USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 5
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"Ordered, that the representative committee for the Colonie shall alway consist of six discreet, able men, and chosen out of each Towne for the transacting of the affaires of the Common- wealth ; and being mett, they shall have powre to make and establish rules and penalties for the ordering of themselves dur- ing their sessions."
From the year 1651 to 1654 the island towns maintained a government of their own, while the towns of Providence and Warwick claimed to exist under the former charter and main- tained as well as they could their charter privileges. We quote from " Staples' Annals" the following picture of the times :
"The towns of Providence and Warwick appointed Mr. Wil- liams their agent to go to England and solicit a confirmation of privileges. In the mean time Plymouth and Massachusetts re- newed their dispute before the United Colonies about Warwick. In September Plymouth was advised to take possession of that plantation by force, unless the inhabitants would willingly sub- mit themselves to their jurisdiction. This undoubtedly hastened the appointment of an agent to England. The proceedings of
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Mr. Coddington were not approved by all the inhabitants of the islands over which he was appointed Governor. Forty-one of the inhabitants of Portsmouth, and sixty-five of the inhabitants of Newport joined in requesting Dr. John Clark, of Newport, to proceed to England as their agent, and solicit a repeal of his commission. Mr. Williams and Mr. Clark sailed together from Boston in November. The objects of their respective missions were different. Mr. Clark was the sole agent of the island towns, to proenre a repeal of Mr. Coddington's commission. Mr. Williams was the sole agent of Providence and Warwick to procure a new charter for these two towns. It seems to have been admitted that the commission of Mr. Coddington had in effect vacated the previous charter."
The commission of Coddington covered in its jurisdiction the islands of Rhode Island and Conanicut. This, it was said, was then the greater part of that which had been under the charter of the Providence Plantations. While the Gortonists (fol- lowers of Samnel Gorton at Warwick) and the people of Showomnt were raising money to send Williams to England for the purposes already mentioned, Mr. William Arnold at the time wrote concerning the movement as follows :
"It is a great petie and very unfitt that such a company as these are, they all stand professed enemies against all the United Colonies, that they should get a charter for so small a quantity of land as lyeth in and about Providence, Showomnt, Pantuxit and Coicett, all which now Rhode Island is taken out from it. it is but a strape of land lying in betweene the colonies of Mas- sachusits, plymouth and Conitaquot, by which means if they should get them a charter, off it there may come some mischiefe and trouble upon the whole country if their project be not pre- vented in time, for under the pretence of liberty of conscience about these partes there comes to live all the seume the runne awayes of the country, which in tyme for want of better order may bring a heavy burthen upon the land."
In the midst of this period of disorganized government war broke out between England and Holland, and these hostilities affected quite directly the towns on Narragansett Bay, espec- ially Newport, which was then engaged in a profitable com- merce with the Dutch. Meanwhile the agents in England had obtained permission for the colony to act under the charter un- til a more thorough investigation of the questions in which it
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
was involved could be had and a more mature decision be ar- rived at. The island towns, on account of their superior num- bers and importance now claimed the privileges and rights of the charter, and that they were the proper descendants of the government which for about three years had been divided. They accordingly proceeded to act in the matter of prospective relations with the Dutch, and in the name and by the authority of the colony of the Providence Plantations, commissioned John Underhill, Edward Hull and William Dyre to make treaties with the Dutch or to provide for defense against them. Against this action Providence and Warwiek strongly protested. They declared that if they were drawn into any such complica- tion by the unwarranted action of the island towns they would appeal to the crown.
They then passed an edict disfranchising all those persons in the colony who should own the commission of Underhill, Hall and Dyre. Thus the colony was sorely disquieted by the conflict of two factions, each claiming the heritage of the char- ter. Though the difficulty with the Dutch did not prove as great as might have been expected, yet the controversy on the priority of rights between the governments centered at Newport on the one hand and at Providence on the other, was still main- tained, even after the news arrived that the English court had revoked the commission of Coddington and had reinstated the charter.
