USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 62
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There were some peculiar marriage customs and ceremonies in colonial Rhode Island, as may be inferred from the following ab- stracts :
"In the town of Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island and on the 13th of September 1714, John Gavett of the town and county above said did meet with Sarah Stephenson widow, in the street within
JAHLEEL BRENTON HOUSE, NEWPORT, ERECTED IN 1720.
the town abovesaid stark naked save only her shift and they being lawfully published the said John Gavett did accept in marriage the above said Sarah Stephenson stark naked save only her shift without housing or lands or any personal state whatever, and in said street I did join together in marriage the above said John Gavett and Sarah Stephenson on the day and year above said as witness my hand and seal hereto affixed. Nath'l Sheffield Assistant."
A similar case is recorded in the records of the town of Warwick, wherein appears the following entry :
"These are to signify unto all ministers of justice that Henry Strait Jun of East Greenwich in ye colony of R. I. & Prov. Plantations took Mary Webb of ye town of Warwick in ye colony a fousd. widow in 37-3
578 STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
only a shift and no other Garment in ye presns of Avis Gordon May Collins and Presilar Crandall and was Lawfully Married in sd Warwick ye first of August 1725 by me Recorded ye 5th of Nov 1725 Pr John Wickes T. C."
In South Kingstown this same curious custom prevailed, and it is there recorded that "Thomas Cullenwell was joyned in Marriage to Abigaile his wife the 22d day of February 1719-20. He took her in Marriage after she had gone four times across the Highway in only her shift and hair lace and no other clothing. Joyned togather, in marrage per me George Hassard Just".
In these days of the elaborate and expensive wedding trousseaux it is difficult to fully comprehend how simple and inexpensive was the wedding outfit of the colonial dames.
But this custom was not a common one; so far as the records show no such ceremony was performed north of the town of Warwick; isolated cases are, however, recorded in Newport, Warwick, South Kingstown and Richmond. It is related that these weddings occurred at "midnight", "between daylight and dark", and usually on the highway or where "four roods" met, and after crossing the road four times; what this had to do with the proper performance of the cere- mony cannot be easily determined, but the reason for the scanty outfit, even in September and February, is perhaps better understood. It probably arose from an erroneous popular reasoning on the English Statute concerning marriage, the words of which are thus: "The husband is liable to the wife's debts contracted before marriage, whether he had any portion with her or not, and this the law presumes reasonable, because by the marriage the husband acquires an absolute interest in her personal estate", and thus they reasoned that as the wife brought nothing to the husband, he could not be held liable for any lurking indebtedness which might have survived the late de- parted.
The advantages which were offered to the early settlers in Rhode Island for maritime pursuits were soon recognized by the colonists. As early as 1652 a little trading vessel, called the Providence of Pequit, was plying between Providence and perhaps other colonial ports and Newfoundland.
One of the dangers of the seas in those days, it seems, was "leakage", not such, however, as would be occasioned by imperfect cooperage or evaporation, for when the vessel finally arrived in Provi- dence a considerable shrinkage in the return cargo of liquors was noticeable; this, combined with a dispute regarding the freight charges, brought about a suit at law which involved all of the crew of the vessel and parties to the venture : in fact, became of such conse- quence that a special act was passed by the town, providing a legal
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process for William Almy to prosecute his suit in behalf of his son Christopher, who was a minor.
A similar case was that of the Friendship, a vessel which arrived in Boston during the summer of 1631. A portion of her cargo was said to consist of two hogsheads of metheglin and was consigned to parties in Plymouth. When this vessel arrived at Boston this liquor was transferred into wooden flaglets and the ship proceeded to Plymouth. Upon reaching there and the liquors being turned over to the con- signees, to their great surprise there only remained six gallons of the two hogsheads originally shipped, it having been "drunk up under the name leakage and so lost". The responsibility for this great shrinkage was finally determined and the metheglin loving parties were duly brought to justice.
Few records are found that give a satisfactory story of the vessels which were tied up at the wharves or lay on the stocks along the water side of Narragansett Bay.
