The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 5

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

USA > Rhode Island > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

severall respects" to afford advice and help, all they could do then was to consider and advise how they might be accepted " vpon inst terms and with tender respect to their consciences." In 1651 Governor Coddington went to England, where he interested himself in promoting the prosperity of Rhode Island. Under the Royal Charter granted by Charles II, he was Governor from May, 1674, to May, 1676. He died November 1, 1678.

LARKE, REV. JOHN, M.D., the leading man in the settlement of the island of Rhode Island and the city of Newport, and the procurer of the charter of 1663, the third son of Thomas and Rose Clarke, was born October 8, 1609, in Suffolk (some say Bedfordshire), England. He received a university educa- tion, studied medicine, and practiced his profession for a time in London. He became a Baptist in England. Ac- tuated by a strong love for religious liberty, he came to this country, and settled in Boston, as a physician, in 1637. He found such " differences " among the Puritans that, with William Coddington and others, through the influence of Roger Williams, he engaged, March 7, 1638, in the pur- chase of the island of Aquidneck, where, with his asso- ciates, he settled at Pocasset, but, April 28, 1639, with a select few proceeded to settle Newport. From the first he was a leader in civil and religious affairs, also continued his medical practice there. Very close was his intimacy and agreement with Roger Williams. A church of a mixed character was begun in Newport, of which he was an elder, but the organization was soon dissolved. He then proceeded, in 1644, to found the First Baptist Church in Newport, of which he was chosen pastor, and held the pastorate till his death. He was both Assistant and Treas- urer of the Court of Commissioners that met at Warwick in 1649, and also of the same that met at Newport in 1650. In 1651 he, with Obadiah Holmes and John Crandall, for holding a religious meeting at the house of William Witler, in Lynn, Mass., was arrested, and imprisoned in Boston. Holmes received thirty lashes with a three-corded whip. Clarke was fined twenty pounds, and Crandall five pounds ; and friends paid the fines without their knowledge. In October, 1651, he accompanied Roger Williams, by vote of the colony, to England, to secure the revocation of Cod- dington's commission, and to obtain a new and more ex- plicit charter. Williams returned in 1654, leaving Dr. Clarke the sole agent of the colony; and Clarke wisely managed affairs during the Protectorate and until the new settlement of the monarchy, finally succeeding in securing from Charles II the remarkable charter of 1663, that Rhode Island held as her fundamental law till 1842. While in England he published two volumes : Ill News from New England ; or, A Narrative of New England's Persecutions, in 1652; and, Four Proposals to Parliament,

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

and Four Conclusions touching the Faith and Order of the Gospel of Christ, out of his Lsat Will and Testament. Re- turning from England in 1664, he received the thanks of the colony, resumed his pulpit and his medical practice, and was chosen a deputy to the General Assembly. He served as a Deputy till chosen Deputy Governor. We soon find him at the head of a commission, next to Roger Williams, for revising the laws of the colony under the new charter. Among his numerous public engagements, we also find him on a commission for settling the long vexed question of the colony's western boundary, an affair that excited much ill feeling and led to criminations, but out of which Dr. Clarke came with untainted honor and an enviable reputation. His versatility of gifts and great strength of judgment are everywhere apparent through his eventful career. He was chosen Deputy Governor in 1669 and in 1671, having refused the honor in 1670.

He married (1) Elizabeth, daughter of John Harges, Esq., of Bedfordshire, England; (2) Mary Fletcher, who died April 19, 1675 ; (3) Sarah Davis, who survived him. He had three brothers, Thomas, Joseph, and Carew. From Joseph many of the Clarkes of Rhode Island have de- scended. Dr. Clarke died April 20, 1676, in the midst of King Philip's war, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He left, in manuscript, a statement of his religious opin- ions, from which it is shown that he was a Baptist of the Calvinistic school. Roger Williams says of him : " The grand motive which turned the scale of his life was the truth of God-a just liberty to all men's spirits in spiritual matters, together with the peace and prosperity of the whole colony." John Callender, in his valuable " Century Sermon," says: "No character in New England is of purer fame than John Clarke." Hon. Samuel G. Arnold, the historian of Rhode Island, adds: "To him Rhode Island was chiefly indebted for the extension of her terri- tory on each side of the bay, as well as for her royal charter." " His life was devoted to the good of others. He was a patriot, a scholar, and a Christian." " His blameless, self-sacrificing life disarmed detraction and left him without an enemy." Rhode Island owes to him not less than she has paid to Roger Williams, a monument of granite and a statue of bronze; together they founded the colony, and, under God, anchored it fast in hope.

