USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 12
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in " My Novel," where the reader will find in the first three books some scenes related such as this island may have witnessed two centuries ago ; always excepting the one in book third, chapter ix., where the inimitable Ric- cabocca pays the forfeit of benevolent curiosity, by being caught in the stocks, himself, and is thus found by his friends, quietly meditating under his red um- brella. There may have been some Lenny Fairchilds in Rhode Island, but no counterpart to the fatherly and philosophical Italian. I am sure the reader will pardon this note if it leads him to peruse the admirable sketch of English life here referred to, and if he is already familiar with it the recollection will serve to relieve his mind from the dry record of actual history.
1 This punishment nominally existed until a recent period in this State. The last public infliction of it was on the Court House parade in Providence, July 14th, 1837, for horse stealing. It had long been in disnse until this re- currence of it aroused public attention to its legal existence, when it was soon after struck from the statute book. It still exists in many of the States.
VOL. 1-9
130
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. V. purchase the bread used at the meeting of the courts. A few days after we find that a water-mill was projected by 1638. Mr. Nicholas Esson,1 for the use of the plantation, and a Nov. 16. grant of land and timber made to him for this purpose. The earliest case of an absconding debtor in the colony occurred at this time. John Luther, a carpenter, fled from the island, leaving sundry debts unpaid. His prop- erty was duly appraised and sold for the benefit of his creditors. The disposition to regulate trade by establish- ing prices at which articles should be bought and sold, which had already given much trouble in Massachusetts, and continued to do so until the repeal of the statute left such matters to regulate themselves, showed itself early among the Portsmouth settlers. Four "truckmasters," as they were called, were appointed for the venison trade with the Indians, and the prices fixed upon this staple article of food were limited to a penny ha'penny a pound to be paid for it, and two pence a pound as the selling price. One farthing a pound, being one-half the profit thus secured to the dealers, was to be paid into the treas- ury.2
Up to this time the government had been a pure de- mocracy. All acts had been passed in public meetings of the whole body. The Judge and Clerk had acted only as chairman and secretary of the assembled townsmen, by whom all laws had been passed, and all proceedings, whether legislative, judicial, or executive, conducted. A change now took place by appointing three Elders to as-
1 The name was also spelt Eason and Easton in the records. This was the same who with his two sons, Peter and John, built the first house in New- port, six months later.
2 A net profit of about seventeen per cent. on the capital invested, is here allowed, and is a better margin than is usually left to the dealer under re- stricted laws of trade. It also compares well with average results of modern traffic. In this case the capital was all that was required. Deer and Indians were both abundant, so that but little labor and no skill were needed on the part of the " truckmasters."
1638-9. Jan. 2.
131
PROCEEDINGS IN TOWN MEETINGS.
sist the Judge in his judicial duties, to frame laws, to CHAP. have the entire charge of the public interests, and with the Judge to govern the colony. These officers were to render an account of their proceedings at quarterly meet- ings of the town, where their acts were subject to revi- sion, or repeal, if disapproved. A jealousy of delegated power is here apparent, like that which existed in the Providence plantation, and which presents a marked con- trast to the feeling then prevalent in the community which they had so lately left. Sealed ballots were used at this election. Nicholas Easton, John Coggeshall and William Brenton were chosen Elders, and their election was duly ratified. At the next meeting the town united with the Judge and Elders to choose a Constable and Jan. 24. town Sergeant, and to define their duties. Samuel Wil- bore was elected for the former office, whose duties were to see that peace be kept, and to inform of any breaches thereof, with power to command aid for that purpose if needed. Henry Bull was elected Sergeant, to execute orders of the Court, to serve warrants and to keep the prison, with similar power to demand aid from any per- sons in the discharge of his office. The business of the town for the ensuing three months was transacted by the Judge and Elders. By their act new comers were admit- ted as inhabitants, and complaints for exaction in trade Feb. 7. were redressed. A singular proceeding was taken in re- gard to William Aspinwall, upon whom suspicions of se- dition against the State rested. Neither the grounds of suspicion nor the nature of the sedition is stated, but an order was issued forbidding further work upon a boat that he was having built. This kind of security for good con- duct seems to have been usual, for one Osamund Doutch, who at the same Court was admitted an inhabitant, was likewise complained of for some wrong-doing, and his shallop pledged in a bond of indemnity that he was re- quired to give. Probably boats were considered the most
