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CHAPTER VI

PERIOD UNDER CHARTER OF CHARLES II.
1663-1730

The inherent fundamental right of religious liberty, for which Roger Williams had striven so earnestly, found also in the seventeenth century its official recognition in law, first in the laws of 1647 of Rhode Island and then in the charter which Charles II. granted the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1663. The wide separation of the colonies from the mother-country did not make this liberty appear dangerous, though it was in such contradiction to the conditions in England. “Charles II. sought further in his aversion to the Puritans to favor as much as possible the colonies that had separated from Massachusetts.”¹

The English commonwealth did much for our colony, but perhaps the easy-going King Charles did more. The definite promulgation of religious liberty in the charter adopted in 1668, with practical provisions for maintaining it as a common right of the citizen, placed the colonial government on a new basis. The crown being the necessary center in the course of legitimate government, it had come to be regarded as the source of polity. In Rhode Island, loyalty to the crown carried the right of freedom of conscience as well. This great principle gave power and progress to the little community. Whatever might be the defects in organization of such a heterogeneous people, they were gradually overcome by the new unifying

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principle.² The results of the visit of the Royal Commissioners in 1665 justify this statement. Their welcome was better here and they found a more concordant administration than in the neighboring colonies. The constant pressure of the neighbors on Rhode Island had been severe. The legitimate authority of the crown seemed light in comparison with the Massachusetts effort for dominion, regarded as tyranny.

Prosperous Newport was moving on. Coddington in his “True Love” mentions the good business of the Island shipping carried on with the Barbados. The enforced immigration of the Quakers gave economic progress to Newport, as the direct result of persecution in Massachusetts and antipathy in Connecticut. A vigorous and thrifty element in the population, they “set up” their Yearly Meeting as early as 1661. By 1666 they received John Burnyeat, a distinguished missionary, and by 1672 George Fox and others³ came to look up these prosperous brethren. In 1672 one of their number, Nicholas Easton, was elected governor.

Better houses of the type of Coddington’s were being erected in 1665 to 1670. The pioneer or end-chimney design was giving place to the central chimney or more prosperous Connecticut form, with two or four rooms on each floor. The population of the colony in 1675 was 2500 to 3000. Providence and Portsmouth had about 200 houses each, Newport having as many as both.

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About the same time Pardon Tillinghast was building the first wharf in Providence; the beginning of an important commerce a generation later. Meanwhile the rich fields of the Island and afterward the Narragansett country were furnishing large exports for the West Indies and even for Europe. In 1674, Governor William Brenton bequeathed 1500 sheep. As William Harris reported,⁴ Newport could furnish wool to Europe. The Brentons farmed on a large scale, and the larger proprietors lived in a manner more manorial than was customary in New England. Elizabeth C. Brenton describes the outdoor equipment of the family in the spring of 1675. Six large riding-mares came to the door, three bearing side saddles. Three tall young women, daughters of the late Governor Brenton, prepared for the mount. Each lady wore a broadcloth riding habit, with high-heeled shoes. Her beaver hat was adorned with black ostrich plumes, and was turned up to show roached and powdered hair.

We have more detailed information of the smaller way of living among the farmers at Portsmouth. In 1667,⁵ Restand Sanford, a bachelor, with five brothers and one sister, makes his brother Samuel and sister Eliphel Straton his heirs. He gives legacies to Samuel, the executor, one mare, one silver cup, a bed and bolster, to sister Sara wife of Samuel a mare-colt and a five-shilling piece of gold, to each of her children a ewe lamb. To his brother Esbon, absent, he gives 4 ewe sheep; but if he is not heard of in one year, the ewes should go to brother Samuel and sister Eliphel. Should Esbon finally return, he was to receive the ewes. The inventory summed up £35.3.10. Among the items were Indian corn on the ground £2., ten ewes and four lambs £5.16. Woollen apparel stood

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at £5., three hats at 16s., four neckcloths and a cap at 7s. The library consisted of three books at 6s. 8d. One old bed and bolster was worth £3. and three small sheets and two shirts 4s. A bridle and saddle were valued at 16s., a mare and colt £7. One silver cup and spoon stood at £1. 15. 9.

Silver utensils came into use on the Island earlier than they were used in the Plantation of Providence.

