The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 22

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

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David Bendent.

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had been gathered through the instrumentality of his labors while a student in college. Here he continued in the ministry a quarter of a century. Numerous and powerful revivals were the result of his faithful preaching, and the infant church grew to be large and flourishing. It is to- day one of the strongest Baptist churches in the State. In the early part of his ministry Dr. Benedict began to col- lect materials for his History of the Baptist Denomination in. America. Had he realized in the outset all the difficul-

ties of this great undertaking, it is doubtful whether he would ever have commenced it. He soon found that if he persevered he must travel extensively, and gather facts from fireside conversations with aged people, as did Mor- gan Edwards and Isaac Backus of precious memory, col- lecting here and there what few pamphlets and documents were to be had. In journeys made for this purpose he travelled on horseback nearly four thousand miles, through all the States and Territories of the Union. In the work of final revision he was assisted by Rev. George H. Hough, afterwards missionary to India. It was published by sub- scription in 1813, making two octavo volumes of nearly I200 pages. It is now a scarce book, and commands a high price. An abridgment was published in 1820. Dr. Benedict also published the following : The Watery War, a poem ; Conference Hymn Book ; an abridgment of Rob- inson's History of Baptism ; History of all Religions ; General History of the Baptists Continued, a royal octavo of 1000 pages; Fifty Years Among the Baptists ; History of the Donatists. This last work, upon which he was en- gaged almost at the time of his decease, was published by his only surviving daughter, Miss Maria M. Benedict, as a memorial of her honored and revered father. In addition to all these publications he was during his protracted life a frequent contributor to various papers and periodicals, some of which he edited. He was an active member of the corporation of Brown University, having been elected a trustee in 1818. From that time until his death, with the exception of a single year, he attended all the annual and special meetings, affording an instance of long-continued punctuality and zeal truly remarkable. He was a sincere and faithful member of the Masonic fraternity, as was also his father-in-law, Dr. Gano, Bishop Griswold, the late Dr. Taft, and others of that school. During the Antimasonic excitement which so convulsed society in New England and the Middle States he remained true to his convictions, regarding the institution as the oldest and best of all human organizations, not as Christianity itself, but as her hand- maid and helper. He died in peace, Saturday afternoon, December 5, 1874, in the ninety-sixth year of his age. His funeral was on Wednesday following, and the Baptist church was filled with mourners, friends, and fellow- citizens, among whom he had so long dwelt. Dr. Bene- dict married, May 4, 1808, Margaret Hubbel Gano, daugh- ter of the celebrated Dr. Stephen Gano, for thirty-six years pastor of the First Baptist Church in Providence. She

died November 28, 1868, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. Twelve children were the fruits of this marriage, of whom three sons and a daughter are now ( 1881) living.

YNDON, GOVERNOR JOSIAS, was born in Newport, March 10, 1704. He came from a worthy ancestry, and his own immediate family was so situated that he enjoyed such privileges for acquiring an education as were furnished in what was, at that time, one of the wealthiest and most honored places in the country. He was chosen clerk of the Lower House of the General As- sembly when he was a little over twenty years of age, and also clerk of the Superior Court of the County of New- port. For many years of a long life he discharged the clerical duties which devolved on him with great fidelity. The great controversy between Samuel Ward and Stephen Hopkins, the hand-shaking signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a memorable one in its day. It was a bitter strife of political partisanship in the struggle for the election of one or the other of these gentlemen to the Gubernatorial chair, a place of the highest honor in those colonial days. The fight went on with varying fortunes for ten years, when the parties in interest consented to withdraw their names, and the name of Josias Lyndon was presented for the votes of his fellow-citizens, and he was chosen Governor. He held the office one year, from May I, 1768, to May 1, 1769. It was an exciting period in New England history. The British Parliament, in its perplexity to raise funds to meet the nation's pecuniary liabilities, determined to tax the American colonies, although they were not represented in the legislative halls of England. The colonies, while in all proper ways de- claring their allegiance to the Crown and their attachment to the person and the family of the King, protested in the most solemn manner against taxation without representa- tion. The correspondence of Governor Lyndon, at this time, and the state papers which bore his signature, will show where stood the Executive of the plucky State of Rhode Island. Some of the sentences of the paper, " The Governor of Rhode Island to the King," have the true ring of the old Revolutionary times. The communication is respectful, loyal, but in a manly way it protests against the grievances which have been heaped upon the colonies. " Transplanted from Britain, subjects of the same King, partakers of the blessings of the same happy Constitution, supported and protected by her power, united with her in religion, laws, manners, and language, and animated with the same love of freedom, we esteem our connection with and dependence upon her as of the last importance to our happiness and well-being, and it will ever be our greatest solicitude to maintain and preserve to the latest posterity this invaluable blessing, replete with so many advantages." He proceeds to dwell upon the circumstances which led

