USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. II > Part 6
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past between Thomas and his mother. Mag- istrates took up the inquiry and prosecuted Cornell on the strength of it. He was arrested and bound over to the Superior Court, indicted on May 12th, tried and con- victed on the same day, and sentenced to be hanged on May 23rd. Pending the execu- tion of the sentence, he was kept chained and manacled and guarded by four men by day and eight by night. In addition, a war- rant was issued for the seizure of his estate. There was no chance for him to escape, and he died on the gallows on the appointed day.
Thomas Cornell did not confess any- thing, but strangely enough, before his ex- ecution, his friends presented a petition in his behalf to the General Assembly request- ing that he be buried beside his mother. Would a murderer naturally desire to be buried beside his victim? The petition complicated the mystery. The General As- sembly did not grant it, but gave his friends permission to bury him on his own farm, provided they made his grave within ten feet of the common road where the Colony would be at liberty to set up a monument on his grave. Otherwise he would have been buried near the gallows. As a further mark of leniency the Assem- bly released his estate after his death, nam- ing the Town Council of Portsmouth as executor.
Another odd aspect of the case was the vote of the General Assembly after the execution to record all proceedings and testimonies involved in the case in the book of trials. This was not only testimony given at the actual trial, but such information and affidavits as were procured at the inquest or later by the magistrates. Some of this testimony was peculiar, and we will go through it briefly.
On February 8th, the afternoon of the murder, Thomas Cornell spent two hours and a half with his mother in her room, engaging her in conversation, after which he came out into the adjoining room and began to wind a quill of yarn. Before this was half wound, he was summoned to supper with his family and the two hired men. After supper he sent his son Edward to ask his grandmother if she would have her milk boiled for supper. The boy went, discovered fire in the room on the floor,
and came running back to get a candle and to give the alarm. Henry Strait ran to the room followed by the boy with the candle and then by Thomas Cornell and his wife. The hired man saw the fire and raked it out with his hands, and then, in the faint light shed by the candle, saw a human body on the floor. Supposing it to be an Indian, drunk and burned, (a queer supposition) he shook it by the arm and spoke to it in Indian language. At that moment Thomas Cornell saw the body and exclaimed, "Oh Lord! it is my mother!"
The body was lying on its left side, with its back to the bed and face towards the window. Its clothes were part woolen and part cotton, but only the woolen part was burned. As far as the bed was concerned, only its curtains and valence were burned. And lastly, the outer door was fastened.
Thomas Cornell maintained that his mother's clothes had caught fire from a hot coal falling upon them from her pipe as she smoked in her chair, but no pipe or pieces appear to have been found on the floor. If that had happened, she should have been able to have extinguished the fire herself or at least called for help. And that hypothesis does not consider the evi- dence of the fire about the curtains and valences. Who extinguished those, things so highly inflammable? Thomas Cornell would hardly have left the room with the fire going unwatched, thus imperiling his own house!
Now for the testimony of the hired men. One said that usually both children were with their grandmother in the evening but that they had not gone to her room on the evening of the murder. Further, the grand- mother, when well, usually ate with the family, being sent for. Henry Strait testi- fied that he had even asked Thomas Cornell why his mother was not at the table that evening and that the latter had replied it was because they were having salt mackerel which she could not eat. "But," said Strait, "she used to be called at other times when they had mackerel."
Further testimony was to the effect that Rebecca Cornell had had a claim against her son for overdue rent. Some said sharp words had passed between them, and others that she had been vaguely threatened by her son and forced to do menial services. At
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one time she had hinted at suicide and at another declared that in the spring she was going to live with her other son, Samuel, but feared that she might be made away with before then. Finally, one witness who, accompanied by Sarah Cornell, had visited Thomas Cornell while he was in jail as- serted that the wife and husband had con- versed apart and that he had heard one say to the other, "If you will keep my secret, I will keep yours."
Such is the main bulk of the testimony. There is one more episode in the case, how- ever, and it might well be mentioned. Four days after the murder the brother of Re- becca Cornell testified that the ghost of his sister had appeared at his bedside and spoken to him twice, calling attention to her burns and wound and implying that she had been murdered. Strange as it seems, according to the Cornell family genealogi- cal records, this bit of flimsy testimony had the most to do with the indictment and sen- tencing of Thomas Cornell.
