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CHAPTER X
REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 1763-1785.
We left the town of Providence in 1762, developing a vigorous commerce. Daniel Jenckes, Nathan Angell, Nicholas Power and other merchants were engaged in the trade to the West Indies, also exchanging across to Nantucket, Boston, and down the Atlantic coast.* The leading merchants in control of capital and influence were the four brothers Brown. Their uncle Obadiah died in 1762, but he had gradually withdrawn from active affairs, leaving the business to the younger generation. The nephew Moses having married his cousin, inherited Obadiah’s estate. In 1758, one-half the spermaceti candle manufactory,1 including lot, houses, fencing, etc., with one-half the sloop Charming Molly, had been conveyed to Nicholas and John Brown for £6782. 8. 10. Old Tenor. Annexed to the business of Nicholas Brown & Co. were the operations of Nicholas and John Brown. John was by far the most enterprising and sagacious of the family, and his bold spirit finally separated him from Nicholas. An account of Nicholas and John’s “Stock in Trade” interests and shows the methods of the day. Navigation at sea in 1/8, 1/4 and ¾ shares comprised £37579. In addition 2/3 Sloop Charles or Molley was worth £5,657. Rum in the works was £1,333. Spermaceti, oil and Nantucket account was £21,500. Sundry items carried the
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*East Greenwich ran the sloop Industry to Nantucket, and the Betsey to James River, Norfolk, Richmond. 1 This factory was built by Obadiah at India Point in 1753. He worked 300 bbls. headmatter the first year. |
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total to £90,517. Very interesting is the conveyance to Nicholas Brown & Co. of the Sloop Four Bros. charged over in 1763, for this vessel had a long career. Her cost in all items for building, including plank, spars, wages, anchors, etc., was £3351. 16. In 1765 Abraham Whipple, afterward Commodore, and author of the famous apothegm to Wallace, “Catch a rebel before you hang him,” was her Master, and his accounts with letters, were written as well, as his speech was ready in revolutionary time. He took the sloop to Barbados, receiving £35 per month and a “privilege” of 8 hhds. of sugar or molasses. He had 5% commission on sales of the outward cargo, 2½% on the return, and an additional commission of 2½% on the cargo of another vessel, the Brigg George.
Nov. 9, 1765, Nicholas Power was instructed to proceed to Surinam and receive the Four Bros. and go to Barbados. If he should find Captain Esek Hopkins there in “our Brigg Sally” he was to advise: “And if he Sels his Slaves there, Load your sloop with some of the effects.”2 Power was to follow Captain Hopkins to get rum, sugar, etc.
James Burrough Mr. sailed her to “Mounte Christo” in 1766, and the details of the Portage Bill are curious. The Master had £35 per month, privilege of 6 hhds. 110 g. each, and his commission of 5%. The Mate had £55, and 3 hhds. 300 g. each. The Cooper, an important personage, got £70, with one hhd. 110 g. Two “marriners” received each £50, and privilege of 4 bbls. 31½ g. Obviously, the solid privilege of freighting molasses was relatively more valuable than Old Tenor bills of fluctuating standards.
An example of secondary exchanges—as we may term them—appears in the Four Bros.’ voyage to St.
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2 Nicholas Brown & Co., MS. |
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John’s, Newfoundland, in 1763. Here Nicholas Power was her merchant or factor, having “privilege” of 28 “Kentles fish with 5% commission on outward cargo and 2½% on returns. Prices for guidance in purchasing returns were £17 or £18 per quintal for dry fish, £60 per bbl. for Irish beef, 12s. for Irish butter, £3 for Geese feathers and 50s. per lb. for waterfowl do. Bills of exchange at 31 for 1, and the Sloop might be sold for £420 sterling exchange. We would like to know how much Irish butter was actually eaten in New England. Possibly this was intended for reshipment to the West Indies. In 1764-5 the tight little sloop, with the social name, made a voyage to Boston and Marblehead. It will be observed in the history of every vessel that strong efforts were made, through “privilege” and commission, to interest both officers and sailors in the profit of the smallest transactions of the owners.
Esek Hopkins, noted above as cruising with slaves in the West Indies, was to become the first admiral of the American navy, and was one of the most interesting characters of the mid-century in our colony. Skillful in his profession and of great fighting power, he was not as fortunate in concurrent circumstances as his brother Stephen. True, he had not the genius and scientific knowledge of Paul Jones, but he was a good officer. Mistakes were inevitable in those crude beginnings, while sectional jealousies contributed to complicate the results of Hopkins’ action and to bring about only partial success.
An enterprising and successful privateer, we get an occasional glimpse of this hardy navigator in peaceful commerce. In 1746, he sold 3/8 of the Charming Molly to James Brown, “distiller,” for £168.15. lawful money. In 1756, he sold Nicholas Brown, “distiller,” a negro lad or boy slave. Writing to Nicholas Brown & Co. from Surinam,
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in 1767, the gallant tar gives a clear and candid opinion of the ways of trade in the tropics, having been delayed in dispatching a sloop by deceit of the merchants.3 “I bleve thair is more Honnor and Honesty in so many Highway men in England than in the marchants of this place.” The times “Luckes Dull for me at present.”
Providence dealt somewhat in slaves, though it did not equal Newport or even Bristol in the traffic. Governor Hopkins stated officially that prior to 1764 Newport sent to the West Coast of Africa annually 18 vessels carrying 1800 hhds. of rum. French brandies had been displaced on the Coast by rum after 1723. Commerce in rum and slaves afforded about £40,000 per an. to Newport for remittance to London. 22 still-houses were located there, consuming molasses costing generally 13d. to 14d. in the West Indies.
The commerce with the West Indies took out the produce of Rhode Island and such surplus merchandise as the exchanges with our own coast afforded. Candles and rum were constant staples. The Islands made rum, but the cheaper distillation of New England was wanted to send to Africa. Captain Esek Hopkins in the Brig Sally signed a Bill of Lading in 1766, which is an example of an outward cargo; consisting of hoops, staves, sperm candles, beeswax, oil, beef and pork, ship bread, tar, turpentine, flour, rice for the Windward Islands. Of the hoops 1-25 belonged to Captain Hopkins, and 1-10 of the oil. Jonathan Peck, of Bristol, bought for Nicholas Brown & Co. six or seven Surinam horses; that being a customary shipment.
An interesting item shows methods of building vessels in 1768 for this trade. Barnard Eddy contracts with
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3 Nicholas Brown & Co. MS. |
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John Brown to build a sloop of 84 tons at 8 dollars per ton, one-quarter to be paid in molasses at 1s. 6d. lawful money on demand, one-quarter in molasses in one month, one-quarter in goods on demand at common retail prices. The remaining quarter in goods on delivery of the vessel. Provisions mentioned were 6 cwt. pork at 3d. per lb., 1000 lbs. beef at 2d., 35 bu. corn at 3s. Brown was to furnish spikes to launch, but “no Tallow nor RUM.”
Sloop George made two voyages in 1763 to Surinam and Mount Christo, which caused an outlay of £36,358. One voyage was £12,581, comprising about £2000 in flour, about £6100 in candles, and £250 in Nantucket beef, with an assortment of small items. At Surinam, Jacob Bogman gives a very curious picture of the wants of a planter and the manner of supplying them from a more temperate clime. He orders for his “Plantagion” ½ bbl. best country fed pork, 1 bbl. good mess beef, 1 do. good flour, 1 bbl. mackerel, 1 “kentle Dom fish,” 1 hhd. codfish, 1 do. tobacco, both for negroes, all sorts garden seeds “Time and Sawori.” In live stock, he calls for a large bull, two cows and two two-year-old heifers, to be spotted black and white, if possible. Six or more “wile Gees, two peekoks, six tame gees, one dozen Duks.”