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to the establishment of the colonies; how the first settlers were driven forth from their native land by the hand of persecution; how, through innumerable difficulties, they settled in this land, and at length, " by the goodness of God, without any expense to the Crown, although at much expense of their own blood and of their children's, they settled this, your Majesty's colony." The Governor then refers to the charter granted to Rhode Island by Charles II., which pledged to the inhabitants of the colony all the liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects born within the realms of England, among which was the ex- clusive right of giving and granting their own money by themselves or by their representatives. In respectful but firm tones, the Governor pleads in behalf of his fellow- citizens, and prays his Majesty not to oppress his subjects. In the same strain he addresses the Earl of Hillsborough, through whom the letter to the King is sent, and begs him to interpose in their behalf. He urges that it is not the right of the colonies to be independent of the mother coun- try. They are firmly attached, he assures his lordship, to his Majesty's person, family, and government. They es- teem their close connection with and dependence upon Great Britain as the source of their greatest happiness. All they ask is to be treated as free subjects, and not as slaves. No more loyal and yet earnest and frank com- munications were sent to the authorities across the ocean, from the accomplished statesmen of old Massachusetts itself, than those which bore the signature of Josias Lyn- don, Governor of Rhode Island ; and, unavailing though all these communications may have been, they have gone upon the pages of history as the protests of a suffering people against the oppressions which they were called upon to en- dure. When the British took possession of Newport, the Governor, feeling that one who had shown himself so con- spicuously a " rebel" would hardly be safe there, left the place and took up his abode in Warren, where he lived for several years, dying at last of the small-pox, March 30, 1778.

OOKE, GOVERNOR NICHOLAS, third child of Daniel and Mary (Power) Cooke, was born in Providence,

Gruta February 3, 1717. In his early life he engaged in seafaring business, and was successful as a ship- master. On retiring from the sea he was occupied in mercantile pursuits, in which he acquired a handsome property. He was an extensive landowner in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. He also carried on the ropemaking and distilling business, and was, in a special sense, " a man of affairs." Upon the displacement of Governor Joseph Wanton by the vote of the General Assembly, October 31, 1775, Mr. Cooke, who had twice held the office of Deputy Governor, was chosen to take the place of the obnoxious chief magistrate of the State. He remained in office until May, 1778, and then declined a re-

