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 26
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Edward Hazard, eldest son of Mayor George Hazard, married Sarah Cranston, the daughter of the Hon. Thomas Cranston, the grandson of Governor Samuel Cranston, in May, 1770, and settled in South Kingstown, on a farm given him by his father. (The Hon. Thomas Cranston and Abraham Redwood, the founder of the Redwood Library, married sisters. Three full-length portraits of Mr. Cranston, wife, and daughter, painted by Copley, are hanging up in my house at Kingston.) Thomas Cranston Hazard, only son and child of Edward, graduated from Rhode Island College, now Brown University, in 1792, and is now living at Voluntown, Conn.
Nathaniel Hazard, third son of Mayor George, graduated from R. I. College in 1792. He was a representative in the General . Assembly for several years, and was Speaker of the House. In 1818, he was elected Representative to Congress. He died at Washington in 182-, and was interred in the Congressional burying ground.
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Thomas Hazard (College Tom) was a descendant of the first settler in the fourth degree. He entered college, but having been early indoctrinated in the faith of the Quakers, he became conscien- tious respecting collegiate honors, and left the institution before the regular period of conferring degrees. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Governor Robinson, and settled on his farm in his native town of South Kingstown, near Tower Hill, where John Nichols now resides. Mr. Hazard was comely in person, large in stature, six feet, and of great physical strength. He was a preacher of the Society of Friends for forty years before his death, and tradition speaks of him as a strong, forcible, and argumentative speaker. He was deservedly popular in his denomination, and was the first in his Society that advocated the abolition of negro slavery, and tra- velled much as a public Friend, preaching the doctrine of emanci- pation among his brethren. The following is transcribed from a communication made to me by Mr. Isaac P. Hazard, his grandson :
" You requested me to state what I knew respecting the very active part which my grandfather was the first to take in the aboli- tion of negro slavery in this State, and I will endeavor to give it to you as I have heard it from my father and others.
" About the time of my grandfather's marriage, (he having chosen agriculture for his profession in preference to the law, for which his father had designed him,) it was the intention of his father to estab- lish him on a farm befitting what he considered his station in life-a large tract of good land, well stocked with cattle, and negroes enough to cultivate it.
" With this view he gave him an introduction by letter to an old acquaintance of his, in North Stonington, Ct., a worthy deacon of the Presbyterian or Baptist church, I forget which, whom. he was ac- customed to employ in purchasing stock, and in whom he placed great confidence, requesting his aid in selecting and purchasing for his son.
" My grandfather arrived at the village near where his stock pur- chasing was to commence on Saturday afternoon, and not wishing to interfere with the very strict rules then observed in that State in re- gard to the sabbath, had intended to remain at the public inn until Monday morning, and then present his letters and proceed to busi- ness.
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" But the old Deacon chanced to visit the village that afternoon, and finding the son of his friend there, insisted on his returning home and spending the sabbath with him, which was complied with.
" Among the topics of conversation during the evening, was that of religion, of which at that period Connecticut gave Rhode Island credit for a very small share, and that not very orthodox.
"In discussing the merits of various sects, my grandfather men- tioned Quakers, who were among the settlers of this country, and numbers like his family, who though they did not belong strictly to that society, yet attended their meetings, when they attended any ; and he being about to marry one of that sect, which, (as was the case,) if married in the meeting according to the form"of the society, would give him the right of membership, he doubtless considered himself as identified with them.
"In reply to his mentioning Quakerism, the old Deacon observed : 'Quakers ! they are not a Christian people !'
" As my grandfather was just from Yale College, remarkable for the strength of his argumentative powers, had paid some attention to Divinity, he believed he could answer all the objections which their 1 persecutors urged against them in Europe, in a manner that would fully confute his antagonist, and satisfy him of the error of his views. He asked him to state his objections, expecting they would be those heretofore used by the various controversial writers of that age of religious controversy, and with which he was familiar. But to his surprise he answered: " they hold their fellow-men in slavery."
" At this time the Quakers, although holding many testimonies against the errors of the age, differing from and in advance of most Christian denominations, many and most of which have since been adopted, seem seldom to have turned their attention to the subject of slavery, and were among the greatest slave-holders of the country.
