USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Westerly > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 8
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Charlestown > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 8
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Hopkinton > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 8
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Richmond > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 8
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"We promise particularly to avoid all evil communications which cor- rupt good manners, especially all filthy, unclean conversation which is an awful sign of a filthy and rotten heart. We promise likewise to testify against it in others wherever we shall hear it, and resolve by ye grace of God to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, and that neither the fear of man, or our own guilt, or any other impediment shall hinder the faithful discharge of our duty.
"And further we promise to attend all the duties of religion; particu- larly we will reverently attend ye worship of God both in publiek and pri- vate, especially we will sauetifie God's Sabbath and reverence his sanctuary;
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EARLY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
we will read a portion of the holy scriptures daily, and sing the praises of God, and pray to him, and teach and learn the Assemblies Catechism, and in all things beliave as the disciples of Jesus Christ, begging his presence and help, depending upon him alone for strength to perform these promises. Amen."
. (Signatures of the members of the household.)
Well may the record of such a Christian custom be cherished in our religious annals.
The following extract will throw decisive light upon certain views and practices, then common in such churches and through- out New England.
" THE DESIRE OF JOHN PARK, OFFERED TO THIS SOCIETY, 1756.
"I acknowledge it is a great Blessing of God granted to me in giving me my Birth and Education in a land of Gospel Light, & bringing me into Covenant with himself by believing Parents, who Devoted mne to God in Baptism, and brought me up in ye nurture & admonition of the Lord; and am convinced it is my Just Duty & privilege to keep hold of this Covenant and make Personal Choice of God to be my God, and joyn myself to his Church, and walk in communion with it, keeping all the Commandments & Ordinances of the Lord blameless.
"I have had a Desire to come to ye Sacrament of ye Lord's Supper for several years; but fear that I was too young & was ashamed to speak my mind least I should be laughed at by those that were irreligious; but fear- ing I should grieve ye Spirit of God and be left to greater hardness of heart if I neglected what I really thought was my Duty and privilege, & that if I was ashamed to confess Christ before men he would not own me in ye Day of Judgment, I have ventured to offer myself to full Communion with ye Saints, desiring to come under ye Special Watch of this Society, begging their Prayers that I may be enabled to behave myself as becomes a Disciple of Christ, and that God would give me grace to Glorifie God & Enjoy him forever. I likewise Pray for their careful and Faithful Watch over me, and their Christian Counsels & Adnionition for my good.
JOHN PARK.
"LORD'S DAY, November ye 28th, 1756.
" The above Declaration to ye Chh. was publickly read and the above named John Park was admitted to full Communion."
"June ye 5th 1763, Ld's Day. - Mary, the wife of Deacon Ezekiel Gavit, renewed her baptismal Covenant, and was admitted to full Communion in this Church."
" November ye 20th (1763). - Baptized a child (of Benjamin and Hannah Stanton Park) named Joseph."
"1764, February ye 19th. - Baptized a child (of Sarah wife of Samuel Stanton) named Eunice."
" April ye Sth 1764. - Baptized a son (of William and Anna Gavit) named John."
"Sept. 2, 1764. - Baptized a child (of Dn. Ezekiel and Mary Gavit) named Amie."
" Sept. 23, 1764. - Baptized a child (of John and Lois Latham) named Abigail,"
-
74
WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
The church at length concluded to give to Mr. Park a second set- tlement among them. On the 23d of May, 1759, the church, by vote, selected the 22d of August following for the installation of the returned pastor, and appointed Deacon Pendleton, Deacon Gavit, and Christopher Seegar, a committee to invite assistance from neighboring churches. Accordingly we read in the records as fol- lows : -
" August the 22d, 1759. - Agreeable to the preceding transactions of this church, upon the 22d day of August, 1759, the Reverend Elders and Messengers of the three Churches of Stonington, and a Messenger from the Church in South Kingstown (the Reverend Elder being providentially pre- vented) came and installed the Rev'd Joseph Park over this church.
CHRISTOPHER SEEGAR, Clerk."
" Doct. John Bartlet and Lucretia his wife" were received as members of this church " June ye 9th, 1765." The doctor brought a letter from Lebanon, Conn .; his wife brought one from Stonington.
But the body was weak in numbers and in means. It appears to have proceeded with regularity but with waning energy till 1770, when but few entries are found in the records, and these made by various hands.