The case caused a great deal of feeling among the people of the Colony, as well it might, and its true solution remained a
mystery. Two years later it was revived briefly in the indictment of Sarah Cornell, the widow, for either perpetrating the crime "or for being abetting or consent- ing thereto." It may not be wrong to as- sume that her acquittal was in a large measure due to public sentiment. There had been time to do a whole lot of sane thinking since the hanging of Thomas Cor- nell, and people had reason to question the high-handed proceedings which rushed his execution. Whether Thomas Cornell was actually guilty or not we cannot say. The Friend's Records say that "Rebecca Cornell, widow, was killed strangely at Portsmouth in her own dwelling-house . . . ' but they name no murderer. Even we, who are not lawyers, would question much of the evidence, while one prominent Newport lawyer, once asked about the case, said simply, "There was no evidence."
Sarah Cornell probably thought the same, for she named a daughter, born after her husband's death, "Innocent" undoubted- ly as a living protest against his unjust execution, which was rather typical of the time.
KING PHILIP
0 F ALL the Indian wars in New England, King Philip's War was the bloodiest and most cruel." So reads the opening par- agraph of a history compiled by a Rhode Island historian. And this was indeed true -true because the English were cruel and a great tribe of red men were thirsting for revenge. But too often has the stigma of treachery and unwonted savagery fallen upon the fierce leader of the Indian tribes, King Philip himself.
Philip, as he was called by the whites, was of the true Indian nobility, as high in character as any in a corresponding class of white men. He was a martyr in a lost cause and gave his life in a supreme attempt to save his people from complete annihilation by the English.
To show the underlying causes for King Philip's actions it is necessary to trace the history of his line through a preceding gen- eration and its branches.
The father of Philip was Massasoit, the greatest of all Wampanoag sachems. For many years Massasoit had suffered the dom- inance of the Narragansetts. When a plague had weakened his own tribe of the Wam- panoags, the Narragansett leaders, Canon- icus and Mianotanomi, had forced him to accept terms which practically made him their subject.
However, the advent of the Plymouth set- tlers gave the wise young chieftain a long- sought loophole of escape. With far-sighted vision he immediately made friends with the new white men, realizing their great strength, and hoping to ally them to his side when he again attempted to throw off the power of the Narragansetts. His plan was almost immediately successful. The whites placed their full confidence in this young chieftain who had so graciously received them, though they encroached upon his hunting grounds. And when the Narragan-
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setts, in jealousy, tried by many means to break the peaceful relations between the two peoples, it was always the English who proved the deciding factor in their defeat and humiliation. They attempted to carry off Squanto, who had been the interpreter between the different races, but a company of English under Miles Standish rescued the Indian from his captors, adding im- mensely to the prestige of the whites. Again, when Massasoit learned of a conspiracy against his friends, the white men, he gave them warning, after having refused an invi- tation to join the conspiracy himself. By this act of kindness the English were en- abled to nip the uprising in the bud and kill the leader, an Indian named Wituwamet.
With the constant interchange of courte- sies between Massasoit and the whites, a deep friendship was begun, and the Narra- gansetts were forced to acknowledge the independence and power of the Wampa- noags as a separate tribe. Canonicus and Mianotanomi finally gave their allegiance to the English and were made British subjects.
Freed of a fear of the Narragansetts, and helped by the friendly spirit of the whites, the Wampanoags rose in power and num- bers as a tribe while Massasoit grew old. But the old chieftain could not help but notice that gradually the white settlers were failing to live up to their treaties and agree- ments which they had made in the past.
Squanto turned traitor and became anxious to dethrone Massasoit because of excessive envy of his power. Yet despite the fact that both the English and the Indi- ans knew that death was the penalty for treachery, the English would not turn Squanto over to his fellow red men as they desired. It was a distinct reversal of the procedure which always occurred when an Englishman had been found guilty of the same offense. In that case the whites had always demanded that the privilege of pun- ishment was theirs alone, and the Indians had returned any white offenders to the settlers for justice.