Some reports of the hardy captains are not only interesting, but pathetic in their revelation of toil and suffering. Captain John Peck, bound for St. Eustatia, underwent a tremendous gale. An immense wave “sot us Rite on end.” The whole cargo moved forward about two feet. The only way to save their lives was “to pump and Liten the vessel.” They threw overboard 40 boxes of candles. “You may say why did you throw over so Sealable an article. But Remember Skin for Skin and all that a man bath will he give for his Life.”
Among the marvels of domestic intercourse may be cited
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the situation July 16, 1770. John Watts of New York had been taking West Indian goods from N. Brown & Co. But he notified “our Treaty” must end, for molasses could be bought cheaper in Quebec than it could be imported.
Rhode Island now raised tobacco in large quantities, and it was an important factor in the West Indian trade. Sept. 30, 1766, there appeared to be an over supply. An agreement’ was made that Nicholas Brown & Co. might ship 75000 lbs., D. Jenckes & Son with E. Hopkins might ship 45,000 lbs., N. Angell and Job Smith 35,000 in three or more vessels consigned to Esek Hopkins. Sales to be made jointly, and any tobacco lost at sea was to be treated pro rata. The matter was to be kept secret and the West Indian price maintained until February 1, following. They hoped to buy all the tobacco in the colony. October 19, it was further agreed between the Browns, Jenckes and Angell, not to give directly or indirectly more than 5s. O. T. at six months for the whole quantity raised. If payment should be anticipated, ten per cent. should be deducted. February 2, 1767, there was too much tobacco on hand for Surinam, for a twelve months’ shipment; Jenckes & Son having 116,000 lbs., N. Brown & Co. 120,000 lbs., Angell and Smith 30,000 lbs. The parties were to ship pro rata for 12 months. If more should be bought “that is now grown” the same rule was to apply.
In 1767 and the years following, agitation for improvement in the town of Providence showed the increasing prosperity. Brick houses of good design had been built from the wealth acquired during the Spanish war. The local improvements were chilled by the gloom of the year 1772. The town did not advance materially until after the Revolution.
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4 Nicholas Brown & Co. MS. |
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The inventories’ show gradually increasing comfort in living. In 1762, the widow Mehitable Carpenter, with a personal estate of £1287, expended £404. 16 in wearing apparel. Silver plate—spoons at least—in moderate quantity, was in all good homes, and twelve “Baker” (beaker) glasses showed a well served table. She had a large looking gass at £100. Osenbrig towels and Russia diaper napkins indicated the varying kinds of napery. Three small bound books and three pamphlets at £3 are evidence of the good lady’s narrow reading.
Benjamin Hunt, with an estate about £10,000, put the value of the widow’s mirror into two examples at £70 and £30. He had clothes worth £127, and carried a watch at £100. At home his mahogany case of drawers stood for £140, and there was £275. 16 in “wrought plate.” Two wigs6 and the box cost £25. His clock and case was valued at £220; nine beds and bedsteads £1100, including one at £310. He drove out accordingly with a horse at £175, in his best riding chair at £160, or in another at £100. In three saddles £68, was invested. Altogether a sprightly man for the time.
The citizens bought these articles along “Cheapside,” as the way above Market Square was called. The Square had not come as yet, for a long dock still opened there. Below was the “town wharf,” on the western side of the ancient river bed and flats, while a bridge only eighteen
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5 Probate Rec. MS. Prov., V., 363, et seq. 6 The wig was a serious matter. Simeon Thayer, afterward distinguished in the Revolution, advertised from the Sign of the Hat, at the North end in 1763: “Bagwigs, paste, brigadiers, scratch dress and Tye wigs,” and he was assisted by Michael Cummings, late of London. The rivalry of T. Healy speaks out in his self-glorification. He “cuts, curls, frizzes gentlemen’s and ladies’ hair and engrafts a tail.” “He engages to give the ladies equal satisfaction with any London hair cutter in Providence.” |
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feet wide, with creaking draw,7 afforded passage for travel, both domestic and foreign. The classic whipping-post near by, amid heaps of stones and rubbish, adorned these early street prospects. Severity of punishment was hard enough in Rhode Island, though the locality was more humane than its time. In 1766, Joseph Hart, a stout, able-bodied man, was advertised for sale at auction, being sentenced to serve three years for stealing; the prosecutors to pay costs.
Providence Gazette, June 25, 1767, describes the whipping of a convict sold for one year for stealing. “Yells of the patient” confirmed the conscientious work of the constable. Strangely, such barbarity lasted until about 1830, according to Dorr.
Along the north side of the present Square was a row of old wooden houses with heavy projecting gables. The eastern steep bank rose high enough for an aristocratic outlook, and there lived Dr. Ephraim Bowen and Geo. Jenckes. Next, Daniel Abbott’s Inn entertained travelers. In 1768, the Providence Gazette passed to John Carter, ancestor of John Carter Brown, the well-known literary benefactor.
Specie brought difficulties of its own as well as paper money in those rough times. Captain Falconer came up the Bay in Corry’s boat with 83 chests money, and “no carts to be had in town.” James Doggett, living near the meeting house in “Seconck,” procured 5 carts. Doggett was efficient in the frequent freighting by wagons to Boston.
Eccentric signs—an inheritance from old England—everywhere prevailed, and must have affected both the education of youth and the daily life of grown-up persons. The intelligent “Elephant,” just above Steeple
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7 Dorr, Planting & Growth, p. 201. |
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Street, beckoned the multitude to James Green’s wholesale and retail stock of “Braziery and Piece goods, rum, indigo and tea.” Most traders kept a like medley. Jeremiah Fones Mason, royalist and Free Mason, had the greatest array of fancy goods, “silks, linen, scarlet and blue broadcloths.” He bought the property across the Bridge, next beyond that of the Providence Washington Insurance Co., and died rich in 1812. Joseph and William Russell dealt largely in 1762, at “the sign of the Golden Eagle,” near the Court House. Clark (John Innes) and Nightingale were their greatest rivals. The house of Col. Nightingale on Benefit Street later passed to John Carter Brown. Richard Olney kept an inn at the sign of the “Crown,” a two-storied house of wood, two doors above the Court House. The Town Council occasionally met there. July 11, 1767, Thomas Sabine ran a stage coach thence to Boston on Tuesdays; the weekly trips gradually increased the business. Hacker ran a sloop to Newport every day, collecting 9d. fare. Greatest of these condensed memorials of the time, retained in the conservative Plantations after they were abandoned elsewhere, was “Turk’s Head,” that bent “his grim and frowning aspect,” according to Dorr, for fifty years at the corner of Town Street and Market Square. Then he was removed to Whitman Corner, across the Bridge where the highway divided. In 1815, the tremendous gale swept away and buried him in the Cove. The whimsical Moslem survives in the name of the busiest spot in a growing city.
The assured place of the merchant, as distinguished from the casual trader, was illustrated in the case of the Browns. Nicholas and John had stores and offices on Town Street, below the Square, but no symbolic signs. Inferior traders, not noted in themselves, advertised as
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near some prominent sign like the “Bunch of Grapes.” John Adams, attorney, used this custom in advertising himself “near Silas Downer, graduate of Harvard,” inasmuch as Adams was reinforcing his professional work by writing letters for ignorant correspondents. In 1763, there were few shops on the West side. The Town Council migrated across occasionally, from motives of policy, meeting at Luke Thurston’s inn under the sign of the “Brigantine.” About 1763, James Angell’s “distill-house” was still working on the land now occupied by the First Baptist Church.