Joseph Wayte, who was drowned, left a better estate amounting to £89. 15. 10. His woollen and linen clothes with his hats were appraised at £10. In pewter ware he had £1.10., in tin and brass £1.2., in iron £1.5., in wooden ware £1. A smoothing iron was 7s., a spinning wheel 8s., and four pounds of cotton yarn 10s. The comfortable feather bed and bedding was worth £16., and a cup and six spoons 4s. Two guns and a pair of “Bandaleers” stood at £2., and two peaceful scythes at £2.16.

The bequest of Alice Conland⁶ shows the growing interest in the Society of Friends, Ninth month, 1664. Her husband approving, she gave a stone house and land for “friends in the ministrey Cauled Quakers by the world, that they may be entertained therein, in all times to come Even for Ever.” She gave also a featherbed, two pillows, three blankets and one coverlet, two pairs of sheets, two “pillowbers,” two towels, one basin, one candlestick and one chamberpot.

Apprentices of both sexes were bound under conditions of all sorts. Mary Holson in 1668 was not to “keep company with deboyst or vncivell Company,” and at the end of five years was to receive a new suit of apparel suitable for holidays or other days. Henry Straight in 1667 contracted with a most particular master, Gershom Woddell. There were all the customary stipulations for six

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years; moreover he was “neither to buy or sell” nor to “Commit fornication nor Contract matrimony.” Woddell contracted for the usual support and to give “next Spring one ewe lamb and all increase,” but Woddell was to retain the wool. These provisions conveying increase of animals are interesting, for they strengthen the social bonds between the haves and have nots.

Woddell was an omnivorous buyer of labor. He bought in 1676⁷ an Indian woman, Hannah, condemned to perpetual slavery by New Plymouth. The bill of sale to her original proprietor, Adam Right, of Duxbury, was “under the hand of Captain Benjamin Church.” It would seem that the town had reversed its policy. For in 1675, several persons having purchased Indians “which may prove very prejuditiall” were given one month to dispose of them.

In 1665, William Earle and William Coney were granted 1¼ acres of land to maintain a wind-mill. In 1668, the lot was increased to 2 acres. This was the customary method for encouraging industries. In 1670 Thomas Brooke received a grant of land “for his trade beinge a Lether dresser.”

Alas! all these simple people were not industrious, for a sufficient pair of stocks were ordered by the town.

There were occasional votes admitting “an Inhabitant” without conditions. In 1672⁸ the prices fixed for produce to be received for taxes were, corn at 3s., peas at 3s., pork at 3d., beef at 2d., wool at 12d., peage at 16 per penny for white, cheese as agreed upon. In 1675, the rate assigned to Newport and Portsmouth amounted to £400., and the share of the latter was £120.

We must consider larger matters, for Rhode Island and

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Providence Plantations was to feel now a stronger hand, and to come under immediate control of the Crown of England. The Provisional Government of New England under Dudley, of Massachusetts, and Randolph had not accomplished much in the way of executive effort. June 8, 1686, Sir Edmund Andros, formerly governor of New York, was appointed Governor of all these provinces, including ours. He was directed to demand surrender of our charter, but this was not effectively carried out.

Mr. Brigham properly points out,⁹ though he attempts to prove too much in consequence, that Rhode Island suffered more in the seventeenth century, from the fierce differences between her own parties than from attempted oppression on the part of the neighboring colonies. At the time of this new movement, six factions were sending memorials to London asking for something especial as a privilege. Naturally so many opposing variances neutralized themselves.

However, this new period was to open practical rule by the home government in the colonies. Theocracy might dread this, but representative government would not suffer so much. Theocratic advocates have always treated the movements of such times, as if they were the expression of the people. But in fact, the theocratic functionaries represented a small, though able, function of the state. Progressive government has been constantly expanding to embrace all, as well as the wiser or better portions of the people. In Rhode Island then, the governing force issued from the very basis of the towns. Turbulent and often irregular as it was, it came nearer to representation than anything the world had known previously. The action of these towns as well as their aberrations were civic and politic; they were not theocratic.

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Notwithstanding disorderly factions and powerful oppressive neighbors, an incipient state was being formed around Narragansett Bay. The population was nearly equal to that of Plymouth, amounting in 1686 to about 4000.¹⁰ Of these, some 2500 were on the Island, 600 in Providence, and the remainder settled in the other towns.