HOLMES, REV. OBADIAH, was born at Preston, Lancashire, England, about the year 1606. Of his early youth we have been unable to obtain any information. He came to this country about the year 1639, and settled first in Salem, Mass., and then in Rehoboth, Mass., where he resided eleven years. While living in this latter place he became a con- vert to the distinctive views of the Baptists, and was espe- cially strenuous in rejecting infant baptism, and in main-

taining the doctrine of "soul liberty." He became a member of the Baptist Church in Newport, of which Dr. John Clarke was the pastor, and in July, 1651, was the companion of his minister in the visit to Lynn, Mass., of which an account may be found in the sketch of Mr. Clarke. He was fined thirty pounds by the magistrates of Boston for the part which he took in the affair of which mention is made in the sketch referred to. The alternative was the payment of the fine or to be publicly whipped. The fines of Dr. Clarke and his companion, Mr. Crandall, were pro- vided for, but that of Mr. Holmes was not paid. He was kept in prison until September, when he underwent the cruel penalty of the sentence which had been pronounced against him. According to the testimony of Governor Joseph Jenks, he "was whipped thirty stripes, and in such an unmerciful manner that, in many days, if not some weeks, he would take no rest but as he lay upon his knees and elbows, not being able to suffer any part of his body to touch the bed whereon he lay." On recovering from his wounds, he removed from Rehoboth to Newport. Dr. Clarke having left his church to be absent for a time in England, Mr. Holmes, in 1652, was chosen to supply his place. His connection with the church as pastor, and assistant to Dr. Clarke, on his return from England, con- tinued until 1682, at which time he died, at the advanced age of seventy-six. His remains were placed in a grave in his own field, over which a monument, with a suitable inscription, was subsequently raised to his memory. Mr. Holmes left eight children, from whom sprang a numerous posterity, which is widely spread through several different States. One of his sons, Obadiah, was for several years a judge in New Jersey, and a minister in Cohansey, in that State. Another son, John, was a magistrate in Philadel- phia. In 1770 one of his grandsons, an old man of ninety- six years of age, was living in Newport.

UTCHINSON, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, was born in Alford, Lincolnshire, England, not far from the year 1600, and, with his mother, wife, and chil- dren, arrived in Boston, in the ship Greffin, Sep- tember 18, 1634. He is represented as having been " a man of a good estate, and appears to have been a peace- able individual and much trusted, before his wife, the cele- brated Ann Hutchinson, involved him with her troubled course." The records of the First Church, Boston, under date of October 26, speak of the admission of William Hutchinson, merchant, into its membership. He took the freeman's oath, March 4, 1635, and shortly afterward was honored with an election as a representative of Boston in the General Court. He made himself useful in various ways in discharging the duties of civil offices to which he was appointed. It does not fall within the scope of an article like this to give a detailed account of the famous

BIOGRAPIIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

" Antinoman " controversy Boston, in which Anne IIutchinson bore so conspicuous a part. A full account of it may be found in Governor Arnold's Ilistory, vol. i, chap. ii. A sentence of banishment was pronounced against Mrs. Hutchinson, November 15, 1637, and she with her husband and family went first to Providence, and then to Aquidneck, now Rhode Island, early in the year 1639, and there the family took up their residence. He was soon chosen one of two town treasurers of the new settle- ment, and was judge or executive head of Portsmouth from April 30, 1639, to March 12, 1640. He died some time in the year 1642. For aught that appears to the con- trary he was faithful and true to his wife through all the bitter controversy which terminated in her banishment from Boston. Sparks says of him : " Doubtless, as in his last days at the island he reviewed his pilgrimage, it must have seemed strange to him to find himself and his family cut off from fellowship with the companions of his youth, who, though still living with him on a foreign shore, which they had sought together for freedom of faith, had been divided by a wider barrier than the ocean. We do not know that he ever complained of his lot. Perhaps it was not to him so great a hardship as to us it appears."

