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 9
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tives from Newport, and in 1785 and 1786 he was a member of the Continental Congress. As soon as the Constitution of the United States was proposed, he became its zealous and powerful advocate. He held a seat in the Legislature for sixteen years by a semi-annual election ; and during that period his influence in that body and throughout the state, was felt. He was three times successively ap-' pointed an elector of President and Vice President of the United States.
" Mr. Champlin did not make politics the sole business of his life ; he engaged as extensively in commerce as if he had no concern in public affairs.
" Mr. Champlin, at the time of his disease, had nearly attained the seventy-first year of his age. He left no children." He was buried in the North Burying Ground in Newport, with the follow- ing inscription at his grave :
HERE
ARE INTERRED THE REMAINS OF GEORGE CHAMPLIN, ESQUIRE,
PRESIDENT OF THE BANK OF RHODE ISLAND ;
WHO DIED THE 16TH OF NOVEMBER, A.D., 1809, IN THE SEVENTY-FIRST YEAR OF HIS AGE ; DISTINGUISHED BY HIS FIRMNESS AND PATRIOTISM,
HE WAS IN THE EVENTFUL YEAR OF 1775 APPOINTED LIEUT. COLONEL, COMMANDANT OF THE FIRST REGIMENT OF MILITIA. Possessed of a mind richly endowed by nature, he was an able Statesman and an eminent merchant. Highly respected for his pub- lic services and private virtues. He was for sixteen successive years, semi-annually elected by the freemen of this town to repre- sent them in the Legislature of this state ; was three times appointed an elector of President and Vice President of the United States, and was a member of the State Convention which adopted the Federal Constitution. Deeply impressed with the importance of religion, he was an ornament and benefactor to the religious society of which he was a member. Public spirited, and enterprizing, humane and charitable, his whole life was one continued scene of usefulness, and his death was that of a Christian.
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Robert Champlin, the brother of Christopher and George Champ- lin, married Lydia Gardiner, the daughter of John, and Grand- daughter of William Gardiner, of Boston Neck, Narragansett. He was a shipmaster, and died at middle age and left one child, Mary. She married Colonel McRea of U. S. Army. Respecting him a friend writes that : "Colonel William McRea was of Irish descent, his father married Miss Allison, of Pennsylvania, sister of Dr. Al- lison, a respectable clergyman, who preached many years in Balti- more ; after his marriage, Mr. McRea settled in Alexandria, (Va.) previous to the Revolutionary war, where he became an eminent merchant.
"In the year 1791, Col. McRea was appointed a Lieutenant in the U. S. service, by General Washington, and joined the army im- mediately under Gen. St. Clair, in the then North Western Terri- tory, now State of Ohio, and was in the engagement of the 4th of November of that year. In that action he commanded a company, received a wound in his side, and had forty-six men killed and wounded, out of fifty-seven effectives which were under his com- mand that day.
" His next service was under the orders of Major Gen. Wayne, in the same Territory, and with him he served during all his ac- tive operations, from the early part of the year 1792 until the win- ter of '96 and '97, and fought under his orders in the action of 20th August, 1794, as a Brigade Major, being that year a Captain in 3rd Sub. Legion of the U. S. In the early part of the year 1796, on the death of Major Maills, Adjutant General to the army, being then a Captain of Infantry, he was appointed to perform that duty by Gen. Wayne, and continued to do so until the army arrived at Detroit, and took possession of the posts on the lakes, which were surrendered to the United States under Mr. Jay's treaty, in the fall of 1796.
" A new organization of the army took place in the winter of '96-'7, when he was appointed a Captain of artillery, and on the 31st of July, 1800, he was promoted to a majority in the 2nd regi- ment of artillerists and engineers, and at different periods command- ed at Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, at Rhode Island and Connecticut: Subsequently he was ordered to Tennessee, and afterwards took com- mand of New Orleans and its dependencies, where he remained
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several years ; until the arrival of Gen. Jackson with his troops, in 1814. During the campaign of that distinguished officer, he com- manded the artillery, being then a Lieutenant Colonel, and dis- tinguished himself by his bravery and good conduct in the actions of the 28th of December, 1814, and the Ist and 8th of January, 1815.
" After the peace, Col. McRea was ordered to the command of the 6th Military Department, comprising the military posts in Vir- ginia and North Carolina ; his head quarters were at Norfolk, where he continued upwards of seven years, and afterwards com- manded the forts in the harbor of New York. Thence he was re- moved to the South, and had the command of the artillery stationed in South Carolina and Georgia, for several years. At which period his health being much impaired, he obtained a furlough for the pur- pose of visiting his daughter, who resided at St. Louis, and on his way ,was seized with the Asiatic Cholera, and died on board the steamboat on the 3rd of November, 1832, at the age of 65 years ; more than forty of which had been passed in the service of his country.
