History of the town of Smithfield [R.I.] from its organization, in 1730-1, to its division, in 1871

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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY ,

Chapter I

THE town of Smithfield was originally a portion of the territory of the town of Providence. The town of Providence was settled by Roger Williams and the men who accompanied him from Plymouth Colony. As Roger Williams gave to Providence its social and political spirit, and impressed upon it a character still distinct and dominant; and inasmuch as the first settlers of the town of Smithfield were men who moved from, and were imbued with the principles underlying the government of Providence, we shall only obtain a clear understanding of their views and purposes by a glance at the rise and history of Providence up to the time that Smithfield was set off therefrom ; and we shall only comprehend the history of Providence by an intelligent conception of the man by whom it was founded. The starting point, then, of the history of Smithfield, is an enquiry as to who and what was Roger Williams.

Roger Williams, according to the best authorities was born in Wales, near the close of the sixteenth century. He was elected a scholar of the Charter-House, June 25, 1621 ; and was matriculated a pensioner of Pembroke College, Cambridge, July 7, 1625. He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, January, 1627. He safled from Bristol, England, with his wife Mary, in the ship Lyon, December 1, 1630, and after a voyage of sixty-six days, arrived off Nantasket, February 5, 1631. This man, in the very flush of early

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manhood, who had been educated in the learning of the schools, who had so well improved his opportunities as to receive the friendship and esteem of the wisest and best in England, and the confidence and companionship of the ablest in the colonies, was soon invited to become teacher of the Boston Church, which proposition he declined because he ''durst not officiate to an unseparated people." Without stopping to discuss ecclesiastical doctrines or forms, it is noticeable that the very first moment in which Roger Williams relates himself, or is called upon to connect himself especially and responsibly to the people, he makes his conduct a point of conscience. In itself the offered pastorship might well enough have been undertaken by Roger Williams, but his scruples would not permit him to endorse what he thought to be a deficient evidence of faith, even by implication.

In April, I j31, he was invited to the church at Salem, but the authorities interfered, and during the summer he went to Plymouth, where he became assistant to Ralph Smith. . Here again, and so soon his restless mind and teasing conscience urged him to compose a " treatise " against the Patent, which brought him into collision with the magistrates, but upon submission, he was relieved from the threatened censure. Before the close of 1633, he returned to Salem, assisting the Rev. Mr. Skelton, but "in not any office." In August, 1634, after the death of Skelton, he was called to be teacher to the church. In November, 1634, he was summoned before the Court for having broken his promise " in teaching publicly against the King's patent." But at the March session, proceedings were again suspended, on the ground that his action sprang from " exemplary conscience rather than seditious principle." When the Court met again, April 30, a new charge was brought against him of withstanding the Freeman's oath. Early in the summer of 1635, the Salem Church proceeded with his ordination,

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which led to his being cited before the Court, July 8, on the ground that "being under question for divers dangerous opinions" he had been called " in contempt of authority" to the office of teacher. At the October session of the Court, sentence was passed upon him, requiring him ''to depart out of this jurisdiction within six weeks." Being seized soon after with a serious illness, he was permitted to remain till spring, but as he persisted in maintaining and promulgating his opinions, it was decided in January, 1636, to send him to England. He fled to the forest. For fourteen weeks he wandered in the woods "not knowing what bread or bed did mean." In the spring of 1636, he began to "build and plant" at Seekonk, but in June, in consequence of a friendly intimation from the authorities of Plymouth that he had settled within their bounds, set about finding, as he hoped, a permanent abiding place. In June, looking across the Seekonk river, he saw a pleasant land crowned with noble trees just bursting into luxuriant foliage. The waters northward were attractive in their placid beauty. Behind was one irate colony, and another inhospitable; before him w^as the Indian, whom he knew, and no white man to disturb, or be disturbed. Hitherto, however one may partition the indiscretions or the wrongs, Roger Williams had found in America neither peace, nor the opportunity for doing good. If, as must be confessed, he was legally wrong in impugning the validity of the Massachusetts patent, it was because of a principle which he honestly and fully carried out when his time and temptation came. The Great and General Court of Massachusetts had exercised its authority ; Plymouth had warned him away ; how would the red man receive him as one who came among them to stay. The future was as impenetrable as the forest at midnight. One could only predict that whatever might come to pass Roger Williams would be Roger Williams still. And here it is proper to ask in what spirit, and for what

