USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950 > Part 2
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3
THE NECK
Roger Williams surveyed the neck of land which he had skirted. A hill rose sharply, east of the spring, to a height of 200 feet. The descent to the east and south was more gradual. Thick forests covered most of the territory, with swamps at the lower levels.7 A brook flowed southerly through the neck, curving westerly, near its mouth, to discharge into Mile End cove.8 Between the bend of the brook and the southerly shore of the neck Foxes Hill rose to a height of about 40 feet.9 A gravelly beach extended from Fox Point northerly to the mouth of Moshassuck river.10
Having determined that the region was well adapted for a settlement Williams negoti- ated a purchase of land from the Narragansett sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi.11 Shortly afterwards he and his followers abandoned their former settlement by Ten Mile river, moved over to the spring, and there planted the town of Providence. A clearing was made at the foot of the hillside, near the spring, where dugouts, wigwams or other primitive types of shelter were put up for habitations until the settlers were able to construct more permanent dwellings.
The purchase from the Indians was confirmed in a deed to Roger Williams, executed by the Narragansett sachems, Canonicus and Miantonomi, in March, 1637.12 The territory acquired included the lands west of Seekonk river and the Great Salt river into which it flowed, its other bounds extending from "ye river and fields at Pautuckqut" southwesterly to "ye great hill of Notquonckanet" and then southeasterly to Pawtuxet river (see map page 3). In a memorandum dated May 9, 1639 Miantonomi confirmed the sale, including the lands "up the streams of Pautuckqut and Pawtuxet without limits" for the use of cattle.13 This was again ratified and confirmed in 1659 by Caujaniquante, the succeeding sachem, farther extending the territory to a line running north and south twenty miles westerly from Foxes Hill.14 The bounds of the town of Providence thus established practi- cally coincided with the present bounds of Providence County west of Blackstone river.
The neck of land between Seekonk river on the east and the Great Salt river, the cove and Moshassuck river on the west, extending southerly to Fox Point, was called Moshassuck by the Indians. The settlers re-named it The Neck to distinguished it from the other lands of Providence; it is now known as the East Side (see map, page 14).
In 1638 Roger Williams executed the "Initial Deed," so-called, by which, for a con- sideration of 30 pounds paid him by the inhabitants, he made over equal power of enjoying and disposing of the lands he had purchased from the Indians to twelve "loving friends and neighbours," listed by their initials, and to "such others as the major part of us shall admit into the same fellowship." The date was not recorded on the deed but was inserted
7. The great swamp extended north from the present Sessions Street, between Hope Street and the Old Road in Swan Point Cemetery, nearly as far north as Pidge Street in Pawtucket. Cat Swamp was east of Arlington Avenue, between Everett Avenue and Freeman Parkway.
8. The brook, for most of its course, followed the line of Brook Street; Mile End cove was located where Bridge Street leads to Point Street Bridge.
9. A fort was established on Foxes Hill during the Revolution, later replaced by a resort known as Fox Point Observatory. The hill was leveled in 1875. See pages 52, 146.
IO. South Water and Canal streets follow the original shore line. The mouth of Moshassuck river was at Smith Street.
II. "Be it knowne . . . that I Roger Williams of the Towne of providence . . . haveing in ye yeare one thousand Six hundred thirty ffoure and in the yeare one thousand Six hundred thirty ffive had severall treatyes with Counanicusse & miantenome the two cheife Sachims of the Narraganssett; and in ye End purchassed of them the landes & Meadows upon the two fresh Rivers Called moshosick & Wannasquatuckett .. . " - E.R.P., V, 306.
I 2. R.I.C.R., I, 18. 13. Ibid.
14. Ibid, I, 35.
4
1636-1676
as of October 8, 1638, in a confirming deed executed by Williams in 1666, in which the initials were identified as those of Stukely Westcott, William Arnold, Thomas James, Robert Cole, John Greene, John Throckmorton, William Harris, William Carpenter, Thomas Olney, Francis Weston, Richard Waterman and Ezekiel Holliman.15 To each person admitted to fellowship there was allotted a home lot, a six-acre lot for planting, an extent of meadow or pasture land for cattle, and a tract of woodland, to an aggregate of about 100 acres.
