USA > Rhode Island > The Narragansett Friends' meeting in the xviii century, with a chapter on Quaker beginnings in Rhode Island > Part 3
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46 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING
who had been rude at a meeting which I was not at." So he appointed a meeting among them, " believing the Lord would give me power over them; which he did to his praise and glory." At this meeting also there were justices and officers who were "generally well affected with the truth." One justice of twenty years' stand- ing was convinced, "spoke highly of the truth, and more highly of me," Fox adds, " than is fit for me to mention or take no- tice of." What comfort it must have been to the travelling Friend, who was usually greeted with stripes and imprisonment in his own country, to find true appreciation ! His chief acquaintance with justices in England was as a prisoner on charge of breaking the peace, and it is small wonder that, saint as he was, this being heard with favor by justices and officers should have seemed to him a special cause for thanks- giving.
After the Newport meetings, Fox went to Providence in great travail of spirit, for the people, he says, " were generally above the priests in high notions; and some came on purpose to dispute." There had been absolute freedom in the little town of
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Providence in the thirty-six years of its ex- istence. Each householder could, and often did, exhort. Roger Williams, with the hu- mility of greatness, counted himself only as a teacher also ; one among many. But the power of George Fox's eloquence and per- sonality silenced his opponents. He came from Newport by water, attended by the governor and many others, and held his meeting in a great barn, which was thronged with people, " so that I was exceeding hot, and in a great sweat," he writes ; " but all was well; the glorious power of the Lord shined over all !"
Roger Williams was not at the meeting that hot summer's day, but a little later rowed himself to Newport to confront the advocates of the Quaker doctrine. He and Fox did not meet, however. One wonders if they could have recognized the nobility of each other's nature had they seen each other face to face, or if the " Burrows " from which Roger Williams "diggd George Fox 1" were too dark and mystical for the scientific spirit of Williams to tolerate. There must always be the two orders of men, -the intui- tive seer, and the logical reasoner. Both
1 George Fox diggd out of his Burrows.
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these men have their noble share of the world's work, and in the case of Fox and Williams both made a distinct contribution to the spiritual life of mankind ; Fox with his devout and keen perception of divine immanence in the indwelling spirit, and Williams with his new doctrine of the free- dom of man's conscience from " inforce- ments." These two should certainly have found points of contact in an age which is the fruit of both their teachings. As it was, the apostle came to the town of the liberator, and left it without seeing him. After the manner of the time, they both wrote polemical tracts, the most famous of which is Williams's " George Fox digga out of his Burrows."
Returning to Newport, Fox next went across the Bay to Narragansett. Again the governor accompanied him, and they held a meeting at a justice's, " where Friends never had any before." I have elsewhere endeavored to show that this meeting was probably held at the house of Jireh Bull,1 who was a justice at that time. The year before, the General Court sat at his house. It was sometimes called the garrison house,
1 College Tom, p. 9. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
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and was the largest in Pettaquamscut. "The meeting was very large, for the country generally came in, and people from Con- necticut and other parts round about," 1 Fox writes. " There were four justices of the peace," he adds. " Most of these peo- ple were such as had never heard Friends before; but they were mightily affected, and a great desire there is after the truth amongst them. So that meeting was of very good service ; blessed be the Lord for- ever!" The justice at whose house the meeting was held invited Fox to come again, but he was then "clear of those parts." But he laid the place before John Burnyeate and John Cartwright, who ar- rived in Newport before he left, and they " felt drawings thither and went to visit them."
The house in which this Narragansett meeting was established had a tragic fate. It stood on the old Pequot trail, which in Queen Anne's time became the highway, on the ridge of Tower Hill. Tradition places it on the right-hand side travelling north, a little distance south of the present corner made by the descent of the road 1 Journal, p. 452.
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running to the west. Only three years later, in December, 1675, it was destroyed by Indians, and many of its inmates, includ- ing women and children, were killed. It was the destruction of this house which was the actual incitement to the Great Swamp Fight, which practically exterminated the Indians, and put an end to King Philip's War.