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purpose Roger Williams came into this then wilderness where only one white man, William Blackstone, had preceded him in 1635, and who had settled at Study Hill, within the limits of the Plymouth Colony, now Cumberland, and on the banks of the Pawtucket, now called Blackstone river. It was no worldly ambition which impelled Williams forward ; nor was it a simple desire for a peaceful and inactive life. No idea had entered his mind of forming a State. The five companions whom he permitted to cross the Seekonk with him in his canoe, he brought at their request and from motives of compassion. His purpose was to preach to the Indians. In his own expressive language : My soul's desire was to do the natives good." He was well educated; he had seen the power exercised by, and the great deference paid to the leaders in the colony of Massachusetts Bay ; in learning he was their equal ; in ability to gain the friendship of, and deal with the natives their superior, but he sought no personal aggrandizement, he was in heart and in intent a missionary to the heathen. And we may readily accept his own interpretation of his aims because his whole life bore out and exemplified the professions he made.

Nor did he come unprepared for his work. He had already studied with equal diligence and effect the language of the natives; he had "lodged with them in their filthy smoky holes ; " he had learned their ways, and had disciplined himself to bear with, and by kindness to control them. Moreover, as he had conscientiously written against the King's patent in Massachusetts, so here he honestly acknowledged the rights of the aborigines, and procured of them the titles to the land he wished to acquire. He bought of the Indians, but not alone by presents or commercial purchase. " It was not," he says, " thousands, nor tens of thousands of money that could have bought an English entrance into this bay, but I was the procurer of the purchase by that language, acquaintance and favor with the natives, and

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other advantages, which it pleased God to give me." The land was deeded to Williams byf Canonicus and^Miantonomi, and was his own individual property "as much as any man's coat on his back." But desiring to make his purchase "a shelter for persons distressed for conscience," he communicated his purchase unto his loving friends." Now he has included in his benevolent purposes others besides the Indians, deeds an equal share w^th himself to twelve who were his companions, and such others as the major part shall admit into the same fellowship of vote." And so was formed a Commonwealth in ''the unmixed form of a pure democracy."

The first written compact so far as is now known, was in these words : ''We whose names are hereunder, desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of the body, in an orderly w^ay, by the major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated together into a town fellowship, and such others whom they shall admit unto them, only in civil things." Such was the foundation, not only of a "lively experiment" in government, but of a community in which the line of demarcation between the temporal and spiritual power was for the first time in the history of the world definitely and emphatically drawn. Obedience to the political authority, in a word to the government was to be, and only to be "in civil things." The doctrine of these men was not toleration, but liberty in religious belief Law, Order, Liberty of Conscience. Upon this basis was the government of Providence founded. And to-day the spirit of this band of pioneers rests upon and actuates the citizens of Rhode Island. The statute book, the tone and temper of the people, the institutions, the peculiarities of our several local communities bear witness as well to the vividness as to the strength of this theory of government.

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And under this plain compact, and under a King's Charter, and under a written Constitution, ever and alike the democracy and the religious liberty of the Commonwealth have been maintained.