Many weary months passed in a vain attempt to reorganize the government under the charter. Each faction claimed the right to dictate terms upon which a, union under the charter should be made. Finally, in the summer of 1654 a committee representing the four towns was agreed upon to meet and form a plan or scheme of union. This committee was composed of Messrs. Olney and Williams from Providence ; Burden and Roome from Portsmouth ; Smith and Torrey (Joseph) from Newport ; and Weeks and Potter from Warwick. This com- mission met at Warwick on the 31st of August, 1654, and ad- justed the differences between their constituents. It was agreed that the acts of the two factions, as far as they concerned their own towns, should stand, but the acts of neither were to be in force in the towns of the other. Henceforth the colony, united again, should be governed under the charter of 16-13
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
general assembly of the colony was to be composed of six commissioners from each town.
The government thus re-established, a period of comparative peacefulness was enjoyed, but the people of this county were not permitted to fall into a condition of drowsy lethargy. What with the alarms of the Indians, the continual demands of Mas- sachusetts for territory that belonged to Rhode Island, and the defense of the perseented Quakers, these people were kept awake to vital questions which daily pressed upon them. Not the least of these questions was that as to what might be the sentiments of the newly crowned King, Charles II., in regard to the religious freedom, which was a cardinal feature of the colonial policy of Rhode Island. At this juncture Greene de- clares in the following language complimentary to one of the men of Newport : "It was well for her that at this perilons moment she was represented at the new conrt by so earnest, clear headed and dextrous a diplomatist as John Clarke. By his exertions a new charter was obtained, and on the 24th of November, 1663, accepted 'at a very great meeting and assem- bly of the colony of Providence Plantations, at Newport, in Rhode Island, in New England.'"
A new era now opens in the history of Rhode Island, of which the towns now of Newport county then constituted the principal part. The charter of 1663 was so liberal and complete in its provisions and so perfectly in accord with the sentiments of the colony that it remained in force during the remainder of the colonial period, and was accepted as the foundation of the state government down to the adoption of the constitution of 1842. A document which could thus hold the respect of the people for nearly two hundred years deserves more than a passing mention. Our curiosity is at once aroused to know something of the details of such a document. We feel, there- fore, abundantly justified in quoting here some of the most in- teresting passages and otherwise making abstracts so as to pre- sent in condensed form the details of that charter. It begins with the following recital :
" Charles the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all . to whom these presents shall come, greeting : Whereas, we have been informed by the humble petition of our trusty and well-beloved subject, John Clarke, on the behalf of Benjamin
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
Arnold, William Brenton, William Codington, Nicholas Easton, William Boulston, John Porter, John Smith, Samnel Gorton. John Weeks, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall Holden, John Greene, John Roome, Samuel Wildbore, William Field, James Barker. Richard Tew, Thomas Harris and William Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers and free inhabitants of our island, called Rhode Island, and the rest of the Colony of Providence Planta- tions, in the Narragansett Bay, in New England, in America, that they, pursuing, with peaceable and loyal minds, their sober, serious, and religious intentions, of godly edifying them- selves, and one another, in the holy Christian faith and worship, as they were persuaded ; together with the gaining over and conversion of the poor ignorant Indian natives, in those parts of America to the sincere profession and obedience of the same faith and worship, did, not only by the consent and good en- couragement of our royal progenitors, transport themselves out of this kingdom of England into America, but also, since their arrival there, after their first settlement amongst other subjects in those parts, for the avoiding of discord, and those many evils which were likely to ensue upon some of those our sub- jects not being able to bear, in these remote parts, their diller- ent apprehensions in religions concernments, and in pursuance of the aforesaid ends. did once again leave their desirable sta- tions and habitations, and with excessive labor and travel. hazard and charge did transplant themselves into the midst of the Indian natives, who, as we are informed, are the most potent princes and people of all that country ; where, by the good Providence of God, from whom the Plantations have taken their name, npon their labor and industry, they have not. only been preserved to admiration, but have increased and prospered, and are seized and possessed, by purchase and con- sent of the said natives, to their full content, of such lands, islands. rivers. harbors and roads, as are very convenient, both for plantations, and also for building of ships, supply of pipe- staves, and other merchandize ; and which lie very commodi- ous, in many respects, for commerce, and to accommodate our southern plantations, and may much advance the trade of this our realm, and greatly enlarge the territories thereof ; they having by near neighborhood to and friendly society with the great body of the Narragansett Indians, given them encourage-
