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 12
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CHACHAPACASSET. (18)
This is the Indian name of the extreme southern point of the
.
137
RYMSTOCK-RUM-STICK.
Nahet peninsula, nearly opposite to what is now Warren. It is now called Rumstick. Concerning this latter name there has been much curiosity. It first appears in a land transfer, 28th January, 1698. The idea that this name arose from any connection with the liquor now called rum seems incapable of being maintained. In an address on the Early Voyages to America, delivered by James P. Baxter in 1889, references are made concerning the visits of the Northmen to Narragansett Bay, Mount Hope, and the remarkable coincidence between it, and the Norse word elsewhere herein discussed, Hop. There is also used the Norse word, rymstock. This spelling was doubtless a typographical error, the word being rum-stokkv ( Bax- ter's Early Voyages, 14). This word means the runic staff of the Norsemen ; and it also means a bed-post; it is the English room : its primary meaning is room, or space ; a derived meaning is a place of rest ; it is ancient and found in several of the old Icelandic sagas (Prof. R. B. Anderson, Letter to the writer, 1890). Rum-stick is one of four points extending almost quadrangular in form. into this, the broadest and widest waters of the Bay. These points are Papasquash : Rum-stick ; Nahet ; and Warwick. This broad, square space is certainly indicative of "room," for the Norse ships. as well as a place of rest, otherwise a safe harbor. The Indians had another specific name for the point, Chachapacasset. The word rum-stokkv might have been often heard by the Indians uttered by the Norse- men and concerning the broad waters which I have indicated ; this might have settled at last into rum-stick and fixed itself upon the point now so called. A lady now dead, but who when living was a very close and careful student concerning Sowans' and parts adjacent, wrote to the writer, in 1890, a letter discussing this ques- tion. Her name was Miss Annie E. Colc. The lady writes : "My own idea of the origin of this name does not include these rum traditions, but is this : There were no dividing lines in those early days, and the older surveyors laid their corners by heaps of stones. trees, creeks and stakes. Tlrere is an inlet or run near Rumstick point. It is often named in the old Deeds, records, and surveys. I think they set a stake at this 'run' and called it the run-stick, or stake, and this was corrupted into rum stick, with the addition of the traditions." This idea of Miss Cole's meets a strong support in
138
CHEMUNGANOCK-CHIBACHUESA.
a communication to the writer written by one of the most accom- plished woman scholars in Rhode Island. She writes: "A possible original of 'stick' in Rumstick would be the Imelandic 'stik,' mean- ing stakes or piles, which in times of war were driven in the mouths of rivers, inlets, and along the shore."
CHEMUNGANOCK. (29)
The exact time of the death of Ninigret is not a matter of record. He was very aged. It must have been not far from 1690. A daughter was his successor. The "ceremonies of her inauguration took place at Chemunganock ; these ceremonies were the presenta- tion of peage, and other presents, as an acknowledgment of au- thority ; and sometimes a belt of peage was publicly placed on the Sachem's liead as an ensign of rank" ( Potter's Hist. Narr. 1835, 99). The wild talk of Coronations, and Crowned Heads, and royalty was the invention of the Rev. Frederick Denison ( Hist. Westerly, 28), also his Dedication Oration, 30 August, 1883, at which "Coronation Rock" was marked and Dedicated, and an old remains of a Dutch Trading Fort named and dedicated as Fort Ninegret. No Indian ever constructed such a defence in such a place. It is nothing but the wild work of an imaginative man carried into effect by men without the slightest knowledge of Indian affairs.
CHIESEWANOCK. (20)
This was Hog Island, bought by Richard Smith from Ousamequin in 1657.
CHIRACHIUESA.
