family in America, all of whom, it is supposed, originated from the Thomas Rath- bone who came from England in 1620, and was the father of the John Rathbone who bought a sixteenth of Block Island in 1660, and settled here in 1662.
The outlines of the cellar (now filled) where the latter lived may be seen, about one hundred rods southwest from the residence of Mr. Amhad Dodge, and owned by Mr. Nathan Mott. A beautiful spring of water is near, and the place where the garden plat once was is greener than the adjacent meadow sward. From that point the natural scenery is charming, and it is easy to imagine the large orchard once there in bloom, the prattle of children,
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
the herds of sheep and cattle, and sturdy men and mat- rons planting one of the most interesting little colonies ever known.
About sixteen years ago considerable was said in the public journals concerning "the great Rathbone estate of forty millions advertised by the Bank of England, await- ing the call of American heirs who were supposed to have settled on Block Island, in America, or in parts thereunto adjacent." In order to get, if possible, a ray of light from that ignis-fatuus which so many have fol- lowed through tangled and "endless genealogies," of which an ancient writer well said-" Neither give heed," (1 Tim. 4, 4,) a visitor at the Spring House here borrowed the old bible in 1876. It is an undoubted fact, however, that the Block Island Rathbones, as well as others in America, have descended from an honorable race of Saxon origin, in England, of whom one writer says they have been a distinct family there "for more than five hundred years. A wealthy branch of this family has resided in the city of Liverpool more than three hundred years."
REV. SAMUEL NILES.
He was born upon Block Island, May 1st, 1674, and was the son of Nathaniel Niles of the same place, and subsequently of Kingston, R. I.
Samuel was the grandson of John Niles, a weaver, of Braintree, Mass., and of Capt. James and Sarah Sands of Block Island. He descended from a robust ancestry, both physically and intellectually. His grandfather Niles died at the age of ninety-four, and the sturdy character of his grandparents Sands may be seen in the biographi- cal sketch of James Sands and his wife, who was the first physician of the Island, and one of the first emancipation- ists of America. His own father, Capt. Nathaniel Niles, died at the age of eighty-seven.
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REV. SAMUEL NILES.
Here, on the Island, the son spent his boyhood, and a part of his youth, making himself familiar with the habits and traditions of the Indians. He says of them, and of himself: "They were perpetually engaged in wars one with another, long before the English settled on Block Island, according to the Indians' relation, as some of the old men among them informed me, when I was young." He was a very bright and promising boy, and well improved his good opportunity for obtaining an edu- cation. His studies, however, were greatly interrupted by English and French wars, as the French committed great depredations upon the Island, of which he says: "The great spoil made on the Island by the French, in their repeated visits, and particularly on my father's in- terest, occasioned my staying from school six years." During this interruption he labored on the farm, and assisted in building a vessel for trade with the West Indies. Thus he spent the period from the age of sixteen to twenty-two, and then entered college at Cambridge, " the Reverend Dr. Increase Mather then being Presi- dent," and Mr. John Leverett and Mr. William Brattle "were the only fellows." He graduated in 1699. An item worthy of note here is the fact that he, a native of Block Island, was the first one from the State of Rhode Island to enter college. In speaking of his teachers there he says: "The kindness of these worthy gentlemen I hope not to forget, who, I conclude, favored me the more, as I was the first that came to college from Rhode Island gov- ernment."
Soon after graduating he returned to the Island, where, in March, 1700, he received a most cordial invitation from the whole town to become a settled preacher of the gos- pel. As yet he had not been formally set apart by an ecclesiastical council to the work of the ministry. This, however, was not an insurmountable obstacle in the way
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
of preaching the gospel, in the estimation of the Island- ers, who were deeply sensible of their need, as they ex- pressed it, of providing for their "souls to be fed with His heavenly manna." On the condition of his accept- ance of their call, they deeded to him seven acres of land lying between the Fresh Pond and Capt. Edward Sands' house-the house now owned and occupied by Mr. John R. Paine. At that time no church was organized on the Island, and he officiated only as a licentiate, or his denom- ination, the Congregationalist, would not have tolerated in him then an administration of the ordinances.
Mr. Niles retained possession of said land by the Fresh Pond until 1716, and then sold it for £105.
He was ordained and settled at Braintree May 23, 1711. He wrote, in 1760, a history of the Indian and French wars. From the French he suffered much, pecuniarily and bodily, while he was on Block Island taking care of his grandparents, Capt. James Sands and his wife. He wrote somewhat extensively on theological subjects. In 1818, President John Adams spoke of him thus respectfully: "Almost sixty years ago I was an humble acquaintance of this venerable clergyman, then, as I believe, more than four score years of age, * *
* I then revered, and still revere, the honest, virtuous, and pious man." He died May 1, 1762, just eighty-eight years old.
