USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 11
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The truce declared while reference was made to Massachusetts was ended, and a con- certed siege of the house occupied by the Gortonists began. The cattle were seized, and the English flag hung out by the Warwick men was riddled with bullets. The Gortonists refrained from firing, though holding the enemy at bay by threat. An attempt to set the house on fire failed, and reinforcements were called for from Boston on October 8. On October 13 Gorton and his followers surrendered and were marched to Boston as prisoners, in utter violation of the articles of surrender under which they were to "go along as friends
*Probably Pomham.
+Chapter IV.
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and neighbors." As a matter of fact, the Massachusetts soldiers drove off cattle and swine and pillaged the houses at Warwick. Ten men had held an army back for two weeks; instead of the honorable treatment ordinarily accorded prisoners after a valiant defence, they were treated with the utmost ignominy. Gorton and his followers declined an invitation to attend church in Boston on the following Sunday, and when threatened with compulsory attendance, demurred until they won the liberty of answering the preacher. Gorton answered adequately John Cotton, who preached.
Gorton and his followers were tried in Massachusetts for heresy, the charge being based upon the contents of letters sent by Gorton to Boston in the course of the controversy, and the trial assumed the form of inquisition, Gorton being required to answer questions involv- ing religious dogma. The trial thus became an incident in the persecution of Gorton because of his religious opinions. His answers varied sufficiently from the views held in Massachu- setts to insure a verdict of guilty. Upon this finding all but three of the magistrates favored putting Gorton to death, but a majority of the deputies in the General Court dissented. Gor- ton and six of his followers were thereupon sentenced to be confined in irons and to be set to work, with threat of death should they break jail or proclaim heresy or reproach church or state. After being paraded in their irons before Mr. Cotton's congregation for the edifi- cation of some and the education of others as to the penalty for heresy, the prisoners were distributed to several towns as follows: Gorton to Charlestown, Carder to Roxbury, Holden to Salem, Potter to Rowley, Weston to Dorchester, Wickes to Ipswich. Warner was kept in Boston. Whether or not these sentences may be construed as life imprisonment at hard labor, in commutation of the death penalty, which the deputies were unwilling to decree, remains a moot question; there was no time limit imposed on the sentences, and Gorton subsequently charged an attempt to starve him to death on short rations. Three other Gor- tonists-Waddell, Waterman and Power-were not treated so badly as the seven. Water- man was fined; Waddell was restricted to Watertown but not locked up; and Power was dismissed with an admonition, on his plea that he did not participate in the offences alleged. The punishment of Gorton and his followers, as the circumstances gradually came to be known by the people of Massachusetts, caused so much dissatisfaction that a new General Court was summoned to allay the murmuring. On March 7, 1644, the Gortonists were ordered released forthwith, and banished with the proviso "that if they or any of them shall
after fourteen days .. . come within any part of our jurisdiction either in Massachusetts. or in or near Providence, or any of the lands of Pomham or Soconoco, or elsewhere within our jurisdiction, then such person or persons shall be apprehended wheresoever they may be taken, and suffer death because of law." Released from their chains, Gorton and one of two of his followers, remained in Boston awaiting the others, planning to make the journey from Massachusetts together. But the people of Boston "showed themselves joyful to see" Gorton and his friends at liberty; and thereupon at ten o'clock one morning the Governor ordered them to depart before noon under further penalty if they remained longer. They left with- out opportunity to procure provisions for the journey, and, as so many others banished before them had been, were fed by the Indians as they made their way toward Shawomet, where they planned to stop temporarily. It will be noted that the remission of imprisonment included banishment not only from Massachusetts, but also from Providence, Pawtuxet and Warwick. Over two of the three Rhode Island places Massachusetts had assumed jurisdic- tion by reason of the submission of a few of the inhabitants in each instance; over Shawomet jurisdiction was claimed by the submission of Pomham and Soconoco. Plymouth, Connecti- cut and New Haven might be expected to refuse to receive the outcasts as a matter of comity and amity in view of their membership in the New England confederacy. Unless Gorton and his friends should go to the Dutch, which probably was heartily wished, Aquid- neck was the only refuge left in New England. Thither Gorton and his followers went from
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Warwick, and there they were "lovingly received." Gorton's earlier banishment from Ports- mouth because of contempt for the civil authorities was forgiven now that he had become a martyr for the sake of religious liberty, the love of which grew steadily stronger, if that were possible, in Rhode Island.