This is the Indian name of the Island in Narragansett Bay, now known as Prudence. Concerning it there is much curious and interesting history ; some of it touches even the romantic. There dwelt at Plymouth an Englishman named John Oldham. He was,
139
CHEBATOWESETT-SOPHY MANOR
as history tells us, a daring trader among the Indians. He owned trading vessels and visited the coast trading with various tribes. During his visits to Narragansett Bay, Mr. Oldham had gained the friendship of Canonicus to such an extent that the Sachem gave Oldham the island Chibachewesa, the only condition being that Oldham should build there a house and come to dwell in it so that' Canonicus might be near him. Before this was accomplished, while Oldham was at Manisses with his boat on a trading expedition, some Pequot Indians killed him. Soon after this Canonicus, conceiving an affection for Roger Williams, offered the Island to him, he to build and dwell upon it. But Mr. Williams did not desire to dwell there. He then proposed to Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts . to join with him and buy the Island, on which they might raise swine. This was done in 1637. About 1644 the English drove the Dutch from New Amsterdam, took possession of the land and named it New York. The King, Charles the Second, then gave the land from the Connecticut river to the Delaware to his brother James, Duke of York, and made Francis Lovelace, Governor. Gov- ernor Lovelace in return for some service gave to a person named : John Paine the island Chebatowesett, or Prudence, erected it into a manor, by the name Sophy Manor, giving Paine a Patent or Con- firmation, in the name of His Royal Highness James, Duke of York and Albany. A little later in the same year "orders and Privileges for the welfare and good government of the island were issued, and Paine was made Governor for Life. His claim was soon over- thrown, the grant to Roger Williams and Governor Winthrop thirty-five years before being shown" ( Potter's Early Hist. Narrag .. sec. ed., 322). Paine died in 1675. In June, 1678, a petition was presented to the General Assembly by Col. William Crowne, asking how .he may proceed to recover, what is his due, from the estate of the deceased Mr. John Paine, of Providence, who died intestate (R. I. Col. Rec. 3, 10). Getting no satisfaction from the General Assembly, Crowne sent his son direct to the King, Charles the Second, asking for a grant of the lands of Mount Hope, but this, too, failed, and it was the end of the ridiculous gift which Governor Love- lace, made to Paine, of an Island over which he had not the slightest jurisdiction. This claim rested solely on the theory that all lands
140
CAUCAUNJAWAATCHUCK-COJOOT.
not before granted by Charles the Second were included in this grant to James, the Duke of York. Paine was arrested as an in- truder, but in what jurisdiction we do not know. He defended himself in a letter to the jury, which, for absolute nonsense as a legal argument, has been rarely surpassed. This letter was followed by another, but not to the jury, from Prudence, four days later- Nov. 4th, 1672. Paine was but forty years of age at this time.
CAUCAUNJAWATCHUCK. (10)
This name appears in a "lay out" of land in 1666 to Epenetus Olney. It is described as "bounding on the southwest partly with the land of John Angell, on the northeast with the land of Thomas Olney. This seems sufficiently indicative of the general locality where this place was situated ; at the southwest of what is now the city of Providence. Parsons gives the name in this form, "Con- conchewachet." He defines it as being land, but does not locate it. (Early Rec., v. I, p. 34.) This locality was not occupied by the English settlers until 1667. The name is also written Caucaun. (Early Rec. 17, 142.)
COWESET. (17)
The name Coeset is usually considered to be an Indian word. It is a part of the town of Warwick. In the ancient records there is recorded an exchange of lands with John Greene, wherein occurs these words: Cacawonch, known by ye English name, Coeset Pond. Roger Williams gives the words Cow-aw-esuck-meaning Young Pine trees. The Narragansett language when spoken made it sound Cowawes-uck, which Mr. Trumbull interprets as "a place of young pines." He states that there are several places in New England bearing this name, more or less corrupted. See Toweset.
COJOOT. (27)
This name occurs in a Deed of lands which are in South Kingston.
141
CAWCAWMSQUSSICK.
The word means, or was given to, a mine of black lead near the Pettaquamscut rock ; probably near (so Judge Potter thought) the foot of Tower Hill. This word, like Pojack, and Cajacet, may belong to some other dialect than the Narragansett. There are but two words, both practically the same, given by Williams, in which the letter J occurs. The only place where this word occurs is in the first Pettaquamscut Deed, 20 January, 1657; "They also grant them all the black lead in this title, and in a place called Coojoot" (Potter's Early Hist. Narr., 275). Parsons varies the spelling to Cajout. Roger Williams gives the Indian word Metewis as mean- ing "Black Earth." This Trumbull explains as being "Plumbago" or Graphite (Narr. Club, 1, 207). It was on what is now Tower Hill that Cojoot was situated. Mr. Jackson ( 1840) speaks of work- ing a mine of Plumbago there, and the raising of thirty tons, going but four feet into the rocks, in an orchard ( Geology of Rhode Island, 1840. p. 89).
1
CAWCAWMSQUSSICK. (22)
It was here that Canonicus marked lands given to Roger Williams on which to dwell, and upon which Williams dwelt nearly ten years, a neighbor of all the great Sachems of the Narragansetts, save only Miantinomi. It was from this place that many of his letters were written (Narr. Club, v. 6. 158, 181, 170, 166, 168, etc.). The earliest house built by an Englishman in that land was that of Richard Smith about 1641 ( Potter's Early Hist. Narr., 31). More appears concerning this name in the following note on the Devil's Foot Rock.