The earliest conveyance of land, to be found in the records of Providence, is in these words:

" At Nanhiggansick the 24th of the first month commonly called March, in the second year of our plantation or planting at Mooshausick or Providence. Memorandum, that we Oannannicus and Meauntonomi, the two chief sachems of Nanhiggansick, having two years since sold unto Roger Williams, the land and meadows npon the two fresh rivers called, Mooshausick and Wonasquatucket, do now hy tliese presents, establish and confirm the bounds of those lands from tlie river and fields at Pawtucket, the great hill of Neotaconkonitt on the north west, and the town of Masapauge on the west. As also in consideration of the many kindnesses and services he hath continually done for us, both with our friends of Massachusetts, as also at Q.uinickicutt and Apaum or Plymouth, we do freely give unto him all that laud from those rivers, reaching to Pawtuxet river, as also the grass and meadows upon the said Pawtuxet river. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands.

In presence of

The mark of JX, Seatash.

The mark of ^ Assotemewit.

1639 Memorandum 3 mo. 9th day. This was all again confirmed by Miantonomi, he acknowledged this his act and hand, up the streams of Pawtucket and Pawtuxet without limits, we might have for the use of our cattle. Witness hereof

The mark of

Oanuaunicus.

Mean n ton omi.

Roger Williams.

Benedict Arnold.

There is a copy of a deed from Roger Williams, or rather an informal grant from him, known as his "Initial deed," in

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which he grants his 'Moving friends and neighbors" equal right and power of enjoyment and disposal of his purchase, together with such as the major part shall admit into the same fellowship of vote with us. This conveyance makes no mention of the lands on the Pawtucket river. This Initial deed " was confirmed in technical language by deed of 1661, which deed Mary, the wife of Roger Williams also signed. The " Initial deed " was also again confirmed, the names being written out in full, the 22, 10 mo. 1666, so called.

During the first years of the colony the government was as has been said, a pure democracy. Town meetings were held monthly ; notice was required before any person could be voted in as a member of the community ; a fine was imposed upon every person absent from any town meeting; the town granted the allotments of land to new-comers; every person was held to improve his or her grounds; every person was prohibited from selling his field or lot granted in our liberties to any person but an inhabitant, without consent of the town." And the town assumed and exercised the right of withholding the liberty of voting from any one who should be guilty of breach of covenant " with the town.

The first departure from the principles and practice of a pure democracy was made in 1640. It was now four years since the six had landed at "What Cheer" rock; already there were ''many difi'erences" in the small community which had gathered about the first settlers ; but no difierences which they were not willing equitably, peaceably and economically to adjust. It may well have been also, that although the number of the inhabitants was so small, they found it necessary to contrive a more speedy method of doing business than by general vote ; and this all the more that the town was as yet the legislature and the court. The few bore the burdens ; the many were indifferent ; except

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upon special occasions there was a lack of energy in the government ; special ability and determination were needed, not only for special occasions but for the better ordering and carrying out of the general and growing affairs of the town. How cautiously and considerately the change was made is apparent from the terms of the compact. Satisfied that some portion of the sovereign power must be delegated, the inhabitants parted with it charily, and hedged about the authority of their representatives, forms, and the frequent recurrence of elections in a way to prevent its abuse as much as possible. It was an endeavor to infuse into the government more certainty and security of operation, at the same time retaining individual liberty, and the right of appeal to the whole body.

This characteristic and important document provides : For the partition of the lands ; and that the disposal of the lands belonging to Providence as distinguished from Pawtuxet shall be in the whole inhabitants by the choice of five men for general disposal ; that townsmen shall be received after six days' notice ; that the five disposers have the disposal also of the town's stock and all general things, and that an appeal shall lie from the disposers to the general town meeting. That as formerly hath been the liberties of the town, so still to hold forth, liberty of conscience. That differences and offences should be disposed of by arbitration. But ''all the whole inhabitants" should combine to assist any man in the pursuit of any party delinquent. That every man should have a deed of his lands. That the five disposers meet monthly "upon general things," and be chosen every quarter. That the general town meeting be held every quarter. As moderate as was the delegation of power to the disposers in point of time, it will be noticed that the pure democracy resumed its authority every three months; and that no man could be received without notice to the inhabitants. And also that the liberty of conscience

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was reiterated. The jealousy of delegated power could hardly further go, nor have we, nor has the world up to this day progressed beyond, nay ! we have not come up to the judicious, judicial and inexpensive method of determining disputes initiated by our ancestors in 1640.

