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 20
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Those who bore the name of Jonathan were distinguished in the same way. There was Flat-foot Jonathan, Beau Jonathan, (he was dressed well at times, at other times extremely negligent,) Hard Head Jonathan, and a number more might be mentioned.
In a letter, Mr. Isaac P. Hazard says, " It is a singular fact in the Hazard family, commencing with the first who came over, and following the oldest branch down, that there has never been but two names, Thomas and Robert, regularly alternating-the oldest and first-born always having been a son, and lived to have a son- and Thomas and Robert have alternated down to the grandson of my father's oldest brother, the late Robert Hazard, of Vermont, whose name is Robert, and his Father, Thomas Hazard, lately deceased."
The Reynolds family were equally tenacious of this common law of Narragansett. There were-
Blind John Reynolds-he was purblind.
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Cat Face because his face resembled that of a cat. Sue's John.
Pickerel John-he lived by the side of a pickerel pond.
Spleeny John-he always fancied he was unwell, or should be.
Herb Tea John-he was much unwell, and drank herb teas.
Great John-a very large man.
Jonathan's John.
Captain John-he had been master of a ship.
Jabez's John.
George's John.
Tailor John.
Stephen's John.
Henry's John.
Every Day John-he rode every day as constable or tax collector. Ben's John.
Jemima's John-he was a follower of the celebrated Jemima Wilkinson.
More might be added, but enough is given to show the great folly of giving so many in the same family similar christian names. The nicknames given to distinguish them are often ridiculous or offensive.
" On the 3d Sunday of April, 1752, being the 19th day of said month, Robert Hazard, commonly called Doctor Hazard, was married to Elizabeth Hazard, daughter of Robert Hazard, of Point Judith, deceased, at the house of her mother, Esther Hazard, or Colonel Joseph Hazard, her son, by the Rev. Dr. McSparran."
Caleb Hazard, of South Kingstown, married Abigail, the daughter of William Gardiner, of Boston Neck. He died, leaving three children-William, Caleb, and Robert Hazard. Mrs. Hazard afterwards married Gov. William Robinson. Robert Hazard was educated a physician by his uncle, Dr. Sylvester. Gardiner, of Boston. He settled in South Kingstown, and married Elizabeth, the daughter of Gov. Robert Hazard, of Point Judith, who was A31
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Lieutenant Governor of this State, in 1750. He was a popular physician, and died in Narragansett, Feb. 12, 1771.
Esther, the widow of Gov. Hazard, was an extraordinary woman, portly and masculine. She was styled Queen Esther, and, when mounted on her high spirited Narragansett pacer, proudly travelling through the Narragansett country, the people would almost pay her homage. To offend her, required more than ordinary courage. In manner she was affable and courteous, but when irritated, her stern- ness would compel obedience. In a lawsuit, the title to a consider- able part of the patrimony of her children was jeoparded. That no omission should endanger a favorable result of the suit, she attended the trial in person ; and, from courtesy, she was permitted to sit on the bench near the Judges. On a motion to the court by Mr. Honeyman, who was the attorney of the adverse party, she, by a quick and sarcastic reply to a severe remark of his, excited the laughter of the court, bar, and audience, to the complete discom- fiture of the old barrister. The claim of the adversary was defeated, and Queen Esther became quite a heroine in the courts of law. The rights of an infant offspring were safe in the hands of such a mother.
Col. Joseph Hazard, her son, inherited all the lofty firmness, the unwavering perseverance, and sterling mind of the mother. He was elected to many important offices by the people, and sustained them with honor. Although a determined partizan, he never per- mitted his political attachments to sway him from the principles of right. His motto was " to do right, and let consequences take care of themselves." He was on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, when the General Assembly enacted the celebrated " Paper Money Laws" of 1786, and was one of the paper money party. As the party put the judges into office, it was expected that the judges would support the party. But when the question of the con- stitutionality of those laws came before the court for decision in the case of Trevett vs. Weeden, in which cause Gen. Varnum made his great and eloquent effort, this court stood firm in defence of the cause of law in their country, and declared the PAPER MONEY TENDER LAWS unconstitutional and void. Their fiery partizans in the General Assembly ordered the court to be arraigned before them for a contempt of legislative power, and they were required to give
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their respective reasons for overthrowing the laws of the Legislature that had created them. This novel procedure in judicial history, Judge Hazard met with firmness ; and when called on, unmoved, rose and said-
"It gives me pain, that the conduct of the court seems to have met with the displeasure of the Administration ; but their obliga- tions were of too sacred a nature for them to aim at pleasing, but in the line of their duty.
