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DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NEW CHUBCH EDIFICE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BAPTIST CHURCH AND SOCIETY^ 
 
 IN WARREN, R. I. 
 
 MAY 8, 1846. 
 
 Bt JOSIAH P* TUSTIN, Pa»to«, 
 
 PROVIDENCE: 
 
 il. H. BROWN, 25 MARKET SaUAM- 
 
 1845. 
 

 '/'f&i./'i^ 
 
WAftRE!*, JuNt.10, 1845. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Benevolent BaptisS Society in 
 this town, held in the Lecture Room of th« Chureh, on the 
 9th inst. it was 
 
 " Resolved unanimously. That the undersigned be a Commit- 
 tee to solicit for the press a copy of the Historical Discourse 
 delivered at the Dedication of the new Church Edifice, on 
 the 8th day of May, by the Reverend Josiah P. Tumin," Paa- 
 tor of the Church." 
 
 It affords us pleasure, Dear Sir, to communicate to you the 
 above resolution, while we assure you of the continued r«* 
 gard of 
 
 Your friends and obedient servants, 
 LEVI HAILE, 
 S. P. CHILD, 
 A. M. GAMMELL, 
 CHARLES RICHMOND, jua. 
 G. M. FESSENDEN. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Ill the following pages there are some historical 
 notices of a sacred succession of Independent 
 Churches, in the Principality of Wales, who held 
 the sentiments of the modern Baptists, in more or 
 less purity, during the long lapse of the dark ages, 
 and even from the lirst introduction of Christianity 
 into Britain. It is the history of principles, rather 
 than the names of sects, that has engaged our at- 
 tention. 
 
 The author need make no apology for directing 
 the attention of those of his brethren who enjoy 
 literary leisure, and possess a religious spirit, to a 
 subject always interesting whenever named, but 
 which has been sadly neglected by scholars in the 
 Baptist, and other evangelical persuasions. It is a 
 most cherished and prevalent opinion, with the 
 Welsh Baptists, that their distinguishing principles 
 have been preserved in their purity, by the Cam- 
 brian people, throutrh all the ages from the first 
 
 A* 
 
▼i' PREFACB. 
 
 introduction of Christianity into their Island. That 
 God has had his scattered and hidden people in 
 Piedmont and Holland, as well as in Wales, through 
 the night of the dark ages, there can be no doubt. 
 But it seems to have been a part of His wise ar- 
 rangement for their preservation, that they should 
 be kept in obscurity, and that obscurity now makes 
 it very ditlcult to trace their history. What we 
 find concerning them in the historical works acces- 
 sible to the general reader, are but the scattered 
 fragments thrown by their enemies into contempt. 
 It is not too much to say, that the history of 
 Cambro-British Christianity is yet to be written. 
 Adequate attention has never yet been given to the 
 purely Cambrian portion of British history. The 
 causes of this neglect can readily be assigned. 
 Among these reasons is the fact stated by Sir James 
 Mackintosh : " The history of this native race has 
 not yet been extracted from fable; nor has any 
 Welshman yet arisen who has made such attempts 
 to recover the perhap,s stiU remaining materials, as 
 will warrant us in asserting that they have alto- 
 gether perished. An early conquest damped the 
 national feeling, which would have fondly clung 
 to the slenderest fragment of such memorials, from 
 the pursuit and preservation of which at the fa- 
 vorable time they were diverted by their long reli- 
 ance on the legends of Geoffrey of Monmouth." 
 
 But we may safely hazard the assertion that the 
 materials for the Ecclesiastical Historj- of the old 
 
PRERACE 
 
 British Churches, are by no means lost. Thev 
 are locked up in the yet untranslated Welsh lan- 
 guage, and deposited in many an old Welsh 
 book or manuscript, laid away in the archives of 
 their abbies and parish churches. Of the most au- 
 thentic and valuable writers among the Welsh Bap- 
 tists, Joshua Thomas' History of the Welsh Bap- 
 tists, is the most accessible : but even of this work, 
 only some meagre portions, imperfectly translated, 
 have appeared in the English language. 
 
 All that has been attempted, in the folio v.'ing al- 
 lusions to Cambro-Brltish Christianity, has been a 
 rapid bird's eye view of a few prominent facts, 
 chiefly derived from such authorities as Ivimey's 
 History of the Baptists ; Robinson's Ecclesiastical 
 Researches, and Crosby's History of the English 
 Baptists. 
 
 Abundant references could have been made to facts 
 in the Civil History of the Welsh, in works which 
 are accessible to the author ; such as Powell's History 
 of Wales, exhibiting the succession of the Princes 
 of Wales, from Cadwalladcr the last king, to Llewe- 
 lyn, the last prince of British blood ; written origin- 
 ally in British, by Caradoc, of Llancavan : Published 
 in English by Dr. Powell : Also, a Sketch of the early 
 history of the ancient Cymry, from the year 700 B. C. 
 to A. D. 500. 8vo. London, 1803. Also, the His- 
 tory of Wales, with an Appendix, in Nine Books. By 
 Rev. William Warrington. London, A. D. 1736.- 
 
Vlll PREFACE, 
 
 But the abundant materials in these, and in similar 
 works could be brought into but very little requisition, 
 in a brief historical sketch, such as this pretends to 
 be, the only object of which is to take a rapid glance 
 at the order of events as they stand associated in the 
 connexion between this quiet village church and the 
 ancient churches of the British race, on another con- 
 tinent. Had pastoral duties afforded the requisite 
 leisure for such a service, the writer would gladly 
 have penetrated further into the Aboriginal history 
 of this vicinity, and have exhibited at greater length 
 many facts, of more than a local interest, which are 
 intimately associated with the events which led to 
 the settlement of this Town, and the organization of 
 this Church. Regretting both the fact of the hith- 
 erto sad neglect of our local history, and the unwrit- 
 ten memorials of the worthy men who deserved a 
 higher meed of praise than such a passing notice ; 
 and lamenting his inability to present this Discourse 
 in a better form, it is given, such as it is, as a token 
 of respect to the members of the Church and Congre- 
 gation under his pastoral care, by their sincere friend, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Warren, July, 1845, 
 
MATTHEW XXIil : 8. 
 
 " 0:.'£ IS YOUR Master, even Christ: and all y5 
 ARE Brethren." 
 
 It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to give a 
 summary of Christianity, in a few points of 
 doctrine, expressed in a few words. The high- 
 est efforts of sanctified genius and the greatest 
 powers of human expression, when employed in 
 defining and classifying within a small compass, 
 the peculiarities of the Gospel, have been atten- 
 ded with perplexity and dissatisfaction. 
 
 The Author of our Religion, " who spake as 
 never man spake," taught the spiritual truths 
 he revealed, in language which could only have 
 been dictated by the clearest conceptions of his 
 all-originating mind. He connected eternity 
 with time, threw a stronor and burninsf liorht 
 upon the shadows of futurity, and brought home 
 to the bosoms of men, a present apprehension 
 of the substantial realitiesof the invisible world, 
 
10 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 The Doctrines he revealed were simple and 
 yet sublime ; the Worship he established was 
 spiritual and purifying; the Conduct he re- 
 quired was holy and benevolent. 
 
 His Religion viewed as a collective system, 
 may be considered doctrinally , as to what we 
 are to believe, experimentally , as to what we are 
 to feel, practically, as to what we are to do. 
 The equal blending of doctrine, feeling and 
 action, in the high exercise of a well propor- 
 tioned symmetry, is the human realization of 
 the great Idea developed in the religion of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 All religion grows out of a sense of human 
 want ; and man is therefore disposed to be a 
 religious being. 
 
 The object for which we have assembled to- 
 day, is connected with religion. To its sacred 
 purposes we have now convened to dedicate 
 tliis Building, as a tribute of grateful homage 
 to Almighty God, and of adoring love to our 
 iSaviour, Jesus Christ. 
 
 The declaration of the objects implied in this 
 design, would be an appropriate theme for our 
 present discourse. The Doctrines we believe, 
 the Feelings we cherish, and the Ends we pro- 
 
HISTOlilCAL DISCOURSE. H 
 
 pose to accomplish, might naturally be exhibited 
 in connexion with this solemn occasion. But 
 the statement of our Religious Faith, and the 
 illustration of our cherished Designs, could not 
 be satisfactorily compressed within the limits 
 of time assigned for this exercise. 
 
 It is therefore fitting and necessary that we 
 should restrict our views to a smaller compass, 
 and confine our attention to the facts that be- 
 long to our present position. 
 
 But the Present is connected with the Past, 
 by the ties of religious as well as of civil relation- 
 ships. The current of time is rapidly sweep- 
 ing by, and we stand on a spot where we 
 can look back upon the stream as it rushes up 
 to the present, and down its course as it glides 
 away in its onward progress to the ocean of 
 eternity. The memories of the past come rush- 
 ing up before us, and the dim visions of the fu- 
 ture rise unbidden to our view. 
 
 We stand on a spot hallowed by many ai> 
 assQciatioa of sqcred and thrilling intfre^f 
 
12 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE 
 
 It is well for us, now that we have retired 
 for a while from the hum of business, and the 
 common interests of secular life, to lift the vail 
 that hides the Past, and trace the line of events, 
 which, as human causes, have produced the re- 
 sults of the Present. " God lives in history," 
 and History is no less " Philosophy teaching by 
 example," than the voice of God teaching by 
 his Providence. 
 
 I have said that we are assembled here in 
 contemplation of Religion in its relations to 
 former times; and these relations, as they af- 
 fect us personally and socially, are found in- 
 termixed with all the details of the civil and 
 religious History of the generations that have 
 preceded us. 
 
 It was the love of Religion, and of Religious 
 Liberty, that put in motion the train of events 
 which led to the formation of our social insti- 
 tutions and brought us together on the spot of 
 ground, and the point of time, we now occupy. 
 There can be no proper apprehension of our 
 past history, whether we consider ourselves as a 
 religious Society, as a part of this Town or 
 State, or of the New-England Community, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 1 '5 
 
 without investigating those religious causes, 
 wliich led to the formation of civil and religious 
 society on this Western Continent. 
 
 While the history of this Church and Town, 
 partakes of much that is common to the gene- 
 ral characteristics of New-England, it is more 
 signally distinguished by the history of peculiar 
 principles, in which our social existence origi- 
 nated, and with which we have always been 
 identified. To trace the history of these pe* 
 culiar principles, and the events with which 
 they were connected, is therefore the particular 
 object of the present Discourse. 
 
 The Principles which I design to illustrate 
 historically, may be reduced to three : 
 
 1. Liberty of Conscience in Kcligious con" 
 
 cerns. 
 
 2. The Independence of each Christian 
 
 Church and its separate existence from 
 Civil Government, 
 "3. The admission of only such persons into 
 the Church as profess experimental 
 Christian Faith, by the ordinance of 
 Baptism, in the form of Immersion. 
 
14 IIISTUKICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 These three religious principles were identic 
 tied with the origin of this community, and 
 were so combined in the belief of the ancestors 
 of this Church and Town, that in their estima- 
 tion, the presence of one of them implied the 
 necessary union of the others, and the rejection 
 of one, in its logical and natural tendency, 
 vitiated or excluded the whole : — all standing 
 or falling together. 
 
 These views of Faith were considered by the 
 forefathers of this Church, as they are believed 
 by us, their representatives and successors, to 
 be identical with the Doctrine and Worship ot 
 the Apostolic Churches. 
 
 It should be distinctly understood, as it is 
 fully admitted, that these principles do not con- 
 stitute the Summary, nor even the most consid* 
 crable part, of the Christian System. Nor is 
 it pretended that each and every one of them, 
 or all of them together, are peculiar alone to 
 the Religious Communion with which we stand 
 connected, in distinction from all other names 
 and orders of Christian people ; and it is the 
 peculiar glory of Evangelical Christianity in the 
 present age, that the lines of distinctive differ* 
 ence between the various orders of Protestants, 
 
■T^'^"^' UISTORICAL DISCOURSE. lo 
 
 are less visible than in most preceding periods 
 fiiice the Reformation of Luther. At no time 
 probably, since the first two centuries of the 
 Christian Church, has there been so deep and 
 general a disposition among earnest-minded 
 Christians to derive their]entire faith and practice 
 from the New-Testament alone, as at the pres- 
 ent. All Evangelical denominations seem dis' 
 posed to act upon the principle, that the Bible 
 alone is the religion of Protestants. 
 
 The claims of Tradition and Custom are 
 lifted and reduced to their true merits ; and 
 the authority of the Inspired Scriptures is ele- 
 vated above the ordinances of men. And hence 
 there is less to distiniruish the leadincr evancrel- 
 ical denominations from each other, than in 
 former ages. 
 
 It is an occasion of thanksgiving on this 
 auspicious day, that there are so many doctrines 
 of fundamental importasice in Religion, which 
 we hold in common with the whole fraternity of 
 Evangelical Protestants. And wc trust that 
 holding the unity of the Spirit, in the bonds of 
 peace, we are still drawing closer together, 
 disposed to act upon the apostolic precept^ 
 " Whereto we hav,e already attained, let ui 
 
IG HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 walk by the same rule, let us mind the same 
 thing." 
 
 These considerations being premised and 
 understood, we shall be free from the charge 
 of intending offence to any Christian sensibility, 
 if we proceed to trace out the progress of the 
 peculiar principles which characterized the ori- 
 gin and history of this church ; even if, in such 
 illustrations there may be any occasion by way 
 of contrast to point out the errors of other forms 
 of Faith. 
 
 But it is not the history of a Sect, or the 
 prevalence of a name, that we are in quest of, 
 so much as the history o'l principles. It should 
 be a matter of small concern to any of us, as 
 to the antiquity of our denominational appella- 
 tives ; — which in the case of almost every per- 
 suasion of Christians, have not been of their 
 Qion selection, but most frequently bestowed 
 on them in a way of reproach, by those who 
 were their enemies. Such was the case with 
 the Puritans, whose name was applied in con- 
 tempt to a class of men of whom the world was 
 not worthy ; — of the 3Icthodists, whose zealous 
 piety provoked the invention of a term by which 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSS. 17 
 
 the operations of religion on the passions, should 
 be rendered opprobrious to the formal worldling 
 or the proud hypocrite ; — of the Quahers, whose 
 modest piety was charged upon them as a mark 
 of servile fear ; — and of the Baptists, whose 
 primitive ordinance has characterized them 
 with a name, they never preferred or selected, 
 but which they are yet perfectly willing to bear. 
 
 The distinguishing principles to which I 
 have adverted, as characterizing this Church in 
 its origin and formation, are believed by us to 
 be identical with the faith and practice of the 
 Primitive Christians. Though they are not 
 summed up in so many terms in the language 
 of the Text, they are implied and embodied in 
 those words of our Saviour, " One is your Mas- 
 ter even Christ : and all ye are brethren ;" — 
 words which are an appropriate motto for a 
 Baptist Church. 
 
 There can be no religion, without authoriti/ 
 to enjoin it : and the doctrines of religion, to 
 have any influence, must rest on authority of 
 the highest order ; and the religion that is from 
 God, has such authority. Jesus Christ pro- 
 claimed himself a*? the only Mediator between 
 
18 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 God and man, and the only Lord of tlie human 
 conscience. When his disciples professed his 
 name, they declared their allegiance to him, 
 and their internal Faith, by public Baptism. 
 This was the order in which Christ himself 
 connected the conditions of obedience ; — " He 
 that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved." 
 And his inspired Apostles observed the same 
 principles, in the same order. They always 
 regarded Baptism as the outward act of Inter- 
 nal Faith ; as the test-oath and naturalization 
 act, by which a stranger and alien declared his 
 allegiance to Christ his King, and became a 
 naturalized citizen of the visible church. Thus 
 the apostle Paul declares it, as the act of a 
 soldier who has put on the regimentals of the 
 army, into Avhich he has been sworn : or as the 
 act of a servant assuming the livery of the mas- 
 ter, whom he has bound himself to serve : ** For 
 as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, 
 have put on Christ." Nay, the very method 
 by which Baptism was administered, declared its 
 significance and its binding obligation. It was 
 a solemn act of burial in water, by which a 
 man declared his belief of the burial and resur- 
 rection of Christ ; his own deadness to the 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 19 
 
 world, and his rising again to newness of life. 
 " Know ye not, that so many of us as were 
 l)aptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into 
 liis death? Therefore we are buried with him 
 by baptism into death : that like as Christ was 
 raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
 even we also should walk in newness of life. 
 For if we have been planted together in the 
 likeness of his death, we shall be also in the 
 likeness of his resurrection." 
 
 Thus, each believer declared his own disci- 
 pleship, to his own Master. What was required 
 of one, was necessary for all. All therefore 
 were received into the community of Brethren, 
 on equal conditions.* There were no char- 
 
 •The church was in the beginning, a community 
 of Brethren. All its members were taught of God ; 
 and each possessed the liberty of drawing for him- 
 self from the Divine Fountain of life. (John vi. 
 45.) The Epistles, which then settled the great 
 questiom of doctrine, did not bear the pompous 
 title of any single man, or ruler. We find from 
 the holy Scriptures, that they began simply with 
 these words : " The apostles, elders and brethren, 
 to our brethren." Acts xv. 23." — D\1uhignc^s Re 
 forma iiotf, vol. 1, p. 17, 
 
20 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tered or hereditary riglits, attaching to any class 
 or order. Each Christian Society was consti- 
 tuted on the basis of the social and moral equal- 
 ity of all its members, upon the professed Faith 
 of each. There being no divinely appointed 
 model of church constitution and government, 
 given by Christ or his apostles, the disciple.s 
 were left to their own discretion in arranging 
 the details of each separate community, accord- 
 ing to the customs of their particular age, or 
 country. But the great fundamental principles 
 of their Faith contained all the general outlines^ 
 within which the particular arrangements of 
 each Society must be necessarily embraced. 
 Each church inherently possessed the authori- 
 ty to elect its own officers, who should act as 
 the pastors, and official representatives of the 
 body; to determine the regulations by which their 
 affairs were to be governed, and the particular 
 conditions of admitting, or rejecting members; — 
 ail subject however to the general outline-laws 
 laid down by Christ and his inspired apostles. 
 The churches, accordingly, which were 
 formed during the life time of the apostles, 
 seem to have been nothing more than convert- 
 ed, or Christianized Synagogues, which in each 
 case had been a separate and independent re- 
 
IIISTOllICAL DISCOURSE. '2i 
 
 ligious society by itself.* So that when the 
 whole, or the majority of the members of any 
 particular Synagogue had become converted, 
 they still continued the same organized body 
 as before ; and they continued to use their for- 
 mer privilege of electing their own overseer, 
 bishop, or pastor, and to choose deacons, stew- 
 ards, or whatever other officers were necessary, 
 for the executive management of their own iU'^ 
 ternal affairs. 
 
 Each Christian Church, therefore, became, 
 or continued to be, a society or popular assem- 
 bly, formed on the model of the previously ex- 
 isting Synagogue, having a free, voluntary and 
 elective government, in the choice of its own 
 officers, and inheriting within itself, all the ele- 
 ments of religious liberty. The pastor was 
 simply the elected teacher, and moderator in 
 their assemblies, holding no hereditary rights, 
 but only primus inter pares, — -the principal 
 elected by his peers. 
 
 ■* See Lightfoot's Harmony of the New Test. Vol. 
 III. p. 257. Also, Coleman's Primitive Church, pp. 
 :VJ— 47. Also, VVhateley's Kingdom of Christ, pp 
 
 78—83. 
 
22 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 The standard of all authority, was the re- 
 corded teachings of Christ himself, or the in- 
 spired epistles of the apostles, who alone held 
 a higher rank, from their position as the wit- 
 nesses of Christ's ministry and resurrection ; 
 and they exercised a paramount authority as 
 the infallible interpreters of the Divine Will. 
 But the apostles themselves, disclaimed any^ 
 thing like the hereditary aristocracy of the Le- 
 vitical priesthood ; and by their own sanction, 
 they legalized the popular form of governm.ent 
 in the Synagogue worship, as the mode of or- 
 ganization in the newly formed Christian 
 Churches. They made net the slightest claims 
 to an order of the Christian ministry, parallel 
 or analogous, to the Levitical priesthood : nor 
 did they incorporate into their worship, the ele- 
 ments of their national temple service, such as 
 a sacrificing priest, the altar for sacrifice, the 
 sacred vessels, or any of the glittering regalia 
 of their ritual service. The only Priest they 
 recognized was Jesus Christ, their ever-livinor 
 intercessor ; the only sacrifices they offered, 
 were their own bodies and souls, a living sacri- 
 fice, as a voluntary and spiritual service, — the 
 sacrifices of a pure heart and a benevolent life ;• 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOUllSE. 2'A 
 
 the only temple they reared, was composed of 
 themselves, as spiritual believers, " built upon 
 the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- 
 stone ; in whom, all the building fitly framed 
 together, groweth unto an holy temple in the 
 Lord ; in whom they are also builded together 
 for an habitation of God, through the Spirit." 
 
 The apostles themselves held a peculiar of- 
 fice, for a special purpose, and when they died, 
 their office died with them. As a jury of wit- 
 nesses, their living testimony could only be 
 perpetuated in the Inspired Canons of Scrip- 
 ture, which were closed forever at the death of 
 the last of the apostles. But apart from their 
 extraordinary commission, as infallible wit- 
 nesses and inspired teachers, the apostles claim- 
 ed for themselves no extraordinary privileges. 
 
 The Christian societies thus formed and or- 
 ganized, were so many little republics, each 
 within itself, and all these smaller circles w'ere 
 embraced within the comprehensive circle of 
 Christ's spiritual kingdom. He alone, was the 
 Lord and Master of each ; and they were breth- 
 
24 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Yen, as independent, yet separate branches of 
 the one Spiritual Community, of which the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, was the Invisible and Heavenly 
 Head. Still with all this outward diversity in 
 organization, they were all one in the fellow- 
 ship of love and faith, holding the communion 
 of the saints, united in spirit as different mem- 
 bers of one body, or as brethren of the same 
 great family. But with all their diversity of 
 endowments, there was the tinifi/ of Religion. 
 ** There were diversities of gifts, but the same 
 Spirit : diversities of administrations, but the 
 same Lord : diversities of operations, but it is 
 the same God who worketh all in all. There 
 is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are call- 
 ed in one hope of your calling : one God and 
 Father of all, who is above all, and through 
 all, and in you all : one Lord, one faith, one 
 Baptism." 
 
 There was no visible representative, as the 
 earthly head of each of these churches, or of 
 all of them together : but Christ himself was 
 the invisible Head of the universal, invisible 
 church. His kingdom was indeed within the 
 world, but it was not of the world. Though 
 
Historical discourse. 25 
 
 each community possessed the organized form 
 of a human society, it was yet not of the nature 
 of an earthly kingdom ; as it was not originat- 
 ed for any earthly purpose, nor conducted on 
 the principles of worldly policy. Those who 
 were members of this spiritual society, formed 
 for spiritual purposes, might yet in another 
 capacity, be members of a secular society, 
 formed for secular purposes : if they were schol^ 
 ars, they might belong to an Academy : if farm- 
 ers, they might belong to an Agricultural Soci- 
 ety : if they were citizens of any particular 
 country, they were to retain their citizenship, 
 •^ renderinof unto Caesar^ the thinors that are Ca3- 
 sar's ; but rendering to God, the things that 
 are God's ;" — but the authority of Caesar was 
 never to bind their conscience, nor their privi- 
 leges as Christians ever to exempt them from 
 the lawful claims of human government, within 
 its own proper capacity. Christ was the Mas- 
 ter of all, as believers ; and to his own Master, 
 every one was to stand or fall 
 
 Such, in outline, were the simple principles 
 which characterized the organization of tliO 
 Christian church in its best and earliest days. 
 c 
 
f6 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 This is not the time, nor the place to show 
 how these distinguishing principles were grad- 
 ually obscured and neutralized, and became 
 intermixed with forms of doctrine and worship 
 foreign to those of the original church. The 
 faithful pen of History could easily trace the 
 rise and progress of insidious errors, which 
 insensibly stole in upon the unguarded church, 
 and at length brought on the spiritual despot- 
 ism, which in later times, reduced her to a ser- 
 vile allegiance to secular power. But without 
 detailing the incidents of History, it is sufficient 
 to show the progress of those three distinctive 
 principles to which I have adverted, and which 
 entered elementarily into the formation of the 
 apostolic church, — the corruption of which 
 paved the way for the subsequent admission of 
 every form of error. 
 
 All the events of history, reduced to a simple 
 analysis, show how insidious, but yet how oper- 
 r.tive, is the influence of a false principle, or of 
 a true one, misapprehended. And as a general 
 fact, perhaps it is true, that for want of candid 
 and attentive reflection, the mass of men do 
 Eot see the unsoundness of any false principle, 
 till its working is fully developed in practice, 
 
I 
 
 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 27 
 
 and they see the baleful results to which it 
 actually and legitimately leads. 
 
 Thus in the latter part of the second cen- 
 tury, a misconception of the supposed efficacy 
 of Baptism, led to the conviction that it was 
 essential to salvation ; and hence infants, and 
 others who were in danger of dying without 
 the benefit of the sacramental grace of Bap- 
 tism, received the application of that ordmance, 
 and were thus supposed to be absolved from 
 the guilt cf original sin. And those whose 
 critical state of health would endanger their 
 lives, by immersion, received the application ot 
 water in their sick chamber, or on a dying bed : 
 and thus was introduced Clinical Baptism,^ 
 which, in time, prepared the way for a general 
 substitution of the form, of its administration. 
 By thus admitting Infants to Baptism, the wall 
 of partition between the church and the world 
 was gradually taken down, and Christ's visible 
 kingdom became a kingdom of this world. 
 By exalting the efficacy cf Baptism to a Sacra- 
 
 * So called from being administered onvibcd — from 
 a Greek word, signifying; couch . 
 
28 HISTOllICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 mental Grace, the great doctrine of Justification 
 by Faith, insensibly merged into the notion of 
 a covenant of works : and thence were entailed 
 the devices of Popery, and the belief in works 
 of Supererogation. Henceforward the Doc- 
 trine and Worship of the church declined to^^ 
 gether. 
 
 In the same manner, the gradual elevation 
 of the Bishop of Rome, led to a commanding 
 supremacy over all the other churches in those 
 territories that were lawfully subjected to the 
 civil government of the Roman Empire : and 
 the supremacy which the neighboring churches 
 had at first voluntarily yielded to the enlight- 
 ened oversight of the Roman Bishop, at length 
 led to the usurpation of power, which by the 
 unhappy concurrence of political events, re- 
 sulted in a Diocesan government, which super- 
 induced the greater concentration of a Bletro- 
 jpoUtcm bishopric, and this was at last matured 
 into the still higher pretensions of a. Patriarchal 
 supervision, and the unlimited despotism of a 
 universal Papal Hierarchy. 
 
 Henceforward, Christianity which was in- 
 tended for the Jicart of man, became the ser- 
 vile creature of the State, and the instrument 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOUESK, 2d 
 
 of her own undoirg. Having ascended the 
 throne of the Ceesars, she cssiimed the purple 
 and the diadem, and enrolled the legions of 
 Rome among the hosts of the faithful. Then 
 the cross was lifted in the van of conquering 
 armies, and was made the sanction of inquisi- 
 torial injustice. When the sword was once 
 drav/n in defence of the cross, its scabbard 
 was throw^n away, and for more than ten cen- 
 turies it continued the scandal of religion, and 
 the plague cf the world. 
 
 But though the name of Christianity was 
 applied by the temporal powers to the w^orst of 
 purposes, and became the watchword for war 
 throughout Europe, her pure spirit still lived 
 in the hearts of thousands, and her enlighten- 
 ing influence was never lost, in any age. Her 
 conservative power may be clearly traced a- 
 mong some smaller or larger communities in 
 every age and country o'l nominal Christendom. 
 The Vv^itnesses for the truth, and the dissenters 
 from the reigning apostasy of Antichrist, were 
 always found among thousands of sequestered 
 groups of Christians, who loved the Gospel, 
 Hnd held it in its purity of Doctrine and of 
 Worsliip: who arr kn^v/n in hi!=-torv by the 
 
30 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 name of Novatians at Rome, the Donatists in 
 Africa, the Faulicians in Greece, the Cathari 
 or Puritans in Italy : in all the south of Eu- 
 rope, in Germany and Holland, these Christ- 
 ians were known as the Albigenses, Montenses, 
 Waldenses and Anabaptists, — names not as- 
 sumed by themselves, but applied in contempt 
 by the dominant power of the papal church. 
 
 It would be easy to show, that while the long 
 night of spiritual despotism brooded over Eu- 
 rope for so many centuries, the pure worship 
 and simple doctrine of the Gospel were always 
 preserved by a band of faithful witnesses : and 
 its light can be clearly traced, sometimes in 
 brighter, sometimes in feebler lines, from the 
 very first dawn of the star which guided the 
 men of the East to the cradle of the Messiah. 
 
 Though her light was smothered and con- 
 cealed in her prison house at Rome, — though, 
 her sanctity was defiled and her authority de- 
 secrated, by those " who were at hate with 
 prayer and studied curses," her living Spirit 
 could not be quenched, and her dungeon was 
 broken open by the strong arm of Luther, and 
 she again stood forth in the immortal freshness 
 of youth and beauty. Its influence stopped 
 
HISTORICAL DiSCOLRSI^. 31 
 
 not at the place or the time, that gave it birth. 
 It restored man to mental independence and 
 moral dignity, while at the same time it fitted 
 him to retain this supremacy. We can trace 
 its great principles henceforth animating and 
 governing the events of all subsequent history. 
 
 It would be an easy and delightful task to 
 trace the history of the principles of the apos- 
 tolic and primitive churches, through various 
 channels and by various names, in an unbroken 
 line of succession, from the first communities 
 of Brethren, down through the long night of 
 papal despotism, till they re-appear in all their 
 brightness and beauty, in modern times. 
 
 But the particular connexion which this Bap- 
 tist Church sustains to the church of Christ in 
 former ages, even back to the apostles' times, 
 will enable us to delineate the progress of 
 Christian principles, apart from all the churches 
 on the Continent of Europe. 
 
 It is a fact generally known, tliat many of 
 the Baptist churches in this country derived 
 their origin from the Baptist churches in 
 Wales, a country which has always been a 
 nursery for their peculiar principles. In the 
 earlier settlements in thiy countrv, multitudes 
 
32 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 of Welsh emigrants, who left their fatherland,, 
 brought with them the seeds of Baptist princi- 
 ples, and their ministers and members laid the 
 foundation of many Baptist churches in New- 
 England, and especially in the Middle States. 
 
 It is not pretended, and it is distinctly dis- 
 claimed, that our churches in this country lay 
 claim to any literal or lineal order of succes- 
 sion from the apostles. If literal succession 
 were worth anything, we have as Baptists, a 
 much clearer and a much cleaner pedigree than 
 those advocates for prelacy who trace their 
 ministry through the turbid channel of the pa- 
 pal apostasy, and who are forced to acknow- 
 ledge the Pope as a true Christian Bishop, and 
 the Romish communion as the true Catholic 
 Christian Church. But the very nature of our 
 peculiar principles leads us to place no confi- 
 dence in the doctrine of a regular and literal 
 apostolic succession, even if it could be clearly 
 made out in favor of our own genealogical 
 descent ; a theory, however, which is utterly 
 untenable, whether viewed in the light of his- 
 torical evidence, or the dictates of common 
 sense : a theory which has been exploded by 
 thp ablest divines in every evanpfcTical commu- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 33 
 
 nity, and is now abandoned by the nicst candid 
 and independent advocates of prelacy itself.* 
 
 While we speak therefore, of the clear iden- 
 tity and unbroken succession of the pure prin- 
 ciples of the Gospel doctrine and worship, 
 through the several ages of the past, we speak 
 of no such succession as implies a priesthood 
 of regular descent, or of such religious ordi- 
 nances as depend for their sacramental efficacy 
 upon the authority of priest, council or pope. 
 
 The valid administration of the Christian or- 
 dinances is derived from the nature of a church, 
 and the end for which it is organized. 
 
 In nature, each Christian Church, is an or- 
 ganized Society, based upon a mutual covenant 
 of all its members, havincr the inherent right, 
 like every other Society, to elect its own officers, 
 form its own particular rules and by-laws, to 
 admit or dismiss its individual constituents, — 
 all subject however to the general outline con- 
 ditions of obedience laid down by the authority 
 of the Great Head of the Cluirch. The ends 
 for which the church and its ordinances are 
 
 * See Whatek^y's Kinnrdora of Christ, pp. li:'-2 — 
 189. Appendix \, 
 
34 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 appointed, are the spiritual improvement of ail 
 its members, the advancement of truth, and 
 the direct promotion of peace and righteousness 
 on the earth. 
 
 The duties of all Christian converts are 
 plainly laid down in the Scriptures ; and among 
 these duties, it is enjoined that they should 
 assemble together in a social capacity, to pray, 
 to instruct and exhort each other, to observe 
 mutual watchfulness, to bear each other's bur- 
 dens, and to enjoy the ordinances of religion. 
 Any body of Christian converts, brought to- 
 gether in a heathen, or in a Christian land, 
 are perfectly competent to organize themselves 
 into a church, and appoint one of their number, 
 having suitable gifts, to the office of the minis- 
 try. A person thus elected and ordained, is as 
 much an authorized minister cf the Gospel, and 
 possesses as high, commanding sanction, to 
 preach and to administer the ordinances of re- 
 ligion, as if an unbroken line of elections and 
 ordinations should connect his ministry with 
 the chair of St. Peter. 
 
 On these principles each of the mdependen 
 Christian Churches of our forefathers was form- 
 ed. And hence from the nature of the case, n-^ 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSK:. Zii 
 
 literal or lineal descent is of any value, even if 
 it could be ascertained to be historically un- 
 broken. But the Holy Spirit, acting by the 
 Divine Word, can create a church and ministry, 
 " ex re nata," without any pedigree than that 
 of Adam " who was a son of God" — a church 
 fresh from heaven, by the free illapse of the 
 Divine Spirit. 
 
 Such was the principle on which the First 
 Baptist Church in this State, and the first on 
 this continent was formed. Roger Williams 
 and eleven associates, feeling the inward power 
 of Divine Truth, and dissatisfied with what they 
 considered the abuses of the doctrines and or- 
 dinances in surrounding churches, agreed to 
 form themselves into a Christian Church. 
 Taking the Bible for their only guide, they 
 saw it was their duty, first of all, to profess their 
 inward faith, in the name of Christ, by the or- 
 dinance of baptism — which symbolized his 
 burial and resurrection, and declared their own 
 spiritual separation from the world, by their dy- 
 ing to sin, and their arising to newness of life. 
 There was then no properly baptized minister 
 on the continent ; and yielding to the necessity 
 of the case, they appointed Mr. Ezekiel Holli- 
 
»i(3 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 man to baptize Mr, Williams, who then in turn 
 baptized all the rest. If the validity of Baptism 
 depended on any sacramental virtue or episco^ 
 pal ordination, there could be no question 
 as to its regularity in the case of those bap- 
 tized by Mr. Williams himself He was first 
 a regularly ordained clergyman of the church 
 of England, and as that church both before and 
 after its separation from the papacy, had re- 
 cognized immersion as a valid and primitive 
 form of baptism, the act of Mr. Williams in 
 baptizing his eleven associates, must be recog- 
 nised as Christian baptism, even by the advo- 
 cates of prelatical succession.* 
 
 But though the persons thus baptized, might 
 justly consider their baptism, and all descend- 
 ing from them, as valid, according to the 
 episcopal theory, they did not for a moment 
 rest the authority of the ordinance upon any 
 connection with prelatical ordination. They 
 seem to have acted, as Backus suggests,? on the 
 
 * See Knowles' Memoirs of Roger Williams, pp. 
 165—169. 
 
 t There is a case proposed by Zanchius, Professor 
 of Theology at Heidelberg, in 1563, in his commentary 
 
HISTOUIOaL DiSCOURSr, id 
 
 simple principle of Scripture and common 
 sense, that although it is the province of a reg- 
 ularly ordained Christian minister to dispense 
 the ordinances of religion, — and that in ordinary 
 cases it is disorderly and inexpedient to depart 
 from this general principle, yet, that in cases 
 of necessity, where ministers could not be found, 
 it was perfectly proper for a layman to admin- 
 ister the ordinances, and thus commence a 
 regularly established ministry, de novo. Such 
 is the testimony of the earliest Fathers in the 
 Christian Church, and of the ablest Eclesiastical 
 Historians.* 
 
 on the fifth chapter of Ephesians, in treating of Bap- 
 tism, in which " he propounds a question of a Turk 
 coming to the knowledge of Christ and to faith, by 
 reading; the New-Testament, and withal teachino- 
 his family and converting it and others to Christ, 
 and being in a country where he cannot easily come 
 to Christian countries, wliether he may baptize them 
 whom he hath converted to Christ, he himself being 
 unbaptized ? He answers, I doubt not of it, but that 
 he may, and withal provide that he himself be bap- 
 tized of one of the three converted by himself Tlie 
 
 " Knowles' Memoirs of Roger Williams, pp. IGG, 7 
 
 D 
 
38 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 In consequence of a misapprehension of the 
 facts connected with Roger Williams' baptism, 
 it has been often and heedlessly repeated, after 
 that it has been so often contradicted, that all 
 the baptisms and ordinations of American 
 Baptists, are traceable to Roger Williams, and 
 that his were irregular ; — and thus the origin 
 of our Denomination in this country has been 
 unjustly imputed to him. 
 
 Now, although all those who were baptized 
 by Mr. Williams, must, by the admission of 
 Pedobaptists themselves, have been baptized, 
 the fact is, that very few of the Baptists in this 
 country have sprung from the church in Pro- 
 vidence. From the earliest periods of our col- 
 onial settlements, multitudes of Baptist minis- 
 ters and members came from Europe, and set- 
 tled in different parts of this continent, each 
 becoming the centre of an independent circle, 
 
 reason he gives is, because he is a minister of the 
 word, extraordinarily stirred up by Christ; and so as 
 such a minister may with the consent of that small 
 church, appoint one of the communicants, and pro- 
 vide that he be baptized by him." Backus, Vol. 1. 
 pp. 105. 6. 
 
HISTOmCAL DISCOURSE. 39 
 
 wherever they planted themselves. There are 
 at present over 700,000 regular Baptist com- 
 municants in this country, and of these, proba- 
 bly not one hundredth part have ever had any 
 connection with the venerable church in Pro- 
 vidence ; " though her members have been 
 numerous, and she has been lionored as the 
 mother of many ministers."* 
 
 A very large proportion of the earliest Bap- 
 tist churches on this Continent, were directly 
 of Welsh descent. The first Baptist church 
 in Massachusetts was established in Swanzea 
 in 1663, when the Rev. John Miles, with a 
 number of Baptist members, came from Wales, 
 and tradition says, brought with them their 
 church records, and thus re-established, or per- 
 petuated the church which had previously ex- 
 isted in Swanzea, in the Principality of Wales. 
 
 The Warren Baptist church, is a branch, or 
 rather a reproduction of the Welsh Baptist 
 church first established in Swanzea. 
 
 As it is our object to sketch the history of 
 our peculiar Christian principles, as they gov- 
 
 ' KnowIe», p. 169 
 
40 mSTOKiC'AI. DISCOURSE. 
 
 em the events of iiiiman society, and arc m- 
 volved in all the relations of the past, it is im- 
 portant to trace the connection between the 
 Christianity of Wales and the particular Baptist 
 church from which this Body originated. 
 
 The Welsh race, from which the ancestors 
 of this church sprung, are the only pure de- 
 scendants of the ancient Britons. The earliest 
 inhabitants of the British Islands were the Celts, 
 a general name, descriptive of the nations in 
 the north-west of Europe, in the times of Julius 
 Ca3sar. But that particular part of this race 
 who settled in Britain, bore the still more an- 
 cient name of Cimbri, (or Cymry,) a tribe of 
 Calmuc or Tartaric origin, who soon after the 
 Trojan war, sallied forth from the regions 
 around the Caspian sea, and traversed their 
 fearless way across the Continent of Europe, 
 and colonized on the borders of the German 
 Ocean. Passing thence into the north of France, 
 in the province of Britanny, they crossed the 
 English channel, and found a final resting place 
 in the Islands of Britain. 
 
 They were a wild aboriginal race, probably 
 the descendants of Corner, the eldest son of 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 41 
 
 Japheth, who was the youngest son of Noah ; 
 partaking of all the stern qualities of the ori- 
 ginal Tartaric race, large in size, of great 
 bodily strength, impetuous in war, nnpatient 
 of labor, and governed by the strong impulses 
 of heroic passion. Such was the original stock 
 of that wild and vigorous race of men subse- 
 quently called the British, whose existence be- 
 came authentically known to the civilized 
 world, about the time of Caesar's invasion, 55 
 years before the Christian era. 
 
 The exact period, and the particular means, 
 of the introduction of Christianity into Britain, 
 are not certainly known. We know, authen- 
 tically, that the Gospel was early and widely 
 diffused in Gaul and all the surrounding coasts 
 on the Continent, in the first and second cen- 
 turies ; and on this account it is reasonable to 
 suppose that it should early have reached the 
 neighboring Island of Britain, particularly when 
 we consider the maritime habits of the people. 
 
 While the apostle Paul was imprisoned, for 
 two years at Rome, about the year of our Lord 
 63, many Welsh soldiers, who had joined the 
 Roman army, and many families from Wales, 
 who had visited the imperial city, became con- 
 
42 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 verted to Christianity. Among these, were 
 Pomponia, Grecina and Claudia Ruffina, the 
 saints in Caesar's household; the first of whom 
 was the wife of Aulus Plautus, the first Roman 
 governor in Britain, and the last of whom was 
 a native Briton, the daughter of Caractacus, 
 the Welsh king, and whose husband, Pudence, 
 was a believer in Christ. 
 
 There is, therefore, every reason to believe, 
 that many native Welshmen, converted under 
 Paul's ministry at Rome, or by the instrumen- 
 tality of Christian soldiers in the Roman army, 
 carried home the precious seed of the gospel, 
 and scattered it among the hills and vallies of 
 Wales, 
 
 From this period, till about the end of the 
 second century, we have no very authentic in- 
 formation concerning the spread of the gospel 
 among the Welsh, who at that time were the 
 same, not only in origin, but in name, as the 
 unmixed race of the ancient Britons. About 
 the year A. D. 190, we find Tertullian boasting 
 that the Gospel had subdued the savage tribes 
 of Britons, who were yet unconquered by the 
 Roman arms. At about the same time, Lucius, 
 a British king, sent to Gaul or to Rome, or 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 43 
 
 more probably to both, for Christian teachers 
 to carry on the missionary work among his 
 own people. Lucius was evidently not the 
 original founder, but the restorer and second 
 father of the British churches. 
 
 It is much more probable, however, that 
 Lucius sent to Gaul for Christian teachers ; — 
 from the fact, among other reasons, that the 
 Welsh or British churches, had already varied 
 from the Romish, in many ritual matters ; the 
 British churches also maintaining their inde- 
 pendence against the already growing assump- 
 tions of authority by the Roman bishops : while 
 they observed the same rites with the Gallic 
 churches, which were planted directly from 
 Asia Minor : thus proving that the British 
 in the second century principally received 
 their Christianity either immediately, or by 
 means of Gaul, from Asia Minor, which may 
 have easily taken place through their commer- 
 cial intercourse.* 
 
 During the Third, Fourth and Fifth cen- 
 
 * See Ncander's Church History, p. 50 : also, Mo- 
 sheim's Eccl. History, pp. 99, 100 : alf?n, Mo'^lipinaV 
 Dc Rebus Christianorum, pp 213—15 
 
44 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 turies, Christianity seems gradually to haTS' 
 taken root among the British race, and not a 
 few of the royal blood, as well as multitudes of 
 inferior birth, became converts to the Christian 
 faith. About the year A. D. 325, the Roman 
 Emperor, Constantine the Great, a native 
 Welshman, made a public profession of Christ- 
 ianity, at the same time abolishing all the per- 
 secuting edicts of his predecessors, and prepar- 
 ing the way for the dissolution of the whole 
 system of paganism throughout the Roman 
 empire. His conversion is ascribed by Theo- 
 doret,* to the influence of his mother, Helena, 
 who was a Welsh lady, the daughter of Coel- 
 godebog. Earl of Gloucester. After residing 
 for a time in Britain, with her husband, who 
 was a Roman, they removed with their son 
 Constantine to Rome, where he subsequently 
 achieved a brilliant career, and became the 
 first Christian Emperor in the world, as Lucius, 
 another Welsh Prince, 135 years before him, 
 had been the first Christian king, since the 
 earthly ministry of him who is King in Zion. 
 
 ' Theodoret Eccl. Hist. Liber I. cap. 17: also, 
 see Milner's Eccl. Hist. Vol. 1. p. 318 and Vol. H. 
 p. 39. 
 
IlISTOKKAL DISCOUUSJE. A J 
 
 During the interval between the conversion 
 of Constantine, A. D. 3'25, and the Saxon In- 
 vasion, in 449, the process of gradual corrup- 
 tion was working out the results of Papacy 
 among most of the churches in the Roman 
 Empire, on the Continent of Europe. But a- 
 mong the Welsh, or native Britons, the love 
 and practice of primitive Christianity still pre- 
 vailed, and but little disposition was feluto ad- 
 mit the innovations and superstitions of the 
 risinjT reiojn of Antichrist. 
 
 Their faith in the essential doctrines of the 
 gospel, was, however, severely tried by the pre- 
 valence of an insidious heresy, which began to 
 agitate the public mind, about the year A. D. 
 405, and which originated in the philosophical 
 speculations of one of their own countrymen. 
 It was the system of Pelagianism, a heresy the 
 most deeply rooted, and the most difficult effec- 
 tually to combat, that ever found a lodgment 
 in the Christian church ; which tasked to the 
 utmost the profound talents of St. Augustine, 
 at the time of its origin, which taxed all the 
 energies of Luther and Calvin, at the Reform- 
 ation in the IGth century; — which employed 
 the acutest powers of our American Edwards,, 
 
46 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 and which has tried the faith of multitudes of 
 Christians in every age since its origin. The 
 author of this system was Pelagius, a native 
 Welshman, whose real name was Tilorgan, or 
 Blarigena, translated by the contemporary 
 Greek writers into Pelagius^ the corres- 
 ponding word in their language; and it is by 
 this name he is generally known in history.* 
 
 Combined with the origin of Peiagianism 
 and the religious agitation which ensued 
 among the British, a series of political events 
 now began to change their social destiny. 
 
 Owing to the declining state of the Roman 
 Empire at its centre, the last of her protecting 
 legions were withdrawn from Britain about the 
 year 446. Immediately the Picts and the Scots 
 from the North poured their desolating bands 
 of robbers upon the British territory, while the 
 Angles, Jutes and Frisians, bands of piratical 
 adventurers, invaded the island by sea. Thence- 
 forward the original homogeneous character ot 
 the British people in England, became greatly 
 changed. Wave after wave of foreign popula- 
 tion poured in upon the native race, and be- 
 
 MVTosheim's Ecel, Hist Vol. I. pp. 370—374, 
 
HISTOEICAL DISCOURSE. 47 
 
 came intermixed with the British stock. The 
 most numerous and successful of these invading 
 hordes, were the Angles, a valiant race of Ger- 
 manic origin from the vallies of the Elbe, who, 
 rapidly combining v/ith the original British, 
 impressed upon them the strong features of 
 their own character, and gave their name to the 
 principal part of the island, which thencefor- 
 ward has borne the name of Angland, and in 
 modern times its present name g^ England. 
 
 But a large portion of the native British, and 
 especially of their young men who had been 
 trained in the Roman army, valiantly resisted 
 the approaches of these invading foreigners, 
 and more than once drove back the barbarous 
 tribes from their island. The mercenary bands 
 still continuing to return and desolate their 
 country, the British people who were still un- 
 mixed with the foreign tribes, called in to their 
 aid and defence the powerful arms of the Ger- 
 man Saxons, who by stratagem and treachery 
 combined with the Angles themselves, whom 
 they had been engaged to resist, and after many 
 bloody and desperate battles, drove the remain- 
 ing British before them into the mountains of 
 Wafe?, and took complete possession of the en- 
 
48 HISTORICAL lilSCOURSE. 
 
 tire country of England. By this juncture of 
 the x^ngles with the Saxons, and both together 
 being grafted en what remained of the original 
 British in England, was laid the foundation of 
 modern English institutions, and the basis of 
 the Anglo-Saxon character. 
 
 The unconquered remnants of the ancient 
 British were crowded step by step, by each 
 successive wave of foreign immigration that 
 swept over from the Continent, till they were 
 entirely driven out of England, and took a final 
 refuge in the sequestered vallies and mountain 
 fastnesses of Wales, a district on the West of 
 England, about 180 miles in length, by 80 in 
 breadth. Here these relics of the original 
 Cambrian race, the only pure descendants of 
 the British stock, known by the more modern 
 name of Welsh, have lived for 1400 years, an 
 unmixed and homogeneous people, leaving 
 behind them among the Anglo-Saxon conquerors 
 of their former territory, but a small portion of 
 their blood, and but few distinct traces of their 
 national character.* 
 
 The disappearance of the British from the 
 soil of England, was followed by an almost 
 
 " Appendix B. 
 
