USA > Rhode Island > The Narragansett Friends' meeting in the xviii century, with a chapter on Quaker beginnings in Rhode Island > Part 4
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Beside building its own meeting-houses, the South Kingstown meeting contributed to others, as it in turn also received contri- bution. Warwick, Dartmouth, and Provi- dence each had contributions in the early days of the meeting. South Kingstown was the richest town in the colony about the middle of the century, and it is natural to find Friends contributing considerable sums. But, while Friends were generous, they were thrifty. After having contributed seventy-two pounds fifteen shillings toward various meeting-houses, especially the meet- ing-house at Providence, comes the entry :
" This meeting do not find freedom to contribute any more till they are Satisfied the augmenting of the firft fum which was
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Requefted is not by unneceffary coft." 1 And at another time, when the epistle from quarterly meeting was "read and kindly excepted," as the good clerk wrote it, it was quite literally true; for " as to the requeft in the Epiftle from the Laft Quarterly Meeting for Affiftance in Difcharging the Coft ffriends have been at about their meeting houfe in Smithfield we at pre- fent Defire to be excufed for we are about Repairing our Meeting houfe in Sº Kings- town." 2
The meeting-houses needed continual re- pairs, and committees are appointed to "ftop ye leak in ye old meeting houfe," or to see to the windows and small repairs, frequently. It was before the days of stoves, and in the long intervals of silent meditation the cold must have been intense.
New England Friends were mindful of the sufferings of Friends in England, and in 1752 the meeting sent £40 14s. by its treasurer, to be taken to the next quar- terly meeting to forward to London. The treasurer had a difficult task with his ac- counts in the variable currency, of which the following entry is an example : -
1 Vol. I. p. 97. 2 Ibid. p. 35.
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THE MEETING-HOUSES
It appears by the Records of our Monthly Meeting the 27 of ye Fifth Month, 1747, that there is of the meet- ing's money in the hands of Peter Davis the sum of £16.16.6 that after the Dis- count of £13.7 there remains a Balance yet due to the meeting of £3.9.6.1
Beside the meetings in the meeting- houses, youths' meetings were appointed : one at Westerly lower meeting-house was to be held in the seventh month, "a second day, after the first day." Another was held at William Gifford's, in Charlestown, in the 2d month; a third, in the old meeting- house, on a fifth day in the seventh month following the second-day meeting at Wes- terly; and at Westerly upper meeting-house in the second month again.2
So the meeting was fully established with its five houses of worship. First in impor- tance was the old meeting-house on Tower Hill, built on Thomas Hazard's land, which for a nominal consideration he sold to Ebenezer Slocum in 1710, who in his turn transferred it to certain trustees the next day for the same consideration. Then came the two Westerly houses, the meeting-house 1 Vol. i. p. III. 2 Ibid. p. 40.
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on James Perry's land in Matunuck and the Richmond meeting-house. What the work of the meeting was, and what manner of men did it, the following pages will en- deavor to show.
IV THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING
IV
THE records of the South Kingstown Friends begin in a small, square hand, with Friends spelled with a double f, and words written as the South County speech pro- nounced them, and our interest is naturally excited to know something of the man who wrote them. It does not appear from the first record who he was, but a subsequent entry shows him to have been " our ancient friend, Peter Davis." He was a South County man, living near Westerly, who had been prominent in the East Greenwich meeting. Among the first duties that he performed for the new meeting was to "fe to the carrying on " of Westerly lower meet- ing-house, in which his two sons were ap- pointed to assist him. In 1747, on the 27th of the 2d month, he " Laid before this meet- ing that there hath been a concern on his Mind for some time to Vifit ffriends in the Weftern parts, and allfo in Europe if the way fhould open for him. And defired a few Lines of ffriends Unity therein." This
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proposal was considered by the meeting, and two months later action was taken upon it, and the minute is entered by Peter Davis himself: -
Ist 4th Mo 1747
Whereas our ffriend Peter Davis is Likely to move from us for fome time this Meeting confidered to Choofe and ap- point our ffriend, Stephen Hoxfie to fill his Room in the Service of Clerk to this Meeting. Two certificates for our An- tiant Friend, Peter Davis, one for Long Ifland, penfalvenia And ye Jerfes and Verginia &ct Maryland &ct, one for the Ifland of Great Brittian was both writ and Signed in this meeting.