" It is well known that my sentiments have fully accorded with the general system of the Legislature in emitting the paper money currency. But I never did, and never will depart from the charac- ter of an honest man, to support any measures however agreeable in themselves, If there could have been any prepossession in my mind, it must have been in favor of the act of the General Assem- bly ; but it is not possible to resist the force of conviction. The opinion I gave on the trial was dictated by the energy of truth. I thought it right. I still think it so. But be it as it may, we derived our understandings from God, and to him alone are we accountable for our judgment."
This was an instance where the heroic firmness of a few men saved the reputation of a State.
The son of Judge Hazard, now living in Charlestown, is an elderly gentleman, inheriting all the firm traits of character of the grandmother and the father. He is a federalist of the old school from principle, and when some one of his party went over to Democracy, he was asked if he had gone over too. " No," he em- phatically replied, in pure Saxon, " I NEVER TURN."
Speaking of the late Gov. Willcox, he remarked, "that Willcox was twice the man he was reputed to be ; that his character and motives had been calumniated by his political opponents ; that he was a kind, strong, firm, and consistent man ; that he had always been a Democrat, AND HAD NEVER TURNED."
" Sept. 18, 1752. Dr. McSparran baptized a child of Mr. Gilbert Stewart, of five months old, called and baptized by the name of James. The sureties were the
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Doctor, Captain Edward Cole, and Mrs. Hannah McSpar- ran."
"April 18th,'1754. Dr.'McSparran baptized Ann Stew- art, daughter of Mr. Gilbert Stewart, and Elizabeth, his wife, a child of five months old, she being born the 19th of November, 1753. The sureties were the Doctor, his wife, and Mrs. Ann Mumford."
" April 11th, 1756, being Palm Sunday, Doctor Mc Sparran read prayers, preached, and baptized a child named Gilbert Stewart, son of Gilbert Stewart, the snuff-grinder. Sureties, the Doctor, Mr. Benjamin Mumford, and Mrs. Hannah Mumford."
The venerable Dr. Waterhouse, in the American Portrait Galle- ry, observes, that " between the years 1746 and 1750, there came over from Great Britain to these English Colonies, a number of Scotch gentlemen." ,"Some settled at Philadelphia, some at Perth Amboy, some in New York, but the greater portion sat down on that pleasant and healthy spot, Rhode Island, called by its first historio- grapher Callender, the 'Garden of America.' Several of the emi- grants were professional men, among these was Dr. Thomas Moffat, a learned physician of the Boerhaavean school ; but however learned his dress and manners were so ill suited to the plainness of the inha- bitants of Rhode Island, who were principally Quakers, that he could not make his way among them as a practitioner, and he looked round for some other mode of genteel subsistence ; and he hit upon that of cultivating tobacco and making snuff, to supply the place of the great quantity that was every year imported from Glasgow ; but he could find no man in the country, who he thought was able to make him a snuff-mill. He therefore wrote to Scotland and obtained a compe- tent mill-wright, by the name of Gilbert Stewart.
Dr. Moffat selected for his mill-seat a proper stream in that part of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations which bore and still bears the Indian name of Narragansett.
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" There Gilbert Stewart, the father of the great Painter, erected the first snuff-mill in New England, and there he manufactured that strange article of luxury. He soon after built a house, and married a very handsome woman, daughter of a Mr. Anthony, a substantial farmer ; and of this handsome couple, at Narragansett, was born Gilbert Charles Stewart; so christened, but the middle name, which betokens the Jacobite principles of his father, was early dropped by the son, and never used in his days of notoriety ; indeed but for the signature of letters addressed to his friend Waterhouse in youth, we should have no evidence, then he ever bore more than the famous name of Gilbert Stewart.
