USA > Rhode Island > Early Rhode Island; a social history of the people > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
King Philip's War in 1675 and 1676 laid waste the dwellings of the Narragansett Country, but the settlers soon recovered from these disasters. Industries were started in Westerly on the Pawcatuck River before the eastern part of the county had advanced so far. Joseph Wells at that point, built vessels for buyers in Connecti- cut as early as 1681.
We have details of the schooner " Alexander and Martha," built by him and which sailed from New Lon- don, and the builder was to own at least one-eighth part. She was forty feet long, her deck falling by the main mast, and had a cabin, cook room and forecastle. 6
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes sent out an emigra-
6 " Fones Record," p. 23.
" Field, " Providence," Vol. III., p. 579.
137
Huguenot Culture
1686]
tion, which became an important element in the population and in the life of America. No community then existing more effectually developed arts and crafts with cor- responding culture than the Huguenots. Rhode Island gained much thereby and might have profited more had not the turbulent neighbors oppressed the first Hugue- not settlers. In 1686, some forty-five of these French families settled in northern Kingstown and southern East Greenwich, buying a large tract of the Atherton pro- prietors.7 Unfortunately this land was claimed by ad- joining English settlers, with some show of right. In 1687, these contestants carried off forty loads of hay from the meadows of Frenchtown, as the hamlet was called. Governor Andros could not finally adjudicate the matter, and ordered a division of the hay, half to the English and half to the French. Two dozen dwellings had been occupied and a church built. Such oppressive treatment crushed this settlement and scattered the in- habitants. The Ayraults went to Newport. Many of the names, slightly Anglicized, remained in the South Country, and we may note the Mawneys (LeMoines), Chadseys, Tourgees, Tarboxes, Frys, and Nicholses. Remains of the original French orchard on the Mawney farm were visible in the nineteenth century. 8 Current tradition attributed to the French the introduction of many fine varieties of the apple, pear, peach, plum and cherry and of choice flowers. The influence of these in- teresting pilgrims was an abiding one.
A horse-ferry was established between Kingstown and Conanicut, continuing to Newport in 1700. A new ferry from Kingstown to Conanicut was instituted in 1707. The Queen's, afterward the "Post Road," was laid out
7 Brigham, " R. I.," p. 150. :
8 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. I., p. 365.
138
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
about 1703. It was still a bridle path when Madam Knight went over it in 1704. This indicates the settle- ment and improvement of the South County. The first bridge over the Pawcatuck at the old ford " Shaw's " on the "Indian Trail " was built by contribution about 1712; the next in 1735, was one-half at the charge of the Rhode Island colony, and one-half was paid for by the town of Stonington. The fact that Stonington did so much, shows how important was this communication with New York and Boston.
Proprietorship in lands by the seashore influenced the community and carried it along lines differing somewhat from the ordinary town in New England. The Puritan element existed, but it proceeded differently. Prior to 1700, there came to this region, families attached to the worship of the Church of England. They were few in number, but " They were very earnest " 9 for that faith. According to Doctor MacSparran, Trinity Church was built at Newport in 1702, and St. Paul's, his own, in Nar- ragansett in 1707.10 The first existing record of the lat- ter is dated April 14, 1718,11 and Gabriel Bernon was a vestryman. He was a Huguenot refugee from Rochelle and, soon removing to Providence, became very prominent in founding King's or St. John's Church there. He pos- sessed a keen intellect, was liberal minded for his time and a firm believer in self-government. His positive views were formulated according to the time, but they were ex- plicitly free and adumbrated the modern citizen. "Roger Williams and all those, that have settled in our Provi- dence town, have been persecuted, bruised and banished out of Massachusetts government, for not submitting
· Updike, Goodwin's Ed., Vol. I., p. 337.