It was one of the grievances of Providence that all vessels had to be entered at Newport. Before the Revolution, the town had no custom-house and only as “Surveyor of the King’s Customs.” To D. VanHorn in New York, N. B. & Co., say there is but little silver and gold passing in the colony. They ship to “settled correspondents” in the neighboring colonies, sperm candles, oil, rum, molasses, etc., to raise hard money for the sperm business. Also they desire returns in New York produce.
For the manners and customs of these people, we must consult their inventories. In 1763, John Dexter,8 with moderate estate, had a fair domestic outfit with £92. in pewter. His wardrobe was £258; but he had one pair gold buttons, sixteen silver buttons, four buckles and a tooth pick, costing altogether £46. He expended £4.15. in a band buckle, a pair for his shoes, one pair brass buttons and three silver links. A cane stood at £5.12. One right in “the Library” was valued at £80, and a cow at £75; almost a parity of milk and learning.
The widow Deborah Baster had a comparatively small estate, spending £149, for dress and £74, for pewter ware.
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8 Probate Rec. Prov. Ms. V. 369. |
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But she had 82 gold beads—5 pwt. 8 grains—valued at £32. 13, and silver plate, including a cup, at £418. Dr. John Bass gives us an example of the few private libraries. Sermons to the number of sixty-four, pamphlets and five magazines were appraised at £10. The medical collection, including five lexicons and Bailey’s dictionary, was worth £106. 10. In general literature amounting to £138. 15, were many theological works, Paradise Lost, Tate & Brady, Iliad, Euclid, Milton’s Latin Works, at £20. Night Thoughts, Pope’s Essays, Thompson’s Seasons, Pascal, Butler’s Analogy. The book case was £14. After his theology and necessary medicine, the worthy doctor indulged in some poetic visions.
In 1764, Samuel Angell, having a fine estate, left six Bannister back chairs at £18, six do. inferior at £12, and a round back chair at £2. There were six chocolate bowls at £6, pewter at £69, plenty of China, and no silver, which was unusual. He was of the family of distillers, and in the “Distill House” was 248 g. rum and “Low wines “equal to 116 galls. more. We have an anonymous set of tools for block making at £500, and a stock of the lignum vitae wood at £500. A coffee mill at £10, and the very singular item “six turtle shell plates” at £3. 12.
We must give a little patience to the account of John Martin in 1765, for detailed items of male and female apparel are rare. One Duroy coat £1, “Calimink” jacket 10s, plush breeches 9s, coat 24s, a full cloth great coat 28s, old do. 8s, Fustian Jacket 4s, flannel do. 2s, 3 pair trowsers 9s, 3 checked shirts 9s, 1 Holland shirt 6s, 2 frocks 3s, stockings, yarn and thread 5s, one female callico gown 14s, 2 small frocks 4s. 6d, 1 shirt 4s. 6d, 1 checked apron 2s. 6d, 1 silk and cotton handkerchief 2s.
James Brown had a silver tankard in 48 3/4 oz. of plate.
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Gold rings, and sometimes buttons of the same metal appear. These rings had become more frequent in the half century past, and one with a “Cizers Chane” stood at 16s. 6d. Most inventories contained a few books. Lydia Wheaton, a maiden, probably, had three gowns at 15s. each, 1 long cloak 8s, 1 short do. and hood 8s, bonnet and shade 9s, linen and handkerchiefs 15s, 2 petticoats £1.4, 1 man’s coat £1.4.; and £20.15 in pewter ware, China and delph bowls. In another case silver plate, including 7 spoons, 2 shoe and 1 knee buckles 9 1/2 oz. 20 grains, was valued at £84. 16 lawful money. A cooper had an estate of £99. 8, with wearing apparel at £8. 8, a watch at £4, and 3/8 of sloop Industry at £45.
A few slaves appear here and there; in 1769 two negro women and their bedding at £90. As an example of the demised effects of the poor classes a “mariner” in an estate of £258. 11 had £5. 16 in wearing apparel. A modest array of “Chaney” pewter and a block tin tea pot stood at 4s, while wooden plates, a bread tray and bowl figured at 3s; there was a small quantity of earthen ware.
Very fortunate was the preservation of the list of John Merrett’s books July 17, 1770;9 the largest library recorded in this time. We cite 2 vols. Chambers’ Dictionary £3, 5 vols. Bayle’s do. £5, 3 vols. Tillotson’s Sermons £1.16, 2 vols. Temple’s Works £1.10, Taylor’s Christ 3s. 6d, Lawrence’s Agriculture 6s, Shettlewell Belief 3s, Dessieu Painting and Drawing 18s, Kennet’s History of England 4s. The above are folio editions; we follow with quartos. Bacon’s Philosophical Works, 3 vols. £1.10, Boerhave Chmistry 12s, 5 vols. Atlas Geography 30s, 6 vols. Mayher Brittania 39s, 1 vol. Wollaston Religion of Nature 4s. 6d, 1 vol. Herodotus 5s, 2 vols. Spanish and French Dictionary 6s, 2 old Bibles 9s, 1 vol. in paper,
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9 MS. Probate Rec., Prov., V., 517. |
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Pemperton on Newton 20 vols. Ancient History £4, 40 vols. Modern £8, 8 vols. Plutarch’s Lives 32s, 4 vols. Predux Connections 12s, 3 vols. Luckford 9s, 15 vols. Smollett History of England £3, 3 vols. Howel History of the Bible 9s, Cæsar’s Commentaries 3s, 1 vol. Dr. Taylor 3s, 1 vol. Sherlock 6s.
These two divisions comprised about 130 vols.; in addition were some 170 vols., including 10 vols. London Magazine, 8 vols. Shakespeare’s Plays, Classics, Plutarch’s Morals, Pope’s Iliad, Paradise Lost, Don Quixote, History Massachusetts Bay, Hutchinson’s History, Spectator, Waller, Prior, Telemachus, Cowley, Congreve and the Dramatists, Bailey’s Dictionary, Thomson. In considering values, it is embarassing that Lawful Money and Old Tenor standards are both used and not specified. His personal estate was £3205.
The public library had circulated for nearly twenty years, and probably while this collection was being formed. The collection shows the influence of books and the spirit of culture, which was laying the virtual foundations of Brown University. Gabriel Bernon’s “learned men”10 of 1820 had studied the Bible and formed their own opinions, which were to be voiced and exercised in the life of the new American citizen, by men like Stephen Hopkins. Now, the literary spirit and use of the printed word were taking effect to form the men of the Revolution. Merrett’s classics even were not selected in the old-fashioned exclusive way. The historic range was enlarged, and the reader assimilated matter more, as his reading extended.
Do not imagine that the simple eighteenth century—though destitute of steam-rails, electric machinery, stock-tickers and curb brokers—did not comprehend or apply
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10 Ante, p. 209. |
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any of the mechanism of modern civilization. Rockefeller and Carnegie were unborn, but sharp calculators with long heads existed even in those days. What says the reader to a full iron-bound trust in sperm oil? In 1763, a solid agreement made “all Headmatter brought into North America one common Stock or Dividend,”11 whoever owned the vessels importing it. It was divided between ten manufacturers; Nicholas Brown & Co. getting 20 bbls. in each 100; Palmer, 14; Robinson of Nantucket, 13; “the Philadelphians,” 7, etc. The Jews of Newport were among the contractors. If any forfeited their share “by such dishonorable conduct” (minutely specified), it was divided pro rata. It was agreed to pay only ten pounds sterling per ton for headmatter, above the price of “body brown sperm oil,” to be fixed by merchants of Boston according to the London market. They frowned on more spermaceti works “because present are more than sufficient.” The arrangement was renewed from year to year until 1769, when the unit was changed from 100 gallons to one hhd. 112 gallons, the proportionate shares being the same. The Philadelphians dropped out and George Rome, of Newport and Narragansett, afterward the famous Tory, took a share of 12 8-10 gallons.
