USA > Rhode Island > Early Rhode Island; a social history of the people > Part 12
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The drawing of portraits introduced by Smibert was kept up among the wealthy families. Later in the century Copley practiced his art, and put the stately dames of Narragansett and Newport on his excellent canvas.
There were many notable families in this precinct, which included the Champlins in Charlestown and the Wards of Westerly. Locally, the Browns, Hazards, Robinsons, Willets have been well known. The Gardiners became famous in Boston and in Maine, while the sea-going and mercantile Minturns were transferred to New York.
In the middle eighteenth century, the estates of the large landholders were extensive and deserved their local designation of plantation, though the system of farming by slaves was unlike that practiced in the South. Ordi- nary farms contained about three hundred acres; the plantations coming over from the seventeenth century were much larger.23 Robert Hazard owned sixteen
22 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. I., p. 14. 23 Ibid, Vol. II., p. 14.
151
1730]
The Plantations and Slavery
hundred acres on Boston Neck and about Pettaquam- scutt.
The wealthy Robert Hazard, father of College Tom, made a will, though he did not execute it, in 1745.24 It shows the way of living, especially in the provisions for his dearly beloved wife. Fifty pounds a year, four cows to be kept through each year. A negro woman Phebee. One riding Mare, the best, with new saddle and bridle. Wood, beef and pork; the beef to be dressed and brought into her house. Fowls and geese. One feather bed and six chairs, two iron pots, one brass kettle, two pair pot- hooks, two trammels. Pewter dishes and platters, basins and silver spoons. One piece "Camblitt," one of linen called the " fine piece." Forty pounds wool yearly, two wheels linen and woolen. She was to have two rooms, one " a fire room, the other a bed room such as she shall chuse in either of my two Houses." The improvement of a quarter acre of land. The upper part of the Neck, occupied by the Willets, was the home of Canonicus and Miantonomi. Colonel Joseph Stanton's property in Charlestown was said to be four and one-half miles long by two miles wide. Governor William Robinson's land on upper Point Judith was subdivided and inherited by descendants. Samuel Sewall, son of the Judge, suc- ceeded to the John Hull purchase on Point Judith, of sixteen hundred acres, finally divided into eight farms.
The number of slaves, generally overestimated, was 1000, according to Updike in 1730, and it was about equal to that of the horses employed in tilling the land. The Indians settled through these districts and most numerous around the reservation in Charlestown were valuable auxiliaries, especially in haying and other periods requiring extra labor. Corn, tobacco, cheese and wool 24 " Hazard College Tom," p. 31.
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King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
were the chief staples sustained by hay ; and horses were exported largely. Vessels were despatched from the South Ferry direct for the West Indies. They were loaded with cheese, grain, beef, and pork in the hold, and with horses on deck.
Douglass in 1760 25 says, "Rhode Island Colony in general is a country for pasture, not for grain ; by extend- ing along the shore of the ocean and a great bay, the air is softened by a sea vapour which fertilizeth the soil; their winters are shorter and softer than up inland; it is noted for dairies, whence the best of cheese made in any part of New England is called (abroad) 'Rhode Island Cheese.' The most considerable farms are in the Narra- gansett country. Their highest dairy of one farm, ordi- narly milks about one hundred and ten cows, cuts two hundred loads of hay, makes about thirteen thousand pounds of cheese, besides butter, and sells off consider- able in calves and fatted bullocks. In good land they reckon after the rate of two acres for a milch cow."
Fortunately, Doctor MacSparran left a Diary and Let- ter Book for the years 1743-1751, which has been amply edited by Doctor Goodwin. We may cite some facts and matters of experience, which will serve to illustrate the general accounts of Narragansett life, which will follow.
Though the worthy parson was strictly ecclesiastical, severe in any point of discipline, separative where any difference obtained with "the Conventicle which is the sink of the church," 26 he was reasonable in the substantial practices of religion. For example, he occasionally preached at Conanicut. July 5 he did not go, as the " drought and worms " compelled the farmers to attend
25 " Hazard College Tom," p. 217, citing D. Mr. I. F. Hazard, p. 218, gives details of farming.
26 MacSparran Diary, p. 8.
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153
Farming Practices
1743]
to their harvest even on Sunday. Wheat was still raised now and then in the Colony of Rhode Island. July 19th, " with moonlight " the Doctor's two negroes and his brother-in-law's oxen, mare and cart, carried the wheat into the barn. A pretty pastoral picture. The thresh- ing and winnowing was quite a circumstance in farm life. August 8th, he turns the cows into the " after feed " and sends Stepney to Town (Newport) with a packet of letters and to buy nails and salmon, likewise a pound of chocolate. The latter was a frequent neces- sity at the Glebe house.
