LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 SAMUEL GORTON 
 
 
 
 
 
 f/xvy 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 ^<*S* '^V ^A .^ 
 
 
 
 '? 
 
 
 
 trC^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 
Class 
 
 t^^^ 
 
 Book __J3-7/ 
 Copyii^htN° 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
THE LIFE AND TIMES 
 
 OF 
 
 SAMUEL GORTON 
 
 THE FOUNDERS AND THE FOUNDING OF 
 THE REPUBLIC 
 
 A SECTION OF 
 
 EARLY UNITED STATES HISTORY 
 
 AND 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF PROVIDENCE 
 AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS 
 
 IN 
 
 THE NARRAGANSETT INDIAN COUNTRY 
 
 NOW 
 
 THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND 
 
 I ^92 — 1 6 z 6 — 1 677 — 1 687 
 
 With a geaealogy of Samuel Gorton's descendants to the present time 
 
 CJompiled from varioua accounts, histories, letters, and published and unpublished records 
 
 By ADELOS GORTON, 
 
 Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the New York Genealogical and Bio 
 fraphical Society, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the American Academy of Political 
 and Social Science, etc. Author of " Bible Prophecies," "Symbolic Langua?e." "Anti- 
 quated Words," "Dictionary of the Bible," "Dictionary of Religious Sects," "Short 
 Stories," etc. Collaborator with Hampton L. Carson, LL. D., in the preparation of 
 " The History of the Supreme Court of the United States." 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 1907 
 

 \ L!a «/*.?! Y of congress] 
 
 I wo Copies Recelvod 
 OCT T ISOf 
 
 t tiL.'.6S -^ XXc., No, 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 .J 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1907, 
 
 By ADELOS GORTON 
 
 In fiho Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 QEORGE S. FERGUSON OO., 
 
 PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPER8, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 That all the principal facts belonging to the history of Samuel Gorton 
 and his companions and the affairs with which they were associated, 
 that are necessary to an understanding of them and a correct judgment 
 regarding them, have never been given, alone, not with others, in one 
 unbroken collection, and the desire expressed by many that these truths 
 from every source should together shed their light upon these subjects, 
 are the reasons above others that have prompted their gathering and 
 issuing in this volume. 
 
 In this an essay is not intended, nor a discussion of subjects or opin- 
 ions, but the setting in their order before the reader the various perti- 
 nent accounts and records ; some of which when alone are misleading, 
 others which explain the truth with fairness, many of which were 
 written to defame the men and decry the measures they upheld, few of 
 which were written to extoll them, and many of which, recording but 
 events, have long laid unread and unpublished. We have in this fol- 
 lowed the originals of the writings, quoting in full as many of them 
 as were not precluded from this by their great length or the amount of 
 their irrelevant matter; then endeavoring to as closely bide their phrase 
 as permitted by the required abridgment of them. We have been spar- 
 ing with our words of either praise or blame for those who have taken 
 part in the transactions; giving rather the facts to show whatever is 
 due them. 
 
 While a satisfied dominating people learn late by their experience, 
 the student and observer so far transcends them in knowledge that his 
 attainments often are, as such, beyond their recognition And, too, from 
 the general uncertainty, the reasonable suspicion, and worthy caution 
 regarding untried things, the unselfish motives of some men have been 
 misunderstood and the wisdom of their efforts unperceived by the peo- 
 ple of the times in which they lived. If the members of all religious 
 societies were not intolerant towards others who thought differently 
 from them, they might, under then the political incitements, have 
 become intolerant toward them upon gaining the strength to rule them. 
 The weakness and consequent sufferings of some of them helped them 
 earlier than others to see the wrong of punishing to correct belief and 
 earlier to discern that the remedy was in the separation of Church and 
 State. 
 
 The records of all the Colonies show that the Providence Colony had 
 a larger share of troubles than any other colony ; that the reason for this 
 " larger share " was her storming by all the other colonies, that " her 
 stormmg " arose from two inciting conditions. These " inciting con- 
 ditions " were— the first, the prospect of the other colonies that her 
 lands, located and inhabited without a charter, might be obtained by 
 them. The second, the desire of the other colonies that her inhabitants 
 outcasts and refugees now aggrieved and unrestrained accusers might 
 be again brought under their jurisdiction for punishment 
 
 (iii) 
 
iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ti:e records of events in the Providence Colony show that the troubles 
 there were principally from two sources — one operating from without, 
 the other aided from without, but operating from within. 
 
 They show that the Providence Colony was founded and upheld and 
 the interests of its people served principally by two loyal men, their fol- 
 lowers and successors — one by his procuring the place and settling it, 
 the other by his defending it, and as a consequence maintaining it. 
 
 They show that the Colony was nearly dismembered by the internal 
 dissensions created principally by two disloyal men, subjects and agents 
 of other colonies, their followers and successors ; one by his fraudu- 
 lently claiming the lands, the other by his persistently asserting, m 
 opposition to the will of the people, his authority to rule them. 
 
 The greatest of these causes of turbulence was that regarding the 
 lands. And for the possession of the lands, really more than for their 
 religious opinions, the loyal people and rightful owners of the lands 
 were assailed with the then political weapon of vile heresy and otherwise 
 abused. 
 
 During the earlier period of this history the printing press was an 
 institution of only the then powerful colony of Massachusetts; and not 
 until about one hundred years after was a printing press established 
 in the smaller and weaker colony of Providence and Rhode Island — 
 unfortunately long after much of the best of the writings of the later 
 colony were destroyed and the colonies' history, written by its enemies, 
 had been in varied versions published and industriously spread through- 
 out the land. Largely from this cause, all the men of those times who 
 led in advancing the condition of their fellows in this colony have been 
 the subjects of unlimited falsehood and calumny. Although men have, 
 at every period since then, been assailed, there have been printing presses 
 in every land, and many of them in the accused ones' hands, we 
 therefore not left as were the early readers and later readers of this early 
 history, dependent for information regarding men upon their enemies' 
 accounts of them, but have the utterances of both their enemies and 
 friends. Hov/ever, we rejoice that the odium which rested upon the 
 founders of the Providence and Rhode Island Colony as a result of the 
 disadvantages related has been by the gradual revelations of truth 
 removed. 
 
 The loyal sons and daughters of the State have ever honored and cher- 
 ished, and their posterity will always hold in exalted remembrance, those 
 who, by their unselfish love and labors for mankind, wrought out so 
 much for us. 
 
 Doctor Lewis George Janes, in a valuable article on Samuel Gorton, 
 published in the May, 1898, number of the New England Magazine, 
 writes : " The nineteenth century has furnished an Easter morning for 
 many of the worthies of our earlier period. Buried beneath the dust of 
 centuries, with the stones of prejudice and obliquy sealing the mouths 
 of their sepulchres, they have awaited the potent touch of the angel of 
 the new historical method to remove the obstructions, tear from their 
 forgotten forms the dusty cerements of misunderstanding and neglect 
 and reveal to the world the living realities of their self-sacrificing labors 
 and the results which are our leading inheritance. 
 
 To most readers, even the ordinary student of history, this work will 
 be new and instructive, and, we trust, interesting. A. G. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., July i, 1907. 
 
LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Time, place and baptism of Gorton in Gorton, England — His education and re- 
 ligious training — A clothier in London — Business transactions preparatory to 
 leaving for the colonies — His wife Mary daughter of John Maplet — Landing 
 •with his family in Massachusetts Colony — Laws prohibiting non-new-church- 
 men from living in Massachusetts Colony — Banishment of Wheelright, Aspin- 
 wall and others from Massachusetts — Gorton and Vassal settle in Plymouth 
 Colony — Gorton volunteers in militia raised in response to Massachusetts col- 
 onies' call for aid to suppress the Indian invasion — His opposition to the pro- 
 posed laws — Important issues of the election — Vassal and others disqualified 
 from voting — Prince of Massachusetts Colony made Governor of Plymouth 
 Colony — Why the Massachusetts Colony chose Prince for Plymouth's Gov- 
 ernor — The Rev. Dr. Chauncey's troubles in Plymouth — The Massachusetts 
 methods under Prince adopted — Prince banishes Gorton from Plymouth Col- 
 ony — Dissatisfaction of Plymouth people, and therefore fines and disfran- 
 chisements — Vassal heads movement for religious toleration — Winslov/'s de- 
 nunciation of Vassal's movement — How justice was administered by Prince at 
 Plymouth — Gorton goes to Pocasset Aquidneck Island. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The settlement of Pocasset Aquidneck Island — Magistrate Coddington deposed 
 from office in Massachusetts — Deacon Aspinwall banished from Massachusetts 
 — Rev. John Clark, Coddington, Aspinwall and others sign a compact for a 
 new government — Coddington called to answer in the court at Boston — Clark, 
 through Williams, obtains the island — Clark settles on the island — Coddington 
 settles there over a month later — Mrs. Hutchinson leaves Boston — Her settle- 
 ment upon the island — The Boston church disciplines Coddington and others 
 — Coddington adds the Massachusetts order of Elders to his government — 
 Coddington and his Elders left out of office at the succeeding election — Over- 
 throw of the government of Elders — Coddington again removes, carries off the 
 records, and starts another town and church government — Gorton and Hutch- 
 inson organize a model civil government on the island — Hutchinson Gov- 
 ernor and Chief Judge — Gorton Deputy Governor and Assistant Judge, and 
 the first Quarterly Courts and the first Trial Juries in the colony — They change 
 name of town to Portsmouth — Coddington makes propositions to restore him 
 to government — He seeks a patent for the island — Gorton opposition to Cod- 
 dington's return to government — Coddington writes to Winthrop and seeks 
 aid — Desired help sent from Boston — The return of Coddington with his 
 Elders and their usurping of the government — Massachusetts and Plymouth 
 methods adopted — Anonymous accounts and what really happened at Ports- 
 mouth — Coddington troops quell the disturbance — Gorton leaves the island — 
 Clark and Linthal break from Coddington and join the liberal party — Dis- 
 memberment of the church — Beginning of the Baptist Church — Lenthal's de- 
 parture — The exodus from the island. 
 
 (v) 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Coddington's and Benton's coquetry with the Massachusetts government — Moosh- 
 asuck, or Providence, settled by Roger Williams- -He obtains written grants for 
 it and for Aquidneck Island — He divides the land to please the objectors to his 
 liberal policy — William Arnold lays large claims to lands — Inception of the 
 fraudulent land claims, difficulties resulting from them and the inability to 
 settle the disputes regarding the claims. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Gorton's arrival in Providence — Arnold's complaint — Gorton retires from Provi- 
 dence to land in Papaquinapaug — The Arnold Pawtuxet claimants forge papers 
 to further extend their land claims — They become subjects of Massachusetts 
 to obtain for the enforcement of their claims that government's assistance — 
 The Massachusetts government commissions Benedict Arnold to obtain from 
 Miantinomi his submission and cession of the Narragansett lands to them — 
 Miantinomi sells Occupesuatuxet to Greene — Providence notified by the Massa- 
 chusetts government of their jurisdiction over them and cited to trial at 
 Boston — Gorton replies to Massachusetts' notice to Providence — Gortoa buys 
 Shawomet, or Warwick — its settlement, government and town orders. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Williams departs from Providence for England to secure a charter — The 
 Colonies' League — Massachusetts government orders their Captain-General 
 to put the colony on a war basis — Their troops to move under the leadership 
 of William Arnold against Greene and otliers at Providence, Pawtuxet and 
 Occupasnetuxet to capture and bring them to Boston for trial — Miantinomi 
 again brought by Arnold to the court at Boston, and again refuses them sub- 
 mission or cession of his lands ; refuses to deny the sale of his lands to his 
 friends — Two of Miantinomi's subjects seduced to submission to Massachu- 
 setts— Shawomet settlers notified by the Massachusetts government of their 
 jurisdiction over them and summoned to Boston for trial — Gorton's reply to 
 the Massachusetts notice to Shawomet — Occupesuatuxet and Shawomet settlers 
 notified by Massachusetts of their intended military advance upon them — 
 Providence invaded by the Massachusetts troops — The settlers of Occupes- 
 natuxet flee to Shawomet — Shawomet beseiged by Massachusetts soldiers — 
 Massachusetts troops send to Boston for reinforcements — Captives sent to Bos- 
 ton — Benedict and William Arnold commissioned by Massachusetts to seize those 
 who escaped — The captives', Gorton and others, imprisonment in Massachu- 
 setts — Their release and banishment by the Massachusetts court from Mas- 
 sachusetts, from Providence and from their own Shawomet lands — They 
 arrive upon the island — Island Aquidneck's name changed to Rhode Island. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Narragansett Nation — Extent of its domain — War and stratagem — Miantinomi 
 captured and his sons slain — Denial by Massachusetts of the sachem's right 
 to th<! land or to sell it to Greene, Gorton and Williams — Gorton intercedes for 
 the life of Miantinomi — Miantinomi put to death and word justifying it sent 
 to Cannonicus — Grief of the Narragansetts — The sachems send for Gorton to 
 visit them — Gorton secures from them their submission and cession of their 
 dominion — The Narragansetts called to answer for what they had done and 
 their reply to Massachusetts — Cordial reception of Gorton by the people upon 
 his return to the island — Gorton again chosen Maq;istrate — Gorton and others 
 settle down on the island to abide the arrival of the charter — Political reunion 
 of the church — Coddington writes to Winthrop of Gorton's adherents' opposi- 
 tion to him and to Massachusetts — Coddington's attempt to deliver Gorton 
 agaim to the Massachusetts court prevented by the island people. 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Williams arrives with the charter for government of mainland and island, all 
 as " Providence Plantations " — Organization of government — Williams Gov- 
 ernor, Clark Deputy Governor, Gorton Assistant and Judge — The people sub- 
 scribe to the King and his laws under the charter — A code of laws for the 
 government of the colony — Deputies, or Commissioners, sent from all the 
 towns — imprisonment for debt abolished — Cannonicus again grants Narragan- 
 sett lands (Wickford) to Williams — Williams leaves Providence, builds a 
 Trading House on his grant and settles on it — Assembly of the chartered gov- 
 ernment at Portsmouth — Movement to allot lands at Wickford and to return to 
 Shawomet — Rival claims of Plymouth and Massachusetts — Arnold directed 
 by Massachusetts to remove any who should settle — Coddington and his briefless 
 court — His danger from the people — Massachusetts government attaches Prov- 
 idence and Shawomet, and sends to bring the people to Boston — Massachu- 
 setts begins war against the Narragansetts — Soldiers sent against them — Mes- 
 sengers' and soldiers' repeated attempts to secure the Narragansetts' submis- 
 sion and to bring their chieftains to Boston — Repeated failures of their mission 
 ■ — The messengers visit Williams at his Trading House, receive a letter from 
 him and return to Boston — The Colleagued colonies declare war against the 
 Narragansetts — Reasons fo/ the war ordered to be published — Three hun- 
 dred troops and a fleet and other men for it ordered raised and a fort built upon 
 Shawomet — Notice from Williams to Massachusetts of a treaty of neutrality 
 entered into between the Narragansetts and the government of the Providence 
 Plantations. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The August 9, 1645, Assembly of the Government of the Providence Planta- 
 tions at Newport — Letter from the Assembly to Massachusetts — Their desire 
 for civil government to preserve their lives and liberties caused them to pro- 
 cure a charter — The Earl of Warwick recognizes and approves the organization 
 of the government under the charter — Those in the government dare not yield 
 themselves delinquent to answer at Massachusetts court — The government to 
 employ messengers to prosecute the cause of the Providence Plantations before 
 the government of England — Massachusetts claims to possess a prior charter 
 for the Narragansett territory — Gorton chosen by the Assembly their Commis- 
 s oner to England — Troops march against the Indians and Whites of the Prov- 
 idence Plantations- — Gorton, about August 16, 1645, departs on his mission — 
 Plymouth's forces opposite Providence — Army delayed while messengers are 
 again sent to treat with the Narragansetts — The Narragansetts send for Wil- 
 liams and Wickes to council with them — The conditions of peace with Massa- 
 chusetts signed — The official notice, August 27, 1645, of the alleged patent for 
 the Narragansett lands sent by Massachusetts to the Providence government. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The mortgages and deeds secured by the Athertons, Arnolds and other Massa- 
 chusetts subjects for Narragansett, Shawomet and Providence lands — Provi- 
 dence Plantations people subscribe to their chartered government — It grants 
 them lands — The Massachusetts court meets October i, 1645, and grants Shaw- 
 omet lands to their subjects — Brown, a Plymouth subject, forbids the Massachu- 
 setts subjects to settle on it — Captain Cook sent to England to aid other agents 
 there defend Massachusetts' actions — Vassal's religious toleration movement 
 extends to Massachusetts — Gorton's departure from Manhattan — He, in Janu- 
 ary, 1645-6, reaches England — His complaint to the Parliament Commissioners. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The King's flight, April 27, 1646, from Oxford — Gorton publishes his complaint 
 and the Narragansett Indians' submission and cession — The falsity of Massa- 
 chusetts' claim of a patent for Narragansett exposed by the President of the 
 Parliament Commission in open session — Parliament Commissioners' mandate 
 to Massachusetts confirming their grant to Williams and commanding observ- 
 
iii CONTENTS. 
 
 ance and obedience — The wisdom and moderation of Gorton petition com- 
 mended — The Massachusetts English agent, Peters, sends for the Governor ot 
 Massachusetts to come over and assist in overturning what Gorton had accom- 
 plished — Coddington renders Massachusetts and Peters great assistance — 
 Coddington's letter to Winthrop — He denies the freedom of the island to his 
 opponents — Representatives of mainland and inland towns had joined the 
 government of the Williams charter — Coddington still maintains his government ; 
 derides liberty of conscience ; sends records and papers to Massachusetts for 
 their English agents' use against the chartered government — Winslow sent 
 by Massachusetts to England to assist Peters and others and to reply to Gorton 
 — Mather terms Winslow an Hercules — His pre-eminent abilities — His other 
 equipments — Favorable conditions for Massachusetts — A printing press at Cam- 
 bridge, Mass. — A plethoria of Massachusetts books and writings — Winslow has 
 a day appointed for an audience before the Parliament Commissioners. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The hearing before the Parliament Commissioners — Winslow's and Gorton's re- 
 quests — The Parliament Commissioners refuse all of Winslow's requests and 
 grant all of Gorton's — Winslow proceeds to have the Providence charter called 
 in — Winslow again defeated — The Providence charter to stand — Massachu- 
 setts commanded to not remove the people, but to assist and protect them — 
 Gorton and Winslow correspondence — No further opposition from Winslov/ — 
 Gorton leaves England for home. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 A union Assembly, May, 1647 — The Model Civil Government under English laws 
 as first drawn up by Gorton and Hutchinson at Portsmouth on the island now 
 agreed to by all the parties — All men privileged to " walk as their consciences 
 persuaded them, in the name of Jehova their God " — Two governments — The 
 Model Civil Government and the Judge and Elders Government contrasted — 
 Coggershall made second President, or Governor, of the chartered govern- 
 ment — Coddington, for third time left out of office, goes to Boston — War- 
 wickers attempt to resettle at Warwick — Massachusetts sends Benedict Ar- 
 nold and other of their officers to disperse them, and grants their lands to 
 others — President Coggershall visits Warwick and interposes for his people. 
 
