USA > Rhode Island > Picturesque Rhode Island : pen and pencil sketches of the scenery and history its cities, towns, and hamlets, and of men who have made them famous > Part 2
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NEWPORT.
sugar refineries, one brewery, and twenty-two distilleries for the manufacture of rum. In its foreign commerce upwards of two hun- dred ships were employed ; its domestic trade called for the services of nearly four hundred coasting vessels. In the two months of June and July, 1774, sixty-four vessels from foreign voyages were entered at the Newport Custom House. In the same time one hundred and thirty-two coastwise vessels, and seventeen engaged in the whale- fishery, were also entered. A regular line of packets kept up com- munication with London. At this time at least three thousand sea- men thronged the streets of the port, or found employment upon the ships which lined its docks. In many cases goods could not be stored for lack of room, though the coasters would take the foreign freight directly from the wharves to the less important ports which depended upon New- port for their supplies. As many as eighteen Indiamen are recorded to have ar- rived in one day. It was about this time that a far- seeing writer in the New- port Mercury, after con- gratulating New York upon its healthy growth, ventured to predict that the home of the Knickerbockers might one day, in the far-distant. future, " rival Newport in commercial prosperity and greatness." The British fleet which anchored in its harbor in 1775, gave the Spouting Rock. death-blow to its commercial supremacy. " Its manufactories were soon closed, its ships, one by one, fell into the hands of the enemy, and its patriotic population, impoverished and despairing, were forced to flee for safety to the inland towns. From the effects of ' the British occupation ' Newport never recovered. Not until 1850 did it again number as many inhabitants as in 1775; its lost ships have never been replaced."
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PICTURESQUE RHODE ISLAND.
The oldest wharf in the city is Long Wharf. This has lately been more than doubled in size by the " filling-in" of the shallows near it. There, in the very earliest days, the nine founders of the town and those who joined fortunes with them, used to land. " Queen-hithe, " the wharf was then called, and on the earlier
Lime Rocks.
maps this name always appears. Hithe or Hythe means a small harbor ; the termination is found in many English names. Many a strange scene has this old wharf beheld. Thither, in 1729, rushed the Rev. Mr. Honeyman, prayer-book in hand, to welcome a " great dignitary of the Church of England, called the Dean." Mr. Honey- man was holding a service in Trinity Church when the letter from Dean Berkeley was handed to him. He read it aloud, and then, accompanied by all his flock, ran down to the wharf to greet the distinguished stranger. There, during the wars with France, that began in 1744 and in 1756, were landed the freights the swift-sailing privateers had plundered from the Spanish Main. In the year 1745 more than twenty prizes were sent into Newport, and from 1756 to 1763 almost fifty private armed vessels of war sailed out from the port. Along the old wharf Washington and Rochambeau walked bare-headed between lines of enthusiastic soldiers, when, in March, 1781, the American Commander-in-Chief came to confer with his French allies. Washington wore that day the insignia of a Marshal of France. The office had been bestowed upon him when the French troops were sent to aid the struggling Americans. Without the honor he could not have commanded the French army. Once it was used as a market-place. Upon the side of the patient crea- ture that was waiting to be slaughtered, each hungry purchaser marked with a piece of chalk the cut he desired to have from the fresh carcass. A refinement of cruelty the practice seems, as we look back upon it. How hideous would have been the thoughts of the victim, could it have understood the speech of those who sur- rounded it.
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NEWPORT.
Upon the southern side of the Long Wharf of to-day is a row of boat-builders' shops, carefully placed to catch the brightest rays of the winter's sun. Various other buildings also encumber its sur- face. The intricate by-ways among them recall the days when ves- sels of doubtful antecedents lay at anchor in the outer harbor, and the swarthy ruffians who manned them lurked about the wharves to meet the cautious purchasers of their ill-gotten merchandise. Men- tion of pirates is frequently made in the colonial records of Rhode Island. In 1723 two sloops, which had been committing extensive piracies in the West Indies. and robbing the vessels that plied along
14 FAREID
The Drives.
the coast of the Southern Colonies, sailed northward in search of more profitable cruising-grounds. Near the coast of Long Island they made several valuable captures, and at last attacked what they supposed was a rich merchant ship. It proved to be His Britannic Majesty's sloop-of-war "Greyhound," of twenty guns. The pirate vessels were not long in finding out their mistake. One of them suc- ceeded in making its escape ; the other was not so fortunate. After a desperate struggle it was captured, and the thirty-six men who formed its crew were taken into Newport to be tried. Their trial lasted two days, and resulted in the conviction of twenty-six of the number. They were straightway sentenced to be hung. The ex- ecution took place July 19, on Gravelly Point (called also Bull's
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PICTURESQUE RHODE ISLAND.
