The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 10

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868

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arco Manning

First President of Brown University - From a Portrait painted in 177.

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young institution a home. It was finally decided by a vote of 21 to 14, that the College should be removed to Provi- dence, and in May, 1770, the foundations for the building, now known as University Hall, were laid. It was painful for Manning to sever his pastoral relations with the people in Warren, to whom he had become greatly endeared, but his work he felt must be in connection with the College, of which he may justly be regarded, in one sense, as the founder. The Baptist church in Providence having in- vited him to preach for them, he, in 1771, accepted the invitation, continuing for twenty years the twofold relation of Pastor and President. In 1774 a remarkable revival of religion attended his labors, which resulted in the erection of the present noble edifice, the pride of the city and the joy of the Baptist denomination. It was dedicated in May, 1775. The first commencement held in the new meeting- house was in 1776, when nine young men were graduated. From December 7, 1776, until May 27, 1782, the seat of Muses became the habitation of Mars. The course of studies was suspended, and the college edifice was occu- pied for barracks, and afterwards for a hospital by the American and French troops. The President, who had thus far discharged his arduous and responsible duties with unwearied assiduity and the most gratifying success, now employed this interval in the labors of the ministry, and in various acts of social benevolence, which the perils and distresses of that period prompted him to perform. In 1782 college instruction was resumed. In 1785 Manning re- ceived from the University of Pennsylvania the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1786 he was, by a unan- imous resolution of the General Assembly, appointed to represent Rhode Island in the Congress of the Confedera- tion. In this new relation he acquitted himself with dis- tinguished honor, having the' pen of a ready writer, and being thoroughly familiar with the discussions and contro- versies of the day. Dr. Manning, as the late Samuel Thurber quaintly remarks, " did great things in the way of enlightening and informing the people. Schools revived by means of his advice and assistance." He was a mem- ber of the school committee of the town, and for many years the chairman. One of the last acts of his life was to draw up a report in favor of the establishment of free public schools, which was read at an adjourned town meeting held in the state-house two days after his decease. This report, which forms the basis of the present free school system, has been pronounced by a leading educator of New England, Hon. Henry Barnard, to be the best docu- ment of the kind extant. On the last Sabbath in April, 1791, he preached to the people of his charge his farewell sermon, and at a meeting of the corporation held on the 13th of the same month, he requested them to look out for a successor in the presidency. He seems to have had a sin- gular presentiment of his approaching mortality, but what gave rise to it can never perhaps be ascertained. On Sab- bath morning, July 24th, while uttering the voice of prayer

around the domestic altar, he was seized with a fit of apo- plexy, in which he remained, with but imperfect conscious- ness, till the ensuing Friday, when he expired, July 29, 1791, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. His funeral, which was the day following, was the " most numerous and respecta- ble," says the Providence Gazette, " ever attended in town." The memory of President Manning will be per- petuated in the beautiful hall erected by the late Hon. Nicholas Brown, which bears his name, and in the charac- ters and lives of his pupils and their descendants. His reports, addresses, and letters, such as are preserved, have been published in a volume of 523 pages, entitled, Life, Times and Correspondence of James Manning, and the Early History of Brown University. The following ex- tract from the inscription on his monument, written by his friend and associate in college instruction, Hon. Judge Howell, may fitly close this sketch: "His person was graceful, and his countenance remarkably expressive of sensibility, cheerfulness, and. dignity. The variety and excellence of his natural abilities, improved by educa- tion and enriched by science, raised him to a rank of eminence among literary characters. His manners were engaging and his voice was harmonious. His eloquence was natural and powerful. His social vir- tues, classic learning, eminent patriotism, shining talents for instructing and governing youth, and zeal in the cause of Christianity, are recorded on the tables of many hearts. The Trustees and Fellows of the College have erected this monument."

