USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. II > Part 4
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Young Wilkins Updike was the great, great, great grandson of that Richard Smith whose daughter had married Gysbert op Dyck so long ago. The child must have often heard his parents tell of the distin- guished guests who had sat around his fore- bears' table, for it is said that for many, many generations few travellers of quality failed to leave the "Great Post Road" and turn into the hospitable gates of Cocum- cussoc.
We know that Roger Williams was the first of these great guests, and, later on, by that blazing hearth and at that groaning
table, gathered such men as Benjamin Franklin, Lafayette, the gentle painter, Smibert, and Bishop Seabury. Dean Berk- eley, of England and Newport, was the valued friend of Wilkins Updike's grand- father, and often there came the portly and beloved minister Dr. MacSparran with his beautiful wife Hannah, who was Mrs. Updike's aunt.
Wilkins Updike dearly loved the ancient home of his ancestors, and it was arranged that although he was the youngest son of the house it should be his. He grew to be a distinguished lawyer, a power in his State, a force for good, and, for a few years after his marriage, he was happy in the old "Castle" with his wife and children. Then, having lent his name to a brother as secur- ity in a business venture, and the business having failed, Wilkins was obliged to give up his idolized home to meet the brother's obligations. It is said that Mr. Wilkins could never, thereafter, bear to speak of or to look upon the beloved spot and that he passed the remainder of his honorable, hos- pitable life at "Little Rest," or "Kingston Hill," as it is called now.
SAMUEL GORTON
T THOUGH Roger Williams will always be hailed as the foremost champion of civil and religious liberty in the days following his settlement of Providence, another vig- orous opponent of Puritanism, almost for- gotten now or, at best, much maligned, had a full share in the solid establishment of Rhode Island as an independent and liberal Colony. Unlike William Blackstone, who was content to pursue his theology and phil- osophy as a recluse, Samuel Gorton brought to his ideals a militant spirit, and spent his life waging a constant fight against those who were doing their best to undermine and disrupt the Rhode Island Colony. This "noble-minded patriot and thinker" had a "character for truth and honesty, for moral- ity, for courtesy to all and for Christian charity." He had a great love of soul liberty with a hatred of all shams, and was feared by all religious hypocrites and tyrannical
civil magistrates alike, not only for his dauntless spirit, but for his natural intelli- gence and his great learning, in which re- spect he truly ranked among the first in all the Colonies. In personal appearance he was a man of tall stature, with blue eyes, marked features and fair hair-a typical Saxon.
Samuel Gorton was born in 1592 in the town of Gorton, then adjoining but now included within the city of Manchester, Eng- land. In this place, where generations of his forefathers had lived, he grew up and re- ceived his early education. Gorton's reli- gious training was gained in the English Church, but his full classical and legal edu- cation he received at the hands of very com- petent tutors. In law and politics perhaps he understood his rights better than did Roger Williams, or the proprietors, or the elders or magistrates of the Massachusetts Colony. He did not leave home until the age of about twenty-five or thirty, being
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engaged in study up to that time but in 1635 he was in business as a clothier in London. His father, also, had been a merchant in London and had amassed a considerable fortune, a fact which probably accounted for Gorton's source of private wealth while in the Colonies.
In 1636, Gorton left England for New England, bringing with him his wife, "a lady of education and refinement" and "as tenderly brought up as any man's wife in the town." Through her family, who had always provided their daughter with luxuries of every nature during her childhood, Gorton came into the possession of some choice herds of pure-bred cattle sent by them to fill the stalls of her New England home. Like others who journeyed to the New Country to escape persecution in England, he was sadly disappointed to find that the rulers of the new Colonies had set up a church gov- ernment as austere as that of England. Those in the New England Colonies at Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth who did not conform to authority were disfranchised as citizens. Gorton's arrival was at the time of the proceedings against Wheelright, the brother-in-law of Anne Hutchinson. By avoiding the attention of the magistrates, Gorton obtained a brief respite after his sea voyage, but, within two months, he moved from Boston to Plymouth, intending to make the latter place his home.
