USA > Rhode Island > Early Rhode Island; a social history of the people > Part 10
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The peculiar probate customs have been noted. 105 A practical illustration is recorded in 1676. 106 Resolved Waterman, of Providence, had died intestate at Newport in 1671. The Town Council then "made a will," allotting to the widow Mercy the enjoyment of the house and lot, other lands and meadows, with the cattle for her " mainte- nance and ye bringing vp of ye orphans five small chil- dren." Samuel Windsor had persuaded the widow Mercy to reinforce her lone estate, and "publication of mar- riage " was made. As the former council did not for- mally " perfect their agreement," this council virtually confirms the former action. It also voted to carry out the items in will of the grandfather, Richard Waterman.
Silk grass beds were frequently used. One appears in 1695 107 with a feather bolster and pillow " much worn." all to the value of 16s. All the money found in this case was laid out in the funeral, but the party was respect- ably dressed, for his apparel was valued at £8. 5. Out- fits of tools showed the improvement in carpentry in the
104 Journal, p. 30.
199 Ante, p. 87.
:os " Early Rer.," Vol. VIII., p. $27.
$$1 " Early Her," Vol. XVII., pp. 63, 159.
123
Interesting Customs
1699]
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second generation. Wm. Carpenter, of Pawtuxet, had £2. 16. worth, including "tenn ogegers Greater and Smaller " at 12s. in 1685.
The most careful provision was made for widows, and minute changes were prescribed in case they married again. August 21, 1694, 108 Thomas Man devised various lega- cies of lands and goods to his sons and daughters. To the widow was given the use of all the household goods, while she remained a widow. In event of marriage three- quarters of the household goods was bequeathed to the five daughters and one-quarter to their mother. The personal estate amounted to £149. 11. 6.
February 1, 1695-6, Wm. Vincent left £4. 6. in wearing apparel, £1. 10. in pewter, 12s. in bookes, out of a per- sonal estate of £63. 2. Explicitly and with excellent brevity the appraisers recorded :
" As to debts wee know not " As to money wee find not."
The prudent Ephraim Carpenter 108 had only £3. in wear- ing apparel, with " Boots and Portmanle " 7s. 6d. He was a small shopkeeper, probably, having 313 pounds tobacco at 3d., £3. 18. 3. and 3s. 6d. in " Cotten Wooll." Shortly after, Valentine Wightman appeared, leaving wearing ap- parel at £4.2. " Kash " in N. E. Coyne £38.6. "Kash " in Spanish Money £42. 8. One testament, part of a bible and another small book, in all only 3s.
Curious and interesting forecast was often manifest in arrangements for inheritance between parents and chil- dren. June 26, 1701, 109 Joseph Aldridge and J. A., Jr.,
108 " Early Rec.," Vol VII., 185.
108 Ibid, pp. 177, 195, 202.
100 Ibid, p. 206.
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124 . The Colony and the Town of Providence
both signing with marks make over " to son," the house-lot and orchard of about 20 acres, retaining the use of one- half the orchard. The son was to maintain three cows for the use of his father and mother for life and to plow one acre for them. Aldridge had other property and other children.
Arthur " ffenner," a country gentleman, residing on his estate in Cranston, died in 1703. His inventory is worth considering, as he was a military man in public life, as well as a farmer. The personal estate was £166. 8s. He had 3 shirts, 5 waistcoats, 7 pair breeches, 1 pair drawers, 3 loose coats ; and he walked bravely in boots and spurs with a buff belt, and he could adorn himself with 3 pair silver buttons. There were some shoes and other articles bringing up his wardrobe to £8. 6. In money £2. 15. The great bible stood at £1. 18., a statute book £2. 10., 7 small books 19s .; a respectable library for such a man in times not given to much reading. Bridle, saddle, port- mantle and " male pillion " £1. ; 2 guns and 1 pistol £2. Warming pan 8s., 3 greatchairs and 7 small at 12s .; 2 spinning wheels and cards 8s. In cattle and horses £49. 16., with some horses and mares "not yet found," being on the common. In farm produce 29 loads hay and 1 stack stalks £20. 12.
A fair supply of chairs was common now for well-to-do people and they were a comparative luxury a generation earlier. In a small farmer's estate, where the personal was £93. 3. with wearing apparel at £4. 2., there were 4 chairs at 5s. and a small table at 3s .; 1 joynt-stool at ls. 8. The " joynt-stool " was almost invariably represented from the beginning. It was made of parts morticed and in- serted together, and probably was of home construc- tion.
