The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 3

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

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BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

Rev. Samucl Hubbard, of Boston, under date of May Ioth of this year, says, " The Lord hath arrested by death our ancient and approved friend, Mr. Roger Williams, with divers others here." He was buried under arms, " with all the solemnity," says Callender, " the Colony was able to show." The place of his interment is now an orchard, in the rear of the residence of the late Mr. Sulli- van Dorr. In 1860 his remains, " dust and ashes," were exhumed, under the direction of one of his descendants, and removed to the North Burial Ground. The follow- ing is a list of the writings of Roger Williams, the titles being given in full, and arranged in chronological order: (1.) " A Key into the Language of America; or, An Help to the Language of the Natives in that part of America called New England ; together with Briefe Ob- servations of the Customes, Manners, and Worships, &c., of the aforesaid Natives, in Peace and Warre, in Life and Death; on all which are added Spirituall Observations, Generall and Particular, by the Author, of Chiefe and Spe- ciall Use, upon all Occasions, to all the English inhabiting those Parts; yet Pleasant and Profitable to the View of all Men. London. Printed by Gregory Dexter. 1643." (Small duodecimo, 216 pages, including preface and table. It is dedicated to the Author's " deare and well-beloved friends and country-men in Old and New England.") (2.) " Mr. Cotton's Letter, lately printed, examined and answered. London. Imprinted in the yeere 1644." (A small quarto of forty-seven pages, including two pages to the " Impar- tiall Reader.") (3.) " The Bloody Tenent of Persecu- tion for Cause of Conscience, discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace, who, in all tender affection, present to the High Court of Parliament, as the result of their discourse, these, amongst other passages of highest consideration. London. Printed in the year 1644." (A small quarto, comprising 247 pages of text, besides 24 pages of table and introduction.) (4.) " Queries of High- est Consideration, proposed to Mr. Tho. Goodwin, Mr. Philip Nye, Mr. Wil. Bridges, Mr. Jer. Burroughs, Mr. Sidr. Simpson, all Independents; and to the Commission- ers from the Generall Assembly, so-called, of the Church of Scotland, upon Occasion of their late printed Apolo- gies for themselves and their Churches. In all humble reverence presented to the view of the Right Honorable the Houses of the High Court of Parliament. London. Imprinted in the yeare 1644." (An anonymnous pamphlet of thirteen pages.) (5.) " The Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody, by Mr. Cotton's endeavor to wash it white in the blood of the Lamb; of whose precious blood, spilt in the blood of his servants, and of the blood of millions spilt in former and latter wars for conscience' sake, that most Bloody Tenent of Persecution for cause of conscience, upon a second tryal, is found now more apparently and more notoriously guilty. In this rejoynder to Mr. Cotton are principally : I. The nature of persecution. 2. The power of the civill sword in spirituals examined. 3. The

Parliament's permission of dissenting consciences justified. Also, as a testimony to Mr. Clark's Narrative, is added a letter to Mr. Endicot, Governor of the Massachusetts in N. E. London. Printed for Giles Calvert, and are to be sold at the Black Spread-Eagle, at the West-End of Pauls. 1652." (A small quarto of 373 pages, including the in- troduction and table of contents.) (6.) " The Hireling Ministry None of Christ's; or, A Discourse touching the Propagating the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Humbly pre- sented to such pious and honorable hands, whom the present debate thereof concerns. London. Printed in the Second Month, 1652." (A small quarto, comprising thirty- six pages of text and eight pages of introductory matter.) (7.) " Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives, in which the weakest Child of God may get assurance of his Spiritual Life and Blessednesse, and the strongest may finde proportionable Discoveries of his Chris- tian Growth, and the Means of it. London, Printed in the Second Month, 1652." (A small quarto, comprising fifty- nine pages of text, and ten pages of introductory matter. In the form of a letter to his wife, commencing " My Dearest Love and Companion in this Vale of Tears." Dedicated to the Honorable Lady Vane.) (8.) " George Fox digg'd out of his Burrowes; or, An Offer of Dispu- tation on Fourteen Proposalls made this last Summer, 1672, so-called, unto G. Fox, then present on Rhode Island, in New England, by R. W. As also how, G. Fox slyly departing, the disputation went on, being man- aged three dayes at Newport, on Rhode Island, and one day at Providence, between John Stubs, John Burnet, and William Edmundson, on the one part, and R. W. on the other. In which many quotations out of G. Fox and Ed. Burrowes's book, in folio, are alleadged. With an ap- pendix of some scores of G. F. his simple lame answers to his opposites in that book, quoted and replyed to. Boston. Printed by John Foster. 1676." (A quarto of 335 pages.) These works in their original editions are seldom now found, either in public or private libraries. They indeed belong to that class of books which Clement, in his Bibliothèque Curieuse, denominates " excessively rare." Under the auspices of the " Narragansett Club," they, together with his letters, have recently been re- printed, with the exception of Hireling Ministry and Spiritual Experiments, in six quarto volumes, consti- tuting a monument to the author's genius and worth, more enduring than " storied urn " or sculptured marble. Professor Tyler has given a masterly analysis of them in his History of American Literature. " Roger Wil- liams," he says in the commencement, " never in any- thing addicted to concealments, has put himself, without reserve, into his writings. There he still remains. There, if anywhere, we may get well acquainted with him. Searching for him along the two thousand printed pages upon which he has stamped his own portrait, we seem to see a very human and fallible man, with a large head, a