What a journey for a country Friend to set out upon ! He calls himself an " An- tiant Friend " already in 1747, when he was about to undertake it, though this must have been an honorary title if the record is cor- rect, which places his birth in 1712, which would make him only thirty-five years old. It is possible there is some mistake in this entry, as he lived to a great age, though the record is explicit. He performed his duties to the last, filling twenty-five of the large folio pages with closely written re-
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cords, and on the 29th of 4th month, 1747, comes his last entry, " This Meeting Ended." One reads it with something of what must have been his own feeling of solemnity at quitting home and kindred. His rule as a clerk was evidently not a very rigid one, for on an occasion "the minits of the Laft Monthly Meeting not happining to be at hand it was Remem- bred."
In the spring of 1747, Peter Davis set out on his travels, and certificates as to his preaching were received by the home meet- ing. The first one is dated from Nine Partners, or, as it was often called, The Ob- long, in the Province of New York. This is back of Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, and for many years was the seat of a famous school under the government of Friends. Peter Davis preached there in May, 1747. The next month found him in the "pur- chase of Westchester." Woodbridge, in New Jersey, Maryland, Flushing, Long Is- land, and Philadelphia were visited in turn, and the certificates received, " Which was all Read in this meeting to Good satisfac- tion."1 One wonders what his special gift
1 Vol. i. p. 36.
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was, and what aspect of truth he loved to preach. The way opened before him, for after a sojourn in Philadelphia in the au- tumn of 1747, he sends a certificate from London, dated 22d of 3d month, 1748. No comment is made upon this in the orderly records. There is an interval of six months between the Philadelphia certificate and the one from London. How long a time was he upon the water, one wonders ? and what reception did a Rhode Island Friend meet with in London ? The records give no indication, but the meeting must have been stirred and stimulated by the fact of its own approved minister carrying his testi- mony and his gifts so far. In 1751 he was evidently back again, for certificates from The Oblong, Westbury on Long Island, and from the Purchase in the Province of New York, were received. Again, in 1759, it is recorded that "our Ancient Friend, Peter Davis & John Collins hath a concern on their minds to vifit Friends in the West- ern parts." He was evidently a man of influence in the society, especially where any question of doctrine was involved, and was constantly on committees to deal with offenders against the simplicity of Friends.
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He lived to a great age, and was twice mar- ried. Content Davis was his first wife, a woman of much influence in the women's meeting. She died in 1781, and he mar- ried his second wife, Martha. She " de- parted this Life the 12th day of the 4th Mo 1809 and was buried the 14th in Friends burying ground in Richmond, aged eighty-eight years." A year before her death the meeting took charge of its aged minister, and a paper exists specifying the food and clothing the aged couple were to have.1 He lived three years longer, and died in 1812, "aged one hundred years, eleven months and five days," and was buried in the Richmond burying-ground.
A story is told of Peter Davis by the present clerk of the meeting, who in his youth knew an aged man who was his friend. He was vigorous in mind and body, enjoying life to the last. Upon one occa- sion he was riding along the Matunuck road, erect as usual, and a party of younger friends followed. Thinking him out of hearing, they discussed his great age, say- ing they would not like to live so long. The old man turned in his saddle and said
1 Appendix, p. 190.
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gently, " Boys, it is sweet to live; I love life." And surely he had had great experience of life. Not only had he more years than any other Friend who is mentioned, but his travels and his preaching had made them full years. He enforced the discipline of the meeting, and the meeting was stringent with him. On the occasion of one of his religious journeys, a committee was ap- pointed to inquire into his conversation and report upon it. They "find things clear concerning Peter Davis. All accept his Setting out on his Jorney before he had a Certificate." Thus even so influential a Friend was kept to the letter of the law.