In 1759 an unhappy difficulty arose between the Rev. Mr. Park and the authorities of Westerly. In his kindness, Mr. Park had entertained a poor woman who had been driven from a house infected with small-pox. For this he was arraigned. He justified his kind- ness, and blamed the town for its severity. A protracted lawsuit followed, in which the many were stronger than the one. Relative to this matter, Mr. Park preached a sermon in his meeting-house " upon the 24th day of February, 1760," which he published, in 1761, preceded by a " Narrative" of the difficulty, and followed by a letter from a " Reverend Gentleman in Connecticut."
Of the church of which we have been speaking, Mr. Park was the only pastor. The good, laborious, tried, faithful man died in much honor, at his home in Westerly, March 1, 1777, in the seventy- second year of his age, and forty-fifth year of his ministry. His son, Benjamin Park, " fought and fell with Gen. Warren on Bunker Hill."
In this connection it may be mentioned that the renowned George Whitefield, on his way through New England, visited Westerly and stopped at the house of Ezekiel Gavitt. As his wife accompanied him, they brought with them some tea, a silver tankard, and cups. Mrs. Gavitt had never used the foreign luxury, and had no tea-kettle. She, however, cleansed a common kettle, and so heated the water for the rare beverage. Mr. Whitefield halted at Paweatuck Bridge, where there were then but two residences. He also visited the north portion of the town, now Hopkinton. Crossing the State line, he preached in the house now owned by Mr. Peleg Clarke, Sen., near
75
EARLY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Clarke's Mills. Here, in the waters of the Ashaway, he baptized Content Sanford, formerly of Newport, who married Mr. Thomas Langworthy. This was reported to have been the first instance of baptism in that river. From all portions of this region the people flocked to hear the celebrated preacher. He was verily " the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Nor should it be a matter of won- der that Mr. Whitefield, though an Episcopalian, followed John the Baptist in administering the initiatory Christian ordinance, since some of the Episcopalians of that day, in Rhode Island and in Vir- ginia, often practised the primitive rite of baptism, as their fathers had done in the mother-country. Dr. McSparran, who ministered as a missionary in the " Narragansett country " from 1751 to 1757, as his own record testifies, " baptized by immersion " Daniel Updike, the attorney-general of the colony, and also other persons. Even the Rev. Mr. Fayerweather, the Episcopal missionary at Narragan- sett, who succeeded Dr. McSparran, in writing to the Society in Eng- land, in 1763, stated that "in this part of America he found immer- sion preferred, among persons in adult years, to sprinkling, and, whenever required, administered it in that way, as the church directs."
The people of Rhode Island were early taught to depend upon the Scriptures and not upon creeds. They may have been even too suspicious of written articles of faith. A people breaking away from old oppressions and unjust assumptions, are liable to verge to an opposite extreme.
In reference to the records of the Presbyterian church, so long unknown in Westerly, I may state, that through information from Hon. Benjamin Parke, LL. D., of Pennsylvania, I found the papers in the hands of Capt. James G. Parke, in Searsport, Me. Thanks to these worthy descendants of Rev. Joseph Parke.
T
CHAPTER X.
EARLY EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
ALMOST every Christian denomination existing in the early part of the eighteenth century had at least a few representatives in this region. Of the adherents to the Anglican Church, it is to be much regretted that we have so meagre an account. We present all that we have been able to obtain.
Rev. James McSparran, D. D., an Episcopal missionary in Nar- ragansett, in his volume, America Dissected, etc., published in 1752, says : "By my excursions and out labors, a church is built twenty-five miles to the westward of me, but not now under my care." In Updike's History of the Narragansett Church is a copy of the deed of the land on which this house stood, given by "George Ninigret, Chief Sachem and Prince " of the Indians, for the benefit of " the Church of England in Charlestown and Westerly," dated " 14th day of January, in the year 1745-6" (1746, new style). The church had been built and " was situated on the north lot of the late Champlin farm, fronting on the public road, now owned (1845) by Robert Hazard, son of Joseph." The deed of Ninigret, "in consid- eration of the sum of five shillings," " paid by John Hill, Esq., Col. Christopher Champlin, both of said Charlestown, and Ebenezer · Punderson of Groton, Conn.," conveyed a lot "containing forty acres, and whereon the Church of England now stands, in the occu- pation of the aforesaid Christopher Champlin." This Episcopal interest, therefore, embracing forty acres and a house, stood in Charlestown, and dates from 1746. The Presbyterian church was located five miles west of this, and within the present limits of Westerly. The history of the Episcopal Church cannot be further traced; it seems to have shortly expired. "King Tom " came to the Indian throne in 1746, and favored the Presbyterians and Baptists.