The return of Gorton and his followers so impressed the Narragansett Indians that Canonicus and other sachems acknowleged the sovereignty of the King of England and placed themselves by submission under his protection. Gorton and Holden, and John Greene of Warwick were delegated to carry the Indians' submission to England, and sailed via New Amsterdam instead of Boston, because Massachusetts was closed to them. Gorton planned to present at the same time his own appeal from the proceedings in Massachusetts. The appeal, as it looked for an adjustment for the future, was sustained without hearing Massa- chusetts, on the general ground that Warwick lay outside the Massachusetts patent and that Massachusetts had no authority to extend jurisdiction beyond the boundaries included in the patent. Massachusetts was ordered to remit further penalties, and not to interfere with Gorton and his followers in Warwick. Still the magistrates were obdurate and stubbornly unwilling even to allow Holden, who returned with the decree sustaining Gorton's appeal, to land at Boston and to pass through Massachusetts into Rhode Island. They yielded safe conduct as discretion became preferable to valor; but Edward Winslow was dispatched to England to present a counter-appeal on behalf of Massachusetts. While in London, Gorton published at least two editions of his "Simplicity's Defence Against a Seven-Headed Policy," in which he related in detail the incidents of his persecution by Massachusetts. The essential details are corroborated by Winthrop's "Journal," and Gorton's tale, outrageous as the con- duct of Massachusetts appears to twentieth century intelligence, bears all the earmarks of truth. On his return to America, Gorton found difficulty in obtaining permission to land at Boston and pass through Massachusetts to Rhode Island; he was allowed to do so only on presenting a letter from England guaranteeing safe conduct. Following the decree in their favor the Warwick men removed from Aquidneck to Shawomet and resumed cultivation of their plantations. They had endeared themselves to Rhode Islanders because of persecution by the common enemy. In 1679 the King annulled the sentences of banishment imposed on Gorton and his followers in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts was not content to lose, without a determined struggle to retain it, War- wick and the harbor on Narragansett Bay so fondly wished for. On the theory that posses- sion in fact is weighty evidence in law, 10,000 acres of land in Warwick were granted in 1644 by Massachusetts to inhabitants of Braintree to encourage them to start a Massachusetts set- tlement in the disputed territory, for which Plymouth had recently asserted a claim. On Plymouth's objection that title would be challenged, the Braintree people went elsewhere. Her counter-appeal to England against Gorton having yielded nothing, Massachusetts next sought the assistance of the commissioners of the United Colonies. The commissioners were asked to explain, with reference to the question of jurisdiction, the effect of Plymouth's failure to object when Massachusetts asked for and received the acquiescence of the council to its proposal to discipline Gorton. The commissioners, discreetly wishing to avoid a deci- sion, which if for either Massachusetts or Plymouth would offend the other, were diplomatic and evasive in their answer. In 1649, on further pressure for a decision, they advised Mas- sachusetts and Plymouth to reach an agreement by treaty betwixt themselves, and in 1650 advised Massachusetts to relinquish jurisdiction to Plymouth.
THE PARLIAMENTARY PATENT -- Roger Williams, who had gone to England in the fall of 1643 to seek a charter for Rhode Island, arrived after the flight of King Charles I; and was successful in obtaining a patent from the Parliamentary government then in control. He returned to America in 1644 with the document known as the Parliamentary Patent or the Warwick Charter for Providence Plantations, which authorized a union of the four settle-
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ments, at Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Shawomet, under one government. The patent, if carried into effect by union under it, would effectually settle the question of juris- diction. Massachusetts and Plymouth were not friendly disposed, and both evinced an oppo- sition which they tried to make effective. Both warned the Warwick settlers of claims of jurisdiction there antedating the Parliamentary Patent. Plymouth authorized an agent to make a house-to-house canvass in Portsmouth and Newport and to warn the people there that Plymouth claimed jurisdiction, a curious assumption in view of the assurances freely given to John Clarke and others in 1638 that the island lay beyond the Plymouth patent, and of the welcome extended to Clarke to settle on the island as friends and neighbors. This effective interference postponed the achievement of a union until 1647. So late as 1651 Massachu- setts warned the government of Rhode Island to refrain from taxing inhabitants of War- wick, threatening to seek satisfaction for such taxation "in such manner as God shall put into their hands." Not until 1658, when William Arnold and William Carpenter petitioned the General Court for a full discharge of their persons and estates from Massachusetts, did the Bay Colony release its claim of jurisdiction in Pawtuxet and Shawomet. Roger Williams assisted in procuring this adjustment. Meanwhile Gorton and others of the Warwick men persisted in claims for damages against Massachusetts, based upon the loss of cattle, trespass upon their estates, arrest and imprisonment, and incidental losses by reason of interference with their regular occupations. Their claim was presented to the General Court in 1661, and to the King's commissioners for New England in 1665. An answer to the second peti- tion on behalf of Massachusetts evoked this letter from George Cartwright, one of the King's commissioners, to Samuel Gorton : "These gentlemen of Boston would make us believe that they verily think that the King has given them so much power in their charter to do unjustly, that he reserved none for himself to call them to an account for doing so. In short, they refuse to let us hear complaints against them ; so that, at present, we can do nothing in your behalf. But I hope, shortly, to go to England; where, if God bless me thither, I shall truly represent your sufferings and your loyalty."