Point). The bodies were buried on the Goat Island shore, between high and low-water mark. It was a great event for Newport. Peo- ple flocked into the town from all the surrounding country to see the wonderful sight. One of the more æsthetic spirits among the pirates composed a poem for the occasion, and almost all of them took ad- vantage of the unequaled opportunity which was afforded them to address the spectators in most edifying terms.
North of the Long Wharf light row-boats pass to-day over sub- merged capstones. The merry oarsmen little think of the tales of departed commerce those immense masses of granite tell. Through those great iron rings, that are sometimes seen in the depths of the clear waters, were passed the detaining cables of many a stout ship ; and where the tide each day sweeps onward without obstruction, the products of many lands once lay piled in rich profusion. At one time this was the busiest portion of the busy port. The Revolution- ary War caused this part of the harbor to be deserted. The feeble commerce that was revived after peace came chose other wharves for its home. The old piers had survived their usefulness, and when the great gale of 1815 burst in fury upon the town, the swelling seas of that terrible Sep- tember day found nothing here The Jewish Cemetery. to oppose them. Exultingly they seized the opportunity to satiate their vengeance upon the solid walls that had so long withstood the ocean's power. Along the abandoned wharves scarcely one stone was left upon another when the wind went down.
Upon some of the smaller wharves, to the southward, the battered warehouses of past generations are yet standing. A grisly tale is told of one of them. Instead of the stout wooden shutters which now close its windows, rows of iron bars once shocked the gaze, and the dark faces of those to whom liberty had forever ceased to be anything more than a name, looked despairingly through them. The building was used for a slave-pen many, many years ago, before the consciences of Englishmen had been awakened to a sense of the sinfulness of the traffic in human flesh. In the second story of some
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NEWPORT.
of these warehouses were the counting- rooms of the Jews, whose enterprise did so much to enhance the commercial prosperity of the town. The name of Aaron Lopez is connected with one. Lopez is said at one time to have own- ed eighty vessels. Many of these were whalers; twenty- seven were square- rigged. All were of The Old Coddington House. light tonnage; a ship of three hundred tons was considered an enormous vessel in those days.
The first Jews came to Newport during the last quarter of the seventeenth century. The deed of their burial-place is dated in 1677. They were of Dutch extraction, and came from Curacoa. After the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, many of their Portuguese countrymen came to settle with them. There were more than sixty families of the Hebrew faith in the town in 1763. Many of these Portuguese Jews became naturalized citizens. The privilege of naturalization was sometimes denied them, though it is difficult to conjecture why the distinction was made. Thus, in 1761 " Lucena the Portuguese " was naturalized by the General Assembly, and in the following year the petition of Aaron Lopez for the same privilege was rejected. The case of Lopez was peculiar in every respect. When the Court re- jected his petition, a synagogue, the only one in America, had been commenced. It was dedicated in the following year, and the Hebrew faith was here most amply protected, while in every other colony it was denounced.
The Jews brought many new branches of industry into the town. Thus, Jacob Rodriguez Riveira introduced the manufacture of sperma- ceti, of which Newport enjoyed the monopoly before the Revolution ; and Moses Lopez obtained from the Colonial Assembly a patent for
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PICTURESQUE RHODE ISLAND.
" Ancient Days."
an improved method of making potash. In 1774 there were three hundred Jew- ish families in New- port. All of them left the place very soon after the war began, and very few ever came back. Joseph Lopez was the only one of the race who resumed business in the
ruined town. Not one of the descendants of those princely merchants now remains in the island metropolis.
