USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 67
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1 Prov. Probate Records, Will Book I, p. 161-219.
2 Prov. Deeds, Book 16, p. 236.
3 Ibid.
CA
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Liver
THE CRAWFORD HOUSE.
FORMERLY LOCATED ON MILL STREET; ERECTED ABOUT 1708, DEMOLISHED 1898. IN THIS HOUSE NICHOLAS BROWN, FOUNDER OF BROWN UNIVERSITY, WAS MARRIED.
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mile line for laying out house lots and selling common lands in and about the town and fully described in the return made by the said Committee dated the 25th of January 1717/8"; this statement, together with other known facts, makes it casy to determine why 110 record of the purchase by John Crawford is found upon the records.
For many years the town records and the records of the Proprietors of the lands in Providence were kept independently of each other. When at last the Proprietary lands had been disposed of and the Proprietors ceased to carry on their business in real estate, the records of their transactions remained in the hands of the person who last acted as the clerk of this body. He kept them as long as he lived, and upon his death they fell into the hands of his children. These old documents, books and papers were kept in a chest or trunk at the place of business of their custodian, and for a consideration antiquarians, conveyancers, and lawyers engaged in unraveling knotty problems of family history or the ownership in real estate were permitted to examine their yellow and musty pages.
After a time the custodian of these records endeavored to get the city of Providence to purchase them, for, it was urged, they were of great importance in the examination of the land titles in the city, but the amount which the city was asked to pay was considered too great, and after a while the subject became forgotten.
One cold winter night a few years after these negotiations had ended, a fire broke out in the business part of the city. In the morn- ing, where only a few hours before stood substantial business blocks, there was left only their blackened and smouldering ruins; in this fire was destroyed the "Records of the Proprietors of the Lands in Providence".
The return made by the committee in 1717-18 contained all of the information which would have determined the question of title. There is enough, however, to confirm the tradition regarding the house and lands of John Crawford. It is stated that the house was built in 1716, as Crawford was married in 1715 and the land was his previous to 1717. There can be no doubt but what the Crawford house was built as early as 1716.
Many changes have taken place in the topography of the neighbor- hood about his home. To the westward where now are streets teeming with the busy life of a city and great brick buildings devoted to manufacturing and business purposes was, in the days of Crawford, shore lands and a picturesque basin of water where the Mooshausic River emptied into the Salt Water Cove. The grade of the highway leading to the corn mill was much lower in Crawford's time than it is to-day, for the sidewalk to Mill street now is even with the windows in the second story where is the entrance to the building; from the
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street it has the appearance of a one story building, but by passing to the rear down toward the river its original size can be seen.1
Down by the waterside back of the house were the ship yards, wharves and wharehouses. No records or traditions are found that give a satisfactory story of the vessels which were tied up at the wharves or lay on the stocks, but they probably differed little from those built in other parts of the Colony about this period.
At the time Crawford built his house, brick had become common for building purposes. Brick clay was abundant. A few years later a committee was appointed by the town to "agree with Mr. Thomas Staples upon what terms he may have liberty to dig clay at Waybausett Hill to make bricks".2
One end, the north end, was built entirely of brick. Here was the chimney with a triple stack, and the good work of the builder was clearly shown, for it faced the northerly blasts for more than one hundred and eighty years and stood as firm and rigid as when it was built.
John Crawford followed the sea and soon obtained the command of a vessel.
Captain Crawford did not long enjoy the substantial fortune which he had acquired. On the 18th of March, 1718-19, he died, having been married less than four years. He was stricken down in the midst of a busy life in the full flush of manhood. His vessel, the Indian King, which he commanded, lay at his wharf unloaded; in his shipyard was a "new sloope upon the stocks almost finished", while his shop was well stocked with all sorts of articles of his trade.
The inventory of his estate gives much information as to the articles of domestic use that had at this time been brought within the reach of the townspeople.
