The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 20

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

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SAVIS, PETER, a Quaker preacher of Westerly, was born in England in 1680. Educated a Presbyte- rian, he so remained until his thirty-sixth year, when he became a member of the Society of Friends. He was the first distinguished preacher in the West- erly meetings, held in the eastern part of the town. The meeting-house was built in 1744, at a cost of three hun- dred pounds. The society was a part of "the South Kingstown monthly meeting," and contained such mem- bers as John Collins, Jr., Peter Davis, Jr., Stephen Rich- mond, Solomon Hoxie, John Robinson, Cyrus Richmond, John Hoxie, Lot Trip, John Park, Zebulon Hoxie, Stephen Hoxie, and Thomas Wilbur. Peter Davis's services were not confined to this region ; he travelled and addressed the meetings of Friends throughout New England, and was everywhere well received. In 1747 he passed through Connecticut, visited Albany, went to Pennsylvania and Maryland, and sailed from Philadelphia for England. France and England then being at war, he was taken prisoner on his passage, but was shortly released. He was highly esteemed, as shown by papers in the western and northern parts of England. After his return he la- bored in various regions. The maxim, " Honesty is the

best policy," was attributed to him. Before his death, as he was unable to go out, meetings were often held at his house, when he spoke with great tenderness and fervor. He died February 29, 1776. He was succeeded in his ministry by his son l'eter, a man of deep piety and peculiar gifts, noted for his laconic and forcible ad- dresses, who died January 22, 1812, at the great age of one hundred and one years and seven months.

IPPITT, GENERAL CHRISTOPHER, son of Christopher and Catharine (Holden) Lippitt, was a lineal de- scendant of John Lippitt, whose name is the sixth on a list of fifty-two persons who, in 1638, had " home-lots" in Providence. On the 27th of May, 1640, John Lippitt signed a compact containing proposals for a form of government; and, in 1647, was on a com- mittee from Providence, which, with other committees from Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick, met at Ports- mouth " for the purpose of organizing a government" un- der the first charter. He soon afterward removed to Warwick, R. I., where he was a " freeman " in 1655. His descendants have been prominently identified with the interests of Warwick, and many of them have occupied conspicuous and useful positions in public life. General Lippitt's father was a native of Warwick, from which place he removed to Lippitt Hill, in Cranston, where he resided until his death, and his mother was a daughter of Anthony and Phebe (Rhodes) Holden. The former died December 7, 1764, at the age of fifty-two, and the latter May 4, 1807, in her ninetieth year. They are buried in the family grounds on Lippitt Hill, in Cranston. They had twelve children : Anthony, who died at the age of thirteen years; Freelove, who married Olney Rice, son of Randall Rice; Mary, who married Thomas Rice, brother of Olney Rice; Christopher, the subject of this sketch; Catharine ; Warren and Phebe, both of whom died in childhood; Moses, who was an officer in the third company of the Cranston militia in 1780 and 1781, and received a pension for his services at that time ; Charles, who was a resident of Providence for more than sixty years ; Loudon ; Waterman; and John, who was a private in Captain Dex- ter's company, in his brother's regiment, during the year 1776, and was at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. General Christopher Lippitt was eminently a self-made man, and possessed traits of character which enabled him to attain a high standing as a military officer, and to render valuable service in various civil capacities. Nearly two years before his death, which occurred June 17, 1824, he prepared, at the request of the Rhode Island Historical Society, the following autobiographical sketch, under date of September 4, 1822, which we herewith publish, as its style indicates the character of its author, and its contents embrace the most interesting points of his life : "I was