SREENE, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL CHRISTOPHER, a distinguished military officer in the Revolutionary war and son of Philip Greene, Esq., was born in Warwick in 1737. His father was a well-known and highly honored citizen, and was, from 1759 to 1784, a judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Kent County. The subject of this sketch received a good edu- cation, and showed, from his early youth, a special fond- ness for mathematical studies. For the years 1770, 1771, and 1772 he represented his native town in the Colonial Legislature. Upon the formation of the celebrated mili- tary corps, known as the " Kentish Guards," which embraced in its membership some of the most distin- guished citizens of Kent County, young Greene was chosen a lieutenant. It is an interesting circumstance that all the members of the " Kentish Guards " who entered the Continental army became officers of the line. In May, 1775, Lieutenant Greene received from the legislature a commission as a Major in the " Army of Observation," a brigade of 1600 soldiers, the command of which was assigned to his distinguished relative, Brigadier Nathanael Greene. His next promotion was to the command of a company of infantry in one of the regiments raised by the State for Continental service. This regiment composed a part of General Montgomery's army, which, in the attack on Quebec, was defeatcd. Captain Greene was here taken prisoner. His captivity was so irksome to him, that he formed the resolution that if he obtained his freedom he would never again be taken alive. In due time he was liberated by exchange and once more took his place in his

regiment, where he performed his duties with so much fidelity, that he was promoted to the Majority of General J. M. Varnum's regiment, and in 1777 was appointed to the command of the regiment, and was selected by General Washington to take charge of Fort Mercer, known under the more common name of Red Bank, which post, with that of Fort Mifflin, or Mud Island, it was decmed of the highest importance to hold. For the great gallantry which he displayed in contending with the British force, greatly superior to his own, he received the warmest commenda- tions of the Commander-in-chief. His regiment was attached to the troops under General Sullivan's command in the attack on the British in Rhode Island. The end of the military career, and of the life of Colonel Greene, was a sad one. He was posted on the Croton River, in New York, in advance of the army. On the other side of this river was a corps of refugees-American Tories-who were under the command of Colonel Delancey. We are told that " these half citizens, half soldiers, were notorious for rapine and murder." An inferior officer of this corps made a midnight assault on Colonel Greene's force. When the noise of the approaching troops was heard prepara- tions were made for defence. Major Flagg discharged his pistol at the approaching enemy, and was instantly mor- tally wounded. The foe then burst open the door of the room in which Colonel Greene was, who valiantly de- fended himself, and before he was overpowered, slew several of his opponents. He was put to death, and his body treated in the most brutal manner by his murderers. The death of this brave officer was greatly lamented by General Washington, who had ever found him a trusty officer in whom he could rely. For his gallant exploits at Fort Mercer, Congress, November 4, 1777, passed a reso- lution " that an elegant sword be provided by the Board of War and presented to Colonel Greene." For various reasons, this resolution was not carried into effect for some time, and when the sword was ready, he who was to re- ceive it was no more. Some years afterwards it was for- warded to his son, Job Greene, of Centreville, accompanied by a letter from the Secretary of War, General Knox, of a character most complimentary to Colonel Greene. The letter, after alluding to his death, closes with these words : " In that catastrophe, his country mourned the sacrifice of a patriot and a soldier, and mingled its tears with those of his family. That the patriotic and military virtues of your honorable father may influence your conduct in every case in which your country may require your services is the sincere wish, sir, of your most obedient and very humble servant, H. Knox." The wife of Colonel Greene was Miss Anne Lippitt, who, with three sons and four daughters, survived the death of her husband. He is represented as having been " stout and strong in person, about five feet ten inches high, with a broad round chest ; his aspect manly, and demeanor pleasing; enjoying always a high state o. health, its bloom irradiating a countenance which signifi-

Greene

COLONEL CHRISTOPHER GREENE OF THE RHODE ISLAND BRICADE. Born 1737. Died May 13-1781.

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

cantly expressed the fortitude and mildness invariably displayed throughout his life."

THE INDIAN CIIIEFS.

