The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 7

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 7

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).

OGGESHALL, JOHN, First President of Rhode Island, was a native of England, and, with his wife Mary, and her three children, John, Joshua and Ann, arrived in Boston, on the ship Lyon, Sunday evening, September 16, 1632. He was descended from an ancient family in the county of Essex, dating, like the famous Tyrell family, from the Conquest. The Cog- geshalls possessed ten manors and estates in Essex and Suffolk, including the manor of Little Coggeshall, and their chief seat, Codham Hall, Weathersfield, two and a half miles from St. Peter's Church, Coggeshall, an ancient

town on the Blackwater, twenty-five miles northeast of London, from which the family derives its surname. The older members of the family, following the usage of the Normans, wrote their names with the preposition, as Thomas de Coggeshall, who was the owner of these vast estates, in the reign of King Stephen of Blois, grandson of the Conqueror, 1135-1154. Five of the family, several of whom were knights, were sheriffs of Essex, which until 1556 included Herefordshire. Coggeshall Abbey, the most famous of the Cistercian order in England, was built by King Stephen, 1142, and endowed by his Queen Ma- tilda of Boulogne, and his son Eustace, with their lands in France. Ralph Coggeshall, a pious and learned Cister- cian monk, was in the Second Crusade, and on his return home wrote A Chronicle of the Holy Land, or the Siege of Jerusalem. This work, after lying in manuscript for five hundred years, was printed in London in 1729, and is now extremely rare. He also wrote a history of England, from the Conquest, 1066, to 1200, which was partly a his- tory of his own times. He died, the sixth Abbot of Cog- geshall, 1228, in the reign of Henry III, the fourth Plan- tagenet. As many branches of the family have three coats of arms, that of the Coggeshalls of Essex, from whom the subject of this sketch was descended, indicates their con- nection with the Crusades, and is probably one of the old- est in English heraldry. John Coggeshall first entered his name, and that of his wife, on the original records of the church in Roxbury, of which John Eliot, the Indian apostle, was pastor, their names being the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth on the list. The Roxbury church was formed the same year. He was admitted a freeman No- vember 6, 1632. Being a merchant, and seeing that Bos- ton was to be the seat of trade and commerce, he removed there in the spring of 1634, and on the 20th of April be- came a member of the church in that place, on the records of which his name, with that of his wife and two female servants, appear, under that date. He was soon elected a deacon of that church, under Wilson and Cotton, the pas- tor and teacher. Being a man of wealth, enterprise and ability, he was soon called to office in the state as well as in the church. On the Ist of September, 1634, he ap- pears as one of the first Board of Selectmen of Boston, the other members being John Winthrop, William Cod- dington, Captain John Underhill, Thomas Oliver, Thomas Leverett, Giles Firmin, also a deacon of the Boston church, John Peirce, Robert Hardinge, and William Brenton, af- terward President of Rhode Island. The minutes con- nected with these names, in the handwriting of Winthrop, is the first entry in the town records of Boston. But a more important entry than this previously appears. At the first General Court of Massachusetts, that of May 14, 1634, he heads the list of deputies from Boston, who were John Coggeshall, Edmund Quincy and Captain John Un- derhill. The whole number of deputies was twenty-four, representing eight towns. Coggeshall was a member of

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

all the General Courts, except the fourth, tenth and eleventh, up to the twelfth, that of November 2, 1637. About this time there was considerable agitation in the community on account of the preaching of the celebrated Ann Hutchinson, wife of William Hutchinson, who was finally condemned by a legal tribunal, and she and her fol- lowers banished. Coggeshall being one of her most ar- dent supporters, and having entered his protest against the denial of the right of petition by the Massachusetts Gen- eral Court, in the case of the petition of one of the par- ties marked for condemnation, was removed from his offi- cial position, and compelled to depart. Eighteen men, including William Coddington, who acted as leader in this important movement, John Clarke, and the Hutchinson family, upon the advice of Roger Williams, who was already in Providence, now purchased the island of Aquid- neck of the Narragansett sachems. IIere a civil organi- zation was effected, based upon the principle of religious liberty.

