USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 1 > Part 21
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1Rider's Hist. Tract, viii, 51, 175.
2Letter to Wanton, Feb. 4, 1732, in Foster MS. Coll. R. I. Hist., ii, 149, in R. I. H. S. Library.
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the Quaker agent of Rhode Island, to eease only with the dismember- ment of the British empire".1
The aet, however, was passed, and although it seems to have affeeted Newport less than hier rival, Boston, it prevented the distilling of molasses into rum from beeoming, as it had promised, the most im- portant colonial manufacture. In 1739, when it was learned that further restrictions on colonial commerce were intended, the Rhode Island assembly voted that the Governor should write to the London agent to oppose strenuously the making of any addition to the sugar or molasses aet, "that so much affects the northern Plantations"; and also that his Honor should ask the neighboring governments to join in opposing such legislation. The colony showed its jealousy of royal interference in other ways than in those relating to restrictions upon eommeree. When one Leonard Lockman, in 1743, produecd a com- mission as naval offieer, said to have been granted by royal authority, the assembly deeided that "his Majesty was mistaken in said grant", sinee the office of naval offieer had always been under the appointment of the Governor. They further drew up in the same year a table of fees for the English court of viee-admiralty, asserting the undoubted right of the general assembly to state the fees of all officers and eourts within the eolony.2
Colonial watehfuiness for what was regarded as an infringement of rights, was temporarily obliterated by the patriotic spirit eaused by a foreign war. England, jealous of the commercial power of Spain and offended by her pretensions of supremacy, deelared war upon that country in October, 1739. The news of a break in the long peaee was quickly sent to the colonies. The Rhode Island assembly immediately met in February, 1740, and made necessary preparations in ease of invasion by the enemy. Fort George was garrisoned, Block Island was provided with a company of soldiers, wateh towers and beaeons were ereeted, and a large sloop built expressly for the use of the colony. In May, in obedience to the King's orders, steps were taken towards the enlistment of soldiers for the expedition under Admiral Vernon against the Spanish West Indies, and two companies of one hundred men each were soon transported to New York to join the grand squadron at Jamaiea. They were among the one thousand New England volunteers who aided in the disastrous attaek upon Car- thagena in Mareh, 1741, and of whom seareely one hundred ever returned to their native eolonies. Although Rhode Island assisted in the abortive expedition upon Santiago a few months later, it was in
1Arnold, ii, 124.
2Digest of 1745, p. 268, Arnold, ii, 142.
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the field of privateering that her services were chiefly used for the remainder of the war. The habitual daring and boldness of her inhabitants and her peculiar ability to make her power felt wherever individuality was a potent factor, combined to make the colony especially successful in this branch of warfare. Massachusetts, for instance, where the individual had always been subordinated to the will of the community, was often compelled to offer extraordinary inducements to make vessels go as privateers. It is told how a Massa- chusetts preacher "berated the fisher folk and men of Gloucester so that they quaked in their beds when they might be manning their vessels and chasing the one French privateer that held the whole coast in terror". Sewall, when he paused in one of his Narragansett jour- neys at Bristol, heard of a French privateer in Vineyard Sound, but added that the Rhode Island men were after him.1
The profits arising from privateering were quite large and benefited a greater part of the population than would generally be supposed. The Boston News Letter of March 20, 1740, records how Captain Hull of Newport took a prize of so great value that each man's share was more than 1,000 pieces of eight. And a few weeks later it stated that Hull's exploits were so extraordinary that his owners designed "to have his statue finely cut out of a block of marble, to stand upon a handsome pedestal, with each foot upon a Spaniard's neck".2
But the operations of the Spanish war were soon overshadowed by the approach of a greater struggle, occasioned by France espousing the cause of Spain and declaring war upon England. In March, 1744. Parliament immediately proclaimed war with France and instructed the colonies to make ready for the contest. Again did Rhode Island make the necessary preparations, spending the two sessions of May and June in providing for the defence of the colony and in obtaining munitions of war. When the news came of the scheme for the reduc- tion of Louisburg, the assembly voted to equip the colony sloop Tartar with 130 men, to provide a land force of 150 men, and to raise a regiment of 350 men to be under the pay of Massachusetts. This expedition, forwarded with great zeal by Governor Shirley of Massa- chusetts, and commanded by William Pepperell of Maine, was wonder-
1Weeden, Econ. and Soc. Hist. of N. E. ii, 601.
