USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
- John babcock town Clerk."1
The town proposed to regulate land holding and was apparently a close corporation for a time. How close this corporation was is shown in a vote of March 22d, 1680: "Voated that it is further ordered by this Assembly; that if any person or persons shall buy or settle any Land or Lands lyeing within the Limits of this Town withoute the Consente of the free Inhabetants of the Towne, he or they shall forfeit the said Lands to the towne."'2
Indeed throughout the colony during its early days land was every- where the disturbing question. Williams said of Providence and his fellow settlers, "Every other day, yea, sometimes every meeting we were all on fire and had a terrible burning fit ready to come to blows about our lines."
In regard to unoccupied lands the assembly made the general pro- vision "That all & Singular ye Lands lying & being Undivided or Common wthin ye Precincts of Each of ye sd Townships Shall be deemed & taken to be ye Property of every freemen of ye sd Town as Such & their Successors freemen of ye sd Town for ye time being & yt ye freemen of ye sd Town of Newport have also liberty in their Pub- lick Town meetings to grant & dispose of ye sd Undivided Lands ac- cording to their usuall Custome."
VOTING.
Land holding was closely associated with the rights to exercise the franchise. Providence on May 15th, 1658, "Ordered yt all those that
1Town Records, Land Evidence, etc. 1661-1706-7, p. 1. 2Ibid, p. 7.
.
49
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
injoy land in ye jurisdiction of this Towne are freemen".1 In most of the towns besides the proprietors there were owners of land not entitled to any share in the division of common lands. The proprie- tors and these freeholders, together with their eldest sons, constituted the voting class of the town. Those admitted as inhabitants of a town were not necessarily entitled to the privileges of freemen. The town generally became responsible for the support of those who acquired the right of inhabitation, however. Those who had previously been admitted inhabitants might later be admitted freemen as in the cases of Gold, Hicks, Rogers, etc., who at Newport on September 14th, 1640, were "admitted as Freemen of this Body Politicke, to enjoy the privi- leges thereoff".2 After the union of Portsmouth and Newport it was agreed at a "Genall Court of Election", March 16-19, 1641, that "It is in the Powre of the Body of Freemen orderly assembled, or the major part of them, to make or constitute Just Lawes, by which they will be regulated, and to depute from among themselves such Minis- ters as shall see them faithfully executed between Man and Man". By the towns Providence and Warwick in 1652 "It is ordered that no forinner, Dutch, French, or of any other nation, shall bee received as a free inhabitant in any of the Townes of our Collonie, or to have any trade with the Indians, or Indians inhabitinge within our aforesayed Collonie, directly or indirectly ; that is to say by them- selves, or any one of them, or by any other person whatever, but by the generall consent of our Collonie, orderly mett and manadged, not- withstandinge any former order to the contrary". Men were some- times deprived of the franchise as a penalty, as at Newport, 16th and 17th of March, 1642. "It is further ordered, that George Parker and John Briggs are suspended their votes till they have given satisfaction for their offences". They were "Remitted of their censure of suspen- sion" September 19th, 1642. It was also "further ordered, that Mr. Lenthall being gone for England is suspended his Vote in Election". This withdrew the privilege of proxy voting, which was common in Rhode Island. A law of 1666 provides "That every Town at their Town meeting hath Power to make Such men freemen of their Towns as they Iudge may be meet & may be seruiceable to serve in ye Towns in Town offices & all Such persons shall have their Votes for ye Choice of all officers in Town where they dwell & ye names of all such persons so made freemen of ye Towns being Present To the Assembly If yey pass by vote to allow them freemen of ye Colony then Shall they have their Vots of Electing Generll Officers at ye Times of Elec- tion, And Every freeman at ye time of Election of all Such Generll Officers as are Required by or Chartor If there on ye day
1Early Records Town Providence, vol. ii, 112.
2R. I. Col. Rec. i, 108.
