USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. II > Part 10
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"Prince Frederick," the brigantine of the same name, and the "Defiance."
The 99-ton sloop, "Prince Frederick," had an armament of 14 carriage and 21 swivel guns and had completed one mildly successful cruise before Captain Dennis was given her command the latter part of 1743. He posted articles in Newport, announcing a proposed voyage to the southward to seek Spanish prizes, and had no trouble in col- lecting a crew of eighty men. The arma- ment of the vessel had been reduced to 12 carriage and 16 swivel guns, but he pro- visioned up for six months' cruise and set out from Newport.
His first victim was a vessel homeward bound from the West Indies to Cadiz, but after her captain had been relieved of some $14,000 (she had no cargo,) she was allow- ed to proceed on her way. In the following six weeks or more the privateer sighted no sail, but was having trouble of her own to make up for any dearth of action. Captain Dennis had a short mutiny on his hands, but he suppressed it and marooned the two chief offenders on an island. On his trip homeward he captured a small Spanish schooner, which yielded a cargo of salt, shoes, leather, and 800 pieces of eight.
The next cruise of the "Prince Frederick" was of shorter length for the vessel carried more men. Under Captain Dennis she sail- ed out of Newport in June, 1744, and fol- lowed the Atlantic Coast southward again.
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In a few weeks three Spanish vessels, were sighted and the largest one captured after a long chase. She had been an English ves- sel originally but had been twice captured by the Spaniards who had converted her in- to a privateer of their own. Putting a prize crew on board, Captain Dennis sent her back to Newport. Within a short while he also captured a French vessel which he sent to Newport.
While in pursuit of a large Spanish ves- sel with a rich cargo, the "Prince Freder- ick" fell in with the "Revenge" and the two ships proceeded in consort. Near Cape Fran- cois two French privateers, fully armed, at- tempted to capture their English rivals, and both of them attacked the "Prince Freder- ick" at once. Though under severe fire, Captain Dennis managed to get clear of them a first time, but they swept about and came at him again. For a while he expected to be captured, for his companion vessel was about two miles away, but he fought doggedly until the French drew off, weary of the conflict. The "Prince Frederick" had received minor damages and lost one man, but the French vessels had suffered more heavily, and blood ran out of their scuppers for some time.
After this engagement the Rhode Island vessel sailed over to the Florida Keys and captured a Spanish vessel which had a valu- able cargo including 600 pounds of pure silver. However, the crew of the vessel es- caped. With this last prize the "Prince Frederick" and the "Revenge" sailed home to Newport.
Before the former vessel could be pro- visioned for another cruise, a pistol, acci- dently fired by one of her owners as they were surveying her stores, caused a terrific explosion of a good many barrels of gun- powder.
Three of the owners were killed; nearly all the stores were lost in the explosion; and consequently the "Prince Frederick" was not refitted for sea. However, the brigan- tine "Defiance," of 130 tons and 14 guns, was fitted out at Newport by John Tilling- hast, Henry Collins, Solomon Townsend, and Daniel Coggeshall, and her command given to Captain Dennis.
In November 1744, he set sail in consort with the "Queen of Hungary." On this cruise he captured seventeen prizes, bringing one
vessel with a cargo of $30,000 in money, 135 pounds in silver plate, many tons of copper, drugs, china and merchandise with him when he returned to Newport in May of the next year. On a second cruise the "Defiance" carried 110 men and provisions for nine months. After many weeks of sail- ing she captured a Spanish settee which had a cargo of 22,500 pieces of eight.
In January of 1746, off Cape Tiburon, the "Defiance" engaged three French vessels, and after an hour and a half of hard fighting Captain Dennis made up his mind to board the largest. Running boldly alongside, he boarded the vessel easily his daring man- euver scaring off the other two. The quarter- deck of the Frenchman blew up right after he had boarded, and he lost a number of men. Though the prize had a fairly valuable cargo, Captain Dennis paid for it with 15 men killed and 15 more wounded. He im- mediately set out for Newport with his prize in convoy.
