USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Governors for three hundred years, 1638-1959; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 10
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Very shortly after the "beast," "miscreant," and "arch-heretic" had thus called to himself the attention of the public, he was guilty of an almost unpardonable offense. One of his female servants was seen to smile in church. To escape the direful conse- quences of her levity she fled into the woods, having before her flight received an assur- ance from her master that he would undertake her defense. At the session of the court which followed. Gorton conducted himself in such a "rude and contemptuous" manner that he was bound over to appear at the next session, and ordered to find sureties for his conduct until that time. Immediately he left Plymouth and went to Aquidneck. June 20, 1638, he was admitted an inhabitant of the latter colony, and somewhere about this time he was banished in due process of law from Massachusetts.
The reception accorded to Gorton upon his arrival at Pocasset was most cordial. The fact that his is one of the four names, on the list of fifty-nine inhabitants, which bears the prefix Mr. (Mr. was used as a special mark of respect in those days) , shows
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the esteem in which he was held. This esteem was quickly forfeited by his outrageous conduct upon the island. He carried his doctrine of "soul-liberty" to such an extreme, and showed so many repulsive traits of character, that he was soon thrust out from Aquidneck, with even more severity than had attended his expulsion from Plymouth. Not only was sentence of banishment pronounced against him, but he was soundly whipped as well.
Respecting this matter, Gorton says in his own defense, that he conducted himself "obediently to the government of Plimouth, so farre as it became me at least, for I un- derstood that they had commission wherein authoritie was derived, which authoritie I reverenced; but Rhode Island at that time had none, therefore no authoritie legally de- rived to deale with me. Neither had they the choice of the people, but set up themselves. I know not any man that was present in their creation but a clergie man, who blessed them in their inauguaration, and I thought myselfe as fitt and able to governe myselfe and family as any that were then in Rhode Island." The account of his "Contention" with the islanders, though most interesting, is yet too long to be transcribed.
From Aquidneck the twice-exiled man went to Providence, and there stirred up so much strife that Roger Williams deliberated seriously whether he should not himself abandon the plantation and remove to Patience Island. While in religious matters Gor- ton "maintained with Williams the great doctrine of the underived independence of the soul, in civil concerns he was an absolutist, a stickler for authority, yielding, theoretical- ly at least, entire obedience to chartered power, but ignoring any other, and steadily denying the right of the people of Aquidneck or Providence to govern themselves, and hence refusing to be controlled by them. And because of this defect in the basis of their government he used every effort to weaken or destroy it, assuming for that object the attitude of the veriest leveller recorded in history." So entirely subversive of all order was his course, that his application for admission to the rights of citizenship was denied. In November, 1641, the tumult this "insolent, railing and turbulent person" had aroused culminated in a riot. Some blood was shed upon both sides, and many of the inhabitants, following a strange precedent which had been established some time before, invoked the aid of the neighboring colony of Massachusetts in the interests of peace.
Finding that the sentiment of the colony was so strongly against him, Gorton and his adherents moved to Pawtuxet, whereupon its few, scattered inhabitants, well knowing what was coming, hastened to submit themselves to the government of Massachusetts Bay. The "letter" this action drew forth from Gorton is a most marvelous composition, but one that is not likely to receive a very careful examination at the hands of this im- patient generation. It occupies nearly twenty-six closely printed octavo pages, and is filled from beginning to end with scorching invective and bitter sarcasm. To its writer it brought trouble without end; for the Massachusetts magistrates were able on every page to single out heretical doctrines upon which to ground the pretexts for their vengeance. The Gortonists (Gortonoges, the Indians called them) left Pawtuxet soon after it was written, and having purchased land from the Indians, began at Shawomet. in the wilder- ness, and beyond the jurisdiction of Providence, the settlement which now bears the name of Warwick.
As the purchasers of Shawomet were but twelve in number, they deemed it unneces- sary at first to adopt any regular form of government. Until a charter from England
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could be obtained they proposed to adjust any differences that might arise by arbitra- tion. The action of the authorities of the Massachusetts Colony soon rendered the ac- quisition of the desired charter an absolute impossibility. By the men of the Bay the Warwick sachem was induced to submit himself to the authority of the Massachusetts gov- ernment, and to deny the sale he had made to Gorton. A voluminous correspondence conducted on Gorton's part with consummate ability, and with a most exasperating weight of argument upon his side, followed this submission. The upshot of the matter was, that in the early fall of 1643 a company of Massachusetts soldiers were sent against the contumacious Gortonoges.