2Idem, p. 602. These privateering expeditions, however, were not always so successful. In December, 1745, two large ships, with over 400 men, sailed from Newport for the Spanish Main. A tremendous hurricane ensuing, they undoubtedly succumbed to disaster, for they were never heard from again. Such catastrophes as this or the almost total loss of 200 Rhode Island troops at Carthagena in 1741 would account for the sudden and unexplained removal of many an ancestor at this specific period.
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fully successful. In June, 1745, Louisburg surrendered, thus eom- pleting the most important achievement of the war. One-half of the Rhode Island troops unfortunately arrived too late to aid in the attaek, but remained among those who held the garrison until relieved by regular English troops. On the sea, however, the colony showed her especial pre-eminenee. Captain Fones, with a small fleet, dispersed a body of several hundred Freneh and Indians sailing to the relief of Louisburg; and Rhode Island privateers captured more than twenty prizes during the year. These various serviees, together with her furnishings of transports and supplies, caused the home government to grant her £6,322 as her part of the subsequent indemnity to the colonies.1
Throughout the remainder of the war Rhode Island took her proportionate share with the other New England colonies. She entered aetively into the abortive seheme, in the summer of 1746, for the invasion of Canada, which was defeated by the threatened arrival of a French fleet and the dilatory policy of the English ministry.2 Although praised for the "ready spirit which both the government and the troops had shown", the colony agreed with Conneetieut in refusing to enter into Shirley's rashly planned expedition upon Crown Point. But the war was rapidly drawing to a elose, both England and Franee wearying of the martial activity and dragging expenses. There was a eessation of attacks and campaigns, and Rhode Island used the time to good advantage in her favorite pursuit of privateer- ing. One of the most daring commanders, Capt. John Dennis, was so particularly successful that the French at Martinique sent out a well-equipped war vessel especially to eapture him. One may easily imagine that his would-be eaptors were surprised, when after an aetion of four hours they were compelled to surrender and be taken as a prize by this redoubtable Rhode Islander. The papers of the day have frequent reference to similar eaptures. Indeed, it would be safe to say that surely one hundred Freneh vessels, some with eargoes worth over $50,000, were taken by Rhode Island privateers during the war.3 But on October 7, 1848, the struggle between the two nations
"The documentary reference to most of the above facts is in R. I. C. R., V, 106-127. The details of Rhode Island's share in the indemnity is given in foot- notes in Arnold, ii, 170-171; and her part in naval operations is best narrated in Sheffield's Privateers, p. 11-23. The fullest documentary history of the war is in Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. v, 434-449.
2In the Rice Papers, p. 20, in the R. I. H. S. Library, is a journal of this expedition written by Capt. William Rice, from May 26 to Dec. 25, 1746. There are also several rolls of Melvin's and Chenery's Massachusetts companies, 1746-47, in R. I. H. S. MSS., vol. 1.
3Sheffield in his Privateersmen of Newport, p. 48, found reference to nearly
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was finally concluded by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by the terms of which each side agreed to restore all territory as it had been before the war. Thus the stronghold of Louisburg, which had been won by the colonists themselves, at their own risk and for their own security, reverted to their enemy, the French. It has been said that the British ministry restored this fortress to France that it might remain as a menace to possible colonial independence, but they were also surely aware of its usefulness to England herself as a means of overawing the colonists. Shirley reminded them of this fact and remarked that "it would by its vicinity to the British colonies and being the key of 'em, give the Crown of Great Britain a most absolute hold and com- mand of 'em if ever there should come a time when they should grow restive and disposed to shake off their dependency upon their mother country, which", he added, "seems to me some centuries further off than it does to some gentlemen at home".1 At all events, however discouraging the results of the treaty were to the New England colonists, it gave them a knowledge of their own power. The lesson that untrained provincials could defeat the well-equipped European troops was not forgotten when the time came for the more momentous struggle.