10 Ibid., p. 31.
11 Ibid., p. 38.
139
1718]
Gabriel Bernon the Cosmopolitan
themselves to the arbitrary power of the Presbytery and we fear nothing more than this arbitrary power of the clergy. Power before Popery did ruin the world, and, since Popery, the arbitrary power of the clergy hath ruined Europe." 12 An early effort to aid the woollen in- dustry dates from 1719, when Col. George Hazard gave Thomas Culverwell one-half acre of land for a fulling- mill for "Promoting ye Wooling Manufactuary which may be for my benefit and the Publick Good." 13 The land was to be " drowned " in making the dam. These central fulling mills were essential for converting the homespun fabrics into substantial cloth. A fulling mill was estab- lished at Hamilton, then Bissell's Mills, in 1720.14
One of the earliest inventories recorded is that of George Cook Feb. 3, 1703-4. 15 His wearing apparel and arms stood at £14. Of the great household staple, the feather bed, he had two at £40, together with one silk grass and one wool bed at £ .. Six pair sheets and one pair pil- low beers at £6.10. One dozen napkins and one table cloth were appraised at £1.10. Brass, iron and pewter appropriated £8. In silver plate there was one cup and six spoons at £4.6. A fair line of cattle and sheep with ten of horsekind worth £40.16 comprised his stock ; cared for by one negro at £30. The personal estate was £342.19.
There seemed to be a large proportion of horses in the different estates, caused by the demand for export prob- ably. James Wilson with personal property at £367.7, in the following year had 31 horsekind at £74. Cattle and sheep at £187.5. He spent £20 on wearing apparel,
12 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. I., p. 60.
13 " So. Kingstown Rec., Vol. I., p. 101.
14 " Hazard Family," Robinson, p. 29.
15 Council Records So. Kingston, Vol. I., p. 3.
140
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
. while his household furnishing was narrow; the pewter, earthern ware and three candlesticks being worth only £3.10. One negro woman £15.
Robert Hannah in 1706 held the same tenets concerning corporeal immortality, we have noted elsewhere in the colony. "Nothing doubting but at the general Resur- rection I shall receive the same (my body) again by the mighty power of God." He was a thrifty man with £378.12 personal estate, and having left his sons pro- vided with lands, cattle and negroes. His stock was worth £157.14. A negro woman and five children were valued at £110; three feather beds and one flock with furniture £26.
Almost everybody had spinning wheels and cards or combs, for woolen, worsted or linen yarns. There were many personal estates about £360 to £375. Young negroes appear to have been valued at prices relatively low. In 1710, one negro of 17 years, one boy of 4 years, one girl of 2 years, were lumped with a cart; yokes and tools at £93.18. A different class of society is represented in the property of Bethiah Collvill, widow, altogether £28.15. Her cow, swine, mares and eight sheep were worth £16.17. She had one bed and 7s. in pewter; two wheels and one pair cards at 8s. And in 1713, Katharine Bull had one new " sute uper clothing " £4.12. In head linen and rest of the wearing apparel £7. In pewter and tin £1.14, in iron and brass 9s., in wooden ware, etc., 7s. Her total personal estate was £30.16.
There were very few books mentioned. Rowse Helme in 1712, with personal estate of £284.17.1, had one bible and small books at 10s. His outfit indicates the slightly bet- ter style of living which was creeping in. Four feather beds, bedsteads and furniture stood at £30.9. One table cloth, 7 napkins, 1 sheet were valued at £1.11; nineteen
141
1716]
Comforts Increase
napkins and two table cloths at £1.7; one bolster and nine pillow cases at £1. In pewter there was £4.1. There was £1.17.6 in 12} yards new " flannen " and some cotton and woolen yarn. A negro man at £30, a woman at £15.
Samuel Perry in the year 1716 16 marks a social lift in the various items of his personal estate £730.16. He not only dressed better but he displayed a watch and cane in his outfit of £53. The household furnishing was decid- edly better; five feather beds and hangings with furni- ture at £100, one flock bed and fittings at £6, three beds and bedding for servants at £13.10. In cattle and cows £129.10. In horses, one three years old, five two years old and a yearling represented £62, with six mares and three colts at £52. The table and cooking service showed con- siderable betterment; £6.11 in tin ware, £11.5 in pewter, in brass ware including a warming pan £2.8; a bell metal skillet, a teapot and quart pot in copper £1.10; four brass candlesticks and snuffers £1.16. A chafing dish with box iron and heaters. One chest "draws " one " ovel " table (so much prized in Providence) all at £5.10. Chairs, two tables, joynt stool £2.16. One clock £18, (the first mentioned). One dozen silver spoons 8s. All his books £7. Smith's "voyce and gleaszer's " tools £5.5. Two negro slaves £130.
Perry was a considerable manufacturer for the time, having 8 looms and tackling at £20; two coppers one pair clothier's shears, two press " plaits " and press papers, all at £21.15. If we compare the style of living indicated here, with that prevailing in Providence at the same period, we shall find it similar except in the table service of china and glassware.
Rowland Robinson, the father of Governor William, 16 Council Records So. Kingston, Vol. I., p. 79.
