USA > Rhode Island > The lands of Rhode Island : as they were known to Caunounicus and Miantunnomu when Roger Williams came in 1636 : an Indian map of the principal locations known to the Nahigansets, and elaborate historical notes > Part 10
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IIO
HARRIS' VARYING CLAIMS.
invaluable assistance of the transcripts and notes of Mr. George T. Paine, who has made a careful study of the Harris controversies" ( Hist. Soc. Coll. 10, p. 6). It would be more in accord with actual history to call things by their correct names- it was crimes, not controversies, that Harris, and Arnold, and Carpenter, and their partners were acting. In this same Preface to this volume of the "Harris Papers" Harris is mentioned as the "Life long antagonist of Roger Williams". It should be added, "And the lifelong assist- ant of the Devil". The greatest honor that can be given to Roger Williams must be that he planted a State upon the principle of Religious Liberty -- the first State so planted in the world; and now this principle lies at the foundation of every State ; his next greatest honor must be that William Harris was his "lifelong antagonist"; there can be no honor in being an accomplice of a robber.
Before leaving the subject it cannot be without interest to show the various stories which William Harris told in court concerning . the fundamental title to the lands.
(1)
Mr. Harris in his address to the King, 11th June, 1675, says : "Your petitioner, a weary traveller for the space of almost forty years in the wilderness of New England, and one of the first six persons that purchased land of the most superior Sachems". (Coll. Hist. Soc. 10 (Harris Papers), p. 150).
Of these six persons who, according to Harris, bought the first lands from the Indians, but one is mentioned as being a party in the original Deed. One, Olney, was not competent to hold land. being a minor. Three are not mentioned in the Initial deed given by Williams to the original proprietors. If Harris told the truth, why was it necessary for any of the first six to be included in this Initial Deed ?; or why did not the Initial Deed require their signatures?
(2)
Harris to the Court, 15th October, 1677, says: "Thirteen of us Pawtuxet men were the first purchasers of Mr. Williams of all the lands both of Providence, and afterwards of Pawtuxet" ( Coll. Hist. Soc. Io, p. 198).
III
HARRIS' VARYING CLAIMS.
(3)
Harris to the Court, 17th November, 1677, says "that I, and twelve more, my partners, did purchase of the Indians, etc. (Hist. Coll. 10, p. 203).
(4)
In the order given by the King at Hampton Court on the 4th of August, 1675, thus it is said: "Whereas our subject, William Har- ris, planter, in the Colony of Rhode Island, did by his humble peti- tion set forth that he, and twelve others, his partners, near forty years since, purchased from certain Indians a parcel of land called Pawtuxet" (Coll. Hist. Soc. 10-33).
(5)
Concerning these various and very different statements Roger Williams, Gregory Dexter, and Arthur Fenner thus addressed the Court : "And now the said William Harris declareth that they bought Pawtuxet of Mr. Williams, who is no Indian". Again : "Also, further, William Harris further saith that Pawtuxet was given unto Mr. Williams ; and they ( Harris and his partners ) gave him (Williams) {20 sterling ; and (also) said it was not bought but given" (Hist. Soc. Coll. 10, p. 215). For Harris's actual statement see (Hist. Soc. Coll. 10, p. 199).
In addition to being "a life long antagonist of Roger Williams, and one of the most influential of the Founders of Rhode Island" (Coll. Hist. Soc. 10, p. 6), Harris has been glorified for his great legal knowledge (Dorr's Planting of Providence, R. I. Hist. Tract, Ist Ser. 15. p. 7). To call a man whose entire life in Rhode Island was bent upon the destruction of the Colony, an "influential Founder of the State," is a misapplication of language. So also it is to glorify the legal learning of a man who wrote the three Indian Deeds of 1659 and dubbed them "Confirmation" Deeds. Harris took nothing but the name from the English statutes. This ignorance of the English law is further shown by certain inquiries made by Harris concerning the descent of real estate (Col. Hist. Soc. 10. p. 249, Doc. 83). This ignorance is carefully pointed out by the present writer in another place ( Book Notes, v. 7, p. 174). With
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HARKIS' LACK OF LEGAL KNOWLEDGE.
this "knowledge" Harris made his will, a document which was never given legal standing by any court.