BOUNDARY DISPUTES WITH CONNECTICUT-New York is the only state contiguous to Rhode Island with which Rhode Island never had a boundary dispute. With both the other adjoining colonies and states, Connecticut and Massachusetts, boundary disputes were long continued and involved interference by both in Rhode Island's affairs. The pretext for a boundary dispute with Plymouth, first, and subsequently with Massachusetts as the successor of Plymouth, on the east, appeared in the warning served upon the Portsmouth and Newport people in 1644. The contention then, and others involved in locating the boundary established by the charter of 1663 and in adjusting it, continued until 1861. The western boundary dis- pute with both Connecticut and Massachusetts, the latter of which was still pursuing its general policy of bringing all of New England under its control, and its particular policy of obtaining access to Narragansett Bay, reached back to the Pequot War, and forward to 1727, when the King issued a decree sustaining Rhode Island, and to 1840, when the line was straightened. The western boundary controversy rested, first, upon assertion of right by conquest, and subsequently upon the interpretation of the charters of Connecticut, 1662, and of Rhode Island, 1663. Massachusetts claimed Block Island by conquest and sold it to a land company ; the island was assigned to Rhode Island by the charter of 1663, and was admitted to Rhode Island as the town of New Shoreham by consent of the inhabitants in 1664. Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut both asserted ownership of the Pequot country by right of con- quest at the close of the Pequot War. The commissioners of the colonies, on the basis of this claim, assigned the Pequot territory east of the Mystic River to Massachusetts in 1658, a decision that affected Rhode Island only as the eastern line of the Pequots rested either at the Pawcatuck River or at Weekapaug Brook, five miles farther east. Other claims affecting the western boundary of Rhode Island were founded as follows: (1) Connecticut's, to all
BROAD STREET. PASCOAG
PASCOAG AT RAILWAY STATION
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the Narragansett territory so far east as Narragansett Bay, based on the patent granted to Lords Say and Seal, 1631, extending east so far as Narragansett River; (2) Rhode Island's. to all of the Narragansett territory, based on the Patent of 1644, which described a tract of land "bordering north and northeast on the patent of Massachusetts, east and southeast on the Plymouth patent, south on the ocean, and on the west and northwest inhabited by the Indians called .... Narragansetts; the whole tract extending about twenty and seven English miles unto the Pequot River and country"; (3) the claim of the heirs of the Duke of Hamilton, based upon a grant by Plymouth Colony in 1635 of all the territory between the Con- necticut and Narragansett Rivers ; (4) the Connecticut claim, based on the Connecticut Charter of 1662, which defined the eastern boundary of Connecticut as the "Narragansett River, com- monly called Narragansett Bay"; (5) the Rhode Island claim, based on the Rhode Island Charter of 1663, which defined the western boundary of Rhode Island as "west or westerly, to the middle or channel of a river there, commonly called and known by the name of Pawca- tuck." In view of the apparent inconsistency in the Connecticut Charter and the Rhode Island Charter, it should be noted that John Clarke presented objections to the Connecticut Charter before Winthrop, who negotiated it, left England, and that the objection was referred to four arbitrators, who decided in favor of Rhode Island that the "Pawcatuck River should be the certain bounds between the colonies, which said river should for the future be called alias Narragansett River." With