The following is the original subscription paper for the church edifice : -
" Wee, the subscribers, being earnestly desirous of promoting the Glory of God and the best Good of men, and in particular, that A church of Eng-
77
EARLY EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
land may be Built in ye Towne of Westerly for the more orderly and Decent performance of ye worship of God according to ye Liturgy of said Church, do for the advancement of that good worke promise and oblige our selves, every one for him selfe the sum or sums to our several names annexed, to give and pay into the Hands of Jno. Hill, Capt. Christopher Champlin, or theire order or orders, they being chosen of the Committee for building said Church, by an Instrument of equal Date with these Presents, viz. : July the 13th, 1727.
Jonathan Turner £5.0. 0
| Lobart Casse £1. 0. 0
Richard Mumford
2.0.0 Edward Larkin 5. 0. 0
Jolın Denison
0.10. 0
James Kinyon . 0.10. 0
Thos. Mumford, Jr. 2.0. 0
John Kinyon
1.0. 0
Eph. Gardner
1. 0. 0
P. Buors 3. 0. 0. and all the glass.
Thos. Philips
1. 0. 0
Thomas Gould, 4 days work, - self and 6 oxen.
Mordily Dunbar 2.0. 0
Thomas Wells . . 1. 0. 0 + ·
Jeremiah Fish
5.0.0
Joseph Mumford
3.0.0
George Mumford
2.0. 0
Jeffrey Champlin .
0.10. 0
William Gardner
5. 0. 0
Thomas Huxsom 1.0. 0
Josiah Arnold
1.0. 0
Thomas Leachmore 5.0.0
John Chase
2.0.0
John Hill 10.0. 0
William Gibbs 5.0.0
Capt. James Wilkes 1.10. 0
Sr. Johnson 1.5. 0
William Wanton 5.0.0
John Case 1. 0.0
Joseph Stanton
10.0. 0
James Delpeach 1.10. 0
James Mack Sparran 5.0.0
Charles Higinbottom
2.0. 0
Christopher Champlin 10.0. 0
Richard Drake . 1.10. 0
James Yorke 1.10. 0
Caleb Church 10.0. 0
Enoch Kinyon
2.0. 0
Adam Gallop
1. 0. 0
John Ross
1.0. 0
Samuel Pike 2.0. 0
Ebenezer Niles
1.10. 0
Thomas Jones
1. 0. 0
In the records of St. Paul's Church (located on Tower Hill) we find the following entries : -
"April 22d, 1730. - In Westerly Narragansett, Christopher Champlin and Hannah Hill, daughter of Captain John Hill, were joined together in holy matrimony by the Rev. Mr. MeSparran, at the house of the said Captain John Hill."
" Nor. 20th, 1731. - Christopher Champlin, a child, and son of Chris- topher and Hannah Champlin, was baptised at said Champlin's house, by the Rev. Mr. McSparran."
The last-named Christopher Champlin early in life moved to Newport, where he died April 25, 1805, -" President of the Bank of Rhode Island, and the first Grand Master of the Masonic Fraternity in the State of Rhode Island."
I think no regular church was organized here. The meetings seem to have been under the care of the church on Tower Hill, and were such as would belong to an out-station.
Edward Wive
1.10. 0
Samuel Clark 3. 0. 0. 4 days carting.
Thomas Brood 0. 15. 0. 1 days carting.
Jn. Gardner .
1.10. 0
.
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WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
In this connection it will not be out of place to add a few words in respect to the Rev. James McSparran, D. D., " for many years the missionary of the Propagation Society in Narragansett, the sphere of whose labors extended over all the southwestern part of Rhode Island, and across the borders of Connecticut." He gradu- ated at the University of Glasgow in 1709 ; was ordained a priest by the Bishop of London, Sept. 25, 1720; and came to this country in the spring of 1721. His parish at first embraced " Bristol, Free- town, Swansey, and Little Compton." He resided in South Kings- town, the centre of his field, and presided especially over the church known as the Tower Hill Church. In 1725 he "had an important agency in the establishment of an Episcopal church in New London, Conn.," and is " supposed to have been the first person who officiated there, according to the forms of the Church of England." In 1731 the University of Oxford gave him the degree of Doctor of Divin- ity. He visited England in 1736, and returned in 1737. In 1752 he wrote his work, entitled America Dissected. He made a second visit to England in 1754, and returned in 1756. His health now rapidly failed, and he died in South Kingstown, Dec. 1, 1757, " hav- ing been minister of St. Paul's (Tower Hill), in Narragansett, thirty-seven years."
Says Updike, in his history of this church, "Thus ended the pil- grimage of the most able divine that was sent over to this country by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel."
Ever let the people of this land be thankful that those who planted it believed, and proved by their works, their faith, that relig- ion and education, that give vitality and character to society, are the glory of a people, and the sure guarantee of honor and prosperity.
