USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Narragansett > A history of the Episcopal church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, including a history of other Episcopal churches in the state > Part 2
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Madam Knight, in her journey through Narragansett in 1704, while resting for the night at Havens' tavern, which stood on the site of the present residence of Wil- liam P. Maxwell, Esq., near the " Devil's Foot " rock in North Kingstown, listened she, says, " to a strong debate concerning the signification of the name of their coun- try, viz. Narragansett. One said it was named so by the Indians, because there grew a briar there of a pro- digious height and bigness, the like hardly ever known,
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called by the Indians Narragansett, and quoted an Indian of so barbarous a name for his author, that I could not write it. His antagonist replied, no, it was from a spring it had its name, and he well knew where it was, which was extreme cold in summer, and as hot as could be imagined in the winter, which was much resorted to by the natives, and by them called Narragansett, (hot and cold,) and that was the origin of their place's name."
Brinley, in his history of Narragansett, in the Massa- chusetts Historical Society's collections, says that they numbered thirty thousand men. Roger Williams says, they could raise five thousand fighting men, and Hutch- inson, that they were the most numerous of all the tribes between Boston and the Hudson river.
Roger Williams observes, that " in the Narragansett country, (which are the chief people of the land,) a man shall come to twenty towns, some bigger, some lesser, it may be a dozen in twenty miles travel."
In the Indian war of 1675, the Narragansetts were destroyed or dispersed, excepting the Nyantic, now known as the Charlestown tribe. Ninigret, their Sa- chem, more sagacious than the rest, and well knowing the power of the whites, and the certainty of their suc- cess, having remained neutral in that fatal conflict, which almost annihilated his race, thus preserved the friend- ship of the whites, and the reservation that the tribe
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owned, was afterwards secured to them as the reward of their neutrality.
The Narragansetts subsisted by hunting, fishing, and partially by agriculture. Their lands, for eight or ten miles distant from the sea shore, were cleared of wood, and on these prairies they raised Indian corn in abund- ance, and furnished the early settlers of Plymouth and Massachusetts with large quantities for subsistance. They were a strong, generous, and brave race. They were always more civil and courteous to the English, than any of the other Indians. Their kind and hos- pitable treatment of the emigrants to Rhode Island, and the welcome reception they gave our persecuted ances- tors, should endear their name to us all.
The Narragansetts, as to civilization, were far in ad- vance of their neighbors. Hutchinson says, that " they were the most curious coiners of Wampumpeag, and supplied other nations with their pendants and bracelets, and also with tobacco pipes of stone, some blue and some white. They furnished the earthen vessels and pots for cookery and other domestic uses."
" They were considered a commercial people, and not only began a trade with the English for goods for their own consumption, but soon learned to supply other distant nations at advanced prices, and to receive beaver and other furs in exchange, upon which they made a profit also. Various articles of their skillful workman-
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ship have been found from time to time, such as stone axes, tomahawks, mortars, pestles, pipes, arrow-heads, peag, &c."
Respecting their reputation for integrity and good morals, Mr. Williams, after a residence of six years among them, and a close and intimate acquaintance with them, observes, "I could never discern that excess of scandalous sins among them, which Europe aboundeth with, Drunkenness and gluttony, they know not what sins they be, and though they have not so much to re- strain them as the English have, yet a man never hears of such crimes among them as robberies, murders, adul- teries, &c."
The government of the Narragansetts appears to have been a patriarchal despotism. On the arrival of the English, there were two chief Sachems, Canonicus and Meantinomi, and under them several subordinate ones. The different small tribes under the separate sub- sachems, composed the great Narragansett nation. The succession to chief authority was generally preserved in the same family. The sub-sachems occupied the soil, and were moved from it at the will and pleasure of their chiefs.
That the Narragansetts had an exalted estimation of their superiority over other tribes, is demonstrated by the following tradition mentioned by Hutchinson. " In the early times of this nation, some of the English
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inhabitants learned from the old Indians, that they had, previous to their arrival, a Sachem, Tashtassuck, and their encomiums upon his wisdom and valor were much the same as the Delawares reported of their chief Sa- chem Tammany; that since there had not been his equal, &c. Tashtassuck had but two children, a son and a daughter, those he joined in marriage, because he could find none worthy of them out of his family. The product of this marriage were four sons, of whom Ca- nonicus was the oldest."
