USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > History of Providence County, Rhode Island, Volume I > Part 4
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During his stay at Seekonk a few friends joined him in the attempt at making a settlement. When he moved thence five companions were with him in the canoe in which they floated down the river. Paddling toward the western shore they landed and exchanged greet- ings with the Indians, whose exclamation as they approached, "What Cheer. Netop," has become a familiar word in all the locality. The names of these five companions were William Harris, John Smith, Joshua Verin, Thomas Angell and Francis Wickes. From this preliminary landing they re-embarked, and passing around the southerly point of land at the junction of the rivers, now known as India and Fox Points, they proceeded up the Providence river and disembarked at a place where they found a spring of water gushing from the hillside. This spot they selected for the site of their pro-
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
posed settlement, and in grateful remembrance of God's merciful kindness to him in distress, Roger Williams named the future town Providence.
The time of this removal and the planting of the settlement here. is uncertain, but is supposed to have been in the summer, as it was too late for regular spring planting, that having been done at the aban- doned spot on the Seekonk. Negotiations had no doubt been al- ready made with the chief sachems of Narragansett, for land and a peaceable settlement.
Roger Williams had early imbibed the spirit of a missionary, in relation to the Indians. "My soul's desire," said he, "was to do them good." He regarded a knowledge of their language as essential to enable him to conciliate their affections and preach to them with effect. For several years he gave much time to the study of their language. While he lived in Plymouth and Salem, he says, "God was pleased to give him a painful, patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy, smoky holes, to gain their tongue." A knowledge of their language, a just notion of their rights, and the means which he employed to gain the affections of the natives, enabled him to pro- cure from Canonicus and Miantinomo, the chief sachems of the Nar- ragansetts, the land which first constituted the realm of the Prov- idence colony. The natives were shy and jealous, and money alone would hardly tempt them to sell their lands, but by the persuasions which he was able to bring to bear upon them, by means of the ad- vantages just noticed, he succeeded in obtaining from them valid title to the land upon which the settlement was to be made. To en- able him to adjust the financial part of the transaction, he mortgaged his house in Salem, "worth some hundreds." The agreement was made with the chiefs before mentioned, but the writing was not done until March 24th, 1638, new style, some two years after the transac- tion. This deed covered the vaguely described "lands and meadows upon the two fresh rivers, called Moshassuck and Wanasquatucket," "from the river and fields of Pawtucket, the great hill of Notaquon- canot, on the northwest, and the town of Mashapaug, on the west." By this deed they also confirmed to Roger Williams "all that land from those rivers reaching to Pawtuxet river; as also the grass and meadows upon the said Pawtuxet river."
The rights thus acquired were transferred by Roger Williams to his twelve associates in consideration of 30 pounds in money. This deed was executed in October, 1638, and conveyed the equal owner- ship with himself to his twelve associates and "such others as the major part of us shall admit into the same fellowship of vote with us." Another instrument executed on the same day contained the agreement that the Pawtuxet lands should be divided equally be- tween them, and that each should pay an equal proportion of 20 pounds, a failure to do which would forfeit the right to the company.
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
This agreement contains the acknowledgment by Roger Williams, dated December 3d. 1638, that he had received of "the neighbors above said. the full sum of £18, 11s. 3d.," being twelve-thirteenths of the 20 pounds, the other thirteenth being his own share. Thus the Pawtuxet lands became the property of the original thirteen, while other lands were held in common and divided among the settlers, the new comers being required to pay 30 shillings each on joining the company, the payment of which entitled them to the common pro- prietary rights of the company. Out of the general fund thus arising Roger Williams was paid the expense which he had incurred in the original purchase of the Indians. Some question afterward arising in regard to the title, Roger Williams gave another deed reciting and confirming the facts contained in those already mentioned, the last mentioned deed bearing date December 22d, 1666.