Major John Dexter had the large personal estate of
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1699]
Intestate Estates and Feather Beds
£757. 19. 6., in 1706. His wardrobe was £9. 1. 6., rein- forced with a cane when he walked, worth 14s .; and he could choose between a sword and belt at £4. 6., and an- other at 16s. When he mounted his horse, saddle, bridle, boots, spurs and portmantle stood at £11. 10. This was a brave outfit for a farmer, but he was forehanded, having in cash £168, and in bills for money lent £343. 8. 6. A concordance and several books £1. 17. Now appears sil- ver in 2 " Dram Cupps " 15s., and " some glass cupps." Without doubt silver plate was used early in Newport, and it appeared in a Portsmouth inventory in 1667. Dex- ter had a moderate farming outfit, including 25 goats and 7 kids (unusual as this period), with 56 sheep and 30 lambs.
August 9, 1711, William Turpin died " intested," and the more delicate problem, occasioned by a mother-in-law, must be met. These settlements of intestate estates are especially significant, for they directly indicate the state of public opinion. There were the widow Anne and three children, one a son. Wm. Turpin, the son, agrees 110 with his mother-in-law to allow her the room now occupied by her in his father's house for life, with one good bedstead, 1 good feather bed and bolster, 2 pair good sheets, 1 pair good blankets, " cupple " good pillows, 2 pillow beers, 1 good coverlid, to be " her own estate." To maintain her for life, with sufficient victuals and drink and washing and suitable attendance. The benefit of the fire to go to and from and abide by it, with " free Recorse to and from said Roome." To allow her £40. current silver, to be paid £10. annually for four years. If she be sick so that " she must Improve a Phisitian," that charge to be borne out of her own estate.
In the seventeenth century, feather beds were of the 110 " Early Rec.," Vol. VII., p. 180.
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The Colony and the Town of Providence
very most important personal effects. After a roof for shelter and a fire in the chimney, the best comfort was to be found in a good nest of feathers. Samuel Whip- ple's inventory 111 affords an example, for it contains 4 feather beds and complete outfit £38. 5., and one flock bed complete £3. 10. Wearing apparel averaged £6. to £7. for the ordinary citizen. Unless there was positive poverty it did not generally fall below, and the well condi- tioned man seldom wore better clothing in the agricul- tural period. After commerce widened out, we shall see a change. Military men had swords, belts, etc., in addi- tion. Elisha Arnold left £4. 2. in 3 small guns, sword, " bagginit and cadous box." He had more than the usual number of 5 spinning wheels with old cards and " woos- ted " combs, all worth £3. 1. His brass ladle, pots and kettles of iron and brass, with dripping pan and frying pan, stood at £11. 12. In cattle, horses, sheep, and swine he had £78. 5., with "money and Bills and Plate " £25. 1. 4. in 1711. 112
February 27, 1710, 1, Thomas Harris, 113 a leading citi- zen, divided his estate between five sons and three daugh- ters. To his other sons he gave outlying lands; to Henry one-half of his homestead house and 120 acres, the other half to Elnathan, his wife, for life, and afterward to Henry. Three " purchase rights of common " were given to the five sons. To his daughter, Amity Mors, £20. in money. To his two daughters unmarried, Elnathan and Mary, he gave each one feather bed and furniture, £20. in money, one-half a weaver's loom with its tackling. His wearing apparel was appraised at £7. Henry Harris and the widow were executors, receiving the personal
111 " Early Rec.," Vol. VII., p. 25.
112 Ibid., p. 44.
113 Ibid., p. 48.
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127
Women Sign with a Mark
1699]
property, cattle, one negro at £10. and they were to liqui- date the debts.
Occasionally we perceive the infelicity of common life. December 30, 1711, 114 Thomas Cooper gives his son Rob- ert 5s. and no more " by Reason he has disobeied my Com- ands and left me in a strait of time before he was of age." There was a Bible at 4s., and there were very few books in the earlier inventories. Three spinning wheels and a pair of cards at 10s. Many inventories have flax and small quantities of tobacco, as grown by the farmers. Cooper's whole personal estate was £96. 11. 5.