HISTOUICAL DISCOURSE. 49 
 
 "pntire extinction of Christianity among the 
 compound relics, which formed the Anglo-Saxon 
 race; and the barbarous religion of these hea- 
 then invaders, sharpened their ferocity in their 
 conflicts with the British Christians. When at 
 the end of 159 years from the Saxon invasion, 
 Austin, with forty other missionary monks, was 
 sent by Gregory the Great to convert the Sax- 
 ons, they found both the Christian religion and 
 the British language extinct in the English 
 territory; an awful proof of the ferocity of 
 the warfare which had raged between the 
 heathen invaders and the exiled British Christ- 
 ians, the only remains of v/hom had become 
 entirely shut up among the mountains of Wales 
 and Cornwall, except a few in Cumberland, 
 on the borders of Scotland, or those who 
 had been driven into Britanny, beyond the 
 English Channel. Over all the rest of Eng- 
 land, paganism had again established itself 
 triumphantly : the churches were demolished, 
 or converted into idolatrous temples, and the 
 public worship of the true God had ceased.* 
 
 * Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Vol. I. p. 3fc?4. 
 
50 HISTOUft.VL DISCOURSE. 
 
 During the interval of 150 years between 
 the banisiraient of the British, and the arrival 
 in 596, of Austin, to convert the Anglo-Saxons, 
 who had now become entirely pagans, the rem- 
 nants of the old British race had found a safe 
 retreat in the sequestered regions of Wales. 
 
 Here, unlike their English conquerors, they 
 continued to be simple-minded, well-informed 
 and zealous Christians, retaining the primi- 
 tive ordinances of religion, the independence 
 of their churches, and fanning the flame of 
 patriotism and the love of religious liberty. 
 They remained in quiet obscurity, experienc- 
 ing, so far as is known, but few changes of 
 prosperity or adversity, till about the beginning 
 of the seventh century, when, at the re- 
 introduction of nominal Christianity into Eng- 
 land, the ¥/elsh Christians again appear on 
 the page of history, holding forth their pecul- 
 iar principles, in bright contrast with the cor- 
 ruptions of the times. Gregory the Great, 
 having ascended the pontifical chair in 590, 
 he sent Austin, with forty monks, in 59C, to 
 convert the Saxon pagans to papal Christian- 
 ity- 
 
 '" -^ -M. vi iw.To nearly all the Anglo Sax- 
 
HISTORICAL t)iscoi:rse. .>1 
 
 ons became nomiiiiiily Chrit^tiaiis. The way 
 was led by Ethelbert, the most distinguished 
 ot tlie Saxon kings, among whom England 
 was then divided, who had married a christ- 
 ian wife, named Bertha, the daughter of Char- 
 ibert, king of Paris ; and being converted, by 
 her influence, to Christianity, he was followed 
 by nearly all his subjects, of whom he caused 
 ten thousand to be baptized in a single day, 
 in the river Sv/ale, near York, which by roy- 
 al edict, was consecrated as a baptismal river. 
 This kind of conversion becoming so rap- 
 idly and successfully promoted, Austin was 
 appointed, in 597, by the Court of Rome, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and primate of all 
 iilndand.* 
 
 *The ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Austin bein^ 
 confirmed, the Pope " exhorted him to proceed with 
 Jiis work ; advised him not to demolish the pagan 
 temples, but to convert them into churches, purifying- 
 them with holy water : for the pagans would love to 
 worship in the places long held sacred : only the 
 idols must be destroyed. He also advised that the 
 people be allowed on festal days to assemble around 
 the churches, erect booths, and there feast them- 
 .soivc.-:. ijiucli nr. (lurinn- t!;nir pagan st«tn. v(M witli. 
 
52 KISTORICAI, DISCOURSE. 
 
 Having been so successful among the Anglo- 
 Saxons, in the year 604 Austin attempted to 
 bring under the jurisdiction of Rome, and to a 
 conformity with his national church, all the 
 pastors and churches of the ancient Britons, 
 who are thenceforward better known in history 
 by the name of the Welsh, and who had now 
 been entirely shut up in the Principality of 
 Wales. But these British pastors and churches, 
 the successors of the ancient British converts 
 to Christianity in the first and second centuries, 
 utterly refused to submit themselves to the 
 jurisdiction of Rome, or to compromise matters 
 with the new national church established by 
 Austin in England. These strenuous Welsh 
 Christians, retaining their ancient spirit and 
 the institutions of their primitive Christianity, 
 
 out sacrificing to their idols." Mosh. Eccl. Hist. 
 Book I, Cent. VI. Part I, Chap. I, Sec. 2. 
 
 In the year 602, Austin built his Cathedral at Can- 
 terbury ; in 604, he erected St. Paul's Church, in 
 London, and in the next year the IVest Monastery^ 
 (afterwards called Wcstviinstcr,) adjoining^ London. 
 Thus in a few years all England became nominally 
 Christian, and the foundations of the modern Englisl> 
 church were laid. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 5a 
 
 turned a deaf ear to all the conditions proposed 
 for their union with Rome. At length, how- 
 ever, they consented to hold an interview with 
 Austin, in a council which met on the borders 
 of Herefordshire, which on the part of the 
 Welsh was composed of 1200 pastors and dele- 
 gates. The chief conditions of uniformity pro- 
 posed by the Roman prelate of the English 
 church, were the three following. First : That 
 the Welsh should observe the festival of Easter, 
 which from the peculiar religious associations 
 of the Romish church at that time, was the 
 great test question of papal allegiance, and the 
 non-observance of which was incompatible with 
 their communion with the papal church. Al- 
 though the controversy was nominally concern- 
 ing the ti7Jie of the great festival of Easter, the real 
 principle involved, was the question of spiritual 
 bondage to Rome, or of the unfettered liberty 
 of conscience in religion. The Second condition 
 proposed by the English prelate, was their ec- 
 clesiastical subjection to his own primacy : and 
 this involved the great principle as to whether 
 Christ should be king in his own kingdom, 
 and the practical question of the union of 
 Church and State, and the original independence 
 
54 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 of each church. The T/z/r^/ term of uniformity 
 submitted by Austin, Wtis that he should give 
 Christendcme, which, in the language of the 
 times, meant haptism, to their children. And 
 this involved the sreat relicricus doctrine of 
 personal responsibility and experimental faith. 
 These three propositions comprehended, in fact, 
 the three great comprehensive principles asso- 
 ciated in the events M^hich led to the establish- 
 ment of this Church and Town, the illustration 
 of which will be more distinctly conspicuous 
 in the details of our ancestral history. 
 
 But with all these conditions of uniformity 
 proposed by the English prelate, the Welsh 
 pastors and churches steadily refused compli- 
 ance. 
 
 Irritated by his failure, and despairing of 
 eftecting the desired union by the arguments 
 of reason and scripture, to which the Welsh 
 resorted, Austin proposed to leave the settle- 
 ment of the questions to miraculous arbitration, 
 " by agreeing that the party which should per- 
 form a miraculous cure, was to be considered 
 as sanctioned by the interposition of heaven.* 
 
 '' Bede. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. o5 
 
 He pretended to have cured a blind man, and 
 to have exercised other miraculous powers, 
 which pretensions the credulity or the pious 
 fraudulency of his followers assisted him in 
 maintaining. But the Welsh Christians adher- 
 ing to the principles of faith and the religious 
 ordinances which they had received from their 
 British ancestors, were accused by Austin with 
 holding obstinate prejudices and unpardonable 
 heresy ; and that if their errors of faith could 
 not be cured by persuasion, they should be ex- 
 tinguished with blood. Many of the pastors 
 and delegates were put to the sword by the 
 bordering Saxons, wdio, as the Welsh historians 
 say, were led on at the instigation of Austin, 
 who was enraged at the insolence of their con- 
 scientiousness. This crowning act of cruelty 
 was consummated but two years before the 
 death of Austin, in 607, and but one year be- 
 fore Gregory the Great was declared by the 
 Emperor Phocas to be not only the Pontiff of 
 Rome, but Bishop of the universal church, and 
 recognized as a temporal prince, as well as the 
 spiritual vicegerent of Christ on earth. This 
 great event is the landmark which the Spirit 
 of Prophecy had predicted as the visible date 
 
56 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ct the full establishment of the reign of Anti- 
 christ.* From that period onward till the 
 death of Llewellyn, the last prince of the Brit- 
 ish blood, in 1274, when Edward I. reduced 
 the brave Cambrian race to its present depen- 
 dence as a Principality of the English crown, 
 the history of the Cambro-British people is in- 
 volved in much obscurity. Their religious 
 history is indeed recorded among the existing 
 monuments of their own native language ; but 
 as Sir James Mackintosh suggests,? no native 
 Welshman, in modern times, of sufficient gen- 
 ius and industry, has arisen, to recover the re- 
 maining authentic records of their history, 
 which their national feeling, damped by con- 
 quest, has been in danger of neglecting, amid 
 the perishable legends of fable and tradition. 
 
 The faithless and merciless acts of oppres- 
 sion by which the rapacious invaders had al- 
 
 * It is a remarkable fact, that the National Chureh 
 of England was fully established on its present basis, 
 within one year of the time when Gregory the Great 
 was declared by royal edict to be the visible head of 
 the universal church. 
 
 t History of England, Rejgu of Edward I. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 57 
 
 most driven the unhappy Britons to despair, 
 produced a state of society most unfriendly to 
 the preservation and transmission of that part 
 of their history, for subsequent times. 
 
 But as God had preserved his scattered and 
 hidden people in Piedmont and Holland, and 
 as thousands were found in every age, who 
 formed an uninterrupted succession of witnesses 
 to the Truth, so now in Wales, multitudes of 
 these sequestered people, unbroken in spirit, 
 formed a regular chain of true and faithful 
 witnesses to that Gospel which they had re- 
 ceived from their Christian ancestors of former 
 centuries, and which they here preserved amid 
 their quiet and fertile vallies, shut up by lofty 
 mountains from the rest of the world, as if God 
 had designed these mountain fastnesses as the 
 barriers of protection for his chosen and faith- 
 ful people, against the corruptions and assaults 
 of the papal hierarchy. And it seems to have 
 been a part of the wise arrangement of Provi- 
 dence for their preservation, that they should 
 he kept in obscurity, and that obscurity now 
 makes it very difiicult to trace their history. 
 What is chiefly found concerning these Welsh 
 rhristians in the Ecclesiastical and Secular 
 
'J& m.STOillC .\L DISCOURSE. 
 
 Histoiries of their Jater Contemporaries, are but 
 scattered fragments, which their enemies in the 
 Church and State of England, would have 
 gladly thrown into obscurity and contempt. 
 
 But in the recesses of their mountainous 
 Principality, they still retained their liberty and 
 independence, and loved the religious princi- 
 ples which they had received from their fathers. 
 And when, in later times, the vail of darkness 
 was drawn aside, which for several centuries 
 had hid them from the notice of the world, 
 they reappear on the page of history, displaying 
 the same noble qualities of character which 
 distinguished their British ancestors, the same 
 native frankness and generosity, the same love 
 of liberty and hatred of oppression, the same 
 characteristic honesty and uprightness, the same 
 love of home and of country, and holding their 
 Christianity pure and unmixed with human 
 traditions, as they received them from their 
 Christian ancestors of the first centuries. 
 
 Their pastors and theological writers had 
 but few opportunities to appear on the great 
 arena of the historical world ; subjected as they 
 always were, to the prejudice and jeidousy 
 which are ever the fate of a despised and 
 
JHSTORHAL DISCOURSK -^O 
 
 (iieadcd sect : and what references aic laade 
 concerning them, but poorly conceal the hatred 
 of their enemies, and their ill-disguised dread 
 of the influence of sentiments before the light 
 of which, their own cherished systems must 
 have withered away. Indeed there are many 
 evidences that these Welsh pastors were men 
 whom their enemies might affect to despise, 
 but whom they were compelled to fear. The 
 theological colleges, which in their early days 
 were located at Bangor in the North, and Car- 
 leon in the South, were long the abodes of sa- 
 cred learning. In the Seventh Century it is 
 said that the College at Bangor was resorted 
 to by more than 2000 theological students at 
 one time. These schools of piety were not 
 like the Catholic monasteries, but were con- 
 ducted on much the same principles as the fra- 
 ternities of the modern Moravians, or like the 
 Baptist Missionary establishment at Serampore, 
 in India, in which a kind of community of in- 
 terest and affection united all the members in 
 the bonds of Christian brotherhood. 
 
 But in later times the British pastors received 
 their knowledge of Christianity, apart from the 
 institutions of learning, each drawing for him- 
 
GO HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 self from the oracles of Divine Truth. Distin- 
 guished by their love of religious liberty, 
 opposed to the authority of human tradition in 
 matters of religion, with all the sympathies of 
 their nature against the union of ecclesiastical 
 power with the state, and exercising the great 
 Protestant doctrine of the right of private judg- 
 ment in interpreting the Scriptures, they stood 
 forth as the representatives of those great prin- 
 ciples which the primitive British Christians 
 had received from the apostles, which were al- 
 ways preserved by a sacred succession of men 
 of whom the world was not worthy, and which 
 at a new and fortunate juncture of political 
 affairs, were reasserted and practically exem- 
 plified by Roger AVilliams in establishing this 
 State, and by John Miles in establishing this 
 Town;men,bothofwhomwereofCambro-British 
 blood, and both of whom had learned the prin- 
 ciples of Cambro-British Christianity. 
 
 If it belonged properly to the object of this 
 discourse, it would not be a difficult task to trace 
 the history of Baptist Sentiments in other and 
 parallel lines, through the channel of history. 
 But as previously suggested, it is not our purpose 
 U) present a summary of a denominational creed. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 61 
 
 nor to trace the prevalence of a sectarian name, 
 through all the historical phases of the past. 
 Other and abler pens have been worthily em- 
 ployed in rescuing from oblivion the memory 
 of those great men, the lustre of whose princi- 
 ples shone like stars in the dark night of papal 
 corruption.* And it is the history of the prin- 
 ciples, rather than of the men, — of the senti- 
 ments, rather than of their names, that chiefly 
 interests us in our present investigations. 
 
 During every period of the history of the 
 British Christians in Wales, there were con- 
 temporaneously with them, in other parts of 
 Europe, Societies of men, who held the pure 
 and uncorrupted principles of the gospel : and 
 wherever any one of the distinguishing princi- 
 
 *I cannot forbear from referring in this place to 
 the masterly illustrations of Baptist principles in the 
 Historical Discourse of the Rev. William Hague, 
 delivered in Providence in 1839. For brevity as 
 well as comprehensiveness, that Discourse contains 
 the clearest, most candid and philosophical exhibition 
 of Baptist principles, and the true nature of the events 
 which led to the establishment of this State, that 1 
 liave any where seen, in so small a compass. 
 F 
 
62 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 pies, I am tracing, was held, the others were 
 generally, and inthnately blended with them. 
 Wherever the doctrine of believer's baptism 
 was cherished, the ideas of the unfettered lib- 
 erty of conscience, the independence of the 
 church, and the supreme authority of the 
 Written Word, were all considered its logical 
 deductions, and its Scriptural concomitants. 
 
 And when the Reformation by Luther be- 
 gan in the sixteenth century, there were multi- 
 tudes of Christians in Piedmont and Holland, 
 who came forth from their retirement, and 
 maintained in public, what the pressure of 
 outward persecution had before prevented them 
 from declaring Many of them long before 
 Luther's time, had cherished principles which 
 Luther himself never clearly apprehended ; and 
 when they found that he accepted the notion of 
 Consubstantiation in the place of Transubstan- 
 tiation, and maintained the right of the magis- 
 trate to use the sword in suppressing heresy, 
 and in promoting the truth, they felt that the 
 Lutheran Reformation needed itself to be re- 
 formed. The leaders of that great moral revo- 
 lution, not advancing to the full extent of the 
 results to which their own leading principles 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 63 
 
 would have conducted them, were thrown into 
 conflict with men and with principles, as much 
 in advance of themselves, as they were in ad- 
 vance of the papal church, whose authority 
 they had thrown off. Luther, Zuinglius and 
 Melancthon, though they all conceded the an- 
 tiquity and the Scripturalness of the doctrine of 
 Believer's Baptism, and its mode by immersion, 
 yet found that doctrine connected with other 
 principles which involved the freedom of the 
 conscience, the right of the church to govern 
 itself, and its separate existence from the 
 State ; — which were conclusions they were not 
 yet prepared to accept, and hence, being all 
 logically and Scripturally united, they were all . 
 proscribed together.* Luther admitted the 
 
 * Bishop Burnet (History of the Reformation, Vol. 
 II. p. 176) candidly acknowledges that the Baptist 
 Denomination in England have been unjustly repre- 
 sented, by being identified with some of the German 
 Anabaptists who engaged in the political disturban- 
 ces at Munster. He attributes the rise of the Bap- 
 tists in Germany to their carrying out the principles 
 of Luther, regarding the sufficiency of the Scriptures, 
 and the rights of private judgment; and in this the 
 Catholic writers agree with him, whojcharge Luther 
 
04 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 nullity of Infant Baptism as a scriptural ordi- 
 nance, yet practised it, from the connexion it 
 had with the State church, and with other 
 standing ordinances which he was not disposed 
 to abandon.* Zuinglius pleaded for Infant 
 Baptism, and yet (in his Work, De Paedobapt.) 
 admits that " The institution of Anabaptism 
 
 with being the father of the German Baptists and say 
 that when he persecuted them " he let out the life of 
 his own cause." Robinson's Ecclesiastical Research- 
 es, p. 543. (For the above reference I am indebted 
 to Hague's Historical Discourse, p. 66 ) 
 
 * Luther says, in so many words, " It cannot 
 be proved by the Sacred Scriptures that Infant 
 Baptism was instituted by Christ, or begun with the 
 first Christians after the apostles." Quoted in Booth's 
 Paedobaptism examined. Vol. II p. 4. — And "Baptism 
 itself," Luther says, (Opera, Vol. I. pp. 336, 7,) " is 
 nothing else than the word of God with immersion in 
 water." And again he says, — " \\ashing from sins 
 is attributed to Baptism ; it is truly, indeed, attribu- 
 ted, but the signification is softer and slower than it 
 can express by Baptism, which is rather a sign both of 
 death and resurrection. Being moved by this reason, 
 I would have those that are to be baptized, to be 
 altogether dipped into the water, as the word doth, 
 sound, and the mystery doth signify." 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 65 
 
 (as Baptist principles were then called) is not 
 a novelty ; but for thirteen hundred years has 
 caused very great disturbance in the church, 
 and has acquired such strength that the attempt 
 in this age to contend with it appeared futile for 
 a time," But thirteen hundred years back- 
 ward from the time of Zuinglius, carry us up 
 to the early part of the third century, the very 
 period when infant baptism is believed to have 
 crept into the church : when Tertullian, who 
 is the first Ecclesiastical historian among the 
 ancient Fathers who allude to it, mentions it as 
 having first begun to be practised in Africa, in 
 the year 204 : — at the same time he speaks of 
 it as an innovation, and dissuades from baptiz- 
 ing infants, and proves the delay of it to a more 
 mature age, is to be preferred. (Tertullian De 
 Baptismo, Cap. XVIII.) 
 
 Previous to the time of Tertullian, there is 
 no undoubted mention made of Infant Baptism, 
 in any way : and from the silence of the Fath- 
 ers between Tertullian and the Apostles, on the 
 subject, the matter must be relinquished as an 
 historical question : and we are accordingly 
 brought up to the Inspired Scriptures them- 
 selves. Neander, the most candid and profound 
 
 F* 
 
66 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Ecclesiastical historian of the present, or per- 
 haps of any age, says of the apostolic period — 
 " The practice of infant Baptism was remote 
 from this age:" and he adds, "Not only the 
 late appearance of any express mention of In- 
 fant Baptism, but the long continued opposition 
 to it, leads to the conclusion that it was not of 
 apostolic origin." (Eccles. Hist. Apostolic 
 Age.) 
 
 No wonder, then, that Mosheim, the great 
 Lutheran Historian of the last century, should 
 say of a body of Christians every where scattered 
 over Europe in sequestered groups in every 
 period of the dark ages, — " That they held 
 that no persons ought to be baptized until 
 they come to the full use of reason."* And 
 the same historian when speaking of the origin 
 of the Anabaptists, whom he associates with the 
 Waldenses, Albigenses and Mennonites, as 
 interchangable names for people holding sub- 
 stantially the same principles, says, " The 
 true origin of that Sect which acquired the 
 
 ^ peel. Hist. Vol. II. chap. 3, p. 127. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 67 
 
 name of Anabaptists by their administering 
 anew the rite of baptism to those who came 
 over to their communion, and derived that of 
 Mennonites from the famous man to whom they 
 owe the greatest part of their present felicity, 
 is hidden in the remote depths of antiquity, and 
 is of consequence, extremely difficult to be 
 ascertained."* 
 
 But the line of descent through which we are 
 at present tracing the prevalence of Baptist 
 principles, leads us to discover their re-appear- 
 ance in England and Wales, at the time when 
 Roger Williams stood forth as their rep- 
 resentative, in forming this State, and John 
 Miles as his counterpart, in colonizing the 
 district now embraced within this Town. Pre* 
 vious indeed, to the prevalence of Luther's 
 Reformation in England, the followers of John 
 Wickliffe, and the Lollards who were substan- 
 tially in fact and principle the same as if they 
 had been called by the name of Baptists, had 
 
 *Mosheim Eccl. Hist. Cent. XVI. Sect. HI. Part 
 II. chap. 3. § 2. 
 
68 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 stood up as the bold opponents of tradition in 
 religion, ^diYiA of the union of ecclesiastical pow- 
 er loitli the State ; and they were too often 
 called upon to seal their faith with their blood, 
 *' not loving their own lives unto the death." 
 
 And when the pressure of civil and spiritual 
 tyranny was removed, the fires that had been 
 sleeping under the ashes, again broke out into 
 a flame, and soon all England was moved by 
 their light and warmth. The consequence was, 
 that when the English reformation began to 
 dawn, Baptist sentiments were proclaimed all 
 at once, in many parts of the realm. As early 
 as in 1549, we are told by Bishop Burnet, 
 (II p. 143,) that many Baptists fled from Ger- 
 many into England, who maintained that Infant 
 Baptism was no baptism, and so were re- 
 baptized. 
 
 But the source through which these senti- 
 ments were mainly derived, by those who a- 
 dopted them in England, was from Wales. 
 Two hundred years before the Lutheran Re- 
 formation dawned in England, John Wickliffe, 
 persecuted for boldly maintaining the Truth of 
 the Scriptures, and for translating them into 
 English, was compelled to retire to Hereford- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. G9 
 
 shire, and the adjoining counties, on the fiiend- 
 ly borders of Wales, and there the seeds of 
 truth which he deposited, took root and flour- 
 ished. It was in that very neighborhood that 
 William Tyndal was born; who, 150 years 
 after Wickliffe's death, caught the light of fiis 
 principles, and followed his footsteps in giving 
 another translation of the Bible to the English 
 nation. Both of these men were Baptists, in all 
 their distinguishing principles, if not in name. 
 Tyndal perished in the flames of martyrdom, 
 in Flanders, in 153*2. His last words were, 
 " Lord, open the eyes of the King of England." 
 WicklifTe died a century and a half before him, 
 in 1384, not an actual martyr, but from the 
 fatigue and suffering incurred in persecution. 
 Forty years after his death, his bones were dug 
 up, burnt and thrown to the winds, by his en- 
 raged enemies. 
 
 From the same borders of Wales there went 
 forth influences that stopped not at the place 
 nor the time that gave them birth. As soon 
 as the Reformation dawned, and the pressure 
 of persecution was removed, there suddenly 
 appeared a multitude of men professinfr Baptist 
 
70 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 sentiments. Many of the British Christians 
 came forth from their hiding places in the Prin- 
 cipality of Wales, where they had preserved 
 the doctrines and the ordinances of the Gospel, 
 unadulterated by the corrupt church of Rome, 
 having never bowed the knee to Baal. This 
 accounts for the fact, that at the commence- 
 ment of the Reformation so many Baptists all 
 at once made their appearance. No one can 
 tell when they Jirst became Baptists : nor how 
 long their little churches had continued in this 
 British Piedmont. Hence, in less than a hun- 
 dred years, their sentiments were found scat- 
 tered all over the English nation. In the reign 
 of Charles the First, and in the time of the 
 Commonwealth, they had wonderfully multi- 
 plied. A large part of Cromwell's army, and 
 many of his generals and leading officers were 
 Baptists. They were complained of by their 
 contemporaries, " as growing more rapidly than 
 any other sect in the land.''* 
 
 If the limits of this Discourse permitted, we 
 could name a catalogue of Baptist Ministers, 
 Civilians, Scholars, military officers and other 
 
 * See BailUe's Letters, 1 p. 408 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 71 
 
 professional men, the number of whom wouhl 
 surprise even the general reader, who is not 
 intimately acquainted with the history of those 
 times* 
 
 A large proportion of those free and bold 
 spirits who bore so conspicuous a part in 
 rescuing the English people from the oppres- 
 sion of a usurping monarchy, and an eccle- 
 siastical despotism, were of the ancient Brit- 
 ish stock, and many of them were native 
 Welshmen. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell was of Welsh origin, and 
 Roger Williams and Jo)\»^ Miles were both 
 born in Wales. It was(3||hhe circumstances 
 of his birth and early training, that Roger 
 Williams was probably indebted for those 
 great principles of religious faith and human 
 liberty which have thrown such a peculiar 
 g'^ry around his name. It is too often sup- 
 posed and asserted, that to this man belongs 
 the praise of being " the first person in modern 
 Christendom to assert in its plenitude the 
 
 * For a convenient reference to this subject, see an 
 able article in the March No. of the Christian Review 
 for 1843, 
 
i'2, HISTORlt'AL DISCOURSE. 
 
 doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the 
 equality of opinions before the law."* The 
 eloquent historian of the United States has 
 given currency to this opinion, which he with 
 most others who have attempted to write the 
 history of Roger Williams and of Rhode-Island, 
 have mistaken, from a m.isconception of the 
 circumstances connected with his origin, and 
 from a want of acquaintance with the relig- 
 ious history of the Cambro-British people. 
 While every existing State is truly represented 
 by Mr. Bancroft as " connecting by the clos- 
 est bonds, the eneMj^of its faith with its form 
 of government, t^^Bkppeared," he says, " in 
 their midst, one of those clear minds which 
 sometimes bless the world by their power of re- 
 ceivino- moral truth in its clearest lio^ht, and of 
 reducing the just conclusions of their princi- 
 ples to a happy and consistent practice." ''He 
 announced his discovery under the simple prop- 
 osition of the sanctity of conscience. The 
 civil magistrate should restrain crime, but nev- 
 er control opinion ; should punish guilt, but 
 
 * Bancroft's Hist. U. S. Vol. I, p. 375. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 73 
 
 never violate the freedom of the soul." * *■ * 
 *' In the unwavering assertion of his views he 
 never changed his position : the sanctity of 
 conscience was the great tenet, which, with all 
 its consequences, he defended, as he first trod 
 the shores of New-England : and in his extreme 
 old age it was the last pulsation of his heart.*" 
 The splendid description which Mr. Ban- 
 croft has given of Roger Williams, repre- 
 sents him as emerging from the moral 
 darkness by which he had been surrounded, 
 and in the deep workings of his keen and far- 
 sighted mind, groping and grappling and bring- 
 ing to light, a mighty principle, the nucleus 
 and concomitant of other stupendous concep- 
 tions, to which all the rest of the world were as 
 yet strangers. This singular eminence, to 
 which the father of this State has been exalted, 
 is equally unnecessary and unreasonable, D. 
 has made him the subject of undue praise en 
 the one hand, and of unjust representation on 
 the other. His defenders have been betrayed 
 into a spirit of vain-glorious adulation ; his ac- 
 
 * Bancroft's Hist. U. S. Vol. 1, pp. 367, 8, 
 
 
 
74 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 cusers have been quickened into a spirit of 
 captiousness and detraction. He is praised by 
 the one as a star of the first magnitude, which 
 all at once shed its brilliant light upon man- 
 kind, as the pole-star of their destiny : by the 
 other, he is viewed as an erratic planet, break- 
 ing from its orbit, subject to no law, and strik- 
 ing its path into the realms of chaos. He has 
 been called the great modern law-giver in mor- 
 al and political jurisprudence, by many Bap- 
 tists, who are willing to own him as the father 
 of their religious denomination in this country; 
 and by others he has been accused with being 
 *' conscientiously contentious,^^ — governed by a 
 spirit of restlessness, which rendered him as 
 liable to stumble on a false principle, as to 
 alight upon a true one ; while his worried con- 
 science was nothing but a sanctimonious bundle 
 of pride, self-conceit and evil passions. 
 
 Both of these opposite views of his character 
 are equally unfounded. The truth is, that he 
 possessed a noble character, combining a vig- 
 orous intellect, disciplined and furnished by 
 generous learning, with a moral nature, sof- 
 tened and sanctified with the graces of piety. 
 But in all his published works, and in all his 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 40 
 
 written memorials, there is no evidence that 
 his intellect was so singularly quick and far- 
 sighted, or that his moral philosophy was self- 
 derived from his own original conceptions. 
 He drew his moral creed from the Bible alone : 
 and from his intercourse with multitudes of 
 noble minds in his fatherland, whose intellect, 
 philanthropy and piety, were equal to his own. 
 Though he occupied a peculiar position, and 
 seemed to strike out new and startling theories, 
 in New-England, he was not in advance of 
 thousands in Wales and in England, who had 
 as clear and familiar an acquaintance with the 
 great principles he advocated, as he had him- 
 self : and from whose companionship, indeed, 
 he must have derived his first conceptions of 
 the doctrines he maintained. To him, indeed, 
 belongs the honor of establishing thcjirst civil 
 government in modern Christendom, which 
 gave equal liberty of conscience to all its sub- 
 jects : but the moral principle on which he act- 
 ed, so far from being his own original discov- 
 ery, was the carrying out, under fortunate cir- 
 cumstances, of the great idea, which multitudes 
 before him had clearly derived from their Bibles, 
 apart from all human systems of ethics or poU- 
 
76 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tics. Both he and they, drew their sentiments 
 from the Bible : and they had long held as sim^ 
 pie and primary convictions, those truths, which, 
 when once boldly advocated before the world, 
 seemed like the inspirations of enthusiasm, or 
 the daring presumption of heresy and treason. 
 And they were but links in that long chain of 
 witnesses for the truth which connected those 
 Cambro-British Christians, who, in the earlier 
 part of the Seventeenth Century, startled Eng- 
 land from her dreams of spiritual slumber, with 
 generations of holy men before them, who in 
 every age, preserved and contended for the 
 " faith once delivered to the saints." 
 
 About the time that Roger Williams ha(i 
 planted his colony at Providence, on the basis 
 of those truths which have immortalized his 
 name, among the multitude of his contempora- 
 ries who held the same sentiments in Wales 
 and in England, was the Rev. John Miles, 
 whose history is identified with the origin of 
 this Town. 
 
 When, under the influence of the English 
 Reformation, in the reign of Charles I. many 
 distinguished persons, both in and out of the 
 established Church,adopted Baptist Sentiments, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSB. 77 
 
 -^veral of them visited Wales, to confer with 
 h3 Churches in that Principality. Among 
 these Apostles of the English Reformation, who 
 visited Wales, were Penry, Wroth, William 
 Erbury and the celebrated Vavasor Powell. 
 They found many of the old British Baptist 
 churches who held the sentiments of the Re- 
 formers, in advance of the Reformation itself 
 As the Waldensian and Piedmontese Christians 
 on the Continent, were disappointed when they 
 found that Luther's Reformation still allowed 
 of many existing corruptions, the reformer him- 
 self substituting Consubstantiation for Tran- 
 substantiation, and recognizing the jurisdiction 
 of civil Government in the affairs of conscience, 
 so these old Welsh churches were not disposed 
 to accept, as the full expression of their religt 
 ious Faith, the doctrines of their newly reform- 
 ed brethren from the English church. Among 
 these churches of the old Baptist order, were 
 six, who had formed an association on the prin- 
 ciples of their ancient Christianity. Theses 
 were the churches of Olchon, Llanwenartb, 
 Llantrisaint, Carmarthen, Dolan and Sv/anzea. 
 It is the last of these six churches, with which 
 we, as a people, are historically connected. 
 
78 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 In the yeir 1649, being the first year of 
 Cromwell's protectorate, the Rev. John Miles 
 became pastor of the Church in Swanzea, in 
 Glamorganshire, a county in the south of Wales, 
 He soon became one of the leading ministers 
 of the Baptist denomination in that Principality. 
 
 In 1651, he was sent as the representative 
 of the Baptist churches in Wales, to the Bap- 
 tist Ministers' Meeting, in Glazier's Hall, Lon-^. 
 don, with a letter giving an j ccount of the 
 peace, union, and increase of tl e Baptist 
 churches in his country ; and returned with a 
 letter written by tl :e London Ministers to their 
 Brethren in Wales, in which they were advised 
 to form new churches ; so that their members 
 who resided at a distance might be made more 
 useful : and that the smaller churches so form- 
 ed should associate together for the occasional 
 observance of the Lord's supper, and the pro- 
 motion of Christian fellowship. 
 
 Mr. Miles continued his ministry with the; 
 church in Swanzea for thirteen years, during 
 which time he added two hundred and 
 sixty-three persons to his church,* at the 
 
 *Backus,VoI. I, p, 351. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. /U 
 
 same tirre, actlncr as the leading repre- 
 sentative of the Baptist Churches in Wales, 
 and was their medium of correspondence with 
 the Churches in London, Dublin and several 
 other places. But in 1662, two years after the 
 restoration of Charles II. the Act of Uniform- 
 ity was passed, by which two thousand of the 
 most pious and useful ministers in Enffl.nd 
 and Wales, not conforming to the requisitions 
 of the established Church, were ejected from 
 the places they had occupied during the pro- 
 tectorate of Cromwell. Among these non- 
 conforming ministers, of whom many were em- 
 inent Baptists, was the Rev. John Miles, who 
 immediately after his ejectment came with some 
 of his brethren to New-England, bringing their 
 church-records with them.*t 
 
 The first notice we find of Mr. Miles, on his 
 arrival in America, is at Rehoboth, where find-, 
 ing spirits kindred to his own, he immediately 
 gathered around him the materials for organizing 
 a church. He probably landed, at first, at Bos- 
 ton or Salem, but discovering that the spirit of 
 
 * Backus, Vol. I, p. 353. t Appendix C. 
 
JO HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 persecution, which had banished Roger Wil« 
 iiams, still lingered there, and lured by the in- 
 telligence that some of his brethren were scat- 
 tered through Rehoboth, on the westerly bor- 
 ders of the Colony, near the bounds of Rhode- 
 island, he soon took up his abode in that 
 Township. It was here that Mr. Obadiah 
 Holmes had resided, who, about twelve years 
 before, had been publicly whipped at Boston, 
 for holding Baptist sentiments, and for acting 
 accordingly. The cruel treatment of Mr. 
 Holmes, was equalled only by the unjust fine 
 and imprisonment of the Rev. John Clarke 
 and Mr. John Crandall, whose only offence 
 had been to hold the sentiments of the Baptists, 
 and to venture on a visit of mercy to one of 
 their aged brethren within the limits of Massa- 
 chusetts, where heresy in religious opinions 
 was as actionable in the eye of the civil law, 
 as were the most flagrant vices of actual con- 
 duct.* But as injustice always defeats itself, 
 
 * Even twelve years before the persecution of these 
 ■iree men, as early as 1630, the very year when Roger 
 Villiams established his church in Providence, there 
 
 as an attempt made to form & Baptist church in 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 81 
 
 and the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the 
 church, so the effect of this inquisitorial tyran- 
 ny was to create a re-action in favor of the 
 sentiments of the men who had been persecut- 
 ed for maintaining them. 
 
 On the arrival of Mr. Miles in Rehoboth, 
 finding several of these persecuted heretics, 
 whom he and his companions in their father* 
 land would have regarded as the true succes- 
 sors of the ancient British Christians, he united 
 with them in the house of Mr. John Butter- 
 worth, in Rehoboth, in a solemn covenant, in 
 forming a new church, or in reproducing the 
 same one which he had represented in Wales. 
 
 Weymouth, a town fourteen miles south-eaot of Bos- 
 ton. The leading men who held the interdicted sen- 
 timents, were John Sinith, John Spurr, Richard Syl- 
 vester, Ambrose Morton, Thomas Mackpeace, and 
 Robert Lenthall, who, being presented before the 
 Court, for their heresy and treason in dissenting from 
 the established churches, were fined and imprisoned 
 with various degrees of severity, and the attempted 
 organization was crushed by the strong arm of the 
 secular law. See Backus, Vol. I, pp. 113, 114, and 
 Benedict, Vol. I, p. 357 
 
82 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 The names of these original constituents were 
 John Miles Pastor, Nicholas Tanner, James 
 Brown, Joseph Carpenter, John Butterworth, 
 Eldad Kingsley and Benjamin Alby. All these 
 seven men appear to have possessed high stand- 
 ing and influence, notwithstanding their crime 
 of dissent, as their names are often found in 
 the records of the Towns of Rehoboth and 
 Swanzea. 
 
 As soon as it was known that this church 
 was organized, and were observing the ordi- 
 nances of religion on Baptist principles, the 
 orthodox churches of the Standing Order solic- 
 ited the government of Plymouth Colony, with- 
 in whose jurisdiction the church had been 
 formed, to interpose its authority for the ex- 
 tirpatioi] of the heresy. In accordance with 
 this solicitation, the members of this little 
 church were fined each five pounds, for setting 
 up a public religious meeting without the 
 l^nowledge or consent of the Court, to the dis- 
 turbance of the peace and the received faith of 
 the community. They were at the same time 
 ordered to desist fi'om their meeting for one 
 month, and advi-ed to remove tlieir neeting to 
 gome ether place, where they might not preju- 
 
mSTORICAL DISCOURSS, 83 
 
 dice any other church. Upon tliis order and 
 advice, Mr. Miles and his church removed to 
 Wannamoiset, a place south of Rehoboth, be- 
 ing a part of the present town of Barrington, 
 not then included within the limits of any ex- 
 isting town, though Rehoboth, which at that 
 time embraced nearly all of the present County 
 of Bristol, in Massachusetts, claimed a kind of 
 jurisdiction over it. At first they appear only 
 to have removed their ^/«ce of meeting to Wan- 
 namoiset, as permission was afterwards given 
 to Mr. Miles to purchase land and to continue 
 his residence in Rehoboth. After the action 
 of the Court in the removal of the church from 
 Rehoboth, these exiled brethren erected their 
 first meeting-house, about three miles north- 
 west of Warren, on a spot within the limits of 
 Wannamoiset, (now Barrington,) a few rods 
 south of the Rehoboth line, and a little south 
 of the road, that now leads from Waiien 
 through Seekonk, to Providence.* 
 
 On the 30th of October, 1G67, the Plymouth 
 Court, according to the encouragement previ- 
 
 * Appendix D. 
 
84 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 busly giveiij made to the founders of this church, 
 along with others, a grant of land, to be called 
 Swanzea, after the name of the Church and 
 ^own which Mr. Miles and his friends had 
 left in Wales. The Plymouth Colony had al- 
 ways from the first, exhibited a more liberal 
 spirit, in matters of religious opinion, than 
 their brethren of the Massachusetts Bay.* 
 
 It was in the Colonies of Massachusetts Bay 
 that nearly all the proscriptions for liberty of 
 conscience were enacted. It was here that 
 those suspected of Witchcraft, were hanged ; 
 that the Quakers shared the same fate ; and 
 that the Baptists were imprisoned and expatri- 
 ated. As Roger Williams had always receiv- 
 ed more candid and merciful treatment at 
 Plymouth, than in the colonies of Massachusetts 
 Bay, so for the same reason, doubtless, John 
 Miles and his friends, at their first landing, 
 immediately proceeded to find a resting-place 
 1\'ithin the limits of the Plymouth Colony. And 
 although they were fined and silenced by the 
 authority of that government, it is evident that 
 a milder policy would have been more grateful 
 to the Court and the Ministers, if they cculd 
 
 Appendix E. 
 
HISTORICAL DISC0UR3K. b.> 
 
 honestly have seen its consistency with the ex- 
 isting union of Church and State, and the re- 
 ceived conviction that it was the duty of the 
 magistrate to use his sword for the suppression 
 of heresy. Accordingly, the Plymouth Court,, 
 more willing to remove the Baptists from their 
 jurisdiction, than to punish them within it, de- 
 clared, " that in case they should remove their 
 meeting unto some other place, where they may 
 not prejudice any other church, and shall give 
 lis any reasonable satisfaction respecting their 
 principles, we know not but they may be per- 
 mitted by this government to do so.'** 
 
 On the 30th of October, in the same year, 
 (1667-8,) the Court of Plymouth made an am- 
 ple grant of all the district called Wannamoi- 
 iset, and parts adjoining, described in general 
 bounds, as embracing " all the lands between 
 the salt water and river, and the bounds of 
 Taunton and Rehoboth," to be held by Mr. 
 Miles and his friends, for their accommodation, 
 as an incorporated Town, within which they 
 ^vere at liberty to exercise all their rights of 
 
 * Plymouth Records, July 2d, 1667. 
 IX 
 
86 HISTORICAL tUBCOURSE. 
 
 conscience as members of a Baptist church. 
 The territory thus granted under the incorpo- 
 rated name of Swanzea, then embraced not 
 only what is now Swanzea, in Massachusetts, 
 but also the present town of Somerset, in the 
 same State, and the present towns of Warren 
 and Barrington, in Rhode-Island. 
 
 The two first names in the petition for the 
 grant of this Town, are Mr. Miles, the Pastof 
 of the church, and Capt. Thomas Willet, who^ 
 though not a Baptist, but probably a membei* 
 of the Reformed church of Holland, yet felt 
 the value of religious toleration, and freely join-^ 
 ed with Mr. Miles and his friends, in securing 
 the grant of a Town, within which liberty of 
 conscience might be allowed to all ; who, 
 though of different sentiments, could still live 
 as peaceful neighbors, in the exchange of the 
 civil amenities of common life. The spirit of 
 these two leading men doubtless reflected a 
 generous influence over all the community. 
 As Mr. Miles, like Roger Williams, was a 
 scholar and a well-bred gentleman, so Capt. 
 Willett had adorned his naturally amiable char 
 acter by the elegant refinements of foreign 
 travel, and the intelligence derived by compan- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 87 
 
 ship with eminent men in other lands. He 
 was one of the last of the Ley den Company 
 who came to Plymouth, and by his intimate 
 acquaintance with the manners, customs and 
 language of the Dutch, was frequently sent by 
 that Colony, to represent their interests among 
 the people of New-Netherlands, In 1647, he 
 became the successor of Capt. Miles Standish^ 
 in the command of the military at Plymouth ;. 
 was frequently elected one of the governor' a 
 assistants, and on the surrender of New-York 
 by the Dutch to the English, in 1664, he visit- 
 ed that town with the Commissioners of Ap- 
 peals, where he performed his duties so succes- 
 fully to all parties concerned, especially to the 
 Dutch, that after the re-organization of the 
 government, he was elected the first English 
 Mayor of the city of New-York, which ofiice 
 he held for two years. After acting as umpire 
 between the Dutch and the English, and heal- 
 ing their divisions and strifes, his peaceful na- 
 ture inclined him to the shades of retirement, 
 and he returned to his quiet home, in that part 
 of Swanzea which is now Barrington, where,^ 
 just before the breaking out of Philip's war, 
 he died, on the 4th of August, 1674, anci was 
 
'SB HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 buried in a sequestered spot, about three miles 
 west from this place, where a simple stone, 
 bearing a brief inscription, records the memo- 
 rial of a man, who is worthy to receive from 
 the government of the great commercial me- 
 tropolis of our country, a more appropriate and 
 enduring expression of gratitude they owe to 
 their first English Mayor.* 
 
 When the Court of Plymouth mr.de the grant 
 of Swanzea to Mr. Miles, Capt. Willett, and 
 their friends, they were also empowered to de- 
 termine the conditions on which they would 
 receive strangers as members of their Town. 
 As a refuge was thus afforded by the liberal 
 nature of their incorporation, to all who might 
 have different scruples of conscience in matters 
 of religion, and to adventurers and refugees, 
 who had no conscience at all, care was taken 
 by the Town, that none should be admitted as 
 members of their community, who should cor- 
 rupt the morals or religious character of the 
 inhabitants, or who were likely to become 
 
 • Biographical Note of Capt. Willett. See Appen- 
 dix F. 
 
UrSTORICAL DISCOURSE. S9 
 
 common paupers, as a charge to the Town. 
 Four persons were appointed by the Town, at 
 the head of whom was Capt. Willett, to pre- 
 scribe the conditions on which any might be- 
 come inhabitants, and in performing their duty,, 
 they adopted the following conditions : 
 
 1. That no erroneous person should be ad- 
 
 mitted into the Township, either as an 
 inhabitant or sojourner. 
 
 2. That no man of any evil behaviour, as a 
 
 contentious person, should be admitted. 
 
 3. That none should be admitted that may 
 
 become a charge to the Town. 
 
 These rules, while they strongly reflect the 
 epirit of rigid morality which marked all the 
 early colonists of New-England, were submitted- 
 for review to Mr. Miles and his church, in con- 
 sideration of their prominent position as the 
 leading members of the Town. The church, 
 not unmindful of their distinguishing principles, 
 that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, — 
 that the civil magistrate in the one, has no 
 jurisdiction in the spiritual affairs of the oth- 
 er, — that personal faith, expressed by baptism, 
 is the only proper condition of membership in 
 
DO HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 a Christian church ; and desiring to allow the 
 same religious liberty to others which they 
 claimed for themselves, made an address to 
 Capt. Willett and his associates, not members 
 of their church, in which address they gave an 
 explication of the manner in which they wish-, 
 ed the proposed rules to be understood, and 
 manifested a strong desire to found a commu- 
 nity on the liberal and comprehensive princi- 
 ples of the Bible, by which the glory of God 
 and the good of man may be best promoted. 
 The explanations made by the church, were 
 agreed to by Capt. Willett and his associates^ 
 as Trustees, and being unanimously adopted, 
 Feb. 20, 1669, they became the foundation on 
 which the Town was established. 
 
 By this time, although the larger part of the 
 citizens of the Town were Baptists, many oth- 
 er persons besides Capt. Willett, of liberal 
 sentiments and pious life, who were not Bap- 
 tists, were concerned in the settlement and 
 prosperity of the Town. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Second Charter of 
 Rhode-Island, granted by Charles II. on the 
 8th of July, 1663 (four years before the Town 
 
ffISTORlCA.L DISCOURSE. 9t 
 
 of Swanzea was incorporated,) most clearly 
 included the present towns of Bristol, Warren 
 and BarringtoR, and all that territory " extend- 
 ing eastwardly three English miles, to the east 
 and north-east of the most eastern and north- 
 eastern parts of the Narragansett Bay, as the 
 said Bay extendeth itself from the ocean on the 
 south unto the mouth of the river which run- 
 neth towards the town of Providence,"* yet 
 when the town of Swanzea was incorporated, 
 four years afterwards, the Plymouth govern- 
 ment assumed jurisdiction over all the territory 
 embracing the present towns of Bristol,! War- 
 ren and Barringtcn, and granted the two lat- 
 ter as a part of the Town of Swanzea. 
 
 Some questions were raised by the Rhode- 
 Island people, respecting these boundaries, and 
 commissioners were several times appointed by 
 the King and the Colonial governments, to set- 
 tle the difficulties ; but the original grant by 
 the Plymouth Colony was still maintained for 
 more than eighty years, and the boundaries 
 
 ■* See Second Charter of Rhode-Islahd 
 
 t See note on Bristol as an Indian Town, Appendix 
 
92 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 fixed by the Charter were not ascertained and 
 acknowledged till th3 year 1746, when, after 
 repeated litigation, the present Town of Bris- 
 tol, and the Town of AVarren, then embracing 
 what are now both the present Towns ot War- 
 ren and Barrington, became recognised parts 
 of the State of Rhode^Island. 
 
 Accordingly, it is only ninety-nine years 
 since the Town of Warren ceased to be a part 
 of Swanzea, in the Commonwealth of Massa-.. 
 chusetts, when its inhabitants became citizens- 
 of the little State, in whose civil and moral 
 welfare they have ever since been so deeply 
 interested. 
 
 The history of this Church and Town, there-- 
 fore, cannot be properly contemplated apart 
 from their original connection with the Church; 
 and Town of Swanzea, with which they were 
 so long identified as constituent parts. 
 
 It is therefore necessary to the purpose of" 
 this Discourse, to present a brief sketch of the- 
 continued history of Swanzea, from the time 
 of its settlement by Mr. Miles and Capt. Wil- 
 lett, until the partitioning of this Town, and 
 the separate organization of this Church. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 95 
 
 Nothing of special interest appears to have 
 occurred in the affairs of the Church or Town 
 ofSvvanzea, from 1G69 till Philip's War, which 
 began in June, 1675, in the sufferings of which, 
 the Swanzea people bore so conspicuous and 
 melancholy a part. At the beginning of this 
 War, the Church still worshipped in their first 
 meeting-house, about three miles north-west of 
 this place, and about a mile and a half west of 
 Miles' Bridge, the place now known as Barneys- 
 ville. The ground occupied by the present 
 village of Warrei, though then a part of the 
 Swanzea grant, was still occupied by the rem- 
 nants of the once powerful tribe of Wamp^no ig 
 Indi-^ns, whose former chief, the good and 
 faithful Massasoit, had held his residence, there 
 is every reason to believe, but a short distance 
 from the spot where we are now convened.* 
 After Massasoit's death, which occurred at 
 some time between the months of Mry and 
 December, of 1661, his son and successor, 
 Philip, repaired to Mount Hope, whic'i then 
 became, probably for the first tin e, tl e resi- 
 
 * Appendix H, 
 
94 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 dence of the Great Sachem of the Wampano- 
 ags. 
 