4-3
50
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
at ye Town of newpt Shall Vote by wrighten Votes for any Such Offi- eer as they See cause any person or Persons who eannot eome wthout mueh Damage to themselves to ye Eleetion hath power to Vote by proxey weh Shall pass as Followeth there Shall be A Town meeting Called in every town & ye Votes of evey Person yt is A freeman Put in a Paper & sealed Up wth ye Persons name written on ye baek Side of ye Paper & Shall be delivered to A magistrate of ye Town or to a Ius- tiee of ye Peace or Conseruator (viz) Sueh head offieers as is in ye Townes weh Proxeys Shall be delivered at ye day of Eleetion to ye Gover or Deputy Gover in ye Court of Eleetion".1
An aet of 1723 deelares that "no person whatsoever shall be admitted a freemen of any town in this eolony, unless the person admitted be a freeholder of lands, tenements or hereditaments in such town where he shall be admitted free, of the value of forty shillings per annum, or the eldest son of such freeholder".2 The amount necessary to qualify an inhab- itant to vote varies from time to time, especially on aeeount of the fluetuations in the value of paper money. At length the qualifieation beeomes fixed, and only those having a $134 freehold estate, or one yielding $7 per annum are allowed to vote3 by virtue of their prop- erty, while the eldest sons are permitted to vote as sons of freeholders. This is an interesting survival of the forty shilling freeholding qualifi- eation which was instituted in England nearly three hundred years earlier,4 and this property requirement still survives in Rhode Island. Rarely inhabitants were admitted freemen "by courtesy". A careful reeord was kept after a time of those admitted "by produeing deed" and as "eldest son". Baneroft, speaking of Rhode Island, says "it attached to the franchise, 'not to the inhabitant', but to the soil ; and as a wrong principle always leads to a praetieal error, it fostered family pride by a distinet imitation of the English law of primogeniture".5 The amendment to the Constitution of the State, April 4, 1888, eon- tains the provision "that no person shall at any time be allowed to vote in the election of the city council of any eity, or upon any propo- sition to impose a tax, or for the expenditure of money in any town or eity, unless he shall within the year next preceding have paid a tax assessed upon his property therein, valued at least at one hundred and thirty-four dollars."6
THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS.
From the early days of the eighteenth century the towns within the limits of the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations may
1Laws and Acts of R. I. Digest, 1705, 19.
2 Digest, 1730, p. 131.
3 Digest, 1798.
4 Stubbs, vol. iii, p. 111.
5 History of U. S. iii, p. 69.
6R. I. Constitution Amendment, art. vii, sec. 1.
51
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
be said to be fairly established. The colony itself had become stronger and the Earl of Bellomont included Rhode Island among those colo- nies in which "the independency they thirst after is now so notorious" that it was proposed in 1701 to remove their charter rights and make them crown colonies. Commerce was opening a larger field of occupa- tion and bringing contact with neighboring colonies. The abundance of good harbors in the colony naturally directed attention to maritime undertakings. The interests of the towns along the Narragansett Bay and those possessing harbors gradually became different from those of the inland towns. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the town of Providence included nearly all the northern part of the pres- ent State of Rhode Island west of Narragansett Bay and the Seekonk River. During the preceding half century towns had been more or less definitely established in the disputed area known as the Narragan-
OLD LIGHT HOUSE, POPLAR TREE POINT, WICKFORD.
From this point a party of Wickford men repulsed a boat crew from one of the British ships on a foraging expedition during the American Revolution.
