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 25
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The Doctor was a professed Christian, but I do not know that he was rigidly sectarian in his creed. I remember to have found for the first time, in his library, Dr. Samuel Clarke's work on the Trini- ty, which cost him a Bishopric, and Dr. James Foster's sermons, which lost him fellowship with orthodox Baptists, and that he admir- ed and often called on me to read one of these sermons-ergo-but the word Unitarian was not then in use. Waiving his religion, therefore, suffice it to say, that his moral character was irreproacha- ble, and he was an honest man.
The Doctor doubtless loved money, and had been successful in the pursuit of it ; he was rich, for that day, in real and personal estate
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His minute attention to trifles was systematic with him-a penny saved was a penny got-young and "audax juventæ," I now and then ventured to joke him on what seemed to me to be a foible un- worthy of him, but he was always ready with an answer to my imperti- nence, sometimes with the grave remark, " that he considered him- self doing the duty of an accountable steward only, for property com- mitted to his charge ;" sometimes more pointedly-" ah, Seavy," as he would call me-" despise not the day of small things, (says the wise son of Sirac,) for he that despiseth the day of small things shall perish by little and little." Yet with this habitual attention to small savings, he could bear the accidental, or irretrievable loss of property like a philosopher. He never cried for spilt milk, so that although he had a great deal of " the wisdom of this world," to use one of his favorite expressions, he was not parsimonious as evinced by his pub- lic spirit, the generous style in which he lived, and his liberal hospi- tality ; his house was always open to those who had any claims up- on his attention, especially to those who, in those trying times, were zealous, or actively engaged, in the public cause.
Doctor Babcock was the friend and correspondent of Dr. Franklin, who was in the habit of stopping at his house on his yearly visits to Boston, and a patriot of his school. He had many anecdotes to re- late of Franklin, one, I recollect, quite characteristic of that veteran. Mrs. Babcock, (who, by the way, was considered a very superior woman,) asked the Doctor if he would have his bed warmed ? " No, madam, thank'ee, but if you will have a little cold water sprinkled on the sheets I have no objection." In one of his letters written on the eve of his last departure for Europe, after expressing the effort it cost him to obey this call of his country, he added, "I am no longer the man I once was, age has laid his cold hand upon me," an expres- sion, the force of which, I understand now better than I did when I read it sixty-five years ago.
Yes, the Doctor was a zealous and enlightened patriot, and as liberally devoted his time and money to the cause, both in a public and private capacity, as a statesman or a citizen, as any of his com- patriots. I have been credibly informed, that a dark period of the war, when a considerable sum of money in specie was wanted for the public service, he generously offered to advance it upon the credit of the State, abiding the issue-an act which, in these more enlightened
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days, is accounted the best evidence a man can give of his liberal devotion to church or state.
Dr. Babcock was in person not above the middle size, of a rather spare habit-light and active for a man of his years. He could mount a horse of sixteen hands high with the agility of a boy, and laughed at me for going to a horse-block to mount one of not more than fourteen. In his dress and manners he was a gentleman of the old school ; scrupulously polite, often quoted Chesterfield, who was then in his zenith, and perhaps laid too much stress upon trifling ceremonies ; to eat cheese with bread and butter, or to drink more than three cups of tea, he would consider ill-bred. In which notion he differed as widely from his cotemporary, Dr. Samuel Johnson, as did his opinion of Colonial rights from the " Taxation no Tyranny" of the latter.
When I came to him I found him surrounded by 15 or 16 grand- children, fine boys and girls, of whom their grandsire might justly be as proud as he was solicitous that they should receive the same excellent education which he had bestowed upon his own three sons and two daughters. Besides the two boys already mentioned, there were three or four children of his eldest son Harry-about the same number of Mr. John Bours, of Newport, who married his eldest- and of Commodore Saltonstal, who married his youngest daughter. These had found a welcome retreat here from the war ; Newport being then in the hands of the British, and New London an exposed situation, as events soon afterwards proved. They were all, for their several ages, well advanced in their pupilage, none of them A. B. C. Darians. Peter, the eldest son of Mr. Bours, was a fine little fellow, who at the age of 10 years read Horace with facility- a promising genius, but with the sad and too frequent issue of such promise, in less than three years I received a letter from his father informing me of his death. Of the fate of the residue of this interesting little flock I am but imperfectly informed. I fear I have survived most of them.