Andros established himself in Boston in December, wrote a very friendly letter and demanded our charter of Governor Walter Clarke. The reply was urbane enough for a more polite community, though it did not answer directly to the autocratic deputy. The charter “was at their Governor’s house in Newport, and that it should be forthcoming when sent for, but in regard to the tediousness and bad weather, it could not then be brought.” The precious document was never obtained by the Royal Governor, though he took the colony seal and broke it. He attempted to collect taxes, excise on liquors and occasional quit-rents on lands;¹¹ little money was received. When William invaded England in 1689, Massachusetts was quite ready for revolution and drove out Andros.

Rhode Islande resumed her charter government, and adopted a new colony seal with the motto of “Hope.” The charter was finally confirmed under the opinion of the English attorney-general in 1693, and the governor was appointed by the Crown. A small party, chiefly of landholders in Narragansett, led by Francis Brinley, who hated the towns and democratic government, opposed as far as possible. Brinley threatened to remove and withdraw from the control of the “Quaker mob government.” As his land could not move with his ideas, he remained and bitterly opposed the government.

While these great political changes were occurring, the

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commerce of Newport was going ahead on an enlarging scale. In 1682 a naval office was opened there to register all “deck vessells.” This was concurrent with an extension of commerce throughout New England. Salisbury on the Merrimac became a port of entry in 1684, and Ipswich in 1685. The Navigation Acts abhorred by many American historians injured the Dutch, but actually helped the commerce of New England; which traded largely in smuggled goods, carried in ships of its own building. Boston had much more wealth and established trade, but was not as enterprising. Maverick wrote in 1669, “shipg & stirringe merchts are the only want heare.”¹² John Hull would not even receive wines on consignment nor ship lumber and fish to the Canaries, preferring the West Indian trade.

We may note some items from the interesting records of Portsmouth. The power and scope of domiciliary supervision was beyond any civic function conceived of in our day. We have given instances, as it was exerted over the household. With travelers and interlopers it was even more remarkable. The stranger, if not suspected, must be watched and attended carefully in any sojourn. An ordinance in 1671¹³ provided that “Islands prudence & patience shall not receive nor entertaine any Strainger without the consent and aprobation of the Towne (Portsmouth”). William Cadman was to be notified of the order forbidding entertainment for more than one month, and to be forewarned in the case of William Maze to apply the restriction. On the other hand, hospitality must not be affronted. “Several countrymen” in a particular instance had arrived “exposed to some present hardships.” Anybody was authorized to entertain these, orders to the

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contrary notwithstanding. Anyone not especially licensed to sell strong drink to Indians was liable to a fine of 20s. Ordinary tavern licenses were 10s. per annum.

Regulation of the common lands was a fertile source of trouble, as it was elsewhere. The “Newport men” were particularly debarred from cutting and carrying wood away. In the troublous times of 1675, 100 acres of the common was set off for those driven from their homes by Indians. The land was “lent for two years,” to be sowed or planted. The customary industrial privileges were allowed. Richard Knight, a weaver, was granted a residence for four months. Land was awarded one acre in extent to W. Ricketson and liberty given for dams and trenches for a “water mill for public use.”

Prices for rates were fixed in 1680, land at 40s. per acre, horses and cattle over one year old 40s. ea. Swine over one year 6s. each, sheep £4. the score. In 1688 Indian corn was at 2s. per bushel, barley 2s. 6d., oats 12d. and wool 7½d. per lb.

Pay in kind for all sorts of public service often appears in these times, when actual money was a very scarce article. T. Jennings was awarded six pounds of wool to pay him for “warning of a town meeting.” A register of marriages was kept. In all the towns, recorded cattle marks were important factors in regulating this species of property. Fancy and caprice were freely put forth, in getting some characteristic mark, which might assure possession. For example, let us look in upon Thomas Cook, Senior, as he wrought at the ears of his cows. He made a crop on the left ear and “a hapeny” under the lower side of the same ear and a slit on the right ear. This was entered March 9, 1667-8, having been in use about twenty-six years.

If Nature was bountiful, giving soil and sunshine for

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the corn, she sent her own busy blackbirds to exercise their privilege and take toll away from the toiling farmers. The town compelled every householder to kill 12 blackbirds before May 10 or to forfeit two shillings. Those killing more were to receive a bounty of one penny each.

