USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
About this time Mr. Williams, jointly with Gov. Win- Nov. throp, purchased of Canonicus the island of Chibachu- 10. weset, which had formerly been offered by the Indians to John Oldham, on condition that he would settle there for purposes of trade, which he failed to do. This he named Prudence, and two smaller islands adjacent, which he soon after purchased, he called Patience and Hope. These lands, with other property, he afterwards sold to meet his expenses in England when on service for the colony. Gov. Winthrop retained his half of Prudence island, and left it in his will to his son Stephen.1
1 3 M. HI C. i. 165. Knowles' R. W. 124. The deed of Prudence island is dated 10th Nov. R. I. H. C. iii. 29. Williams' letter to Gov. Winthrop on the subject is dated Oct. 28th.
106
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. I.
1638. Aug.
The annals of crime have rarely contained a more atrocious murder than was committed near Providence, upon the person of an Indian, by four English from Ply- mouth in the following summer. The murderers were taken at Aquidneck, and Mr. Williams, writing to Gov. Winthrop for advice as to where they should be tried, gives the particulars of the tragedy.1 One escaped. The remaining three were sent to Plymouth, tried and exe- cuted. The chief interest of the affair at this day relates to the question of jurisdiction, and to the diverse reasons assigned for having the trial at Plymouth. Williams thought they should be tried at Aquidneck, where they were taken, and if not they should be sent to Plymouth, where they belonged. The Aquidneck settlers desired to send them to Providence, where the crime was commit- ted, and this certainly was the correct view. Gov. Win- throp advised that they be delivered to Plymouth if sent for, otherwise that the ringleader be given up to the In- dians, and the other three be detained till further consid- eration, and gives as his reasons that there was no English jurisdiction where the crime was committed, and no gov- ernment at the island where the criminals were arrested .? Plymouth also applied to Massachusetts for advice, and the Secretary assigns opposite reasons from those given by Gov. Winthrop himself for his advice, and very dif- ferent ones from any that could have influenced the Aquidneck people in surrendering the prisoners. He says the Massachusetts refused to try them because the crime was committed within the jurisdiction of Plymouth, and that the Rhode Island men having taken them, delivered them to Plymouth " on the same grounds."3
The birth of Mr. Williams' eldest son, said to be the first male child born of English parents in Rhode Island, took place in the autumn of this year. He was named
1 3 M. H. C. iii. 170-3.
2 Winthrop's Journal, i. 267.
Morton's Memorial, p. 208.
107
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
Providence. The first English child born in the colony CHAP. was a female, in the same year, but a few months pre- IV. 1638. vious to the birth of Providence Williams.
The period had now arrived when a church was to be organized in the new plantations. That religious services had not previously been neglected in their exile, we may fairly infer from the character of the people and the ear- nest nature of their leader, himself an ordained preacher of the Gospel, as also was Thomas James, another of the original proprietors. And we know too that Mr. Black- stone, also a regular minister, residing within six miles of Providence, was in the habit of visiting the settlement for this purpose. As the views entertained by the Provi- dence colonists differed so widely from those of their Pu- ritan brethren in other respects, a similar variance may be looked for in their religious belief ; and as they had instituted a civil government on principles entirely novel in that age, so were they about to establish an ecclesias- tical system, approaching, more nearly, as they consider- ed, to that of the primitive church, than any then exist- ing in the new world. Gov. Winthrop says : "Many of Boston and others, who were of Mrs. Hutchinson's judg- ment and party, removed to the isle of Aquiday ; and others, who were of the rigid separation, and savored anabaptism, removed to Providence, so as those parts be- gan to be well peopled." Some time between this date and the following spring, when the account of the bap- tism of Williams, Holliman and ten others, is recorded by Winthrop, the event then related occurred, which places the formation of the first Baptist church in Amer- ica probably in the autumn of 1638, and certainly prior to the 16th of March, 1639.2
Aug. 3.
1638-9. March 16.
1 These twelve were Roger Williams, Ezekiel Holliman, William Arnold, William Harris, Stukely Westcott, John Green, Richard Waterman, Thomas James, Robert Cole, William Carpenter, Francis Weston and Thomas Olney. -Benedict's History of Baptists, i. 473.