"Col. McRea married Miss Mary Champlin, of Newport, only daughter of the late Robert Champlin of that place, by whom he left four children; two of them died in infancy ; his eldest daugh- ter, Cornelia Indiana, died of Asiatic Cholera, near St. Louis, about two years and a half after the death of the Colonel, and the youngest daughter, Mary Eliza, wife of Arthur L. Magenis, Esquire, of St. Louis, (Mo.) died of Consumption, in Washington City, in 1841, leaving two sons, (the only descendants of Col. McRea,) Arthur John, and William McRea Magenis."
Extract from the St. Louis Republican of January 20th, 1834 :
" We are gratified at being able to state, that the remains of the late Colonel McRea, of the U. S. Artillery, who died of Cholera on board the steamboat Express, while on his way from Louisville to this place, were by order of Gen. Atkinson, disinterred, and brought from where they had been deposited, near Golconda, on the Ohio river, to the Jefferson Barracks ; at which place, on Wednesday the 4th instant, they were buried with military honors.
"Col. McRea, at the time of his disease, had been for more than
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forty-one years in the service of his country ; he was one of the last surviving officers of that army, which under the gallant Wayne, first effectually broke the power of the North Western Indians, and gave security to the frontier."
" September 17th, 1726. Joined together at New London, in holy matrimony, John Gidley and Sarah Shackmaple ; the man having been duly published in the church of Newport, in Rhode Island, and the woman in New London, according to the laws of the colony of Connecticut."
Mr. Gidley was an enterprizing merchant in Newport, and son of Judge Gidley of the Vice Admiralty Court in Rhode Island.
He was killed by the explosion of gunpowder on Lyons' wharf. His son John was a midshipman in the British navy.
The Rev. Robert A. Hallam, Rector of St. James' Church, New London in a communication to the author observes : " I find no al- lusion to John Gidley or his wife on our records ; nor do our old people recollect any thing of them. John Shackmaple, the father of Mrs. Gidley, acted a very conspicuous part in the early history of this parish. Indeed he seems to have been the chief agent in its formation. He was its first senior Warden ; chairman of the first committee for the erection of a church, and a liberal contributor of funds for the purpose. He seems to have been a man of standing, character, and substance. Whether he was a native of this town or not, I cannot discover. I have been inclined to suppose, (it is but surmise,) that he was an Englishman, resident here. The house he inhabited, known as the Shackmaple house, was standing in my boyhood, but is now pulled down. The name is extinct, and very few of his descendants remain." Mr. Gidley died at Newport, in 1744, and his wife in 1727, and were interred in Trinity Church Yard. The following inscriptions are transcribed :
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HISTORY OF THE NARRAGANSETT CHURCH.
IN MEMORY OF JOHN GIDLEY, ESQUIRE, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1744, AGED FORTY-FOUR YEARS,
HAVING RECEIVED A WOUND BY THE EXPLOSION OF GUNPOWDER ELEVEN DAYS BEFORE HE EXPIRED.
HERE LIES INTERRED THE BODY OF SARAH, THE WIFE OF JOHN GIDLEY AND DAUGHTER OF JOHN SHACKMAPLE, ESQUIRE, OBIT 12TH OF MAY, 1727, AGED TWENTY-THREE YEARS.
" Oct. 15th, 1730, Joseph Torrey and Elizabeth Will- son were joined together in holy matrimony at the house of Jeremiah Wilson, in South Kingstown, by the Rev. Mr. McSparran."
Doctor Torrey came from Boston, and settled in South Kingstown as a physician. He continued in practice until his death, in 1783. When the first Presbyterian Church was formed in South Kingstown, in May, 1732, Dr. Torrey was ordained their minister by the Rev. Samuel Niles, of Braintree, and continued their preacher until his decease. Dr. Torrey and Dr. McSparran litigated the title to the ministerial lands in the Petaquamscut purchase, the history of which controversy is fully stated in this work. He left ten children, five sons and five daughters. One of his daughters married William Willson Pollock, and many descendants from that branch of the
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family are living. His sons emigrated to other places. The late Mr. Joseph H. Torrey, who married one of the daughters of Gov. Charles Collins, is one of Dr. Torrey's descendants. See Potter's History of Narragansett.