" He was about 13 years old when he began to copy pictures, and at length attempted likenesses in black lead. There came to New- port about the year 1722, a Scotch gentleman named Cosmo Alexan- der,; he was between fifty and sixty years of age, of delicate health, and possessing manners, apparently independent of the profession of painting, which ostensibly was his occupation, though it is believ- ed that he, and several other gentlemen of leisure and observation from Britain, were travelling in this country for political purposes. From Mr. Alexander, young Stewart first received lessons in the grammar of the art of painting, and after the summer spent in Rhode Island, he accompanied him to the South, and afterwards to Scotland. Mr. Alexander died not long after his arrival in Edinburgh, leaving his pupil to the care of Sir George Chambers, who did not long survive him. Into whose hands the young artist fell after these disappoint- ments we know not, nor is it to be regretted, for the treatment he received was harsh, such as Gilbert or his father ever mentioned. The young man returned to Newport, and after a time resumed his pencil."
In March 1775, Dr. Waterhouse went to England. Stewart arriv- ed in London November 1775, and returned in 1793. He died in Boston, July 1828, aged 72.
The following is extracted from a letter of Miss Anne Stewart, the daughter of the late Gilbert Stewart: " There are two very excel- lent sketches of my father, which I regret not being able to find ; one by Washington Alston the painter, the other by the late Samuel L. Knapp of Boston. I feel all the disposition in the world to give you the information you desire, but my means are limited as most of our
1
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relatives are dead, and also all the elder branches of our immediate family. My mother is living, but quite advanced, and I find of late she is rather disinclined to talk of days gone by. When she is at all in the mood I try to extract from her what I can. She sometimes relates very amusing incidents such as would figure in biography, but would be of no importance for the purpose you wish. You wish to know of what Anthony family my grand mother was. All that I have been able to trace is, that she was the daughter of a Capt. John Anthony, who was from Wales, and had a farm on the Island, near Newport, which he sold to Bishop Berkeley, and called by him Whitehall. It was on this farm my grandmother was born, and was married in Nar- ragansett to my grandfather, Gilbert Stewart, who was from Perth, in Scotland. They had but three children, James, Anne, and Gil- bert. As to their birth-place you are much better informed than myself. James died in infancy. My father was educated in the Grammar School in Newport, and then sent to Scotland to Sir George Chambers, for the purpose of finishing his education at Glasgow, after which he returned to Newport, where he remained for a time and was then sent to England to study with Benjamin West, the great historical painter of that day. Our grandparents were attached to the British government ; all their property was confiscated, and they left Rhode Island, and took up their residence in Nova Scotia, where Anne Stewart, my father's only sister, married Henry Newton, Col- lector of the Customs at Halifax, by whom she had a numerous fami- ly. Her youngest son died about six years since in England, where he had arrived at great celebrity as an artist. The name of Gilbert Stewart Newton is quite distinguished-he was truly an accomplish- ·ed man ; he has one brother now living who is the most zealous sup- porter of the Episcopal Church in the country ; he resides at Pitts- field, Massachusetts, the President of a Bank there."
" After my father had struggled through a good deal, his pictures attracted the attention of some noblemen at the Royal Academy, and he was employed by all the most distinguished. He then married Charlotte Coats, in the town of Reading, in the county of Berkshire, in England.
"Shortly after, he went over to Ireland, for the purpose of painting the Duke of Rutland, then Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom. Unfor- tunately he arrived on the very day on which the Duke was buri ed;
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but he was soon sought by the nobility there, and was very fully em- ployed by them, and lived in great splendor. But his great ambition was to paint Washington ; it overcame all other entreaties, and seems to have been the great object of his mind. Instead of returning to England, as he had engaged, he came to his native land and painted Washington, a picture which has benefitted every one more than him- self or family."
" About this time his brother-in-law, Mr. Newton, wrote to him, requesting him to come to Halifax for the purpose of painting the Duke of Kent, who offered to send a ship-of-war for him if he would come, but he declined the offer, so absorbing was his subject of Washington's portrait."
"Few painters have received more honors ; but I think he did not set a just value upon them. I am proud to see that they have made choice of his portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds to engrave with his Lectures. It is considered the finest ever painted of him, though my father was quite young when he painted it. A few years pre- vious to his death, he was requested to paint a head of himself for the Academy of Florence, the greatest compliment ever paid to an American artist ; but as usual he did not even answer the letter. I am fearful I am going too much in detail, but I am indolently drawn into it from feeling. I am writing to his townsman who may possi- bly feel more interest in these matters on that account."