142
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
was a large landholder in the tract extending from Sugar Loaf Hill to the present Narragansett Pier and into Point Judith Neck. His house was on the site now oc- cupied by Mr. Welch as " Shadow Farm " easterly from Wakefield by "Kit Robinson's Pond." The Robinson inventory was dated in 1716, the will having been made in 1712. He bequeathed his wife for life the house and 80 acres of land. To three married daughters he gave £40 each in money.
At his home farm, there were 462 sheep, 266 lambs, valued at £304.12. Fifty cows and a bull at £254, four oxen at £27. Horsekind worth £142, and 53 swine at £33.5. At the Point Judith farm there was £304.2 in cattle, sheep and horsekind. Nine negroes at £375, fur- nished the labor.
The feudal proprietor dressed about as well, expending £31.19, as the incipient manufacturer Perry, though he did not affect a watch and cane. The house furnishing was moderate, in four feather and two wool beds and furniture £47.6, in servant's bedding £7. In table linen £4.18, and £24.19 for 21 sheets and 21 bolster and pil- low cases. £5.9 was in 12 chairs, 1 table, 1 wheel, etc. Again 6 chairs stood at 14s. and one looking glass at 8s. There was an entire absence of the better class of fur- niture appearing elsewhere in the estates of wealthy men. In pewter ware, there was the respectable and usual sup- ply, costing £10.16, and there was £5.12 in silver spoons. The great bible, other books and a desk were appraised at £2.16. The total personal estate was £2166, the largest recorded as yet.
Robert Hazard in 1718, left a personal estate of £748.9, and had expended £17 for wearing apparel. There were the usual moderate comforts.
In the case of Nathan Jakwise, 1722, we have an ex-
143
1718]
How Poor People Lived
ample-difficult to trace-of the laborer's condition in an estate of £28.19. Wearing apparel was 12s., about the lowest recorded. A woolen wheel 9s., a linen do. 7s., and one pair of cards 2s. A beetle ring indicating a chopper's work out of doors 12s. Some wool and 8s. in woollen yarn. In linen he had 4s., and £2.14 in pewter; £1.13 in iron ware, and 10s. in wooden vessels. He had one cow at £5 and thirty bushels of Indian corn at the same value.
Ephraim Smith in 1722 left a moderate estate and farming outfit. He had one loom and tackling at £1.15. Looms were not as common as spinning utensils. Though he had expended only £13. in wearing apparel he had 11 oz. of plate at £4.8, in buttons, buckles and money. He enjoys the distinction of wearing the first recorded silver shoe buckles. Most people had a few silver spoons and 1718-9 there appears a silver drinking cup and spoons at £8.7. Another cup is found in 1721.
There were records duly kept of ear marks of cattle, and of births and deaths among the people. The wearing apparel of the citizen-excluding laborers generally- ran from £10. to £20., with an occasional outlay of £30. to £40. We have not enough data to average the ex- penditure of the fair sex, even if such mathematical adjustment were proper.
Slavery was closely intertwined with life on the planta- tion or farm, and with domestic service. About every person living comfortably had more or less slaves, if only one woman. There were a few independent white laborers, and we have cited some instances, but the work- especially out-of-doors-was done by slaves The average price of a mature and able negro man was about £50 .; of a woman, about £40. The largest number so far was the nine men owned by Rowland Robinson. Proba-
L
144
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
bly he had given away his women slaves. There were all sorts of fractional ownerships and time valuations. The service of a negro boy for six and a half years was appraised at £19.10. Three Indian children servants were worth £23. Two-thirds part of a negro boy was put at £15. Indian slaves appear under various conditions, and they must have been descended from the captives in King Philip's War.
This period in Narragansett corresponds with the third social condition in Providence, though nearly a score of years behind in its development. Necessaries in the colonial home were served by means of earthen ware and wooden trenchers ; comforts by the useful pewter ; luxuries came in with silver, china and glass. There were few forks used until after 1700. In the seventeenth century a family beginning to live comfortably increased its sup- ply of napkins.
Madam Knight in 1704 complained of the familiarity with slaves along the Connecticut shore.17 The horse- woman struck the poorest homestead 18 at Shaw's Ford, now Westerly, " This little Hutt was one of the wretched- est I ever saw a habitation for human creatures." It was clapboarded, with no windows and an earthen floor. No furniture, but a bed with a glass bottle hanging at the head, an earthen cup, a small pewter " bason." A board "with sticks to stand on" served for a table, and a block or two for chairs. This was a poor evolution from a loghouse. "Notwithstanding both the Hutt and its
17 " They Generally lived very well and comfortably in their famelies. But too Indulgent (especially ye farmers) to their slaves: suffering too great familiarity from them permitting ym to sit at Table and eat with them (as they say to save time), and into the dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand."-" Jour- nal," p. 53.