In 1681 Joseph Wells, living on the Pawcatuck River, built for Alexander Pygan, Samuel Rogers and Daniel Stanton a schooner called Alexander and Martha; the specifications for her construction say "the length to be 40 and one foot by the keel from the after part of the post to the breaking afore at the garboard, 12 feet rake forward under her load mark and at least 16 feet wide upon the midship beam, to have 11 flat timbers and 9 foot floor and the swoop at the cuttock 9 foot and by the transom 12 foot, the main deck to have a fall by the main mast, with a cabin and also a cook room with a forecastle."
For this vessel the builder was to receive an ownership in one-eighth and "£165-£16 in silver money; the rest in merchantable goods".
The owners, however, were to furnish the nails, spikes, bolts and other iron work.
This vessel, built almost within Rhode Island territory, when completed sailed from New London; she was considered a large keel in her day and was probably a good type of the greater part of the ships of that period.
The vessels at this time were schooners, brigs, sloops, pinnaces and snows; the latter being a vessel which would now be called a brig. It was the largest two-masted vessel of this period and was distinguished from the brig by having a square main sail below her main topsail; a fore and aft sail being also carried upon a small spar fitted to and just abaft the main mast.
In the original brigs this fore and aft sail was set upon the main mast itself, and was the main sail; in the snow it became the spanker.1
In those early days the masters of vessels had little to aid them in
1 Life aboard a British privateer in the time of Queen Anne, Leslie, London, 1889, p. 13.
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
ascertaining their whereabouts on the trackless ocean, and they were mostly dependent on dead reckonings for their longitude.
Such instruments as were at hand were crude and unreliable. Chronometers were unheard of, and time aboard English frigates was reckoned by the "glass", and three glasses was an hour and a half.
The charts of the time were imperfect and the instruments for observation that were used in the time of Columbus were at this period still found aboard vessels sailing in Narragansett Bay.
In 1716 Capt. John Dexter, of Providence, while on a voyage, doubtless from the West Indies, for his cargo was molasses and sugar, was stricken with small-pox and his ship put into Saybrook, Con- necticut, where he died. The inventory of his estate gives a good idea of what instruments and appliances were used by the "ancient mariner".
The values of these old inventories in studying the history of colonial times cannot be overestimated, for they give to us details of personal belongings in those days which can be derived from no other source.
Among Captain Dexter's effects were a Quadrant, Gunter's scale, a Nocturnal, the "vaines of a fore staff", "The English Pilatt", a pair of dividers and "2 Prosspect Glasses", and this collection was a most complete set of instruments for use in navigation.
The quadrant was undoubtedly the instrument designed by John Davis, the celebrated navigator, and which was used from the year 1594 down to 1731, when Capt. John Hadley laid before the Royal Geographical Society the quadrant which has since borne his name.
The "vaines of a fore staff" refer to a more interesting instrument, for the forestaff was used as far back as the time of Columbus. The instrument itself was called the cross-staff or forestaff, and was simply a four-sided straight staff of hard wood, about three feet long, having four cross pieces of different lengths made to slide upon it, as the cross piece does upon a shoemaker's rule. The cross pieces or vanes "were called respectively the ten, thirty, sixty and ninety cross, and were. placed singly upon the staff, according to the altitude of the sun or star at time of observation; the angle measured being shown by a scale of degrees and minutes intersected by a cross piece on that side the staff to which it (the cross ) belonged".1
The Nocturnal was used in latitudes north of the line, it giving the hour of the night "by observing with it the hands of the great star clocks, Ursa Major and Minor, as they turned about the Pole Star".
The dividers and Gunter's scale were used in the calculation after the observations had been made.
There are many books on Navigation, like the English Pilot, Sea- man's Secrets, Seaman's Practices and Practical Navigation; besides,
1 Life aboard a British privateer in the time of Queen Anne, London. 1889.
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there were almanacs containing much that was essential to the mariner; these were mostly printed in London, and were found aboard all vessels bound on long voyages.
The demand for various kinds of sailing craft for the coasting trade and deep sea voyages brought to the Colony the industry of ship building, which thrived in the Colony for more than a hundred years, and the sound of the broad-axe, the tap of the caulking hammer and the sharp ring of the anvil went up from the shore lands along the bay.