In 1699 Newport was to be brought to account by Lord Bellomont—one of the few active and sensible royal governors—for transactions with pirates. The Board of Trade two years before had cautioned Rhode Island that it was “a place where pirates are ordinarily too kindly entertained.” Probably these diplomatic words express an exactly just view of the situation. Plunder on the high seas then ran along with irregular commerce. Governors in America and in the West Indies were negligent, and sometimes were interested and implicated. The people wanted to buy the prize cargoes¹⁴—cheap in the sudden abundance—the sailors wanted the prize money. So an irregular traffic throve; and whatever the moral principle involved, it enriched the colonial ports, especially at Newport and New York. No port was exempt. If caught on the wrong tack an enterprising rover might be condemned as a pirate. Or if lucky, he might live out his days in the character of a “rich privateer” like Thomas Cromwell of Boston.¹⁵

Bellomont inspected and reported,¹⁶ severely condemning the administration of Rhode Island, and the whole character as well as conduct of the people. The “assistants are generally Quakers, illiterate and of little or no capacity.” Bellomont, if able, was a courtly official, and sojourned with the small aristocratic element, chiefly represented

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by Brinley. The virtues of a democracy would appear to Lord Bellomont not much better than its defects and vices. Mr. Brigham holds that our government though censurable for irregularity and laxitude was never absolutely at fault. “Actual complicity between the colony as a government, and the pirates, as so often charged, was never shown by any letter or report submitted to the English authorities.”17

The next distress our vexed colony suffered from a royal governor, befell at the instance of Joseph Dudley, of Massachusetts. This Puritan with the royal power at his back, naturally was not a friend of Rhode Island, nor an easy ruler. His report ran that “the government of Rhode Island is a scandal to her Majesty’s Government.” The Board of Trade did not consider the colony’s direct denial of many of Dudley’s charges, but sought from the attorney-general his assistance to obtain revocation of our charter. That official held that the matters proven did not warrant a forfeiture of the charter. The bureau officials of the Board of Trade were firmly convinced of “the advantages that may arise by reducing the chartered government” in the colonies. They strengthened their movement in 1706 by a bill for “regulation.” By good fortune the measure was lost between the two Houses.

We bring out these details in that they are essential parts of our history. The charter was obtained through the fact that both the English Commonwealth and the sagacious Charles II. comprehended the large personality of Roger Williams and of John Clarke. When the irregular and inconstant government of the colony two generations later was misrepresented by virulent parties and tenacious officials in London, there was still welfare and prosperity enough realized in our little territory to convince

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the more sensible statesmen of England that the colonial government should be let alone. The pressure against the charter helped to enlarge the spirit of our colony and force her out of narrow provincialism. Though she as well as Connecticut was not exposed like Massachusetts and New York to French and Indian attack, she began to recognize a national responsibility. In 1707 and 1710 she acted efficiently, sending ships and soldiers for the expedition against Canada at heavy expense.

In 1712 Dudley reported about 2500 fighting men in the colony.

The English law of primogeniture was repealed in 1718.¹⁸ It was readjusted ten years later. The substantially equal distribution of estates has continued to the present day. The change of the eldest son’s position most affected the ways of the Narragansett country. Probably the social changes there occurring late in the century were magnified and accelerated by the equal system of inheritance.

The first official census taken in 1708 showed a population of 7781. Newport had 2203, Providence 1446, Kingston 1200, and six other towns 200 to 600 each. The planters around Narragansett Bay were becoming more and more amphibious with every generation. Governor Cranston set forth the inclination of the youth of Rhode “Island have to the sea.” Families increased, while the land did not, and the boys went into a larger world both physical and mental. As we have noted in Providence there was great activity in business of all kinds at the turn of the century. The General Assembly encouraged several kinds of manufacture, as hemp, duck, nails, cordage, etc. Production on shore fostered commerce at sea,

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Commerce increased largely after the peace of Utrecht. Our vessels traded with both British and Dutch West Indies, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Surinam, with Madeira and the Azores and especially with our middle and southern colonies. They carried out rum, lumber, staves and hoops, horses and provisions; they brought back salt, rice, sugar, molasses, wines, cotton, English woollen and linen goods. Flour and often Indian corn came freely from our own colonies.