2 An interesting discussion occurred a few years since between the First
108
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IV. The growth of the colony soon rendered a purely democratic government impracticable. Too onerous for 1640. the individual and too feeble for the purposes of the State, it was reluctantly and cautiously abandoned. The jeal- ousy of delegated power is conspicuous in the instrument that authorized it, as well as in the frequent elections by which it provided for a choice of the " disposers." The necessity of some change was apparent, and a committee was appointed by the inhabitants of Providence to con- sider certain difficulties that had arisen in regard to a di- vision of the lands, to adjust the same, and to report a form of future government for the action of the town. This report, consisting of twelve articles of agreement, July 27. was accepted by the people, thirty-nine of whose signa- tures are attached to the only copy in existence, certified by the town clerk twenty-two years later.1 It was but a slight departure from the primitive democracy, still it
Baptist Churches of Providence and Newport, the latter claiming seniority, contrary to received opinions and the records of the Warren Association. A report to the Association was made in 1849, stating the grounds of the New- port claim. This report was ably refuted by the Rev. Drs. Granger and Cas- well and Prof. Gammell, a committee in behalf of the Providence church, and their review presented to the Warren Association at its next annual meet- ing, Sept. 12th, 1850, and printed in pamphlet form soon after. In Novem- ber of the same year, Rev. S. Adlam, pastor of the Newport church, published a pamphlet entitled, " The First Baptist Church in Providence Not the oldest of the Baptists in America." This is a very ingenious attempt to show, 1st, That the present First Baptist Church is not the original church referred to in the text, but a seceder from an older church. 2d, That this older church disap- peared about 1718, and 3d, That the Newport church is older than either of them. The last proposition, at least, proves too much, for Winthrop settles the fact of the formation of a Baptist church at Providence prior to 16th March, 1639, while the town of Newport was not founded till May 1st, six weeks after- ward. Many of the facts relied on to sustain these positions will be found to be already answered in the committee's Review, and the additional statements are well weighed by Rev. Henry Jackson, D. D., in " Churches in Rhode Island," pp. 15-22, 79-85, 95 and 122, 23. Mr. Adlam's pamphlet is a fine specimen of historical reasoning, requiring an intimate knowledge of the times and subject, and some experience in critical analysis, to detect the er- rors in its premises and the consequent fallacy of its conclusions.
1 Staple's Annals, p. 40-3.
109
FORM OF GOVERNMENT ALTERED.
forms an era in our colonial history, and for several years CHAP. IV.
constituted the town government.
The first article fixes the bounds between Pawtuxet 1640. proprietors and those of Providence. The second pre- scribes that five men be appointed by the town to dispose of the common lands, and to do the general business of the town, but in receiving freemen they are first to notify the inhabitants, lest any objections should exist against the applicant. If any one felt aggrieved by the action of the " disposers," he could appeal to the town meeting. A town clerk was to be chosen in addition to these five selectmen, and the guaranty of liberty of conscience is again expressly given. The next two articles provide for the settlement of all private difficulties by arbitration, and empowered the five disposers to appoint arbitrators when either of the disputants refuses to do so. The fifth requires all the inhabitants to unite in pursuit of any de- linquent. The sixth enables any party, aggrieved by the acts of any one of the " disposers," to call a town meet- ing, in case of an emergency. By the seventh article all land conveyances from the town were to be made by the five selectmen. The next two articles provide for monthly meetings of the selectmen or " disposers," and quarterly meetings of the town, at which the former were to render their accounts and a new election to be had. The fees of the clerk and his term of office, to be one year, are the subjects of the tenth article. The eleventh quiets all prior land titles. The last article levies a tax of thirty shillings upon all inhabitants of the town.
The provisions for elections, and for a revision of the acts of the " disposers " at quarterly town meetings, and for extra town meetings in the brief intervals, to redress any private grievance inflicted by the seleetmen, or any one of them, are remarkable proofs of the tenacity with which the founders of Providence held in their own hands the reins of delegated power. The largest liberty of the
110
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IV. citizen, civil as well as religious, consistent with the exist- ence of society, was their cherished object, and one which 1640. they protected with the jealousy of men escaped from the tyranny of a church and state combination. But the element of strength which it was sought to embody in the new system was not there. The passions of men were not restrained, and the crude ideas of many who sought the new colony as a refuge from oppression, were not defi- nitely shaped by this new agreement. Latitude of opin- ion upon fundamental points of civil government still existed. Theories subversive of all legal restraint were
1641.
