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A
PRELIMINARY REPORT
on the Excavations at the
House of JirehBull
on Toicer Hill in Rhode Island
Issued at the General Court of the Society of
Colonial Wars in the State of Rhode Island and
Providence VlantationSy by its
Governor, Henry Clinton Dexter, Esquire
and the
Council of the Society
December 31, 1917
Providence :
Printed for the Society by E. A. Johnson & Company
^ S'
^..
To THE Council:
Honored Gentlemen —
f^ The Committee on Publications of
'^ the Society of Colonial Wars, instead of reprinting an ancient
^w document, presents, for this Annual Court of the Society, a
]J preliminary account of the investigations made by Messrs.
® Burlingame, Isham and Hazard, as a committee appointed by
your honorable body, at the site of the house of Jireh Bull on
Tower Hill in the South County. A complete report will be
forthcoming when all the data can have been collected and
arranged. As this house was, with that of Richard Smith,
one of the foci of the early life of that region, the publishing
of the extremely important information which your committee
has discovered is, just as truly as the bringing to light of an
old document, the setting forth of a new and most valuable
source for our Colonial history.
Edwin Aylsworth Burlingame,
Norman Morrison Isham,
Charles Edward Cannon.
Captain Waite Winthrop, writing from Smith's, July 9,
1675, to his father, Governor John Winthrop of Connecticut,
says that his troopers had gone "to quarter at Jer: Bulls
where there is about 16 of the neibours it being a convenient
larg stone house with a good ston wall yard before it which
is a kind of small forty fycation to it." It was further to
develope this, the only written evidence as to what the house
was, that the excavations, of which this is a partial account,
were undertaken.
Part way up the eastern slope of Tower Hill on that portion
of the "Bull-Dyer farm," which is now owned by Mr. Samuel
G. Peckham, there has been for many years a series of mounds;
betrayed as stone heaps by the outcropping fragments, and
marked, in part, as a rectangle by an old growth of buck-
thorns. The spot thus indicated has always been the tradi-
tional site of what is generally called Bull's Garrison or Block
[7 ]
MLICH60»?JHOOP
Figure 1.
[ 8]
House, which was burned by the Indians December 15, 1675,
and which, though probably not originally intended as a
fortification, did serve as a refuge for seventeen of the neigh-
bors, only two of whom escaped the savages.
This location is exactly shown on the map which is given in
figure I. If one follows the Middle Bridge or Tower Hill
road down into the valley of the Narrow River and turns to
the right, or toward the south, he will see, just before the turn
to the bridge, a triangular piece of meadow in the southwest
comer of which is a bar-way. Beyond this an old road zig-
zags up the hill. By following this road up to and beyond
the stone wall, one will find a trail toward the left or south
which will bring him to the site.
Here, at the west end of the rectangle already described
as marked by the buckthorns, the excavations were begun by
Mr. Kissouth and his workmen under the direction of the
committee. The ruins of a large stone house with two fire-
places and remains of a paved court in front of it soon came to
light. This is clearly shown as house A in the plan, figure 3,
and in the photographs. There was no cellar. On the south
there was apparently a large door, near which a lock and large
key were found. A pine tree six pence in splendid preserva-
tion — except that, alas, it has been clipped! — and a beautiful
silver bodkin, probably of Dutch origin, but possibly made at
Newport, were brought to light in the same house. The
bodkin was marked M B, probably for Mary Bull. Fragments
of glass, too, and pottery appeared, the latter not earlier than
1700 — and several early spoons of tinned brass and iron, like
those dug up on the field of battle in the Great Swamp.
The eastern house. A, is a large rectangular structure 30
feet wide by 40 feet long. At the western end are the two
large fireplaces, placed side by side, as they are in the Eleazer
Arnold house, near the Butterfly Factory in Lincoln. The
smaller of these openings is 4 feet 10 inches across, the larger
9 feet 4 inches. They are 3 feet 6 inches deep. Only in the
smaller does the hearth remain. Within the house a fragment
of an iron fireback was found.
[9]
At the southwest, in the corner, were most probably the
stairs. It was as a support for these that the flat stone shown
in the plan was put across the corner. Beside this stone there
was another which fell in the course of the digging.
No signs of supports in the middle of the space appear,
except at the east end, where an exceedingly rough foundation,
not so heavy as the outer wall, projects about lo feet from
the eastern wall.