There are no records of Friends' meet- ings on the west side of the Bay until 1702, when the Greenwich meeting was estab. lished, which included the Narragansett Friends. This at first sight seems singu- lar, for Narragansett, and southern Narra- gansett, had been the place of Fox's visit, and was occupied by some influential con- verts.
But there were good reasons why the King's Province could not establish a meet- ing in those early days. The country was claimed by charter right by both Connecti- cut and Rhode Island, and endless contro- versies ensued as to the government. But in addition to this, the land was claimed by two rival purchasers ; the Pettaquamscut purchasers, who bought Boston Neck and lands adjacent of the Indians in 1657, and
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the Humphrey Atherton Company, who bought " two parsels of lande," called the Northern and Southern tract, in 1659. This land covered the land of the earlier pur- chase, including Point Juda and Sugar Loaf Hill.1 Both these companies had the Indian " sagamores " put their marks to the deeds of purchase, which they naturally had little conception of. This is not the place for a study of the interesting and extended controversy which ensued. But a glance at the men who were engaged in it, and who claimed the right of proprietors in the land, will explain why Friends for some years did not set up a meeting in Narragansett. Among the Pettaquamscut purchasers, Sam- uel Sewall soon became a leading spirit. He was an example of the best Puritans of his time, but his action in the trial of the Salem witches shows the bigotry to which the best men were liable. Of the other company, the man who gave it its name, Major Humphrey Atherton, or Adderton, as some records spell it, was active in his persecution of Quakers. Simon Bradstreet was another zealous bigot. The younger Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, was
1 The Town Records, edited by James N. Arnold.
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far more liberal, and his name, as the high- est in rank, comes first in the deeds, but his influence in the affairs of the company was second to Atherton's. It is hardly prob- able that zealous persecutors at home would have tolerated Quaker organizations in the new purchase, which they hoped to develop into a prosperous colony. It was Atherton who scoffed at the death of Mary Dyer, saying she hung as a flag for others to take warning by. Long after her death, in passing the place where Quakers suf- fered, as he rode proudly by, having re- viewed his troops, his horse took fright and threw him violently, dashing his head in pieces. There were not lacking those who said the animal saw the ghost of one of the martyrs, and that their death was avenged. But even after Atherton's tragic end, Simon Bradstreet's name would have held in check the open organization of a meeting.
That the meeting was held, however, would seem to be indicated from several facts. It was in 1699 that the Rhode Island quar- terly meeting was established, consisting of three monthly meetings, Rhode Island, Dartmouth, and Narragansett. This last meeting was at first called Kingstown meet-
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ing, but very soon changed to Greenwich, and included all the Friends on the west side of the Bay, from Narragansett to Prov- idence. A little meeting-house was built in East Greenwich in 1699, the first one on the west of the Bay, meetings having been held before at private houses. The records of the Greenwich monthly meeting begin in 5th month, 1699 (the day is obliter- ated), at the house of John Briggs, when it was agreed that he " write for these meet- ings. " A month later the meeting was held at Jabez Greene's house, and on the 5th of sixth month of the same year the "next meeting is appointed to be held at the new meeting house in East Greenwich."
This little meeting-house was built to the west of the village, and had a burial- ground adjoining. It was the first meeting- house west of Narragansett Bay; and here the meetings were held, not only the first- day meeting for worship, but the monthly meetings, to which representatives came from South Kingstown, Providence, and Warwick. In 1707 the meetings began to be held in rotation, three yearly at Providence and three at Kingstown. This arrange- ment continued till 1718, when Providence
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became a distinct monthly meeting. South Kingstown Friends still came to Greenwich for monthly meeting. Rowland Robinson, John Briggs, Peter Greene, the Knowleses and Rodmans were among the representa- tives of the southern part of the State. It was a time of great prosperity for Narra- gansett. The farms yielded bountifully ; the ferry to Newport was crowded with droves of sheep and cattle going to market, and produce of all kinds. The tide of travel was all set across the Bay rather than to the head of the Bay, and before many years Narragansett Friends petitioned for a sepa- rate meeting. It was at the third month monthly meeting, 1743, when Thomas Rod- man and Matthew Allin (sic) were repre- sentatives from South Kingstown, that an epistle from the quarterly meeting was read at Greenwich, which allowed the meeting to be divided into two monthly meetings. The record continues : -
This meeting concludes that the monthly meeting is divided into two monthly meetings as the Preparative meetings were before this divifion, and that South Kingftown monthly meeting be held on the 2nd day after the laft Ist
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day in this month to do the proper bufi- ness of that meeting in the meeting house of Friends in South Kingstown.