 CHAPTER XHI. 
 
 Gorton's return from England — He is detained by the Massachusetts government 
 in Boston until after his government election is over — Coddington declared 
 elected to the head of the Providence government — Providence government 
 Assembly denounce the fraud, suspend Coddington, and choose and install Capt. 
 Jerry Clark President of the Providence government — Coddington indicted for 
 treason and his flight from the colony — Coddington offers himself and lands 
 to the league of colonies — They refuse him — He offers himself and lands to 
 Plymouth — Providerce and Gorton party successfully oppose him — Codding- 
 ton's letter to Winthrop accounting his disgrace. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Assembly and election of May, 1649 — John Smith chosen President; Clark, 
 Gorton, Sanford and Olney assistants : Williams Auditor — Deferred suits 
 against Coddington — Nicholas Easton President — The government in com- 
 plete order — Renewed aggressions and attempted subversion of the char- 
 tered government with a view to the absorption of the Providence Plantation* 
 by the other colonies — Massachusetts annexes Warwick and Pawtuxet to their 
 territory — Winslow resigns from the service of Massachusetts — .A.rmed inva- 
 sion of the Providence Plantations — Gorton chosen President of the Providence 
 government — Coddington pretends to an English commission to govern — 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 Williams sent by the Providence government to Entjland — The secession of the 
 island — Coddington assumes its government — The passage of Gorton's Anti- 
 Slavery Act the first in America — Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants pose as Prov- 
 idence, Pawtuxet and W^arwick Commissioners to assist Coddington — Their 
 rump assemblies. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Word from Williams from England that no commission of government had been 
 issued to Coddington — English councils order against Coddington pretensions 
 to government, and order Providence government to care for the island — 
 Coddington absents himself from the colony — The Coddington government 
 maintain their organization and choose Sanford their President — An agreement 
 effected for restoring the island to the chartered government — Williams re- 
 turns Williams President — Leverett appointed agent for Massachusetts in 
 
 England — Coddington returns to the island, his subscription to the Providence 
 government and his destruction of the records — The choice of Gorton by 
 Coddington and the Assembly as arbitrator of the difficulties besetting Cod- 
 dington — The court condemns Harris, leader of the Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants, 
 for treason. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Gorton's letters to Cromwell and to Clark defending the Quakers— Recording of 
 the forged land title made by the Pawtuxet claimants— The Providence gov- 
 ernment applies first to the King for a new charter of government — The 
 Arnold-Pawtuxans delay Clark's commission from Providence government 
 until after Winthrop, Jr., had secured the Connecticut charter of government- 
 Petition of Warwick men to the King — Letter to the court of Massachusetts- 
 New charter received — The King's order — The Narragansett Indian grant — 
 The death of ex-President Smith. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Assembly under the new charter— Gorton named in it as one of the incorpo- 
 rators — A Representative — Change of name from Providence to Rhode Island 
 and Providence Plantations — The King appoints Commissioners to settle the 
 disputes of the colonies — Instructs them to see if the Narragansetts' sub- 
 mission and cession secured by Gorton prove true— They confirm the Narragan- 
 sett submission and cession — Gorton names the unsettled territory the King's 
 Province — Samuel Gorton, Jr., appointed a magistrate in it — Commissioners 
 declare all claims of the other colonies to lands within it to be void, and place 
 it in the Rhode Island and Providence governments' keeping — They order the 
 removal of Massachusetts subjects from it — Massachusetts court refuses to 
 heed the orders of the King's Commissioners — The King commands the Gov- 
 ernor and Council of Massachusetts to send representatives to answer in 
 England 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The King's compliments in a letter to the government of Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations — The Massachusetts court send ship-masts to the King 
 in lieu of agents to answer before him — The Massachusetts people protest 
 against the course of their magistrates — Pawtuxet claimants capture the Court 
 of Trials — They protest against Williams and his opposition to them — Morton's 
 scandalous book — Gorton's letter to Morton — Williams' letter to the Plymouth 
 court — Gorton's letter to Governor Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The King Philip's War — The swamp battle — Capture of Philip's wife and son— 
 The Narragansetts' extinction — Warwick destroyed — Providence and Paw- 
 tuxet burned, and two of the family of Massachusetts ex-subject and Pawtuxet 
 claimant slain. 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Massachusetts court unable to longer delay obedience to the King's com- 
 mands — They send Stoughton and Buckley to England — Rhode Island Assembly 
 choose Danford and Baily, of Newport, as agents to England — Their departure 
 delayed pending the suits of the Pawtuxct claimants — Trial of the Pawtuxan 
 claims and verdict in their favor — Warwick men appeal, and resolve to carry 
 a petition to England — Gorton, Greene and Holden again chosen to lay a peti- 
 tion before His Majesty — Gorton's death — Green and Holden depart immedi- 
 ately with the petition — They procure from the King in council a stay of pro- 
 ceedings — A powerful petition — Its presentation by the Warwick men to tne 
 King — King orders the Massachusetts government to send other agents em- 
 powered to negotiate a settlement and to repeal the obnoxious laws — They 
 send Nov/ell and Richards — Quo-warranto issue summoning the corporation 
 of Massachusetts to England — The Massachusetts charter pronounced void — 
 King Charles the Second's death — King James' declaration under which the 
 intolerant practices of the leagued colonies end. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Permanent return of Warwick people to their homes — The triumph of religious 
 freedom and end of attempted subjugation of the Providence and Rhode Island 
 lands and people — The adoption of their principles as the cardinal doctrine of 
 the Nation — Closing events in Gorton's life — Honors accorded him — His char- 
 acter and his teachings. 
 
 SAML'EL GORTON'S HOMESTEAD, WARWICK. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Tin,,, nlace and baptism of Gorton in Gorton, England— His education and re- 
 
 Time, P'^" .^".°„''^^"^!J\thier in London— Business transactions preparatory to 
 
 hgious train ng— Ac othierini^onoo ^ j^ ^f ^^^^ Maplet— Landing 
 
 leaving for the ^^^^ "ch^s^tts Colons-Lais prohibiting non-new-church- 
 with his family m Massachusetts ^^ °^y_3^„i3hment of Wheelright, Aspin- 
 men from living J° ^^||^^Su3etts^^^ and Vassal settle in Plymouth 
 
 wall and others from ^f ^achu.etts >fO"on a Massachusetts Col- 
 
 Colony-Gorton volunteers m ^^^'ll^-l't::j::^n.s opposition to the pro. 
 ony 5 call for ^'^ to suj^press x election— Vassal and others disqualihed 
 
 posed la^vs— Important issues ottneeiec Governor of Plymouth 
 
 ony— Dissatisfaction of Plymouth P^oP^^^'^^"^-^"^ toleration— Winslow's de- 
 ?nSo?Tf^v\lLirm^er^^^^^^^^^ filtered by Prince at 
 
 Plymouth-Gorton goes to Pocasset Aquidneck Island. 
 
 Samuel Gorton was born in the year 1592^ in t^\%t°^\°^^j?°';^°"/ 
 
 then^djoining. but now included within the city of Manchester Eng- 
 
 and- Where h s fathers had lived for many generations not unknown 
 
 in the records of the heraldry of England.' At this place he was brought 
 
 up and received his early education. -r- 1 j .c ,ir.rl^r tli^ 
 
 During the receding davs of his minority England was under he 
 rule of the Conformist King James. The canons drawn up by the 
 Convocation of 1606 inculcated obedience^ to the monarch s reign 
 deduced the origin of government from patriarchal blood declared that 
 no one should be admftted to sacred orders without a title, denounced 
 all liberal views, and pronounced anathemas on all who rejected the 
 canons' teachings. These canons were maintained by the higner clergy 
 who zealously lent themeslves to the support of the King's prerogative 
 and to the shaping of everything to his views. The celebrated schools 
 were under the control of persecuting Bishops. Laud was conspicuous 
 in the universities, and so great was the corruption therein that many 
 parents were discouraged from sending their children to them. The 
 Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were set in opposition to the 
 Parliament. Cambridge, as early as 1603, had passed a grace that 
 whoever should oppose any part of the doctrine or discipline of the 
 Church of England should be suspended from any degree to be taken. 
 The University of Oxford pronounced a solemn decree that by the 
 doctrine of the Holy Scripture it was unlawful to appear against the 
 
 'Gorton's letter, 4th Series, Mass. Hist. Collections vii, 604. Baptism at College 
 Church Feb. 12, 1592-3. Dr. Howard's Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica 
 New Series, 1877. Vol. i, pp. 321-?. 'No records of the very ajicient town 
 
 of Gorton prior to the year 1685 can be found; they, doubtless, having been 
 destroyed in the troublesome times during and preceding the reign of Charles 
 the First. As until the close of his reign all English lands vested in the bover- 
 ei'^n and were parcelled out by him to his favorites, it is probable that the lana 
 was 'held by one of the name who sat off "The Gorton Parish Estate to the 
 maintenance of religious worship in the parish ,n°^''^.u!i^^Z 
 
 Nathaniel Morton, Force's Tracts, Vol. iv. The Heraldic Seal : Gules, t^n billets 
 or a chief of the second: crest— a goat's head erased, ducallv eorged. which was 
 used by the Gortons, is shown in Dr. Howard's Miscellanea. \ ol. 1. p. 37Q. 
 *Cobbitt's Parliamentary History, ii, 674, etc. 'Prices Nonconformists 
 
 II 
 
12 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 King upon religion or any other account whatever ; and all persons to be 
 promoted in future to any degree were required to make oath that they 
 detested the opposite doctrine and would always continue to have the 
 same opinion. 
 
 Gorton's religious training was received in the English Church. In 
 an address to Charles the Second he says : " I drew my tenets ' from the 
 breast of my mother the Church of England.' " ° To the fundamental 
 doctrines taught by the Church he ever firmly held, yet to the practices 
 of that time in the Church and in the new Church set up in Massachi;- 
 setts he was a Nonconformist. 
 
 We have referred to the corruption at that time in the Universities 
 and the conditions under which sacred orders on scholastic degrees 
 were at that time obtained from them that the reader should understand 
 why the younger generation of conscientious Nonconformists, however 
 much their delight in the opportunities for advancement in learning, 
 were not only discouraged from attending, but were constrained even 
 to condemn these famous schools ; and because Gorton, having thanked 
 God that he was not prepared for the ministry in them, " not bred up 
 in the schools of human learning," and so " drowned in pride through 
 Aristotle's principles,'" his enemies untruthfully proclaimed that he 
 despised all human learning. Gorton had a high appreciation of learn- 
 ing, and was himself possessed of more literary education than any of 
 the Rhode Island founders save Williams. He was instructed by able 
 tutors, and he received a classical education from them ; being studious, 
 he became an accomplished scholar, more than ordinarily skilled in the 
 languages and learned in English law; and his library was enriched with 
 the standard " volumes in which the ancient statutes " of his country 
 " were written." In law and in politics he understood his rights better 
 than did Williams or the proprietors, or the elders and magistrates of 
 Massachusetts.* He approved of well educated ministers and teachers, 
 and opposed only those of them who enforced for themselves the 
 " divine rights " which had been taught them in the ancient schools. 
 He ever gave his support to every means providing for liberal educa- 
 tion and advancement of the people, and upheld, he says, in answer to the 
 charges made against him, " not scrupling any civil ordinance for the 
 education, ordering or governing of any civil state." ' 
 
 It appears that he did not leave home till the age of about twenty-five 
 or thirty; whether employed until that time in study or business we can 
 learn only from that "he had not engaged in any servile employment 
 until he settled in the colonies." '" His father had been a London mer- 
 chant and a member of a guild, and his own wealth (from the length 
 and peristence of his legal controversy in the colonies and in England) 
 seems to have exceeded that of any of the early settlers in the Provi- 
 dence and Rhode Island Plantations.' 
 
 Papers preserved show that in 1635 he was carrying on the business 
 of clothier in London. On the iSth of June of that year John Dukinfield, 
 of Dukinfield, Countv of Chester, England, gave him a release of all 
 actions and claims of action, etc.. from the beginning of the world to 
 that date, apparently in the closing up of his business in London pre- 
 paratory to his departure for New England. " He yearned." he writes, 
 " for a country where he could be free to worship God according to 
 
 in F.ntrland, i. 454: "*, 09. "Callender's Historical Discourse, p. 02. 
 
 R. I. Hist. Collections, Vol. iv. 'Gorton's letter to Morton. Force's 
 
 Tracts, Vol. iv. "Henry C. Dorr, in R. I. Hist. Collections. R. T. Col- 
 
 lections, ii. 80. Force's Tract No. vi, 30. 40. ^Gorton's Tnnocencv's 
 
 Defense, Staple's Ed., p. 42. "Rider's R. I. Hist. Tract 17. Force's 
 
 Tract No. vi, 76. 'Dorr : Proceedings Mass. Hist. Society, new Series, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 13 
 
 what the Bible taught him, as God enabled him to understand it." 
 *' Samuel Gorton was," says Mackie, " one of the noble spirits who 
 esteemed liberty more than life, and, counting no sacrifice too great for 
 the maintenance of principal, could not dwell at ease in a land where 
 the inalienable rights of humanity were not acknowldeged or were 
 mocked at. With all its industrial prosperity, its pleasing attractions 
 to the eye of sense, its proud public annals and its dear private memories, 
 England could not retain him from adventuring upon the then dread 
 Atlantic and seeking out a spot among the self-denying settlers of a 
 barren coast and a savage wilderness, where in thought, deed, word and 
 act he might be free." ' " I left my native country," he says, " to enjoy 
 liberty of conscience in respect to faith toward God and for no other 
 end." • 
 
 His wife who came with him to New England was Mary Maplet, 
 daughter of John Maplet, gent, of St. Martin's le Grand, London, and 
 Mary, his wife,* a lady of education and refinement; and, as he wrote of 
 her, " as tenderly brought up as any man's wife in the town," " little 
 prepared to share with him the hardships of his exceptionally hard 
 pioneer experience. Her father was, it appears, the son of the Rev. 
 John, whose people had, if the assertion is true, early acquired a com- 
 petency in the business of dealer in shoes. 
 
 The freedom of his disbursements and the advantages of education 
 he extended to the members of his family reveal the comfortable condi- 
 tion of his circumstances and the elevated character of his daughter's 
 early environments. That she was accorded by her parents the superior 
 advantages enjoyed by the other children while she was with them seems 
 reasonable." After her departure she was supplied by them with herds 
 of choice breeds of cattle for the stalls and pastures belonging to her 
 New England home. 
 
 Gorton landed in Boston in March, 1636-7, at the age of forty-four 
 years, with his wife, his eldest son Samuel, then six years of age, and 
 one or more other children. 
 
 It was a surprise to him and to many others, who, like him, came to 
 New England to enjoy liberty of worship and escape the persecutions 
 at that time of the English government, to find upon landing here that 
 the new rulers had established over the new colony a new church gov- 
 ernment as austere as the old one from which they had departed; and to 
 maintain it admitted as citizens only such as could qualify for the new 
 church, both in form and doctrine.' That every person not holding to 
 the new rulers' opinion. Judge Story says, four-fifths of the people were 
 thus disfranchised of all the privileges of a citizen, to vote or to hold 
 land; that the freeman's oath had been changed under Endicot, from the 
 government of King Charles and was to the government of Massachu- 
 setts,* and was required to be given to every man above the age of six- 
 
 Vol. iii, No. 4, p. 210. ^Mackie's life of Samuel Gorton, 2d Series 
 
 Spark's American Biographies, v, 319. 'Gorton: R. I. Collections, ii, 42. 
 
 *Will of Mary Maplet and bequest to daughter Mary, wife of Samuel Gorton, in 
 New England. N. E. Hist, and Genealogical Register, xliv, 384. Will of Dr. 
 John Maplet and bequest to his sister, Mary Gorton. N. E. Hist, and Genealo- 
 gical Reg., xlvi, 153; li, 199. Deed, April 9, 1662, signed by Samuel Gorton, Sr., 
 and Mary, his wife; Early Prov. Reeds., 3d Book, brass clasp, p. o, 13, or Book 
 2, brass clasp, p. 613. Among Samuel Gorton's children were John, Mary and 
 Maplet. "Letter to Morton, Force's Vol. iv. "Mary's brother. 
 
 Dr. John Maplet, who settled in Bath, Eng., was graduated A. M. and M. D. at 
 Oxford ; was elected one of its Preceptors ; afterwards was Principal of Gloucester 
 Hall, now Worcester College. Guidott said of him : " He was learned, candij 
 and ingenious, a good Physician, a better Christian, and an excellent Latin Poet." 
 Guidott's Lives, Stephen's & Lee's Diet. National Biographies, Macmillan & Co., 
 1893. 'Mass. Rec. 1631, i. 'Mass. Rec. 1634, i, 115, 117. 
 
14 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 teen,* with the penalty of his being punished and his land, if he had any, 
 confiscated in case of his refusal to take it.'" Magistrates were empow- 
 ered to fine or imprison all persons absenting themselves from the ser- 
 vices of their church,' and no one could be admitted to the freedom of 
 the commonwealth who had gathered in any other church meeting;' 
 that no one without the magistrates' leave should inhabit in the colony;' 
 and that the magistrates were to examine and license those who could 
 settle.* Those who had settled in violation of these laws were com- 
 manded to depart. The orders were required to be enforced with severe 
 penrlties. Every person was forbidden to entertain a stranger in their 
 house; to allow them the use of a lot; or vitcnnine an habitation." 
 
 The time of Gorton's arrival was also in the midst of the proceedings 
 against Wheelright, the brother-in-law of Annie Hutchinson, which pro- 
 ceedings began on the 19th day of March, 1636-7. He says that upon 
 his arrival he found the people at great variance in points of religion, 
 prosecuting it very hotly in their public courts unto fines and banish- 
 ments of men of good report, both for life and doctrine even among 
 themselves." 
 
 There is no evidence or intimation anywhere that he took any part 
 in these controversies, and from his writings we infer that it is not 
 probable that he did. " He discovered that the liberty which he sought 
 was not here ; that the practice here was far short of the profession as 
 he understood it ; and the liberty which they practiced was only a liberty 
 for themselves and not for their other fellow-Christians." ' Only by 
 avoiding the attention of the magistrates could he have remained as 
 he did with his family v/here he landed, barely long enough to rest 
 from the fatigue of the voyage, make a hasty prospect and find a place 
 where one with the liberty he sought would be allowed to settle. Within 
 about two months from the time of his landing he took up his residence 
 in Plymouth, intending to make that his home. 
 
 The Plymouth government was in some respects more liberal than 
 that of Massachusetts. The Pilgrims, unlike the Puritans, had sub- 
 scribed in their compact to the King and his statutes for their govern- 
 ment.* Although they had this early enacted that " no one shall live 
 within the government of Plymouth without the leave and liking of the 
 Governor and two of the Assistants," ' they did not require of settlers 
 that strict conformity to their church which prevailed in Massachusetts. 
 Their freeman's oath was to King Charles; their Governor was chosen 
 directly by the votes of the freemen, and they recognized the franchise 
 right of nearly all settlers. 
 
 William Vassal, a man of fortune, who was one of the original Assist- 
 ants named in the charter of the Massachusetts company and a founder 
 of that colony, being dissatisfied with the prescriptive government set 
 up there, returned to England, but recrossed the sea in 1635-6, settling 
 in Plymouth colony. 
 