He was banished from Plymouth, how- ever, in 1638, the occasion being his defense of one of his maid servants, after she had been found guilty of smiling in church. The decree of the Massachusetts magistrates did not find favor with the people, but they had been too long accustomed to oppression in England to resist any show of authority, such as that exhibited by Governor Prence in dealing with Gorton's case. Gorton with his family left Plymouth in the dead of win- ter and went to the northern part of the island of Aquidneck, joining the Hutchin- sons (just previously banished) at the set- tlement of Pocasset, known now as Ports- mouth.
With his arrival, the factions of Anne Hutchinson and William Coddington, al- ready embittered with rivalry, became worse enemies. Gorton aided the settlers in Pocas- set in the drawing up of the necessary arti- cles for local government, and then, in a
later series of severe controversies with Cod- dington, denounced the latter and his fol- lowers heartily for attempting to set up a government upon the island without a char- ter. He could not hold out against Codding- ton for long, because of the number of the latter's adherents, and, in 1641, went to Providence.
At Providence, Roger Williams was hav- ing a great deal of difficulty with a faction headed by William and Benedict Arnold, Massachusetts agents, who had settled in the vicinity of the Pawtuxet River. Conse- quently, with his reputation for attacks upon unchartered government, Gorton was not well-received. As an eccentric, he was more feared by the Arnolds than Williams himself. After a great deal of trouble, Prov- idence split into three factions, headed re- spectively by the Arnolds, Roger Williams, and Samuel Gorton. The first of these three seceded from Providence in 1642 and sub- mitted themselves to the authority of the Massachusetts Colony. Gorton, countering this decidedly hostile move, joined with some others in purchasing a section of land in the vicinity of Warwick from Mianta- nomi, and moved there in 1643. Here, on the shores of this new territory which they called Shawomet, the Gortonoges began to build and plant. After continued quarrel- ing with the Arnolds, located just to the northward, the latter complained to their adopted rulers of Massachusetts, who imme- diately summoned the Gortonoges to appear at court in Boston. Gorton's reply was char- acteristically independent, and he sent a warrant for the Arnolds to appear in Shawomet.
The Massachusetts authorities saw a splendid chance to gain a foothold in Rhode Island and win the territory for themselves. Consequently they sent a band of soldiers to Shawomet to capture Gorton and his fol- lowers. They claimed that the Indians who had deeded the land to Gorton were not sub- ject to Miantanomi but to the Massachusetts Colony, and that Gorton was an usurper. The soldiery, by violating a truce in a brief skirmish at Shawomet, captured Gorton and his fellows and took them in triumph to Boston. All their land was confiscated and their families had to flee to friends in Prov- idence and Portsmouth for refuge. But the religious leaders and magistrates of Massa-
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chusetts were not able to keep Gorton long in confinement. Too many people were in sympathy with him, and he succeeded in preaching his liberal doctrines from the confines of his jail. In a few months, there- fore, Gorton and his followers were set free but told to get out of Massachusetts within two days.
They returned to Portsmouth. In the meantime Roger Williams had secured a charter for the "Providence Plantations" in 1643, and when the Gortons arrived at the island of Aquidneck, they appointed com- missioners to act under the charter. But Coddington was still a thorn in the side of the youthful Colony. He persisted in trying to maintain his government as before, con- stantly being a party to intrigue with the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies. To combat this insubordination, Gorton ob- tained the submission of the Narragansett sachems to the English crown, and, in 1645, armed with this and his own powerful per- sonality, set out for England to take up the Rhode Island cause against the continued aggressive policies of the Massachusetts Col- onies, and to gain a more solid backing for the new charter of Roger Williams. So much was he feared because of his great learning and ability, that Winslow, a former gover- nor of Massachusetts, was sent to England to attempt to nullify all his efforts. Gorton returned to Rhode Island triumphant, how- ever, having completely won his case. Rhode Island was thus brought safely through her first critical period.