clection. The circumstances connected with his election are full of interest. There could be but little doubt that if the British should be successful, the chief magistratc of the State, called, as was believed, in an illegal way to takc the place of the loyal Governor Wanton, would forfeit his life as a punishment for his rashness. The eyes of the members of the General Assembly were fixed upon Nicho- las Cooke as the man of their choice. It is related that " Stephen Hopkins, then preparing for his journey to take his seat in Congress, and Joshua Babcock, the oldest mem- ber of the House, were requested to wait on him and, if possible, to obtain his consent. Both Houses were waiting in solicitude for the return of their messengers. They stated the urgency of the case. Mr. Cooke pleaded his advanced age and the retired habits which unfitted him for meeting the expectations of the Assembly. They re- plied that they considered his duty required him to make a favorable report. He finally consented, though nothing but the critical state of the country would have induced him so to do." The event fully justified the wisdom of the choice of Governor Cooke. He at once entered upon the discharge of his duties, and in a practical way began to show how sincere was the interest he felt in the welfare of his country. As early as November 27, 1775, we find him urging the Rhode Island delegates in Congress, Messrs. Hopkins and Ward, to propose to Congress to encourage the manufacture of saltpetre, to supply the lamentable want of gunpowder in the army. Already the attention of the General Assembly had been directed to the subject, and in August, 1775, they offered "a bounty of three shillings per pound for every pound of saltpetre that should be made in Rhode Island by the 26th of August, 1776, and three shil- lings a pound for the saltpetre." A long letter, addressed to the Rhode Island delegates in Congress, written by Governor Cooke on the subject, may be found in Staples's Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, pp. 47, 48, in which he alludes to his own successful attempts in a small way to manufacture saltpetre. Other letters of Governor Cooke's, which may be found in the volume referred to, in- dicate the patriotic spirit by which he was governed, and the wisdom with which he discharged the responsible duties of his office. Interesting letters also from Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, and Henry Marchant, written from Philadelphia in the earlier years of the Revolutionary struggle, may be found in Judge Staples's instructive vol- ume. The whole correspondence between the Governor of Rhode Island and the Congressional delegates is worthy of perusal, and gives us a high conception of the excellent common sense and good judgment of the Governor. Both Governor Cooke and Deputy Governor Bradford declined a re-election in May, 1778, and the General Assembly passed the following resolution : " His Excellency Nicho- las Cooke, Esq., late Governor, and his Honor William Bradford, Esq., late Deputy Governor of this State, having entered upon their said offices at a time of great public dan-

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ger, difficulty, and distress, and discharged the duties of their stations with patriotic zeal, firmness, and intrepidity, it is voted and resolved, That the thanks of this Assembly be given them in behalf of this State for their aforesaid services, and that the Secretary deliver a copy hereof to each of them ;" " A compliment," says Judge Staples, " that was well deserved." The venerable John Howland says that " Rhode Island history, if faithfully written, will hand his name down to posterity in connection with the most eminent public characters of which our country can boast." Governor Cooke lived two or three years after he retired to private life, his death occurring November 14, 1782. His widow died March 21, 1792. Nicholas Cooke was appointed a trustee of Brown University in 1766, and continued in office until his death. He represented in the corporation the Congregational Church, of which he was a member. He married, September 23, 1740, Hannah, daughter of Hezekiah Sabin, and was the father of twelve children. He has his representatives in men and women who have reason to be proud of an ancestry so honorable. His ninth child, Jesse, was the father of Joseph S., who was the father of nine children, among whom were the Rev. James Welsh Cooke, Joseph J. Cooke, Esq., of Providence, Albert R. Cooke, Esq., of Providence, Hon. George Lewis Cooke, of Warren, and Dr. Nicholas Francis Cooke, of Chicago, Illinois.

OPKINS, GOVERNOR STEPHEN, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Scituate, Rhode Island, March 7, 1707. He left his native place early in life and took up his residence in Providence. His abilities soon won for him the esteem and confidence of his fellow-citizens, and he was sent as their representative to the General Assembly in 1733. Six years later, in 1739, he was chosen Chief Jus- tice of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1755 was elected Governor of the colony. With the exception of four years he held this office till 1768. At a special meeting of the citizens of Providence, held in 1765, he was appointed chairman of a committee to draw up instructions to be pre- sented to the General Assembly, relative to the Stamp Act. The resolutions which the committee prepared were simi- lar to those which Patrick Henry had laid before the House of Burgesses in Virginia, with the added one, which that body had declined to pass, to wit : " We are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance designed to im- pose any internal taxation whatever upon us, other than the laws and ordinances of Rhode Island," -- the words Rhode Island being substituted for Virginia. The General Assem- bly passed the resolutions. With Governor Samuel Ward he was chosen to represent his native State in the General Congress at Philadelphia, and was a member of that body in 1774, 1775, and 1776. His name is always noticed among the signers of the Declaration, as the signature is so