 Cotton, in his reply to Williams' Bloody Tenet, says that Gorton 
 
 'Mass. Rec. i, 137, 139. '"Mass. Rec. i, 137. Gammel's Life of Williams, 
 
 2d Ser., Spark's Am. Biographies, iv., 41, 42. 'Mass. Rec. i, 140. 
 
 *Mass. Rec. i, 168, Mar. 3, 163^-6. 'Mass. Rec. 1630-5, i, 76, 103, ^^147. 
 
 'Mass. Rec. i, 141 ; 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 100: Johnson Ek. ii, ch. 22. Pref. LXXX. 
 "Mass. Rec. R. I. Collections, ii, 46. Winslow's Defense. Armstrong's Hist. Bap- 
 tists, 683. R. I. Hist. Tract v, 57. 2d Ed. Savage's Winthrop, ii. 209. Hutch- 
 inson's Hist. Mass., i, 26, 62, 147. 'Wheelright was banished from Mass. 
 by the government under Winthrop and Dudley, who then, " according to the 
 word of God," chose themselves Magistrates for life. 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 220. 
 R. I. Collections, ii, 42. 'Chief Justice Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tract 17, 
 p. 9. "Ply. Rec. xi, 6 Intd. Edgarton Ryerson's Loyalists of America, 
 i, 11, 14. "Ply. Rec. xi, 26. "Judge Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tract 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 15 
 
 remained in Boston until there was sent over " directions to dema-d a 
 £100 debt" of a citizen; "as if [though Cotton does not say it] his 
 going was occasioned by the demand of and his refusal to pay an honest 
 debt. If Cotton meant to intimate such refusal it is against the whole 
 course of a long life of eighty-five years, forty years of which were 
 passed in New England. He removed but about a day's journey from 
 Boston. The courts were as open at Plymouth as at Boston, and he 
 might have been followed to Plymouth, but he was not. But there are 
 some facts which, in this connection, it may be proper to state, viz., 
 Cotton's book was published in London in May, 1647, ten years after 
 Gorton left Boston. Gorton was then in England, prosecuting his 
 complaint against Massachusetts. The most speedy communication with 
 Rhode Island was not open to him. He could not send by way of 
 Boston, but only by way of the Dutch at Manhattan. This was long, 
 tedious and difficult. Yet on the 30th day of September, 1647, about 
 four months from the time Cotton's statement was first made public, 
 the release of John Dukinfield, before mentioned, dated nearly two years 
 before Gorton left England, was put by Gorton's directions upon the 
 Colony Records at Newport, the most public place it could be recorded, 
 and is the only instrument of the kind upon those records." " 
 
 Gorton began housekeeping at Plymouth in a part of a bouse he hired 
 of Ralph Smith for a term of four years, taking a written lease for 
 that time. The early opposition in Massachusetts to Roger Williams 
 obliged him to retire to Plymouth. Finding difficulties here, he returned 
 to Massachusetts, from whence he was banished. While in Plymouth 
 he served as assistant to this Smith, who was then the pastor of the 
 church at Plymouth. Smith " had," a church authority said, " the mis- 
 fortune to possess more zeal than prudence." Upon the request of the 
 congregation, he had, before the period of this narrative, resigned his 
 pastoral charge and was rapidly falling into disgrace. (To purloining, 
 etc., see through the whole Plymouth Colony Records.) 
 
 On the 7th of June following Gorton's settlement in Plymouth, the 
 Colony, in response to a call from Massachusetts, resolved to send 
 thirty men as soldiers, and as many more as were necessary, to Massa- 
 chusetts to man a vessel to aid them in the Pequot war. The men 
 volunteered for this service, and among the volunteers on the 7th day 
 of June were Samuel Gorton and Thomas Gorton, the latter by some 
 believed to have been his father and by others to have been a bachelor 
 brother, who generally accompanied him.' His prompt and voluntarv 
 enrollment in this service for a neighboring colony this early reveals 
 to us that which was ever afterwards observed in him. an unselfish 
 readiness to, under all circumstances, fearlessly bear the responsibilities 
 and perform the duties of a citizen "in the "defense of the rights of 
 others, as well as of himself." "They may well have deemed him a 
 ' useful instrument at his first coming." ^ 
 
 '■ The political issues at Plymouth were, at the time of Gorton's arrival 
 ■there — the time approaching the annual election — of unprecedented 
 ■interest and importance, for the reason that changes in the government 
 were proposed, intended to subvert its order according to the Statutes 
 to which the Pilgrims had subscribed to that of the Judaic system of 
 intolerance which was established in Massachusetts. The church party 
 of Plymouth and Massachusetts had rallied under the leadership of 
 Prence of Duxboro, a Massachusetts Puritan, hostile to everything 
 opposed to the church and zealous to submit everything to its rule, and 
 
 17. P- 15. 'Ply. Rec. i, 61, omitted from the Index. Hutchinson's Papers, 
 
 59-62. The Pequot war ■was begun in Mar., 1637. The Fort ■was taken May 26, 
 1637. The war ended in Sept., 1638. ^Judge Brayton. Gorton was 
 
i6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 had selected him for Governor of Plymouth Colony. In 1636 eight 
 Deputies had met, four from Plymouth and two from each of the other 
 towns, and in conjunction with the court revised and codified the laws.* 
 These Deputies were selected for only this purpose; were without any 
 instructions by the people to introduce a representaitve system, although 
 such a system these Deputies reported.* Later in the same year another 
 step was taken by the court which was clearly in the direction of a rep- 
 resentative system. The function of the General Assembly was divided, 
 the meetings for legislation were to be kept distinct from those upon 
 the election, and in the latter voting by proxy was permitted.' Another 
 Act contrary to the will of the people followed, changing the character 
 of the government " from popular to representative," transferring the 
 power which was in the whole body of the freemen to Commissioners 
 or Deputies, taking away from the people the choice of their Governor 
 and giving the choice to a body of delegates. The old yet present method 
 of rulers of so doctoring the Statutes that the will of the people cannot 
 prevent the perpetuation of the rule of those who are in office. And, 
 further, to better insure the election of subservient delegates, the number 
 of freemen were diminished, William Vassal and other most worthy 
 men being disqualified from voting. 
 
 The patent under which the lands were held was to " William Brad- 
 ford, his heirs, his associates and assigns." This, joined to the other 
 perils of the new system, occasioned alarm to the people, and filled them 
 with apprehension lest citizenship and the land would, as in Massachu- 
 setts, be granted only to a few strictly qualified church members. Con- 
 ferences between the Deputies and the people were held, which resulted 
 in the suspension for a while of the conveyance of land by the Governor 
 and Assistants.* 
 
 The church party, however, by arbitrary methods soon prevailed, and 
 succeeded both in making Prence the Governor and in the adoption of 
 representative government; but the majority party did not quietly yiel . 
 to the change, the popular voice was after the excitement, even unr'^r 
 the disadvantage of quasi-representation, in a measure expressed oy 
 laying aside the Governor at the next election; and, although the new 
 system which had been adopted in violation of the will of the people 
 was maintained, it was maintained only by means of attending agreeable 
 compensating concessions; by Bradford, who succeeded Prence, sur- 
 rendering the charter rights in the lands to all of the freemen, and by 
 admitting all who had taken the oath of fidelity to the government to 
 a voice in choosing the delegates for the elections.' 
 
 One of the reasons, says the Rev. Cotton Mather, why they of Massa- 
 chusetts chose that Prence should be Governor of Plymouth was his 
 hostility to the exercise of the gift of the established ministry by private 
 brethren; and this point, he says, was gained in his election.' "Private 
 brethren " vi-ere those not approved by the new church, whether they 
 had or not received church orders. 
 
 In May, 1638, there came to Plymouth an eminent scholar and 
 preacher of the Gospel, who was born in the same year as Gorton, and 
 of whom he speaks as " a Godly man ; " learned in the original languages, 
 a professor some time of Greek and of the Hebrew, now silenced as a 
 minister in England. He had been sent for to be settled as the minister 
 of Plymouth, but, differing from the church as he found it here, the 
 
 afterwards convinced that the wars upon the Indians were unnecessary, and he 
 opposed them and that which followed the sale and enslavement of the captives. 
 •Ply. Rec. xi, 6. 'Palfrey's Hist. N. Encr., i. 546. "Ply. Rec. 
 
 xi, 80. 'Ply. Rec. xi, 31, 33. 'Ply. Rec. xi, 01, etc. 
 
 •First Am. Ed. Mather's Magnalia, i, 106. 'In 1654 Chauncy was elected 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 17 
 
 matter was submitted to the members of Plymouth and other colonies. 
 All were against Chauncy and he was not settled. After preaching as 
 aid to Raynor for a while he was called to Scituate, the town adjoining, 
 in Plymouth Colony, where he remained, although with frequent troubles, 
 for more than twelve years.' 
 
 Gorton, we are assured, was the most determined leader of the people 
 in their opposition to the church system, not even excepting their active 
 leader Vassal. Gorton also was one of those who, for the exercise of 
 the gift of the established brethren, was a subject of the hostility of 
 Prence, the point gained by his election. 
 
 The law referred to against harboring strangers was now for the first 
 rigidly enforced by Prence's administration, in deporting those who 
 were not in harmony with it in their belief and conduct. 
 
 There was and had been for some time prior to November, 1638, 
 living in Gorton's family a widow by the name of Ellen Aldridge, a 
 woman of good repute, careful of her reputation, who had lately come 
 over and was employed by his wife as a servant in the family. " It had 
 been whispered privately that she had smiled in the congregation (a 
 similar instance is recorded in an early law docket of Trumbull's. 
 " Susan Smith, on the Lord's day during Divine service, did smile." 
 Fined five shillings and costs of prosecution), and the Governor Prence 
 sent to know her business, and commanded, after punishment as the 
 bench see fit, her departure and also anyone who brought her ' to the place 
 from which she came.' " Gorton says they proposed to deport her as 
 a vagabond, and to escape the shame threatened to be put upon her she 
 fled to the woods, where she for several days remained, returning at 
 night to his home for shelter. Gorton appeared at court [Dec. 4, 1638] 
 in defense of her, showed that the offense was not recognized in the 
 English law, to the protection of which he appealed, and that she was 
 no vagabond, that she was a woman of good report and by diligent labor 
 earning her bread. He was charged with deluding the court of her, 
 and he was bound to answer for this contempt at the next sessions. 
 
 Gorton had now made Plymouth his home for eighteen months, and 
 he was described as quiet and peaceable ; a useful citizen ; kind, court- 
 eous, agreeable. He appeared at the next sessions of the court to defend 
 himself for defending this woman ; was fined for seditious conduct and 
 limited to fourteen days to remain in Plymouth. This is Gorton's truth- 
 ful account of it, agreeing exactly with the official records. 
 
 During the agitation attending this the emotions of Ralph Smith, the 
 ex-pastor before mentioned, became excited, and he, taking sides against 
 Gorton, ordered him to vacate the house. Gorton persuaded Smith to 
 leave the matter to Deacon Cook and others for arbitrament, but the 
 Governor Prence, learning of it, imperiously commanded the papers 
 out of their hands and destroyed them. This Ralph Smith affair, which 
 was not a case in court, was settled in Smith's favor by the former 
 case which was in court, by its act of Gorton's banishment, which, of 
 course, compelled him to abandon the house. 
 
 The only charge of the court against Gorton, the alleged sedition, 
 occurred in the half hour at the court in which he appeared for defend- 
 ing this woman." 
 
 successor to Henry Duster, the first President of Harvard College. Stephen's 
 Diet. Nat. Biog. Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tract 17. Mass. Gen. Reg. X, 105. Baylie's 
 Plymouth, ii, part 2, pp. 258-265, Seq. "Charles Dean, in an article 
 
 published in 1850, unfairly compares Gorton's story of Plymouth's dealings with 
 his enemies' story of it. Mr. Dean is unfair because he ignores Plymouth's 
 official records of it, which show that only Gorton's account of it is true. Ply. 
 Rec, i, 100, 105. Force's Tracts, Vol. 4, Nos. 6 and 7. Judge Brayton, R. I. 
 
i8 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 This action against Gorton was very unpopular. People, such as 
 inhabit our towns and make up our courts to-day, would have appeared 
 and been heard in opposition to the magistrates ; but those of that gener- 
 ation had been bred under oppression, and been, many of them, by sad 
 experience, made docile to those who claimed the divine right to rule 
 them. Yet the people left upon the official docket a record that is, 
 although in quiet form, a remarkably strong and Unanimous Protest 
 to the Proceedings. Every one of the sixteen, upon whom the court 
 depended for the trial and its orderly proceeding, attested their dis- 
 approval and dislike to it by their absence. All of them were fined once, 
 and most of them twice, and many of them three times, by the magis- 
 trates for persistent non-attendance.' This, like most of the other per- 
 secuting trials in Plymouth and Massachusetts, was conducted by a 
 handful of church-magistrates in tlieir own imperious way. To the 
 honor of Plymouth and Massachusetts it can be said that they never 
 were approved by the people. 
 
 William Vassal, before referred to, who had settled in Plymouth 
 Colony, was one of the foremost in the movement to abolish the dis- 
 tinctions that were maintained in civil and church state, and to have 
 the government administered wholly by the laws of England. Nine 
 men, but two of half the whole number of freemen from Vassal's town, 
 Scituate,^ were at this same court of Prence's at which Gorton was 
 sentenced, presented for speaking disrespectful of the Governor and 
 magistrates or assistants, and for without license admitting strangers 
 and foreigners to their houses and lands.' When, in 1645, Vassal's 
 movement had extended beyond Plymouth and into Massachusetts, 
 Winslow of Plymouth wrote to Winthrop of Massachusetts a letter of 
 commiseration on account of it, with a description of what had been 
 attempted at Plymouth and a lamentation in the following strain that 
 such a spirit of toleration had arisen and was prevailing: "The sum 
 of it was," said Winslow, " to allow and maintain full and free toleration 
 of religion to all men that would preserve the civil peace and submit 
 unto government. But the Governor. Mr. Prence, and myself expressed 
 the sad consequences that would follow [yet, notwithstanding, it was 
 required according to order to be voted], and the Governor would not 
 allow it to come to vote, as being that would eat out the power of godli- 
 ness." " You would have admired to have seen how sweet this carion 
 relished to the deputies." " If you have heard of the particulars and the 
 persons, especially the ringleader of the rout, you may gather the more 
 insight by this general." * Though early a liberal Governor, he 
 (Winslow) later imbibed some of the persecuting spirit of Massachu- 
 setts." But a majority of the General Court of Plymouth, among them 
 Brown, Hatherly, Standish and Freeman, were in favor of Vassal's 
 movement. Yet, knowing this, Prence the Governor could override the 
 Deputies and the people, and even violate the established order of the 
 court, as he did by refusing to put the question to vote.' 
 
 Prence, "the only persecuting Governor of the Plymouth colony,"' 
 industriously and relentlessly enforced the Puritan church policy. His 
 very first act as Governor was the whipping of Web Abey, upon the 
 unreliable testimony of the same before-named Ralph Smith, that the 
 man had upon a Sunday bestowed some labor upon his garden. Richard 
 Smith, a prime leading man in Taunton, for his conscience' sake, many 
 
 Hist. Tract 17, Seq. 'Ply. Rec, i, 104, 126. "Twenty-tv o 
 
 freemen, nineteen others, in all but forty-one, was the entire adult male popula- 
 tion of the town. Baylie's Hist. Ply. Colony, i, 282. *Ply. Rec, i, 106. 
 'Winslow's letter, Hutchinson's Papers, 172-175. "Loyalists of America, 
 i, 97. 'Loyalists of America, i, 104. 'Loy. of Am., i, 12, 104 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 19 
 
 difficulties arising, was compelled to leave, and settled in Narrangansett.* 
 And one, Master Doughty, a minister and a man of means when he 
 came to the colony, v/as ruined by fines and then forced to go away with 
 his wife and children.* Not all of these, or of other like cases, are 
 entered in the ofificial records, yet those that are there are too numerous 
 to here permit their further enumeration. Bradford, the people's can- 
 didate, succeeded Prence in the chief office; and Prence did not for 
 nineteen years thereafter, not until Bradford's death, and with the 
 assistance of the Massachusetts magistrates, again secure the office.'" 
 His temper was then the same, severe and unimproved by his experience 
 and long waiting. Upon regaining the Governorship and judicial seat, 
 his first act was to appoint a committee to revise the laws. New ones 
 against the Quakers were under his leadership immediately enacted, 
 and the law that the Governor should hold the office " one whole year, 
 no more,'" was to provide, as in Massachusetts, for a tenure for life, 
 changed to " until another be elected." ' Now, under the representative 
 system which he had been foremost in establishing and by the delegates 
 of his promotion and handling, he was many times re-elected to the office. 
 His rule was one of exceptionally severe persecution and cruelty.* 
 
 Having made but brief reference to the court in whick Gorton was 
 tried, let us return to it for some particulars of the trial. The court is 
 the accuseer. At the first hearing the court, enlarging upon a point, 
 aggravated the matter more than Gorton thought it deserved, so much 
 so that he said they " were speaking hyperbolically." The magistrate, 
 not understanding that term, turned to their Elder, Brewster, for an 
 explanation, and the explanation was that he, Gorton, had told the 
 mar^istrate " that he lied." Gorton " thought that this would not do to 
 apply to the Scripture of Truth." At the final hearing Jonathan Brew- 
 ster, the son of the ruling Elder and the one that explained the hyperbole, 
 was the Foreman of the Jury. "Winslow says, Gorton being called, and 
 the Governor (Prence), because he was weary of speech to other causes, 
 requested one of the magistrates, who was present at the commitment 
 and privy to the whole cause, to state the cause of his bonds in the 
 great affront he had given the government. The magistrates, Gorton 
 a:-serted, should not be parties and judges; that the place of a Prosecutor 
 v/as not in the Judge's seat, but " down here where a Prosecutor should 
 stand ; " and he called the people to witness how their liberties were 
 abused. The cause was stated, however, by one of the magistrates, the 
 one who presided at the first trial. Magistrates and divers Elders were 
 allowed to speak as Prosecutors, while, though there was no Attorney 
 at Plymouth to speak for Gorton, the Foreman of the Jury moved that 
 he should not be allowed to speak for himself. His reference to the 
 English Statutes was not regarded. Magistrate nor Elder would listen 
 to recitations from them, but all urged that punishment should be 
 inflicted.* 
 
 TI:e following is Chief Justice Brayton's description : " I have en- 
 deavored to figure to myself the court scene as it occurred at that trial. 
 Here is a tall, spare man, with arms proportional, and urging gestures, 
 a man of independent spirit, as intelligent as any member of the court 
 before which he appears, having a character for truth, for honesty, for 
 morality, for courtesy to all, and for Christian charity; a quick sense 
 of justice, earnest in the defense of the rights of others, as well as of 
 himself; having a just pride in his ancestry, no one of whom had ever 
 
 note. "Roger Williams' letter, Br. State Paper Office. 'Baylie's 
 
 Hist. Ply., i, 289, 290. '"Ply. Rec. and Bradford's Hist. Ply., 362. 
 