R Whitechurch

MAJOR GENERAL NATHANIEL GREENE

Natherun

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

warm heart, a healthy body, an eloquent and imprudent tongue ; not a symmetrical person, poised, cool, accurate, circumspect ; a man very anxious to be genuine and to get at the truth, but impatient of slow methods, trusting gal- lantly to his own intuitions, easily deluded by his own hopes; an imaginative, sympathetic, affluent, impulsive man; an optimist ; his master-passion benevolence; . . . lovely in his carriage; . . . of a hearty and sociable turn; .. . in -truth a clubable person; a man whose dignity would not have petrified us, nor his saintliness have given us a chill; ... . from early manhood even down to late old age . . . . in New England a mighty and benignant form, always pleading for some magnan- imous idea, some tender charity, the rectification of some wrong, the exercise of some sort of forbearance towards men's bodies or souls." In February, 1872, Providence came into possession of the Joseph Williams farm, now called the " Roger Williams Park," a splendid inclosure of one hundred acres and upwards. The original owner was a son of Roger. By the terms of the will bequeath- ing the estate, the old family burying-ground in the south- west corner of the park must always be reserved " as a place of sepulchre of the descendants of Roger Williams." The will also required the erection of a monument to his memory. Plans for this, by Franklin Simmons, the dis- tinguished American artist at Rome, were accepted by the City Council, and on Tuesday, October 16, 1877, the mon- ument was formally dedicated. It stands on the high bank west of the lake, and faces west. The monument, which is twenty-seven feet in height from the base, is crowned by a statue of Roger Williams, seven and one-half feet in height, of which our frontispiece is an excellent engrav- ing. Another monument to his memory will in time be erected somewhere on Prospect Hill, the late Stephen Randall, a descendant, having left funds in the People's 'Savings Bank to accumulate for this purpose.

FREENE, NATHANAEL, MAJOR-GENERAL in the army of the Revolution, was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, May 27, 1742. His father, Na- thanael, was a Quaker preacher, and also a large landed proprietor, the owner of a grist-mill, a flour- mill, a saw-mill, and a forge, which he kept in constant and profitable operation. Eight sons, two of them by his first wife, Phœbe Greene, the other six, including young Nathanael, by his second wife, Mary Mott, were trained from their boyhood to work in the fields, the mills, and the forge, and to walk their two miles to the meeting-house in all kinds of weather. At the age of fourteen he formed the casual acquaintance of a student by the name of Giles, who was passing a college vacation in the vicinity of Poto- womut. This event served to awaken in him new hopes and aspirations, and from this time on a world of knowl-