There is no indication as to when the " meeting house of Friends in South Kings- town " was built. For many years it was called " the old meeting house," and in 1743 it became the centre of influence and seat of government of Friends in Narragansett.
III THE MEETING-HOUSES
III
IT was the third month, 1743, that the South Kingstown monthly meeting began its existence by the consent of the quarterly meeting and the Greenwich meeting, to which the South Kingstown preparative meeting had belonged. The first monthly meeting was appointed the following month, but the records do not begin till the fifth month, 1743. There are eight folio vol- umes belonging to the men's meeting, which contain the records of the business of the meeting from month to month, the list of births, marriages, and deaths, and a beau- tiful manuscript of the English book of discipline, which was made between 1761 and 1763. Thomas Hazard and Joseph Congdon were the committee appointed to see to this work, for which fifty pounds old tenor was paid. It is entitled "Chris- tian & Brotherly Advices Given forth from time to time By the yearly Meeting in London. Alphabetically Digefted under Proper Heads. Tranfcribed by Jos: Cong-
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don." Beside the records of the men's meeting, there are three volumes of wo- men's records, - the earliest a small quarto, the others large folios. There is also a mass of papers belonging to the meeting, deeds of the meeting-house lands, epistles from quarterly meetings, beginning as early as 1747, yearly meeting epistles, and the originals of various papers copied in the records. They are a set of time-stained books and documents, the paper discolored and brittle, cracking in the folds, exhaling the peculiar breath of long-kept mustiness. The handwriting is often crabbed, the spell- ing eccentric, the records themselves curt and scanty. Yet here is preserved all that is left of the best life of many good men and women. The voice of their preaching has died upon the air, the savor of their virtues exists only in tradition ; but the record of their actual work is preserved. The houses of worship which they built have crumbled, but the account of their labors in building remains.
It is often said we lack glamour in Amer- ica, that our perspective is limited, that we have no picturesque past. But all these things lie more in the eye of the beholder
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than in external objects. Natural beauty is as beautiful in New England as in Old. We have no Tintern Abbey, it is true, but our greater lack is a Wordsworth to cele- brate it.
" Art was given for that ; God uses us to help each other so, Lending our minds out."
It is the mind, the love, the life of man which must reveal beauty to us who have our turn at living now. Looked at in this spirit, what can be more fascinating, what can claim our interest and reverent affec- tion, more than such a mass of records and papers as those of the Narragansett meet- ing? For this was life: this meant not only daily affairs, of which there is abundant evidence, but it meant the care of good men for the soul's welfare. We may have outgrown the methods; humanity cannot outgrow the aim.
Whatever those worthies truly wrought has gone into the fabric of later time. Their Narragansett lies before us, un- changed as to physical features, but more thickly peopled, with villages dotting the pleasant dales. Let us try to turn back the years to that summer day in 1743 when
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the first recorded meeting was held. Rid- ing through the narrow lanes, from beyond Little Rest and up from Westerly, came the representatives to that meeting. The old meeting-house - old in 1743 - stood upon the southern spur of Tower Hill, a mile or more from the village. The first mention of this building occurs in Judge Sewall's diary, under an entry of Friday, September 20, 1706, when he went " into the Quaker Meeting Houfe, about thirty-five feet long, thirty feet wide, on Hazard's ground, which was mine." 1 The sale of this land to Thomas Hazard was made in 1698, so that it must have been a comparatively new building at the time of Sewall's visit. The South Kingstown Records have something further to say of this land. August 4, 1710, Thomas Hazard sold one acre to Ebenezer Slocum, of Jamestown, for forty shillings ; and the next day it was conveyed by Slocum to Rowland Robinson, Samuel Perry, Henry Knowles, Jr., Thomas Rodman, and Jacob Mott, for the same consideration. The bounds are given, easterly and southerly by the road, the rest by Hazard's land, " being that parcel of land on which Stands a cer-