The men usually signed their names, and the women as generally signed with a mark X. They were educated, or rather brought up in conspicuous families. The men got their training from everyday life; but women employed at the dairy, the spinning wheel or the loom, had not as good an opportunity. In provisions made for apprentices, 115 we have seen how much reading and writing was desider- ated. The inventory of Solomon Thornton dates two years later than our period, but it reflects so fully the life of this time that we may study its details. His personal estate was £147. 5. 2., of which £1. 8. 6. was in money, and in wearing apparel he had expended £8. 5. One loom and its tackling stood at £2. 10. A small par- cel of worsted with " other yarn," flax, wool, and 1 woollen wheel was worth only 4s. Probably Thornton bought yarns to supply his weaving. Worsted combs appear in many of the farmers' inventories. There were three pieces " new cloath " 93 yards-" Cursey and plaine fulled," 3 yds. ozen brigs, 14 yds. tow cloth, in all £4. 9. 6. In yarns 73 lbs. worsted £1. 11. 6 .; 3 lbs. hose do with 193 lbs. colored £1. 13. In wool 93 lbs. worsted £1. 3. 6 .;
114 " Early Rec.," Vol. VII., p. 193. 115 Ante, p. 113.
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The Colony and the Town of Providence
17 lbs. " sheep's wooll " -. There was a large supply of pewter in lots, as a pewter " Tanker " and two beakers, two dram-cups and a salt cellar, "9 spoones being one occamy (alchemy) and the Rest Pewter," all valued at 12s. Some wooden and a lot of earthen ware, a cream pot, 3 earthen pans, an earthen jug and 5 glass bottles, all worth 5s. Six new pewter platters were appraised at £2. 8., with a small quantity of flax and tobacco at £2. 1. Glass bottles appear frequently, but no drinking glasses as yet. Wooden and earthen ware served for kitchen utensils, with pewter for the better table service. A few years later we shall see a more elaborate arrange- ment and a better service for the table.
In 1695,116 apparently the first monthly meeting of the Town Council was ordered by the Town. The ferry at the narrow passage over the Seekonk was in the possession of widow Mary Edmond in 1696, when the "King's Post " was permitted to pass free of ferriage. This was the first public post and marks the increase of intercourse in the developing plantation. Prisons were erected in 1698 and 1705 northwest of the present Benefit Street. The year 1700 marks a most significant departure from the individuality shown in burial customs of the early settlers. Nearly every family had a burial-ground of its own-generally in or near its home-lot in our planta- tion. The parish churchyard of England had been fol- lowed in the other colonies by common burial places, at- tached or at least near to the meeting-house. It was a feature of communal life and partook of the ecclesiastical sanctity descended from the Roman through the Protes- tant church. In Providence, death even could not end separatism; and a common burial-ground could not be attained until commerce began to relax the prejudices 116 Staples, p. 184.
129
Division of Labor Beginning
1700]
of the individuals, whose ancestors had been driven out from Puritan commonwealths. Now the land on the Moshassuck and eastward to the Pawtucket highway by Archibald Walker's was appropriated "for a training field, burying-ground and other public uses." The pres- ent North Burial Ground is a part of this tract and grad- ually the family cemeteries were abandoned in favor of it. Of the colony tax of £400 ordered in 1701, £65 was as- signed to Providence, showing complete recovery from the depression after King Philip's War. A subscription amounting to £21. 9. was opened for rebuilding Weybosset Bridge in 1705. Gideon Crawford subscribed £6. This method of raising funds must have been abandoned, as only fourteen citizens responded.
Weaving was recognized as an important function in colonial life.117 Land was assigned early to " a weaver," and we have noted that Wm. Austin took an apprentice in 1674 for the "art and trade." "John Angel, weaver," was appointed by the town to serve in place of the " Towne Sargant," 118 an important official early in the eighteenth century.
An interesting instance shows custom and the inter- play of necessary regulations in a farming community. Stray cattle and horses were a constant trouble. Often impounded, sometimes they were sent to Rehoboth or else- where, and the charges collected. There are nearly one hundred pages of record, 1678-1746,119 devoted to cattle
117 Division of labor began to manifest itself as the century went out. In 1700 Joseph Smith was granted 3 acres near Wanskuck for a weaver's shop. A fulling mill had then been operated for some time. Jan. 27, 1703-4 (" R. I. H. S.," New Series, Vol. IV., p. 214) Wm. Smith was granted a lot 40 ft. square for a "weaver's shop." He was to build within one year and follow his trade.
118 " Early Rec. Prov.," Vol. XVII., p. 291.
119 Ibid., Vol. IX., pp. 103-197. Enrolment of Deaths, Marriages, and Births, 1679-1724 appears in " Early Records," Vol. V., p. 203.
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The Colony and the Town of Providence
marks and the taking of strays. Valuations of horses varied from £1. when afflicted with the pole evil, to £6. and £7. July 7, 1909,120 occurs a case which shows the con- flict of rules. James Thornton, of Providence, complains that a sorrel white face jumped fences and continually damaged his grass. There being no pound, he was obliged to " secure him in my yard." He learned the owner had gone to Block Island, " a Souldiar, therefore could not proceed against him as a stray, but as a 'Tres- passer.'" Thornton would keep the horse, valued at 25s. for one year, when, unless the damages were paid, he would ask the authorities to dispose of him.