Stephen Hoxsie, as already noticed, was chosen to succeed Peter Davis when the latter set out on his travels. His first en- try, the record of the meeting held the 27th of 5th month, 1747, is a great contrast to Peter Davis's crabbed hand. Peter Davis evidently had modeled his writing after the engrossing hand of the scribe of the day. It was small and square, and lacked the evenness and finish which gave the clerkly hand of the period its character. Stephen Hoxsie begins in a good, flowing hand, and with more modern ideas of spelling, though
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THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING
that retains its "freedom from inforce- ment " as boldly as the consciences of the founders. South County speech, to this day, speaks of a convenant place of meeting, and so the books record it. " Accept " was always an occasion of stumbling, the quar- terly meeting epistles being generally ex- cepted, while genuine " exception " is often "accepted." But the improvement is great in the fullness and accuracy with which the record was kept. It is a neat-looking re- cord, and for twenty-seven years was written by the same hand. Stephen Hoxsie, and Elizabeth his wife, lived not far from the Richmond meeting-house. They had eleven children, and it was not till a few months after her death, in the autumn of 1773, that he resigned his clerkship. It is his hand that records dealing with debtors, with "dis- orderly walkers," and notes the proposals of marriage between young Friends. He was often on committees himself to inquire into difficult cases, and was evidently a man of weight and influence in the meeting. He " Departed this life," the record says, " the 24th Day of the 10th Month 1793," within one day of twenty years from the day of his wife's death, "and Was buryed in friends
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burying Ground at Richmond the 27 of the Same, after a Solid Meeting of friends and others aged 80 years & 26 Days."
This faithful clerk of the meeting was succeeded in 1774 by Peleg Peckham.1 If
Stephen Hoxsie was an improvement on the first clerk, this third clerk was an ad- vance on Stephen Hoxsie. The handwrit- ing has the same general character, but is clearer and firmer, an excellent hand, very legible and distinct. The page has a schol- arly air, and the spelling conforms to mod- ern requirements. The use of capitals continues in unexpected places, but the whole record bespeaks a man of better edu- cation. The period of the work of this clerk covered the final dealings on the ques- tion of slavery, and the whole period of the Revolution. With Peleg Peckham Thomas Hazard was closely associated. In 1775 Thomas Hazard and Peleg Peckham were appointed " to Collect the Several Rules or Minutes of the yearly meeting Tranfmitted to us by Epiftles or other ways & to record them in the Book of Difcipline under their Proper Heads." 2 This was in the first year of Peleg Peckham's service, and all through 1 Vol. ii. p. 16. 2 Ibid. p. 51.
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this period, frequently at the end of a meet- ing, comes the signature, " Thos Hazard Clerk this Time." I have been in much doubt as to whether Thomas Hazard, who was "College Tom," made these entries himself. Careful comparison with manu- script known to be his would lead to the conclusion that it was. He had an odd way of writing the "s," in the abbreviation of Thomas, high up, close to the beginning of the " H " in Hazard. Either these are his signatures, or his friend Peleg Peckham closely imitated his method. Another cir- cumstance which would seem to indicate that the entries are in Thomas Hazard's hand is the fact that very frequently, in a list of names of a committee, his own name appears last. The first hundred and fifty pages of the second volume of records, cov- ering only seven years, appears to be in the same hand; if by both Peleg Peckham and Thomas Hazard, the resemblance is very remarkable. Nailor Tom Hazard records in 1781, " Cousin Hazard had a fit coming from the mill," and it is in that year that this handwriting stops in the middle of a sentence.
Thomas Hazard was the eldest son of
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Robert Hazard and Sarah Borden his wife. His mother belonged to the meeting, but I have found no evidence that his father did. He received a good education, and from the fact of his attending the college at New Haven he derived his nickname of College Tom. He was early exercised on behalf of the slaves, and refused to work his farm with slave labor. He related the occasion of his first turning his thoughts to the sub- ject. In one of the hot summer days be- tween his college terms, his father sent him into the field to oversee the haying. Find- ing the sun intolerable, he lay down under a tree and took a book from his pocket. But it was too hot to read, and he lay watching the negroes at work. The situa- tion suddenly struck him. If it was too hot even to read in the shade, what right had he to keep men at work in the sun? From that moment his thoughts were turned toward the evils of slavery, and when a little later he heard the stern denuncia- tion of the Connecticut deacon his con- science was fully aroused. " Quakers!" said the deacon, " they are not Chriftian people ; they hold their fellow-men in flavery."
