USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 2
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1Early Records of the Town of Providence, vol. xv, pp. 2-5.
11
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
This agreement seems to have been the form of government in ac- cordance with which the town acted for several years.1 Yet under this form it would be easy for the inhabitants to recall the authority which they had delegated to the disposers. Even a single settler might have the town act on his case if he deemed it of sufficient importance to warrant an appeal from the decision of the disposers. This system was only a step removed from the government without delegated authority. In many instances matters secmed to have been further complicated by the attempt to adopt a general system for the settle- ment of questions varying widely in nature. The decisions of the disposers and arbitrators were not regarded, the authority of the town itself was denied and bloodshed followed attempts to enforce law. Discord within and hostility from the neighboring colonies, where Providence was regarded as without any properly constituted author- ity because it had no charter from the King, at length led the settlers to consider the propriety of securing from England some confirmation of the powers they were claiming to exercise. As the settlers at Aquid- neck had already decided to endeavor to obtain a charter, they joined with Providence in sending Roger Williams to England for this pur- pose. Williams returned with the charter in the autumn of 1644.
The beginnings of local government on the Island of Rhode Island were of a character involving more of premeditated purpose than was shown at Providence. Before making a settlement on the Island, Cod- dington and eighteen others drew up and signed the following agree- ment :
"The 7th day of the first month, 1638.
We whose names arc underwritten do here solemnly in the presence of Jehovah incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick and as he shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of his given us in his holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby.
Exod. 24. 3, 4. 2 Chron. 11. 3.
2 Kings. 11. 17."
After the signatures of the nineteen settlers appears the record of the organization and institution of the government under this act.
"The 7th of the first month, 1638.
We that are Freemen Incorporate of this Bodie Politick do Elect and Constitute William Coddington, Esquire, a Judge amongst us, and so covenant to yield all due honour to him according to the lawes of God, and so far as in us lyes to maintaine the honour and privileges of his place which shall hereafter be ratifyed according unto God, the Lord helpin us so to do.
1Staples, Annals, p. 44.
William Aspinwall, Sec'ry.
Chad Brown
John Warł
George -Rickard
Richard Scott.
GEORGE -3
William Fields
John Fick BENEVOLENT STY
Joshua Winsor
Thomas Harris
Adam GoodwiCHARLES FIELD ST.
william Burrows
PLANET
Wilham Mam:
William Wickenden.
POWER
HIGHWAY
Nicholas Power
Widow Joan Tiler
WILLIAMS ST
Widow Jong Sears
Rt
Thomas Hopkins
Edward Hard
Matthew Weston
JAMES John Lappt ...
ARNOLD ST
Hugh Dewitt
TRANSIT Sr
. Robert- Wes
William Dawkins
SHELDON Christopher Unthank D
River
Robert Williams
EARLY SETTLERS & PROVIDENCE. R. I.
location of HOME Lors of the
the approximate
SOUTH
1886
COPYRIGHT BY CHARLES W HOPKINS
MAIN
Ivovidence
WICK
Plan showing
CRAWFORD ST.
13
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
I, William Coddington, Esquire, being called and chosen by the Freemen Incorporate of this Bodie Politick, to be a Judge amongst them, do covenant to do justice and Judgment impartially according to the lawes of God, and to maintaine the Fundamentall Rights and Privileges of this Bodie Politick, which shall hereafter be ratifyed ac- cording unto God, the Lord helping us so to do.
Wm. Coddington".1.
These transactions indicate an inclination toward an early political organization and a tendency to make it somewhat religious in character according well with the usual practice in New England. The settle- ment at Providence had been particularly conspicuous for the absence of any such inclinations or tendencies. It was further ordered in the Portsmouth settlement, "that none shall be received as inhabitants or Freemen, to build or plant upon the Island but such as shall be re- ceived in by the consent of the Bodye, and do submitt to the Govern- ment that is or shall be established, according to the word of God". At the same meeting "It is ordered that the Meeting House shall be set on the neck of Land that goes over to the Maine of the Island where Mr. John Coggeshall and Mr. John Sanford shall lay it out". Affairs seem to have been conducted in an orderly manner in the early days of the Island settlement. The land was distributed in an equable way to the members of the "Body", the burdens of defense were distributed similarly, and quite a full list of town officers was elected almost from the beginning.