CAP-AN-A-GAN-SITT. (17)
This name of a locality occurs in a deed given by Ezekiel Holliman to William Carpenter, in November, 1658 (Early Records, v. I. p. 79). The place is described as "a certayne parcell of upland. and meadow, containeing about two acres, layeing neere the Salt
. . ...
142
CAUSUMSET-CAJACET.
river at a place called Capanagansitt." It was bounded on the north . by a little "runnett" on the east by the Salt Water: the other bounds are indefinite. It is doubtless a portion of the land referred to at page 83, Early Rec., as "being on the south side of a small fresh streame which runeth into a salt cove." This salt cove, three years later, in 1661, was called "Bailies" cove. In 1854 it was called "Passeconuquis Cove." The head land is still known as Gaspee point. There is a small pond at a distance of half a mile northerly called "Ponaganset." The name at the head of this note is evidently this word ponaganset, with the prefix "Ca."
CAUSUMSET. (20)
This was the Indian name of the tract of land now forming the northern part of Bristol, R. I. The Plymouth government, in 1668, enacted a law prohibiting all persons from buying land from the Indians, "or receiving in any way of the Indians any of these lands that appertain unto Mount hope or Cawsumsett necke" ( Brigham's Compact, Charter, and Laws, 154). In printing this latter Indian name Francis Baylies (Hist. Plymouth, 2, 64) writes it "Sawsum- sit," which is probably an error. The name Consamset (10) in the town of Cranston is doubtless the same word.
CAJACET. (30)
This is the name which Benedict Arnold gave to his estate at the south end of Conanicut Island. He twice mentions it in his will (Brooks's Old Stone Mill, 77, 84). This name is not a Narragan- sett word. The presence of the letter j makes it certain that it came from some other language. Virgil .Eneid, Book 7, writes of his nurse, Cajeta: and her name was given to a town, Gaeta, in Italy. Possibly Benedict Arnold learned this from the schools in England before he came here, for he was twenty years of age when he left England. By looking at the coast line of southern Conanicut
143
CUMNUCK, THE ISLAND.
several small Bays will be seen ; upon the largest of them his lands lay,
"Then in a straight course to Cajeta's Bay Along the coast he swiftly made his way."
Possibly the name Cajacet came from the name Cajeta, an old school friend of Benedict Arnold's. For this couplet I am indebted to my excellent friend, Erastus Richardson, whose metrical transla- tion of Virgil brought him an honorary degree from Brown Univer- sity.
CUSHENAH. (35)
Is an Indian name of tract of land the exact location of which is not known. But it was in what came subsequently to be known as Little Compton ( Plymouth Colony Rec. 3, 192).
CUMNUCK.
(27)
The name of the most northerly island in Point Judith pond. It is about half a mile north of the Isle Naheganset.
CONIMICUT.
. Sce "Namquit," following in these sketches.
CONFIRMATION DEEDS.
What they covered ; who obtained them ; and when obtained. Sce "The Seven Mile Line" herein.
The reason for calling them "Confirmation Deeds" was, in order to fix the ownership of nearly 300,000 acres of lands, which these three Deeds brought into the possession, or ownership, of the pro- prictors under the Deed to Williams-into the private ownership of William Harris ; William Arnold ; and William Carpenter ( Forgeries connected with the Indian Deed to Roger Williams, by Sidney S. Rider, 1896).
144
QUINUNICUT-CONANICUT.
CHIPACIJUACK.
(26 or 27)
Concerning this locality there is much confusion, as there is also in the spelling of the word. Chippachoog, or Chepachewag, or Chippechuock, or Chipchug, or Chepuxet are some of the forms. On our map the location is twice fixed in ( 26). Some writers have fixed the place south of Hall's purchase; and some have given the name to the lands which Hall and Knight purchased. This pur- chase was first located in modern times on the map of Rhode Island by Walling. All the Indian localities which appear on that map were indicated by the late Judge Elisha R. Potter, than whom Rhode Island has produced no more accurate historical researcher. Hall's purchase is placed on our map in (27), but it extended to more or less extent into three towns. Judge Potter also gave the name to a river, Chepuxet, and to a pond, Chipchug. There is a report of a commission made in 1679, in which occurs this language : "Where is the head of Paucatuck river? The Indian answered; and the Indians all agreed, the head of Paucatuck river is a pond called Chipchug (27), which lyeth above the pond called Aquebapaug." This latter pond is now known as "Worden's." The report can be found in Potter's Early Hist. Narrag. (p. 266). Trumbull gives the word Chippachaug as applied to an Island in Mystic Bay (Conn. Col. Rec. 1, 224). Trumbull also gives Chepeche-wag, citing the manuscript report of Thomas Minor, a commissioner. But the form Chipchug which I have given was also taken from a report of this same Thomas Minor. This only goes to show the impossibility of attempting to reconcile with any degree of satisfaction these early writings. Trumbull defines the word as meaning "a place separated. or apart." He drew Chepachet from the same root, and meaning "a place of separation, or where the stream divides." Roger Wil- liams gives the form Yo-chippachausin as meaning "there the way divides" (Indian Dict., 96).