His home must have been the most elaborately furnished of any in the town, for he had two chests of drawers and "carpett" to cover them, for carpets in those early days were not coverings for the floor, but for chests, tables, &c., two Japanned tables, two oval tables, "Joynt" stools, desks, nineteen chairs, looking-glasses, candle-sticks and other small articles of household use, besides bedsteads, beds, flock beds and feather bed, he had "an Campire bedstead and furni- ture", whatever that may have been, and a "hammack", "puter" dishes, china dishes, glass ware, earthen ware and wooden ware for his table and fine linen to place them on. Besides bottles, wine glasses and brandy to put in them, he had five pipes of wine. In his shop goods of all kinds and varieties were stored. Besides a great variety of dry
1 Since this account was prepared the Crawford house has been demolished and the street on which it abutted has been widened in carrying out the im- provement of Charles street.
2 Early Records of Providence.
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goods there were articles to suit all customers, indigo, glassware, tobacco, boxes, axes, brushes, pewter, knives, bolts, "treacle manna", beeswax, ginger and "allum", nails, powder, "gun flints, sugar and halters".
His whole estate was valued, outside of his lands and meadows, at £1,614 02s. 11d., showing the thrift and ability of this young trader. His lands consisted of "his Lotts of Land, Dwelling house, Warehouse, Stable and wharfc", "neere toagether", valued at £400, while besides this there were large tracts in the outlying country appraised at £1,665.
Captain Crawford left a widow and two children, a son and a daughter. From this daughter was descended Ann Carter, the first wife of Nicholas Brown. She died June 16, 1798, having been married about eight years.
The Crawford homestead in course of time came to the possession of Captain Crawford's granddaughter, who married Benjamin Steele, a son of Rev. Isaac Steele, who had established a Latin school in Provi- dence in 1776.1
Benjamin Steele was an active patriot during the Revolution. He was adjutant in Colonel Tallman's regiment, was "officer of a flag of truce sent to Rhode Island at the time Rhode Island was evacuated", and later was deputy paymaster-general in Rhode Island. From his long residence here it became known as the Benjamin Steele house and is more frequently called by that name.
It was here on the 22d day of July, 1801, that Nicholas Brown,2 the "eminent merchant, the friend of the friendless, the patron of learn- ing, the benefactor of the insane, and the liberal promoter of every good design", was married to Mary Bowen Steele, the daughter of Captain Steele.
In those days the neighborhood where the Crawford mansion is located was occupied by the homes of the townspeople, but with the growth of the town and city the condition of the whole neighborhood has undergone a great change. The houses along the street, erstwhile the "highway leading to Elisha Brown's Corn mill", are now packed with refugees from distant lands. The little shops scattered through- out this section bear signs with the name and trade of their occupants in the strange characters of a foreign language, and all about there is striking evidence of neglect and decay.
THE TAGGART HOUSE.
When the British army landed on Rhode Island in December, 1776, many of the families fled to the mainland, taking with them such
1 Chad Brown's Memorial.
2 Ibid.
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effects as they could hastily get together, while others undertook to continue their abode on their farms.
Such as remained were forced to submit to all manner of indignities. Their homes were selected as quarters for both the English and Hessian officers, and their property was treated as though its owners had no right or title to it.
Perhaps no family on the island sustained so great a loss or suffered. more severely from the depredations of the enemy than that of Willian Taggart, and the story of the Taggarts is a sad recital of the sufferings that were endured by the patriots of '76.
The story is mainly obtained from the memoirs of William Taggart the younger, who was an officer in the war, and who prepared, in 1833, a very full account of the trials of his family; the story has been printed and appears in full1 or in part2 in books long since out of print. It is such a graphic account of the thrilling days of the war that it is repeated here substantially as prepared by Taggart himself.
"William Taggart, the elder, was a respectable citizen of Newport", and held many offices of trust and importance in the town and Colony. He resided in the town of Newport until 1770, when, having returned from a voyage to sea, he removed with his family, consisting of himself, his wife and twelve children, to a farm which he had purchased in the town of Middletown and about six miles from Newport.