 'Ply. Rec, xi, 7. 'Brigham's Ply. Laws, ^t. 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 219, 
 
 220 and note. 'Ply. Rec, i and ii. *R. I. Hist Tract 17. 
 
20 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 been thus treated, whose boast it was that he never laid his hands in 
 violence upon any human being, not even upon his children ; a man who, 
 though he would avoid the ecclesiastical law at home or here, yet desired 
 to be governed in all civil respects by the common laws of England with 
 its ancient Statutes. He is here for the first time arraigned for any 
 offense whatever. The charge now is that he endeavored to keep away 
 from the court a reputable woman, charged with no offense (a servant 
 in his own family), to prevent the disgrace upon her of being treated 
 as a vagabond and her to remain a faithful servant. 
 
 " The court here was one in whose breast alo7te by the Statutes of 
 Plymouth was vested the kind and the measure of punishment of every 
 misdemeanor * as God had enlightened them.' 
 
 " This man was standing before this court and in the presence of a 
 jury empanelled to try his case, and awaits the charges to be stated by 
 the Prosecutor or accuser. 
 
 " It came from the court which sits in judgment and from the mouth 
 of that member, zvho, when the court was held more private, stated the 
 charge with such gross aggravation, and who now probably states it with 
 the same aggravation. 
 
 " Is it strange that he should object to his accusers sitting as his 
 judges? and should say that the place of an accuser should not be in 
 the judgment seat, but ' do^vn here,' the place of a Prosecutor. 'Let 
 them not be parties and judges' 
 
 "They continue to sit in judgment. He attempts to defend himself; 
 he most likely called their attention to the ancient laws of England, 
 and in the language of these laws, for he says, elsewhere, he was not 
 allowed to speak in their language. He endeavors to defend himself, 
 nevertheless. 
 
 "And now the foreman of the jury, the son of the ruling elder who 
 explained the hyperbole, not content with perfortning his duty as an 
 impartial juror, rises and moves the court that he shall not be allowed 
 to speak for himself, and, there being no Attorney at Plymouth, in effect 
 that he should not be defended. 
 
 " \\' hat would such a man in such a presence and under such circum- 
 stances be likely to say or do? 
 
 " Would he, while his accusers sat in judgment upon him, quietly 
 asquiesce in the justice of it? or would he not rather challenge them for 
 partiality and that zcarmly? and when his objection was rudely over- 
 ruled, is it strange that he shoidd say with warmth, somewhat mingled 
 with indignation, 'Let them not be parties and judges;' or that his long 
 arm should be stretched out either toward the bench or to the audience, 
 with the spirit that moved him? 
 
 " He attempts to refer to the laws of England [he is a loyal man] as 
 bearing upon the question of his guilt ; they are not allowed to be named. 
 He attempts to speak in the 'language of them;' he cannot speak 'in 
 their language.' and his defense is restrained. 
 
 " Now the foreman of that body of men who are to try him, and zvho 
 he supposed were impartial, rises and attempts to cut him off from 
 further hearing and to close his mouth. 
 
 " I repeat, what would such a man, of an independent and fearless 
 spirit, be likely to do or say under these circumstances? Would he not 
 rise to his full height, and, breasting himself to the storm, not merely 
 warmed, but iired with indignation, vent himself in impassioned lan- 
 guage, and breathe out his feelings of wrong and oppression? would he 
 not be eloquent [for he is said to have been eloquent], and might he not 
 be excused, if, moved by the spirit, his gestures were vehement, if he 
 * threw his arms about? ' 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 21 
 
 "All this defense and attempted defense were pronounced to be tur- 
 bulent and seditious ; and so, on the 4th day of December, 1638, he was 
 sentenced to depart from Plymouth, his home, his hired house, his wife 
 and children, and to be beyond the utmost bounds of it within fourteen 
 days." 
 
 His departure from Plymouth was in the extremity of New England 
 mid-winter, and happened in the midst of the greatest tempest of wind 
 and snow recorded of the times, from the severity of which many of the 
 colonists were frozen and perished.'' " When the snow was up to the 
 knee and rivers to wade through up to the middle, and not so much as 
 one Indian to be found in that extremity of weather to afford either 
 fire or harbour, such as themselves had, being retired into the swamps 
 and thickets, where they were not to be found in any condition, we lay 
 divers nights together, and were constrained with the hazard of our 
 lives to betake ourselves to Narragansett Bay." ' Through which he was 
 preserved and came within the limit of his sentence, on December i8th, 
 to Pocasset, the nearest settlement, of abouty twenty families, on the 
 upper portion of Aquidneck Island. This island is in area nearly one 
 thirty-fifth part of the colony. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The settlement of Pocasset Aquidneck Island — Magistrate Coddington deposed 
 from office in Massachusetts — Deacon Aspinwall banished from Massachusetts 
 — Rev. John Clark, Coddington, Aspinwall and others sign a compact for a 
 new government — Coddington called to answer in the court at Boston — Clark, 
 throdgh Williams, obtains the island — Clark settles on the island — Coddington 
 settles there over a month later — Mrs. Hutchinson leaves Boston — Her settle- 
 ment upon the island— The Boston church disciplines Coddington and others 
 — Coddington adds the Massachusetts order of Elders to his government — 
 Coddington and his Elders left out of office at the succeeding election — Over- 
 throw of the government of Elders — Coddington again removes, carries off the 
 records, and starts another town and church government — Gorton and Hutch- 
 inson organize a model civil government on the island — Hutchinson Governor 
 and Chief Judge — Gorton Deputy Governor and Assistant Judge, and the 
 first Quarterly Courts and the first Trial Juries in the colony — They change 
 name of town to Portsmouth — Coddington makes propositions to restore him 
 to government — He seeks a patent for the island — Gorton's opposition to Cod- 
 dington's return to government — Coddington writes to Winthrop and seeks 
 aid — Desired help sent from Boston — The return of Coddington with his 
 Elders and their usurping of the government — Massachusetts and Plymouth 
 methods adopted — Anonymous accounts and what really happened at Ports- 
 mouth — Coddington troops quell the disturbance — Gorton leaves the island — 
 Clark and Lenthal break from Coddington and join the liberal party — Dis- 
 memberment of the church — Beginning of the Baptist Church — Lenthal's de- 
 parture — the exodus from the island. 
 
 Pocasset, the first settlement upon the island, was made in 1637-8 by 
 John Clark and his followers, who were of the party of Massachusetts 
 Puritans in smypathy with John Wheelright. At the Massachusetts 
 May, 1637, election all the magistrates were chosen from the party of 
 the Covenant of Works, and Vane. Coddington and Dnmmer of the 
 opposite, Covenant of Grace, the party to which John Cotton for the 
 time adhered, were left out of office. 
 
 The defeated magistrates showed their sense of injury by leaving the 
 seats appointed for the magistrates at the public worship, though Win- 
 
 ■Dec. IS, 1638, 2d Ed. Winthrop, i, 344. 'Simp. Defense, R. I. Hist. 
 
32 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 throp sent to them, desiring them to sit with him; and, on the day 
 appointed for a Fast, October 12, 1637, on occasion of the Pequot 
 war, they deserted tlie Boston congregation and spent the day with 
 Wheelright at Mt. WoIHston, listening to him.' 
 
 More than sixty male members of the Boston Church had remon- 
 strated to the proceedings against Wheelright. One of them. Deacon 
 Aspinwall, a magistrate, was dismissed and banished." Deacon Cogger- 
 shall, another representative, although not a signer, but a justifier, was 
 dismissed.' Most of the other remonstrators were required to deliver 
 up their arms. From among the latter John Clark proposed and Win- 
 throp advised a removal of them from the jurisdiction. After some 
 prospecting they met Roger Williams, upon whose advice they concluded 
 to settle upon the island of Aquidneck, which he, out of love for Clark, 
 agreed to secure for them;'" and they returned to Boston to arrange 
 for removal in the spring. 
 
 On March 7th, 1637-8, Clark, Aspinwall, Coggershall, Coddington and 
 others, in all nineteen in number, most of them long esteemed members 
 of the church at Boston, and most of whom were under no offense at all 
 and were never censured,' drew up, in one, a church covenant and com- 
 pact of government, with the references. Exodus xxiv. 3, 4; First 
 Chronicles xi. 3; Second Kings xi. 17, affixed to it, to all of which they 
 subscribed.^ The form was that of the Puritans submitting themselves 
 to God and the Bible, to be ruled thereby, being different from the 
 Pilgrims, who subscribed to the King and his Statutes for their govern- 
 ment. Coddington, who had long served as a magistrate, who was one 
 of the magistrates that expelled Williams from Salem,' having large 
 experience in government, they made judge — the sole judge to rule them. 
 This was a fortnight before the excommunication of Mrs. Hutchinson.* 
 After the signing of the compact and thereupon, March 12th, Deacons 
 Coggershall, Coddington and several others of the party were called 
 to appear at the court in Boston to answer about their departure or 
 remaining, Winthrop advising them to go off only for a time and then 
 to return.^ 
 
 On the 24th of the month Williams obtained the island of Aquidneck 
 for them. The Sachems, Cannonicus and Miantinomi, had three years 
 before made a verbal tenure to him of Mooshausic. He now drew up 
 to himself a formal grant for it, and also a grant to Clark's company 
 for Aquidneck and two other small islands, which these Sachems exe- 
 cuted. " It was obtained," Williams says, "by love; not price nor money; 
 by the love and favor which that honorable gentleman (Vane) and 
 mvself had with that great Sachem Miantinomi. Thousands could not 
 have bought of him Providence, Pautuxet or Aquidneck, or any other 
 land I had of him." Upon Williams' advice a gratuity of some beads, 
 coats and socks was made up by Clark and his party and given to the 
 Sachems. " I," Williams says, " drew up a writing in as sure a form 
 as I could at that time, for the benefit and assurance of the present and 
 future inhabitants of the island."* And, as Coddington was made the 
 
 Collections, ii, 47. 'FJlis' Life of Annie Hutchinson, Spark's Am. Bio?., 
 
 246, 259. 'Ellis' Annie Hutchinson, 343. 'Ellis' Annie Hutch- 
 
 inson, 274, 275. '"Clark's Acct., 4th Mass. Collections, ji, 24, 25;. 
 
 'Callender's Hist. Discourse, R. T. Collections, iv, 81. "Island Compact, 
 
 original records and " copy " in Bartlett's R. T. Rec, i. 52. Bo.ston Church Cove- 
 nant, R. I. Collections, iii, 126. 'The Magistrates or Assistants who 
 filled the offices of Governor, Deputy Governor and Treasurer, the latter Codding- 
 ton, are mentioned by the last named titles, instead of by their names, in the 
 printed records of this sitting of the Court of the .Assistants. ''Mrs. 
 Hutchinson's trial was in Nov., 1637. Her detention followed. Her banishment 
 was Mar. 22, 1637-8. "Ellis' Annie Hutchinson, 319, 343. Spark's Am. 
 Biographies, 2d Ser., vi. "Williams' letter, Narragansett Club Papers, v, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 23 
 
 head of Clark's company, the grant was drawn to " Coddington and his 
 
 friends." . , . 
 
 Clark, with most of the company, immediately settled on the island. 
 Afterwards, on the 26th of April, Coddington, with his family, joined 
 them. At their first meeting following, May 13th, they located the town 
 Pocasset and a meeting house. They " gathered a church " of excom- 
 municated and admonished members of the Boston and Roxbury 
 churches, of mem.bers still attached to these churches who had never 
 been censured nor dismissed, and some new professors.^ They adopted 
 a freeman's oath or terms of admission to membership in their govern- 
 ment, which was of fidelity, not to known civil laws, but to the laws of 
 Moses, according to the opinion of "the judge in matters of judgment." 
 And they sat up a court which was a modern Sanhedrim, its govern- 
 ment, except in the sympathy briefly tempering it to those who held to 
 the covenant of grace, of slight improvement on the one they departed 
 from in Massachusetts. r , ■ 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, who had been convicted of heresy and confined m 
 Massachusetts, upon her release, the 28th of March, 1637-8, went to 
 Mt Wolliston (Braintree) to her husband, who had joined with the 
 others in procuring the island of Aquidneck, and they, with other 
 friends, during the summer went to the island. Whether Mrs. Hutch- 
 inson's admittance as an inhabitant of the new island town was accom- 
 panied with her reception to the church is uncertain but very likely, 
 for the church, which was organized before her arrival, had " objection- 
 able members." 
 
 Those of the island church whom the Boston church still hoped to 
 influence were called into question for receiving the objectionable mem- 
 bers and for participating in such a sin. Coddington, being on a visit 
 to Boston, was brought under the discipline of the church there, con- 
 fessed himself in fault, and was solemnly admonished; and others of 
 them, who were wont frequently to visit Boston, were called to answer 
 by the authorities. The members of the island church were thus dealt 
 with as often as opportunity afforded, and by the performance of such 
 acts of discipline, so often, its leading members became greatly weaned 
 from attachment to Mrs. Hutchinson and the so-called antinomians. 
 
 There was the same difference between Gorton's views of government 
 and the government established here that there was at Plymouth. It was 
 not the bare objection attributed to him that the islanders were without 
 a charter. Although Plymouth had one " by which," he said, " authority 
 was derived, which authority I reverenced," her government was 
 scarcely less objectionable to him on account of it. His objections 10 
 the government on the island were that those who administered it 
 observed not the laws of England, of whom they were subjects, nor the 
 rights they provided for her subjects, that they had received no grant 
 of sovereignity from her, nor were they ruling by the suffrage of a 
 majority of the people, but had set themselves up as rulers and were 
 ETOverning by their own interpretations of laws from the Bible. Gorton 
 was a student of law. His library he brought with him from England 
 contained the standard authorities," and he understood hi^s own and the 
 people's rights better than did these judges and elders." 
 
 The few admitted "freemen" who sustained Coddington s govern- 
 ment had already become a moiety of the people, and even they, most of 
 
 »2d Ed. Winthrop's, i, 357- Callender's Hist. Discourse 8t Ellis' Annie Hutch- 
 inson. .26. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 138. ^ 'Ellis' Annie Hutchinson 327. 
 
 »R. I. Collections, ii. 80. Library to Samuel, Jr.. Austins Genealogical Uict. 
 "Dorr in R. I. Collections. ^Minutes Warren Baptist Assn., 1849. 
 
24 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 them, had become dissatisfied and desired relief from its despotic ten- 
 dency. It, on the 22d day of January, within a month after Gorton's 
 arrival there, impelled probably by the necessity of stemming an out- 
 break of the opposing masses, adopted an amendment for the purpose 
 of gaining a firmer administration ; by which the form of the government 
 was changed from that of Hebrew judges to Hebrew judges and elders, 
 a form more highly Puritan and more in keeping with the church 
 order. This was effected by " choosing and calling " the " elders of the 
 church,* Coggershall, Easton and Brenton, " into the place of Elder- 
 ship " in the government, to rule with Coddington, and to allot only to 
 acceptable tenants the use of the soil.' The Judges and Elders to account 
 for their acts to the body of freemen every quarter of the year, that 
 what had been done might be confirmed or repealed by the act of the 
 body. The Sergeant was to attend all meetings of the Judges and Elders 
 and to inform them of all breaches of the law of God that tended to civil 
 disturbance.* 
 
 The government was, under this form, carried on at Pocasset a little 
 less than four months; whether the rulers gave an account to the body 
 of freemen at the end of the quarter, April 2d, does not appear from the 
 records, but on the 28th day of that month the majority' of the freemen 
 were that dissatisfied with their government that they would not endure 
 it longer. They, therefore, put out Coddington and the three Elders 
 and chose in the place of the former William Hutchinson.^ 
 
 Gorton was the principal leader in this movement, the overthrow of 
 the government of Judges and Elders, who, he said, had " changed the 
 government from what it was originally," and who here, as elsewhere, 
 had denied freedom to all but themselves. No charges of official 
 derelictions appear of record against the deposed leaders, although an 
 " offering " shortly after issued by themselves implies that such had 
 been made.* That they had been despotic in their administration is 
 proven in that of the seventy-three now inhabitants but twenty-three 
 had been made " freemen," and thus the large majority of more than 
 two-thirds of the inhabitants were debarred from holding land and from 
 the right to vote. Besides, to this large dissatisfied majority who were 
 not freemen were added, on account of Coddington's denial of them of 
 the land rights justly claimed by them, nearly all of the original compact 
 freemen and nearly two-thirds of all who had been made freemen. 
 
 Coddington being named in the Indian grant, his right in the land 
 was evident, while the rights in it of the others with whom he joined in 
 securing it, but who had not their names placed in the grant, was sub- 
 jected to change and question. British lands were at this time held under 
 the feudal system, the Indian Sachems being recognized by the English 
 government as the feudal lords of the soil. Coddington, by virtue of 
 the Indian grant, himself assumed the lordship and disposal of the island 
 in tenantry only and to those who pledged fealty to his government and 
 became his friends. The land was voted by Coddington and his council 
 to this tenantry^ for occupancy and improvement, and was again voted 
 away from them if they opposed his intended doings or failed to build.' 
 
 As a consequence of these conditions the land troubles became severe 
 and continued so, events encouraging Coddington, while the land hold- 
 ings remained in this unsettled state for thirteen more years, when, 
 after about half of those who had ioined in securing Aquidneck had 
 from the various causes departed from the island, those remaining, 
 
 'R. I. Records, i, 63, 64. 'R. I. Records, i. 65. Callander's R. I. Col- 
 
 lections, iv, 116. *Judge Brayton's R. I. Hist. Tract, 17. '2d 
 
 Ed. Winthrop, i, 356. *R. I. Rec, i, 93. ^Records, i, 54, 55, 
 
 May 20, 1638. 'Records, i, 59, 68. Tlecords, i, 45, 51. R. I. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 25 
 
 by fortuitous circumstances hereinafter related, drew from him an 
 acknowledgment of the land rights that belonged to them." 
 
 As before, when left out of office in Massachusetts, Coddington and 
 the three Elders, with Dyre the clerk, and two of the original members, 
 John Clark and Henry Bull, and two other persons, Jeremy Clark and 
 Thomas Hazard, who had not been admitted members, determined to 
 remove and propagate a new plantation. 
 
 These ex-officials took the books of records and land evidences of the 
 Pocasset government, which they had no right to, with them, and with 
 the others, in all nine persons, removed twelve miles down the island, 
 where they started, April 28, 1639, the town of Newport.'" For their 
 government they resolved " our determination shall be by Judge and 
 Elders," and while at Pocasset the Judge had but one, they resolved 
 now for a government of greater strength, " the Judge to have double 
 voice," or vote. " They carried on this government at Newport as they 
 had at Pocasset, with this variation only : The Judge, who before had 
 but one, now had a double voice. They still judged according to the 
 law of God as the Judge should determine." This was not a civil gov- 
 ernment.' 
 
 Gorton and his friends, the majority of the people, those who remained 
 at Pocasset, none the less than others acknowledged the presence of the 
 necessity for government and approved of government of necessity 
 without a charter, sanctioned by the people and in accordance to known 
 statute law. 
 