HE accounts of the Indian sachems whose acts of kindness and friendship to Roger Williams and his associates marked the early settlement of Rhode Island, and of the leaders of the hostile bands with whom the colonists were afterwards brought into deadly conflict, occupy such prominence in history that sketches of these famous chieftains are entitled to a place in this work. " It is to be regretted," says Irving, " that those early writers, who treated of the diseovery and settle- ment of America, have not given us more particular and candid accounts of the remarkable characters that flourished in savage life. The scanty anecdotes which have reached us are full of peculiarity and interest; they furnish us with nearer glimpses of human nature, and show what man is in his comparatively primitive state, and what he owes to civil- ization. There is something of the charm of discovery in lighting upon these wild and unexplored tracts of human nature; in witnessing, as it were, the native growth of moral sentiment, and perceiving those generous and romantic qualities which have been artificially cultivated by society, vegetating in spontaneous hardihood and rude magnifi- cence." Among the Indian chieftains most distinguished for noble traits of character was Massasoit, or Ouseme- quin, of Pokanoket, the chief sachem of the Wampanoags, the native tribe that occupied the territory extending over nearly all the southeastern part of Massachusetts between Cape Cod and Narragansett Bay. He was born about 1580, and was in his prime when the whites began to settle in his dominions .. The first knowledge we have of him was furnished by Captain Dermer, who sailed from Eng- land to America in 1619, and the same year made an expe- dition into the territory occupied by the Wampanoags, accompanied by a Pokanoket Indian, named Squanto, Squantum, or Tisquantum, whom he brought with him from England, and who, it is said, was carried from the coast of New England in 1605, by Captain George Weymouth, who had been sent from England to discover a northwest pas- sage. Squanto rendered valuable service to the English as guide and interpreter. On the 22d of March, 1621, Massa- soit visited the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and entered into a treaty with them which he sacredly kept until his death. The colonists had gathered some information concerning him a week previous to his visit from an Indian named Samoset, who, says the account, " entered the village with great boldness and greeted the inhabitants with a 'wel- come.'" In July, 1621, Governor Bradford sent Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins, accompanied by Squanto as guide and interpreter, to return the visit of Massasoit, " to gain a better knowledge of the country and of the strength and power of the sachem, to confirm the treaty and

to strengthen their mutual good understanding, and to pro- cure seed-corn." On their arrival at Sowams (now War- ren, R. I.), the residence of Massasoit, the sachem was not at home, but he arrived soon after and gave them a kindly welcome. In March, 1623, news having been received at Plymouth that Massasoit was sick and " like to die," and that a Dutch vessel had been stranded near his dwelling, Governor Bradford again sent Winslow, accompanied by John Hampden, with an Indian named Habbamok for guide (Squanto having died in December, 1622), to visit Massasoit, and to have a conference with the Dutch. The tender ministry of Winslow seems to have saved Massa- soit's life, and upon his recovery he thus expressed his gratitude, " Now I see the English are my friends and love me, and whilst I live I will never forget this kindness they have showed me." As his guests were about to leave he disclosed to them, through Habbamok, a plot against the colonists among the Massachusetts Indians, in which he had been invited to join, and which was suppressed by the notable exploit of Miles Standish. " These reciprocal acts of kindness and friendship between the English and Massa- soit," says Miller, in his Notes concerning the WAMPANOAG INDIANS, " very naturally caused their relations to be more intimate, and the route through the woods between Plymouth and Mount Hope Neck, soon became a well-worn path. As early as 1632, the Plymouth settlers had a trading-post at Sowams. Sowams was probably the name of the river (what is now known as Warren River), where the Swanzey rivers meet, and run together for near a mile, when they empty into the Narragansett Bay. The trading-post was supposed to have been located on the Barrington side of the river, on the land known as Phebe's Neck." At the time of the visits referred to, Massasoit's residence was on the Sowams River, near the famous Massasoit Spring, in what is now the village of Warren. Roger Williams formed the acquaintance of Massasoit when on his missionary tours before his exile; was entertained by him for several weeks when banished from Massachusetts, and from him obtained the grant of land on the Seekonk River, where, he says, he " pitched and began to build and plant." Massasoit is described as " a portly man, in his best years, grave of countenance, spare of speech." All historians speak well of him. Trumbull says : "He seems to have been a most estimable mnan. He was just, humane and beneficent, true to his word, and in every respect an honest man." Fessenden, in his History of Warren, says: " Massasoit, though a heathen, proves himself true to the dictates which the light of nature sug- gested. He possessed all the elements of a great mind and a noble heart. With the advantages of a civilized life, and the light which a pure Christianity would have supplied, he might have achieved a brilliant destiny, and occupied a high niche in the temple of fame. In all the memorials which have come down to us, Massasoit's charac- ter stands above reproach. No one has ever charged him