LACKSTONE, REV. WILLIAM, an Episcopal cler- gyman, born in 1595, graduated at Cambridge in 1617, ordained in 1621, left his native country, England, with the expedition of Robert Gorges in 1623, and first settled at Shawmut-now Boston. The plan of establishing an Episcopal colony was unsuc- cessful, and all returned to England except Blackstone. He had occupied Shawmut about seven years when Win- throp and his party arrived. He says, " I left England to get from under the power of the lord bishops." He was therefore a pronounced nonconformist. At his request the major part of the colonists of 1630, who had settled at Charlestown, Massachusetts, removed to Boston. But Puri- tanism proved little less to his taste than the domination of the " lord bishops." In 1635 he sold his lands in Bos- ton to the Puritan settlers, " each inhabitant paying him sixpence, and some of them more." Purchasing cattle, he removed to what was known afterwards as " the Attleboro Gore," in Plymouth patent, now the town of Cumberland, Rhode Island, and settled on a spot that he named Study Hill, a place of natural beauty, favorable to his mental pur- suits. A venerable oak, encircled by an iron railing for its protection, about a hundred yards east of the Lonsdale Railway station, marks his place of residence. Of his dis- like for Boston he said : " In America I am fallen under the

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power of the lord brethren." In the wilderness he found freedom. He was the first permanent white settler on lands now belonging to Rhode Island. At Study Hill he planted an apple orchard, the first that ever bore fruit in Rhode Island, and it is said that " he had the first of that sort called yellow sweetings that were ever in the world perhaps, the richest and most delicious apple of the whole kind." " As late as 1830 three of his apple-trees were liv- ing, and two of them bore apples." In 1659 he married a widow, Sarah Stevenson, of Boston, by whom he had a son John, who afterwards lived in Providence. Mrs. Black- stone died in June, 1673. " Though not agreeing in all re- spects with Roger Williams, Mr. Blackstone ever lived in fraternal relations with him, and frequently came to Provi- dence to preach." He died at Study Hill, May 26, 1675, at the age of eighty. A few days after, his house and library were burned by the Indians in Philip's bloody war. He has descendants now living in Connecticut and New York.

HALE, THEOPHILUS, the distinguished early set- tler of South Kingstown, Rhode Island, was born in England, of an opulent family, near 1616, and received a university education. His remarkable reticence in regard to his family and early history has left us only the fact that "till he was eighteen years old he knew not what it was to want a ser- vant to attend him with a silver ewer and napkin whenever he wanted to wash his hands." When nearly twenty years of age, under official auspices, he came to America, and served as an officer in the Indian difficulties in the colony of Virginia. In personal appearance he was full six feet high, of a strong though not heavy frame, and he pre- served his erectness to his one hundredth year. Returning to England after his experiences in Virginia, he served in the memorable Parliamentary wars, and also through the period of the Protectorate, and was an officer in a regiment of guards that participated in the execution of King Charles I, in 1649. But on the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the political situation induced him, as it did the regi- cide judges and others, to flee the country. Again he came to Virginia, where the most we have learned of him is that, near 1670, he married Elizabeth Mills, and here, probably four of his children, Joane, Anna, Theodosia, and Elizabeth, were born. On account of religious dissensions, as he was a Baptist, and from variances with the Royalists, possibly fearing the consequences of being known as a par- ticipant in the execution of Charles, he removed with his family from that colony, and came to Narragansett, Rhode Island, about 1680. Here he settled near the head of Pettaquamscut Pond, in South Kingstown, on what was known as the farm of Colonel Francis Willitt. His first abode was very humble, and he lived by fishing, weaving, and teaching. Here his three children, Martha, Lydia, and Samuel, were born. Mr. Whale here opened a private