Shortly after Gorton's return to Rhode Island, Coddington, who had tried to usurp the power in Rhode Island, was deposed and had to flee in disgrace. But there were many other uprisings before order was finally established in Providence and the charter became secure. Massachusetts was not one to be easily defeated in her desires, and again, in 1676, the question of the Arnolds and the Pawtuxans arose. Gorton and some of his adherents were again chosen to go to England to petition the King and argue against envoys sent by Massachusetts. After a long and anxious interval, the Gor- tonoges were successful once more. The King declared the Massachusetts charter which named the Pawtuxet and Shawomet sections as its property void. This was the crushing blow for all Massachusetts aspi- rations, and the triumph of Gorton and his followers was complete. Rhode Island truly owes them a great debt.
Throughout his life Gorton, despite his reputation as a very independent thinker and radical, was constantly in public office, serving many years in the General Assembly and in many other capacities. He was a true friend of the Quakers as opposed to Roger Williams, although he shared the latter's great friendship with the Indians. When he died, in 1677, Rhode Island lost a staunch son, a man of fearless integrity, and an invaluable defender. His last days were passed in his beloved Shawomet (now East Greenwich) near the shores of Narragan- sett Bay.
CAPTAIN BENJAMIN CHURCH
A DOLEFUL, great, naked, dirty beast," said Benjamin Church of King Philip, looking at the body of the fallen chieftain as it lay bedraggled and muddy in the Mount Hope swamp. It was evident that he had little admiration for the warrior whose desperate last stand against his hated ene- mies, the white men, had been the cause of long months of the most ferocious and bloody warfare in the entire colonial his- tory of New England. Indian warfare has
always been of the bloodiest sort, but dis- counting its characteristic atrocities (which seem to have been matched in times past and present by those of white men as well) we of the present are more inclined to sympathize with the pitiful case of Philip, almost hopeless from its very start. Far enough away from the war which he waged we can understand its inevitable causes and sense its true proportions much better than those who were destined to suffer through it.
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Church, despite his unique understand- ing of the Indian character, could not sym- pathize with the last mad struggles of King Philip as the Wampanoag, beaten in battle and broken in spirit, tried to escape his pursuers and fate. To our minds, Philip was the patriot of his own kind, rising in righteous indignation to avenge the accumu- lated wrongs of the English against his tribe and fighting with all a patriot's fierce- ness and abandon.
Yet Benjamin Church was no mean man. As the leading Indian fighter of his day, his mission was to lead a force to capture or kill Philip, a mission which he performed faithfully and efficiently. And his words, spoken over the body of his fallen foe, if not of admiration, were at least without undue malice.
Church was born in Duxbury, Massachu- setts, in 1639, his father having been one of Governor Winthrop's band of settlers and a carpenter by trade. For a while the former continued his father's trade success- fully in Duxbury, but in 1674, a few years after his marriage to Alice Southworth, he was induced to settle in what is now Little Compton, Rhode Island. Here he estab- lished a farm near the East Passage, being the first Englishman to settle in that territory.
But he had no chance to develop his farm. In the following spring he was called from Little Compton by the Plymouth Colony when the threat of Indian warfare was rap- idly assuming alarming proportions. The young man was especially fitted to be a great Indian fighter. He was "tall and well proportioned, and his frame was well knit, built for activity and endurance. As a young man he was exceedingly active and vigor- ous, characteristics which strongly recom- mended him to his Indian neighbors. In his residence of a year among the Indians, he had gained a thorough knowledge of their character and had acquired a great influ- ence among them." With his desire for glory and his great religious convictions, he was fully prepared to aid the Plymouth colonists.
He first attended the war dances of the Seaconnet Indians, where he found the queen sachem Awashonks leading the rites. Armed delegates from the Mount Hope tribes were also there, and more than once
the life of the young Englishman hung in the balance, as the dance-maddened braves regarded him with hostile eyes. Yet, pay- ing no attention to the dangers of his own situation, Church argued long and earnestly with Awashonks, finally persuading her to submit to the Plymouth Colony. Later, on his journey back to Plymouth, he met Weet- amoe, queen of the Pocassets, and won her allegiance as well. However, despite his ef- forts, war was begun by the Wampanoags, and the Seaconnets who had promised him allegiance were drawn into the conflict.