QUINUNICUT-OR CONANICUT.
The carliest mention of Conanicut Island in the annals of Rhode Island occurs in the Deed given by Canonicus and Miantinomi, of
145
CONANICUT, A NARRAGANSETT ISLAND.
Acquidneck Island, to William Coddington and his friends, March 24, 1637. In this deed the marsh and grasse upon Quinunicutt, and all the other islands excepting Chibachuesa, now called Prudence. was sold to the English. The Island itself was not included in the deed. This arrangement concerning the grass went on for many years without trouble, but trouble finally came in 1655 when the Indians objected to the taking of the grass, and Mr. John Gould complained to the General Assembly. The Assembly directed the "President" of the Colony, who was at that time Mr. Roger Wil- hams, "to signifie to them (the Indians) how that ye President hath here openlie avouched ye Island's right as a spetiall witness of ve grant of their dead Sachems." Mr. Williams also stated that he had then recently told the Sachems, then ruling the Narragansetts, the same thing, he being at Narragansett. This, however, did not quiet the Indians, and on the 17th April. 1657, William Coddington and Benedict Arnold, senior. purchased the Island for one hundred pounds, of Coginaquond ( Potter's Early Hist. Narr. p. 54). Here I correct an error in Mr. Arnold's History of Rhode Island ; he giving it as Benedict Arnold, Junior, a son of the first governor. who bought the Island. This boy was at the time of the purchase but seventeen years of age: and, moreover, the Governor in his will gave away large portions of the Island, and large portions especially to this Benedict, Junior.
This purchase of Conanicut was made at the time when enormous tracts were purchased from the Indians. It might be fairly said that almost the entire territory (saving Warwick ) now forming the State of Rhode Island was obtained during the years 1657-1660. The General Assembly made laws to prevent purchases without its consent, but they were careful to abstain from making these laws until all the lands had been acquired, or, at all events, all the lands worth having. At the time of the coming of the English, Conanicut was under the jurisdiction of the Narragansetts, and the purchase was made from that tribe: but it had not been long in their posses- sion, and it had been acquired by conquest. This is apparent from the wording of the original deed. Canonicus and Miantinomi claim- ing it "by vertue of our general command of this Bay. and also the perticular subjectinge of the dead Sachems of Acquednecke." This
146
THE GRASS LANDS OF QUONONIQUOT.
tells the tale of bloody war and of conquest. At this early time the Island must have been denuded of trees, else it could not have the valuable grass lands which the English so much needed. It was purchased, as I have stated, by two men, William Coddington and Benedict Arnold, subsequently the first Governor of Rhode Island under the Charter, and the builder of the Old Stone mill at Newport about which so many fables have been written. Mr. Coddington must have disposed of his portion in parcels to suit settlers ; but Mr. Arnold not only held his portion, but he purchased more, so that at the time of his death he had acquired a very large part of the Island. Governor Arnold died in 1678, leaving a will which is historically of considerable value. In it he declares that he gave the name Bever Neck to the southern portion of the Island. He does not tell us why he gave the name to it; it certainly could not have been from the fact that it was a habitat of the Beaver : it must have been because of the resemblance in outline to the tail of the animal, and the name now used is Beaver-tail.
From this Will we get the name of another Indian locality. Cajocet. This place Governor Arnold twice mentions in the will. He gave it to his youngest son, Oliver, saying it contained three hundred acres, and was "called Cajaset land." In a codicil it is again mentioned, thus, "within which tract is contained my farm called Cajaset." This name Mr. Seth M. Vose has given to the fine estate on the Island now owned by him. Elle (Eel) pond and Mackerell Cove are other names found in this will as applied to localities, one of which is still used. Of the Indian Sachems, whose names are connected with Conanicut, we know but little. None of them dwelt upon it. Of the dead Sachems of Acquidnec we know absolutely nothing. Of Canonicus and Miantinomi we know some- thing ; both were dead some years before the English bought the fee of the Island. Of Coginaquond we know something : he must be distinguished as being the greatest seller of lands to the English among the Indians : his name has been spelled in a variety of ways : thus Kachanaquant, or Cojonoquant, or Cachanaquant, and he dwelt on the lands of his ancestors, near Wickford, as we now call it, but near Cawcumsquisuck, as he knew the place. His relationship to the great Sachems, Canonicus and Miantinomi, is a matter of much
147
PARTRIDGE BEACH ON QUONONICUT.