peculiar as to attract attention. Goodrich states that he had for some time been afflicted with a paralytic affection which compelled him, when he wrote, to guide his right hand with his left. But the tremulous signature is not indicative of the spirit of the man, who, says the same author, knew no fear in a case where life and liberty were at hazard. On signing the Declaration he remarked, "My hand trem- bles, but my heart does not." He was one of the import- ant committee which drafted the Articles of Confederation. John Adams makes the following pleasant allusion to his personal connection with Governor Hopkins : " Governor Hopkins, of Rhode Island, above seventy years of age, kept us,"-that is, the members of the naval committee, Messrs. Lee and Gadsden and himself,-" all alive. Upon business his experience and judgment were very useful. But when the business of the evening was over he kept us in conversa- tion till II, and sometimes till 12 o'clock. His custom was to drink nothing all day until 8 in the evening, and then his beverage was Jamaica spirits and water. It gave him wit, humor, anecdotes, science, and learning. He had read Greek, Roman, and British history, and was familiar with English poetry, particularly Pope, Thomson, and Milton ; and the flow of his soul made all his reading his own, and seemed to bring in recollection in all of us all we had ever read. I could neither eat nor drink in those days; the other gentlemen were very temperate. Hopkins never drank to excess, but all he drank was immediately not only converted into wit, sense, knowledge, and good humor, but inspired us with similar qualities." Governor Hopkins died at his residence in North Providence, July 13, 1785. His name, says Greene, " is closely interwoven with all that is greatest and best in Rhode Island history; an as- tronomer of no mean pretensions, a statesman of broad views and deep penetration, a supreme executive, prompt, energetic and fearless, a genial companion when wise men relax from care, and a trusty counsellor when the duties of life bear heaviest on the scrupulous conscience."

GALLERY, WILLIAM, one of the signers of the Decla- ration of Independence, was born in Newport, R. I., December 22, 1727. His father, William Ellery, was assistant from 1742 to 1745, and Deputy- Governor of Rhode Island in 1748 and 1749; and his grandfather, Captain Benjamin Ellery, removed from Gloucester, Mass., to Newport, and was assistant in 1741, under the administration of Governor Richard Ward. Mr. Ellery graduated at Harvard College in 1747, in a class of twenty-eight, and was early distinguished for his scholarly attainments. He became a merchant in Newport, and naval officer of the colony; was one of the original cor- porators of Rhode Island College, in 1764; and clerk of the General Assembly in 1769 and 1770. In the latter year he commenced the practice of law, in which for many years he engaged successfully. At the outbreak of the

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Revolutionary War he was a member of the Committee of Safety, of the Committee of Investigation, of the Commit- tee of Inspection, of the Committee of Military Defences, and of a Committee to bear a memorial to Washington, then at Cambridge. This memorial may be seen in the Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. vii., 471. Upon the death of Governor Samuel Ward, delegate to Congress, at Philadelphia, Mareh 26, 1776, Mr. Ellery was immediately chosen to fill his place as colleague of Governor Stephen Hopkins, then the most experienced statesman in Rhode Island. He immediately entered upon his duties, and was soon recognized as one of the ablest and most influential members of that memorable body. He was forty-nine years of age at the time he affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence, the great event of his life, and remained in Congress till 1786, with the exception of 1780 and 1782. He rendered efficient service as a member of the Marine Committee, and subsequently as a member of the Board of Admiralty. The plan of fitting out fire-ships at Newport is attributed to him. In April, 1786, he was elected by Congress Commissioner of the Continental Loan Office for the State of Rhode Island; and upon the organization of the Federal government, and the adoption of the Con- stitution by Rhode Island, in June, 1790, he was appointed colleetor of Newport by Washington, which office he re- tained till his death, February 15, 1820, at which time he was in the ninety-third year of his age. He was buried in the Coggeshall family cemetery, corner of Coggeshall and Victoria avenues, Newport, one and a half miles from the State House. Mr. Ellery was twiee married. His first wife was Ann Remington, daughter of Hon. Jonathan Remington, of Cambridge. She died September 7, 1764, aged thirty-nine, but we do not know the place of her sepulchre. His second wife, Abigail, died July 27, 1793, aged fifty-one years, and was buried in the Coggeshall famn- ily cemetery. There may also be found the graves of four of Mr. Ellery's children : Susanna, who died April 14, 1828, aged fifty-three ; Nathaniel C., who died October 18, 1834, aged seventy ; Philadelphia, who died April 24, 1856, aged eighty ; and Edmund T., who died March 24, 1847, aged eighty-four. The Ellerys were distantly related to the Coggeshalls, which will probably account for these in- terments having been made in this cemetery. Mr. Ellery's daughter Luey, the mother of Dr. William Ellery Chan- ning, who died about 1830, was buried elsewhere.