school of a high order, through which classical tastes and attainments werc infused into the Narragansett country, greatly to the credit of Rhode Island. IIe could speak Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, all of which he desircd to teach to his grandson, Samuel Hopkins, and was a constant student of his Greck Bible. Among the Narragansett settlers he was conspicuous as a gentleman of manners, talents, attainments, and character, though he habitually shrank from public notice, and was not disposed to be- come communicative about affairs in England or in the colonies. He preferred the life of a student and a recluse. He did much service to the planters as a penman in ex- ecuting their deeds and papers, and in teaching their children. Distinguished men from Boston and other parts of the country visited him, and it is believed pri- vately supplied him with money. A Captain Whale once entered Narragansett Bay in his ship, and landing, called at Theophilus's residence, where there was a cordial meet- ing. Facts like these, coupled with his persistent silence in regard to his English history, awakened the suspicion, which finally grew into an accepted opinion, that he was of the Whalley family, and had altered his name lest he should be detected. It was even surmised that he was the real Edward Whalley, one that had signed the death-warrant of Charles. He finally came into posses- sion of a farm. His wife died near 1715, aged about seventy years. His daughter, Martha, married Joseph Hopkins, and became the mother of Judge Samuel Hop- kins. In his last days, leaving his old home in South Kingstown, he lived with his daughter in West Green- wich, where he died, near 1719, aged one hundred and three years, and was buried with military honors on Hop- kins Hill, in what has been known as Judge Samuel Hop- kins's lot. The grave may be found about six miles south- west from East Greenwich Court-house, one mile west of the East Greenwich line, and a mile north of the Exeter line. A careful plat of the ground has been prepared by Mr. Charles W. Hopkins, one of his descendants.

ILLETT, CAPTAIN THOMAS, born near 1612, was one of the last of the Leyden company who came to this country, arriving at Plymouth in 1629. Having been educated as a merchant, and, through his intimate business relations with Hol- land, having acquired a full knowledge of the customs and language of the Dutch, he was of great service to the first settlers of this country. He was sent by the people of Plymouth as the superintendent of a trading-house they had established at Kennebeck, where he continued six or seven years, when he married a Plymouth lady and re- moved to Dorchester, but between 1641 and 1647 rcturned to Plymouth. In this last year, 1647, he succeeded Miles Standish in the command of the military force of Plym- outh. In 1651 he was elected one of the Governor's

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Assistants, and was annually re-elected to that office till 1665, when business engagements compelled him to de- cline the position, and James Brown, of Swansea, succeeded him. In 1660 he settled in Rehoboth and became a great landowner in that region. He finally relinquished Attle- boro and Cumberland, in 1666, into the hands of the Plym- outh Colony. In 1667 he, with Rev. John Miles, founded the town of Swansea. On the surrender of New York to the English, under Colonel Nichols, in August, 1664, by the Dutch Governor, Stuyvesant, Captain Willett accompa- nied the Commissioners of Appeals, Nichols, Carr, Cart- wright, and Maverick, and rendered such service in that city, by his knowledge of the Dutch and their language, that after the organization of the new municipal govern- ment he was elected the first English Mayor of the munici- pality, and was continued in office for two years. He was so popular among the Dutch people, for his abilities and integrity, that they selected him as their umpire to deter- mine the disputed boundary between New York and New Haven. When his term of mayoralty expired he re- turned to Rehoboth, afterwards known as the Northwest of Swansea, later a part of Barrington and Seekonk. He married, July 6, 1636, Mary Brown, supposed to have been the daughter of John Brown, the elder, at Plym- outh, and sister of James Brown, one of the seven con- stituent members of the Swansea Baptist Church, under Rev. John Miles. He had eight children, some of whom died young. Several of his descendants have distin- guished themselves in the history of the country. Francis Willett was prominent in Rhode Island. Colonel Marinus Willett served with special honor in the Revolution, and was also a mayor of New York city. Captain Thomas Willett died in Barrington, August 4, 1674, at the age of sixty-three, and was buried at the head of Bullock's Cove. His wife, Mary, died near 1669, and was buried at the same place.

LARKE, GOVERNOR WALTER, son of Jeremiah and Frances (Latham) Clarke, was born in Newport in 1640. As a public man he filled many posts of honor and civil trust. During King Philip's war he was chosen Governor, and held the office from May, 1676, to May, 1677. He was acting Governor some time previous to this, for we find that when Providence was threatened with an attack from the Indians, application was made to Governor Clarke for assistance. The reply of the Governor may be found in Staples's Annals, page 162. It is written in a quaint style, and expresses sentiments such as we might expect a Quaker Governor would utter. " What you can secure by your own people is best," he tells Captain Arthur Fenner and the other citizens who had petitioned for help, " and what you cannot secure is best to be transported hither (Newport) for security ; for we have