They were thus happily situated on their farm when the war of the Revolution commenced. A few days after the British army landed on the Island a Hessian colonel took possession of their home, for himself and his officers.
"Although the Colonel was extremely polite", says Taggart in his memoirs, "yet the mother of this numerous family was rendered very uneasy, and could not bear the idea of being among soldiers, in such a state of vassalage and danger, more especially on account of her daugh- ters, who, she was very apprehensive, would be particularly liable to the insults of a brutal soldiery. She therefore prevailed upon her husband to remove the family from the Island; and accordingly the whole, with the exception of my father and two of my brothers next in age to myself, removed, under my care, to the town of Little Compton. During the following summer an expedition was formed, under the command of Major-General Spencer, to attack the British troops and to obtain possession of the Island, and the town of Newport.
"About this time, a person came from the Island with a flag, and informed me that my father had expressed a wish for me to come over to the Island and have an interview with him.
"I communicated this fact to Colonel Joseph Stanton, who then commanded at Howland's Ferry, in Tiverton. He assented to the proposal and directed three officers of the American army to accom-
1 Cynthia Taggart's Poems, three editions, 1833, 1834 and 1848.
2 Cowell's Spirit of '76 in Rhode Island.
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pany me, and to obtain the best possible information of the force, strength and situation of the enemy.
"One of these officers was a Lieutenant Charles Handy, of Newport. On the following night we procceded to my father's mansion on the Island, and ascertained, to the best of my recollection, that the British force did not exceed two thousand men, who had scarcely any intrench- ments on any part of the Island ; that their naval force was very small, and in such a situation, that an expedition might, if judiciously ar- ranged, be so conducted as, under God, to insure success. We returned in safety, and made report of every particular to the proper officers. The expedition was rapidly progressing.
"In the interim, I several times went upon the Island, to obtain additional information, previous to the night which had been assigned for the landing of our army ; and through the same channel, I received all the intelligence which was desirable or necessary.
"The night at length arrived. Our troops, said to be twelve thousand strong, were drawn up, under arms, ready for embarkation. A party of about thirty, of whom I was one, was detached in three boats; and having landed, well down to the mouth of the river, wc immediately repaired to my father's house.
"He, with his two sons, who, until this period, had remained on the Island, and had communicated much important information to the American commander, now joined us.
"Our orders were, to proceed to Black Point, so called, which was the place designated for the landing of our army.
"The landing was to be made, at a signal which had been previously arranged; and we were ordered to secure the sentinels in our route, and to call on the inhabitants to come out with their teams, &c., to assist in transporting the cannon. On our way we captured two mounted light-horsemen, who were patrolling the shore; and, after our arrival at the appointed station, we waited until near day break, for the signal. But it was not given; and to our great mortification and disappointment, we were under the necessity of leaving the Island, accompanied by my father and brothers, who undoubtedly would have been condemned to an ignominious death, if they had remained; as the active part which they had taken, in communicating intelligence to the American forces, was now discovered. They were accordingly compelled to abandon a valuable property, which was destroyed by the ruthless enemy."
Houses, barns, orchards, fruit trees, fences, were all wantonly torn to pieces; and the whole farm left a barren waste-the mere soil, which they could not destroy, alone remaining.
A short time previous to this a farm in Little Compton, called the Scaconnet Farm, belonging to a man by the name of Sisson, a Tory, had been confiscated, and on account of the serious loss which Judge Taggart had sustained, the General Assembly, in December, 1777, in recognition of his patriotic services, directed that the farm be delivered
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to him to improve the same for the support of himself and family, rent free; the sum of £300 was also voted him from the treasury as a gratuity for his "suffering and damages sustained by his extraor- dinary exertions in behalf of, and for the advantage of this State in the late intended expedition against the enemy on Rhode Island".
