USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 23
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" ROGER WILLIAMS, President. " To Mr. RICHARD KNIGHT, General Sergeant."
This warrant is dated "Newport, 12th of the 1st mo., 1656 and 1657, so called."
1656-7. March 12.
1657. May 19.
July 4.
264
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. VIII. 1657. July
4.
read a copy of his book upon which the impeachment was based while Williams read the original. Williams then read to the Court his letter containing the accusation, also a copy of his charge, and his reply to Harris' book. It was referred to a committee to report what further pro- ceedings were desirable. They advised that the papers be sent to England for examination and that Harris should give bonds for good behavior till the result was known. A committee was thereupon appointed to write to John Clarke a suitable letter to accompany these papers, and Harris and his son Andrew were placed under bonds of five hundred pounds.
The English settled in the Pequot country were ever thwarting the efforts of the Narragansets to avenge their wrongs upon Uncas. The Mohawks were in league with the Narragansets against the Mohegans, and were advanc- ing in force to attack them. The Narragansets applied to the General Assembly to remonstrate with the English on their conduct in always giving warning, through their scouts, to Uncas of the approach of an enemy, lest the Mohawks, being enraged thereby, should attack the Eng- lish themselves. The Assembly wrote a letter to Capt. Denison and others in accordance with this request, that for peace sake they should allow the Indians to fight out their own quarrels-a grain of advice which, if followed, would have done more than any thing else to secure the good-will of those powerful tribes.
The year 1656 will be darkly memorable in the annals of New England for the arrival of the Quakers and the commencement of their persecution at Boston. The ap- pearance of this "cursed sect of heretics"1 so alarmed the Puritans that a day of public humiliation was appointed2 to be held in all the churches mainly on their account. A stringent law was enacted for their suppression3 and
1 Preamble to law of Oct. 14th, 1656, M. C. R., iii. 415.
2 May 14th, 1656, to be held June 11th,
3 Oct. 14th, 1656.
265
PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS.
two years later their tenets were made a capital offence.' CHAP. VIII.
Fines, imprisonment, whipping, banishment, mutilation, and death, were denounced and inflicted upon them. The 1657. wildest fanaticism on their part was met by a frenzied bigotry on the other. Acts that made the perpetrators amenable to the statute against nuisances were visited with the penalties provided against heresies. The strait- jacket or temporary confinement would have been the proper treatment in many cases that were consigned to the scourge or the scaffold. The vagaries of morbid minds, not morally accountable for the indecencies they committed, were visited with the same penalties that awaited the rob- ber or the assassin .? Nor was severity confined to cases like these, but people of blameless conduct alike suffered, on the same ground, for heretical opinions. For five years this persecution continued, until stayed by an order from Charles II.3 requiring that capital and corporal punish- ments of the Quakers should cease, and that such as were obnoxious should be sent to England.4 That Rhode Island became a city of refuge for those who fled from this fiery
1 Oct. 19th, 1658.
2 " At Boston one George Wilson, and at Cambridge Elizabeth Horton went crying through the streets that the Lord was coming with fire and sword to plead with them. Thomas Newhouse went into the meeting honse at Bos- ton with a couple of glass bottles, and broke them before the congregation, and threatened ' Thus will the Lord break you in pieces.' Another time M. Brewster came in with her face smeared and as black as a coal. Deborah Wilson went through the streets of Salem naked as she came into the world, for which she was well whipped. One of the sect apologizing for this be- havior said, 'If the Lord did stir up any of his daughters to be a sign of the nakedness of others, he believed it to be a great cross to a modest woman's spirit, but the Lord must be obeyed.'" Hutch. Mass., i. 203-4. A display of prurient piety like this last occurred also in one of the churches. New England Judged, Part ii. p. G.
$ 9th Sept., 1661.
4 See Ilutchinson's Mass., i. 196-204 ; Bishop's New England Judged, Part 1st, 4to., 176 pp. London, 1661, and Part 2d, 4to., 147 pp., 1667. New England Ensign, London, 1659, 4to., 121 pp. Several Rhode Island people were victims of this persecution, whose sufferings will be noticed in the proper place. Mary, wife of Wm. Dyre, Secretary of Rhode Island colony, was put to death, and Thomas Harris and others were severely maltreated.
