USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 5
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As late as 1794 Cranston seems to have felt the spirit of discord. The record says, "It has been observed in this town for several years past that our proceedings at town meetings are very irregular, and generally attended by Such Clamour and Confusion, that it is irksome for those who wish to do the business with candor and propriety."
The records in the various towns are not always plain, and might often bear the titleinsertedin the middle of one of the Providence books, "Here is Parte of an Olde Booke Placed in the Middle That for want
1R. I. Hist. Tracts, No. 14, p. 37.
2Records of the Town of Portsmouth, p. 170.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
of Care was not Kept Jn Corse : but seemes to be sumthing Jntermixt which makes it the more deficult to find sum particulior things there in Contained : and therefore Requiers the more: diligence and Pa- tiance. ''1
The town meetings in this Colony were held for many years in such places as would have astounded the inhabitants of some of the neigh- boring colonics. The records of the town of Providence sometimes show that meetings were held "under a tree by the water side before Thomas Field's house". In unpleasant weather a private house af- forded the town a meeting place. The town clerk was at first appoint- ed at each meeting; afterwards he held office for a longer period. When John Whipple became town clerk his house became a favorite place for holding town meetings. There seem to have been two reasons for this choice. The town clerk's house was centrally located and a customary place of resort and Whipple, who as the records say, "keeps a house of publick Entertainment", no doubt found "town meeting days" among the most profitable of the year. Whenever the town of Providence assembled in a church it was because it was the most avail- able place and not because there was any idea of a union between the religious and secular powers. At Portsmouth early meetings were held at private houses. The house of "Stephen Remmentun", "Stephen Remmentune", or"Stephen Reminton", according to various dates, seems to have been a favorite place for the holding of meetings of the town of Jamestown. Early Westerly meetings were held at the house of "Justice Isaac Tomson". In general whether in open air or under cover, convenience seems to have determined the place of the meetings of the town. An early meeting of the town of Pawtucket before it had shaken off Massachusetts traditions was held in "Rev. Mr. Greens Meeting House", but it adjourned to meet the next month in the "Brick school house". At Burrillville, June 6, 1810, it was voted "That the next town meeting be at Russell Aldrich's, upon these conditions : That the said Aldrich pay into the town treasury the sum of $16.25 within one week after said meeting". It was also voted, "That the said Aldrich have privilege to prosecute any other person for selling liquors on that day and place". This privilege brought fifty dollars in 1810. It is to be observed that the townsman was not required to pay until the meeting had been held.
The range of subjects aside from the election of officers and land matters is shown in the vote entrusting to a single committee of seven the following: "Upon Searious Consideration of the inconveniencys that may insue to the Town by beinge too forward in admittinge free- men, and for the future to prevent the Same, and that if ffreemen hereafter be admitted that are persons that are not free-borne it may
1Early Records Town Providence, vol. xii, p. 33.
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THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
be Knowne and determined what freedome and previledges the are admitted unto, The Towne See Cause to Referr the further Considera- tion of the Matter unto a Comittee, desiringe and impowringe them to draw up Some absolute detirmination in the premisses, and present what they agree on and draw up to the next Towne Meetinge for their Consideration and Confirmation if then by the Towne aproved of, as alsoe to Consider Some way to prevent the great Imbezlinge of the wood and timber in our Town Comons, and to Consider of Some way to prevent the driveinge of Sheep on the Comon and therby removeinge them from their wonted walke".1 The attention of the towns to matters which would seem in later days trivial, is often manifested. At Portsmouth, "It is ordered that for wotehing with william Baker in the time of his sieknes John Tifft and John Basly is to be satisfied, with a part of william Bakers Clothes, Aeeordinge to there owne Request".2 At Providenee the questions diseussed eover the range of affairs from the taxes upon land to the bounty upon rats.
INFLUENCE OF LAND HOLDING ON TOWN DEVELOPMENT.
The method of land holding and distribution had an important in- fluence upon the politieal life and development of the towns and the matters in regard to land eover many pages of the records of all the towns.
In Providenee the land had first been purchased by Roger Williams from the Indians. Subsequent Indian elaims to sections over which the original deed gave Williams the title, were frequently settled by additional payments. The title to the land was then, at first, in Will- iams alone.