"Closed are the portals of their synagogue, No Psalms of David now their silence break, No Rabbi reads the ancient Decalogue In the grand dialcet the Prophets spake.
Gone are the living, but the dead remain, And not neglected ; for a hand unseen, Scattering its bounty like a summer rain, Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green."
Isaac Touro, the priest, fled to Jamaica when the British troops took possession of the town. His son Abraham, who died in Boston in 1822, left a fund of $10,000 for the support of the synagogue and cemetery, and $5,000 to keep in repair the street on which they front -Touro Street. Another son, Judah Touro, born in Newport in 1775, was a philanthropist, and a staunch patriot also. When a young man he removed to New Orleans, and there acquired a large fortune. He served as a volunteer at the battle of New Orleans, and was wounded by a cannon-ball in the hip. In 1842 he erected the granite entrance and the railing around the cemetery, at a cost of $11,000. Though a Jew, he contributed generously to many Chris- tian church enterprises. Towards the erection of the Bunker Hill Monument he gave $10,000.
A story told of Abraham Riveira illustrates the sterling worth of those Hebrew merchants. At one time, losses upon the sea had so
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NEWPORT.
crippled his resources that he was obliged to make an assignment of his property. Recognizing his honesty and his great ability, his English creditors offered him very easy terms of settlement, and pro- vided him with money and goods with which to resume business. Success once more smiled upon him. After a few prosperous years he gave a great dinner-party, to which he invited all of his old creditors who could possibly be reached. Beside his plate, every one
A Newport Cottage.
of his guests found a check for the amount that was originally due him, with interest added from the date of the failure.
The names of many of the founders of Newport are heard upon its streets to-day. The family of Coddington has become extinct. William Coddington, the first governor, was born in England. He was a man of considerable influence, and of large landed property in his native country, and was named an Assistant in the Massachusetts Colony before he left England. In the records of the early days of Boston he is often spoken of as one of its principal citizens, and is said to have built the first brick house in that town. He became perhaps the largest land-holder upon Rhode Island, and was probably the wealthiest of the Newport settlers. All things went well with him until his ambition led him to procure for himself greater official station than his own qualifications or the wishes of his associates seemed to warrant. Then he fell from his high estate, and never recovered his lost influence. At present a shadow rests upon his name, and Rhode Island historical authorities by no means agree as to the place he should hold in the records of the State. The story goes that his last male descendant in his early years inherited an ample estate. This he gradually wasted away in reckless dissipation, 5
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PICTURESQUE RHODE ISLAND.
until at length nothing was left to him but the ancestral shield which bore the arms of his family. Through all his reverses this degenerate scion of a noble race maintained the lofty bearing of a high-toned gentleman. One day, when his well-worn suit of clothes had for a long time been shining with the unwelcome gloss of age, he was offered a new suit in exchange for the old escutcheon. With the greatest indignation he repulsed the offer. " What," said he, " sell the coat-of-arms of a Coddington !" The ancient relic hangs to-day in the City Hall, for the old roue ended his days in the poor-house, and the city inherited this last remnant of his patrimonial estate.
Upon the Brenton family, Fate has smiled more kindly. William Brenton, the surveyor, was the first of the race in America. Coming to this country in 1634, he brought with him a commission from King Charles I., which allowed him a certain number of acres per mile on all lands he should survey in the New England Colonies. The tract he chose for his home in Newport comprised very nearly two thousand acres of the best land in the Colony. Brenton's Point, at the extrem- ity of which Fort Adams now stands, formed a part of it. Upon this farm was built the edifice commonly called " The Four Chimney House," said to be the largest house in the colonies at the time of its erection. It was one hundred and fifty feet square. Through it ex- tended a hall that was sixteen feet wide. Upon its roof, which was surrounded by a railing, seats were built and a promenade was con- structed. The grounds surrounding it were laid out in the most artistic manner, and were kept in a high state of cultivation. The fruit trees in the orchards were mostly imported from England. Among them were found many varieties never before cultivated in /this country. It is said that the "yellow russet" apple was first grown upon the Brenton grounds. A wall of granite, five feet in height, surrounded the estate, which was named Hammersmith, from its owner's English birth-place.