On the same date on which the Initial Deed was executed an agreement was made between the same persons for a division of the meadow ground bordering on Pawtuxet river. 16
The persons named in the two deeds were the enfranchised heads of families. They and their wives and children, and a few individuals who were not enfranchised, constituted the town's population at that time.
Some time in 1639 a Civil Compact was executed, the signers of which subjected them- selves to "active or passive obedience" to orders made for the public good.17 The group included four young men - Thomas Angell, Francis Wickes, Edward Cope and Benedict Arnold - who had been members of the colony two years or longer, and nine new-comers: Richard Scott, William Reynolds, Chad Brown, John Warner, George Richards, Thomas Harris, Joshua Winsor, William Wickenden, and John Field.
On July 27, 1640, four arbitrators, appointed by the heads of families, presented a document known as the Combination, which defined the bounds dividing Providence from Pawtuxet, set up a form of government for the colony, and provided an arbitration plan for the settlement of legal difficulties.18 This was signed at the time of its adoption by 28 persons of whom nine were named in the Initial Deed, twelve were signers of the Civil Compact, and the others - Adam Goodwin, William Burrows, Robert West, William Field, Edward Manton, William Man, and Nicholas Power - were new-comers. Other signatures were added later including those of Robert Williams, Matthew Waller, Gregory Dexter, John Lippitt, Edward Hart, Hugh Bewitt, Thomas Hopkins, Joan Tyler, Jane Sears, Christopher Unthank, and William Hawkins.
A free grant of "Twenty five Akers of Land a peece with Right of Commoning" was accorded a group of later arrivals who signed an agreement in 1645 to obey all "wholesome Lawes & Orders," waiving the right to vote until received as Freemen. The signers included John Browne, Thomas Clemence, George Shepard, Robert Pyke, Mathurin Ballou, Thomas Walling, Lawrence Wilkinson, Daniel Comstock, Benjamin Smith, John Smith, John Clauson, Thomas Suckling, Benjamin Hernden, Edward Inman, Samuel Bennett, Edward Smith, John Fenner, Stephen Northup, Daniel Brown, Epenetus Olney, John Steere, George Way, Henry Reddock, and John Sayles.19
The settlement of Providence was a prelude to the acquisition of other lands from the Narragansett Indians (see map page 2). Roger Williams, together with Governor Winthrop of the Massachusetts Colony, purchased Prudence Island in 1637.20 Williams also bought Patience Island, Hope Island,21 and a tract south of Pawtuxet river bordering on Narra- gansett bay,22 and established an Indian trading post at Cocumscussoc in the Narragansett Country23 (near Wickford).
15. R.I.C.R., I, 19-20. 16. Ibid, I, 20. 17. E.R.P., I, I.
18. R.I.C.R., I, 28-31.
19. E.R.P., II, 29. 20. R. I. Land Evidences, I, 243. 22. Warwick Deeds, I, 110.
21. Arnold, I, p. 105.
23. Elisha R. Potter, Jr., The Early History of Narragansett, (Providence, 1835), P. 32.
5
THE NECK
In 1638 William Coddington, John Clarke and others purchased Aquidneck Island, in the lower part of Narragansett bay. Two towns were settled there, namely, Portsmouth (originally Pocasset) at the north end in 1638, and Newport at the south end in 1639.24
Williams sold his land south of Pawtuxet river to Robert Cole in 1639. Benedict Arnold bought adjoining land to the west in 1641. John Greene purchased a tract known as Occupasspatuxet in 1642, extending from Cole's land southerly to Sowhomes bay (Occupasspatuxet cove). In 1644 Samuel Gorton and others bought the land south of Greene's purchase, known as Shawomet, extending southerly to include Shawomet Point (Warwick Neck) and westerly 20 miles from Narragansett bay.25 Those lands later became the town of Warwick.