All through the weary months of fighting in which the Indians were at first success- ful, Church served as a leader, yet his wise counsel was frequently disregarded by his associates. Nevertheless the young man re- mained loyal, throwing all his vigor and keen knowledge of Indian warfare into the English cause. Meanwhile the war spread like a prairie fire all over New England. Over six hundred of the best of the English fight- ing men were killed, and settlement after settlement went up in flames. Even the large towns like Providence did not escape the peril. But gradually the tide of events turned. The Indians began to suffer defeats which broke up their determination and scattered their power. Canonchet, the son of Miantanomi, who had entered the war with the hope of avenging his father's death, was killed. The battle in the Bridgewater swamp shattered the hopes of Philip of ever driving out the white men from the land. And, finally, bands of the Indians them- selves were gradually won over to the Eng- lish side.
Church was able to reconcile Awashonks once more to the English, and won the aid of some 140 of her braves. His capture of Annawon was a telling blow against Philip's forces, and his own intrepidity and calculating courage made him more and more feared by the red men. His was the final blow to end the war, for he led the English force into the swamp at Mount Hope and drew the strings of the net from which Philip could not escape.
Thus Church won a final triumph. His whole partisanship with the Plymouth Col- ony during the war had been checkered, marred by constant disagreements and petty jealousies among the English leaders. But the chastening power of repeated defeats
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had made his opponents give him the com- mand that he should have had from the first.
At the beginning of the war Church had sent his family into Rhode Island for safety. and it was here that he joined them after the death of Philip. In Bristol he settled down in the height of his fame, building himself a house on the north side of Consti- tution Street, near Thames Street. But the last remnant of this, the old ruin of its chimney, vine-covered, is long since gone.
The people of Bristol, honoring the con- queror of Philip, elected Captain Church to many town offices, thereby insuring the fulfillment of these with dispatch and hon- esty. Church also was sent to Plymouth in 1682 as Bristol's first deputy to the General Court.
But his days of fighting were not over. With the advent of what was known as King William's War in 1689, in which the French and Indians were the main aggressors and Maine the seat of conflict, Church was made a Major and Commander-in-Chief of an expedition into Maine, but was hampered by a lack of support from the colonial gov- ernments. Massachusetts was involved in its affair with Sir Edmond Andros, and had little interest in the welfare of its neighbor- ing colony to the north. Church was called back to report the conditions in Maine to the Massachusetts authorities, yet little heed was paid to his representations. Fin- ally, after the threat of the French and Indians had grown too great, Church was again sent northward with a force of 250 men. Again Massachusetts withdrew its sup- port after the men were in the field, and Church, thoroughly disgusted, had to dis- band his company.
He was penniless and in rags when he arrived at Boston, but the authorities snubbed him completely, paying him not a cent for his services. He was forced to beg board for three days of a charitable sloop master and borrowed money from a drover to get to Rhode Island. Upon his arrival home he had to sell some of his lands to pay part of the expenses of this expedition. Still he went to the aid of Massachusetts several more times, leading successful ex- peditions against the French and Indians. And through them all the miserliness of the authorities continued. Only long after his death did Massachusetts, in sorry atone- ment, grant to his heirs five hundred acres out of unappropriated land in the province.
At the age of sixty-five Church retired from military life, ending a glorious career. He had never been defeated or even re- pulsed in all his expeditions. For quite a few years he continued to live with his fam- ily at Bristol, and several of his children were born there. However, he finally went back to his original homestead at Little Compton. Fortunately his vigor in times of peace as well as in war had been the means of his acquiring enough property to avoid any poverty during his declining years. In the winter of 1717-18 a fall from his horse was responsible for his death, which occurred on January 17, 1718.
The old Indian fighter, like King Philip, his former foe, had fought adversity and ill-feeling throughout his whole life, never while living (except in Bristol) attaining the full recognition and honor he deserved. Yet when men came to think of him after- ward, they remembered keenly his constant patriotism, his high sense of justice, and his calculated courage.