Later, in the midst of a war in which the English went to fight as aides of the Pe- quots, a large number of Pequot squaws and children who had gone to Block Island for safety were cruelly massacred by the very English who were supposed to be their
allies. However, of all the incidents which did a great deal to stir up the Indians to the fighting pitch, the most shocking was the murder of the sachem, Mianotanomi. This chieftain had always regarded his word as binding, and he had lived up to his treaty with the English to the very moment when he was treacherously captured by two of his own men (who were acting for the Eng- lish) and delivered to his enemy Uncas for a cowardly execution.
Brought up in the family of Massasoit, the young Indian, Philip, together with his brother Alexander, had plenty of chance to observe the insincerity and cruelty of the white men who had posed as his father's friends. It was an era of encroachment upon Indian lands, when the whites were forcing the red men farther and farther back into their hunting grounds. Atrocities of a revolting nature were frequently com- mitted. An Indian squaw was captured by a hunter and ordered to be torn to pieces by his dogs. A white conspiracy, in which it was planned to massacre all the Indian con- verts on Deer Island, was only broken up by direct orders from England. Bounties were placed upon the heads of all young and defenceless redmen, $130 being paid for the scalp of an Indian boy and $50 for that of a squaw. All in all, the actions of the English were like the constant dripping of water on a stone, in this case the stone being the patience of the Indians.
In 1656, Philip and his brother, Alexan- der, had been brought to Plymouth by their father Massasoit and sworn in as allies of the whites. After the death of Massasoit, Alexander made Mount Hope the center of his kingdom, but the English forgot that he was their ally and not their slave. Because they supposed he had been plotting against them, they surprised him while he was out hunting and ordered him to report to Ply- mouth. This he at first refused to do, but eventually was forced to. Unfortunately for all concerned, the chieftain fell sick of a fever while he was in the hands of the English, and died. With the countless cruel- ties of the English as examples, the Indians and Philip, his brother, naturally believed that he had been the victim of poisoning.
Sick with sadness at the death of his brother, Philip became filled with a rising hatred for the men who were killing his
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friends and countrymen. As the successor to Alexander's crown, he determined at whatever cost to make a last supreme at- tempt to save his people from utter destruc- tion. The noble blood of the great Massa- soit was in his veins, but his loyalty to the whites had been strained to the breaking point. He was, after all an Indian patriot, who could but feel the call of loyalty to his own. He could not help but think of all the land which formerly had been ruled by the chieftains of his great family and which had been treacherously and constantly taken from them. How could he stop this ever threatening wave of color, this endless stream of white men which was gradually engulfing the last remnants of his posses- sions?
The only alternative to further insult and oppression seemed to be to unite the scattered Indian tribes and attempt to ex- terminate the white settlers who had caused the trouble. When the English had been weak, the great Massasoit had prevailed upon the Indians to refrain from attacking them. Now, when the whites were strong, there seemed to be no quarter in their ag- gressive invasion of Indian lands.
King Philip acted as only a man can act when all that he loves and holds dear is at
stake. He gathered together all his allies among the brow-beaten tribes and struck blow after blow at the English settlements. Twice while he had been making plans the English had become suspicious and had sent for him to see if they could detect any prospect of near hostilities. But twice had Philip managed to evade the English queries. Consequently, when he struck it was like the sudden flash of a thunder bolt. His fighting was fierce, for he had been cor- nered by many years of English insult and overbearance. All his suppressed feelings were released at last in this final bloody war which was to end all Indian uprisings in this state of Rhode Island. Not that Philip confined his war to Rhode Island. On the contrary, he carried it all over New Eng- land, striking at settlement after settlement, until the English hardly knew where to turn.
He lost the cause for which he fought, but his uprising was a glorious one . .. . the uprising of a man of great strength and character who fought against still stronger enemies. May this account clear for all time the character of one who stood fast by his convictions, who put his whole being into a cause which can only be called noble, and who gave his all to save his countrymen.