Apparently the "Judge" who had been appointed "to do justice and Judgment impartially" found occupation, for scarcely six months had passed when "At a Generall Meeting" "It is agreed that a pair of Stockes with a whipping post shall forthwith be made and the charges to be paid out of the Treasury".2 At a meeting three days later "It is ordered that a Howse for a prison, containing twelve foot in length and ten foote in breadth and ten foote studd, shall forthwith be built of sufficient strength and the charges to be payed out of the Treasury". They certainly found use for the "Stockes", for within a month at least three persons were convicted of "a Riott of Drunken- nesse" and sentenced to occupy them. The town had previously or- dered and agreed that "Will. Balston shall erect and sett up a howse of entertainment for Strangers, and also to brew Beare and to sell wines of strong waters and such necessary provisions as may be usefull in any kind".3
Not a year had passed before a more elaborate system of local gov-
1R. I. Colonial Records, vol. i, p. 52.
2R. I. Colonial Rec. i, p. 58.
3R. I. Colonial Rec. vol. i, p. 56.
14
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
erninent was established and " At thic Generall Meeting of the Body on tlic 2d of the 11th month, 1638,
By the consent of the Body. It is agreed.
That such who shall bec chosen to the place of Eldership, they are to assist the Judge in the Execution of Justice and Judgment for the regulating and ordering of all offences and offenders: And for the drawing up and determining of all such Rules and Laws as shall be according to God, which may conduce to the Good and Welfare of the Commonweale. And to them is committed by the Body the whole care and charge of all affairs thereof. And that the Judge together with the Elders shall Rule and Governe according to the Generall Rule of the word of God, when they have no particular rule from God's word by the Body prescribed as a direction unto them in the case". The town was to be informed at the quarterly meeting of the cases and actions which had passed through the hands of the Judge and Elders and these were "by them to be scanned and weighed by the word of Christ. And if by the Body or any of them the Lord shall be pleased to dispense light to the contrary of whatt by the Judge and Elders hath been determined formerly, that then and there it shall be repealed as the act of the Body. And if it be otherwise, that then it shall stand till further light concerning it for the present, to be according to God, and the tender care of Indulgent Fathers".1 A constable was ap- pointed to see that the peace be kept and that there be no unlawful meetings or anything that may tend to civil disturbance. There was also a "Sergeant" who amongother duties was " to inform of all breaches of the Lawes of God that tend to Civill disturbances". A few months later, early in 1639, a portion of the Portsmouth settlers withdrew and established themselves at Newport. They took the records with them and apparently also took the theocratic tendencies of the original settlement for after this time there are none of the frequent references to the divine "Lawes."
Some of those who remained at Portsmouth drew up and signed a new agreement. This agreement as given by Bartlett has twenty-nine names and when the missing words are supplied reads as follows :
"April the 30th, 1639.
We, whose names are under w [ritten do acknowledge] ourselves the loyal subje [cts of his Majestie] King Charles, and in his na [me do bind our ]selves into a Civill body Politicke, a [ssenting] unto his lawes according [to right and] matters of justice.'
These settlers also provide for the appointment of a judge for one year, for the addition of certain others to assist the judge, for courts
1R. I. Colonial Rec. vol. i, p. 64.
2R. I. Colonial Rec. vol. i, p. 70; see for an exact transcript, Records of the Town of Portsmouth, p. 1; also vol. i, chap. iv, this History.
15
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
and for a jury. Till the time of the Charter of 1643-4 the affairs of the settlement seem to have been carried on according to the plan agreed upon and without much friction. The reason may be that some of the elements in the population which would be more liable to disturb the town migrated almost immediately to the new settlement at New- port.