On the 14th day of March, 1644, Roger Williams obtained from the committee of the English Parliament, " The Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England." By the charter full power was conferred upon the Plantations " to rule themselves and such others as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the said tract of land, by such a form of civil government, as by voluntary consent of all or the greatest part of them shall be found most serviceable in their estates and condition; and to that end, to make and ordain such civil laws and constitutions, and to inflict such punishments upon transgressors, and for execution thereof so to place and displace officers of justice as they or the greatest part of them shall by free consent agree unto ; Provided, nevertheless, that the said laws, constitutions and punishments for the civil government of the said plantations, be conformable to the laws of England, so far as the nature and constitution of the place will admit." Hitherto the three colonies of Providence, Acquedneck and Warwick had been entirely independent of each other. Isolated from the neighboring colonies in sentiment, and not united with each other in alliance against the Indians ; without authoritative government as against the jurisdictional demands of the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies, threatened on the one side by the Puritans, and on the other by the Indians, the charter of 1644 came to unite, to strengthen, to encourage and to dignify the Providence Plantations.

This charter emanated from an authority which none of the New ^England colonies could dispute ; it was full and free; it ratified the ^^soul-liberty" of the people; it per- 8

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mitted all reasonable and desirable freedom in legislation, in that the laws were not to be restricted to the rigid rules of the laws of England, but were to be made to conform to the ''nature and constitution" of the country, the times, the circumstances and purposes of the incorporators and their fellows and successors. Roger Williams arrived in Boston with this charter on the 17th of September, 1644, and traversing the same parts through which he had first reached the shores of the Seekonk, he was met by the inhabitants of Providence in fourteen canoes, and escorted across the river amid the acclamations and rejoicings of a community which recognized in him its founder, administrator and most potent preserver and benefactor. A few years before Roger Williams had crossed that water with the five whom he had brought out of pity for their destitute condition. Then he was an exile ; now he brought the charter of a State. Then he was welcomed only by the aborigines ; now he was received by friends who appreciated his capacity and his goodness. Then he left civilization for the companionship of the Indians ; now he returns to home, to a peaceable and orderly government, to the delights of civil and religious labor and advancement. Then he came as a solitary and dependent man ; now he comes bearing the seal, and under the protection of the flag of England.

Notwithstanding the rejoicings at the reception in the fall of that year of the colony charter of 1644, for various reasons the government was not organized under it until May, 1647. On the 18th of that month not only the committees appointed by the towns of Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick, but a majority of the inhabitants of the said towns met at Portsmouth. It was in fact a meeting of the corporators to accept the charter, and to frame a government for the colony. They appointed a General Assembly of the whole colony to be holden annually, "if wind and weather hinder not," on the Tuesday after the 15th of May, j

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at which the General Officers of the colony were to be chosen. These officers were a President, one Assistant for each town, a General Recorder, a Public Treasurer, and a General Sergeant ; afterwards a General Attorney and a General Solicitor were added. Such of the colony as could not attend the General Assembly, had the right to send their votes for these officers by some other persons ; hence the origin of the terms prox, and proxy votes, as applied to mode of voting for State officers in Rhode Island, prior to the adoption of the Constitution. Each town had the nomination of one person for each of the offices of President, Recorder, Treasurer and Sergeant, and of two persons for each Assistant, from whom the election was to be made. The President and Assistants, composed the Gen - eral Court of trials. They had jurisdiction over all aggravated offences, and in such matters as should be, by the town courts, referred to them as too weighty for themselves to determine, and also, of all disputes between different towns, or between citizens of different towns and strangers. They had two sessions each year. All questions of fact were determined by a jury of twelve men. The town courts had exclusive original jurisdiction over all causes between their own citizens. The President was Conservator of the Peace throughout the colony, and the Assistants in their respective towns. All legislative power was ultimately in the people, in General Assembly. Laws might be originated in the town, or in the General Assembly, but it was only by a vote of the majority of the electors of the colony that they were enacted into law to hold until the next General Assembly. It was declared in the code of laws which had been drawn up and sent to the several towns for examination, before the meeting of this General Assembly, and which was by it adopted, that : "The form of Government established in Providence Plantations is Democratical, that is to say, a government held by the free and voluntary con-