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born in the town now called Cranston, in the County of Providence, State of Rhode Island, in the year 1744; had no other learning than what was commonly obtained at the country schools of that day. My father died when I was in my twentieth year. When I was twenty-one, I repre- sented the town of Cranston in General Assembly, and was continued as a member thereof until the Revolution- ary War commenced. I was appointed captain of a militia company in said town of Cranston and a justice of the peace in the twenty-second year of my age, and continued to hold said commissions until the Revolutionary War was begun at Boston, and was then appointed lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of militia in the county of Providence. In the year 1775 I was appointed lieutenant-colonel of a regi- ment of minute men, to be ready at a minute's warning of any movement of the enemy, to resist them. In the latter part of this year Commodore Wallace, who com- manded a small British squadron in our bay, landed his marines on the island of Prudence and burned several dwellings. I was ordered on said island, and had com- mand of several companies of militia and some minute men, till I moved off all the inhabitants and cleared the island of all movable property and abandoned the same. While I was on this business the General Assembly or- dered a regiment of infantry, to be used for the protection of the State for one year, from the 18th day of January, A.D. 1776. I was appointed lieutenant-colonel of this regiment, and Henry Babcock, colonel. Babcock's con- duct was such that he was dismissed in a short time, and I was appointed colonel of the regiment, stationed at New- port till the forepart of September. When the regiment was called for by General Washington and the Congress, I, with the commissioned officers under my command, took Continental commission ; left Rhode Island about the mid- dle of September, 1776, and led the regiment to the camp of General Washington on York Island, at a place called Harlem Heights. After remaining there eight or ten days, the British came out from New York, and we fell back into the country, under the immediate command of General Lee, who commanded a division of the army at White Plains; and I was at the battle there. We then crossed the North River, and on our way through the Jerseys, being in camp for the night, General Lee, to accommodate himself,

taken a little before day by the British Light Horse and took quarters a short distance from the camp, and was

carried off. I then led my 'regiment, under the command of General Sullivan, and crossed at the forks of the Dela- ware, at a place called East Town, settled by a society of religious people called We then went down to Bristol, on the Pennsylvania side, and about the last of December and the forepart of January we crossed the

the immediate command of General Washington, was in river into the Jerseys again ; and I, with my regiment, under

the battle of Trenton and at Princeton, and took up winter quarters at Morristown till the time expired we were raised

for. I then dismissed the regiment and returned home. While I was with General Washington he gave me a brevet command of brigadier general over a brigade. Soon after I was returned home, I was appointed Brigadier General of the Militia of the County of Providence, and was in that command in the battle on Rhode Island, and was again a member of the General Assembly, and con- tinued a member and in command as brigadier till after the peace, A.D. 1783. Soon after a revolution took place in this State that dismissed me from all public life. But before this dismissal happened, I had been appointed Judge of the Superior Court, received my commission, but for various causes, refusing to be engaged until the next session of General Assembly, another was chosen in my room. I was also chosen to go a delegate to Congress, and refused. From the time the peace took place to the afore- said revolution in this State there was scarcely a rule of court submitted by disputers to referees but what I was a member. But being a zealous advocate for the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, I was cried down, and have lived a retired life from public business to this day, the date being the 4th of September, A.D. 1822; and in the next month I shall, if I live, enter my 79th year. Some years back I was brought seriously to think of death, resurrection, and judgment to come, and set about build- ing a house with a few others for public worship, and have finished the same mostly at my own expense. When the Peace Society of Providence was adopted, I subscribed my name as a member, of which I wish to continue, as a useful means of cultivating peace on earth and good will toward men during the remainder of my life." CHRISTO- PHER LIPPITT. " P. S. I desire this biographical relation to be entered and published whenever the doings of the Society are made public, and for the correctness of the most part of what is related I refer the inquirer to the rec- ords of the General Assembly of my native State." C. L. He married, March 23, 1777, Waite Harris, daughter of William and Patience (Clarke) Harris. She died Septem- ber 8, 1836, at eighty-one years of age. They had twelve children, seven of whom are buried near their parents on Lippitt Hill. The only child now living is Mary, who still resides on the old homestead, at the age of eighty-four. A large number of grandchildren are living. As an evi- dence of his sense of justice and affectionate regard for his immediate kindred, it is stated that, at the death of his father, General Lippitt waived the exclusive right of inherit- ance which belonged to the eldest son by the law of primo- geniture, then in force in Rhode Island, and shared equally with the other children in the distribution of his father's estate. He superintended the building of one of the first cotton-mills in the State, Lippitt Mill, in Warwick, in which he retained a proprietary interest during his life, and which his descendants still hold. He was influential in advancing enterprises calculated to promote the general welfare of the community. He also took a deep interest

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in religious matters, was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his house was the home of the first itinerant preachers of that denomination in Rhode Island, as mentioned in Stephens's Memorials of Methodism. In military life he was regarded " a brave and energetic officer, prompt in the execution of all orders, prudent in his movements, and highly commended by the commander-in-chief; as a civilian he was enterprising, public-spirited, and heartily in sympathy with everything pertaining to the best interests of humanity."