V. 1638-9.
132
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. V. available and desirable property in an island settlement.1 Swine were considered a nuisance, and their removal or 1639. confinement was early provided for. They were ordered April 6. to be sent six miles distant from the town, or to some ad- jacent island, or else were to be shut up so as to be inof- fensive, and subsequently the act was enforced by a fine of two pence for each hog that was found in the town af- ter four days. A cattle pound was also provided. To guard against invasions from the Indians, and likewise to secure the peace of the settlement from the chances of riot, an alarm was established. The firing of three mus- kets, with the cry of " Alarum," was the signal upon which all the inhabitants were to repair to the house of the Judge.
28.
The colony had now so greatly increased that a divi- sion was deemed expedient. A meeting was held, at which the following agreement was entered into by the signers, by whom the settlement of Newport was commenced on the south-west side of the island.
"POCASSET. On the 28th of the 2d, 1639.
" It is agreed by us whose hands are underwritten, to propagate a Plantation in the midst of the Island or else- where ; And doe engage ourselves to bear equall charges, answerable to our strength and estates in common ; and that our determinations shall be by major voice of judge and elders ; the Judge to have a double voice.
" PRESENT : WM. CODDINGTON, Judge. NICHOLAS EASTON, JOHN COGGESHALL, WILLIAM BRENTON, JOHN CLARKE, JEREMY CLERKE, THOMAS HAZARD, HENRY BULL,
Elders.
WILLIAM DYRE, Clerk."
1 As we hear no more of the charge of sedition, we may infer that it was
133
THE SECOND COMPACT AT POCASSET.
All the members of the Pocasset government, it will CHAP. V. be observed, are among the emigrants. They carried with them their records up to this date. Why they did this 1639. does not appear, for although they were the most promi- nent men, and their settlement soon became the leading one in the State, yet by far the largest number then re- siding at Pocasset remained. Thus deprived at once of their government and their records, a new organization was necessary, and two days afterward they formed a new April. 30. compact as follows : " We whose names are under [writ- ten do acknowledge] ourselves the legal subjects of [His Majesty] King Charles, and in his name [do hereby bind] ourselves into a civill body politicke and [do submit] unto his lawes according to matters of justice.1" Thirty-one names are signed to this document,? following which, of
unsustained, and that the boat was allowed to be finished, for about three months later, 28th April, it was attached for debt, which is the only com- plaint ever afterward brought against Aspinwall. He occupied many positions of trust in the colony. Early in 1642, probably in April, he returned to Massachusetts, and " upon his petition and certificate of good carriage was restored again to his former liberty of freedom." M. C. R., ii. 3.
1 The record is much mutilated and defaced. The words in brackets are interpolated to preserve the sense. These interpolations are all at the end of the lines where the edge of the sheet is torn off. The remaining words are very legible.
2 Wm. Hutchinson, Samuel Gorton, Samuel Hutchinson, John Wickes, Richard Maggson, Thomas Spicer, John Roome, John Geoffe, (Sloffe ?) Thom- as Beddar, Erasmus Bullocke, Sampson Shotten, Ralph Earle, Robert Potter, Nathanyell Potter, George Potter, Wm. Heavens (W. T. Havens ?) George Shaw (Chare ?) George Lawton, Anthony Painc, Jobe Hawkins, Richard Awarde, John More (Mow ?) Nicholas Browne, Wm. Richardson, John Trippe, Thomas Layton, Robert Stainton, John Brigges, James Davis. In R. I. C. R. i. 70 but twenty-nine names are given. The other two on the Record have a pen mark across them as if to expunge them from the list, and probably for this reason are not copied in the printed records. One of these names is that of Wm. Aspinwall, who, on the same day, was chosen one of the assistants, and continued, for three years, a resident of the colony. His signature be- longs there, and why erased we cannot say unless it was done after his return to Massachusetts in 1642. We infer the same, although with less positive proof of the other erasure, and hence state the number of signers at thirty- one, two more than the printed records show.