Rhode Island built up her wealth from the sea, her vessels sailed to every port in the world; Warren, Bristol, Newport, Greenwich and Updikes Newton, now and long called Wickford, were all great ship- ping centers, and the richies of the Indies found their way into the Colony's ports.
So numerous were the crafts in all the great forcign ports from Rhode Island, and so great was her reputation as a maritime colony, that it is said "from a period long preceding the war of the Revolution the term 'Rhode Islander' had come to be synonymous with a born sailor".
The fisheries drew large numbers of vessels and loans were made by the Colony to promote them; many a whaler sailed from these ports for the leviathan of the deep, and there may be found to-day in many of the old homesteads in these towns, arranged on the mantel or adjusted in a corner, relics of these long sea voyages.
At the Providence town meeting held on the 25th of March, 1687, there appeared a young Scotchman, who humbly presented his petition in which he "desired of ye towne to Reside amongst them & here to follow his way of dealing in goods". This man was Gideon Crawford from Lanark in Scotland. He was thirty-six years of age, having been born December 26, 1651 : and was said to be of noble birth. The privilege which he asked of the town was granted, and this Scotch merchant and trader actively participated in the commercial ventures which soon followed his coming.
The next month after his petition to the town for the privilege of "dealing in goods" had been granted, he married Freelove Fenner, the daughter of Capt. Arthur Fenner. His son, John Crawford, continued the great sea trade which his father had established. His vessels, the Dolphin, Sarah, and the Indian King, made successful voyages and their cargoes brought to the people of Rhode Island articles of household use, utensils and fabrics, which before had only been obtained from the shops in Newport and Boston.
A new era was marked in the domestic circle. China ware and many other articles which had been hitherto unknown now began to be found in the houses of the more fortunate.
Fabrics of various kinds came gladly welcomed by the colonial
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dames : Holland muslin, calico, Bangall tape, "cambric kenting", cherry derry, silk stockings, edging laces, silk fercting, combs, gloves, swanskin, alamode remaul silk, romaul "moheaire", cantaloons, crape, calamineo, cheeks, druggets, camblet, baize, broadcloth, poplin, silk crape and shalloons. Many of these have long since passed from memory and from the dry goods lists.
Mrs. Earle, in her admirable treatise on "Costumes of Colonial Times", resurrected from the files of old newspapers and family letters much valuable information relative to this subject. "Cherri- dary", she says, was an Indian cotton stuff much like gingham, used for gowns, "wastcotes", and aprons.
Fereting or ferret was a narrow ribbon or tape used for binding. Swanskin, Fairholt says, was a thick fleecy hosiery. "But from early days we read in American newspapers of runaways in Swanskin jackets and also of Ellwide Swan skin for Ironing cloth, which would seem to point to its a being a cheap fleecy cloth like Canton flannel".
Alamode was a "plain soft glossy silk much like lustring or our modern surah silk but more loosely woven".
Persian silk or Persian was a thin silk, chiefly used for cloak and hood linings or for summer wear; while romaul was an East India silk.
Some of the other fabrics found among the list of goods which were a part of the stock in Crawford's store are not found described in this book, nor can information regarding them be obtained.
Others are of such common knowledge that the mere mention of the names serve as a description, like crepe, poplin, broadcloth, etc. As time advaneed many of these fabrics were produced in the various mills which sprang up on nearly every stream with the growth of the factory system.
The custom in early times to name the trade or calling of a person whenever his name was mentioned in deeds or other instruments leaves no doubt as to what sort of labor would be furnished by John Smith mason, Henry Fowler blacksmith, and Henry Neale carpenter.
All of the colonists had more or less rudimentary knowledge of the use of the tools belonging to the trades most in demand ; the carpenters, the masons and the blacksmith, and had such tools in their pos- session. By a custom of exchange growing out of the necessity each one of the colonists had a well-nigh complete set of such implements at his command as was necessary for ordinary use.
The skilled carpenter was the craftsman most in demand. It was he who was to contribute to their domestic comfort ; he had learned his trade in old England or perhaps in Holland, and under his guiding hand and watchful eye the hardy colonists soon became earnest ap- prentices.