As further details in regard to the settlement and the settlers will be found in connection with the history of the town and city of Prov- idence, in another chapter of this work, we will leave that branch of the subject now to follow more intimately the life of the illustrious founder and leader of the colony. A short time after his settlement here we find Roger Williams embracing some of the leading opinions of the Baptists. In March, 1639, he was baptized by immersion, at Providence, by Ezekiel Holliman, whom he afterward baptized. He formed a society of this order, and continued preaching to them for several months, and then separated from them, doubting, it is said, the validity of all baptism because a direct succession could not be traced from the Apostles to the officiating ministers.
In 1643 Williams went to England as agent for the colonies at Providence, Rhode Island and Warwick, to solicit a charter of incor- poration, which he finally procured, signed by the Earl of Warwick, then governor and admiral of the English plantations, and by his council, bearing date March 14th. 1644. Returning from England he landed at Boston, September 17th, 1644, bringing a letter of recom- mendation to the governor and assistants of the Massachussetts Bay, from some of the most influential members of the Long Parliament. This saved him from the penalty incurred in entering their bounds. which he had avoided on his departure by taking ship at New York.
In 1651, serious difficulties having arisen by Coddington's procur- ing a charter which gave him almost unlimited authority over the islands of Narragansett bay, Williams and Clarke were dispatched as agents of the colony to procure its revocation. This they effected in October, 1652. Williams returned in 1654, but Clarke remained in England, and afterward procured the second charter of 1663. While in England on the mission referred to, Williams resided most of the time at Belleau, a seat of Sir Henry Vane, in Lincolnshire; and on his return, brought a letter from him, inviting the planters to a closer union, one with another. This letter may be found among the rec-
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
ords of Providence. Through its means, urged by the perseverance of Williams, peace and union were finally restored to the colony, which. during his absence had been rent by many divisions. He was sev- eral times, both before and after this period, elected to the office of president or governor of the colony.
Very few incidents in his life are to be collected from the writings of Williams, and the prejudices of contemporary and even later his- torians who have mentioned him, render it difficult to form a true es- timate of his character. Enough, however, has been shown to prove him to have been a man of unblemished moral character, and of ar- dent piety, unyielding in opinions which he conceived to be right, and not to be diverted from what he believed to be duty, by either threats or flattery. In proof of his Christian temper we may point to the fact that after he was banished, though he conceived himself to be an injured, persecuted man, no purpose of revenge seems ever to have been harbored by him. For he had abundant oportunities for giving exercise to any such feelings, had he been so disposed. In- stead of that, the next year after his banishment, he gave to his per- secutors information of the Indian plot which would have destroyed their whole settlement. He concluded treaties for them, which in- sutred their peace and prosperity, "employing himself continually in acts of kindness to his persecutors, affording relief to the distressed, offering an asylum to the persecuted." In his political transactions, self interest does not appear to have had any influence in opposition to the public good. After acquiring the title to the land, which vested in himself exclusively, one of his first acts was to divide the land among his "loving neighbors," reserving to himself only a right as one of them. In the charter procured by him no office of trust or honor or profit was conferred on him. The history of the settlement of our country presents but few such instances of devotion to the common weal to the utter exclusion of personal interests, in the con- duct of those who led the settlements and controlled their affairs. Calender, the historian, has with some show of reason called him "the most disinterested man that ever lived."
In literary acquirements Roger Williams gained considerable dis- tinction among the men of his time, though his publications were not numerous. The public services in which he was engaged, and the personal difficulties which he encountered occupied his attention to the exclusion perhaps, of work in that direction which might have been his choice had he been at liberty to follow it. His "Key to the Language of America" was written about 1643, and printed in Lon- don very soon after its completion. It presented the character of the natives in a new and favorable light, and appears to have been ad- mirably calculated to facilitate that intercourse with them which the safety of the settlers and the interests of both settlers and natives urgently demanded. His next published work was the "Bloody
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
Tenent," an answer to Cotton's argument in favor of the regulation of church doctrines by the civil magistrate. Cotton's reply to this was followed by the publication by Williams of "The Bloody Tenent yet more bloody, by Cotton's endeavor to Wash it White." These were published in London, in 1652. About 20 years afterward Wil- liams had a controversy with the Quakers. He maintained a public dispute with them at Newport, on the 9th, 10th, and 12th of August, 1672, and at Providence on the 17th of the same month. He after- ward published a work entitled "George Fox digged out of his Bur- rows," in answer to a work of Fox.