Our diarist's duties extended as far as Providence sometimes. He went' to Moses Lippet's in old War- wick in " the great tempest " to marry his daughter Freelove to Samuel Chase in the midst of the storm. Moses was grandson of John Lippet, an original settler in Providence.
The " Great Awakening" under Whitefield's preach- ing excited New England and penetrated this corner of our colony. In 1750,27 the " Hill Church " in West- erly and the Indian Church were formed, largely under this influence. Now in 1743,28 our Doctor labored with one 'Avery " & a new light," saying something to " do him good." We may well imagine this wholesome coun- sel contained no heresy.
We may sympathize with the parson and the head of a family in the complicated duties June 25, 1745. Harry was hilling corn. George Fowler was bled by the amateur surgeon. He gave Maroca (a negro girl, who had had two illegitimate children), one or two lashes for receiving presents from Mingo. But the sequel was worst of all.29
27 " Westerly Witnesses," p. 69.
28 Diary, p. 12.
29 Ibid., p. 29.
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King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
" I think it was my duty to correct her, and wever Pas- sion passed between my wife and me on y8 occasion, Good Lª forgive it."
Our worthy parson was like many who have been seri- ously affected by dreams. He frequently underwent noc- turnal imaginary perils in boats, and always regarded such conceptions as warnings of accidents to come by water. Perhaps the experience in 1751, to be cited, car- ried an absurd dream as far into historical exegesis as was ever done. He had been reading a tale and next morning he sets forth his " ugly dream " with a full diag- nosis as follows : " I believe yt reading the Life of Cleave- land nat son to Cromwel gave me all yse Distresses. The whole is certainly a Fiction, yre never having been such a man, nor such occurrences as it relates. I believe it is wrote to blacken ye Stuart Family, to raise men's Esteem of ye Revolution wch seems now to be sinking; But Romance can't, ought not to discredit Realitys." 30 The Doctor's high Tory proclivities shine forth admirably. But how imagination by night or day runs riot; while romance and reality dance in and out !
It might have been fancy farming, but "my two Negro's " were plowing in buckwheat in 1751, for manure for English wheat.31 MacSparran was more practical in teaching morals to the negroes by admonition and by lash than in inveighing against lay-reading in the church. He writes freely against this practice, which he abhors. " Peter Bourse read Prayers and preached in ye chh there (Newport) last Sunday wtht any kind of ordination. May God open yt young man's eyes yt he may see y he has transgressed against ye Lord in offering up ye Publick Prayers, w-ch is ye Same in ye X" Cht yt offering Incense
30 Diary, p. 45.
31 Ibid.
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155
1743]
Discipline of Negroes
on ye Altar was in ye Jewish." 32 On the next Sunday, he preached against this irregular practice. He then re- galed himself with " suckatash " or succotash, also in Indian msick quatash, the excellent corn and beans adopted from the natives. A comber was at the house, for all these small proprietors combed or carded, spun and wove at home. The cloth was scoured, fulled and pressed at a fulling establishment. Sheep marks were recorded as for example: "Crop the right Ear, and a gad under the Left Ear."
Hanibal was a most obstinate and intractable servant ; finally sold, after domestic discipline had been exhausted. Rising early, the master found Hannibal " had been out," and stripping, whipped the negro. In this case feminine sympathy did not affect Mrs. MacSparran, as in the case of Maroca, for as the man was being untied "my poor passionate dear," saying he had not had enough gave him a lash or two. He ran away and two chasing him, brought him home at night, having put "Pothooks " about his neck. "So yt it has been a very uneasy Day with us o y' God would give my Servants-the Gift of Chastity." With such real troubles abounding in daily life, one would think lay-reading might be let alone. The worthy parson's relations to negroes were both cler- ical and patriarchal. He tried to do his full duty. It was his custom to catechize them and once there were present fully one hundred. It seems eccentric to baptize Phillis, the daughter of his slave, before selling her, but that was incidental to the social situation. On more than one occasion he record's attachment to Stepney, drowned in Pettaquamscutt Pond, "the faithfullest of all servants." The baptism of one Freelove, "a Mustee by colour and her child Katharine Lynalies Gardner " is 32 Diary, p. 46.