In front of the eastern part of the house was a good sized
area paved with rough flat stones. These were not laid level,
but followed the slope of the ground, and were highest
opposite the old opening in the south wall of the house. A
pod auger, as it is called, a plane iron, a gauge, a chisel, and a
stone or brick hammer were found here.
The house and the space around it were full of stone. The
gable ends had fallen eastward ; the one into the area of the
house, the other down the hill on the outside.
About ten feet west of this first house, we discovered, by
trenching westward, to find, if possible, the outer wall spoken
of by Winthrop, another building, even larger than the first,
which we have indicated by B on the plan. The south wall
of part of this was in line with the south wall of the eastern
house, but the north wall was about four feet north of the
northern wall of the building A.
This new building proved to be divided into two rectangles,
an eastern and a western, by a heavy partition wall. The
western rectangle, again, was nearly divided by a mass of
masonry into two others.
At the south of the eastern division of the house was a
pavement or fragment of a pavement of a blue slate which is
found near the Bonnet on Boston Neck. It is in the wrong
location for a hearth and extends across the whole rectangle.
At the southwest corner is a break in the wall and, in the re-
entrant angle, an area with a rough stone foundation, which
probably once carried more pavement, but which seems to be
outside the house.
The western rectangle is about 27 feet wide and 65 feet
[ 10]
long. Near the middle of it, close to the south wall, are some
foundations which appear to be those of a heavy central chim-
ney. On the eastern side of this chimney foundation is a
clearly defined hearth, mostly of the blue slate from the Bonnet
which we have already spoken of. In front of this a charred
joist — mere charcoal — is still in place. On the western side
is a single flat stone, at a higher level than the blue slate
hearth. It is a fragment of another hearth all the rest of
which has disappeared, for the remainder of the chimney is
merely rough foundation, from the northwest corner of which
a piece of wall runs northward for a few feet.
From the east wall of this house B, as the plan will show,
there runs a rough foundation which is very similar in position
and quality to that at the eastern end of house A.
On the western wall of B are two projections which look
like the rough foundations of another fireplace. Just north
of the northern projection begins a foundation which runs
eastward in a line with the eastern foundation just spoken of
above. It looks as if it formed a corner with the wall running
north from the chimney.
Against the south wall, again, is a foundation which seems
to be that of an inner wall.
In this area some very interesting and important fragments
were found. A pair of cock's head hinges came to light, the
first to be found in Rhode Island. On the north side of the
outer north wall a small pocket of charcoal was found, and
in digging into it, we unearthed a pair of H hinges. The win-
dow sash or shutter had fallen or been thrown there and had
burned.
Some old glass appeared here, still in its original lead calmes
or setting. It had, from its long sojourn in the earth, the
beautiful iridescence which makes "favrile glass" sell at a
high price. Here, too, was part of a gun barrel, a flint lock,
possibly of the same gun, a dripping pan, a piece of an andiron,
part of a trammel, bone knife handles and several other bits
of shovels and hoes, with hinges and other ironware. Every-
where were fragments of tobacco pipes of old shapes, most
[ II ]
Figure 2.
[ 12 ]
all of them white, but some of red clay. This was true of all
the area dug over.
In the extreme southwest corner was another pocket of
charcoal, and here two joists, one across the building, the other
at right angles, were marked by the charcoal remains of them,
while a continuous layer represented the floor. A small mass
of melted lead was found here, and also a quantity of nails.
At the west of the building was a thin wall, or rather the
foundations of such a wall, which may have been an enclosure
for a yard. It ran 30 feet westward and turned toward the
south. There was mortar in the south wall of this house, but
a good deal of the work was laid dry. There was very little
stone apart from that still in place in the walls, and the work
was quite rough. The north wall was especially poor.
South of the house B, about 20 feet away, was a small
structure with heavy walls. This building, which we have
called house C, is best described by the plan. It forms three
sides of a rectangle and measures 16 feet from south to north.
It thus has two side walls and a back wall, and against the
back wall is a fireplace of which the hearth, with the founda-
tion thereof, has long ago disappeared. South of the fireplace
is a place for the stairs or the ladder which served as a stair-
way. Across both fireplace and stairway is a rough founda-
tion which probably carried an old sill or a line of joists.
