" Historians have dwelt too much upon the differences in social life between the different
colonies, and too little on the points of likeness. Let us consider, by way of illustration,
the way of living on the Narragansett Shore of Rhode Island, and see how closely it
resembled that of Virginia." T. W. Higginson.
" More strictly, perhaps, than in any other portion of New England, could the term
'aristocracy' be applied to the ruling class of this region." Wm. E. Foster.
"In 1780 South Kingstown was by far the wealthiest town in the State, paying double
the taxes assigned to Newport and one-third more than Providence." S. G. Arnold.
" All along the belt of land adjoining the west side of Narragansett Bay, the country,
generally productive, was owned in large plantations by wealthy proprietors, who resided
on and cultivated their land." E. R. Potter.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES
IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor.
History is past Politics and Politics present History Freeman
FOURTH SERIES
III
The Narragansett Planters
A STUDY OF CAUSES
BY EDWARD CHANNING
BALTIMORE
N. MURRAY, PUBLICATION AGENT, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
MARCH, 1886
COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY N. MURRAY.
JOHN MURPHY A CO., PRINTERS,
BALTIMORE.
THE NARRAGANSETT PLANTERS. 1
In the southern corner of Rhode Island there lived in
the middle of the eighteenth century a race of large land-
owners who have been called the Narragansett Planters.
Unlike the other New England aristocrats of their time these
people derived their wealth from the soil and not from success
in mercantile adventures. They formed a landed aristocracy
which had all the peculiarities of a landed aristocracy to as
great an extent as did that of the southern colonies. Never-
theless, these Narragansett magnates were not planters in the
usual and commonly-accepted meaning of the word. It is
true enough that they lived on large isolated farms surrounded
by all the pomp and apparent prosperity that a horde of slaves
could supply. But, if one looks under the surface, he will
find that the routine of their daily lives was entirely unlike
1 The Narragansett country properly so-called included all the lands
occupied by the Narragansetts at the coming of the English. In this essay,
however, it is used in its more popular sense as the name of the land along
the west shore of Narragansett Bay from Wickford to Point Judith. In
1685 it was detached from Rhode Island and placed under a government of
its own as the King's Province. When it again became a part of Rhode
Island it was called King's County. This name clung to it until the Revo-
lution when it became a burden and was largely replaced by the term South
County. In 1781 it became Washington County, which name it still bears.
As will be seen I have taken South Kingstown as the typical Narragansett
town. This is merely because the records of South Kingstown are accessible
and in an excellent state of preservation. I have examined the records of
Westerly with more care but, for various reasons, have confined myself to
a description here of North and South Kingstown.
5
6 The Narragansett Planters. [110
that of the Virginia planters. The Narragansetter's wealth
was derived not so much from the cultivation of any great
staple like tobacco or cotton as from the product of their
dairies, their flocks of sheep, and their droves of splendid
horses, the once famous Narragansett pacers. In fine they
were large large for the place and epoch stock farmers and
dairy-men.
Narragansett society was unlike that of the rest of New
England. It was an anomaly in the institutional history
of Rhode Island. Indeed many writers have questioned
its existence and it must be admitted that a descendant of one
of the Narragansett farmers, or planters if you will, was not
overstating the fact when he asserted that much of what has
been written about his ancestors possesses "a Munchausen
flavor." But there was a foundation for the existence of a
state of society as depicted by Updike and Judge Potter, and
the present paper is an attempt to show what that foundation
was. I hope at no distant day to exhibit these Narragansett
farmers as they still live in contemporary records. Before
examining the causes of this social development let us dispose
of one statement which does not seem to be well founded.
It has been claimed that the progenitors of the Narragansett
farmers were superior in birth and breeding to the other New
England colonists, and that to this the aristocratic frame of
Narragansett society is due. I do not find this to have been
the case. Nor do I believe the settlers of this particular
portion of Rhode Island to have been one whit better born or
bred than the founders of other Rhode Island, Massachusetts
or Connecticut towns. The proportion of those who wrote
their names in early Narragansett is smaller than in the sur-
rounding colonies, and there were no common schools in the
King's Province until after the Revolution. It will not do
to lay too much stress on these facts. Still, if lack of educa-
tion meant anything in the middle of the seventeenth century
it shows that the fathers of North and South Kingstown were
not above the average of New England colonists.