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King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
recorded with the note that Gardner was the master's name.33
There were more Irishmen among the settlers of New England than is generally estimated. Doctor MacSpar- ran was Irish and at the harvest in September he mentions Johnson and Kerigan, two young helpers. Next day " y" 3 Irishmen took yelr leave "; two were going to South Carolina, but Kerigan intended to stay and peddle. An- other day one Shirley, an Irish peddler, called. There are many indications of good relations and pleasant liv- ing with the slaves in the harvest time. "I gave 4 of Bro" Jno's negro's 108 among them, and 28 between Pom- pey and Jemmy Smith."
Travel by land was not easy, and it was worse by water. The Doctor late in October, 1751, went by the Conanicut ferry to Newport, and by Borden's or Bristol ferry to Bristol to preach. Fearing a storm he hurried home, though the ferries were troublesome. Next day he records " Cold and windy with ye wind at Northwest. I thank God I came yesterday since I could not have crossed ye Ferrys with so much wind agst me." Novem- ber Ist he notes for a fine day, "but I fear a weather breeder, as ye wild Geese flew to Day."
The wife of Richard Smith, the first settler, brought from Gloucestershire to Narragansett, the recipe for mak- ing the celebrated Cheshire cheese, hence the quality and just repute of our product. Rents of farms were payable in produce. From the time of the French Revolution to the general peace after Napoleon, the United States were the neutral carriers for Europe. This favorable position gave great advantage to our farm products. Cheese brought ten dollars per hundred, with corn, barley, etc., in proportion.34
33 Updike, Goodwin, II., p. 467.
34 Ibid., p. 920.
لامسلم
157
Narragansett Cheese and Pacers
1751]
The Narragansett pacer, exported so freely to the West Indies, should be noted. According to Mr. Isaac P. Hazard,35 Governor Robinson imported the original stock from Andalusia, Spain. The breeding extended, and the horses being greatly appreciated in the West Indies were regularly sent out; Robert Hazard exporting about one hundred annually. Their gait was marvelous, affording comfort in the saddle, which we can hardly conceive. The purely bred could not trot at all. According to authori- ties of the eighteenth century, the horse's backbone moved in a straight line, without swaying to either side, as in the pace or racking gait of this day. We have Mrs. Anstis Lee's account 36 of a journey into Connecticut in 1791, when she rode the last mare "of pure blood and genuine gait." She went thirty miles, lodging at Plain- field, next day forty miles to a point near Hartford, where she stopped for two days. Then she made forty miles to New Haven, thence forty miles (sic) to New London, and forty miles more to reach her home in Narra- gansett. Such endurance, whether in horse or rider, has gone out of fashion.
There might have been some local exaggeration, but the remarkable powers of the horse are well attested. They were obtained for racing in Philadelphia. In South Kingstown they raced on Little Neck Beach, and Doctor MacSparran said they went with great "Fleetness and Swift Pacing." From any point of view we may wonder that such valuable powers in a horse could have been allowed to pass away and disappear. Mr. I. P. Hazard said a chief cause proceeded from the extraordinary West Indian demand. Sugar brought sudden wealth, and the planters could not get pacers fast enough for their wives
35 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. III., p. 37.
86 Ibid., p. 101.
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King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
and daughters. An agent stayed at Tower Hill, and from season to season he would never " let a good one escape him." This affected the general breeding. Also, they were not adapted to draught and farm work. Losing the jennet descended by crossing from a Barbary horse was an incident in the passage from slave-holding habits to the more moderate ways of a farming people.