In coming to this conclusion it is a pleasure to be sustained by competent minds trained both in law and in logic. Mr. Irving B. Richman, the latest writer upon Rhode Island History, and who has written clearly and well, and wholly outside of our conventional and ancestral forms, thus writes: "It may be as well to state at once that it is difficult to see how, under the language of the Town Evidence per se (the original Deed) and the testimony offered upon the trial in question, any other conclusion can be reached than that the western boundary of the Providence and Pawtuxet purchasers was, at the most, no further west than about the line of Pachraset river" (R. I. Hist. Soc. Col. 10, p. 13). Hipses Rock, "the most western bound," stands exactly on this line.
If Harris was one of the Founders of Rhode Island, he became so by the assistance of the corsairs of Barbary and the ending of his deceit by death. Had he lived and succeeded, Rhode Island would have been destroyed. But by a righteous judgment the lands under his Confirmation Deeds went to form the State as it now exists.
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will."
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ยท NOTES
CONCERNING SOME OF TIIE LOCALITIES ON THE INDIAN MAP OF RHODE ISLAND, AND ALSO OF CERTAIN PLACES CONNECTED WITH EARLY INDIAN HISTORY.
NOTES CONCERNING INDIAN LOCALITIES.
Corruptions in spelling Indian names developed rapidly at the close of the 17th and the opening of the 18th century. These cor- ruptions are cleverly paralleled by the spelling of English names at the same period. For specimens of the English names the reader is referred to the recently published volume ( 17th ) of the Provi- dence Early Records. Two supposed Indian names appear in a copy of a pretended Indian Deed to Harris, 3 April, 1657 (Coll. R. I. Hist. Soc. 10, 48). These words do not elsewhere appear upon the Records,-Apawtuck, and Achetonsick. The first is a corruption of Pawtuckqut, as Roger Williams first wrote the name. It has also been written Aspotucket ( Prov. Early Rec. 15. 71). The second name in this Harris Deed is a corruption of Asapumsick. Ponaganset appears in the later Records as Apehungansett and Apunhungansett. There is an Indian name given in the Prov. Early Rec. (v. 4, p. 3) as Gayonchunachet. There is no Indian word known to Roger Williams beginning with the letter G. Paucahak is a corruption of Pauchasset ( Early Rec. 4, 3). Such work makes it often difficult to locate with precision the places which Canonicus and Miantinomi knew. There is an Indian locality named in the Index to the Providence Early Records (v. 15, p. 264) Soansarnt : on page 15 of the same volume the name is given as Soansacut. It is a corruption of the name Moswansacut ( Early Records' 2, 3), a pond and a stream ( Indian map. towns, 8-9).
On these same pages, in the same order, is given Paopeacoag ; in the body of the book (p. 115) it is given as Pagea Coag. In the index to the Prov. Early Rec. (v. 17) appears (page 323) the name Narraqueseade. The searcher is referred to document .0397 and also to page 19 of this same volume ( 17). Upon reference to this page instead of finding the name, or the document, you are told what it is, and that it was printed in Prov. Early Rec., v. 8, p. 128. To this place I go and find not the slightest reference to either the
(115)
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116
AGUNTAUG.
name or the document. In despair I go to the Commissioner, Edward Field, who governed the publication of the volume. The Commissioner brought out Document .0397, examined it and gently informed me that Narraqueseade was Narrow Passage. I mention these things that men may know the difficulty encountered in fixing with definite accuracy these Indian localities. Not only is it impos- sible to fix all Indian localities, but it is just as impossible to give the scope or area of them as it is to point with absolute accuracy to the natural objects to which they were given.
AGUNTAUG.
This is one of the later "Indian" names of localities. It was a brook in Westerly, and one of the bounds of an Indian's land as set forth in a lawsuit in 1699. This Indian's name was Catapazet ( Potter's Early Hist. Narr. 65).