ยท broached, and although the angry discussions which they produced resulted in the triumph of social order, they gave occasion for the calumny that "at Providence they denied all magistracy and churches." The doctrine that conscience was to be the sole guide of the individual, in civil as well as in religious matters, was held by some who did not see clearly the distinction as it existed in the mind of Roger Williams. In the neighboring colonies these perversions of the idea of soul liberty were magni- fied, and the disorder that threatened during the discus- sions, which finally ended in the united triumph of reli- gious liberty, and social law, was misrepresented as the re- sult of the established system in the State. Any attempt to enforce the laws was attended with danger to the exist- ence of the settlement, so much so, that on several occa- sions aid from abroad was solicited to sustain the deci- sions of arbitrators legally appointed, in accordance with the new form of government. The earliest instance of this impolitic action is found in a letter from thirteen of the colonists addressed to the Massachusetts, complaining of the conduct of Gorton and his partisans, one of whom, Francis Weston, had refused to submit to the " arbitra- tion of eight men orderly chosen." To enforce their de- cree a levy was made on Weston's cattle. A riot ensued, in which some blood was spilt and a rescue effected by his
Nov. 17
111
PAWTUXET MEN SUBMIT TO MASSACHUSETTS.
friends, who then openly declared that a similar result should follow any attempt to attach any property of theirs. The writers urge the necessity of the case as the reason for their asking assistance and advice. In reply the gov- ernment of Massachusetts declined to send aid, because they " could not levy any war without a general Court ;" and " for counsel, that except they did submit themselves to some jurisdiction, either Plymouth, or ours, we had no calling or warrant to interpose in their contentions, but if they were once subject to any, then they had a calling to protect them." How such a submission by any inhabit- ants of Rhode Island could operate to extend the Massa- chusetts charter beyond its prescribed limits, or, if it could do so, how any of the people could invite such a usurpation we cannot understand.
A few months after this affair four of the principal inhabitants, then resident at Pawtuxet, dissatisfied with the conduct of Gorton and his company, who had moved to their neighborhood, offered themselves and their lands to the government and protection of Massachusetts, and were received by the General Court. These were Wil- liam Arnold, Robert Cole, William Carpenter and Bene- dict Arnold. The first three were among the original purchasers. The last was the son of the first-named. They were appointed by the General Court as justices of the peace. Thus a foreign jurisdiction was set up in the very midst of the infant colony, which greatly increased the difficulties of its existence, and continued for sixteen years to harass the inhabitants of Providence, and threat- en the peace of Rhode Island long after the Parliamen- tary charter had secured to the people the right of self- government.2 The motives of the Court in this act are
CHAP. IV. 1641.
1642. Sept. 8.
1 Mass. Col. Rec. 2, 27.
2 It was not till 1658 that this unnatural condition of things was termi- nated upon the petition of Wm. Arnold and Wm. Carpenter in behalf of thein- selves and all the inhabitants of Pawtuxet, asking for a full discharge of their
112
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IV. stated by the Governor to be " partly to secure these men from unjust violence, and partly to draw in the rest in 1642. those parts, either under ourselves or Plymouth, who now lived under no government, but grew very offensive, and the place was likely to be of use to us, especially if we should have occasion of sending out against any Indians of Narraganset, and likewise for an outlet into the Nar- raganset Bay, and seeing it came without our seeking, and would be no charge to us, we thought it not wisdom to Oct. 28. let it slip." In a few weeks a letter was addressed by Massachusetts "to our neighbors of Providence," inform- ing them of this submission of the Pawtuxet men, noti- fying them that the Courts were open for the trial of any complaints against these men, and accompanied with the assurance that equal justice should there be rendered, and with the threat that if violence were resorted to against them it would be repelled in like manner.1 This official demonstration of the grasping policy of Massachusetts alarmed the colonists, who naturally preferred their own system of arbitration to the decision of Courts in another, and as they had good reason to consider, a hostile juris- 1642-3. diction. Gorton and his companions, who, as the parties Jan. 12. specially complained of, deemed this letter to be aimed directly at them, shortly removed beyond the limits of Providence, and purchasing from the Indians lands at Shawomet, south of Pawtuxet, commenced the settle- ment of Warwick. But the rest which they sought was denied them in their last retreat. The persecution of their enemies followed them to the homes which the heathen, in pity for their sufferings, had bestowed. A dark contrast between the kindness of the savages and the cruelty of their civilized brethren, is presented in the early history of the Warwick settlement.
