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 31
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At what period she died, or where he married his second wife, whom he left a widow at his death, I have not been able to ascer- tain. Her name, however, was Rebecca.
He was twice elected a representative to the General Assembly from Warwick, viz., in August, 1759, and April, 1760.
In 1767, the voice of the people called Mr. Wickes into the Senate of the colony. The times were troublous, and the firm but temperate counsel of such men as Mr. Wickes ensured tranquility to the colony. But retirement, social intercourse, and the cultiva- tion of his plantation, had paramount charms to the discussions that began to agitate the public mind ; and in 1772, he signified to his friends his desire of retirement ; but public sentiment delayed the execution of his purpose, as the following communication from Lieut. Governor Sessions will show :-
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" PROVIDENCE, April 14, 1772.
SIR,-We have once more taken the liberty of putting your name into the prox, (ticket) as a candidate at the next general election, and hope it will not be disagreeable. Your conduct as a magistrate
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gives general satisfaction to the public. It was the unanimous opinion of the gentlemen of this town, that there was a necessity of your continuance for another year at least. I would therefore re- quest that you would make up no determination to the contrary until the election, and then if you can't be convinced that it is your duty to stand another year, the General Assembly must choose some other person in your room, which I hope you will not give them the trouble of doing.
I am, with respect,
Your friend and humble servant,
Thos. Wickes, Esq.
DARIUS SESSIONS."
Mr. Wickes continued a senator, and was re-elected for the year 1775. After his re-election in April of that year, the battle of Lexington occurred, and the army of observation was raised, against which measure Mr. Wickes joined Gov. Wanton in a protest, (which the reader will see under the head of Wanton,) wishing to avoid, if possible, the ultimate resort to arms by further negotiation- Blood had been shed, public opinion had become exasperated, dis" passionate counsels were unheeded, and Mr. Wickes, at the general election in May of that year, declined serving in the office to which he had been elected, and Mr. James Arnold was, by the Legislature, elected to supply his place.
Mr. Wickes retired to private life, quietly occupied his plantation, and enjoyed the society of his friends, who always received a welcome reception at his hospitable board ; and spent the remainder of his days in the bosom of his family, and in the social circles of old Warwick.
The late Hon. Elisha R. Potter knew Mr. Wickes well, and spoke of him as an accomplished planter of the old school, firm in purpose, courteous in manner, serupulously exact in all his worldly rela- tions, and fond of the social intercourses of life.
" July 23, 1756. As I came home from Providence, I took Warwick in my way, and baptized by immersion
T
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an adult named Phebe Low, daughter of Philip Greene, Esquire, of Warwick, and wife of one Captain Low."
Philip Greene was a grandson of Deputy Governor John Greene, and the father of Colonel Christopher Greene, of the Revolution, and married Elizabeth Wickes, a sister of Thomas Wickes.
Respecting Col. Christopher Greene, so justly distinguished for his gallantry in the Revolution, the President of the R. Island Historical Society, in a letter dated October 23, 1845, says :-
" DEAR SIR,-I received yours a few days since, and will, so far as my recollection extends, comply with your request. Col. Greene was a most valuable officer, and an honor to the State; but it is most unfortunate for his memory that so few public or private ma- terials respecting him are now in existence. Whenever I recur to the events of the revolution, or to the characters of those of Rhode Island who bore such conspicuous parts in what ought to form a prominent feature in its history, I am vexed, and disposed to say hard things of those who had it in their power to preserve such documents as would have enriched our history, and have done ample justice to the characters of our then most esteemed and valuable citizens.
" Major John S. Dexter, of this State, was for a long time an assistant or deputy in the office of the Adjutant General of the United States army, and consequently had access to all the orders of the commander-in-chief collected in that department. During the Presidency of Washington and Adams, he held an important office in the finance department of the United States in this State ; and after he resigned the office of Chief Justice, and removed to his farm in Cumberland, I applied to him for any papers in his possession, to be deposited in the Cabinet of our Historical Society, when he informed me that when he was about removing from Providence to Cumberland, he found himself encumbered with such a vast mass of old papers and books, for which he had no room in his small house in Cumberland, that he had burnt them all up, though it took a great while to consume them. And this gentleman had been educated, and was a man of sense and of pleasant manners, yet he was guilty of this stupid and wicked act.