edge began to unfold itself before him. The next winter, under the direction of a teacher by the name of Maxwell, he began the study of geometry and Latin. He also read with avidity standard works of history. The further acquaintance of the Rev. Dr. Stiles, of Newport, and of the grammarian Lindley Murray, introduced him to Watt's Logic and Locke On the Understanding, and led him to lay the foundation of those habits of patient investigation, which so often excited the wonder and admiration of those who were called to act with him in his public career. At the age of twenty he had acquired a stock of knowledge, which would have been remarkable under any circum- stances. His little library too had been enlarged, until he could count several hundred classics among his treasures. Notwithstanding his manual labors at the forge, and his literary and scientific pursuits, he retained his original pas- sion for frolic and game, and was ever ready for a feat of strength or agility, being usually the victor in a contest. His chief passion was dancing, which he sometimes in- dulged, with the full knowledge of the penalties and pains of his stern father's displeasure. He soon began to take an active part in public affairs, and in 1770 he was elected a member of the General Assembly from Coventry. The taking of the King's cutter at Newport, in 1769, and the burning of the Gaspee in Providence River three years later, were evidences of an impending contest in which he felt that he must be a leader. To qualify himself for this he applied himself to the study of the art of war with all the energy of his soul, and Sharpe's Military Guide, the Memoirs of Turenne, Casar's Commentaries and Plutarch, became his textbooks and daily companions. For engag- ing in military exercises and joining the Kentish Guards he was expelled from the Society of Quakers or Friends. In July, 1774, he married Catharine Littlefield, of Block Island, a lady worthy of his love, with whom he lived most happily through all the changes and vicissitudes of his after life. In May, 1775, he was appointed by the General Assembly to command as Brigadier-General the Rhode Island contingents in the army before Boston. He joined his command on the 3d of June, and from that time remained in active service, without a day's furlough, till the final disbandment of the army in 1783. The story of his military career has been faithfully portrayed by the historians of the war, by his biographer, Judge William Johnson, whose work in two large quarto volumes was published in 1822, and later by his grandson, the accom- plished Professor George W. Greene, who in three large octavo volumes has embodied the researches and studies of twenty years, leaving nothing further to be desired. At Roxbury General Greene's brigade was distinguished by its discipline, and he at once won the love and confidence of Washington, a confidence that was never shaken, and a love that increased from year to year. He became the second of the Great Commander in the hearts of the peo- ple, and he would undoubtedly have succeeded him in case

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of any unfortunate contingency. After the evacuation of Boston, he was intrusted with the defence of Long Island, but was stricken down by a fever a few days before the dis- astrous battle of August 27. In September, 1776, he was made Major-General, and appointed to the command in New Jersey. At Trenton he led the division with which Washington marched in person, and with Knox was for following up the advantages of that brilliant surprise. He took a prominent part in the battles of Princeton and of Brandywine. At Germantown he commanded the left wing which penetrated into the village. On the 2d of March, 1778, at the urgent solicitation of Washington and the Committee of Congress, he accepted the office of Quartermaster-General, stipulating that he should retain his right to command in action. This position he held until August, 1780. He commanded the right wing at Monmouth, in 1778, and took an active part in the battle of Tiverton Heights near Newport. He was in command of the army during General Washington's visit to Hart- ford in September, 1780, when Arnold's conspiracy was discovered, and sat as President of the court of inquiry upon Major Andre. On the 14th of October following he was appointed to the command of the Southern army, which he found on his arrival in a state of utter disorgan- ization and want. His presence, however, soon restored the confidence of the troops. On the 20th he advanced to a well-chosen camp on the banks of the Pedee, and began a series of operations which, in less than a year, stripped the enemy of nearly all their hard-won conquests in the Carolinas and Georgia, and shut them up in Charles- ton and its immediate vicinity. Through his skilful strategy, even his reverses produced the fruits of victory. In March, 1781, he was defeated by Lord Cornwallis in the hard-fought battle of Guilford Court-house, but the English general derived no permanent advantages from his triumph. Cornwallis having retreated into Virginia, Greene defeated, after a severe action, the forces of Colo- nel Stewart at Eutaw Springs, and thereby put an end to the British power in South Carolina. This was the last battle in which General Greene was engaged, although he held his command till the end of the war. On the 16th of April came the long-expected news of peace. Charles- ton was illuminated, and the troops at their encampment on James's Island celebrated the day with firing and every military expression of joy. Soon the army was disbanded, and he with a lightened heart commenced his journey homeward. Everywhere on his route his presence was greeted with addresses and processions, and all those expressions of gratitude and veneration which go so directly to the heart that is conscious of deserving them. Congress was then sitting at Princeton; and thither he repaired to give an account of his administration, and sur- render up his trust. There, too, he met Washington, and enjoyed with him, for the last time, that frce and unre- served communion of confiding friendship in which they