 This powerful Chief had seen his father 
 Massasoit, holding, with enduring constancy 
 for forty years, the solemn compact which he 
 formed when he welcomed the first Englishman 
 to the shores of Plymouth, and little dreamed 
 that before the onward march of civilized soci- 
 ety, the race of red men must fade away, and 
 in less than two centuries, leave scarcely a re- 
 lic of a noble people, who, in more fortunate 
 times, would have been an ornament to their 
 age, and to human nature 
 
 Roused by the recollections of ancient glory, 
 and stung with the consciousness of failing 
 strength, Philip resolved to employ his mighty 
 genius in combining all the powerful tribes of 
 New-England Indians, in striking one exter- 
 minating blow, which should sv/eep from the 
 land, all the colonies of strangers, who had 
 dotted their hunting grounds with harvest 
 fields, and farm houses, and thriving towns, 
 and aspiring churches. 
 
 Some of his warriors, burning with impa- 
 tience for the attack before the time appointed 
 by Philip '*:r the general onset, had already 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 95 
 
 betrayed his design I)y committing depredations 
 on the settlement in Swanzea, while the Baptist 
 Church and Congregation were assembled for 
 worship, on Sabbath, the 20th of June, W7n. 
 The government of Plymouth speedily made 
 preparations to protect the defenceless inhabit- 
 ants, who lived in this vicinity, and several 
 military companies were at once called out from 
 Plymouth and Boston, and at the same time 
 l.lie people were requested by the government 
 to observe the following Thursday as a day of 
 fasting and prayer. Wliile the Swanzea Church 
 liad been observing the day as requested, re- 
 'turning from their place of worship, they were 
 surprised by the Indians, and several of theni 
 were killed, among whom was Eldad Kingsley^ 
 one of the first constituent members of the 
 church. The people of Swanzea and Reho- 
 both were soon collected into garrisoned houses: 
 and on the following Monday, June 28, the 
 forces arriving from Plymouth and Boston, they 
 entrenched themselves in the mansion house 
 of Mr. Miles, which stood about fifty rods west 
 of the bridge, which still bears his name. The 
 next day the troops returning over the bridge, 
 ifnarehed down the eastward side '^* * the War- 
 
95 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ren river, towards Mount Hcpe, tinding on their 
 way the heads of eight Englishmen, whom the 
 Indians had murdered, set upon poles by the 
 side of the road, at a spot about one mile east 
 of this place. Marching on to Mount Hope, 
 they found that Philip had fled to the east side 
 of Taunton River : but nothing daunted, they 
 attacked his warriors in their fastnesses wher- 
 ever they found them : and collecting all their 
 forces together, they crossed the Bay into the 
 Narragansett country, and by a series of well 
 concerted attacks, they carried fire and sword 
 into every wigwam ; and striking blow after 
 blow, at almost every point at once, in a short 
 time, they left nothing but a few scattered rel- 
 ics of the once powerful tribes of the Wam- 
 panoags and the Narragansetts. Philip, hunt-^ 
 ed down like a stricken deer, at last fell a vic- 
 tim to the treachery of one of his own people : 
 and thus sunk the last of a noble race, whose 
 melancholy fate would even now have been al- 
 most forgotten and unwept forever, but for th& 
 imperish;ible interest associated with his mem- 
 ory, by the brilliant genius of Irving. " With 
 heroic qualities and bold achievements, that 
 would have graced a civilized warrior, and 
 
rtlSTORICA^ DISCOURSE. ^f 
 
 have rendered him the theme of the poet and 
 the historian : he lived a wanderer and a fugi- 
 tive in his native land, and went down, like a 
 lonely bark, foundering amid darkness and 
 tempest — without a pitying eye to weep his 
 fall, or a friendly hand to record his struggle."* 
 
 Although one half of the dwellings in Swan- 
 zea were laid in ashes during the war, the 
 inhabitants immediately after the extermination 
 of the Indians, began to spread themselves in 
 various directions, and some of them repaired 
 to the site on which this village now stands, 
 which had been previously occupied by the 
 wigwams of Massasoit's Indians. In a short 
 time the eastern part of this Township be- 
 came thickly settled ; and as there was no 
 other place of worship, but the Baptist meeting- 
 house in the Town of Swanzea, embracing as 
 it then did what are now the Towns of Swan- 
 zea and Somerset in Mass., and Warren and 
 Barrington in Rhode-Island, the people found 
 that some more central spot must be selected 
 for the accommodation of their wide-spread 
 congregation. 
 
 * Sketch Book I 
 
98 HISTORICAL DISCOURSF.. 
 
 Accordingly, two years after the war, (1677) 
 the Town resolved to assist the church in re- 
 moviug their meeting-house from its former 
 position three miles N. W. of this place, to the 
 lower end of New-Meadow Neck, immediately 
 opposite this village, across the river. But as 
 difficulties occurred in their attempted removal 
 of the House, the project was abandoned, and 
 in about two years afterward, the Town assis- 
 ted the church in erecting a new meeting-house, 
 40 feet long, 22 feet wide, with 16 feet posts, on 
 the site of the old grave yard at Tyler's Point, 
 just below Kelley's Bridge.* At the same time, 
 they built by the side of their meeting-house, a 
 dwelling house, which the Town transferred to 
 Mr. Miles, to indemnify him for money which 
 he had advanced to the Town in defraying the 
 expenses of the Indian war, 
 
 The place of the new meeting-house at Kel- 
 ley^s Bridge, was at that time the most central 
 point in the Town, and was then called the 
 
 • The vote of the Town to '"assist the church in 
 erecting a house of worship on Tyler's Point, is dated 
 March 29, 16^0. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 99 
 
 " Place of Trade ;" and for sixty years after- 
 wards, nearly all the shipping in the foreign and 
 coasting trade, held by the people in this vicin- 
 ity, was connected with wharves and ware- 
 houses on New-Meadow Neck, near the two 
 Bridges, now known as belonging to Capt. 
 Bo A en and Mr. Kelley. 
 
 But the population continuing to extend 
 northward and eastward into what are now the 
 Towns of Svvanzea and Somerset, in Mass. 
 in the course of twenty years after the meeting- 
 house was built on Tyler's Point, it was found 
 to be extremely unsuited to the convenience of 
 the majority of the people ; and accordingly, 
 about the year 1700, it was removed to North- 
 Swanzea, as it is now called, to a spot directly 
 west of the place now known as Cornell's Tav- 
 ern, where it stood till the present meeting- 
 house of the Swanzea church was erected, in 
 1717. Tradition says, the meeting-house was 
 moved across tiae Warren River to the east 
 side, on the ice. 
 
 But the new position of the house of worship 
 being equally unsuited to the religious accom- 
 modation of the numerous people then inhabi- 
 ting the present Town of Barrington, it create<i 
 
100 BISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 the necessity for the establishment of another 
 church : and as many Congregationalists had 
 lived in various parts of Swanzea from its first 
 incorporation, advantage was taken of the oc- 
 casion thus afforded, and tlie present Congre- 
 gational church in Barrington was organized 
 shortly after the removal of the Baptist meeting- 
 house, from Tyler's Point, in 17C0. The first 
 meetinor-house of the Barrinorton Conorrecra- 
 tional church was erected a fe.y rods south of 
 the venerable Elm trees at the corner of the 
 road, one mile west of Warren. 
 
 Notwithstanding the trying circumstances 
 in which Providence had placed the learned 
 and pious Mr, Miles, he continued during and 
 after the Indian war, to exercise his ministry 
 with great success and acceptance. While 
 residing at his first location near Barneysville, 
 he was engaged in the noble occupation of in- 
 structing youth, as well as of preaching the 
 Gospel. He appears to have possessed a con- 
 siderable amount of property, and was always 
 <jreatly interested in the affairs of the Town, as 
 veil as of the church. He was held in 
 he highest esteem by the other religious per-. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 101 
 
 suasions ; for notwithstanding his almost unpar- 
 donable heresy of being a Baptist, he was 
 employed by the Congregational church of the 
 standing order in the Town of Rehoboth to 
 preach for them once on a week day, every 
 fortnight, and on every alternate sabbath, dur- 
 ing nearly all of the year 1666.* 
 
 During the interval between 1667-8, till 
 the completion of their new meeting-house on 
 Tyler's Point, in 1680, Mr. Miles preached to 
 his persecuted Baptist Brethren in Boston ; and 
 so acceptable was his ministry there, that they 
 urged upon him the proposal to become their 
 pastor, which however, to the joy of his people 
 in Swanzea, he did not accept. After the 
 meeting-house was finished he returned to his 
 church and residence at Tyler's Point, where 
 
 * Mr. Backus says, Vol.1, p. 506, " We are told 
 that being once brought before the magistrates (on a 
 charge for we know not what,) he requested a Bible, 
 and upon opening it, he turned to these words in Job : 
 19 : 23, " But ye should say, why persecute we him, 
 seeing the root of the matter is found in me," wbich 
 having read he sat down ; and the word had a good 
 effect upon their minds, and moved them to treat him 
 ^ith moderation if not with kindness." 
 
102 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 he continued to reside three years, when he feil 
 asleep in Jesus on Feb. 3, 16S3. He exercised 
 his ministry for thirty-eight years ; about half of 
 th^t time, in his native country, where for sev* 
 eral years he was the leading Baptist minister 
 in Wales ; and with distinguished success for 
 twenty years in this vicinity during the stormy 
 times of Indian warfare, and the more unnatural 
 despotism of religious intolerance. Less fortu- 
 nate than his noble co-adjutor, Capt. Willett, 
 not even a rudely inscribed stone points out the 
 spot where rest the earthly remains of a man 
 whose memory is still precious, and whose 
 name will be revived with immortal honors at 
 the resurrection of the just. lie was, most 
 probably, buried in the old grave-yard near 
 where his dwelling and meeting-house stood at 
 Tyler's Point, just across the river, a few hun- 
 dred yards from this place.* 
 
 * All that we have been able to ascertain of Mr. 
 Miles' family is that his wife was named Ann Hum- 
 phrey, by whom he had three children, John, Susan- 
 nah and Samuel. John must have been a full grown 
 man when Swanzea was founded, as he was one of 
 the first clerks of the Town. Of his daughter we 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 103 
 
 After Mr. Miles' death, the church were with- 
 out a pastor for nearly two years, when Capt. 
 Samuel Luther, who had sustained every office 
 of hoior and trust which the proprietors of the 
 Town could bestow, wns ordained to the work 
 of the ministry in 16?5, by the assistance of 
 Elders Hull and Emblen of Boston. Both be- 
 fore and after he became pastor of the church, 
 his na ne ofen appears on the Records of the 
 Town : having been appointed moderator of 
 the Town meeting, and on the most important 
 committees, and for several years representative 
 to the Legislature, showing the esteem in which 
 he was held both at home and abroad, until his 
 
 know nothing but the name. His son Samuel was 
 in College at Cambridge at the time of his father's 
 death. In 16S4 he graduated and went to England, 
 and after receivinof the degree of 'Master of Arts at 
 Oxford and taking orders in the Episcopal church, he 
 returned to America and settled as minister of King's 
 Chapel in Boston in 16S9, where he died in 1729. Mr. 
 Backus incorrectly supposes that this Samuel was 
 Mr. Miles' grandson, but there are several facts which 
 prove the correctness of the statement in Farmer's 
 Register, that he was the «<on of Mr. Miles. 
 
104 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 death, which occurred on the 20th Dec. 1716, 
 having been pastor of the church upwards of 31 
 years. He possessed an ample estate, and re- 
 sided on the west side of the Kickemuit river, 
 one mile east of this place, and \vas buried in 
 the old grave-yard near his residence, Avhere a 
 tomb-stone still stands over his ashes. He has 
 had a large posterity, among whom was the late 
 Col. Ichabod Cole, the present venerable Mr. 
 Seth Cole, Capt. Shubael P. Child, and many, 
 if not most of the numerous families bearing 
 the name of Luther, in this vicinity. 
 
 The Rev. Ephraim Wheaton, who for 12 
 years had been the colleague of the Rev. Sam- 
 uel Luther, succeeded him as sole pastor at his 
 death. His ministry in Swanzea was attended 
 with such great success, that in five years from 
 1718, he baptized and received into his church 
 fifty members, and during the 17 years of his 
 pastorate, he baptized about one hundred, who 
 became memb rs o^ his church ; while he was 
 also instrumental in erecting their present house 
 of worship. He wrote an account of the re- 
 markable revival in his church to Mr. Thomas 
 Mollis of LondoDj the distinguished Baptist 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 105 
 
 patron of Harvard University, who sent him a 
 letter of congratuh\tion on his ministerial suc^ 
 cess, accompanied with a present of books 
 The celebrated John Comer was his assistant 
 at one time ; and at a later period tlie same ser- 
 vice was performed for two years, by the Rev. 
 John Callender, who afterwards becam.e pastor 
 of the First Baptist church in Newport, where 
 he published his Century Sermon, with enlarge- 
 ments, containing the most authentic informa- 
 tion extant, respecting the early history of 
 Rhode-Island. During the ministry of Mr. 
 Wheaton, he resided within the bounds of 
 Rehoboth, where he died on the 26th of April, 
 1734, aged 75, and was buried in the grave-yard 
 near the residence of Dr. Samuel Bullock, 
 where a decent monument stands over his grave. 
 Near by his sidej was laid the lamented Comer, 
 who died on the 23d of the following month, 
 before he had completed his 30th year.* 
 
 * The descendents of Mr Comer, in this vicinity, 
 have in their possession, two volumes of his journal 
 and correspondence, which would furnish ample ma- 
 terials for h^s biography ; but the limits proper for 
 this Discourse forbid any extended notice of that 
 ffoo^ and useful rae,n 
 
106 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Mr. Wheaton was a man of piety and talents, 
 and left considerable property, with a numerous 
 family. His four sons were settled on different 
 portions of his lands, and among his lineal 
 descendents are Judge Wheaton of Norton, 
 Mass., Dr. Wheaton, an aged and eminent 
 physician in Providence, the Hon. Henry 
 Wheaton, U. S. Minister to the court of Prussia, 
 the Rev. Henry Jackson of New-Bedford, 
 Mass., the Hon. Charles Jackson, present 
 Governor of this State, and the large and re- 
 spectable family bearing the ancestral name, 
 who reside in this Town. 
 
 During the last year of Mr. Wheaton's min- 
 istry, Mr. Samuel Maxwell was ordained his 
 colleague, who at Mr. Wheaton's death, became 
 sole pastor of the church. He seems to have 
 been successful in his ministry, so that in the 
 six years of his pastorate, he baptized about fifty 
 persons. But being somewhat unsettled in his 
 principles, he became, in 1738, a Sabbatarian, 
 and was dismissed from his office. He was 
 however always esteemed a pious man, and 
 lived to a good old age, in the south part of 
 Rehoboth, where he left numerous descendents 
 5^'bo still bear his name, in that neigborhood 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 107 
 
 After the church had been destitute of a 
 pastor, two or three years, they elected the 
 Rev. Benjamin Herrington, who entered upon 
 his office, the 1st of July, 1742. He was a 
 man of remarkably popular talents, having al- 
 most always a crowded audience, and during 
 his short ministry of six years, baptized and 
 added to the church about eighty persons. 
 At length, however, his character suffered from 
 the imputation of improper conduct, and not 
 sufficiently clearing up the charges against him, 
 he was dismissed from the church. May 3, 
 1750, when he went to Canterbury, Conn, 
 where he preached to a few people, aud lived 
 in obscurity to old age. 
 
 On the removal of Mr. Herrington, Mr. 
 Jatez Wood, grandson of Thomas Nelson, the 
 progenitor of the extensive Baptist family of 
 that name in Middleborough, Mass., was call- 
 ed ta supply the pulpit, and after considerable 
 hesitation on the part of the church, was at 
 length o/dained, Sept. 5, 1751, to the pastorate 
 in which office he continued without much 
 success for twenty-eight years, when he was 
 dismissed, and removed to Vermont, where he 
 died in 1794. 
 
108 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 During the period thus briefly sketched, the' 
 interests of this community now bearing the 
 name of Warren, were inseparably connected 
 with the Church and Town of Svvanzea, of 
 which they formed a part. The ministers of 
 that church had been men of able talents, and 
 sound religious faith, and for a considerable 
 part of that period, the church was probably 
 the largest and most flourishing Baptist church 
 in New-England. 
 
 Their members resided at a distance of 
 many miles around, in the various towns which 
 were then included in that of Svvanzea, and 
 not a few came great distances to enjoy amonor 
 this highly favored people, the ordinances of 
 the Gospel. They were favored with repeated 
 revivals of religion, especially during the min- 
 istry of Mr. Wheaton, when there were up- 
 wards of two hundred regular members of the 
 church, and a very large and respectable con- 
 gregation gathered from all the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 It was for these reasons, that the distinct 
 organization of the Warren Baptist Church, is 
 of comparatively so recent a date. The Town 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 109 
 
 of Warren, though plainly included in the 
 Rhode-Island Charter of Charles II., in 1664, 
 had been embraced in the grant which the 
 Plymouth Government had made in partition- 
 ing off the Town of Swanzea, and the Massa- 
 chusetts Government claimed jurisdiction over 
 it, till the boundaries fixed by the Charter, 
 were ascertained , and ratified by royal enact- 
 ment in 1746. 
 
 The question of the boundary line between 
 Massachusetts and Rhode-Island, began to be 
 discussed in the Rhode-Island Legislature as 
 early as 1729, in which year Commissioners 
 were appointed to act with those from Massa- 
 chusetts, in settling the disputed line, but not 
 agreeing, nothing effectual was done. In 
 1734, Gov. Wanton, of Rhode-Island, sent a 
 petition to the King, praying that the matter 
 might be settled, which was replied to in 1738, 
 by the proposal of the crown to appoint a com- 
 mission from the other Colonies. But to 
 " save cost and altercation," it was deemed 
 best to make another trial to settle the dispute 
 among themselves, and accordingly a new com- 
 mittee was appointed by both parties, who met 
 
 K 
 
110 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 in Bristol, in 1739, when, as before, no sue- 
 cess attended the commission. 
 
 In 1740, the King, agreeably to his rec- 
 ommendation, appointed a commission from 
 without the Colony, while committees were 
 appointed by the contending parties to appear 
 before the commissioners. The Court met at 
 Providence, in June, 1741, and organized by 
 appointing Cadwallader Colden, of New-York, 
 President of the Board. They came to a de- 
 cision, June 30, 1741, by agreeing to transfer 
 from Massachusetts to Rhode-Island, the terri- 
 tory of Little-Compton, Tiverton, Bristol, a 
 large part of Barrington, and a portion of 
 Swanzea, which embraced forty-seven families, 
 together with " Attleborough Gore." But 
 Massachusetts, declining to comply with this 
 decision, appealed to the King in Council. 
 
 In 1746, the decision of the King and Coun- 
 cil was received, confirming the agreement of 
 the Commissioners : whereupon the Legislature 
 of Rhode-Island immediately in the same year, 
 (1746,) passed an act incorporating the towns 
 by their respective names, as portions of Rhode- 
 Island. The concluding part of the act, is as 
 follows : '' And that part of the territory con- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. Ill 
 
 lirmed to Rhode-Island, which has heretofore 
 been part of Swanzea and Barrington, with a 
 small part of Rehoboth thereto adjoining, with 
 the inhabitants thereon, be incorporated into a 
 township, by the name of Warren." This 
 name was given in honor of Admiral Sir Peter 
 Warren, who, in June of the previous year, 
 (1745,) commanded the English fleet, which, 
 in connection with the Colonial army, of about 
 4400 strong, commanded by Gen. William Pep- 
 perell, had captured Louisburg and the Island 
 of Cape Breton from the French, after a toil- 
 some and dangerous siege of six weeks. By 
 clearing the coast of French ships of war. Ad- 
 miral Warren rendered the greatest service to 
 this population, who then, as now, made their 
 chief dependence on maritime trade. 
 
 By the same act which partitioned off, and 
 named Warren, as a part of Rhode-Island, the 
 *' Attleborough Gore" was named Cumberland, 
 after the Duke of Cumberland, who had just 
 before gained the battle of Culloden, for which 
 Americans as well as Englishmen, shared in 
 the national pride and rejoicing. 
 
 Thenceforward the population of this village, 
 which had previously been very small, began 
 
112 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 to increase, and the chief seat of trade was 
 withdrawn from the Barrington side of the 
 river, and wharves were built and shipping ac- 
 cumulated at what is now the village of War- 
 ren. 
 
 Although the town, at its first incorporation 
 under its present name, embraced all of War- 
 ren and Barrington, the number of freemen 
 admitted as Corporators was only seventy-six, 
 and the larger part of these resided on the Bar- 
 rington side. Before the boundaries between 
 Massachusetts and Rhode-Island were settled, 
 Barrington had been separated from Swanzea, 
 and incorporated under its present name in 
 1718, but that name was sunk, when the town 
 became a part of Warren in 1746. And not- 
 withstanding the population considerably in- 
 creased for the next twenty-four years, a major- 
 ity of the freemen still resided on the west side 
 of the river in 1770, when, thinking that their 
 own interests would be better served by a di- 
 vision of the Town, and believing that they 
 were unfairly taxed for the benefit of the people 
 on this side of the river, they petitioned the 
 Legislature to be set off as a town by them- 
 selves, under their former name of Barrington, 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. ll'i 
 
 The measure was opposed by the eastern por- 
 tion of the population ; but in 1770, the Legis- 
 lature, yielding to the demands of the majority, 
 passed an act, the concluding part of which is 
 as follows : " All the lands on the westerly side 
 of the river that extends itself from between 
 Bristol and Rumstick Northerly to Miles' 
 Bridge, is to be made a township, and called 
 Barrington." The name of Barrington was 
 thus revived, after having been exti.:ct for 
 twenty-four years. 
 
 The separate organization of the Warren 
 Baptist Church grew out of the circumstances 
 in which Brown University originated, both 
 being formed at about the same time, and mu- 
 tually connected in the agency by which they 
 were established. As early as the year 1707, 
 the Philadelphia Association, composed of the 
 Baptist Churches in that vicinity, was formed, 
 with the view of promoting the welfare of the 
 Baptist interests in America. At an early pe- 
 riod, they projected plans for the education of 
 a suitable ministry : but at that time, almost 
 every College in the country was so much un- 
 der the restrictions of denominational govern- 
 
X14 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ance, that for a candidate for the Baptist min- 
 istry to be educated in one of them, was too 
 often attended with a humiliating sacrifice of 
 feeling, personal position, and even of honora- 
 ble Christian principle itself Even so late as 
 1780, the Massachusetts government allowed 
 none but Congregational ministers to be over- 
 seers in the University at Cambridge.* 
 
 Accordingly, the " Philadelphia Baptist As- 
 sociation obtained such an acquaintance with 
 the affairs ot Rhode-Island, as to bring them- 
 selves to an apprehension that it was practi- 
 cable and expedient to erect a College in the 
 Colony of Rhode-Island, under the chief di- 
 rection of the Baptists, in which education 
 might be promoted, and superior learning 
 obtained, free from any sectarian religious 
 tests."! 
 
 The distinct project of establishing a Bap- 
 tist College in this State, seems to have origi- 
 nated in the mind of Morgan Edwards, a cel- 
 ebrated Baptist clergyman of Wales, who, in 
 1761, left his native country, and arriving in 
 
 * Backus, Vol. Ill, p. 47. 
 t Backus, Vol. Ill, p. 235. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 115 
 
 Philadelphia, became the pastor of the First 
 Baptist Church in that city. He at once be- 
 came the moving cause of various enterprises, 
 which have placed the Baptist churches in this 
 country under great obligation to remember 
 the talents and time which he devoted to their 
 best interests, both in Europe and America. 
 
 Immediately after the plan of a College was 
 attempted, Mr. Edwards put forth vigorous ex- 
 ertions at home and abroad, in raising money 
 and obtaining books for the Institution, and he 
 was mainly instrumental in procuring for it a 
 Charter in this State. In the later periods of 
 his life, Mr, Edwards deemed this the greatest 
 service he ever did for the honor of the Baptist 
 name.*' 
 
 After the plan for forming a College in this 
 State was distinctly projected by the Philadel- 
 phia Association, in 1762, they selected as a 
 suitable leader in the important work, Mr. James 
 Manning, who, in September of the same year, 
 had taken his first degree in the College of 
 
 * Funeral* Sermon by Dr. Wm Rogers ; from 12th 
 No. of Rippon's Annual Register 
 
IlG HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 \ 
 
 New-Jersey. In the following year, while on 
 a voyage to Halifax, in Nova-Scotia, having 
 been directed to visit Rhode-Island, he landed 
 at Newport, and proposed the subject of his 
 mission to several gentlemen of the Baptist de- 
 nomination, among whom were the Hon. Sam- 
 uel Ward, then Governor of this State, Hon. 
 Josias Lyndon, who was also afterwards Gov- 
 ernor, Col. John Gardiner, Deputy Governor, 
 and twelve others of the same persuasion, who 
 readily concurred with the proposal, and enter- 
 ed upon the use of the means to accomplish it.* 
 Notwithstanding various secret contrivances, 
 and some open attempts were made to defeat 
 the enterprise, an ample Charter for the pur- 
 pose was granted by the Legislature of this 
 State, in February, 1764. 
 
 It immediately became a question of great 
 practical interest, as to where the College 
 should be located. No funds had as yet been ' 
 collected, and it was evident that the College 
 could not support itself, at least in its feeble 
 beginning. It was therefore necessary to con- 
 
 * Backus, Vol. II, p. 336. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 117 
 
 nect it with some other situation, whose pecun- 
 iary income would furnish means for helping 
 to assist the College. At that time there were 
 nearly sixty Baptist communicants residing in 
 the Town of Warren, the majority of whom 
 held their membership with the Swanzea 
 church, and nearly all of them seem to have 
 preferred to be considered as a branch of that 
 venerable church, in whose communion they 
 and their forefathers had found so much edifi- 
 cation and comfort. 
 
 It was with reluctance they could be induc- 
 ed to leave a church, so time-honored in name, 
 and so prosperous in state. But as the popu- 
 lation of this village was then rapidly increas- 
 ing, it became obvious that the time had arriv- 
 ed, when they would best secure their religious 
 welfare, by continuing no longer as a branch 
 of the mother church in Swanzea, but by form- 
 ing themselves into a separate and independent 
 body. After much prayerful deliberation, it 
 was concluded by the Baptists in this Town, 
 on the one part, and by the friends of the Col- 
 lege, on the other, that Mr. Manning should 
 remove to this place, with the view both of or- 
 ganizing a church, and of beginning the Col- 
 
lis HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 lege ; and in the summer of 1764, removing 
 with his family from New-Jersey, he took up 
 his residence in this village. He immediately 
 opened a preparatory Latin school, while at 
 the same time he was diligently employed in 
 preaching the Gospel, having been previously 
 ordained by the Baptist church at Scotch Plains, 
 near Elizabeth-Town, N. Jersey, under the 
 pastoral care of the Rev. Benjamin Miller.* 
 
 On the 15th day of November, 1764, the 
 Church in this place was constituted, being 
 composed at its organization of fifty-eight mem- 
 bers, thirty-five of whom had been received 
 from the Svvanzea church, and twenty-three 
 others, some of them having been baptized by 
 the Rev, Samuel Maxwell, who had preached 
 for a time in this town, some having been bap- 
 tized by the Rev. Gardner Thurston, of New- 
 port, and some by Mr. Manning, after he arriv- 
 ed in this place. By previous appointment, 
 the members intending to be formed into a 
 church, had engaged the Rev. John Gano of 
 New-York, the Rev. Gardner Thurston of New- 
 
 ^ Appendix I. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURvSE. 119 
 
 pol-t, and the Rev. Ebenezer Hinds of Middle- 
 boro', Mass. to assist in the proposed constitu^ 
 tion. The day being kept in the solemn 
 exercise of fasting and prayer, " in the forenoon 
 the Rev. Mr. Thurston preached a sermon, and 
 after a short intermission of service, the people 
 returned, and the Rev. John Gano, James 
 Manning, and Ebenezer Hinds, each made a 
 prayer suitable to the occasion, after which, 
 the church covenant, previously prepared by 
 Dr. Manning, was presented and read.''* 
 
 After the constituent membeis had signed 
 the covenant, '' they were asked by the Rev. 
 Mr. Manning, whether they in the presence of 
 that assembly, viewed that as their covenant 
 and plan of union in a church relation, which 
 question was answered by them all in the af- 
 firmative, standing up ; after which, three of 
 the brethren, Samuel Hix, Amos Ilaile, and 
 John Coomer, in behalf of the Church, pre- 
 sented a call, previously prepared by the breth- 
 ren, to the Rev. James Manning to become 
 their pastor. | The call was read publicly by 
 
 * Appendix K. i Appendix L. 
 
120 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 the Rev. Mr. Gano, after which, he asked the 
 Rev. James Manning if he accepted it, which 
 was answered in the affirmative. 
 
 " Then Mr. Gano preached a sermon, suita- 
 ble to the occasion, in which he reminded both 
 pastor and people of their respective duties, 
 and urged the mutual performance of both, 
 from those important motives which the nature 
 of the relation requires. Thus ended the so- 
 lemnities of the day.* 
 
 From this time onward, during the six years 
 of Dr. Manning's ministry, the Church and 
 College increased and flourished together. 
 Having already commenced the business of in- 
 struction by opening a Latin school immediate- 
 ly on his arrival in this town. Dr. Manning had 
 prepared the way for beginning the College, 
 when, in Sept. 1765, he was elected its Presi- 
 dent : but he seems to have been the only in- 
 structer till in 1766, when the late Hon. David 
 Howell, a graduate of New-Jersey College in 
 that year, was appointed the first Tutor in the 
 
 ^ Quoted from the Church Books. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 1^1 
 
 College* The next year, (17G7,) the Rev. 
 Morgan Edwards — to use his own words — 
 " set out for Europe to solicit money tow^irds 
 paying the salary of the President and Assis- 
 tant ; for hitherto we had no funds ; and suc- 
 ceeded pretty well, considering how angry the 
 mother country was with the colonies, for op- 
 posing the stamp act. Afterwards the Rev. 
 Dr. Hezekiah Smith and others gathered small 
 sums in America, for the same purpose, but 
 after all, the endowment is so scanty, that 
 Hhe College is in arrears to the President 
 to this day, who has suffered considerably by 
 "it." 
 
 But notwithstanding the pecuniary embar- 
 rassment of the College, the Church, accord- 
 
 * " During a large portion of his protracted life, Mr. 
 Howell was connected with the College in Rhode- 
 Island. For three years, he was a tutor, and the first 
 ever appointed in that institution; for nine years, 
 Professor of Natural Philosophy ; for thirty-four 
 years. Professor of Law ; for fifty-two years, a mem- 
 ber of the Board of Fellows ; and for many years, 
 Secretary of the Corporation." Prof. Goddard's Me- 
 moir of Dr. Manninsf. 
 
122 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 ing to the agreement they made in their call 
 to Dr. Manning to the pastorate, appear to have 
 given him a liberal support. Shortly after the 
 Church was organized, and the College estab- 
 lished, a house of worship was erected over the 
 precise spot occupied by the one recently re- 
 moved, and about two thirds of the size of the 
 one lately taken down on the north side of this 
 Edifice, and overlapping a few feet of ground 
 covered by it; and a spacious mansion was 
 erected, for the double purpose of a College 
 and parsonage, on the land occupied by the 
 eastern and middle parts of the spacious house 
 of worship in which we are now convened.* 
 
 The first Commencement was held in the 
 Meeting-House, Sept. 7, 1769, when seven 
 young men, matriculated in 1765, took their' 
 first Degree in the Arts.t Of these, the Rev. 
 Charles Thompson, who succeeded Dr. Man- 
 ning in the pastorate of this Church, took the 
 highest honors, and pronounced the Valedictory 
 Address. Two more of this class were emi- 
 rvently useful Baptist Ministers; one of whom, 
 
 "^ Appendix M. i Appendix N. 
 
IIISTORICAI, DISCOURSE. 123 
 
 the Rev. William Rogers, D. D. was the suc- 
 cessor of Morgan Edwards, as pastor of the 
 First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and for 
 many years was Professor of Oratory and Belles 
 Lettres in the University of Pennsylvania ; — the 
 other, was the Rev. William Williams, for 
 many years pastor of the Baptist Church in 
 Wrentham, Mass. and who was elected to the 
 Fellowship of the College in 1789. Mr. Wil- 
 liams, in the course of his ministry, instructed 
 many young men in the study of theology, and 
 probably prepared more young men for Rhode- 
 Island College, than any other man, since its 
 beginning. A fourth member of this Class, was 
 General James 3Iitchell Varnum, afterwards 
 dfistinguished for his eloquence as a member of 
 Congress from the State of Rhode-Island, and 
 was also a Brigadier-General in the American 
 army in the war of the Revolution, and was 
 subsequently appointed Judge of the North- 
 Western Territory, whither he removed in 1787, 
 and died at Marietta, Ohio, in 1790, aged forty 
 years.* 
 
 * See Memoir of Gen. Varnum, in the " Memoirs 
 of the Rhode-Island Bar," by Wilkins Updike, Esq. 
 
1aJ4 HlSTOlilCAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 In immediate connection with the origin of 
 the College and Church in this place, was formed 
 the JVa?^re?i Association, the oldest Baptist As- 
 sociation of the kind in N. England, which took 
 its name from this place, where its first meeting 
 was held, in 1767. Various measures had be- 
 fore been repeatedly resorted to, by B<iptist 
 Churches in some parts of New-England, to 
 combine their exertions, in order to procure 
 exemption of the civil government, from the 
 " ministerial Taxes," and other annoyances of 
 the kind, to which they were subjected by the 
 *' Standing Order." In every colony in New- 
 England, except Rhode-Island, the Baptists 
 were exposed to various civil disabilities, while 
 all the protests and remonstrances to which 
 they resorted, had proved unavailing. In Mas- 
 sachusetts, however, the. appeals of their min- 
 isters and churches had begun to incline the 
 Legislature toward a more lenient policy :* 
 which, awakening in the Baptists, the spirit of 
 hope, they applied to several of their indepen- 
 dent sister churches in the other colonies, to 
 
 Appendi.\ O. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 125 
 
 enter into an association, to be based on prin- 
 ciples of mutual right and advantage, and social 
 and moral equality, the main object of which 
 should be to produce a closer agreement among 
 themselves, and to exert a joint influence over 
 their fellovz-citizens in the respective colonies, 
 and their Legislatures, in order to gain the same 
 civil and religious freedom, which had hitherto 
 been monopolized by the '' Standing Order." 
 On the 28th of August, 1766, the Warren 
 Church voted, " That an Association be enter- 
 ed into with sundry churches of the same faith 
 and order, as it was judged a likely method to 
 promote the peace of the churches." As the 
 location of the College in conjunction with the 
 church, had now made this village a place of 
 resort and a general rallying-point, for the lead- 
 ing members of the Denomination in these re- 
 gions, it was deemed best to connect the an. 
 nual meeting of the Association with the anni- 
 versary of Commencement, so that all who 
 came from a distance might have the opportu- 
 nity of attending on both occasions. Accord- 
 ingly, the anniversary of the Association was 
 fixed on the first Tuesday after Commencement, 
 which order of time, in tlie respective anniver- 
 
 L* 
 
126 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE^ 
 
 saries of the College and of the Association, 
 has ever since been observed.* 
 
 Immediately after the first Commencement, 
 the College began to grow in social importance, 
 and public attention, far and near, was attract- 
 ed to it. As no public edifice was yet erected 
 for its permanent accommodation, applications 
 were made to the Corporation from the counties 
 of Providence, Newport, and Kent, for its es- 
 tablishment among them, each holding out 
 strong inducements, in competition with this 
 town, for the honor and benefit of its location. 
 This church, immediately after the first Com- 
 mencement, voted that " The Meeting-House 
 in this Town be and is, for the use of the Cor- 
 poration and President at Commencement 
 times ; and oftener, if wanted by either, only 
 so as not to interfere with Divine Worship ; 
 Provided, that the College Edifice be founded 
 and built in the County of Bristol ; and that 
 the Parsonage House in said Warren be for the 
 use of the President, so long as the Presideat 
 be our Minister." 
 
 "■ Appendix P 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 127 
 
 As the place for the permanent location of 
 the College was still undetermined, the four 
 towns of Warren, Providence, Newport, and 
 East-Greenwich, in four different counties of 
 the State, all preferred their claims as being, 
 each respectively, the most eligible situation. 
 The consequence was, that the public mind 
 was greatly agitated by the contention which 
 grew out of these conflicting claims. Mr. 
 Edwards, in referring to the subject, says, 
 " Warren was at first agreed on as a proper 
 situation, where a small wing was to be erected 
 in the spring of 1770, and about <£800 raised 
 towards effecting it. But soon afterwards, 
 some who were unwilling it should be there, 
 and some who were unwilling it should be any- 
 where, did so far agree as to lay aside the said 
 location, and propose that the county which 
 should raise the most money, should have the 
 college." 
 
 The two ablest competitors in this contest 
 were the towns of Providence and Newport. 
 The latter town raised ^4000 by subscription, 
 but Providence gained the advantage, by raising 
 «£4280, and after an earnest discussion on the 
 merits of the conflicting claims, the Corpora- 
 
128 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 tion, on the 7th of February, 1770, decided by 
 a vote of twenty-one to fourteen, that the edi- 
 fice be built in the tov/n of Providence, and 
 there be continued forever.* 
 
 But as Dr. Manning had been identified with 
 the College from its first foundation, and was 
 the soul of its prosperity, a great practical dif- 
 ficulty arose between the Corporation and the 
 Warren church, as to which he must relinquish. 
 He was devotedly attached to his people, and 
 they w^ere as devotedly attached to him ; and 
 when the alternative was presented, he w^as 
 about to resign his presidency, rather than his 
 pastorate. After considerable correspondence 
 between the Corporation of the College, and 
 the Warren Church and Congregation, Dr. 
 Manning was persuaded to resign his charge 
 of the church : and in the following May, 1770, 
 removed with his undergraduates to Provi- 
 dence ; — which, in the language of the church 
 records, " was to the wonderment of his people, 
 he being greatly admired and renowned, before 
 
 * Manuscript Letter of Dr. Manning to Dr. Heze- 
 kiah Smith, dated Warren, Feb. 12, 1770. 
 
IIISTORRAL DISCOURSE. 129 
 
 he rejected his people, which was in the sixth 
 year of his ministry." The grief of the church 
 in the removal of their admired and beloved 
 pastor, had its counterpart in the dissatisfaction 
 and chagrin of the town ni losing half of their 
 territory in the same year, when Barrington 
 was partitioned off, and erected into a separate 
 township. 
 
 After the church had been destitute of a pas- 
 tor for about one year, they called Mr. Charles 
 Thompson, the valedictorian of the first grad- 
 uating class, to preach to them, and by the 
 assistance of Elders Ebenezer Hinds of Middle- 
 boro', and Noah Alden of Bellingham, he was 
 ordained to the pastoral charge, July 3, 1771. 
 He was born at Amwell, New-Jersey, April 
 14, 1748, and became pastor of the church at 
 the age of twenty-three. A great blessing at- 
 tended his ministry ; so that during the four 
 years of his pastorate, the membership of the 
 church was almost doubled. But when the war 
 of the Revolution broke out, in 1775, its per- 
 nicious effects were sorely felt by this people. 
 Mr. Thompson was appointed a chaplain in the 
 American army, which office he held till 1778, 
 V^hen being at home on a visit, the English 
 
139 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 troops came up to Warren^" on the morning of 
 May 25, 1778, and burned the Meetmg-House, 
 Parsonage-House, an Arsenal and several pri- 
 vate dwellings, and carried Mr. Thompson away 
 as a prisoner, and confined him at Newport, 
 from which he was released in about a month, 
 by what means he never knew. 
 
 After this, he preached some time at Ash- 
 
 ^ The occasion of the attack upon Warren, was 
 that General Sullivan having been appointed to com- 
 mand the American forces on Rhode-Island, the 
 English, who were blockaded at Newport by the 
 French fleet, were anticipating an attack upon the 
 Island by the Americans from the main. To defeat 
 this design, the Erglish commander sent 500 men up 
 the river, who landed at daylight on the morning of 
 the 25th of May, between Bristol and Warren, and 
 moved in two detachments, the one for Warren, 
 where they destroyed the Meeting-House and Par- 
 sonage House, blew up the Arsenal, and burnt up 
 other property ; — the other, for the head of Kicke- 
 muit river, where the boats were building for the 
 American expedition, and there they destroyed about 
 aeventy flat'bottomed boats, set fire to one state 
 galley, and burnt a large quantity of pitch, tar, ship- 
 timber and other property belonging to the Ameri- 
 cans, at that place. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 181 
 
 fbid, Connecticut, till 1779, when he became 
 pastor of the church in Swanzea. So great 
 was the shock which this population sustained 
 by the calamities of tlie war, that the church 
 and people were very much scattered, many of 
 them taking refuge in the interior of the coun- 
 try, and so few remained, that no public relig- 
 ious meetings were held for several years. A 
 large part of the remaining members of the 
 church resumed their membership with the ma- 
 ternal church in Swanzea, upon the condition 
 
 "that they should have full liberty to be dismiss- 
 ed when the Providence of God should permit 
 the Warren church to be re-organized. 
 
 Thus, after this church had maintained a 
 separate existence for fifteen years, it again 
 merged into the original church, of which the 
 Baptists residing in this village and immediate 
 vicinity, had formerly been a branch for about 
 one hundred years, previous to the separate 
 organization of this church in 1764. It was 
 this union and agreement between the two 
 churches, that encouraged Mr. Thompson to 
 
 I become the pastor of the Swanzea church, on 
 the 7th of October, 1777. Immediately after 
 Mr. Thompson commenced his ministry at 
 
132 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 Swanzea, new life was infused into the church, 
 and a glorious revival of religion ensued, during 
 which he baptized seventy-five persons, about 
 thirty of whom resided in Warren. The con- 
 nection of the Warren with the Swanzea breth- 
 ren appears to have been distinguished with 
 the happiest influences. It was not till after 
 the war, that this church ceased to be a branch 
 of the maternal church at Swanzea, and resum- 
 ed its separate existence. On the 5th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1784, the congregation in this place 
 resolved to build another House of Worship, 
 on the same spot where their former one had 
 stood ; and in the course of the following year, 
 they erected the Meeting-House recently taken 
 down, which has been so dear to the religious 
 associations of a large part of this congregation, 
 from their earliest childhood. 
 
 On the 29th of August, 1 785, the Legislature 
 granted a charter to the Benevolent Baptist 
 Society, composedof Baptist members and oth- 
 ers friendly to their interests, for the purpose 
 of establishing a permanent fund for the main- 
 tenance of the ministry in the Baptist Church 
 and Society in Warren. The House of Wor-=- 
 ship having been erected, and a chartered So- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 133 
 
 ciety established, with a fund for the support 
 of the ministry, in September of 1786, the for* 
 mer members of the church, and others who 
 had been elsewhere dispersed, were again re* 
 organized on the basis of their former covenant 
 and plan of union. 
 
 Although the former members of the Warren 
 church had encouraged the settlement of Mr. 
 Thompson at Swanzea, after their own church 
 was broken up in the war, it was evidently with 
 the expectation that he might become their pas- 
 tor again, whenever they should be re-organ- 
 ized. His ministry, however, had been so em- 
 inently successful at Swanzea, and his engage- 
 ments as a teacher of youth were such, that he 
 could not honorably relinquish his station, and 
 he continued the beloved and useful pastor of 
 the old Swanzea church, till 1803, when he 
 removed to Charlton, Mass. where soon after, 
 May 1, 1803, he died of the consumption.* 
 
 After the church had been re-organized in 
 Sept. 1786, in the following month the Rev. 
 John Pitman, removing with his family to this 
 
 " Appendix Q. 
 
134 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 town, became the pastor of the church, having 
 been previously ordained to the work of the 
 ministry. Mr. Pitman's labors were very ac- 
 ceptable and edifying to the church, and at- 
 tended with a moderate increase of its member^ 
 ship, having baptized eighteen persons during 
 the three and a half years of his pastorate. 
 Early in the summer of 1790, he resigned his 
 pastoral office, and removed to Providence.* 
 
 For a period of three years and a half, after 
 the removal of Mr. Pitman, the church were 
 destitute of a pastor, during which time they 
 were supplied with preaching, principally by 
 the Rev. Nathaniel Cole, subsequently of Plain- 
 field, Conn, and by various other ministers, 
 who visited the place. At length, in October 
 of 1793, Mr. Luther Baker, born in this town, 
 June 11, 1770, was called by the church to the 
 work of the ministry, and to the pastorship of 
 the church, which soon began to revive, under 
 his care. Mr. Baker's ministry at several peri- 
 ods was blessed with extensive and powerful 
 revivals of religion. In the year 1805, ninety 
 
 Appendix R. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 135 
 
 persons were added to the church, nearly all of 
 them by baptism. Another revival commenced 
 immediately after the session of the Warren 
 Association, which was held in this place in 
 Sept. 1812, in which over sixty were baptized 
 in the course of a few months. 
 
 Within the period of the Rev. Mr. Baker's 
 ministry, and especially within the forty years 
 extending from the great revival in 1805, up 
 to the present time, this church has been re- 
 peatedly blessed with refreshing seasons from 
 the presence of the Lord. The most extensive 
 and powerful work of grace, known by the name 
 of a revival of religion, which this church has 
 ever experienced, began in the latter part of 
 the winter of 1820, after a season of peculiar 
 darkness and difficulty. The church had been 
 divided in her councils, and greatly perplexed 
 in the exercise of discipline, in matters which 
 related to their former pastor, and dissatisfac- 
 tion growing out of the circumstances attend- 
 ing his resignation. They had been for some 
 time without a pastor ; but under the faithful 
 preaching of the Rev. Dr. Gano, of Providence, 
 who with others, frequently visited this people 
 at that time, in the fulness of the blessing of 
 
136 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 the Gospel, and with an unction from the Holy 
 One of Israel, this weary heritage all at once 
 became greatly revived ; and an overpowering 
 religious influence was felt by this population, 
 which was never equalled by any thing of the 
 kind, before or since. On the 11th of March, 
 of that year, the Rev, Flavel Shurtleff began 
 his ministry, which, in conjunction with the 
 faithful labors of Dr. Gano and others, was 
 blessed by the great refreshing of the church, 
 and the conversion of a multitude of the im- 
 penitent. In a few months, one hundred and 
 thirty were added to the church, nearly all by 
 baptism, who, with many others that joined 
 other churches, were the subjects of this gra- 
 cious visitation. 
 
 But the period of time, extending from the 
 present, up to the great revival under Mr. Ba- 
 ker's ministry, is so familiarly known to many 
 who still live to relate what they were personal 
 witnesses of, and the existing records of the 
 church are so full of the transactions of the 
 last forty years, that it would only be an easy 
 work of compilation, to fill up many pages with 
 events of glowing interest, and sketches of re- 
 markable character. The limits of this J)kr 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 137 
 
 course, already too much extended, forbid us 
 the easy and pleasant task of detailing the ma- 
 terials of history, so abundantly to be found in 
 the records of the church, in the personal rec- 
 t ollections of many of its living members, and 
 in occasional publications containing allusions 
 to this church and people. 
 
 Mine has been the more difficult, though not 
 j less pleasant duty, of unfolding to view the 
 sources of our religious and social existence, 
 by collecting facts and testimonials, many of 
 which had become well nigh lost forever, and 
 most of which were out of the reach of the 
 present generation. It must be the work of 
 some future pastor or historian of this church, 
 to take up its history at the points where we 
 leave it, and embody those materials which are 
 much less likely to become lost, than those 
 which have furnished the sketches presented 
 in these pages.* 
 
 ' * The original Records of i^>s church, from its or- 
 ganization ix> 1764, to the burning of the meeting- 
 
 ! house and parsonage house in May, 1778, were mostly 
 <iestro)'ed in that fire. The Providence of God^ 
 however, so ordered it, that Mr. John Throop, led by 
 M* 
 
138 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 This church has had from the beginning, up 
 to the present time, nine regular Pastors. 
 
 The First Pastor, the Rev. Dr. James Man- 
 ning, a graduate of Princeton College in the 
 class of 176*2, began with the church, Nov. 15, 
 1764, and resigned April 26, 1770, 
 
 The Second Pastor, the Rev. Charles Thomp- 
 son, a graduate of Brown University in the class 
 of 1769, became pastor of the church, March 
 31, 1771, and closed his connection with the 
 church, when it was scattered and disorganiz- • 
 ed by the burning of the meeting-house. May 
 25, 1778. 
 
 The Third Pastor, the Rev. John Pitman, 
 became Pastor immediately after the re-organ- 
 izalion of the church, October 26, 1786, and 
 resigned in June, 1790. 
 
 The Fourth Pastor, the Rev. Luther Baker, 
 was ordained to the work of the ministry, and 
 to the pastorship of this church, on the third 
 
 principles of frienat>Hip to the church, had taken a 
 complete copy of the records, up to November 30, 
 -- 1769; which with disconnected fragments of the orig- 
 inal records saved from the fire, were afterwards 
 copied into tlie Church Books by William Turner 
 Miller after the re-organizatiou of the church. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 1JJ9 
 
 Thursday of October, 1793, and resigned No- 
 vember 1, 1814. 
 
 The Fifth Pastor, the Rev. Silas Hall, a 
 graduate of Brown University in the class of 
 1809, was called to the pastorate, and accepted 
 the call, on the day of Mr. Baker's resignation, 
 Nov. 1, 1814, and resigned May 1, 1817. 
 
 The Sixth Pastor, the Rev. Daniel Chessman, 
 a graduate of Brown University, in the class of 
 1811, and a licentiate of the Second Baptist 
 church in Boston, was ordained to the work of 
 the ministry and to the pastorship ofthis church, 
 March 5, 1818, having supplied the pulpit from 
 August of the preceeding year. He was dis- 
 missed by the church, Jan. 23, 1820. 
 