In May, 1778, another expedition was planned against Rhode Island by General Sullivan, and William Taggart, senr., was appointed com- mander of the boat service in connection with the contemplated expedition, his experience as a ship master particularly qualifying him for this important service. This position gave him the rank, pay and rations of a major; associated with him was his son William, who was commissioned a captain. They were both engaged with Sullivan until March, 1779, when they returned to the farm at Seaconnet.
1
TAGGART HOUSE, LITTLE COMPTON.
"Toward the latter part of the July following, a large party of Refugees from Newport, came to Little Compton, for the express purpose of making prisoners of Taggart and his sons.
"This party landed undiscovered", continues Taggart in his nar- rative, "although there was a guard kept at the house where we dwelt and sentinels were stationed on the shore.
"Two of the sentinels, discovering a boat, hailed and fired ; but were immediately seized by the enemy, then at their backs, with threats of immediate death for daring to fire. We were alarmed at the house by the report of the muskets; and I and my unfortunate brother, having armed ourselves, were instantly made prisoners by the enemy, who were in ambush.
"As they appeared to be in confusion, my poor brother attempted to escape, by leaping over a stone wall; and had proceeded some 41-3
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distance, when he was fired on, and wounded through the thigh. One of the merciless desperadoes pursued, and ran him through with a bayonet. They then took four of our party on board their schooner, and lodged us in the jail at Newport.
"I there remained a prisoner for about a fortnight, when, with a Captain Benjamin Borden, of Fall River, I made my escape, in the following manner. The prisoners were occasionally permitted to go into the cellar, where we observed that, instead of iron, the windows were furnished with wooden bars, which might easily be removed with a good knife. But even then, there were difficulties to be surmounted, which, to persons less determined than ourselves, would doubtless have appeared insuperable.
"Sentinels were placed both in front and rear of the prison; and were continually patrolling. At the cast end of the building, there was a narrow street, communicating with the front and back streets of the prison.
"From the cellar window, by which we escaped, a few steps brought us into the street in front, and in view of the soldier ; who, fortunately for us, was at that time in the sentry box, on account of the rain which was falling. We had previously selected a topic of conversation respecting New York, that we might appear to have recently arrived from that place; in order to avert suspicion which might arise in the mind of the sentinel, or of any other person whom we might meet. We had agreed to walk deliberately, and without betraying any signs of fear, and were providentially enabled to pass, in the twilight, safely through the compact part of the town.
"Near the hay-scales in Broad street, we went into the fields on the south-east of that street ; and at a short distance from thence, without detection, we crossed the lines which enclosed the town, although these were strictly guarded.
"We then attempted to cross the road, and to steer our course between the forts by Irish's and Tammany Hill, in order to avoid the regiment of Anspach, which was encamped near by ; but, as it had then become very dark, we soon found ourselves much too near for our safety. The darkness however prevented our recapture; for, as we heard the sound when the guard was relieved at the fort at Irish's, we (to use a not unapt metaphor) were enabled 'to steer between Scylla and Charybdis.' We came out into the west wood; and having pro- ceeded about eight or nine miles towards Bristol Ferry, halted at the house of Nathan Brownell, who received us with great kindness.
"As the troops at that season of the year, were encamped in the fields, it was extremely hazardous for us to visit, at seasonable hours, those of the inhabitants who were friendly to the American cause; but still greater, and apparently insurmountable obstacles opposed any attempt to leave the Island, undiscovered.
"As the shores were closely guarded, we could not possibly obtain a boat ; and our only alternative was to procure a number of rails from
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the fences, for the construction of a raft; and then to await a proper time for making an attempt to escape in that manner. This was truly the most hazardous part of our enterprise; for we were obliged to launch our frail and unseaworthy bark between two of the nightly guards which were stationed on the shore. But the same Providence, by which we had thus far been so signally favored, still shielded and protected us. We left the shore with our raft, unperceived. A thick fog soon came up, and as it was very calm we knew not in what direc- tion to steer. .