Here was not only trade and commerce, there was the development of a people. The vessels were small—sixty tons or less—and they required wary and skillful navigation in seas always liable to tempestuous weather. War and piracy brought especial risks. Bold and ready seamen with adventurous traders flourished in this hardy and stimulating life.

This lively commerce was carried on by paper money. “Banks” or bills of credit were continually being issued by the General Assembly, which in the most reckless way took little care for their redemption. Depreciation naturally followed and was almost constant. Yet the currency in some way went, and business went with it. Governor Richard Ward held the same opinion with the present writer, that an active community must have a working currency; if it be not good, then it will have a poor one. The governor said in 1740, “we never should have enjoyed this advantage had not the government emitted bills of credit to supply the merchants with a medium of exchange. In short, if this colony be in any respect happy and flourishing, it is paper money and a right application of it that hath rendered us so.”¹⁹ The historical question is not, how it might have been better, with better legislation, but to narrate what was done.

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The most important—indeed the controlling—factor in Newport commerce for fully half a century was the African slave trade.²⁰ The mother country led the way in this unsavory traffic and the colonies followed. Newport was the leading port for New England, though most ports were somewhat interested. In 1708 the British Board of Trade addressed a circular to all the colonies relative to trade in negro slaves. To stop such iniquity says the twentieth century inquirer—far from it! “It being absolutely necessary that a trade so beneficial to the kingdom should be carried on to the greatest advantage.” Governor Cranston replied that from 1698 to December 25, 1707, no negroes were imported into Rhode Island from Africa. This must have been a technical statement. The privileges of the Royal African Company underlaid these investigations. In 1696 the report said the brigantine Seaflower, Windsor, master, brought from Africa 47 negroes, sold 14 in our colony at £30. to £35. each; the rest he carried by land “to Boston, where his owners lived.” In 1700 one ship and two sloops sailed directly from Newport to the African Coast; Edwin Carter commanded the ship and partly owned in the three vessels. With him sailed one Bruster and John Bates, merchants of Barbados, and “separate traders from thence to the coast of Africa.” All these vessels carried cargoes to Barbados and sold them there. It is evident that our commerce was ramifying and that the capital of West Indies availed of the advantages of Newport. Governor Cranston carefully limited his statement. In February, 1707-8, the colony laid an impost of £3. on each negro imported. In April the tax was allowed in drawback if the negro was exported. The act was tinkered

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in 1712, and again in 1715. The impost was of such consequence in 1729 that it was appropriated one-half toward paving the streets of Newport, one-half toward “the great bridges on the main.” The tax was repealed in 1732.

Judge Sewall in Massachusetts was about the first to speak out concerning the ethical bearing of slavery. The Quakers instituted the first practical opposition, which became quite effective a half-century later. Moses Brown²¹ cites from the Yearly Meeting Record in 1717, “the subject of Slaves considered, and advise given that Letters be Written to the Islands & Elsewhere not to send any more slaves here to be sold by any Friend.”

The African trade from Newport and Boston was conducted in small craft, usually of 40 to 50 tons burden, never over 60. Small vessels were considered most profitable, and were handled generally by a captain and mate with a crew of two or three men and a boy. When the voyage was by way of the Islands, a cooper was included, who made bungs, heads, etc., on the outward voyage, to be set up with staves from Taunton or elsewhere, and bound by Narragansett hoops, into barrels and hogsheads, when he came into port. White-oak staves went into rum casks and red-oak into sugar hogsheads.

The West Indies afforded the great demand for negroes; the climate rather than the morals of New England kept away the blacks. The Islands also furnished the raw material for the main merchandise, which the thirsty Gold Coast drank, when bartered for its poor banished children. Governor Hopkins stated that for more than thirty years prior to 1764, our colony sent to the Coast annually 18 vessels carrying 1800 hhds. of rum. It displaced French brandies on the Coast after 1723. The

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commerce in rum and slaves afforded about £40,000 per annum for remittance from Rhode Island to Great Britain. Molasses and poor sugar distilled in Boston and Providence, and more in Newport made the staple export.