Here in his native port again, the noted privateersman found himself in great dif- ficulties. He had captured some negroes during one of his exploits and sent them in to Newport where they had been sold. How- ever, the negroes were not slaves but free men, and when the news of their sale reach- ed Havana, the Spaniards seized and im- prisioned some of Captain Dennis' crew whom they had captured along with one of his prizes. Until the matter was investi- gated and cleared up, the Governor with- held a commission as a privateersman from Captain Dennis. And, due to the delay in the proceedings, the "Defiance" sailed away under another master before the action against Captain Dennis was withdrawn.
But the Captain soon received another command. This was the brigantine, "Prince Frederick," a different vessel entirely from the sloop of which he had formerly been master. The brigantine was of 170 tons with an armament of 18 carriage guns, 30 swivels and 18 blunderbusses. She had just return- ed from a long cruise under Captain Peter Marshall. With a fresh crew of 100 men, Captain Dennis sailed the "Prince Freder- ick" to the West Indies, his favorite haunt. Here he attacked a French privateer with its prize and succeeded in capturing the lat- ter, although he lost two men and was wounded himself in the engagement. The
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next prize was another French vessel which was sent to Newport to be condemned. After this the captain seemed to get interested in French vessels and captured six privateers in a row, taking them into St. Kitts. The next victim was a French sloop which was sent with a prize crew to Newport.
Late in the year of 1746 the government of Martinque fitted out a special privateer to attack and capture the "Prince Frederick" which had been causing so much trouble. The vessels soon met and had a very sharp engagement, but the Rhode Island vessel was the victor. Captain Dennis was again slightly wounded. The French vessel was taken into St. Kitts, where the "General and other Gentlemen of the Island" in acknow- ledgment of Captain Dennis' services "pre- sented him with a Golden Oar and a purse of 500 pistoles."
During the winter of 1746-47 Captain Dennis had the audacity to send a message to the governor of Martinque, asking him to send out two of his best privateers and
adding that he, Captain Dennis, "would show him some Sport." The governor com- plied with the challenge and sent out two vessels. They did not find Captain Dennis, however, but instead chased a vessel they believed to be a rich English merchantman. It turned out to be the privateer "Lowe- stoft," of Bristol, proceeding with her guns run in and her ports closed to deceive the enemy. She let the Frenchmen overtake her, and then suddenly bristled into action and captured them both.
The last prize of Captain Dennis on this cruise was a vessel from the French sugar fleet which he took with him back to New- port. The next cruise of Captain Dennis was in a new sloop, named the "Jonathan" which he sailed in 1748. The following eight years were but a continuation of successful cruises for this stalwart Rhode Islander, but, in 1756, he sailed in command of the "Foy" a new large vessel especially fitted out for him, and from that voyage never returned.
A GREAT COLONIAL ARCHITECT
D' URING the "Golden Age of Newport," that brilliant period in the cultural history of Rhode Island, there were many who helped the little seaport and social re- sort to gain real prestige in the fields of literature, philosophy, and art. The years of commercial success had brought to New- port that degree of wealth which, through its creation of a leisure class, often proves to be a fertile ground for the seeds of intel- lectual and artistic advancement. In 1729, Newport was wealthy and was adding yearly to her material riches. Thus, when George Berkeley, Dean of Derry, brought his idealistic philosophy to Newport in that year, he found the town ready to respond wholeheartedly to any cultural stimuli. Al- though the Dean remained in Rhode Island only three years, his influence extended far into the century. This was the beginning of the "Golden Age." Worthy successors to Berkeley held to the intellectual and artis- tic standards he started until the Revolution. There were leaders in all fields.
As patrons of art and architecture there were Henry Collins and Abraham Red-
wood; as painters, there were John Smibert (who came with Berkeley), Robert Feke, Samuel King, Cosmo Alexander, and Gil- bert Stuart; as men of letters and theology, there were James Honyman, Isaac Touro, Samuel Hopkins, Ezra Stiles, John Comer, John Callender, and Nathaniel Clap; as men of science, there were Dr. Thomas Mof- fatt, Dr. Thomas Brett (a graduate of Ley- den), and Dr. William Hunter; and finally, as architects, there were Richard Munday and Peter Harrison. It is of the last two, the architects, of which this brief survey is made.
