USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 46
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1 The originals of these four papers are in Br. S. P. O., Proprieties, vol. ii. pp. 543-5-7. America and West Indies, vol. 379. R. I. Col. Rec., iii. 336-8.
CHAP. XII. 1698. May 4.
8.
30.
542
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. XII. 1698. June
The charges made against the rulers were most serious, as that they were in league with the pirates, by whom they were enriched ; and equally false was the statement that many of the people desired a royal governor, and would pay five hundred pounds a year towards the support of one.1 Depositions against the deputy governor, for having issued privateer commissions, four years before, when Gov. Eas- ton had refused to grant them, were obtained, and for- warded in confirmation of these charges ; and Mr. Bren- ton advised the Board of Trade to call for copies of all such commissions and bonds as had been granted during the late war, some of them being, in his view, illegal.2
In compliance with the orders of the home govern- ment, commissioners were appointed by Rhode Island and Connecticut to adjust the boundary between these colo- nies. They met at Stonington, but to no purpose. Each claimed all Narraganset, as heretofore. The negotiation was held in writing, as it had formerly been, and with the same result. The Rhode Island Assembly met, for the first time, at Kingstown, and voted a tax of eight hundred pounds, currency, of which Newport was to pay two hun- dred and twenty-five pounds; Portsmouth, one hundred and forty; Providence, one hundred and twenty-eight ; Kingstown, one hundred and twenty-five ; Warwick and Westerly, forty-six pounds each; Jamestown, thirty-eight; Greenwich, thirty, and New Shoreham twenty-two pounds. A tax law in twelve sections, the most complete that had yet been framed, was passed for its collection, providing for the first time for a poll tax upon all males between sixteen and sixty years of age, of whom a census was to be taken, as well as an account of their estates; and each man, except slaves and the like, was to pay one shilling a head. Provision was made for the reception of Lord Bellemont, who was expected soon from New York, on his
1 Br. S. P. O., Plantations General, vol. v. c. 17. R. I. Col. Rec., iii. 339. 2 Br. S. P. O., Proprieties, vol. ii. pp. 581-3.
4. 30.
Aug. 2.
543
PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS. CAPT. KIDD.
way to Boston. The governor's salary was increased to thirty pounds. A committee was named to prepare a di- gest of the laws, to send to England, as required, and an- other to present the case of the western boundary to Lord Bellemont.1
The next regular session was held at Providence. Want of uniformity in the size of casks and barrels, in which provisions were packed, led to the adoption of a standard gauge for the various sizes, and the appointment of gaugers in each town, with penalties for any violation of such standard.
Further letters were sent by the Board of Trade to the colonies, at this time, on the subject of piracy. The one to this colony, following the suggestion of Mr. Bren- ton, required copies of all privateering papers to be sent home, with an account of the trials of Munday and Cut- ler, who had been arrested for exceeding the powers grant- ed in their commissions. The letters to the other colonies were equally specific on the same subject,2 and were fol- lowed by instructions to the custom house officers how to conduct their business ; and soon after by an order from the British Cabinet to the governors of all the colonies, to apprehend the notorious Capt. Kidd, should he appear in their waters.3
CHAP. XII.
1698. Oct.
26.
25.
Nov. 10. 23.
1 A letter from the R. I. commissioners to those of Conn., dated Kingstown, Dec. 8, 1698, proposing a reference of the dispute to the Earl of Bellemont, as their negotiations had proved fruitless, is in Trumbull papers, vol. xxii. No. 152.
Br. S. P. O., Proprieties, vol. xxv. p. 253. Antiq. of Conn., 266. R. I. Col. Rec., iii. 341.
3 Antiq. of Conn. 268-71. Kidd was of English birth, and a bold privateer during the war with France. The governor of Barbadoes induced William III. to give Kidd a commission to act against the pirates who then infested every sea. He received the title of Admiral, Dec. 11, 1695, and soon after sailed with 80 men in a government ship of 30 guns, to New York, where he doubled his crew, and went to the Red Sea. There he commenced his acts of piracy, and became the terror of his countrymen. A fleet was sent to the East Indies to take him, but he escaped, and came to the American coast. At length, grown reckless by snecess, he appeared in Rhode Island, and was soon after arrested in Boston, sent to England, and there gibbeted in 1700.