GUWUT ALBOT, COMMODORE SILAS, was the ninth child of Benjamin and Zipporah (Allen) Talbot, and was born at Dighton, Mass., in the year 1751. His mother died when he was four years of age, and his father having married again, five more children were added to the family. Inured to hardships from early life, young Talbot developed an independent and self-reliant character, yet ever exhibited a genial, self-sacrificing dis- position, which endeared him to his companions, and gave him a commanding influence over all with whom he was brought in contact. He learned the trade of a stonemason, and subsequently followed the sea for several years, until he was fitted to command a ship. In 1772 he became a resident of Providence, where he married Anna, daughter of Colonel Barzillia Richmond, and pursued his trade until he had accumulated some property. At the commencement of the Revolutionary War he responded to the call for troops, and rose from lieutenant to the rank of captain in the Army of Observation, his commission dating June 28, 1775. He was engaged at the siege of Boston, accom- panying the troops thence to New York, where the next year he distinguished himself in an attempt, partially suc- cessful, to burn the enemy's ships on the North River. In view of this daring exploit, Congress promoted him to the rank of major in the army. In the defence of Fort Mifflin, on Mud Island, in the Delaware River, he received a severe wound in the thigh, and his wrist was badly shat- tered by a musket-ball, but he fought till the works were evacuated. After a season of recuperation at home he returned to duty in the army commanded by General Sul- livan. Employed by the latter in collecting the means of transportation for the troops, he collected in an incredibly short period a sufficient number of boats to secure the re- moval of the army to Rhode Island, on the 9th of August, 1778. In the battle of Rhode Island, which occurred at Butt's, or Quaker Hill, twenty days subsequently, Major Talbot was attached to the Light Corps, and was stationed three miles in front of the camp. In this engagement he exhibited great coolness and bravery. On the 29th of Oc- tober, in the same year, he executed one of the most daring exploits of the war, planning and achieving the capture of the British floating battery " Pigot," of two hundred guns, which was anchored at the mouth of the Seaconnet

River, commanding the approach to Newport. With an insignificant sloop, equipped with two three-pounders and sixty men, he took this valuable prize, and carried her safely to Stonington. For this brilliant achievement the General Assembly awarded him a vote of thanks and an elegant sword, and Congress at once promoted him to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The British report spoke of him as " one of the greatest arch-rebels in nature." In 1779, Talbot armed his prize, " The Pigot," and, taking command of " The Argo," sought with this small fleet to protect our coast from Long Island to Nantucket. He soon captured " The Lively," with twelve guns, and two letters of marque brigs from the West Indies; also, the " King George," a Tory privateer, armed with fourteen guns. He subsequently captured " The Dragon," a large armed vessel, after a battle of four hours. For the latter achievement Congress commissioned him captain in the Navy, but was unable to give him a suitable vessel. He took command of the " George Washington," a privateer, and, falling in with a British fleet, was captured, ignomini- ously imprisoned in the hold, kept for a time in the Jersey prison-ship, and finally transferred to the Dartmoor Prison, in England. After atrocious treatment, endured with great heroism, he was exchanged in 1781, and returned home the same year, broken in health by his sufferings, yet unbroken in his spirit of patriotism. He continued to re- side in Providence until 1786. He married, in Philadel- phia, Rebecca Morris, daughter of Morris Morris, and granddaughter of Governor Mifflin, and settled in John- ston, Fulton County, New York, on the forfeited estate of Sir William Johnston. He represented his district in the State Assembly, and afterwards in Congress, in 1793-4, when he was appointed by General Washington, captain in the reorganized Navy. He superintended the building of " The Constitution " (44 guns) in 1797, of which he was captain until his resignation, four years after. In 1800, the San Domingo squadron was under his orders. Here one of his striking projects, the cutting out of the French vessel "Sandwiteh," was minutely carried out by his lieutenant, afterwards Commodore Hull, of which Cooper gives a glowing account in his Naval History. Commodore Talbot died in New York, June 30, 1813. His children were Eliza, born in 1773, and who married George Met- calf, March 5, 1791 ; Cyrus, born in 1774; George Wash- ington, born in 1775; Barzillia, who died young ; Theodore Foster, born in 1779; Sally Mifflin, who was born and died in 1789; and Henry, born in 1791.