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His brother, Capt. Daniel T. Dexter, performed a similar act. He was an officer in Col. Green's regiment, and being a good writer he performed the office of his clerk or secretary. He had a great amount of papers, which filled a large trunk. IIe was appointed Paymaster of Lippit's regiment before he was twenty years old. I was then in that regiment, aged 19. He continued in the service under various promotions to the close of the war, when he held the rank of Captain. He was a good officer and good writer, and care- ful to preserve all the papers he wrote or copied. In old age he removed to the house next adjoining me ; he was feeble and deaf. I frequently called on him, but did not know of his having any old papers, until the lady with whom he boarded came in and told me that the Captain had been all day burning up paper; that he had burnt up more than a bushel. I immediately ran into the house, · and to his chamber, if possible to stop the proceeding. I said every- thing to prevent any further destruction, but it was too late ; he had reserved only one letter, from Gen. Washington to Col. Greene. This was in reply to one the General had received from the Colonel respecting a soldier then under sentence of death, whom the Colonel -from some mitigating circumstances-wished to pardon, but had not the power. The General authorized him to exercise this power at his own discretion. This letter, a few days after, Mr. Dexter handed to my daughter. I esteemed it of great value, not only for its being in the handwriting of Washington, but as expressing the just and benevolent sentiments of that illustrious man."
[I have delayed finishing the communication for a week or so, to search for the letter, that I might send you a copy. I have examin- ed and overhauled a bushel of old papers and letters, but have not yet found it, and my daughter is confident that I sometime ago deposited it in the cabinet of the Historical Society. I hope it is so and there safe, but as our new building is not yet provided with proper cabinets, our deposits there are mixed up in some confusion, but I shall soon find it, which my feeble health has yet prevented.]
" I am not sure that I ever saw Col. Greene more than once. Colonel Varnum, who lived in East Greenwich in 1774, had formed a company called the " Kentish Guards," and the morning after the news of the Lexington battle arrived here, (Providence, ) I saw them march through the street on their way towards Boston, and saw Mr. A48
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Greene, who had the nominal rank of Major. He appeared as a strong man, thick set, and broad across the shoulders. Nathaniel Greene, afterwards the General, was a private in this company. I had often seen him, and knew him well. His left leg, or thigh, was shorter than the other, which caused his musket at every step to shake, and did not accord with the steady position of those on his right and left ; but when I saw him afterwards on horseback, he rode well. Col. Varnum marched his company as far as Pawtucket, where he met an express who said that the enemy had returned to Boston. He then returned back to Greenwich.
" To apologize for any defect in my personal knowledge of Col. Greene, I would specially refer you to the memoirs of the Southern war by Colonel Henry Lee. There you find an account of the Red Bank Battle, and in the appendix a biography of him-doubtless written by one of his family, as it contains notices of his ancestors which Lee could not otherwise have known. In one item I think Lee was mistaken ; he calls him Captain Greene at the attack on Quebec. I am certain he was then Major, and soon after his exchange, was made a Lieut. Colonel.
" I do not think that a life of Greene, unless you add extranous matters, will be of sufficient compass to fill a book ; and if you add that of Major Thayer, who was one of the best officers in the ser- vice, it will help the size of the volume, and you will also find an account of Thayer in the appendix of Lee's memoir. In any notices of Thayer, a copy of Gen. Varnum's account of the delin- quency of Colonel Sam Smith, and of Thayer taking the command of Mud Island, ought to be annexed ; and of Smith's keeping the sword presented by Congress to the defender of that post, instead of delivering it to Major Thayer, to whom it justly belonged.
" A volume could be written in justice to the character of Silas Talbot, of Rhode Island. He was great both by land and sea, and in Congress.
On second thought, I have no doubt that I must have seen Colonel Greene on Rhode Island, in Sullivan's expedition, 1778, as I then was in the Providence militia regiment, "commanded by Colonel Mathews, and this regiment composed a part of the brigade of which Col. Greene was the commander.