134
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
the same date, is their agreement of government. " Ac-
CHAP. V. cording to the true intent of the [foregoing, wee] whose 1639. names are above perticularly [recorded, do agree] jointly or by the major voice to g[overn ourselves by the] Rulee or Judge amongst us in all [transactions] for the spacr and term of one [year, he] behaving himself according to the t[enor of the same.]" They then proceeded to elect William Hutchinson Judge. The mutilation of the rec- ords has destroyed the name, and no clue to it is given in any of the subsequent pages, but Winthrop has fortu- nately preserved it.1 Seven assistants were also chosen,
ยท The writer devoted a whole summer to studying and making extracts from the Portsmouth records, a year before they were printed by the State, and may be permitted to follow the results of his own researches, even where they differ somewhat from the version since printed by Authority. In the foregoing list, where the writer's version differs from that of the printed rec- ords, the name, as given in the latter, is enclosed in brackets. It will be ob- served that there are four of these variations, besides the two first explained, which require that the author should state further reasons, besides the evi- dence of his own eyes, why he prefers the versions here retained. The names of Goffe, Shaw and More occur often on the records, and are perpetu- ated in a very numerous descent at this day on the island, while the names as printed are nowhere else to be found or traced. W. T. Havens should be Wm. Havens, as afterward appears on the records. Middle names were not in use in that age. The difficulty of deciphering these ancient records is greatly increased by the fact that many of them are written in the German script or old English letter, and unless the student is familiar with that lan- guage or character, his only mode of reading such passages is by making an alphabet, somewhat in the way pursued by Champollion in his application of the Rosetta Stone to Egyptian hieroglyphics. The chances of error are much increased by this process.
Lest these remarks should be misapprehended as throwing a doubt on the reliability of the printed records, the writer deems it just and proper to say that the errors therein contained are few and of little practical importance, so far as he has discovered. Some errors have occurred in printing that are readily detected. The completeness and accuracy of the work as a whole, can only be duly appreciated by those who know the many difficulties incident to such a task. Mutilation, erasure, fading ink, blotting, insects, dampness, ever-varying orthography, and often bad chirography, to all which add the frequent use of a foreign character, as above stated, and we have some of the inevitable hindrances that attend the reading of our earliest records.
1 i. 295, May 11th, 1639. " At Aquiday the people grew very tumul- tuous, and put out Mr. Coddington and the other three magistrates, and chose
135
TWO GOVERNMENTS ON THE ISLAND.
" for the help and case of conducting public business and CHAP affairs, and to lay out lands," viz. : William Balston, V. John Porter, John William Freeborne, John 1639. Wall, Philip Shearman and William Aspinwall. The surname of the third assistant, like that of the Judge, being near the edge of the page, is torn off. These offi- cers were constituted a court for settling any dispute in- volving less than forty shillings. Provision was also made for a quarterly court of trials with a jury of twelve men.
Two distinct governments, which lasted the remainder of the year, were thus established on the island. That at Pocasset was occupied with business of a local nature, chiefly in apportionments of land and house lots, which were to be forfeited if not built upon within one year. No man was allowed either to sell his lot or to offer it to the
Mr. Wm. Hutchinson only, a man of very mild temper and weak parts, and wholly guided by his wife, who had been the beginner of all the former tron- bles in the country, and still continued to breed disturbance." The " putting out " here recorded, is evidently a Puritan version of the emigration from Pocasset to Newport a few days previous, which shows how carefully we should regard the statements of the Massachusetts chroniclers, when the most liberal of them all can thus construe the acts of those from whom he differed in opinion. He is in error in using the word "only" in the passage above quoted ; the records of Portsmouth showing, as stated in the text, that seven Assistants were chosen at the same time with the Judge. There are also two singular errors, one of omission and one of misstatement, in Judge Eddy's let- ter to the Editor, quoted in the note appended to this passage.