Upon application by Roger Williams, who visited England for the purpose, a patent of incorporation of "Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England," uniting Providence with Portsmouth and Newport, was granted in 1643 by the Governor and Commissioners of His Majesty Charles I's subjects in America, acting under authority of the Lords and Commissioners assembled in Parliament.26 The first "Generall Court of Election" under the patent was held at Portsmouth in May, 1647 at which time Warwick was admitted to the colony "with the same priviledges as Providence."27
The few records that have been preserved shed but little light on the first allocations of land to the Providence settlers. Apparently the early inhabitants built their shelters at such places as were convenient and planted their corn on the old Indian fields as they could agree among themselves.28 Reference is made in the "First Book of the Town" to payments required from certain persons to whom ground had been granted, subject to an additional assessment if they did not improve the land "by preparing to fense, to plaunt to build etc."29 According to a later entry authority was vested in a committee of four "neighbors" to lay out "portions of grasse & medow" in the town's name and, at a town meeting June 10, 1638 the lands so allocated to seven persons named were confirmed as fully as portions previously appropriated by the committee to five others.30 Not until the Initial Deed had been executed later in that year, however, did the persons admitted to fellowship in the colony receive title to the soil.
The first official survey of home lots, which included the layout of the Towne street, appears to have been made about ten years after the original allotment by a committee consisting of Chad Brown, John Throckmorton and Gregory Dexter.31 The original owners of the lands are named in a document, inscribed in 1660 by Roger Williams32 entitled "A revised List (saving Correction, with Addition) of Lands and Meddows, As they were orriginally Lotted ffrom the beginning of the Plantation of Providence in the Narragansetts Bay in New England, unto the (then) Inhabitants of the said Plantation, until Annd. 16." The lots were laid out upon a section of the Neck now bounded, approximately, by North and South Main, Wickenden, Hope and Olney streets.33 The six-acre lots were located, some to the south and east of the home lots on the Neck and others south of Woonas- quatucket river. The meadows lay between Woonasquatucket and Pawtuxet rivers.
24. R.I.C.R., I, 52.
25. Chapin, Documentary History of Rhode Island, pp. 166-176.
26. R.I.C.R., I, 143-146. 27. Ibid, 148. 30. Ibid, I, 3, 4. 28. Hopkins, 13. 31. Dorr, 18.
29. E.R.P., I, 3.
32. Hopkins, p. vii.
33. Olney Street has been generally accepted as the northerly boundary of the lots. Actually it is about 100 feet north of the boundary, as proven by the allotment of land within the intervening area as part of the second division of lots in 1718. (Cady, "The Divisions of the Home Lots of Providence,"R.I.H.S.C., XXXI, 101.)
6
1636-1676
The map on page 1034 shows the approximate locations of the home lots and their owners from 1638 to 1650. The lots extended in a row from the Towne street (North and South Main) over the hillside, terminating at a "highway," so-called, later identified as the highway at the head of the lots, now Hope Street. The sequence of lots was interrupted by two lanes now identified as Meeting Street and Power Street, respectively.35 The lots, 52 in number, varied in width from 100 feet to 135 feet, in length from 1600 to 3000 feet, and in area from 472 acres to 812 acres. The Towne street followed the westerly shore of the Neck, northerly from Mile End cove, for most of its length at an elevation of a few feet above tidewater, bearing away from Moshassuck river, up a hillside (Constitution Hill) near its northern end.
The distribution of the home lots and farming lands to the settlers commenced in 1638. The first choice of lots was accorded the persons named in the initial deed and further allocations were made from time to time to new comers. There were numerous changes in ownership before the last lot was assigned; by 1650, according to the town rate of that year,36 nearly one-half of the original owners had sold their lots and had either established their homes elsewhere in the town or had moved away. Of the 13 men admitted to fellowship under the Initial Deed only Williams, Olney, Waterman and Westcott were taxed for houses on their original lots in that year. Arnold, Harris, Carpenter, Cole and James had moved to Pawtuxet in 1638, Greene and Weston to Warwick in 1642, and Holliman to Portsmouth in 1643.