The approach of these troops caused the greatest alarm among the people of the new settlement. The women and children fled for refuge to the neighboring woods; the men hastily fortified one of their strongest dwellings and there, "as men prepared for slaughter," awaited the attack of the assailing party. Negotiations looking toward a peace- ful settlement of difficulties having failed, the cattle of the besieged were seized and an assault upon the improvised fortress was begun. Thereupon a strange spectacle was pre- sented to view. As English citizens, the men of Warwick hung an English flag from one of their upper windows. Immediately it was riddled with bullets from English muskets. The assaulting troops, knowing well that no aid would come to the relief of the belea- guered garrison, entrenched themselves, and opened a regular system of approaches. For several days the siege lasted, and all the time the Gortonoges, acting solely upon the de- fensive, did not fire a shot. On the 8th of October, the works approached so near the house that an attempt was made to set it on fire. It failed, but the determined assail- ants were not to be baffled, and immediately sent back to Massachusetts for more troops. The Gortonists saw that unless they surrendered a bloody conflict must ensue, and that death would surely come to them, either among the ruins of their house, or else upon the scaffold under cover of the law. Wisely, they surrendered, and were at once car- ried to Boston as prisoners and placed on trial for their lives.
The courage of most men would have given way under such a combination of cir- cumstances, but the untamable spirit of Gorton was not daunted even by the desperate strait in which he found himself. In his Simplicities' Defence he taunts his captors with the extent of their triumph-"a whole county to carry away eleven men." Not in the slightest degree did he moderate the harsh epithets he was accustomed to apply to his ad- versaries, and the result was that all but three of the magistrates who sat in judgment upon him united in condemning him to death. To the credit of the Bay Colony it is recorded that the majority of the House of Deputies refused to sanction the barbarous decree. (It should be borne steadily in mind all the while that the crime of which Gorton was accused was "heresy".) The sentence was therefore modified, and Gorton and six others were ordered to be confined in chains during the pleasure of the court. "Should they break jail, or in any way proclaim heresy, or reproach the Church or State, then upon conviction they should suffer death." In the course of a year after the sentence was car- ried into effect public opinion had changed to such an extent that the prisoners were given their liberty, but sent away into banishment. The island of Adquidneck having received most of them, found that the bitter experience they had passed through had left its trace upon them, and had made them much better and less quarrelsome citizens. Gorton himself soon afterwards went to England, and through his efforts he and his partisans were at last placed in quiet possession of the lands they had purchased. The
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Name Warwick was given to the town in honor of the great earl through whose influence Gorton's mission was at last successful. When at last, by the Royal Charter, the jurisdic- tion of Rhode Island was extended over Shawomet, a wonderful change came over the cavilling Gortonoges. "Their rigid adherence to all the forms of law, as well as to its spirit, was no less remarkable than had been their previous neglect. The charter sup- plied their theoretical wants, and devotion to its letter and spirit marked all their sub- sequent conduct." Gorton himself settled down into a peaceful, quiet and law-abiding citizen, and his great abilities soon secured for him the leading position in the colony. He lived for thirty years after the events that have just been narrated, and died in 1677. Says his biographer: "The exact spot where his ashes repose, is marked by no pious stone or monumental marble. Yet, if without other honors, may it at least ever be their priv- ilege to sleep beneath the green sward of a free state."
NEAR THIS BOULDER STOOD THE HOME OF SAMUEL GORTON, FOUNDER OF WARWICK
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GREGORY DEXTER
President: May, 1653, to May. 1654.
Born: 1610 in Olney, Northampton, England. Died: February 23, 1669 in Providence. R. I. Buried: North Burial Ground.