266
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
VIII. CHAP. ordeal vexed the United Colonies. The Commissioners, assembled at Boston, wrote a letter urging Rhode Island 1657, to banish the Quakers already there and to prohibit any Sept. 2. more from coming to the State.1 To this request the President and Assistants, met at the Court of trials in Oct. 13. Providence, replied, that there was no law by which men could be punished in Rhode Island for their opinions, and that the Quakers being unmolested, were becoming dis- gusted at their want of success ; but that in case of any extravagancies, like those referred to, being committed, the 1657-8. next General Assembly would provide a corrective. That March 13. body met at Portsmouth and addressed another letter to the Massachusetts on the same subject. In this letter they say that freedom of conscience was the ground of their charter and shall be maintained ; that if the Qua- kers violate the laws or refuse to conform thereto in any respect, complaint against them will be made in England and the more readily as these people are there tolerated.2
On the same day a letter was sent to Plymouth deny- ing the claim set up by that colony to Hog island, which was purchased by Richard Smith from Wamsutta, sachem of the Wampanoags. The question was left to the Pres- ident and Thomas Willett to be settled, by whom it was advised to adjust the matter by arbitration, which after much delay was done, and the right of Rhode Island to the land in dispute ultimately sustained. Hope island had been given to Roger Williams by Miantinomi many years before but was still occupied by Indians. The Court ordered that the Sachems should remove their subjects to leave Mr. Williams in possession. Gould island had been purchased of the Indians a year before3 by Thomas Gould, and about the same time4 the great Pettiquamscut pur-
1 Hazard, ii. 370-1.
2 Both these letters and also that to which they are the replies, are given in R. I. Col. Rec., i. 374-380.
3 March 28th, 1657.
4 January 20th, 1657.
267
PAWTUXET MEN RETURN TO THEIR ALLEGIANCE.
chase, in what is now South Kingston, was commenced. CHIAP. VIII. Repeated additions were made to this tract, and difficulties with adjoining purchasers arose when the claims of Massa- 1658. chusetts to the Narraganset country came to be urged.1 These frequent purchases caused so much trouble that the Assembly soon afterwards prohibited any further purchases of land or islands from the Indians within the colony with- Nov. 2. out express permission from that body, on pain of forfeiture of the land, and a fine of twenty pounds besides.
May 18.
At the general election, held in Warwick, the only changes made were in the Assistants for Providence and Newport ; William Field being chosen for the former and Joseph Clarke for the latter. All the other offices remained as before. Upon the conclusion of peace between England and Holland the law prohibiting trade with the Dutch was repealed, but there were still some lawless persons, who, pretending commissions from Rhode Island, annoyed the Dutch commerce by seizing their goods and vessels. To prevent their recurrence these outrages were denounced as felony. The order to build prisons and cages not having been obeyed, it was repealed, and the prison built at New- port was directed to be for the colony use, the other towns contributing towards its cost.
The long pending difficulties with the Pawtuxet men were now terminated by their withdrawal from the juris- diction of Massachusetts, and acknowledging allegiance to Rhode Island. William Arnold and William Carpenter, for themselves and their friends, petitioned the General Court for a full discharge of their persons and estates from subjection to Massachusetts. This was granted provided they rendered an account of their proceedings against the Warwick men under the commission of Massachusetts fif-
1 The details and subsequent history of this purchase are given by Mr. Potter, in R. I. H. C., iii. 275-99. The original proprietors were Samuel Wilbor, Jolmn Hull of Boston, John Porter, Samuel Wilson, Thomas Mum- ford. At a later period William Brenton and Benedict Arnold were admit- ted.
26.
268
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
· CHAP. VIII. teen years before, and that the Greenes and others should have liberty to prosecute them in any of the Massachusetts 1658. Courts1 for injuries received thereby. This happy result was effected by the mediation of Roger Williams. At the next General Court in October the sentence of banishment against the Warwick men was so far relaxed that leave was granted to John Greene, sen., to visit his friends for one month. The bond required from Arnold to answer any suit brought by the Greenes was limited to one year, at the expiration of which period he petitioned the Court for certain amounts of damage sustained by him in execut- ing the commission against the Gortonists. The account was referred and ultimately extended, and in part allowed, but the committee's report was better calculated to satisfy the Greenes than the petitioner.2
Sept. 23. Oct. 19.