" My grandfather's mind had once (if not oftener,) been turned to the subject, when directed by his father to oversee some slaves at their labor on a very hot day. He took a book and sat under the shade of a tree, but from the extreme heat, he could not even in that situation keep comfortably cool. This led him, while the laborers were toiling in the heat, to contrast slavery with freedom, and prob- ably prepared his mind to embrace the old Deacon's views. Look- ing therefore at this unexpected position of the argument, he con-
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sidered his ground untenable ; gave up the defence of his society, and changed the subject of conversation, and soon from his own reflections became thoroughly convinced of the error of holding slaves, which he communicated to his father after his return, signifying to him his intention ofcultivating his farm by free labor.
" His father at that time being the largest farmer, and one of the largest slave holders in New England, and considering his son's views if persisted in, would greatly injure, if not ruin himself and neighbors, endeavored to dissuade him from it, but finding him de- termined, threatened to disinherit him if he persisted. The subject occasioned a coolness between them for some time. He persevered in what he believed to be his duty, expecting from the firm and un- changeable character of his father and family to be disinherited.
" He commenced cultivating his farm with free labor, and labored himself in the cause of negro emancipation.
His first object was to get the religious society of Friends, or Qua- kers, of which he became an active, zealous, and efficient member, to embody in their discipline, a clause to prohibit its members from holding, or dealing in slaves.
" Although the Society had already sometime previous abolished among its members the practice of branding their slaves with a hot iron to distinguish them, which after several years' discussion they pronounced cruel and unchristianlike, (which I allude to as showing the state of the human mind then on the subject,) it was not without much labor that they were induced to make it a part of their disci- pline, that the members should neither hold or deal in slaves. He visited various parts of New England, and New York, in promulga- ting his views on that subject, and was finally successful.
" About the same time, John Wodman, of Mount Holley, New Jersey, whose life and character was a noble example of Christian benevolence and purity, was engaged in the same enterprise in the Middle States, and visited this neighborhood, and a mutual friend- ship existed between them during their lives.
" The late venerable Moses Brown, was one of the most active, zealous, and efficient assistants, not only among the Society of Friends, but in aiding him to procure the passage of a law by the Legislature, terminating the existence of slavery in Rhode Is- land, which he lived to see accomplished, as well as a recon-
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ciliation to his father, who showed the convincement of his son's views, by leaving in his will (previous to the law before alluded to,) all his slaves free at his death, and his property to his four children, without the distinction he had threatened.
"I have dwelt particularly on this abolition subject, not only be- cause you requested it as the first active abolition movement in New England, but as an important era in our history, and the commence- ment, or cause of an entire change of the state of society in this country.
" Up to this period, and sometime after, Narragansett was the seat of hospitality and refinement ; her large landed proprietors living in ease and luxury, visited by the elite from all parts of the then British American Colonies, and distinguished strangers of Europe.
" It also puts in a proper light a trait of my grandfather's charac- ter, which he was supposed generally not to possess,-that of never changing his opinions, or first views on any subject.
" An old friend and neighbor of the family (the late Andrew Nichols,) who had known him all his life, and who died but a few years since, one day observed to me : 'It is fortunate for society, that your grandfather always saw correctly at first view, for I believe he was never known to change his opinion on any subject, and such was the power of his reasoning faculties, that had he have taken the wrong side, he could probably have made it appear the right, and if he could not have convinced others, he could have so forcibly an- swered their arguments, as to have silenced them. I never knew or heard (he continued,) of his giving any thing up in my life, and he always appeared to have seen the right of the case at first.'
" He was too young to have known him before he commenced his abolition doctrines, or he would have known that he changed his views once at least.
"I have understood he was never severe in his denunciation of slave-holding-was a participator in the fruits of slave-holding himself until convinced of his error, and he labored to convince others with mildness and sound argument, in which he was emi- nently successful, and had the satisfaction of seeing his views es- tablished throughout New England, and most of the Middle States, before his death.