 Two days after removal from Pocasset of those who had been left 
 out of office, on April 30th, those that remained at Pocasset that had not 
 been members of the government — inhabitants dwelling there — with 
 William Hutchinson as an original member, by a written compact, 
 whereby acknowledging themselves " legal subjects of King Charles," 
 they bound themselves " into a Civil body politic, unto his laws, accord- 
 ing to matters of justice." To this compact, already acknoidedglng His 
 Majesty's Lazvs for their government, each member " particularly 
 recorded," " underwrote " his " agreement " and " acknowledgment." 
 
 William Hutchinson and Samuel Gorton lead the list of subscribers 
 to this compact. Among the names subscribed to it, Samuel Gorton, 
 John Wickes, Sampson Shotten and Robert Potter, residing there, were 
 afterwards original purchasers of Shawomet — none of them members 
 of the church compact. 
 
 The record of this new compact further is: "According to the intent 
 of the foregoing instrument, we, whose names are hereunto particularly 
 recorded, do agree, jointly, as by major voice, to govern ourselves by 
 the ruler or judge amongst us in all transactions for the space of one 
 year, he behaving himself according to the tenor of the same." ^ 
 
 The names of chief officers of this new government were erased from 
 the records by a succeeding administration, but we learn from Baylie 
 that they chose William Hutchinson [who is first on their list of mem- 
 bers] Governor.* They chose one, and Samuel Gorton is next on their 
 list of members. Deputy Governor. They terminated the office of 
 Elderships and chose four they called Assistants. These, with a 
 Recorder, Treasurer and Sergeant, for the help of the Governor in his 
 
 Hist. Tract, ist Ser., iv, 23, 24. After the King Phih'p'? War, when the records 
 of the many early settlers were destroyed and nearly all the land of the island 
 stood in the names of Coddinpton and his serviceable friends, the lands were by 
 Legislative Act confirmed absolutely to those in whose names they were at the 
 time of the passage of the Act recorded. "Nicholas Easton, one of the 
 
 three who were appointed Elders, gave the name Newport to the new settlement. 
 R. I. Collections, vii, 330. 'Chief Justice Brayton, Rider's Hist. Tract, 
 
 17, p. 47, ^Portsmouth, R. I. Rec. i, 70. 71. Rider's Hist. Tract, 17. 
 
 'Baylie's Dissuasive from the Errors of the Times to 1645, p. iSO- Palfrey's 
 
26 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 adnw'nistration for one year. The titles of Governor, Deputy Governor 
 and Assistants were given to the officers of the government in their 
 official records, and they were the first of these titles in the colony." 
 
 " It was a government to exist for one year. It was a government 
 of law — English law. They provided for courts to be held every year 
 and every quarter of th.e year, and for a jury of twelve men to do right 
 betivixt man and man." 
 
 The men chosen as Assistants might consult among themselves and 
 put an end to controversies not amounting in value to £40 sterling. The 
 Judge, with the jury to decide it, if brought to the public court. This 
 i^as the first government in the colony with Magistrates governing only 
 in civil things; also was the earliest provision for a jury trial, and for 
 regular courts for the trial of causes made in the colony. 
 
 This government differed as wide as the poles from any system at the 
 Bay, or as yet at Newport. " It was the first government in the colony 
 organized like our government of to-day and maintained by universal 
 suttrage. No religious tests of political qualifications were prescribed, 
 every permanent inhabitant was a citizen. The government at Newport 
 continued to be administered as it had been — justice and judgment to 
 be impartial, according to the law of God." 
 
 They, at Pocasset, were living under a different form of government — 
 an entirely different system — had acknowledged their allegiance and 
 submitted to the laws of their King, and were now living under a com- 
 pact which swept away the whole Puritan polity." It was a model 
 government. ^ It changed the name of the town to 'Portsmouth. It held 
 regular meetings monthly.* 
 
 They at Newport, governing there, desired to be restored to govern- 
 ing at Pocasset, now Portsmouth, and had at an early meeting appointed 
 Commissioners to negotiate with the " brethren at Pocasset " for this 
 end; but neither Hutchinson, Gorton or any others in place in the Ports- 
 mouth government entertained the negotiators or their proposals. Not 
 discouraged, they at Newport, on the 25th of November, 1639, further 
 ordered that the Commissioners formerly appointed to negotiate the 
 business with our brethren at Pocasset shall give them our proposi- 
 tion under their hands, with their answers, and shall give reply unto 
 it, and so shall return to the body a brief of what they therein have 
 done.' They also appointed a committee for the purpose of obtaining a 
 patent for the island. 
 
 We are not informed what all the inducements were which Codding- 
 ton offered to effect the restoration of his government to Pocasset. 
 Those with him at Newport had been liberally allotted land, and would, 
 with Portsmouth, have larger bounty of lands and of homes to be con- 
 fiscated when they returned." The Pocasset brethren were without a 
 land title, could not pass any, nor secure any from Coddington unless 
 
 Hist. N. Eng., i, 515 note. 2d Ed. Winthrop's Journal, i, 356. 'Ellis' 
 
 Life of Annie Hutchinson. Portsmouth and R. I. Reeds. There were thirty-one 
 who signed the Compact for Civil Government, and whose names are upon the 
 original papers. Two of these names, those of Wm. Aspinwall and Thos. SavaE;e, 
 were crossed over fiy some one and are omitted from the printed records ; hut 
 they belong to the list. Roth of these men lived in Pocasset all the while Hutch- 
 inson was Governor. Savage did not leave until Feb. 2, 1639-40, after Coddincrton 
 had provided to return there. Asninwall was there when the Boston Church 
 Committee visited the island Feb. 28, i6-!o-io, and for two years after. With all 
 the mutilation which the R. I. records underwent in the hands of the Coddington 
 party, to favor their government, many errors, aggravating the deception, were 
 also made in the copying, arranging and printing of them. They should be 
 reprinted from the originals. 'Chief Justice Brayton in R. T. H. Tract, 
 
 Tst Ser., 17, pp. 50, 51. 'Record<;, i, 7.?. ^Records, i. 04. 
 
 ^Records, i, 99. 'Indian Grant, R. I. Rec, i, 45. "Records, i, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 27 
 
 they, by again supporting him, became " his friends." ° It appears, too, 
 that the government by Judge and Elders was not to be readopted by 
 him if he were again received by them. Another, a significant " offer- 
 ing," is recorded from the Newport brethren to the Pocasset brethren — 
 " That, as natural subjects to our Prince and subject to his laws, all 
 matters that concern the peace shall be by those that are officers of the 
 peace transacted; and all actions of the case or department shall be in 
 such courts as by orders are here appointed, and by such Judges as are 
 deputed, heard and legally determined." "* The members did not set 
 their names to this. It was signed by their Secretary and sent " to the 
 Pocasset brethren." It was a revelation of its authors' deficient knowl- 
 edge of law and their past disregard for it, and an offer to reform by 
 adopting and thereafter observing legal methods in their proceedings. 
 The Pocasset or Portsmouth people had individually subscribed to the 
 English statute laws. Among other propositions of Coddington's was 
 that he made to his henchmen, stated by him in his letter to Winthrop, 
 as a condition of his return — that Gorton and other leaders of the liberal 
 party should be driven from the island. Considering the eager desire of 
 the Coddington party for office and the wrath which they cherished 
 against those who opposed them, this promise, it will be seen, was cal- 
 culated to arouse them to great exertion. 
 
 Coddington, writing to Governor Winthrop, December 9, 1639, fifteen 
 days after, says : " I am removed twelve miles further up into the island. 
 They gathered a church and intend to choose officers shortly, and desire 
 better helps in that kind when the Lord is pleased to send them, and 
 would gladly see what means doth lie in us to obtain them. Things are 
 in far better pass, divers families being come in, and have given satis- 
 faction. Mr. Gorton and Mrs. Hutchinson oppose it. It was hatched 
 while I was in the Bay, and the Lord, I hope, will shortly put an end to 
 it. Mr. John Coggershall, Mr. William Brenton and Sergeant Balston 
 do desire to have their services presented to your worship." ^ 
 
 This conference of Coddington's committee — what he terms as his 
 removal up the island — was a meeting with not more than one or two 
 of the Portsmouth men, and was not an acceptance of his government 
 or of the people there, of his propositions or his authority. Gorton says: 
 " I knew of none that was present at their meeting but a Clergyman to 
 bless then." ' 
 
 The " helps " who Coddington solicited from Winthrop the church 
 was pleased to supply him. In February, 1639-40, a deputation. Wild 
 says, of " four men of a loving and winning spirit " were sent by the 
 Boston church to visit its members upon the island, to discipline some 
 and to reclaim others. There are but three, William Hibbins, Edward 
 Gibbons and John Oliver, named in the manuscript returns, but Mr. 
 Lenthal, who went to Newport at the same time and remained to teach 
 there, may have been the other member. The deputation lodged the 
 first night of their journey at Mt. Wolliston with Mr. Savage, who had 
 but a few days before (February 6, 1639-40) left Portsmouth. The 
 second night they were met on the way by one who came from Taunton 
 and conducted them to his house. Oliver and Lenthal, after leaving 
 Taunton, for a time lost their way, but on the third day, February 28th, 
 they all came to Portsmouth.* Their return was made in the meeting 
 house at Boston after Cotton had finished his public exposition. March 
 16, 1639-40. At Portsmouth* they met Deacon Aspinwall, the banished 
 one, and brothers Sanford and Balston, the latter now the innkeeper 
 
 93- '4th Ser. Mass. Hist. Collections, vii, 278, 279. 'Force's 
 
 Tract, Vol. iv, Tr. 7, p. 8. 'Lenthal was in August, 1640, within six 
 
 months from his arrival, made a freeman upon the island, and during the same 
 
28 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 of the town, who with others gave them a meeting, listened to the read- 
 ing of the church's letter, and gave satisfactory answers. The next day 
 they visited Newport and were entertained by Coggershall, the dismissed 
 member, who would not receive the church's letter unless they of the 
 island were acknowledged to be a lawful church, which the deputation 
 had no commission to do. 
 
 Mrs. Hutchinson, of Portsmouth, refused to acknowledge the Boston 
 church. Mrs. Dyre, who afterwards became a Friend and lost her life 
 by it, acknowledged the church and desired communion with them; and 
 Deacon Aspinwall, the only one of the compact of first settlers who had 
 been banished from Massachusetts, was satisfied with the righteousness 
 of the church's proceedings against him and others." 
 
 Among the objections raised by the members who were under disci- 
 pline were: That the church had first broken the covenant with the 
 exiles; that the covenant binds no longer than a member remains with 
 the church; that parents and wives being cast out of the church, neces- 
 sity is laid upon others to go with them to supply their wants ; that they 
 had been driven out of the country. To which the Deputies made the 
 following: Answer ist. If the church should break covenant with you, 
 yet that doth not loose the covenant between the church and you. Answer 
 2d. Though some of the members of the church had a hand in his 
 (Aspinwall's) censure and banishment, yet it follows not that the church 
 should deal with them when he suffered justly for his errors and his 
 misapplying of his doctrine, to raise up much trouble and commotion, to 
 the great detraction both of church and commonwealth; therefore, we 
 cannot see that the church hath violated their covenant with you or 
 dissolved your covenant with us; therefore, brethren, do not walk like 
 lambs in a large place, but return, that we may watch over you, for we 
 seek not yours, but you and your good and peace. Answer 3d. The 
 necessity to go with castout parents and wives to care for them was 
 denied. Answer 4th. Mr. Winthrop affirms that his advice was not as 
 Governor, nor as the mouth of the court, but only in Christian love, to 
 depart for a time till they could give the court satisfaction. He answers 
 he did not advise all to depart, for he persuaded Mr. Coddington ear- 
 nestly to stay, and did undertake to make his peace with the court. 
 Neither did the court banish or drive any away but two, Mr. Aspinwall 
 and Mrs. Hutchinson. Some were under no offense at all with the court, 
 as our Brother Hazard. 
 
 Brother Hibbins promised and Brother Coddington accepted that the 
 church covenant should be sent to them. The junior Hutchinson re- 
 quested that he be dismissed from the covenant, but it was refused him, 
 and he was advised to agree to the justice of the church's act in casting 
 out his mother, Mrs. Annie Hutchinson, who, with Mr. Gorton, would 
 under no conditions acknowledge the church, and were reported to be 
 holding meetings in their houses.* 
 
 On the I2th of March, 1640, the day before the deputation's departure, 
 a meeting, presided over by Coddington, was held at Newport, attended 
 by some of the up-island men. With only eighteen out of the seventy- 
 
 mnnth of Auprust, 1640, he left the island and departed for England. 
 *The deputation pot the names of the towns confused, sometimes calling one town 
 by the name of the other ; this, probably, was the result of CoddinKton having the 
 record books from Pocasset, which town had but eight months before changed 
 the name to Portsmouth. "Aspinwall was later. Mar. 27. 1642, fully 
 
 restored in the church. " He made," says Winthrop, " a very free and full 
 acknowledgment of his error and seducement, and that with much detestation 
 of his sin." Wheelright, who was banished and went to New Hampshire, also 
 tendered his submission and was restored to the church. Mass. Records, in, 6. 
 •The Boston Church, not being all agreed, deferred sending the covenant to them. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 29 
 
 three Portsmouth freemen, only thirty-five from both towns, out of 
 ninety only five out of nineteen of the first compact of settlers, but a 
 small minority in every way present, it "agreed, by this body united 
 and " embraced " the few present who were signers of the old church 
 compact ' and proceeded as a court for both towns, although recognizing 
 no one as a member of that government who became a freeman under 
 the civil compact of government. They received as new menibers five 
 of the latter who were present at the meeting, and disfranchised the 
 five soon after the five had voted to sustain the union and it had been 
 pronounced perfected.' The large majority of Portsmouth freemen were 
 never allowed to belong to Coddington's body of citizens; yet at one of 
 his later courts, claiming jurisdiction over them, it was facetiously 
 " aereed " that they were " a democracy," " that is to say, it is in the 
 power of the body of freemen, orderly assembled, or the major part of 
 {hem, to make and constitute just laws." » They adopted this much of 
 the Portsmouth government's methods of proceedings : That they 
 would drop their titles of Judge and Elders; that the officers of the 
 government should be Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants; 
 and that Portsmouth continue to be the name of the town Ihey 
 appointed courts, consisting of Magistrates and Jurors, for both towns, 
 to determine all causes of action that should be presented. They also 
 agreed that officers should be chosen by themselves for both towns, and 
 that the Governor and two Assistants should be from one town and the 
 Deputy Governor and two Assistants should be from the other town. 
 Thev thereupon chose officers for both towns ; but instead of following 
 the order they had suggested and adopted, that the towns should share 
 the offices equally, they chose both the Governor, Coddington. and the 
 Deputy Governor, Brenton, from those who belonged in Newport and 
 were of that government. The office of an Assistant xyas, as a ruse, 
 voted to ex-Governor Hutchinson, of Portsmouth, and then before the 
 end of the term voted to their Elder, Nicholas Easton, of Newport. On 
 account of the probable insurrection, an alarm was appointed, to which 
 aU of the inhabitants of the island were commanded to answer at their 
 peril' Sheffield states that the most important person (Governor 
 Hutchinson) in what he styles the Gorton government abandoned it 
 and petitioned to be reunited to the people of Newport. The statement 
 that he so petitioned is an error. Those of Newport were the petitioners. 
 Hutchhinson resisted at first, but finally yielded to the petitioner s per- 
 suasions and " was embraced " by them.* 
 
 Winthrop, in referring to the overthrow of the Portsmouth govern- 
 ment, calls Hutchinson a weak man. He may not have considered that 
 Hutchinson and his supporters were in an unfairly disadvantageous 
 position, were without any grant for any land. They were possessed 
 or dispossessed, according to the practice, by the vote of those who had 
 gone to Newport and carried the record of their acts with them. Cod- 
 din,gton unyieldingly held the Indian grant of the island and sought to 
 obtain a patent for it to himself, to confirm his title." Hutchinson anri 
 his followers v,^ere in the position of tenants, who would, in the event 01 
 
 2d Ed. Winthroo, i, 396- CoddirRton's letter, 4th Ser. Mass. Collections, vi, r?T2- 
 .20. Robert Keayne's MSS. notes, Archives Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d Ser Mass. 
 Collection, x. 184. Ellis' Life of Annie H.itchinson, 328-rd6. ,;„v.l ^ivi,t, 
 
 sp, I Rec i 119. »"They meant by it an equality of political nphts 
 
 only among the members of the few or rulinof classes." Dorr in R. I. Hist. boc. 
 Prnrppdincrc; New Ser iii, 230. '"R. I. Rec, 1, 100, 102. 
 
 'Records ?' 10. ^The Church hath chosen Theophilus Easton their 
 
 MaSrate.'for so they call him [their Elder, Nicholas Easton]. Coddington s 
 letter to Winthrop. 4th Mass. Col., 278. "Records ., 103. 
 
 *Records, i, 94. 100. 'Records, 1, 94- He represented to the English 
 
30 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Coddingtcn's further success, likely be evicted; and Hutchinson seems 
 to have placed above every other consideration that of saving to others 
 of Portsmouth, more than to himself, their rights in the land. 
 
 Hutchinson was not chosen Assistant at tlieir next election. Had he 
 been willing to accept it, they had no further use for him. Bailey men- 
 tions the unfounded rumor referred to by Williams, " that Mrs. Hutchin- 
 son opposed magistracy and persuaded her husband to lay down his 
 office of Governor." This false charge of " opposition to magistracy '' 
 was made by the church party, not only against her, but against Williams 
 and against Gorton at the very time Gorton was filling the office of 
 magistrate,* and against everyone who opposed the church magistrates. 
 Mrs. Hutchinson opposed only these and gave her support to others, of 
 whom her husband was one. She was opposed to the magistracy of 
 Coddington, assuredly from the time he acknowledged to the Boston 
 congregation that he erred in departing from their church at Boston, 
 and she aided in deposing him from the Pocasset government. She, 
 as Coddington complained, opposed his return as magistrate ; and she 
 may have persuaded her husband to lay down the office he had accepted 
 in the sinful alliance as assistant magistrate to the usurping church 
 magistrate Coddington. 
 
 In this assumption of Coddington at Newpwort to extend his govern- 
 ment to and over Portsmouth there were present, as we have seen, but 
 five of the original compact of first settlers, and a still smaller minority 
 of the whole people than of those he had made freemen. There were 
 upon mainland and island, prior to the charter, no other freemen than 
 those who were made freemen by a compact of settlers. Those who 
 were made freemen by the Portsmouth government were not present 
 nor admitted to a voice in Coddington's proceedings, and it is clear that 
 he had no rightful jurisdiction over the Portsmouth people.' 
 
 The return of the deputation to Boston was within four days after 
 the Newport meeting, at which Coddington assumed to be the Governor 
 over the whole island. The Deputies do not, in the account preserved, 
 mention their stopping again on their return at Taunton. Yet, at about 
 this time, a number of officials from Massachusef-.^ and the island met 
 there and arranged for disposing of their troublesome opponents. 
 