no hopes, but sorrows will increase and time will wear you out, and if men lie upon you, their charge will be more than your profit twice told. I know your losses have been great and your exercises many, which do and may exas- perate to passionate words, yet men should keep within the bounds of reason, lest what they threaten others with, fall upon themselves; and if reports are true, we have not deserved such reproach, and I can truly say I have done to the uttermost of my ability for your good, and do, and shall do; yet we know the Lord's hand is against New England, and no weapon formed will or shall prosper till the work be finished by which the wheat is pulled up with the tares, and the innocent suffer with the guilty." Soon after the town was burned Governor Clarke was again called upon for aid, and agreed " to bear the charge of ten men upon the colony's account." Rhode Island was a great sufferer by the war, and the wisdom of her Governor and his Council was taxed to the utmost to meet the emer- gency. " Victors and vanquished at the close of the war were alike exhausted. The rural districts were everywhere laid waste. Rhode Island, excluded from the league, and always opposed to the war, had suffered most severely of all. Her mainland had become a desert, her islands fortresses for defence and cities of refuge." To add to the misery of the citizens, especially of the island of Rhode Island, in the train of war came pestilence, and but few families escaped without the loss of some of their number. At the spring election, May, 1677, Benedict Arnold was elected Governor in the place of Governor Clarke, which was considered a triumph for the war party in Rhode Island. The fact that Governor Clarke was chosen Deputy Governor from May, 1679, and each year to May, 1686, is an evidence of the high place he held in the regards of his fellow-citizens. In May, 1686, he was again elected Gov- ernor. During the suspension of the Royal Charter, for a period of nearly four years, Governor Clarke declined to serve, and the Deputy Governor, John Coggeshall, acted as Governor. This was the period of the administration of the obnoxious Sir Edmund Andros. Governor Clarke was one of seven persons from Rhode Island whom Andros selected to be members of the First General Coun- cil, which was to meet in Boston. On the return of Andros from his visit to Connecticut, in October, 1687, when the charter of the State was concealed in the famous oak in Hartford, he stopped at Newport and proposed to take possession also of the charter of Rhode Island. We learn from the Foster MSS., as quoted by Governor S. G. Arnold, that " in this attempt he was foiled by the foresight of the cautious Clarke, who, on hearing of his arrival, sent the precious parchment to his brother, with orders to have it concealed in some place unknown to himself, but within the knowledge of the secretary. He then waited upon Sir Edmund and invited him to his house. A great search was made for the coveted document, but it could nowhere be found while Andros remained in Newport. After he

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left it was returned to Governor Clarke, who kept it until the fall of Andros permitted a resumption of the govern- ment under it." This resumption took place in 1689, and Governor Clarke remained in office until the election of Governor Henry Bull, in February, 1690. In the month of December, 1695, Governor Carr died, and again Walter Clarke was chosen Governor, and entered upon the duties of his office in January, 1696, and was in office until March, 1698, at which time he resigned in favor of his nephew, Governor Samuel Cranston. His fellow-eitizens, however, were not willing to dispense with his public ser- vices, and at the spring election of 1700 he was chosen Deputy Governor, and held that office until the day of his death, May 22, 1714. Few men in Rhode Island have been longer in public life than was Governor Clarke.

RANSTON, GOVERNOR JOHN, came to Rhode Island probably from England. An aet was passed by the General Assembly, Mareh 1, 1664, permitting him "to administer phisicke and practice chirur- gery," and in these words that body conferred upon him the title of M.D .; " and is by this Court styled and recorded Doctor of Phisicke and Chirurgery by the au- thority of this the General Assembly of the Colony." The same year Captain Cranston, with John Clarke and William Dyre, was sent to England with a letter from the authori- ties in Rhode Island, expressing the gratitude of the colony to the King for the charter he had been pleased to grant, and congratulating the commissioners. May I, 1672, Captain John Cranston was elected Deputy Gov- ernor, which office he held for that year. In 1676 he was again eleeted to the same offiee, which he held till November 8, 1678, when he was chosen Governor, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Governor Coddington, which election was confirmed by the people the following May. He died while in office, March 12, 1680, the third Governor who had died in office in Rhode Island. He was the first person who had the title of Major General, which office was conferred upon him in King Philip's war. Governor Samuel Cranston, who was in office during the long period of twenty-nine years, was his son.