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sent of all or the greater part of the free inhabitants." The code contains nothing concerning religion. The first compact of the inhabitants of Providence concerning government was in, and as to "civil things only ; " the charter was silent as to religion, and this, the first code of laws enacted for the colony by its reticence permitted and guaranteed the largest liberty of conscience in religious matters. It was, indeed, expressive silence.

In 1650 it was "ordered that the Representatives Court, shall always consist of six discreet, able men, chosen out of each town, for the transacting of the affairs of the commonwealth." They were empowered to pass laws, which were to be sent to each town within six days, there to be considered and canvassed within three days. Those persons who disapproved of the proposed laws were to send their votes to the General Recorder within ten days, and unless it appeared that a majority of the freemen of the colony disapproved them, they remained in force as enacted by the Representatives. This was a marked improvement upon the laws of 1647 in that it stimulated the General Assembly to initiate laws for the general good, required only dissentients, in the towns, to vote and rendered more permanent the legislation of the colony.

At a special General Assembly holden in Warwick, in March, 1649, a charter was granted to the town of Providence. This charter gave the town the same freedom and powers within its own jurisdiction as the colonial charter had bestowed upon the colony.

In the summer of 1651, William Coddington returned from England, bringing with him a commission from the Council of State, signed by John Bradshaw, constituting him Governor of the Islands of Rhode Island and Canonicutt during his life. The colonial government under the charter was thus annihilated. The alarm in Providence and Warwick was almost equalled by the consternation on the

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islands. The only power left the people of Portsmouth and Newport was that they might appoint a council of six men to be approved by Coddington. In one word Coddington was appointed Dictator for life. John Clark was sent by the island towns, and Roger Williams by the towns of Providence and Warwick, to England to procure the abrogation of the authority granted to Coddington, and to attend to the interests of the colony. In the meantime the Court of Commissioners, being the committees of Providence and Warwick, met at Providence and determined to continue under the charter, making laws and choosing officers as before. And this was the technical and sensible course, for although the colonial government as under the charter was destroyed, the power given to Coddington by the Council of State did not repeal the charter so far as it related to, and affected Providence and Warwick.

And yet when in 1652, William Dyre arrived from England with the repeal of Coddington's authority, and wrote to the towns of Providence and Warwick, naming a day when he would meet all the freemen who chose to appear at Portsmouth, the committees of the towns of Providence and Warwick, although they carried a letter from the Commissioners of the towns to Portsmouth, would not agree that the General Assembly to hear the orders of Council should meet at Portsmouth. They insisted that the mainland towns were the Providence Plantations; that their charter had never been vacated. The island towns declared that as they formed the larger part of the colony, and had the greater interest in the matter, the Assembly should meet there. Both parties were right, and both were wrong. The mainland towns were the survivors under the charter; if it was to be revived in full they were certainly entitled to take precedence in the proceedings. On the other hand the allegation of the greater importance of Newport and Portsmouth was true. Both parties were wrong in permitting a mere matter of etiquette to prevent for a moment the reunion of the colony, and in postponing for an indefinite time the progress which could only be made by a common effort, and mutual good offices. It was only in May, 1654, that the General Assembly resumed its full and former functions. Only one General Assembly was held in that year, and in appearance and in form the colony was again one and united.