 Taunton, first settled in 1638 by Captain William Poole and his sister, 
 Lady Elizabeth, was a border town upon the main road between the 
 island and Massachusetts, and M^as a convenient and popular resort for 
 men of public affairs and for general travellers. At different times 
 and upon various occasions there met here [some of them under Com- 
 missions from the Governors and Assistants of Massachusetts] Boston, 
 Roxboro, Salem pnd other Massachusetts magistrates and ministers, 
 and ex-Governor Prence, Deputy Governor Brenton and other Plymouth 
 and island churchmen and politicians. Captain Poole's son John mar- 
 ried the daughter of Deputv Governor Brenton of the island, and later 
 Brenton bought a farm at Taunton and for a time made it his home. 
 Here Coddington took refuge and passed much of his time when he later 
 
 rov^rnment that he owned it. Scq. 'Gorton, as AVinthrop said. '' acknowl- 
 
 erlo-ed magistracy to be an ordinance of God in the world, as marnape. za. to. 
 Wirthron ii jy. 'It is impossible to do full jujstice to the men who 
 
 constituted the Model Civil Government, or to the measures they pursjied ; tor 
 Coddint^ton's Rovernmcnt, bv its connivance, secured the records, and the names 
 and official stations of Hutchinson. Gorton and others, and many things un^avor- 
 to the Coddintjtons were eliminated from them. None of the names ot tnose 
 who were siijners and members of the Civil Compact, and only the names ol the 
 MX who were original members of the First Comnact of Coddington s were 
 allowed to remain in his records; leaving us with but the little information ot 
 service to us, which escaped the vigilance of Coddington s government and the 
 little which is obtained from accidental sources. R. I. Rec, 1, 71. 75. »i- ^l"S 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 31 
 
 was compelled to make flight from the island. The town received an 
 unusual degree of attention from Prence, and under him and the laws 
 against foreigners and strangers was the scene of many harrowing 
 acts of persecution.* 
 
 A snare, instigated by the men at the Taunton gatherings, similar 
 to that which had in the Plymouth proceedings against Gorton's maid 
 served so effectually in disposing of those against whom no charge of 
 crime would be effectual, was laid upon the island for Gorton and like 
 unsubmissive islanders.'' 
 
 Three months now had passed since Coddington's assumption of gov- 
 ernment over Portsmouth. Gorton had lived there for eighteen months, 
 " disturbing no man, conducting himself civilly to all men and court- 
 eously." Notwithstanding the defection of Hutchinson from the model 
 government at Portsmouth, it was supported by Gorton and nearly all 
 of the Portsmouth people, and they maintained it and its courts for the 
 town, which courts were the only ones recognized as courts there by the 
 people. A quarterly or circuit court of Coddington's, one of those 
 appointed for the town of Portsmouth at the Newport meeting, v;as 10 
 make an attempt in Portsmouth at sitting. A difficulty was to get causes 
 for trial before this court. Its summons would not be heeded by any 
 Portsmouth people. Action was brought into it by the following pro- 
 ceeding: William Brenton, one of its Judges, who was one of the 
 Elders with Coddington that had the year before been put out at Ports- 
 mouth, who went with him to Newport and was Elder there with him, 
 and who was at the Newport meeting declared, as a resident of Ports- 
 mouth, Deputy Governor over the whole island, himself made a com- 
 plaint and himself an arrest of a house-maid of Gorton's, and this for 
 an alleged trespass and assault on a woman. He arraigned the maid 
 before this court, himself and Coddington presiding. As at Plymouth, 
 Samuel Gorton now came to the aid of his servant. The kindness of 
 his heart prompted him to appear in this court in which she was detained, 
 whose jurisdiction he and the people denied, to release or defend her."* 
 
 Here, as at Plymouth, there was no cause against Gorton. Here 
 there was a self-constituted court sitting with the intent of following 
 the Plymouth course and condemn him for contempt when he should 
 appear in it. 
 
 We find no letter over Coddington's name describing his hoped for 
 " end to it." But an anonymous informant gave an account, which is 
 the only account ever said to have been given by a witness to it. None 
 of the many witnesses to this — it was no trial — and the scenes following 
 it ever owned this account or gave another of it ; and, too, while William 
 Arnold and many others such as he, who were witnesses, were diligently 
 proclaiming everything that could cast discredit on Gorton, and that 
 boldly over their names. 
 
 From the anonymous account, in what no doubt is Winthrop's manu- 
 script, and the conditions presented by Coddington sitting with his court 
 of trial at Portsmouth, where more than three-quarters of the inhabit- 
 ants denied its jurisdiction, it is clear that there occurred there much 
 of what would occur to-day if the magistrates of one town attempted 
 to sit in another. Gorton vehemently protested against the unfairness 
 and illegality of the proceedings. Coddington called upon his followers 
 
 Life of Annie Hntcliinson, 326. *Ante. Plymouth Rec, i and ii. Plain 
 
 Dealing, 3d Mass. Conections, iii, 107. R. I. Col., iii, 208. 'R. I. Hist. 
 
 Col., iii, 2g8. R. I. Hist. Tr.. 17. p. 57. etc. Baylie's Hist. Plymouth, i, 285-290. 
 Force's iv, tract 7. Lechford's Plain Dealings, 3d Mass. Collections, iii, 95, 106, 
 107, 402, 403. '"Judge Brayton, Rider's Tract. 17, 'The first 
 
 preserved storj' of the fracas was given by one of Coddington's henchmen, and 
 
32 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 in the room to eject him. Gorton in turn called upon those of the home 
 government, who had subscribed to the King and his well-known laws, 
 to take away Coddington. Coddington's men laid hold upon Gorton 
 to remove him, while Randall Holden, John Wickes and others, the 
 Portsmouth people, stopped the way. The court was, it appears, without 
 a trial broken up into a hand-to-hand conflict, Coddington, in his zeal, 
 personally engaging in it.' The Portsmouth people, among them Gorton' 
 with clothes torn, for the time the victors, pursued Coddington in his 
 flight. Coddington, however, had come prepared for war by encamping 
 near by some soldiers, and by calling upon them partly restored his 
 order. John Wickes, Randall Holden and a number of others, most 
 substantial men of Portsmouth, were anathematized by Coddington's 
 court for denying its legality and jurisdiction. 
 
 Gorton and others, leaders of his party, some of whom were of the 
 first purchasers of Aquidneck, abandoned the island. The houses and 
 persons of the remaining Coddington opponents were then searched 
 [by those who had complained of the like treatment to themselves 
 when they were in Massachusetts] and a confiscation made of their 
 arms. Gorton and those who left the island with him went to Provi- 
 dence.' Clark, the leader of the movement for settling upon Aquidneck 
 and for whom Williams secured the island of the Sachems, who had up 
 to this time yielded to Coddington and been his pastor, now broke from 
 him, gave up the settled church, joined the Liberal party and never after 
 took part in government under Coddington. Lenthal, who came but 
 about six months before at Coddington's call for helps, as the teacher, 
 had with the others taken part against him, and all within a few weeks 
 had a rupture with the church regarding baptism, had a release from his 
 position, had a free school opened' and had been compelled to close it, 
 now, with the others who had taken part against Coddington, left the 
 island; and Nicholas Easton was fined for breach of order and left out of 
 office.' 
 
 The breaking away of Clark and Lenthal, and the establishing by 
 Lenthal of the free school in the summer of 1640, probably was the 
 beginning of the Baptist Church on the island, though we find no full 
 account of its organization until some time after. Although it does not 
 appear that Coddington again attempted to hold a court of trials at 
 Portsmouth, the others who were leaders in the Liberal party, who 
 tried to remain to live there, among them Mrs. Hutchinson and her 
 family of sixteen and her friends, were so continually harrassed and 
 threatened with being taken and sent for discipline to Massachusetts 
 that they became terrorized and left the island. John Wickes, William 
 Aspinwall, Richard Carder, Randall Holden, Edward and William 
 Hutchinson, John Porter, Thomas Savage and Sampson Shotten were, 
 some of them imprisoned, most of them disfranchised, and all of them 
 and their families and friends with other opponents of Coddington, 
 including a large share of the original compact of purchasers, plundered 
 
 is the one from which the others are taken. By his story, they, of course, whipped 
 Gorton ; but, as the story proceeds, it reveals the certainty that the unpreserved 
 accounts by Gorton's friends told that they whipped Coddington ; for it sets 
 forth the fact that, although Coddinsrton did make Gorton run, he didn't let Gorton 
 catch him. N. E. H. and G. Recr. 'These " intoxicated sectaries," 
 
 Mather wrote, swarmed over into the mnin, where they also purchased some 
 tracts of land now covered with the towns of Providence and Warwick, for all 
 of which they obtained at last a charter. Magnalia, Book vii. 'That 
 
 is one in which the lil^eral studies were taught. Au<t., 1640. Sheffield's Paper 
 35. Thomas Litchfield, in his manuscript of "Plain Dealinsrs," wrote "Mr. 
 Lenthal his Controversy " at the head of his article on " The Dissolution of the 
 Church at Newport, the Lack of Employment of Clark and Lenthal, and Gorton's 
 Departure for Providence." *R. L Collections, vii, 330. 'Williams' 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 33 
 
 some of them imprisoned, most of them disfranchised, and all of them 
 and their families and friends with other opponents of Coddington, in- 
 cluding a large share of the original compact of purchasers, plundered 
 of their lands and dwellings and driven from Aquidneck. For the time 
 and number, in proportion to population, no exodus from Massachusetts 
 exceeded the exodus under Coddington from the island. 
 
 It was among the terms of Coddington's return that the towns should 
 each choose and have their own magistrates for the affairs of their own 
 towns. Coddington's assumption was that of a general court, the law- 
 maker and superior judiciary for the island. There was no prospect 
 that the large majority of Portsmouth people all opposed to him would 
 ever submit to his government for the further reason that he disfran- 
 chised or debarred them from voting for or against him, he accepting 
 as his electors only his pledged friends. 
 
 Williams, in a letter written some years after, thus refers to it: "At 
 Rhode Island, how many instances come therein which I have ready by 
 me of Coddington : a worldly man, a selfish man, nothing for public, but 
 all for himself and private. I will not mention particulars at Ports- 
 mouth and Newport, of which I have told him as I had opportunity." " 
 
 Gorton, in a letter to Nathaniel Morton, written some years after, 
 makes these references to the Plymouth and Portsmouth troubles : " I 
 say no more of this now, though I can say much more, with the testi- 
 mony of men's consciences; but I have been silent to cover other men's 
 shame and not my own ; for I could wish to be a bondsman so long as 
 I live upon the face of the earth, in human respects, that all the agita- 
 tions and transactions between the men of New England and myself 
 were in print without diminution or extenuation. It should be a crown, 
 yea, a diadem, upon my grave if the truth, in more public or more 
 private agitation, were but in prose, though not in poetry, as it was acted 
 in all the places wherein you seek to blemish me. I perceive what 
 manner of honor you put upon me in [Aquidneck Island] Rhode Island, 
 which the actors may be ashamed of, and you to be the herald. I have 
 been silent of these things done at Plymouth and Rhode Island and 
 elsewhere, and am still in many respects, but have not forgotten them. 
 
 "And I have heard that some of Plymouth, then in place, were insti- 
 gators of the island. I could name the parties of both places, being met 
 together at Cohannet (Taunton). I carried myself obedient to the 
 government at Plymouth, so far as became me at the least, to the great 
 wrong of my family, more than is above said, as can be made to appear 
 if required; for I understood they had commission wherein authority 
 was derived, which authority I reverenced; but Rhode Island at that 
 thne had none; therefore, no authority legally derived to deal with me; 
 neither had they the choice of the people, hut set up themselves." ' 
 
 The aversion Gorton expressed to the government of Coddington on 
 the island, we see, was not alone that it had no charter. He asserted 
 what was true, that there was no kind of right in Coddington's claim 
 to sovereignty; that absolute sovereignty could be obtained only by 
 individual commission from the English government; and without this, 
 with or without a charter, legal sovereignty was bestowed only by a 
 majority of all such inhabitants as were by the laws of England freemen. 
 Coddington had no commission from either the Crown or [except for 
 the first few weeks of his residence on the island] from the majority 
 of English freemen. 
 
 letter, Proc. R. I. H. Soc, 1875-6. 'Force's Tract No. 7, Vol. iv. This 
 
 has been artfully so quoted of Gorton as to make him appear to ordinary readers 
 as of the time and an opponent of the government of the State. The reference 
 is to the island of Aquidneck long before it was named Rhode Island. It is to 
 be regretted that when the State arose it was not named Narragansett. 
 
34 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Gorton was none less practical than other men in accepting the fair 
 necessities of the situation, and in paying reverence to any government 
 that had the choice of the people, for the time, until firmly planted by 
 a charter from England. The proof of this is absolute, he having been 
 the leader in organizing the non-chartered model civil government on 
 the island, which was established by the voice of the whole people/ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Coddington's and Benton's coquetry with the Massachusetts government — Moosh- 
 asuck, or Providence, settled by Roger Williams — He obtains written grants for 
 it and for Aquidneck Island — He divides the land to please the objectors to his 
 liberal policy — William Arnold lays large claims to lands — Inception of the 
 fraudulent land claims, difficulties resulting from them and the inability to 
 settle the disputes regarding the claims. 
 
 It was the naturally indulged hope of the Massachusetts magistrates 
 and of the visiting elders that Coddington would at a convenient time 
 submit himself and the island to their government; but on September 
 13, 1640, within about six months after the return of the Massachusetts 
 " helps," who were sent to Coddington, from their visit to the island, 
 Coddington and Brenton, as Governor and Deputy Governor of the 
 island, the new titles they had appropriated from the Hutchinson and 
 Gorton government, elevated with their success and unmindful of their 
 obligations to their colleagues, Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts 
 and his Magistrates and Elders, joined with the Governors of Hartford 
 and New Haven in a letter to Winthrop concerning the latter's policy 
 toward the Indians, and advising him to join with them in a course of 
 proceedings. This was rightly considered by Winthrop and the Massa- 
 chusetts court a freak of obstreperousness on the part of the newly 
 fledged leaders, and the Massachusetts court accordingly resolved that, 
 while they agreed with them in regard to the suggested course of pro- 
 ceedings, they refused to have any correspondence with them as men 
 not to be capitulated with by us for themselves or for the people of the 
 island. The Massachusetts court also assented to all the propositions 
 laid down in the aforesaid letter, " but delivered their answer to New 
 Haven and Connecticut men only, excluding Mr. Coddington and Mr. 
 Brenton."' 
 
 As before mentioned, Roger Williams, on account of the opposition 
 against him by the Massachusetts people, had been obliged to leave there 
 and settle in Plymouth. Differences also arising between him and the 
 Plymouth people, he left there [Dr. Bentley, ist Mass. H. S. Col., vi, 
 246; R. I. H. S. Col., vii, 72], returning to Massachusetts, from whence 
 he was banished. In anticipation of his expulsion from Massachusetts 
 he, in the years 1634 and 163s. had several treaties with Cannonicus 
 and Miantinomi, the two Chief Sachems of the Narragansetts, regard- 
 ing lands for a settlement in Narragansett Bay,' and they granted him 
 the lands of Mooshasuck: it was a verbal grant. Early in 1635-6 he 
 with only a young lad, Thomas Anrrell, then in his employ, sailed down 
 the river toward the home of the Sachems, whom he had accompanied 
 there in the preceding year." When reaching a cove, he describes, the 
 Sachems, in expectation of his coming, having gone out to him, met him 
 with loud demonstrations of joy. Others, in other boats, followed along 
 out of curiosity and the hope of gain. Of these who followed, he says, 
 
 *Samuel Gorton by Judge Brayton. 'Mass. Rec, i. 305- "Williams' 
 
 statement, R. I. H. S. Col., vii, 8s- Hinton, Knapp & Choules Hi^t. U. S.. 1. 107 
 note. "Foster Papers, R. I. H. S. Col., vii, 80. 'Williams, R. I. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 35 
 
 he gave leave to Harris, destitute; Smith, banished; Wickes, poor; and 
 a lad Verin, to join him. And a settlement was in May or June, 1636, 
 made by this company, Williams, Angell, Harris, Smith, Wickes, Verin, 
 numbering six. Williams says: "I, in a sense of God's merciful provi- 
 dence to me in my distress, called the place Providence." He had no 
 partners. It was, he says, granted him in exchange principally for 
 friendly service to the Indian Sachems Cannonicus and Miantinomi, 
 and what cost there was attending it was borne by him alone.* His 
 object was to parcel it among such as were on account of religious 
 differences denied land in Massachusetts. A " compact in a civil way " ' 
 for government, by consent and arbitration, was formed ; and members 
 admitted by Williams into a fellowship with him in the land, to be by 
 them parcelled out at a small cost paid into the town fund, to all men 
 of moral lives and refugees from religious persecution. 
 
 Among others who followed were two men William Arnold and Bene- 
 dict Arnold. They were Massachusetts' agents : Benedict also merchants' 
 agent for arms, ammunition and liquors. During May 1637 a trouble 
 arose; regarding which as Roger Williams writes, a boisterous and des- 
 perate man, the young Verin, having assaulted his wife so furiously with 
 blows as to endanger her life, because of her attending religious meetings, 
 the town council disfranchised him until he should amend his conduct. 
 Benedict Arnold supported Verin and with poor wit derided the Williams 
 or town covenant, asserting that as Verin dealt with his wife according 
 to his conscience it would be a violation of the covenant to punish or 
 restrain him, (Book Notes Vol. 24, Nos. i, 2, 3, 4, and following.) 
 
 Other men were, as they came, admitted into the association. Not 
 all joined, and some who did join parted from it, some returned to 
 Massachusetts; so but two of those who came with Williams are among 
 the " we six which came first " to whom " the first portions of grass 
 and meadows were appropriated ; " and but one of those, Harris, among 
 the first twelve, viz., William Harris, John Throckmorton, William 
 Arnold, Stuckley Westcott, John Greene, Thomas Olney, Richard 
 Waterman, Ezekiel Holliman, Francis Weston, Robert Cole, William 
 Carpenter, Thomas James, whom, Williams states, were the first twelve 
 admitted into fellowship with him in the land. These men did not pay 
 anything to Williams, but those afterwards admitted, and the member- 
 ship soon increased to over a hundred, paid thirty dollars each into 
 the town fund, and from this fund thirty pounds were given him on 
 account of his time and expenses.* 
 
 On August I, 1637, John Greene, one of the twelve above named, a 
 surgeon by profession, was taken into custody by Massachusetts officers 
 and bound by their court in one hundred marks for speaking contempt- 
 uously of their Magistrates. Although Williams sent a letter to Win- 
 throp interceding for him, he was on September 19th fined twenty 
 pounds. Following this, letters were sent by Greene and others to the 
 Massachusetts court, which incurred their further displeasure, and, it 
 appearing to the court that others of Providence were in the same cor- 
 rupt judgment and practice, it was ordered that they should keep from 
 their jurisdiction under penalties as the court should see fit.^ A number 
 of landless or new men subscribed probably during this August' to the 
 government in the town book, among them Benedict Arnold. William 
 Arnold earlier had been admitted to the association of government and 
 
 Rec, i, 22, 25. Nar. Club, vi. 305, 306. R. I. H. Tr., 14. 'Williams. 
 
 May 17, 1637. Nar. Club, v, 4-6, Book notes, xxii, iii. "'Soul Liberty," 
 
 by Sidney S. Rider, Prov. T2. 'Williams, in Deed of Dec. 20, 1661. 
 
 ^Mass. Rec, i, 224. Turner's Greenes in Col. Hist. Greene Family. 'The 
 
 subscription Williams wrote for the men without families. Judge Brayton, Tr. 
 