544
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
A formidable representation was made to the King by the Board of Trade, concerning the many irregularities in 1698. Rhode Island, as to their refusal to take the oaths, their encouragement of illegal traffic, their assuming admiralty jurisdiction to themselves, and resisting it from the crown, with other flagrant acts of disloyalty, and recommending that a commission of inquiry be sent to Lord Bellemont to examine into these matters, with a view to the issuing a quo warranto against the charter.1 The inquiry was ordered at once-the instructions to Lord Bellemont were Feb. prepared, not only for this, but for all the colonies, and a 3. copy thereof forwarded to each. But Rhode Island was the special object aimed at. The Board made inquiries of Mr. Brenton, then in London, about the extraordinary militia power of the colony, and were informed that it was 22. conferred by the charter ; but that recently the Assembly had given to the military the power of selecting their own officers. His former communication upon the subject of March 9. privateering papers, with the queries to be put to the government of Rhode Island, were embodied in the in- structions. They passed the council, and were presented on the same day for the royal signature.2
Feb. 14.
The differences between Connecticut and Rhode Isl- and, and various difficulties arising from that cause, were the subject of much legislation at a special session of the Assembly. The former colony had spread a report that the people of Narraganset were not to be taxed while the dispute upon jurisdiction was pending. This was seized up- on by the disaffected as an occasion of disturbance, by refus- ing to pay the late levy. Other parties, without leave, had intruded in that country. These were required to depart, or to arrange with the lawful owners without de- lay. The commission to treat with Connecticut was con-
1 Br. S. P. O., Proprieties, vol. xxv., p. 275. R. I. Col. Rec., iii. 351-3.
2 Br. S. P. O., Proprieties, vol. ii. pp. 663, 767, and vol. xxv. pp. 305, 357. R. I. Col. Rec., iii. 363-7.
CHAP. XII. Dec. 21. 1698-9. Jan. 5.
545
BOUNDARIES OF TOWNSHIPS.
tinued, and the legal rights of all persons, whether claim- CHAP. ing ownership by Connecticut titles, or otherwise, were XII. 1698-9. Feb. secured. A law against peddling was adopted, with a copious preamble, reciting the injuries to regular trade re- sulting therefrom. Warwick was again forbidden to ex- ercise jurisdiction north of Pawtuxet river, as had been of late attempted in the collection of taxes. The registra- tion act was reaffirmed, and marriages were legalized which had been performed in disregard of the previous registry act. The magistrate's fee for performing the cer- emony was fixed at three shillings, with sixpence to the town clerk for recording the same.
The colony were informed by Jahleel Brenton of the movements of Connecticut in regard to the boundary question. She now claimed a great part of Warwick and of Providence as well as all of Kings Province. At the May session Mr. Brenton was appointed sole agent to Lon- don, in behalf of Rhode Island, and funds were remitted to him for this purpose. The three Narraganset towns, Kingstown, Westerly, and Greenwich, were not yet agreed as to their respective boundaries. A committee was fully empowered to adjust all differences between them. They at once entered upon their duties, and within a month were prepared to report to the Assembly definite limits for each of the towns, which were accepted with but little variation.1 Gov. Cranston wrote a long letter to the Board of Trade deprecating the many false reports against the colony, circulated chiefly by Randolph, and announc- ing the appointment of Brenton as the agent.
At this time Lord Bellemont, who for the first year of his residence in America remained in New York, removed to Boston. He was afflicted with the gout, a circumstance which, if we may credit his own words, interfered not a little with the discharge of the pressing duties of his gov- ernment, and seems to have affected his temper likewise,
1 Potter's Narraganset. R. I. H. C., iii. 108.
VOL. 1-35
1699.
May. 3.
27.