Titles, the marks of recognized honor, the familiar expression of rank and reputation—though not established by authority—were the mode in this century; when customary, they were strictly used in designating and addressing citizens. Often, we cannot perceive the method of application, but the impressive force of the dignity proclaims itself. They were sometimes cumulative, as if dignity could be augmented by prescription. An example appears in Furnace Hope on the Pawtuxet, organized in
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11 Nicholas Brown & Co MS. |
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1765, and which was to cast cannon in the Revolution. The organization revealed the scale of rank among the promoters, as it prevailed then. Stephen Hopkins, “Esquire,” was of the first part; his only appellation, and he alone had that title. Of the second part, were the four brothers Brown, called “merchants,” Israel Wilkinson of Smithfield, “worker of iron,” Job Hawkins of Coventry, “physician” Caleb Arnold of Smithfield, “yeoman.”
This manufacture of iron was of the greatest service to the colony and state. In the fourth blast, 1770, the commissions and expenses to N. Brown & Co. were £139. The net profit of the blast was £1157. In the seventh blast, 1773, net profit was £80, on the overturn of £3,946. Expenses and commissions were £150. Interest for £360, on value of estate £6,000. 1,091 tons ore were used, 384 tons pigs were on hand. The “piggs” were constantly wanted for ballast, Lopez and the Newport Jews, with others, appearing as purchasers. Captain Esek Hopkins was ordered to get information of the kinds of cast iron needed in the Islands. The iron went to London—fifteen tons at once to Hayley & Hopkins—and the consignees always insisted on certificates to show the “Plantation manufacture.” At Bristol, England, Henry Cruger, in 1769, having sold Hope Pigs for £168, at 5% commission, would advance £3 per ton on any quantity. At this time exchange on London from New York was 70 to 72½%. The meeting, May 30, 1767, shows some interesting methods in conducting a manufacturing business. John Brown was going westward and was to get an experienced Founder and Refiner to adapt the pigs for shipment “home.” Jabez Bowen was to go eastward for “8 tonage, Ward Moulders and Atherton, Moulder of Bakepans.” The moulders and laborers were to receive ¼ money and ¾ goods. If possible “all business was to
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be done without any money.” The “fine ore only” was to be used for hollow ware. The Furnace also stimulated domestic trade. Peter Oliver, Middleborough, Mass., had sent Nicholas Brown & Co. good hoops, and could not receive some poor pigs in exchange. To Norwich, Ct., there were sent potash kettles, pearl-ash pans and four. iron bars. Exchanges of merchandise, with Philadelphia, Virginia and Charleston were of vital importance to Rhode Island. The Southern ports took candles, rum, oil and iron, returning flour, corn, rice, etc. Our favorite sloop Four Bros. on one voyage from the Pamunkey River, Va. (whose banks the present writer afterward patrolled with a field battery) brought 8 cwt. barrel staves, 10 bbls. flour, 2,058 bushels Indian corn. Archibald Cary had a forge in Virginia and took 58 tons of pig iron at once. He manufactured flour also. It was customary to ship candles, iron, etc., and take Virginia produce after some six months’ credit. In an earlier transaction, 12 boxes sperm candles were sent to South Carolina, the value to be returned in beeswax at 6s. 9d. “Dear-skins” or other goods.
The repeal of the Stamp Act in 1765 was joyfully received in our colony. The new measures for British taxation in 1767 were detested in the same degree. The growing spirit of resistance revealed itself in 1769, by the first overt act of colonial rebellion.” The British armed sloop Liberty brought two Connecticut vessels suspected of illicit trade into Newport harbor. The sloop was boarded from the shore, scuttled and sunk and the traders escaped.
The popular mind was being prepared by these overt acts for the rebellion and revolution which was gathering. Taverns were not politically so important as earlier in the century, when they were the only places where people
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13 Brigham, p. 221. |
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could meet. Now, Joseph Olney dedicated a great elm in front of his tavern as a “Liberty Tree.” An oration was delivered advocating the patriotic cause.
Stephen Hopkins prevailed in local politics over Samuel Ward, in 1757, as has been noted. The growth of Providence in the decade succeeding had been remarkable. Commerce was nearly doubled, with trade and manufactures increased in proportion.14 This was coincidental rather than essentially political. There was revival of the old agitation in 1767, when the supporters of Hopkins were again under the Shibboleth of “Seekers of Peace” inscribed on their proxies. Certainly, the prospect of difference with Great Britain tended to pacify local politics. Providence was much interested in this canvass, and the account of contributions for “sinews of war” is a vital document.15 The subscription was over $1,600, the four brothers contributing $100 each. Nicholas Cook and Nathan Angell the same, Jabez Bowen, Jr., Daniel and John Jenckes gave $50 each, Abraham Whipple, Daniel Tillinghast, Obadiah Sprague and many of the best citizens of Providence contributed. The money was disbursed in £, probably Old Tenor. To “Glocester” £24, Warren £68, Coventry £1040, Scituate £120, West Greenwich £11. 5, Johnson £200, North Kingstown £800, East Greenwich, £320, North Providence £104, Bristol £212, There was paid out for proxies £160. Abraham Whipple carried to Wanton at Newport $60. Nicholas Brown & Co. kept the accounts in the scrupulous method used in all their affairs. Rum, sugar, a few nails, cloth for breeches, etc., were charged. A small, quaint receipt for one-third of a dollar shows that John Brown paid the town tax of J. Jones.
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14 Brigham, p. 214. 15 Nicholas Brown & Co. MS. |
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The embers of these political disputes were not extinguished, but continued to affect the social movements of the time. Rhode Island College had been founded under President Manning at Warren in 1764. Its first class of seven was graduated in 1769, containing James Mitchell Varnum, whose single career would have justifed such an institution. A constitutional lawyer, his argument in the Trevett vs. Weeden case in 1786 helped Marshall in the judicial establishment of the constitution of the United States. The college was moved to Providence and University Hall was built in 1770, after great struggles on the part of Newport to obtain it. This issue was another mark of the turn of the tide of culture from the southern part to the more slowly developed northern portion of our state. John Brown laid the cornerstone and was Treasurer of the Corporation for many years. The name was not changed to Brown University until a generation later, when Nicholas, the son of Nicholas, became a benefactor.
We have alluded to differences between Nicholas and John Brown. In 1770 John made an offer for a division of their joint properties. Nicholas would not cause a “Break among brothers, who in the eye of the world have lived in unity.” Not convinced and holding his opinion, “I accept.” Moses made up the books, and with Joseph, adjusted the valuations, including “all interesting matter for the division of our father’s estate.” John accepted from Nicholas £150, lawful money, “for what your house and furniture cost more than mine, also for my extra servises in doing the business, etc.” In 1774, Moses withdraws from Nicholas Brown & Co., recommending “continuance of the division to Nicholas and Joseph. At that time N. Brown & Co. owned ¾ and John Brown of the spermaceti works. Nicholas laid the cornerstone of the Market House—an important public improvement—and
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was much respected by his fellow citizens. Prudent, acquisitive, methodical, he was a fine counterpoise to John, with his “magnificent projects,” in the future Revolutionary ventures.