With regard to their religious belief, Mr. Williams observes, " That they have a tradition, that to the south- west the gods chiefly dwell, and thither the souls of all good men and women go." "Their principal god seems to have been Kautantowit, or the southwest god. But they have many other objects of worship. They call the soul Cowwewonch, derived from a word signifying - sleep, because they said it worked and operated while the body slept. They believe that the souls of men and women go to Kautantowit's house. * * Murderers, thieves, liars, &c., their souls, they say, wan- 1 der restless abroad."
" They have it from their fathers, that Kautantowit made one man and one woman of a stone, which dislik- ing, he broke them in pieces, and made another man and woman of a tree, which were the fountains of all man- kind."
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The Narragansetts soon became debased and corrupted after their intercourse with the whites, by intemperance, &c .; and many of the vices with which our forefathers have charged the Indians, they never would have known, but for their intercourse with the whites.
The name of the Narragansett country became cir- cumscribed as Canonicus and Meantinomi sold off their territory. After the sale of Providence to Williams, the island of Rhode Island to Coddington, and Shawomet or old Warwick to Gorton and their respective associ- ates, those territories virtually ceased to be called Nar- ragansett. After East Greenwich was conveyed and and erected into a township in 1677, the name of Nar- ragansett was circumscribed to the limits of the present county of Washington, bounding northerly on Hunt's river and the south line of the county of Kent.
The first settlement in the State was by Roger Wil- - liams, at Providence, in 1636, the others were by Cod- dington, at Portsmouth, in 1638 ; by Richard Smith, at Wickford, in Narragansett, in 1639, and by Gorton, in Warwick, in 1642-3. That Smith's was the third set- tlement, and before Gorton's, Roger Williams says in his testimony in favor of Smith's title to the Wickford lands, dated July 24, 1679, " that Mr. Richard Smith, sen., who, for his conscience to God, left fair possessions in Gloucestershire, and adventured with his relations and estate to New England, and was a most acceptable
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inhabitant and prime leading man in Taunton, in Ply- mouth colony. For his conscience sake, (many differ- ences arising,) he left Taunton and came to the Narra- gansett country, where, by God's mercy and the favor of the Narragansett sachems, he broke the ice, (at his great charge and hazards,) and put up in the thickest of the barbarians the first English house among them. I humbly testify that about forty years (from this date) he kept possession, coming and going himself, children and servants, and had quiet possession of hish ouses, lands and meadow ; and there in his own house, with much se- renity of soul and comfort, he yielded up his spirit to God, the father of spirits, in peace." Forty years from the date of his testimony in 1679, carries Smith's settle- ment back to 1639.
The Legislature of Rhode Island, in a letter to Rich- ard Smith, dated May 4th, 1664, say, " whereas you are an ancient inhabitant of this colony, of whom the colony hath had a good report."
Richard Smith, the son of Richard Smith the first settler, in his petition to the King in behalf of himself and others, which is mentioned in the Colony records, under date of 1679, says,-" That your petitioners are inhabitants of that part of New England, called the Nar- ragansett country, where their ancestors did, about forty years since, sit down and expend great sums of money in planting and improving the same."
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Richard Wharton, Elisha Hutchinson and John Saffin, in their petition to the King, dated October, 1680, re- specting their titles to the Narragansett lands, say, " that part of the lands aforesaid were purchased by Roger Williams, yet living, and Mr. Richard Smith, deceased, about forty years ago, and possessed to this day by his son Richard Smith." This speaks of Williams at Pro- vidence, and Smith at Wickford, as the first purchasers in the Narragansett country.
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Brinley says, in his history of Narragansett, before mentioned, under date of 1641, " Richard Smith pur- chased a tract of the Narragansett Indians, (computed at (30,000,) erected a house for trade, and gave free enter- tainment to travellers, it being the great road of the country." By this statement, it appears that the house had been erected, and the road travelled in 1641. The timber of which it was constructed was imported from Taunton River by water, as the country was prairie to some extent from the shore, and there were no oxen or teams to procure it at Wickford. The imported materials are in the house now.