Two days earlier than the above agreement, before leaving Ports- mouth, Coddington and seven others subseribed to an agreement with a view to making a new settlement. By this "It is agreed. By us whose hands are underwritten, to propagate a Plantation in the midst of the Island or elsewhere; And doe engage ourselves to bear equall charges, answerable to our strength and estates in common; and that our determinations shall be by major voiee of judge and elders; the judge to have a double voiee".1 The following month "It is agreed and ordered, that the Plantations now begun at this South west end of the Island, shall be called NEWPORT". "It is ordered, that the Towne shall be built upon both sides of the spring, and by the sea- side, Southward". The government at Newport followed along the lines which the leading settlers had adopted in their former home in Portsmouth. In the records of these early years appear provisions for the laying out of the land, burning over of the lands in the spring, keeping of hogs, common crops, keepers of the herds, and other ordi- nary matters. The two settlements drew together again after a little more than a year and from early in 1640 the Portsmouth reeords con- tain little more than the routine matters.
The town at the north of the Island seems to have been called Pocassett at first though it is mentioned early in 1639 as Portsmouth, and a year later after the union of the towns, "IT is ordered that the Plantation at the other end of the Island shall be called PORTS- MOUTH".
At a meeting held at Newport on the 12th of March, 1640, the two towns were united under one form of government which was somewhat different from the systems which had prevailed in either of the towns previous to this time. At this time "It is ordered, that a Chiefe Mag- istrate of the Island shall be ealled GOVERNOUR, and the next Depu- tie Governour, and the Rest of the Magistrates Assistants; and this to stand for a decree". "It is agreed, that the Governour and two As- sistants shall be ehosen in one Town, and the Deputy Governour and two other assistants in the other Town".2 The governor and the assistants were invested with the office of justice of peace. This new government provided for a revision of the laws, for the admission of persons as freemen, for courts to be held alternately at Newport and at Portsmouth, for an elaborate militia system, and for affairs involv-
1R. I. Colonial Rec. vol. i, p. 87.
2R. I. Colonial Rec. vol. i, p. 100.
16
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
ing the general welfare. The engagement required of officers shows the religious influences-"the ingagement which the severall officers of this State shall give is this; To the Execution of this office, I Judge myself bound before God to walk faithfully and this I profess in ye presence of God". At the same meeting in 1641, the enunciation of their ideas as to the nature of their political undertaking was made. "It is ordered and unanimously agreed upon, that the Government which this Bodie Politick doth attend unto in this Island, and the Jurisdiction thereof, in favor of our Prince is a DEMOCRACIE, or a Popular Government; that is to say, It is in the Powre of the Body of Freemen orderly assembled, or in the major part of them, to make or constitute Just Lawes, by which they will be regulated, and to deputc from among themselves such Ministers as shall see them faithfully executed between Man and Man". In the next clause "IT is further ordered, by the authority of this present Courte, that none bee ac- counted a Delinquent for Doctrine : Provided, it is not directly repug- nant to ye Government or Lawcs established". Following these two weighty declarations is an order "that all such who shall kill a Fox shall have six shillings and cight pence, for his paines". They adopt a "Manual Seale" for the "State", and cover a wide range of subjects in the orders. In spite of their faith that love conquers all things, as shown in the motto adopted for the seal-Amor vincet omnia-the Island authorities seem to have been unable to wait for love to do its perfect work in the case of certain persons who had been members of their body and they therefore practically cast them out by withdrawing from them all the privileges and prerogatives of citizenship. From the time of the adoption of the scal, the term "State" is frequently used to designate the united colonies on the Island.1
The question of securing a patent for the Island which had been agitated at Newport before the union of the towns was again proposed in September, 1642, at the "Generall Court" and a committee was appointed with full powers. The Charter secured by Williams incor- porated the towns of Providence, Portsmouth and Newport, and dates from March, 1643-1644. The towns did not immediately organize under this charter, however, and the government scems to have con- tinucd in form about as before till 1647.
Thus at Providence previous to the year 1647, even though a Charter had been procured in 1643-1644, government had since 1636 been (1) by mutual consent, (2) by the majority of the householders, (3) by the same majority with delegated authority, and (4) by the same ma- jority with the recognition that this exercise of power in civil things was authorized by England in the grant of the Charter. At Provi-
1In 1644, "It was ordered by this Court, that the ysland commonly called Aquethneck, shall be from henceforth called the Isle of Rhodes, or RHODE ISLAND". R. I. Colonial Rec. vol. i, p. 127.