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
ment of their own accord, to subject themselves, their people and lands, unto us ; whereby. as is hoped, there may, in time, by the blessing of God upon their endeavors be laid a sure foundation of happiness to all America : And whereas, in their humble address, they have freely declared, that it is much on their hearts (if they may be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in religious concernments ; and that true piety rightly grounded upon gospel principles, will give the best and greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to true loyalty : Now know ve, that we. being willing to encourage the hopeful undertak- ing of our said loyal and loving subjects, and to secure them in the free exercise and enjoyment of all their civil and religious rights, appertaining to them, as our loving subjects; and to pre- serve unto them that liberty, in the true Christian faith and 'worship of God, which they have sought with so much travail, and with peaceable minds, and loyal subjection to our royal progenitors and ourselves, to enjoy ; and because some of the people and inhabitants of the same colony cannot, in their pri- vate opinions, conform to the public exercise of religion, ac- cording to the liturgy, forms and ceremonies of the Church of England, or take or subscribe the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf ; and for that the same, by reason of the remote distances of those places, will (as we hope) be no breach of the unity and uniformity established in this nation : Have therefore thought fit, and do hereby publish, grant, ordain and declare, That our royal will and pleasure is, that no person within the said Colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, and do not actually disturb the civil peace of our said Colony ; but that all and every person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences, in matters of religious concern- ments, throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others, any law, statute, or clanse therein contained, or to be contained, usage or custom of this
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
realm, to the contrary hereof, in any wise, notwithstanding."
The charter then declares that the people of the new incor- poration should enjoy the benefit of the late act of " indemnity and free pardon" the same as other subjects of the crown in other dominions and territories had. The persons whose names have already been given were then constituted, together with all such as should be admitted to their number, a body corpor- ate and politie by the name of " the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta . tions, in New England, in America." The administration of the local government was placed in the hands of a governor, deputy governor and ten assistants. The first persons author- ized to hold these offices were named in the charter as fol- lows :- Benedict Arnold, governor; William Brenton, deputy governor ; William Boulston, John Porter, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John Coggeshall, James Barker, William Field and Joseph Clarke, assistants.
The assistants were constituted a council to deliberate, advise and act with the acting governor on all public questions. A general assembly of the governor and assistants and deputies from the different towns was authorized to be convened twice in each year or oftener if occasion required, to "consult, advise and determine, in and about the affairs and business of the said Company and Plantations." The number of deputies to be sent from each town to this general assembly was six from Newport and four each from Providence, Portsmouth and War- wick, and two each from any other town or city that might af- terward be formed or added. To this general assembly was given power to change and appoint the times and places for holding their meetings ; to admit freemen into the colony and invest them with the rights of citizenship ; to elect and consti- inte needed offices and officers and to commission the same ; 10 make and repeal all laws for the colony that should not conflict with the laws of England : to appoint and establish courts, and define their powers ; to regulate and order the manner of all elections ; to prescribe the bounds of towns and cities ; to im- pose fines and punishments and to alter, revoke and annul the same and grant pardons ; to make purchases and treaties with the Indians ; and to fill vacancies in their own numbers occa- sioned by death, removal or incapacity.