36 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 a fellowship in the land. To this association he ever adhered in name, 
 but was disloyal to it from the beginning, and ever both secretly and 
 openly in hand with Benedict in envious clamors and efforts to hamper 
 and destroy it and turn over to Massachusetts the government and the 
 land. 
 
 The grant as first made to Williams was a verbal one, but on " the 
 24th of the first month, commonly called March, in the second year of 
 our planting," in 1637-8, Williams wrote and these Sachems executed 
 an evidence of the grant "to Roger Williams;" and Miantinomi went, 
 Williams says, " on account of the envious clamor of some against 
 himself, with him and other white men around the granted tract and 
 sat its bounds." ' 
 
 At the time of the settlement of New England, and prior to the death 
 of Charles the First, the King was the only landholder in absolute fee 
 in England. All lands were vested in the Sovereign and were parcelled 
 out to his military and political supporters. These feudal lords held 
 them, though subject to escheat, in perpetuity from father to son. These 
 lords, who were also legislators, judges and executioners, in turn par- 
 celled the lands among their supporters the occupants or vassals, who 
 could not transmit it to their posterity. With the Cromwellian revolu- 
 tion began the annihilation of vassalage and the ownership of land by 
 the individual, a title in fee simple. With this change a few certain 
 men of Providence, who had shown a desire to become feudal lords 
 and who were quick to see the value which individual possession of the 
 land would be to them, objected to Williams' liberal policy in admitting 
 so many to share in its distribution ; and " as a peace offering," Williams 
 says, " and that he might be free " to pursue his intended policy at 
 Providence he, on October 8th, 1638, made to the first thirteen, that ls, 
 himself and the twelve whom he had admitted to fellowship with him 
 as town trustees, a written conveyance of the land in the original 
 grant ; and then he with them made a written conveyance to themselves, 
 as trustees for a new town in which they might be more guarded in their 
 allotments, of all that part of the land west of a line afterwards to be 
 established. The Williams grant was, after this, given two names : The 
 whole of it, the " Grand Purchase of Providence," and the western part 
 of it, the " Pawtuxet Purchase." Williams showed his disrelish of this 
 in designating these twelve associates as " the first monopolizing twelve," 
 though eight of them did not follow the leaders in the monopoly. But 
 four only of them made claim of individual ownership in the newly 
 set-off lands.* 
 
 William Arnold and his son Benedict Arnold and son-in-law William 
 Carpenter and one Robert Cole immediately settled upon a part of what 
 they called the Pawtuxet purchase, and newcomers were not admitted 
 as landholders. Benedict Arnold associated with himself twelve men 
 in rivalry with Williams, and claimed to be the government of the people 
 of Providence. Their's were compulsory methods. Complaints were 
 made by these men that the Providence people were trespassing on their 
 purchase. Williams denying their pretensions, the cry arose, " What 
 is Roger Williams; we will have present bounds set," and the matter 
 of setting a line between Providence and Pawtuxet was referred to four 
 men, one of whom was William Harris, who became leader for the 
 Pawtuxet claimants. 
 
 In July, 1640, a report of failure to settle the difficulty was made by 
 
 17. 'Nar. Club, vi, 390. R. I. H. Tr., 2d Ser., 4. PP- 23. 5i. Lands of 
 
 R. I., Sidney S. Rider. *2d. Ser. R. I. H. Tr., 4. PP- 1-12. 46. 65. " Brought 
 
 the murmuring aftercomers and monopHzinp twelve to a oneness by arbitration. 
 Williams' Book Notes, xix, p. i. ist Ser. R. I. H. Tr, 14, p. 58- The 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 37 
 
 them with propositions for the location of the Hne of separation, for a 
 system of government in which five town managers should dispose of 
 affairs by compulsory arbitration, and that " the town by five men shall 
 give every man a deed of all his lands lying within the bounds of the 
 plantation, to hold it for after ages." These propositions, in a paper 
 dated July 27th, purporting to be a combination agreement, printed 
 among the Early Records, was never acted upon by the inhabitants or 
 landholders of Providence, or agreed to, or so signed, or ever recorded 
 in Providence. We will lay it open when it was recorded ten years 
 later in Massachusetts. The earliest deed now known is one from 
 William Harris to William Arnold, dated August 29, 1640, and, 
 although we find no record of the deed from the town to Harris, it is 
 probable that he received one, the first their town committee granted 
 under the proposed order. The second deed known is from the town 
 of Providence to William Arnold, under date of April 14th, 1641. The 
 recording of other deeds folowed." 
 
 The scheme of the Pawtuxet claimants to acquire the lands developed 
 the remarkable adroitness of William Harris, who, as their leader with 
 claims and processes, " robbed us," Roger Williams says, " even by a 
 kind of force ever since the birth of the town," and so kept the honest 
 landholders unsettled and alarmed that they, Williams said, " lived in 
 no order but rout, as Harris beasts, as he calls all who cross him." " 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Gorton's arrival in Providence — Arnold's complaint — Gorton retires from Prox'i- 
 dence to land in Papaquinapaug — The Arnold Pawtuxet claimants forge papers 
 to further extend their land claims — They become subjects of Massachusetts 
 to obtain for the enforcement of their claims that government's assistance — 
 The Massachusetts government commissions Benedict Arnold to obtain from 
 Miantinomi his submission and cession oi the Narragansett lands to them — 
 Miantinomi sells Occupesuatuxet to Greene — Providence notified by the Massa- 
 chusetts government of their jurisdiction over them and cited to trial at 
 Boston — Gorton replies to Massachusetts' notice to Providence — Gorton buys 
 Shawomet, or Warwick — Its settlement, government and town orders. 
 
 The people of Providence had for about three years been engaged in 
 their land disturbances when Gorton arrived there. He, after settling 
 there, did not have any personal difficulties with anyone. One of the 
 men who gladly hailed his arrival there was John Greene, surgeon, 
 whose experience with the Massachusetts magistrates we have related. 
 The settling down of Gorton and his island friends, Holden, Shotten, 
 Potter and Wickes, at Providence would be an ally to Williams' party 
 there, whom, Arnold said, were already " so many ; " and would 
 strengthen the resistance to the pretensions of the Pawtuxet claimants; 
 and Arnold, who with his friends had secured the positions of town 
 managers, opposed their reception to the town privileges, to either hold 
 land or vote. A meeting of the five town managers was held on May 
 25, 1 641, in which the subject of admitting Gorton and his friends 
 to the town was considered, some of the managers addressing the meet- 
 ing- in Gorton's favor. These addresses were not preserved, and we are 
 again compelled to gather from his enemies' accounts. Arnold addressed 
 the meeting, expressing his dissent from what those favorable to 
 
 Forgeries," Williams' Deed and " The Lands of R. Island," by Sidney S. Rider. 
 "Nar. Club and R. I. H. Tr. 14. Williams said Harris' boundless bounds were 
 impossible to fix, hence we lived in rout until 1643, when he procured the charter. 
 
38 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Gorton had said, and asked : " What may we expect if he could get him- 
 self in with and amongst us, where are so many, as we see, ready to 
 tread us under their feet, whom he calls his friends?" 
 
 To be freed from these embarrassments and to avoid the contentions 
 the people of Providence were engaged in, Gorton and a number of 
 those who were attached to him, Holden, Carder, Shotten, Potter and 
 Wickes from Portsmouth, and Warner and Power of Providence, 
 quietly retired from the early settled portion of Providence and pur- 
 chased a claim of Robert Cole, one of the Pawtuxans, to a parcel of 
 land upon Papaquinapaug river, a small stream issuing from Masha- 
 paug pond, flowing through what is now Roger Williams Park into 
 Pawtuxct river. Here at Papaquinapaug, outside of but adjoining the 
 early settlement, they resided during the fall and winter of 1641 and 
 summer of 1642, built houses and bestowed their labors to raise up 
 means to maintain their wives and little ones.' 
 
 A few months after this the town managers appointed arbitrators for 
 Francis Weston of Providence, one of Williams' twelve, who, witn John 
 Greene and others of Williams' twelve, did not agree to the Pawtuxans' 
 methods in an action by the Pawtuxan settlers for trespass upon their 
 claimed land, who rendered a judgment against him for fifteen pounds 
 and proceeded to levy by execution upon his cattle. Greene questioned 
 the fairness of the proceedings, and joined with Weston, who, with 
 perhaps six or seven others of Williams' company, aided to resist; 
 whereupon a complaint was, on November 17th, 1641, drawn up by 
 Benedict Arnold to the Massachusetts court against John Greene and 
 others, including Samuel Gorton, who had championed their cause and 
 was the most able advocate of their rights among them. Arnold's com- 
 plaint stated that it was sought by Pawtuxet men to attach on Francis 
 Weston's cattle and impound them, when the cry was raised, " Help, 
 sir, help," and " they hurried away the cattle," and " so they do at any 
 time if any of theirs is attached." It closed by asking aid " to bring 
 wrongdoers to satisfaction." This complaint and petition was written 
 by Benedict Arnold and signed by himself and but the Pawtuxan claim- 
 ants William Harris, William Arnold and son-in-law William Carpenter, 
 of those who had been of Williams' company, in all by twelve men, 
 Arnold's company. It was not " a petition of the people of Providence," 
 as it was falsely headed. It was unofficial and unknown at the time to 
 the people of Providence, and it represented nobody but the petitioners.' 
 The Massachusetts magistrates, however, in reply advised them to 
 " submit themselves to some jurisdiction," " then we had a calling to 
 protect them." * 
 
 In the August 1642 sessions of the Massachusetts Court, Benedict 
 Arnold was engaged with their other officers to visit Miantinomi, the 
 Chief Sachem of the Narragansetts, to compel his attendance at Boston 
 to induce him to deny the sale he had made of the land to Williams, 
 to submit himself and tribe with their lands to Massachusetts or to show 
 what right he had to his lands and dominion.* He appeared at their 
 
 'On April 9, 1662, Samuel Gorton deeded, his wife Mary joininc;, Papaquinapaug 
 land, which was passed from Robert Cole unto himself by a deed bearing date 
 the loth of Jan., 1641. Early Record Rook, iii, p. 013- Williams said: "We 
 lived in no order but rout " from the annoyance of the Pawtuxans, but the pur- 
 chase by Gorton of one of their claims should have secured relief from them. 
 'R. I. H. S. Col., ii, 101-193. A fraudulent copy of the petition with Williams' 
 name attached ; a fraudulent Williams letter : and a fraudulent Presentment of 
 the Grand Jury were all in 16.16 sent by Coddinsiton to Winslow in Mass. for his 
 use in England, which he took there and published in his charges airainst the 
 people and charter of the Providence Plantations. °ist. Winthrop, ii, 59. 
 
 *Mas3. Rec, ii, 24. Palfrey, i, 121. 'Simp. Def., 1646, p. 14- R- I. H. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 39 
 
 court, but, true to his friends of the Providence Plantations, he would not 
 deny his sales, defended his rights and refused to submit anything to 
 Massachusetts ; whereupon the court forbade him to sell land without its 
 permission and ordered the disarmment of his people. 
 
 The Pawtuxans extended their claims; the Sachems now complained; 
 they had occupied and built upon land for which no right had been pur- 
 chased.* The new town grant, it will be remembered, was all the land in 
 the original Indian grant to Williams which lay west of the Providence 
 settlement. That is all the land west of a line running north and soi:th 
 which the claimants desired to establish, which could appear to have been 
 in the original. With this in view the claimants had obtained the 
 original deed of Williams and added to it a memorandum which, pretend- 
 ing it was done from Williams request by the Sachems, interpreted the 
 stated bounds upon the streams to mean all the land bounding upon the 
 stream in its whole length and upon all its branches. The signatures of 
 Miantinomi and Williams which were appended to this memorandum 
 were forgeries. Williams says regarding it: "After Miantinomi had 
 sat our bounds in his own person, because of the envious clamor of some 
 against myself, one amongst us, not I, recorded a testimony or memo- 
 randum of a courtesy, added, upon request, by the Sachems, in these 
 words, ' up streams without limits ; * so far all the meadows and at last 
 all the uplands must be drawn into this accidental courtesy, and yet upon 
 no consideration given, nor the Sachems knowledge, or hand or witness; 
 nor date." The date of 1639 was after this forged to it.* 
 
 On September 8th following, the Pawtuxet claimants, William Arnold, 
 Benedict Arnold, Robert Cole and William Carpenter, but, excepting in 
 this instance William Harris, four in number, undeterred by the greatest 
 indignation expressed and the strongest opposing efforts made by Wil- 
 liams, Throckmorton, Greene, Wickes, Waterman, Holliman, Gorton, 
 Holden, Brown, and nearly all the other land holding, reliable people 
 in Providence or Williams government, and regardless of the great 
 wrong they were inflicting on the whole people, treasonably violated 
 their pledge to the compact of government they had subscribed to with 
 Williams, and submitted their person and lands to the jurisdiction of the 
 Massachusetts colony. They were accepted by Massachusetts " as the 
 place," Providence, over which Massachusetts now, by virtue of the sub- 
 mission of these four men, assumed jurisdiction or government, " was 
 like to be of use to them if they had occasion to go out against the 
 natives. It gave an opening into Narragansett Bay." And the new sub- 
 jects were at once commissioned as ofificers to preserve order and exe- 
 cute the warrants of the Massachusetts courts in their newly claimed 
 dominion Providence.' 
 
 The claim of Massachusetts to jurisdiction over Providence, based on 
 the submission of William and Benedict Arnold and Cole and Car- 
 penter, these four people, is surprising. " What would Massachusetts 
 have said if the English government had treated Morton and Radcliff as 
 competent to surrender the political rights of the Massachusetts 
 colony?"' The manifest injustice of the means resorted to by the ene- 
 mies of Williams and Gorton confirm the suspicion that in their professed 
 desire to establish an orderly government they were not honest nor the 
 claims they set up just. Robert Cole, now by this, one of the Massachu- 
 setts peace officers in Providence, had shortly before, when at Roxbury 
 
 Tr., 2d. Ser., 4, p. 6g. 'The memorandum, Judge Staples says, was 
 
 written by Thomas James, Annals of Providence. " The Forgeries " 
 
 with " Deed Given to Roger Williams," and " The Lands of R. Island," by Sidney 
 S. Rider, Prov. R. I. H. S. Col., v, 2T. Nar. Club, vi, 387-394- 'Mass. 
 
 Rec, ii, 26, 27. ist Winthrop, ii, 35. 'Doyle's Puritan Colonies, i, 328. 
 
40 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 in their colony, been disfranchised by them for drunkenness and sen- 
 tanccd to wear a D of red cloth, continuously displayed for a year, upon 
 his outward garment. '" Even the astute magistrates in Boston must 
 have smiled to sec Robert Cole in the attitude of plaintiff and asking 
 their intercession for the establishment of an orderly and quiet govern- 
 ment.* 
 
 " The people of Providence had made great sacrifices in providing a 
 refuge for soul liberty and were strongly opposed to this proceeding of a 
 small minority of their number, yet the Bay colony did not regard the 
 wrongfulness of the request profered to it. It Vv'as desirous of breaking 
 up the refuge of heresy by the " fresh river of Mooshasuck and Wanas- 
 quatucket, and also an opening to its own citizens a passage to the Naf- 
 rangansett Bay." The conduct of the Massachusetts colony in extend- 
 ing its laws beyond its chartered limits and into the midst of an inde- 
 pendent colony was rightly regarded by Gorton and his friends as a 
 flagrant act of usurpation." " The operations under the acts of the 
 Arnolds and their partners and Massachusetts, so dangerous and damag- 
 ing to the peace and prosperity of the Narragansetts Bay inhabitants, 
 lasted sixteen years.* Harris did not attach himself with the others of 
 the party to Massachusetts, yet he more than the others appears the 
 genius of the claims and of the methods of " rout " which were pursued 
 so fiercely. 
 
 When the settlers at Papaquinapaug began to make improvements 
 upon their purchase and on the outlying wild land there, Arnold and his 
 Pawtuxet partners appeared with claims for trespass against them. 
 Gorton said: "These pretended subjects of Massachusetts thus far 
 fetched, had learned this device, that whereas some of us had small par- 
 cels of land laid out to build houses upon and plant corn, and all the rest 
 lay commons and undivided, as the custom of the country for most part 
 is, they would permit us no more land to build upon or to feed our cattle, 
 unless we would keep upon that which they confess to be our proper 
 right ; and they would of no division but by foot or by the inch, and that 
 we could neither have room to set a house but part of it would stand on 
 their land,' nor put a cow to grass hut immediately her bounds were 
 broken; and then presently must the one be pulled down and the other 
 put in pound to make satisfaction, or until satisfaction be made for both. 
 So by this unreasonable and palpable slight of their pretended subjects, 
 together with the power of their so irregular a government, we plainly 
 perceived a snare was laid to entrap us again ; not only to hinder to pro- 
 vide for our families, but to bereave us again of what God through our 
 labors and industries had raised up unto us as means to maintain our 
 families." * 
 
 The hostility of the Pautuxet partners in not less degree was displayed 
 toward Greene and others at Providence, who yet remained there and 
 contended for their rights there. Unable longer to endure the annoy- 
 ance of the Pawtuxet partners and to avoid further contentions at Prov- 
 idence, Greene and a number of those who were attached to him con- 
 cluded upon a removal. On October ist. 1642, Miantinomi sold to John 
 Greene the lands south of the Providence and Pawtuxet grant of Wil- 
 liams; separated from it by the Pawtuxet river, known as Occupesua- 
 tuxet, with adjoining meadows and a small island; the deed being signed 
 also by Socononico, the local Sachem.* 
 
 •Pryant's Hist. U. S. Mass. Rec. i, 107-T12. R. I. Collections, ii. 50. 
 "Mackey's Life of Samuel Gorton, 2d Ser. Spark's Am. Biopraphies, v, 342, •?4r 
 etc. 'Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, iii. =Wintlirop's Book of News 
 
 said that Gorton, perceiving the Pawtuxet men's titles to be weak, went and built 
 houses upon their poQc^-esions. »R. I. Collection, ii, 47. 52. 
 
 *Proc. R. I. H. Soc, 1887-8, p. 49. Williams said: "We lived in no order but 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 41 
 
 The Massachuesetts Court, on October 28th following, agitated by the 
 Narragansett chiefs' disregard of their orders by the recent further sale 
 of land to the heretics, and acting by virtue of the claim of jurisdiction 
 acquired through the submission of the Arnolds, sent by the hand of one 
 of them, their newly made officers, a notice directed to " Our Neighbors 
 of Providence," asserting their sovereignty over them and citing them 
 to trial for complaints to the court at Boston ; with the warning if you 
 shall proceed to any violence you must not blame us if we shall take like 
 course to right them." 
 
 The reply to this notice, although the notice was directed particularly 
 to Providence, but to Greene and all the land-holding settlers who re- 
 sisted the Pawtuxans and Massachusetts pretensions, was believed to 
 have been written by Gorton, although signed also by Greene, and in all 
 by twelve men, the backbone of Williams' government, living in Provi- 
 dence and its outlying places." 
 