Mrs. Saltonstal was an elegant and accomplished woman. There was, I remember, a well-painted portrait, a good likeness of her, hanging in her father's south parlor chamber, which I trust has been preserved by some of her family. Her husband, Commodore Dudley Saltonstal, you will recollect as a matter of history, was naval
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commander in the Penobscot expedition which proved so disastrous this year. On his return to Boston, he was severely censured, as the unfortunate generally are. His fault, if any, was a want of sufficient promptitude in action. He was a man of sober thought and good sense, and not deficient in personal courage, as was proved both before and after this disaster ; but his courage was not of the Nelson-dashing, hell-daring character which the emergency de- manded.
I was at his house when he returned-lately the commander of thousands, now the solitary traveller on horseback, crestfallen. I of course did not stay to witness the moving scene which must have followed in such a family, at such a time.
The Doctor's youngest son, Luke, was an Episcopal clergyman at Philip's Manor on the Hudson, where he died, leaving a wife and several children. Hawkins, in his historical notices of the missions of the church of England, says, " Another victim of ill-treatment already mentioned, was the Rev. Luke Babcock, missionary at Philipsburg. He was seized by the insurgents, his papers were examined, and because he answered affirmatively to the question whether he considered himself bound by his oath of allegiance to the King, he was deemed an enemy to the liberties of America, and ordered to be kept in custody. After four months confinement his health gave way, and he was then dismissed with a written order to remove within the lines of the King's army. "He got home, says Mr. Seabury," with difficulty, in a raging fever and delirious, and there died, extremely regretted. Indeed, I knew not a more excel- lent man, and I fear his loss, especially in that mission, will scarcely be made up."
One of his daughters became the wife of Gilbert Saltonstal, merchant in New York, a most worthy and respectable man, with whom I was well acquainted. Doctor Babcock's excellent wife also died there whilst on a visit.
His second son, Adam, was long a distinguished merchant in Boston, where he died not many years since.
His eldest son, Colonel Harry Babcock, was a brilliant and extra- ordinary man-formed by nature and education to be the flower of his family, and an ornament to the country which gave him birth. His biography-written by one who had the requisite documents,
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talents and leisure-would form a curious, interesting, and instruc- tive work. But I have already extended my notes and reminiscences to an unreasonable length, and must return to take leave of his father.
Doctor Babcock and his cotemporary, the venerable Samuel Ward, were long the two luminaries of their town ; but their affec- tion for each other, it appeared, was not quite as mutual as that of the twins of Leda. There was one point of resemblance, however, between them and these elder luminaries-they agreed never to be both above the horizon at the same time. In short, in local politics they were rivals. But Gov. Ward had died at Philadelphia in 1775, whilst in attendance there as one of our first members of Congress, since which the Doctor was
" Like the last rose of summer, left blooming alone."
A town meeting could not be organized until he arrived to take his seat as Moderator.
Such was the consideration in which he was held when I knew him. Judge of my feelings and reflections when, after the lapse of a little more than a half a century, upon a visit to Westerly a few years since, I found the places which knew him, did indeed know him no more-that not one of his numerous descendants was living in the town-that I could scarcely meet a person who had even a traditional knowledge that such a man ever existed, and but one who could tell me where he was buried.
Three miles below the village, in a lonely and, I fear, unfrequent- ed spot, I with some difficulty found his grave. The inscription on the slab which covered his ashes was so injured by time or the wea- ther as to be hardly legible, but by prostrating myself on it (which I did most devoutly,) I was able to decipher that he died in the spring of the year 1783-living long enough, I trust, to enjoy the consummation of his public wishes, in the acknowledgement to freedom and independence of his country, and to address his Maker in the consecrated words-" Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace."
Yours, respectfully,
LEVI WHEATON."