"We were all night upon, or rather in, the water, as our rude bark was not strong enough to keep us entirely above the surface; and at daybreak, when the fog passed away, we found ourselves so near the Island, that we could see the sentinels leaving the shore, and were in momentary expectation of being pursued and retaken. We were, however, enabled to continue our cruise; and, about an hour after sunrise, we safely landed from our sinking raft, on the south point of the Island of Prudence, a distance of eight or ten miles from the spot where we embarked. From Prudence, we were taken in a boat, and conveyed to the town of Bristol; and from thence proceeded to our respective places of abode."
The Taggarts remained at the Seaconnet Point farm until the evacuation of Newport and the Island by the British, when the family again returned to the Island, but the home which they had been obliged to so hastily abandon no longer greeted their gaze.
Not a vestige of the house or the buildings around it remained; "the orchards, the fruit and ornamental trees were utterly destroyed; even the hay and rails were consumed and nothing remained but a barren, uncultivated heath." .
Judge Taggart never recovered from the losses which he had sustained; when he died his farm was heavily encumbered, and his son William, who inherited his estate, struggled for years to main- tain it. A short time before his death he secured a small pension from the government for his honorable service.
The house where he died is still standing on the westerly side of the west road near the town clerk's office in Middletown and is occupied by one of his descendants. The house on the Seaconnet farm is also standing and is located on the Kempton farm at Seaconnet, in Little Compton, not far from Warren Point.
It is not materially changed from its appearance that night wlien one of the household was so brutally murdered.
The story of the Taggarts would be of greater interest and more satisfactory had the chronicler mentioned somewhere the name of the "unfortunate brother", but nowhere in the narrative or other accounts is his name mentioned.
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DAVID ARNOLD'S TAVERN.1
The stories of the old taverns and the events that transpired within their walls contribute no mean part to the history of the eventful days of the Revolutionary struggle. The colonial inn or ordinary was the common gathering place for the community in which they were settled. Here the people could assemble around the blazing fire in winter or lounge where the summer breezes blew and discuss political questions and other subjects which entered into their everyday life.
The tavern was the center around which the whole town swung. The townsmen assembled within its spacious rooms on town meeting day; the town council here held its sessions; notices for the informa- tion of the people were posted upon the tavern door, and the traveller from a distant town found here refreshment and shelter. The traveller was always a welcome guest for the news and gossip which he brought. Newspapers were few, the post irregular, and most of the information from the outside world was obtained in this way. In some respects the tavern was of far more importance than the town in which it was located. People knew of the tavern and the tavern-keeper while they knew nothing of the town; distances were always reckoned from tavern to tavern, and not from town to town, and this custom was kept up until well along in the present century. The early numbers of the Old Farmer's Almanack contain the tables of the old stage routes, and the distances from tavern to tavern are scheduled with the same exact- ness as the trains on the railroad folder are to-day. The tavern-keeper was the only licensed person to sell liquor, and this fact alone gave to the inn a popularity which, in those liquor loving days, could not be found elsewhere.
From his environment the landlord naturally became a most con- spicuous personage.
He was fully informed as to what the town council would or would not do, had great influence in furthering such objects as he had been convinced, in one way or another, were for the public good, and while he was the friend and confidant of all who gathered around his board, he was always a good friend to himself.
But they were by no means a selfish lot, and many a poor, penniless wayfarer found a comfortable seat by the fireside and a good meal at the table, even though his score was left unsettled.
The tavern-keeper always enjoyed the confidence of his neighbors, and his views on public and current questions were regarded with great weight and importance.
During the years preceding and following the American Revolution the tavern or public house became the headquarters for discussing the
'For photograph of this historic house see chapter on the Wars and the Militia.
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situation of affairs in the Colonies; here the yeomanry of the country discussed their grievances and within the walls of these houses were unfolded many of the plans which finally resulted in bringing about American Independence.
During those exciting days in Rhode Island when British troops held possession of part of her territory, stirring scenes were enacted within the walls of an old tavern located in the town of Warwick.
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