Richard Munday was a predecessor of Peter Harrison and a worthy one in every respect. Before Peter Harrison had even thought of coming to America, Munday had designed beautiful Trinity Church, and had just finished with the Colony or State House when Harrison arrived. Both of these struc- tures reflect the touch of a master in their perfect proportions. Trinity Church was hailed as the finest example of ecclesiastical architecture in Rhode Island until 1775, the year in which the First Baptist Church in
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Providence was erected. The Colony House was by far the finest building of its kind in all the Colonies. These, then, were the ex- ceptional public buildings which Peter Harrison found already standing in New- port. He was to add three more of equally fine lines and proportions, of which one was to be called by many the best single example of colonial art in the country.
There is practically no information about the early life of Peter Harrison. He was born in 1716, the son of one Thomas Har- rison of Grimston, Yorkshire. However, the name, Harrison, was as common in Yorkshire as Smith now is in America, and in the county there were no less than five towns named Grimston. We do know, how- ever, that his mother was Elizabeth Denni- son, a descendant of the great house of Rox- burghe, and the old Connecticut Journal commended his lineage by stating that "in point of family [he was] second perhaps to very few in America." Peter, himself, later married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Pelham, Jr., of Newport, then the owner of the Old Stone Mill and "of the same family as the late Duke of Newcastle."
Tradition has it that Peter Harrison re- ceived a portion of his architectural train- ing by working under Sir John Vanbrugh on the plans for Blenheim House, but, as a matter of fact, it was more probably his brother (who was also an architect). Why Peter Harrison decided to leave the Old World and come to America is a mystery, but, in 1740, he appeared in Rhode Island as "a passenger with Captain Patterson." With him came his brother, Joseph. It is probable that these two came to the Colony as surveyors or draughtsmen, hoping to find plenty of work in settling boundary dis- putes. Peter gained his first recognition in that capacity by drawing up a plan of Cape Breton which facilitated its capture in 1745. Later, aided by his brother, Joseph, he made "a handsome draught of Fort George and the harbor of Newport." With this piece of work the General Assembly was so pleased, that its members voted to present him with a piece of plate, valued at £75. In 1750, Peter made new plans of the fort and harbor by himself, and it is these draw- ings, preserved in London, that are the only known examples of his craftsmanship in existence. In all this early work, as in his
architectural plans, he showed an Old World finish that was unique in colonial times.
Both the brothers, after drifting about for a number of years, settled in Newport. Despite the era of wealth and culture, there was little opportunity for them to earn a living by their talents, and they were forced to become merchants. Their advertisement offered "a variety of European goods, just imported and to be Sold at their Store near the wharf of Captain John Brown." This stock certainly was varied, for it ranged from "black Sagathee" to "oynions."
Peter Harrison came into a lot of valua- ble Newport property through his marriage, and an especially fine section, located on the Neck, was long known as Harrison Farm. Here the potential architect turned farmer, becoming an expert in agriculture and selling as much as £175 worth of prod- uce a year. Harrison Avenue takes its name from this farm.
Occasionally Peter Harrison made trad- ing voyages and always kept well informed on maritime matters. He received the am- biguous title of "Captain" and enjoyed somewhat of a reputation as an authority on ship-building. He records, in one of his diaries, that he even "sought out Leviathan" in his "whale Sloope, Jenkins, master." When difficulties arose in connection with the operation of the first lighthouse at the mouth of Newport Harbor, it was Peter Harrison who corrected its faults and put it in good running order.
Joseph Harrison returned to England in 1755 in hopes of bettering his condition, but he came back to New England twice more, once, in 1760, as Collector of Cus- toms at New Haven and again, in 1764, as Collector at Boston. When he left New Haven he prevailed upon the authorities to give his position to his brother, Peter, and, in 1766, the latter became the Collector of Customs for New Haven.
The acceptance of a royal post was a fatal move for Peter Harrison to make, and it led him indirectly to his death. With the advent of the Revolution, the full hatred of the people turned upon all Crown officers, and Peter Harrison was no exception. It is true that he was a staunch loyalist, reputed even by his friends as being "preeminent for his loyalty to the King." His position
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in New Haven became so precarious that he was obliged to leave the town for a time until the fierce agitation had passed. In his absence his house was wantonly looted by an unprincipled mob and his beautiful li- brary and all of his professional papers were destroyed. Such barbarous treatment probably had much to do with hastening his death, for he died only a few days after the Battle of Lexington.