ACIIAGOMICONSET.
This must has been a tract of land, for the reason that the brook Aguntaug ran through it. It was an Indian's land (Catapazets ) in Westerly in 1699 ( Potter's Early Hist. Narr. 65).
AQUOPIMOQUK.
It is also written Aquibinockett, both forms being used in the Land Evidence Records, now in the State Archives. It was the Indian name for a small Island in Narragansett now known as Gould's Island. Thomas Gould bought it from the Scuttape, who was a son of Maxanno and the Indian Queen Quaiapen, and a grandson of Canonicus. The island was bought 28th March, 1657. Scuttape was then Sachem of Bassokutoquag, which I have located at the eastern end of the present town of Exeter-Indian Map (23). This Sachem's name has been corrupted in these Land Evidence Records to "Kaskotap".
AZORQUONESUT.
This is one of the later names given to a small island, in Narra- gansett Bay, near Wickford, to which, on the Indian Map, the name Nonequasut is given. The English knew it as Fox Island. Nane- quoxet was another form.
117
AQUEDNECK.
AQUEDNECK. (31-32)
In a letter written by Roger Williams in 1637 to Sir Henry Vane, Governor, and John Winthrop, Deputy Governor, of Massachusetts, concerning the forces to be used in the Pequot war, occurs this paragraph: "They (the Narragansett Indians) also conceive it easy for the English that the provisions and munitions first arrive at Aquedneck, called by us Rhode Island, at the Narragansett's mouth." (Narra. Club Pubs. v. 6, p. 18.) The suggestion made by Mr. Williams that the "provisions and munitions first arrive at Aquedneck" was adopted, for the Massachusetts contingent reached that island May 23d, took a guide May 24, sailed May 25th, as- saulted the fort at Groton May 26th, all in 1637, of course.
This name of this island exhibits the usual variety of forms of spelling Acquednecke (R. I. Col. Rec. 1, 45), Aqueidneck, Aquid- neck, Aquednick ( Portsmouth Records 13, 56 and 420) ; Aquetneck, Aquedoneck ( Baylies' Hist. Plym. 1, 223, and Index) ; Aquiday (Baylies' Hist. Plym. 2, 9) ; Aquetnet (Plym. Col. Rec. 2, 145) ; Aquidy, Aquidnic ( Parson's Indian Names).
Mr. Trumbull says Aqudue, sometimes Aqueday, means "the island;" and that Aquedneck, or Aquidnet, means "on the island." Dr. Parsons says Aquidy, Aquidnic, means "longest island." Re- cently a new definition came to us from England. It came in a review of Richman's Rhode Island, by Mr. Louis Dyer, and con- cerned the origin of the name Rhode Island.
We now come to Mr. Dyer's suggestion of the origin of the name Rhode Island. The suggestion came in a review of Mr. Richman's History, lience it is necessary to give first practically what Mr. Richman said: "Just what led the people of Rhode Island to adopt the name Rhode Island or Isle of Rhodes is an interesting question. Two opinions have found advocates. One that they had in mind a paragraph from Hakluyt's voyages printed in London in 1582, and reprinted in 1600, describing Verrazano's sojourn in Narra- gansett Bay in 1524, in which these words occur: "We weied ancker, and sayled towards the east for so the coast tended, and so always for 50 leagues being in the sight thereof we discovored an Ilande in form of a triangle distant from the maine lands three
118
AQUEDNECK.
leagues about the bigness of the Iland of the Rhodes." The other opinion is that what the Aquidneck legislators of 1644 were influenced by was the fact that Adrain Block, who visited Narragansett Bay in 1614 noted in his ship's log, or in the Journal of his voyage, which afterwards fell into the hands of De Laet, that "in this bay there is to be found a little red island ( Roode Eylandt ). Mr. Richman con- tinues: "The second of these two opinions is that which has con- mended itself to the historians Bancroft and Arnold, but Mr. Sidney S. Rider may I think be fairly judged to have settled the question in favor of the first, by showing not only that the earliest Dutch map bearing the name Roode Eylandt was not issued till 15 years after the people of Aquidneck had adopted the name Rhode Island ; but that Roger Williams writing in 1666, remarks, 'Rhode Island, like the isle of Rhodes in the Greek language is an island of Roses'" ( Book Notes, v. 7, 28).