 The Seventh Pastor, the Rev. Flavel Shurt- 
 Icff, a graduate of Brown University in the 
 class of 1814, commenced his labors as min- 
 ister, March 11, 1820, and resigned, September 
 18, 1821. 
 
 The Eighth Pastor, the Rev. John C. Welsh, 
 a recent member of Waterville College, and a 
 licentiate of the First Baptist Church in Boston, 
 was ordained to the work of the ministry and 
 io the pastorship ofthis church, June 11, 1823; 
 aid resigned, Novembei: 1, 1840. 
 
140 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 The Ninth Pastor, and the present incum- 
 bent, a graduate of Brown University in the 
 class of 1838, was recognized as Pastor, April 
 23, 1842. 
 
 During the organized existence of the church,, 
 embracing the intervals between its pastors, it 
 has been without pastoral care, the aggregate 
 sum of eight and a half years. 
 
 The present number of members is 264 
 
 The whole number of members from the begin- 
 ning is 770 
 Of these there were at its first organization, 58 
 Added by Dr. Manning, in six years, 15 
 Added by Mr. Thompson, unknown.* 
 Added, at the re-organization in 1786, by dis- 
 mission from Swanzea, of those not formerly 
 members of this church, 18 
 Added by Mr. Pitman, in about three and 
 
 a half years, 21 
 
 Added by Mr. Baker, in twenty-one years, 251 
 
 Added by Mr. Hall in two and a half years, 34 
 
 Added by Mr. Chessman, in about two years, 3 
 
 * There were undoubtedly many persons baptized 
 and added to the church under the ministry of Mr. 
 Thompson, — but the records containing their names, 
 &c. were destroyed by the fire. No account of those 
 thus added, can be included in the summary of 
 members. 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 141 
 
 Added by Mr. Shurtleff, in one year and a half, 133 
 Added in the interval, 2 
 
 Added by Mr. Welsh, in seventeen and a half 
 
 years, 179 
 
 Added in the interval, 23 
 
 Added by the present pastor, in three years and 
 
 a quarter, 33 
 
 July 1, 1845. 
 
 While this church has not been unduly rigid 
 in the maintenance of its authority, and in the 
 administration of discipline, it is yet the pain- 
 ful fact, that since its organization, of all the 
 members added, seventy-six have been excluded 
 who were not afterwards restored, being a frac- 
 tion over ten per cent, of the whole. 
 
 In these rapid outline sketches of our social 
 and religious history, we have arrived at a 
 period known to the personal recollections of 
 many who are now before me. Time only for- 
 bids the picturing forth before you, of those 
 familiar persons and events that would awaken 
 in your hearts the recollecton of your dearest 
 and most sacred associations. 
 : Neither can we enforce at present those 
 I lessons of instruction with which the past ad- 
 dresses us from the dust and sepulchre. We 
 have been reviewing the history of remoter 
 
142 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 periods, but where are the men whose lives and 
 whose actions we have been recording ? " Our 
 fathers where are they ? and the prophets, do 
 they live forever ?" The glowing hearts that 
 once swelled with joy, or sunk in sadness, at 
 the revival or the declension of piety, are now 
 cold in the grave : the eyes once watchful for 
 the signs of the times, are dimmed forever ; the 
 voices that chanted the high praises of Israel's 
 God, are silent now; and "the old familiar 
 faces are gone." Some, whose spirit of gen- 
 erous piety, longed to see the day when a 
 temple, such as we are in, should be reared, 
 have not lived to see it ; and even some who 
 beheld these massive walls slowly rising, have 
 never seen their completion ; they have gone 
 the way of all the earth. And we too are dwell- 
 ing on the banks of that stream of time whose 
 rapid current is ever winding on from the 
 eternity of the past, to the eternity of the future ; 
 we see the moving course of events on its sur- 
 face ; now they are above us ; now they are 
 below us ; but they never stop before us. 
 
 " We can never say they're here, 
 
 But only say tliey're past." 
 
 Meanwhile we should feel that we are not liv- 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 143 
 
 ing for the present, nor for ourselves ; but for 
 the future, and for others ; for our families who 
 are the hopes of the church : for the young, our 
 substitutes in another generation, who are to 
 receive our work as we pass it over to them, 
 and to hand it on to still coming ages ; for our 
 country, whose existence and welfare must de- 
 pend upon the maintenance of those great prin- 
 ciples of civil and religious freedom, which our 
 forefathers brought to light amid surrounding 
 darkness, and struororled for, amid cruel mock- 
 ings and bloody sufferings ; and for God, who 
 is first and last, and all and in all, God over 
 jail, blessed forever. 
 
 I In the erection of this noble and substantial 
 Edifice, we have been doing a work, less for 
 lourselves, than as a legacy for posterity ; and 
 though our eyes may not long see these walls 
 ■our hands have builded, — and its earthly glory 
 will all fade away amid the splendors of the 
 Supper sanctuary, in the New Jerusalem ; yet 
 even then it may not dim the brightness of a 
 happy retrospection to remember that on earth 
 we were willing, as the royal Psalmist was, to 
 give a generous offering to the outward beauty 
 of Divine Worship, Meanwhile, we hope to 
 
144 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 oflfer up our prayers and praises, to receive '.w 
 struction and encouragement within this t( ^s- 
 pie, which we have endeavored to render chf e 
 and beautiful, but not gorgeously splendid, nor 
 superfluously expensive; unadorned with tin- 
 sel and tracery, yet solemnly imposing, and 
 complete in its proportions. Yet we do not 
 forget, that our sublime and spiritual religion 
 is not inconsistent with the severest exactness 
 and the utmost purity of taste ; that the inlets 
 of sensation are the medium of our earliest 
 ideas, our most permanent associations, and of 
 our religious impressions themselves ; that while 
 they who worship God acceptably, must wor- 
 ship Him in spirit and in truth, we may make 
 the sight of the eye affect the heart, the hear^ 
 ing of the ear the entrance of faith, the sounds 
 of harmony the source of inward melody, and 
 our lowly worship on earth the emblem as well 
 as foretaste of those celestial services where the 
 worshippers are '' before the throne of God, 
 and serve him day and night in hic temple : 
 and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell 
 among them ; and they shall hunger no more, 
 neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun 
 light on them, nor any heat ; for the Lamb 
 
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 145 
 
 which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
 them, and shall lead them unto living fountains 
 of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears 
 from their eyes." 
 
 Here, then, while we dedicate this temple to 
 the spiritual service of a spiritual God, praying 
 that the glory of this latter house may be great- 
 er than that of either of the former, let us seek 
 after greater soundness of religious doctrine, 
 greater purity of religious discipline, greater 
 liberality of religious sentiment, greater amia- 
 bleness of religious manners, greater benevo- 
 lence in religious philanthropy; that we may 
 have communion with the Father in his house, 
 the Son on his throne, and the Spirit in our 
 hearts ; that looking through the visible things 
 which deceive, to things invisible, which never 
 deceive, we may behold the glory of that spirit- 
 ual building, not made with human hands, — the 
 church itself, the body of Christ, " by whom 
 all the building, fitly framed together, groweth 
 unto an holy temple in the Lord ; in whom al- 
 so we may be builded together for an habitation 
 t)f God through the Spirit." 
 
 And now, in conclusion, we can say, in the 
 spirit of piety with which the Psalmist, who 
 
 N 
 
146 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 had it in his heart to build a temple to the 
 Lord, *^ not offering unto the Lord his God of 
 that which cost him nothing," could express his 
 joy at going up to the sanGtuar}^ and rejoice 
 in the holy city, " Peace be within thy walls, 
 and prosperity within thy palaces. For my 
 brethren and companions' sakes, I will now 
 say, Peace be within thee. Let thy work, O 
 Lord, appear unto thy servants, and thy glory 
 unto their children. And let the beauty of the 
 Lord our God be upon us ; and establish thou 
 the work of our hands upon us ; yea, the work 
 of our hands establish thou it/' Amen. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A.— Page 33. 
 
 As a specimen of the candid and independent spir- 
 it of a liberal class of men, who, like Dr. Thomas 
 Arnold, late of Oxford, and Archbishop Whately, 
 love the form of episcopal government, and yet place 
 the question of Apostolic succession on its true his- 
 torical merits, we subjoin a few passages of Bishop 
 Whately, on the " Difficulty of ascertaining unbroken 
 succession." 
 
 But as there are some persons who are too ready 
 to separate from any religious community on slight 
 grounds, or even through mere caprice, " to heap 
 up to themselves teachers, having itching ears," it 
 has been thought, — or at least maintained, — that the 
 only way of affording complete satisfaction and re- 
 pose to the scrupulous, and of repressing schism, is 
 to uphold, under the title of " Church-principles," 
 the doctrine that no one is a member of Christ's 
 Church, and an heir of the covenanted Gospel-pro- 
 mises, who is not under a Ministry ordained by Bish- 
 ops descended in an unbroken cliain from the Apos- 
 
 tlc.«:. K* 
 
[50 APPENDIX. 
 
 Now what is the degree of satisfactory assurance 
 that is thus afforded to the scrupulous consciences of 
 any members of an Episcopal Church ? If a man 
 consider it as highly probable that the 'particular Min- 
 ister at whose hands he receives the sacred Ordi- 
 nances, is really thus apostolically descended, this 
 is the very utmost point to which he can, with any 
 semblance of reason, attain : and the more he reflects 
 and inquires, the more cause for hesitation he will 
 find. There is not a Minister in all Christendom 
 who is able to trace up with any approach to certainty 
 his own spiritual pedigree. The sacramental virtue, 
 (for such it is, that is implied, — whether the term be 
 used or not in the principle I liave been speaking of) 
 dependent on the imposition of hands, with a due 
 observance of apostolical usages, by a Bishop, him- 
 self duly consecrated, after having been in like man- 
 ner baptized into the Church, and ordained Deacon 
 and Priest, — this sacramental virtue, if a single link 
 of the chain be faulty, must, on the above principles, 
 be utterly nullified ever after, in respect of all the 
 links that hang on that one. For if a Bishop has not 
 been duly consecrated, or had not been, previously, 
 rightly ordained, his Ordinations are null ; and so 
 are the ministrations of those ordained by him; and 
 their Ordination of others ; (supposing any of the 
 persons ordained by him to attain to the Episcopal 
 office) and so on, without end. The poisonous taint 
 of informality, if it once creep in undetected, will 
 spread the infection of nullity to an indefinite and 
 irremediable extent. 
 
ArPENDIX. 151 
 
 And who can undertake to pronounce that during 
 that long period usually designated as the Dark Ages, 
 no such taint ever Avas introduced ? Irregularities 
 could not have been wholly excluded without a per- 
 petual miracle ; and that no such miraculous inter- 
 ference existed, we have even historical proof. — 
 Amidst the numerous corruptions of doctrine and of 
 practice, and gross superstitions, that crept in during 
 those ages, we find recorded descriptions not only of 
 the profound ignorance and profligacy of life, of 
 many of the Clergy, but also of the grossest irreg- 
 ularities in respect of discipline and form. We read 
 of Bishops consecrated when mere children ; — of men 
 omciating who barely knew their letters; — of Prelates 
 expelled, and others put into their places, by vio- 
 lence ; — of illiterate and profligate laymen, and hab- 
 tual drunkards, admitted to Holy Orders; and in 
 short, of the prevalence of every kind of disorder, 
 and reckless disregard of the decency which the 
 Apostle enjoins. It is inconceivable that any one 
 even moderately acquainted with history, can feel a 
 certainty, or any approach to certainty, that, amidst 
 all this confusion and corruption, every requisite 
 form was, in every instance, strictly adhered to, by 
 men, many of them openly profane and secular, un- 
 restrained by public opinion, through the gross igno- 
 rance of the population among which they lived ; 
 and that no one not duly consecrated or ordained, 
 was admitted to sacred oflices. 
 
 Even in later and more civilized and enlightened 
 'ames, the probability of an irregularity, Ihousii verX 
 
153 APPENDIX. 
 
 greatly diminished, is yet diminished only, and nut 
 absolutely destroyed. Even in the memory of per- 
 sons living, there existed a Bishop concerning whom 
 there was so much mystery and uncertainty prevail- 
 ing as to when, where, and by whom, he had been 
 ordained, that doubts existed in the mind of many 
 persons whether he had ever been ordained at all. I 
 do not say that there was good ground for the suspi- 
 cion ; but I speak of the fact, that it did prevail ; and 
 that the circumstances of the case were such as to 
 make manifest the possibility of such an irregularity 
 occurring under such circumstances. 
 
 Now let any one proceed on the hypothesis that 
 there are, suppose, but a hundred links connecting 
 any particular minister with the Apostles ; and let 
 him even suppose that not above half of this number 
 pass through such periods as admit of any possible 
 irregularity ; and then, placing at the lowest estimate 
 the probability of defectiveness in respect of each of 
 the remaining fifty, taken separately, let him consi- 
 der what amount of probability will result from the 
 7nultiplying of the whole together. The ultimate 
 consequence must be, that any one who sincerely 
 believes that his claim to the benefits of the Gospel- 
 Covenant depends on his own Minister's claim to the 
 supposed sacramental virtue of true ordmation, and 
 this again, on perfect Apostolical Succession, as 
 above described, must be involved, in proportion as 
 he reads, and inquires, and reflects, and reasons, on 
 the subject, in the most distrebsing doubt and per- 
 plexity. 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 But if each man's Christian hope is made to rest 
 on his receiving the Christian Ordinances at the 
 hands of a Minister to whom the sacramental vir- 
 tue that gives efficacy to those Ordinances, has 
 been transmitted in unbroken succession from hand 
 to hand, every thing must depend on that particular 
 Minister : and his claim is by no means establish- 
 ed from our merely establishing the uninterrupted 
 existence of such a class of men as Christian Min- 
 isters. " Y"ou teach me," a man might say, " that 
 my salvation depends on the possession by you — 
 the particular Pastor under whom I am placed — of 
 a certain qualification ; and when I ask for the 
 proof that you possess it, you prove to me that it 
 is possessed generally by a certain class of persons, 
 of whom you are one, and probably by a large 
 majority of them!" How ridiculous it would be 
 thought, if a man laying claim to the throne of 
 some country, should attempt to establish it with 
 out producing and proving his own pedigree, merely 
 by showing that that country had ahcays been un- 
 der hereditary regal government ' 
 
 Note 13.— Page 48. 
 
 At the same time that the unyielding Britons were 
 driven into Cambria, multitudes of the British Christ- 
 ians and British soldiers, fleeing from the horrors of 
 the Saxon invasion, passed over to the Continent, 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 and took refuge in that peninsula in France, between 
 the Seine and the Loire, then called Armorica^ but 
 which has ever since borne the name of Britanny, 
 from the language and institutions of the insular 
 Britons. Here, by their intermixture with the Franks, 
 they became a peculiar people, and in their seques- 
 tered region have ever since preserved the distinctive 
 marks of their Welsh origin. They have been the 
 glory and the bulwark of the French nation; inherit- 
 ing the same simplicity of manners, the same love of 
 liberty, the same hatred of oppression, the same in- 
 vincible loyalty, which have characterized the Welsh 
 race wherever they have lived, in France, as Avell 
 as in Britain and in the United States, the descend- 
 ants of the Welsh have shown to the world that the 
 strongest mental independence and the most invinci- 
 ble attachment to religious liberty, are the best safe- 
 guards to the stability of civil institutions, and the 
 permanent interests of human society. 
 
 When in the last century the French Revolution 
 was desolating all that was dear and venerable to the 
 people of that bright and sunny land, the Welsh de- 
 scendants in the plains of Britanny along the Loire, 
 were the last to yield to the ferocious policy of Dan- 
 ton and Robespierre, and they arose as one man, to 
 stem the furious tide of Jacobin Republicanism. The 
 splendid genius of Alison, in his chapter on the 
 «' War in La Vendee," has drawn an immortal eulo- 
 gium of those " Christian martyrs whose blood ce- 
 mented a fabric of eternal duration. " These descend- 
 ants of the ancient Britons, present one of the most 
 
APPENDIX. 155 
 
 brilliant illustrations on record, of a people whose 
 inherent love of liberty, and undying devotion to re- 
 ligion, may be inseparably connected with the strong, 
 est elements of patriotism, and the safest foundations 
 of national perpetuity. While the dogmas of Athe- 
 ism were propagated by their natural accompaniments 
 of fire and sword, desolating the altars of religion 
 throughout all France, ♦' there sprung," says the 
 eloquent historian of Europe — "from the ashes of La 
 Vendee, a spirit which hurled Napoleon from his 
 throne, and is destined to change the face of the mor- 
 al world. It first put the cause of Revolution openly 
 and irrevocably at war with that of Religion : the 
 friends of real freedom may thank it for permanently 
 enlisting on tlieir side a power which will never bo 
 subdued."* 
 
 Note C. — Page 79. 
 
 From the fact that Mr. Miles and his friend-i 
 brought their church records with them, it has been 
 supposed, with good reason, that the Baptist church 
 in Swanzea is but the continuation, or re-production, 
 of the old church in Swanzea, in South Wales. That 
 the old church records were actually brought to this 
 country, seems scarcely to admit of a doubt, though 
 of late, some have been disposed to question the fact. 
 
 * Alison's History of Kurope, Vol. I, Chap. XTT. 
 
15G APPENDIX. 
 
 Tradition, in earlier and later times, among the Bap* 
 lists in the vicinity of Swanzea, asserts the fact 
 Mr. Backus, in his History of New-England, (Vol. 
 ir, p. 117,) in speaking of " a piece of villainy which 
 Was detected in Swanzea," says, " That town was 
 first granted to five men, three of whom were Bap- 
 tists ; and they laid out sundry parcels of land, which 
 they called pastors' and teachers' lots. They had a 
 large and curious book of church records, which was 
 brought from Wales ; and the surveys of those lots 
 were recorded therein. In 1718, Richard Harden 
 became both a Deacon and the Clerk of the First 
 Church in Swanzea; and was encouraged to build 
 and make improvements upon one of those lots, near 
 the Meeting-House; and he was also a leading man 
 in Town-affairs. Having such advantages, he was 
 tempted with the notion, that by destroying the rec- 
 ord of those lots, he could obtain that whereon he 
 lived, as common land. And behold, all the records 
 of Swanzea church, betwixt 1663 and 17J8 were ta- 
 ken out of the Book, and have never been recovered 
 since." 
 
 Note D.— Page 83. 
 
 For the following statement I am indebted to the 
 Rev. Abiel Fisher, present Pastor of the First Baptist 
 Church in Swanzea, to whose diligence and fidelity 
 in collecting the scattered memorials of his ancient 
 Church and Town, I am indebted for several of the 
 
ArPENDTX, iiyf 
 
 . cts presented in connection with the Swanzea 
 j;irch. 
 " It iias been supposed, and often stated by Backus 
 riTid others, that the first Meeting-House was erected 
 near Kelly's Bridge, on Tyler's Point, opposite War- 
 ren : but I have ascertained that it was about three 
 miles north-east from that point, a little south-west 
 of the road leading from Warren, to Seekonk and 
 Providence. The very spot has been pointed out to 
 me, being on a road leading from the main road to 
 the house of Squire Allen, lately deceased. This 
 road leads out of the main road, between the houses 
 of Timothy P. Luther and John Grant, only 20 or 
 30 rods from the latter. The line of Seekonk is only 
 a few rods north of this spot. It seems nearly cer- 
 tain, that while most of the church resided in Reho- 
 both, (as that town then embraced Seekonk,) they 
 chose a site for their Meeting-House as near their 
 residence as possible, where they could be permitted 
 for a time to worship God according to the dictates 
 of their own consciences." 
 
 Note E.— Page 84. 
 
 The founders of the Plymouth Colony were the 
 first band of those free and pious spirits, who, rising 
 above the corruptions of the National Church, had 
 left their native land, to seek a purer worship, far 
 away from their beloved homes, in a foreign wilder- 
 ness, and under stormy skies. They first began 
 
lo8 APPENDIX. 
 
 their wanderings by removing to Holland, " where 
 they knew that they were Pilgrims, and looked not 
 much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to 
 heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their 
 spirits."* 
 
 Here, under the ministry of their excellent pastor, 
 the devoted John Robinson, they lived for a while, 
 in a tolerable degree of peace and comfort, and re- 
 ceived many converts among their numbers, v/hich 
 soon amounted to 300 communicants. 
 
 But desiring to live under the protection of Eng- 
 land, and to retain the name and language of Eng- 
 lishmen; and being unable to give their children 
 such an education as they had themselves received ; 
 and grieved at the profanation of the Sabbath, and 
 many other religious abuses among the people of 
 Holland; for these and many other similar reasons, 
 they began to agitate the question of removing to 
 some part of America ; and finally, after many a 
 baffling detention and a long, tempestuous voyage, 
 they commenced the colonization of New-England^. 
 on the rock of Plymouth, where they landed on the 
 22d of December, 1620. Here, beneath unknown 
 skies, with the wide dreary Atlantic on one side, and 
 a gloomy unbroken forest on the other, they laid in 
 suffering and in faith, the deep foundations of that 
 moral character, which has made the New-England 
 people the pride and glory of our nation, in peace, 
 and in war, our firm and immoveable bulwark. Nev- 
 
 * Governor Bradford's History of Plymouth Colony. 
 
APi'ENDIX. 150 
 
 cr was there a company of men, of stricter virtue, 
 whose consistent holiness and practical fear of God, 
 more signally honored their profession, than these 
 Plymouth Pilgrims. 
 
 The Oolonists who founded Massachusetts Bay, 
 eight years afterwards, were not Independents or 
 Separatists, like their Plymouth brethren, but were 
 non-conforming members of the Church of England. 
 Their conscientious convictions and their dearest 
 sympathies still attached them to the National Church, 
 while they opposed what they believed to be her 
 Romish errors and superstitions ; and though in all 
 points they could not conform to it, they still sought 
 the welfare of tlieir souls in its ministrations ; and 
 lamenting what they believed to be its defiects, not in 
 a spirit of bitter hostility, but of pious grief, they 
 were still disposed to honor the good and forget the 
 evil, so strangely mixed in the doctrine and ritual of 
 that communion. They were yet unwilling to break 
 the bands of ecclesiastical fellowship, and only wish- 
 ed a greater freedom for the exercise of their personal 
 faith, by a "practical departure from the ritual econ- 
 omy of that church; — a movement, which they did 
 not then foresee, would lead eventually to an entire 
 separation from the English Establishment, and to 
 the formation of New-England Congregationalism. 
 
 Many of them had been nursed on the lap of lux- 
 ^iry, while not a few were of noble birth and lofty 
 itation ; and nearly all had enjoyed the advantage 
 |f the highest mental and social culture. In the 
 ifilliant display of their personal virtues and their 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 religious graces, they reflected more of cheerfulness 
 and warmth of sentiment, but less of moral courage 
 and singleness of purpose, than their Separatist breth- 
 ren of Plymouth ; while in the want of a candid tem- 
 per towards their brethren of a different faith, the 
 S3'^mmetry of their character was more frequently 
 disfigured by a spirit of relentless intolerance, which 
 singularly contrasted with the general display of- 
 their otherwise almost unrivalled virtues. They be- 
 lieved in Christ as the only Head. of the church, and 
 in the Holy Scriptures as the only standard of their 
 Faith : and as such, they were even then far in ad- 
 vance of the age in which they lived. But they had 
 not yet sufficiently lost sight of the spirit and max- 
 ims on which the dominion of the English Throne 
 and Altar were based, to a.dmit the claims of person- 
 al conscience to their full extent; and hence, in 
 forming their social community in Massachusetts 
 Bay, they could not bring their civil laws and relig- 
 ions institutions, both together, in perfect accordance 
 with the principle of liberty of conscience in spiritual 
 affairs. Their honest piety and sincere benevolence 
 did all that possibly could be done, to reconcile the 
 duty of an implicit faith in their creed, with the lib- 
 erty of every man " to think as he pleased, provided 
 he thought right;" — and of this, they were to be the 
 l?elf-madc iudrres. 
 
AITENDIX. 161 
 
 Note F.— Page 88. 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE 
 
 REV. A. FISHER, OF SWANZEA. 
 
 Capt. Thomas Willet was one of the last of the 
 Leyden company who came to this country. He 
 arrived at Plymouth in 1629, being then 16 or 18 years 
 old. He was educated as a merchant ; and as the 
 greater part of his life was spent in Holland, he had 
 acquired an intimate knowledge of the customs and 
 language of the Dutch : a circumstance which ren- 
 dered him so highly acceptable to the Dutch of New- 
 York. On his arrival, he was sent by the people of 
 Plymouth who had established a trading house at 
 Kennebeck, to superintend their business as agent. 
 He continued at Kennebeck, about six or seven 
 years, when he married a lady at Plymouth, and 
 probably removed to Dorchester, and thence between 
 1641 and 1647 returned to Plymouth. In 1647 he 
 became the successor of Miles Standish in the com- 
 mand ot the military at Plymouth. 
 
 In 1651 he was elected one of the Governor's assist- 
 ants,and was annually continued in that office tilll665, 
 when the pressure of his other duties obliged him to 
 decline further election, and James Brown, of Swan- 
 zea, was chosen his successor. In Feb. 1660 we find 
 Capt. Willet an inhabitant of Rehoboth, having ob- 
 
162 APPLNDIX. 
 
 tained liberty of the town to purchase large tracts ei 
 land in its vicinity. In 16G1, being empowered bv 
 the Court of Plymouth, hs puchased of VVomsittr. 
 the eldest son of Massasoit, the large tract of land af- 
 terwards called Rehoboth North Purchase, now At- 
 tleborough and Cumberland. This tract, however, 
 he relinquished into the hands of the Plymouth Col 
 ony in 1666. He was also the original purchaser < j 
 Taunton North Purchase, (now Norton, Mansfield 
 and Easton,) as well as of many other tracts of Ian (i 
 in the vicinity. On the surrender of New-York t^ 
 the English under Col. Nichols, in August 1664, ]> 
 the Dutch Governor Stuyvesant, Capt. Willett ac 
 companied the Commissioners of Appeals, viz. Nicli 
 ols, Carr, Cartwright and Maverick, to that city : and 
 rendered them great service by his aequaintance with 
 the customs, usages and language of the Dutch, in 
 organizing the new government. He performed his 
 duties while there to the entire satisfaction of all the 
 parties concerned, and rendered himself so acceptable 
 to the people, that after the organization of the gov- 
 ernment he Avas elected the first English mayor of 
 the city of New- York. To this office he was elected 
 a second time ; and the Dutch had so much confidence 
 in his integrity, that he v/as by them chosen umplio 
 to determine the disputed boundary between New- 
 York and New-Haven. While he was Mayor of 
 New- York he appears to have held his standing as a 
 citizen, and his property at Rehoboth, and to have 
 sustained ollice therein. When the two years of his 
 Mayorality had expired at New-York, he returned to 
 jKjchoboth. 
 
Al'l'ENDIX. IGS 
 
 Capt. Willett's name appears the first on the list of 
 individuals to whom liberty was given to iovm a town- 
 ship by the name of Swanzea. In the settlement of 
 the town, Capt. Willett and Mr. Miles may justly be 
 considered the most prominent men ; and they are 
 usually styled the Fathers of the Town. He contin- 
 ued to reside on his farm in Swanzea, during the re- 
 maining part of his life. Capt. Willett on July 6, 
 1636, married Mary Brown, who is generally supposed 
 to have been the daughter of Mr. John Brown, the 
 elder, at Plymouth. She w^as sister of Mr. James 
 Brown, one of the constituent members of the Swan- 
 zea church, and whose name was held in high esteem 
 in the the town and colony. Of eight children, some 
 of them died in childhood, while several of Capt. 
 Willett's descendants have distinguished themselves 
 in the history of the country. His grandson Francis 
 Willett was a prominent man in the colony of Rhode- 
 Island. Another descendant, his great grandson, the 
 late Col. Marinus Willett, served with distinguished 
 honor in the Revolutionary war, and was also 31ayor 
 of New -York. 
 
 Capt. Willett appears to have had his residence at 
 the north west part of Swanzea, a part of which is 
 now in Barrington, and a part in Seekonk, where he 
 died, August 4, 1674, at the age of sixty-three. He 
 was buried at the head of Bullock's Cove, in what 
 is now Seekonk, where a rough stone still stands to 
 mark the spot, on which is legible the following brief 
 and rudel}' carved inscription : 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 "1664 
 Here lyetli the body of the worthy Thomas Willett. 
 Esq., who died August je 4th in ye 64th year of hip 
 age, anno 
 
 Who was the first Mayor of New-York and twice did 
 sustain the place." 
 
 His wife Mary died about 1GG9, and lies by his 
 side. 
 
 Note G.— Page 91. 
 The grant of the Plymouth Court, in 1667, which 
 described the town of Swanzea as embracing 
 *• all the lands between the salt water and river, and 
 the bounds of Taunton and Rehoboth, &e." — has 
 been by many supposed to include the present town 
 of Bristol, as well as Warren, Barrington, Swanzea 
 and Somerset. Bristol, however, was not included 
 in that grant, but continued for several years after, 
 as an Indian Township. After Massasoit's death, in 
 1661, it appears, that most ot the remaining Wampa- 
 noags removed from this immediate vicinity, and 
 were collected together more compactly, on a smaller 
 territory, being the same as the present town of Bris- 
 tol. In a Manuscript Document belonging to the 
 town of Warren, called " The Grand Deed of Saile 
 of Lands from Osamequin and Wamsetto his son, 
 Dated 29th March, 1653," the territory described as 
 follows, was sold: "All those severall parcells and 
 necks of uplands, Swampi? and Meadows lyeing and 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 being on the south side of Sinkhunch (Seekonk) els 
 Rehoboth, k^cc.'" After the deed describes the lands 
 thus sold, it ends as follows : — And the said Osame- 
 quin, (Massasoit,) and Wamsetto, (Alexander,) his 
 son, covenant, promise and grant, that whensoever 
 the Indians shall remove from the JVcck, that then 
 and from thenceforth, the aforesaid Thomas Prince, 
 Thomas Willet, Miles Standish, Josiah Winslow, 
 shall enter upon the same, by tlie same agreement, 
 .•IS their Proper Pvights and Interest to them and their 
 heirs forever." 
 
 By virtue of the preceding Deed, the remnants of 
 his tribe, after Massasoit's death, began to collect 
 together, with Philip tor their chief, on the Mount 
 Hope lands. Some Indians, however, still continued 
 to live in Warren, till about the beginning of Philip's 
 war, as they were reluctant to give up so much of 
 tiieir territory on so easy terms. 
 
 Frequent altercations took place between the Col- 
 onists of Swanzea and the Wampanoags, about the 
 boundary lines of the Mount Hope lands ; until at 
 length, shortly before the war, a fence was run from 
 the Warren to the Kickemuit rivers, on the line 
 which is the present boundary between Warren and 
 Bristol. Tradition says that this fence stood for many 
 years after the war. 
 
 The Indians continued to hold and occupy the low- 
 er part of the Neck, — that is, that portion of it now 
 constituting Bristol — until Philip's war, when being 
 exterminated or driven away, their remaining rights 
 to tlie territory were extinguished. The propristor* 
 
166 APPENDIX. ' 
 
 of Sowams claimed the deserted territory by the pro- 
 visions of the Grand Deed; but, after a long contro- 
 versy, the Government decided it to be conquered 
 land, and should be sold to assist in defraying the 
 expenses of the war. " In 16S0, Mount Hope terri- 
 tory, about 7000 acres, was granted to the colony by 
 the crown, for their services and sufferings in tjje 
 war. * * Rhode-Isiand urged their claim. * * 
 Mount Hope territory was sold soon afterwards by 
 Plymouth, for three hundred pounds. The king's 
 letter, communicating the grant of Mount Hope, con- 
 tained encouraging assurances of further favors, upon 
 proper application." (Morton's Memorial, Davis' 
 Ed. p. 469.) 
 
 At the same time, the Proprietors of Sowams, in 
 the MS. Record Book, say, " That for the lands now 
 in dispute between the Proprielors and the pnblique,. 
 whether ours or conqnered Lands, the Proprietors, 
 doe, (forthwith all as one man,) take effectual course 
 for the defence and clearing our Interest in the Lands 
 aforesaid." (See also Holmes' Annals, I. 400.) 
 
 The Deed of Bristol, given by the Government of 
 Plymouth, which is dated Sept. 14, 1680, states the 
 compensation to be " Eleven hundred pounds of our 
 current money of New-England ;" and describing the 
 land called " IMount Hope Neck" and Poppasquash 
 Neck," says, " excepting only and reserving tlie 
 Lands already granted to the inhabitants of Swanzea 
 at the north end, or entrance of said Neck, (being 
 the same as Warren,) and also the one Hundred acres 
 of Land now 'elonging unto the family of Goraras, 
 
APPENDIX. IG7 
 
 and the meadows forinerly purchased of tlie Iii- 
 *dkirjs." 
 
 Note IL— Page 9:j. 
 
 The ground occupied by this village, v/as undoubt- 
 '■edly the home of Massasoit, the fuithiful friend of the 
 pilgrims. Ever since tlie time of his death, 184 
 years ago, tradition has represented this as the place 
 of his general residence ; and in the memory of the 
 oldest people in this vicinity, " Massasoit's spring," 
 Tiear Baker's wharf, in this village, has been a time- 
 iionored place, associated with the name of that great 
 chief. But there are copious proofs of more autiien- 
 tic character than simple tradition, wJjich fully estab- 
 lish this fact. The arguments proving this point 
 ■would here be adduced ; — as it entered into the plan 
 of this Discourse to give an extended supplementary 
 notice of the fact that Massasoit held his residence 
 near the spot where this Discourse was pronounced : 
 but since this small volume has been put to press, it 
 lias been deemed desirable to illustrate the aboriginal 
 and colonial history of this neighborhood much more 
 at length, than was contemplated in the plan of tJie 
 author; and accordingly, the subject referred to in 
 the beginning of this Note, is reserved for a Supple- 
 ment to this volume, by General Guy JM. Fessenden, 
 whose diligence and accuracy in such investigations, 
 specially qualify him for writing the Secular History 
 of this town. The author the more cheerfully resigns 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 these topics to Gen. Fessenden's department, as he is 
 already indebted to that gentleman for several fans 
 and suggestions presented in these pages. 
 
 Note I.— Page 118 
 
 The following is a copy of the letter of Dismission 
 given by the Baptist church at Scotch Plains to tlie 
 church at Warren, in behalf of Mr. Manning. 
 
 The original letter, now in my possession, is sign- 
 ed by all the male members of that church, fourteen 
 in number. It is presented as a happy specimen of 
 the method of doing church business by our fore- 
 fathers. 
 
 " The church of Jesus Christ, meeting at the Scotch 
 Plains, in the county of Essex, province of East New- 
 Jersey, professing Believer's Baptism, Laying on of 
 hands, Election of Grace, Effectual Calling, and Final 
 Perseverance in Grace, &c. 
 
 To the Church of Christ of the same Faith and Or- 
 der, in Warren, in the Government of Rhode- 
 Island, do send our Christian Salutation : 
 Dear Brethren; Whereas our Revd. and re- 
 spected Br. Mr. James Manning, hath by yuur call 
 removed his Residence from amongst us, and now 
 abides with you; and hath requested of us a Letter 
 of Dismission in order to Joyn with you. And hop- 
 ing it will be more for his Comfort and your Advan- 
 tage so to do : We therefore recommend him as an 
 orderly Zealous Profeseor; and has been called and 
 
APPENDIX. 1G9 
 
 regularly ordained in this Church to the Ministry of 
 the Gospel, in winch his Proficiency and Profitiing 
 has appeared to many: And we doubt not when 
 joyn'd with you by virtue of this Dismission as lie 
 will be discharg'd from our immediate oversight, 
 You will receive him and make use of him in Love 
 and all the relative Duties of his important Station. 
 We are Joyn'd in our Prayers for him and You that 
 the glorious Head of the Church would bless you 
 with every Gift, Grace and Prosperity, thVough Jesus 
 Christ our common Lord. Amen. 
 November ye 25th, ano 1764. 
 
 BENJAMIN MILLER, 
 [and thirteen others."] 
 
 Note K.— Page 119. 
 
 COVENANT OF THE BAPTIST CHURCl^r, 
 WARREN, R. I. 
 
 Whereas we, unwortky sinners, are through the 
 infinite riches' of free grace, as we trust, brought out 
 3f darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel, 
 ind the grace of it, transformed into the Kingdom of 
 God's dear Son Jesus Christ our only Lord and Sa- 
 i^iour, and made partakers of all those privileges whirJi 
 Ohrist purchased with his precious blood, think it our 
 luty and greatest privilege we can enjoy here on earth, 
 o walk in all the commandments and Ordinances, 
 lot only for our own comfort and peace, but for the 
 manifestation of the glory of God, and for the mu-'- 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 tual help and society of each other; and as it hath pleas- 
 ed God to appoint a visible Church relation, to be the 
 way and manner whereby He is pleased to commu- 
 nicate to his people the blessings of his presence, a 
 growth in grace and furtherance in the knowledge ot 
 our Lord God, 
 
 We therefore, this day, after solemn fasting and 
 prayer for help and direction, in the fear of His Holy 
 Name and with hearts lifted up to the most high 
 God, humbly and freely oifer up ourselves a living 
 sacrifice unto Him who is our God in Covenant, 
 through Jesus Christ, to walk together according to 
 his revealed word, in visible gospel relation, both to 
 Christ our only head, and to each other as fellow 
 members and brethren of the same household of 
 faith. 
 
 And we do humbly engage, that through his 
 strength we will endeavor to perform all our re| 
 spective duties, towards God and each other, and^ 
 to practise all the Ordinances of Christ, according 
 to what is and shall be made known to us in our 
 respective places, to exercise, practise and submit 
 to the government of Christ in this Church. 
 
 And we declare that it is our mind that none' 
 are properly qualified members of this Christ's vis- 
 ible Church, but such as have been wrought upon 
 by the grace of God, delivered from their sins by 
 the Justifying Righteousness of Christ, and have 
 the evidence of it in their souls, have made pro- 
 fession thereof, that is, of a living faith in Christ, 
 and have been baptized by immersion, in the name' 
 uf the Holy Trinity. 
 
APPENDIX. 17 [ 
 
 Further, it is our mind, that the imposition or 
 sion-imposition of hands upon believers, after bap- 
 tism, is not essential to Church Communion, and 
 that where the image of Christ is discerned, ac- 
 cording to the rules of God's word, and those pre- 
 vious duties, but now mentioned are submitted to 
 according to Gospel rules, w^e are ready to hold 
 communion with all such walking orderly in the 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 And now v/e humbly hope that although of our- 
 selves we are altogether unworthy and unfit thus 
 to offer up ourselves to God or to do him any ser- 
 vice or to expect any favor, or mercy from him, 
 yet that He will graciously accept of this our free- 
 will offering, in and through the merits and med- 
 iation of bur dear Redeemer, and that He will em- 
 ploy and improve us in his service to his own 
 praise, to whom be all the glory both now and 
 forever. Amen. 
 
 [The original copy of this church covenant, in 
 the hand-writing of Dr. Manning, is now in my 
 possession. J. P. T.j 
 
 Note L.— Page 119. 
 CALL OF THE CHURCH TO MR. MANNING. 
 
 The Church of Christ in Warren, in the Colony 
 of Rhode-Island, Baptized upon a personal profession 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 of faith, holding the doctrines of Regeneration, Per 
 severance in grace, &c. — being constituted and or- 
 ganized a Church this 15th day of November, A. D. 
 17G4, present to the Revd. James Manning, late of 
 Nassau Hall, in New-Jersey, their Christian saluta- 
 tion : 
 
 B.everend and dear Sir, 
 Inasmuch as God in his Providence hath seen fit 
 to give us an opportunity of being constituted a 
 ciiurch of Christ, That we may according to the pat- 
 tern showed us in the Gospel, partake of the or- 
 dinances which Christ hath left in Ijis church, and 
 walk together as Brethren in Christ : by his Apostles 
 having instructed us that ordained pastors are those 
 that are to feed his people with knowledge, and ad- 
 minister ordinances amongst them, we do this day 
 unanimously request that you would accept this our 
 call to the work of a Pastor over and amongst us, 
 having been fully satisfied heretofore of your call and 
 ordination in the work of the ministry in a regular 
 church of Christ in Eiizabethtown, East Jersey, under 
 the Pastoral care of the Revd. Benjamin Miller; 
 And as we are of opinion that they who preach the 
 gospel should live of the Gospel, we do here declare 
 our intention to render your life as happy as possible 
 by our brotherly conduct towards you, and communi- 
 cating our temporal things to your necessities so long 
 as God in his providence shall continue us together , 
 your acceptance hereof we humbly hope will be a 
 mean under the divine blessing of our mutual fur- 
 
APPENDIX, 173 
 
 lerance and growth in grace; thus we prefer our 
 'quest and subscribe your Brethren, 
 
 JOHN EASTOBROOK, ^ 
 
 BENJAMIN COLE, | 
 
 SYLVESTER CHILD, I r ; , ,. . ,, 
 
 JOHN CHILD, } In behalf of tke 
 
 EBENEZER COLE, | ^'^"'°^'^- 
 
 JOHN WEST, j 
 
 WM. EASTOBROOKE. j 
 
 Note M.— Page 122. 
 
 The first Hou^c of Worship, built by tiiis Society 
 n 1764, was about 44 feet square, with a four-sided 
 !:ip roof, surmounted at the top and centre with a 
 nal! belfry, in which was hung a ship bell, the rope 
 ■ f which hung directly down in the audience room, 
 ) that when ringing, the sexton stood in the centre 
 f the middle aisle. The style of the architecture 
 as very plain, without tower or porch, and the build- 
 iig was never painted. 
 
 The front door, on the east side, led directly into 
 the audience room : and immediately within the en- 
 trance, to the right and left, were stairs leading into 
 the galleries. At the west side was the pulpit, with 
 its sounding-board. This church had then introduced 
 psalmody as a part of public worship, though even so 
 late as in 1764, there was a divided use among the 
 Baptist churches in New-England, some churches re- 
 : arding metrical hymns, and all kinds of mueic, as 
 naulhorized by tiic New Testament. In this church , 
 
 L 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 however, there was then no organized ehoir ; the 
 hymns were read off, two lines at a time, by the Dea- 
 con, and sung by the congregation. [For the facts 
 abovestaled, the author is indebted chiefly to General 
 G. M. Fessenden.] 
 
 The second Church Edifice was erected in 1784, 
 on the spot occupied by the former, partly on the same 
 underpinning, and extending westward about 17 feet. 
 The vote of the Society to erect this building, stands 
 recorded Feb. 5, 1784, when they adopted the plan 
 by which the house was built. A building Commit- 
 tee, consisting of Dea. Ebenezer Cole, William T. 
 .Miller and William Barton, were appointed and au- 
 thorized to negotiate with General Nathan Miller, to 
 build the house for $2000. It appears, however, that 
 this sum proved too small to erect such a building 
 with, aud it was not finished, so as to be used, till in 
 the summer of 1786. Its dimensions were 61 feet in 
 length and 44 feet in width ; it had a tower at the 
 cast and front end, 14 feet square and 44 in height. 
 
 This house at first contained 63 square pews on 
 the lower floor, and had galleries on three sides. The 
 pulpit at the west end, was supplied with the old 
 fashioned sounding-board. In 1800, a steeple, forty- 
 three feet and a half in height, was placed on the 
 tower, making the whole height 87 1-2 feet. At the 
 same lime, the bell still in use by the Society, was 
 placed in the tower. In the spring of 1832, the old 
 square pows were taken up, and replaced by modern 
 blips, making 74 on the lower floor. The organ now 
 owned by the Society; was obtained in the autumn of 
 he samr ycai, 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 In May, 1844, this house, to make room for the 
 stone building, was removed a little northerly, and in 
 November of the same year, was taken down. 
 
 The present Church Edifice is erected partly on 
 the ground occupied by the two former Houses of 
 Worship, and partly on ground south of that location, 
 including the land on which the original Parsonage 
 and College building stood. Its dimensions are the 
 following : the length of the body of the house is 84 
 feet, the width 70 feet, and in height, 34 feet from 
 the ground to the outside cornice : in front is a tower, 
 23 feet square, 86 feet high, surmounted with a bat- 
 tlement, rising 8 feet and projecting out one foot. 
 The side and end walls of the main building, are 
 surmounted by battlements of the same order with 
 the tower, rising about six feet from the roof. The 
 walls of the building are constructed of dark brown 
 and gray stone, laid in horizontal courses, technically 
 called the " Scotch coursed rubble," the courses va- 
 rying from 12 to 18 inches in height, but each course 
 carried uniformly round the whole building. 
 
 The thickness of the tower walls at the foundation 
 IS 7 feet, brought in at the surface of the ground 
 to 3 feet, while at the upper extremity they are reduc- 
 ed to 20 inches. The thickness of the main walls 
 is 5 feet at the foundation, brought in at the surface 
 of the ground to 2 1-2 feet, and from the audience 
 room floor to the top, the walls are uniformly two 
 feet thick. 
 
 The style of the Edifice is the Medium Gothic, 
 exhibiting the outlines of that order, hut without the 
 
no APPENDIX. 
 
 various forms of tracery and carved work which ren- 
 der that order of architecture so gorgeous and expen- 
 sive. There are fourteen arched windows in the 
 main building, each 24 feet high, five in each side, 
 and two in each end. There are also five arched 
 windows in the tower, two in the basement, and three 
 in the organ room, the one in front being very large. 
 The windows are filled with stained glass, of a vari- 
 ety of colors, interspersed with borders and interme- 
 diate courses of white ground glass. The efi*ect of 
 this glass is to throw a soft religious light over the 
 whole interior, which, combining with the dark col- 
 ors of the wood work, and the long drawn aisles, is 
 very solemn and impressive. The pulpit is of a very 
 peculiar construction, its floor being on a level with 
 the tops of the pews, open at the sides, the speaking 
 <lesk of a reduced size, the platform of the pulpit 
 appropriately furnished with carpet, and with a sofa 
 and chairs made of black walnut, and finished with 
 crimson velvet. The pulpit is lighted by lamps 
 placed on heavy bronzed standards. The house is 
 lighted by four large bronzed chandeliers, each hav- 
 ing eight burners. On the floor of the audience room 
 are 146 pews, arranged in three double rows, with 
 four aisles, two side, and two medial j the pews are 
 finished in combed oak, and capped with black wal- 
 nut railings, all the pews being uniformly finished, 
 and cushioned with crimson moreen. There are also 
 open seats on the side aisles, against the walls. There, 
 is a gallery across the building, over the vestibule, 
 the organ room being in the lower, on a level with 
 ?lic gallery. 
 
APPENDIX. 1T7 
 
 In the basement story is a lecture room capable of 
 accommodating 500 people ; a committee room ; a 
 large unfinished lumber room, and ilie Pastor's study, 
 connecting by a flight of stairs, with the pulpit above. 
 The house is warmed by two large furnaces, of the 
 most approved construction ; while ventilators are so 
 constructed as to keep the air in the house at all times 
 pure, and the temperature equally comfortable. The 
 lot on which the building stands, is about 145 feet 
 square, inclosed by a cast iron fence of ornamental 
 picket work, surmounting a base wall of dressed 
 granite. The front and sides of the lot are orna- 
 mented with elm trees, some of which have been 
 growing for many years. 
 
 The whole expense involved in the erection of 
 this building is about $18,000. The Building Com- 
 mittee engaged in its construction were Messrs. S. 
 P. Child, Lewis Hoar, J. P. Tustin, S. A. Driscol, 
 H. H. Luther, Charles Richmond, jun. G. M. Fes- 
 penden, and C. T. Child. The design of the build- 
 ing was furnished by Major Russell Warren, of Pro- 
 vidence. The stone work was executed by Mr 
 William Andrews, of Providence, and the wood 
 work by Mr. C. S. Tompkins, of Warren. 
 The painting, glazing, staining, &c. were done bv 
 L. Cole & Co. of Warren. The whole Building is 
 constructed of the most substantial materials, and 
 all the work is executed with fidelity and good 
 taste 
 
178 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note N.— Page 122. 
 
 The following is an account of the first Commence- 
 ment of the Rhode-Island College at Warren, Sep- 
 tember 7, 1769, from the Providence Gazette and 
 Country Journal, printed by John Carter, September 
 9, 1769. 
 
 Providence, September 9. 
 
 On Thursday, the 7th of this instant, vtras celebrat- 
 ed at Warren, the first Commencement in the College 
 of this Colony ; when the following young gentlemen 
 commenced Bachelors of Arts, viz : Joseph Bslton^ 
 Joseph Eaton, William Rogers, Richard Stites., Charles 
 Thompson, James Mitchell Varnum, and William, Wil- 
 liams . 
 
 About ten o'clock, A. M., the gentlemen concern- 
 ed in conducting the affairs of the College, together 
 with the Candidates, went in procession to the Meet- 
 ing-House. 
 
 After they had taken their seats respectively, and 
 the audience were composed, the President introduc- 
 ed the business of the day with prayer; then follow- 
 ed a salutatory oration in Latin, pronounced with 
 much spirit, by Mr. Stites, which procured him great 
 applause from the learned part of the assembly. He 
 spoke upon the advantages of Liberty and Learning, 
 and their mutual dependence upon each other, con- 
 cluding with proper salutations to the Chancellor of 
 the College, Governor of the Colony, &c. particularly 
 expressing the gratitude of all the friends of the Co! 
 lege to the Rev. Morgan Edwards, who has encoun- 
 
 \ 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 icred many difficulties in going to Europe, to collect 
 donations for the Institution, and has lately returned. 
 