546
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. to the serious detriment of Rhode Island interests. His XII. 1699. July present purpose was to break up the piracy that had grown out of privateering, a work in which he found great difficulty, many of the leading families, especially of Leis- ler's party, in New York, as well as a large part of New England being concerned in it. By stratagem he suc- 1. ceeded in enticing the notorious Capt. William Kidd to come to Boston where he had him seized and thrown into 6. prison. He had many friends in Rhode Island and Mas- sachusetts, and influential persons came even from Al- bany and New York, upon Kidd's affairs, all of whom Bellemont so far blinded as to induce Kidd through their influence to come to Boston. Bradish, and other well-known pirates confined in the gaol, had recently been permitted to escape. The connivance was very general in the plans of these lawless freebooters, which much resembled the schemes of a later fillibusterism. Bellemont's letter to the Board of Trade sets forth the secret history of these transactions, and presents a la- mentable picture of the state of society in America at this period. With the many letters that he sent home 8. this year, chiefly upon this subject, were inclosed a great mass of documents, nearly a hundred in number, accu- mulated for the most part as evidence in support of the charges against Rhode Island. We shall refer only to some of the most important, or interesting of these, ex- tending throughout the year. Among them is an order from Sarah, wife of Capt. William Kidd, who was im- 18. 26. prisoned with him, upon Capt. Paine who lived on Con- anicut, to pay the bearer twenty-four ounces of gold, for the support of herself and husband in gaol. In a later letter, Bellemont describes minutely the whole affair of Kidd's arrest and examination.
To further his designs upon Rhode Island, and to aid in securing other pirates known to resort there, Lord Belle- mont commissioned the members of the Admiralty Court,
547
ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS PIRACY.
Brinley, Sandford and Coddington, to collect evidence and CHAP. XII. to use their efforts in capturing Gillam, Palmer, and other confederates of Kidd. They accepted the trust, but de- 1699. plored the difficulties attending it by reason of the sym- Aug. 10. pathy everywhere felt for the freebooters. The feeling of the home government may be gathered from a letter written by the Board of Trade in reply to Gov. Cranston's 11. letter of May. Its language was very severe, blaming the colony for sending only an abstract of the laws instead of a copy of them as required, and that too an incorrect and imperfect one, and sharply rebuking them for the en- couragement given to piracy by the commissions granted in 1694 by the deputy governor, whose ignorance, if that were the real and not simply the ostensible cause, as the Board intimate, of his conduct, should have excluded him from public office.1 The correspondence between the commissioners and Lord Bellemont is full of the names of the accomplices of Kidd, who at various times resorted to this bay, and of those who harbored them, many of whom were arrested. The urgency of these affairs led the governor to call a special session of the Assembly at New- 21. port, of which the only record that remains is the speech made by Gov. Cranston at the opening, assigning his reasons for convening it, which is filed with the Belle- mont papers in the British archives. The reasons were, the expected visit of Lord Bellemont to Rhode Island to inquire into the irregularities of the government and to settle the dispute with Connecticut, and the necessity of raising money to defray the expenses of this visit and of another agent to join Mr. Brenton in England, to defend the colony from the attacks of its enemies .? Just before Sept. 8. going to Rhode Island, Lord Bellemont wrote to the Board upon the difficulty of enforcing the acts of trade in New York, " where the people have such an appetite for piracy
1 The colony took the hint at the next election, as we shall presently see.
" Br. S. P. O., Proprieties, vol. iv. p. 643.
548
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. and unlawful trade that they are ready to rebel as often XII. as the government puts the law in execution against 1699. them," and he is equally severe upon the lawyers of that Sept. Province.
18.
20.
21.
22.
Bellemont has left a diary of his visit at Rhode Island and his proceedings there. The journey to Newport oc- cupied two days. At Bristol ferry the governor and council, with a troop of horse, received and escorted him to Newport, where a meeting of the council was immedi- ately held and the royal commission was read. The next day his special instructions to inquire into the mal-ad- ministration of Rhode Island affairs were read to the council, and ex-governors Clarke and Easton, Gov. Crans- ton and Deputy Gov. Greene and Peleg Sandford, were examined upon the several points charged in the instruc- tions. The troublesome subject of oaths was then mi- nutely inquired into. The scruples of many in Rhode Island upon this subject could never be comprehended by the British officers. A somewhat similar idea of legality pertained to the exact form of an oath, as was attached to the possession of a seal in those days. It was an em- blem of loyalty as the latter was of sovereignty, and the letter of the law on this point was more insisted upor than its spirit. The omission of it was one of the chief causes of complaint against Rhode Island. This, and the volunteer militia system, were two grand stumbling- blocks to an English comprehension of Rhode Island peculiarities.
23.
25.
While they were under consideration Gov. Winthrop, with the Connecticut commissioners upon the Narragan- set dispute, arrived. The conflicting clauses in the two charters were read, and also the agreement between the two agents, Dr. Clarke and John Winthrop, thereupon. The case was then argued by the commissioners on each side, and they were advised to come to a mutual agreement. This was attempted in vain. Bellemont then ordered
549
EPISCOPAL CHURCH MOVEMENT.
them to prepare a statement of their claims. This was done and presented the next day, affidavits were taken upon the case, and the two colonies were warned to send their agents to England to lay the matter before the King. Further examinations in regard to piracy were had. Caleb and Josias Arnold were added to the members of the admiralty court as commissioners to collect evi- dence upon the charges, and the governor and council were requested to aid them in the work.