" In connection with this important subject of abolition, there is
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another individual whose name is now scarcely known and re- collected by any out of our family, but one who my grandfather and some of his decendants have been accustomed to place high- est on the list of disinterested (if that term will here apply,) phi- lanthropists in that cause.
" This was Jeremiah Austin, who a little before the subject was discussed, as before stated, found himself, after the death of his fa. ther, the owner of a single slave, his sole inheritance, which from a belief that it was unjust to hold slaves, he freed and worked him- self as a daily laborer, and probably from a similarity of views, was afterwards engaged by my grandfather as overseer, or manager of his farm."
"In person, my grandfather was large, full six feet high, and weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds, of great strength, both of body and mind; and the late William T. Robinson, of New York, once told me his whole appearance and deportment came the nearest to the standard of a truly noble man, accord- ing to his conception, of any person he had ever met with. Your brother, Daniel Updike, of East Greenwich, once in speaking of the degeneracy of the old Narragansett race, observed that although our family had kept up the standard as well as any, yet we were as far below that of our ancestors both in body and mind, as those who had depreciated most were below us.
" He was fond of society, and very hospitable, and generally had more or less staying at his house through the summer."
He died at South Kingstown, August 26, 1798, aged about 80. The present Isaac P., Thomas R., Rowland G., and Joseph P. Haz- ard, sons of the late Rowland Hazard, are his grandchildren.
Thomas Hazard (Virginia Tom.,) was a descendant, in the fourth degree, from the common ancestor. He was a merchant in Newport for many years, and acquired a large estate. His first wife was a Bowdoin, a branch of the Boston family ; his second was Eunice Rhodes, of Patuxet, Rhode Island. In the Revolution, Mr. Hazard adhered to the cause of the crown, fled to the enemy, and his estates were seized and subsequently confiscated. The great destitution to which his family was reduced by this unfortunate election, is very expressively described in a petition to the General Assembly, in 1782.
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" Mrs. Eunice Hazard, of Cranston, represents that she is the wife of Thomas Hazard, late of Narragansett, now a refugee in New York; that the said Thomas Hazard left her three years ago in a condition almost helpless, with seven young children, one of them at the breast, and the rest unable to support themselves ; and that, from that time to this, she has encountered many difficul- ties in bringing up and supporting the said children ; and she hath at length exhausted all the resources in her power, and expended not only what remained in her hands of her said husband's effects, but also nearly the whole of what came to her particular use from the estate of her late honored father ; and thereupon prayed this Assem- bly to take her unhappy case in consideration, and extend to her and her children such grace and favor as may seem meet ; and in par- ticular to grant her the house and lot of land lying in Newport which was her husband's late estate." In consequence of this plaintive representation, the General Assembly humanely directed the rents of said property to be paid to her.
After the war, Mr. Hazard returned to this State, and the General Assembly, through the influence of his brother, Jonathan J. Hazard, a leading Whig, were inclined to restore his estates if a satisfactory submission should be made. This he indignantly refused, and the confiscation was consummated.
In 1785, Mr. Hazard repaired to England, and the British Gov- ernment, for his loyalty, his sacrifices, and sufferings, besides other remuneration, granted him a large tract of land at St. Johns. In 1786, he embarked for his new residence, with his wife and all his children, except those who had previously married and settled in Rhode Island. In a letter to his daughter, Mrs. Walter Watson, of South Kingstown, he says : "I have got five thousand acres of land from Government, and am to settle it in one year, or give up that which will not be settled on. I have for you, if your husband will come and settle on it, five hundred acres of good land that lies on a harbor, where you can catch plenty of all kinds of fish, and there is good timber and hay on it ; if you do not come or send and settle on it this summer, you cannot have it in the same place."
Mr. Hazard died at St. Johns, in April, 1804, at an advanced age. Mr. Elisha Watson married Ann Cole, and Mr. Wilkins Updike married Abby Watson, two of his grand daughters.
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Jonathan J. Hazard was a descendant, in the fourth degree, from Thomas, the first settler. He took an early and decided stand in favor of liberty in the Revolutionary struggle. In 1776, he appear- ed in the General Assembly as a representative from Charlestown, and was elected paymaster of the Continental Battalion in 1777, and joined the army in New Jersey. In 1778 he was re-elected a mem- ber of the General Assembly, and constituted one of the Council of War. He continued a member of the House most of the time during the Revolution.