The sword voted by Congress to Col. Greene for his defence of
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Red Bank, did not arrive from France, where it was made, until some time after the death of the Colonel, and it was then transmit- ted, with a letter from General Knox, to Job Greene, the Colonel's oldest son. The second son of the Colonel, who was a young man of education, and fine talents and address, settled at first in this town in business ; and after the decease of his elder brother, had posses- sion of the sword. He removed from hence to Charleston, South Carolina, and carried the sword with him. His name and connec- tions, with his fine talents, induced the citizens to invite him to deliver a 4th of July oration, which was highly applauded, and printed. He sent one to be presented to our Providence Library Company. He married a lady in Charleston, but the Southern fever , carried him off in the next year ; had he lived, he would have been distinguished in civil life, as his father was in the military. I have never heard of the sword since, but suppose it is still preserved by the family of his wife.
" When I understood that Col. Henry Lee was writing and about to publish his history of the Southern war, I sent out to him by one Richard Jackson, the Gazette containing Gen. Varnum's account of Smith's leaving Mud Island and Thayer taking the command, and the mistake made by Congress in voting the sword to Smith instead of Thayer, who did all the fighting ; but Smith being then a power- ful leader of the Jacobin party in the Senate, Lee thought best not to insert the account entire, but omitted in history any account of the sword in question, and gave high credit to Thayer, who deserv- ed it.
" Gen. Greene was an able General, but how he would have stood in a subordinate station we cannot tell ; but Silas Talbot was qualifi -. ed for any station. He excelled as a partizan officer on the land, and as an able and successful commander on the ocean. . He was the most popular of any officer in this State as a military commander, and why his life has not been written is not to be accounted for. After the war he settled in the State of New York, and was elected a member of Congress, where he was on the most important committees.
" My desultory observations will furnish but few matters for a life of Colonel Greene, who was a valuable and an approved officer,
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but I can add no more, save assurances of high respect and regard for yourself. JOHN HOWLAND."
W. Updike, Esq.
The biography of Col. Greene in the Appendix of the War in the Southern Department, by Col. H. Lee, referred to by Mr. Howland, is subjoined as follows :-
" Christopher Greene, Lieutenant Colonel commandant of one of the Rhode Island regiments in the service of Congress during the Revolutionary war, was born in the town of Warwick, in the State of Rhode Island, in the year 1737. His father, Philip Greene, Esq., was descended from John Greene, Esq., one of the earliest settlers of Massachusetts Bay. The latter gentleman emigrated from Eng- land in the year 1637, and settled in Salem-now a well-improved, open, but commercial town. Mr. Greene, soon after his arrival, purchased from the Indian Sachems, Miantenomi and Soconomo, a part of the township of Warwick, called Occupassatioxet, which property is still possessed by some of his descendants. He left three sons, the progenitors of a numerous and respectable race of men, successively distinguished, as well by the highest offices in the gift of their country, as by their talents, their usefulness, and goodness.
" Philip Greene, the father of the Lieutenant Colonel, was a gen- tleman of the first respectability in the State, beloved for his virtues and admired for the honorable discharge of the duties of the various
, stations to which he was called-the last of which placed him on the bench as judge of the Superior Court of the State.
" A father so situated could not but cherish the intellectual powers of his progeny with the utmost attention.
" Christopher received all the advantages in the best line of edu- cation procurable in the country, which he took care to improve by the most arduous application. He was particularly attached to the study of mathematics, in which he made proficiency, and thus laid up a stock of knowledge exactly suitable for that profession to which he was afterwards unexpectedly called.
"Exhibiting in early life his capacity and amiability, he was elected by his native town to a seat in the Colonial Legislature in October, 1770, and he continued to fill the same, by successive
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elections, until October, 1772. In 1774, the Legislature wisely established a military corps, styled "Kentish Guards," for the purpose of fitting the most select of her youth for military offices. In this corps young Greene was chosen a Lieutenant, and in May, 1775, he was appointed by the Legislature a Major in what was then called " An Army of Observation," our brigade of 1600 effectives under the orders of his near relative, Brigadier Greene, afterwards so celebrated.