He soon received the twelve other settlers into the "fellowship of his purehase", affirming that he did "freely and fully, pass grant and make over Equall Rightand power of Jnjoying and dispossing the Same grounds and lands, unto my Loveing ffriends and Neighbours".3 Will- iam Harris, one of his "loving friends and neighbors", thus deseribes this transfer: "Seeing actually and immediately he did put us into equal possession of the same with himself, each one with like rights and powers to dispose thereof as our and his".+ Though his companions were put into "equal possession " and became freeholders, yet Williams found that this did not prevent diseord, for he says, "there was hardly ever in New England, William Harris, his equal, for monstrous evil in land business and matters of disorder as to eivil government".5 In
1Records of the Town of Portsmouth, p. 181.
2Ibid., p. 110.
3Early Records of Town Providence, vol. xv, 86.
4Harris Mss., Letter 1667, R. I. Hist. Soc.
5'Letter 1667, R. I. Hist. Tracts, No. 14.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
the assignment of land, Williams seems to have had the first choice, and subsequent allotments were made as impartially as possible. Some- times, as was the eustom, it was decided by lot "where every man should lic".1
The landed rights of a full proprietor at Providence seem to have embraced a "home lot" or place for a dwelling, a "six acre lot"' usu- ally a tract of arable land at some little distance, and a right to a suffi- cient amount of the "general land" to make up one hundred aeres and also if there should be a division of the "common lands" a share in this division.
The "home lot" or "home share" usually contained about five aeres. It had a frontage of 100 to 125 feet on the "Towne Streete" which ran "along the river side" and, therefore, extended well back from the highway. These lots were not always of the same proportions, but always long in proportion to their width, thus making the settlement compaet along the street.
The "six aere lots" were somewhat remote from the town and where the soil was considered best adapted to tillage.
The share in the other lands, usually abouty eighty or ninety aeres, was laid out by the town deputies or by the town surveyors so as not to interfere with the claims of others. Sometimes these lots were not laid out for some years after other allotments were made.
Shares in meadow lands also were held and sometimes these were granted by the town in exchange for other lands which the inhabitant might surrender. "Warehouse lots" too were not infrequently grant- ed to such as would use them in the interests of trade. Other lots are sometimes granted under special conditions.
An old deed shows the general character of the divisions. It sig- nifies that the town has laid out and delivered to the grantee "as his purchase Right; Certain parcelos of land according to the parcels of other purchasers; namely ; a five acre house lot, 60 aeres, 20 aeres, 6 aeres and five acres", and "also a spot of meadow about one and one- half acres also about three-fourths of an acre of meadow", making in all ninety-eight and one-fourth aeres "more or less" according to the survey.
This was the usual amount of land to which the purchaser had a title in the town. Besides this he had certain rights in subsequent divisions of land and to the use of the common lands or "general fields". Some other lands were considered the property of the town as a whole. Proceeds from the sales of these lands passed into the general treasury, not to the proprietors.
Regulations and orders involving land interests especially fill many pages of the early Providence records. It was, soon after the division
4Mourt's Relation, p. 25. Early Records Town Providence, iv, 45.