Thereupon Mr. Dyer thus discusses the views above, given by Mr. Richman.
"Mr. Richman need hardly have given even such doubtful ad- hesion as he does to either of the current accounts of the origin of the name Rhode Island. He rightly observes in his notes in vol. I, p. 242, that Mr. Sidney S. Rider has quite disposed of the notion that the name came from Roode Eylandt ( Red Island) on a Dutch chart issued fifteen years after the name Rhode Island became cur- rent. Nor can we really imagine the Colonists to have looked up their name in a paragraph from Hakluyt's voyages printed in London in 1582, and reprinted in 1600, where Verrazano speaks of Aquidneck island as about the bigness of the Island of Rhodes. It seems hard to take this account of the matter seriously ; nor is it made casier of acceptance by Roger Williams saying in 1666, "Rhode Island, like the Island of Rhodes is an Island of Roses." Rhode Island more probably was named, like Massachusetts and Connecticut, by the Indians. Its Indian name, however, was not that of tribe, but allowed of translation. Aquidneck, the island in the bay, was Eng- lished into Road, or Roads, island. The prevelence in carly texts of the spelling Road goes to confirm this account of the matter. Mr. Richman quotes a document, dated in 1661, which has some bearing on the question-"Rhode Island is," we there read, "a road, refuge, asylum to evil livers."
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119
AQUEDNECK.
Uncertain as we are about the meaning of most Indian words, .there is exceptionally solid ground for insisting that Aquidnec means "the island in the Bay," because it is used by Eliot, translating Acts 27, v. 16, from the island Clauda, or Claudia, an islet off the south- west coast of Crete, under the lee, in the roads, of which St. Paul's ship took momentary refuge. Moreover, Trumbull, quoted in Mr. Richman's foot note on Ch. II, says that Aquidnesick means "the little island in the mouth of the Bay." If we subtract the syllable "si" as presumably diminutive the meaning of Aquidnec remains."
To these views the writer thus objects :
Verrazano made no reference to the island Aquidneck; nor did Hakluyt. They both referred to an "island distant from the maine lande three leagues," or again, "as distant from the maine land ten leagues." The island Aquidneck is wholly within the Bay. Mr. Dyer is in error.
Neither Massachusetts nor Connecticut were named by the Indians. Both were named by Englishmen, using changed forms of Indian names of objects. Neither name was the name of a tribe of Indians. Again Mr. Dyer is wholly in error.
Mr. Dyer gives this delightful knowledge: "It's (the island Aquidneck's ) Indian name allowed of translation-'the island in the Bay,' and was Englished into Road, or Roads island." What does the gentleman mean? He says that Aqidneck translated into English means "the island in the Bay." How, then, can it be "Eng- lished into Road or Roads island " Such work is ridiculous non- sense.
Mr. Dyer's definition of Aquidneck is sheer nonsense. These Indians had no knowledge of the name "Bay" as applied to a body of water, hence the word could not mean "the island in the Bay." The word "Bay" was used in the Deed of Aquidneck given to Cod- dington and his friends by Canonicus and Miantinomi in 1637; but the Deed was written by Coddington, and the word was used by him.
There were many other islands in the sheet of water now called Narragansett Bay. If the word meant what Mr. Dyer says-then every island in the Bay was an Aqidneck. Mr. Dyer misrepresents Mr. Trumbull. Mr. Trumbull says Aqueday means "the island,"
I20
AQUEDNECK.
and that Aquidneck means "on the island" (Potter Narragansett, 2nd Ed. 410). But Mr. Trumbull gives another and very different meaning, thus, Aqueednuck, "Place at the end of the Hill" (Trum- bull's Indian names, p. 4). Which definition is to be believed ?