FRANKLIN, JAMES, son of Josiah and Abiah (Fol- ger) Franklin, and brother of Benjamin Franklin, was born in Boston, February 4, 1697, and was ofo afo ofo one of ten children, his mother being the second wife of her husband, who had had seven children by his first wife. In his early youth he was sent to London

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Alphons Billings

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to learn the trade of a printer, and returned to Boston in 1717 with types and a press of his own, and set up busi- ness as a printer both of paper and calico. In the month of December, 1719, was issued the first number of the Boston Gazette. He was employed to print the paper, and was thus occupied for a year or more, when he was superseded by another printer, which so chagrined him that on his own responsibility he resolved to start another paper. Accordingly, on Monday, August 17, 1721, the first number of the New England Courant, owned, printed, and conducted by James Franklin, made its appearance. It was the fourth newspaper published in this western world. It was on this paper that Benjamin Franklin, then about sixteen years of age, began his career as a writer. From the outset the Courant was what we call a " sensa- tion paper," ready to attack anybody or anything by which to make capital, and made itself very obnoxious to the government. In the issue of June 11, 1722, appeared an article which seemed to reflect severely on the powers in authority. The publisher was summoned before the Coun- cil, and, after trial, refusing to give up the name of the writer of the article, he was sent to jail and kept there for four weeks. During his imprisonment his brother Benja- min had charge of the paper. At length James Franklin was put under the ban so effectually by the government, that about the middle of January, 1723, the paper began to be published in the name of his brother, then seventeen years of age, and continued to be so published for several months, when, not satisfied with the treatment he received from his brother, Benjamin ran away, about the month of September, 1723. It is said that the Courant began to flag when it lost Benjamin Franklin's lively pen, lingered two or three years, and at the beginning of 1727 ceased its existence. James Franklin continued his business in Bos- ton for awhile, and then removed to Newport, where, on the 27th of September, 1732, he issued the first number of the Rhode Island Gazette, which was the first newspaper published in the State. IIe had but little to encourage him in his project. Of the most valuable source of newspaper income-advertisements-he had none. Newport was a comparatively quiet, unpretending sort of a place in that early period. It had, it is true, some foreign commerce, and, with its fine harbor, made some pretensions to be the rival of New York in the shipping line. Franklin became dis- couraged, the paper " did not pay," and, after twelve num- bers had been published, it died a natural death in Decem- ber, 1732. Mr. Franklin survived the decease of his paper but a short time, his death taking place in 1735. His son James was more fortunate. The Newport Mercury, estab- lished by him, its first number being issued June 12, 1758, is among the few papers of the country which has had more than a century's existence. This first number, as we learn from the Mercury of June 16, 1866, was about the size of a letter-sheet, containing eight columns, three and a half inches wide, and twelve inches in length. For a

frontispiece it showed a ship leaving the harbor, a fortifica- tion in the rear with the British flag flying, and a figure of Mercury flying through the air, holding in his hand a pack- age, signifying a news-carrier. The press on which the elder James Franklin and his brother Benjamin worked in Bos- ton, after being in the office of the Newport Mercury for over one hundred years, was sold to John B. Murray, Esq., in 1858, and by him, in 1864, presented to the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association, on the 158th anniver- sary of the birthday of Franklin.