In 1660 Mr. Brenton was chosen President of the Rhode Island Colony, and thus happened to be its chief officer when the family of the Stuarts was placed again upon the English throne. The Court of Commissioners for the Colony was sitting at Warwick when the news of the Restoration was received. President Brenton, as a loyal sub- ject of King Charles II., immediately appointed a day of thanksgiv- ing and rejoicing, to be observed throughout the Colony. He also directed that processions in each town should commemorate the event, and that a holiday should be given to servants and children.
1729180
NEWPORT.
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Tradition says that a long procession passed through the streets of Newport on the night of the celebration. The thronging people car- ried lanterns with which to illumine the darkness, and kettle-drums, hand-bells, and fifes for the more perfect manifestation of their joy. Upon a platform was carried a person dressed to represent the late Lord Protector. Be- hind him stood one who was supposed to personate His Satanic Majesty. MEIO PROV rus One of the hands of the ruler of the The Lorillard Cottage. lower world was placed upon Cromwell's head, while the other brandished a spear in air. From time to time the procession halted to listen to the repetition of these lines :
" Old Cromwell - man ! your time is come, We tell it here with fife and drum ; And Satan's hand is on your head. He's come for you before you're dead, And on his spear he '11 throw you in The very worst place that ever was seen, For good King Charles is on his throne, And Parliament now you 'll let alone."
This practice of marching through the streets on the anniversary of the Restoration was maintained for many years. At last it became simply a nuisance, and as such was suppressed by the town author- ities.
Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton and Captain Edward Pelham Bren- ton, both of the British navy, and Sir Brenton Halliburton, long the Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, were all descended from William Brenton, and were all born in Newport.
William Brenton's son, Jahleel, was about twenty-one years of age when King Philip's War broke out. When the news of the destruction of Providence by the Indians was received in Newport, he quickly manned a schooner and hastened to the relief of the home-
.
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PICTURESQUE RHODE ISLAND.
less fugitives. Jahleel Brenton, after serving as His Majesty's Col- lector of Customs in Boston, for some years, came back to end his days in Newport. He was for a time Collector of Customs for Newport also, and thus became very prominently identified with the commercial history of the port. In 1720, he built the famous Channing House, which is still standing upon Thames Street.
Says the novelist Cooper, in the Red Rover: "Enjoying the four great requisites of a safe and commodious haven, -a placid basin, an outer harbor, and a convenient roadstead with a clear ofling, -Newport appeared to the eyes of our European ancestors designed to shelter fleets and to nurse a race of hardy and expert seamen." During the collectorship of Brenton, and from that time forward until the Revolution, Newport seemed in a fair way to realize that splendid commercial future of which its people dreamed.
The name which stands forth most prominently, as we peruse the records of those golden days, is that of Wanton. Four of the family -William, John, Gideon, and Joseph -were at different times elected governor of the Colony ; another, Joseph, Jr., held for two years the office of deputy-governor. The Wantons were shipwrights when they took up their abode upon Aquidneck. Edward Wanton, first of the name in America, was an officer of the guard at Boston when Mary Dyer (wife of the first secretary of Newport) suffered death because guilty of the unpardonable crime of being a Quaker. The unshaken firmness with which she submitted to her fate moved Wan- ton greatly. "Alas ! Mother !" said he, as he went into his house after the execution, "We have been murdering the Lord's people ;" and, taking off his sword, he made a solemn vow never to wear it again. Not long afterward he became a member of the society of Friends, and, moving to Scituate, Mass., established a shipyard in that town. Like their father, the sons were also members of the society of Friends, but the spirit sometimes moved them to deeds their quiet sire by no means approved. For resenting an insult to their father they were forced to flee from Scituate. This is the story of one of their exploits after they had taken up their abode upon Rhode Island. It won them fame not only throughout the length and breadth of the American Colonies, but in England as well. " A piratical ship, of three hundred tons, mounting twenty cannon, appeared off the harbor of Newport, cruising between Block Island and Point Judith, interrupting every vessel that attempted to pass, capturing property, and treating the officers and crews with great
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NEWPORT.