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THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
of the lands, ordered "that none sell his field or his lot Graunted in our liberties to any person but to an Inhabitant without the consent of the Towne".1 Nor did those who thus purchased land acquire a right to all the unsold lands in the limits of the town, for they were told that "they must not think that they bought and sold the right to all the lands and meadows in common and 100 acres presently and the power of voting and all for 30s" .? If after obtaining land they did not occupy it, they might be fined, or the land might revert to the town, as the record says, after eighteen months "fall into the Town's hand again". Exactness in the use of terms describing lands is not charac- teristic of the early records. Bounds often run to "an oke marked neere the ground, and standing neere a Rocke" or some similar point. The following is exceptional: "the right of Commoning within the Commons of this Town of Providence, that is to say, for Commonage for cattle, privileges for fire wood, for building timber, for timber for fencing, etc., but no claim to be laid to any land thereby". Right of commoning might be granted in proportion to the amount of land held, as in the case of the "quarter-right purchasers", who have "the Right of Commoning, according to the said proportion of Lands",3 or it might be a special privilege as upon petition of "John Smyth" it is ordered "that the said John Smyth shall have liberty for feeding four Cattle and taking of firing and fencing, etc., untill the Towne shall see Cause to the contrary", and in some cases is forbidden altogether, while instances where rights to land are much confused are not infre- quent. In general it may be said that the land system at Providence was more simple than in many sections of New England.4
Ownership of land was usually made the basis of taxation in the early years, for this was the source of the town's income. Its inhab- itants were not capitalists nor were they supported by outside aid. Thus they order "That a Rate shall speedily be Levied upon ye inhab- itants of this Towne on all such who hath Right of Commoning this or Town-shippe of providence".5 These rates are sometimes payable in beef, pork and pease,6 and sometimes in "peage" or wampum. The inhabitants were on certain occasions ordered to bring in "their own account of their property", the town orderly assembled might fix the amount which each man was to pay, but the more usual method was to appoint a number of men to assess the inhabitants.7 Taxes in Provi- dence were always for civil purposes within the colony limits.
1Early Records Town Providence, vol. i, p. 3.
2Letter of Williams, R. I. Hist. Tracts, No. 14.
3Early Records Town Providence, vol. ii, p. 29.
4Nation, Jan. 10, 1873, p. 23.
5Early Records Town Providence, vol. viii, p. 42.
6R. I. Col. Rec. vol. i, p. 481.
"Ibid., vol. iii, p. 22.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
At length land questions become less important. The class desiring "warchouse lots by the water side " become more numerous. The interests of the "purchasers and proprietors" are no longer the same as those of the majority of the inhabitants. The proprietors become a class by themselves. From 1718 they hold their meetings apart from the town, and have a separate elerk and records. These meetings of the proprie- tors were held as early as 1653, for the Records, "28 of 2 mo.," mention "Acts and Agreements made and concluded upon by the Purchasers in their several meetings". Such meetings were legalized as early as 1682.1 The proprictors make certain orders in regard to the common lands, as in 1709, that "no strangers, nor any other Person who is not interested in ye Comon of our Plantation of his owne Right shall cut downe and Carrey away or Make improvement of any Cedar or Pine Timber"2 without an order from the purchasers. In a division of the common the proprietors are to have "their proportionable part thereof, according to quality and quantity".3 Committees are chosen by the proprietors "for the dividing of those common lands in Providence aforesaid, called the stated common".4 At first all the townsmen of Providenee were proprietors, but soon their number was exceeded by those who had no share in the common lands. In a town meeting of the whole body of the inhabitants the interests of the proprietors suffered and they were forced to hold independent meetings, and at these meetings the surveyors of the lands were after a time elected. Dorr says, "The earliest controversy of the Plantations was between the Proprietors and the Frecholders. During two generations it dis- turbed the quiet of the town meeting and the harmony of private life, and, more than anything beside, delayed union and sueeess". The number of proprietors never exceeded one hundred and one, as Staples says, and they held meetings as late as 1832. In them were vested the rights to eommon lands, and as these lands became less and less in extent the power of the proprietors, as a body, waned, and at length ceased to be felt.
In the Narragansett country the proprietors' records show the domi- nance of the land element in town affairs also. As in some of the other sections, provisions were made for the support of a religious leader and in the early division of land three hundred acres were set apart "for the Ministry" and provision made for his support." The original eompact of the first purehasers of Block Island ordered "That there should be a quantity or portion of land be laid out for the help and maintenance of a minister, and so continue for that use forever".
1Public Laws, R. I., May 3, 1682.
2Early Records, etc., vol. xi, 141.
3Moses Brown Papers, March 13, 1722-23.
4Ibid.
5Fones Records I, pp. 5, 37.
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THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
This act on the part of the settlers on Block Island and the similar act by the Narragansett purchasers shaws that these proprietors were not without some realization of their puble duties as the proprietors in some of the towns seem to have been. In the towns generally there was a distinction between the proprietors and the other inhabitants which strongly influenced local as well as colonial and state govern- ment. This distinction first arose in town affairs and led to revolu- tions forecasting that of 1842 known as the Dorr War.