The Commissioners of the United Colonies wrote to all the General Courts urging severer measures against the Quakers. Massachusetts acted at once on the suggestion, and passed a law punishing with death any Quakers who should return after sentence of banishment. Rhode Island again was urged to join in the fierce oppression. Threats of exclusion from all intercourse or trade with the rest of New England were made to force her from her fidelity to the cause of religious freedom, but in vain. The result was an appeal to Cromwell by the General Assembly that "they may not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's consciences, so long as human orders, in point of civility, are not corrupted or violated." A letter was sent to John Clarke to be presented to His Highness, which contains this request, and clearly distinguishes be- tween the rights of conscience and the duties of the cit- izen. 3
Nov. 5.
1 M. C. R. iv. Part i. p. 333.
2 The petition was Oct. 18th, 1659. The report was made Nov. 12th. See M. C. R., iv. Part i. 411, and R. I. H. C., ii. 206-12. He afterwards, 1663, presented an extended account, which was settled by compromise, Oct 21st, 1663. M. C. R., iv. Part ii. p. 78, 93.
3 This letter is in R. I. Col. Rec., i. 396-9.
269
PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS.
While Rhode Island was thus defending her liberal sentiments, her citizens without distinction of sex or age were suffering from Puritan persecutions. A Mrs. Gardner of Newport, the mother of several children, and a woman of good report, having become a Quaker, went to Wey- mouth, with an infant at her breast, taking with her a nurse, Mary Stanton, to attend the child. There they were arrested and taken before Governor Endicot by whom they were sent to prison, flogged with ten stripes each, and closely confined for two weeks.1 Thomas Harris of Bar- badoes, who had settled in Rhode Island, went to Boston with two others of the same sect, where, after service at church, he gave great offence by haranguing the congrega- tion, an indiscretion which may have deserved some pun- ishment but not the severity he received. He was flogged, imprisoned for eleven days, during five of which he was not allowed food or water, because he refused to work at the jailer's bidding, severely whipped by the jailer, and again publicly with several others, receiving fifteen stripes.2
Catharine, wife of Richard Scot of Providence, and sister of the celebrated Ann Hutchinson, met with a similar fate. She went to Boston to witness the mutilation of three of her brethren, whose right cars were cut off by the hang- man in execution of the law against Quakers. For re- monstrating upon this cruelty she was imprisoned for two weeks and then publicly flogged.3 She was advanced in life, had been married twenty years, and was the mother of several children, two of whom suffered in the same cause. The severity of these proceedings and the increasing rigor of the statutes passed at every session of the General Court against the Quakers, caused many of them to seek a home in Rhode Island. But the spirit of fanaticism was not yet appeased. From fine and imprisonment it proceeded
CHAP. VIII.
~ 1658. May 11.
June 17.
22.
Sept. 16.
Oct. 2.
1 New England Ensign, 72-3. Bishop's New England Judged, 47.
2 July 19th. New England Ensign, 73-5.
$ New England Judged, 75.
270
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. to apply whipping and mutilation, then banishment, and VIII. finally death to the unfortunate Quakers. This last out- 1658. Oct. 19. rage upon humanity was opposed by the deputies and by the great mass of the people, who were always ahead of their rulers in liberal feeling and in their sense of justice and of right. The magistrates and clergy1 were zealous in its favor. The deputies yielded by a majority of one, and thus placed another blot on the annals of Massachu- setts to the eternal disgrace of Puritan legislation. The next year was to witness the execution of this cruel statute in the case of a Rhode Island victim.
To prevent further trouble like that which had just been so fortunately ended with Pawtuxet, the Assembly, convened at Warwick, decreed that no one should here- after submit his lands to any other jurisdiction, or attempt to bring in any foreign government within the colony on pain of confiscation. No law was to be in force until twenty days after the adjournment of the Assembly. This was to allow ten days for the recorder to furnish each town clerk with a copy of the acts of the session, and ten more for the towns to consider them, and if they disapproved to notify the President and thus to annul the statute. The Assembly decided to have but one annual session, to be held at the May election, but this was rarely found to suf- fice. They also reduced the sittings of the Court of trials to two, in March and October. The President and General Council might call extra meetings of the Assembly. This council was composed of the President, Assistants, and town Magistrates. No law creating it can be found, and but three meetings appear on the records-one at War- wick, just prior to this session, at which no business of im- portance was transacted, and the other two at Providence in the following spring. At the first of these, warrants
Oct. 14.