In September, 1658, Richard Cromwell succeeded to the supreme authority in England, as Lord Protector, upon the death of his father, Oliver Cromwell; and in May, 1659, the General Assembly addressed a letter to : " The most Serene and Illustrious, His Highness, the most renowned Richard, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the dominions thereto belonging," asking a confirmation of their charter. It was never presented, as the Protector had resigned his power before it reached England On the 8th day of June, 1660, Charles the Second entered London. The restoration was complete in form and in substance. The entry of the King into his kingdom was a triumphant one, all classes joining in receiving him as the guarantor of peace and order. Upon the receipt of this news a special session of the General Assembly was called to meet at Warwick. His Majesty's letter to Parliament, his declaration and proclamation were read and entered upon the records. The King was formally proclaimed the next morning in the presence of the General Assembly ; it was ordered that all legal process should issue in his name, and a commission was sent to John Clarke, in London, confirming his position as agent for the colony, and desiring him to obtain a confirmation of the charter from the Crown.

From this time until 1663, the colony was, legally speak ing, a law unto itself The restoration of Charles technically abrogated the authority of the Parliamentary charter. Amid disputes, and dangers ; the confusion of land titles, and the

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aggressions of the neighboring colonies, the inhabitants of the Providence Plantations waited in doubt for a conclusive letter from their agent. For twenty years the inhabitants had recognized as their sovereign authority a power which by the restoration of Charles was declared to be a rebellious, illegal and void power. The Parliament and Cromwell had not been treated as a government de facto in the sense in which one government accepts the actual government of another nation ; they had been appealed to, and their action asked as though they were de jure the sovereign power. The Plantations were in bad odor with their neighbors, and their neighbors were strong. Both Massachusetts and Connecticut claimed jurisdiction in Rhode Island territory, and Massachusetts was well known and had great influence in England. The liberty of Rhode Island, the Puritans deemed licentiousness. The principles upon which her government was founded were in utter opposition to the monarchical theories of England as well as to the doctrine of the divine right of Kings, of Charles Stuart. Her very freedom in religious matters made her the opprobrium of the other colonies, as it would have astonished and dismayed the church and sectarists of England. And Mr. Clarke, in his addresses to King Charles asserted that the people of Rhode Island ''have it much in their hearts, if they may be permitted to hold forth a lively experiment, that a flourishing civil state may stand, yea, and be best maintained, and that among English spirits, with full Hberty in religious concernments." A potent argument one would think to address to the Merry Monarch !

The long continued eflbrts of Clarke were at last successful. In November, 1663, the General Court of Commissioners— the General Assembly, met at Newport, for the last time under the Parliamentary patent to receive the Royal Charter of Charles II. Then ended the government of the colony under the charter of the Council of State. There was no longer the incorporation of Providence Plantations. The charter of 1644, had nevertheless been of inestimable service. It had bestowed upon an aggregation of individuals a political existence ; it had thrown over and around them in their direst need the protection of a powerful nation ; it had consolidated the Rhode Island colonies in a degree which enabled them to make progress in order and in security. It did not meet all the necessities of the case, any more than did the Confederation of the States fulfill the functions of the national Constitution, but it was a step in the right direction, and an immense gain over the hitherto almost anarchic condition of the towns as to their relations with each other. Less than thirty years have elapsed since Roger Williams first set foot upon Rhode Island soil ; a large territory, including one of the fairest islands of the sea has been acquired ; government has been established ; the six have grown into a goudly number ; there are villages, and plenty, and liberty, and an independence of spirit which has descended in direct line, and ample vigor to our own times. Already self-government was the proved rule as well as theory; already every principle of liberty regulated by law had been enunciated ; already the towns were the schools of statesmanship, and already the Rhode Island character had assumed the traits of energy, activity, openness of speech and a self esteem which at once and equally ignored interference on the part of others, and bowed to the dictates of conscience.