----
-
CHAPTER XI.
THE INDIAN CHURCH.
FROM the first planting of New England by the Pilgrims, who sought this land as an asylum from religious persecution, the pagan aborigines were the objects of religious regard by our devout ances- tors. Of this solicitude, the labors of Eliot and Mayhew may be accepted as illustrations. Rhode Island has, in this respect, a record not inferior to that of the other colonies. Roger Williams was the sincere and constant friend of the red men, and for no man had the Indians a higher esteem. Laboring earnestly and lovingly for their temporal and spiritual welfare, he won their steadfast confidence, and more than once their drawn arrows were stayed from the other colonies by his entreaties and kindly offices. He early visited this portion of the colony, and was intimate with King Ninigret. As a Christian minister, as well as a wise statesman, he visited the Nian- tics, and labored to communicate to them the glad tidings of the Gospel. They seem never to have wholly forgotten the important and happy truths he announced. He greatly lit the pagan gloom. Rev. Morgan Edwards says, "There remains to this day a congre- gation of Narragansett Indians, whose forefathers were converted to the faith by Roger Williams."
We have already noticed that the Great Revival had some joyful subjects among the Niantics. Shortly, some of these not relishing all the ceremonials of the Presbyterian church, being able to read the Scriptures for themselves, and probably recalling the memories and principles of Roger Williams, separated from Mr. Park's church and met by themselves. Naturally they were lovers of liberty and independence. The first converts were soon joined by others, and a church was formed in 1750.
The zealous and efficient leader in this movement was Samuel . Niles, an " Indian exhorter." There is evidence also that Ninigret -" King Tom "- was gratified by this Christian change in his tribe.
.
This was really a New Light church, and was essentially a Bap- tist body, as it ever has been since. A goodly sight it was to see . this swarthy people thus emerging from barbarism into light, and uniting by their own choice in the worship of the true God.
!
.
80
WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
In the religious history of the Niantics occurred an interesting incident worthy of record, as illustrating the spiritual character of prayer, and the fact that God regards the intentions of the heart rather than the words that are employed.
During a religious interest in the tribe, conducted in part by white men, who, of course, used the English language, while most of the Indians still employed their native tongue, an Indian female became very deeply interested for her salvation. She seemed to have embraced the notion, since Christianity had been brought to her people through the English tongue, that it was to be sought through the medium of that language. She feared God would not listen to her rude pagan speech. The few converted Indians had acquired some knowledge of the English. She, however, had learned to pronounce but one word, -the word " broom." Her anxiety became intense. Her Christian countrymen exhorted her to pray. She felt a deep desire to pray, but knew not how to pray as she supposed she ought, since she could not employ the acceptable tongue. At last the demands of her soul and the strivings of the Divine Spirit so far overcame her, that throwing herself into the attitude of a suppliant, she cried aloud, " Broom ! Broom ! Broom !" God answered her heart instead of her lips, and instantly filled her soul with light and love and the joys of His salvation. She rose up to shout His praise, and ever afterwards served Him in a pure and joyful life.
In reference to the praying Indians in Charlestown, we have, from perfectly reliable sources, the account of a circumstance that deserves enduring record. In a time of severe drought, when their gardens and fields were withering and dying, the devout, who had faith in prayer, made an appointment and met in their meeting-house to pray for rain. With one heart they united in their humble, ear- nest, trusting petitions. No sooner had they commenced praying than a little cloud, the size of an apron, was seen in the southwest, that steadily drew near and increased in volume till it came over the settlement and poured down its water on the thirsty earth. Said one of the praying Indians, " We had a glorious shower, and went home dripping, and praising God."
Backus states that the first ordained minister of this church was James Simons, a member of the tribe. The date of his ministry is not given. Rev. Samuel Niles, born on Block Island in 1674; a graduate of Harvard College in 1699 ; a preacher in Kingstown from 1702 to 1710; ordained in Braintree, Mass., in 1711; the author of several works, among which is a History of the French and Eng- lish Wars, written in 1760,- in his latter years " returned to Rhode Island, and became pastor of a church in Charlestown composed chiefly of Indians." This record must refer to the church of the Niantics. As Mr. Niles was a Presbyterian, this church, like other
.
81
THE INDIAN CHURCH.
New Light bodies, practised mixed communion. Both from this fact, and from the unstable elements in the tribe, the history of the church has been checkered, and its fortunes have followed the waning life of the tribe. It is now a Free Will Baptist church, in a weak condi- tion, agitated by Advent doctrines, and conspicuous chiefly for its annual mass meetings in August, after an old Indian customn.