1 " In hæreticos gladio vindicandum est," was a motto of Calvin, as well as of Rome, and too faithfully followed by his stern disciples in Massachu- setts.
Nov. 2.
271
PROCEEDINGS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
were issued to arrest Pumham for insurrection in causing a riot to rescue a felon in Warwick, and some other Indians for robbery committed upon William Arnold at Pawtuxet. Two days afterward the council met for the last time to publish the proclamation of Richard, Lord Protector, who had succeeded to the supreme authority on the death of his father in September. It was ordered to be read at town meeting, and at the head of every military company in the colony on the following Tuesday.
At the general election held in Providence the same 1659. officers were retained throughout, except Knight, Sergeant, May 17. who was displaced by James Rogers. The dispute with Plymouth about Hog island not having been settled, the Assembly again appointed four Commissioners to meet the same number from Plymouth to adjust this matter, and also the general boundary of the two colonies, and notified Plymouth accordingly. Four men, one from each town, were also appointed to mark out the western bounds of the colony, but nothing was done about it for the present. The Indians gave much trouble by stealing the goods and cattle of the colonists. A severe law was passed to prevent it. If the damage exceeded twenty shillings, the convict might be sold as a slave to any English plantation abroad, unless he made restitution, and if less than that sum he should restore twofold, or be whipped not more than fif- teen stripes. The Assembly addressed a letter to Richard Cromwell asking a confirmation of their charter. It was never presented, as the Protector had resigned his power before it reached England. A tax of fifty pounds was laid to pay for ammunition, and to meet the expenses of the agent in London. Providence and Warwick were each to pay nine pounds, Portsmouth fourteeen, and Newport eighteen pounds. Providence was allowed to buy out and remove the Indians within its limits, and to enlarge its bounds by further purchase. Leave was also granted to purchase certain other lands, and a committee appointed
CHAP. VIII. 1658-9. March 9.
11.
15.
272
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. VIII.
1659. June 7.
July 4.
Aug. 23.
for that purpose. Fox island and an adjoining tract on the main near Wickford, were bought by Holden and Gor- ton, and soon afterwards Humphrey Atherton, John Win- throp and others, not citizens of Rhode Island, bought two large tracts on the bay, one called Quidnesett, south of Wickford, and the other, called Namcook, now Boston neck, north of it. This purchase was in violation of an express law of Rhode Island. Its validity depended on the decision of the question of jurisdiction over the Narragan- set country, claimed by Rhode Island and disputed by Con- necticut and Massachusetts. Roger Williams warned Ath- erton upon this point, and refused the offers of land made to induce him to aid as interpreter in the purchase. It became a fruitful source of difficulty for many years. The Assembly met at Portsmouth, and appointed a committee of two from each town to write to the Commissioners of the United Colonies, to Massachusetts, and to Atherton, respecting these purchases. During the Debate on this question the Assembly sat with closed doors. They pre- pared to prosecute the claims of Rhode Island before Par- liament, and empowered the committee to call together the Assembly when they saw fit.
Potowomut was ordered to be purchased for the colony from the Indians. Hog island continued to be a source of trouble. Richard Smith claiming it adversely to the colony, and threatening any who should molest him in his possession, the Assembly resolved to bear them harmless. Smith sought to place the island under the jurisdiction of Plymouth. Robert Westcott, a member from Warwick, was tried for a similar offence and suspended, and John Weeks was chosen by the Assembly to fill his place. A further tax of fifty pounds was laid, of which Newport was to pay twenty, Providence eleven, Portsmouth ten, and Warwick nine pounds. Newport it appears had doubled in wealth over Portsmouth, and Providence for the first time seems to have gained upon the other two towns.
273
PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS.
Letters from John Clarke informed the colony of the Pro- CHAP. tector's resignation, and that the Parliament was the sole VIII. authority, as before the accession of Cromwell. All legal process was therefore ordered to issue "in the name of the supreme authority of the Commonwealth of England." The first instance of the appointment of a deputy sergeant occurred at this session. . James Rogers, Sergeant General, was allowed to appoint a deputy to serve writs and execu- tions, he being responsible for the acts of such deputy.