severity. To remove an annoyance so injurious to the comfort and prosperity of the inhabitants of Newport, two young men, William and John Wanton, sons of the first Edward, determined to attempt her capture, and the means they resorted to were as novel as the suc- cess was glorious. No sooner had they made known their intention than they were joined by about thirty young men of their acquaint- ance, and a sloop of thirty tons was engaged for the enterprise. The · brave fellows went on board with only their small-arms to defend themselves, and sailed out of the harbor, apparently on a little coast- ing excursion, every person being concealed below except the few required to navigate the vessel. After cruising a few days they espied the object of their search. As they drew near the piratical vessel, with the intention, apparently, to pass, the pirate fired a shot at them. This was what they desired, in order to give them an opportunity to approach the pirate. The sloop immediately lowered the peak of her mainsail and luffed up for the pirate, but instead of going alongside they came directly under her stern. Her men at once sprang upon deck, and, with irons prepared for the purpose, grappled their sloop to the ship and wedged her rudder to the stern- post so as to render it unmanageable. Having so far succeeded in their purpose without alarming the piratical crew, or leading them to suppose they were approached by anything but a little coaster, each man seized his musket, and taking deliberate aim, shot every pirate as he appeared on deck. After making great efforts to disengage themselves, and finding it impossible so to do, the rest surrendered, and were taken into the harbor of Newport by their brave and gallant captors, and turned over to the authorities, where, after a trial, they suffered the penalty of their crimes by being hanged. When this affair took place William Wanton was but twenty-four, and John twenty-two years of age." Many like stories might be told con- cerning these brothers. They were fit leaders for the adventure- loving young men who thronged the streets of Newport. In 1702 they went to London, and were received at court with other heroes who had contributed to swell the renown of the English navy. Queen Anne granted them an addition to their coat-of-arms, and presented them each with two pieces of plate. A complimentary inscription (in Latin, of course,) adorned each silver vessel .-
William Wanton did not long remain a Quaker. When he was twenty-one years old he married Ruth, the beautiful daughter of Deacon John Bryant, of Scituate. There was much opposition to
Bird's-eye View of Newport.
1080 0138
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NEWPORT.
1
the match from both their families. Deacon Bryant was a rigid Presbyterian. He detested Quakers. The Wanton family, on the other hand, frowned whenever the idea of a Presbyterian daughter- in-law was brought forward. The eager lover quickly cut the Gordian knot. "Ruth," said he to the maiden one day, as they were standing in the spacious " sitting-room" of her father's house, " let us break from this unreasonable bondage. I will give up my religion, and thou shalt thine ; we will both go to the Church of England and to the devil together." A happy marriage it proved to be.
Joseph Wanton was the last of his race to hold the office of gov- ernor. The Revolution terminated his political life. He was a Tory, and his large estates were therefore confiscated and sold. But though he was thus despoiled of his property, he never lost the respect of his fellow-townsmen. During the British occupation he remained in Newport, living very quietly and unostentatiously. After the de- parture of the troops he was not molested by the patriot party, but continued to reside until his death in the town of which, for almost a century, his ancestors had been the most conspicuous citizens.
Another famous merchant of that early time was Godfrey Malbone. When a mere lad he ran away to sea, and was not heard from for many a year. About the beginning of the last century he settled in Newport, and soon became the most noted of all its merchant princes. Dark and full of mystery are some of the tales that are told concern- ing him. His ventures upon the sea seem to have been unusually lawless, even for that lawless age, and the fair fame of the city in which he dwelt suffered in consequence. During the French war, which began in 1744, Newport sent forth more than a score of pri- vateers. The Frenchmen called the town a " nursery of corsairs," and planned its capture. "Perhaps we had better burn it as a pernicious hole, from the number of privateers there fitted out, as dangerous in peace as in war," wrote one officer to his superior in rank. Smuggling, Malbone of course indulged in. It was hardly deemed discreditable to any one, - not at all to be censured if he who engaged in it hap- pened to be a man of wealth. Persons now living have seen upon the estate Malbone once owned, the entrance to an underground pas- sage which afforded easy communication with the beach, and thus enabled him to elude the vigilance of the custom-house officers. It is said that his " corsairs " preyed upon both Spaniard and Frenchman with an impartial disregard for treaties ; and it is a well-established
PICTURESQUE RHODE ISLAND.
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