COLLINS, JOHN, a preacher in the Society of Friends, son of John and Susannah (Dagate) Collins, was born in Charlestown (then a part of Westerly), R. I., December 12, 1716. His father was a recog- nized minister in the Friends' Society. His mother, when a small girl, losing her way in the wild, slept in an Indian cabin, and overheard a conversation relative to an uprising of the natives against the settlers, the divulging of

which prevented the planned slaughter. John was care- fully cducated in the principles of the Friends and publicly espoused them near 1736. Among his early advisers and teachers were Peter Davis, Ist, Peter Davis, 2d, and the gifted but eccentric James Scribbens.

John Collins became a distinguished preacher, and for many years sat at the head of the New England Yearly Meeting. It was said of him that he knew more about dis- ciplinary affairs than any other in the meeting; that " he was much engaged, and took much pains in endeavoring to have the Africans, or negroes, freed from slavery, and often testified against that wicked practice." He died in Stonington, Conn., October 1, 1778. He married Mchita- bel Bowen, of Voluntown, Conn., and had four children, John, Stephen, Amnos, and Sarah. Amos had eight chil- dren, one of whom, Abel, became a noted preacher, and died September 15, 1834.

SHER, REV. JOHN, son of Lieutenant-Governor John Usher, of New Hampshire, was born not far from the year 1700, and was a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1719. He went to England and took orders in the Episcopal Church not long after his graduation, and in 1722, was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to Bristol, to take charge of the infant parish of St. Michael's, which had been formed in 1719. The success which attended his ministry appears from the circumstance that during the first year and a half of his ministry he bap- tized thirty-six, among whom was his son of the same name, who afterwards became the successor of his father as the minister of the parish. The church was compelled not only to raise from eighty to one hundred and thirty pounds toward the salary of their own clergyman, but until 1746 they were also taxed by the court for the support of the Congregational minister. Under the ministry of Mr. Usher, the congregation increased so much that in 1731 it became necessary to add galleries to the church, and there was no difficulty in disposing of the new pews. A some- what remarkable vote was passed this year which made it the duty of the Rector to support all the widows of the church at his own expense! Whether this was owing to the increase of income from the new pews, making it possi- ble to add to the ability of the minister to take upon him- self this burden, does not appear. Mr. Usher filled the office of Rector of St. Michael's Church until he was nearly eighty years of age. During his long ministry, he baptized 713 persons, performed the marriage ceremony 185 times, attended 274 funerals. Updike says of him : " He made the welfare of the church the whole business of his life. In the early settlement of the town he suffered depriva- tions, hardships, and mortifications that few of the clergy are called upon to endure at the present day." In 1793

Truman Beckwith

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his son John was ordained, and for seven years, 1793-1800, officiated as the rector of the parish. He died in 1804, aged 82 years, and his remains, with those of his father, are interred under the chancel of the church.

2 ARDNER, JOHN, was admitted a freeman of the town of Newport in 1722. From 1732 to 1737 he was an assistant, and while so engaged, was one of a committee appointed by New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Nova Scotia, in 1737, to devise a plan to settle the dispute between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in regard to portions of their boundary lines. In 1741 he was a committee, with John Cranston and Hezekiah Carpenter, appointed by the General As- sembly to ascertain if two additional companies could be raised for the defence of the colony, and to put the fort on Goat Island in a proper condition for the defence of the port. He had the rank of Colonel, and in 1744 was ap- pointed Commissary-General. In 1743 he was elected Gen- eral Treasurer, which office he held till 1748, when he was again chosen assistant. In 1754 he was deputy-governor for one year. The next year Jonathan Nichols, Jr., was chosen deputy-governor, but he died before the year was out, and John Gardner was elected in his place, which office he held during the remainder of his life. In 1757 he was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judi- cature, to which was added that of assizes and general jail delivery. John Gardner died January, 1764, at the age of 69 years.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 22

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