In 1787, he was elected by the people a delegate to the Confeder- ated Congress. In 1788, he was re-elected, and attended the old Congress as a delegate from this State.
Mr. Hazard was a politician of great tact and talent, and one of the most efficient leaders of the PAPER MONEY party, in 1786, and their ablest debater in the General Assembly. He beat down the opposition raised by the Hard Money, or mercantile party. He feel- ingly depicted the lowering distress of the times produced by the avaricious course of the mercantile party. He represented that prompt- ed by exhorbitant profits, they had shipped to England, our late enemy, all the remaining specie that could be obtained to supply the country with fabrics which the war had exhausted ; that the patriotism of the mercantile party was swallowed up by the lust of profit, and that the interest of money by these selfish and avaricious speculations had risen to 20 per cent. per annum, and in some cases to 4 per cent. per month ; and that the paper money emission was the only measure of State policy to prevent civil commotion. He argued, likewise, in favor of the safety of the emission ; that it was guarantied by land security ; that it was to be loaned on bond and mortgage of twice the value of the amount borrowed, to be estimated by a committee under oath ; that it was an emission widely different from that of the States, being founded on real estate, and that as long as the real es- tate remained, the money must retain its value, and that no bank could be more secure. That the public were alarmed without rea- son, and that the opposition were governed by avarice and prejudice.
Mr. Hazard was the leader of the same party under the name of the Anti-Federalists, and a fiery opponent of the adoption of the Fed- eral Constitution. As a delegate to the Convention assembled at .
South Kingstown, in March, 1790, to take into consideration the
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adoption of that instrument, he successfully resisted the measure, and upon an informal vote, it was ascertained that there was a majority of 17 against its adoption. Upon this event, the popular party chaired Mr. Hazard, their leader. The friends of the Constitution, however, obtained an adjournment to meet at Newport in the May following. In the meantime, all the influence and wealth of the State were brought to bear upon the members of the Convention, and whether Mr. Hazard was actually influenced by other means than conviction, cannot be ascertained, but his opposition became neutralized, and the Constitution was adopted by a bare majority of one, (some say two,) but the original paper upon which the yeas and nays were minuted gives only the majority of one. The defection of Mr. Haz- ard, upon a question of this magnitude, and in relation to which his party confided in his integrity, shook the confidence of the public and his party, and he fell in popular estimation, and never regained his former elevated position. He was subsequently a representative in the General Assembly, but his influence was so greatly impaired by this defection in the Convention, that he never could re-establish himself in the good opinion of his party or the people.
Mr. Hazard was well-formed, sturdy in body and mind, with a fine phrenological developement of head. He was a natural orator, with a ready command of language, subtle and ingenious in debate. He successfully contended against Marchant, Bradford, and Wel- come Arnold, the debaters of the House at that period. He was, for a long time, the idol of the country interest, manager of the State, leader of the Legislature, in fact, the political dictator in Rhode Is- land ; but his course in the Constitutional Convention was the cause of his political ruin. It was a Wolsey's fall, to rise no more.
The late Hon. Elisha R. Potter, and the late Hon. Benjamin Hazard, who knew Mr. Hazard in the zenith of his political influ- ence, always spoke of him as a man of great natural power and saga- city. He moved to New York in the latter part of his life, pur- chased a valuable estate, and settled his children there. He oc- casionally visited Rhode Island. He died at an advanced age.
Jeffrey Hazard, of Exeter, was a descendant from Thomas, the common ancestor, in the sixth degree. He was for many years representative in the General Assembly, Chief Justice of the Court A41
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of Common Pleas, Judge of the Supreme Court, and Lieutenant Governor of the State.
Four of the Hazard family have been Lieutenant Governors of Rhode Island.
The late Commodore Oliver H. Perry was a descendant of Thomas Hazard, the first settler, in the sixth degree. Raymond, father of the Commodore, was the son of Judge Freeman Perry, who married the daughter of Oliver Hazard, of South Kingstown. The Commodore was named after his maternal great grand-father, Oliver Hazard.