sett Country, and in what is now the southwestern part of the State. Settlements had also been made on Block Island, at Wickford and at Jamestown. At Providence the interests of the inhabitants of "the compact part of the town" demanded different treatment from those of the more remote portions and in 1730 a petition was presented to the General Assembly praying that a committee might be appointed to "divide the town of Providence into three or four parts as they should think most proper". Accordingly a division was made setting off about three-fourths of the territory under the names of Smithfield, Scituate, and Glocester. Kingstown had been divided nearly ten years earlier. This process of sub-division went on all over the colony and new towns arose. Charlestown was set off from Westerly in 1738, Exeter from North Kingstown in 1742, Middletown from New- port in 1743, and later other towns were established by the same pro- cess. A spirit of town individuality rapidly grew in these new political divisions. The rural towns became arrayed against the towns
52
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
mainly occupied in trade and eommerec. The mania for paper money which had seized upon some of the people of the State was generally opposed by the inhabitants of the more thickly settled centers. Ar- nold Green says, "There were witches at Salem, there were pirates at Newport ; Gorton was at Warwick; and before long perhaps the most ominous danger of all, there was paper mnoncy everywhere".1 The issue of paper money in 1710 to defray the expenses of the expedition against the French Colonies was followed by other issues and the usual depreciation. The commercial centers as the location of the colonial merchants to whom the inhabitants of the rural distriets were in debt were vigorously opposed to paper money which was of uneertain and depreciating value. The rural towns were selfishly in favor of the issue of bills which would enable them to pay their debts in a cheap money. Laws were made to float the depreciating money and to com- pel its acceptanee. Providence particularly opposed these laws as working direetly to the injury of her merchants. The hostility be- tween town and country became more intense and led almost to blood- shed. From this time on there has always been a jealousy between the two seetions. The representation of the more populous centers in the General Assembly was reduced in some cases and increased only in rare instances even though these centers might grow very rapidly in population. This hostility between town and country has played a very important part in the politieal life of Rhode Island from these early days even to the present time. The large towns have not been represented in the General Assembly in proportion to population but by a number fixed by the legislature.
The rural towns were particularly benefited by the aet of 1723 which provided that "no person whatsoever shall be admitted a free- man of any town in this colony, unless the person admitted be a free- holder of lands, tenements or hereditaments in such town where he shall be admitted free, of the value of forty shillings per annum, or the eldest son of such freeholder".2 Toward the end of the eighteenth eentury the qualification required for those who were entitled to par- ticipate in voting was fixed at $134 freehold estate or one yielding $7 per annum. The eldest son of such a freeholder had ipso facto the right to vote. This provision reduced the voting class to a sort of landed aristocracy. The merchants and tradesmen were not able to exercise mueh influence upon the conduct of political affairs in pro- portion to their importanee in the community. In the Narragansett Country where great landed estates had arisen, the effect of such a system was to emphasize the inequalities of the existing conditions. Of the landed aristocracy in this section of Rhode Island it has been said "in eolonial Narragansett the nature and constitution of the
1The Township-New England's Gift to the Nation, p. 37.
2Digest, 1730, p. 131.
53
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
plaee, the extension of slavery, both of negroes and Indians, the mode of colonization, the political predominanee enjoyed by freeholders in Rhode Island, were all favorable to the production of a state of society which has no parallel in New England".1 Here a small number of land holders managed affairs naturally for their own good as they saw it at the time. The laws rested with particular weight upon the slaves in Narragansett and the penalties for the same offence as well as the method of trial varied according as it was committed by a white man or by a slave. Some of the provisions resemble the slave eodes of the States where slavery was a recognized institution. What was true in such an exceptional degree of the Narragansett Country was true
MAIN STREET, WESTERLY.
in a less degree of all the rural sections of the colony, the vote beeame the right of an exclusive elass and political privileges were unequally distributed.2
THE INCORPORATION OF THE TOWNS.
The towns gradually increased in number as the settlements made in various parts of the Colony become of sufficient weight to set up an organization which could in the opinion of the colonial authorities carry on the business of the town in a proper way and should in the opinion of the same authorities have representation in the General Assembly. The Charter of 1663 had provided for the admission of
1Channing, Narragansett Planters, J. H. U. Studies, iv, p. 127.
2The Fones Record, Arnold, pp. 27-31.
.
54
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
other towns besides those of Newport, Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick. Newport was to have a representation of six in the General Assembly and the other three towns a representation of four each, but there were to be "two persons for each other place, towne or city", which should be later incorporated.
Westerly was the earliest of these new towns. The General Assem- bly of May 14th, 1669, records its act of incorporation of the town as follows: "This Court taking notice of the returne by the Committee to witt: Mr. John Easton, Mr. Benjamin Smith, James Greene, Edward Smith, Caleb Carr and William Weeden, in reference to the petition or desire of the people inhabitting at Musquamacott and Paw- catucke in the King's Province, to be made a towneshipp, it being and lying within this jurisdiction, as by his Majestyes Letters Pattents it
A VIEW OF WATCH HILL.