A letter of Col. J. Wanton, Jr.,16 from Newport, while the discussion for locating the college was going on, reveals influences working beneath the surface of society. Increased subscriptions at Providence in his opinion would “Counter Ballance any advantage they may Desire from their present Clamour against me and mine in a Political Light. I view it in no other light than as the expiring efforts of a Disappointed Envious Cabal.” Nicholas Easton had “been made to offer “land valued by him at £6000, O. T. for the College. In another letter Wanton is very spicy commenting on the Newport politicians. “The Zeal (or rather Fury)—of the two brothers (respecting the College) is near blown out. S. W. (Samuel Ward) still in town, either “Governor or Colledge making, perhaps both.” This was written to John Brown.
We may note that the practice of maturing Madeira wine by trans-shipment through tropical seas had begun in those days. George Rome at Newport praised his “excellent particular” sent through West Indies for improvement.” The cost in Madeira was £33, starting in 1770. He was sure “if war ensues” the price would advance.
Nicholas Brown & Co. prosecuted whaling with their other interests. Nantucket was the center of the industry, but the general commerce of Providence gave especial opportunity for some profitable ventures. Warren, Bristol and Newport likewise participated. We get details in 1769, when the Sloop Betsey brought home head-matter and oil—the catch of “our three sloops” for the
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16 Nicholas Brown & Co. MS. |
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year. The headmatter amounted to £155. 4 sterling; the oil to £315. 10. Captain Wass received for his 1-17 share £27. 13. 9; the mate for 1-20, £23. 10. 8; Coddinda for 1-26, £18. 2. Chippe for 1-28, £16. 16. 3; Covel 1-38, £12. 7. 9. Eight others 1-34 and 2/3 each, £13. 11. 6. The officers and crew received for their part £207. 2. 3, and the vessel or owners had £263. 11. 9. The figures are all in sterling and show the famous “lay” system of dividing returns. Surplus oil was exported to London, and John Relfe, of Philadelphia, asked a price for 1000 bbls. sperm. He would send his ships loaded with bread and flour to Nantucket, if he were certain of the oil for London. An order to the Sloop Defiance in 1770, was to cruise 100 to 150 leagues west of the Western Islands. She was expected home in six months or sooner.
N. Brown & Co.’s business was both manufacturing and commercial; each part forwarding the whole, as in production and exchange, each supported the other. The manufacture of candles and oil was greatly assisted by the operation of Furnace Hope. As in 1770, Mr. Rotch of New Bedford would send headmatter and wanted ten tons pig iron at once—on freight or purchase—for a vessel to London.
Considerable business in whaling was done from 1772 to 1774, and in the latter year we get the Portage Bill of the Sloop Defiance for her cruise. John Bassett, Master, had 1-17; Moses Joy, Mate, 1-21; two “endsmen” 1-28 and 1-30; J. H. Green, Cooper, 1-33; three sailors, 1-34 and 2/3 each; Joshua Day, “green hand,” 1-40.
The Lottery, generally an important function in local business, was greatly used in promoting the building of the Market House. Tickets were negotiated with correspondents in the country and in the districts of eastern Connecticut. As far away as Lynn, sales appear in frequent
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items. More important are the effects of the incipient division of labor. Silvanus Hussey of Lynn asks N. B. & Co. to deliver in Boston 100 lbs. tea for 100 pairs women’s shoes.
The main current of commerce toward the West Indies kept its course, though it was somewhat affected by apprehensions of coming resistance to Great Britain. The burning of the British cruiser Gaspee in 1772 was the first act of organized resistance to Great Britain. It greatly incensed the home government. The fact that their representatives vainly tried in every way to obtain direct evidence against John Brown, Abraham Whipple and other offenders in this rebellious act, shows how the community of Providence, at the time, virtually agreed in opposing the British government. Gov. Wanton was instructed to arrest the offenders and send them to England for trial. But Chief Justice Hopkins, one of the boldest and most farseeing of all the American patriots, said: “I will neither apprehend any person by my own order, nor suffer any executive officers in the colony to do it.” Hutchinson, the Tory of Massachusetts, proposed to annul the charter of Rhode Island. But Samuel Adams appealed for union, since “an attack upon the liberties of one colony was an attack upon the liberties of all.” New England and Virginia were seething with rebellion, and to no one belongs the whole credit of public movements, which were born out of the air. A committee of correspondence, Gov. Hopkins, Daniel Jenckes and Nicholas Brown, had been appointed as early as 1764. This system of committees was one of the greatest achievements in the art of self-government known to history. In these crucial times they performed by tacit consent, governmental duties, later assumed by the colonial legislatures. Let us remember this was a period of uncertainty. The final separation of the
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colonies was contemplated by few in the early acts of rebellion. It will have been observed that in common transactions of trade, parties generally did not speak of shipping to England, but they sent goods “home.” But Rhode Island made the “first explicit movement”17 for a general congress in 1774. Two years after the “Boston Tea Party,” tea was proscribed by the revolutionary patriots in 1775. In view of the social progress of tea for more than two centuries after this crisis, the utterance of the Providence Gazette March 4, is a fine bit of humor as well as a historic record of the visible course of the rebellion fast becoming a revolution. A bonfire was made in the Market Place of a tar barrel, of Lord North’s speech and other inflammatory material. Into it was cast the “needless Herb, which for a long Time, hath been highly detrimental to our Liberty, Interest and Health.” London’s “five o’clock tea” has gone around the world in spite of the Gazette’s general strictures.
The negative Tory Gov. Wanton had been removed from office in 1775. Two month before the immortal Declaration of Independence—in May, 1776—the General Assembly of Rhode Island formally renounced allegiance, only six votes dissenting. By the Act, all legal documents were to be issued, not in the name of the crown or by royal authority, but in the name of the colony. This was the first formal act of independence in America.18 July Fourth, the nation was born and the tocsin of war sounded forth to alarm the timid and stimulate the bold among the patriots. Commerce had been feeling the political disturbance for several years. Joseph Brown, of philosophic mind and æsthetic temperament, did not wholly accord with the commercial spirit of his brothers. He
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17 Arnold II., 334. 18 Brigham, p. 232, and Cf. Foster, Hopkins II. 145. |
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finally withdrew from the firm and became a professor in R. I. College. He conducted the building of the present First Baptist Church and designed the handsome structure of the Providence Bank.
John Brown was a stormy petrel, suited to the times. His force of character as well as sagacious mercantile sense, was instantly ready for the bold ventures needed. Already, he had sent to the West Indies, broken into government warehouses, and seized gunpowder. This was a Gaspee aggression in another form. This powder arrived just too late at Bunker Hill, and was issued to the retiring troops. Jan. 20, 1776, while the nation was yet in parturition, he made a contract with the Secret Committee of Congress.19 On this committee was Samuel Ward, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris and other great men. Nicholas Brown had one-third interest in John’s contract. The merchants in these early agreements contracted virtually as agents for the government. The first voyages were to be for 36 tons gunpowder or saltpetre, or arms; failing those, duck, oznabrigs etc., or gold and silver. The Secret Committee Oct. 13, 1776, ordered goods delivered to Brig.-Gen. Mifflen Qr. Mr. Gen. Five % was to be paid to the Browns on outward purchases, 2½% on sales abroad, 2½% on return purchases. A side light is thrown by their letter Mar. 22, 1776, to Thomas Boylston, escaped from “long Inhuman Confinement in the Town of Boston by Ministerial Tyranny.” They reported their contract with the Secret Committee to import, and asked advice concerning the best ports in Europe for shipments. “No interest but the public good; a small Commission for Transacting the Business.”