Ill] The Narragansett Planlws. 7
The later leaders of Narragansett society were, for the most
part, well-educated men. The Updikes, who inherited the
Smith property, enjoyed the teachings of the best tutors men
like Checkley, 1 the editor of an edition of Leslie's Easy
Method with the Deists, and Daniel Vernon, an Englishman
who was learned in the languages. McSparran, Fayer-
weather and Robinson are said to have possessed large
collections of books ; and we know that Colonel Updike, who
lived in the middle of the last century, had a library so full
of treasures that it could have been surpassed by few private
libraries of colonial Rhode Island. 2 This refinement, how-
ever, belongs to the best period of Narragansett social life.
It was a result of a peculiar social development and not a
cause of that development.
Undoubtedly the most potent factor in that growth was the
economic condition of the environment of the settlers of the
King's Province. From McSparran Hill and Boston Neck
1 Cf. Updike's Narragansett Church, p. 205, and Daniel Updike's Eemin-
iscences in Updike Papers. The following from Updike, p. 208, will show
under what influences the young Narragansett farmers were reared. It is
from Checkley's pamphlet :
"Question. Why don't the Dissenters in their public worship, make use
of the Creeds ?
Answer. Why? Because they are not set down word for word in the
Bible.
Question. Well ; but why don't the Dissenters, in their public worship,
make use of the Lord's Prayer f
Answer. Oh ! because that is set down word for word in the Bible.
Note. They're so perverse and opposite
As if they worshipped God for spite."
2 The following titles taken almost at random will convey some idea of
the range of this library. I am indebted for them as well as for much
valuable material and many kind suggestions to Colonel Updike's descen-
dant Daniel Berkely Updike now of Boston.
An exact abridgment of the commentaries or reports of the learned and
famous lawyer, Edmond Plowden. Englished by Fabian Hicks. London,
1659.
Eirenarchia, or of the office of the justices of peace. First collected by
William Lambard. London, 1614.
8 The Narragansett Planters. [112
along the shore to the Champlin tract in Charlestown a
district twenty miles long and two to four miles wide the
soil like that of the island of Rhode Island is more fertile
than any where else in New England. The Narragansett
country is intersected by large salt water ponds or lagoons,
which separated the cornfields of one man from the pastures
of his neighbor more effectually than any fences could have
separated them. Any one familiar with the difficulties of the
early settlers as to fences will understand the great importance
of this. Then, too, the soil and herbage were well suited to
grazing, while a large portion of the territory was fit for
sheep-walks, though good for little else. In fact a glance is
sufficient to show how favorable these conditions were for
stock-farming on a large scale.
This was soon recognized. As early as 1677 Capt. John
Hull 1 wrote to one of his partners in the Pettasquamscot Pur-
chase that he had sometimes thought that if a good stone wall
was built across the northern end of Point Judith Neck, so that
The dialogue in English betweene a Doctor of Diuinitie and a Student in
the Lawes of England. 1593.
Guliel[mi] Johnsoni, Chym[ici] Lexicon Chymicum. Francof [orti] et
Lipsise, MDCLXXIIX.
Sacro-sanctum Novurn Testamentum Domini servatoris nostri Jesu Christ! .
Londini, CIOIX1III.
TH2 'OMHPOY 'IAIAA02. Cantabrigiee, 1686.
The Iliad. Translated by Alexander Pope.
The works of Hesiod. Translated from the Greek by Mr. Cooke. 2d
ed. London, 1743.
Theognidis Megarensis [Opera]. Lipsise, 1520.
The works of Virgil. J. Trapp, editor. London, 1735.
Works of Sallust. London, 1715.
C. Julii Csesaris quse extant. Londini, 1739.
Works of Tacitus. London, 1737.
Terence's Comedies, translated into English. London, 1734.
P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon libri XV. Londini, 1719.
Des[iderii] Erasmi Rot[erodami] Colloquia familiaria.
Dialogues, French and English, (from Moliere). London, 1767.
1 American Antiquarian Soc. Coll., III., p. 127.
113] The Narragansett Planters. 9
no mongrel breed could come among them, that they might
raise a breed of large and fair mares and horses which in time
would prove a valuable article of export to the West Indies.