The earliest "civic center" grew up in the vicinity of the falls of the Moshassuck, a short distance north of the present Mill Street bridge, where the town grist mill was established in 1646.37 John Smith, one of the original settlers, was a miller by trade. He was granted a home lot and erected a house on the Towne street but soon sold that property and removed to the Moshassuck valley. In 1646 the town granted him "the valley wherein his house stands in case he set up a mill."38 Upon its erection the mill became the center of the town's activities. On every second and third day of the week it was used "for grinding of the Corne of the Town.39 On other days it served as a place for informal gatherings by the townspeople and for occasional town meetings and religious services. The miller died about 1649 and was succeeded by his son, John Smith, Jr.
The civic center was further developed in 1655 by the establishment of a tannery, oper- ated by Thomas Olney, Jr., a short distance east of the mill at the foot of the "Stampers," a hill formerly so-called rising east of Moshassuck river.40 A highway leading to the mill
34. Principal sources of information: Hopkins, The Home Lots of the Early Settlers; Chapin, "The Lands and Houses of the First Settlers." R.I.H.S.C., XXI, I.
35. The identification of Hope Street as the original highway at the head of the lots is proven by surveys of the present Meeting and Power streets made in 1731-1738 (E.R.P., IX, 59, 76.) The courses were measured in poles, a measure of length varying from 16 to 18 feet. On the basis of a 1712 foot pole for Meeting Street and a 1672 foot pole for Power Street the total lengths of Meeting Street (177 poles) and Power Street (134 poles), as established from the Towne street to the highway at the head of the lots, in 1731-1738, agree with the present lengths of those streets from North and South Main, respectively, to Hope Street.
36. E.R.P., XV, 33.
37. Norman M. Isham, "The First Town Mill in Providence," R.I.H.S.P., V, 192. See map, page 10. 39. E.R.P., II, 42.
38. R. I. Land Evidences, IV, 54.
40. E.R.P., II, 83. Stampers hill extended from the east bank of Moshassuck river to the present Carleton Davis Boulevard. "It has been handed down by tradition, that after the settlement of Providence, a body of Indians approached the town in a hostile manner. Some of the townsmen by running and stamping on this hill, induced them to believe that there was a large number of men stationed there to oppose them, upon which they relinquished their design and retired. From this circumstance the hill was always called Stampers' hill, or more generally, the Stampers." - Staples, 117.
7
THE NECK
and the tannery was laid out at that time; it branched northerly from the Towne street at the foot of the hill and followed the lines of the present Mill, Bark and Hewes streets, swinging easterly to intercept the Common Road to Pawtucket, the northern extension of the Towne street (see map, page 14).
The office of towne-constable was created in 1649 and the incumbent was provided with a staff denoting his authority. His duties included enforcement of the laws and the serving of warrants, and he was responsible for proper maintenance of land bounds and fences.41 Arthur Fenner was the first to hold office. The first liquor law was ordered in 1650, providing "that if any man sell any Wine or strong Liquors in his house, he shall also entertaine strangers to bed & board, but any man shall have his liberty to sell without doores no man forbidding him." In 1655 it was "ordered if any sell to any Indian a gallon of wine or liquors . .. he shall forfit six pounds one halfe to ye informer ye Constable & his aide & the other halfe to ye Towne treasurie."42
The town appropriated no funds for the maintenance of its highways in the early years. Instead it was ordered "that every man shall mend and make good the high way before his house Lot or Lots, within the Compasse of this neck, to that Carts may passe & repasse freely."43 Later every man was required to work on the highways three days a year and furnish teams and oxen.44
When the settlers undertook the erection of permanent houses they built them as near like the cottages of their forefathers as circumstances would permit. The only building materials available at the outset were raw native products. After a few years finished lumber, windows, doors, hardware and tools were procurable in Boston by those who could afford them, and by 1648 a lime kiln was established in the settlement.45
The first houses were probably framed with hand-trimmed timber, the walls made of saplings or rough planks plastered with mud, the roofs covered with bark or thatch from the cove, and the bare earth serving as floor. The earliest chimneys were built of logs as stone construction involved skilled workmanship and the use of mortar. The settlers improved and enlarged these dwellings from time to time and by the middle of the century were erecting substantial stone-end houses similar in design to the Tudor-Gothic type of yeomen's cottages which had prevailed in parts of England since the 15th century.