17
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
dence local government had been instituted only in such manner and to such an extent as the conditions of the settlement had rendered imperative. Here governmental action was only taken in response to necessity which had arisen and even then reluctantly. On the Island, however, the settlers seem to have been eager to provide a system of local government in advance of the need. The plan of government for the settlement at Portsmouth was drawn up before the settlement was made while the settlers were still at Providence and the form for the new plantation at Newport was agreed upon before the subscribers to it set out upon their migration. The records of the Island towns show a tendency toward a government in accord with certain precon- ceived theories, which is evident at Providence only in the single idea of the separation of the civil authority from the religious. At Warwick in these early days neither the influence of theory nor the evident need of the exercise of some local authority brought about any considerable organization for political purposes.
Some of the differences among the settlers at Warwick seem to have been adjusted by a sort of mutual agreement, as at Providence, for a time. Gorton says in 1643 of these early days at Warwick when replying to certain Massachusetts claims, "we being so far out of their jurisdictions, could not, neither would we acknowledge subjection unto any place where we were, but only the State and Government of Old England who only had right unto us and from whom we doubted not, but in due season we should receive direction for the well ordering of us in all civil respects; and in the mean time we lived peaceably to- gether, desiring and endeavoring to do wrong to no man, neither Eng- lish nor Indian, ending all our differences in a neighborly and loving way of arbitrators, mutually chosen amongst us."1
THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOWN GOVERNMENT.
It was represented to the Earl of Warwick and the Commissioners that it was the desire of these towns in procuring a charter to have "their hopeful Beginnings approved and confirmed, by granting unto them a Free Charter of Civil Incorporation and Government ; that they may order and govern their Plantation in such a Manner as to main- tain Justice and peace, both among themselves, and towards all Men with whom they shall have to do".2 Accordingly there were granted to the "Inhabitants of the Towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport, a free and absolute Charter of Incorporation, to be known by the Name of the Incorporation of Providence Plantations, in the Narra- ganset-Bay, in New England .- Together with full Power and Author-
1R. I. Hist Coll. vol. ii, p. 96; see also chapter on Warwick, vol i, this History.
2R. I. Colonial Rec., vol. i, p. 144.
2-3
OLNEY
ST
Gregory Bester.
Matthew Walter.
Thomas
Paintor
Edward Manton
HALSEY John Greene +
Benedict Arnold
Francis Wickes.
Arnold.
JENERES
STAR
Thanas
James.
PRATIT
John Greene Sr.
John Smith.
JOHNS
widow Reeve
Joshza
Verin.
CONGDOM
PROSPECT
Roger
Willi
BOWEN
N
John Throckmor
MAIN
Alice
Daniel
ST
John!Sweet
Willow Carpenter
MEETING
Robert
Cote
Thomas
Mncy
Thomas Angell
Wrstort.
ANGEL).
MAN
WATEl:
lzck
Holymàu
Stoke!
West coff
William
Reynolds.
VARALT 59.
ST.
Chad Brown.
+886.
COPYRIGHT BY C. W. HOPKINS.
location of HOME LOTS of the
EARLY SETTLERS® PROVIDENCE, R.I
PLAN showing the
N. MAIN
approximate
ST.
BENEFIT
him Harris
C.INAL
CUSHING
"THEPLES'
hard Waterman.
19
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
ity to rule themselves, and such as shall hereafter inhabit within any Part of the said Tract of land, by such Form of Civil Government, as by voluntary consent of all, or the greater Part of them, they shall find most suitable to their Estate and Condition; and, for that End, to make and ordain such Civil Laws and Constitutions, and to inflict such punishments upon Transgressors, and for Execution thereof, so to place, and displace Officers of Justice, as they, or the greatest Part of them, shall by free Consent agree unto". All laws, etc., were to "be conformable to the Laws of England, so far as the Nature and Consti- tution of the place will admit". This was indeed a "Free Charter of Civil. Incorportation and Government". These settlers along Narra- gansett Bay who had formerly had, according to Lechford, "a kind of government also of their owne erection", by this Charter obtain full authority for the free exercise of the broadest civil powers. Williams, in a letter to John Whipple, jr., August 24th, 1669, speaking of the time before the charter was secured, says, "our Government and Civil order which, at first, both here and at Rhode Island, we kept up upon Grace and Favor (until God pleased to help me to procure a charter from the Parliament), was all mere nothings and nullities and we lived in no order but Rout". That government without a charter was a "mere nothing" seems to have been the opinion at Warwick. The charter doubtless gave to the towns a feeling of security and legal standing which had hitherto been wanting.