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The earliest carpenter of whom there is positive evidence by a curious coincidence was William Carpenter. He came from Ames- bury, Wiltshire, England, and was one of the early comers to the Rhode Island Colony. He was conspicuous in its affairs and held many important trusts. None of the deeds which he executed or those conveying property to him, and they are many, for he was a large land owner, make any reference to his trade or profession. There is, however, a petition in the handwriting of Howlong Fenner, who was the daughter of William Harris, addressed to the "Honoured Cort Sitting at New Port on Rhod Ile land the fourth day of May 1708". It is a narrative of the troublesome and vexatious Pawtuxet controversy which well-nigh upset the whole Colony. In it she says :
"I am Prest in my Spirit to lay before your Consideerrations the many Strang and Strong underminding Trancacttions acted & done by those men Called Pavtuxet men. I have Several times heerd my honoured father giue a Relation of the settlement of the plantation of the Town of Providence I heerd my father say that himself with the other twelue agreeded among themselves to lay out to euery man a Share of meddow and then to cast a Lorts and so they that set to my father by lot did and they that see cause to set theire houses by their meddows and my father did settel by his meddow Old mr William Arnold laid out my fathers meddow Old mr William Carpenter built the house for my father by my fathers meddow and my father settled down by his meddow."
This old stained manuscript, which has been hidden for years among other old papers, gives us the name of one of the early builders.
There can be no doubt of the person, for there was only one Old Mr. William Carpenter. But there is other evidence to confirm the state- ment that he was a carpenter, and that is the inventory of his estate. Besides his wearing apparel there was little else than carpenter's tools ; they were "two old axes narrow oncs one old broad axe one cross cut saw two tenant sawes three Clevises & two pinns one sledge & one Iron Crow tenn augurs greater & smaler two broad Chizells & two narrow ones. Three plain irons & one wenscutt plough. Two gouges two drawing knives & old burr one spoke shave & one Gennett and one adds".
William Carpenter came from Amesbury in Old England, where he had left some possessions. In December, 1671, he gave to his sister, Fridgsweet Vincent, as a free gift, "my dwelling house with what land belongeth to me adjoining to the said house the which said house is standing in the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire and in a street com- monly called by the name of Frog Lane the which said house did in the original belong to my father Richard Carpenter now deceased". Perhaps the house which he built for Harris "down by
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his meddow" may have contained features which were inspired by the recollection of the old home in Frog Lane.
Another of the early carpenters was John Clauson, a Dutchman and a contemporary of the Amesbury craftsman.
The inventory of Clauson's estate, which is the earliest inventory to be found in Providence, shows that he was the owner of a great variety of carpenter's tools. In fact, it is a more complete collection than is found among the possessions of the later and more prosperous towns- men. These he must have acquired during his residence in the town, for Williams says he found him naked and starving in the woods, which would preclude his being surrounded with a great quantity of personal belongings.
There was a froe, an iron bench hook, hammer, inch and a half auger, inch anger, narrow axe, "hallowing plane", clearing plane, moulding plane, a forr joyunter, a forr plane, a liand plane, a Broad chisell, a Sloape poynted chizell, a gouge for Carpenters works, a peareing chizell, a little hammer, a Three square ffile, 2 cold punches, 3 Brest wimble bittes the bigest The midlemost The least Bitt "and a whettstone".
This is the most interesting collection of woodworking tools and is the earliest that there is evidence of in the Colony; although this inventory is not dated, we know from the fact that Clauson's death occurred in 1660 that this schedule was prepared about this time.
Sons usually followed the calling of their father and they began their apprenticeship at an early age. Benjamin Waterman, whose grandfather added the stone end to the old Waterman homestead, erected before 1690 and which is now standing on the "Poor farm road" in Johnston, is said by his granddaughter, to whom he told the story of the changes that have been made in the old house, that his grandfather was just old enough to "tend mason" when the stone end was added to it, doubtless a mere boy. In the family of John Smith the mason, called thus to distinguish him from the numerous John Smiths in the Colony, three generations were masons, while the grand- son had also the trade of joiner. James Babcock of Westerly, the ancestor of the family of Rhode Island, was a blacksmith, and so also were two of his sons. Pardon Tillinghast combined the vocations of shop keeper and cooper, and his son John was a cooper. This division of occupations was quite common, sometimes that of shoemaker and physician were combined, and then again stationer, minister and printer ; such was Gregory Dexter. The Rodmans were physicians, father, two sons and two grandsons. Alexander Balcom, of Ports- mouth and Providence, and his son Alexander were both masons. Benjamin Church of Little Compton, that old Indian fighter and chronicler, was a carpenter and so was his son Thomas. Stephen Harding of Providence, his two sons and a grandson were blacksmiths.