A39
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Mr. B. Reynolds has transmitted the following inscription from the slab covering the grave of Dr. Babcock :-
THIS STONE
COVERS THE MORTAL PART OF THE HON. JOSHUA BABCOCK, ESQ., OF WESTERLY, WHO DIED APRIL 1, 1783, AGED 75 YEARS. HIS ABILITY AND INTEGRITY AS A STATESMAN, IN THE DISCHARGE OF SEVERAL
IMPORTANT OFFICES OF TRUST,
THE PUBLIC RECORDS OF HIS COUNTRY TESTIFY, AS DO ALL WHO KNEW HIM,
THAT AS A PHYSICIAN, HE WAS EMINENT
IN HIS PROFESSION ; AS A CHRISTIAN, EXEMPLARY ; AS A GENTLEMAN,
POLITE AND ENGAGING ;
AS . HUSBAND AND FATHER, A MASTER AND FRIEND, WORTHY OF IMITATION.
The late Major Paul Babcock, the son of the late Colonel Harry Babcock, furnished the following memoir, which is cheerfully inserted.
" Doctor Joshua Babcock was born in Westerly in the year 1707. He was graduated at Yale College, and soon after commenced the study of physic and surgery in Boston, and afterwards went to England to complete his education. He settled in his native town, where he soon obtained an extensive practice. He soon after opened as extensive a retail country store as any between New York and Boston. He was likewise much in public business. As Chief
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Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, he pronounced the sen- tence of death on the notorious Thomas Carter, for the murder of Jackson. Dr. Babcock had two half brothers and three sons, which were all graduated at Yale College. His eldest son, the late Colonel Harry Babcock, was born in 1736: he entered college at twelve years, and took his degree at sixteen, at the head of his class. At the age of eighteen, he obtained from the Legislature of this State a charter for an independent company of infantry, and was appointed captain. At the age of nineteen, he was appointed Captain of a com- pany composing one of the regiment raised by this Colony, and marched to Albany, from thence to Lake George, and joined the army in the campaign of 1756, to dislodge the French from Canada. Sir William Johnson, commander-in-chief, detached four hundred men under Col. Williams, to reconnoiter. Capt. Babcock, with sixty men, constituted a part of the corps. They were attacked by the enemy, commanded by Baron D'Eskau, and defeated. Colonel Williams and Captain Babcock had nineteen men killed and wound- ed. Baron D'Eskau was taken prisoner.
" Next year, at 20, Capt. Babcock was promoted to Major ; at 21, was promoted to a Lieutenant Colonel ; at 22, he commanded the Rhode Island regiment, consisting of one thousand men ; and in July 1758, he marched 500 of his men with the British army against Ticonderoga. He had 110 men killed and wounded, and was wounded himself by a musket ball in the knee. In this attack the British and Provincial army had 1940 men killed and wounded. The next year he helped to take the Fort under Gen. Amherst, without the loss of a man. He had then served five campaigns in the old French war with great reputation. About the age of twenty- five, Col. Babcock spent a year in England, chiefly in London, where he was treated with as great respect by the nobility and gentry as any other American of his time. Soon after his return, he married and settled in Stonington, in Connecticut, and commenced the practice of the law. When the Revolution commenced, he was a staunch Whig ; and in 1776 he was appointed by the Legislature commander of the forces at Newport. While commander at this time, he had one opportunity to display his courage. On the open beach, with an eighteen pounder, he drove off the British man-of-
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0 0 1, ed d ef
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war Rose by his own firing. He had practised as an engineer at Woolwich when in England. He was so severely affected by a fit of sickness in the winter following, that he never entirely recovered. Col. Babcock was a man of fine person, accomplished manners, commanding voice, and an eloquent speaker."
The late Hon. E. R. Potter said that he heard Col. Babcock in an address before the Legislature on an application for liberty to raise a regiment in behalf of this State to assist the King of France at the commencement of the revolution, as that monarch had been the friend of America, that he drew tears from the eyes of the members -that he never heard a more powerful or eloquent appeal-but his application failed.
Major Paul Babcock who furnished the above, the son of Colonel Harry, was in middle life a man of fine form, great personal comeli- ness, and of accomplished manner. He died a few years since.
Mrs. William Palmer, of New York, the daughter of Major Paul, and the grand-daughter of Col. Harry, spent the warm season at the village of Stonington, a few years since. She was a handsome and accomplished lady, and impressed you, as she moved, that the blood of a distinguished ancestry ran in her veins.