ZRANSTON, GOVERNOR SAMUEL, son of Governor John Cranston, was born in Newport in 1659. He was Governor of Rhode Island for twenty-nine consecutive years, from 1698 to 1727. His father was a physician and surgeon, and served as Attor- ney-General of the Colony from 1654 to 1656; was Deputy Governor in 1672, 1676, and 1677, and Governor from November, 1678, to March 12, 1680, when he died. He was the nephew of Governor Walter Clarke, whom he succeeded in office. The Quaker regime went out with Governor Clarke, and that of " the world " came in with

Samuel Cranston. His life was romantic, almost from the beginning to the close. He married Mary Hart, a grand- daughter of Roger Williams. Soon after his marriage he went to sea, and was not heard of for many years. He had been captured by pirates, and was unable to commu- nicate with his family, who, after a long time, concluded that he was dead. It is related by Bull, in his Memoirs of Rhode Island, that " his wife having an offer of mar- riagc," from Mr. Russell, of Boston, " accepted it, and was on the eve of solemnizing the marriage ceremony. But Cranston, having arrived in Boston, hastened homeward, and at Howland's Ferry, just before night, was informed that his wife was to be married that evening. With in- creased speed he flew to Newport, but not until the wedding guests had begun to assemble. She was called by a servant into the kitchen, a person being there who wished to speak with her. A man in sailor's habit ad- vanced and informed her that her husband had arrived in Boston, and requested him to inform her that he was on his way to Newport. This information induced her to question the man very closely. He then told her that what he had said was the truth, for he had seen her hus- band at Howland's Ferry that very afternoon, and that he was on his way to Newport. Then, stepping toward her, he raised his cap and pointed to a scar on his head, and said, ' Do you recollect that scar ?' from which she at once recognized her husband as in her presence. He then en- tertained the wedding guests with the story of liis adven- tures and sufferings." It is said that Mr. Russell took this very unexpected turn of events in good part, and relin- quished his expected bride to her lawful husband with a good grace. In giving an account of his elevation to the gubernatorial chair, Governor Arnold, in his History of Rhode Island, says: " The administration of Governor Cranston is remarkable for many reasons. He held his position, probably, longer than any other man who has ever been subjected to the test of an annual popular election. His great firmness in seasons of unexampled trial, that occurred in the early part of his public life, is, perhaps, the key to his wonderful popularity." He died in office, April 26, 1727, aged sixty-eight years. " The death of Governor Samuel Cranston," says Arnold, " was no ordinary event in the history of the colony. In the strength of his in- tellect, the courage and firmness of his administration, and the skill with which he conducted public affairs in every crisis, he resembles the early race of Rhode Islanders. Thirty times successively chosen to the highest office, he preserved his popularity amidst political convulsions that had swept away every other official in the colony. He was the connecting link between two centuries of its his- tory, and seemed, as it were, the bridge over which it passed in safety, from the long struggle for existence with the royal governors of Massachusetts to the peaceful posses- sion of its chartered rights under the House of Hanover." He was buried at Newport, and his tomb bears the follow-

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ing inscription : " Here lieth the Body of Samuel Cranston, Esqr., late Governor of this Colony, Aged 68 years, and departed this Life, April 26, A.D. 1627. He was son of John Cranston, Esqr., who also was Governor here, 1680. He was descended from the noble Scottish Lord Cranston, and carried in his veins a stream of the ancient Earls of Crawford, Bothwell and Traquair; having for his grand- father James Cranston, clerk, chaplain to King Charles the First. His great grandfather was John Cranston, Esqr., of Bool. This last was son to James Cranston, Esqr., which James was son of William Lord Cranston." James Crans- ton, Esq., married Lady Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of Francis, seventh Earl of Bothwell, who was nephew of Mary, Queen of Scots. Others of this distinguished family have also been in public office. John Cranston, Jr., was Speaker of the House in 1716; Thomas Cranston in 1748, and again from May, 1760, to May, 1762; Henry Y. Crans- ton in 1835, from 1839 to 1841, and again in 1854. He was also a member of Congress from 1843 to 1847. The town of Cranston, Rhode Island, takes its name from this family:

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 10

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868