His proposal was probably carried' into effect, for a few years
later Hull wrote to William Heffernan accusing him of horse-
stealing. Hull drily offered to give Heffernan some horses that
he might have no further excuse for thieving. A few years
later horses were so plentiful that special regulations as to their
registration were found necessary, and in 1686 Dudley l and his
associates ordered thirty of them to be seized and sold, the pro-
ceeds to pay for the building of a jail. Whether these horses
were the progenitors of the Narragansett pacer, whose origin is
still obscure, may well be doubted. One tradition states that
William Robinson imported the first pacing horse from Spain,
while another is to the effect that Old Snip, the ancestor of the
Narragansett pacer, was found among the wild horses on Point
Judith. Whatever their origin, these pacing horses formed a
very valuable ' article of export to the sugar islands, where
they were held in great estimation. 2
Sheep were raised in large quantities. Their wool was
worked up at home, and also seems to have been used to a
considerable extent outside the Narragansett country. But it
was from their dairies that the greatest profit was made. The
herds of cows which the great farmers left behind to be
inventoried were very large. Mrs. Richard Smith brought
1 Tones Kecords, near end of volume. The record of the Court held by
Dudley in 1686 is incomplete in Potter's Early History of Narragansett, p.
239, and in 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., V., p. 246.
2 The roads in early Narragansett, were so bad that the riding horse was
the great vehicle of transportation. Wheeled conveyances were introduced
at an early day, for in McSparran's Journal, I find under date of Sunday
Oct. 14th, 1744 : " Keturned in my chair drawn by Mr. Updike's chaise-
horse Old Joe." On Sept. 24th, he had "visited Abigail Samson, a rich
mustee went and came through the Biver safe in my chair. O God to
thee be the praise of all my preservations." This Journal is very frag-
mentary. It has only recently been brought to light and is now in the pos-
session of the Diocese of Ehode Island.
10 The Narragansett Planters. [114
the recipe for Cheshire cheese with her and the cheese of
Narragansett was at one time famous in New England, and
also formed an important article of export.
It would be unsafe to assert that without slave labor stock-
farming on an extensive scale would have been impossible in
colonial New England, yet it is difficult to see in what other
way the necessary labor could have been procured. At all
events slavery, both negro and Indian, reached a development
in colonial Narragansett unusual in the colonies north of
Mason and Dixon's line. In 1730 South Kingstown contained
965 whites, 333 negroes and 223 Indians. Eighteen years
later the proportion was nearly the same : 1,405 whites, 380
negroes and 193 Indians. 1 Undoubtedly a few of these
negroes and Indians were free, but then the indented servants
(practically slaves for a term of years), here reckoned among
the whites, were probably sufficient in number to more than
balance the free negroes and Indians. The proportion then of
slave to free was between one-half and one-third, a proportion
to be found nowhere else in New England.
One of the surest indications of slavery on a (proportion-
ally) large scale is to be found in the strictness of the slave
code ; and the slave code of Rhode Island, supplemented by
the by-laws of South Kingstown, was by no means a mild one.
The following is merely a summary : (1704, 1750) No negroes
or Indians freemen or slaves to be abroad after nine at
night, on penalty of not exceeding 15 stripes; (1704, 1750)
No house-keeper to entertain a negro or Indian slave without
consent of owner first obtained; (1750) No house-keeper to
suffer any servant or slave to have any dancing, gaming, or
diversion of any kind, on penalty of 50 or one month's
imprisonment if the host was a free negro or Indian, he,
she, or they should no longer be suffered to keep house, but
1 Census of 1730, in Potter, p. 114; census of 1748, in K. I. Col. Kec., V.
p. 270. South Kingstown is taken as the town where the Narragansett plan-
ters ruled supreme.
115] The Narragansett Planters. 11
should be "dispossessed of his, her, or their, house or houses, and
shall be put into some private family to work for his or their
living, for the space of one whole year, the wages accruing
by said service to be for the benefit of the town." (1714)
Any one could seize a suspected colored person found abroad
after nine; and (1714) no ferryman could transport a negro
without a certificate from owner or justice. 1
The earlier laws did not seem strict enough in the eyes of
the rulers of South Kingstown, and they made a by-law to the
effect that if any negro slave be found at any negro house or
cottage, both slave and free negro should be whipped. In
1726 they also prohibited the negroes and Indians from hold-
ing any more social gatherings out of doors.