CHAP. XII. 1699. Sept. 26.
The earliest movement in favor of an Episcopal church in Rhode Island now assumed an organized form. A number of the people who preferred that service, had commenced in the early part of this year to hold public worship, and now petitioned the Earl of Bellemont to in- tercede with the home government that aid might be ex- tended to them in support of a settled minister. The paper was signed by sixteen persons, headed by two of the old Huguenot names, whose establishment in Narraganset had been abandoned amid the distractions occasioned by the contest for jurisdiction. Of the whole number of forty-five families who had settled at Frenchtown, all but two had left for New York, and those two had removed to Boston. But two individuals remained in the colony. These settled at Newport and appear as the first signers of the petition. Although the Huguenots differed essen- tially from the church of England upon many points, be- ing themselves the direct offshoots of the Geneva school of theology, their simple but beautiful ritual approached nearer to that of the English church than it did to the yet simpler forms of the Baptist, or to the strictly spirit- ual communion of the Society of Friends. Hence they sympathized with the new movement, and appear as its leaders.1
Meeting-houses were this year built by the Friends at Portsmouth and Newport, the latter in place of an old
See Appendix G. for this interesting document.
.
550
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. one, shortly afterwards taken down, which had been erect- ed in the early years of the colony.
XII. 1699. Sept.
27.
Oct. 2.
Bellemont having finished his business, placed the governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut under bonds of three thousand pounds each to enforce the acts against pirates, and left Newport, escorted as before to the ferry. He reached Seekonk that night, and arrived at Boston the next afternoon. He then wrote to Gov. Cranston, thank- ing him for the hospitalities he had received at Newport, and directing the arrest of Bradish, a pirate who had es- caped to Rhode Island. An accurate copy of the laws and of the acts of council of the colony was required, a task not easy to perform in the disordered state of the records. But Gov. Cranston, in his reply, promised it should be done.
5. 12.
15.
16
21.
23
One more effort was made in the Connecticut As- sembly, by appointing a new committee, to settle the question with Rhode Island, without sending an agent to England ; but foreseeing the futility of further effort in that way, Gov. Winthrop sent a commission to Sir Henry Ashurst as agent of the colony, and advised the Board of Trade of his appointment. Bellemont wrote to Gov. Cranston not to distrain for taxes in Narraganset until the dispute was settled, and also reproved his tardi- ness in not having yet sent the laws and acts of council as required. Brinley wrote that no council records could be found, but that the laws would be sent after the As- sembly, about to meet, had put them in proper shape. Gov. Cranston replied to Bellemont, that they could not comply with the order to send an agent to England unless they raised a tax, and this they could not do if they were forbidden to levy upon the portion of the colony claimed by Connecticut, being nearly all the mainland. Here was a difficulty which the General Assembly, convened at Warwick, had to meet. It was met, as such hindrances often were, by ignoring it. A tax of six hundred pounds had before been assessed, and copies of the law, under seal,
25.
551
BELLEMONT DENOUNCES THE COLONY.
had already been sent to the several towns. This was considered enough, and no notice was taken of the injunc- tion, or command of Bellemont. His other orders were better respected. A committee to transcribe the laws was appointed, to report at the adjourned session. In compliment to the action of the Connecticut Assembly, a committee of conference upon the matters in dispute was appointed to meet in two weeks at Wickford. An at- tempt was made to appoint an agent to go to England, but none would accept it, and the subject was laid over to the adjournment. Depositions in regard to Gillam and other pirates were taken at this time, and forwarded to England by Lord Bellemont, with a letter denouncing the government of Rhode Island, as " the most irregular and illegal in their administration that ever any English gov- ernment was." His criticisms were amply sustained by the complaints constantly sent to him by the admiralty commissioners at Newport. Sandford says that any com- mission direct from his Majesty is considered as an in- fringement of the charter privileges, and those who take them are looked upon as enemies to the State.