ILLINGS, HON. ALPHEUS, son of Ichabod and Martha Ann Billings, was born in Providence, March 31, 1772. He received a common English OCU education, and at an early age learned the trade of a hatter, which he followed for several years, and was then appointed constable. After serving for some time in that capacity he filled the office of sheriff. In 1808 he was appointed high sheriff, under Governor Fenner, and served until 1811, when he engaged in the grocery business with Luther Ainswortlı, on Weybossett Street, Providence, under the style of Billings & Ainsworth. On the dissolution of this partnership he became associated with George Weeden, in the same business, the firm name being Weeden & Billings. During the war of 1812 their trade was unusually large and profitable. This firm was dissolved in 1815, and for two years thereafter Mr. Billings continued in business with his son, E. R. Billings, under the style of A. Billings & Son. He was soon afterward reappointed high sheriff, and served for about six years, also acting as coroner and justice of the peace. For several years Mr. Billings acted as agent for Brown & Ives, for whom he collected rents, and represented them in other interests. When Providence was incorporated, in 1832, he was a candidate for mayor of that city, and was defeated by Hon. Samuel W. Bridgham, the first in- cumbent of that office, who was elected by a majority of 150 votes. During the administration of Governor John Brown Francis he was elected to represent Providence in the Rhode Island Senate, and served acceptably for several years as a member of that body. Mr. Billings was notably prompt, faithful, and uniformly courteous in the discharge of the various duties required of him during his official career, and by his kindliness, geniality, and integrity won and retained the respect and confidence of his fellow.men. For several years he was a member of the First Baptist Church of Providence, and afterwards he and his wife united with the Beneficent Congregational Church, of which he was an influential member. He was married, August 8, 1793, by Rev. Jonathan Maxcy, D.D., to Lydia Mann Carpenter, daughter of Oliver and May Carpenter, of Providence. She was a half sister of Knight Dexter. Her parents resided on High Street, Providence, and during the Revolutionary War General Washington was for a short

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time one of their guests. Mr. Billings died January 8, 1851, aged seventy-eight years, and his wife died July 12, 1868, at the age of ninety-three. They had four children, three sons and one daughter : Ethelbert Rhodes, born May 22, 1794, and died June 12, 1881 ; Alpheus Carpenter, born May 31, 1797, and died September 8, 1862; Mary Car- penter, born July 6, 1808, and died November 13, 1877 ; and Henry Leonard, born August 22, 1812, and died April II, 1814.

PPDIKE, DANIEL, Attorney-General, was born about the year 1680. He was the son of Lodowick and Catharine (Newton) Updike. His father died in 1737, leaving six children. A daughter, Sarah, mar- ried Dr. Giles Goddard, the grandfather of Professor William G. Goddard ; she died January, 1770. The sub- ject of this sketch was educated in his father's house, and was well instructed in the Greek, Latin, and French languages by a French tutor, who also had charge of the education of the sisters of Mr. Updike. One of these sisters, Sarah, to whom reference has just been made, is said to have discovered an extraordinary genius and taste for, and made a most surprising progress in, most kinds of useful and polite learning, including languages and several branches of mathematics. But, as we are told, " her un- common attainments in literature were the least valuable parts of her character. Her conduct through all the changing, trying scenes of life was not only unblamable, but exemplary ; a sincere piety and unaffected humility, an easy, agreeable cheerfulness and affability, an entertaining, sensible, and edifying conversation, and a prudent attention to all the duties of domestic life, endeared her to all of her acquaintances." On completing his studies Mr. Updike prepared himself for the legal profession, and, having been admitted to the bar of Rhode Island, he opened an office in Newport, and rapidly rose to distinction as a lawyer. In 1722 he was elected Attorney-General, and for ten successive years was re-elected by the votes of his fellow-citizens. In 1732 he declined longer service, having been nominated for Gov- ernor of the colony as an opposing candidate to William Wanton, who was elected to that office. In the adjustment of difficult and complicated questions which grew out of what sometimes were angry controversies respecting the boundary lines of Rhode Island and Connecticut, and Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Mr. Updike took an ac- tive part. One of the trials respecting the boundary lines of the two latter States was before Judge Lightfoot, who spoke of it as one of the most anxious exhibitions that he had ever witnessed, and that the argument of Mr. Updike in the close was a masterly effort. The final decision es- tablished within the limits of Rhode Island no inconsid- erable part of what, at best, is her small territory, to wit, the township of Cumberland, so called in honor of Wil- liam, Duke of Cumberland, famous for the part he took in the great battle of Culloden, the whole of Bristol, a part

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 20

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