The earliest Providence stone-end house of analytical record was erected by Roger Mowry about 1653, a little way east of the road to Pawtucket, on what is now Abbott Street and used, according to tradition, as an ordinaire or tavern. As the house was beyond the compact part of the town it escaped the ravages by the Indians in 1676 (page 12) and survived, in an altered and enlarged state, until 1900.46 Originally it was a story-and-a-half high, resting on stone foundations, and consisted of a single first story "fire room" or "hall," 15 by 17 feet in area, with a great fireplace in one end flanked by a winding stairway leading to a chamber in the garret (see plan and illustration, page 9). The stone chimney occupied nearly the entire end of the house, and rose above the steep roof where it was capped with projecting stones. The other walls were clapboarded, the roof shingled, and the windows were small leaded casements. The fireplace was nine feet long, four feet deep and six feet high, quite ample for a fire in the center and for benches at the sides. A trammel bar ex- tended lengthwise overhead, from which pots and other cooking utensils were suspended.
The Mowry plan typified the houses built in Providence up to 1676. The same plan was used in the first houses in Salem and Plymouth, but was soon modified in Massachusetts
41. E.R.P., II, 40, 47, III, IT2.
44. Ibid, III, 62.
45. Ibid, XV, 12. 42 . Ibid, II, 45, 83. 43. Ibid, II, 44. 46. Isham, p. 21.
8
1636-1676
by adding another room with a fireplace on the other side of the chimney and building a leanto at the rear (see plan A, page 46). The central-chimney plan was followed in some early instances in Newport and the Narragansett country.
Whatever their size or individual characteristics, which varied in accordance with the financial means of the owners, the abilities of craftsmen and the availability of building materials, early New England houses followed a uniform method of construction. The skeleton structure consisted of heavy timbers, framed and pegged one into another, includ- ing sills above the foundations, posts at the corners and at intermediate wall sections, horizontal girts carrying the second floor joists, and roof plates supporting the ends of the steeply-pitched rafters. To provide center support for the ceiling joists a large beam known as the summer was framed between the fireplace girt and the end girt. Outside walls were covered with boards, sometimes reinforced with studding.
Typical 17th century house plan showing its develop- ment from the early period (in black lines) to the later years of the century.
- RESTORATION . ROGER MOWRY MOUSE
Roger Mowry house (1653), from Isham & Brown, Early Rhode Island Houses.
A tax levy was ordered by the town in 1649, the same to be collected by Hugh Bewett who held the office of town sergeant and treasurer.47 The town rate recorded in 165048 indicates that 51 houses were then standing in the colony, including 34 on the home lots, eight elsewhere on the Neck, two on Weybosset side and seven at Pawtuxet. The house to survive longest was erected in 1647 by William Field. John Howland wrote49 of his arrival by packet from Newport in 1770, landing at the wharf "opposite the place where the Providence Bank [50 South Main Street] now stands. On this lot there then stood the old garrison house, belonging to the family of Field . .. The lot was, in 1772 or '73 purchased by Mr. Joseph Brown [page 50]. The old house which stood thirty or forty feet east of the street, was then taken down. Many of its timbers were very large and sound, it having been built when the whole town was a forest and wood plenty." This
47. E.R.P., II, 46, 47.
48. Ibid, XV. 33. 49. Stone, 24.
9
1
3. Smith
MostASJUCK
'45 G. Dexter #4
G. D. taxed 1-0. 0 '50
M. Waller 43; ( boarded) 2
Sold to Dexter
049 T. Painter 43 Mrd to New port. 3. P. Tillinghast '49. Taxed 0-3.4'50
=== E. Mantion '40 Mvd. to Lot 18 4
J. Greene, Jr. 37 Mud. to Warwick $2. 5
i B. Arnold 36. Mrd, to Powturat 38 6
7
36 W. Arnold '36. Mvd. to Pawturet 38- --
.8- - - B.Arnott- taxed 5-0-050
1038-I. James '37, Mvd. to' Pawturati '39
9
JElderkin taxed 0.3-4 50
J. Greene Sr. 132. Mvd. to Warwick AZ.
:10.