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EARLY HABITS AND CUSTOMS AND OLD LANDMARKS.
Peter Busecot of Warwick was a blacksmith, and a deposition of his taken before Thomas Olney the "11th 7th ino. '49" gives an idea of the antiquity of the individual who perambulates the city streets and sonorously shouts "Umbrellas to mend! Old tin washboilers to miend !" in other words, the tinker. It also shows that the scions from Mr. Blackstone's orchard had been brought to the point of bearing "faer fruit" early in the days of the settlement, for Peter Busecot being "Engaged saith that that man wch is commonly called the Cooper an tinker cam vnto him in Warwick to learne som of his skill to Boare holes in a pot wch he saith the Cooper said he bought at prouidence and paid 5s for it, but vpon discoverie he being unwilling to shew him his skill for nothing the Tinker said that if he would shew him he would give him 20 apples".
BENJAMIN WATERMAN'S HOUSE.
Between Hughesdale and Hartford Pike, Johnston, erected about 1690.
The examples of early hand forging are marvels of the ancient blacksmiths' skill. A door latch from one of the original doors to the Epenetus Olney homestead in possession of the author will testify to a degree of skill which the blacksmith of modern days with all the improved tools and appliances would find difficulty in imitating. Epenetus Olney's brother, John Olney, was a blacksmith, and this may be an example of his skill. The blacksmith in those days did not have his material conveniently shaped to be wrought into the object desired, but it was in all shapes and conditions, and it is even said that the trade of blacksmith combined both mining and smith- ing.
Eleazer Whipple was a housewright and built the south end of the Whipple homestead at Louisquisset. His work and that of William
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Carpenter is the only work of the very earliest craftsmen that we are able to definitely identify, and there is ample testimony to vouch for this.
The mason work of the carly craftsmen is, even after a lapse of years with the exposure of weather and disintegration of material, superior in many respects to the work of the mason of to-day.
The walls of the old cellar to the Fenner castle, the huge stone chimney to the Epenetus Olney house, the curiously panelled chimneys on the Manton homestead, the Smith house, Eleazer Arnold house, and the Phillips house in old Narragansett, all show a skill in selecting, cutting and placing stone that modern builders may well eopy.
The panelled chimneys, five of which now remain almost in their original condition, are a peculiar type and nearly alike. There is some reason to believe that the influence of John Smith the mason is shown in these relics.
Children were "bound out" at a very early age, if one can judge by the length of time they were to serve by the indenture of apprenticeship.
Samuel Cose, a minor, was bound out to Edward Merron, to learn the art, trade or mystery of a cooper, for the spaee of "Eighteen years eight months and two days".
RUINS OF OTHNIEL GORTON TAVERN. Others were to learn the "art of a cord- wainer", the "mistery of a Distiller", "mistery or art of a croaswork cooper", of West of Oaklawn, Cranston, erected between 1710-20. "ship wright", "house earpenter", "black- smith", and "husbandman"; while females were to learn the art, trade or mystery of "spinster" and "house- wife".
Many of these aneient "Indentures of Apprenticeship", with their serrated edges or indentures, are yet preserved. They were written in duplicate, then separated by irregularly cutting the paper, so that the two pieces exactly fitted when matched together; from this feature they received their name.
Their conditions were as rigid as the Mosaic law. Apprentiees were required to serve their master or his executors or administrators from the day of the date of the indenture until the minor "shall attaine and Com to the full age of twenty one years; dureing all which term the said Apprentis his said master faithfully shall serue his secrits Keepe his Lawfull Commands Euery where obcy; he shall do no Damage to his said master he shall not wast his said masters Goods nor Lend them vnlawfully to any att Cards Diee or
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