The most important change in the manufactures of the early eighteenth century was in the introduction of distilleries for rum; Massachusetts and Connecticut participated, but Rhode Island surpassed them in proportion. Newport was growing rapidly in wealth and commerce and had twenty-two still-houses. Massachusetts held the fisheries by preoccupation and advantage of natural situation. Newport found outlet for its increasing energy in import of molasses, in manufacture of spirit, and the daring voyage for slaves. The consumption of beer or ale—the favorite drink of the seventeenth century—apparently diminished. Lumbermen and fisher-folk demanded a strong stimulant to ameliorate their heavy diet of pork and Indian corn. The trade in negroes from Africa absorbed immense quantities of spirit. Rum from the West Indies had always been a large factor, impelling trade. Distilling in New England brought far-reaching consequences, social as well as economic. It was found that molasses and sugar could be transferred here and converted into alcoholic spirit more cheaply than it could be done in the lazy atmosphere of the tropics.

The African demand was very importunate. Captain Isaac Freeman with a coasting sloop in 1752 wanted a cargo of rum and molasses within five weeks from Newport. His correspondent wrote that the quantity could not be had in three months. “There are so many vessels lading for Guinea, we cant get one hogshead of rum for the cash. We have been lately to New London and all along the seaport towns, in order to purchase the molasses but cant get one hogshead.” Let us remember

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how rare cash was in the operations of those days. In 1740 Captain George Scott tried some dry goods with most pathetic experience; they left him dry, and were hardly touched by the dry savage. He lost one-third of his 129 slaves, while waiting to trade off his goods. He sailed, carrying off a third of his stale cargo of goods, believing that if he had stayed to dispose of them, he would have lost all his slaves. “I have repented a hundred times ye bying of them dry goods. Had I laid out two thousand pound in rum, bread and flour, it would purchase more in value than all our dry goods.” Certainly the thirsty Guinea man had keen and sympathetic interpreters of his appetites.

Bristol followed Newport closely in the latter half of the century. Captain Simeon Potter, the famous privateersman in the Spanish and French wars, appears as early as 1764 investing his profits drawn from the Spanish Main in outfits for the Guinea coast. Forcible as he was on the Main, he was even more crafty in circumventing the poor Africans. His instructions are most naïve. “Make y^r Cheaf Trade with the Blacks and Little or none with the white people if possible to be avoided. Worter y^r Rum as much as possible and sell as much by the short measuer as you can.” Again, “Order them in the Bots to worter thear Rum, as the proof will rise by the Rum Standing in y^e Son.”²²

These were the doings of the rough privateersman; but what shall we say of the pious and most respectable “elder” of Newport, who sent slavers with uniform success from Newport? On the Sunday after arrival, he always returned thanks “that an overruling Providence had been pleased to bring to this land of freedom another cargo of benighted heathen to enjoy the blessing of a

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Gospel dispensation.” And Peter Faneuil, builder of the “Cradle of liberty” in Boston, had actual ventures on the Gold Coast, planned and sent direct by him.²³ Everything is not better than it was in the olden time, but we have improved some things.

Governor Samuel Cranston died in 1727 after an administration of thirty successive years, under his wise and efficient headship. That the turbulent colony of the seventeenth century should move steadily in any one direction so long, is remarkable from any point of view. It is significant that the satisfactory ruler of a people holding so many beliefs was an “impartial and good man not assembling with any sect.” Even Cotton Mather, who in the Magnalia expressed his horror concerning the “colluvies” in Rhode Island, admitted in 1718, a condition of efficient Christianity. Not only had toleration in worship established itself, but it was proving that an organized state, with its varied interests, could thrive politically and economically, under liberty of conscience for each individual citizen.

In 1729 the colony was divided into three counties, with corresponding courts. Newport County comprised the Islands with New Shoreham; Providence included the town, Warwick and East Greenwich; King’s North and South Kingston with Westerly, the shire centering at South Kingstown. In 1730 a census ordered by the Board of Trade showed a population largely increased to 17,935, which included 1648 negroes and 985 Indians. Newport had 4640, closely followed by Providence with 3916; North Kingstown 2105; Westerly 1926; South Kingstown 1523; East Greenwich 1223; Warwick 1178; Portsmouth 813; Jamestown 312; New Shoreham 290. The growth in Narragansett was remarkable. The

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Indians were nearly all settled there, in the district now known as the town of Charlestown. Of the 1648 colored slaves Newport had 649 and the two Kingstowns 498. The colony owned about 5000 tons of shipping and employed 400 sailors.

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