The church gathered by Dr. Torrey was never large, but was respectable in members-it dwindled in the latter part of his life. The church edifice which was erected on Town Hill, went to decay, after his death, and from that period until 1802, the society had only occasional preaching and services, when the Rev. Thomas Kendall was installed over the church. It became almost extinct under the Rev. Mr. Kendall's ministry. In 1819, the church was re-gathered under the Rev. Oliver Brown, and a respectable meeting house was erected for the accommodation of the society at Kingston. The Sewall School which had been established at Town Hill, having like the church become useless as a public benefaction, was, through the influence of Mr. Brown, established at Kingston, and continued during his ministry in a flourishing condition. Mr. Brown was from Charlestown, Massachusetts. He graduated at Cambridge, 1804, was ordained at Newton, Oct. 20th, 1819, and installed pastor of the Kingston Church, Dec. 19th, 1821. He for several years received some assistance from the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The people of Kingston will long remember the many services rendered to the cause of religion and sound learn- ing by Mr. Brown. He exerted himself with great zeal in building up the church and aiding the academy in that village, and was al- ways busy in doing good. Mr. Brown remained pastor of the church until June, 1835, when he removed from Kingston, and is now (1846,) pastor of a church in Lyme, Connecticut.
" May 2d, 1730. Daniel Updike, Attorney General of the colony, and Lieutenant Colonel of the Militia of the Islands, was baptized by immersion (in Petaquam- scut river,) by the Rev. Mr. McSparran, in presence of Mr. McSparran, Hannah McSparran, his wife, and Josiah Arnold, Church Warden, as his witnesses."
Daniel Updike was the son of Lodowick, and the grand-son of
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HISTORY OF THE NARRAGANSETT CHURCH.
Dr. Gilbert Updike, who fled from New Amsterdam, now New York, to Rhode Island, when it was surrendered in 1664 to the British forces under Col. Nichols. He married the daughter of Richard Smith, the first white person who settled in Narragansett, and built the first English house, or fort, amidst the thickest settle- ment of the natives. This house is now standing in North Kings- town, in a good state of preservation. Mr. Smith was a gentleman of wealth and emigrated to this country in consequence of the perse- cutions for religious opinion, in the latter part of the reign of Charles I. Richard Smith, junior, his son, was a Major in the service of Cromwell. Daniel Updike was well educated, studied law, and commenced practice in Newport. He was elected Attorney General of the colony twenty-four years, and was for two years County Attorney for Kings, now Washington County. He was ap- pointed by the Legislature to other important and responsible offices. " As an advocate, he sustained a high reputation, and among other personal advantages, possessed a clear, full, and musical voice. Among his professional brethren he was highly respected, and in all literary and professional associations of his time, his name stands at the head. Col. Updike was the first signer to the constitution of the Literary Society in Newport ; out of which grew the Redwood Library. He was a liberal patron of that institution and owned many shares in it. Mr. Updike and the celebrated Dean Berkely, were intimate friends, while the latter resided at Newport." In testimony of the friendship and esteem which the Dean Berkely en- tertained for him, he presented to him, on his departure for Europe, an elegantly wrought silver coffee pot, which now remains in the oldest branch of the family as a remembrance of this distinguished divine. In 1757, he was re-elected Attorney General, and died the same month, having sustained that office for a longer period than any other person, since the foundation of the government. He left two children, a son and a daughter. His daughter, Mary, married the late Judge John Cole, many years Judge of the Supreme Court of the colony, and Judge Advocate of the State Admiralty Court, during the revolution. His son, Lodowick, married Abigail Gardner, daughter of John Gardner, and neice of Dr. McSparran. He died in 1804, leaving eleven children, six sons and five daughters, viz :
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Daniel, James, Anstis, Mary, Abigail, Sarah, Lydia, Lodowick, Alfred, Gilbert, and Wilkins Updike.
The late Lodowick Updike said, that when a boy, his father used to take him to hear Bishop Berkely preach at Trinity Church, in Newport, where he pretty constantly officiated during his residence in the colony. Like all really learned men, the Dean was tolerant in religious opinion, which gave him a great and deserved popularity with all denominations. All sects rushed to hear him; even the Quakers, with their broad brimmed hats, came and stood in the aisles. In one of his sermons he very emphatically said, " give the devil his due, John Calvin was a great man." See memoirs of the R. I. Bar, page 34.
" August 28th, 1731. Mr. McSparran administer- ed clinick baptism at the house of Christopher Phillips to his child Peter Phillips, he being dangerous- ยท ly sick."
The Phillips family is said, by tradition in the family, to have emigrated from Exeter, England, and were among the early settlers of Narragansett, around Wickford. Samuel Phillips, the first of the family of whom I have any notice, died in 1736, aged eighty-one. His widow, Elizabeth, afterwards married Col. Thomas, and died in 1748. Samuel had children.