DEXTER, REV. GREGORY, the fifth pastor of the First Baptist Church in Prov- idence is said to have been born in England early in the seventeenth century. He followed the stationery business in his native city with one Coleman. For printing a piece that was offensive to the government he was compelled to flee the country, and came to Providence in 1643. The same year he was received into the church, of which he subsequently became the pastor. That he soon became a person of some importance in the infant colony is evident from the circumstances that he was elected town clerk a few years after taking up his residence in Providence. He was also among the fifty-four persons to whom "town lots" were assigned. In 1648 he was chosen a "commissioner" to represent the town in the General Assembly, and again in 1650. He was President of the two towns of Providence and Warwick one year, 1653-54. In Staples's Annals may be found, pp. 106-8, an interesting letter of Mr. Dexter's to Sir Henry Vane, in reply to the charge which that gentleman had made, that there were "divisions, disorders, etc., in the colony, which had sorely troubled him, their loving and steadfast friend." In the sub- sequent history of the state, the name of Mr. Dexter occasionally appears, as taking part in the civil affairs of the colony. He was chosen Pastor of the First Church in Providence to succeed Rev. William Wickenden, who died February 23, 1669. Morgan Edwards says of him: "Mr. Dexter, by all accounts, was not only a well-bred man but remarkably pious. He was never observed to laugh, seldom to smile. So earnest was he in his min- istry that he could hardly forbear preaching when he came into a house or met with a concourse of people out of doors." He lived to be over 90 years of age. "The wife of Mr. Dexter was Abigail Fullerton, by whom he had three sons and one daughter, Stephen, James. John, and Abigail."
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GREGORY DEXTER
GRAVE LOCATED AT EASTERN AND SUMMIT AVENUE NORTH BURIAL GROUND
1610.
GREGORY
1700
JOHN
1200
16.89
STEPHEN
1758
1232
EDWARD
1269
EDWARD
1860
199
EDWARD
84
825
CHRISTOPHER
1902
1852
WALTER
1929
1970
HENRY
1939
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JOHN SANFORD
President: 1653-1654.
War Service: Cannoneer of the Fort 1640.
Born: About 1600 in Alford in Lincolnshire, England.
Died: 1653 in Portsmouth, R. I.
Buried: Probably on his farm in Portsmouth.
*
Sandford Arms
He owned a large tract of land extending towards Black Point. See map Page #113.
SANFORD, JOHN, was born in England, not far from the year 1600, and came to this country, landing in Boston in 1631. He was sworn a freeman April 3, 1632, and the same year was made cannoneer of the fort. In the famous "Antinomian controversy" he sympathized with Ann Hutchinson and her adherents, and as the result, was obliged to leave Massachusetts in 1638. His name appears in the civil compact formed by the nine- teen settlers of Aquidneck. In 1640 he was appointed Constable for Portsmouth, and in 1647 assistant to John Coggeshall, President of the four united towns of the state of Rhode Island. In 1651 a separation having taken place between the four towns, he served as President of Portsmouth and Newport from May, 1653, to May, 1654. The union of the four towns having been re-established, he was chosen General Treasurer of the State, and held the office from May 22, 1655, to May 21, 1661, and, after an interval of one year, to 1663. Under the Royal Charter of Charles II, he was again chosen to the same office, holding it from November 26, 1663, to May 4, 1664. He was Attorney-General from June, 1662, to May, 1664, and again from May. 1670, to May, 1671. Besides the offices already referred to, Mr. Sanford was Secretary of State from May, 1656, to May, 1661, and again from 1666 to 1669. Subsequently he filled the same office from 1671 to 1676, and from 1677 to 1686. His service to the state was a most useful one and covered a long period Not long after Ann Hutchinson removed to a spot near Hurl Gate, all her household, sixteen in number, were murdered, with the exception, of one or more of the children of John Sanford. The exact date of his death we have not been able to ascertain.
President Sanford was thrice married; first, to Elizabeth Webb of whom we have no further record, and secondly to Bridget Hutchinson, who died in 1698. He names six sons and a daughter in his will, for which I refer to the partial genealogy of the descen- dants of John Sanford by L.C.S. following this sketch.
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A partial genealogy of the descendants of John Sanford, one of the Original Settlers of the Island of Rhode Island by L.C.S. 1913.