 To vvliich succeeded a forensic dispute in English, 
 on the following Thesis, viz : " The Americans^ in 
 their present circumstances^ cannot^ consistent with 
 good policy, affect to become an Independent State.'' 
 Mr. Varnum ingeniously defended it by cogent argu- 
 ments, handsomely dressed ; though he was subtilly 
 but delicately opposed by Mr. Williams, both of 
 whom spoke with emphasis and propriety. 
 
 As a conclusion to the exercises of the forenoon, 
 the audience were agreeably entertained with an ora- 
 tion on Benevolence, by JMr. Rogers ; in which, among 
 many other pertinent observations, he particularly 
 noticed the necessity which that infant Seminary 
 stands in, of the salutary elTects of that truly Christ- 
 ian virtue. 
 
 At three o'clock, P.P.I, the audience being conven- 
 ed, a syllogistic dispute was introduced on this The- 
 sis : " Materia cogitare non potest.'' Mr. Williams 
 the respondent ; Messieurs Bclton, Eaton, Rogers and 
 Varnum the opponents. In the course of which dis- 
 pute, the principal arguments on both sides were pro- 
 duced towards settling that critical point. 
 
 The degree of Bachelor of Arts was then conferred 
 on the candidates. Then the following gentlemen, 
 (graduates in other colleges,) at their own request 
 received the honorary degree of Master in the Arts, 
 viz : Rev. Edward Upham, Rev. Morgan Edioards, 
 Rev. Samuel Stillman, Rev. HezeJdah Smith, Hon. 
 Joseph Wanton, Jun. Esq., Mr. Jabcz Bowcn, and Mr. 
 
180 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 David Hoicell, Professor of Philosophy in said Col 
 Jege. 
 
 The following gentlemen, being well recommend- 
 ed by the Faculty for literary merit, had conferred on 
 them the honorary degree of Master in the Arts, viz : 
 Rev. Jlbel Morgan, Rev, Oliver Hart, Rev. David 
 Thomas, Rev. Samuel Jones, Mr. John Davis, Mr. 
 Robert Strettle Jones, Mr. John Stites, Rev. James 
 Bryson, Rev. James Edioards, Rev. William Boulton, 
 Rev. John Ryland, Rev. William Clark, Rev. Joshua 
 Toulmin, and Rev. Caleb Evans. 
 
 A concise, pertinent and solemn charge was then 
 given to the Bachelors by the President, concluding 
 with his last paternal benediction, which naturally 
 introduced the valedictory orator, Mr. Thompson, 
 who, after some remarks upon the excellences of the 
 oratorial art, and expressions of gratitude to the pat- 
 rons and officers of the College, together with a val- 
 ediction to them, and all present, took a most affec- 
 tionate leave of his classmates. The scene was 
 tender — the subject felt — and the audience affected.* 
 The President concluded the exercises with prayer. 
 The whole was conducted with a propriety and so- 
 lemnity suitable to the occasion. The audience, 
 (consisting of the principal gentlemen and ladies of 
 this Colony, and many from the neighboring govern- 
 ments) though large and crowded, behaved with the 
 utmost decorum. 
 
 [ ^ The original manuscript copy of llii3 Oration, in the hani- 
 wriling of Mr. Thompson, ia m the possession of his descrnd 
 ints, in this town. J. P. T.l 
 
APPENDIX. 181 
 
 Not only the candidates, but even the President, 
 were dressed in American manufactures. Finally, be 
 it observed, that this class arc the first sons of that 
 College, wliich has existed for more than four years, 
 during all which time it labored under great disad- 
 vantages, notwithstanding the warm patronage and 
 encouragement of many worthy men, of fortune and 
 benevolence ; and it is hoped, from the disposition 
 which many discovered on that day, and other favor 
 able circumstances, that these disadvantagfis will 
 jjoon, in part, be happily removed." 
 
 Note 0.~Page 124. 
 
 As early as in 1753, after various memorials and 
 remonstrances addressed to the Government of Mas- 
 sachusetts, by several Baptist churches in that Col- 
 ony, the spirit of intolerance, by which the " Stand- 
 ing Order" had exacted the ministerial Tax from the 
 Baptists, and otherwise subjected them to very op- 
 pressive civil disabilities, was so much softened, that 
 the Lieut. Governor, Council, and House of Repre- 
 sentatives, passed an act, entitled, " An act in addi- 
 tion to an act, passed the 13th year of his present 
 Majesty's reign, entitled. An act further to exempt 
 persons commonly called Anabaptists, within this 
 province, from being taxed for aid towards the sup- 
 port of ministers." One passage of the proceedings 
 of the Massachusetts Legislature of that session 
 stands thus : — 
 Q 
 
182 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Be it enacted^ by the Lieut. Governor, Council 
 and House of Representatives, that no person for the 
 future shall be so esteemed to be an Anabaptist as to 
 have his poll or polls and estate exempted from pay- 
 ing a proportionate part of the taxes that shall be 
 raised in the town or place where he or they belong, 
 but such whose names shall be contained in the lists 
 taken by the assessors, as in said act provided, or 
 such as shall produce a certificate under the hands 
 of the minister, and of two principal members of such 
 church, setting forth, that they conscientiously be- 
 lieve such person or persons to be of their persuasion, 
 and that he or they usually and frequently attend 
 the public worship in such church on Lord's days. — 
 And he it further enacted^ that no minister nor the 
 members of any Anabaptist church, as aforesaid, shall 
 be esteemed qualified to give such certificate, as 
 aforesaid, other than such as shall have obtained 
 from three other churches^ commonly called Anabap- 
 tists, in this or the neighboring provinces, a certifi- 
 cate from each respectively, that they esteem such 
 church to be one of their denomination, and that they 
 conscientiously believe them to be Anabaptists, the 
 several certificates as aforesaid to be lodged with the 
 Town Clerk where the Anabaptist, (desiring such 
 exemption,) dwells, some lime betwixt the raising or 
 granting of the tax, and the assessment of the same 
 on the inhabitants. This act to continue to be in 
 force for five years from the publication thereof, and 
 no longer." 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 183^ 
 
 Note P.— Page 126. 
 
 For a more detailed account of the Warren Associ- 
 ation, the following account is presented from Bene- 
 dict's History of the Baptists. 
 
 « WARREN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 This body was formed in the place from which it 
 took its name, in 1767, at whioh lime three ministers* 
 from the Philadelphia Association came on with a 
 letter to encourage the measure. Only four churches 
 at first associated, viz. Warren, Haverhill, Belling- 
 ham, and the Second in Middleborough. The dele- 
 gates from six other churches were present, but they 
 did not feel themselves ready to proceed in the un- 
 dertaking. As the annual Commencement of the 
 College had been fixed on the first Wednesday of 
 September, the anniversary of the Association was 
 appointed the Tuesday after. This arrangement is 
 still observed. t The second and third sessions of this 
 Association were held in the place where it was 
 formed. The fourth was at Bellingham, and the fifth 
 at Sutton, in 1771, by which time it had increased to 
 20 churches, and over 800 members. This year they 
 began to print their Minutes, and have continued to 
 do so to the present time. The two churches in Bos- 
 ton fell in with this establishment a few years after 
 it was begun, but it was some time before the Provi- 
 dence church, which is now the oldest and largest in 
 
 * Sfr. Backus has not mentioned their names. Dr. Jonea and 
 Morgan Edwards were probably two of them. 
 
 t During about twenty years past, the Association has had the 
 first day of its meeting, on the first Wednesday instead of the 
 first Tuesday after Commencement. 
 
184 APPENDIX. 
 
 it, could be brought into its measures. The doctrine 
 of the laying-on-of-hands was probably the principal 
 cause of this delay. This Association for a number 
 of years included a large circle of churches, which 
 were scattered over a wide extent of country, in 
 Rhode-Island, Massachusetts, New-Hampshire, Ver- 
 mont and Connecticut. Most of them were, however, 
 in Massachusetts, aud in process of time, Boston be- 
 came not far fronj its centre. It has, from its begin- 
 ning, been a flourishing and influential body ; has 
 contained a number of ministers of eminent standing 
 in the Baptist connection ; has successfully opposed 
 the encroachments of religious oppression ; has aided 
 the designs of the College at Providence ; has devised 
 plans of a literary and missionary nature; and has 
 been more or less concerned in whatever measures 
 have had a view to the promotion of the cause of 
 truth, of the Baptist interest in New-England, and 
 remoter regions. By this body were presented many 
 addresses to the rulers of Massachusetts, and some of 
 the Continental Congress, against civil oppressions 
 for conscience' sake; by it also were issued many 
 publications in defence of religious freedom. It was 
 almost constantly employed in measures of this kind, 
 from its formation, to the close of the war, in 1783; 
 and no small success attended its exertions." 
 
 Note a.— Page 133. 
 Additional notice of the Rev. Charles Thomp- 
 son, by Rev. A. Fisher, of Swanzea. 
 
 Besides the great and gracious revival of religipn. 
 
APPENDIl. 185 
 
 under Mr. Thompson's ministry with tho Swanzea 
 church, immediately after his settlement, in 1780, 
 there were two more revivals during his ministry 
 with this people; one in 1789, and the other in 1801, 
 which greatly encouraged the church and the minis- 
 ter. The whole number baptized by him, while 
 minister at Swanzea, was one hundred and seventy- 
 six. But in consequence of the re-organization of the 
 Warren church, and the formation of other churches 
 within the circle formerly embraced by the Swanzea 
 church, the decrease of this church was so great, that 
 before Mr. Thompson left, his field of labour had be- 
 come very much lessened, so that when he left the 
 church, it was not much larger than when he found 
 it. 
 
 His support was small, so that he was obliged to 
 labour with his own hands, keep store, and instruct 
 scholars, to obtain a living. Mr. Thompson was a 
 native of New-Jersey, having been born at Amwell, 
 April 14, 1748. As Mr. Manning came from New- 
 Jersey at the beginning of the Rhode-Island College 
 in Warren, Mr. Thompson came on with him, or 
 very soon afterwards, for the purpose of obtaining an 
 education. After the irruption of the English troops 
 into Warren drove Mr. Thompson with his family 
 away from the place, he abode for a short time in 
 Ashford, Conn, preaching at various places, until he 
 settled in Swanzea, in 1779. Here he faithfully per- 
 formed the duties of a minister of the gospel, with 
 much success, for the period of twenty-three years, 
 when he removed to Charlton, Mass. where h« 
 «[i«d, May 1, 1803. CL* 
 
186 APPENDIX. 
 
 In the early part of his ministry he married Miss 
 Sally Child, daughter of Sylvester Child, of Warren, 
 by whom he had five children, viz. William, Abby, 
 Margaret, Sally and Charles. 
 
 Mr. Thompson was tall in person, and of a fine fig- 
 ure. The expression of his countenance indicated 
 benignity and intellect. He was industrious, improv- 
 ing his time as if he knew its value. In his family 
 he was kind, but firm, and the same qualities he dis- 
 played in the church and everywhere else. 
 
 As a preacher, he had a voice of great compass, of 
 sweet and commanding tones. His feelings were 
 deep and tender; often he wept over the people, 
 while ha uttered his voice in notes of thunder, to 
 awaken the sinner from his sleep of death. His ser- 
 mons were studied, but not generally written. He 
 understood his own deep responsibility ; he knew the 
 account he must give to the great Judge ; he felt the 
 worth of the soul ; and with emotion besought the 
 sinner not to die. In language, he was plain and 
 forcible ; he feared not to declare the great truths of 
 the Bible, — such as man's sinfulness and helplessness, 
 the holiness of God's law, and the blessedness of the 
 gospel. He clearly held up and maintained the gov- 
 ernment of God, and his election of his people to eter- 
 nal life. He well understood that all his hopes of 
 success depended on the gracious influences of the 
 Holy Spirit. In short, he never in his preaching lost 
 sight of the cross of Christ, in which he gloried. And 
 while he dwelt on these glorious themes, he led his 
 htarerSjto look at death, the lesurrection, the final 
 
APPENDIX. 187 
 
 judgment, heaven and hell. On the one hand, he 
 portrayed the glories of heaven ; and on the other, in 
 melting but awful strains, he showed to the impeni- 
 tent the agonies of the second death. Such preaching 
 could not fail to lead the wicked to tremble, and in 
 multitudes to flee from the wrath to come. The 
 church he fed with the bread of life, so that under his 
 ministry they were instructed and rendered holy. 
 
 He was also very successful in the instruction of 
 youth ; and many were the young men whom he in- 
 structed in the ways of science and of virtue. Such 
 talents as he possessed could not be hid ; he was often 
 called to preach on public occasions, and multitudes, 
 besides the people of his own particular church, were 
 benefited by his faithful labors. At his death well 
 might it be said, " A great man has fallen in Israel." 
 
 Mr. Fisher adds ; — 
 
 The churches of Swanzea and Warren stand in the 
 relation of mother and daughter. As in the order of 
 nature, while the daughter advances from youth to 
 womanhood, the mother becomes old and decrepid, so 
 it is in this case. 
 
 Once, after the daughter had gone out from her 
 mother's house, in her extremity she was received 
 back to be cherished in her bosom. Now that the 
 mother has become old and weak, it is hoped that the 
 daughter will not forget the knees on which she was 
 dandled, while the mother rejoices in her prosperity. 
 
188 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note R.— Page 134. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF REV. JOHN 
 PITMAN. 
 
 The Rev. John Pitman was born in Boston, April 
 26, 1751. At the age of thirteen years, he removed 
 with his father, to engage in mercantile business, at 
 Beaufort, S. C. ; but after a short residence there, he 
 returned to Boston. Though educated by religious 
 parents, he describes himself as having early tried 
 " to harden himself in sin, and shake off the restraints 
 of his early education. He became profane, active in 
 all mischief, and was surpassed by few of his com- 
 panions in iniquity. In this course he continued, till 
 sometime in 1769; when He who has all power was 
 pleased to say, Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. 
 Then his conscience was alarmed in reality : his sins 
 rose to his view, and the fears of eternal misery press- 
 ed upon his mind. He resolved to change his course 
 of life, to repent and turn to God." 
 
 The subsequent exercises of Mr. Pitman's religious 
 experience, given in extensive details in his own pa- 
 pers, describe the progress of a soul, having been first 
 enlightened by the Holy Spirit to see the plague of 
 his own heart, through all those successive acts of a 
 work of grace, till it comes to seethe excellence of 
 Jesus Christ, the suitableness of the plan of salvation 
 revealed in the gospel, and its final and appropriating 
 application for a personal interest in the promised 
 blessing, — peace in believing, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghoit. He wai baptized by Dr. Stillman, Feb. 24, 
 1771. 
 
APPENDIX. 189 
 
 Though he had become a citizen of that " kingdom 
 wiiich is not of this vvorkl," he loved his country, 
 was an early advocate of its independence, and felt it 
 his duty to maintain its rights and privileges. At the 
 passage of the " Boston port bill," in 1774, he re- 
 moved to Philadelphia, and subsequently joined a 
 volunteer company, consisting principally of Quakers 
 belonging to that city. During the various scenes of 
 his military duty, and on other occasions, he not only 
 displayed the bravery of the soldier, in a righteous 
 cause, but in an eminent degree, that decision and 
 attachment to the service of his Heavenly Fathei* 
 that gained him the esteem and respect of all his com- 
 panions. 
 
 Mr. Pitman began to preach in 1777, having pro- 
 bably united with some church in Philadelphia, by 
 whom he was approved as a preacher of the gospel. 
 After he was ordained, he preached at various places 
 in New-Jersey, from 1777 till 1781, when he again 
 removed to the city of Philadelphia. 
 
 On Sept. 21,1778, he was married to Rebecca Cox, 
 daughter of Richard Cox, of Upper Freehold, N. J. 
 While at Philadelphia, he was engaged chiefly in 
 secular business for the support of his family, but al- 
 ways preached the gospel on the Sabbath, and at oth- 
 er times. For about five months, in the latter part of 
 1781, he supplied the pulpit of the First Baptist church 
 in that city, after the church had been left without a 
 pastor, by the secession of their former pastor, Mr. 
 Winchester and his party, who adopted the sentiments 
 pf the Universalisfs. In May, 1784, he removed to 
 
190 APPENDIX. 
 
 Providence, R. I. where, although he became engag- 
 ed in different iiinds of secular business, he devoted 
 part of his time to the acquisition of useful knowledge 
 in his ministerial profession, and to its several voca- 
 tions. In Sept. 1785, he was appointed steward of 
 the College, and continued in that office one year, 
 during the greater part of which he supplied the Con- 
 gregational church in Attleborough, Mass. 
 
 In Oct. 1786, he received an invitation from the 
 Baptist church in Warren, R. I., to become their pas- 
 tor, and after resigning his office in the College, re- 
 moved thither with his family, and continued to offi- 
 ciate as their minister, till July, 1790, when he 
 removed to Providence, and re-united with the Bap- 
 tist church there. 
 
 His preaching in Warren was abundantly blessed. 
 He was highly respected in the town, and the utmost 
 harmony subsisted between him and tlie church. 
 
 In the first great revival in the Warren church in 
 the years of 1804-5, several who were then added to 
 the church, dated their first awakenings from his 
 preaching. He continued to supply the Warren pul- 
 pit frequently, after his removal to Providence, till 
 the 20th of March, 1791, when he accepted a call to 
 officiate as minister of the Baptist church in Paw- 
 tuxet, R. I. 
 
 Mr. Pitman held his residence in Providence, and 
 continued to preach for the church at Pawtuxet for 
 six years, when in April of 1797, he commenced 
 preaching for the Baptist church in the First Precinct 
 of Rehoboth, Mass. being the same that was subse- 
 
 
APPENDIX. Idl 
 
 quenlly erected into a separate town, under the an- 
 cient [ndian name of Seekonk. 
 
 Here he labored in the ministry with only a short 
 interruption, the remaining part of his life. His ex- 
 ertions among this people were crowned with the 
 Divine blessing. Gradual additions were frequently 
 made to the church during his ministry ; and in the 
 year 1820, the Lord poured out his Spirit upon the 
 inhabitants of tliat town, and thirty-seven were added 
 to the church. 
 
 On Monday night, July 22, 1822, after having 
 preached on the preceding Sabbath with unusual en- 
 gagedness and solemnity, he was attacked with apo- 
 plexy, which terminated fatally on the following 
 Wednesday, in the seventy-second year of his age. 
 A few minutes after he was first taken, he remarked, 
 " I shall die, and not live." 
 
 His remains were interred on the ensuing Friday, 
 when a very appropriate sermon was delivered by Rev. 
 William Rogers, D. D. from 2 Cor, v. 1. 
 
 A portion of Dr. Rogers' sermon at the funeral of 
 Mr. Pitman, is to be found in the September JVo. of 
 the American Baptist Magazine for ]822, in which 
 an elevated character is given of Mr. Pitman, as a wan, 
 a Christians and a Minister. In the November No. 
 of the Magazine for the same year, is an extended 
 and ably v/ritten biographical notice of Mr. Pitman, 
 from which nearly all the facts in this Note are ex- 
 tracted, and of which, this article pretends to be a 
 very short abridgment. The judgment of some of the 
 oldest and most candid of Mr- Pitman's living friends, 
 
192 APPENDIX. 
 
 in this town and elsewhere, has been sought by the 
 writer, and tiicy uniformly agree in saying that the 
 Biography referred to in the Magazine is drawn willi 
 great candor and discrimination. Many person- 
 al recollections of interesting incidents in Mr. Pit- 
 man's history, could be supplied, by some among us, 
 who knew and loved him well; but the brevity need- 
 ful and proper for this small work, necessarily fore- 
 closes them. Mr. Pitman left a wife and three chil- 
 dren to mourn their irreparable loss. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 No sketches have been drawn in these articles, of 
 the pastors of this church, after Mr. Pitman, to the 
 present time. They are all, with one exception, 
 (Rev. Daniel Chessman) still living; and the record 
 of their life and character more properly belongs to 
 some future and more extended history of this church. 
 The writer closes these records of the events and the 
 men of former times, feeling that it will be an ea«y 
 and grateful task, at some other time, to take up this 
 history from the points where it is now left; and the 
 materials of which must hereafter be more abundant 
 and accessible, than the sources from which these 
 sketches are drawn. 
 
 It is with pleasure, that in connection with this 
 Discourse, tiie author can introduce within the covers 
 of the same book, a supplementary article by General 
 Guy M. FesscndeU; who has undertaken a similar 
 
APPENDIX. 193 
 
 work of exhuming the materii^ls for the early history 
 of this town, to what tiie present writer has, with re- 
 spect to this church. Botli these articles are design- 
 ed to be like the base of an inverted cone or pyramid, 
 wider at the foundation, and tapering to a point, nar- 
 rower as we come down to the present. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
THE 
 IlISTOr.Y OF 
 
 Y/ A 11 II E N, R. 1 
 
 FRO.V THE 
 
 EARLIEST TIMES ; 
 
 WITH PARTICULAR NOTICES 
 
 MASSASOIT AND HIS FAMILY. 
 
 Rv G. xM. FESSENDEN. 
 
 It 
 
 PROVIDENCE 
 
 H. II. BROWN, 2S MARKET SUUAKE. 
 1845. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The following pages were written at the solicitation- 
 of the Author's friends, supported by his own view 
 of the importance of such a work. 
 
 The connection of Massasoit and his immediate 
 household, with the first settlers of New-England, 
 constitutes an important feature in the early history of 
 our country. 
 
 From the difficulty in obtaining correct information:, 
 r respecting that distinguished aboriginal family, and 
 ~ especially, the place of their residence ; writers, living 
 [ at a distance from the scenes they describe, have been 
 . led into erroneous statements, and these errors have 
 been copied and repeated in subsequent historical 
 compilations. 
 
 The local residence of the writer gives him the ad- 
 vantage of reconciling facts and testimonies, which 
 could not be reasonably expected of others, dilTerently 
 situated. 
 
 Besides making due acknowledgment for the quo- 
 tations given, the writer deems it proper to observe,, 
 that he has derived much information from the fol- 
 lowing works : 
 Young's Chron. of the Pilgrims, Holmes' Annals,- 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Davis' Morton's Memorials, Drake's Book of the In- 
 dians, Church's and Hubbard's Hist, of Philip's War, 
 Old Indian Chronicle, R. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., Hakluyt's 
 Voyages, Prince's Annals, Mather's Magnalia, Bliss' 
 Hist, of Rehoboth, Barber's Hist. Coll., Adams' and 
 Barber's Histories of N. England, Updike's JMem. of R. 
 1. Bar, Belknap's Am. Biog., Knowles' and Gammell's 
 Mem. of Roger Williams, Backus' Hist, of the Bap- 
 tists, Thatcher's Ind. Biog. Hubbard's Hist. N. Eng- 
 land, Manuscripts, — Record Book of the Proprietors 
 of Sowams, and parts adjacent, from 1653 to 1751, — 
 Swanzea Records from 1670 to 1718, — V\^arren Rec- 
 ords from 1746. 
 Warren, August, 1345. 
 
THE HISTORY OF WARREN. 
 
 The early history of this town, in consC'^ 
 quence of the lapse of time, the various nation- 
 al, state and town governments under which it 
 has passed, and the diversified sources to which 
 we are compelled to resort for information, in- 
 volves difficulties of researcn, requiring much 
 patience, candor and industry. 
 
 The territory, of which it is a part, since 
 first known, has been successively under the 
 national or subordinate jurisdiction of the Abo- 
 rigines, of France, England, North and South 
 Virginia, New Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay 
 and Rhode-Island. Besides following these 
 general changes, the town Vvhile under the In- 
 dian Sachems, was called So-wams in Pokano- 
 ket, until IGGT, when it became a constituent 
 part of Swanzea, Mass. which was incorporated 
 that year. It so remained till 1746, when it 
 was set off from Massachusetts and annexed to 
 Rhode-Island, and including Barrington, which 
 had been previously erected into a separate 
 township in 1718, was incorporated into one 
 town by the name of Warren, In 1770, the 
 town was divided, the western part resuming 
 
(.) SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 the name ot" Barringtoii, the remaining pan 
 constituting the town with its present limits. 
 
 The history of the aboriginal inhabitants of 
 this place and vicinity, their character and con- 
 dition at the time of the first visit of white men, 
 their decline and final dispersion before the 
 irresistible force of civilization, are full of in- 
 terest. The brilliant discovery, by Columbus, 
 of the western world, in 1492, induced the great 
 maritime powers of Europe to send exploring 
 vessels to this continent, with the object of ac- 
 quiring territory by right of discovery. It is 
 somewhat remarkable (as historians observe,)* 
 that three great commercial powers should em- 
 ploy for that purpose, persons all of the single 
 nation of Italy, which was not then noted for 
 its extensive navigation. While Spain em- 
 ployed Columbus of Genoa, and England the 
 Cabots of Venice, France engaged the services 
 of Verrazzano of Florence, to which we would 
 add, (and we are surprised at the omission) 
 that Portugal also employed an Italian, Amer- 
 icus Vespucius of Florence. 
 
 Of these, the French pilot, Verrazzano, dis- 
 covered and visited this vicinity. We find that 
 Francis I. of France, in the spring of 1524, 
 sent the ship Dolphin (or Dauphin) Capt. Ver- 
 azzano, who sailed along the coast, from South- 
 Carolina to Newfoundland, occasionally stop- 
 ping and visiting the coast, and named the 
 
 * Holmes' Annals, I. 55. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. / 
 
 wliole country Neiv-France. On this voyage, 
 lie entered tlie Narragansett Bay, the account 
 of which visit, and his description of the na- 
 tives, we take from his letter to the King, after 
 his return.* He states that he sailed from 
 Madeira on the 17th of January, 1524, in the 
 ship Dolphin, with eight months' stores and 50 
 men ; that he made the land after steering a 
 west course, in 50 days, and passed on along 
 the coast northerly, until he came to Block 
 Island. We now quote his words, as given by 
 the translator : 
 
 " We discoured an Hand in forme of a tri- 
 angle, distant from the maine land ten leagues, 
 nbout the bignesse of the Hand of Rhodes ; it 
 was full of hils couered with trees, well peo- 
 pled, for we saw iires all along the coast; we 
 gaue it the name of your Majesties mother. t 
 And we came to another land, l3eing 15 leagues 
 distant from the Hand, where we found a pass- 
 ing good hauen, wherein being entred, we found 
 about 20 small boats of the people, which with 
 diuers cries and wondrings, came about our 
 ship, comming no nearer than 50 paces towards 
 vs, they stayed and beheld the artificialness of 
 our ship, our shape and apparel, then they all 
 made a loud showt too;ether, declarins^ that 
 
 * Published iu " Hakluyt's Voyages," A. D. 1600. 
 New Edition, Quarto, London, 1800. 3d Vol. p. 357. 
 
 t Louisa was the name of the mother of Francis 
 
 X. 
 
W SUPrLEMf:NT. 
 
 they reioyced ; when we had something ani- 
 mated them, vsing their gestures, they came so 
 neere vs, that we cast them certaine bels and 
 glasses, and many toyes, which, when they had 
 received, they looked on them with laughing, 
 and came without feare, aboard our ship." 
 
 " They were dressed in deer skins wrought 
 artificially with diners branches like damaske, 
 their hayre was tied vp behind with diuers 
 knots. This is the goodliest people, and of 
 the fairest conditions that we haue found in 
 this our voyage ; they exceed vs in bignes, they 
 are of the colour of brasse, some of them in" 
 cline more to whitenesse, others are of yellow 
 colour, of comely visage, with long and blacke 
 haire, which they are very careful to trim and 
 decke vp, they are of svveete and pleasant 
 countenance ; — the women are very handsome 
 and well favoured, of pleasant countenance and 
 comely to behold ; they are as well manered as 
 any women, they were deeres skins branched 
 or embroidered as the men use, there are also 
 of them which weare on their armes very ricli 
 skinnes of Luzernes, they weare diuers orna- 
 ments according to the vsage of the people of 
 the east." 
 
 " Wee bestowed 15 dayes in prouiding our- 
 selues ; evry day the people repaired to see our 
 ship, bringing their wines with them, whereof 
 they are very ielous and caused their wiues to 
 stay in their boats, and for all the intreatie we 
 could make, we could neuer obtain that they 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 9 
 
 would suffer them to come abord our ship. 
 There were two kings of so goodly stature and 
 shape as is posible to declare ; the eldest was 
 about 40 yeeres of age ; the second was a young 
 man of 20 yeeres old ; and when they came on 
 board, the Q,ueene and her maids stayed in a 
 very light boat, at an Hand, a quarter of a league 
 off." " There was a little Hand neere the ship 
 where the men went, the woods were okes, ci- 
 presse trees, and other sorts vnknown in Eu- 
 i-ope, damson and nut trees ; there are beasts 
 in great abundance, as harts, deere, Luzerns, 
 and other kinds." 
 
 He then describes their boat?^, as made of 
 one log, by the aid of fire, and tools of stone, 
 and were of sufficient capacity to carry 10 or 
 15 men. He continues : — 
 
 " We saw their houses, made in circular 
 forme, 10 or 12 paces in compasse, coured 
 ^vith mattes of straw, wrought cunningly to- 
 gether." " They live long and are seldom 
 sicke, and if they chance to fall sicke at any 
 time, they heale themselves with fire, without 
 any physitian, and they say that they die for 
 very age." 
 
 " The mouth of the hauen iieth open to the 
 south, half a league broad, and being entred 
 within it, between the east and the north, it 
 stretcheth twelve leagues, where it waxeth 
 broader and broader, and maketh a gulfe about 
 20 leagues in compasse, wherein are fiue small 
 
 R 
 
10 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Hands, very fruit full and pleasant ; full of hie 
 and broade trees, among the which Hands any 
 great nauie may ride safe. Turning towards 
 the south, in the entring into the hauen, on 
 both sides there are most pleasant hils, with 
 many riuers of most cleare water falling into 
 the sea." " In the middest of this entrance, 
 there is a rocke of free stone growing by nature, 
 apt to build any castle or fortress there." 
 *' This land is situated in the parallel of Rome, 
 in 41 degrees and 2 terces. The 5th of May 
 we departed." 
 
 Most writers who have noticed the discove- 
 ries of Verazzano, consider the foregoing ex- 
 tract as referring to Block Island and JNarra- 
 gansett Bay.* The latitude 41d. 40m. is given 
 by him very correctly, considering that in those 
 days the marine instruments for observing it, 
 were the astrolabe, semisphere, ring and cross- 
 staff. The general description is very accurate 
 and disagreements are found only in some of the 
 distances and magnitudes given by him, which 
 are readily accounted for ; — first, from the fact, 
 that at that time a French league was seven 
 tenths of an English mile shorter than the pres- 
 
 * Bancroft Hist. U. S. I, 15, 16; New-York Hist. 
 Col. 1, 45-60; Belknap Am. Biog. T, 33 or 63; Mou.- 
 ton New- York, I, 147, 148; N. Amer. Review XIV, 
 p. 293-311 ; R. I. Hist. Coll. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 11 
 
 ent league ; and also, that in writing to the 
 King an account of his wonderful discoveries, 
 Verazzano would naturally be likely to over 
 estimate. 
 
 This visit constitutes the first ever made by 
 white or civilized man to any portion of the 
 State of Rhode-Island ; nor was a second 
 made until after the lapse of ninety-seven years, 
 during which time the attention of the Euro- 
 pean governments was turned to the peculiarly 
 exciting state of affairs at home, and but little 
 was done in the way of discovery on this con- 
 tinent. Some settlements -were attempted at 
 the south, but mostly failed ; — the eastern fish- 
 ery was carried on ; but there is no account of 
 any visit, during that long period to any place 
 in or near the territory of Rhode-Island. 
 
 The fact, we think, is fully established, that 
 the second visit of civilized white men to any 
 part of the State, was made to the spot now 
 occupied by the village of Warren. 
 
 About the commencement of the 17th cen- 
 tury, the spirit of discovery and settlement on 
 this continent, again revived under more aus- 
 picious promises than before. In 1620, our 
 pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth, and were 
 soon visited by the principal Sachem of the 
 territory between Narragansett and Massachu- 
 setts Bays, and a simple treaty entered into 
 between the parties. This Sachem was Massa- 
 soit, who resided at the Indian village of So- 
 
12 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 warns, in the Pokanoket territory, about 40 
 miles distant from Plymouth. The village or 
 town of Sowams was situated upon the spot now 
 occupied by Warren, and the dwelling of Mas- 
 sasoit was located within a few yards of the 
 running spring near BaKer's wharf* 
 
 The region now constituting Bristol, Bar- 
 rington and Warren, in Rhode-Island, with 
 parts of Swanzea and Seekonk, in Massa- 
 chsetts, was called Pokanoket by the In- 
 dians, and was the district occupied by the 
 tribe of Wampanoags, under the imme- 
 diate government of Massasoit, whose do- 
 minion, however, extended over nearly all the 
 south-eastern part of Massachusetts, from Cape 
 Cod to Narragan.iCtt Bay. 
 
 The comparative mildness attending the 
 plague of 1616, in this region, the fertility of 
 
 * Massasoit's spring is situated about 80 feet from 
 the original high water mark, on land gradually de- 
 scending to the river. It is near Baker's wharf, in a 
 public street, and in its natural state was a common 
 but powerful spring. In consequence of making the 
 street and wharf, and erecting buildings near the 
 spot, and raising the land, the spring has been exca- 
 vated and walled up like a well. It is now eight feet 
 deep : at five feet from the bottom, a sluice way is 
 left in the wall : the water never fails, but is always 
 up, or near to this aperture, and for eleven months 
 of the year, a stream the size of a man's arm, is run- 
 ning through it. Near the shore it comes to the sur- 
 face, and Hows into the river. The water is of a pure 
 and excellent quality. 
 
SUPPLIMENT. 13 
 
 the soil, the uncommon facilities for fishing, 
 and being the head tribe of the nation, and res- 
 idence of the principal chief, caused Pokano- 
 ket to be more thickly settled than any other 
 portion of Massasoit's dominions. 
 
 The hill in Bristol then called Montop was 
 immediately renamed by the English Mount 
 Hope : this gave a name to the whole neck, 
 which, from the Mount to Miles's bridge 
 in Swanzea, was known as Mount Hope 
 neck. On this neck were three Indian villages, 
 viz. Montop, located near the Mount; Kike- 
 muit, around the spring of that name, and So- 
 ivams or Sowamsct (pronounced S'vvomset) on 
 the spot where the village of Warren now 
 stands. 
 
 The remains of these settlements are plain 
 to be discerned ; — in this immediate vicinity, 
 human bones are often disinterred, shells a- 
 bound in the soil, and many Indian relics, con- 
 sisting of warlike instruments, and implements 
 for domestic and mechanical purposes, are fre- 
 quently collected.* Around Kikemuit sprincr^ 
 for a space of ten acres, the soil is mixed with 
 oyster, clam and quahaug shells, to the depth 
 of several feet. 
 
 Some authors have located the residence of 
 
 ■ Tiie writer has made a collection of curious re- 
 lics of undoubted aboriginal origin, which have been 
 found at or near where these Indian villages onc« 
 stood, R* 
 
14 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Massasoit at Mount Hope ; others have sup- 
 posed it to have been in Barrington. The for- 
 mer appear to have been led into their mistake, 
 by supposing that as Philip had for some time 
 resided, and at last was killed, at Mount Hope, 
 that it was, therefore, the residence of his fath- 
 er Massasoit, and his brother Alexander before 
 him ; — while the latter have been betrayed into 
 their error, from a misconstruction of a note in 
 Callender's Historical Discourse.* 
 
 * The following is the note referred to in Callen- 
 der's Hist. Dis. — " Perhaps Sowams is properly the 
 name of the river, where the two Swanzea rivers 
 meet and run together for near a mile, when they 
 empty themselves into the Narraginsett Bay ; or of 
 a small island, where the two rivers meet, at the bot- 
 tom of ]New Meadow Neck, so called.'* R. I. Hist. 
 Coll. IV. 84. 
 
 This note of Callender's is not, as has been sup- 
 posed, his own correction of a statement made by 
 himself, but the passage in his discourse, to which he 
 refers, is a quotation from Clark's narrative, viz. 
 " Sowams is the neck since called Fhebe's Neck, ia 
 Barrington." We have, therefore, the opinions of 
 both Clark and Callender, as to the location of Sow- 
 ams. They are both worthy of consideration ; the 
 former from its antiquity, and the latter from the fact 
 of his having been the assistant minister at Swanzea, 
 from 1728 to 1730.* These two authorities agree in 
 placing Sowams somewhere on the shores of Warren 
 river, no intimation having been made by either of 
 
 * Mr. Callender had an aunt bnned on New Meadow Nock, 
 on whose grave-stone is the following inscription: — ''Sarah, 
 wife to Edward Luther, Esq. daughter of Ellis and Mary Cal- 
 lender, of Boston. Died June 2, 1711, aged 27 years." 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 15 
 
 The earliest accounts do not locate Massaso- 
 it's residence at either of those places. His 
 dwelling is always stated as being at Sowam- 
 sct or Pokanoket ; — the latter a general name 
 for the territory occupied by his tribe ; and the 
 former the name of the particular village of his 
 residence.* The facts tending to prove this 
 statement, and also that the present village of 
 Warren was formerly Sovvamset, will now be 
 noticed. 
 
 them, as to Sowams being at Kickemuit or Mount 
 Hope, or at any other place. At the time when they 
 wrote, probably but very little importance was attach- 
 ed to the residence of Massasoit, and VVinslow's nar- 
 rative was probably but little known out of England, 
 where it was published. 
 
 The small island mentioned (called Little Island) 
 is about 500 feet in length by about 150 in breadth. 
 The soil is a mere swamp ; the salt grass is cut from 
 it yearly, and this constitutes its only use. Ordinary 
 tides nearly cover it, and extra high tides completely 
 overflow it. Any person acquainted with the island, 
 would at once decide, that it never was, and never 
 could be, the residence of a human being. Of course, 
 there is no spring of water upon it, nor is there one 
 to be found on the southern part of New Meadow 
 Neck. 
 
 Now if it can be established (of which we have no 
 doubt) that Massasoit's residence was upon the east 
 side of Warren river, then the testimony of these two 
 authors must be considered as in /avor of the location 
 which we indicate. 
 
 *" Massasoit, they brought down to the English, 
 (at Plymouth,) tliough his place was at forty miles 
 distance, called Sowams, his country called Pokano-. 
 ket."— Hubbard's History N.^E., p. 59. 
 
16 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 In the summer of 1621, Governor Bradford 
 concluded to send a deputation to Massasoit, 
 on a friendly visit, to make him a present, to 
 learn the exact place of his residence, to see 
 the country, to confirm the former treaty, and 
 to procure seed corn. Accordingly, on Tues- 
 day, the 3d of July, 1621, Mr. Edv/ard Wins- 
 low, subsequently Governor of Plymouth col- 
 ony, Mr. Stephen Hopkins and an Indian nam- 
 ed Squanto, Squantum or Tisquantum, for a 
 guide, commenced their journey, and from Mr. 
 Winslow's narrative, we can easily trace the 
 course of their route. Their first day's travel 
 brought them to a spot now called Titicut, a 
 village on Taunton river, in the north-west 
 part of Middleboro', where they passed the 
 night. The next morning, Wednesday, July 
 4, they proceeded six miles by the river, on the 
 south side, to a well-known wading place, 
 where they crossed over, and proceeding on, 
 arrived that afternoon at Pokanoket, the resi- 
 dence of Massasoit. They remained with him 
 two nights, and the intervening day of Thurs- 
 day, July 5, lodging in his dwelling. This day 
 'Massasoit brought two fishes that he had shot.'* 
 
 * Probably Bass, as those fish swim near the sur- 
 face. — R. Williams, in his "Key," says of the In- 
 dians, "They kill Basse, (at the fall of the water,) 
 with their arrows." And " Purchas" says, " Thoy 
 will with arrowes kill birds flying, fishes swimming; 
 beasts running.' 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 17 
 
 On Friday morning, July 6, before sunrise, they 
 departed for home : they passed the following 
 night at the same place they passed the first 
 night out, cind the next day, Saturday, July 7, 
 arrived home, " wet, weary and surbated." 
 They reported the distance as about 40 miles 
 from Plymouth, speak of a number of rivers 
 that they waded through, but not a word is 
 said of crossing an unfordable river, especially 
 at the close of the journey, or at their leaving, 
 (" before sunrise") for home, which they must 
 have done, if they crossed Warren river into 
 Barrington. So obvious is this, that no person 
 in this vicinity, either of Barrington or Warren, 
 entertains the least idea that these travelers 
 could have passed Warren river. 
 
 In March of the year 1623, Mr. Winslow 
 was again sent on a visit to Massasoit ; he was 
 accompanied this time by Mr. John Hamden, 
 and an Indian named Ilobbamock, for a guide. 
 The narrative of this journey is given by Wins- 
 low more minutely than the former, both of 
 which were originally published in London in 
 1622 and 1624, respectively, and have been 
 correctly republished, for the first time, in 1841, 
 by Rev. Alexander Young, in his work entitled, 
 *' Chronicles of the Pilgrims." The incidents 
 of this expedition to Sowamset in Pokanoket, 
 possessing greater interest than the former, and 
 bearing directly upon the points to be est.ab^ 
 
18 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 lished in this investigation, will here be trans- 
 cribed almost entire.* It commences ; — 
 
 " News came to Plymouth that Massassowat 
 was like to die, and that at the same time there 
 was a Dutch ship driven so high on the shore 
 by stress of weather, right before his dwelling, 
 that till the tides increased, she could not be 
 got off. Now it beincr a commendable manner 
 of the Indians, when any, especially of note, 
 are dangerously sick, for all that profess friend- 
 ship to them, to visit them in their extremity ; 
 therefore it was thought meet, that as we had 
 ever professed friendship, so we should now 
 maintain the same, by observing this their laud- 
 able custom ; and the rather, because we desir- 
 ed to have some conference with the Dutch. 
 To that end, myself having formerly been there, 
 and understanding in some measure, the Dutch 
 tongue, the Governor again laid this service 
 upon myself, having one Master John Hamden 
 for my consort, and Hobbamock for our guide. 
 So we set forward, and lodged the first night 
 at Namasket.f The next day, about one of 
 the clock, we came to a ferry in Conbatant's 
 country. I There they told us that Massasowat 
 was dead, and that day buried ; and that the 
 Dutch would be gone before we could get 
 
 * The points of abridgment are not marked in this 
 extract from Winslow's Journal. 
 
 fNow Middleborougli, Mass. 
 
 ; Tliia ferrv was across Taunton river. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 19 
 
 thither, having hove off their ship already. This 
 news struck us blank, but especially Hobba- 
 mock, who desired we might return with all 
 speed. Considering now, that he being dead, 
 Conbatant was the most like to succeed him, 
 and that we were not above three miles from 
 Mattapuyst, his dwelling place, I thought no 
 time so fit as this to enter into more friendly 
 terms with him, and the rest of the Sachims 
 thereabout, I resolved to put it in practice, if 
 Master Hamden and Hobbamock durst attempt 
 it with me; whom I found willing to that or 
 any other course [which] might tend to the 
 general good. So we went towards Matta- 
 puyst. In the way, Hobbamock brake forth 
 into these speeches : " My loving sachim, my 
 loving sachim 1 Many have I known, but never 
 any like thee " And turning him to me, said, 
 whilst I lived, I should never see his like 
 amongst the Indians ; saying, he was no liar, 
 he was not bloody and cruel, like other In- 
 dians ; in anger and passion he was soon re- 
 claimed ; easy to be reconciled towards such 
 as had offended him ; and that he governed his 
 men better with few strokes, than others did 
 with many ; truly loving where he loved ; yea, 
 he feared we had not a faithful friend left among 
 the Indians ; showing how he ofttimes restrain- 
 ed their malice, &/C. continuing a long speech 
 with signs of unfeigned sorrow. 
 
 At length we came to Mattapuyst, and went 
 to the sachim's place ; but Conbatant, the aa- 
 
20 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 chim, was not at home, but at Puckanokick, 
 which was some five or six miles off. The sa- 
 chim's wife gave us friendly entertainment. 
 Here we inquired again concerning Massasow- 
 at ; they thought him dead, but knew no cer^ 
 tainty. Whereupon I hired one to go with all 
 expedition to Puckanokick, that we might 
 know the certainty thereof, and withal to ac- 
 quaint Conbatant with our there being. About 
 half an hour before sunsetting, the messenger 
 returned, and told us that he was not yet dead, 
 though there was no hope we should find him 
 living. Upon this we were much revived, and 
 set forward with all speed, though it was late 
 within night ere we got thither. About two of 
 the clock that afternoon, the Dutchman de- 
 parted ; so that in that respect our journey was 
 frustrate. 
 
 When we came thither, we found the house 
 so full of men, as we could scarce get in, 
 though they used their best diligence to make 
 way for us. There were they in the midst of 
 their charms for him, making such a hellish 
 noise, as it distempered us that were well, and 
 therefore unlike to ease him that was sick. 
 When they had made an end of their charming, 
 one told him that his friends, the English, were 
 come to see him. Having understanding left, 
 but his sight was wholly gone, he asked, Who 
 was come ? They told him. He desired to 
 speak with me. When 1 came to him, he put 
 forth his hand to me, which I took. Then he 
 
SLPPLKMliNT. *l) 
 
 said twice, *' Art thou Winslow ?" I answered, 
 yes. Then he doubled these words, " O Wins- 
 low, I shall never see thee again." Then I call- 
 ed Hobbaniock, and desired him to tell Massa- 
 sowat that the Governor sent me with such 
 things for him as he thought most likely to do 
 him good, and whereof if he pleased to take, 
 I would presently give him ; which he desired ; 
 and having a confection of many comfortable 
 conserves, &lc> on the point of my knife, I gave 
 him some, which I could scarce get through 
 his teeth. When it was dissolved in his mouth, 
 he swallowed the juice of it; whereat those 
 that were about him much rejoiced, saying he 
 had not swallowed any thing in two days be- 
 fore. Then I desired to see his mouth, which 
 was exceedingly furred, and his tongue swelled 
 in such a manner, as it was not possible fcr 
 him to eat such meat as they had. Then I 
 washed his mouth, and scraped his tongue, af- 
 ter which I gave him more of the confection, 
 which he sv^'allowed w^ith more readiness. Then 
 he desiring to drink, I dissolved some of it in 
 water, and gave him thereof Within half an 
 hour, tiiis wrought a great alteration in him, 
 in the eyes of all that beheld him. Presently 
 after, his sight began to come to him, which 
 gave him and us good encouragement. I in- 
 quired how he slept, and they said he slept not 
 in two days before. Then I gave him more, 
 and told him of a mishap we had by the way, 
 
22 St'PPLEMENT. 
 
 in breaking a bottle of drink, saying if he would 
 send any of his men to Patuxet, I would send 
 for more of the same ; also for chickens to 
 make him broth, and for other things, which I 
 knew were good for him ; and would stay the 
 return of his messenger, if he desired. This 
 he took marvellous kindly, and appointed some, 
 who were ready to go by two of the clock in 
 the morning ; against which time I made ready 
 a letter. 
 
 Ke requested me, that the day following, I 
 would take my piece, and kill him some fowl, 
 and make him some English pottage, such as 
 he had eaten at Plymouth, which I promised. 
 After, his stomach coming to him, I must 
 needs make him some without fowl, before I 
 went abroad. I caused a woman to bruise some 
 corn, and take the flour from it, and set over 
 the broken corn, in a pipkin, for they hkve 
 earthen pots of all sizes. When the day broke, 
 we went out, it being now March, to seek 
 herbs, but could not find any but strawberry 
 leaves, of which J gathered a handful, and put 
 into the same ; and because I had nothing to 
 relish it, I went forth again, and pulled up a 
 sassafras root, and sliced a piece thereof, and 
 boiled it, till it had a good relish, and then took 
 it out again. The broth being boiled, I strain- 
 ed it through my handkerchief, and gave him 
 at least a pint, which he drank, and liked it 
 very well. After this, his sight mended more 
 and more ; also he took some rest ; insomuch 
 
SUPPLBMKNT. M* 
 
 as we with admiration blessed God for giving 
 his blessing to such raw and ignorant means, 
 himself and all of them acknowledging us the 
 instruments of his preservation. 
 
 That morning he caused me to spend in go- 
 ing from one to another anion (rst those that 
 were sick in the town, requesting me to wash 
 their mouths also, and give to each of them 
 some of the same I gave him, saying they were 
 good folk. This pains I took with willingness, 
 though it were much offensive to me. After 
 dinner he desired me to get him a goose or 
 duck, and make him some pottage therewith, 
 I with as much speed as I could. So I took a 
 man with me, and made a shot at a couple of 
 ducks, some six score paces off, and killed one, 
 at which he wondered. So we returned forth- 
 with, and dressed it, making more broth there- 
 with, which he much desired. Never did I see 
 a man so low brought, recover in that measure 
 in so short a time. 
 
 About an hour after, he began to be very 
 sick, cast up the broth, and began to bleed at 
 the nose, and so continued the space of four 
 hours. Concluding now he would die, they 
 asked me what I thought of him. I answered, 
 his case was desperate, yet it might be it would 
 save his life ; for if it ceased in time, he would 
 forthwith sleep and take rest, which was the 
 principal thing he wanted. — Not long after, 
 his blood stayed, and he slept at least six or 
 eight hours. When he awaked, I washed his 
 
24 SUPrLEMENT. 
 
 face, and bathed and suppled his beard and 
 nose with a linen cloth. But on a sudden, he 
 chopped his nose in the water, and drew up 
 some therein, and sent it forth again with such 
 violence, as he began to bleed afresh. Then 
 they thought there was no hope ; but we per- 
 ceived it was but the tenderness of his nostril, 
 and therefore told them I thought it would stay 
 presently, as indeed it did. 
 