HAZARDS OF RHODE ISLAND
O NE of the most fascinating and, at the same time, most involved branches of history is that which comes under the heading of genealogy. Nor can it be over- looked by any historian worthy of the name. In the lives of many a prominent family are hidden the little incidents, the anecdotes, the quaint and homely records, so revealing of character and frequently
so humorous in the light of later standards and customs. Too often men and women, leaders of their country, state, or county, in peace or war, have been idolized because of one or two outstanding achievements, when they themselves would have been the first to protest against such emulation. It is not that idolization of a public hero is wrong. Even if it were, the very force of
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mass enthusiasm, once a hero had been chosen, would tend to increase for a while like a rolling snowball, sweeping the vic- tim of favor to glory just as inevitably as, with a reversal of circumstances, it would carry him to his doom. Once established in a niche of fame, a vivid personality very often becomes crystallized in its own glory, remaining inaccessible to the humble love of the multitudes whose inhibitions and in- tuitions combine to hold the superman outside the circle of their most intimate affections. Only rarely, when some gifted disciple, probing deeply into the personal records of a famous man, has succeeded in breaking the shell of his superficial glory and making him human again, does such a liberated hero find his true and lasting niche in the hearts of the people.
The genealogy of many Rhode Island colonial families reveals much of the early life and customs of the Colony. The pioneer industries, the great farmlands, the prejudices and beliefs, the little bigot- ries and eccentricities-all that is great and much that is small-is faithfully, and ofttimes unconsciously, disclosed. Yet, in- asmuch as it would require a volume to record even one family tree, it is only pos- sible in this story to touch a few highlights in the history of the descendants of one of the first settlers and founders of New- port and consequently of Rhode Island itself.
The name, Hazard, can be traced back to the Duc de Charente who lived, in 1060, near the borderland of Switzerland. How the name came to be changed to Hazard is a story in itself, and here we can only tell of the Hazards of Rhode Island.
Thomas Hazard, born in 1610, first came to Boston in 1635, but within four years journeyed south to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, becoming, in 1639, one of the eight founders of Newport. His son, Robert, moved from Newport to Kingston, bought there 500 acres of land and proceeded to build himself the largest house in the town. That he succeeded is evident for a doctor, while visiting the family, asked if the oc- cupants of the huge house had some means of conveyance to carry them from the front to the rear door. The chimney in the spa- cious ell of the house had large stone seats on the inside, and here the slave children
used to sit. The owner referred to his man- sion as "my manor house." Three genera- tions of Roberts occupied the structure, the third going by the name of "Roc" Robert, an appellation arising out of the existence of a huge rock in the boundary of the estate. The estate itself was divided for a time, part of it being deeded by the first Robert to his brother George, who later ac- quired the remainder from Robert the third. In all, the first Robert Hazard had owned over a thousand acres in the Colony, scat- tered about in Tiverton, Newtown, Point Judith, and Kingston, but the home estate itself was the first piece of property to pass out of the family, it being sold to a John Rose after 60 years of Hazard ownership.
In the obituary of Mary Hazard, the widow of the first Robert Hazard, which ap- peared in the Boston Gazette it is noted that she was "one hundred years of age, had had 500 children, grand-children, and great grand-children, and left 205 of them still living." It was a period of large families not only through the early generations but even to the sixth and seventh, yet it is in- teresting to see the successive families gradually reacting to the times until, in the tenth generation, the average was only three or at most four children.
Elizabeth, the daughter of the first Thomas Hazard, married William Lawton of Portsmouth from whom Lawton's Valley takes its name. Another daughter, Hannah, married a man named Wilcox and moved to Westerly. The third daughter married twice, first into the Potter family and sec- ond into one bearing the name of Mowry.
While it is impossible to trace all the de- scendants individually, and only a few can be mentioned throughout the early genera- tions, perhaps it would be well, before pro- ceeding further, to describe a few character- istics of the family. Its members, particu- larly the men, were strongly marked with distinctive characteristics. They were of good stature, very powerful physically, had well-shaped heads, high foreheads, straight or acquiline noses, firmly-chiseled chins, and fair, though somewhat florid, complexions. In all of them was evidence of a certain decision of character, a con- siderable amount of pride, and a pro- nounced independence. A Sylvester Haz- ard of Newport was reported to have lifted
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