PRESIDENT JOHN SANFORD
1653-1654
JOHN SANFORD, the son of Samuel and Elleanor of Alford in Lincolnshire, England, sailed from the home country in August 1631, in the ship Lyon, with him were, among others, the Rev. John Eliot, famous as the first missionary to the Indians, and John Win- throp, Jr., afterwards governor of Connecticut. The ship was commanded by Captain Pearse and brought those timely supplies of food to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose arrival gave occasion to the first thanksgiving play.
The vessel arrived outside of Boston on the third of November and before the end of the year, John Sanford was enrolled as a member of the Boston Church. He was a builder and something of an engineer, and his qualifications gave him at once a position of prominence and usefulness.
Whether he married his first wife, Elizabeth Webb, in England and brought her with him, or whether he made it his first business in America to secure a consort is un- certain. Possibly a romance begun in the intimacy on shipboard culminated at the end of the voyage. His eldest son, John, was born either on June 24, 1632 or June 4, 1633. Both dates are given in the available records. Samuel, the second son, was born either on July 14, 1633 or on June 22, 1634. In view of later events I would rather think that the earlier date in the birth of both sons is the correct one.
Shortly after Samuel was born, and perhaps in giving him birth, Elizabeth died. Had she lived, the Sanford family might never have been identified with the history of Rhode Island, though it is more than likely that John Sanford had already in the old country, come under the influence of one of the most remarkable of women in early New Eng- land.
Anne Hutchinson was the daughter of the Rev. Francis Marbury, a distinguished clergyman of the Church of England. Her mother was the sister of Sir Erasmus Dryden, Bart, the grandfather of John Dryden. Consequently, Anne Hutchinson was a second cousin of the poet. She was born about 1600 and after her marriage lived at Alford where, with John Sanford she was a parishioner of the Rev. John Cotton whom they both followed to America.
Mistress Hutchinson was small in stature and "not comely" but her personality was most forceful, completely overshadowing that of her inoffensive husband. John Win- throp describes her as of a haughty and fierce carriage, of a nimble wit, and active spirit and a very voluble tongue. Other critics are highly uncomplimentary in the epithets they apply to her. Both Winthrop and Cotton agree in testifying to her warm heart, blameless life and unwearying tenderness in ministering to the afflicted of her own sex. In these days she would have been a suffragette, in those times she became a theological insurgent. Her unpopular views are almost universally accepted now, but then her stringent application of them brought her into conflict with the Massachusetts church and
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state. "Grace" she contended was the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Those who were not conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit, but depended for their salvation upon obedience to the Old Testament law, were doomed. In this class were all the Boston Clergy. except John Cotton, and all of the laity who did not agree with her.
In her own house, on the site since made historic by the Old Corner Book Store, she held weekly meetings for the discussion of theological questions, to these "gossipings" as Cotton Mather calls them, none but women were admitted, a single exception being made in favor of young Sir Harry Vane, and to attend them became the fashion for the Boston women. In this same house. John Sanford, a young widower. courted Bridget, the daughter of Anne Hutchinson. and in 1636 led her forth as his second bride. How Anne Hutchinson was tried by the General Court and banished for her heretical opin- ions, how she migrated with her sympathizers to the Island of Aquidneck in Narragan- sett Bay. and after the death of her husband moved to Pelham Bay, Long Island, in New York about Sept. 1643 where she and her family of sixteen were massacred by the Indians is no part of our story. The sentence of banishment pronounced in November 1637 in- cluded her son-in-law, and we find him in the spring of the next year with eighteen others in Providence. On March 24. 1638, the nineteen, by the aid of Roger Williams, received in the name of William Coddington a deed from Canonicus and Miantonomi to Aquidneck on Rhode Island and proceeded at once to their new home. While these stirring events were an incident of no less importance to John Sanford they had occur- red. His wife Bridget gave birth on December 9, 1637 to their first daughter, Eliphal. His boys John and Samuel were aged now, six and four years respectively, and it was an in- teresting family of five which took up their new home in Portsmouth.
The first days of the new community were troubled by dissension. Samuel Gorton, who came hither from Plymouth from which colony he had been expelled both on ac- count of his religious views and quarrelsome disposition, was the cause. William Cod- dington therefore and others to the number of eight withdrew to the southern part of the island and initiated the town of Newport. But apparently all soon realized that they were too feeble a folk to maintain two colonies and in about a year reunion was effect- ed. This was the more easily done because Samuel Gorton had removed to the Pawtuxet Valley.