The century did not exhaust the pest of wolves, for the bounty was paid for killing fourteen in 1687.
Gradual increase of commerce is indicated by the frequent grants of " ware house lots " about 1697-1698. The proprietors, acting slowly, as always, took each to himself a lot for a warehouse and sometimes a wharf in Weybosset or on the Towne Strecte. These were not distributed by the favorite lottery, but the petitioner gen- erally took the water lot opposite his own homestead. February 17, 1703-4,12 the influential Thomas Olney, town clerk, obtained a resolution which attempted to check the granting of these lots and confine them to " those who may legally vote." 122
120 " Early Rec. Prov.," Vol. IX., p. 177.
121 " R. I. H. S.," New Series, Vol. IV., p. 211.
122 A resolution was enacted by the Purchasers & Proprietors July 27, 1704 (E. R., Vol. XI., p. 88), that no more wharf lots should be granted on salt water, north of Town Wharf (about present Crawford St., and west of the River), "Because there is so Constant a Passing to cross the Water (and back) from Wayboysett side to the Towne with Cannoes and Boates, Rideing and Carting and Swimming over of Cattell from side to side; and the streame often times Running so swift, and many times Rough water by Reason of stormy Winds."
131
Communication Improves
1709]
Farming life still encumbered the ways of the settled plantation. So late as 1715, goats, swine and horses belonging to the freeholders " ran riot in the woodlands." The dread of absorption by Connecticut had kept back westward communication. The Plainfield highway voted in 1706-begun 1709-10, showed the passing of this prej- udice.
Movement for a road to Woodstock and Killingly, Conn., indicates progress. But the backward condition of Providence is clearly shown by the fact that they still sent for medical and surgical aid to Rehoboth, then in- cluding a part of Attleboro.123 But as the century turned the old " tumults and heats " 124 of town meeting ended. The seething and fermenting process of the early planta- tion had worked out a community, not of the most orderly kind, but sufficient for tolerable government. Institutions were established slowly ; but the time had passed when an individual-however great-might be an institution unto himself. Mr. Dorr's significant phrase, " the planting and growth of Providence," may be considered as worked out and completed with the century. The greatest personal influences like Williams, Gorton, and Coddington had long passed by. The secondary men also had finished their work. William Harris was far unlike the men bred at Cambridge or the new order being formed at Harvard; but he had grown up in the school of affairs, and had been much in England, engaged in large transactions. He read not only law, theology and medicine, but turned the pages of the "Gentleman Jockey." There was some- thing cosmopolitan in this hearty pioneer. Most planters read Scripture and concordance, but Thomas Olney, man- ager of meetings and incipient ruler of men, could unbend,
123 Dorr, " Planting and Growth of Providence," p. 77. 124 Ibid., p. 212.
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The Colony and the Town of Providence
while soothing his politician's spirit with the Independent Ainsworth's " Annotations " on the Psalms and Song of Solomon.
Coddington was on the whole the largest and most effec- tive link between the practical life of the Old World and the forming growth of the new community on Narragan- sett Bay. Commerce at Newport, introduced by him and powerfully conducted by the Quakers, was opening the way for the very best colonial life of the next century. The most casual survey of this developing commonwealth should include the remarkable outgrowth of the judiciary. It moved on the old lines of established law, but adminis- tered penal measures in a humane spirit-far advanced over the olden courts or ecclesiastical procedure.
Meanwhile the poorer agriculture of Providence Planta- tion was painfully expanding toward a larger develop- ment, as commerce should widen out the little community in the early eighteenth century. The forming period had passed with scanty help from the learning of Europe; such as this was, it would be had no more in the expanding period next to come. Men like the cooper-preacher Par- don Tillinghast carried over the average citizen until new American life could produce the Hopkinses, the Browns, and their fellows.
CHAPTER V
KING'S COUNTY, THE PATRIARCHAL CONDITION. 1641-1751
THE southwestern portion of our mainland contained the larger part of the Narragansett nation. Roger Williams, whose instincts for business were better than his political understanding, early saw the economic impor- tance of the Narragansett 1 Country, and he built a trad- ing-house near the present Wickford. It is claimed by some 2 that his adventure was even earlier than that of the actual settler, Richard Smith, who afterward added Roger Williams' possessions to his own, when the proprie- tor needed the funds for his expenses in London, as he was getting the first charter.