 The messengers were now returned ; but 
 finding his stomach come to him, he v/ould not 
 have the chickens killed, but kept them for 
 breed. 
 
 Many, whilst we were there, came to see 
 him ; some, by their report, from a place not 
 less than an hundred- miles. To all that came, 
 one of his chief men related the manner of his 
 sickness, how near he was spent, how his friends 
 the English came to see him, and how sudden- 
 ly they recovered him to this strength they saw. 
 Upon this, his recovery, he brake forth into 
 these speeches : " Now I see the English are 
 my friends, and love me ; and whilst I live, I 
 will never forget this kindness they have show- 
 ed me. At our coming away, he called Hob- 
 bamock to him, and privately revealed the plot 
 befl)re spoken of, agamst Master Weston's col- 
 ony, and so against us, saying himself also in 
 his sickness was earne:-;tly solicited, but he 
 would neither join therein, nor give way to any 
 of his. With this he charged him thoroughly 
 to acquaint me by the way, that I might inform 
 
SUPPLEMBNT. 25 
 
 tlie Gcvernor thereof, at my first coming home. 
 Beingfitted for our return, we took our leave 
 of him ; who returned many thanks to our Gov- 
 ernor, and also to ourselves for our labor and 
 love ; the like did all that were about him. So 
 we departed. 
 
 That night, through the earnest request of 
 Conbatant, who till now remained at Sawaams, 
 or Puckanokick, we lodged with him at Mat- 
 tapuyst. Here we remained only that night, 
 but never had better entertainment amongst 
 any of them. The day following, in our jour- 
 ney, Hobbamock told me of the private con- 
 ference he had with Massasowat, and how he 
 charged him perfectly to acquaint me there- 
 with, as I showed before ; v/hich having done, 
 he used many arguments himself to move us 
 thereunto. That nio-ht we Icdored at Namas- 
 ket, and the day following arrived at home." 
 
 Although these narratives sufficiently estab- 
 lish the locality of Sowams, and therefore the 
 residence of Massasoit, we can refer to other 
 portions of history, corroborative of them.. 
 
 Tradition, confirming our conclusion, is yet 
 extant among the people of Warren ; elderly 
 persons now living, quote their predecessors as 
 having received this testimony, from the first 
 white people who settled in this vicinity. A 
 map of New-England, originally published in 
 1677, republishe.l in 1826 and prefixed to Da- 
 vis' edition of Morten's Memorial, although 
 
^6 gUPPLEMENT„ 
 
 very imperfect in many respects, has a crown 
 marked upon it, evidently to denote the resi- 
 dence of the principal Sachem. This crown 
 is not placed on the seaward end of Mount 
 Hope, or any other Neck, nor is it on the west 
 side of Warren river, but exactly where War- 
 ren stands. 
 
 In the " judgment" of the Court of Commis- 
 sioners, held in Providence, to decide the 
 boundary question between Massachusetts and 
 Rhode-Island, dated June 30, 1741, is this 
 passage : " That the place where the Indian 
 called King Philip lived, near Bristol, was call- 
 ed Pauconoket, and that another place near 
 Swanzea, was called Sowams or Sov/amsett." 
 From this extract it is evident that Sowams 
 was between Bristol and Swanzea, and nearest 
 the latter; — as these two townships adjoin, and a 
 point near the division line would seem to be 
 intended ; which is precisely where we decide 
 it to have been. 
 
 Mr. Morse, in the first volume of his Geog- 
 raphy, 5th octavo edition, 1805, in a description 
 of Warren, expressly states, '* This was also 
 the dwelling place of Massasoit, afterwards 
 called Osamequin, an Indian Sachem, who was 
 the great friend of the Plymouth pilgrims in 
 the infancy of their settlement. liis spring, 
 near the margin of the river, still bears his 
 name." 
 
 The Rev. Alex. Young, from whose book, 
 " Chronicles of the Pilgrims," the preceding 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 'ZJ 
 
 narrative of Winslow's Journal is extracted, 
 expressly states on page 288, where Winslow 
 describes his arrival at the residence of Massa- 
 soit, " They arrived at Warren, R. I." 
 
 From the foreo-oinor and other historical 
 writings, the following statements rnay be con- 
 sidered as established facts : 
 
 1. That the Indians invariably gave names 
 to all varieties of land and water, as necks, 
 hills, rivers, springs, villages, countries, &-c.* 
 
 2. That the first settlers generally retained 
 those names, however uncouth, until the places 
 named were occupied by the English, and often 
 after. 
 
 3. That " Mount Hope" had a name, and 
 although it was known for many years previous 
 to 1676, while in actual possession of the na- 
 tives, yet no Indian name has ever been men- 
 tioned except Mont-haup, and therefore that 
 was its Indian name.t 
 
 4. That Mont-haup was readily Anglicised^ 
 and for no other reason, the English, at once, 
 called it Mount Hope. 
 
 5. That in consequence, the whole neck, 
 including Bristol and Warren village, \\tas call- 
 ed Mount Hope neck. Mount Hope lands, <S^c. 
 
 6. That " PokanoTicf was a name for the 
 territory occupied by the Wampanoags, includ- 
 
 *K. I. Hist. Soc. ed. of Callender's Hist. Disc.p.88. 
 t It was called Mount Hope at least as early as 3662. 
 Mort. Mem. '267. 
 
28 SUPPLEMENT, 
 
 ing Bristol, Warren, Barrington in R. Island^ 
 and parts of Swanzea and Seekonk, Mass.^ 
 
 7. That there was a place in Pokanoket, 
 called Sowams, or Sowamsct, and that was the 
 place of Massasoit's residence.! 
 
 8. That Pokanoket and Sowams are spoken 
 of, by the earliest writers, synonymously, as be- 
 ing the residence of Massasoit ; but Mount 
 Hope and Kikemuit, are neither so spoken of, 
 but the contrary is plainly the fact respecting 
 them.§ 
 
 9. That in going to Sowams twice and back, 
 Mr, Winslo v mentions crossing, and particu- 
 larly describes, Taunton river ; that he left 
 Massasoit's residence once '' before sunrising,'" 
 and arrived there once " late within night," 
 yet he says nothing of crossing a deep, wide, 
 rapid and unfordable river, just at the termina- 
 tion of his journey out ; and that therefore he 
 did not cross Warren river, and consequently, 
 Sowams was not in Barrington. 
 
 10- The Indian name for the southern part 
 of Barrington neck was Popanomscut, while 
 the northern part was called Wannamoisett ; 
 Sowams therefore could not have been in Bar- 
 rington. 
 
 11. That Massasoit lived " some five or six 
 miles" from Mattapuyst (Mattapoiset, or Gard- 
 ner's Neck, in Swanzea) that Mount Hope is 
 
 t Mort. Mem. 55. 
 § Mort. Mem. 169. 
 
•UrPLEMENT. 2S 
 
 nine miles from Mattapoiset ; and therefore, 
 Mount Hope was not Sowams. 
 
 12. That Kikemuit was on Kikemuit river; 
 that said river is shoal, difficult and dangerous 
 of access to a stranger, hardly suitable for sloop 
 navigation, and only then at high water ; there- 
 fore a '' Dutch ship" and a stranger would not 
 and could not sail up it ; that Kikemuit was its 
 original Indian name, and therefore not So- 
 wams. 
 
 13. That Sowams was on Sowams river ; 
 (now Warren river, on the opposite side of the 
 town from Kickemuit river) which river is nav- 
 igable for ships of 500 tons to -Warren ; the 
 channel being crooked, a " Dutch ship" might 
 readily, at that time, have run aground. 
 
 14. That Massasoit lived where a Dutch 
 ship run aground " right before his dwelling ;" 
 and therefore it was Warren river, and not 
 Kikemuit river, that the Dutch ship went up. 
 
 15. That if Winslow, who is peculiarly mi- 
 nute in his dc8crij)tions, had gone to Mount 
 Hope, he would have described that remarkable 
 elevation ; his not.mentioning it, is proof that 
 he did not visit it. 
 
 16. That the Indians always settled around 
 running springs, and therefore Massasoit did 
 the same ; and that the spring and location we 
 decide as having been his, are in every respect 
 suitable^ the former sending out a large stream 
 
30 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 of pure water, the latter attractive and well 
 adapted as a place of residence.* 
 
 17. That the only spot that conforms to all 
 the conditions of the testimony, that reconciles 
 all the different statements, and that agrees with 
 all the ancient descriptions (especially those of 
 Winslow) of Massasoit's residence, is at the 
 spring called Massasoit's spring, near Baker's 
 wharf, in Warren. 
 
 This town being the residence of the princi- 
 pal Sachem, was the place first occupied by the 
 English, of any in the State. Four years before 
 Roger Williams settled upon the Mooshausick, 
 or Blackstone upon the Sneechtaconet, and six 
 years before Coddington upon Aquidneck, an 
 English house was established in the year 1632, 
 and Englishmen resided (probably for trade) 
 at Sowamset. In Gov. Winthrop's journal is 
 the following statement : 
 
 " April 12, 1632. The Governor received 
 " letters from Plymouth, signifying that there 
 *' had been a broil between their men at Sc- 
 " wamset and the Narragansett Indians, who 
 *' set upon the English house 'there, to have ta- 
 *' ken Ovvsamequin, the Sagamore of Packano- 
 *' cott, who iled thither, with all the people, for 
 "refuge; and that Capt. Standish being gone 
 " thither, to relieve the tli^ree English which 
 " were in the house, sent home in all haste for 
 
 "' Young's Chron. Pil. p. 207. 
 
SUPPl-KMENT. 31 
 
 *' more men and otlier provisions, upon intclli- 
 *' ^ence that Canonicus, with a great army, was 
 '' coming against them ; on that, they wrote to 
 *' our Governor for some powder, to be sent 
 " with all possible speed ; for it seemed they 
 " were unfurnished. Upon this, the Governor 
 " presently despatched away the messenger 
 " with so much powder as he could carry, viz. 
 " 27 pounds. The messenger returned and 
 *' brought a letter from the Governor (Bradford) 
 " signifying that the Indians were retired from 
 *' Sowamsett to fight with the Pequots." 
 
 Capt. Standish remained some time at So- 
 wamsett ; for Gov. Winthrop received a letter 
 from him at that place, on May 1. 
 
 The location of Warren being ascertained 
 to have been the place of Massasoit's residence, 
 it is rendered proper that some notice should 
 here be given of the character and history of a 
 man, who, though a heathen, proved himself 
 true to the dictates which the light of nature 
 suggested. He possessed all the elements of a 
 great mind and a noble heart. With the ad- 
 vantaores of civilized life, and the liorht which 
 a pure Christianity would have supplied, he 
 might have achieved a brilliant destiny, and oc- 
 cupied a high niche in the temple of fame.. 
 This chief never has had full justice done to 
 his character.* In all the memorials of Indian 
 
 * Trumbull, Ir.d. Wars, p. 43, says of Massasoit, 
 He eeenis to have been a most estimable maa. H« 
 
S*2 lUi'PtEMENT, 
 
 character which have come down to us, Massa? 
 soil's character stands above reproach. No one 
 has ever charged him with evil. Other Indian 
 chiefs appear on the page of history, as noted 
 for some one great act, or distinguishing qual- 
 ity, mostly of a warlike, but occasionally of an 
 amiable or benevolent nature ; yet after a brief 
 space, betrayed into some act of weakness, or 
 guilty of cruelty and want of fidelity. But 
 from the time when Massasoit repaired to Ply- 
 mouth, March 22, 1621, to welcome the Pil- 
 grims and to tender to them his friendship, till 
 the time of his death, in 1661, a period of more 
 than forty years, when the Pilgrims were weak 
 and defenceless, encountering sickness, want 
 and death, when at almost any moment Massa- 
 soit could have exterminated them, in no one 
 instance did he depart from those plain engage- 
 ments of treaty which he made when he plight- 
 ed his faith to strangers. He was not only 
 their uniform friend, but their protector, at 
 times when his protection was equivalent to 
 their preservation. It was well for the Pilgrims 
 that Massasoit lived between them and the pow- 
 erful tribe of the Narragansetts, under Canoni- 
 cus, on the western side of the Bay, who early 
 showed a determination to attack and expel 
 them, and were prevented only by Massasoiti 
 
 was just, humane and beneficent, true to his word, 
 and in every respect, an honest man." 
 
 A suitable character is also given him in Thatcher'e 
 Ind. Biog. Vol. I, pp. 132—140. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. ,V^ 
 
 There can be no doubt, that the faithful char- 
 acter and the unusually amiable disposition of 
 Massnsoit, combined with the singuictr sickness 
 •which so extensively prevailed amona the In- 
 dians between NarragansettBay and Cape Cod, 
 in 1G17, were preparations made by Divine 
 Providence for the reception of the Pilgrims. 
 The only account of the personal appearance 
 of Massasoit, which we have, is found in Davis' 
 edition of Morton's Memorial, p. GO. " The 
 king is a portly man, in his best years, grave 
 of countenance, spare of speech.". The exact 
 time of his death is unknown ;* but from cer- 
 tain historical facts, it is rendered quite cer- 
 tain that he died some time in the autumn of 
 16G1. Assuming his age, at the arrival of the 
 pilgrims, to have been about 40 years, (he be- 
 ing " a portly man, in his best years,") he 
 must have been upwards of 80 at his decease. 
 Some years previous to his death, he associated 
 Mooanam, alias Wamsutta, alias Alexander, 
 with him in his government ; and in the few 
 last years of Massasoit's life, we notice that 
 Alexander acts occasionally in his own name. 
 
 * Published documents prove JMassasoit to have 
 been alive in May, 1661, and very probably so late as 
 in September of the same year. (See Drake's Book 
 of Indians, Art. Uncas; and Tliatcher's Ind. Biog. 
 Vol. I, p. 301) and on the 13th of Dec. 1661, we find 
 by a letter of Roirer Williams, that Massasoit was 
 dead : under that date he writes, — " Ousaniaquin, the 
 Sachem aforesaid, also deceased." Knowles' Mem. 
 Rog. Williams, p. 4U6. t 
 
34 «UPPI,EMi:\T. 
 
 The pilgrim fathers entertained the greatest 
 regard for Massasoit, and the account of their 
 reception of him at his first visit is curious and 
 interesting. On Thursday, the 22d of March, 
 1(121, only 101 days after the pilgrims had 
 landed at Plymouth, Massasoit, accompanied 
 by his brother Quadequina, and sixty cf his 
 warriors, — all armed with bows and arrows, 
 their faces painted " some, black, some red, 
 some yellow, and some white, some with cros- 
 ses and other antic works ; some had skins on 
 them and some naked : all strong, tall men in 
 appearance," — approach Plymouth, in order to 
 form a friendly league. Having first sent word 
 to the English of his coming, he suddenly made 
 his appearance with his warriors, in imposing 
 array, upon a hill, (now called Watson's hill) 
 a short distance from the new settlement. In 
 the rear of the hill, is seen the valley through 
 which Massasoit wound his way, in order not 
 to be seen until he arose upon the hill and ar- 
 ranged his company of picked men, in the best 
 manner to impress the pilgrims. Immediately 
 the pilgrims essayed to make a show, to pro- 
 duce an effect upon the barbarians ; but, alas ! 
 sickness and death had spread such havoc 
 among them, in that most distressing winter, 
 that nearly half of their number were now no 
 more, and of the remaining number, f^ew were 
 prepared for any pressing emergency. But a 
 crisis had now come, and something must be 
 done. First of all, Edward Winslow went to 
 
SUrPLEiMLNT. 35 
 
 the imposing company of heathen strangers, 
 carrying a pair of knives, a chain and a jewel 
 for Massasoit, and a knife and jewel for his 
 brother ; also a pot of strong water, with some 
 biscuit and butter for a treat, which were read- 
 ily accepted. Winslow remaining as a hostage, 
 Massasoit with twenty unarmed men, descend- 
 ed the hill, towards the pilgrims. Capt. Stand- 
 ish mustered his company ; but so reduced had 
 they become at this time, that only six musket- 
 eers composed it. The captain made his best 
 •display ; deep-toned orders were given, follow- 
 ed by facings and wheelings, and handling of 
 matchlocks.* Shade of Baron Steuben ! we 
 have been accustomed to refer to you as the 
 ne plus ultra of old fashioned tactics ; but the 
 style of those used on this occasion, was a cen- 
 tury and a half old in your day ! — Capt. Stand- 
 ish marched with his company to the brook at 
 the foot of the hill, to meet Massasoit, and gave 
 him a military salute, which was politely res- 
 ponded to ; the distinguished visitor was then 
 conducted to an unfinished building, hastily 
 
 * The musket, at that time, was the matchlock ; 
 the lighted match was attached to a spring; to fire 
 the piece, the pan called the "touch pan" was 
 previously opened, and on springing the match, its 
 lighted end would be brought in contact with the 
 powder in the pan. Matchlock muskets were first 
 used in 1521. Bayonets were first attached to mus- 
 kets about 1690. Flint locks were first used about 
 1700. 
 
3() 
 
 SLPPLEMENT. 
 
 prepared with '' a green rug and three or four 
 cushions" Then Gov. Carver approached, 
 followed by the band, consisting of a drum and 
 a trumpet, and the military company. The 
 governor and the king saluted each other by 
 kissing hands, when Carver took a seat and 
 called for '' strong water" and " fresh meat," 
 of which they all partook, and then proceeded 
 to treat of peace and mutual protection. A 
 plain and short treaty was agreed upon and 
 sighed, which was afterwards kept for fifty 
 years. After signing the treaty. Gov. Carver 
 conducted his guest back to the brook, and 
 took leave of him. Then Quadequina and oth- 
 ers came down the hill, were received and treat- 
 ed in the same manner, and then dismissed. 
 
 The place of Massasoit's residence having 
 been ascertained, it becomes an inquiry of pe- 
 culiar interest, to know something concerning 
 his family. His family was numerous, consist- 
 ing, so far as is known, besides his wife, of two 
 brothers, Cluadeqiiina and Akkompoin ; three 
 sons, Mooanum, alias Wamsitta, alias Alexan- 
 der ; Pometacom or Metacom, alias Philip, 
 and a son named Sunconewhew ; a daughter, 
 of whose name we are ignorant; Alexander's 
 wife, Namumpum or Weetamoe, Philip's wife, 
 Wootonekanuske, and Philip's son. 
 
 QuADHQuiNA " was a very proper tall young 
 man, of a very modest and seemly countenance. ' 
 (Young's Chron. Pil. 195.) \Ve have already 
 mentioned his visit to the Pilcrinis on March 
 
»rrPLi:.viKNT. 61 
 
 2"id, 1621, with Massasoit ; he appears to have 
 filled some high station in his brother's gov- 
 ernnieit. On Sept, 13, 1621, he, with eight 
 other principal men, signed a " Treaty of Ami- 
 ty" with the Pilgrims. 
 
 Arkompoin, is best known in history as 
 counsellor to king Philip, in his weir ; his name 
 is occasionally seen attached to deeds of land, 
 made by Philip. It is also found on several 
 treaties made by Philip with the English ; a- 
 mong which were those made at Plymouth, 
 August 6, 1662; at Taunton, April 10, 1671, 
 and Plymouth, Sept, 29, 1671. In the year 
 1663, Philip and " Uncompawen" claimed a 
 part of New Meadow Neck in Barrington, up- 
 on the ground that it was not included in the 
 grand deed of 1653, made by Massasoit and 
 Alexander. *^ Although it appears," says the 
 record at Plymouth, " pretty clearly so ex- 
 pressed in said deed, yet that peace and friend- 
 ship may be continued, Capt. Willett, Mr. 
 BrOwn,and John Allen, in behalf of themselves 
 and the rest," agreed to give Philip and Uncom- 
 pawen the sum of £11 in goods (Drake III, 15.) 
 
 On Sunday the 30th of July, 1676, twenty 
 Bridgewater men, learning that Philip, with 
 his officers, warriors, wife and son, were prowl- 
 ing about in their vicinity, proceeded to hunt 
 for him ; they came upon a party of the enemy 
 at *' a certain place" upon Taunton river, at- 
 tacked and killed ten of them, one of whom 
 was Akkompoin, t* 
 
38 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 MooANAiJ, alias V/amsitta, alias Alexander, 
 the eldest son of Massasoit, and his heir appa- 
 rent, was associated with his father in tb • 
 Wampanoag government for a number of years 
 previous to his father's decease. The deed cl' 
 1653 was made in the joint names of himself 
 and Massasoit. Alexander married Weetamoe,. 
 " queen of Pocasset." 
 
 In 1663, soon after the death of Massasoit, 
 Wamsitta and his brother Metacom, repaire I 
 to Plymouth, and "professing great respect,'" 
 requested that English names might be giveir 
 them, when the Court named them respectively, 
 Alexander and Philip. Soon after this. Gov. 
 Prince of Plymouth, learning that AlexancI, 
 was plotting rebellion against the English, sr; 
 Major Winslow with ten armed men, to talcr 
 him and bring him down to Plymouth, to ar. • 
 swer to the charge ; on arriving there, he wa ■ 
 taken sick, returned home, and died in a few 
 days. 
 
 Thus Alexander became Chief Sachem and 
 died within a year, and was succeeded in the 
 sachemship by 
 
 PoMETACOM, or Metacom, alias Philip. 
 
 Few of the aboriginals occupy so conspicu- 
 ous a position in history, as this noted chief. 
 " King Philip's war" has immortalized his 
 name, and although one hundred and seventy 
 years have since passed away, it is yet a sub- 
 ject of frequent and common remark. He 
 married Wootonekanui^ke, own sister to Weet- 
 
 « 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 39 
 
 amce, his brother Alexander's wife. Of her 
 we liiiow nothing, only that she was taken pris- 
 oner by Col. Church, on the 31st of July, 
 207G. 
 
 In 1G65, Philip, according to an Indian law 
 or custom in such a case, with an armed force, 
 rep:iircd to Nantucket, to kill an Indian named 
 Assasamoogh, who had spoken disrespectfully 
 of his father Massasoit. The Indian fled, but 
 Philip would not leave the island until the Eng- 
 lish had paid a large ransom for him. (Nine 
 je^s after, that same Indian was a preacher to 
 a native church of 30 members.) 
 
 From his contiguity of residence, Philip was 
 intimate with the first settlers of Warren. In 
 IGGO, he sold to Hugh Cole and others, 500 
 acres of land in Swanzea. This tract was on 
 the west side of Cole's river, which took its 
 name from Mr. Hugh Cole, who resided there- 
 on previous to 1G75. At the breaking out of 
 the Indian war, two of Hugh Cole's sons were 
 made prisoners by the Indians and taken to 
 Philip's head-quarters, at Mount Hope. Philip, 
 from his friendship for their father, sent them 
 back with a message, that he did not wish to 
 injure him, but as his younger warriors might 
 disobey his orders, advised him to repair to 
 Rhode-Island for safety. Mr. Cole immediate- 
 ly made ready and started with all his family. 
 They had proceeded but a short distance, when 
 he beheld his house in flames. After the war, 
 "^.Ir. Cole returned and located on the east side 
 
40 
 
 SUPFLEMEXT. 
 
 of Towiset Neck, on Kikemuit river, in War- 
 ren. The farm, and the well he made in 1677, 
 are yet in possession of his lineal descendants. 
 Philip also performed a similar act of kindness 
 in protecting the family of Mr. James Brown, 
 one of the constituent members of the Swanzea 
 church. 
 
 On the 12th of August, 1676, King Philip 
 was surprised and killed by Col. Church, at a 
 little knoll on the south-west side, at the foot of 
 Mount Hope. Church had him beheaded and 
 quartered ; his head and scarred hand he gave 
 to Alderman, the Indian who shot him, to ex- 
 hibit through the country. The remains of his 
 corpse were left suspended from four different 
 trees. 
 
 Namumpum, alias Weetamoe, Queen of Po- 
 casset (now Tiverton) was the wife of Alexan- 
 der ; and from all accounts she was an arrogant 
 and consequential woman. Several times she 
 entered complaints at Plymouth Court, against 
 her husband, mostly on account of his not pay- 
 ing her the portion of proceeds of lands which 
 she claim.ed. She lived on a hill a little north 
 of Rowland's ferry bridge. After the death of 
 Alexander, we find her the wife of Peter N^n- 
 uit, who was the first person to inform Col. 
 Church of the certainty of war, and that Philip 
 had promised his men that the next Lord's day, 
 ■when the people M^ere at church, they might 
 commence killing cattle, &c. In the war of 
 1675, Weetamoe and her husband were at va- 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 41 
 
 riance, she taking skies with the Indians, and 
 lie fighting under Col. Church against her peo- 
 ple. At the commencement of the war, she 
 was driven from her own territory by Col. 
 Church ; and not long afterwards, we hear of 
 her by the celebrated Mrs. Rowlandson (wife 
 of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson) who was taken 
 captive at the burning of Lancaster by the In- 
 dians, on the 10th Feb. 1()76. In the narra- 
 tive of her captivity, she states that she was 
 purchased by a Narragansett chief, named 
 Quinnapin (nephew to Miantonnomo) who had 
 three wives, one of whom was'Weetamoe, whom 
 she (Mrs. Rowlandson) served as a slave. She 
 observes, "A severe and proud dame she was; 
 bestowing every day, in dressing herself, near 
 as much time as any of the gentry cf the land; 
 — powdering her hair and painting her face, 
 going with her necklaces, with jewels in her 
 €ars, and bracelets upon her hands. When she 
 had dressed herself, her work was to make gir- 
 dles of wampum and beads." On a particular 
 occasion, Mrs. R. says she was dressed in " a 
 kersey coat, covered with girdles of wampum. 
 Her arms' from her elbows to her hands, were 
 covered with "bracelets ; there were handful s of 
 necklaces about her neck, and several sorts of 
 jewels in her ears. She had fine red stockings, 
 r.ud white shoes, her hair powdered, and her 
 f:ice painted red, that was alwavs before 
 l^lnrk." 
 
 W'cctamce finally returned with Philip to 
 
42 SLPPLExMENT. 
 
 the vicinity of her former home, and on the 
 6th of August, 1676 (six days before Philip 
 was killed) fleeing towards her home in Pocas- 
 set, before a party of Englishmen, who were 
 out in pursuit of herself and her company, she 
 arrived at Mattapoiset, and attempting to cross 
 over to Pocasset on a raft, she failed in her 
 effort, and was drowned, and her body wash- 
 ed ashore at Mattapoiset, where the Eng- 
 lish discovered it, and cut off the head, 
 which they carried to Taunton, and stuck 
 upon a pole, without knowing (as Cotton Ma- 
 ther says) whose head it was ; but some In- 
 dian prisoners there saw it, and " made a most 
 horrid and diabolical lamentation, and fell into 
 such hideous bowlings as can scarce be imitat- 
 ed, crying out that it was their queen's head." 
 What became of Peter Nannuit, the second 
 husband of Weetamoe, we know not ; but her 
 last husband, Quinnapin, was taken prisoner, 
 carried to Newport, tried by a Court Martial on 
 the 24th of August, 1676, and shot the next day. 
 
 SuNCONEWHEW, was the third son of Massa- 
 soit. Of him Ave know but little. His name 
 appears attached to a deed given by Philip, 
 March 30, 1668, confirming the sale of the 
 town of Rehoboth, made by his father in 164K 
 The signature is, '" the mark of S. Suncone- 
 whevv, Philip's brother." 
 
 The Daughter of Massasott. Of her, but 
 little is known. Philip gives as a reason, in 4 
 letter to Gov. Prince, wliv he did not visit Plv- 
 
SIPPLEMENT. 43 
 
 mouth, that his " sister is verey sik." The 
 letter is supposed to have been written about 
 the year 1(3G3. (Mass. Hist. Coll. 2d vol.) 
 On Sunday, the 3Gth of July, 1676, she was 
 taken prisoner by a company of Bridgewater 
 soldiers, in the same skirmish in which her un- 
 cle Akkofnpion was killed. 
 
 The son of Philip, is the last person of the 
 family we shall notice. His name is not given, 
 but his fate is. Mrs. Rowjandson states, that 
 during her captivity, she was requested by Phil- 
 ip to make some clothes for his son, for which 
 he paid her. He was nine years old when he 
 was taken prisoner, by Colonel Church, 
 on the 31st of July, 1676, and carried to 
 Plymouth. It became a question of great 
 importance, as to what should be done with 
 this son of Philip. The English doubtless con- 
 sidered that much more danger was to be ap- 
 prehended from the son of Philip, than from 
 any other of their prisoners, of whom they had 
 many on hand, and among them was Philip's 
 wife, the mother of the boy. We hear of no 
 discussion as to the disposal of any but of him. 
 It was obvious, that whatever punishment was 
 inflicted upon him, could be only on account 
 of his father's sins. As usual on doubtful oc- 
 casions, the English sought the opinions of the 
 clergy, to solve this question, which to them 
 was so intricate. The replies of several minis- 
 ters are extant, and were, on the whole, in fa- 
 vor of sparing the boy's life. Their decision 
 
44 SUPPLEMEiVT. 
 
 was founded upon the rule laid down in Deut, 
 24 : 16 ; and 2d Chron 25 : 4, He was finally 
 shipped off, with a great number of his coun- 
 trymen, in the spring of 1(377, and sold into 
 slavery, either in Spain, Bermuda or the West- 
 Indies. 
 
 The village of Sowamset, having been the 
 place of Massasoit's residence, was visited by 
 Edward Winslow, shortly after the arrival of 
 the Pilgrims at Plymouth ; and about nine 
 years afterwards by Miles Standish, and others, 
 who had ventured to open there a trading es- 
 tablishment with the Indians. This spot had 
 therefore probably become somewhat familiar, 
 at a very early period, to the people of Ply- 
 mouth, in their associations with Massasoit and 
 his numerous subjects. 
 
 Accordingly, it seems most probable that the 
 place now occupied by the village of Warren, 
 was visited by Roger Williams, before any oth- 
 er part of the present territory of Rhode-Island. 
 Mr. Williams had openly and fearlessly advanc- 
 ed his great- doctrines of civil and religious 
 freedom, shortly after his arrival in this coun- 
 try ; and his opposition to the prevailing opin- 
 ions of his contemporaries at Boston and Salem, 
 brought down upon him the stern visitation of 
 the secular power, which these puritans had 
 always thought, should be employed for the 
 support and defence of religion. The views 
 of Mr. Williams being so utterly uncongenial 
 
SrUPPLEMENT. 4o 
 
 with those of his puritan brethren, on matters 
 of " soul liberty," and the personal accounta- 
 bility of each man for his religious opinions to 
 his Alaker alone, he was already disposed to 
 leave the settlement at Salem, and seek an asy- 
 lum for himself and friends, even before the 
 last act of persecution was passed, which ban- 
 ished him from the colony. Several facts ren- 
 der it distinctly evident, that he had for some 
 time before, contemplated a removal from Sa- 
 lem, to Massasoit's vicinity. We shall give 
 a i'ew prominent facts bearing upon the case, 
 and expresj opinions which we think are fairly 
 deducible from the premises. 
 
 Gov. Winthrop's journal gives an account of 
 Mr. Williams' trial, and his sentence of ban- 
 ishment. He says, — " He had drawn above 
 twenty persons to his opinion, and they were 
 intended to erect a plantation about the Narra- 
 gansett Bay." " A pinnace was sent (from 
 Boston) to carry him aboard the ship, but when 
 they came to his house, they found he had been 
 gone three days before ; but whither, they 
 could not learn." Between the time of Mr. 
 Williams' departure from Salem, in the middle 
 of January, 1636, till the last of the following. 
 April, — a period of about 100 days, — it is re- 
 markable that there is no record of his situa- 
 tion, how or where he passed all that interven- 
 ing time. A majority of v/riters on this sub- 
 ject, express their belief that he passed that 
 u 
 
46 •LPPLEMBNT. 
 
 time in part with his old friend Massassojtj 
 which of course must have been in the village 
 of So wains. 
 
 Several passages in Mr. Williams' letters, as 
 well as in other authorities, prove that while 
 contemplating a removal from Salem, previous 
 to the act of his banishment, he had consulted 
 Gov. Winthrop on the subject, had mortgaged 
 his house, in order to raise funds and make 
 suitable preparation ; that his mind was direct- 
 ed towards Massasoit's neighborhood as a place 
 of abode, and that he left Salem deliberately, 
 and not in flight, as a fugitive before the imme- 
 diate pursuit of a sheriff. 
 
 In a letter of Mr. Williams to Maj. Mason, 
 dated Providence, 22dJune, 1670, he says, 
 **Gov. Winthrop privately wrote me to steer 
 my course to the Nahigonset Bay." " I steer- 
 ed my course from Salem (though in winter 
 snow, which I feel yet) unto these parts." " I 
 was sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks, in a 
 bitter winter season, not knowing what bread 
 or bed did mean." 
 
 In the same letter he again speaks of Gov. 
 Winthrop as " my true friend Mr. Winthrcp, 
 the first mover of my coming into these parts." 
 In a letter to the General Court of Massachu- 
 setts, in 1654, he says, *' Upon the express ad- 
 vice of your ever honored Mr. Winthrcp, 
 deceased, I first adventured to begin a planta- 
 tion among the thickest of these barbarians/' 
 
 I 
 
• VPPLEiMENT. 47 
 
 Most writers* on this subject have thought 
 that Mr. Williams came on foot from Salem to 
 Massasoit's residence, and account for the four- 
 teen weeks after his banishment, on the sup- 
 position of his being a large part of that time, 
 a fugitive in the wilderness. Mr. L. Bliss, Jr. 
 in the History of Rehoboth, says, " His jour- 
 ney was by water, in the very heart of winter ; 
 and after suffering incredible hardships, from 
 cold, and hunger and fatigue, for fourteen 
 weeks, he arrived and pitched his tent at Seek- 
 onk." Various extracts from Mr. Williams' 
 letters and depositions, exhibit expressions 
 which show that he had friendship and regard 
 about equally, for Massasoit, Canonicus, and 
 Miantonomo. In one of his letters, he says, 
 " In gifts to Ousamequin, yea, and all his, and 
 to Canonicus, and all his, tokens and presents, 
 many years before I came in person to the 
 Narraganset, and when I came I was welcome 
 to Ousamequin, and to the old prince Canoni- 
 cus." In another letter he says, " I mortgaged 
 my house in Salem, for supplies to go through." 
 In a letter or deposition, dated " Providence, 
 13, 10, 6\, so called," (I3th of Dec. 1661) he 
 states, " I testify and declare, that at my first 
 corning into these parts, I obtained the lands 
 of Seekonk of Ousamequin." From this de- 
 position, it is rendered certain, that in what- 
 ever way Mr. Williams traveled from Salem, 
 
 * Knowlei, Bancroft, Gammell. 
 
48 supplp:ment. 
 
 he came first to Massasoit, and obtained hii 
 permission to settle at Seekonk. The peculiar 
 phraseology in some of Mr. Williams' letters, 
 obliaes us to agree with Mr. Bliss, in the state- 
 ment that he came by water, but it is incredi- 
 ble that he would be fourteen weeks on the 
 passage. We know that Roger Williams was 
 an excellent boatman f' but we do not find him 
 using the terms and phrases of seafaring life 
 on other occasions, except when the subject 
 matter of his remarks has something of a ma- 
 rine character; and there is too much of 
 this seafaring language in his letter to Major 
 Mason, to suppose it merely as a figure of 
 speech.t 
 
 The probability of Mr. Williams' having 
 visited Massasoit by water, in his wandering 
 from Salem, is greatly confirmed by consid- 
 ering that the only mode of transportation at 
 that time, was by water. Boats frequently 
 came from Massachusetts to Narragansett Bay, 
 on trading voyages for corn, ^c. Doubtless 
 Mr. Williams had a long and tedious passage 
 from Salem, and suffered much from the in- 
 clemency of the weather. 
 
 *Mr. Williams when 73 years of a^e, rowed him- 
 self in a boat from Providence to Newport, in one 
 day, tlie 8th of January, 1C73, a distance of 30 miles. 
 — Knowles, p. 338. 
 
 t Besides the seamen's phrases above, Mr. Wil- 
 liams says to Major Mason, " 1 should not be mo- 
 lested and tossed vp and dozen a^ain." 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 49 
 
 After the arrival of Mr. AViliiams at the re- 
 sidence of Massasoit, he probably spent his 
 time in exploring this vicinity of country, seek- 
 ing an eligible site for his new settlement. It 
 is with feelings of peculiar interest we reflect 
 upon the time that Roger Williams was a guest 
 of Massasoit, probably nearly all of the months 
 of February and March of 1636, when Sowams 
 was a thriving Indian village, the river banks 
 dotted with Indian huts, and these native lords 
 of the soil lived free from all the restraints of 
 civilized and conventional life. We may imag- 
 ine Roger Williams, accompanied by Masstt- 
 soit, traveling about both by land and by water, 
 visiting the many beautiful spots in the vicinity 
 of Warren, and then returning to the hospita- 
 ble dwelling of the chief Massasoit, loved by 
 his tribe, and the fame of Williams as the friend 
 of the Indians having preceded him, both of 
 them would be met and hailed wherever they 
 went, with expressions of love and respect. 
 
 It was doubtless at this time, that Mr. Wil- 
 liams acquired that intimate knowledge of pla- 
 ces, which enabled him, two years after, when 
 John Clarke and others, seeking a place to 
 found a settlement, called on him for advice, 
 to direct their attention to the most eligible 
 places, and he " readily presented two places 
 before them, in the Narragansett Bay, the one 
 on the main, called Sovv warns, and Aquetneck, 
 now Rhode-Island." 
 
50 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Having ascertained the town of Warren as 
 the place of Massasoit's residence, and alluded 
 to the various changes of ownership and gov- 
 ernment, to which this region of country has 
 been subjected, we now propose to give ^con- 
 nected account of the several towns w^hicli 
 were partitioned off from thi^ vicinity of Mas- 
 sasoit's territory. 
 
 KeJiobotJi v/as the first permanently settled 
 town in this immediate neighborhood. The 
 Rev. Samuel Newman, with a large part of his 
 congregation from Weymouth, and a number 
 of persons from Hingham, settled upon a cer- 
 tain tract of land about ten miles square, in 
 1644, which they had previously purchased from 
 Massasoit, in 1641. This first purchase then 
 called Rehoboth, now constitutes the present 
 towns of Rehoboth, Seekonk and Pawtucket, 
 in Mass. The inhabitants of Rehoboth, after- 
 wards at different times, made other purchases 
 of lands lying contiguous to their town, from 
 the Indians : and over these new purchases, as 
 they became inhabited, the jurisdiction of Re- 
 hoboth was extended by act of the Plymouth 
 Government. From these various purchases, 
 several of the adjoining towns, including War- 
 ren, which were subsequently erected, were 
 wholly or in part, partitioned off. 
 
 The second Rehoboth purchase of land, was 
 Wannamoiset, in 1645, which now constitutes 
 the northwestern part of Barrington Neck. 
 
 The third regular purchase, was of Sowams 
 
kSUPPLEMENT. 51 
 
 and Parts Adjacent.'"* This embraced Bar- 
 rington Neck, called by the Indians Popanom- 
 scut, being the southeastern part of that town ; 
 and all the meadows around the various and 
 several shores of Bristol, Warren, and New- 
 Meadow Neck. These meadows or grass lands, 
 included in this purchase, embraced a strip or 
 border of land of unequal width, (as wide as 
 the salt o-rass would grow from the river.) run- 
 ning all around the several Necks, viz, New- 
 Meadow, Mount Hope, Popasquash, and both 
 sides of Kikemuit river. 
 
 The fourth regular purchase, called the " Re- 
 hoboth North Purchase," was made of Wam- 
 
 * Although the Deed of this third purchase em- 
 braced all of Barrington Neck, called Popanomscut, 
 the notoriety of Massasoit's residence rendered it 
 sufficient at that time, to call all the tract by the gen- 
 eral name of " Sowams and Parts adjacent." The 
 whole of Barrington was allotted, taken up, and set- 
 tled, under its original Indian names; but Soicavis is 
 never mentioned as being on the west side of War- 
 ren river. In the Record Book of the " Proprietors 
 of Sowams and Parts adjacent, "Warren river is call- 
 ed Sowams river. (Page 11, under date of June 29, 
 lGo3.) In other places, in the same book, under va- 
 rious dates, the Kortlnccstcrn part of Barrington is 
 called Wannanioisctt : the Sovthcastcrn part coming 
 up to the line of the former, is called Popanomscut; 
 the extreme point, subsequently named Rumstick, is 
 called Chachapacasset : j\cw Mcadoto jXeck, is first 
 called by that name, June 29, 1653 : Mount Hope 
 HtU and Mount Hope A''cck are applied to those 
 places, first under dates in 1651. 
 
52 tUPPLEMENT, 
 
 sitta alias Alexander, in 1661 This tract 
 embraces what are now the towns of Attle- 
 borough, Mass., Cumberland, R. I., and a small 
 part belonging to the present townofRehoboth. 
 
 The town of SeeJconk was taken from Reho- 
 both, and incorporated as a separate town in 
 1812, under its ancient Indian name of Seekonk. 
 Pawtucket in Mass. was taken from Seekonk, 
 and incorporated as a separate town in 1828. 
 Attleborough was taken from Rehoboth and 
 incorporated in 1694. Cumherland was taken 
 from Attleborough, and incorporated in 1746. 
 In 1667, Sivanzea was incorporated, and it 
 then included Wannamoiset, all the rest of 
 Barringion, with Somerset, Mass. and Warren, 
 R. I. Barringtun was separated from Swan- 
 zea, and first incorporated in 1718 ; but in 1746, 
 was included in the charter by which Warren 
 was incorporated. Somerset was separated 
 from Swanzea, and incorporated in 1790. 
 While it constituted a part of Swanzea it was 
 called the " Shawamet purchase." 
 
 We now come to the incorporation of War- 
 ren in 1746. 
 
 The question of the boundary line between 
 Rhode-Island and Massachusetts, had been 
 contested at various times, by different parties, 
 ever since 1664, until 1729, when the Rhode- 
 Island Legislature appointed commissioners, to 
 act with others from Massachusetts, and were 
 authorized to ascertain and settle the disputed 
 line. Nothing having been accomplished by 
 
SUPPLK.MKNT. OO 
 
 this attempt, Gov. Wanton of R. I. in 1734, 
 sent a petition to the King to have the question 
 settled, which was replied to in 1738. This 
 reply proposed a commission, to be appointed 
 by the crown from the other colonies. 
 
 But to ** save cost and altercation," both 
 parties agreed to make another effort to settle 
 the disputed question by mutual arbitration, 
 without resorting to a hio-her tribunal. Even so 
 early as in 1733, both of the rival Provinces, 
 by acts of Assembly, had appointed each of 
 them " three indifferent persons to decide the 
 matter, with a power, if they could not agree, 
 to name a seventh." These six Commissioners, 
 thus appointed as a court of reference, met 
 in Bristol, in 1739, but "they could neither 
 agree in settling the boundaries, nor in the 
 choice of a seventh person." 
 
 In 1740, according to the previous recom- 
 mendation of the king, a commissioner from 
 places without the two colonies, was appoint- 
 ed by the king in council, at the same time 
 that committees were appointed by the con- 
 tending parties, to appear before the Board 
 of Commissioners. 
 
 The court met in Providence, in June, 174]. 
 Cadwallader Colden, of New-York, was chcscn 
 president of the board. On the 30th of Jii'ie, 
 1741, the court decided to transfer from Mas- 
 sachusetts to Rhode-Island, Attleborougli Gore, 
 Little Compton, Tiverton, Bristol, a great part 
 I of Barrington, and a portion of Swanzea, em« 
 
54 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 bracing forty-seven families.* From this de- 
 cision of the court, Massachusetts dissented in 
 whole, and Rhode-Island in part, and both par- 
 ties appealed to the King in Council. 
 
 These appeals were brought before the king's 
 council, December 11, 1744, and then referred 
 to a committee, who made a report on the 28th 
 of May, 1746, confirming the judgment of the 
 Commissioners. This decision was received 
 in this country in the same year. Immediately' 
 the Legislature of Rhode-Island passed an act 
 incorporating the several towns under their re- 
 spective names, as constituent parts of Rhode- 
 Island. The concluding part of the act, is ac 
 follows : 
 
 " And that part of the territory confirmed to 
 Rhode-Island, which has heretofore been part 
 of Svvanzea and Barrington, with a small part 
 of Rehoboth thereto adjoining, with the inhab- 
 itants thereon, be incorporated into a town- 
 ship by the name of Warren." 
 
 The name of this town was given in honor 
 of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who the year 
 before, June, 1745, had commanded the En- 
 
 *It is evident that the people of Swanzea included 
 within the disputed territory, preferred to be under 
 the jurisdiction of Rhode-Island; as they passed a 
 vote at a Town Meeting of Swanzea, on the 27th of 
 March, 1741, that they v»^ere willinjr to come under 
 the Rhode-island Government, and expressed their 
 apprehension that tbev belonged rightfully to Rhode 
 Isiland. 
 
iVFPLEAIEN'T. ijj 
 
 glish fleet, which in conjunction with the col- 
 onial army of 4,400 men, under the command 
 of Gen. William Pepperell, captured Louisburg 
 and the Island of Cape Breton, after a storming 
 and siege of six weeks continuance. 
 
 In 1770, the inhabitants of the west part of 
 the town, petitioned the Legislature to be set 
 off by themselves, and incorporated into a town 
 by the name of Barrington. This measure was 
 opposed by the eastern portion of the people, 
 embracing what is now Warren ; but their op- 
 position to the measure was without effect. — 
 A part of the act of the Legislature, passed in 
 1770, is as follows : 
 
 " All the lands on the w-esterly side of the 
 river that extends from between Bristol and 
 Rumstick, northerly to Miles' Bridge, is made 
 into a township and called Barrington." 
 
 The name of Barrington was thus revi\red 
 and the town re-organized, after having been 
 extinct for twenty-four years. Bristol, it will 
 be seen, was not included in any of these 
 changes and divisions through which these oth- 
 er towns have passed. Although the territory 
 of Bristof seems to have been claimed by the 
 Swanzea proprietors after Philip's war, it was 
 decided to be conquered land, and therefore 
 belonging to the crown ; and it was first char- 
 tered as a town, under its present name, in 
 1680.* 
 
 * *« Montaup, which became the subject of a dia- 
 
56 sui'pi,eMi:nt. 
 
 The original deed from the Indians, of the 
 territory, embracing a part of Warren, possess- 
 es considerable interest, as well from its intrin- 
 sic value as a legal instrument, as it also is 
 supposed to be the last deed that Massasoit ever 
 signed. At the time it was given, he insisted 
 upon the English binding themselves " never 
 to draw away any of his people to the christian 
 religion." This was a point, however, which 
 he subsequently yielded;! and if his rejection 
 of Christianity was a sin, it was the fault of his 
 ignorance, while by rejecting the Gospel he 
 doubtless supposed he would be promoting the 
 welfare of his people. 
 
 The following is a copy of this Deed, taken 
 from the Record Book of the " Proprietors of 
 Sovvams and parts adjacent :" 
 
 THE GRAND DEED OF SATLE OF LANDS 
 
 from Osameqiien and Wamsetto his son, dated 
 
 29th March, 1G53. 
 
 TO ALL PEOPLE to whome these presents 
 shall come, Osamaquin and Wamsetto his Eldest 
 Sone Sendeth greeting. KNOW YEE, that wee 
 the said Osamequin & Wamsetto, for & in Con- 
 sideration of thirty five pounds sterhng to us the 
 said Osamequin and Wamsetto in hand payd By 
 Thomas Prince Gent; Thomas Willct Gent: Miles 
 Standish Gent: Josiah Winslow Gent: for And 
 
 pute between the Massachusetts and Plymouth Col- 
 onies, was finally awarded to the latter, by a special 
 decision of king Charles." Thatcher's Indian Biog. 
 1. 174. 
 I Thatcher's Ind. Biog. 1. 139. 
 
SVrPLBMENT. 57 
 
 in the behalfe of themselues and divers others of 
 the Inhabitants of Plimouth Jurisdiction, whose 
 names are liereafter specitied, with wliich said 
 sumnie we tljo said Osaniequin and Wamsetto 
 doe Acknowledge oursckies fully satisfyed con- 
 tented and payd, HAUE freely and absalutely bar- 
 gained and Sold Enfeoffed and Confirmed and by 
 these presents Doe Bargaine Sell Enfeoffe and Con- 
 firme from us the said Osamequin and Wamsetto, 
 and our and Every of our haiers unto Thomas 
 Prince, Thomas Willet, Miles Standish, Josia Wins- 
 low, Agents for themselues and William Bradford 
 Senr Gent : Thomas Clark, John Winslow, Tho- 
 mas Cushman, William White, John Adams and 
 Experience Mitchell, to them and Every of ihem, 
 their and Everyof their haiers and assigns forever; — 
 
 All those Severail parcells and Necks of vpland, 
 Svvamps and Meadows Lyeing and being on the 
 South Syde of Sinkhunch Els Rehoboth, Bounds 
 and is bounded from a Little Brooke of water, cal- 
 led by the Indjans, INIosskituash Westerly, and so 
 Ranging by a dead Swamp, Estward, aud so by 
 markt trees as Osamequin and Wamsetto directed 
 unto the great River ^^ itJi all the Meadow in and 
 about y- Sydes of bothe the Branches of the 
 great River w^h all the Creeks and Brookes that 
 are in or upon any of the said meadows, as also all 
 the marsh meadow Lying and Being Avth out the 
 Bounds before mentioned in or about the neck 
 Called by the Indians Chachacust, Also all the 
 meailow of any kind Lying and being in or about 
 Popasquash neck as also all the meadow Lyeing 
 from Kickomuet on botli sides or any way Joyn- 
 ing to it on the bay on Each Side, 
 
 TO IIAUE AND TO HOLD all the aforesaid 
 
58 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 vj)land Swamp Marshes Creeks and Risers wIlI.'O 
 all tLeir appiirtiiuiiices unto tlic aforesaid Tlionias 
 Prince, Tliomas Willclt, Miles Standi.^b, Jo.-i;i 
 Wiiislow and tlie rest of the partners aibrosaid ta 
 theme, And Evcny of them their and Every of 
 their haiers I'lxecntoi'.s And a&siync.- for Ever And 
 the said Osameqnii] and Wamsetto his Sone Cov- 
 enant promi.-c and grant, that wliensoencr tlie In- 
 dians Shall Remoue from the Neck tlint then and 
 from thenceforth the aforep lid Thomas Prince 
 Thomas Willct Miles Standish Josiali Winslow 
 shall enter vpon the Same by the Same Agree- 
 ment as their Proper liights And Interest to tlicni 
 and their heirs for Ever To and for the 
 
 true perforemaiice of all and Ev'ery ojie of the afore- 
 said severall Pertienlars wee the said Osamequin 
 and Wamselto Bind ns and every of ns our and 
 every of onr iicirs Executors Atlminjstrators and 
 Assignes fnrmly by these presents. 
 