The zeal of Puritan persecution was inflamed by the rancor of the magistrates and clergy. Among those who had already suffered imprisonment for their adhesion to the novel and " cursed heresy," was Mary, wife of William Dyre, the first secretary of Aquedneck. Returning from England, whither she had probably accompanied her hus- band when he went over with Williams and Clarke, but had remained behind and there had embraced the new tenets, with no knowledge of what had been done in Mas- sachusetts, she was arrested and thrown into prison. With difficulty she was released by her husband giving bonds to take her immediately away, and not to suffer her to speak to any one on the journey homeward. Afterwards in company with other friends, Hope Clifton, and Mary, daughter of Catherine Scot, whose sister Patience, a girl of Oct. 8. only eleven years, was then in prison for the same offence, she ventured again into Massachusetts to visit some friends confined in Boston as Quakers. Her two companions were only imprisoned, but Mary Dyre, having been before ban- ished under pain of death, was tried, together with Wil- liam Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, and condemned to death. The sentence was executed upon the two men. 19. Mary was reprieved while on the gallows, after her two 27. fellow-sufferers had been swung off.1 With singular in- fatuation she returned in the following spring, for the third 1660 time, while the General Court was in session, was arrested
1 New England Judged, 38, 97, 10 ?.
VOL. 1-18
1659.
May 30.
274
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. VIII. 1660. June 1. May 22.
and hung.1 There were other instances of this revolting cruelty practised upon persons not resident in Rhode Island, and which continued till Charles II. peremptorily forbade any further murders to be perpetrated, in the name of God, by these infuriated zealots.
The next general election was held at Portsmouth. William Brenton was chosen President, William Field of Providence, William Baulston of Portsmouth, Benedict Arnold, late President, of Newport, and John Greene of Warwick, Assistants, John Sanford, Recorder and Treas- urer, James Rogers, Sergeant, John Easton, Attorney General, and Richard Bulgar, Solicitor General. An im- portant modification of the statute regulating the mode of annulling laws was made. In place of ten days, three months was allowed for the towns to return their votes upon any new law, after its presentation, and instead of a majority of freemen in each town being necessary to annul a law, a majority of those in the Colony was now sufficient, even although any one town made no returns against it. This was a great step towards consolidation, and tended to strengthen the Colonial Government.
29
A great change was in progress at this time in English affairs. Charles II. landed in England, and amid the joyful shouts of his subjects, entered London in triumph. The restoration was complete, not only in form but in sub- stance. The great mass of the people received their mon- arch with delight, for they desired relief from the turmoil of civil strife. The religious parties united in the ovations that welcomed his return, and each vied with the other in demonstrations of loyalty. The Episcopalians hated Cromwell because he had crushed them, the Puritans dis- liked him for curbing their persecuting zeal, while the Roman Catholics hailed the return of the Stuarts as being a family of their own faith.
Oct.
18.
The news of the restoration of Charles II. occasioned a special meeting of the Assembly at Warwick. His 1 M. C. R. iv. Part i. 419.
275
SACHEMS MORTGAGE LANDS TO THE ATHERTON COMPANY.
Majesty's letter to Parliament, his declaration and pro- clamation were read and entered upon the records. The King was formally proclaimed at eight o'clock the next morning, in presence of the Assembly, with military honors, and the following Wednesday was appointed for his public proclamation throughout the colony, and was made a general holiday. All legal process was to issue in His Majesty's name. A commission was sent to John Clarke confirming his position as agent for the colony, and desiring him to obtain a confirmation of the charter from the crown.
A committee was also appointed to treat with Ather- ton and his company about their purchase in Narraganset, and to arrange the terms upon which they might come into the colony, or if they refused to treat, then to forbid them from entering on their lands. They reported but partial progress at the next session, and were continued.
Meanwhile a great wrong was committed upon the Narraganset Indians by the commissioners of the United Colonies, who, for alleged injuries inflicted upon the Mohegans, which were denied by the Narraganset Sa- chems, levied a heavy fine upon them, and compelled them, by an armed force, to mortgage their whole country for the payment of a sum, amounting to five hundred and ninety-five fathoms of peage within four months. In a month from this time the Sachems mortgaged to the Atherton company all the unsold lands in Narraganset, on condition that they would pay the fine to the United Colonies, and further bound themselves to sell no more lands without consent of the mortgagees. Six months was allowed for redemption. Atherton paid the fine ; the land was not redeemed, and afterwards, in the spring of 1662, the Sachems delivered formal possession to the mortgagees. Upon so slight a transaction, founded in force, and followed up in that spirit of acquisition which aimed at the possession of the whole of Rhode Island,
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