The original constitution for Pocasset was remodelled and the settlement was renamed Portsmouth.
The most striking feature of the document to the casual reader is the large num- ber of officials, the officers going in pairs so that neither the older settlement at Portsmouth nor the new one at Newport should be slighted. There was to be but one governor, but each end of the island was provided with two assistants or associate justices. An unusual provision was that for two treasurers, and there were two constables. John Sanford was elected the constable from Portsmouth.
In 1643 Roger Williams went to England to secure a charter for a royal colony which should embrace the communities of Providence and Warwick on the North and West, and Portsmouth and Newport on the south and east, his mission was successful, the de- sired instrument being issued on March 16. 1644. incorporating the royal colony under
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the name of Providence Plantations. Three years elapsed before the new corporation was organized. The Chief Officer was styled "President" and William Coddington, who had held the foremost position since the establishment of Portsmouth ten years before, was not elected. Whether this fact influenced his subsequent conduct or not, he conceived the scheme of getting a separate charter for the Island of Rhode Island with himself as governor for life by appointment of the crown.
In October 1648 he sailed on his self-imposed mission, and by the connivance of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was itching to extend its authority to the Narra- gansett, he obtained the patent. Back he came with his new commission only to meet with the opposition he might have expected. Indignation meetings were held in Prov- idence. The last mentioned town dispatched John Clarke, and Providence sent Roger Williams to England to have Coddington's patent annulled. It is said the two agents sailed on the same ship. As soon as they had left, a meeting of freemen was held at War- wick to which representatives from the islands were not invited, and the government was reorganized with Portsmouth and Newport left out. In the election of Samuel Gor- ton as President we see the hand of the old troublers of the peace who had been driven out of Plymouth, bowed out of Portsmouth and wished out of Providence by Roger Wil- liams.
The Island excommunicated, as it were, by Samuel Gorton and company, existed for two years without government. Probably the old officers continued to transact such little business as was necessary to keep the public peace. Overtures looking to a reunion were made to Providence, but without result. There is on record in the Providence Ar- chives a letter received from the "Island" signed by John Sanford, William Baulstone, John Porter, and William Jeffery dated December 20, 1652. The answer which is chiefly interesting for its quaint spelling, shows that some one had imposed on the "Islanders" with false records but leaves the question of reunion untouched.
A trew coppey of a letter sent to Mr. Sanford about the Court order, as followeth: "Mr. Sanford the towne of Providence viewing the last coppey sent to them as acts of the general court held at Providence the 17th of May 1650 dos signiffie unto you that it is not a true copey, therefore they do not owne it, this according to Y's place signiffie unto the rest according to law with O's loves to Y's & C: Rest in the name of the Towne."
The overtures, from the correspondence about which the foregoing is taken, falling on the 17th of May 1653, the freemen of the island "Townes" met at Newport and elect- ed John Sanford President. One year later, the island and the Mainland were reunited. but before that time John Sanford had yielded up all earthly business and was laid in a pioneer's grave.
Since coming to Rhode Island his children had increased from three to ten, ranging in age from twenty-one years down to twenty-one months. One only of all his offspring had died. Of little Francis named probably after Anne Hutchinson's father, it is record- ed that he died young. Although the family left behind was large, it would seem as if they were all provided for generously. John Sanford having been a thrifty man. His will dated June 22. 1653 and proved, so it is alleged, in the same year with his wife Brid- get as executrix, is of interest. There were bequests as below:
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"1. To my wife Bridget new dwelling house in which I live, with all of every cham- ber and room, and half of cook room. All my right in the great orchard, land on north side of new dwelling house, meadow, and one third of all cattle and moveables for life.
2. To John certain land and ferry, the old house and half of cook room, two houses on the south side of a certain path. If he dies without male issue it goes to Samuel. Also great roan mare, negro man and wife, four oxen, two cows, the great ferry boat, five ewes, five ewe lambs, sow, feather bed, cutlass, great fowling piece etc.
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