" From this situation he was promoted to the command of a com- pany of infantry in one of the regiments raised by the State for continental service. The regiment to which he belonged was attached to the army of Canada, conducted by General Montgomery, in the vicissitudes and difficulties of which campaign Capt. Greene shared, evincing upon all occasions that unyielding intrepidity which marked his military conduct in every subsequent scene. In the attack upon Quebec, which terminated the campaign as well as the life of the renowned Montgomery, Captain Greene belonged to the column which entered the lower town, and was made prisoner.
" His elevated mind ill brooked the irksomeness of captivity, though in the hands of the enlightened and humane Carleton ; and it has been uniformly asserted that, while a prisoner, Greene often declar- ed that ' he would never again be taken alive ;' a resolution un- happily fulfilled.
" As soon as Captain Greene was exchanged, he repaired to his regiment, with which he continued without intermission, performing with exemplary propriety the various duties of his progressive stations, when he was promoted to the Majorty of Varnum's regi- ment. In 1777, he succeeded to the command of the regiment, and was selected by Washington to take command of Fort Mercer, (commonly called Red Bank,) the safe keeping of which post, with that of Fort Mifflin, (Mud Island) was very properly deemed of primary importance.
" The noble manner in which Col. Greene sustained himself against a superior force of veteran troops, led by an officer of ability, has been partially related, * * as well as the well-earned re- wards which followed his memorable defence. Consummating his military fame by his achievements on that proud day, he could not be overlooked by the commander-in-chief, when great occasions
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called for great exertions. Greene was accordingly attached with his regiment to the troops placed under Major Sullivan, for the pur- pose of breaking up the enemy's post on Rhode Island, soon after the arrival of the French fleet under the command of d'Estaing, in the summer of 1778 ; which well concerted enterprise was marred in its execution by some of those incidents which abound in war, and especially when the enterprize is complicated, and entrusted to allied forces, and requiring naval co-operation. Returning to head quarters, Col. Greene continued to serve under the commander-in- chief, whose confidence and esteem he invariably enjoyed.
" In the spring of 1781, when General Washington began to ex- pect the promised naval aid from our best friend, the ill-fated Louis XVI., he occasionally approached the enemy's lines on the side of York Island. In one of these movements, Col. Greene, with a suitable force, was posted on the Croton river, in advance of the army. On the other side of this river lay a corps of refugees, (American citizens who had joined the British army,) under the command of Col. Delancy. These half citizens, half soldiers, were notorious for rapine and murder ; and to their vindictive conduct may justly be ascribed most of the cruelties which stained the pro- gress of our war, and which at length compelled Washington to order Captain Asgill, of the British army, to be brought to head- quarters, for the purpose of retaliating, by his execution, for the murder of Capt. Huddy, of New Jersey, perpetrated by a Captain Lippincourt of the refugees. The commandant of these refugees (Delancy was not present ) having ascertained the position of Greene's corps, which the Colonel had cantoned in adjacent farm houses- probably with a view to the procurement of subsistence-took the resolution to strike it. This was accordingly done, by a nocturnal movement, on the 13th of May. The enemy crossed the Croton before day-light, and hastening his advance, reached our station with the dawn of day, unperceived. As he approached the farm house in which the Lieutenant Colonel was quartered, the noise of troops marching was heard, which was the first intimation of the fatal design. Greene and Major Flagg immediately prepared themselves for defence, but they were too late, so expeditious was the progress of the enemy. Flagg discharged his pistols, and in- stantly afterwards fell mortally wounded, when the ruffiians (un-
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worthy of the appellation of soldiers) burst open the door of Greene's apartment. Here the gallant veteran singly received them, with his drawn sword. Several fell beneath the arm accustomed to conquer, till at length overpowered by numbers, and faint from the loss of blood streaming from his wounds, barbarity triumphed over valor. ' His right arm was almost cut off in two places, the left in one, a severe cut on the left shoulder, a sword thrust through the abdomen a bayonet in the right side, and another through the abdomen, several sword cuts on the head, and many in different parts of the body.'