The acting governor for the time being was authorized, with
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
the assistants, at any time when the assembly was not sitting, to appoint and commission military officers for training the inhab- itants in martial affairs, and also to place in hostile array and equipment the military forces of the colony and to lead the same in warlike enterprise for the defense of the colony against any and all forces or persons who should attempt the invasion of the territory or the injury or annoyance of its inhabitants ; and also for its protection to invade the native Indians or other enemies of the colony ; provided, however, that no invasion of the Indians within the territory of another English colony in New England should be permitted without the consent of the colony within whose jurisdiction the natives inhabited. The se- curity of the charter was not to be so construed, however, as to afford protection against the power of the mother country to call to account any who should commit what might be deemed an unjustifiable act of spoliation upon the high seas; neither was the colony to nse its liberal investment of power to deny to other English subjects the right of fishing in adjacent waters and land- ing on its shores for the necessary purposes of the business of curing, drying, salting and marketing fish, or for similar pur- poses in the taking of whales that might be chased by others into adjacent waters. "And further also, we are graciously pleased, and do hereby declare, that if any of the inhabitants of onr said Colony do set upon the planting of vineyards (the soil and climate both seeming naturally to concur to the production of wines) or be industrions in the discovery of fishing banks, in or about the said colony. we will, from time to time, give and allow all due and fitting encouragement therein, as to others, in cases of like nature."
The bounds of the jurisdiction of the charter were given in the following words :- "all that part of our dominions in New England, in America, containing the Nahantic, and Nanhyganset, alias Narragansett Bay, and countries and parts adjacent, bounded on the west, or westerly, to the middle of a channel or river there, commonly called and known by the name of Pawcatuck, alias Paweawtnek river, and so along the said river, as the greater or middle stream thereof reachetli or lies up into the north country, northward, unto the head thereof, and from thence, by a straight line drawn due north, until it meets with the south line of the Massachusetts Col- ony ; and on the north, or northerly, by the aforesaid south or
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
southerly line of the Massachusetts Colony or Plantation, and extending towards the east, or eastwardly, three English miles to the east and northeast of the most eastern and northeastern parts of the aforesaid Narragansett Bay, as the said bay lyeth or extendeth itself from the ocean on the sonth, or southwardly unto the mouth of the river which runneth towards the town of Providence, and from thence along the easterly side or bank of the said river (higher called by the name of Seacunek river) up to the falls called Patuckett Falls, being the most westwardly line of Plymouth Colony, and so from the said falls, in a straight line, due north, until it meet with the aforesaid line of the Massachusetts Colony ; and bounded on the south by the ocean ; and, in particular, the lands belonging to the towns of Providence, Pawinxet, Warwick, Misquammacok, alias Paw- catuck, and the rest npon the main land in the fract aforesaid, together with Rhode Island, Block Island, and all the rest of the islands and banks in the Narragansett Bay, and bordering upon the coast of the tract aforesaid (Fisher's Island only ex- cepted ), together with all firm lands, soils, grounds, havens," etc.
The charter confirmed the above described premises to the freemen of the colony, "as of the Manor of East Greenwich, in onr county of Kent, in free and common soccage," reserving to the crown one-fifth of all the gold and silver ore that should af- terward be discovered there. By the charter the Narragansett river was made the dividing line between this colony and Con- necticut. In all matters of public controversy between this colony and the other colonies of New England the charter con- firmed to the people the right of appeal to the crown, and also the right "to pass and repass, with freedom, into and through the rest of the English Colonies, upon their lawful and civil oe- casions, and to converse, and hold commerce and trade with such of the inhabitants of our other English Colonies as shall be willing to admit them therennto, they behaving themselves peaceably among them."