The schooner Williams, whose charter party was recorded May 7, went out April 12, 1776, “for account and risque”
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19 N. Brown & Co. MS. |
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of the Continental Congress. She carried white and brown sperm and whale oils, candles and codfish to “Bilbo” or any port in France or Spain. On the return voyage, she was instructed to try to get in back of Nantucket.
The business with Congress was considerable, and included voyages of the sloop Polly to Eustacia, schooner William to Bilbo, brigg Happy Return to Nantz. Cargoes of powder, arms, blankets, etc., were specified. This appears by account with Robert Morris amounting to £12,652, John Brown received 20,000 dollars from the Committee as early as December, 1775. Nicholas and John’s commissions were £632 and the final balance due them was £85. 11.
Trade with the West Indies was conducted along similar lines by merchants for their own account. Sloop Enterprise voyaged from February to July, 1776, owned 3/8 by N. Brown, 3/8 by J. W. Russell, 2-8 by Gideon Young. Her orders called for small arms or brass field pieces as better than gunpowder. If sulphur could not be had, she might buy salt. As a final resort, she was to take flints, paper, rhubarb or cotton. She was to come in eastward by Bedford or by Long Island. July 19, her voyage was settled with £1403, profit to the owners. Sloop America, owned by three parties, Browns, Russels and Page, sailing from St. Croix, was chased three times, but outsailed all pursuers. Tobacco was her best merchandise, though she had as usual, boards and provisions. She divided to her owners in November after several voyages £287, in dry goods, hyson tea, duck and mostly rum. The sloop Sally, from St. Croix, was to bring powder—¾ cannon ¼ pistol—or parts of guns, steel, coarse linens and other dry goods; finally in alternative, good cotton, paper, 4 or 5 dozen packs large pins, Dutch gin, brandy.
The pains and minute care of these merchants in fitting
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out a vessel is hardly comprehensible to-day. Laborers and sailors must be overlooked and the desires of the inspecting captains must be satisfied. Captain Avery’s “nips,” £1. 0. 3., nearly equalled his board on shore, £1. 6. “Nips” of brandy grog and toddy at 6d. were frequently charged against the captains, as they looked after the loading of their vessels.
Privateering whenever there was opportunity had been a great factor in the commerce of Rhode Island. It was said that in the French war, one-fifth of the adult males were serving on the privateers,20 while one-seventh of the remainder were in the King’s service on land. The sloop Ranger was an example of many such adventures by the merchants of Providence. Nicholas Brown and six others, including Captain Wall, each owned 2-16; two others owned 1-16 each. Fitting her out cost £70.4 on the first cruise and £179.4 on the second. The risks were much subdivided and the ventures were generally successful. Sloop Dimond, 1776, was owned ¼ by Nicholas and ¼ by John Brown; Capt. Chase being part owner and the outfit costing £1485. She was to cruise off “Bermudose” Bay, by St. Anthony or Crooked Island Passage. To seize any vessel helping the enemies of the 13 colonies. To send prizes home by Vineyard and Buzzard’s Bay.
Some bits of humor come down from these encounters of private war. Men were in earnest and the fun was vital. The schooner Felicity of East Greenwich, of 50 tons, commanded by Captain Gazzee, captured a large English ship with a valuable cargo. John Bull dislikes defeat and when the prize was brought into the upper cove at Greenwich, her manly captain shed tears. He said he could have borne capture by a respectable force, “but to be taken by a d——d old squaw in a hog-trough was more
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20 Arnold II. 217. |
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than he could endure.” Captain Gazzee was French with a very dark complexion, hence the compliment.21
The year 1776 witnessed the withdrawal of Stephen Hopkins from Congress. He had been very active in all the positive measures for effecting independence. His laborious life and waste of strength at last produced its natural effect, for his nervous system broke down. Since 1770, he had been obliged to guide one hand with the other in writing. The tremulous characters justified his famous apothegm when he signed the Declaration, “The heart does not tremble.” Certainly, a braver heart never animated a patriot. He partially retired from affairs, though he was an efficient and public-spirited citizen for years.
As we approach the Revolution, personal expenditures for dress diminish relatively. Negroes for domestic service, especially women, increase. Shoe, knee and band buckles of silver or other metal were used, almost universally. Metallic buttons also increased. The table service was not much changed, though there were earthen porringers—for the use of negroes probably. It is hardly possible to get at values, as lawful money and currency are mixed, and often not specified, in the prices.
Dr. Samuel Carew in 177322 gives us a glimpse of a professional outfit. His personal estate was £702, and wearing apparel £12. A pinchback watch at £6 was rather cheap for a person keeping a negro man at £30, and a “boy” at £50. His right in the Providence Library was appraised at £3, while he had 30 vols. physic and surgery at £6, with 58 vols. Divinity, History, Travels, etc., at £7. Many small notes from £1. 5. to £13, showing wide diffusion of credit. The furniture was respectable;
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21 Greene, East Greenwich, p. 251. 22 Providence MS. Probate Rec., VI. |
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one bed, bedstead, furniture at £7. 10., another at £5, an eight day clock in mahogany at £15, eight plain back maple chairs 24s.; two high back Windsor chairs 12s.; six Bannister back chairs, 15s.; six small glazed pictures, 6s. There was china and white stone ware. The white porcelain ware had become common. A widow kept the pewter chamber pot included with “Delph” cups, saucers and bowls at a valuation of 4s. She had a gold locket 12s., and a pair of gold buttons 8s. 2d., a negro at £48, a pew in the Presbyterian meeting house at £1. 10. A right in the Providence Library at £2. belonged to Hayward Smith. A widow had two chamber pots 2s., probably of white stone ware; as she owned a female slave at £40, another at £30, she was in comfortable circumstances. Feather beds and furniture were generally about £7, presumably in lawful money.
Richard Godfrey, a barber, lived comfortably. His whole personal estate was £116, including the shop at £36, on leased land. Five “blockheads” stood at 10s. and his own wearing apparel was only £3. 15, most wearers expended £7 or £9. His table service of china, glass, stone, earthen ware and pewter amounted to £4. 1. 9. A silver tankard, 2 porringers and spoons 60 ounces av. at 6s. 8d. were worth £20.; used in catering probably.
Mrs. Abijah Crawford, widow, with a farm in Johnston, kept one pair fire buckets at 12s, in her town residence. Her six leather bottomed chairs of black cherry indicated luxury, though her personal estate was only £135. 15. Wearing apparel £12. The usual silver. A gold necklace and locket £2. 10. She had a copy of Josephus at £2. 8. with a bible and old books at 3s. Glassware as well as white porcelain was more commonly used; as we perceive in 11 wine glasses at 4s. 1d, 6 beakers at 2s. 4d, 4 glass salts at 2s. Warming pans were about 6s. Thomas Bigelow
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was recorded as a “trader” in partnership with Parker, and he had invested in his stock of goods £533.
The material resurrection of the body does not so thoroughly possess the minds of will-makers, as it did earlier in the century, but Bartholomew Sutton in 1775 says: “I commend my soul to Almighty God my Creator hoping for eternal happiness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ my Redeemer.” Arminianism was creeping in and it was necessary for solid believers to speak out.
Leather buckets for fires were common. A mason and wood chopper had a pair at 15s, though his estate was only £32. 10. His pewter at £1. 10. included a tankard, 6 porringers and 3 spoons. A warming pan was worth 5s. He had spinning wheels and cards for indoor work; a general custom among artisans. A farmer had a chaise at £6, and a suit of regimentals—coat, jacket and breeches—appears at £4. 10. in 1775.