There is mortar in the outer walls of this building. The
south wall shows, at the comer, where it meets the end wall,
a bond-stone or "toother" as if it had once gone on further
tow^ard the west.
No well has yet been found. It is almost certain that one
existed in the enclosure. A spring still flows several hundred
feet to the west, another at the northeast and still another at
the southeast ; but all are too far away.
For years the buildings must have served as quarry for the
farm. It is known that they were still used 80 or 100 years
ago for the building of stone walls. Only the smaller stones
were left, and those which were so piled up as to be trouble-
some to get out. The outer wall of which Winthrop speaks
[ 13]
was probably the first to go. Then the stones from the others
were taken till the masonry was cut down to the level of the
ground where it was soon covered by earth and grass.
It may be in order now to make some suggestions as to the
history of the various buildings the ruins of which we have
unearthed. These will be subject to revision in the light that
further investigation, not only upon the site, but in the town
and State records, may throw upon the whole matter.
That there have been three houses on the land is evident.
Possibly there was once a fourth.
The first house excavated, "A," is the latest. It was prob-
ably built after Bull came back to the site when the war was
over, or by his son after Jireh's death in 1684. It is of a
lean-to type, closely resembling the Eleazer Arnold house in
Lincoln.
The house which Capt. Waite Winthrop saw and described
was what we have called the western building and have
designated as "B" on the plan. This had on the east what
may have been a courtyard or terrace, which still retains part
of its paving. This house was probably one room deep, with
a center chimney, on either side of which was a room and
behind which was a stair. This placing of the stairs behind
the chimney was an old English or perhaps a Welsh plan, as
can be seen in any book of plans of English cottages. The
western end of this house may well be an addition. It cuts
across the foundation of the old wall, which seems like a part
of the curtain, which we found still further west. It is
possibly the house sold to Jireh Bull by William Bundy, Octo-
ber 27, 1663. (R. L Land Ev. II, 320.)
The south building may be the oldest on the place. It looks
to be a stone fireplace end for a small wooden house, such as
the Carr house was on Conanicut Island before it was rebuilt.
More excavation, however, has yet to be done at the east of
this fragment.
Winthrop says of Bull's at Pettaquamscutt "which is a con-
venient larg stone house with a good £ton wall yard before
it, which is a kind of small fortyfycation to it."
[ 14]
The large court enclosing all the buildings could hardly be
called small. That at the east of the house would be before it
to one approaching from the lower slope of the hill, and this
was probably the original approach, for Bull was of Newport
and came and went in a boat. The last we know of him
before the burning of the house is told by Roger Williams in
nis letter to Governor Winthrop, dated July 27, 1675: "Sir,
just now comes in Sam Dier in a catch from Newport, to fetch
over Jireh Bull's wife and children and others of Pettaquam-
scutt."
That Bull returned to this farm after the war is certain,
since he had Church of England services held there in 1683
by Rev. Mr. Spear, as is proved by the deposition of Henry
Gardiner in 1738.
Jireh Bull came to Pettaquamscutt in 1663, perhaps earlier.
On October 27 of that year he bought of William Bundy a
twenty acre house lot stretching up the hill from the river,
which formed the eastern bound. On the south it was bounded
by a lot Bull already had, and on the north by "A Lott granted
Rowse Helme." On the west it was bounded by land "not
Layd out which said Lott hath a hous upon it." (R. I. Land
Evidence, Vol. IL, p. 320.)
In 1668, on June 4, for £28 the Pettaquamscutt purchasers
deeded to Jireh Bull 500 acres, 20 of which formed a house lot
bounded north "by a Lott formerly granted unto William
Bundy & now in possession of sd Jireh Bull on the east by
Pitticomscutt river on ye south by a Lott granted unto William
Haviland & now in Possession of Jireh Bull." This is ap-
parently the lot which Bull had south of Bundy, as mentioned
in the latter's deed, and which he was then holding, though
he received no deed of it till five years later.
On one of these three lots these houses probably stand. We
may be able, in the later and more complete report which we
shall make to the Society, to place these old lots accurately on
the plat of the present farm, as well as to speak more con-
fidently of the buildings themselves.
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The thanks of the Society are due to those who have helped
us financially, and to Mr. Peckham, who has so generously
allowed us to dig whenever and wherever we desired.
Edwin Aylsworth Burlingame,
Norman Morrison Isham,
Thomas George Hazard, Jr.
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