 In Witness whereof wee haiio hercnnto sett onr 
 hands and Scales this tv/entieth day of March,; 
 anno Domini 1650. 
 
 The niarke of ?1^ 
 OSABIEQUIN & a (Scale.) 
 WAMSETTO li & (Scale.) 
 
 Signed Sealed & Delivered 
 in ye Presence of us 
 .ToHN BnowrsE 
 James Browne 
 Richard Garrett 
 
 There were eighteen dwelling-houses within 
 the limits of Warren, previous to Philip's war, 
 located at the northern and eastern part. These 
 
SUrrLEMENT. 59 
 
 houses were all bi(nie<l down at the commence- 
 ment of the war, and the residents dispersed, 
 most of them goin^r to liliode-Iiihind, vvliore 
 they remained a year or more. They were 
 well received by tlie Ishajiders, and hy ]»ermis- 
 sion planted and raised a cre^p of corn for their 
 subsistence. ((Jallcnder.) 
 
 Vie next take an extract from the origi- 
 nal cliarter of tliC town of Swanzea, as it is 
 copied in tlie Town llecords. " A True copy 
 of the grant of tlii.s Town of New-Swansey, 
 Lying upon Record at the Court of Plymouth, 
 March 1, 1GG7 : Tliis Court have granted unto 
 them ; all such Lands that Lyeth betwixt the 
 salt water 13 ay and coming up Taunton river, 
 (viz.) all the land between the salt water, and 
 river, and the bounds of Taunton and llehc- 
 both not ]>rejudicing any man's particular Li- 
 terest." These bounds, it will be seen at once, 
 embrace the whole of the town of V/arren. 
 
 What became of this charter is now un- 
 known ; Init it would seem froni a clause in the 
 i?econd charter, tliat the former was deemed 
 imperfect or insufficient. The clause alluded 
 to, refers to the fu'st grant, and is as follows : 
 *' It may be now questioned whether y^ s'^ 
 grant, conveyance and surrender Ijc sufficient, 
 firm, authentic, sure in law to all intents ac- 
 cording to the true meaning thereof, as is to be 
 ilesired, for want of formality or rules of law, 
 
60 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 usual or requisite in such cases. Now for 
 y® more and better," &c. 
 
 The second charter bears date July 23, 1689, 
 in which the bounds of the town are thus ex- 
 pressed : 
 
 '' Butted and bounded according to Court 
 grant towards ye West, upon ye great salt wa- 
 ter Bay and River that goeth up towards ye 
 Town of Providence ; even so farr up towards 
 ye North as ye south line or bounds of ye 
 Town of Rehoboth ; and upon that line to- 
 wards ye East, upon ye Bounds of Rehoboth 
 aforesaid ; and then Northerly untill it come 
 to ye Bounds of ye Township of Taunton, on 
 which it also bounds ; Along upon ye River 
 called Taunton River ; &l likewise towards ye 
 South is bounded upon the North line of ye 
 Towne of Bristoll, that runneth cross Mount 
 hope neck to ye River of Swansey afores^ to- 
 wards ye West ; according to ye Grant of ye 
 Court of New Plimouth afores^". 
 
 The precise time, when the first dwelling- 
 house was built upon the spot now occupied by 
 the village of Warren, we have no means of 
 clearly ascertaining. The site of the village 
 is named in the Swansea Town Records 
 as Brooks' pasture, as early asl67l 1. At 
 a town meeting Feb. 25, 1679, the fol- 
 lowing action was taken upon the distribu- 
 tion of this territory : '' It is voted that 
 the whole Tract of Land called Brooks' Pas- 
 
S'JPPLEMENT. 
 
 61 
 
 tare* up to the ohl fence by Jolm Wheaton 
 shall be divided in a distinct division, and a 
 survey up to Sv^anzey Two Mile to be taken." 
 Also, at a tovni moetin;^^ Ang. 31, lOSU, '' It 
 is ordered, concluded and agreed, that whereas 
 the committee clio.-en for tl'o survey of Srooks' 
 Pasture the:<i5 of Fel\ 1179, Have now brought 
 in their rep.trt of it t > be Three hundred acres, 
 It is now ordered That convenient Highways 
 be laid out in said lanrl ; 
 
 That the Land for House Lots be laid 
 out : 
 
 That the remainder be laid out to each man 
 according to his proportion as Rankt, and that 
 each man draw his Lot wlien put in form." 
 
 The above mentioned (h*a\ving for the divid- 
 ed lots took place (m April 10, iGS2. 
 
 Town Meeting Oct. 19, ICWl, is the follow- 
 ing record, " That complaijit be made to a 
 ]\[aje£tr;ite to panell a Jury to lay out a I[igh- 
 ^vay througli Droolis' Pasture to the Ferry to 
 New Jdea'low Neck," All the alcove extracts 
 are taken from the Swanzea Tmvn Records. 
 Turning to tlie Proin'ictors' Records, we find 
 the following : — 
 
 At a]neeting of the proprietors Apr. 1, IT J 8, 
 " Then a vote was p;isscd yt Crooks' Pasture 
 and ye Island thereby, should be let out." 
 
 " The tract called Brouks'' imsUire is identical with 
 ncarl}' all tlie part of Warren that is now compactly 
 built, as well as tlie eastward extension ot the vicinity, 
 on the Bristol line. v" 
 
62 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 *' At a proprietors meeting on ye 29 of Feb. 
 1719-20, It was voted yt it should be put into 
 a notification for ye laying out of Brooks' Pas- 
 ture." 
 
 " At a proprietors meeting ye 16 of March, 
 1719-20, a vote was passed y't Brooks Pas- 
 ture should be laid out." At another meeting 
 of the Proprietors, April 19, 1725, was enacted 
 the following : "By virtue of a warrant from 
 one of his Majesties Justices of ye Peace for ye 
 County of Bristol, Voted, That the land in 
 Brooks' Pasture be ail laid out in 102 lots, ac- 
 cording to quantity and quality." 
 
 These several votes, above enumerated, refer 
 to different portions of the land to be divided, 
 and became the basis of all the deeds of real 
 estate, by which tenure in landed property is 
 still held in Warren. 
 
 Having given some account of the various 
 divisions of territory, and the successive gov- 
 ernments, through which this territory has 
 passed, it belongs to the history of Warren, 
 to exhibit some of the leading events of 
 Philip^s War, which had its beginning within 
 the limits of the town. 
 
 We shall give a short summary of the open- 
 ing events of that bloody and destructive war. 
 The field where Philip collected and arrayed 
 his forces, " on the upper part of the neck," 
 was within this town. The people of Plymouth 
 were awakened to their danger, and the colony 
 put on their guard, by the following deposition, 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 63 
 
 given at Plymouth a short time previous to the 
 war, by one of the early citizens of Warren, 
 " Hugh Cole, aged forty-three, or thereabouts, 
 being deposed, saith ; That in February last 
 passed before the date hereof, he went to 
 Shewamett, and two Englishmen more with 
 him; and that their business was ^o^erswa(/e 
 the Indians to go to Plymouth, to answer a 
 complaint made by Hezekiah Luther. The 
 Indians (saith he) seeing us, came out of the 
 house towards us, being many of them, at the 
 least twenty or thirty, with staves in their hands; 
 and when the Indians saw there were but three 
 of us, they laid down their staves again. Then 
 we asked the Indians what they did with those 
 staves in their hands ? They answered, that 
 they looked for Englishmen to come from Ply- 
 mouth, to seek Indians, to carry them to Ply- 
 mouth, but, they said, they were not willing to go. 
 " And some time after, in the same morn- 
 ing, Philip the Chief Sachem, sent for me to 
 come to him, and I went to Mount Hope, to 
 him. And when I came to Mount Hope, I saw 
 most of the Indians that I knew of Shewamett 
 Indians, there at Mount Hope, and they were 
 generally employed in making of bows and ar- 
 rows, and half pikes, and fixing up of guns. 
 " And I saw many Indians of several places 
 repair towards Mount Hope. And some days 
 after I came from Mount Hope, I with several 
 others, saw one of Captain Willett's rangers 
 coming on post on horseback, who told us. 
 
€4 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 that king Philip was marched up the neck, 
 with <ihout three score men ; and Zacary Eddy, 
 on ]\is report, went to see if he could find 
 them ; and lie foiuid them towards the upr)cr 
 Ijurt of the neck, in several companies. 
 
 " One Calel) Edily furtlier saith, that he saw- 
 many there in arms ; and I was inforiaed Ly 
 John Padduck, that he saw two several guns, 
 loaded with bullets ( -r slugs ; and I farther tes- 
 tify tliat those Indians that I saw coming to- 
 wards PJount Hope, as aforesaid, came Letter 
 armed than I usually have seen them ; Further 
 saith not."* 
 
 Philip had been fur some time suspected of 
 making warlike j<reparations, and upon enqui- 
 ries being instit\ited, an Indian named Sassa- 
 man, formerly P^iilip's secretary and counsel- 
 lor, \\j^s induced t\ reveal to the English, the 
 fact '~»f the Sachein^intention of commencing 
 hostilities. Philip, exasperated at this, caus- 
 ed Sassaman to be killed, and his ]>ody put 
 under the ice of Assawomset pond, in Mid- 
 dleborough, Mass. ; and to induce the be- 
 lief tliat he was accidentally drowned, his 
 slayers left his gun and hat upon the ice. 
 This event occurred, January 2'Jth, 1GT5. — 
 When the body was discovered, the neck was 
 broken, and it had other marks of injury, which 
 the Enjxlish at once concluded must have been 
 
 * Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol. G. Thatcher's Ind. Biog. 
 I. 159. 
 
SVPPLEMENT. 65 
 
 kiflicted by other hands than his own. Besides 
 this, an Indian testified his having seen the 
 murder committed by four Indians. In the 
 following June, three of the accused were ar- 
 rested, tried and convicted by a jury at Ply- 
 mouth. The jury was composed of twelve En- 
 glishmen and four Indians ; and their decision 
 was the following : — " Wee of the jury, one 
 and all, both English and Indians, doe joyntly 
 and with one consent, agree upon a verdict." 
 Two of the condemned Indians were hanged 
 on the 8th of June, and the other shot within a 
 month. The Plymouth Court then sent an or- 
 der to Philip to appear before them, and render 
 an account for the part he had taken in the af- 
 fair. Rather than obey this injunction, which, 
 involved so much risk to himself, he chose to 
 commence the war at once. 
 
 He and his tribe immediately sent their 
 wives and children over to the Narragansctts, 
 on the west side of the Bay, for protection. — 
 At this time, Philip resided at Mount Hope,* 
 
 * For the benefit of persons unacquainted with the 
 location of Mount Hope JVcf /i, we present a brief gen- 
 eral description of it. Mount Hope Neck is about 
 nine miles in length, two miles wide at each end, and 
 narrowing to one mile, at a point about three miles 
 from the northern extremity. About half of the neck 
 projects into the bay ; tlie remaining part is formed 
 by the Kikemuit river on the east side, and Warren 
 river (formerly Sozcams river) on the west. About 
 a mile and a half from the opening of the Warren river 
 into the bay,it is divided by Little Island and NcxcMcad- 
 
66 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 where he was diligently engaged in gathering 
 and preparing his forces. His availaljle war- 
 riors, under his immediate command, including 
 the tribe of his sister-in-law, AVeetamoe, the 
 Pocassets in Tiverton, were ahout 500 men, 
 besides 1000 warriors whom he depended up- 
 on, hy his league with tlie neighh^jring tribes. 
 
 The English settlements nearest to Philip's 
 head quarters, were situated at tlie northern 
 })art of Warren.* Oji Sunday, the 2'Jth of 
 June, IC)75, Philip's warriors marched up the 
 neck, and plundered some of the colonists' 
 houses, tenantless for tlie time, in conse(iuence 
 of their occupants being absent at church. — 
 An express was sent to Gov. "VVinslow, at Ply- 
 mouth, who immediately ordered the following 
 Thursday to ]>e observed as a day of Foisting 
 and Prayer, at the same time that he issiied or- 
 ders calling out the troops, and notified the 
 Governor of ^lassacli'isctts of the state of af- 
 fairs in Sw^anzea. On Monday, June 21, the 
 troops under jMajor Cudworth, left Plymuiith, 
 and they arrived at Sv/anzea as early, at least, 
 as the 24th. It is statec^. by some authors that 
 
 ov Keck. A1)ont one mile of the nortliern end of tlie 
 nock is in Swanzea ; tJie next two and a Jialf miles, 
 iiicludin T the " Jiarrow of th.e neck," are in \V'arren; 
 the remaining five and a Jialf miles are in Uristol. 
 
 ^ "There was a settlement within ?,Ioiint Hope Neck, 
 appertaining tr. Swanzea. It contained eighteen 
 houses, all destroyed." IMorton's INIemorial, Appcii- 
 4ix, 4G3, 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 67 
 
 the troops could not have l)Con in Swanzca on 
 the '^Ith ; l)iit certain facts overloukcfl l)y these 
 writers, sliow tliat tlic tro'ps from riynionth 
 Vv'ere quartered in some parts of Swanzea, wlien 
 the Imlians attacked the people returning from 
 puMic worship, on tlie appointed fast dny. — 
 Captain Church, an actor in the war, states, 
 the Plymouth troops were in Swanzea, en the 
 24tli ; and a letter from idr. Nathaniel Thomas, 
 in IMorton's JMeniorial, p. 429, is dated the 25th 
 of June, and speaks of the tragical affairs of 
 tlie previous day: and continues " tlie forces 
 here are dispersed to several places of the town, 
 and some to Rehoboth, which this day we in- 
 tend to draw into a smaller compass." The 
 territory of the town of Swanzea was, at that 
 time, of great extent, being not less than twelve 
 miles hi length. It seems, tlierefore, plainly 
 evident that the troops from Plymoutli, were 
 quiU'tered in detached companies, in different 
 l)arts of this widely extended town. Not know- 
 ing the forces of the Indians, they considered it 
 imprudent to pass down the Neck, to attack 
 them at Mount Hope, till the Boston troops 
 arrived. ITul)bard says, respecting the first at- 
 tacks of tlic luvlians, especially that on tlie fast 
 day, " all which outrages were committed so 
 suddeidy, that the English had no time to make 
 any resistance." The Indians had already kil- 
 led the cattle of the English, in Swanzea, and 
 on one occasion, one of them being refused 
 liquor, and attempting to take it by force, was 
 
68 SUPi'LEMEiVT. 
 
 fired upon and wounded. But on Thursday, 
 June 24th, the day appointed for a fast, as the 
 Swanzea people were returning from church, 
 they were fired upon by the Indians, and one 
 man was killed and another wounded. Two 
 men going for a surgeon to attend the wounded 
 man, were killed in the way. Six men were 
 killed in another part of the town ; and in a 
 short time, so closely were the colonists beset, 
 that the Indians would " shoot at all the 
 passengers, and killed many that ventured 
 abroad."* 
 
 *Most writers agree that the first English blood 
 was shed on Thursday, the fast day, as we have 
 mentioned above ; but a passage in Hubbard's Indian 
 Wars, which gives an account of the killing of the 
 •' six men," presents a different statement, and refers 
 to " six men" who were killed before, and not in- 
 tended as the same who were killed on the fast day. 
 The express sent on June 20, to notify Governor 
 Winslow, of the threatened danger pending over 
 Swanzea, on its return the next day, passing through 
 Bridgewater, left there a requisition for twenty well- 
 armed men, to repair forthwith for the defence of 
 Bourn's garrison at Mattapoiset in Swanzea, which 
 contained seventy persons, including only sixteen 
 men. Seventeen of the Bridgewater troops imme- 
 diately started on horseback, "and were the first that 
 were upon their march in all the country." On their 
 way to Mattapoiset, they met many people of Swan- 
 zea, " newly turned out of their houses, making dole- 
 ful lamentations and bewailing their losses." On the 
 22d of June, as a part of these Bridgewater troops 
 had gone to escort Mr. Brown, their pilot, home, on 
 their return from this duty, toward the garrison, they 
 
SUPPLEMENT. (>9 
 
 On Saturday, June 26, a company of infant- 
 ry, under Captain Daniel Henchman, and a 
 company of mounted troops under Captain 
 Tliomas Prentice, left Boston for Mount IIo})e. 
 Captain Mosely, of Boston, also raised a large 
 company of volunteers who left soon after. — 
 On Monday, June 28, the above named three 
 companies arrived together at Mr. Miles' house 
 ^' within a quarter of a mile of the bridge lead- 
 ing into Phdip's lands." Here they joined the 
 forces from Plymouth which had previously 
 been quartered in various parts of Swanzea, 
 but which were now drawn together into a 
 smaller compass. The same day twelve of 
 Capt. Prentice's troops passed over the bridge, 
 and were attacked by the Indians, who killed 
 one of the English, named William Hammond. 
 Previously to this, the Indians had boldly ap- 
 
 came suddenly upon a party of Indians ; but not be- 
 ing molested, and being unauthorized to fight, unless 
 they were first assaulted, they passed on towards 
 their garrison, where they found a party of the Eng- 
 lish going to a barn, about one fourth of a mile dis- 
 tant, for corn. The soldiers informed them that they 
 had seen the Indians but a short distance back, and 
 advised them not to go. Notwithstanding this ad- 
 vice, the English went, and were attacked at tlie 
 barn by the Indians, and six of their number killed. 
 The troops hearing the attack, immediately prepared 
 their horses and rode to the barn, when the enemy 
 fled. This tragical affair appears by the statement 
 of Mr. Hubbard, to have occurred on Tuesday, the 
 22d of June, two days before the fast day. 
 w 
 
ro 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 proached, and shot two sentinels on duty at 
 Miles' Garrison. 
 
 On Tuesday, June 29th, nine or ten Indians 
 showed themselves near the garrison, upon 
 which the horsemen and Mosely's volunteers 
 pursued them for a mile and a quarter beyond 
 the bridge, where they killed five or six of the 
 Indians, and then returned to head quarters. — 
 In consequence of this disastrous charge, Phil- 
 ip became alarmed, and in the following night, 
 he with all his men, left Mount Hope Neck in 
 their canoes, and passed over Taunton Rivei' 
 to Pocasset. 
 
 On Wednesday, June 30th, the whole En-^ 
 glish forces marched down Mount Hope Neck 
 towards Philip's abode. At the distance of " a 
 mile and a half" from Miles' bridge, they came 
 to some houses newly burned.* They also 
 noticed a Bible newly torn, and the leaves scat- 
 tered about. '' Two or three miles further 
 on,t at the narrow of the Neck," they saw the 
 heads of eight Englishmen, stuck up on poles 
 near the highway. These they took down and 
 buried. Proceeding " two miles further," they 
 found " empty wigwams and many things scat- 
 tered up and down, arguing the hasty flight of 
 
 * This would bring them near Rock Raymond, or 
 Kings' Rocks, as they are now called. 
 
 t This was doubtless near the Pound, on Kicke- 
 muit River. The pound did not then exist, but was 
 first built, as it now stands, in 16S5. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 71 
 
 the owners."! For a "half mile further on," 
 they passed through fields of stately corn, 
 and came to Philip's own wigwam. " Two 
 miles further, they came to the sea-side," and 
 Captain Cudworth, with some of the Plymouth 
 forces, passed over to Rhode-Island.'^ 
 
 Major Savage and his command rested all 
 through a rainy night in the open field. On 
 the morning of Thursday, July 1, Major Sav- 
 age's command returned to head quarters at 
 Mr. Miles' house. On their way, they met 
 many stray dogs without masters. On Friday, 
 July 2, the troops scoured the country north of 
 Miles' bridge, and killed four or five of the en- 
 emy. On Saturday, July 3, Capt. IMosely and 
 his troops, with Capt. Page and his dragoons, 
 again traversed Mount tlope Neck, to make 
 sure of the departure of the enemy. On Sun- 
 day, July 4, Captain Cudworth returned from 
 Rhode-Island to the garrison, having left forty 
 men under the command of Captain Church, 
 to build a fort on Mount Hope Neck.* On Mon- 
 
 + This was at Weypoisct, or tlie narroics of Kicke- . 
 muit River, in Bristol. 
 
 § The above marked quotations arc from Hubbard's 
 Indian Wars. 
 
 • * Tbe writer after diligent search, was fortunate 
 enough to d.scover the remains of this Fort. They 
 are situated opposite the narruirs o^ K'\c\^cn\\\\t river, 
 in Bristol, on the top of the most south-western of 
 several hills, on the north side of a cove. They con- 
 sist new chiellj of the remains of the fire-place in 
 
72 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 day, July 5, Capt. Hutchinson arrived from Bos- 
 ton, with new orders, and on the next day, July 
 6, all the troops except Captain Cudworth and 
 his command, started for Narragansett to treat 
 with that tribe, in order to prevent their taking 
 part with Philip. 
 
 It does not belong to the object of these re- 
 searches, to extend the history of the Indian 
 war, any farther than to show the causes by 
 which it originated, and to ascertain and define 
 the particular localities in Warren and its vi- 
 cinity, which were the scenes of the opening 
 part of that tragical and distressing period. — 
 After Philip had withdrawn his forces from 
 Mount Hope Neck, the various Indian tribes 
 
 the fort. This fire-place was raade by preparing 
 a suitable excavation, and laying low stone walls at 
 the sides and the end, for which flat stones were 
 used, evidently brouglit from the adjoining beach. — 
 The remains of tliese ruins are nov\^ beneath the sur- 
 face of the ground, which at this place, is depressed 
 several inches below the average surface of the ground 
 in the immediate vicinity. The hill is fast wearing 
 away, by the action of the water which washes its 
 base. The wearing away has already reached the 
 fire-place, from which the charcoal and burnt stones 
 are often falling down the steeply inclined plane be- 
 neath. It was here that Captain Church, when on 
 liis singular and adventurous expedition to capture 
 Annawan, roasted horse-beef for liis men, on the S.^tli 
 of August, 1G76. Here, also, he confined several 
 prisoners; he "had catched ten Indians ; and they 
 guarded them all night in one of the Hankers of the 
 old English garrison " Church's Hist,, p. 130. 
 
KUPPLEMKNT. 73 
 
 in this part of New-England, mostly entered 
 into league with him. The storm of war burst 
 upon the devoted colonies ; and it continued 
 to rage with fearful violence for more than a 
 year after Philip was first driven from Mount 
 Hope Neck. Its consequences were disastrous 
 in the extreme ; it caused wide-spread and uni- 
 versal mourning throughout New-England. — 
 As the result of this most distressing of all the 
 Indian w^ars with the Colonists of New-Eng- 
 land, at least six hundred of the inhabitants 
 who were " the flower and strength of the 
 country, fell in battle or w^ere murdered by the 
 enemy." " Twelve or thirteen towns in Mas- 
 sachusetts, Plymouth and Rhode-Island, were 
 utterly destroyed, and others greatly damaged." 
 *' About GOO buildings, chiefly dwelling houses, 
 were consumed with fire." More than 100,000 
 pounds sterling were expended by the Colo- 
 nists, besides an immense loss in the destruc- 
 tion of their goods and cattle. Among the 
 houses burnt, thirty-four were in Swanzea, 
 which left only six houses standing in the town 
 at the close of the war.* 
 
 Philip's war had so reduced to ruins the 
 town of Swanzea and the surrounding vicinity, 
 that the whole neighborhood was nearly as des- 
 olate as a wilderness. Shortly afterwards, 
 however, the scattered population gradually re- 
 
 * Judge Davis' Appendix to Morton's Memorial. 
 W* 
 
74 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 turned and settled upon the deserted territor} 
 There being no Indians left on Mount Hop' 
 Neck, the settlements of the English soon oc- 
 cupied the sites of the former wigwams and 
 villages of the natives. 
 
 The Plymouth government at a very early 
 period had encouraged the organization of com- 
 panies of Proprietors, or joint-stock companies, 
 who were empowered to buy lands of the In- 
 dians, and then sell and divide such lands a- 
 mong themselves, on conditions of mutual 
 agreement. These companies of Proprietors 
 were required to keep a book of Records and 
 Memorials, in which the various divisions of 
 land were to be entered ; and they were empow- 
 ered to make choice of some one of their num- 
 ber as clerk, to enter and record the several 
 divisions of their lands in due form and course 
 of law. These entries thus became permanent 
 records of real estate, " to be transmitted and re- 
 maintoposteritie," — provided the entries of such 
 lands should not infringe or hinder the entry of 
 said lands in the records of the respective towns, 
 within whose jurisdiction the territory of such 
 company of Proprietors might happen to fall. 
 The purchases of land from the Indians were 
 recorded on parchment with great care and 
 exactness ; but when the Proprietors would 
 come to subdivide these tracts among them- 
 selves, the only individual title of each owner 
 to his portion, would consist of a recorded 
 vote, passed at a regular Proprietor's meeting, 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 75 
 
 certifying tliat such a portiom had been allotted 
 to him. After the several towns in this vicin- 
 ity had become incorporated, town meetings 
 and Proprietors' meetings were frequently held, 
 independently of each other, and it sometimes 
 happened that the separate action of one of 
 these bodies would be at variance with that of 
 the others. 
 
 Soon after the close of Pliilip's war, ])y vir- 
 tue of the grand deed of sale from Massasoit, 
 authorized by the Plymouth court, the Sowams 
 j)urchase, excepting the belt of meadow land 
 bordering on the water courses, which had 
 previously been apportioned, was divided into 
 suitable tracts for farms and building lots, and 
 thus were laid the foundations for the owner- 
 ship of all the real estate in the town of War- 
 ren. 
 
 In the course of time, the Proprietors sold 
 '^ut portions of their lands to other people, who 
 •n selling again to one another, gave regular 
 title deeds. We have already stated that Brooks' 
 pasture, which included the site of the village 
 €»f Warren, was laid out and divided among the 
 Proprietors, in several portions, at different 
 periods, extending from 1680 to 1725. 
 
 But the territory of Warren, being then a 
 part of Swanzea, was subject to the legislation 
 of that town, as a branch of the Plymouth col- 
 ony ; and the lands not owned and divided by 
 the Sowams Proprietors, were distributed ac- 
 cording to regulations adopted by the town of 
 
76 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Swanzea, on the 7th of Feb. 1G70, By these 
 regulations, it was " ordered, that all lots and 
 divisions of lands that are or hereafter shall be 
 granted to any particular person, shall be pro- 
 portioned according to the three-fold ranks 
 underwritten, so that where those of the first 
 rank shall have three acres, those of the second 
 rank shall have two acres, and those of the third 
 rank shall have one ; and that it shall be in 
 the power of the Selectmen for the time being, 
 or Committee for admission of inhabitants, to 
 admit of and place such as shall be received as 
 inhabitants, into either of the said ranks, as 
 they shall judge fit, till the number of three 
 score inhabitants shall be made up, and that 
 when the said number of three score is accom- 
 plished, the lands that are already bought shall 
 be divided, and proportioned according to the 
 said three-fold ranks ; that in the mean time^,, 
 the said Selectmen or Committee shall have 
 full power to grant lots unto such persons as 
 may not be placed into any of the said ranks,, 
 until further order provided ; the grants not to 
 exceed nine acres to a man." [Then follow 
 the three ranks of landholders in separate col- 
 umns, as determined by the Committee.] 
 
 The legislation of Swanzea, from its first 
 incorporation in 1667, till the district of War- 
 ren ceased to be a part of it in 1746, was al- 
 ways characterized by the spirit of civil and 
 religious freedom, which first led the fathers of 
 the town to make it a safe asylum for those^ 
 
SUPrLCMENT. 77 
 
 who wished to worship God according to the 
 dictates of their own conscience. And yet a 
 careful distinction was preserved between law- 
 lessness respecting civil and social duties, and 
 that liberty of the soul in religion which they 
 did not feel it their right to abridge or coerce. 
 It was made the duty of every citizen to stand 
 in his place, in providing measures for the 
 safety and welfare of the town. At a town, 
 meeting, lawfully warned, Nov. 4, 1670, it was 
 " ordered that whatsoever inhabitant of this 
 town shall absent himself from any town meet- 
 ing to which he shall at any time hereafter be 
 legally warned, he shall forfeit for every such 
 offence, four shillings." In so new and un- 
 settled a state of the community, great care 
 was taken to protect the rights of the citizens 
 from tresi)ass by each other, and also to guard 
 against misunderstanding or collision with the 
 Indians, who, till Philip's war, occupied the 
 lands of Mount Ho])e Neck, south of the line 
 now separating Warren from Bristol. To 
 guard against trespass by each other's cattle- 
 npon the newly laid out farms, at a town meet-- 
 ing, June 14, l()72, " Jonathan Bosworth was 
 approved of and api)oiuted by the town to keep 
 an orflinary ; and to be Pound keei)er, and for 
 every beast that is pounded, he is to have three 
 pence ])oundage." To render equal justice to 
 the neighboring Indians, even so late as at the 
 very eve of Philip's war, the town, in regular 
 meeting. May ID, 1G75, '' ordered that Nathan^ 
 
78 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 iel Lewis and Caleb Eddy, do view the fence* 
 between the Indians and the town, and return 
 the defects thereof to the town, by the sixth 
 day come seven night." Also, " ordered that 
 every man shall fetch his cattle out of the Neck, 
 within the fence, and that all cattle that are 
 found there after the 3d of June, and brought 
 to Pound, shall pay for every beast or horse, 
 
 An equitable assessment was levied upon all 
 the citizens of the town, for charges incurred 
 in purchases of land made by the town from 
 the Indians, and also for expenses necessary 
 for the common welfare. Thus, at a town 
 meeting, lawfully warned, Nov, 18, 1G72, it 
 was " ordered that the committee chosen by 
 the Town, for the management of the Pruden- 
 tial affairs of the Town, shall levy the several 
 proportions of Pay due from the Inhabitants for 
 the Land lately purchased from Philip Sachem, 
 by Mr. Constant Southworth, and other charges 
 relating thereunto." 
 
 - At the same time that the authority of the 
 town claimed no right of visitation or interfer- 
 ence in matters of personal religious faith, it 
 made provisions for the support of religious 
 teaching, for the common moral welfare of the 
 
 * It seems that the fence running from Warren to 
 Kickemuit rivers, on what is now the line between 
 Warren and Bristol, had been the boundary between 
 Swanzea and the Indians, for some time previous to 
 1G75. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. /9 
 
 people. After the Baptist Church had seen 
 the necessity of removing their first house of 
 worship, near the borders of Rehoboth, to a 
 more central and eligible location, at a meet- 
 ing of the Townsmen, March 13, 1675, " there 
 was granted unto Mr. John Miles, Pastor of 
 the Church, one acre of land at the lower end 
 of New Meadow Neck, viz : the south lot on 
 the east side, for to build upon." At a town 
 meeting lawfully held, Oct. 12, 1676, it was 
 'ordered, " according to a former agreement, 
 that the meeting-house, if removed, shall be re- 
 moved to the lower end of New Meadow Neck." 
 In consequence of the dispersion of the inhab- 
 itants of this neighborhod during the war, Mr. 
 Miles was probably induced for a season, to 
 change his residence ; and after preaching a 
 considerable time in Boston, he was again pre- 
 vailed upon by the people of Swanzea, to re- 
 turn to his former charge. While thus absent, 
 and in anticipation of his return, at a town 
 meeting, Sept. 5, 1677, John Allen, John But- 
 terworth and Hugh Cole, were chosen to agree 
 with a carpenter to build Mr, Miles a house of 
 residence ; and at Town meeting, May 27, 
 1678, John Allen and John Brown were chosen 
 to draw up a letter in the behalf of Church and 
 Town, to be sent to Mr. John Miles, Pastor of 
 the church and Minister of the town, manifest- 
 ing their desire of his return to them ; and 
 Thos. Easterbrooks was chosen to carry the 
 Town's letter to Mr, Miles at Boston, After 
 
80 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 much delay in attempting to remove their for- 
 mer meeting-house, and probably at last find- 
 ing it an impracticable project, at length, at 
 Town meeting, Sept. 30, 1679, it was " voted 
 and ordered that a meeting-house of 40 feet in 
 length, and 22 feet in breadth, and 10 feet be- 
 tween joints, be forthwith built ; and a Com- 
 mittee be chosen for the letting out of said 
 work and finishing the same, viz : John Allen, 
 Hugh Cole, William Ingraham, Committee ;" 
 and at a Town meeting, legally warned, March 
 29, 1680, it was " voted that the meeting-house 
 be set up at the lower end of New Meadow 
 Neck, and that the Committee for said house 
 appoint the individual place." 
 
 From this period onward, the town having 
 recovered from the sad effects of the war, 
 measures were taken to ensure the increase of 
 business, and the welfare of the population, in 
 the town of Swanzea, and especially in the dis- 
 trict of the present town of Warren. At a 
 town meeting, held March 29, 1680, it was vo- 
 ted and ordered that Miles bridge be re-built 
 with all convenient speed. This bridge had 
 probably been destroyed in the Indian war, and 
 was of great importance, as the thoroughfare 
 for travelers crossing the Warren river. At 
 that time, there appears to have been no regu- 
 lar ferry at Warren, as the necessities of the 
 public had as yet created no demand for one. 
 But after the survey of Brooks' Pasture, in 
 1679, and the site of the present village there 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 81 
 
 on was laid out for house lots, it was ordered, 
 Town i.ieeting, Aug. 31, lOSO, ''that couvcn- 
 ie)it liighvv'Mys iiiay be laid out in said Land;" 
 and at a subsequent )'icetiug, Octcber 19, 
 K)"^], a petition was niade to a justice, "To 
 inipaimel a jury to lay out such hiuhways as 
 arc at present needful, namely, thronfrh Ijrooks' 
 Pasture to tlic ferry, to New jMcadow Neck." 
 ]>y this, it aj>pears t]\at tlie settleir.ents at War- 
 ren, and the newly erected town of JJristol, ajid 
 also, tlie overland traveling I)etween Newport 
 and Providence, required that a convenient 
 ferry slundd be provided, alfordiu::! a ready pas- 
 san;e across the Warren river, at the lov/er end 
 of New Meadow Neck. For this purpose, at 
 a Town meeting, IMarch 13, IGSl, " It was 
 voted that six acres c>f land be left peri)etualiy 
 to acconnnodate a person to keej) tlie ferry, or 
 to 1)6 improved for the use and benefit of the 
 town, as they shall see fit, and tliat tliis land 
 be laid out by the Committee formerly chosen 
 by tlie tov/n to lay out ]>rooks' Pasture, and 
 that it be laid out as conveniently as )nay be."* 
 After the land coiuprising Wnrren and the 
 other ])arts of Swanzea, had been divided a- 
 mong tlie various Proprietors, and all the re- 
 maininrr ri-dits of the Iiulians to tlie soil had 
 become extinguislied, tlie town enacted, ,Marcii 
 24, 1G34, that all the deeds of purchnses of 
 lands from the Indians to the English, should 
 
 * In 1725 this ferry lot was reduced by authority of 
 the town, to one acre and a quarter in size. x 
 
82 SUPPLEMENT, 
 
 all be called in, and if any were found nol re- 
 corded at Plymouth, they should be recorded 
 there with all convenient speed ; and for the 
 safe keeping of these records, they ordered a 
 box to be procured, with three locks, which 
 was to be kept for safety, wherever the town's 
 committee might order. At a town meeting. 
 May 22, 1699, it was voted, " that the keys of 
 the town box for keeping the town records and 
 writings shall be in the keeping of the Select- f 
 men, appointed from year to year, provided the 
 Selectmen chosen yearly be proprietors in the 
 town of Swanzea." 
 
 By this time, the community began to be 
 well organized, and the business of the neigh- 
 borhood considerably increased. The spot oc- 
 cupied by the village of Warren, on account of 
 the advantages of the deep water in the river,, 
 soon drew a portion of the population of Swan- 
 zea to its vicinity, for the purposes of ship- 
 building and navigation. As early as Jan. 1, 
 1684, a majority of the town voted that " Tim- 
 othy Brooks may keep entertainment for travel- 
 ers ;" while for the convenience of the public, 
 scattered over the wide spread town, it was 
 voted, although protested against by several 
 citizens, Sept. 9, 1685, " that the place of all 
 public meetings should be between Mr. Miles' 
 house* and the great bridge ; and a house be 
 
 * Probably Mr. Milea' old mansiou house, near 
 Miles' bridge. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 83 
 
 there built for that end by a free contribution." 
 The people in this vicinity, in those early 
 times, seem to have been duly mindful of the 
 necessity of education and religion, as the only 
 safe basis for the organization of society; though 
 in respect to the modes of supporting religion 
 by law, they were at that time an exception 
 from the existing usages of the other towns in 
 the colony. They allowed the church to hold its 
 own doctrines, & to administer its own discipline, 
 without interferance by the secular authority. 
 On Aug. 28, 1003, a warrant having been 
 read, from the Quarter Session of the colony, 
 requiring the town to choose a minister accord- 
 ing to law, the town meeting was addressed by 
 a committee of the church, who desired the 
 vote of the town, expressing their assent and 
 approbation to the fact, ** that they had a min- 
 ister that they apprehended was according to 
 law, viz. Elder Samuel Luther," and on the 
 ITtli of the following month, the town " voted 
 and chose Elder Samuel Luther, minister of the 
 town of Swanzea." 
 
 The people also provided for the education 
 of their children at public expence ; and on 
 March 28, 1699, the town '' confirmed the 
 agreement made by the Selectmen with Mr. 
 Jonathan Bosworth to be school-master for the 
 town of Swanzea the year ensuing, and to teach 
 school in the several places in the town by 
 course, and to have for his salary <£18 per year, 
 one quarter in money, and the other three 
 
. 84 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 quarters in provisions, nt money price." To 
 carry on the ]>iisiness of education, the Select- 
 men su)>se4ucnt]y, January 12, 1702, agreed 
 with i\Ir. JcJin Devotion, school-mnstcr, to give 
 him £12 current money of Ncu'-En gland, to 
 be paid quarterly, and the town to ^' pay ^ r 
 liis diet ;" an.d he was ordered to remove, each 
 quarter to diiFercnt places in the neighborliocd, 
 while t-ie Selectmen agreed v/ith the schct^l- 
 master to alluw him 2ih. ster. tu he paid l^y the 
 town towards the keeping of his horse. After- 
 wards, at to\ni meeting, Dec. 28, 1713, it was 
 "voted and agreed that the school-master's 
 abode (boarding) shall bo paid after the rate of 
 4s. per M'eek, in provisions at money prices." 
 The inhabitants seem also to have cheerfully 
 taxed themselves, for ;dl the expenses necessary 
 for the general improvement of the tovvii and 
 neighljorhood. 
 
 At a town meeting, hold March 2*3, 1707-8, 
 it was agreed, " that if any of the inhaintants 
 of this town shall at any time hereafter kill a 
 grown wolf or v/olves within this township, 
 they shall be allowed ten shillings a head ont 
 of the town treasury, over and above the alluvv- 
 raice of the law." At another time, March 3, 
 1708, the town taking into consideration the 
 great destruction of Indian corn, by crows, 
 blackbirds and squirrels, agreed that every 
 householder in the town should kill or cause to 
 be killed six of the great sort of blackbirds (.r 
 six 'squirrels, and one crow should pass in law 
 
SUl'l'LLMENT. b5 
 
 for two blackbirds or squirrels ; and they were 
 to be killed and their heads brought in, by the 
 10th of the following June, to men appointed 
 for the purpose of counting them ; and if any 
 householder should neglect or refuse this duty, 
 as aforesaid, he shall for his defect, pay two 
 pence for every head that is wanting of said 
 number, at the 10th of June; and the commit- 
 tee appointed to count the heads were empow- 
 ered by the town to prosecute the order and 
 dispose the fines as the law directed. 
 
 It seems, however, that no assessment of tax- 
 es was more cheerfully paid by the people, than 
 the raising of money for the defence of their 
 civil and religious rights. The original foun- 
 dation settlement, by which the charter of the 
 town had at first been granted, allowed every 
 man the undisturbed exercise of his own person- 
 al fiith in matters of religion. Some interfer- 
 ence with this religious liberty having been 
 made by the court of Plymouth, the people at 
 full town meeting, Oct. 24, 1712, by a unani- 
 mous vote, declared " that all the inhabitants 
 of this town shall enjoy their conscience liberty, 
 agreeable to the foundation settlement of said 
 town, and are not obliged to uphold and 
 maintain the worship of God elsewhere than 
 where they choose respectively to belong or to 
 assemble " They also voted to raise a fund of 
 five hundred pounds, and as much more as 
 might be necessary, to maintain and defend 
 
 X* 
 
86 SUPPLEMENX. 
 
 the town's grant and foundation, at any court 
 or place proper for such purpose. The town 
 empowered its agents to send their grievances 
 before her Majesty's Privy Council, if they 
 could not enjoy their rights and privileges 
 granted by the court at Plymouth, and con- 
 firmed by royal charter. The Selectmen were 
 ordered and empowered to assess the inhabi- 
 tants of tlie town according to a rateable pro- 
 portion, and the money was to be supplied, if 
 necessary by the following autumn. 
 
 As an evidence of the practical liberality and 
 equity which distinguished this population at 
 that time, is the fact, that while the ministry in 
 the Swanzea Baptist church v/as su})ported by 
 the town, in the mean time a Congregational 
 church had been formed on the west side of 
 New Meadow Neck, in Barrington, and some 
 of these inha])itants adherinor to the Conj^reffa- 
 tional church, proposed in 1717, that the town 
 should either raise a tax of .£120 for the sup- 
 port of their minister, or allow them to be 
 formed into a separate town or precinct. The 
 people again declared their principles; &l having 
 read, at town meeting, the petition in question, 
 with the charter on which they had at first been 
 established, " after considerable fair and loving 
 conference with said petitioners upon the prem- 
 ises," it was voted, " that all the inhabitants of 
 the town should enjoy their conscience liberty, 
 according to said foundation establishment of 
 said town ; and are obliged to uphold and 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 87 
 
 maintain the ministry and worshipof God, only 
 in the several churches or congregations where 
 tliey respectively choose to belong or assemblCy 
 and not obliged to support any church but 
 where they partake of its teaching." 
 
 The year following this transaction, the 
 territory west of Warren river was divided from 
 Swanzea, and erected into a separate town, and 
 so continued, till Warren and Barrington to- 
 gether became a single town in Rhode-Island, 
 by the act which ascertained and settled the 
 line of division between Rhode-Island and 
 Massachusetts, in 1 740. 
 
 At the time when Warren became a sepa- 
 rate town, the population was still small, and 
 the majority of its wealth, if not of its inhab- 
 itants, was on the Barrington side of the river. 
 The attention of the people was at that time 
 almost entirely given to navigation and ship- 
 building. The first town meetino; in Warren, 
 after its separate organization, was held on the 
 lOth of Feb., 1747, at the house of John Child, 
 which stood on the north side of JNIarket-street, 
 near Allen's corner. At the same time a col- 
 ony rate of c£5000 being assessed on the State, 
 c£115 of that sum was levied on Warren as its 
 proportionable share. Previous to 1747, two 
 public Ferries had been in regular operation, 
 the one leading from Main-street over the site 
 of the present bridge owned by Mr. Kelly, the 
 other leading from the foot of Washhigtoii- 
 street across the river to Barrimiton. 
 
88 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 In 1756, the only streets then laid out in the 
 village, were Main-street, leading from Jollb' 
 gate on the Bristol line to Kelly's ferry; and 
 from Main-street, eastward, was the present 
 Marlcct-street ; and leading westward toward 
 the river, were Jllillerstrcet, ChurcJi-strcet, 
 and Washington-street, leading to the ferry.* 
 
 In that year (1756,) the number of houses in 
 the present village was about twenty-five,t ard 
 at the same time, there had been erected, ard 
 were in use, three of the present wharves, viz, 
 those of John T. Child, Caleb Eddy, and Na- 
 than Child. 
 
 From this period, till the revolutionary war, 
 embracing a term of twenty years, the town 
 contmued to grow steadily in its population, 
 and in the increase of its business. The chief 
 dependence of the people was on maritime 
 trade, in its various forms of ship-building ; 
 
 * The names of these streets as now used were- 
 subsequently applied. 
 
 t The houses in the village of Warren, in 1756,, 
 were located and occupied as follows ; Oti Main-street., 
 by John Kelly, Ainos Bowen, Allen Cole, Amos 
 Thomas, John Whcaton, John Easterbrook, Amos 
 Haile, James Bushee, Mr. Jolls, at the gate, & a black- 
 smith's shop ; Oa Market -street, by John Child, <t a 
 school-house ; On Miller-street, by Mrs. Lewin, Na- 
 than Miller ; On Church- street, Squire Maxwell, Ca- 
 leb Turner; On Washington-street, by Caleb Carr 
 (kept as a tavern) Samuel Miller, Benj. Easterbrook; 
 On the shore, by Samuel Hicks, John Luther, Thomas 
 Cole, and one or two stores. 
 
SUPPLEMEXT. 89 
 
 coasting, West-India and Foreign navigation, 
 and the whale fishery. 
 
 This community at that time, seem to have 
 paid a due regard to matters of manners and 
 morals. Repeated acts of tlie autliorities of the 
 town are on record, \\'liic]i sliow that the mag- 
 istrate used not Jiis office in vain, as a terror to 
 evil doers, and as a praise to tliem that do well. 
 Thus, in 174S, a line of 10^-. was levied upon 
 an individual in the tow.M, for disorderly be- 
 haviour, and the money paid into the town's 
 treasury : anil in 1752 and 3, two men were 
 fined by the town, each £1, for cursing and 
 swearing. To make such evil doers, and all 
 ctlier disturbers of the peace and morals of the 
 community, a warning to others and a shame 
 to themselves, the town ordered, April 19, 1TC9, 
 the erection of a pair of stocks, in a convenient 
 place in the compact part of the town, and ano- 
 ther pillory, in a convenient place, on the west 
 side of tlie river.* 
 
 The inhabitants of this village, for their re- 
 ligious welfare, had gejierally attended the 
 
 '^ The pillory, or pair of stocks in the village, was 
 permanently located on llic side-walk on the west 
 side of JMain-street, about a rod north of its corner 
 with JefFerson-strect. 'i'he punishment of the pillory 
 was at that time considered a great promoter of good 
 conduct, and to make the exposed culprit as ccnspic- 
 uous as possible, the stock frame of the pillory in this 
 village, was placed across the side walk, so that it 
 partly obstructed the passage on the side next to the 
 gtreet. 
 
90 SUPPLBMINT. 
 
 church in Swanzea, of which many of them 
 were members, till in 1764, when the Baptist 
 church in this town was organized, which, in 
 connection with the Rhode-Island College, be- 
 gun in this place the same year, and chartered 
 in 1765, and with the Warren Baptist Associa- 
 tion, formed at this place in 1767, soon afford- 
 ed not only a religious home for the inhabitants, 
 but became a centre of assemblage and a source 
 of influence for the friends of religion and learn- 
 ing throughout a wide extent of country. 
 
 We have no certain means of ascertaining 
 the population of Warren, at the beginning of 
 the Revolutionary War. When the territory 
 embracing the six towns of Cumberland, Bar- 
 rington, Warren, Bristol, Tiverton and Little- 
 Compton, was set off from Massachusetts and 
 became a part of Rhode-Island, the aggregate 
 population of all these towns, was 4767, con- 
 sisting of 4196 whites, 343 blacks and 228 In. 
 dians. But no adequate measures were taken 
 to ascertain the census of these towns, singly 
 and respectively, at least of the town of War-, 
 ren, till it became necessary to number the 
 population, in order to supply the requisite 
 quota of soldiers created by the demands of the 
 Revolutionary War. For a period of seven 
 years before Barrington was separated from 
 Warren, in 1770, the average recorded votes 
 of the freemen of the town, for Governor, 
 were 96 annually ; and for seven years after 
 that period, the average vote of the freemen 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 01 
 
 of Warren, was 46. The latter number, re- 
 duced so low by the division of the town, is 
 also partly to be accounted for by the fact, 
 that some of the citizens were absent from 
 their homes, engaged in the war. The act- 
 ual number of the population of Warren, as 
 reported by a committee appointed by the town 
 to take the census, on Feb. 22, 1777, was sev- 
 en hundred and eighty-nine. 
 