Gabriel’s descendant, Eve Bernon, a single woman, left her real and personal estate to her kinsman Zachariah Allen. She freed her negroes, Amey and the son Manny; if they should be sick, or through accident unable to support themselves, they should be maintained by her relatives Allen and the Crawfords. Such care of freed slaves was common.
In 1777, Daniel Hitchcock, a lawyer, left a personal estate of £644. His brave suit of blue broadcloth “trimmed with vellum” cost £18., with a scarlet cloak at £4. and other clothing at £14. 9. Evidently when he occupied his £9. pew in the Presbyterian meeting house, he wore goodly apparel. Bacon’s Abridgement in 5 vols. at £22, three volumes of Blackstone at £3. 10 and 94 volumes more made up his library. Besides these, there were Wollaston’s Religion of Nature, a Greek lexicon and Bailey’s Dictionary.
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An old silver watch at £6., a comfortable household outfit; and as in most professional estates many small notes ranging from £1. to £22. Rev. Gad Hitchcock appeared at the probate of the will. Prince Paine, a negro man, though he possessed only a small estate, dressed well in apparel at £10. 4. and a pair of stone buttons at 12s. He carried a silver watch at £4. 10. A chair-maker had shoe and knee buckles, with a pair of sleeve buttons, all of silver. An extravagant warming pan in another case cost 30s. Many estates, even if owned by farmers, included rights in the Providence Library. We meet looms occasionally; not as often as spinning wheels. Weaving was often done at special shops.
When the colonies were thrown on their own resources, the primitive rope-walks became important. In East Greenwich an old man walked spinning with his fingers from a large coil of hemp wound about his waist, while one of his sons turned the crank of a big wheel moving the spindles.
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“That building long and low Where the wheels go round and round With a drowsy, dreamy sound And the spinners backward go.” |
As we advance into the actual Revolution, the new inflation of paper money appears in the inventories, though currencies are not generally specified, and it is perplexing. In 1779, a warming pan on two occasions is valued at £6. Martha Brown23 widow’s list of silver is noteworthy, 11 large silver spoons are equal to 2 silver dollars each or £6. 12, six small are 15s. or 15s., one small is 3s. or 3s., 47 lbs. pewter equals £35. 5. Mary Patten’s title
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23 Providence MS. Probate Rec., VI., 256. |
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“Gentlewoman” is pathetic, for she died intestate. Benjamin Clap’s inventory was wholly inflated. Personal estate £1998, wearing apparel £383, two beds and furniture £300.
In 1778, the pressure of the war was very severe in Rhode Island. The financial system of the whole country was frightfully deranged, and while the continental paper was passing from declining values to nothing, the suffering of the people was greatest. Corn was at $8 per bushel; carpenters obtained $15 to $18 per day and other labor was in proportion. But even the crisis of the country’s struggle was coming to a head under new causes and springs of action. The French treaties made the future independence of America almost certain. The financial troubles were not less, but they were henceforth alleviated by hope. Despair ceased, for, as a patriot said in May, “Joy sparkles in every eye.”
We may perceive the harassing details of this revolutionary commerce as we turn these yellow manuscripts. The sloop Diamond took some brown sugar from Dartmouth to Virginia. She carried also flour, tobacco, tallow, etc., from Accomack to the West Indies. Nicholas and John Brown order the master, L. Wyatt, returning by way of Bedford. If he can get his hands to come to Providence willingly in the sloop with the molasses, coffee, etc., he is to take out the valuable light goods for storage, and bring these heavy ones around; thus dividing the risk. If the men should decline, the order was to store the whole cargo.
Newport was evacuated by the British Oct. 25, 1779, who left the marvellous old town fatally damaged. More than 500 dwellings had been destroyed and three-quarters of the inhabitants had departed, many obtaining business elsewhere. Great suffering prevailed in the extraordinary
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winter, when the Bay was frozen over for more than six weeks. Extravagant prices were obtained in silver; wood at ten dollars per cord, corn at four dollars per bushel and potatoes at two dollars.
At this time, merchants were dating their letters at Providence in State of Rhode Island in North America. Revolutionary commerce with Europe had assumed large proportions; the Browns, Nicholas and especially John, trading with Bordeaux and extensively with “Nantz,” often using Christopher Starbuck, of Nantucket, as an intermediary. The oil shipped at first did not bring cost in France, the profit accruing on goods returned. Brown oil was preferred, as at the price it could be used by manufacturers of leather. Nicholas and John Brown’s business with Watson & Co., Nantes, in 1779-1782, amounted to 113,291 “livers.” It was settled in 1786, and “quit-claims passed from the beginning of the world”; sufficiently explicit and extended for ordinary commerce. The earlier orders were for powder, arms and army supplies, as in the transactions for account of Congress; but later all sorts of commerce were carried on.
For detail we have in 1779 Nicholas Brown’s order to be executed at Amsterdam “for family use,” 12 dozen cream colored plates, 2 dozen small do., four sets coffee cups and saucers, four sets tea do., blue and white; two sugar bowls and two coffee pots, Band W;24 one dozen pint bowls, Band W; two dozen cream colored “½ pint bowls and saucers,” four dozen fashionable wine glasses, one gray sable muff and tippett, one half dozen black silk mitts, one set house brushes, “½ dozen good green tea.” And for market, there was the usual order for dry goods, knives, forks and pen knives. In finance was the curious remittance
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24 Band, white and gold probably. This elegant design in white China ran well into the nineteenth century. |
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of “Loan Office Certificates,” 4600 dollars and 2100, to be sold and invested in goods.
In spite of the losses by war, its stimulating power encouraged luxury. In 1781, Captain Folger in brig Polley, was to bring from Watson & Co., Nantes, a great variety of staple dry goods and many of the fancy sort. Another order to these factors specifies 6 sable muffs and tippetts, genteel worsted stuffs for “women’s Bounds,” waving “Plooms and Feathers black,” ten dozen paste pins “for Lady Hair,” six pieces Crapes, assorted colors “shining like silver,” fashionable plated buckles, part small for boys and girls, one-half dozen fashionable silk “women’s shoes.” In this array of waving plumes and dainty shoes for the fair, masculine appetites were not forgotten. Good velvet corks “to make storage” were to be packed in for man—wise in his day and generation.
In 1781, the schooner Betsey and appurtenances were sold at Cape Francois for 3877 livres, after disposing of the cargo.
Though occasional ventures were profitable and individuals prospered, the main current of business was injured by the war and the people grew poorer. Newport was virtually destroyed. The fact that commercial Providence was ratably poorer than South Kingstown shows the practical pressure of the war.