The acts of the towns after the grant of the charter became legal in the eyes of their neighbors and the settlements along the Bay had now an element of stability which they had not before possessed. In this region the settlements had preceded the charter or other governmental agreement. In the other New England Colonies some charter or other compact had formed the basis of governmental organization from the time of the beginning of the settlements.
While the towns did not at once unite under the new charter, they very soon began to take individual action which recognized its binding force. At Providence, under date of "The 19th : of the 11:th Month, 1645", those who had received twenty-five acres of land and a propor- tional right of "commoning" "promise to yield Actiue; or passiue Obeydience, to the Authority of (The State of England) (King, and parliament, ) established in this Collonye ; according to our Charter";1 The King and Parliament were also recognized in official documents at a date soon after the granting of the charter.2 Is is said that the charter was joyfully received by Gorton at Shawomet as giving them the power to establish a local government.3 Till 1647 the towns, which from 1643 had carried on governments independent of each other
1Early Records of the Town of Providence, vol. ii, p. 29.
2Early Records of the Town of Providence, vol. xv, p. 9.
3Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tracts, no. 17, 110.
20
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
though authorized by the mother country, made little change in their local organization in conscquenec of the charter.
.
In 1647 representatives of the inhabitants from the towns about Narragansett Bay assembled at Portsmouth to form a union under the charter which had been obtained more than three years before. Nomi- nally this action which united the towns in a loose eonfederation was the act of the inhabitants of the towns, as the records declare that there was full power to transact bceause the major part of the colony was present at the assembly. By this assembly it is agreed that as the charter gives power to establish a eivil government, "that the forme of Government established in Providence Plantations is DEMOCRAT- ICALL; that is to say, a Government held by ye free and voluntarie consent of all, or the greater parte of the free Inhabitants".1 The representatives from Providence had been instructed to the effeet that while their townsmen "doe voluntarilye Assent, and are freely Will- ing, to receive, and to be goverened by the Lawes of England, together with the way of the Administration of them, so farr as the Nature, and Constitution, of this plantation will admitte; desiring (so farr as pos- sibly may be) to hold a Correspondenyee with the whole Colonye", yet the Providence citizens formally state the desire "to have full power, and authoritye, to transaete. all our home Affaires", and "to have full power, and Authoritye, to Choose, orday ( ) Authorize, and confirme, Al( ) our perticular towne Officers ; and allsoe that the said Officers, shall be responsable vnto our perticular Town( ) And that there may be noc inter mixture, of Generall, & perticular Of ( ) but that all, may knowe th ( )e bounds, & Limits".2 Under restrictions such as these it was not possible to establish a centralized general gov- ernment which would have great strength. "Providenee Plantations" became the legal name for the colony and Providence merely one of the towns. The orders confirmed at this assembly of 1647, often ealled "the Code of 1647", were the product of the intelleet of the Island and bear the stamp of the tendeney toward systematic organization which prevailed on the Island in marked contrast to the laek of system throughout the other towns.
By this "Code of 1647" the towns were confirmed in their general liberties and given a more definite legal system than they had earlier possessed. The towns retained nearly all the powers which they had had before. They were entitled to representation in the General As- sembly. It was provided that the representatives of the towns in the General Assembly, the Assistants, should be "conservators of the peaee in the same Towne where they live and throwout the whole Colony".3 A General Court was established, to which could be referred eases
1R. I. Colonial Rec. vol. i, p. 156.
2Early Records of the Town of Providence, vol. xv, p. 10.
3R. I. Colonial Records, vol. i, p. 192.
21
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
appealed from the local courts, differences between town and town, between inhabitants of one and another town and between citizens and strangers. No law could be imposed upon any town by the General Assembly, for if the major vote of any town was against any law that had been proposed in the Assembly, it failed, and all laws must be submitted to a vote of the towns severally before they could be passed. A union which had no stronger bond would fall apart under strain as happened a few years later. As has been said of the Colony, "It had its origin in towns which were politically independent. And that same spirit of independence was transmitted to the colonial organization".1
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