J. Greene Jr.
8:36 J. Smith 36, Mrk. to Mostick Valley '46
11
J. Throckmorton taxed 1-1,3,4'50
Witcher Reeve 38. Left colony
12 .. .
R. Scott
436 -J. Yarin '36; Left colony
13
R. Scott taxed 5. 6-8 70
S
036- Roger Williams '3%!
14:
R.W. taxed 1-00:50
Spring
= Throckmorton 37, Mvd. to Latill.
15
16! H. Right taxed, 1.0-0:50
038 Alice Daniels 37 (m) W. Greene Sr.). Mrd to Warwick 17
038-J: Sweet 37. Mvd. to Warwick!
W. Carpenter 36: Mrd. to Partyret 38
HIGHWAY
R. Coles '37. Mvd. to Pawturat '38
,20
1-3-4 .50
-
Core
IT!
38 F. Weston-37 Mrd. to Warwick $2
24
25 Town House 16/4-47. H. Bewitt taxed0-6-8'50
38 E. Holliman '37 Mrd. to Portuxet '40.
-26
SRobit Williams
838 5. Weetkott 38 .-
27
[]taxed 1.0-0 .50
38 W. Reynolds '37. Left caldny
28
C. B) taxed 0- 6-8:50
39 D. Abbott'39. Died 1647.
29
GRichard. Hared 0-5-0 '50
140 J. Warner '39. Moved to Warwick '42.
31
32
W.F. taxe 43-68'50
147 W Field '39
140 J. Field +39 --
943 J. Winsor '39. Mvd. to Lok 46
35
C. Shepard Taxed 0-10-050
L
1940 T. Harris '39
140 A. Goodwin '39
37
A.G. taxed 0-3-4 50
140 W. Barrows-39
38
W.B. faxed 0-13-4-50
40 W. Mann '39
39
W.M&a.d 0-6-8 '50
CAD W. Wickenden 39. Mud to Fox Pt.
HIGHWAY
POWER
N.ยบ taxed 1-0-0'50
\. Joan Tyler $1.(m. N.Dickins), Mvd to 40. 421 ;
N. Power
041. Jan's Years 41:
43.
J. S. Baked 0-16-8 +50-
041-7. Hopkins 36
414
T. H. faxed 0-13-4 '50
41 E. Hart'il. LatEcolony
45 RWest taxed 0-3-4-50
150 MWeaton 43 Mrd. to Warwick A/6 J Winsor taxed 0-3-4 '50
JEippitt '41. (boarded).
448 H. Bewill fl. Myd. to Lot 25, 48 J. Ashton taxed 0-10.0 50
R. Welt 40. Mvd to Let 45, 49
W. Hawking
041 W. Hawking 47. 50 W.H. Faxed 0-13-4.50
043 C. Unthank 42. Worstich 51 TRoberts taxed 0-13-450
Robil Williams 4. 1. 19 52 -
ALWie RENDER
ST)
A'T, Suckling '50
W. Wickenden
46-
Foxes Hill
00
A MAP OF THE PROVIDENCE HOME LOTS SHOWING OWNERS AND HOUSES ERECTED 1636-1650
Fox Point
500*
Scale
J. H. C. 1 950
Dotted lines indicate highway pattern in 1950,
( HOPE STREET)
38 T. Olhey '37.
21
. T. Angell'36. Mvd. ta Lot 23; -
-23
R.W. taked 2-10-0 '50
THE TOWNE STREET
Whybosset i Point_
1040 Ched Brown-39-
30
G) Richarda '39. Moved to Lot 30.
R: Scott-39. Moved to Lot-13,
33
34
J. F. taxed 1-0-0:50
LOWEYBOSSE.
(SOUTH; MAIN)
--
40 IN. Dicking taxed 0-13-4 50
1
090 N. Rower 39
"Salt River
36
T.H. taxed 1. 0.0'50
MYaIr -NYIONI --*
0'38_R Waterman '37.
KW. tard 0-13-4'50
( NORTH MAIN)
036 Willarris ' BG. Mrd to Partuxer 38.
-P. Greene taxed-0-418-50
E. Mantoni taxed 1-0-0 '50
22
Piver
F, Wicker 96- ( bodride d ) _;
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