The following record which he left of himself is in- structive in several respects, as exhibiting not only his own character, but that of the invaders, and the indignities to which the Islanders, about the year 1689, were subjected. He says: "Before the year was expired some of the same company with others, landed in the night and surprised the people in their beds, and proceeded in like manner as before, plundering houses, stripping the people of their clothing, killing creatures and making great waste and
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REV. SAMUEL NILES.
spoil, but killed no person. I suppose I was the greatest sufferer of any under their hands at that time; for before I had dressed myself, one of their company rushed into the chamber where I lodged. After some free and seem- ingly familiar questions he asked me, which I answered with like freedom: but being alone, without any of his company, not knowing what dangers might befall him (as I after apprehended), on a sudden, and with a different air, he says to me, 'Go down, you dog.' To which 1 replied, ' Presently, as soon as I have put on my stockings and shoes.' At which, with the muzzle of his gun he gave me a violent thrust at the pit of my stomach, that it threw me backward on the bed, as I was sitting on the bed-side, so that it was some time before I could recover my breath. As soon as I could, I gathered them up. He drew his cutlass and beat me, smiting me with all his power, to the head of the stairs, and it was a very large chamber. He followed me down the stairs, and then bound my hands behind me with a sharp, small line which soon made my hands swell and become painful. How I managed after with my stockings and shoes I have now forgotten. However, after this I met with no abuse from them the whole time of their stay on the Island." This was during the second invasion.
For the above, and similar accounts of occurrences on Block Island, the name of their author, who knew them to be truthful, ought to be cherished in grateful remem- brance by all subsequent generations. And as we are now grateful to him for the historical facts which he has preserved from oblivion, so we may learn our own obliga- tions to keep a record of the present for the benefit of others hereafter. How gladly would we learn of Mr. Niles some of the simplest things of his day on this Island! Such as where the different houses were located, how certain names originated, and where certain things
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
occurred, etc. Were it not from circumstantial evidence from Mr. Niles, combined with similar evidence from orig- inal surveys and deeds, it would seem impossible to identify the spot where Capt. James Sands' house of stone was erected, and where the location was of the " garrison," sustained on Block Island, previous to 1700, partly by the colony, and chiefly by the Islanders for their protection against Indians and invaders. Even now there are public houses here which may be as little known two hundred years hence, unless a knowledge of them shall be pre- served by a written record. To-day not an inhabitant can tell where the most noted spot of the Island was in 1690. That spot was where Capt. James Sands' house, and the garrison close by it, were erected. We regret that Mr. Niles has told us no more.
In rapidly tracing the steps of Mr. Niles from his youth on Block Island to his grave in Braintree we shall be much indebted to Professor Park, of Andover. All the germs of the sturdy character of Mr. Niles were seen in his youth upon this Island. Here he toiled for a sup- port; here he tenderly cared for his grandparents; here he firmly resisted the Roger Williams' spirit of the Island- ers, even in the persons of his venerated grandparents; here he exhibited his unwillingness to yield a point, as when he leisurely drew on his stockings in the night while under the flourishing weapons of a robber; here he dis- played his financial ability, as when he accepted that part of the call to the ministry of Block Island-that part which consisted of a deed of seven acres of land which, after he settled at Braintree, he sold for £105; and here he exhibited that lack of appreciation of an ardent zeal in religion which subsequently characterized a pastorate of half a century without a revival. "Mr. Niles exhib- ited here a specimen of that irrational conservatism which loses the greater good in order to avoid the lesser evil."
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REV. SAMUEL NILES.
Had he been more flexible and ardent perhaps his long pastorate would have been upon Block Island, instead of that at Braintree, and it is possible that the Islanders might have become Congregationalists instead of being Baptists.
Mr. Niles had more than an ordinary scholarship for his time. He was a very good linguist, and most profi- cient in the Latin language. He seems to have been cold and logical, like Emmons, and as far in practice from Whitefield as is the North Pole from the Equator. Of the five works of which he was the author, the only one now of public interest is that for which he could not get a publisher-his history of the Indian and French Wars. Professor Park says: " Mr. Niles was a remarkably inde- pendent man. He did not countenance the revivalists whom Edwards befriended. He refused to admit White- field into his pulpit. In the early years of Braintree the town had been disturbed and the church injured by the fanaticism of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. Mr. Niles, remem- bering the troubles caused by her new measures, resisted the new measures of Whitefield and his associates." The professor quotes from Mr. Niles, as saying: "Mr. Whitefield is now (1745) making a second visit to us, in pompous progress, from town to town, followed with the loud acclamations of many people, while some from whom more manly things might be expected, seem to lay their necks at his feet, to trample on at pleasure, as if his word was not only his own, but their law also, according to that, 'Stat pro ratione voluntas.' "
" It is obvious from the writings of Mr. Niles, that he confined his attention to the evils of revivalism in his day, and did not look through them to the real good which overbalanced the evils. His church was not distracted by the wild enthusiasm of the times; this was a blessing;
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
but the church was favored with no revival for sixty years; this was a calamity far outweighing the blessing."