had so often sought refuge from the cares and anxieties of their public career. After passing a year in Rhode Island in the society of his loved family and friends, in the spring of 1785 he returned to the South in order to establish himself as a planter at the beautiful seat of Mulberry Grove, on the Savannah River, which had been presented to him by the State of Georgia. Thither in the following autumn he removed his family. But his life amid these pleasant surroundings was soon to terminate. On Mon- day, June 12, 1786, he was stricken down from the effeets of a sunstroke, and on the following Monday he expired, in the 45th year of his age. Congress at once passed suita- ble resolutions, and voted a monument, which, however, has never been erected. His only record at the seat of the national government is the noble statue by H. K. Brown, a gift of the State of Rhode Island. His pub- lished Life and Correspondence constitutes a monument more enduring than brass or marble. General Greene left five children, George Washington, Martha Wash- ington, Cornelia Lott, Nathanael Ray, and Louisa Catha- rine. George accompanied Lafayette to France in 1785, and pursued his education under the Marquis's care until 1794, when he returned to Georgia, Soon after his return he was drowned in the Savannah River. Martha married John C. Nightingale, and afterwards Dr. Henry Turner, of Tennessee. Cornelia married Peyton Skipwith, and after his death E. B. Littlefield, of Tennessee. Nathanael married Miss Ann Clarke, and settled in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Louisa, who was born a few months after the death of her father, married Mr. James Shaw, and settled on Cumberland Island. Mrs. Greene remained a widow a few years and then married Mr. Phineas Miller. She died September 2, 1814, transmit- ting to each of her children a competent fortune, through judicious economy and vigorous management, assisted by the liberal grants made to hier first husband by the legis- laturcs of the Carolinas and of Georgia.

am ARRIS, WILLIAM, one of the five persons who were originally associated with Roger Williams in the settlement of Providence, was born early in the seventeenth century. The early connection of Harris with Williams is thus referred to by the latter. Many years after the founding of the colony "my soul's desire was to do the natives good, and to that end to have their language (which I afterwards printcd), and therefore desired not to be troubled with English company, yet out of pity I gave leave to William IIarris, then poor and destitute, to come along in my company." On becom- ing the lawful owner of the extensive territory, a part of which embraces Providence, Roger Williams cxecuted a deed giving an equal share with himself to twelve of his companions, one of whom was Ilarris, who, with William Arnold, William Carpenter, and Zechariah Rhodes, removed

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in 1638 to " Pawtuxet Purchase," so called, to distinguish it from the " grand purchase of Providence." Mr. Harris was one of the twelve original members of the First Bap- tist Church in Providence, having been baptized by Roger Williams in March, 1638-39. The removal of the eccen- tric Samuel Gorton and his associates from Newport to Pawtuxet gave rise to serious disturbances between him and his neighbors, among whom was the subject of this sketch. It is said that " the parties became so much ex- asperated that they proceeded to acts of violence and bloodshed." Finding that they needed protection from a stronger government than that of Rhode Island, a number of citizens of Pawtuxet wrote to the government of Mas- sachusetts for aid and counsel. Among those who signed this letter was William Harris, who seems, however, to have drawn back when the time of actual submission to the Massachusetts authority was reached. In 1654 Mr. Harris appears upon the stage of action as the promulgator of ultra doctrines on liberty of conscience, which, if carried into practice, would be subversive of all government. " In open court he protested, before the whole Colony Assembly, that he would maintain his writings with his blood." He seems, however, in a short time, to have come into a bet- ter state of mind, for, according to Backus, he " cried up government and magistrates as much as he had cried them down before." It was at this time that Roger Williams wrote his famous letter, in which he so forcibly points out the difference between true liberty and lawlessness. One unfortunate result of the controversy was to bring the founder of Rhode Island and the man whom, when he was " poor and destitute " he had befriended, into antag- onism with each other. When the former was in office as President of the Colony, he was so exasperated by the con- duct of Harris that he issued a warrant for his arrest, on the charge of high treason against the Commonwealth of England. The warrant was not carried into execution,