may appear, and considering the power by his Majestye given to this Assembly to order and settle townes, cityes and corporations, within said jurisdiction, as shall seem meet; and seeing there doth alsoc ap- peare good evidence of the trust and good affection of the said people vnto his Majestyes government established in this Collony, and being also sensibell that the said inhabitants have suffered much in vindicat- ing the same, and are a competent number to carry on the affaires there, as in condition of a towneship. Bee it therefore enacted by this Assembly, and by the authority thereof, that the said inhabitants of Musquamacott being seated, adjoyning to Pawcatucke, alias Narra- gansett or Norrogansitt river on the west part, and boundary of this Collony, and within that part thereof knowne by the name of the
55
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
King's Province aforcsaid, to witt: Mr. John Crandall, Mr. Tobias Sanders, and all such others as now are or hereafter shall be legally admitted as freemen and inhabitants in the said place called Mus- quamacott, &c., shall be knowne and called by the name of Westerly ; and shall be reputed and deemed the fifth towne of this Collony ; and shall have, use and enjoy all such privileges, and exercise all such methods and formes for the well ordering their towne affairs as any other towne in this Collony may now use and exercise".1 During the period of the interruption of the colonial government by the control of Andros (1686-1689) the town bore the name of Haversham.
The next town to be incorporated was Block Island. This commu- nity had been informed in accord with the resolutions of the General Assembly that it was within the jurisdiction of the colony. The act of the General Assembly in 1664 read as follows: "That the Governor and deputy Governor be desired to send to Block Iland to declare vnto our frends the inhabitants therof, that they are under our care, and that they admitt not of any other to beare rule over then but the power of this Collony : and that James Sands, who is a freeman of this Collony, come in to the Governor or deputy Governor, to take his in- gagement as Constable, or Conservater of the peace theare; and that the most able and desearving men are warned in to the next Court in May, to be informed of ther previledge, and such to be free made of the Collony". In response to petitions from the inhabitants of Block Island the General Assembly sent a letter to James Sands and Thomas Terry on May 4, 1664, directing them to convene the inhabitants and to have the freemen take the oath to the King. "And when you have soe accepted and declared such inhabitants freemen, you are speedily to desier and requier them to elect a third select man vnto yourselves, and him you are to ingage according as is ordered in the foresayd orders of this Court, and are alsoe to ingage such other officers as the freemen elect, as Constable, Clarke, &c., to be faythfull in their respec- tive office and offices". The affairs of the island were ordered in gen- eral accord with this letter of the Assembly. In 1672 it was "Voted, fforasmuch as the inhabitants of Block Island, viz. : Mr. James Sands, Mr. Thomas Terry and others, expressed in their paper, have presented their request to have granted and enacted by this Assembly that they may have liberty of a towne and like libertyes (according to the Char- ter) with other townes in this Collony, and their reasons showed of their said request of a towneship, &c., and the said called Shoreham".
They were to elect two officers to be called wardens who were to have "authority to send forth writts in his Majesties name, under their hands to require the said freemen to meet upon all just occasions, and elect two for Deputys to sitt in the law makeinge As-
1R. I. Colonial Rec. vol i, p. 192.
.
56
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
sembly of this his Majesties Collony. And by writt to require tlc said freemen to meete four times in the yeare for their said towne affaires, for the makinge of such order or bye lawes as may be needfull for theire better management of their affaires amonge them selves ae- eordinge to their constitution, not opugninge the laws of his Majesties realme of Englande, his patent, nor the laws of this Collony, agreeable thereto; and that the said Wardens or one of them, require the said frecmen to meete for the first of the said four meeteings as soone as convenient, after they are engaged to theire said office, from which said meetinge shall begin the said yeare. And at the said first meetinge of the said freemen of the said Island, the major part of them being met, shall elect a Clerke, and shall provide a book or books, as need shall require ; and that the said Wardens or either of them, in the absenee of the other, shall engage the said Clerke to the faithfull performance of his office aceordinge to the tenure thereof; and that the said Clerke record in a booke or books of the acts of the freemen in their towne affaires, as to lands and bounds thereof, all publications of marriages to bee returned to him by the publishers; all marriages, all births, all burialls, all actions to bee there eommeneed, and the progress thereof". They were also to eleet a "Sergeant", "Constable or Constables if need require; two or more, for the apprehension of the breakers of the peace, wanderinge persons, fellows ; and to doe any other thinge apper- taininge to the office of a Constable."