The family mansion, though delapidated, is still standing on the old country road one mile east of Pawcatuck village, in Westerly. It is situated on high land, overlooks the village, Pawcatuck river, and commands an extensive prospect. The tall box standing on each side of the path leading to the house-the massy gate-its once expensive fences and enclosures, now in ruins-and other evi- dences of departed grandeur-impress the beholder that this was one of the plantations of the old aristocracy of Narragansett.
There were in the Babcock family portraits of most of its mem- bers. The following letter from the great-grandson of Dr. Joshua Babcock gives a history of some of them :-
" DEAR SIR,
The portrait of Col. Harry (now in the family of Mr. Giles Ward, where my mother, the widow of Major Paul Babcock, recently deceased,) is full length, or rather three-fourths, say to the knees-is taken in a court dress, with small sword, holding his
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chapeau in one hand. He must have been about twenty years of age ; was, I believe, at the time a captain in the army. It was painted either in Boston or London, most probably the latter. It bears the artist's mark-1756, by J. Blackburn. It is a very hand- some and striking picture-even now the coloring is scarcely faded. It was always considered a good likeness. There is also a bust portrait of him, taken in after life; also one of the Rev. Luke Babcock ; but these were given away by my father some years before his death.
Of the other members of the Babcock family, 1 know but little ; my father's memory was always stored with anecdotes and reminis- cences of his family, and for a long period there was in our family letters and papers of my grandfather and great-grandfather, which if we had now, there might be much interesting matter culled from them ; but they have become scattered and lost, and with my father has died many facts and particulars of his family that his children, I regret to say, have no records of."
Yours, &c., GILES BABCOCK.
New York, June 26, 1846."
" June 4, 1766. Mr. Fayerweather attended the Convention of the Episcopal clergy at Boston, and the Rev. Dr. Caner preached in Kings Chapel from these words-Follow me. Sunday after, I preached for the Doctor, and baptized a child, which was registered in their church books."
" April Ist, 1766. Major Benjamin Brenton died, and three days after (which was the 4th of April,) he was buried on his own farm. The burial service was performed by the Rev. Mr. Fayerweather, at the Major's desire, who in his sickness was visited by Mr. Fayerweather and prayed with."
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Major Brenton was the great grandson of Governor Brenton. Governor Brenton was a large landed proprietor in the Colony. Jahleel, the eldest son of the Governor, inherited most of his father's estate, and also owned a large estate in Narragansett. He was the first collector of Boston ; afterwards the colony of Rhode Island appointed him her agent in England, and continued the appointment several years. He was then appointed by the King Surveyor General of the customs for the Colonies. He died at Newport, in 1732, without issue.
"Nov. 2, 1766. Mr. Fayerweather preached in Christ Church, Cambridge, and the two Sundays suc- ceeding, and the third at Christ Church, Boston, for the Rev. Mr. Greaton."
"June, 1767. The two last Sundays succeeding in this month, the Rev. Mr. Lyons and Mr. Fayerweather exchanged ; he preached in St. Paul's, and Mr. F. in the church of Taunton, in the Province of Massachusetts."
The Rev. Mr. N. T. Bent, Rector of St. Thomas' church, Taun- ton, in a historical discourse delivered on Easter-day, 1844, says- " The first resident minister here appears to have been the Rev. John Lyon, who at the outset holds this claim upon our gratitude, that he left a fair and apparently a complete record of his official acts. Others must answer for its mutilation. We are also indebted to some other hand for an earlier record, of baptisms especially, of which twenty-one are recorded from Nov. 30th, 1755, to April 14th, 1764. Mr. Lyon's first baptism was on Feb. 6th, 1765, from about which time-perhaps a few months earlier-his ministry here com- menced. In April of that year, we find the parish agreeing with Mr. Lyon as their minister, for a salary of twenty pounds annually, as long as he should continue with them ; this probably in addition to the use of the glebe and a stipend from the Society in England. And, what may be mentioned to their praise, we find the statement
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of the wardens, that in March 1776, before the expiration of his first year, they had settled with Mr. Lyon, and paid him his salary, " to his good acceptance"-an example of promptness, we venture to say, which few parishes in New England have more uniformly imitated than this.