Although the lands were among the most fertile and beautiful in New England, and were offered at the low price of one shilling per acre, no one took more than 240 acres, and some took less ; for the reason that they had not come for personal aggrandizement, but for the advancement of civil and religious liberty. They first laid the founda- tion of the town of Portsmouth, near the north end of the island. The town was laid out in family lots of six acres each, of which six, on account of his large family, were assigned to William Hutchinson. The little colony grew so rapidly that enlargement soon became necessary. Ac- cordingly, a settlement was made on the south end of the island, which resulted in the founding of Newport. The

first streets laid out were Tanner, Spring, Marlborough, and Farewell ; and the first house was built by Nicholas Easton. The houses soon afterward erected by Codding- ton and Coggeshall were standing until recently, and that of Henry Bull is still standing, being the only relic of the time. In the meantime, Warwick, on the western shore of the Bay, was settled, and the need of a general govern- ment being felt, Roger Williams was requested to visit England to procure a charter. IIe sailed from New York in September, 1643, and returned in September, 1644, bringing with him a charter, dated March 14, 1644, and bestowing upon those to whom it was granted corpo- rate powers, with religious freedom and entire liberty of conscience. An organization was finally effected, at Ports- mouth; Coggeshall was elected President, and Roger Williams was chosen assistant for Providence, William Coddington for Newport, and Randall Holden for War- wick; and with the adoption of a general code of laws, the government was completed.

Coggeshall had now assisted to found two cities, two states, and two separate and independent governments. He died in office, November 27, 1647, aged about fifty-six years, and was buried upon his estate, on what is now the

corner of Coggeshall and Victoria avenues, Newport, one mile and a half from the State House. IIere also lics his wife, Mary, who survived him thirty-seven years, dying December 19, 1684, aged eighty-nine years, and his eldest son, John, who succeeded to his father's cstate, and filled various important offices in the colony, for more than forty years, dying October 1, 1708, in his ninetieth year ; also numerous members of his family. Here is the last resting- place of Abraham Redwood, the founder of the Redwood Library, and his wife, Martha Coggeshall, and his son Wil- liam Redwood and his wife; also William Ellery, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was re- lated to the Coggeshalls by marriage, with all his family, except Lucy, the mother of Dr. William Ellery Channing, the distinguished divine ; and here is the grave of Russell Coggeshall, who died December 25, 1864, leaving $50,- 000 to the poor of the city, and $100,000 to various par- ties. He gave $10,000 for the erection of the granite wall surrounding the beautiful cemetery in which his re- mains repose. Over the remains of the first President of the colony and his consort has been erected a granite obe- lisk. The name of John Coggeshall, with the date of his presidency, may be seen in one of the memorial windows of the Metropolitan M. E. Church, Washington, D. C., contributed by one of his descendants.

OGGESHALL, MAJOR JOHN, eldest son of John Coggeshall, the first President of Rhode Island, was born in England, in 1618, and was consequently fourteen years of age at the time of the arrival of the family at Boston, in 1632. He received a good education, and at his father's table had the advantage of meeting such men as the courtly Sir Harry Vane, Governor Winthrop, John Cotton, teacher of the church in Boston, John Eliot, the Indian apostle, and other distinguished men, whose conversation and deportment must have deeply impressed his highly receptive mind; while the preaching and the catechetical instructions of those two noted min- isters doubtless had great effect in moulding his character. He was twenty years of age at the time the storm of per- secution broke upon the heads of the friends and adherents of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson; and his father, being among those who had to depart from Massachusetts on that account, he accompanied him and the family into what was then an unknown wilderness, finally settling at New- port, in April, 1639. Upon the death of his father, in 1647, and upon coming into possession of most of his large estate, he married Elizabeth, daughter of William Baul- stone, who came to Boston in the fleet with Winthrop, in 1630, and who was a soldier in the Pequot war, and one of the associates in the purchase of the island, in 1638. By her he had three children, John, William, and Eliz- abeth. This marriage, notwithstanding the respectability of the parties, seems to have been unfortunate. They

BIOGRAPIIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

parted, by mutual consent, and by permission of the Gen- eral Assembly, in 1654. She retired to the home of her father, who owned a large and valuable farm on the West Road, in Portsmouth, embracing what has since been the Portsmouth Grove and Hospital Grounds. William Baul- stone brought up three grandchildren, and in his will, dated March 11, 1677, left to the two grandsons, John and William, this valuable property, with a life interest in it to their mother and sister Elizabeth. Elizabeth married John Warner. These children are the founders of a distinct branch of the family, long prominent in the history and politics of this ancient town, called the Baulstone Cogge- shalls. The property above mentioned, on which stands a large house of ante-Revolutionary date, was in posses- sion of the family until within the memory of persons now living. John Coggeshall and his wife both having re- ceived permission from the General Assembly to marry again, she married Thomas Gold, of Wickford, and, De- cember, 1655, he married Patience Throgmorton, daughter of John Throgmorton, of Providence. They had ten chil- dren. She died September 7, 1676. Major Coggeshall was long and often in office, and during his official career exhibited eminent executive ability. He was Commis- sioner for Newport, upon the union of the four towns and the reorganization of the government, August 31, 1654; also at the last election under the old charter, May 22, 1663; and the last meeting under the old charter, Novem- ber 24, 1663. He was one of the original grantees of the royal charter of 1663; and at the first general election under that charter, May 4, 1664, he was elected one of the five assistants, with Governor Benedict Arnold and Deputy- Governor William Brenton ; also, in 1665, 1670, 1671, 1674, and 1676. He was Treasurer of the colony in 1664, 1665, 1666, 1683, 1684, 1685, and 1686-seven years; and was Deputy for Newport, October 25, 1665, October 29, 1668, and May 4, 1669. February 23, 1665, he was ap- pointed to receive the King's Commissioners, Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick. His influence with these gentlemen was highly advantageous to the in- terests of the colony. April 8, 1665, with thirteen others, he was made a Justice of the Peace by these Commission- ers. May 7, 1673, Captain John Cranston, Coggeshall, and John Clarke, each in order, were elected Deputy- Governor, but refused to serve. William Coddington was finally elected, and accepted, with Nicholas Easton, Gov- ornor. At the election of May 3, 1676, Coggeshall was an assistant, and was also chosen Recorder. Soon after- ward he addressed two noted letters to the authorities of Connecticut, in regard to the jurisdiction of the Narra- gansett country, and was instrumental in securing to Rhode Island peaceable possession of the entire western portion of its territory. At the General Assembly of May 2, 1683, he was a deputy for Newport, and was also. elected assist- ant. In 1684 he was re-elected to the same positions. This year he was chosen Major-General of the forces on 5

the island, and was thereafter frequently designated as Major Coggeshall. May 5, 1685, he was assistant. May 4, 1686, he was elected Deputy-Governor, Walter Clarke being at the same time chosen Governor. Upon the usur- pation of Governor Andros, who seized upon or abrogated all the New England charters this year, he was appointed one of his council at Boston, December 30, 1686. Upon the fall of Andros, April 18, 1689, and the arrival of the news of the accession of William and Mary, Governor Clarke declined to assume his authority. Christopher Almy, one of the assistants, was then chosen, but also declined. Coggeshall then boldly seized the reins of gov- ernment, and carried the colony through an interregnum of ten months, when, at a special election, February 27, 1690, Henry Bull was elected Governor, and accepted, Coggeshall continuing as Deputy-Governor. At the gen- eral election of May 7, 1690, Henry Bull was again chosen Governor, but declined to serve, when Coggeshall was chosen, who also declined. John Easton was then elected, and accepted. May 6, 1701, Coggeshall again appears as deputy for Newport, being then eighty-three years of age. This closed his official career, which extended over a period of nearly half a century. He died October 1, 1708, in his ninetieth ycar, and was buried in the family ceme- tery, at Newport. But few men of his time exerted greater influence, or rendered the colony such faithful and efficient service.

OGGESHALL, JOSHUA, the second son of the first President of Rhode Island, was born in Eng- land, December 22, 1631, and consequently was not nine months old at the time of the immigration in 1632. He was but six years of age at the time of the immigration to Rhode Island in 1638. On the 22d of De- cember, 1652, he married Joan West, who was then seven- teen years of age. They had seven children, Mary, Joshua, John, Josiah, Daniel, Humilis, and Caleb. In connection with his mother, Mr. Coggeshall sold 160 acres of land in Newport, and by different purchases, from October 23, 1654, to February 26, 1660, he procured a farm of 202 acres, situated on the " West Road," lying partly in Newport and partly in Portsmouth. His house " stood in from the road," on the Portsmouth side of the line, which made him an in- habitant of that town. The old homestead is still in possession of the family, the dwelling-house, a substantial structure, probably built in the reign of William and Mary, is on the other side of the line, in Middletown, which was a part of Newport until 1743. "The Anderson Place," so called, distinguished by the large and beautiful linden trees in front, was a part of this valuable estate. The house in which the gallant Colonel Barton captured General Pres- cott, on the night of July 9, 1777, is situated opposite the