1st-Thomas, who, I believe, was twice married and died in 1772, in Exeter. He had two children, (a) Samuel, who died 1748, aged twenty-two, leaving two children, Thomas and Mary ; and (b) Mary who married first her cousin Charles Phillips, and second, Henry Wall, Sheriff, &c.
2nd-Charles, who, as also his wife, Sarah, died in 1753. His children were (a) Charles, who, in 1749 married his cousin, Mary, and died in 1757, leaving Major Samuel, Charles, Sarah and William ; (b) the Hon. Peter Phillips, born 1731, died 1807 ; (c) Frederic ; (d) Elizabeth.
3rd-Samuel, who married Abigail Brown, and had Mary, Thomas, Sarah, Henry, &c. Of these Thomas married Elizabeth
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Brown, and their children were Thomas Phillips, of Exeter, deceased, Peter Phillips, of North Kingstown, a member of the Con- vention to form the State Constitution, and now living, and others. Thomas Phillips, last named, was father of Thomas Phillips, Town Clerk of Exeter, Samuel Phillips, late Senator from that town, John Phillips, &c.
4th-Mary, who, in 1718, married John Dickinson. Their chil- dren were Samuel and a daughter, who married a Matteson.
Major Samuel, son of Charles, and subject of this notice, was born at the family residence, near Wickford, Dec. 20th, 1749, and died Aug. 10th, 1808. He was four times married ; first to- Rath- burn, by whom he had a daughter, Mary, who married Daniel Eldred ; second, to - Pearce, by whom he had a daughter, Thankful, who married Peleg Lawton ; third, to Dorothy Bowyer, by whom he had Charles L., now living, Gen. Peter B., lately de- ceased, and Margaret, who died young. By his last wife he had no children.
Major Phillips, in early life, became an active whig in the revo- lutionary controversy. In August, 1776, he was commissioned by John Hancock, President of the United Colonies, as Captain of the Sixth Company of the First Regiment of the Brigade raised by this state, which was taken into continental pay and constituted part of the American army. On the 22nd of January, 1777, he was again commissioned by Gov. Cooke (the original commissions signed by Hancock and Cook now remain in the family,) a Captain of a company of State Infantry in Col. Stanton's regiment. In 1777, Captain Phillips was a volunteer, and commanded one of the five boats in the expedition commanded by Col. Burton for the capture of General Prescot ; he was Captain of a company in Sullivan's expedition, in Rhode Island, in 1778. The next year he entered the naval service, and in a journal, written by himself, he has left the following account of his services :
MEMORANDUM OF THE NAVAL EXPERIENCE OF MAJOR SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
I entered into an agreement, in March 4th, 1779, with George Waite Babcock, Commander of a 20 gun Ship called the Mifflin, to go as his Lieutenant, after which, cruising upon the Banks of New- foundland, we fell in with the Transport Ship Prosper, mounting 18. 15 A
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guns, 100 troops and 30 seamen, and after an engagement of three quarters of an hour close on board, and killing the Captain and 16 men, she struck to us ; ten days after that we fell in with the Tar- tar privateer off the Western Islands, mounting 26 guns, 14 swivels, and 162 men, we having 130 men on board, (and having at the same time on board of us 80 prisoners to guard) which engagement con- tinued close on board for two hours and a half, and after killing her Captain and and twenty-three men, she struck to us. We arrived at Boston with her and a number of prizes. I then made an agree- ment with Andrew Corbitt and Mungo Mackee, merchants of Bos- ton, who bought said ship Tartar, to go out first Lieutenant, David Porter, Esq., Commander, with 160 men on board, on a cruise off the Island of Jamaica. We landed at Montego Bay, which the British papers, under the Kingston head, gave a full account of in January 29th, 1780, and took a number of prizes and carried them into Port au Prince. Afterwards, having accounts from a Dutch vessel that there were three heavy Letter of Marques going to beat the windward passage, we sailed immediately, and off Cape Tiberou, in the evening, we saw three sail, when, it being squally and very thick, we hove too till day light. These three ships proved to be the Ruby, a 64, the Niger, of 32, and the Pomonia, of 28 guns each, and they continued to play their bow chasers on us for two hours, and we played our stern chasers on them, but we got into a place called Petty Snew, where we were covered by two batteries. We lay there 42 hours, and the said ships kept cruising off and on-after- wards, coming out, the Pilot not being well acquainted, we struck three times, and damaged our ship very much, so that we went up to Port au Prince and condemned her .- I then took charge of a prize, and came home to Boston. In the year 1781, I was made choice of by Mungo Mackee and Captain George Waite Babcock, to go out first Lieutenant of the ship Mifflin, of 20 guns, and 150 men .- Cruising off Charleston, South Carolina, we fell in with a fleet, and were taken by the Roebuck, a 44, the Rawley, 30, and the Hyena, of 28 guns, and carried into South Carolina. Afterwards I was ex- changed for a British Lieutenant of a Man-of-War, as appears by my exchange. After getting to Newbern, North Carolina, I took the command of a brig mounting 14 four pounders, belonging to John W. Standley of that place, to cruise off Sandy Hook. After sailing,