During all this period of war, Rhode Island had met her heavy expenses by further issues of paper money. The English government, however, was beginning to realize to what an extent the colonies had gone in this direction, and in August, 1740, warned Rhode Island that instructions had been sent to the colonies more subject to the home rule, not to enact further issues of paper money unless they were approved by the King. Parliament was much apprehensive, the com- munication stated, that "the commerce of Great Britain had been affected by the large and frequent emissions of paper currency, in which Rhode Island has had too large a share". Orders were also given that Rhode Island should prepare a complete account of previous issues, amounts then outstanding, value of such paper in English coin, and possibility of sinking all the bills.2 Although thus advised as to the King's wishes, the assembly decided that the expenses of the war necessitated more bills, and in September, 1740, issued a seventh "bank" of £20,000, to be loaned at four per cent. for ten years and to be equivalent to silver at six shillings nine pence per ounce. Since the attempt was thus made for the first time to fix their value in
seventy captures between 1741-1748. The above account of Captain Dennis is quoted from the Boston Post Boy in the same monograph, p. 24.
'Quoted in Palfrey, v, 93.
2R. I. C. R. v, 7.
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specic, these bills were styled "New Tenor Bills". In addition to this public loan, an issue of £10,000 of the old tenor bills was made to supply the treasury, but this high-handed act was not favored by all the members of the assembly. Two of the assistants and five deputies entered protests on the records and gave substantial reasons why the issue was injurious. It would depreciate what was already out, they said, thus defrauding creditors of their just ducs, encouraging idleness and extortion, and providing in the end a really less medium of ex- change. All extraordinary expenses of the war could easily be paid out of the interest from the previous "banks", and could not anyway be met by the present bank, which would not mature interest in two years. The act, furthermore, was undutiful and presumptuous in view of the expressed attitude of Parliament upon the subject. The signers thus conclude their protest to the said act, asserting their opposition, "because the ruin of this flourishing colony will probably in a great measure be owing to this fatal act; we would have the whole colony and posterity know we have not deserved their imprecations on this occasion, but have endeavorcd to preserve and deliver down to posterity the privileges and the property which our ancestors earned with so much hazard, toil and expense".1
In January, 1741, Richard Ward, who had succeeded as Governor upon the death of Wanton in 1740, prepared the report upon bills of credit required by the Board of Trade. It was a lengthy document, going thoroughly into the reasons for each issue, giving the current comparative value of English coin and concluding that the present "flourishing condition" of the colony was entirely due to paper money. It reveals the information that the outstanding amount of bills was £340,000, or, reduced to sterling money, £88,000, and blames the depreciation chiefly upon the Boston merchants. Having thus vindicated themselves before the English authorities, the paper money party proceeded to carry out its policy as it saw fit. In February, 1744, came another public loan, the eighth "bank", this time of £40,000. This caused two protests to be entered by members of the assembly, both very similar in tone to the protests against the previous "bank".
Such large issues, exactly as the signers of the protest had predicted, only resulted in depreciating all previous issues. The bank of 1740 had already depreciated to one-fourth of its original value, and by 1748 the present bank of 1743 was worth in specie exchange about one as to ten. Depreciation was not the only evil arising from this worthless currency. The non-payment of interest and the continual
1For the act itself see the Digest of 1745, p. 230. See also R. I. C. R. iv, 580.