In good earnest the freemen now set about the work of re organizing the government conformably to the new charter. Two general courts for the trial of causes were held annually at Newport, which was the chief town of the colony, and the seat of government. They were composed of the governor and not less than six of the assistants, with the deputy governor and as many more assistants as might be present. The attend-
1
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
ance of the deputy governor was not essential. These courts were regularly held in May and October. Courts of trial were also held in Providence in September and in Warwick in March. Grand and petit jurors were chosen for these courts, tive of each from Newport, three of each from Portsmouth, two of each from Providence, and a like number from Warwick. For the management of the interests of Rhode Island before the court of England, and conducting the business to such a propitious result, in the face of such powerfully opposing in- fluences, the colony was placed under a lasting debt of gratitude to their agent, Mr. John Clarke, one of the citizens of Newport, whose name the people of this county have not yet ceased to honor and to regard with a grateful veneration not excelled by that accorded to any other man known to its history.
It has been already shown that the territory now occupied by Newport county was enlarged as to the Rhode Island jurisdic- tion by the charter of 1663. That charter, as we have seen, gave to Rhode Island the island of Block Island. This had already been settled, under Massachusetts patronage, having by the issnes of the Pequot war fallen into the hands of that colony, by whom it had in 1658 been granted to Governor John Endicott and three of his associates. By them it was again transferred to a company of nine men, who in 1661 had made a settlement there. Representatives from the island attended the meeting of the general assembly of the colony in May, 1664, and formally acknowledged the jurisdiction of Rhode Island and the " submission " of the inhabitants to the will of " His Majesty." A sort of town government was established there, in which three selectmen were the chief executives, legislators and judges. The town was authorized to send two representa- tives to the general assembly. This island was called by the Indians, Manasses, or Manisses, and was named Block Island by its discoverer, Adrian Block, the Dutch navigator. who in 1614 sailed around it, November 6th, 1672, it was incorporated with more full privileges as a town, and at that time its name was changed to New Shoreham, the reason for this name being given by the people "as signs of our unity, and likeness to many parts of onr native country."
The claims of Massachusetts on the one hand and Connecticut on the other hand, upon the territory of Rhode, Island were pressed with almost constant vigor by those colonies for many
-
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HISTORY OF NEWPORT COUNTY.
years. Into the details of the vicissitudes of that question it is not our purpose to go, since the subject becomes tedious in its monotony and its rehearsal would only serve to weary the reader with matter that belongs more to the state than to county history. Suffice it to say that amid all the contentions of co- lonial claimants and the varying fortunes of political associa- tions the hand of Providence, which seemed always to exercise a guardian care over the little colony, did not permit her to be swallowed np by her more powerful and greedy neighbors. Disputes over the boundary lines continued to afford frequent canses of disturbance for two hundred years. The encroach- ments of Massachusetts and Connecticut were a grim skeleton, a menacing goblin, forever haunting the little colony, reaching out its long, bony, clutching fingers from every ambush and wayside whither she passed, and rising before her at every turn in the road of her progress. 3 It dogged her steps at the in- stallation of the Duke's government in 1664 : it appeared in the smoke and flames of King Philip's war; it clutched for her heart when in 1686 the charter was suspended for a term of three years ; and so it continued its threatenings during every decade of the two centuries.
Thus far we have given a brief outline of the circumstances under which the settlement of this section of country was effect- ed. Such an outline must of necessity involve the history of the state, or colony at least. The county then had no existence as such. June 22d. 1703. the territory then occupied by the colony was divided into two counties, respectively named Prov- idence Plantations and Rhode Island. The latter county em- braced the towns of Newport, Portsmouth, Jamestown and New Shoreham. June 16th, 1729, the name of Newport was substi- tuted for Rhode Island, and the county re-incorporated under that name with the same towns as before mentioned. The ex- istence of the colony had now become a settled fact and its foothold had assumed a more permanent appearance. A season of more peaceful enjoyment of its political rights had opened upon it and business and social prosperity seemed to light its pathway. The growth of Newport soon resulted in the forma- tion of a new town, called Middletown, from the northern part of its territory, JJune 16th, 1743. The town of Jamestown. named in honor of King James Il., had been incorporated No. vember 4th. 1678. By a royal decree dated May 28th, 1746, the
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