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we fell in with the Chatham, of 50 guns, and the Caron of 44 guns, and were taken and carried into New York ; but by the assistance of Mr. William Wanton I got my parole. After arriving home, be- fore I was exchanged, I was sent for by Captain David Porter, by a letter dated May 28, 1781, to go out Lieutenant of a Ship mounting 18 guns, and could not go, being then a prisoner. After I was ex changed, I was sent for by Captain John P. Rathbone to go firs Lieutenant of the ship Waxford, 170 men, to cruise in St. George's Channel, which I accepted, and after sailing on the 28th of Septem- ber, 1781, we fell in with the Recovery frigate, of 40 guns, and 300 men, commanded by Lord Hervey, and after 24 hours chase, on the 29th, in the morning, we were captured, and carried into Ireland, and from thence to Kinsale prison, and after being there two months, I was sent to Portsmouth, in England. They not receiving me in Fortune prison, I was put on board a 60 gun ship, called the Medway, and sent round in a fleet to Plymouth, and put on board a guard ship called the Dunkirk, but by the assistance of friends I made my escape, and got on board a neutral ship bound to Ostend, and went to Orient; falling in with an American ship of 20 guns, called the Sant Luianna, I arrived at Philadelphia, and from thence home. I was afterwards sent for by Colonel Leans and Smith, of Boston, to go out first Lieutenant of a Cutter, called the Assurance, David Porter, Commander, in December, 1782, bound to cruise off the Island of Jamaica, which I accepted, and after sailing, we took a prize called the love-our crew having the small pox on board, I prevailed with the Captain, as I had had the small pox, to take the command of said prize, and go to the Havanna with her ; but by distress of weather and other misfortunes, I was obliged to go to the town of Campeachy, in the Bay of Mexico, which appears by my documents and papers. Afterwards, hearing of the blessings of peace, I arrived at home in August, 1783. Thus, I have been in the late war Lieutenant of four 20 gun Ships, one Cutter of 14 guns, and Commander of a Brig of 14 guns, as can be proved by letters and other documents now in my hands. As an individual, I have ever strove hard and suffered much to help to gain the independence of my country, which I ever held near and dear to me; and am ready to step forth again and oppose any power whatever, that shall
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endeavour to trample or otherwise injure my country and her rights.
SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
Upon the termination of the war Mr. Phillips retired to his farm in North Kingstown, where he remained in quiet until the threatened rupture with France in 1799, when he was commissioned by Pre- sident Adams as a Lieutenani, and served under Captain Raymond Perry, in the General Greene. After the treaty with France, he again retired to his farm near Wickford, where he died, August 10, 1808, in the 59th year of his age, and was buried on his farm. He was an accomplished gentleman, and sustained a high character for integrity and honor.
Peter Phillips was the son of Christopher, and grandson of Samuel Phillips. He was born in North Kingstown, 1731. The family were staunch friends of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett from its commencement. Mr. Phillips was generally constituted one of the Wardens or Vestry ; was a liberal patron, and regularly attend- ed the ministrations of the church. In the revolution he was an early and inflexible whig, and rendered important services to his country during the war. In 177*, he was elected to represent his native town in the General Assembly, and, in 1775, he was pro- moted to the Senate, and at May, he was elected Commissary of "The Army of Observation," a body of fifteen hundred men, raised by the state, of which Nathaniel Greene was elected Brigadier General. Mr. Phillips was re-elected State Senator for the years 1776, '7, '8, '9. In 1780, the legislature appointed him one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State, and he was continued of the same tribunal for five consecutive years. In 1785, Mr. Phillips was elected by the people, a delegate to represent Rhode Island in the Confederated Congress, but did not take his seat in that body. In 1786, he declined a re-appointment on the bench of the Supreme Court. The legislature, desirous of retaining Mr. Phillips in the public service, elected him to the office of Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for his native county, in the year 1795. He soon resigned all public honors and retired to private life. All the various civil and military appointments that were conferred upon
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