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counterfeiting made the general treasurer's lot no happy one. The difficulty of collecting the banks as they came due caused the frequent foreclosing of mortgages and bonds.1 The property qualification for freemen had to be raised in 1746 from £200 to £400, since the rapid depreciation of the currency had so cheapened the elective franchise that persons of very little estate were admitted as freemen. The ease with which voters could be obtained brought the assembly to fear "that bribery and corruption hath spread itself in this government, to the great scandal thereof, so that the election of public officers hath been greatly influenced thereby".2
The currency question had become the controlling factor in party contests, giving occasion for much political vehemence and personal abuse. The learned Dr. William Douglass, writing in 1750, thus alludes to conditions in Rhode Island: "Formerly the parties in elections and public transactions were upon sectary footings; but for some years past, the opposite parties are they who are against multiplying a fraudulent paper currency, and they who encourage it for private iniquitous ends. . . The habitual practice of this paper money cheat lias had a bad influence, not only upon profligate private persons, but also upon the administration of some of our New England governments; for instance, one of the legislature, a signer of the Rhode Island colony bills, was not long since convicted of signing counterfeit bills. Men are chosen into the legislative and executive parts of their government, not for their knowledge, honor and honesty, but as sticklers for depreciating, for private ends, the currency by multiplied emissions. This year, 1750, the parties amongst the electors of assemblymen were distinguished by the names of the paper money makers and the contrary. . Massachusetts Bay, where the bulk of their bills were lodged, have sent them back accompanied with the bills of New Hampshire; their design is by quantity to depreciate the value of their bills, and lands mortgaged for public bills will be re- deemed in those minorated bills at a very inconsiderable real value".3
Rhode Island's reckless management of her financial system, whether excusable or not, was sure to receive its retribution in the end. When the reimbursement for the war expenses came from England in 1749, Massachusetts was able, by the aid of a tax of £3 per capita, to sink all her outstanding bills. But Rhode Island, although she
1In 1741 there were 539 such suits in the six towns of Providence county, and in 1742 there were 1,040 more actions instituted in the same towns. (Rider's Hist. Tract, viii, 56.)
21752 Digest, p. 12.
3Douglass, ii, 86. This author, though learned, is not always a reliable authority.
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received £12,000 speeie from England, used only £7,800 of this amount to redeem £89,000 of her great outstanding amount of bills. The smaller proportionate indemnity that she received from England, the excesses of her previous over-issues, and her present apparent unwill- ingness to use all that she could in the right direction, kept her from imitating the example of Massachusetts and plaeing her financial system on a sound speeie basis. The immediate results of this inability were exhibited in the deeline of her business and commeree. Her valuable West Indian trade quickly reverted to Massachusetts,1 and her currency depreciated to nearly one-half of its speeie value. Failures and bankruptcy acts were the natural consequences.
The elosing decade of the first half of the eighteenth century was a most important period for Rhode Island history. In addition to the speetaele of a wasting foreign war and of a ruinous and prostrate currency, the colony witnessed the completion of another boundary dispute that vitally affeeted her future growth and prosperity. She had settled the northern boundary line with Massachusetts in 1719, but the eastern boundary dispute, which resembled the earlier Con- neeticut controversy in its bitterness and protraction, remained un- settled for many years. A brief abstract of the present dispute may well be given here. The Plymouth Council, by letters patent of 1629, granted to Bradford and his associates territory as far as Narragansett River, but this grant conveyed only right of estate and not of juris- dietion. The first royal grant of the territory was in the Rhode Island charter of 1663, when the colony was given land extending "three English miles to the east and north-east of the most eastern and north- eastern parts of Narragansett Bay". In 1665 the King's Commis- sioners had made a temporary order favoring Plymouth, but leaving final determination as to right and title to the King. In 1691 Plymouth was absorbed in the Massachusetts charter, and henceforth the dispute was held with the latter government. Rhode Island, having attempted in vain to assert her right to the territory, finally resolved in 1733 to petition the King for a settlement. She elaimed two strips of land, first the triangular piece of land in the extreme northeastern corner of the colony, called "Attleboro Gore", and virtually corresponding with the present town of Cumberland, and secondly, the confirmation of the country towards the east according to the three mile clause of her charter.2 Massachusetts put in a elaim for all the country as far as Narragansett Bay, based chiefly on the
1Rider's Hist. Tract, viii, 68. For a more detailed discussion of the indem- nity money, see the chapter on Financial History.