No description of the person of Williams has reached us, but Rhode Islanders will always remember his name and his deeds, and revere him as the father of their state, and the world will ever regard him as one of the earliest and boldest champions of the right of all men "fully to have and enjoy their own judgments and consciences in matters of religious concernments." He died at Providence, in April, 1683, and was buried under arms, in his family burying ground, with every testimony of respect that the colony could manifest. He was the father of six children-Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel, and Joseph-the descendants of whom at this time may be numbered by thousands, and are scattered far and wide over this broad continent.
But with all the respect which Rhode Island has for the name of its pioneer, and with all the cause for family pride which his numer- ous descendants had, the founder of a state and the bold exponent of religious freedom rested in his grave until the ruthless hand of neglect had well nigh obliterated the last traces of anything by which the lo- cation of his sepulture could be identified. The greensward had set- tled to a level over his bones, the stones which had been placed to mark his grave had been the sport of thoughtless boys until they were broken down, and it was only with considerable antiquarian skill and research that the identity of his bones could be established. This was accomplished about 30 years since, Stephen Randall, one of Wil- liams' descendants, being a leader in the enterprise. Touching the subject of the discovery and exploration of the grave of Roger Wil- liams we venture to insert here the following extracts from a descrip- tion given by Mr. Zachariah Allen in an address in 1860.
"After the lapse of 177 years of obvious neglect, the researches for the identification of the grave were finally commenced on the 22d day of March, 1860, in the presence of several gentlemen, who were in- vited to witness the processes of the disinterment.
After the removal of the turf and loam, down to the hard surface of the subsoil, the outlines of seven graves became manifest, the three uppermost on the hillside being those of children, and the four lower ones, those of adults."
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
"The utmost care was taken in scraping away the earth from the bottom of the grave of Roger Williams. Not a vestige of any bone was discoverable, nor even of the lime dust which usually remains after the gelatinous part of the bone is decomposed. So completely had disappeared all the earthly remains of the Founder of the State of Rhode Island, in the commingling mass of black, crumbled slate stone and shale, that they did not 'leave a wreck behind.'"
"By the side of the grave of Roger Williams was another, which was supposed to be that of his wife; for wonderfully preserved there- in was found a lock of braided hair, being the sole remaining human relic. All else had disappeared in the lapse of more than 170 years, during which this tress of hair had survived every other portion of the body equally exposed to the wet earth.
"The reason for which this location had been so soon abandoned as a burial spot became evident in the almost impenetrable hardness of the soil, composed of shale, which rendered necessary the use of steel pointed bars and picks to penetrate it. So near the surface of ground is the sub-stratum of shale rock, which constitutes nearly the whole mass of Prospect Hill, that water was found percolating the soil at the bottom of one of the excavations which were made.
"It appears that in this vicinity, on the gravelly soil a few hun- dred feet below on the hillside, the Indians once had a cemetery. At the foot of Bowen street, skeletons with the remains of Indian im- plements, and a copper kettle, were found. Many of the early set- tlers of Providence were there buried.
"Along the whole range of Benefit street were a succession of or- chards planted on the hill-side, above the garden lots. In these or- chards were the burial lots of the families which occupied the homes below on the east side of North and South Main streets, commencing with the burial lot of the family of Whipple, at the junction of Con- stitution hill with Benefit street; next was that of Roger Williams' family-of Olney, Waterman, Crawford, Tillinghast, Cooke, Ashton, and others. In the course of modern improvements most of these remains have been removed to the North Burial Ground. Near Bowen street, whilst cultivating a garden, Nicholas Esten pulled up the fragments of a human skull, attached to the roots of a cabbage."