In East Greenwich, the early landholders resolved themselves into a sort of close corporation before they were incorporated by the Colonial legislature as a separate town. Their action is set forth in the following record : "Know all men by these presents, that we the sub- scribers, whose hands and seals are hereunto affixed, being inhabitants of Warwick and East Greenwich, in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, having purchased a tract of land in the Nar- ragansett country, being part of the vacant lands belonging to this Colony, and the committee appointed by said Colony to dispose of said vacant lands, a Refference being had to the deed of saile bearing date eaven the same with these presents, said land being butted and bound- ed as follows :
"We, the subscribers, do covenant and agree upon the following: First, that we will take in as many partners as will make the number of fifty or sixty partners including ourselves in said number; And the said land shall be divided into as many parts or shares, and if one man will not take a whole share, there may be so many taken in as will rep- resent a whole share, in behalf of that share for the rest that are taken in said share.
"Secondly, that in all matters that relate to the well management and ordering of said land aforesaid, the major part of the partners present votes shall be valid and binding to all the partners, to stand to both to them that are in the Deed as well as them that are taken in for partners, who are to be equal with those who are in the Deed, in all respects with ourselves.
"Thirdly, none are to be taken in as partners without the consent of the major part of the purchasing partners, and not to take in more than to make as many shares abovesaid.
"Fourthly, that any man shall have more than one share, yet he shall have but one vote about anything relating to said land. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 30thi of June Anno Domini 1677."
The town was a distinct body from the proprietors. The proprie- tors met and acted upon questions concerning land. Sometimes they confirmed the action taken by the town in regard to lands as on "July 2, 1711, Voted, that whereas, the town of East Greenwich hath made several grants of somesmall parcels of land by way of exchange or other-
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
wise, this meeting dotlı confirm the same"; or refused to confirm it as on March 30th, 1751, "Voted, That the vaeant land in East Greenwich upon the shore, that the town eouneil of said town, had agreed to sell to Jonathan Nieliols of Newport, Inholder, be not sold to the said Niehols, nor to any other person, for the proprietors are of the opinion it is not a highway, and that the same shall not be sold". Sometimes those who were admitted freemen by the town were later granted land by the proprietors as when it was voted that certain six men "being freemen of this town of East Greenwich, and being settled upon part of several farms, and not having a whole propriety, the proprietors do hereby allow, each of the said persons to draw each of them a lot in our new town equal as if they were proprietors". They were thus to have a "ten acre lot", "a ninety acre farm", and "a house lot" near the shore. In 1726 East Greenwich, as some of the other towns had done, assigned a lot for religious purposes, later for school and town house. Toward the end of the 18th century the influence of the proprietors as such began to decline and the town began to prescribe to that body what it should do, and the records say in 1793 that "We find but two of the proprietors Committee now living", and that "We do not find that the proprietors ever held a meeting sinee the 26th of April, A. D. 1766."