Thomas Hazard was a young fellow just
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of age, and on the point of being married, when these words were said to him. He gave up his worldly prospects, worked his farm with free labor, and became a zealous advocate of emancipation. His long and useful life has been detailed elsewhere,1 but in any mention of Narragansett Friends of the eighteenth century he must hold a con- spicuous place.
Solomon Hoxsie, a brother of Stephen Hoxsie the clerk, was also a man of mark, often intrusted with business for the meet- ing. He is called of Richmond, and when he died, in 1781, "was decently interred in his own Burying ground near his houfe."
John Collins was a traveling Friend who belonged to the meeting. He sometimes accompanied Peter Davis on his shorter journeys, and several times the record comes that he " hath it on his mind to vifit ffriends at Oblong." Robarts Knowles was the Friend who traveled with Peter Davis on his extended journey before he sailed for England. A Robert Knowles was under dealing for debt not long after, and one wonders if it was the same Friend,
1 Thomas Hazard, son of Robert, called College Tom. By Caroline Hazard. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
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and if, in his concern for the good of the meeting, he neglected his "outward affairs."
Friends were truly watchful over each other for good. The most prominent men in the meeting were chosen visitors, and overseers of the meeting. The Queries were sent to each meeting from the quarterly meeting, and were not only read in public meetings but in the houses of Friends. They were a list of questions as to the life and conduct of the members. Friends were ad- vised "againft running into employment they have no knowledge or experience of, but to employ themfelves in that bufiness they were acquainted with." Their apparel, furniture, table, and way of living was under the observation of the overseers. Nor were the ministers and elders exempt from such supervision, but they were exhorted to have a watchful care for each other.
In 1755 the scope of the overseers was defined when it was
agreed by this meeting that for the future the vifitors of each meeting Do vifit the families of such who were married among Friends that have not cut themfelves off by Transgreffion, those who are the chil-
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dren of ffriends, and read the Queries to them. And fuch who are willing to be in the obfervation of fuch Queries, and have a Defire to be under the care of friends in order that the monthly meet- ing may have a Right Sence of the con- duct of all Such : and take proper meth- ods to Deal timely with fuch who walk Diforderly.1
A little later, in 1761, Thomas Wilbour, Thomas Hazard, and Stephen Hoxsie re- port still further on the duties of over- seers : -
It is our Judgement that every par- ticular contained in the Queries now in ufe in faid Monthly Meetings may with propriety be committed to the charge and care of faid overfeers together with all other Rules of Moral and Religious Conduct that are or fhall be hereafter thought neceffary by faid Monthly Meet- ing and recommended to their overfight fo far as they do or may relate to the Week Day and Firft Day Meetings and their Members.2
Still later the overseers were to take no- tice of "diforders committed by members, 1 Vol. i. p. 69. 2 Ibid. p. 122.
90 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING viz .: Sleping and all other indecencies," and the omission of members to attend all meetings.
The Queries were reported upon from month to month. In 1754 the visitors re- port "in fome places Indifferent well, but many places according to our Underftand- ing too much Indifferency in Regarding the good order which ought to be kept up amongft us for which they Laboured in the ability they Received for Amendment." 1
A little later, " where there was a De- ficiency they generally gave Incouragement of a Regulation." The Queries were also read in meeting, " and friends gave anfwers thereto as proper as they were Capable of at prefent."
The meeting was not afraid to take up grave questions. The question of slavery stirred it deeply; temperance was already a question of the day ; education received attention. One question, which was a ques- tion in England until very recently, came up in 1771, - the question of marrying a deceased wife's sister .? A minute was framed to ask advice upon it in 1772 : -
Query to be able to marry a deceafed 1 Vol. i. p. 63. 2 Ibid. p. 245.
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wife's fifter or deceafed Hufband's Bro- ther and what is neceffary to be done in fuch cafes ? 1
The system of overseers kept the meet- ing closely bound together, where " too much indifferency " did not prevail. The most solid men of the meeting were ap- pointed for this service. The Hoxsies, Stephen and Solomon, Peter Davis, and his companion John Collins, and Thomas Hazard, all went from house to house visit- ing Friends under the care of the meeting. A touch of human nature doubtless crept in on some of these occasions, and the formal reports in the records must some- times have had their origin in neighbor- hood gossip. But life was taken seriously, and the daily walk and conversation of Friends was under close observation. In a time of general laxity, and in a new and partly settled country, the orderly rule of Friends made for that righteousness which " exalteth the nation." It may be that the overseers were at times actuated by very human motives, that the quiet country life fostered curiosity. A sense of spiritual pride in those so honored may have crept
1 Vol. i. p. 267.
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in, yet these Friends recognized that their own will was naught; they depended upon the Light of Truth, which they earnestly sought, and, in the beautiful phrase of their clerk, they " labored with the ability they have received."