Speaking of Gorton's purchase of Shawomet or War- wick, in January, 1643, Callender says, that Gorton " came to Rhode Island in June, 1648, where he tarried till 1639-40 ; then he was on some contention banished the Island. Thence he went to Providence, where many of the people growing uneasy at his planting and
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building at Pawtuxet," (on the north side of the river,) "and complaining to the Massachusetts government, in 1642, he was summoned to appear before their court, which he despised. However, he purchased this tract " (on the south side of the river called Shawomet or War- wick,) "of the Indians, and removed there with his friends." Callender further states, that about 1642-3, Roger Williams and one Mr. Wilcox, erected trading- houses in the Narragansett country, and there were some few plantations settled near them. Williams built near Smith, who, all admit, erected the first house, and Wil- liams afterwards sold out to Smith.
The preceding facts by Williams ; the petitions of Smith, sen., and Smith, jun., and Wharton and others, furnish satisfactory proof that Richard Smith's settle- ment at Wickford in Narragansett, was prior to the year 1640 ; and taken together with the statement of Brinley, that Smith's purchase was in 1641, corroborated by Cal- lender, who says, that the three trading-houses of Smith, Williams, and Wilcox, were erected in 1642-3, and that some few plantations were settled near them, is conclu- sive evidence that Smith's settlement at Wickford was previous to that of Gorton, at Warwick, in January, 1643.
As the power of the Indians became weakened from the increased settlements and intrusions of the whites, the question of the jurisdiction of the Narragansett coun- try became a subject of avaricious contention. In 1631,
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Connecticut obtained her first patent, bounding them east on the "Narragansett river," which they contended was what is now called Seekonk or Blackstone river. The Rhode Island patent obtained in 1643, bounded her " northward and northeast on Massachusetts, east and southeast on Plymouth, south on the ocean, and west and northwest by the Narragansetts, the whole tract extending about twenty-five English miles unto the Pequod river or country." The boundaries being loose and undefined by particular designated names or places, " the geography of the country being hardly emerged into any tolerable light, that instead of ascertaining their limits on earth, they fixed their boundaries in the Heavens."
From this uncertainty of designation, a controversy soon arose between the two colonies, respecting the charter jurisdiction of the Narragansett country. The settlements under the respective colonies were disputed, various and serious disturbances ensued, mingled with a bitter and acrimonious correspondence enforcing their respective titles. To strengthen their right, Connec- ticut, in 1662, obtained a new charter, bounding that colony " on the east by Narragansett river, commonly called Narragansett bay, where the said river falleth into the sea, and on the north by the line of the Massachu- setts plantation, on the south by the sea in longitude as the line of Massachusetts colony, running from east to
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west, that is to say, from the Narragansett bay on the east to the south sea on the west part, with the islands thereto adjoining."
The old Rhode Island patent of 1643, it will be recol- lected, also included the Narragansett country, and the disputes about the jurisdiction of this tract had been the cause of great contentions with Connecticut, and occa- sional altercations with Plymouth. If the Narragansett was the Seekonk river, Connecticut contended that the Narragansett country was embraced in her chartered limits. And if the Narragansett was adjudged to be the Pawcatuck river, then Plymouth claimed the same ter- ritory as being embraced within her chartered limits, as the " Narragansett river " was her west boundary. Mas- sachusetts also claimed that part of Narragansett that lay west of the Wecapaug river in westerly, running about five or six miles east of Pawcatuck, as her part of the division of the Pequod country, obtained by the conquest in 1637.
Thus stood Rhode Island possessed of only the towns on the island of Rhode Island, Providence, and the Shaw- omet settlements, contending singly for her rights against the power and physical energies of her three powerful neighbors, and only comforted and cheered by the dis- tant hope of protection from the King. The Connec- ticut charter of 1662, embracing Narragansett ; Rhode Island, to sustain herself at this crisis, also petitioned
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the throne for a new charter, establishing her ancient jurisdiction, including the questioned title to Narragan- sett, which agitated anew at court the acrimonious dis- pute between the colony agents, respecting the true location and name of the " Narragansett river," contem- plated in their respective grants. For a more equitable adjustment of this litigated colonial controversy, the - king called in the Connecticut charter, recently granted, for further consideration. In this posture of affairs, Mr. Winthrop, the agent of Connecticut, apprehensive of re- sults fatal in other respects from the inhibition, agreed with the agent of Rhode Island, Mr. Clark, to a general reference of the questions in dispute. William Brenton, Esq., Major Robert Thompson, Capt. Richard Doane, Capt. John Brookehaven, and Doctor Benjamin Worsley, were mutually chosen by the parties, the arbitrators to hear and decide the question. They fixed on terms
which were signed and sealed by the agents, of both colonies, Messrs. Winthrop and Clark, on the 7th of April, 1663. " That a river, there commonly called and known by the name of Pawcatuck river, shall be the certain bounds between those two colonies, which said river shall, for the future, be also called Narragansett river." "That the proprietors and inhabitants of that land about Smith's trading house, claimed and purchased by Major Atherton and others, shall have free liberty to choose to which of those colonies they will belong."