For theft a white man was tried in those old days at the
General Court of Trials, 2 but (1718) a slave suspected of theft
could be convicted by two Justices of the Peace apparently
without a jury and sentenced "as fully and effectually, by
whipping, banishing, etc., as the General Court of Tryals . .
have been authorized, used, or accustomed to do. " 3 The slave
owner could appeal, but only if he gave bonds to prosecute
the appeal. No (1750) liquor, not even cider, could be sold to
a slave, and (1750) no one could sell to a slave without the
master's permission, " or otherwise trade, so as to receive any-
thing from a slave," on penalty of ten pounds. The South
Kingstown people supplemented the law against stealing by
the following by-law which I give in full : " Whereas it hath
been found very prejudicial in this town by negroes keeping
of creators as there own it is therefore voted that for the
1 There was, strictly speaking, no slave code in Rhode Island. The laws
cited here will be found on pages 35, 49, 50, 77, 113 of an edition of Acts
and Laws of Rhode Island, printed at Newport by the Widow Franklin, in
1745 ; and also on p. 93 of a supplement which is in the Harvard College
library. I have given the year of the statutes in the text and no trouble
should be experienced in looking them up. The by-laws of South Kings-
town are taken from the records of that town.
2 Acts and Laws as above, p. 117.
12 The Narragansett Planters. [116
futur no negro nor there wifes or pretended wives nor any
that shall live under them shall not keep any stock of crea-
tures in this town of any sort," under penalty of 31 lashes.
These laws and by-laws are mentioned merely as showing
that the rulers deemed it necessary to prevent any conspiracy
among the slaves, and also were annoyed by their thieving
propensities. This development of slavery for the time being
bred habits of command and independence among the slave-
owning class and no doubt contributed much to the exclusive-
ness of Narragansett society.
The Narragansett country was owned by a comparatively
small number of persons and this contributed to the produc-
tion of an aristocracy in two ways. It made farming on a
large scale possible and it gave all political power to a few
persons, as in Rhode Island only freeholders could vote. There
was no peculiar land system in the colony, but the King's
Province was colonized in a different way from any other
portion of New England. The rest of Rhode Island and the
neighboring colonies had been settled by communities, though
in the case of the four earliest Rhode Island towns, their set-
tlement was very much less a matter of deliberate purpose
than in the other colonies. The Narragansett country was the
scene of the rivalries of two land companies and besides for
half a century it was a bone of contention between Connecticut
and Rhode Island.
The first speculators in the field were originally five in
number John Hull of Pine-tree shilling fame among them.
They were with that conspicuous exception Rhode Islanders,
and they purchased the lands about Pettasquamscot Rock * with
*As to the Pettasquamscot Purchase see Potter, K. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., III.,
pp. 275-299 ; Arnold, passim; cf. also Brinley's Brief Account of the several set-
tlements in and about the Lands of the Narragansett Bay, in 1 Mass. Hist. Soc.
Coll., -V., pp. 216-220. The evidence in the lawsuit about the "Ministerial
land " in Torrey Papers contains much bearing on the early history of this
company. In Hull's letter book and SewalFs letter book are many letters
relating to this business. Sewall's first wife was Hull's daughter and the
property thus came into the Sewall family.
117] The Narragansett Planters. 13
the full countenance of the Rhode Island authorities. Owing
to the number of Indians whose consent was necessary they
did not obtain a complete title so far as the Indians could
give one until 1660. 1
The second and more important company was composed of
Humphrey Atherton and his associates : John Winthrop of Con-
necticut, Simon Bradstreet, Daniel Denison, Josiah Winslow,
Thomas Willett, Edward Hutchinson, William Hudson, Amos
Richardson, the two Richard Smiths, the two Stantons, etc.
They were all anti-Rhode Islanders in spirit 2 and with a few
notable exceptions in 1660 residents of Massachusetts or Con-
necticut. In 1659 Atherton bought the lands about Smith's
trading house in Wickford and a year later, in consideration
of his discharging a mortgage which the Narragansetts had
given Connecticut of all their unsold lands, those lands were
mortgaged to the Atherton associates. The natives could not
raise the sum required under this latter mortgage. It was
foreclosed and formal possession taken, although the leading
members of the Atherton company agreed, between themselves,
not to enter upon the lands so obtained in the immediate
future. 3
1 It seems not improbable that the whole subject of landholding among
the New England Indians has been entirely misunderstood. Cf. Henry C.
Dorr's valuable essay on The Narragansetts in K. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., VII.,
pp. 137-237. Especially pp. 158, 163-66, and 168. '
2 If anyone thinks that I have gone too far in ascribing anti-Rhode Island
spirit to the Smiths and Stantons let him read the letter signed by them in
the Trumbull Papers (5 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., IX., p. 27). As the book is
not everywhere accessible I quote a few sentences : " For Rhode Island is
(pardon necessity's word of truth) a rodde to those that love to live in order
a road, refuge, asylum, to evil livers. . . The public rolls record what
malefactors, what capital offenders, have found it their unhallowed sanc-
tuary. . . . They make religion the Indian's scorn by working and drinking
on the Lord's Day," etc. This letter is signed it will be observed by the two
Smiths, father and son, and by the elder and younger Stantons.