2Douglass, in 1750, stated that "if Massachusetts Bay had quitclaimed to
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Plymouth grant, which petition the Board of Trade denounced as "frivolous and vexatious, preferred only with intent to delay and prevent the settling of the boundaries". Finally, upon their advice, the privy council directed that the controversy be adjusted by a body of commissioners from New York, New Jersey, and Nova Scotia. In 1741 this commission sat in Providence, and on June 30 decided that the Rhode Island eastern line should run from the Massachusetts southern boundary by a meridian line to Pawtucket Falls, then south- erly along the Seekonk and Providence Rivers to Bullock's Neck, then following a line three miles away from the shores of Narragansett Bay and the Sakonnet River until it reached the ocean. This gave to Rhode Island the "gore" in question, and a strip of land three miles wide from Bullock's Point to the ocean ; but she had claimed almost as much again, from a point three miles east-northeast of the Assonet Bridge, west to Fox Point and due south to the ocean. Accordingly she appealed from this judgment to the King. Massachusetts, no part of whose claim had been recognized, also made appeal "from every part of it, without specifying anything in particular". In May, 1746, after listening to all the arguments, the privy council ordered that the commissioners' award be confirmed. Massachusetts, wholly defeated in her claim, refused to aid in surveying the line ; so Rhode Island was compelled to run the line ex parte, thus giving rise to minor disputes which it required another century to settle.1
The territory thus confirmed to Rhode Island amounted to about 122 square miles, contained over 4,500 inhabitants, and comprised the towns of Cumberland, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton, and Little Compton.2
them Attleboro Gore, Rhode Island would have given a general quitclaim in all other concerns, and prevented the loss of Bristol, and some part of Bar- rington, Swanzey, Tiverton and Little Compton. But the influence of a few ill-natured, obstinate, inconsiderate men prevailed in the legislature to the damage of the province of Massachusetts Bay." (Hist. and Polit. Summary, i, 397.)
1The voluminous evidence taken by the commissioners in 1741 occupies a large volume in the British State Paper Office. A transcript of this, 420 pages, is in the J. Carter Brown Library. (J. C. B. Cat. iii, no. 692.) The important documents are in R. I. C. R. iv, 586, and v, 199-201, and detailed references are in Arnold, ii, 131. See also Douglass, Hist. and Polit. Summary, i, 397-400. A map of the disputed territory, according to the survey of 1741, is published in Arnold, ii, 132, and a slightly differing original is in the J. Carter Brown Library. A poetical journal of this survey is reprinted from a rare broadside in the Narr. Hist. Reg. iv, 1, and in Miss Kimball's Pic- tures of R. I. in the Past, p. 41. An excellent summary of the controversy up to 1742 is in the printed appeal of R. I. for that year (a copy of which, 4 pages folio, is in the R. I. H. S. Library. The instrumentality of Sir Charles Wager in favoring Rhode Island's claim is pointed out in Sheffield's Privateersmen of Newport, p. 11.
2 The early history of these towns properly belongs to a study of Plymouth
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The first few months in 1747 were spent in organizing the large acces- sion to her jurisdiction. The five towns were legally incorporated, justices of the peace were appointed, and the inhabitants having the necessary qualifications were declared freemen of the colony. For judicial purposes Bristol and Warren were joined into one county called Bristol County, Tiverton and Little Compton were annexed to Newport County, and Cumberland joined to Providence County. This increase in population also brought the long needed change in the composition of the highest judicial body. Where formerly the supreme court consisted of the governor or deputy governor and the assistants, in February, 1747, it was enacted that a chief justice and four associates should be chosen annually, as the highest court, by the general assembly, thus abandoning the unwise union of legislative and judicial powers.
By this annexation of the eastern towns, Rhode Island, for the first time in her existence, could deem herself practically complete, accord- ing to the terms of her charter. Vexatious boundary disputes were no longer to sap her energies and strength, and thus freed from the strife for existence, she could turn her attention more vigorously to those matters that were rapidly becoming of great importance to the American colonies. With a population of 33,000,1 and with a tried strength in military operations her aid was henceforth to be considered as an important factor in New England's struggles.
and Massachusetts. See also under the town names in the bibliography at the end of the last volume. Cumberland, previously called Rehoboth North Pur- chase and Attleboro Gore, embraced about 34 square miles and had 806 inhab- itants. Warren, which then included the present Barrington, had an area of about 14 square miles and a population of 680. Bristol's area was about 10 square miles and population 1,069. Tiverton's area was about 43 square miles and population 1,040. Little Compton's area was about 21 square miles and population 1,152. These population figures are all according to the census of 1748.
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