The Block Islanders to-day may rejoice that in the infancy of their society they had such men as James Sands and Simon Ray, fired by the spirit of Roger Wil- liams, to resist the influence of the cramping, cold formal- ism of a leader of Mr. Niles' temperament. "He preached his own ordination sermon." "Stern in his doctrine, he was also strong in his will. He was severe in the disci- pline of himself and of his household. He was the bishop and ruler of his people. He trained his parishion- ers, as his children, in the way they should go."
His tact in business affairs, seen on Block Island, as he accepted the deed for the land without rendering for it the service expected, in 1700, was subsequently exhibited at Braintree. Whether he inherited, or learned his shrewdness of the Islanders, or acquired it after he " entered into the College at Cambridge, the Rev. Dr. In- crease Mather then being President," and became a citi- zen of Massachusetts, it is not easy to determine.
" Randolph, Quincy, and Braintree, were formerly one town. When Randolph was separated from Braintree it seemed needful to run the dividing line in a certain direc- tion, which would give to Braintree a comely shape, and promote the convenience of Randolph. But if the line had been drawn in that most suitable course, it would cut off a large farm of Mr. Niles; and for that farm, being then in Randolph, and not in his own town, he would be compelled to pay taxes. The pastor was roused; he peti- tioned the great and General Court, and caused the divid- ing line to be run so as to include his own farm in his own parish, and thus to save his taxes, although this process gave to the Braintree township a singularly un- couth form, and disturbed the comfort of Randolph. This was done before he wrote his treatise on original sin.
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REV. SAMUEL NILES.
What minister, at the present day, could spoil the config- uration of two townships, in order to accommodate his own agricultural interests ?
"An inditer of rhymes, an historian, a metaphysical and biblical divine, an exact disciplinarian, having an iron will and an indomitable perseverance, this many- sided pastor was noted far and wide as a man of affairs. He was, for example, an expert horseman. He drove a charger that no other man in his parish could ride. When the pastor mounted him, the animal moved along at a slow, stately pace, but when a layman ventured upon the back of the animal, he became very soon, in a physical as well as ecclesiastical aspect, a lay-man. If a farmer in the region owned a vicious colt, intractable to the yeo- manry of the town, he led the unruly beast to the bishop, who was a kind of Rarey; and the dignified elder sub- dued the colt, almost as easily as he would put the bit and bridle upon a wayward parishioner who undertook to leap over the parish fence and run away from his taxes."
Mr. Niles, in spite of his original sin, and manifest follies, was a man of more than ordinary excellences. Like others who have gone from Block Island, he has re- flected honor back upon the place of his nativity, both in his life and in his posterity. He had a son Samuel, who graduated at Harvard in 1731, and was subsequently known as the Hon. Samuel Niles, of Braintree. The lat- ter had two sons who became distinguished, viz .: Rev. Samuel Niles, of Abington, Mass., and Judge Nathaniel Niles, of Fairlee, Vermont. Both of these grandsons of the Block Islander, and Braintree Divine, "inherited his sharpness of insight; and in consequence of their skill in perplexing an adversary, each was called Botheration Niles. Each received this sobriquet while he was a member of Princeton college, the pastor of Abington being then des-
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
ignated, Botheration primus, and the judge at Fairlee being then called, Botheration secundus."
The Block Island records contain many items of inter- est concerning the Niles family; none of the name, how- ever, are living there now, but many relatives by marriage. The following indicates the line of descent.
John Niles, of Braintree, 1639-1696; his son, Capt. Nathaniel Niles, of Braintree and Block Island, 1640- 1727; his son, Rev. Samuel Niles, Block Island and Braintree, 1674-1762; his sons, Rev. Samuel, and Judge Nathaniel. From this line, those who desire, can trace out various branches. See address of R. S. Storrs, D. D., at Braintree, 1861; Rhode Island colonial records, and Hon. Wm. P. Sheffield's historical sketch of Block Island.
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