but the accused was required to give bonds for £500 to keep the peace until the matter could be adjudicated upon in England. It is very evident that Harris was a man of marked positive character. Governor Arnold says that he " brought to whatever he undertook the resources of a great mind and, to all appearance, the honest convictions of an earnest soul." His enemies were not sparing in the utterances of their opinion about him. (See Staples's An- nals, pp. 147-48.) His friends, however, clung to him, and he was often chosen to fill important posts of honor and trust. Knowles says : "We may hope that Mr. Harris, though he doubtless had faults, was less culpable than his contemporaries thought him. It was an unquiet time, and few public men escaped censure." Down even to the close of life he seems to have been in trouble of one sort or other. Grave difficulties arose with regard to the proprie- torship of certain lands in Pawtuxet, the details of which cannot now be given. In 1677 Harris made a voyage to England in the interest of his friends, but no definite result

was reached. Three voyages to England were made for the same object. On his fourth voyage, in 1689, he was taken a prisoner by a Barbary corsair and carried to Algiers, where he was detained a year, being finally ransomed by the payment of $1200. The summer following he spent in travel, but he was so broken down by the hardships he had experienced, that three days after reaching London he died. For an estimate of his character the reader is re- ferred to Arnold's History of Rhode Island, vol. i, p. 437.

SMITH, JOHN, known in the early history of Rhode Island as " John Smith, the Miller," was born near the commencement of the seventeenth century. He was among the few individuals who joined Roger Williams at Seekonk previous to his crossing the river to take up his residence on its west side. In the dis- tribution of land made by Williams his name appears among the fifty-four owners of "town lots," and as a signer of the document drawn up and dated December, 1647, designed to restore peace and union to the somewhat distracted colony. His designation as " the miller" was given to him to distinguish him from several other persons of the same name. It seems that the town, on the Ist of January, 1646, " agreed that John Smith should have the valley where his home stands, in case he set up a mill." This valley, we are told, "comprehended all the land between the west branch of the Moshassuck River and the hill to the east of Jefferson Plains, from Smith Street on the south to Orms Street on the north. Charles Stree now passes along this valley." In this valley John Smith set up a grist-mill, near the first stone lock of the Black- stone Canal, and the privilege descended to his posterity, and for many years has been used for manufacturing pur- poses. In the year 1654 we find the first record of an election of military officers in Providence. It took place November 6, and John Smith was chosen ensign. In 1658 his name appears as having been chosen a " commissioner" from Providence to meet his associates at Portsmouth on the Ioth of March. During King Philip's war Providence was in great peril, and at one time the town was nearly forsaken by its inhabitants, who repaired to the island of Rhode Island for safety. An attack was made upon the town on the 30th of March, 1676, and some thirty houses, situated at the north part of the place, were burned. One of these houses was the dwelling of Smith, who at the time was town clerk, and had in his house the records of the town. They were thrown from his burning house into the mill-pond to preserve them from the flames. " To the present day," says Judge Staples, " they bear plenary evi- dence of the twofold danger they escaped and the two- fold injury they suffered." On the 14th of August of this year a town meeting was held "under a tree," supposed to have been an old sycamore tree which, some years ago, stood on the east side of South Main Street, nearly oppo-

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site Crawford Strect. At this meeting a committee was ap- pointed to decide what disposition should be made of certain Indians who had been taken captives. The whole thing was put up in shares, and the names of those to whom shares were assigned have come down to us. Among these we find the name of John Smitlı, miller, who was to have half a share. The amount received by him could not have been very large if we are to judge from the account of sales which has been preserved. One Anthony Lew became the owner of five of these Indian captives, "great and small," for a limited period for £8. Of the closing years of the life of John Smith we have been unable to obtain any informa- tion. It is evident from what we have been able to glean from various sources that he was a man of no inconsider- able standing among the citizens of the town of Provi- dence.

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 3

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