About 1641, Richard Smith, who had been a resident of Taunton, bought land from the sachems and began " Howsing lands and meadow." In the words of Francis Brinley, " among the thickest of the Indians (computed at 30,000) he erected a house for trade, and gave free entertainment to travelers ; it being the great road of the country." 3 The " Pequot Path " became a bridle patlı in the seventeenth century ; in the eighteenth it was a link in the "Post Road," then the most traveled way between Boston and New York. Smith's settlement did not attain a permanent character, until the Pettaquamscutt pur- chase made by John Hull and others of Boston in 1658.
1 For the name cf. Rider, " Indian Lands," p. 203.
2 Brigham, p. 98n.
3 Updike, " Narragansett Church," Goodwin's Ed., Vol. I., 13.
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King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
The next year Major Atherton and his partners acquired the second purchase, covering Quidnesset and Boston Neck, the southeastern corner of our mainland.
Richard Smith deserves notice from his association with Roger Williams, and in that he was an important pioneer in the settlement of Rhode Island. In the words of his memorial tablet, "He lived near Wiekford at Cocum- scussuc commonly called Smith's Castle and there Roger Williams often preached to the Indians and William Blackstone held the first regular services in the colony of Rhode Island." 4
At this period, contemporary with the coming of num- bers of Quakers to Newport, our colonists were firmly established in the Narragansett country, until the Indian war of 1675 and 1676 should harass and interrupt them for a time. The " Swamp Fight " abolished this constant if latent source of peril. The Narragansetts were de- stroyed as an organized nation or political force, though the individual barbarians lived alongside our colonists. This early interim of occupation-peaceful so far as the red proprietors were concerned-did not mean that aggres- sive Puritans would leave the government of Rhode Island in peaceful possession. Massachusetts reached through Warwick, and down to Pawcatuck, arresting the citizens, Burdick and Saunders, for imprisonment in Boston in 1661. On the other side, the strong colony of Connecticut claimed jurisdiction by the King's grant as far eastward as Narragansett Bay. John Crandall and others were seized and imprisoned in Hartford in 1671.
Misquamicut or Westerly had been purchased from Sosoa, chief of the Niantics, in 1661 by William Vaughn Stanton and others of Newport.
Proprietors from Newport bought lands across the 4 Updike, " Narragansett Church," Goodwin's Ed., Vol. I., p. 330.
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Seventh Day Baptists
1671]
Bay, and the estates improved under their care developed a social atmosphere differing from that of other parts of the colony. The merchants-as in the fable of Antæus- enjoying their return to mother earth were not quite like citizens of towns struggling to establish a new civic life. We shall see early in the eighteenth century how this social life affected the community at large.
Along with this patrician culture, there was another element in the life of the Seventh Day Baptists, a denomi- nation very strong in Hopkinton and Westerly The meeting of John Clarke and of Henry Collins, who was called a " Medici," waned in Newport, in the latter eigh- teenth century ; but it waxed strong in the western towns and by emigration into western New York. Seven persons seceded from the First Baptist Church at Newport in 1671 and organized the first Sabbatarian Church. A few of these soon joined the first freemen at Westerly. Their first meeting house was built about 1680, between Shat- tuck's Weir and Potter Hill in the present town of Hop- kinton.
When Mr. Prince of Cambridge visited Westerly in 1721, he reported " the Sectaries here are chiefly Bap- tists that keep Saturday as a Sabbath." They were very liberal and catholic in their treatment of Prince. Earnest and conscientious, excellent citizens, the main tenet of this division of Baptists was separative rather than concilia- tory, and they were protestants of the Protestants, tend- ing toward isolation.
The Indian and negro population-well mixed after the abolition of slavery-was a drag on the best life of the time. Some colored families emerging from the mass, became landowners or mechanics and were most helpful citizens.
When Winthrop and Clarke negotiated in London for
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King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
agreement in securing the charters of both colonies, the latter obtained a favorable position for Rhode Island, which Winthrop undoubtedly yielded lest he might lose the Connecticut charter altogether. Connecticut claimed that he exceeded his powers and asserted her sovereignty over the Narragansett country as has been noted. Twenty of her armed men crossed the Pawcatuck. On her part, Rhode Island seized John Greene of Quidnesset, who favored Connecticut, and carried him to Newport, threatening others with arrest.
The Narragansett proprietors, including Richard Smith and Increase Atherton, met July 2, 1663.5 They recorded that as "Poynt Juda " had no harbor and could not be improved for farms and plantations, for the present it should lie common to the twenty-two proprietors for their " Drye Cattle " and that two houses should be built. The next day they voted to place themselves under the protection of Connecticut Colony in preference to that of Rhode Island.
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