18 Ibid., p. 40.
145
Doctor MacSparran
1721]
Inhabitance were very clean and tydee." The philosoph- ical traveler depicted in verse the relative lot of mortals :
" Tho' ill at ease, a stranger and alone, All my fatigues shall not extort a grone. These Indigents have hunger with their ease, Their best is wors behalf than my disease."
Dr. MacSparran settled at Narragansett in 1721, was a man of parts and of ardent Celtic temperament, a strong ecclesiastic. He was not as considerate of the unchurched at Newport or Providence, as Rev. Mr. Honeyman, of Trinity, or Gabriel Bernon; but he was much respected as a man, and was quite a factor in the life of early Nar- ragansett. Mr. Updike considered him "the most able Divine sent over to this country by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel."
In 1722, Mr. MacSparran was sent for to visit twelve men of the Church of England imprisoned by the Bay Government at Bristol for refusing to pay rates for sup- port of the Presbyterian minister.19 Bristol, R. I., was then under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. This year the worthy rector confirmed and extended his social oppor- tunities by marrying Miss Hannah Gardiner, of a large and influential family in South Kingstown, allied to the Robinsons and Hazards. She was beautiful and her spouse enthusiastically characterized her as "the most pious of women, the best of wives in the world." Among his early converts the rector baptized in 1724, Thomas Mumford, of Groton, Conn., and Captain Benoni Sweet, of North Kingstown. The captain had been in the British army, was well informed and polished in manner. He was reputed a " natural bonesetter," and his descendants prac-
19 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. II., p. 469.
.
146
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
ticed largely in repairing dislocations. Colleges of phy- sicians have never recognized this sort of heredity, but numbers of people in southern Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut trusted it implicitly for a century and a half.
An effort in 1726 was made to maintain a parish school at St. Paul's Church. The London Society for Propa- gation of the Gospel sent out Mr. James Delpech, paying him a salary of ten pounds to serve as schoolmaster of the Society. Such schools hardly met the colonial spirit, and this lasted only about two years.20
An epoch in the history of Narragansett occurred when Dean Berkeley in 1729 or soon after his arrival in Newport, began his visits to the Glebe-house. He preached for Doctor MacSparran once by record, and quite likely at other times. Familiar intercourse with the Dean and his accomplished fellow-travelers was one of the forming influences of the period in the society about Pettaquamscutt. It gave a cosmopolitan outlook to the quiet neighborhood. It would be superfluous to dilate upon the influence of such a man as Berkeley. Among his companions was Smibert, the founder of portrait paint- ing in America ; and he painted Doctor MacSparran and his wife. Perhaps Smibert, when depicting the ladies of Narragansett, did not contribute much to ethno- graphic science, but he must have intensely stimulated the gossip of the neighborhood when he recognized the Indians around Tower Hill as veritable descendants of the Siberian Tartars, transposed by the way of Behring Strait. While in Italy Smibert had drawn the Tartars from original pictures belonging to Peter the Great. The imagination of the artist could easily transport the Tartar lineaments and locate them anew in Narragansett. With the Dean came Peter Harrison, assistant architect 20 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. II., p. 489.
147
Dean Berkeley's Influence
1729]
of Blenheim Palace. He built the Redwood Library and other notable buildings.
The Doctor built the " Glebe House " on Pettaquam- scutt or Narrow River, accessible from, but not near, St. Paul's Church. The church has been removed to the village of Wickford, and is a most interesting memorial of the times. The parsonage was of good size, two- storied and gambrel-roofed, with a narrower wing on the southern end. There was a long family room, where Sunday services were held in very wintry weather.
Host and hostess, both social and hospitable, though without children of their own, gathered young people about them. In the " Great Room" on a rainy day of October the Doctor would busy himself with writing, while his wife put her "Rev. Durance petticoat " into the frame, which was a most necessary domestic equipment. Here she quilted, assisted by her niece, Miss Betty Gar- diner. Robert Hazard, her nephew in another line, was "reading Physic," as faithfully as the distractions of such agreeable company would allow. The Doctor fav- ored marriage and domestic life. Out of his respectable and useful library, he loaned Christopher Fowler a volume on "Religious Courtship." It would seem that Venus must be approached and sued in an ecclesiastical way.