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

with evil. From the time which he repaired to Plymouth, March 22, 1621, to welcome thic Pilgrims and to tender to them his friendship, to the time of his death, -when they were weak and defenceless, encountering sickness, want and death, when at almost any moment Massasoit could have exterminated them, in no one instance did he depart from those plain engagements of treaty which he made when he plighted his faith to strangers. Ile was not only their uniform friend, but their protector, at times when his protection was equivalent to their preservation." Massa- soit had two brothers, Quadequina and Akkompoin, who seem to have been associated with him in the Pokanoket government. He had three sons, the first known by the names of Mooanum, Wamsutta, and afterward as Alexan- der ; the second as Pometacom, Metacom, and afterward as Philip; and the third as Sunconewhew ; also a daughter, whose name is not known. His sons and their wives remained with him until his death. Massasoit died in the autumn of 1661, and was succeeded in the Pokanoket gov- ernment by his eldest son, Alexander, who had been asso- ciated with him in his sovereignty for several years on ac- count of the aged sachem's infirmities. Alexander received his English name in 1662, when the name of Philip was con- ferred on his younger brother. Thatcher says : "The two young men came together, on that occasion, into open court at Plymouth, and, professing great regard for the English, requested that names should be given them. Their father not being mentioned as having attended them at the observ- ance of the ceremony, has probably occasioned the sug- gestion of his death. It would be a sufficient explanation of his absence, however, that he was now an old man, and that the distance of Sowams from Plymouth was more than forty miles. It is easy to imagine that the solicitude he had always manifested to sustain a good understanding with his Plymouth friends, might lead him to recommend this pacific and conciliatory measure, as a suitable preparation for his own decease, and perhaps as the absolute termination of his reign." Soon after this event, in the same year, it was rumored that Alexander was plotting with the Narra- gansetts to rise against the English and drive them from the land, and Governor Prince, of Plymouth, sent Major Winslow with an armed force to seize him and bring him to Plymouth to answer the accusation which had been made against him. He was surprised and humiliated at the sud- denness of his arrest, and, chafing under the disgrace and in- dignities to which he was thus exposed, he was thrown into a raging fever. His recovery being regarded doubtful, the Indian warriors were permitted to take him home, where he died within two or three days, having reigned less than a year. " The forcible seizure of Alexander upon his own hunting-grounds, and its fatal sequence," says Miller, " must have been a rude shock to the Indians, stoics though they were. It was a bold departure from the considerate and pacifie poliey which had marked the intercourse of the Plymouth government with the Wampanoags, during the

lifetime of Massasoit." Is it to be wondered at that they were greatly exasperated ? While the colonists generally admitted that Alexander died of a broken and crushed spirit caused by his arrest, is it surprising that the Indians believed the story that his death was caused by poison administered by the English ? Wetamoe (Alexander's wife) fully be- lieved it, and from that time forth was the unrelenting foe of the colonists. She was the squaw sachem of the Po- cassetts, and could rally around her three hundred of her own warriors. The successor of Alexander was his brother, Pometacom, Metacom, or King Philip, the famous war- rior, whose spirit of independence, heroism, and misfortunes have rendered him the most noted of all the sachems of New England. His wife was Woontonekanuske, who was the sister of Wetamoe, the wife of Alexander. According to an Indian custom, not to live where a sachem had died, Philip chose for his residence the beautiful eminence of Mount Hope, in Bristol, concerning which Monro, in the story of Mount Hope Lands, says : " Fair now is the pros- pect which delights the sons and daughters of Bristol as they stand upon the summit of Mount IIope and gaze upon the matchless panorama of verdant fields, of waving forests, and of sparkling waters which lies unveiled before them. The ceaseless energy and the wise forethought of their fathers have made these fields to ' blossom as the rose,' their tireless daring has subdued the wild forces of the sea, and made it the highway upon which the products of lands lying beneath far-distant skies might come to contribute to their comfort and to increase their riches. But fairer and dearer to the eye of the Indian chieftain was the spectacle which, more than two hundred years ago, entranced his wan- dering gaze. Every spot on which his eye rested was rich to him from association and tradition. Here his ancestors for unknown ages had lived and died. . ... With an intensity which we of this age of change can scarcely realize, the Indian loved the home of his ancestors, and every look which Philip gave to that beautiful picture must have en- couraged him to more mighty exertions to secure to his descendants this ancient patrimony of his race." In 1662, soon after he had been proclaimed sachem, Philip renewed the treaty which his father, Massasoit, had made, and for several years thereafter there seems to have been no inter- ruption in the friendly' intercourse between him and the colonists. By-and-by, however, he began to manifest a spirit of jealousy on account of the growing power and en- croachments of the whites, by whom he was now regarded with suspicion. He was finally summoned before the Plymouth colonists, and after being closely questioned, en- tered into another treaty, in which mutual friendship was pledged, and consented to the disarming of his people. Notwithstanding the apparent amicable result of the con- ference, the rigorous investigation to which Philip was sub- jected evidently increased his spirit of hostility against the colonists, who soon regarded him with still greater distrust. Smarting under the humiliations suffered by his brother and

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 5

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