Old Narragansett was famous for its hospitality. Inns were poor, as Madam Knight depicts in her journey in 1704, and they continued relatively the same through the century. Strangers and gentlemen traveling were intro- duced by letter and they were welcomed as guests by the free living residents of the country. Doctor Franklin, a frequent traveler, always arranged to spend the night with Doctor Babcock at Westerly. "Well-qualified tutors emigrated to the colonies, and were employed in family instruction, and to complete their education the young men were afterwards placed in the families of learned clergy- men.37 Doctor MacSparran received young gentlemen into his family to be instructed. Thomas Clap, the able president of Yale College, was a good example of his work. Doctor Checkley, a graduate of Oxford, located as a missionary, taught several sons of Narragansett. Residence in such families was an excellent school in man- ners, as well as for improvement of the intellect. Young ladies were taught by tutors at home and " finished " at schools in Boston. Books were not common in those days, but there were good private libraries, as we have cited; and paintings, if only portraits, indicate culture.38
37 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. I., p. 222:
38 Professor Channing, in a discriminating study of the Planters
(J. H. U. Studies), says, " a race of large land-owners who have been called the Narragansett Planters, unlike the other New England aristocrats of their time, these people derived their wealth from the soil, and not from success in mercantile adventures
159
1751] Narragansett Culture Local, not Imported
We have cited freely from Professor Channing, for it illustrates completely from another point of view the essen- tial character of this society, " an anomaly in the institu- tional history of Rhode Island," as he terms it in another connection. The same cause produced the aristocracy 39 of Narragansett, the ultra-democracy of early Providence, and the modified representative government of Newport. That great cause was freedom. The privilege granted by Charles II. was developed by Roger Williams and John Clarke into power to make a free man into a political being -a citizen. A new political entity was born into the world, as European scholars are coming to recognize.40
For further elucidation, compare Doctor MacSparran's view in the opposite direction in America Dissected. The Doctor in the eighteenth century shows by his shadows 41 deep-drawn of the body politic, the features which have become the high lights of history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The ecclesiast, by his own showing,
the routine of their daily lives was entirely unlike that of the Virginia planters. . . . In fine they were large-large for the place and epoch-stock farmers and dairymen. . . . It has been claimed that the progenitors of the Narragansett farmers were superior in birth and breeding to the other New England colonists, and that to this the aristocratic frame of Narragansett society is due. I do not find this to have been the case. . This refine- ment, however, belongs to the best period of Narragansett social life. It was the result of a peculiar social development and not a cause of that development."-Ibid., pp. 529-531.
39 Aristocracy and democracy, as usually held, are conventional ex- pressions. I knew a sagacious old son of Rhode Island, a Jacksonian and democratic follower of Dorr. Arguing with him on some political matter, I used the first term when he answered emphatically, " Aristocracy ! a woman who seeks work with her own wash-tub is one thing, she who washes clothes in somebody else's wash-tub is another thing-that is aristocracy!" My friend personally was an aristocrat, Doctor Eliot was a democrat.
40 Ante, pp. 6, 8.
41 Updike, Goodwin, Vol. II., p. 556.
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King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
had neither lungs nor gills and could not breathe on land or water that was free. He could not conceive of religion without some sort of worship on Sunday.42
The franklins and manorial gentry of Narragansett were a picturesque feature in the more sober life of New England. Rowland Robinson,* father of the "unfor- tunate Hannah," in the middle eighteenth century, was a type of these citizens. When in full dress he usually wore a dark silk, velvet or brown broadcloth coat, light yellow plush waistcoat, with deep pockets and wide flaps resting partly on the hips, short violet colored breeches buckled at the knee, nicely polished boots with white tops, or silver- buckled shoes, a fine cambric shirt profusely ruffled at the bosom and wrists, with silk neck-tie to match. On his head was set a looped-up triangular hat, and in hand he carried a stout gold-headed cane.
Dr. MacSparran visited England in 1754 with his wife, where she died of small-pox. He was much affected by the loss of this " most pious of all women, ye best wife in y® world." He came back to his home in 1756, his health broken and his constitution failing under his sorry be- reavement. He performed his clerical duties as far as he could. He died in December, 1757, and was buried under the Communion Table of the church he had created. " There was Rings mourning weeds & Gloves gave to ye Paul Bearers." While rector he had baptized 538 per-
42 " Besides the members of our Church, who I may say are the best of the People, being Converts not from Convenience or Civil en- couragement, but Conscience and Conviction; there are Quakers, Anabaptists of four sorts. Independents, with a still larger number than all those of the Descendants of European parents, devoid of all religion, and who attend no kind of Public Worship. In all the other Colonies, the Law lays an Obligation to go to some sort of Worship on Sundays; but here, Liberty of Conscience is carried to an irreligious extreme."-Updike, Goodwin, Vol. III., p. 36.
* Thomas R. Hazard, " Reminiscences," p. 19.
161
1725]
Typical Examples of Living
sons, besides receiving many from other churches. For thirty-seven years he served the parish faithfully ; while he led in spirit, he ministered in all ways of living to his trust- ing followers. Southern Rhode Island will always hold his memory dear.