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On the third of July, 1663, they accordingly assembled and made choice of Connecticut. The Rhode Island Charter of July 8th, 1663, mentioned and confirmed the first article of the before mentioned award, but omitted the others. This charter, in November, 1663, was re- ceived by Rhode Island, read publicly before the people and accepted.
This auspicious result inspired Rhode Island with a confident hope that this irritating controversy was brought to a successful termination. The agreement, solemn and formal as it was in prospect, proved delusive. It did not settle the controversy. Connecticut con- tended, that although Mr. Winthrop had a commission as agent to procure their charter, that in conformity thereto he did so, and transmitted it home; and upon that event, his commission was fulfilled, and to all in- tents his agency had ceased, and that thereafter he had no power to put their charter to arbitration, or authority to annul it, except instructed anew, and that the whole procedure was unknown to them. That in another re- spect Rhode Island herself had nullified the agreement in not admitting the jurisdiction of Connecticut over the inhabitants of Narragansett, who had elected, according to its provisions, to live under their government. To relieve Rhode Island from a dilemma so pressing, Roger Williams, in a letter to Major Mason of Connecticut, in explanation of the apparent perplexity that surrounded
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the transaction, says-" Upon our humble address by our agent, Mr. Clark, to his majesty, and his gracious promise of renewing our former charter, Mr. Winthrop upon some mistake, had entrenched upon our line, but not only so, but as it is said, upon the lines of other charters also. Upon Mr. Clarke's complaint, your char- ter was called in again, and it had never been returned, but upon a report that the agents, Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Clark, were agreed by the mediation of friends, (and it is true they came to a solemn agreement under hands and seals,) which agreement was never violated on our part."
This partial armistice rather exasperated than allayed the disposition of the parties, and the contest was re- newed with increased vigor. In the same year, Rhode Island and Connecticut appointed magistrates in Narra- gansett, to execute their respective laws. In March, 1664, twenty armed men crossed the Pawcatuck, and with force entered the house of a citizen adhering to the government of Rhode Island, assaulted and seized the owner, and carried him captive to Connecticut. Rhode Island, in the May following, seized John Greene, of Quidnesit, an adherent of the opposite government, transported him to Newport, and threatened to arrest and imprison all others that would not subject them- selves to their jurisdiction. The courts of each Colony holding their opposite sessions and promulgating their
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conflicting decisions, the continued arrests, captures and incarcerations of the adherents of each party, seemed to threaten a speedy effusion of blood. An inhabitant of Wickford, writing to Connecticut for forces, says, "we are in greater trouble than ever, and like to be war."
These differences, intrusions and acts of violence and injustice reached the ears of the home government, and to prevent the threatened catastrophe, the King, in April, 1664, appointed Col. Richard Nicholas, Sir Ro- bert Carr, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, Esquires, commissioners (of which Col. Nicholas dur- ing life was always to be one) "to determine all com- plaints, causes, and matters, military, civil, and criminal, in the Colonies of New England."
In May, 1665, the commissioners (Nichols absent) by an order under their hands and seals, erected the Narragansett country, bounded westward by Pawcatuck river, and from thence in "a north line drawn to Mas- sachusetts, line from the middle of said river into an independent jurisdiction, called KING'S PROVINCE, and ordered that NO PERSON OF WHATEVER COLONY SOEVER, SHALL PRESUME TO EXERCISE ANY JURISDICTION WITHIN THE KING'S PROVINCE, BUT SUCH AS RECEIVE AUTHORITY FROM US, UNDER OUR HANDS AND SEALS, until his ma- jesty's pleasure be further known ;" and that the magis- trates of Rhode Island exercise the authority of Justices of the Peace in the King's Province until May, 1665.