The words of Roger Williams were, "Rhode Island in the Greek language, is an island of roses, and so the King's majesty was pleased to resent it" (R. I. Book, p. 14). These words have a profound meaning. Mr. Dyer misquotes them and then ridicules Mr. Wil- liams.
Mr. Dyer must explain how, if Rhode Island, in the Greek lan- guage meant "an island of roses," at the same time in the Indian language Aquidneck was Englished into Road or Roads island, meaning "the island in the Bay." Rhode Island as a naine was not current in 1644. It was then first legally given to the island. Mr. Williams writes in 1637 concerning this island, "Called by us Rhode Island". The idea must have come to those men from having seen it in print in Hakluyt before they came here. It did not become current until 1664. Eliot's use of the word in his Bible was of a still different form, Ahquednet. For a more detailed statement of the origin of the name Rhode Island the reader is referred to Book Notes (v. 7, pages 29-33). From all this it is clear that the Indians knew the island "at the Narragansets mouth' as Aquidneck. That the English at that time called it Rhode Island, Williams is the very highest authority. He did not define the meaning, but it could not have meant "Longest island," as Parsons said; nor "on the island." as Trumbull said ; nor "Place at the end of the hill." as Trumbull again said; nor "the island in the Bay," as Dyer said. In truth no one knows the meaning of the word.
The Deed given by Canonicus and Miantinomi to Coddington and his friends in 1637 specifies the lands sold as being "the great island Aquedneck." It was the name of the island and could never mean being "at the island." A recent note in the Providence Journal says, "Narragansett Bay is the Road near the American Newport, as Cowes Roads lie across to Newport in the isle of Wight." Road as a refuge for ships is perfectly good English : Aquidneck certainly means "the island in the mouth of the Bay. Here the Journal gives a meaning not given by Trumbull, but attributes it to Trumbull.
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I2I
AQUEDNESET-ANAWAMSCUT
The whole reasoning is mere farce; where, in 1636-7, did the ships come from, "into Narragansett Bay near the American- Newport," not then planted, nor the lands purchased, seeking refuge, suffi- ciently numerous for the Indians to invent a word, meaning a "road" for ships ? Such deductions are not worth consideration ; there were no such ships.
AQUEDNESET.
This is a name commonly given to a small island in Narragansett Bay west from Conanicut, now called "Dutch Island". Mr. Trum- bull defines this word as meaning "at the little island." In 1654 Holiman bought from the Indians "Potowomut and Aquidnesuck." This latter locality adjoined the former locality, with the river, or brook Mascachuge, between them. In 1656 Richard Smith bought the same tracts, under the same name; and in 1659, the Atherton partners again bought the same tracts, also under the same names (Potter Early Narr., 58). In 1674, the Atherton partners sold their title to these lands to Smith. This land "Aquidnent" was a part of the mainland, and it is so still. There was no island. Hence how can Trumbull's definition "at the little island" be correct? For it must apply also to these main lands.
ACOAXET. (35)
. This name appears in the Early Records of Plymouth Colony as Accoaksett-also as Coaksett. The name on our map, Cokesit, is doubtless the same.
ANAWAMSCUT. (18)
This name appears first in the Plymouth Colony Records in connection with a land transaction between Constant Southworth, who still has descendants here in Providence, and King Philip. The name was spelled Annawamscutt.
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122
ASCOAMACOT -ASAPUMSIC.
ASCOAMACOT. (28)
This was an Indian plantation on the eastern bank of the Pauta- tuck river. It was the point taken by Massachusetts under her Pequot claim for possession of the Misquamicut lands. A treaty with Massachusetts was considered at Rehoboth, in 1664, for a full and final comparing of all those uncomfortable differences and grievances that have occasionally of late years arisen concerning pretences about the place and plantation called Ascoamacot (R. I. Col. Rec. 2, 50).