The first consists in overlooking the fact of the cmigration of the Magis- trates, and the election of others by those who remained at Pocasset, of which Judge Eddy does not seem to have been aware, and which led him to assert wrongly of Wm. Hutchinson's election as an Assistant in 1640, that " this was the only time he was chosen to office." The diligence of Judge Eddy and his general accuracy is admitted by all who have pursued the same path of research in our State Archives. The two errors here noticed could not have been avoided by one who only examined, however carefully, the State records, and it is evident from this letter that its writer had not, up to that time, con- sulted the Portsmouth town records.
It is fortunate that Winthrop has thus accidentally enabled us to supply a defect caused by a mutilation of the records. Without this confirmation we should still have conjectured that Hutchinson was the man selected as Judge, for he was one of the eighteen original proprietors, and was perhaps the most important person left at l'ocasset after the cmigration.
136
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. town. The only act of public interest was to change the V. name of the place to Portsmouth, which was done at the 1639. first quarterly meeting under the new organization, and confirmed by the united government the next year.
July 1. April 28. 30. May 1.
16.
The nine men who signed the agreement at Pocasset proceeded at once to make their new settlement. By a manuscript journal kept by Nicholas Easton, it appears that he with his two sons, Peter and John, came by boat to an island where they lodged, and the next morning named it Coasters' Harbor. Thence they came to New- port the same day, where they erected the first English building.1 The others were not far behind, if they did not accompany the Eastons, for in their first meeting they speak of " the plantation now begun at this south-west end of the island," naming it Newport, establishing the site of the town " on both sides of the spring, and by the . seaside southward," and fixing the line dividing it from Pocasset at a point five miles north and east from the town. The spring referred to was on the west side of Spring street, near the State House, whence a stream ran a north-west course to the harbor. It appears that some doubt existed at first as to the best location for the town. A dense swamp skirted the harbor where Thames street now is. This fact led them to direct their attention to the beach. There they found only an open roadstead un- safe for shipping ; so they returned to the harbor, sur- veyed it, and wisely decided on the present location. The
1 This fact entitles N. Easton to the honor of being considered the founder of Newport, unless an equal share is claimed for his eight associates, who do not appear to have been as prompt in their arrival or in establishing their settlement by actual building. That he was endowed with the peculiar en- ergy of a pioneer appears by his previous history. The house was on the east side of Farewell street, a little west of the Friends' meeting-house. It was burnt down in 1641 by the carelessness or the malice of some Indians, who kindled a fire in the woods near by. There and in Tanner and Marlborough streets the first houses were built. Gov. Coddington's house was on the north side of the latter street and fronting Duke street .- Bull's Memoir of Rhode Island.
137
SETTLEMENT OF NEWPORT.
swamp has long since given place to crowded thorough- fares, and the finest harbor in America remains to attest the wisdom of their choice. Provision was made for every servant who remained with them to have ten acres of land as a free gift upon his admission. The business of laying out the lands was soon commenced. The opinion of the body is recorded " that the land might reasonably accom- modate fifty families." Four acres were assigned for each house lot, and six acres were granted to Mr. Coddington for an orchard.' Free trade with the Indians was per- mitted to all men. Some differences on this subject had arisen which probably occasioned this decree. The ap- pointment of " truckmasters " had not given satisfaction at Pocasset, and the Newport settlers profited by their experience. A justice's court, composed of the Judge and Elders, was appointed to meet the first Tuesday in every month, to decide such causes as might come before them. At the quarterly town meetings, called also courts, a majority was to rule, and the Judge was allowed two votes. Under this date appears a list of fifty-nine persons, "who by the general consent of the company were admitted to be inhabitants of the island, now called Aquedneck, having submitted themselves to the govern- ment that is or shall be established, according to the word of God, therein," and also a supplemental list of forty-two " inhabitants admitted at the towne of Niew-Port since the 20th of the 3d, 1638," (1639,) making one hundred and one registered inhabitants at that time .? Nearly one half of the first list is composed of names signed to the
CHAP. V. 1639.
June 5.
Sept. 2.
Oct. 1.
1 This is the second orchard known in Rhode Island. The first was planted by W. Blackstone in 1635.
2 There is a singular recurrence of this precise number of persons in our early history. The Pilgrims landing from the Mayflower in 1620 were one linndred and one. The number of men in Providence fit for military duty in 1645 was one hundred and one. The number of proprietors there at the last division of lands in 1718, was one hundred and one, and we here see the number of registered inhabitants of Aquedneck in Oct., 1639, to be one hun- dred and one.