" You ask how many children there are ? There were twelve, of which all that remain are four. My second brother Charles, was a very fine landscape painter, but died at the age of twenty-six. My sister Jane, who is the youngest of the twelve, is still living, and I think inherits a great deal of her father's genius."
The house in which Gilbert Stewart was born, is still standing in North Kingstown, in the same form it was built by his father. It is two stories high on the south side, and one on the north side, the north sill resting on the mill-dam. The lower story was used as the snuff-mill. It has a gambrel roof. It is situated at the head of Peta- quamscutt or Narrow River, about fifty rods above where the river empties into the pond. The snuff-mill has gone down and a grist- mill has been erected opposite. The writer has argued several causes in the same house before Benjamin Hammond, who was then
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Birthplace of Gilbert Stewart.
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proprietor of the estate, and a Justice of the Peace in North Kings- town.
On Mr. Stewart's last visit to Newport, he crossed the ferries, and procured Mr. Amos Gardiner to take him in his carriage to this house of his nativity, and desired liberty of Mr. Hammond to look over it. He, on going into the north-east bed-room, said : "In this bed-room my mother always told me, I was born." He died shortly after his return to Boston.
As the place of Mr. Stewart's nativity has been a subject of some dispute, in addition to the entry of his baptism by Dr. McSparran, the following letter from Mr. Hammond who now lives in the same house that old Gilbert Stewart built, and in which young Gilbert was born, is given.
"MR. UPDIKE :
" You have requested me to state to you the circum- stance of the visit of the late Gilbert Stewart, of Boston, the Painter, to our house. In the life-time of my father, Mr. Stewart came there' (a young gentleman accompanied him,) and staid about one hour. He viewed the premises with particularity, and observed that the willow tree below the house, now old and in a state of decay, was quite small when he was a boy. He then requested liberty to view the house, if we had no objection. He viewed it inside, and par- ticularly desired to enter and look at the north-east bed-room ; and when in that room, he stated : 'In this room my mother always told me that I was born.' He returned to Boston through New- port, and about two years afterwards we heard he had deceased."
" Yours, &c.,
" WILBOUR HAMMOND.
" North Kingstown, Feb'y 19th, 1846."
Being attached to the Royal cause,Mr. Stewart, the elder, emigrat- ed to Nova Scotia at the commencement of the Revolutionary strug- gle, leaving his family to follow him. All intercourse having been interrupted, it became hazardous to remove without authority. Mrs. Stewart, at the February session of the General Assembly of this State, preferred her petition for liberty to join her husband, upon which the following vote was passed: A32
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" Whereas, upon the petition of Elizabeth Stewart, wife of Gilbert Stewart late of Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island, setting forth that her said husband is possessed of a tract of land in the township of Newport, in Nova Scotia, under improvement, and upon which he hath some stock : that he finds it impossible to maintain his family in said town of Newport in this Colony, did some time last summer remove to his said farm, where he now is and proposes to remain. And that, exclusive of the impracticability of supporting herself and family in this Colony, which strongly impels her to follow her said husband, she is very desirous of joining him, which she is bound in duty to do if possible. And therefore besought this Assembly to permit the sloop Nova Scotia Packet, David Ross, master, to proceed to said town of Nova Scotia, with herself and family-she being wil- ling to give the amplest security, that nothing but the wearing appa- rel and household furniture of the family, and necessary provisions for the voyage, shall be carried in said sloop. The Assembly taking the same into consideration-
It is voted and resolved, That the prayer of this petition be grant- ed, and that the sloop aforesaid be permitted to sail under the inspec- tion of Messrs. John Collins, and David Sears, of Newport, in this Colony, or either of them."
The family of Mr. Gilbert Stewart have for some years resided in Newport. Miss Jane Stewart, the youngest daughter, is a portrait and landscape painter of deserved celebrity. Her copies of her fa- ther's Washington, (the originals were taken by him at the request of the Legislature of Rhode Island, and conspicuously placed in the Senate Chamber of the State House at Newport,) are executed with truthful fidelity.