submission to the Massachusetts jurisdiction, which was granted at the May session. M. C. R., v. 4, Part i., p. 333.
1 The letter is published in 2 R. I. HI. Col., p. 53, and in Staple's Annals of Prov., p. 47.
113
APPLICATION FOR A CHARTER.
The three colonies now existing in Rhode Island were CHAP. IV. independent of each other. They felt the necessity of union in case of an Indian war which constantly threat- 1642. ened, and perhaps a still greater need of an authorized government, which should cause their rights to be re- spected by their neighbors. As yet cach settlement de- pended solely upon the consent of its inhabitants for the efficiency of its government, and this basis was not recog- nized by the Puritan colonies as valid. The only ties that bound them together were those of a common dan- ger from the Indians, the memory of sufferings endured in a common cause, and the peril to their existence as a State, which threatened all alike from the ambitious poli- cy of the surrounding colonies. To strengthen their po- sition at home, to fortify themselves against encroachments from abroad, and above all to secure the enjoyment of that liberty of conscience for which they had suffered so much and were destined to endure still more, they sought from the British Parliament a charter which should recognize their acts of self-government as legal, and invest with the sanction of authority the novel experiment they had com- menced. The movement was made by the colony at Sept. 19. Acquedneck. Providence united in it, and Roger Wil- liams was selected as the agent. Early in the following summer he embarked at New York in a Dutch ship for 1643. England, being compelled to this course by the refusal of Massachusetts to permit him to pass through their limits, or to take passage in one of their vessels. He arrived in the midst of the civil war. The King had already fled, and the Long Parliament ruled the realm of England. The administration of the colonies was intrusted to a committee, of which the Earl of Warwick was chairman, with the office and title of " Governor-in-Chief and Lord High Admiral of the Colonies." His efforts with this Nov. 1643-4 March 14. committee resulted in obtaining a charter uniting the three Rhode Island colonies, as " The Incorporation of
VOL. 1 .- 8
114
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IV. Providence Plantations in the Narraganset Bay in New England."1 The arrival of Mr. Williams with this all- 1644. important document was the occasion of general rejoicing. By virtue of an official letter to the Massachusetts, which he brought with him,2 he landed in Boston, and was al- Sept. 17. lowed to proceed unmolested to his home. This letter however failed, in its chief object, to produce a relaxation of the stern policy of the Bay towards the founder of the " heretical colony." Hubbard, in his History of New England, says : " Upon the receipt of the said letter the Governor and Magistrates of the Massachusetts found, upon examination of their hearts, they saw no reason to condemn themselves for any former proceedings against Mr. Williams ; but for any offices of Christian love and duties of humanity, they were very willing to maintain a mutual correspondency with him. But as to his danger- ous principles of separation, unless he can be brought to lay them down, they see no reason why to concede to him, or any so persuaded, free liberty of ingress and egress, lest any of their people should be drawn away with his erroneous opinions."
He passed quietly through the unfriendly territory, whose people he had already once preserved, and from
1 With respect to the exact date of this charter there is some difference of opinion, evidently caused by the carelessness of transcribers. It is pub- lished in the 2d and 4th vols. of R. I. H. Col., dated 17th March. The 3d R. I. H. Col., Hazard's State Papers, and 2 M. H. C. vol. 9, print it with the date of '14th March. Various writers have followed each of these authori- ties. The latter, however, is the correct date, as ably argued by the learned and accurate editor of Winthrop's Journal in a note, vol. ii., p. 236, edit. 1853. The fact that the 17th March 1643-4 fell on Sunday, not a legal day of date, is of itself conclusive against that date. The writer, in the course of his investigations in the British State Paper Office at London, examined the official MS. charter there preserved. It bears date 14th March. This positive evidence, aside from the negative proof adduced by Mr. Savage, ap- pears to settle the question. The charter was signed on Thursday, 14th March, 1643-4.