3 The important papers relating to these purchases by Atherton and his
associates are to be found in Potter's Early History of Narragansett (R. I.
Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol. Ill) ; in the first part of the volume entitled Trumbull
4
14 The Narragansett Planters. [118
These two purchases included the land bought by Hull
and his Rhode Island friends, but after much dispute the
matter was amicably settled by arbitration in 1679. The
opposition of the Rhode Island colony was not so easily
appeased. There is no room here to thoroughly elucidate
this question, but the following brief summary will show the
nature of the controversy. The jurisdiction over the Narra-
gansett country was claimed by both Connecticut and Rhode
Island. If, in the end, the former should be successful, the
Atherton purchases would be sustained. If, however, Rhode
Island could make good her claim, then the first of these pur-
chases would be null and void, as having been made in direct
opposition to a law of that colony passed two years before the
date of the first deed. The original mortgage had been made to
Connecticut, which, in case Rhode Island was successful, would
be a foreign jurisdiction and the mortgage would therefore be
void in Rhode Island law. As may be supposed the contest
between Rhode Island, on the one hand, and Connecticut and
the Atherton Company, on the other, was long and bitter. 1
Papers, recently published by the Mass. Hist. Soc. as Vol. IX of the 5th
series of their collections; in the so-called "Fones Records" now in the
office of the Rhode Island Secretary of State ; and in a manuscript labelled
" Proceedings about the Narragansett Lands " now in the possession of the
Massachusetts Historical Society.
. 1 1 hope before long to have something further to say concerning the
Atherton Company and the history of the dispute. For the present, refer-
ence is made to Clarence W. Bowen's "Boundary Disputes of Connecticut,"
where the question is treated from a Connecticut standpoint. It is greatly
to be desired that Mr. Bowen's example should be followed by other
students of American history, as the constitutional and political history of
the several States seems to be receiving far less attention than it deserves.
In the Introduction to Updike's "Narragansett Church," there is an account
of the controversy, and Judge Potter's "Early History of Narragansett" is
in reality a history of the dispute. Owing to defects in form and also to
the fact that since Judge Potter wrote, much new material has come to
light, his book is of less assistance than would at first be expected. Both
these books do scant justice to Atherton's associates, and the same may be
said of what Arnold has written on the subject in his " Rhode Island."
119] The NarraganseU Planters. 15
Misunderstandings were frequent and charges of corruption
or worse have been urged. In 1672 a truce was made.
Richard Smith became a Rhode Island assistant and the
Atherton deeds were confirmed by that colony in the most
positive manner. In 1708, however, this confirmation was
disregarded by Rhode Island. Nor do the Atherton proprie-
tors seem to have adhered much better to their side of the
bargain, as in 1679 the whole question, on their representa-
tions, was reopened, and some years later the district was
taken from Rhode Island and given a government of its own.
Finally, however, Rhode Island prevailed, but in the mean-
time the principal land owners in the King's Province had
absorbed nearly all the land, for only men of large means and
of considerable political power could maintain themselves
during the long struggle.
Considering the area of the province the estates were very
large. Thus, according to a reliable tradition, the Smiths
owned at one time a tract of land nine miles in length, by
three in width, while Thomas Stanton is reported to have
acquired a a lordship" of some four and a half miles long
and two miles wide. Col. Champlin, a neighbor of the Stan-
tons owned two thousand acres, and farms of five, six, and
even ten square miles existed. The Pettasquamscot purchasers
seem to have divided their lands into moderately small parcels,
but towards the middle of the eighteenth century the Robin-
sons and Hazards appear to have acquired in one way or
another very large estates in the midst of the Pettasquamscot
country. For example, William Robinson is said to have
occupied several thousand acres, while Robert Hazard, " the
great farmer " is estimated (by a descendant) to have farmed
Undoubtedly those speculators showed a grasping spirit in their dealings
with the natives, and neither they nor Massachusetts historians who have
defended them have done justice to Khode Island. There are two sides to
every dispute, and it may pertinently be asked if the time has not come
when the matter, in justice to both parties, can be viewed like any other
historical problem, in an historical way and not as a matter of sentiment.