In the autumn of 1754, Dr. McSparran and his wife embarked for England to visit his friends and native country, and to improve his health, which had become impaired by the severity of the climate, and the arduous duties of his mission. During his residence in the me- tropolis his wife fell a victim to that loathesome epi-
Engry.ved by J.N Contredes
MRS HANNAH MỸ SPARRAN.
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demic, the small-pox. He returned in February 1756, when the following entry on the Church record is made :
" Dr. McSparran having returned from his sorrowful voyage he made to England where his wife died and lies buried in Broadway .Chapel burying-yard, in Westminster. She died the 24th day of June, (1755,) a few minutes after twelve in the morning, and was interred Wednesday evening the twenty-fifth. William Graves preached the funeral sermon, and buried her. Brigadier General Samuel Waldo, Christopher Hilly, Esquire, Mr. Jonathan Barnard, all three New England men, and George Watmough, an English- man, were her pall-bearers. Dr. McSparran, Dr. Gardiner's son John, were the mourners. The corpse was carried in a hearse drawn by six horses and two mourning coaches, one for the bearers and the other for the mourners. She was the most pious of women, the best of wives in the world, and died as she deserved to be, much la- mented."
This bereavement was a sore affliction to Dr. Mc- Sparran. His health became seriously affected, and his constitution began to exhibit symptoms of rapid decay. He was thus left alone in the world, without the conso- lations of a family to support his declining years. He continued, notwithstanding, to perform his clerical du- ties. On returning from a pastoral visit at Providence and Warwick, he lodged with Lodowick Updike at the mansion of his deceased friend, Colonel Daniel Updike, in North Kingstown. Here he complained of being in- disposed, but the next day he reached his own house,*
* The house is now standing at the foot of McSparran Hill, in South Kingstown.
----
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where he was seized with the quinsey, of which disease he in a few days died.
Of the death, funeral, and interment of this distin- guished Divine, the Church record contains the follow- ing account :
" On the first day of December, 1757, the Reverend Doctor James McSparran died at his house in South Kingstown. He was minister of St. Paul's in Narragansett, for the space of thirty-seven years, and was decently interred under the Communion table in said Church on the sixth day of said month. He was much lamented by his pa- rishoners, and all with whom he had an acquaintance. A sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Pollen of Newport, from these words : taken out of the 14th chapter of Revelations, at the parts of the 13th verse : 'And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.' The Rev. Mr. Usher per- formed the service at the funeral, where there were a great number present.
PALL BEARERS
REV. MR. POLLEN, of Newport. of New London.
REV. MR. MATTHEW GRAVES,
REV. MR. LEAMING,
REV. MR. JOHN GRAVES, of Providence.
EBENEZER BRENTON,
Church Wardens.
JOHN CASE,
" There were rings, with mourning words, and gloves, given pall- bearers."
Thus ended the pilgrimage of the most able Divine that was sent over to this country by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. With manly firmness, and with the undaunted courage of the Christian soldier, ready to combat and die in the hallowed cause, he tri-
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umphed over all the difficulties of this laborious and untried mission.
" Conscience made him firm, That boon companion, who, her strong breast-plate Buckles on him, that knows no guilt within, And bids him on, and fear not."
Clad in gospel armour, and inspired by a supreme love to God, he succeeded in planting the Church of the Redeemer here, and gathered numerous devoted follow- ers around the altar. A visit to this Church, spared to stand unaltered by modern hands, is fitted to revive in the hearts of all who assemble to worship within its venerable walls, the most interesting recollections and associations. There is the Pulpit, and there the Desk, from which, more than a century ago, this pious presbyter, and John- son, Honeyman, Seabury, and Bass, declared the sacred oracles of God ; and there, too, the altar from which they distributed to their humble communicants the con- secrated elements of salvation.
The Rev. Dr. McSparran, while Rector, baptized 538 persons, besides a considerable number admitted from other Churches.
REV. THOMAS POLLEN.
Dr. Berriman, in a letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, dated London, February, 1754, says : " Mr. Pollen is appointed a Missionary to Rhode Island. He is a worthy clergyman, and esteemed a good scholar. He was cotemporary at Christ Church College, Oxford, with your friend Dr. Burton, who is now Vice Provost of Eton College. I would beg leave to recommend him to your favorable notice, and that you would advise and assist him in any case that
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