THE QUEEN'S FORT
M UCH has been written about the region in the vicinity of Wickford. Here was located the famous Smith Blockhouse, per- haps better known, both then and now, as Cocumcussoc. Ten miles to the southwest was the Great Swamp with the swamp fort of the Narragansetts hidden on a tiny knoll. Eight miles south of the Smith Blockhouse was the home of Jireh Bull, which the Indians burned in 1675. It was only a few nights after this outrage by the Narragan- setts that the Puritans from Massachusetts and Connecticut gathered at Cocumcussuc on a bitter December evening and set out, led by an Indian they had captured, for the swamp fortress of the red men. But, al- though the white men succeeded in pene- trating the swamp and even the fort itself,
completely surprising the Narragansetts and almost annihilating the tribe, there was another fort to which a few of the Indians escaped and which was never discovered by any white man until long after it had been abandoned. This latter hiding place was called the Queen's Fort.
The Queen's Fort stood upon a small hill on the line which divides North Kingston from Exeter. Its ruins are about two miles from the railroad junction at Wickford. The hill itself was heavily wooded and covered with big boulders. From the south side the fort was practically unapproach- able because of these huge rocks, while on the east, west, and north, the very steepness of the hill would easily discourage any attacking force. Had the Indians been in hiding in this fort when the whites set out
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to conquer them for good and all, the re- sult might have been far different. In fact it probably would have been the latter who would have been nearly annihilated.
The designer of both these Narragan- sett forts was an Indian whom the English called "Stone Wall John." In one instance he is called "the Stone-layer" because being "an active, ingenious fellow he had learned the masons' trade, and was of great use to the Indians in building their forts It is certain that he was the chief engineer among the Narragansetts, and he probably was one of the more distinguished chieftains. In designing the Queen's Fort he had taken full advantage of the many boulders upon the hill side and had built rough stone walls between them to form one continuous line. According to military authorities who have viewed the spot there is "a round bastion or half moon on the northeast corner of the Fort; and a Salient or V-shaped point, or Flanker, on the west side." Within the fort were many other boulders with excavations under them large enough to shelter two or three persons. However, the most extraordinary of all was what was known as the Queen's chamber, a hiding place about one hundred feet west of the fort itself. This was a huge excavation beneath an immense mass of rocks so large that the tallest men could stand within it with ease. The floor was of fine white sand and the entrance was so skillfully concealed that it could not be detected six feet away.
These two forts, the swamp fort and the Queen's Fort, were built primarily to serve as the two strongholds to protect the Nar- ragansett territory in the immediate vicin- ity. While the former was ten miles from the blockhouse, the latter was only three and one-half miles away. Canonicus, Miantanomi, and many other distinguished sachems lived within a radius of five miles from the Queen's Fort. And so cleverly were these fortresses constructed that even the swamp fort might not have been cap- tured if Peter, the Indian captive who turned traitor, had not led the English right inside it.
Somewhere about the Queen's Fort was also an Indian village, although its exact location was never determined. However, one ancient historian relates that "orders were given for a march, according to dis-
cretion towards the Narragansetts' coun- try, or town, when finding no Indians, they were at a stand, not knowing which way to go in pursuit of the Indians; but dur- ing their stay they discovered some place under ground wherein was Indian corn laid up in store; this encouraged them to look further, and they found several good quan- tities of that grain in like manner." The same chronicler goes on to reveal another side of "Stone Wall John's" character: "the next day there came an Indian, called 'Stone Wall John,' pretending to come from the Sachems intimating their willing- ness to have peace. That evening, he not being gone a quarter of an hour (from Smith's House), his company that lay hid behind a Hill, killed two Salem men, and at a house three miles off, where I had ten men, they killed two. Instantly Captain Mosely, myself, and Captain Gardiner were sent to fetch in Major Appleton's company that kept three and a half miles off; in coming they (the Indians) lay behind a Stone wall and fired thirty shots on us." "Stone Wall John" had built many stone walls around the hills in the vicinity. It was he, who after learning the plans of the English, had directed these first attacks upon them.