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After that day, they empowered the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants only, as magistrates to hold courts, &c., in said Province. The letter of the King confirmed the decision of the commissioners, as " to the possession, government, and absolute and immediate sovereignty " of the King's Province. Thus Rhode Is- land become dissevered, and the Narragansett country, one half of her territory, was erected into an indepen- dent and sovereign province, by the name of the KING's PROVINCE; and in all acts of Parliament affecting the colony, passed after this date, it is referred to by the style of " THE COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVI- DENCE PLANTATIONS, AND THE KING'S PROVINCE," naming them separately and independently; and the govern- ment of Rhode Island, in many of their State papers and letters, used the same style. Yet the magistrates ap- pointed in conformity to proclamation of the commis- sioners and the confirmation of the king, probably never exercised independent jurisdiction over said province north of the Warwick line.
This act of the commissioners gave new uneasiness to a state already perplexed almost to madness. She saw the increased inconveniences that would arise from the erection of a new jurisdiction over one half of her chartered domain, which, instead of relieving her from impending troubles, would only fetter her energies in subsequent contentions with her powerful rival. In addi- 3A
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tion to this, she also feared it might jeopard her future limits, and to avoid such a result, in 1666, she present- ed a loyal address to the King, and another to Lord Chancellor Clarendon, praying the re-union of Narra- gansett to Rhode Island, which proved unavailing.
Under these perplexing embarrassments, the Indian war of 1675 commenced. At a period long previous, the natives of Rhode Island submitted themselves to the king, and the authorities of the State, and lived in amity with the people. But the United Colonies, re- gardless of colonial jurisdiction, invaded the colony with their armies, and exterminated the Narragansetts at a blow. In a letter to the king, in 1677, Rhode Is- land states, " concerning the late war with the Indians, we render you this account : It began in June, 1675, and broke forth between King Philip and the colony of New Plymouth, and was prosecuted by the United Colo- nies, as they term themselves, and afterwards several other nations of Indians were concerned in said war, whereby many and most of your majesty's subjects in these parts were greatly distressed and ruined. But this your majesty's colony, not being concerned in the war only as necessity required for the defence of their lives and what they could of their estates, and as coun- trymen and fellow-subjects, did, with our boats and pro- visions, assist and relieve our neighbors, we being no other ways concerned." In a letter to Connecticut,
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dated in 1676, Rhode Island says : " We are very apt to believe that, if matters come to a just inquiry concerning the cause of the war, that our Narragansett Sachems, which were subjects of his majesty, and by his aforesaid commissioners taken into protection and put under our government, and to us at all times manifest- ed their submission by appearing when sent for; nei- ther was there any manifestation of war against us from them, till, by the United Colonies, they were forced to war or to such submission as it seems they could not subject to, thereby involving us in such hazards, charge and losses, which have fallen upon us in our out-planta- tions, that no colony hath received the like, consider- ing our number of people." After the extermination of the Narragansetts they claimed the King's Province as a conquered territory, to which Rhode Island, for this reason among others, had no title. Under pre- tence of an amicable adjustment, Rhode Island being thus crippled and down-trodden by the incursions of the United Colonies, Connecticut offered peace upon a division of territory, saying "that, although our just rights, both by patent and conquest, extend much fur- ther, yet our readiness to amicable and neighborly com- pliance is such, (that for peace' sake,) we content our- selves to take with Cowesit (that is, from Apponaug to Connecticut line,) to be the boundary between your colony and ours." In this state of exhaustion, and for
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the peaceable enjoyment of the remainder, Rhode Is- land felt herself compelled to answer, "that if you would accept of one half of all the land in the tract abovesaid unpurchased, we should not much scruple to surrender it to be at your disposal, provided it may be inhabited by such persons as shall faithfully submit to this, his majesty's authority, in this jurisdiction. We have made this tender out of that respect we bear to the country in general." This proposition Connecti- cut refused. In this state of despair, Rhode Island threw herself upon her own energies, and determined if she fell, to fall with dignity.
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