1 Sewall Papers, vol. ii. p. 168.
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tain Meeting House in which the people called Quakers usually meet."1 It com- manded a wide prospect of land and water. At the foot of the hill the chain of Point Judith ponds begins, which separate the Point from the mainland; and the perilous Point itself, called in the old deeds Point Juda, or Point Jude, stretches a warning finger far out into the white breakers. Block Island, the land of Manassees, lies in the distance to the southwest; while to the east the unbroken ocean stretches to the coast of Africa. Close at hand, the Petta- quamscut winds through its marshes; the crescent of Little Neck beach is white with foam; and but a little farther the windows of Newport gleam in the sunshine. A
lovely prospect those "weighty " Friends had to look upon. Some of the women doubt- less enjoyed it, but the appeal of natural beauty was not generally felt, and the com- manding situation was doubtless chosen more in reference to the onslaught of In- dians than for picturesqueness.
In this " olde meeting house " the meet- ing was organized. Peter Davis was chosen " to write for the meeting," - to become its 1 South Kingstown Records, vol. ii.
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clerk, in other words. He does not record the fact himself; it is only from a subse- quent entry, when he was superseded, that it is learned. He had an interesting career, which is briefly outlined by the records, in which he constantly appears. Thomas Rodman was chosen the meeting's trea- surer, and served long and well. He was called Dr. Rodman, and practised the heal- ing art. This was perhaps the only title that the strictness of Friends admitted of ; but the life of a country physician, who literally went about doing good, earned this most peaceful and honorable of titles. Books for record were bought, for which £2 14s. were paid, and the meeting entered on the difficult question of fixing its bound- aries. In a new country this is always a serious task, and in no part of New Eng- land was there more difficulty than in Nar- ragansett. As already detailed, rival gov- ernments claimed the whole country; and the inhabitants must have become accus- tomed to an unsettled state of affairs of this nature, for it took the sober and orderly Friends of Narragansett seventeen years to decide what was their proper jurisdiction. It was not till 1760 that a joint committee
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THE MEETING-HOUSES
from the East Greenwich meeting and the South Kingstown meeting finally made the report " that each may know which are their proper members." The South Kingstown meeting bounds were to begin at Bissell's Mills on the north. This is now called Hamilton Mills, and lies on the shore near Wickford. From thence the boundary ran " to the Highway that leads westward to the house where Robert Eldrish formerly lived, thence by Said Highway to the Cross Highway by Nicholas Gardner's, thence a strait line to Boon's house, upon black plain, thence to the Highway in narrow Laine by James Reynolds & by said High- way to the Colony Line."1 Black Plain and Narrow Lane have passed from remem- brance, and the houses of these worthy men know them no more; but in a gen- eral way it is safe to say that the South Kingstown meeting included the whole of Washington County, and a portion of what is now Connecticut, since Stoning- ton was evidently included within its lim- its.
Almost the first business which came before the meeting in the first year of its
1 Vol. i. p. 104.
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existence was the " matter of building a meeting house in the north west part of Westerly." The "Lower part of West- erly " also desired a meeting-house, one meeting-house to be ten miles distant from the other. At a meeting held in Charles- town, the 29th of 6th month, 1743, a com- mittee report on the size of the lower meet- ing-house. They recommend a "Houfe of Eighteen feet one way and 26 feet another way and about 9 or ten feet Stud and about {200 money they think will accomplifh sd Houfe." A few months later Peter Davis, his sons William, and Peter Davis, Jr., were appointed "to fe to the Carrying on of Said Building."
At first sight this seems a great sum to pay for a little building of eighteen by twenty-six feet. But the currency was enor- mously depreciated. In 1740 it required twenty-seven shillings in bills to equal an ounce of silver, whose normal rate of ex- change in the same year was six shillings ninepence.2 So that the inflation was ex- actly four hundred per cent., and to get an
1 Vol. i. p. 2.
2 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New Eng- land, chap. xiii .; R. I. Historical Tracts, No. 8, p. 55.