"On looking down into the pit whilst the sextons were clearing it of earth, the root of an adjacent apple tree was discovered. This tree had pushed downwards one of its main roots in a sloping direction and nearly straight course towards the precise spot that had been occupied by the skull of Roger Williams. There making a turn con- forming with its circumference, the root followed the direction of the backbone to the hips, and thence divided into two branches, each one following a leg bone to the heel, where they both turned upwards to the extremities of the toes of the skeleton. One of the roots formed a slight crook at the part occupied by the knee joint, thus producing
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
an increased resemblance to the outlines of the skeleton of Roger Williams, as if indeed, moulded thereto by the powers of vegetable life. This singularly formed root has been carefully preserved, as constituting a very impresive exemplification of the mode in which the contents of the grave had been entirely absorbed. Apparently not sated with banqueting on the remains found in one grave, the same roots extended themselves into the next adjoining one, pervad- ing every part of it with a network of voracious fibres in their thor- ough search for every particle of nutritious matter in the form of phosphate of lime and other organic elements constituting the bones. At the time the apple tree was planted, all the fleshy parts of the body had doubtless been decomposed and dispersed in gaseous forms; and there was then left only enough of the principal bones to serve for the roots to follow along from one extremity of the skeleton to the other in a continuous course, to glean up the scanty remains. Had there been other organic matter present in quantity, there would have been found divergent branches of roots to envelop and absorb it. This may serve to explain the singular formation of the roots into the shape of the principal bones of the human skeleton."
Leaving now the illustrious founder of the settlement out of which grew the county as well as the town, let us notice briefly the outlines of progress from the primitive condition to the present status and ar- rangement. In passing, however, it will be appropriate to notice a contemporary attempt at settlement which by subsequent events be- came associated with that of Roger Williams and his associates. About the same time that Williams came to Providence, Reverend Wil- liam Blackstone settled in Cumberland, near the river which bears his name, about three miles above Pawtucket. He was a man of learning, and had received Episcopal ordination in England. He ap- pears to have left his native country on account of his nonconformity, and he sought an asylum for the enjoyment of religious freedom in the wilds of New England. The precise time of his arrival in this country is unknown, though he appears to have been here as early as 1628, devoting himself to agriculture. When the first planters of Massachusetts arrived, in the year 1630, they found him already quietly scated on the peninsula of Shawmut, now the site of Boston. His cottage was near a spring, on the south end of the peninsula, where he had planted an orchard of apple trees. Having escaped the power of the Lords Bishop in England, he declared that he did not want to fall into the power of the "Lords Brethren" here, so he sold his lands on the peninsula, in the year 1635, and made a removal about the year 1636, his new location being about six miles north of that chosen by Mr. Williams. Here his house was situated near the east bank of the river which perpetuates his name, a few rods east- ward of a knoll, which he called "Study hill." It was surrounded by a park, which was his favorite walk. His house he named "Study
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
Hall." Here again he planted an orchard, the first that ever bore apples in Rhode Island, as tradition avers. Many of the trees were "still pretty thrifty fruit-bearing trees," 130 years afterward, when Governor Hopkins wrote the assertion just quoted in part. Mr. Blackstone used frequently to preach in Providence and other neigh- boring places. He was a man of talent, and though somewhat eccen- tric, sustained the character of an exemplary Christian. He died May 26th, 1675, having lived in New England about 50 years, and was buried about two rods east of his favorite "Study hill," and his family in America long since became extinct. His death occurred a few weeks before the commencement of Philip's war. At that time his estate was desolated, and his house and library laid in ashes by the ruthless natives.