V
THE WORK OF THE MEETING
V
THE meeting in South Kingstown, though probably the oldest association for worship, was by no means the only one. As early as 1668, the Pettaquamscut purchasers set aside three hundred acres of land, "to be laid out and forever fet apart as an en- couragement, the income or improvement thereof wholly for an Orthodox perfon that fhall be obtained to preach God's word to the Inhabitants." The church which was supported from this foundation had teach- ers at the end of the century, but it was not till 1732 that the Rev. Samuel Niles came, who is called the " firft incumbent of ordination."
These ministerial lands were the cause of a long lawsuit, for the " orthodox per- son," for whose benefit the deed was made, was held by Dr. McSparran, the missionary of the Church of England, to be no other than himself. Dr. McSparran arrived in 1719, and was active and zealous for many years. His Church of St. Paul's stood in
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the village of Tower Hill, on the highway leading to the ferry. Dr. Torrey's church, which finally obtained the title to the min- isterial lands, stood on the corner of the Queen's high road and the ferry road. The court-house was almost opposite it; and from this centre, in the early part of the eighteenth century, the life of the country- side spread. These two churches are con- tinued in Narragansett. The court-house was moved to Kingstown in 1754. Dr. Torrey's church followed, and has become the First Congregational Church at Kings- ton. Dr. McSparren's St. Paul's Church was moved to a site a few miles north of the village, and later to Wickford, where the building in which he preached is still preserved. The Church of the Ascension in Wakefield is its South Kingstown de- scendant. Beside these two established churches at the time of the establishment of the meeting, there were all sorts of minor sects. Beside Quakers and Baptists, Mr. Fayerweather says, "Fanatics, Ranters, Deifts, and Infidels fwarm in that part of the world," and Dr. McSparran bewails the " hetrodox and different opinions in re- ligion that were found in this little corner."
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At the same time the good doctor laments this diversity, he speaks of "the power and number of Quakers in this colony." Dr. McSparran does not mention the sect which the Friends had most to fear, if the mention in their records is a true indica- tion, - the New Lights, or New Lites, as Stephen Hoxsie often spelled it. As early as 1748 a Friend was denied his member- ship because he suffered Friends' meeting " to be difturbed and broken up by the aforefd Wild & Ranting people, which meeting was in his own houfe." Peter Davis and John Collins, the two preachers, who were presumably strong in points of doctrine, were appointed to labor with Henry Mulkins, as " there appears but Lit- tle hopes of his Return," and in 1753 he was denied as a " Newlite."
They were also called Separates, or Sep- arators, and the outward sign of a Friend's removing the hat seems to have been taken as a token of falling from grace. A little later two Friends dealt with a man who "has lately joyned with ye People called Sepa- rates in their Worfhip fo far as to Stand up with his Hatt off in the Time of their praying." A second Friend was under the
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same charge, as he had " attended a meet- ing of the people called feparators and joined with them in worfhip by taking off his Hatt, etc.," the record says. This re- minds one of the early days when the hat played such an important part, and the Boston martyr, William Robinson, ex- claimed, " it is for not putting off the hat we are put to death !" One of these Friends confessed his fault as follows : -
I did fometime past Inconfiderately at- tend a meeting of the people called New Lights, and fo far joined with them in their worfhip as to pull off my hatt which inconfiderate conduct of mine I freely condemn.
In 1767 a young man was under dealing as he " has juftified his union and commun- ion with the Newlights so-called, and Friends being willing that he fhould maturely con- fider the matter, do conclude to refer it to the next monthly meeting." Two months later his case was again referred, "that his mother may have an opportunity to confer with him." But her arguments did not pre- vail, and he soon was denied his member- ship because he "pretended to juftifie himfelf in being Dippa in outward water."
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