138
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
1639.
CHAP. V. Pocasset agreement of April 30th, and the greater part of it is made up of those who still resided there, by which we may foresee the union of the governments shortly to take place. None of the proprietors' names are in either list. They were the company by whom, with such as they from time to time admitted, all others were received. The supplemental list contains only the names of such as had come to the island during the summer.
We have before seen that the organization of courts very early occupied the attention of the colonists. The administration of justice was promptly provided for, con- trary to the slanders of their neighbors, who from the ab- sence of any law religion at either Providence or Aqued- neck, freely charged them with a disregard for both law and religion. A division of labor in judicial matters, it is true, was not immediately provided. Their circum- stances did not at once permit the establishment of a va- riety of courts, with limited and well-defined jurisdic- tions, as at the present day. The number of the colo- nists was too small, and the nature of the causes arising among them did not require any extended judicial sys- tem. Yet we have seen that something of this had al- ready been undertaken at Pocasset. The Court of As- sistants was to have cognizance of small causes, and a quarterly court for jury trials was established. This progress in one year, with the establishment of justices' courts immediately upon their settlement, fully attests their regard for law. The character of the men, with the fact that a majority of them were members of the Boston church before their exile, and many still continued to be so, answers the other portion of the charge. A formal act of the whole people, passed at this time, will set their regard for justice, and their care in providing for its ad- ministration, in still clearer light. "By the Body Poli- ticke in the Ile of Aquethnec, Inhabiting this present 25 of 9 month, 1639.
Nov. 25.
139
THE FIRST CHURCH AT AQUEDNECK.
" In the fourteenth yeare of ye Raign of our Soveraign CHAP. V.
Lord King Charles. It is agreed, That as Natural sub- jects to our Prince, and subject to his Lawes, all matters 1639. that concerne the Peace shall be by those that are officers of the Peace, Transacted ; And all actions of the case, or Debt, shall be in such Courts as by order are here ap- pointed, and by such Judges as are Deputed : Heard and Legally Determined.
" Given at Niew-Port on the Quarter Courte. Day which was adjourned till y& Day.
" WILLIAM DYRE, Sec."
Meanwhile their spiritual concerns were not neglect- ed. We have the same reasons that were assigned in the previous chapter for supposing that at Aquedneck, as well as at Providence, religious services were regularly conducted before any positive notice is found of the forma- tion of a church. In Winthrop's Journal we read, "They also gathered a church in a very disordered way ; for they took some excommunicated persons, and others who were members of the church of Boston and not dis- missed." The position of this record in reference to what precedes it,' seems to indicate that the church was formed at or about the time of the Newport settlement, but whether there or at Pocasset, by the emigrants or by those who remained, is not so apparent. The construction of the sentence makes it probable that the latter is intended. No other contemporary record of the formation of such a church remains.2 Whatever were its doctrines it existed
1 Winthrop, i. 297, under date of May 11th, 1639, and immediately fol- lowing the statement of the ejection of the magistrates quoted in note 1, p. 134.
2 It is this church, if any in Rhode Island, that can be claimed to ante- date the Baptist church already formed in Providence. Yet the record of Winthrop mentions the formation of that church nearly two months earlier than the one at Aquedneck. The former is distinctly described as Baptist in its ordinances. Of the latter the only elue given to its doctrines is that some of its members were still members of the Boston church, which fact, if it
May 11.
140
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. V. but a short time in its original form, if we may rely on the authority of Lechford, but gave place in a few years 1639. to a flourishing Baptist church, under the pastoral charge of the Rev. John Clarke, who had been Elder of the former church.1 The same authority states that at Portsmouth there was then no church, " but a meeting of some men who there teach one another and call it Prophecie."2 That a due regard was felt for religious matters at both the Aquedneck towns, as well as at Providence, we think has now been sufficiently shown on firmer grounds than simple inference. That "at Aquiday they gathered a church in a very disordered way," which they could not
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