16 The Narragansdt Planters. [120
as much as twelve thousand acres a large proportion of
which was probably fitted for sheep walks and pasturage
rather than for agriculture.
Of course in the lapse of time these great estates became
divided, but not to such an extent as would have been the
case elsewhere. In the first place, the real estate of a debtor
actually residing in Rhode Island could not be attached for
debt. In the second place, although a man could leave his
property by will to whomsoever he chose, yet if he died in-
testate the whole realty descended to the eldest son, by the
well-known rule of English common law. In 1718, an act
was passed diminishing the share of the eldest son. But ten
years later this law was repealed as, according to the preamble
of the repealing act, it tended to destroy inheritances. Prob-
ably the influence of this rule of primogeniture has been much
exaggerated. In fact, the large estates, while remaining to a
great extent in the families of the original purchasers from
the natives, seem to have been divided in a more or less equi-
table fashion.
The local and colonial importance of these Narragansett
landowners was greatly enhanced by the political power
which they, as freeholders, enjoyed under Rhode Island law.
In the other New England colonies, especially in New Haven
before its absorption by Connecticut, there were great and,
from some points of view, very oppressive restrictions on the
exercise of the suffrage. But these restrictions were mainly
of a religious character. They can hardly be said to have
originated in any social differences though they undoubtedly
produced such distinctions. In Rhode Island, however, after
1663, 1 no man could become a freeman and have a voice in
1 1 have not cited the acts upon which this section is based, owing to the
fact that such references would be of little value to any one, unless he had
access to the particular editions of Acts and Laws which I have used. The
acts can be found easily enough, however, through the tables attached to
the different editions of Rhode Island statutes.
121] The Narragansett Planters. 17
town or colony affairs, unless he was of " competent estate."
What constituted a " competent estate " does not seem to have
been ascertained by law until 1729. In that year it was
enacted that no one should be admitted to the freedom of a
town unless he possessed a freehold to the value of 200 a
considerable sum in 1729 or of the annual value of 10.
The smaller land owners, mechanics and tradesmen were thus
disfranchised. Some years later the minimum valuation was
increased to 400, but owing to the depreciation of Rhode
Island currency the increase was more fictitious than real. This
limitation of the suffrage does not appear to have been strictly
observed by the freemen, as in 1742 an act was passed to
the effect that no person could vote as a freeman unless he
possessed a freehold of the required value. Authority was
given to anyone to challenge the vote of any person claiming
to be a freeman. The eldest sons of freemen, however, pos-
sessed ipso facto the right to vote as fully as if they themselves
and not their fathers were freeholders. Now, in the Narra-
gansett towns the number of freeholders was very small and
in this way whatever power belonged to the local authorities
was exercised by the local magnates. To fully understand
the meaning of this we must study the peculiarities of the
Rhode Island town system. 1
Like those of the neighboring colonies the Rhode Island
towns enjoyed the right to make such by-laws "as should be
necessary for the management, rule, and ordering of all
prudential affairs." In fact the town was as much a unit as
the town of the Bay colony. But there the resemblance
ceases, for, as we have just seen, these by-laws were made
by a few men whom worldly prosperity had enfranchised.
1 The following extract from the Records of South Kingstown shows that
disputes as to the exercise of the right to vote were not infrequent. It
was in 1753 that certain men were appointed to "view and estimate the
value of estates of those who shall present themselves in order to be made
freemen of the town when a dispute shall arise as to the value of their free-
hold."
18 The Narragansett Planters. [122
The administrative functions were confided to a body which
may be said to form a connecting link between the Massa-
chusetts board of select men and the select vestry of Virginia.
This was the town-council. It Avas composed of a small
number of men annually selected by the freemen out of their
own number and of such justices, wardens and assistants as
happened to reside in the town. In the old time the justices
were annually selected by the Assembly and commissioned by
the governor, while the assistants were elected by an election
of two degrees. Thus the constitution of the town council
was different from that of the board of selectmen, all of
whom were elected by the qualified voters in town meeting.
In fact, it differed from the select vestry of Virginia only in
being annually renewed, and an examination of the records
shows that in Narragansett the same men often served for
many years.