Going back to the beginning of the second quarter of this century, we find the comforts of living enlarging as the county improved its agricultural condition. Samuel Tifft,43 in 1725, with a personal estate of £947. 12., is a typical example. Wearing apparel at £27. 19., his gun, sword and razor stood at £1. 11., his saddle, bridle and male pillion at £1. 10. The household furnishing included five feather beds and furniture at £58. 12., one old flock bed and furniture £1. 2. and 13 chairs at £1. 14. Of the desirable warming pans, he had two at £1. 10., in other brass ware £1. 12., in pewter £7. 1. 8., in silver plate £5. 12. and bottles were frequently valued in the various es- tates. In the humble tin ware there was Is. 2d. and the early wooden trencher was still used to the number of two dozen, valued with other pieces at 6s. Books were repre- sented by two old bibles at 4s. and a moderate farming outfit nourished the family. More or less butter and cheese-the latter in larger quantities-was in the inven- tories. He had cards, spinning wheels and worsted combs ; and as an example of home industry 202 yards " whome spun " broadcloth at £10.7., 293 yards cotton cloth and linen cloth at £6. 10., 3 yards linen do at 9s. and 20 yards " corse " cloth at £3. 15.
Stephen Hazard was slightly better off, as befitted an owner of £2760. 15., in personal property. His best suit was adorned with silver buttons and he wore a beaver hat -all costing £19. 5., while his wear for every day stood 43 These inventories are from South Kingston MS. Probate Rec- ords, Vol. II., p. 34, et seq.
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162
King's County, the Patriarchal Condition
at £10. 5. In a pair of silver shoe buckles and two but- tons there was £1. 3. 6. and in a silver seal 5s .; 4 silver . spoons were valued at £5. 8. 2. Mr. Hazard owned the first silver tankard on record, costing £24. 18. 8. One case bottles and metheglin was appraised at £1. 10. There were 36 milch cows at £193., 4 working oxen at £35., besides 22 fat Cattle on Great Island. He had 29 yearling neat cattle at £72. 10., 32 two and three years old £144, turkeys and fowls at 6s., with 24 geese at £.8. Geese were very common.
Caleb Hazard lived on 160 acres land, valued with his dwelling at £1400. He had moderate stock and furnish- ing out of doors and within. Two small tables and a high candlestick were valued at £1 .; a case of drawers with the inevitable oval table £6. 15 .; one looking glass £5. 10., another £4. 10. A linen wheel employed the femi- nine spinners. For kitchen and table service there was iron ware £3. 1. Tin do., £1. 4. A brass kettle, skillet and pepper box £6. 2. 6., a slice, chafing dish, etc., £4. 12. 10., wooden ware and trenchers 6s., pewter platters and other ware £6., 5 silver spoons £3. 16. He worked his farm with one old negro at £20., a better one at £70., a young negro girl at £35., two Indian boys at £20. and £15. His wearing apparel cost £23. 11., and he was a type of the smaller land holders to come in a generation or two later.
Another class in society was represented by N. Osborn, dressed in wearing apparel at £7. 1. 6., and with a per- sonal estate of £64. 12. 6. This included one feather bed (not the best of the time) at £17. 26. ; tin and brass ware with pepper box at 2s. 6d. and a warming. pan at 5s., one knife with fork and tobacco box at 2s. He was a spinner and shoemaker.
Daniel Landon was a working carpenter, possessed of
163
Habits of Working Men
1730]
£22. 14. in personal estate. His woollen clothing and hat were worth only £1. 15., a very low outlay for any man. A " whone, razor " and penknife were 11s., wooden ware 6s. 6d., pewter and earthen ware 14s., five old chairs 10s. No books and they were rare generally; in an- other case the library was valued at 10s., in yet another 14s. There was often a family bible, but it was not as general as in Providence. The old-fashioned joynt stool was often used, and razors had become almost universal in this century.
It was not often that feminine dress had developed to its proper superiority over the male. In 1730 Josiah Sherman, with a personal estate of £188.9., expended £17. 3. on his clothes. His wife was allowed £26. 8., an appropriate difference, further accentuated by a gold ring and three ribbons, costing £1. 4.
Gold Rings were becoming common, as in 1732 Thomas Raynolds had three at f3. He was a tailor probably, having a goose and shears, a thimble and needles. Ex- pended moderately in clothing £17. 11., including gloves and garters and a "Rokelo." We should not neglect one silver buckleband and a bottle at 11s. or two links of silver buttons at 6s.
Wm. Gardner was of another class, with £897. 4. in personal property in 1732. He walked bravely, clad at a cost of £33. 16., carrying a cane and a gold ring. His ridi .: g horse, saddle and bridle, holsters, pistols and pow- der flask were worth £40. Knives and forks at 15s., tin ware at 11s. 6d., silver plate £7.5. His farming outfit was small, worked by a negro woman at £90, a boy at £30. and two girls at £65. and £45. In books he had £3.5.
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