Peter Harrison's architectural work will be remembered forever, but during his life it was only an avocation. His artistic activi- ties fall into two periods with a gap of ten years between them. He collaborated with his elder brother in the designing of Red- wood Library in 1748, but in reality it was a case where the brother started the job, made a mess of it, and left it for Peter to finish as best he could. The result was not as good as it might have been had the latter done the work alone. In 1749, he completed his best piece of work, King's Chapel in Boston, and then went for a decade before designing a new building for Newport, the Jewish Synagogue. In the interior of this building, Harrison's genius was displayed to the full. Later in the year he finished
work on Christ Church in Cambridge, Mass., which was more or less of a replica of King's Chapel in wood. Herein, however, in the organ loft itself is without doubt Harrison's finest single specimen of Georg- ian architecture. In 1761, he drew the first sketches for the Brick Market House in Newport. He modelled the exterior after the English market houses of the day, As a classic in brick, it is probably unrivalled in the entire country, and the exterior shows Harrison at his best. Just prior to his death he was consulted concerning the construc- tion of a first hall for Dartmouth College, but he died before he had had a chance to develop any plans.
All of Peter Harrison's architecture re- mains as a monument to him today, al- though much of it has been sadly misused. In many cases, however, buildings are now being restored to their original condition, and will be kept as historical shrines for the future. Even in this day he is recognized as a "masterly architect," and he has had a profound influence on architectural art in America. A Rhode Islander by adoption, he has left treasures of Colonial architecture which have never been surpassed.
SHERIFF ROBINSON
R OWLAND ROBINSON, the Sheriff of King's County, was the eldest son of Deputy- Governor William Robinson, who lived so busily and happily with his wife, children and slaves in his large house near the head of Pettaquamscutt Cove. His household, it is said, consisted of just forty-one persons.
Rowland, in 1741, married Anstis, daughter of a wealthy Boston Neck farmer, Dr. James MacSparran performing the cer- emony; and, in 1746, built the beautiful and stately mansion which still stands near Boston Neck Road about a mile north of the old South Ferry.
This year of 1746 was also the year of his first child's birth-she whose romantic and tragic story has been many times told. "Un- fortunate Hannah Robinson" is the name by which this beautiful girl has gone down in history.
But in the year 1746 there was no cloud over that happy home and, beautiful as is the old "Narragansett Country" now, one must simply "believe in fairies" to see it with the "mind's eye" as it was at that period.
"The aristocratic class were large land- owners. They raised great quantities of hay and grain; they had large dairies, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep. They kept Christ- mas as it was kept in Old England, they at- tended the Church of England services. They danced, ate lamb, venison, turkeys, ducks. Their fruit and vegetables were not to be excelled."
There were no carriages then in Narra- gansett, but the wealthy planters rode to Church on their beautiful "pacers," attend- ed by slaves who kept at their side to open
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and close the many gates that divided the driveways along which they traveled.
In Thomas R. Hazard's "Recollections of Olden Times" we get a description of Row- land Robinson, gentleman farmer, and Sheriff of King's County. He says that in person he was portly, tall and erect. He had classical features, a clear, light complexion, and waving brown hair which he wore in a queue. In full dress he usually wore a dark velvet or brown broad-cloth coat, light yel- low plush waist-coat with deep pockets and wide flaps, short violet colored velvet breeches buckled at the knee; nicely pol- ished white-top boots or silver-buckled shoes, fine cambric shirt, profusely ruffled and plated at the bosom and wrists, with a white silk necktie, the whole surmounted by a looped-up, triangular hat over his pow- dered hair. In his hand he carried a gold- headed cane.
Later on, in Revolutionary times, it was said that his appearance in Newport, when he came to visit a brother there, was such that many of Count Rochambeau's officers vied with each other to obtain introductions to him and to procure invitations to his Narragansett home.
But, at the time in which this story opens, Rowland Robinson was following the usual life of his privileged class, and in addition to his other activities was making famous cheeses which he shipped to the West Indies.