confusion in the ancient histories ; but that he was the Chief Sachem among the Narragansetts from 1650 to about 1665, the fact that his name was the first sought by the English to be signed to their Deeds, is a sufficient evidence. In one of the Deeds given to Randall Holden he is mentioned as the brother of Miantinomi; in one of his pleas William Harris speaks of him as a grandson of Canonicus, but Judge Potter, an excellent authority, says unequivo- cally that he was a son of Canonicus. This is the history of the acquisition of the Island and a mention at least of those from whom it was acquired. That the Indians dwelt on the Island there is no question. Roger Williams in a letter to Governor Winthrop says that the Indians complain that "two of their women were carried away from Conanicut in this Bay the last summer" ( 1638).
It must be noted here that at this early date Roger Williams used the form, Conanicut. which we now use. In the Arnold Will the term is used ten times, and spelled in five different ways, provided the copy given in the Newport Historical Magazine. v. 6, is cor- rectly reproduced, thus : Quonaniquot, Quononiquot, Quononicut. Quononiquit, Quonanicut.
While upon this subject there is one other matter to which I will make reference. Judge Potter in the Early Hist. Narragansett, P. 304, says : the strip of land which connects Beaver neck to the main part of Conanicut, is called Partridge Beach. This same strip is referred to in the Arnold Will, as reprinted in the magazine above referred to (page 27, v. 6), as "the narrow beach, or sponge of land called Parting Beach." Having been unable to make a personal examination of the earliest authority I am unable to say which is correct. The use of the word "sponge" of land is from the old or middle English, and means a marshy, or swampy land. There are many sensational stories written concerning the Island and its former residents, but the basis of these tales is chiefly the imagina- tions of their writers.
DEVIL'S FOOT. (22)
This is an erosion in a ledge on the north side of the Pequot path. now the highway, between Davisville and Wickford. It was in the
148
DEVIL'S FOOT ROCK-GOATOM.
Indian Deed now known as the Fone's purchase. This Deed was dated Ist January, 1672. It is recorded in the Land Evidence Records, v. 2, 189, now at the State House. There have been legends written in which these "foot" marks, and cavern in the rocks, in the field nearby form a part. For these reasons the name is placed upon the Indian map. Mr. Trumbull says: "Caucumsqus- suk, where Richard Smith built his trading house, and where Roger Williams lived for some years, seems to have taken its perverse name from a 'marked rock,' the same probably which the English called 'Devil's Foot,' on the road from Wickford to East Greenwich. Pettiquamsott is 'at the round rock,' a well known landmark on the west side of Narrow river, in South Kingstown." ( Potter's Narra- gansett, 4II.)
ESCOHEAGUE. (21)
This word as above spelled is stated by Trumbull to have been corrupted, or eliminated from Neastoquoheaganuck. I have taken an intermediary from the succeeding records.
GOTAM, THE PLACE "COMMONLY CALLED GOATOM." (9)
This name is not of Indian origin, nor is it upon the Indian map. It is in what is now known as Olneyville. Curiosity is aroused to discover if possile the origin and meaning of the term. Almost the first document printed in the Providence Early Records (v. I, p. 8) is a record of land laid out to Thomas Clemence, by the Town Surveyor of Providence, in January, 1671, as we now reckon time. In this record are references to two localities. "The place com- monly called Goatom" and "The Hill commonly called Solatary Hill". (Prov. Early Records, v. I. p. 8.) In a former Book Notes the writer endeavored to fix these localities : and concerning one of them, Goatom, suggested a comonplace origin of the term: but this origin now strikes the writer as being so far wrong, that he comes again to the question ( Book Notes 9, 112). The location then fixed
149
MAD MEN OF GOTHAM.
upon was doubtless sufficiently correct. to wit, the land in Olneyville, North of the Woonasquatticket river, upon which the Atlantic Mills now stand, and extending down and including the Fletcher Mills. It must have been in those early days an exceedingly beautiful valley.
Goatom is an English corruption of the name of a village in Nottinghamshire, England, Gotham. It was given to this locality by men who came from that country, and who were familiar with the ancient history of the English village. It came from the "Merie Tale of the Mad Men of Go-tam", for so runs the title of the earliest known printed copy of this distinguished publication, which was written by Andrew Borde about 1560. He was a native of Gotam, the English village, which lies six or seven miles south from Not- tingham. ( Wood's Athena Oxoniensis, Bliss Ed. 1, 170.)
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