" Thus cruelly mangled, fell the generous conqueror of Count Dunop, whose wounds, as well as those of his unfortunate associates, had been tenderly dressed as soon as the battle terminated, and whose pains and sorrows had been as tenderly assuaged. How different was the relentless fury here displayed !
" The commander-in-chief heard with anguish and indignation the tragical fate of his loved-his faithful friend and soldier-in whose feelings the army sincerely participated. On the subsequent day, the corpse was brought to head-quarters, and his funeral was solemnized with military honors and universal grief.
" Lieutenant Colonel Greene was murdered in the meridian of life, being only forty-four years old. He married, in 1758, Miss Anne Lippitt, a daughter of Mr. J. Lippitt, Esq., of Warwick, whom he left a widow, with three sons and four daughters. He was stout and strong in person, about five feet ten inches high, with a broad round chest ; his aspect manly and demeanor pleasing ; enjoying always a high state of health, its bloom irradiated a countenance which significantly expressed the fortitude and mildness invariably displayed throughout his life."
The CAPTAIN Low mentioned was Anthony Low. He was de- scended from Anthony Low, of Swansey, who resided in Warwick from the year 1656, when he was admitted a freeman till the Indian war of 1676. His dwelling having been burnt in March of that year, he returned to Swansey. This ancestor was the person spoken of by Captain Church as the individual who volunteered, from friendship, and the interest he felt in the success of his cause, to carry him from Newport to Sogconate, and thence to Sandwich, in July, 1676, at the risk of vessel and cargo.
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MEMOIR OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEWPORT, FROM 1698 TO 1810. Compiled from the Records, by HENRY BULL, EsQ., with Notes by the Rector, REV. FRANCIS VINTON.
Until nearly the close of the seventeenth century there were but two orders of Christians in the town of Newport, who were organized and regularly met together for the purpose of worship, and those were of the denominations of Baptists and Friends, or Quakers.
The original founder, and first principal patron of Trinity Church, in Newport, was Sir Francis Nicholson. He was by profession a soldier ; was Lieutenant Governor of New York under Sir Edmund Andros, and at the head of the administration of that colony from 1687 to 1690, at which time he was appointed Governor of Virginia, and so continued for two years.
From 1694 to 1699, he was Governor of Maryland, after which time he was again Governor of Virginia until -. He commanded the British forces sent to Canada in 1710, and took the important fortress of Port Royal. In 1713, he became Governor of Nova Scotia, and in 1720 Governor of Carolina. He returned to England in June 1725, and died in London in 1728.
Mr. Lockyer, an Episcopal clergyman, commenced preaching in Newport about the last of 1698, and a church was gathered by that means. He was doubtless procured by the instrumentality of Sir Francis Nicholson, who was then Governor of Maryland ; for the records of Trinity Church fully sustain the fact that Sir Francis was its founder. The people, and more especially the leading gen- tlemen of the town, were well disposed toward this new undertaking, and a considerable society was soon established, with sufficient strength and zeal, aided by their generous patron, to build a hand- some church, which was completed in or before 1702. Handsome, ~ as they say in 1702, " finished all on the outside, and the inside pewed well, but not beautiful."
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Thus far the church had made its way without any aid from the mother country. In the year 1702, when the Society for Propaga- ting the Gospel in Foreign Parts was established and incorporated in England, the Wardens of Trinity Church applied to the Bishop of London, soliciting the aid of the Society, on which application the Rev. Mr. James Honyman was appointed missionary, in 1704, and sent over to this station. The Society, as a further encouragement, sent also as a present to the church a valuable library of the best theological books of that day, consisting of seventy-five volumes, mostly folio. Many of these books are still in the possession of the church.
Queen Anne presented the church with the bell which was received here in 1709, about which time the minister, wardens, and vestry, wrote to the Governor of Massachusetts, and to the Rev. Samuel Miles, minister of Boston, requesting each of them to forward money left in their hands for the church by Sir Francis Nicholson, stating their then present want of money to enable them to prepare for and hang the bell recently received. Mr. Honyman was a gentleman well calculated to unite his own society, which grew and flourished exceedingly under his charge, as well as to conciliate those of other religious persuasions, all of whom he " embraced with the arm of charity."
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