The settlement of Williams continued to grow. The deeds by which title to lands was acquired have already been spoken of. The number of proprietors soon reached the limit of 54. The whole num- ber shared in the divisions of land in the Providence purchase, while only thirteen held shares in the Pawtuxet purchase. The latter was the cause of long and angry contention in the subsequent history of the colony.
Although the purchase of the land from the Narragansett sachems was considered as complete, yet the settlers were careful to conciliate the Indians residing within their limits and as far as possible to maintain their good will. Those who had built wigwams or tilled the soil, received gratuities in addition to what had been paid to the sachems, and even the claim to sovereignty over a part of the land, which was asserted by Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoags, sev- eral years after the purchase, though unfounded, was virtually ad- mitted, and compensation made him by the colonists. This claim embraced portions later included in Smithfield, though it is doubtful whether the rights of the Wampanoags ever extended west of the Seekonk. Many years elapsed before the last Indian titles were ex- tinguished. Confirmatory deeds from the successors of the first grantors were taken, every new deed requiring some further gratuity. The transfer of land from one inhabitant to another was subject to the approval of the town, and when that was obtained the record was made, simply giving bounds and reciting the fact in connection with the names of the parties.
The population of the colony rapidly increased; a natural effect of the broad system of religious freedom established by its founder, which made it the refuge of many who differed from the state creed of its neighbors. About 1646 there were in Providence and its vicin- ity 101 men fit to bear arms. This corresponds precisely to the whole number of proprietors of house lots in the last division of the lands made 73 years later. But besides the original purchasers, and those who were admitted by them to an equal share in the franchise, many
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
were received as townsmen who had no interest in the lands, and others were admitted as 25-acre or quarter-right purchasers, who in all subdivisions of land received one-quarter as much as a full proprietor. The terms of admission to the propriety varied very much at differ- ent times. The latest agreement upon the records is signed by 28 quarter-right proprietors, who having received a free grant of 25 acres each, and a proportionate right of common, promise to obey the laws. and not to claim any right to the purchase, nor any privilege of vote. until they shall be received as freemen of the town.
The extent of the first purchase of the Indians was exceedingly indefinite. At first there was some show of definite limits, the "river and fields of Pawtucket," the "great hill of Neotaconkanitt," and the "town of Mashapaug," having some fairly well understood locations. But then the conveyance drifts into ambiguity by granting "all that land from those rivers reaching to Pawtuxet river," "those rivers" meaning the Moshassuck and Wanasquatucket. The vague- ness is still further increased by the confirmation of Miantonomi in 1639, when he "acknowledged this his act and hand up the streams of Pawtucket and Pawtuxet, without limits, we might have for our use of cattle." The deed was understood to convey little more than the right of jurisdiction over the land it described. The general right that the sachem possessed in the soil passed under it, but such Indians as had built wigwams or planted upon it were also to be satisfied. In some instances individuals among the purchasers bought off the natives residing on their lands, and in others the whole body of purchasers joined, and from their common stock paid the claims of the natives. It was not uncommon for a succession of such claimants to demand and receive satisfaction. The sums paid to these individuals generally far exceeded the amounts paid to the sachems. Several such deeds and confirmations of different Indian claimants for certain portions of the wide expanse of territory in- cluded in the ownership of Providence men have been preserved, and many others have been lost. The descriptions contained in these instruments are so lengthy, mystical and abounding in names and points of definition now unrecognizable that we deem it unadvisable to copy them here. In May, 1661, the town borrowed 20 pounds to pay for clearing off certain Indian titles. These appear to cover lands later in Smithfield, Burrillville and Scituate. Among the largest tracts purchased from the natives by individuals was the Westquanoid purchase, which lay between the north branch of the Pawtuxet river and the dividing line between the present counties of Providence and Kent. The purchasers of this tract belonged principally to Rhode Island. It is now covered by the southern part of the towns of Foster and Scituate.
In accordance with the extent of land covered by the various deeds which had been obtained up to that time, the town in March,
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