The authority of this town council, too, was much more
extensive than that of the selectmen. It acted, and does to
this day, as a court of probate, with an appeal, however,
except in the early times, to the Superior Court. The
town council had the absolute disposal of all questions
of settlement. It could prohibit any new comer from
settling within the town limits; and if its commands were
not obeyed it could order the proper officer to remove the
persistent immigrant. Then, again, the town council had
exceptionally large powers with regard to the laying out and
building of all roads, whether town ways or county turn-
pikes. 1 In this respect it had more power than even the select
1 Labor on the roads was provided in Narragansett as in Massachusetts,
Virginia and England. The following from South Kingstown Records,
under date of 1724, is evidence on this point, and also as showing the value
of a man's labor : " Voted that the fines on them that refuse or neglect to
work on his Majesty's highways in said town when legally warned there to
shall for the future be 3 sh. per day for a single hand, and for the neglect
of a cart and team with one hand, the fine shall be 7 sh. 6 d. for each day's
neglect."
123] The Narragansett Planters. 19
vestry. One of the results of this extension of local author-
ity, to what in other colonies was a county matter, was that
sometimes the roads between two towns did not meet. Except
in the earlier days there was no jury as in Massachusetts, but
the town council appointed three disinterested persons, who,
with a justice of the peace and a constable or town-sergeant,
laid out the road and assessed the damages. It is true that
if any one felt aggrieved he could appeal to a jury, but this
was a right to be seldom resorted to, as, if the jury decided
against the appellant, he was obliged to pay all the costs of
the appeal. The other duties of the council were not unlike
those of the Massachusetts selectmen and need no description
here.
Enough has been said to show that there was every reason
why the Narragansett freeholders, possessing as they did a
political influence unique in the institution of colonial New
England, should, other conditions being favorable, develop
into a distinct class.
The prominent position which the Episcopal Church occu-
pied in the social organization of the old South County has not
been exaggerated. But that position was due in great part to
the exertions of McSparran, and it should be borne in mind
that the lines upon which Narragansett society was to de-
velop were laid down before McSparran the first successful
missionary whom the Venerable Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent to the King's Province
arrived at Kingstown, and certainly long before he acquired
much influence in the community. Many persons, ignoring
the early history of the Narragansett country, seem to take it
for granted that the progenitors of the great families were
Episcopalians. Such, however, was not the case. We are told,
for instance, that the elder Richard Smith possessed a conscience
too tender for the English Gloucestershire or the Old Colony
Taunton. He sought refuge in the Narragansett wilderness
where he bought and hired large tracts of land from the
20 The Narragansett Planters. [124
natives and opened a trading house for their convenience. 1 His
son Major Richard Smith, who joined him in 1659, had
served, if tradition is correct, as an officer in Cromwell's vic-
torious army. 2 Assuredly neither of them was the man to
entertain a kindly feeling towards Episcopacy. Their early
neighbors and associates were either fellow-members of the
Atherton Company or men sent out by it, and they hailed,
almost to a man, from Massachusetts or Connecticut, where
the English Church of the Restoration was regarded with
almost as much horror as the " Babylonian woe " itself. So
much for the religious opinions of the fathers of North
Kingstown.
As to the founders of South Kingstown the Pettasquamscot
Purchasers, so-called their adherence to the Congregational
form was so clearly proven that the English Privy Council 3 in
the middle of the eighteenth century decided that the phrase
" an orthodox person that shall be obtained to preach God's
word to the inhabitants," which occurs in one of their early
votes as descriptive of the person who should have the use of
a valuable farm, meant Congregational and not Episcopal. In
fact, the word " orthodox " was used in this vote as descrip-
tive of Congregational, that being the orthodox faith in the
1 Cf. Letter of Roger Williams in Potter's Early History of Narragansett,
E. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., III., p. 166.
* Paper labelled : "James Updike's Recollections " among the Manuscripts
which Mr. D. B. Updike, now of Boston, inherited from his grandfather, the
learned author of The Narragansett Church. Mr. Updike, with true Rhode
Island courtesy, allowed me to inspect these manuscripts which are cited
here as Updike Papers.
3 This lawsuit so famous in the history of Rhode Island, and, indeed, of
New England, has never been adequately described. Updike ("Narragan-
sett Church," pp. 68-82) has something about it. Judge Potter (R. I. Hist.,
Soc. Coll., III., pp. 123-130) gives a brief and unsatisfactory account of it.
In the Prince Liorary, now on deposit in the Boston Public Library, there
is a manuscript volume labelled Torrey Papers. It contains copies of a
very large number of the documents which passed in the various suits about
this land. Others will be found among the Court Records at Kingston. Cf.
Prince Catalogue under Torrey Papers.