"The number of communicants in the church in 1764 was twelve. Twenty were added in 1765. This made the number thirty-two. In the same year, there were twenty-seven baptisms of children and adults. Tradition speaks of Mr. Lyon as a most estimable man and exemplary minister of Christ. He seems to have been watchful over the lambs of his flock. The number of children under catechetical instruction in 1765, was sixteen. Confirmations in the absence of a bishop could not be administered. It appears, also, that Mr. Lyon was not regardless of the interests of the community in the matter of sobriety and good morals. We sometimes accuse the ministry of that period of indifference to existing vices. Mr. Lyon, it appears from the record, distributed at one time twenty copies of a book or tract entitled, 'Admonition to the drinkers of spirituous liquors'-one evidence, at least, of a minister's laboring to make men temperate, and that too in his own appointed sphere, eighty years ago. Who shall say that such labors were in vain, however much they left to be done by those who shall come after ?
" The loss of records forbids me to say how long Mr. Lyon's ministry continued. He left some time before the Revolution, it is believed, and went to Virginia, where he died."
" April 24, 1768. Mr. Fayerweather married George Brown to Miss Hannah Robinson, at her father William Robinson's house, in Point Judith, Narragansett, in the presence of many."
George Brown was the son of Robert, and grandson of William Brown. The family emigrated from Glasgow, in Scotland, and settled in South Kingstown. His uncle, Thomas Brown, devised him a large estate, in addition to the estate inherited from his father. William Brown, his grandfather, married the daughter of Governor Robinson. Gov. Brown's wife was the daughter of William, and
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granddaughter of Gov. Robinson's. Mr. Brown and his wife were first and second cousins. Gov. Brown was, for many years, a rep- resentative in the General Assembly ; in 1795, he was elected by the Legislature second Justice on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, and held the office until 1799, when he was elected by the people Lieutenant Governor of the State, over Lieut. Governor Samuel J. Potter, after a severe and close canvass. This vote drew the lines in this State between the two great political parties of the country-the federalists under Mr. Adams, and the democratic under Mr. Jefferson. Gov. Potter, the republican-now styled democratic-candidate, succeeded over Gov. Brown in 1800; and, in 1801, this State became republican, and continued so until the war of 1812. Gov. Brown was a courteous and amiable gentleman, an exemplary communicant of the Episcopal church, and a liberal contributor to its support. He sustained an irreproach- able character through life, and died January 20, 1836, in the 91st year of his age, and was buried in the church-yard at Tower Hill. He left nine children.
" July 28, 1769. On Friday evening, Mr. Fayer- weather married his brother-in-law, George Hazard, Esquire, to Miss Jane Tweedy, at the Parsonage-house, Narragansett."
The Hazards are a numerous family-the most so in Narragan- sett, if not in the State. Watson, in the " Historic Tales of Olden Time," says, " Mrs. Maria Hazard, of South Kingstown, R. I., and mother of the Governor, died in 1739, at the age of one hundred years, and could count up five hundred children, grand-children, great grand-children, and great great grand-children-two hundred and five of them were then alive. A granddaughter of her's had already been a grandmother fifteen years ! Probably this instance of Rhode Island fruitfulness may match against the world."
They have descended from Thomas Hazard, who emigrated from Wales about the year 1639, to the Jerseys, and from thence to Rhode Island, and settled in Portsmouth in 1640. His son, Robert, at that
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time about four years old, came with him. Robert was the only son that came over with him, as far as can be ascertained. The eldest son of Robert was Thomas Hazard, who died in 1745, aged 92. His children were Robert, George, Jeremiah, Benjamin, Stephen, Jonathan, and Thomas. From these sons, a numerous issue have descended, and many of them distinguished men.
George Hazard, mentioned above in the record, was the son of George, who was Lieutenant Governor of the Colony in the years 1734, 5, 6, 7, and 8, and great grandson of the first settler. He lived and died in South Kingstown. George, the younger, early settled in Newport as a merchant, and was elected a representative to the General Assembly from that town for many years. He was the only Mayor of Newport under the city charter, and held other honorable and responsible offices in the State. He died at New- port. The following is extracted from the Newport Mercury.
" Died in this town on Friday, August 11, 1791, George Hazard, Esquire, for many years a respectable merchant ; for upwards of thirty years a representative from this town in the Legislature ; for twelve years Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for this County ; a member of the Convention which adopted the Constitu- tion of the United States ; and formerly Mayor of the city of New- port." He was baptized in the church at Newport, in 1750.
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