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

Coggeshall farms. At the second session of the General Assembly, after the organization of the colonial govern- ment, under the new charter, in October, 1664, with John Clarke and others, Joshua Coggeshall appears as a deputy. Hle was also assistant in 1672, 1673, 1674 and 1676. During King Philip's war he was a member of the Com- mittee of Safety, and discharged the duties thus required of him with rare prudence, courage, and sagacity. In the records of Portsmouth he constantly appears as moderator of town meetings, member of town council, member of important committees, and also as representative of the town in the infant colonial legislature, showing his great capacity for public business, and the confidence re- posed in his judgment and integrity by the community, then so much in need of a controlling and guiding mind. Hc was one of the founders of Quakerism in the United States, and thus became one of the founders of religious liberty. While abroad, in February, 1660, he was seized in Plymouth Colony, thrust into Plymouth jail, and had his horse taken from him and sold. William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, who were executed in Boston, October 19, 1659, and Mary Dyre, who was hung June 1, 1660, were his coreligionists. His brother-in-law, Daniel Gould, a speaker among the Friends, was lashed to a gun in Boston, November, 1659, and subjected to thirty lashes. Daniel Gould died at the advanced age of ninety, and was buried in Portsmouth. There was no church edi- fice in Rhode Island at that time, and the meetings of the Society were held at the houses of Governor Coddington, in Newport, and of Joshua Coggeshall and Adam Mott, in Portsmouth. The house of Adam Mott is still standing. The first houses of worship in the colony were the Friends' Meeting House, and Trinity Church, Newport, built in 1704, both of which are yet standing and in use. Joshua Coggeshall died March 1, 1689, at the age of fifty-seven years. The number of his descendants is estimated at five thousand.

SMITH, GOVERNOR JOHN, was born near the com- mencement of the 17th century, and was among the early emigrants from England to this country. Ac- cording to Savage, he was probably a citizen of Salem in 1631 or 1632. Herc he formed the acquaintance of Roger Williams; and was in sympathy with him in his views on civil and religious liberty. Subsequently he removed to Boston. In one of his letters written several years after this, Roger Williams alludes to him as a " Marchant or ship-keeper that lived in Boston." He was banished in 1635 for " divers dangerous opinions which he holdeth and hath divulged," and took up his residence in Providence, where he lived for a few years, and then removed to War- wick, being among the first settlers of that place. In 1648 he was elected " Assistant" for Warwick, under President,

or Governor, William Coddington. The 22d of May following, at a meeting of the General Assembly held in Warwick, he was clected Governor or President, to succeed Coddington. In those early colonial times persons were not so eager to get into office as in this age. At this mecting of the General Assembly it was " ordered, that if a President elected, shall refuse to serve in that general office, that then he shall pay a fine of ten pounds." John Smith declined the honor which had been conferred on him, and accordingly was fined. He scems, however, to have changed his mind, as his fine was remitted and his name appears in the list of " Presidents under the Patent," his term of service being from May, 1649, to May, 1650. Again, when a separation having taken place between the four towns of the colony, Providence and Warwick became a distinct corporation, John Smith was elected President and held the office from May, 1652, to May, 1653. In 1779 there was demolished in Warwick a venerable stone house built by John Smith soon after he took up his residence in the town. Being by trade a stonemason, he chose the material on which he had been accustomed to labor for the construc- tion of his dwelling-house. This house bore the romantic name of the " Old Stone Castle." In 1663, when the In- dians destroyed the village, this was the only house which escaped the fury of the flames. Many years after this the " Old Stone Castle " came into the possession of Thomas Greene, whose descendants, from this circumstance, were styled "Stone Castle Greenes." In 1795 Thomas Greene purchased a dwelling-house on the opposite side of the street, and tore down the " Castle," using the materials for the cellar of a house that stands near the site of the old John Smith house. Probably the " Castle " was regarded as a stronghold to which the people might flee if attacked by the Indians. After his service as President, Governor Smith was appointed one year, if not more than that period, as assistant, and was in office at the time of his death, which occurred in the early part of 1664.

LATER, SAMUEL, son of William and Elizabeth (Fox) Slater, was born at Belper, in Derbyshire, England, June 9, 1768. The estate upon which he was born is known as " Holly House," and is now owned by Horatio Nelson Slater, Esq., of Webster, Mass., the fifth son of Samuel. William Slater belonged to the better class of English yeomen, owning his own farm, adding to the income derived from his agricultural pursuits the proceeds obtained from the sale of timber. His death occurred in 1782, when Samuel was fourteen years of age, being at the time on trial, previous to his being apprenticed to Jedediah Strutt, a cotton manufacturer at Milford near Belper. On his father's death, he executed his own inden- ture to serve until he became of age. As an evidence that