125] The Narragansett Planters. 21
minds of the voters. No better proof of the anti-Episcopa-
lian leanings of the founders of South Kingstown could be
desired, as by this decision the King in Council deprived the
Episcopal McSparran of the use of what he had fondly hoped
would prove to be a valuable glebe.
The strength of the Friends in early Narragansett cannot
be so easily ascertained. The first Robinson and the early
Hazards were of that persuasion, but unfortunately the records
of the South Kingstown Monthly Meeting, which might
have thrown some light on the question, were destroyed by
fire more than a hundred years ago, and up to the present
writing I have not been able to get reliable information on
the point. 1
A Baptist congregation was gathered in what is now North
Kingstown, at an early day, and a Presbyterian church had
been founded in the southern portion of the then town of
Kingstown before the end of the 17th century. But until the
arrival of Mr. Niles in 1702 2 there seems to have been no
settled minister in the place. Roger Williams preached to the
assembled Indians and English at a much earlier date, 3 and
other godly men at one time or another ministered to the
spiritual needs of the Narragansett people, but there was no
regular preaching there before the coming of Niles. This is
dwelt on here as being a remarkable fact even for Rhode
Island, where great freedom was allowed in religious matters.
'The Kecords of the New England Yearly Meeting (1685-1787) are at
the Friends' School in Providence ; those of the K. I. Quarterly Meeting
are in the hands of Samuel K. Buffington, of Fall Kiver, Mass., and the
later records of South Kingstown Monthly Meeting are in the possession of
William Y. Collins, of Hope Valley, K. I.
2 Cf. Deposition of Samuel Niles in the "great lawsuit," preserved among
the Torrey Papers in the Prince Library, now on deposit in the Boston
Public Library. See also Updike's Narragansett Church, p. 35 et seq.
3 Cf. A Summary View of the Keligious State of the Colony of Khode
Island and Providence Plantations from A. D. 1636-1774 among the
Stiles MSS. now in the library of the Mass. Hist. Soc. See also B. I. Hist.
Soc. Coll., VII., p. 65.
22 The Narragansett Planters. [126
Mr. Niles remained in the Narragansett country for a few
years and, after his retirement, the pulpit remained unoccupied
until 1732, when the Rev. Joseph Torrey took charge of the
congregation. At first the society flourished under his foster-
ing hand, for Mr. Torrey was a* man of uncommon energy
and pluck, as his successful opposition of the "litigious
McSparran " as Stiles maliciously called that worthy plainly
shows. In the early years of his pastorate his hearers num-
bered among them many of the most important men of the
town ; but, towards the end of his life the attendance fell off
and at his death the society became practically extinct. 1
Far different is the history of the Episcopal Church. Like
their Congregational rivals, its early ministers found little to
encourage them in the listlessness of the great farmers ; 2 but,
from the day that McSparran appeared in their midst, until
thirty-six years later he met with a painful accident which
proved fatal, 3 the English Church flourished and grew until
it had conquered for itself a place among the institutions of
the South County. Nevertheless its presence there does not
account for the peculiar social features of the community in
which it obtained so firm a foothold that even the Revolution
1 Cf. Updike's Narragansett Church, p. 117, and Stiles' s Summary View
as above.
In 1753 there was still a puritanical spirit among the Narragansett peo-
ple, for in that year eight men were chosen " First day constables to keep
good order on the first day of the week."
2 McSparran's America Dissected, in Updike's Narragansett Church, p.
511 ; also Potter in K. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., III., p. 133.
3 This deplorable event is thus described in a manuscript entitled " Remi-
niscences " for the use of which I am again indebted to the descendant of
the learned author of the Narragansett Church. The story is as follows :
"Dr. McSparran caught his death at father's. He went to prayer and had
read and was going to kneel and being a fat heavy man and putting his
hands on the table to ease himself down the table split off and his weight
came down and he hit the edge of his eyebrow against the sharp edge of the
table leg and he bled profusely but he would have nothing done until he
had finished his prayer. They bound it up and he got home and never
recovered. My father watched with him when he died."
127] The Narragansett Planters. 23
oo u Id not shake it. It was because the Episcopal form was
well suited to the time and the place that it became almost
the established church of the country, and added a pleasing
color to the social life of the Narragansett farmers.
To sum up, in colonial Narragansett the nature and consti-
tution of the place, the extension of slavery, both of negroes
and Indians, the mode of colonization, the political predomi-
nance enjoyed by freeholders in Rhode Island, were all favor-
able to the production of a state of society which has no par-
allel in New England. That these causes did produce such a
result no one who has carefully studied the early records can
deny.
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