The life was plain, but generous and comfortable. The occasional discomforts of crowds of guests show the pleasures of a hospitable household. Once when more than fifty years old he named a full dozen of visitors " all here at once." Weary for the moment, he remarked, " so much Company fatigues me at one time."
The Quakers were strong socially and absolutely opposed to an ordained and settled ministry. Some Bap- tists and Congregationalists partook of this feeling. Our priest went to the other extreme. Like all functional wits,
148
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
he was sometimes upset by an opponent and prostrated among his own witticisms. A poor Quaker neighbor was a famous preacher, who maintained himself by labor of his hands, and at the time was laying stone-wall. The Doctor elate at least, if not inflated, from his easy seat on horseback said, "Well, James, how many barrels of pudding and milk will it take to make forty rods of stone- wall?" James dropped his stone into place, looked squarely at his bumptious questioner, answering, "Just as many as it will take of hireling priests to make a Gospel minister." If the answer was not Homeric, it was because Homer did not know priests who preached.
Like many of the most useful missionaries in various parts of the world, our rector ministered to the body as well as the spirit. He often acted as physician in this new country, where such service was in demand.
North and South Kingstown were set off from the origi- nal town in 1722. The western territory of the county was divided as settlement moved forward. Charlestown being taken from eastern Westerly in 1738. The new town, in its turn, lost Richmond on the north in 1747. Hopkinton, the northern part of Westerly, was made a town in 1757.
The great estate of the Champlins, originally coming from Newport, fell into Charlestown. There were 2000 acres and the homestead farm contained seven or eight hundred. The proprietor kept thirty-five horses, fifty-five cows, six hundred to seven hundred sheep, and slaves in proportion. A large mansion-house.stood well into the nineteenth cen- tury. Captain Christopher Champlin and Hannah, the daughter of Captain John Hill, were married by Doctor MacSparran in 1730. Their son Christopher, born at the homestead, went to Newport to become an enterprising and successful merchant. He was president of the Bank
E
1729]
Berkeley's Silver Flagon
149
of Rhode Island and the first Grandmaster of the Masonic Fraternity in the State.
Colonel Daniel Updike, the son of Lodowick and grand- son of Richard Smith, spent his youth at Cocumscussuc or Smith's Castle. He removed to Newport, where he prac- ticed law and was Attorney-General of the colony twenty- four years. He was county attorney for King's, the pres- ent Washington County ; and was prominent in founding the Literary Society at Newport. The relations between the Colonel and the Dean were most friendly and cordial; on the departure of the latter for Europe, he gave his friend an "elegantly wrought silver flagon," now in the possession of Daniel Berkeley Updike. Though strict in some ecclesiastical canons and practice, the Doctor was liberal in administering baptism. He immersed Colonel Updike and frequently used that form of the rite. Moses Lippet, of Warwick, he dipped " above his own Mildam." In another account he says, "at the Tail of his Grist Mill," showing that facts are difficult as well as doctrine in ecclesiastical history.
The Updike library, descending from Daniel to Wil- kins,21 is of interest. The collection was strong in Latin classics, with Hesiod in both Latin and Greek, and ren- dered into an English translation. All the good readers had Pope's Iliad. Books on law were represented, as a matter of course. Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, Dryden's Plays, with Defoe's History of the Devil, indi- cate some variety of culture. Leslie against the Deists would confirm the orthodoxy of these good Episcopalians, if such support could be needed. According to Hallam the Short and Easy Method was as able as it was popular. Erasmus's " Colloquia Selecta " was considered by the author " a caprice of fortune " in being his most popular
21 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. I., pp. 126, 422.
150
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
work, " full of foolish things and bad Latin." But in our generation it would pass for a learned book. Young's Night Thoughts was a frequent book in those days. The works of Nicholas Rowe found place, and Molière relieved the somewhat somber shelves. The collection was con- siderable and we have given but few titles.
Matthew Robinson, born in Newport, studied law in Boston and practiced in Newport. He removed to South Kingston in 1750 and bought a large farm west of the present station of Kingston, naming his residence Hope- well. His legal practice was extensive, and he was a student and zealous antiquarian. " He had a large and well-selected library in law, history, and poetry, prob- ably the largest of any individual in the colony at that time." 22
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.