The proprietors at Jamestown made provision in regard to the gov- ernment of the settlement at the time of the agreement to purchase Conanieut. They provided for the appointment of a committee of seven to manage affairs. The old record, now somewhat worn as shown by the omissions, is as follows: "Thirdly wee doe joyntly agree that six- teene Persons shall be and stand a perpetuall Counsell-from henee forward ye power, (they) or ye major part of them agreeing, to nomi- nate and apoy( )umber, and to impower & Authorize ye sd. seven, with full power to manage all matters ( ) from time to time as oeea- sion shall present, which sixteen persons have also already nominated ( ) as they are mentioned in ye first article [missing from records] of these presents, and are hereby confirmed according to ye ( ) pres- ents untell these sixtecne hereafter named shall see eause to ehange any of ye sd seven and pl( ) themselves, in his or their Roomes, which may not lawfully be done, but in a meeting of ye sd six ( ) part of them, which meetting shall not be aeeounted authentieke except every one of them ( ) him (in season) of ye time & place of meetting, by some other of themselves therein apoynt ( ) ase any of ye sixteene hereafter named, Die or remove away, or be by breach of any ( ) abled to hould his share in ye Premises, or have sould or given away his proportion, or be at ( ) disabled to aet in ye Premises, then it shall be and is in ye power of ye remaining fifteene (or soe many ( ) eapable to act, or ye major part of them orderly meett as aforesd, from time to time to nominate ( ) one of ye most able of ye Purehasers as
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THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
may be in their judgmente thought ( ) Roome &c and ye sixteene that are at present deputed and Authorized to ye intent aforesd are( ) Cod- dington Esq. Benedict Arnold sen. both of Newport, William Bronton of Boston ( ) or ( ) his absence William Baulston for him, Richard Smith sen. & Richard Smith Jun both of Narragansett, Capt. John Cranston, Richard Tew, Joseph Clarke, John Greene, Richard Knight, Caleb ( ), James Barker & Marke Lwker all of Newport, John Roome, William Boylston & John ( ) all of Portsmouth; (ffourthly) It is agreed that if any of those before mentioned ( ) doe absolutely refuse to accept of being a Purchaser, or doe not come in at or before ye first of ( ) yeare 1658 and subscribe their names unto these Articles of agreement all such persons ( ) and loose their Promised shares as above mentioned".1 The dominance of the proprietors in the early days immediately after the incorporation of the town is natural and among the earliest evidences is the "Booke of Records Belonging to the Proprietors and freemen of James Towne began Anno Domini 1679". On the reverse of this title they show their authority in the admission of certain freemen. "At a meeting of the Proprietors and free Inhabitants of James Towne the 7th day of Aprill 1679 Capt. Peleg Sanford chosen Moderator. John Fones elected and chosen head Warden of the said Towne. Mr. Josiah Arnold Elected and chosen Deputie Warden both the said Persons Ingaged according to law by Jm. Cranston Esq. Gover. Presently after, unto their said affairs, Michell Daly and Peter Wells admitted freemen of this Towne during their abode in sd Towne". The pro- prietors and freemen meet together to act upon general affairs while the proprietors meet apart to consider affairs in regard to land. Such entries as these are common : "At a meeting of the proprietors and freemen of the town" showing the distinction among the inhabitants. They prescribe as to Dutch Island as follows: "Whereas the first Purchasers or Proprietors of the Land of Quonanicutt (alias) James- town Did when they Purchased said Island Likewise Purchased an Island Called Dutch Island to be Equally Proportioned according to the Rights or Proportion of Each Persons Right in said Quonanicutt". The proprietors thought it for the best interests of all that the land of Dutch Island should be "proportioned and stented", and hence or- dered a survey and an adjustment of claims according to original rights which after fifty years had become rather complicated by sales and deaths of the original holders. The proprictors' committee re- tained its organization till 1710 at least, but here as elsewhere with the growth of other forms of property and the admission of new members to the community as freemen the power of the land proprie- tors declined and the organization disappeared.
1Land Evidence No. 1, Town of Jamestown, p. 5.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
"A List of the ffree Inhabitants of the Towne oft Westerle. May 18th 1669" shows twenty-four names against which (in a different ink) there are written such items as: "17 lot", "10 lot", "34 lot", etc. Later other similar lists are entered as in September, 1679, March 1679-80, and May ye 1 day 1704", "A list of one parte of the Inhabitants and freemen of the Towne of Westerle", contains twenty-one names with land assignments running from "lott 01" to "lott 22" with the exception that there is no mention of "lot 20". It is possible that the additions in different ink were made in accord with the following action : "Att a towne metting held in Westerle Aprill ye 7 day 1709 Att the dwelling hous of Justice Isaac Tomson voted that whereas through sun over sight of our towne Clark then in the day of it when it was grantted in not Enterin our Grants of one hun- dred akors apeace each man of land butt only our Lotts Entred ac- cording to our drafts with our names affixed to our severall Lots as is above written barein date May ye 1 : 1704 &c Voted that the now Town Clark shall Enter it according to the best accompt as may be Com- puted by whatt the Records may aforde in the premises for the town in Genrll doth still rememb that it was Granted before they drew Lots for it which bares date May 1: 1704. accordingly I have Entred. -
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