In this connection, there was one very curious feature about his possessions. Alice Morse Earle has written that it was his am- bition to possess one hundred of the beauti- ful "blanket cows" that formed his herd, but that he could never achieve this number. He might have ninety-nine of the black-and- white creatures, but just so surely as the hundredth one was born he would lose one or more in some way. It would sicken and die, or meet death by accident. He never did, tradition says, keep an even hundred of these animals for any appreciable time.
In those old King's County days much dependence was placed upon slave labor. Between his house and his lands, his herds and his cheese-making, Rowland Robinson needed many helpers, and following the usual custom he sent over to Africa for a shipload of these poor creatures. At least as many as twenty-eight men and women were secured for him, and when he re-
ceived word that the ship was in, he rode his horse down to the South Ferry to see the slaves disembark. His idea was to keep the likeliest ones for his house and his fields, and to sell the others.
But when he arrived at the Ferry and sat on his fine horse watching the poor, sick, weary, and frightened black creatures com- ing down over the side of the vessel, he took no pleasure in the sight. Some of them were so weak they could hardly walk. And as he watched, tears of compassion came into Rowland Robinson's eyes. Some have said he never sold a soul of them. Twenty-eight servants he kept, treated kindly, and found work for all on his estate. Only once again did he ever send to Africa for labor, and that was at the plea of Abigail, a prized house-servant. Abigail had been a Queen in Africa, and, once reconciled to her new home in this country, she begged her master to allow her to go back to her native land, find her son, an African Prince, and bring him back with her to this land of plenty. So Mr. Robinson permitted her to go and provided for her comfort on the journey. And back Queen Abigail came, bearing with her the young man, who became Mr. Robin- son's, especial body-servant, and he was always called "Prince."
Updike, the historian, has written down the character of Rowland Robinson as be- ing relentless, unforgiving, harsh, but a Robinson descendant says that this is not right. Impetuous and over-bearing he may have been, but nevertheless he had a fine, generous and forgiving spirit.
Instance after instance arises in a perusal of his life to show that his first indignations were time after time succeeded by a merci- ful softening. Thomas R. Hazard speaks of such instances.
Steppany, one of the slaves that came from Guinea, was a confirmed thief, and his master often lost patience with him. He had furnished him with a little house to live in, and one day word came from this humble home that Steppany was very ill. His son brought the message, and when he had de- livered it, Mr. Robinson's stored-up rage vented itself. He burst out: "Boy, what makes your father such a thief?" The boy, frightened, ran away home, while Mr. Rob- inson, relenting, sent Prince over with a
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horse laden with necessaries for the old man's use.
Another slave, also a thief, was Jerry. Mr. Robinson had winked at many a theft, petty or otherwise, but when Jerry stole a val- uable, imported ram he lost patience. When the loss of the animal was reported to him, he turned his horses's head toward Jerry's cabin in a good towering rage. Jerry saw him coming and got under the bed. When Mr. Robinson got to the cabin he could smell the ram cooking, and he rapped with his famous cane on the door. Nobody an- swered the knock, but he kept on pounding the door until Jerry's wife appeared. Her husband, she said, had gone fishing to get food for his poor children. But Mr. Robin- son knew better, for he had caught a glimpse of the culprit sawing wood as he approached the house, and knew he was hiding within. So he continued to demand Jerry in a thundering voice until finally the trembling black appeared at the door. "Come here, you rascally thief, while I break every bone in your body for stealing my English ram." Jerry averred that, be- cause of the darkness, he did not know it was the ram he had taken. He thought it was a "big wether sheep" until he came to dress it. He pleaded for mercy, his wife wept, and half a dozen whimpering children cried and claimed that they were half-starved. In the end the weeping children secured mercy for their father, and Mr. Robinson still uttering direful threats but with a tear in his eye turned toward home and left the family, presumably, to enjoy their fine dinner of stolen ram.
This same Jerry once had his leg broken by the famous cane, but this was by acci- dent, for Mr. Robinson had aimed at a re- fractory steer and hit the man's leg instead. He was instantly full of concern, had the
negro tenderly carried to his home, and sent for old Job Sweet to come and set the bone. This done, scarce a day went by with- out the master coming to inquire for the disabled man, while his family's needs were abundantly supplied from the house and farm. Jerry afterward was wont to say that he only wished Mr. Robinson would break his other leg, that his family might live as well as it did while he was laid up.
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