 The people of this town were conspicuous 
 and interested actors in the scenes of trial and 
 suffering in the Revolutionary war. As early 
 as Nov. 20, 1775, it was voted in town meeting 
 that a military watch should be kept in the 
 town ; and that if any man refused to watch 
 when notified, he should pay the sum of three 
 shillings : on Feb. 5, 1777, the town voted that 
 an Artillery company should be raised among 
 their citizens, and Daniel Fisk was chosen 
 captain, and Benjamin Cole, Lieutenant. On 
 the 12th of the same month it was voted that 
 Shubael Kinnicut should purchase two good 
 fire-arms with bayonets and cartridge-boxes, 
 for the use of the only two persons in the town 
 who were unable to equip themselves. 
 
 As the time of struggle and suffering had 
 now come, the town proceeded to adopt meas- 
 ures necessary for the accomplishment of their 
 share of the common service. In town-meeting, 
 assembled. May G, 1776 it was voted that the 
 town treasurer should employ suitable persons 
 to make up the powder and ball into cartridges, 
 
92 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 belonging to the town ; and all persons that 
 possessed lead or balls were desh'ed to bring 
 them to the town treasurer, who was directed 
 to purchase them ; and they also ordered that 
 all the militia and alarm men should bring their 
 guns to the town treasurer, in order that their 
 cartridges might be made to suit the differently 
 sized guns. The town having been required 
 by the law of the State, to furnish a quota of 
 ten men for military service, it was voted at 
 town-meeting, Sept. 16, 1776, to send twelve, 
 and that every soldier that should ecjuip him- 
 self, complete with gun, bayonet, knapsack, 
 cartooch-box and blanket, should have twen- 
 ty siiillings. 
 
 There being yet some d(Uii>t as to the princi- 
 ples of some in the community, in this time, 
 which retpiired every man to do his duty, the 
 town required, Oct. 14, 1776, tliat every man 
 in their midst should sign " tlie Test Act," or 
 appear and give his reasons for refusing ; and 
 that the town clerk should ascertain the num- 
 ber of 2uns and all munitions of war beloiiorincr 
 to the town, in the hands of tlie militia. 
 
 At this time, such had already become the 
 scarcity of provisions, that tlie article of salt 
 was sold as high as six dollars per bushel. But 
 to prevent extortion by individuals, tlie State 
 government took charge of the salt which had 
 now become so high and scarce, and dealt it 
 out to the different towns, at the low price of 
 six shillings per bushel ; and the town of War- 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 93 
 
 iren, by vote of July 1, 1776, divided and pro- 
 portioned the article among their people at the 
 price fixed by the State ; while by vote of the 
 20th of the following October, they ordered 
 that no person should be allowed to receive salt 
 who refused to subscribe to the Test Act. 
 
 A committee consisting of Daniel Cole and 
 AVilliam Barton, appointed to estimate the 
 quantity of grain, and the number of inhabitants 
 in the town, reported at town meeting, Feb. 
 2:2, 1777, the number of inhabitants as 789, 
 and 14 refugees from the county of Newport ; 
 and the quantity of grain, as 1,202 bushels of 
 Indian corn, and SO bushels of rye, and not 
 barley sufficient for seed grain. On the 12th 
 of the following July, it was voted that a com- 
 mittee should receive the flour that was propor- 
 tioned to the town, and deal it out to the sold- 
 iers' families, at =£1.165. per cwt. 
 
 On the 25th of May, about 500 British and 
 Hessian troops, under the command of Lieut. 
 Colonel Campbell, started from Newport by 
 water, and arrived before day-break at a place 
 about half a mile south of Peck's rocks, on the 
 Bradford farm, in Bristol, when having landed, 
 they immediately proceeded to Warren by the 
 main road. On arrivinc; at the villaore of War- 
 ren, they dispersed the inhabitants, disabled 
 several pieces of cannon, and then hurried on 
 with the greater part of their forces to the Kick- 
 emuit river, to a point just below the present 
 
 V 
 
94 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Stone bridge, where a large number of boat.s' 
 had been collected by the Americans, to facili- 
 tate a contemplated expedition against the ene- 
 my. These boats the British piled into a heap 
 and burned. They then returned to Warren, 
 where they finished their work of destruction 
 by burning the Baptist church, parsonage, pow- 
 der magazine, and several other buildings, pil- 
 laging the houses, and taking a number of the 
 citizens away as prisoners. Fearing an attack 
 from the neighboring American militia, they de- 
 parted in great haste.* On their route both 
 ways, to and from Kickemuit river, they passed 
 through Main and Market-streets. 
 
 * Aged people, still living among us, well remem- 
 ber the appearance of these soldiers, as they passed 
 through the town. The British were dressed in old- 
 fashioned red coats, cocked hats and small clothes, 
 with a great display of laced trimmings, shoe and 
 knee buckles. The Hessians wore enormous fur 
 caps, and large, wide and loose boots, into v^'hich 
 they thrust all kinds of articles pilfered from the 
 houses ; and these articles hanging over the tops of 
 their boots, gave them a singularly grotesque appear- 
 ance, as they left the town. A lady now living, and 
 several others were at the time in the house, which 
 was afterwards Bradshav/'s bake-house, on the east 
 side of Main-street. They saw the troops pass by in 
 hasty retreat, and at a short distance in the rear, a 
 single individual, encumbered with a big drum, una- 
 ble to keep up with the main body. These heroic 
 women ran out and surrounded him, and told him he 
 was their prisoner, when he immediately surrender- 
 ed, saying, he was glad of it, for he was faint and 
 tired. ' This prisoner was afterwards exchanged for 
 one of the citizens of Warren. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 95 
 
 Early in the morning an express had been 
 sent to Providence to inform the Americans of 
 the attack upon Warren. General Barton im- 
 mediately started with a party of mounted 
 troops, in advance of a body of infantry, under 
 General Sullivan, to the defence of his native 
 town.* Before he arrived at Warren, the ene- 
 
 * General Willinm Carton was born May 2G, 1748, 
 in tlie house on Towiset Neck, (in the cast part of 
 Warren,) wiiich is now occupied by Ijis grand neph- 
 ew, Mr. Benjaniin Barton. The graves of the Gen- 
 eral's parents are near each other, in the family bury- 
 ing ground, on the far.n ; and are inscribed as follows ; 
 Capt. Benj. Barton, died April ^2, 1773, aged 70; — 
 JMrs. Lydia, wife of Capt. Benj. Barton, died Oct. 9, 
 1808, aged 88. 
 
 The history of Gen. Barton is so connected with 
 the general history of the country in the times of the 
 revolutionary war, that it is unnecessary for us to en- 
 ter minutely into the details of his evenlful life. Im- 
 mediately after the battle of Bunker Hill, he entered 
 into the military service of his country, and received 
 the commission of Colonel in the continental army, 
 and Brigadier General of the Rhode-Island troops. 
 His head was wise to plan, and his hand to e.xecute 
 the daring cntorprizes of heroism. His capture of 
 General Prescott displayed a firmness and an intrepid- 
 ity rarely equalled on the page of history. Some 
 time before, ]\Iajor General Lee, of the American 
 army, being separated from liis troops, was betrayed 
 by a tory into the hands of the enemy. As his servi- 
 ces were in great demand by his country. General 
 Barton conceived the bold design of capturing an ofli- 
 i;f;r of equal or superior rank, in order, by an exchange 
 of prisoners, to eflcct the release of General Lee. 
 Having determined to surprise and carry off General 
 
96 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 my had fled ; and following in pursuit, he came 
 upon them near Bristol Ferry ; but his party 
 being too weak to attack their whole force, and 
 the General receiving a severe wound from a 
 
 Prescott, he visited Warren to procure two whale 
 boats, (as the people before the war had cairied on 
 the whale fishery,) which, with others obtained else- 
 where, were taken to a place near Howland's Ferry, 
 and prepared for the critical undertaking by mufliing 
 the oars and rowlocks with undressed sheepskins. 
 Awaiting a favorable opportunity, he crossed the bay 
 unobserved, on a dark night, to Warwick Neck, from 
 which place he could take his points of observation ; 
 and, in the night of July 10, 1777, he succeeded in 
 accomplishing his brilliant enterprize. The following 
 account of the capture of Gen. Prescott is taken from 
 the Providence Gazette, of July 12, 1777, — two days 
 after the affair. "Thursday morning last, a party of 
 38 men of the Troops of this State, under the com- 
 mand of Lieut. Col. William Barton, of this town, 
 accompanied by Major Adams, of the Train, Capt. 
 Phillips, Lieuts. Potter and Babcock, and Ensigns 
 Stanton and Wilcox, went in five boats from Warwick 
 ISfeck, with a view to take Major General Prescott, 
 Commander in Chief of the British and Foreign 
 Troops on Rhode-Island, whose head quarters was 
 then at a house about four miles from Newport. The 
 Colonel and his party, after passing the enemy's ships 
 and guard boats, landed, about 12 o'clock at night, 
 and, with infinite address and gallantry, got to Pres- 
 cott's undiscovered. A sentinel at the door hailed, 
 but was immediately secured, and the party immedi- 
 ately, breaking the doors and entering the house, took 
 the General in bed. His Aid-de-camp leaped from a 
 window in his shirt, and attempted to escape, but was 
 taken a few rods from the house. The party soon 
 after returned to their boats, with their prisoners, and 
 
^tPPLEiMENT. 97* 
 
 nmisket ball in his right leg, tlie pursuit was 
 abandoned. After the enemy had destroyed 
 considerable property in Bristol, they re-em- 
 barked in their ship, which repaired from their 
 first landing place to Bristol Ferry just in sea- 
 son to escape an attack from the Americans, 
 who had now arrived under the command of 
 General Sullivan. 
 
 Soon after this attack, a part of General Var- 
 num's brigade was ordered to Warren. One 
 regiment was encamped upon the field imme- 
 diately south of the rocks upon the summit of 
 Windmill ox Graves^ Hill; where are still to 
 be seen the levelled and graded places where 
 their tents were pitched. The following winter 
 
 some lime after they had put off, the enemy fired 
 rockets from their several posts, as signals for an 
 alarm, but too late — the bird had fled. Tlie prison- 
 ers were safely landed, about day break, at Warwick 
 Neck. On receiving the intelligence here, a coacli 
 was immediately sent; and the General and his Aid. 
 de-camp, attended by Col. Barton and some other 
 officers, arrived in town at twelve o'clock. This bold 
 and important enterprize mu.st reflect the liighest iion- 
 or on Col. Barton and his little party. A Lieut. Col- 
 onel of the Horse, with at least 70 Light Dragoons, 
 took Major General Lee, (betrayed by a Tory,) five 
 miles from his troops. A Lieut. Colonel of Foot, 
 with only 38 privates and 6 officers, has taken aChiet' 
 Commander, when almost encircled by an army and 
 navy." 
 
 General Barton was the intimate friend of Wash- 
 ington and Lafavette. He died at Providence, Oct. 
 22, 1831, aged 85 years. y* 
 
98 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 the troops stationed in Warren were quartered 
 in stores upon the wharves and in private 
 dwellings. 
 
 After the attack upon Warren, the people 
 took still greater precautions than before, to 
 prevent surprise by the enemy. The citizens 
 fortified one of the bluffs on Burr's Hills ; the 
 breast-work, guard-house and sentry-box were 
 upon the west end of the second hill from the 
 north ; here they kept a guard day and night, 
 during the war. The expenses incurred by the 
 town in these military services, were very great. 
 In July of 1779, it was voted in town meeting 
 that the guard be continued in the town ac- 
 cording to their first enlistment, and six hun- 
 dred pounds were raised to pay the charges 
 incurred ; and on the 4th of the next month, 
 the town again voted to raise a guard of '26 
 men, to have the pay and rations granted by 
 the council of war ; and Moses Turner was ap- 
 pointed to draft a petition to send to General 
 Gates, for the supply of rations for the guard. 
 
 But the pressure of necessity becoming still 
 greater, the resources of the people of this town 
 were taxed to the utmost extent. With a patri- 
 otic zeal, that was unwearied and inexhausti- 
 ble, the town voted, March 11, 1779, that 
 Daniel Cole, Joseph Smith and William Barton, 
 be a committee to ascertain what persons in the 
 town had done more military duty than was 
 their proportion, during the two expeditions 
 against Rhode-island^ and to allow them such 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 99 
 
 sums of money as the committee miglit think 
 just, in order to bring the military duty equal 
 throughout the town ; while, at the same time, 
 the town-treasurer was directed to hire 1590 
 dollars, to purchase grain for the use of the 
 town. The State government having assumed 
 the regulation of the pricesof provisions, which 
 had now become very Scarce and dear, and 
 these proceedings being a great occasion of 
 complaint to those whose selfishness inclined 
 them to practice extortion, and whose treachery 
 inclined them to favor the enemy, the town 
 voted, August 20, 1779, that they unanimously 
 approved of the proceedings of the Convention 
 of this State ; and on the 7th of the next month, 
 they appointed a committee of correspondence 
 and inspection, to be empowered to investigate 
 the conduct, and receive complaints against all 
 persons offending, and upon evidence of guilt 
 obtained, to inflict punishment by advertising 
 them as enemies to their country. 
 
 As the war approached to a close, the suffer- 
 ings of want and poverty began to stare the 
 people in the face. Nothing but the most en- 
 during and patriotic zeal could thus have with- 
 stood " necessity's sharp pinch." Poor as the 
 people had become, the town voted, July 3, 
 1780, that a proper person be appointed at the 
 expense of the town, to carry such winter cloth- 
 ing as the friends and connections of such sol- 
 diers as may enter into the continental service 
 at the present campaign, may provide for them. 
 
100 SUFPLEMENT. 
 
 On the first of the next month, the town ap- 
 pointed Henry Ormsbee to furnish their militia 
 with camp furniture, viz. 21 mess pots, 21 mes& 
 pails, 21 mess bowls, 5 narrow axes, and 3 bag- 
 gage carts ; and at the same time, Sylvester 
 Child was appointed to purchase 500 weight of 
 beef, on the credit of the tow^n, the price not 
 to exceed 505. per cwt. On the 14th of the 
 same month, the town voted to raise the sum 
 often thousand dollars as a town tax, one half 
 to be raised in two, the other half in four 
 months. The continental paper money having 
 become much depreciated, the town raised, 
 Feb. 2, 1781, =£15, 135. in silver and gold, to 
 satisfy a request of the General Assembly, to 
 pay for the town's proportion of beef At the 
 same town meeting, Nathan Miller was direct- 
 ed to pay the wages of the men enlisted for six 
 months, at the rate of 40 shillings per month. 
 During the last two years of the war, there are 
 several recorded votes of the to'wn, showing the 
 care which the people took, for the soldiers 
 who had gone from this town. Thus, March 
 19, 1781, the town directed John Child to pur- 
 chase f cwt. of sugar, J cwt. of coffee, and one 
 bushel of rye meal, for the soldiers doing duty 
 on Rhode-Island, who went from this town. 
 While they voted March 6, 1782, to appoint 
 Capt. David Barton to enlist the town's propor- 
 tion of men for the continental army, they at 
 the same time appointed John Child to pur- 
 chase fifty-six yards of tow cloth and eight 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 101 
 
 pairs of stockings, according to the act of the 
 General Assembly, and to deliver these articles 
 for their use, at East-Greenwich. 
 
 After the Revolutionary War was brought to 
 a close, it was found that the sufferings of the 
 people of Warren during those trying times, 
 had been severe in the extreme. Business had 
 been almost entirely driven away from the place, 
 and the families of the soldiers especially, suf- 
 fered severely from want of the necessary com- 
 forts of life. Besides the destruction of the 
 military stores deposited here, and also the 
 boats, &.C. at Kickemuit, with the loss of 
 the church, parsonage and college buildings, 
 and several other houses, and the private pro- 
 perty pilfered from the inhabitants, the follow- 
 ing is a statement of the shipping lost during 
 the war, up to January 1, 1783, belonging to 
 the inhabitants of Warren. 
 
 Schr. Roby, Capt. Kingsly, cargo oil, 100 tons 
 
 Brig , Mason, cargo oil, 120 " 
 
 Sloop U. States, Coddington, 45 " 
 
 Schr. Weasel, Paine, 15 " 
 
 Brig , Mauran, 120 " 
 
 Schr. Moses, Miller, cargo sugar, &c. GO " 
 Sloop Tolly, Whitincr, 45 " 
 
 Sloop Gen. Stark (privateer) Pearce, 120 « 
 Sloop George, Champlin, 60 " 
 
 Brig Gen. Wayne, Pearce, 120 " 
 
 Sloop Abigail, Miller, 45 " 
 
 Schr. Swordfish, Collins, 120 " 
 
 Sloop Rebecca, Champlin, GO " 
 
 Schr. Hunter, Crawford, 60 " 
 
 Makin<T a total of 1090 tons 
 
102 SUPPLEMExNT, 
 
 ascertained to be lost up to that period, only 
 ninety of which was insured. 
 
 As the chief dependence of the people was 
 on the various branches of maritime business, 
 the disastrous effects of the war were the most 
 conspicuous in this department. The citizens, 
 however, very soon commenced anew their for- 
 mer occupations, and ship-building was again 
 carried on to a considerable extent. The Bap- 
 tist church was rebuilt in 1785; the popula- 
 tion began to grow in numbers and in wealth ; 
 and soon the village of Warren assumed an ap- 
 pearance of neatness and enterprise unknown 
 before. While various branches of commerce 
 were pursued to a considerable extent, for ma- 
 ny years after the Revolutionary War, ship- 
 building was the largest item of their business. 
 Many of the ships built here were celebrated 
 for their uncommon speed in sailing. One of 
 these vessels was the U. S. frigate '' General 
 Greene," of 600 tons burthen, and arranged 
 for 32 guns. This frigate was ordered by Oli- 
 ver Wolcott, Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, 
 and was to be commanded by Capt. C. R. Perry, 
 the father of O. II. Perry, who to superintend 
 the construction of the ship, removed with his 
 family to Warren, in 1798. This ship was 
 built in the yard of Messrs. Cromwell and Caleb 
 Child, and cost the Government, when com-. 
 
SsUPPLEMENf. 103 
 
 fitted for sea, $105,49-2 32. She was 
 launched and sailed in 1799.* 
 
 Another first-rate vessel, of very uncommon 
 speed, built at this place, was the sloop of war 
 " Chippewa." Commodore O. H. Perry, as 
 agent for the U. S. Government, contracted 
 With Capt. Caleb Carr to construct this ship in 
 the shortest possible time ; and, on March 15, 
 1814, only 57 days from the time her keel was 
 laid, although there had been many stormy and 
 snowy days, this ship of 411 tons burthen, and 
 carrying 16 guns, was delivered to the Commo- 
 dore, ready for her rigging and armament : and 
 in a few days afterwards she went to sea, com- 
 pletely armed and rigged. t 
 
 In the course of a few years after the revo- 
 lutionary war, the business of Warren consid- 
 erably increased, and at the beginning of the 
 present century it had acquired a basis of per- 
 manent success. From the latter period till 
 the present time, the people have been various- 
 ly engaged in trade ; while no event of mate- 
 
 * In 1814, the " General Greene" was lying at the 
 Washington navy yard, when that city was about to 
 be attacked by the British ; and in order to prevent 
 her falling into the hands of the enemy, she was des- 
 troyed by the order of government. 
 
 t In the year before, the privateer " Macdonough," 
 of 300 tons, which was so successful during the war, 
 tinder the command of Capt. Wilson, was built in 
 the same yard and by the same person as the Chippe- 
 wa. She was also celebrated for her remarkable 
 speed. 
 
i04 SUPPLEMENT, 
 
 rial importance has disturbed its onward and 
 gradual prosperity. The last war with Great 
 Britain was felt as lightly by this town, as by 
 almost any other commercial town, in propor- 
 tion to its business and population, on our sea 
 coast. 
 
 Before the Revolutionary war, the whaling 
 business was carried on in Warren to some 
 considerable extent; but after that period it 
 altogether ceased,* till it was recommenced in 
 July of 1821, when the ship Rosalie was pur- 
 chased and fitted out for a whaling voyage to 
 the Pacific ocean. Since that period there 
 have been fitted out from this port 21 ships, 6 
 barks, and 3 brigs for whaling, amounting to 
 9000 tons. The present fleet in this service 
 consists of 17 ships and 5 barques, amounting 
 to 7161 tons, There have also been lost and 
 condemned during this period of 24 years, 4 
 ships and two brigs ; while one barque and one 
 briff have been sold, all amounting to 1839 
 tons. There are also at present, belonging to 
 Warren, in the merchant service, West India 
 trade, freighting and coasting business, 2 ships, 
 6 brigs, 3 schooners, and 5 sloops, amounting 
 to 2082 tons ; which, toorether with the whalinfj 
 
 * In 1795, the only whaler belonging to the state 
 of Rhode-Island, was the brig "Ranger," of 122 
 tons, of Providence. Besides this there was then 
 no other whaler belonging to the country out of the 
 state of Massachusetts. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 105 
 
 business, make llic present aggregate of ton- 
 nage belonging to this port 9243 tons. 
 
 The increase of the commercial business in 
 this town, about the beginning of the present 
 century, led to the organization of the Warren 
 Insurance Company, which was incorporated 
 Jan. 1, 1800, with a capital of 840,000. This 
 institution ceased from underwriting, July Ij 
 1844. Its earnings during the forty four and a 
 half years of its existence, clear of all expen- 
 vses, were $455,250 63 : total amount of its 
 losses paid out, 8199,450 6^3 : amount of div- 
 idends paid to the stockholders, 8255,800, 
 averaging during the time, 14 per cent, per ann.* 
 
 The state of trade, and the increase of bus- 
 iness, for successive periods during the last 
 sixty-five years, may be represented by the fol- 
 lowing statement of additions by admeasure- 
 ment and tonnage in the port of Warren ; the 
 account of which is furnished by Capt. Wm. 
 Turner, for many years surveyor of the port. 
 
 Added : 
 
 From 1790 
 
 to 
 
 1800, 
 
 62 
 
 vessels 
 
 5403 tons 
 
 " 1800 
 
 to 
 
 1810, 
 
 45 
 
 
 4505 '* 
 
 *' 1810 
 
 to 
 
 1820, 
 
 31 
 
 
 4533 " 
 
 " 1820 
 
 to 
 
 1830, 
 
 39 
 
 
 7808 '' 
 
 " 1830 
 
 to 
 
 1840, 
 
 28 
 
 
 4727 '' 
 
 " 1840 
 
 to 
 
 1845, 
 
 14 
 
 
 3925 *' 
 
 * For the account of the shipping statistics, and 
 he Warren Insurance Company, the writer is indebt- 
 d to Paschal Allen, Esq. z 
 
106 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 The increase of population in this town 
 seems not to have varied much from the pro- 
 portional increase of the general population of 
 the state of Rhode-Island ; though its present 
 numbers show an unusually large addition 
 within the last few years. The estimated pop- 
 ulation of the town in 1748, two years after its 
 separation from Massachusetts, was G80, of 
 which about 600 were whites, 50 blacks, and 
 30 Indians. 
 
 The population 
 
 of Warren 
 
 The populati 
 
 Dn of Rlir 
 
 was 
 
 
 Island in 1701 
 
 was estin 
 
 
 
 ted at about 
 
 10,000 
 
 In 1755 
 
 925* 
 
 In 1730 
 
 17,935 
 
 " 1770 
 
 979^ 
 
 " 1748 
 
 34,128 
 
 « 1782 
 
 905 
 
 " 1755 
 
 40,414 
 
 " 1790 
 
 1J22 
 
 " 1770 
 
 59,678 
 
 " 1800 
 
 1473 
 
 " 1782 
 
 52,442 
 
 " 1810 
 
 1775 
 
 " 1790 
 
 68,825 
 
 " 1820 
 
 1806 
 
 " 1800 
 
 69,122 
 
 " 1830 
 
 1806 
 
 " 1810 
 
 76,931 
 
 " 1840 
 
 2438 
 
 " 1820 
 
 83,059 
 
 " 1845 nea 
 
 rly 3000 
 
 " 1830 
 
 97,210 
 
 
 
 " 1840 
 
 108,830 
 
 The following table of the thermometer, 
 kept by Paschal Allen, Esq. shows the average 
 temperature for 8 years, from 1837 to 1844 
 inclusive. 
 
 Average heat of 8 Autumns, (Sept. Oct. Nov.) 51.16. 
 " " of 8 Winters, (Dec. Jan. Feb.) 30. 05. 
 
 « " of 8 Springs, (Mar. April, May,) 48. 93. 
 
 " " of8 Summers, (June, July, Aug.) 70. 28. 
 
 ^Then including Barrington. 
 
SUrPLEMEN|> 107 
 
 Of these eight years, the 
 
 average annual 
 
 lieat was . . . . 
 
 . 41). 35. 
 
 Maximum was in 1839 
 
 50. 63. 
 
 Minimum was in 1837 . 
 
 47. 79. 
 
 Maximum, Autumn, 1840 . 
 
 52. 17. 
 
 Winter, 1842 
 
 34. 
 
 Spring, 1840 . 
 
 . 49. 14. 
 
 Summer, 1843 . 
 
 70. IG. 
 
 Minimum, Autumn, 1842 
 
 . 49. 14. 
 
 Winter, 1844 
 
 25. 01. 
 
 Spring, 1843 . 
 
 . .42. 79. 
 
 Summer, 1837 . 
 
 67. 75. 
 
 The average number of deaths for 20 years 
 ending 1834, was about LV per cent, of the 
 whole population of the town. Since that time 
 the bill of mortality is as follows : * 
 
 No, of deaths. Over 70 years. 
 
 In 1834, 
 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 '' 1835, 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 " 1836, 
 
 34 
 
 4 
 
 " 1837, 
 
 38 
 
 4 
 
 '' 1838, 
 
 33 
 
 7 
 
 " 1839, 
 
 34 
 
 4 
 
 " 1840, 
 
 38 
 
 4 
 
 " 1841, 
 
 38 
 
 12 
 
 '' 1842, 
 
 83 
 
 5 
 
 '' 1843, 
 
 41 
 
 6 
 
 " 1844, 
 
 39 
 
 8 
 
 Bill of mortality furniylicd by Capt \^'ln. Turnc! 
 
108 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Having given a general view of the leading 
 facts in the history of Warren, during succes- 
 sive periods, it remains for us to exhibit some 
 statements, besides those already given, of the 
 present state of the town. The history of the 
 Baptist church having been written in the for- 
 mer part of this volume, no notice of it need 
 here be taken. We shall now present some 
 facts in the history of the Methodist, and the 
 Episcopal churches, beginning, in the order of 
 time, with 
 
 The Methodist Church. — The first Meth- 
 odist sermon ever preached in Warren, was 
 delivered by Rev. Daniel Smith, in the fall of 
 1789. The second was delivered by the Rev. 
 Jesse Lee, the celebrated pioneer of Methodism 
 in New-England, in July, 1790. In the fol- 
 lowing year he again preached in Warren, and 
 was followed by Rev. Lemuel Smith and Rev. 
 Menzies Rayner, who for six months preached 
 alternately once a fortnight. At the expira- 
 tion of that time, a class was formed under 
 their direction, consisting of 12 or 14 mem- 
 bers. In the fidl of 1792, a church was organ- 
 ized by Rev. Ezekiel Cooper, preacher in 
 charge of the circuit. The Rev. Philip Wa- 
 ger was the first regularly appointed minister to 
 this station, in 1798. Until 1794, the Society 
 held their meetings in a spacious barn, fitted 
 up and rendered convenient for their acconmio- 
 dation, which stood near the north end of the 
 
SUPPLEMENT. lOD 
 
 hack road, between the old and the new roads 
 leading from Warren to Swanzea. 
 
 During the ministry of Rev. John Chalmers, 
 the stationed preacher in 1794, the Society 
 erected a neat church edifice in the village. 
 This was the first church edifice belonging to 
 the Methodist denomination in Rhode-Island, 
 and next to the one in Lynn, Mass , which was 
 the first in New England. The dedication 
 sermon was preached from Ilaggai IT : 9, on 
 Sept. 14, 1794, by Rev. Jesse Lee. 
 
 This Society in its infancy encountered ma- 
 ny trials. In the year 1800, its number was 
 reduced to two members, both of whom were 
 females. During the following year, about fif- 
 teen were baptized, and joined the church. In 
 1805, the church edifice was furnished with a 
 pulpit, sounding-board, and 48 pews. 
 
 In 183:?, the house was raised, and a tower, 
 steeple, and basement story were added to it. 
 In the January session of the General Assem- 
 bly, in 1834, the church obtained a charter of 
 incorporation. The church and congregation 
 continued still to increase, so that in 1836, it 
 became necessary to enlarge the building ; and 
 accordingly, 13 feet were added in length to 
 the north end, and the old fashioned square 
 pews were taken down, and replaced by modern 
 slips. The number of pews under the new 
 arrangement was 74. 
 
 In 1844, the numbers attenduig worship 
 
110 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 with this church, had so increased, that it again 
 became necessary to enlarge the accommoda- 
 tions. It was therefore concluded to erect a 
 new house, of greater dimensions ; which deter- 
 mination was immediately carried into effect. 
 This new church edifice is a very beautiful 
 specimen of architecture. The length of the 
 body of the house is 78 feet ; the extreme 
 length, including the piazza for the colonnade, 
 is 91 feet, and its breadth is 62 feet. The 
 height from the ground to a heavy projecting 
 jet work, is 39 feet. The front elevation of 
 the house is strikingly beautiful ; from a gran- 
 ite base arise four Grecian Doric columns, 32 
 feet in height, and 4J in diameter at the base, 
 supporting a heavy corresponding pediment ; 
 above this, from the roof rises a lofty steeple, 
 of accurate proportions, the whole height of 
 which from the ground is 130 feet. The build- 
 ing contains 132 pews on the lower floor, be- 
 sides commodious galleries around three sides; 
 and there is a basement story 10^ feet in height. 
 The ceiling of the audience room is panneled 
 and arched ; which, together with the walls, 
 are painted in Fresco, which gives a very plea- 
 sinor and eleirant effect. The interior arrange- 
 ments, size, and general appearance of this 
 building, place it in the front rank of New 
 England churches. Its present church mem- 
 bers are 231. 
 
 The next in order of time, in its organiza- 
 tion, is 
 
SUPPLEMENT. lit 
 
 St. Mark's ChuPvCh. — For many years there 
 had been several individuals and families resi- 
 ding in Warren and its vicinity, strongly at- 
 tached to the Episcopal church, a part of whom 
 attended worship at St. Michael's, Bristol. Air. 
 John Luther, a highly respectable citizen, gave 
 by will, dated June 14, 1762, a lot of land for 
 the erection of an Episcopal church, which 
 land, however, afterwards became converted to 
 another use. 
 
 The first Episcopal minister that ever 
 preached in Warren, within the memory of the 
 present inhabitants, was Rev. Mr. Henshaw, 
 the present Bishop of the Diocese, in 1812, 
 then a young man in Deacon's orders, and pur- 
 suing his theological studies at Bristol, under 
 the care of the late venerable Bishop Griswold. 
 A desire was then expressed, by several influ- 
 ential individuals, that an Episcopal Church 
 might be established in the town ; but the war 
 with England existing at that time, caused so 
 great a depression in the business prosperity of 
 the town, that the project was, for the time, re- 
 linquished. In the autumn of 1828, the Rev. 
 John Bristed commenced holding church ser- 
 vice in Cole's hall, on Sunday afternoons; the 
 Bishop expressed his approbation, and preached 
 the first sermon. 
 
 In November of the same year, a church 
 w^as organized, under the name and title of St. 
 Mark's Church, Warren. During the follow- 
 ing January session of the General Assembly, 
 
112 SUrPLEr.IENT. 
 
 a charter was obtained. The following per- 
 sons composed the first Wardens and Vestry : 
 
 JVcn'dens. — Geo. Pearse and Geo. Monroe. 
 
 Vestryvicn. — Freeborn Sisson, William 
 Carr, William Collins, John Stockford, Na- 
 thaniel Phillips, William Turner, Seth Peck, 
 John Pearse, Amasa Humphrey, Charles Whea- 
 ton, and John R. Wheaton. 
 
 In 1829, the Church and Society erected, 
 (with the exception of about 8800, obtained 
 through the agency of Rev. Mr. Rristed, from 
 abroad,) a neat and handsome church. This 
 building, standing in the centre of a spacious 
 cpiadrangular lot, bounded on three sides by 
 public streets, and with its full Ionic front, is 
 justly considered an ornament to the town ; it 
 was completely furnished, and provided with a 
 small organ, the first ever introduced into War- 
 ren. The church was consecrated by the Rt. 
 Rev. Bishop Griswold, on the I5th July, 1830, 
 and Rev. G. W. Hathaway appointed Rector. 
 
 In 1834, the congregation had so enlarged, 
 that it was found necessary to add eighteen feet 
 to the body of the church, affording room for 
 twenty-four additional pews ; at the same time 
 a projection of ten feet was added for a vestry 
 room. The length of the body of the building 
 is eighty feet ; the extreme length, including 
 the vestibule and vestry, is one hundred feet, 
 and it is forty-two feet in breadth. In 183G, 
 the present powerful organ was set up, at a cost, 
 including udditiont> since made, of over two 
 
SUITLKMEXT. 1 13 
 
 tliousand dollars. In 1839, the present bell, 
 (two previous bells having been broken,) weigh- 
 ing above 1900 pounds, was put up, and the 
 interior of the church has lately been elegantly 
 finished and painted in Fresco. 
 
 The whole cost of the church and furniture 
 has been about ten thousand dollars. 
 
 The church commenced with only one com- 
 municant belonorincr to the town, and two others 
 jn the vicinity ; since then, under the success- 
 ful instrumentality of the present and only Rec- 
 tor, two hundred and thirteen have been added ; 
 the present number being one hundred and fif- 
 ty. One hundred and eighty-nine have been 
 confirmed, and two hundred and thirty-eight 
 have been baptized. Four of those admitted 
 to the communion have been ordained to the 
 ministry ; and one female communicant dedica- 
 ted herself to the Foreign Missionary work, 
 and became a victim to the deadly climate of 
 Africa. Connected with the church, is St. 
 Mark^s Parish School, which was established 
 by a vote of the corporation of St. Mark's 
 church, in 1845. It is designed more particu- 
 larly for the accommodation of the families of 
 tli-e parish ; though it is open to all who may 
 wish to avail themselves of its advantages. 
 
 A new and commodious house, nearly oppo- 
 site the church, has been purchased, and fitted 
 up fur its accommodation. The school is under 
 the special supervision and direction of the 
 
I 14 SUPPLEP.IE.XT. 
 
 Rector, Wardens, and Vestry cf the church ; 
 and is desighed to be made equal to the best 
 schools in the country. Instruction is given 
 in all the branches of an ordinary classical and 
 ornamental education. 
 
 The instructors are Mr. Henry W. Pearse, 
 Principal ; Miss Sarah Collins, Miss Ann Fran- 
 ces Andrews, and Miss Elizabeth Burr. 
 
 Plaving described these churches and the 
 Parish School connected with the latter, we next 
 present an account of the other public institu- 
 tions. 
 
 The Warren Ladies' Seminary. — This 
 flourishing Institution for the education of young 
 ladies, is pleasantly situated at the north end of 
 the town, a little removed from the midst of the 
 village. The seminary building is a large and 
 commodious house of three stories in height, is 
 forty-six feet in front, and including an exten- 
 sion of the rear, is seventy-eiorht feet in length. 
 
 ' JO o 
 
 There is attached a large garden and play- 
 ground, for the convenience of physical exer- 
 cise. The property is owned by several gen- 
 tlemen of the town, who have generously 
 devoted its income to the cause of a liberal 
 education. The present Trustees of the Insti- 
 tution are the following named gentlemen : — 
 S. P. Child, H. H. Luther, C. Richmond, jun. 
 Esqrs. and Rev. J. P. Tustin. 
 
 The school first commenced in May, 1834, 
 under the tuition of Robert A. Collin, A. M. 
 assisted by Mrs. Coffin and three other ladies. 
 
SUPrLEMENT. 115 
 
 in the several departments of instruction, Mr. 
 ColTm retained the charge till January 1, 1838. 
 The present high degree of prosperity of this 
 ■ seminary has been attained by the indefatigable 
 labors of A. M. Gamniell, M, A., who for the 
 last four years has presided over its interests, 
 assisted by Miss Mary A. Reed, Miss Rebecca 
 W. Gammell, Miss Mary A. Barry, and Miss 
 Sarah II. Walker. The average number 
 of pupils is about 70. There are connect- 
 ed with the Seminary an extensive chemical 
 and philosophical apparatus, a library of well 
 selected volumes, and a large cabinet of shells, 
 minerals and other illustrations of natural sci- 
 ence. — This Seminary is believed to offer the 
 best facilities for female education. 
 
 Among the other Institutions of the town, 
 are the following : Eleven Private schools, era- 
 • bracing about 300 scholars in average attend- 
 ance, and three Public schools, with an average 
 attendance of about 230 scholars. 
 
 The Warren Lyceum, commenced as a de- 
 bating society by the name of the Social Club, 
 in March, 1829, and was incorporated in 1831. 
 In 1844, by act of the General Assembly, the 
 name was changed to Warren Lyceum, — 
 It now consists of upwards of one hundred 
 members, and possesses a library of 700 vol- 
 umes. Durmg the winter season, it sustains a 
 series of popular lectures. 
 
 The Philanthropic Society of Warren, form- 
 ed for the common benefit of widows and or* 
 
1 10 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 phans of its dacoased ni3mb(?:rs, was iiistitiitod 
 January, 1794, and was incorporated February, 
 1799. The capital stock of this Society inves- 
 ted in 1345, is 83409. It has about ninety 
 members who are at present living. 
 
 The Washington Lodge of Free Masons, 
 was instituted in 1798, and incorporated by 
 act of General Assembly in the following year. 
 A Royal Arch Chapter was authorized by a 
 dispensation, on the 8th of February, 1809, 
 The number of Masons connected with the 
 Lodge at the present time, is fifty.six. 
 
 The Amity Lodge No. 6, of the Independent 
 Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted October 
 10, 1844, and now consists of fifty members. 
 
 Thz Warren Bank, was chartered in 1803, 
 with a capital of $135,000; shares 850 each. 
 
 The Hope Bank, was chartered in 1822, 
 with a capital of 8120,000 ; shares 8100 each. 
 In the active business of Warren, there is 
 invested, in 1845, about, 
 
 $500,000 in the Whale Fishery, 
 $200,000 in Foreign Trade, 
 8100,000 in Domestic Trade, 
 8100,000 in Manufactures. 
 
 The Burial Places belonging to Warren, in 
 consequence of the antiquity of this, and the 
 surrounding settlements, are objects of consid- 
 erable historical interest, mainly in consequence 
 of their being the resting place of several per- 
 sons distinguished for the part they acted in 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 117 
 
 tlie scenes of former generations. These Burial 
 Places will be noticed in the order in which they 
 were first used for the purposes of sepulture. 
 
 1. The Burial Place upon New-Meadow 
 Neck, was at one period within the limits of 
 Warren, and is one of the most ancient grounds 
 in this vicinity. The earliest inscription in it, 
 is upon the stone that records the decease of 
 Frances Low, in June, 1702, aged 70 ; but 
 there are nearly an hundred graves, evidently 
 of a more ancient date ; many of them are 
 nearly obliterated and are marked only by two 
 rough stones without inscriptions. As this 
 neighborhood was settled upon by the English, 
 about the year 1G70, it is probable that the 
 ground was commenced as a burial place at, 
 or near that time. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that there are but 
 few monumental inscriptions, in New-England 
 of a date previous to the year 1700. Even at 
 Plymouth there are only some six ; the earliest 
 of which is dated 1G8I, and the others respec- 
 tively, 1084, 1687, 1691, 1097 and 1099. The 
 100 unknown graves at New-Meadow Neck 
 are doubtless those of the first settlers, in this 
 vicinity. One of them is without doubt, the 
 resting place of Rev. John Miles, the first 
 minister of Swanzea ; another that of the first 
 Hugh Cole. 
 
 Of those whose names are inscribed, we 
 have already noticed the grave of Rev. John 
 & 
 
118 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 Callender's aunt in this ground. There is one 
 other that we shall notice, who deceased when 
 that territory constituted a part of Warren. The 
 inscription upon the grave-stone is as follows : — 
 
 " Mrs. Desire Kent, w^o of Mr. Samuel Kent, 
 of Barrington, was the first English woman's 
 grandaughter, [born] on New England, died Feb. 
 ye 8th, A. D. 1762, aged about 94 years." 
 
 We learn from her descendants, that she was 
 the grand-daughter of Mary Chilton, the first 
 person of the Mayflower's passengers who 
 stepped upon Plymouth Rock. Mary Chilton 
 was married to John Winslow, the brother of 
 Gov. Edward ; their daughter, Sarah Winslow, 
 was married to Edward Gray ; their daughter. 
 Desire Gray, is the Desire Kent above named. 
 
 2. The Second Burial Ground used in this 
 vicinity, was on the Kikemuet river. The old- 
 est inscription in it is that of John Luther, who 
 died April 14, 1697, aged 34; and it is proba- 
 ble that the ground was commenced to be used 
 about that time. 
 
 In this ground is buried one of the Governors 
 of this State, — the Hon. Josias Lyndon ; he 
 married Mary Carr, a near relative of the an- 
 cestors of the families of that name, now resi- 
 ding in Warren. When the British took pos- 
 session of the island of Rhode-Island, Gov, 
 Lyndon fled with his family to Warren. The 
 leading events in his life are alluded to in the 
 inscription upon his tomb stone, which is as 
 folio ws : 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 119 
 
 "In Memory of the Hon. JosiAS Lyndon, Esq. 
 lie was born in Newport, on Rhode Island, on the 
 10th of March, A. D. 1704, and received a good 
 education in early life. In the year 1730, he was 
 chosen Clerk of the Lower House of Assembly, 
 and of the Inferior Court of the County of New- 
 port, and continued so with great applause, with 
 the intermission of only two years, until his death. 
 In the year 17G8, to put an end to the violence of 
 party rage, he was prevailed on to accept the place 
 of Governor, which he filled with Reputation. 
 
 He died of tlic Small Pox, at Warren, on the 
 30th of March, 1778. 
 
 His manners gentle, and innocent his life. 
 His faith was firm on Revelation huilt ; 
 His parts were solid, in usefulness he shin'd. 
 His life was long tilled up with doing good." 
 
 3. The Warren North Burial Ground is 
 located within the village. A grave stone in it 
 has the following record ; " John, son of Mr. 
 John Thurber and Ruth his wife ; he died July 
 19, 1773, aged 1 year, 3 months, and 10 days : 
 The first that was buried in this Burying 
 Place." 
 
 Upon another stone is this inscription : "In 
 memory of Mrs. Lillis, the wife of Ebenezer 
 Cole, Esq., who departed this life March 8, A. 
 D. 1775, aged sixty years. This is the second 
 person buried in this ground." 
 
 A monument in this ground commemorates 
 the name of Nicholas Campbell, who was born 
 in the island of Malta, Dec. 24, 1732; he came 
 to this country previous to the Revolution, and 
 
120 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 was one of the number who threw the tea over- 
 board in Boston harbor, in 1773. 
 
 He discharged the duties of a good citizen, 
 and was highly respected ; he accumulated 
 property by industry and upright dealing, and 
 at his death, (which occurred in his 97th year, 
 on July 21, 1829) he left by will about |5000, 
 as follows ; " My will is that the residue of my 
 estate shall be by my Executors placed in some 
 public funds, the interest whereof to be appro- 
 priated to the schooling of indigent children, 
 both male and female, of the Town of Warren, 
 and for other charitable purposes." 
 
 He then directed that the above fund should 
 be managed, in perpetuum, by his three execu- 
 tors, on the demise of one of whom, the survi- 
 vors were to appoint another in his place, and 
 so on forever. 
 
 4. The Warren South Burial Ground is 
 established upon the modern plan, of making 
 the resting-place of the dead an attractive re- 
 sort to the living. 
 
 The proprietors of this ground, now number- 
 ing one hundred and thirteen, obtained a charter 
 of incorporation in 1840. They purchased a 
 piece of land, measuring over seven acres, and 
 laid out about one half of it in 256 lots, of 10 
 feet square each, with avenues and alleys run- 
 ning at right angles with each other. 
 
 The nine avenues leading North and South 
 are named alphabetically from A to I, connncn- 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 121 
 
 ciiig on the west ; and the lots in each avenue 
 arc numbered from 1 to 32, commencing at the 
 north end, and alternating from side to side, 
 
 A Receiving Tomb was built the same year, 
 at a cost of $350. 
 
 The monument standing about two rods 
 northwest of the Receiving Tomb, is upon the 
 first grave made in this cemetery ; it was made 
 on the 27th of Feb. 1840. 
 
 The affairs of the corporation are managed 
 by a board of trustees ; and its plan requires 
 that all funds received from the sale of lots, 
 shall be expended upon the premises ; any per- 
 son purchasing a lot becomes thereby a mem- 
 ber of the corporation, but a lot can qualify for 
 membership only one person. On the demise 
 of a member, the lot left by him must contain 
 250 square feet unoccupied, to qualify an heir 
 or successor as a member ; and if there is 
 more than one heir, the trustees are to decide 
 who of them is to represent the lot in the cor- 
 poration. 
 
 The trustees can prosecute individuals for 
 misdemeanor and trespass, and the members 
 are competent witnesses in such suits. 
 
 In concluding this historical sketch of War- 
 ren, it is proper to remark, that alluifions to the 
 
132 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 recent affairs of the town have been purpose- 
 ly avoided, for the reason that it does not be- 
 long to the plan of this work so much to make 
 a formal record of events familiar to the public, 
 as it has been to disclose the sources of our 
 past history. The materials for continuing the 
 present and future history of the town will 
 doubtless be preserved and easily obtained at 
 any time hereafter, when they may be needed. 
 In the notices given in the first part of this 
 treatise, of the earliest visits of foreigners to 
 this vicinity, the assertion was made that the 
 voyage of Verrazanno to Narragansett Bay, 
 was the first ever made by white or civilized 
 man to any portion of Rhode-Island. The 
 writer has given due attention to the accounts 
 of the alledged Ante-Columbian voyages of the 
 Northmen to this country, and especially to 
 those portions of their voyages which are sup- 
 posed to refer to their passing in A. D. 1002 
 and 1008, through the east passage of Narra- 
 gansett Bay to Mount Hope Bay. He is fully 
 convinced that more historical light is requi- 
 site to ascertain the precise localities visited by 
 them. It is obvious that the positive disagree- 
 ments in these narratives completely outnum- 
 ber and outweigh those parts of their descrip- 
 tions which are in the least applicable to facts, 
 as they are known by us. A few extracts will 
 serve as specimens, to show that their state- 
 ments are at variance with the conclusions at- 
 tempted to be drawn from them. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 123 
 
 These narratives, as published by Professor 
 Rafn, say that the Northmen " sailed south- 
 wards, and arrived at a place where a river 
 falls into the sea from a lake. Opposite to the 
 mouth of the river, were large islands. They 
 steered into the lake, and called the place 
 Hop." This description, it is asserted, refers 
 to a visit made by the Northmen to Mount 
 Hope Bay, through the eastern or Seaconnet 
 passage. But there are no islands " opposite 
 to the mouth" of that passage. Professor Rafn 
 himself says that " Iloj)" in the Icelandic lan- 
 guage, means a small bay, or the land around 
 it. Of course it does not mean hill or mount ; 
 and the theory which has supposed the term 
 Montmip, as used by the Aborigines, to have 
 been first applied by the Northmen to Mount 
 Hope, is groundless. 
 
 The narratives state that " there were no 
 liouses in the country, but the people dwelt in 
 holes and caverns ; — that the people were sal- 
 low and ill-looking ; had ugly heads of hair, 
 large eyes, and broad cheeks." These accounts 
 altoorether disagree with the known habits and 
 appearance of the aborigines, when visited by 
 Verrazanno. The narratives further say that 
 " Karlsefne and his company had erected their 
 dwelling-houses a little above the bay, and there 
 they spent the winter. No snow fell, and the 
 cattle found their food in the open fields." It 
 is obvious that this account cannot a])ply to a 
 
124 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 latitude so far north as Rhode-Island. Again : 
 the description says, — "the Skrellings, (na- 
 tives,) had a sort of war slings; they elevated 
 on a pole a tremendously large ball, almost the 
 size of a sheep's stomach ; this they swung 
 from the pole upon land over Karlsefne's peo- 
 ple, and it descended with a fearful crash. 
 This struck terror into the Northmen, and they 
 fled along the river." This account is not on- 
 ly inapplicable to all the native tribes on the 
 American continent, but wears a shade of 
 miprobability and absurdity, with respect to 
 any people. 
 
 Another account represents the Northmen 
 as discovering a tribe of men "dressed in 
 white." From Mount Hope Bay, it is inferred 
 by some writers,* that the Northmen proceeded 
 to Massachusetts Bay; and there they saw 
 " something at a distance which glittered." 
 This account of what they saw, bears such 
 strong marks of being fabulous and incredible, 
 that it materially vitiates the credibility of the 
 whole narrative, and nullifies all the deductions 
 which pretend to identify this vicinity with the 
 places visited by the Northmen. We' give this 
 absurd story just as it stands in the narrative. 
 The object which " glittered at a distance," 
 " was a uniped, who immediately betook him- 
 self to the bank of the river where the ship 
 
 * Northmen in New England ; by Joshua T. Smith. 
 
SUPPLEMENT. 125 
 
 lay. Thorwald Eirekson was sitting near the 
 helm. The imiped shot an arrow at him. — 
 Thorwald died of the wound. The uniped 
 subsequently retired. Thorfinn's crew pursued 
 him. They presently saw him run into a neigh- 
 boring creek. They then returned, and one of 
 them sang, 
 
 " Pursue we did, — 
 'T is true, no more, 
 The uniped, 
 Down to the sliore. 
 The wondrous man, 
 His course quite clear, 
 Through Ocean ran."' 
 

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