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idea of true value the two hundred pounds must become fifty. All the prices men- tioned must be reduced as much or more, for the currency went on depreciating, until at last, in 1781, one Spanish milled dollar was equal to sixteen hundred dollars in paper !
The independent existence of the meet- ing seems to have acted as a stimulus in building houses of worship. It was soon under consideration to build a meeting- house in the southwest part of South Kingstown. A committee was appointed in 1748 to conclude "where to fet the meeting houfe they are about to build." Two Perrys, James and Benjamin, with three other Friends, were appointed, but the next month the proposal was "Dropt for the prefent." Friends doubtless had enough on hand at the moment, for the upper meeting-house at Westerly was re- ported "not yet fit to meet in in cold weather, and all the money spent." It was recommended to quarterly meeting for as- sistance. But the need of a house of wor- ship was evidently great, for a Friend is dealt with for " suffering Friends to be dis- orderly Impofed upon in their public meet-
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ing at his houfe, and he not forbid the diforder." 1
So the heart of James Perry was evi- dently moved, for in 1750 he conveyed a piece of land by deed to the meeting " to and for the ufe of ffriends to fet a Meeting houfe on, and for a burying Ground." The meeting agreed to fence the ground, and a committee was appointed to place the house and fix the size. The house was to be some- what larger than the Westerly lower meet- ing-house built a few years ago. This was thirty-two by twenty-four feet, "and 9 foot and a half poft," but the "coft they fuppofe will be about £750!" So in seven years the cost for a building only one third larger increased three and one half times. This little meeting-house stood long in the "hill country " in Matunuck, back from the high- . way to the west of the road. Of late years it was surrounded by huckleberry pastures, whose rich russet red in the early autumn made a fitting setting for the venerable structure. To it a little company of wor- shipers gathered each year on a summer First Day. Here again was heard the sound of prayer and exhortation ; and if the melody
1 Vol. i. p. 30.
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THE MEETING-HOUSES
of hymns floated from its trembling win- dows, it shocked no listening Friends, for the preacher who held the service was that friend of humanity who has banded his brethren together "in His Name." By the pious care of several of these summer pil- grims, the little building was preserved until a very few years ago. One summer when they returned from a winter's absence they found it a heap of rubbish !
In spite of the disordered state of the currency, Friends kept on building; and in I753 Richmond wished a meeting-house, to be built on the highway which leads from John Knowles's to Mumford's Mills. The dimensions were of what appears to have been the usual size, thirty-two by twenty-four feet, " and of a height for a con- venient Galarie " the record adds. Four hundred and eighty-eight pounds were im- mediately subscribed, and the matter was referred to quarterly meeting. This house finally cost {824 5s. 5d., as the completed account shows. Only £727 18s. 6d. were received when the account was rendered, " fo that there remains due to the under- takers £96 6s. IId., - and there is £16 IS. 6d. of the fubfcriptions unpaid." It stood
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within the limits of the town of Richmond, from which it took its name, to the west of Kingston, somewhat south of the present village of Usquepaug. The highway still exists as a quiet country road, and, driv- ing westward from Kingston Depot, to the right lies a little knoll, now bare and de- serted, save for a few moss-grown stones which guard the resting-places of the dead. Here the meeting-house was built. The quiet country stretches in soft undulations about it. The farms are now almost de- serted ; here and there a column of smoke rising from a group of old apple-trees marks a household. A few stately avenues of old trees between moss-grown walls lead to dilapidated buildings which once were fine mansions. A feeling of autumn creeps into even spring-time air, as of a land that has passed its vigorous youth, and lies basking tranquilly after days of achievement. Or is it waiting the coming of some hero of ro- mance to wake this sleeping beauty, and once again fill the fields, now so desolate, with activity and life ?
In the days of the Friends' meeting, it was a busy centre. Around the place of gathering stretched the fields of the
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Hoxsies, Solomon and Stephen, both men of mark and influence in the meeting. Here the business of the Friends' meetings was transacted, alternating with those on Tower Hill and in the Westerly meeting-house. It happens that much of the important busi- ness we shall review occurred here. Here the first protest against slavery was made, and here some of the most influential of the members were brought to account for delinquencies.
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