this decision the Connecticut Charter could stand without amendment as a grant so far as the Pawcatuck River "alias Narragansett River"; and the Rhode Island Charter, granted subsequently to the decision by the arbitrators, named the Pawcatuck River as the western boundary. Connecticut undertook to avoid the effect of the decision of the arbitrators by alleging that Winthrop's agency ceased when he had negotiated the charter, and that he had no authority to represent Connecticut in the proceedings before the arbitrators. Aside from colonial claims to territorial jurisdiction, private claims in the Narragansett territory had been established as follows: (1) By Roger Williams, John Wil- cox and Richard Smith in and near Wickford, by trading stations dating from about 1641 ; (2) the Pettaquamscott purchase from the Indians, 1658, of territory embracing approxi- mately the present towns of Narragansett and South Kingstown; (3) the Misquamicuck (or Westerly) purchase in 1660, by freemen from Newport, of land between the Pawcatuck River and Weekapaug Brook; (4) the Atherton purchase, 1659, of approximately the east- ern half of North Kingstown; (5) the Narragansett Indian mortgage to the Atherton Com- pany, 1660, of all Indian land not already sold; and (6) the foreclosure of the Indian- Atherton mortgage, 1661. The General Assembly in 1658 had forbidden purchases from the Indians without legislative sanction, the effect of this legislation, if Rhode Island actually had jurisdiction, being to make the Atherton purchase, the Atherton mortgage, and the foreclosure of the Atherton mortgage, all null and void.
Massachusetts in 1658 incorporated a town under the name Southertown, later Stoning- ton, lying on both sides of the Pawcatuck. The earliest actual clash occurred when some of the Newport people who had purchased Westerly were first warned away by Massachusetts as trespassers, and next arrested. Three were taken to Boston, of whom Tobias Saunders and Robert Burdick were fined and committed to jail for failure to pay the fines. Rhode Island protested ; meanwhile a border war prevailed among the settlers alorig the Pawcatuck. In the final adjustment the Pawcatuck River became the intercolonial and interstate boundary with the Rhode Island town of Westerly on one side and the Connecticut town of Stonington on the other. The Connecticut village of Pawcatuck, directly opposite Westerly, is served in the twentieth century by the United States post office at Westerly.
The Massachusetts claim of the Pequot land on both sides of the Pawcatuck, ignored in the Connecticut Charter and the Rhode Island Charter, was disposed of finally by the King's commissioners in 1665, who held all grants made under "that usurped authority called
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the United Colonies" void, and further that "no colony hath any just right to dispose of any lands conquered from the natives, unless both the cause of that conquest be just, and the lands lie within those bounds which the King by his charter has given it." The King's com- missioners also decided the boundary controversy betwixt Rhode Island and Connecticut resting upon the interpretation of the charters favorably to Rhode Island. Going back to the submission of Canonicus and other Indians to the King in 1644, the Narragansett terri- tory was designated as the King's Province thence. The boundaries of the King's Province were defined as extending westward to the Pawcatuck River, and the province was placed by the commissioners under the administration of the Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants of Rhode Island. The Atherton purchase and mortgage both were declared void. Possibly the controversy with Connecticut might have ended in 1665 had Rhode Island's enemies lived exclusively beyond the border.