Samuel Haters

1572939

BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

his early education had not been neglected we are told that his father replied to Mr. Strutt, who wished to secure the services of one of his sons to learn and carry on the busi- ness of cotton manufacturing, " Samuel writes well, is good at figures, and possesses a mechanical genius." He was received into the family of Mr. Strutt, who at once recog- nized the ability of his young apprentice, and directed his special attention to teaching him all the mysteries of his craft, and consulted him on matters pertaining to improve- ments which he was constantly making in machinery. A brilliant future was before him in his native land. When he closed his apprenticeship with Mr. Strutt, he was prob- ably among the most skilful and best trained young men in England in his vocation as a cotton manufacturer. He was familiar with all the details of the Arkwright system, and with the inventions of Hargreaves and Crompton. As an intelligent and thoughtful young man, he could anticipate the speedy coming of the time when the bitter hostility which then existed against the introduction of labor-saving machinery would pass away, and a more enlightened state of public opinion would take its place. England at this time had virtually the command of the markets of the world in the sale of cotton fabrics, and, as is well known, very many enterprising men, who engaged in the business of manufacturing, made colossal fortunes. Humanly speak- ing, the success of Slater as an English manufacturer was placed beyond a peradventure. It could therefore not have been the mere love of gain which sent him forth from his home in the Old World, and led him to cross the ocean, and, a stranger in a strange land, to begin a career which in the event proved to be one of such marvellous success. The love of adventure and the laudable ambition to seek his fortune in a new country, whose wonderful resources and possibilities surpassed all conceptions, and, may we not add, the guiding hand of that Providence which shapes and controls human destiny, led to the formation of the resolution that he would turn his footsteps toward these western shores. It deserves to be mentioned that some at- tempts had been made in the United States, about this time, to spin cotton by machinery. Such an attempt was made in the Byfield factory in Newbury, Mass., but the machin- ery here used formed no part of the Arkwright system, and it proved to be worthless, and finally was abandoned. It may also be mentioned, that not long before Slater left England, the legislature of Pennsylvania had paid a bounty of one hundred pounds to a person who had constructed a carding machine to make rolls for jennies. It was very evident that there was a demand in the New World for the skill and inventive genius of just such a young man as Slater. The decision having been reached to emigrate to this country, there were some weighty obstacles to be over-

come before he could leave. There was, in the first place, great jealousy in England against the emigration of skilled machinists, and if he had openly avowed his purpose, steps would undoubtedly have been taken to prevent its execu-

tion. And then, in the second place, the severest penalties had been made against either taking or sending out of the country models, patterns, or drawings of machinery, and Slater must have all these things so thoroughly and so accurately locked up in his memory, that he could readily reproduce them when he reached the place of his destina- tion. To disarm suspicion, he left home in the dress of a farm laborer. The only thing he carried with him to indi- cate his profession was his indenture, which he carefully con- cealed. He sailed from London, September 13, 1789, and landed in New York, November 18th, after a passage of sixty-six days. His thoughts were from the beginning turned towards Philadelphia, but shortly after landing in New York, he found employment with a manufacturing company formed for the purpose of manufacturing by machinery. After a short time he became satisfied that the concern had no prospect of success, and he was considering the ques- tion of looking elsewhere for employment, when he heard from the captain of a sloop, trading between Providence and New York, of an experiment made by Moses Brown to spin cotton by machinery, and that the machine had proved a failure. Mr. Slater wrote to Moses Brown, on the 2d of December, and received a reply, dated on the 10th, describing the failure to use his machine successfully, and inviting Mr. Slater " to come and have the credit as well as advantage of perfecting the first water-mill in America." In the month of January, 1790, he left New York for Prov- idence, and on reaching the latter place called on Moses Brown, who took him to Pawtucket and showed him his machinery, which Mr. Slater, on seeing, pronounced worth- less. An examination of the machinery showed him at once its inferiority as compared with that of the Arkwright sys- tem, and he immediately set about the construction of ma- chines, the models of which he carried in his well-stored brain. On the 20th of December, 1790, according to his own account, " he started three cards, drawing and roving, and seventy-two spindles, which were worked by an old fulling mill water-wheel in a clothier's building, in which they continued spinning about twenty months; at the expiration of which time they had several thousand pounds of yarn on hand, notwithstanding every exertion was used to weave it up and sell it." So good, however, was his pros- pect of ultimate success, that on the 5th of April, 1790, articles of copartnership were signed between Almy and Brown on the one part, and Samuel Slater on the other, under the style of Almy, Brown & Slater, a business re- lation which continued for about forty years. It is evi- dent from what has already been said, that whatever may have been said to the contrary, the claim of laying the first foundations of the American cotton manufacture incon- testably belongs to Samuel Slater, who introduced and es- tablished the whole series of machines patented and used by Arkwright for spinning cotton. In the construction of these machines he met with manifold obstacles, which would have thoroughly discouraged men of less patience

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 7

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