ASAPUMSICK. (9)
This may have been a brook, or it may have been a spring, as Parsons states. It was a name to some natural object not far from the end of Borden's lane, where it enters Killingly avenue. It was near to a place called i enter in the Early Records.
In a deed from Joseph Williams to Shadrach Manton of a parcel of land, in 1666, reference is made to a place called "Venter." The land is represented as being on the "north side of Wannassquatucket river and up the streame of said river about a mile above the place commonly called 'Venter'". (p. 40). There is another reference to "Venter" in the "Recordes of Edward Manton's Land" (p. 9), but the reference is on the following page, thus: "Also a parcel of swampie land * joyning to the southeast corner of the above- said sixty acre, the landes lieing att and about a place called 'Ven- ter.'" The "above said sixty acres" is declared on page 9 as "lieing partly upon the hill called Neotaconconitt." The date of this "Recorde" was 1671. This fixes the locality of "Venter" as being between the two mill villages known to us now as Merino and Manton, respectively, and probably on both banks of the stream. The first reference above referred to is the sale of land upon which now stands the village of Manton, to Shadrach Manton, from whom the village derived its name : and this is the evidence, "the land being on the north bank," and bounded on "south part, and west part by
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ANTASHANTUCK-APPONAUG. 123
saide river," and a "mile above a place commonly called "Venter." The only place in which these conditions, with other known facts, are supplied, is that bit of land whereon Manton village now stands. I venture the following suggestion concerning the origin and meaning of the word Venter, as here used, illustrating at once the classical knowledge of the First Planters, and their essential coarseness as well. Those who are familiar with the river at the spot indicated, will remember that the river broadens at this point to a width four or five times the width attained either above or below the spot. To this broadened spot the name "Venter" was given; it was a Latin word which meant the "belly," or the "paunch," or, as the learned Riddle wrote, "anything in the shape of a belly, or a pro- tuberance, or a swelling ;" here the Woonasquatucket "swelled," and the people called it "Venter."
ANTASHANTUC. (9)
This name is doubtless one of the forms used in writing the name Mashanticut. At all events, it was a tract of land, and lies, or was situated, where Mashanticut is known to have been situated ( Prov. Early Rec. 4, 68. See "Mashanticut," herein following). It was these lands that caused so much litigation on the part of William Harris and William Arnold against all those men who attempted to "settle" upon them. Anshanduck is another form of writing the name ( Prov. Early Rec. 4, 136).
APPONAUG-OPPONAUGE. (17)
The earliest mention of the locality now known as Apponaug is noted by Mr. Fuller ( Hist. Warwick, R. I., 151) as being in the Proprietor's Records under the date 1663. These records were burned at the Staples's fire, so that I cannot verify the statement. He (Fuller) gives the spelling "Aponahock."
From a drawing sent from Plymouth to London in 1684 I find the name applied to a brook is spelled "Aponihoak Riverett."
124
ASCOXANONSUCK.
In 1696 a Fulling mill was proposed to be "set up" at "Aponake." In 1698 Steven Arnold died, leaving a will. In this will occurs this phrase : "The south side of Aponack cove or river and bordering on Cohissit Bay" ( Prov. Early Records, 6, 196).
In 1736 Aponaugh Bridge is mentioned by Mr. Fuller as being so written in the Proprietor's Records. In 1751 a plat was made, on which the name was written Apponog. This has been destroyed. In 1796 the General Assembly gave permission to erect a tide mill for grinding corn "at or near Opponaugue Bridge." (Acts and Resolves, June, 1796, p. 14.) In 1819, the name is written, as it is now written, "Apponaug." ( Pease Gazeteer, Conn. and R. I., 371.)
So much for the development of the word, but you ask me the meaning. Judge Potter (Hist. Narragansett, 1835, p. 302) suggests the meaning to be "shell fish." Dr. Parsons ( Indian Names of Places in Rhode Island, (9) follows Judge Potter. Dr. Trumbull, the highest authority of our time, suggested the meaning to be "a roasting place," and (as he writes) "piles of oyster shells still tes- tify." This was in 1876.
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