By the records of another church, we find that Elder Thomas Ross was officiating here in 1770. The next minister was Samuel . Niles, a member of a tribe (not to be confounded with the Samuel Niles named above, who died in 1762, aged eighty-eight years). Under the ministry of this second Samuel Niles, the first meeting-house was erected, and much prosperity attended the church. Mr. Niles was reported to be "one of the most eminent Indian preachers in America." The Revolution seriously affected this, as well as all other churches. Some of its members entered the patriot army. At the close of the war the body numbered only fifty members; the congregation, of course, was much larger. After Mr. Niles's pastorate the body was weakened by changes, and especially by the modification of the life of the tribe.
John Sekatur was the successor of Mr. Niles, and, like his prede- cessor, left a good memory among his people. The last important minister was Moses Stanton, ordained March 17, 1823, - an upright, faithful man, who toiled effectively for his fading tribe, but finally, near 1844, emigrated to Ann Arbor, in Michigan, where he died, - having met with a fatal accident while engaged in digging a well. In 1827 the church numbered ninety-three members. Near this time the deacons were Samuel Nocake and Samuel Fletcher.
George Champlin, ordained as an evangelist by this body Aug. 16, 1841, afterwards established a church in Warwick, R. I., and thence moved to Providence. Aaron Sekatur, the last regular pastor of the church, was ordained near 1858. He was more of an exhorter than a preacher.
The feeble body yet remaining has latterly been bruised and poisoned by wandering errorists. Some men of judgment, however, remain. The clerk serving the body in 1869 was Joshua Noka, who is a speaker as well as a scribe. The present meeting-house, composed of stone, was built near 1860, upon the site of the former house, in a secluded spot, apart from the frequented roads, though on an open way. This may one day be the last monument of civilization left by the once mighty Niantics.
But for the existence and influence of this Christian church, doubtless the remnant of the Niantic monarchy, like the most of the other tribes in our land, would long since have passed away. Like salt it has preserved them from utter decay. From this church, as a radiant centre, knowledge and power has constantly flowed to the humble abodes of these children of the forest. Human language
6
82
WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
cannot express all the enlightening, restraining, purifying, elevating, redeeming influences of a Christian Church. It stands like a light amid the surrounding darkness.
Never can it be said that the Niantics, as a tribe, have been illy treated by the whites. Both under English and American rule, as wards of the colony and of the State, they have been protected, nourished, and aided with generous and Christian care. Some evil persons may have maltreated and defrauded them, but never has the State. Schools and school-books have been furnished to them, and liberal appropriations of money have been made to incite them to adopt civilized habits. Want of greater success in these efforts must be attributed to want of disposition and capacity in the native Indian stock.
Of the present attitude and disposition of what remains of this ancient stock of red men, once the princely rulers of this region of country, perhaps we cannot better speak than in the language of a report published in the Providence Journal of Oct. 17, 1866. The paper withal recites some important facts of the history of the tribe.
·
" At the late session of the General Assembly, a committee was raised, consisting of Messrs. Sheffield, Perry, and Mowry, of the House, and of Messrs. Champlin and Kenyon on the part of the Senate, and charged to inquire into the propriety of withdrawing the guardianship of the State from this tribe, and of disposing of their public lands.
"It is well known that by the common law of England the right of soil in their American colonial possessions was declared to be in the British Crown, and that the Indians were treated as mere occupants who roamed over it, but had no rights in the territory which they occupied. But the founders of this State took a different view of this matter. They obtained a grant of the territory from the king of England, but they recognized the ultimate right of the soil and freehold to be in its native possessors. The practice of the State has therefore been to recognize the Indian title to the lands of the State, unless the Indians had by grant deprived themselves of that title. In pursuance of this practice, in 1707; the colonial authorities procured from the chief sachem of the Narragansetts a title deed of all the lands belonging to the tribe within the colonial jurisdiction, excepting and reserving a tract situate in what is now the town of Charlestown, and by that deed the Indians were prohibited from making any further grants of their lands without the consent of the General Assembly. The Indians con- tend that the provisions of this grant constituted a treaty between the col- ony and the tribe, and that by the terms to be implied from the treaty the colony bound itself and consequently the State is now bound to preserve to them their tribal jurisdiction, and the right to improve and occupy their lands. Whatever may be the true construction of this grant, we cannot believe that it will be seriously contended that the colony bound itself, or that there is any just pretense for saying that the State is bound, to preserve to the tribe a jurisdiction foreign to and independent of the State; or that it is bound to extend to the members of the tribe any peculiar or special privileges not enjoyed by all the inhabitants of the State.
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