The joint commission of the two colonies met at Wick- ford. Their correspondence was brief, and, as was antici- pated on each side, inconclusive. An appeal to the King was now the last resort. Bellemont wrote to the Board of Trade a full statement of the case, and enclosed all the documents relating thereto. The adjourned session of the Assembly was held at Newport, and vainly attempted to select an agent. Six nominees declined. The matter was referred to a committee to find an agent who would go, and to order all things requisite to that object. The committee to revise and transcribe the laws, made a full report, which was received, and all laws not included in their transcript were repealed.
At length Lord Bellemont, having collected a great mass of evidence to support the charges against Rhode
CHAP. XII.
1699. Nov.
6.
8.
9.
18.
21.
552
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
Island, made his report to the Privy Council. It was a formidable paper, presenting under twenty-five distinct heads, an array of testimony against Rhode Island, which we can only wonder at this day that the friendless colony was enabled to resist. That she was not utterly crushed beneath the cumulative evidence of every kind of irregu- larity that was hurled upon her by the indefatigable zeal and the consummate ability of Bellemont, can scarcely be accounted for by any human agency. It is the greatest marvel in the history of Rhode Island in the seventeenth century. She had had many narrow escapes, but this was the most wonderful of them all.1 Immediately following this report he sent a letter to the Board of Trade on the subject of piracy, wherein he denounced Gov. Cranston for "conniving at pirates, and making Rhode Island their sanctuary."
Some people of Westerly, acting upon the prohibition issued by Bellemont, refused at town meeting to elect as- sessors of the tax laid by the Assembly for sending an agent to England. Upon this Gov. Cranston issued a warrant for the arrest of several persons who had signed a protest against the said election, and appointed a special con- stable with a sufficient force to serve the warrant. The firmness of Cranston at this crisis, did more than any other one cause to save the colony from extinction.
A fair copy of the laws and acts of the colony was at last sent to Bellemont, with a letter explaining the causes of delay, and deprecating the conduct of the commission- ers appointed by his Lordship, as being adverse to the in- terests of the colony. Capt. Joseph Sheffield, one of the assistants, carried the papers; and that he might serve as a special envoy to soothe the anger of the Earl, his cre- dentials were stated in the letter, requesting Bellemont to " discourse with the bearer" upon the state of the colony.
1 The Original Report and Journal of Lord Bellemont are in Br. S. P. O., Proprieties, vol. iv. pp. 565, 573. See R. I. Col. Rec., iii. 385-93.
CHAP. XII. 1699. Nov. 27. 29.
22.
Dec. 2. 22.
553
THE CODE OF LAWS SENT TO ENGLAND.
The commissioners followed the next day, with a letter CHAP. XII. declaring that the copy of the laws sent was neither com- plete nor correct, and condemning the arrests made at 1699. Westerly, the parties taken having been carried to New- Dec. port jail. This act roused the anger of Connecticut. The governor and council of that colony empowered Capt. 25. Mason to seize any Rhode Island officer who should at- tempt to distrain for taxes in Westerly. Brinley also 26. wrote to Lord Bellemont in regard to the sedition act, which the last Assembly had revived, and under which the Westerly prisoners were to be tried ; and a few days later he again wrote in the same strain, denouncing the whole 31. code, and the manner of its adoption by the Assembly. The laws were sent over to the Board of Trade, with 1699. 1700. Jan. 5. abundant annotations and denunciations by Bellemont, together with the letters of Brinley upon the state of the government.1
The threatening aspect of affairs caused frequent ses- sions of the General Assembly. A permanent agent in England was indispensable to the salvation of the colony. Mr. Brenton had acted in her behalf upon the Connecti- cut dispute, and had since been empowered to defend her charter; but he was the collector of Newport, and liable to be sent home to his post, a purpose that Bellemont was seeking to accomplish. A man was at last found both able and willing to take the responsible position. Capt. Joseph Sheffield, who had lately served as envoy to Bellemont, was selected as the agent to defend the char-
' The original authorities for the events of the year 1699, above related, are so numerous and varied in the British State Paper office, that the writer deemed it best to insert them all in a single note at the end. For the local reader these references can have no interest, but to the historian who may wish to verify facts or dates herein stated, by examining the archives in Lon- don, they will be found of great importance in the saving of time and trouble. They are in the bundles marked as follows : New England, vols. ix. and x. Proprieties, vols. iii, iv. v. and xxvi. America and West Indies, vol. 379, and New York, vol. ix.
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