" July 7, 1770. Saturday died John Gardiner, Esq., of Boston Neck, and on Sunday, the next day, he was decently buried in the church-yard of St. Paul's, on which occasion the corpse was carried into the church, and a funeral sermon preached by Mr. Fayerweather, the rector, to a full and serious congregation."
Mr. John Gardiner was a son of William Gardiner, the descend- ant of the first settler in Narragansett ; was brother of Dr. Sylves- ter Gardiner, of Boston, and brother in-law of Dr. McSparran. He died on the homestead farm of his ancestors. His first wife was Mary Hill-she left four children. Anstis, married Rowland Robinson, father of the " unfortunate Hannah Robinson ;" Thomas died without issue ; Amos had several children, Mrs. Daly, of Providence, is one of his granddaughters ; William married Eunice Belden, brother-in-law of Gen. Wyllys, of Hartford-he left one son, who died without issue. His second wife was Mary Taylor, niece of the Hon. Francis Willet. They left six children-1. John, married Sarah Gardiner, issue ; 2. Benjamin, issue ; 3. Abi- gail, married Lodowick Updike, issue ; 4, 5. Mary and Sarah, both died single ; 6. Lydia, married Robert Champlin, brother of the late George and Christopher Champlin. They left one daughter, Mrs. Mary MacRea, of Newport-second husband, John Faxon. Several children.
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" On Sunday evening, July 29, 1770, departed this life, John Case, Esquire, at Tower Hill, on Tuesday, the 31st of July. He was decently interred in St. Paul's church-yard, in North Kingstown, and a funeral sermon preached by Mr. Fayerweather on the occasion in St. Paul's, before a numerous and attentive audience. Mr. F. visited Mr. Case every day for some considerable time, and prayed with him and administered the blessed sacrament to him two or three times distinctly."
Mr. Case was an unwavering friend, a generous benefactor during life, and in his will made large donations to the church, of which he had been an exemplary member. He gave his homestead on Tower Hill, Quaker Hill farm and wood lot, in Narragansett, to the use of his wife for life ; and, after her decease, in trust for the use of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts-the rents, issues, and profits to be applied towards the support of an Episcopal Bishop of the Church of England, when it should please God that one should be sent over properly appointed and consecrated to preside over the Episcopal churches in North America, whose diocese or district should comprehend the Narragansett country and none else ; and these bequests were for no other use or intent what- ever. And before a Bishop should be sent over, the rents and profits should be appropriated towards the maintenance of the poor belong- ing to the church of England in Narragansett, who were of sober lives and conversation, by the officers of the church for the time being.
He also bequeathed $500 for building a church on the lot given by Dr. McSparran for that purpose ; $150 for repairing the old church of St. Paul's in North Kingstown, and if not repaired, but a new one built on the McSparran lot, then said $150 to be appro- priated for that purpose ; $50 for a school house on Tower Hill, and $350 in trust, the interest to be applied to educate poor children in the school house at Tower Hill.
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There being no Bishop answering the provisions of the will, the church of St. Paul's, in Narragansett, took possession of the several devised estates, after the death of his wife, in 1798, and appropriated the rents for the support of the poor of the church and its repairs until 1813. At this period, the Trustees of Donations in Boston, through their agent, the Rev. William Montague, obtained posses- sion of the Tower Hill estate, claiming it in behalf of the Bishop of the Eastern diocese, which embraced Rhode Island. The wardens of St. Paul's commenced an action to recover possession. The controversy was finally compromised, and the estate of the late Mr. Case was surrendered to the Trustees of Donations, upon their agreeing to pay four per cent. of the income for the use of St. Paul's church forever. The Trustees of Donations then leased the estates for 999 years. The leases being personal estate, on the death of the lessees, the leases were sold at auction by their admin- istrators ; in consequence whereof the annual payments to the church by the Trustees of Donations became interrupted, and the church of St. Paul's re-entered for condition broken, and now hold the estates in the same manner as before the surrender.
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