"And that the said freemen, at the said meetinge, shall choose three wise, honest men, who shall bee added to the two Wardens for the Towne Councill, to have like authority as other Towne Councills have". The wardens were given authority to hold certain courts in order that the inhabitants of the island then considered so remote might not be "forced to obtain and undertake soe great trouble and charge as to come to the Generall Court of Tryalls, which by reason of the distance by sca many times eannot come because of danger and hindranees divers ways". Another clause outlines the Wardens' powers still more. "Furthermore, be it provided for his Majesties peace, that the said Wardens shall have the conservation thereof, on the said Island, and throughout the said towne ; and shall have authority as Justices of the Peace to require before them all and every person breakinge the same, or suspected for any erime, for examination ; and upon witness of the guilt thercof, to imprison or binde over the party or partys to the Generall Court of Tryalls, as law and justice requires, and returne their proceedings to the said Court. And further, that the said War- dens or either of them, shall have authority for publication of persons intentions declared to them of marriage (desireinge it to be published ) ; and that all marriages be solemnized before the said wardens, or either of them, and to make returne to the Towne Clerke aforesaid, for memoriall of their lawfull marriages, as many eauses may require".
57
THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWNS.
In regard to the name of the newly ineorporated body, it was enaeted "that the said towne on Bloek Island, at the request and for the rea- sons by the inhabitants showed, and as signes of our unity and likeness to many parts of our native eountry, the said Broek Island shall be called Ned Shoreham, otherwise Bloek Island."
In 1674 the General Assembly "Voted, by the king's authority in this Assembly, it is approved the Generall Councill's aets in obstruct- inge Connecticutt Collony from useinge jurisdiction in the Narragan- sett eountry, and the Councill's establishing a towneshipp there, and the callinge it Kingstown, with liberty as hath been granted to New Shoreham".1 The name of this town was as in the ease of Westerly ehanged during the Andros period and from 1686 to 1689 called Roeh- ester. In June, 1722, the records say, "Forasmuch, as the town of Kingstown is very large, and full of people, so that it is found con- venient for the ease of the inhabitants and dispateh of business, to divide the same into two parts, and make two towns thereof; Be it further enaeted by the authority of this Assembly, that the town of Kingstown be divided and made into two towns, by the names of North and South Kingstown ; and that each of them have one assistant, and the like privileges as other towns in this colony have, and do enjoy. Voted, that Capt. Jonathan Niehols, Col. Wm. Wanton and Mr. Tedde- man Hull, be a committee to divide the town of Kingstown into two towns, and state the bounds thereof with all the equality as may be, and Kingstown to pay the charge". The towns were not formally or- ganized till February 26th, 1722-23, when "It is voted and enaeted by this Assembly, that the town meeting to be held at the house of Thomas Joslin, (for the late town of Kingstown, now North and South Kings- town) on Monday next, do ehoose jury men to serve in the next Gen- eral Court of Trials, to be held for this eolony, on the last Tuesday of March next; and that the freemen of each of the respective towns of North Kingstown and South Kingstown, meet on the third Wednes- day of Mareh next, in each of their respective towns, at some conven- ient plaee in each respective town as the assistants or justiees dwelling in each respeetive town, shall appoint, and shall then choose deputies, and give in their proxies for the general election, and appoint their quarter meetings, and that the inhabitants of each town at their town meeting on Monday next, be advised thereof by the assistants of said town; and that the towns of North Kingstown and South Kingstown, govern themselves accordingly.
"And that the reeorder draw up for each town their eharter, in order to deliver them to the magistrates at the eleetion, such as shall be ehosen for each respeetive town.
"And that all former eharters shall eease, upon their receiving their
1R. I. Col. Rec. ii, p. 525.
58
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
charters for each town. And at their respective town meetings to be held on the third Wednesday of March next, cach town shall choose two men, to join in a committee to audit the treasurer's accounts, that each town of North and South Kingstown may have their proportion of said money, when they have chosen their respective treasurers, in proportion according to their taxes for each town.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.