Children born to the purple had good advantages in the way of tutors as well as schools. Residence in a suitable family was the most favored, as it is the best means of culture in any generation. Nicholas, the son of Nicholas Brown, sojourned at Grafton, Mass., in 1779, with Thomas Ustick, who promised to follow the father’s “directions as to voice, manners, etc.” He was pleased that the boy’s “Capacity exceeds my Expectation, his memory is good,” and he was docile. Mr. Ustick asked for a partial
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remittance in silver, as he had been forced to buy pork in that currency. The daughters had to seek education abroad, even at stricken Newport, in 1781. Mr. Brown desired to place Ms daughter Hope and niece Sally, daughter of John, in Mrs. Wilkinson’s School there. If she had not accommodation, he intended to place Hope with Mr. Usher at Bristol. The results of such education appear later. Nicholas had been sent likewise to Philadelphia, center of light and leading in those days. Joseph Anthony, merchant and correspondent, harbored him. Nicholas afterward made a visit with his young relatives. Mr. Anthony wrote Oct. 11, 1790, evidently meaning to back up his Brown commissions, with abundant and gracious compliments, expressed after the manner of the time. He addressed, My dear Young Friend, and alluded to “those Dear Girls, Miss Hope, I can’t forget her.” He commented on Nicholas’ letter, “I discover you to be perfect master of the Dash of the pen, you may practice and Qualify yourself for Despatch, but there is Very Little Room for Improvement—your Entertaining Epistles will bear the most minute Inspection.” The agreeable Anthony, if not a lawyer, was at least a Philadelphia Quaker. Nicholas answered Dec. 17, “My Honored Sir, Your favour . . . your meritt Sense and good Humour . . . I ever am pleased with reading a Phila. production.” He was expecting a visit from Thomas. “The Girls have fixed a Ball, when they are to show in Providence some few at least Bright and Worthy Ladies.” Soon Miss Hope married Thomas P. Ives. The firms Brown & Benson, Brown (Nicholas Younger), Benson & Ives, Brown & Ives, of famous memory, carried forward the business. The social arrangement was not brought about without heartburning. Ives was of good family in Beverly, Mass., but he had not fortune to please
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the prudent merchant, who desired that his daughter should marry “a gentleman.” “Father, what makes a gentleman?” “Money and manners!” “Well father, you have the money and Tom has the manners.” The young woman justified her Power blood and gained her heart’s desire.
The nursing of an infant interests every generation. The bill of the nurse, Mrs. Bradford, for “taking care of our child,” Dec. 25, 1782, was six weeks at 3 dollars, twenty-eight weeks at 2 dollars and 2s. 2½d. “over Gaveim,” equalling £222. 4. A singular metonymy in the term carpet appeared in house furnishing. Samuel and Seth Yates agreed to paint for Nicholas Brown three “carpets” good strong color with star in the middle 3s. 6d. adding “Flour” in the corner 4s. if Diamonding with differing shades 6s.
The family of a wealthy man afforded comfort not only to his own kinsmen, but to others not as well placed in the world. There is an early record of the son of Elisha Brown “Esq.” taken by N. B. as apprentice until he should be twenty-one years and found in his “victuals and close.” In 1780, Mr. Brown writes to his correspondent, Christopher Starbuck, at Nantucket, with whom he dealt so largely, for a “poor Honest Boy” to be employed in his family. It would appear that the supply was not so good in Providence; or possibly the merchant thought an immigrant would be more tractable.
Inventories of the period are perplexing from the confusion of currencies, and the fact that they are seldom specified in recording prices. Sometimes we get a more trustworthy idea of value from a staple article like a feather bed than from the technical prices. Occasionally there is a definite account, as in Nicholas Clarke’s case.25
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25 MS. Probate Rec. Prov., VI" Feb. 7, 1780. |
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Two beds and furniture £19. 5, in silver, £385, in paper currency; one mahogany table £2. 5 in silver, £85 in paper; six tea spoons 15s. in silver, 15s. in paper. Silver plate was common especially in spoons, and negro slaves often appear. One party has a silver watch at £90, and wearing apparel at £830; two stone ware tea pots at £4.
Richard Seaver’s personal estate was £55. 10, his wearing apparel £6, one bed and furniture £5, all in silver. The Widow Abigail Rogers had a “Padasoy full suit” nominally £180, one dozen blue and white China plates £15, six white stone plates £1. 4. In one case silver was estimated at 15 for 1, and dollars at 4s. 9, but this currency is not clear, as we shall see one year later.
William Checkley had a personal estate of £379, the prices being apparently in silver. A clock and case £9, a set of Queen’s ware £1. 5, besides china and glass, 88 oz. wrought plate £45, two leather fire buckets and lanthorn £1. 8, Books at £12, including Dictionary, Arts and Sciences, Hutchinson’s Mass., also his Collection, Youngs’ Poetical Works, Various Sermons, Bailey’s Dictionary two Latin do., seven vols. Spectator, three vols. Watts Psalm Book, in addition 60 miscellaneous books, one bed furniture and blankets £13. 14, one negro Cato at £45. Looms appear in two estates. A blacksmith had one with wearing apparel at £7. 8. silver, and gunsmith’s tools, besides his regular outfit. He had a warming pan at 9s. and other comforts. This artisan wore silver sleeve buttons at 2s.
N. B. & Co. made a contract with S. Keith, 6 dollars for 9 lbs. mdse.; 4 dollars for 6 lbs. mdse.; 2 dollars for 3 lbs. mdse.; 4, 12 or 18, in proportion or paper in proportion.
Oct. 22, 1781, there was an auction sale26 of £5594, in “paper” by agreement. This was Continental or State
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26 MS. Probate Rec. Prov., VI., 317. |
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currency probably. A bed and bolster brought 1304¾ dollars, another 1202¾ dollars. It seems people could estimate differences of quality in this airy medium. A bedstead was $135, a side saddle $25, a looking glass $250, a warming pan and skimmer $165, an old Bible $30.
Captain Archibald Young had a small wardrobe for a sailor, but all the various silver buckles and stone sleeve buttons. He read good books, Spectator and Guardian, Cato’s Letters, Epicurean Philosophy, School of Man, Prior’s Works and Hervey’s Meditations, Seneca’s Morals, and Hudibras’ Dictionary of the Bible. The appraisers could not put a market value on the slaves, but record the facts, showing that this kind of property was fluctuating even worse than the currency.
| Three Negro Boys | “The one Runaway” |
| One negro Woman | “The others loth to stay.” |
The surrender of Cornwallis in 1781 solved the problem of war, though actual peace was deferred for some two years. The small colony of Rhode Islasd, with Hopkins in council, with Greene, second to Washington only, in the field, with her brave soldiers in battle, had done her full part in the birth-struggles of the nation. Her joy in the result was according to her toil in the painful struggles.
Merchants were obliged to move promptly as well as discreetly to dispose of goods imported at great expense during the war, and to avoid the falling prices. Nicholas and John Brown sought the consumer in various ways. Daniel Gano took a cargo intending to open a store at New Haven or Fairfield; he landed finally at Fishkill. A portion of these goods was returned in 1783. A New London correspondent returned some goods consigned. Goods from Nantes were consigned Tillinghast & Holroyd in Providence to sell at 6 per cent. commission. Other
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parties were employed. From Taunton, Tillinghast & Smith returned goods, which found no market.
The year 1785 brought the death of Stephen Hopkins, the patriot citizen. His biographer, Foster,27 is full and vigorous in panegyric, and no native-born Rhode Islander could exceed this adopted scholar’s verdict of praise. Hopkins was a man who would have been extraordinary in any place and time. As I have stated,28 he was the true fruit and resulting consequence of a novel community, instituted through Roger Williams’ creative system and Charles II.’s political privilege. We cannot reiterate this too constantly, for it is a kernel of history. Moses Brown’s diffuse description of Hopkins’ style as clear, concise, pertinent, powerful, sometimes energetic, generally “calm, rational and convincing” might be better expressed in the simple statement; the man spoke. Or as Foster puts it, “His hearty frankness and calm dignity of manner” carried his constituency with him. Such a man must be actuated by magnanimity of character, as his contemporary, Asher Robbins, emphasized. If Hopkins lacked scholastic education, he worked for it as far as possible. Manning brought the broad culture of Princeton into the high New England atmosphere; and Hopkins out of his education by affairs, seconded the scholar. He was the first chancellor of the College in 1764, and as he had worked for books, so he strove for the learned use of books.
The life of Hopkins took in the forming period of Rhode Island’s history, when she had worked out of her spasmodic ill-regulated democracy into a form of representative government; which carried her through the great struggle for independence, and ultimately after much contention aligned her with her fellows in the United States.
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27 Hopkins, II., 163. 28 Ante, p 230. |