The queen for whom this fort was named and who ruled the surrounding town of the Narragansetts was Quaiapen. She had been the daughter-in-law of Canonicus, being the wife of his eldest son, Mexanno, and was related by blood or marriage to the fore- most chieftains of both the Niantic and Narragansett tribes. But all these great sachems, Canonicus, Mascus, Miantanomi, Mexanno and Canonchet, were dead, and Quaiapen became the great Squaw-Sachem of the Narragansetts, using the Queen's Fort as her last stronghold. She was a sister to the famous Ninegret, the great Niantic Sachem, and the mother of both Quequa- ganet, who sold the huge tract of Petta- quamscut to the English, and Scuttape, who signed one of the Confirmation Deeds of 1659.
She had gathered together the pitiful remnants of her tribe-those who had man- aged to escape during the Great Swamp Fight-and they lived in hiding in the Queen's Fort. Late in June, 1676, she left the fort with the rest of her tribe and set
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forth on an expedition towards the north, the nature of which was never known. They had only proceeded a little way when they were attacked on Sunday morning, July 2nd, by a roving band of Connecticut horse- men, who were on a warlike excursion through Rhode Island, and completely massacred. A Major Talcott in command of the white horsemen, stated that the Indians numbered 238. Not an Indian escaped, and that day died three great Narragansetts, Quaiapen, the Squaw-Sachem, Potuck, her counsellor, and "Stone Wall John," the great Indian engineer.
In the following month of August, Wil- liam Harris wrote in commorating the tragedy: "A great counciller of ye Narra- gensetts, & spetially of a great woman; yea
ye greatest yt ther was; ye sd woman called ye Old Queene; ye fore sd counciller her greatest favoret; he doth as much excel in depth of judgment, common witts, as Saull was taller than Israel; he bore as much sway by his Councill at Narragansett, ac- cording to his, and theyer small propor- tions, as great Mazerreen among the french."
Thus goes the story of the Queen's Fort, the last stronghold of the Narragansetts. It was discovered at last shortly after the mas- sacre of the Squaw-Sachem, Quaiapen, and her little tribe. Like the Squaw-Sachem of the Wampanoags, Weetamoe, she was the last ruler of a great tribe and a stalwart woman who retained her nobility in refus- ing to bow to the English who had killed all her relations and tribesmen.
ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS OF BRISTOL
C OMPARED with the way many colonial settlements came into being, Bristol started life with at least a silver, if not a golden, spoon in its mouth. Of course the first settlers had all the hardships attendant with hewing homesteads out of a veritable wilderness. They had to segregate them- selves temporarily from society of the day and forego all the conveniences and advan- tages already offered by established towns. Yet theirs was far from a hard lot. Other settlers had founded towns which had to be nearly self-sufficient, their only source of supply and help being the mother country. They had come from England knowing lit- tle if anything about the new western con- tinent that was to be their home and only trusting to God and their own courage and strength their hopes of survival. Boston, Plymouth, Salem, even Providence and Portsmouth, were settled in this way, their founders being men and women who pre- ferred to chance the dangers of an unknown land than suffer bitter oppression and per- secution in a land of plenty. They had no opportunity to make a preliminary survey of the new territory; they were nearly all poor, or of only moderate means; and they had to encounter hostile as well as friendly Indians.
The case of Bristol was quite different.
Its location in the Mount Hope Lands, with its harbor facilities on Narragansett Bay, was nearly ideal. The power of the Indians had been broken for all time with the close of King Philip's War in 1676. And the founding of the town was undertaken care- fully as a sound business proposition. In the very same year that the Mount Hope Lands became the property of the Plymouth Colony by right of conquest, the colony sold a tract of land "commonly called Mount Hope Neck and Poppasquash Neck" to four prosperous Boston merchants, trans- ferring the ownership with the "turf and twig" ceremony then in practice.
These four proprietors had the chance of every purchaser to estimate the value of their purchase before buying. Thus they must have been reasonably sure of the suc- cess of their enterprise before paying the sum of 1100 pounds for the wilderness land. And perhaps it would be wise for us to investigate a little and see what manner of men these were who had the vision and ambition to set about founding the town of Bristol, and who laid it out so well.
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