TRAITORS WITHIN-Richard Smith, son of the Richard Smith who came from Taunton to Wickford to set up an Indian trading post there, although he was an inhabitant for many years, never had become a real Rhode Islander. He longed for an established church and a strong civil government. The organization in Connecticut appealed to his notions of "power" and "protection." Writing to Connecticut in 1668, on behalf of himself and other malcon- tents at Wickford, he complained that we are "not able to live either in our civil or ecclesias- tical matters without government." Even before the King's commissioners had decided the boundary issue favorably to Rhode Island, Smith had been active in promoting Connecticut's interest. When Connecticut seemed disposed to accept the commissioners' decision, Smith bombarded the colonial government at Hartford with importunities not to desert him and his associates, but to reassert and maintain the Connecticut claim. Governor Winthrop of Con- necticut, who had negotiated the Connecticut Charter and had been a party to the arbitration in London to determine the boundary, opposed action by Connecticut at least "until his majesty's pleasure be further known." Other influential Connecticut men doubted the expe- diency of pressing the claim in view of the relatively small value of the territory involved. Contrary counsel prevailed, and Connecticut reopened the controversy. An attempt at arbi- tration failed; agents of the two colonies met at New London on June 16, 17, 18, 1670, and conducted "conversations" by an exchange of letters and answers, without making any head- way toward agreement. Connecticut thereupon proclaimed its jurisdiction at Wickford and Westerly, and the Rhode Island General Assembly prepared to meet invasion by armed resistance. Border warfare was renewed along the Pawcatuck, consisting of eviction of alleged "trespassers," and arrests. There was no bloodshed, and no actual conflict of armed officers. Roger Williams laid the cause of the first trouble to "a depraved appetite after great portions of land in this wilderness" and "an unneighborly and unchristian intrusion upon us, as being the weaker, contrary to" the Connecticut "laws as well as ours." John Mason, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, answering Roger Williams, questioned "whether the territory in dispute was worth the expense of trying to acquire it." William Harris of Rhode Island, urged the General Assembly not to maintain Rhode Island's claim, and so angered the people of Rhode Island that he was committed to prison for "high contempt and sedition." Roger Williams attributed the position of Harris to the latter's hope and wish to profit from the establishment of Connecticut's claim. Harris specifically opposed sending John Clarke to England to represent Rhode Island in an effort to establish the boundary indi- cated in the Charter. In the next election, following the imprisonment of Harris, the Gen- eral Assembly, which had been strongly positive in supporting the Rhode Island view, was replaced by another that was more conciliatory, and the settlement of the dispute was post- poned as King Philip's War loomed on the horizon .*
*Chapter IV.
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Following King Philip's War, Connecticut claimed the Narragansett country by conquest and warned the Rhode Island settlers not to return to their homes. Massachusetts, with greed for land still unabated, abetted Connecticut, fondly hoping that if Connecticut pre- vailed, the Massachusetts claim might be revived. Rhode Island protested Connecticut's action, and negotiations for settlement of the controversy were resumed. Rhode Island offered Connecticut 5000 acres of land, to be sold by Connecticut, jurisdiction remaining with Rhode Island, but the offer was rejected. Connecticut ordered a survey of the Narragansett lands, and Rhode Island laid out a new town at East Greenwich in the territory. The dispute was next transferred to England. Richard Smith and William Harris went to London as agents on behalf of Connecticut, with a petition asking that the Narragansett country and the islands in the bay to be given to Connecticut. Randall Holden and John Greene were already there, representing Rhode Island in a lawsuit between Harris and Warwick. After argument, the King's decision, rendered December 13, 1678, restored the King's Province to its original status, under the jurisdiction of the Rhode Island authorities, until further notice. Connecticut asserted a right to possession under an assumption that the words "present status" as applied to the King's Province were to be interpreted as applying to the de facto situation existing, rather than the de lege situation established by the King's commissioners in 1665. The decree of December 13, 1678, notified all persons having claims to present them. Rhode Island reasserted jurisdiction in the disputed territory and Connecticut protested. Rhode Island thereupon gave notice of intention to survey the western boundary line, and invited Connecticut to participate. Connecticut declined the invitation.
The death of William Harris delayed further pursuit of the controversy for nearly two years. Sailing for England as Connecticut's agent in December, 1679, he was captured by pirates, held prisoner for over a year, and, being ransomed, died a few days after reaching England. Connecticut renewed action in England before the Board of Trade, which recom- mended an investigation by commissioners in America. The commission consisted of Edward Randolph, English collector of customs in Massachusetts; Edward Cranfield, Governor of New Hampshire, and seven Massachusetts men. The commission notified Rhode Island that it would meet at Richard Smith's house in Wickford on August 22, 1683, requesting produc- tion of documents and presentation of printed briefs. Rhode Island, seriously doubtful of obtaining justice from the commission, questioned the commission's right to proceed, because the notice was not issued "in his majesty's name; because they have not shown any commis- sion to this government from his majesty for their so acting; and because his majesty hath not given any information thereof to us by any of his royal letters." This demurrer to the jur- isdiction appears to have been ill-advised, as it prejudiced the commissioners against Rhode Island, if indeed they were not prejudiced from the beginning. Their contemporaries regarded Randolph as unscrupulous and inefficient, and Cranfield as a corrupt politician ; Rhode Island might expect little from a commission in which Massachusetts men comprised an overwhelm- ing majority. Rhode Island defaulted practically by failure to present a case, and the com- missioners sustained Connecticut's claim to jurisdiction and the Atherton claim to title, on the evidence presented. Fortunately for Rhode Island the commissioners' findings were not confirmed in England.
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