2 The letter is given in Winthrop, 2, 193 (236.)
115
WILLIAMS' RETURN.
whom he was destined shortly, for the second time, to CHAP avert the horrors of Indian war, and reached Providence 1V. by the same route that eight years before he had pursued, 1644. a homeless wanderer, dependent on the kindness of the red man. His entry was like a triumphal march. Four- teen canoes, filled with the exulting population of Provi- dence, met him at Seekonk, and escorted him across the river, while the air was rent with shouts of welcome. How the contrast which a few short years had wrought in all around him must have pressed upon his mind, and more than all the feeling that the five companions of his exile, and those who had followed them, were now raised, by the charter he had brought, from the condition of de- spised and persecuted outcasts to the rank of an inde- pendent State !
During the absence of Mr. Williams an event of great importance in its effect on the welfare of the colonists oc- curred. This was the murder of Miantinomi, the faith- ful ally of the English and the steadfast friend of Rhode Island. A union for mutual assistance, to which we shall refer more fully in the succeeding chapter, was formed by the other New England colonies, and from which the Rhode Island settlements were excluded, upon grounds that reflect no credit upon the Puritan confederates. The prospect of Indian war was the most urgent cause for this union, and the exclusion of Rhode Island was a vir- tual abandonment of her inhabitants to the chances of savage warfare. A war broke out between Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, and Sequasson, a sachem on the Con- necticut river, who was an ally of Miantinomi. Both parties appealed to the English, who declared their inten- tion to remain neutral. Miantinomi espoused the cause of his ally against Uncas, his hereditary foe, and applied to the Governor of Massachusetts, " to know if he would be offended if he made war upon Uncas ?" The Gov- ernor replied, " If Uncas had done him or his friends
1643.
May 19.
July
116
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. IV. wrong and would not give satisfaction, we should leave him to take his own course." That the high spirited sa- 1643. chem of the Narragansets should have thus asked leave, as it were, to exercise the right of a sovereign Prince against his enemies, is explained by the existence of a treaty formed six years before, when he aided the English to crush the Pequots. The whole career of this haughty chieftain, in his intercourse with the English, displays the nicest sentiment of honor, blended with a proper regard for his own dignity and absolute sovereignty. He re- garded every article of the treaty he had made as binding to the last hour of his life, not only in its terms but in its spirit, and expected, though unfortunately, and as it proved fatally to himself, to receive from his civilized al- lies an equally honorable conduct. He had been repeat- edly the guest of the authorities at Boston, and his de- portment on those occasions, as well as in his own domin- ions, when receiving embassies from the English, was such as to win the confidence and command the admiration of 1642. those with whom he negotiated. But of late suspicions Aug. had been excited in the mind of the General Court, by intelligence from Connecticut, spread, as it appears, by the intrigues of the Mohegans.1 At a summons from the Sept. Court Miantinomi promptly attended, and vindicated his innocence, demanding to be confronted with his accusers, and charging Uncas as the author of the calumny. The Court were satisfied and Miantinomi was honorably dis- missed. A fatal act of kindness soon afterward performed by him, in selling Shawomet to the arch heretic Gorton, seems to have inclined the Massachusetts more readily to entertain suspicions of their high-souled ally, and to have had no little weight in causing his death. However this 1643. July. may be, the leading events are well known. Uncas at- tacked Sequasson. Miantinomi took the field with one thousand warriors, and was defeated in a bloody action.
! An account of this plot is given in 3 M. H. C., 3, 161-4.
117
MURDER OF MIANTINOMI.
By the treachery of two of his captains he was delivered up to Uncas. An effort to obtain his ransom was made by his subjects, and also by Gorton. Upon this Uncas carried him to Hartford, where at his own entreaty he was left as a prisoner in the hands of the English, till the Commissioners of the United Colonies met at Boston.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.