 "Now brought face to face, as it were, with the arbitrary power in the 
 Bay, these loyal men, true to their allegiance to the crown of England, 
 desiring above all things that which the Massachusetts objected that they 
 had not, authority from the crown as Massachusetts had to set up a 
 government and thereby to enjoy the liberties and the laws of England, 
 were brought face to face with a power in the Bay which had repudiated 
 all the laws of England, all the constitutional safeguards of civil liberty, 
 which had denied their allegiance to the King, by virtue of whose 
 charter they were enabled to rule within the limits defined therein, and 
 were governed by no laws for many years save what existed in the 
 heart of the magistrate. 
 
 These earnest loyal men now had simply to choose between civil lib- 
 erty and bowing down to this arbitrary power and going into their courts 
 to be tried and judged and it might be punished. With true English hearts 
 they chose the first at once. They claimed that the laws of England were 
 theirs and that English liberty was theirs; that they came from the mother 
 country to these shores clothed with them; that it was their birthright; 
 and they had an abiding confidence that the government at home would 
 in the end vindicate those rights and liberties of theirs, they trusted in 
 God and their allegiance and answered." ' [Given with Judge Bra3^ton's 
 remarks.] 
 
 " We lately received an irregular note subscribed to by four men of 
 the chief among you. We could not give credit to the truth thereof, 
 because we thought that men of your parts and professions would never 
 have prostituted their wisdom to such an act, that is, to assume a juris- 
 diction beyond their charter limits. 
 
 " Whereas you say Robert Cole and William Arnold and others have 
 put themselves under the government and protection of your jurisdiction, 
 which is the occasion you have now got to contend with us; we wish 
 your words were verified, and that they were not elsewhere to' be found, 
 that is, out of your jurisdiction. 
 
 " We know neither the one nor the other have power to enlarge the 
 bounds by King Charles limited unto you. 
 
 "In that you invite us into your courts to fetch you equal balanced 
 justice, upon this ground that you are become one wi'th our adversaries, 
 and that both ' in what they have and what they are.' Now if we have 
 our opponents to prefer his action against us, and not so onlv. but to 
 be our council, our jury, and our judge, [for so it must be. if you are one 
 with them as you affirm], we know beforehand how our cause will be 
 
 rout" from the annoyances of the Pawtuxet claimants. "R. I. Tollec- 
 
 tJons, n. «judge Brayton, R. I. H. Tract 17, p. 81. 'Force's 
 
42 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 ended, and see the scale of your equal justice turned already, before we 
 have laid our cause therein ; and can but admire to see you carried so 
 contrary to your received principles. 
 
 " Further we know that the chief among you have professed that we 
 are not worthy to live and, if some of us were amongst you we should 
 hardly see the place of our abode any more. 
 
 " VVhen we have to do in your jurisdiction, we know what it is to sub- 
 mit to the wise disposition of our God. When you have to do amongst us 
 in the liberties he hath given us, we doubt not but you shall find Him 
 judge amongst us, beyond any cause or thing you can propose unto us; 
 and let that suffice you, and know that you cannot maintain a jurisdic- 
 tion, but you must reject all inroads into other men's privileges, and so 
 do we. 
 
 " We profess right unto all men, and do no violence at all, as your 
 rescripts threaten to do us; for we have learned how to discipline our 
 children or servants without offering violence unto them ; even do we 
 know how to deal with our deboist, and, yea, inhuman neighbor, or [if 
 you will] nabals, without doing any violence, but rather rendering unto 
 them that which is their due. 
 
 " Nor shall we be forward to come so far to find you work upon your 
 request, till we known that you bear another mind than others of your 
 neighbors do with whom we have had to do in this country, whose pre- 
 tended laws we have stooped under to the robbing and spoiling of our 
 goods, the livehood of our wives and children, thinking they had labored, 
 though groping in gross darkness, to bring forth the truth in the right 
 and equity of things, or being such as have denied in the public courts 
 that the laws of our native country should be named amongst them ; yea, 
 nasty and insufferable places of imprisonment for speaking in the lan- 
 guage of them. 
 
 " Yea, they have endeavored, and that in public expressions, that a 
 man accused by them should not have liberty to answer for himself in 
 open court, as in Plymouth. 
 
 " But the God of vengeance unto whom our cause is referred, never 
 having our protector and judge to seek, will show himself in our deliver- 
 ance out of the hands of you all." 
 
 [They might be excused for being a little prophetic] 
 
 " We resolve, therefore, to follow our employment and to carry and 
 behave ourselves, as formerly we have done, and not otherwise, for we 
 have wronged no man, unless with hard labor, to provide for our families 
 and suffering idle and idle drones to take our labors out of the mouth 
 and from the backs of our little ones, to lordane it over us." 
 
 [And a little more prophecy. They may be excused for a little more 
 prophecy.] 
 
 "We will not be dealt with as before v/e speak; in the name of our 
 God we will not ; for if any shall disturb as above, secret hypocrites shall 
 become open tyrants and their laws appear to be nothing else but mere 
 lusts in the eyes of all the world." 
 
 And they conclude: 
 
 " Countrymen, [we can but call you so,] though we find your carriage 
 to be far worse than these Indians." 
 
 They seem to have understood the character of their adversaries better 
 than their enemies themselves seemed to. We shall afterwards find that 
 the civil injuries, and only such which they then desired to redress, were 
 not inquired about, nor redress attempted. _ 
 
 Having sent this letter to the General Court, then in session, with m- 
 
 Tract 6, p. 22. Rider's Tract i;, P- °<i- Williams said: "We lived in no order 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 43 
 
 tent that the country might be informed of what the court and magis- 
 trates were doing, Gorton says : " Wethought it meet for the possession 
 of our peace, together with the compassion we had for our wives and 
 little ones, to leave the houses and the rest of our labors lying near unto 
 these [Arnolds, Cole and Carpenter] their pretended subjects and re- 
 move to territory where there could be no claim thereto or pretense to 
 any.'" 
 
 Gorton had been advised to go far from Providence by John Warner, 
 who had returned from Boston and reported the threatenings he heard 
 there against him. And by William Collins, a scholarly young minister, 
 formerly of Gloucester, England, recently from Hartford, Ct., now of 
 Portsmouth Aquidneck, — son-in-law of Mrs. Hutchinson, who with 
 Francis Hutchinson had been cast into prison at Boston and kept many 
 months in durance. He upon his release and on his return to Ports- 
 mouth stopped to visit Gorton and urged him to go with him and the 
 party of Mrs. Hutchinson to the Swedes or Dutch settlement, for, he 
 said, " upon his knowledge the Mass. intended in a short time to take his 
 life if he abode in any of the English plantations." But Gorton refused 
 to go under the government of any foreign Prince, " as he had neither 
 been false to his King nor country nor to his conscience."^ He, with a 
 few of his friends, took up their abode at Shawomet, within the Narra- 
 gansett territory, but beyond the Pawtuxet river and beyond where any 
 English settlement had been made. 
 
 Shawomet, or Warwick. 
 
 The original settlement of Shawomet was made in December, 1642, 
 by Gorton and five or six others of his partners in its purchase." The 
 whole number of purchasers were Samuel Gorton, Randall Holden, John 
 Wickes, Richard Carder, Sampson Shotten, Robert Potter, John Warner, 
 John Greene, Francis Weston, Richard Waterman, William Woodale, 
 whose names are inserted in the conveyance, and Nicholas Powers, un- 
 derstood to have been and who shared as a purchaser with them — twelve 
 in all ; but some of them never resided there. Within two months after 
 the settlement, on January 12th, they received from Cannonicus and 
 Miantinomi and the subordinate Sachems a proper deed for the land." 
 They formed themselves into an association for civil government by arbi- 
 tration, like that at Providence, and made rules which they agreed to 
 observe and by which their proceedings were to be governed. They 
 chose from among themselves for such government the regular or accus- 
 tomed officers. The receipts from the sale of lots were to be paid to the 
 Treasurer; and by John Warner, whom they made Secretary, their rec- 
 ords were to be kept. 
 
 The following early items were recorded bv Warner, the handwriting 
 corresponding with his later signature and writings : 
 
 Town Orders. 
 
 The purchasers of the plantation do order and conclude first: 
 That none shall enjoy any land in the neck called Mishaomet but by 
 grant of ye owners and purchasers. 
 
 but rout " from the annoyance of the Pawtuxet claimants. 'R. I. Col., 
 
 ii, 57, 60. °" Settlement of Warwick 1642," by Wm. D. Ely, Proc. R. I. 
 
 H. S., 1887-88, pp. 40-46, and 1890-91, pp. 41-43. '"Cannonicus and 
 
 Miantinomi were the Chief Sachems of the Narragansetts. See Coddington's 
 deposition, 2d Mass. Col., vii, 76, 77. Williams' letter in Hazard's Col., i, 613. 
 Gorton did not buy this land in violation of any law over it, as Holland states 
 
44 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 That every acre of meadow shall have its proportion of upland, as the 
 neck may afford. 
 
 That we lay our highways into the neck in the most convenient places 
 as we think fitting. 
 
 That no man shall directly or indirectly take in any cattle to common 
 but only milk cattle and laboring cattle. 
 
 That whomsoever is granted a lot, if he does not fence it and build a 
 dwelling house upon it in six months, or in forwardness thereto, for ye 
 neglect his lot is to return to ye town to dispose of. 
 
 That for the town proper to all the inhabitants is to be from ye front 
 fence to the neck into the country four miles; and that no part of the 
 common shall be appropriated to any but by the major part of all ye 
 inhabitants; and that every inhabitant is to have six acres to his house 
 lot, for which he is to pay ye Treasurer I2s., and this four mile com- 
 mon is annexed to every man's lot. 
 
 Several other " orders " follow ; one specifying the manner in which a 
 person could be received into the company; he was to be "propounded" 
 and afterwards balloted for, and if accepted pay the sum of ten pounds 
 sterling. The fourteenth order provided that " no man in the town is to 
 sell strong liquor or rock to the Indians for to drink in their houses, and 
 if it be proved he that so breaks this order shall pay to the Treasurer 
 five shillings for each offense." Subsequently, after the organization of 
 the government under the charter, this last order was strengthened by 
 the addition of wine to the prohibited liquors.' 
 
 Their town records were more than ordinarily neatly kept ; much of 
 them written in good stenography. 
 
 Writers have idly commented on the absence at Providence and Shaw- 
 omet of a judiciary and wondered how at the latter place they would 
 have determined cases of resistance to their rule. The six men first above 
 named as of the purchasers of Shawomet were all who first settled there.* 
 The others of the purchasers, who were most of them early Providence 
 men, remained at Providence and Occupasnetuxet intent if they had to 
 leave upon harvesting their fields before leaving. John Warner did not 
 move his family to Shawomet until when six months after the first 
 settlement Massachusetts commissioners and soldiers were ordered to 
 Providence to treat with him. Some of the purchasers of Shawo- 
 met never became residents there. There was no selfish strife among 
 the scarcely more than half dozen men there," and what need had 
 a few for a " judiciary " during the few months, less than a year, 
 there, in which short time they had by daily hard labor cleared 
 some forest and hardly finished erecting but four little dwellings, 
 when they were carried off to Boston ; none of them permitted to live 
 there again until long after a government awaited them under a charter. 
 A true and complimentary description of the Shawomet settlers was 
 given by William Harris, whom Williams quotes in denouncing " his 
 monstrous Diana up streams without limit, so that he might antedate 
 and prevent as he speaks, the blades, brisk, mettlesome, sharp, keen, 
 active young men of Warwick.''* 
 
 in Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc. 'Town Reeds, Fuller's Hist. Warwick, 
 
 13, 14. 'Johnson, the author of "The Wonder-working Providence of 
 
 Zion's Saviour in New England," gives the number as five or six who encroached 
 and began to build. 'R. I. Col., ii, 96. *Nar. Club 6, p. 392- 
 
 " Lands of Rhode Island," 98, 99. "The later " Petition of John Clark 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 45 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Williams departs from Providence for England to secure a charter — The 
 Colonies' League — Massachusetts government orders their Captain-General 
 to put the colony on a war basis — Their troops to move under the leadership 
 of William Arnold against Greene and others at Providence, Pawtuxet and 
 Occupesuatuxet to capture and bring them to Boston for trial — Miantinomi 
 again brought by Arnold to the court at Boston, and again refuses them sub- 
 mission or cession of his lands ; refuses to deny the sale of his lands to his 
 friends Two of Miantinomi's subjects seduced to submission to Massachu- 
 setts Shawomet settlers notified by the Massachusetts government of their 
 
 jurisdiction over them and summoned to Boston for trial — Gorton's reply to 
 the Massachusetts notice to Shawomet — Occupesuatuxet and Shawomet settlers 
 notified by Massachusetts of their intended military advance upon them — 
 Providence invaded by the Massachusetts troops — The settlers of Occupes- 
 uatuxet flee to Shawomet — Shawomet besieged by Massachusetts soldiers — 
 Massachusetts troops send to Boston for reinforcements — Captives sent to Bos- 
 ton Benedict and William Arnold commissioned by Massachusetts to seize 
 
 those who escaped — The captives', Gorton and others, imprisonment in Massa- 
 chusetts — Their release and banishment by the Massachusetts court from 
 Massachusetts, from Providence and from their own Shawomet lands — ^Jhey 
 arrive upon the island — Island Aquidneck's name changed to Rhode Island. 
 
 Massachusetts in her assumed authority over the unchartered settle- 
 ments denided their right of government ; declaring that " the^^govern- 
 ment at home would not endure a plantation without a patent." 
 
 The unchartered government of Providence was, in the absence of the 
 King's authorization, insufficient in either law or unity to command the 
 obedience of their subjects, had they been numerically strong enough, to 
 resist the encroachments of the chartered governments. Gorton had 
 urged these reasons for the need of a charter for the Narragansett Bay 
 settlements. 
 
 After Massachusetts had, by virtue of the Arnolds' submission, as- 
 serted her claim to Providence, including the far-reaching Pawtuxet, it 
 became evident to others of the settlers that their independence, their 
 only guarantee of any rights with religious freedom, could not be longer 
 maintained without a charter. Williams, Clark and others of the liberal 
 party who had now come to acknowledge Gorton's theory of security 
 and stable government, joined in petitioning the English government for 
 a charter for government,^ and chose Williams for the responsible posi- 
 tion, which he accepted, of proceeding without longer delay to England 
 to secure one. Williams says : " Upon the frequent exception taken by 
 Massachusetts that we had no authority for civil government, I went pur- 
 posely to England to secure one."' 
 
 When, in February, 1642-3, Williams sat out on his mission "to seek 
 this favor and protection from the mother country," he was not allowed 
 to enter or leave Boston, Mass., so he proceeded to New York, then 
 Manhattan. While enroute he witnessed the Indian assaults upon the 
 Dutch settlements at New Haven and upon Long Island, in which were 
 massacred many of those who had been driven from the island of Aquid- 
 neck by the rule of Coddington. Not until Jime did a ship for an Eng- 
 lish port sail from Manhattan, and on this he secured passage." Cod- 
 dington's government had the September previous appointed a com- 
 mittee to secure them a patent for the island." Massachusetts already 
 had Agents Peters and Weld in England making strenuous efforts to 
 
 and others" relates that the petitioners did in 1643 secure a charter. 
 'Williams' letter to Prence and Mason, ist Mass. CoUec, 1, 275-283. 4th Mass. 
 Collec, ii, 40. 4th Mass. Collec. vi, 186. R. I. Rec, ii. 150-162. Rider sR. I. 
 Hist Tract 17, p. 88. Greene's Hist. R. I., p. i5- Gammel's Life of Williams, 
 p 116 'Cotton's Bloody Tenets Washed. Williams Bloody Tenets of 
 
 Persecution Intd. 'R. L Rec, i, 125. "Hugh Peters, Thomas 
 
46 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 secure them a patent for the Narragansett territory, including Provi- 
 dence, Shawomet and the island, and Williams' departure was just in 
 time to prevent it being patented to others." 
 
 After Williams' departure from Providence, and before he set sail 
 from Manhattan, the colonies of Massachusetts, New Haven and Con- 
 necticut concluded an alliance in what was termed a United offensive and 
 defensive league against heretics and the Indian tribes who had not sub- 
 mitted to their governments. The colony of Plymouth was not repre- 
 sented, but was whipped in at the October sessions. The Providence or 
 Narragansett Bay colonies, being made up largely of heretics and refu- 
 gees from the other colonies of New England whom the league essayed 
 to suppress, were not invited to join in it." They later repeatedly ap- 
 plied for admission in the hope of securing peace and relief from oppres- 
 sion,' but it was refused them principally upon the ground alleged, that 
 they had no charter and belonged to the other colonies." Military prepa- 
 rations were made by Massachusetts to subdue the heretical colonists to 
 their government before Williams' return. The initial military move- 
 ment was directed against John Greene and others of Providence and 
 Occupasuetuxet, who yet clung to their homes and were preparing to 
 make crops from their lands.^ On May loth, the Massachusetts Court 
 directed Captain General Cook, who was in chief command of the troops, 
 to put the colony upon a war basis,* ordered a company of soldiers sent 
 " to Providence," and appointed commissioners to go under the leader- 
 ship of their Commissioner, William Arnold, to treat with Greene and 
 with Warner and Waterman of Providence, who, with W^addle and Pow- 
 ers, continued to reside there. On May 20th, the Massachusetts Court 
 issued a Commission to William Arnold, Benedict Arnold, William Car- 
 penter, Richard Chasmore, Christopher Hanksworth and Stephen 
 Arnold, and to all and any of them, to apprehend the bodies of John 
 Greene and his son John, Richard Waterman and Nicholas Powers, and 
 to bring them to Boston, before the Governor or some other magistrate, 
 to be proceeded with according to justice; and if need and occasion be 
 they to take aid of any other English or Indians which are under the 
 jurisdiction of Massachusetts; and to seize all the cattle of the said John 
 Greene which cannot now be found as they might hereafter find and 
 either send them to the Governor at Boston or to keep them safe till the 
 Governor send for them." ^ This was eighteen months after Gorton left 
 Providence, six months after the time he left Papaquinepaug and moved 
 to Shav.'omet, more than four months before Massachusets asserted her 
 claim to Shawomet, anyone there notified of any claim or anyone dis- 
 turbed who lived there. 
 
 The Massachusetts commissioners who had unsuccessfully urged the 
 chiefs of the Narragansett tribe to deny first the sale of Providence to 
 Williams and second the sale of Occupasuetuxet to Greene, now dili- 
 gently pressed the Narragansett Sachems ° for the submission of the 
 tribe, the cession of their dominion to Massachusetts and to deny the 
 sale of Shawomet to Gorton. Miantinomi upon the urgent solicitation of 
 
 Weld, William Hibbins, John Winthrop. Jr., and Thomas Lichford went together 
 to England Aug. 3, 1641. Hibbins and Winlhrop returned in Sep., 1642. Thomas 
 Peters, brother of Hugh Peters, also went to England on business for the Mass. 
 government in 1646, post p. Savage's Dictionary. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 118. _ 
 "Winslow's Memorial Introduction, p. 52. 'Trumbull's Hist. Conn., 1, 
 
 176. Turners Greenes in Colonial History 23. =Winiams' letter, R. I. 
 
 Rec, i, 458. 'Testimony of John Greene. Jr., to Court at Newport, 
 
 Book Nnotes, Vol. 3, No. 21. pp. 241-244. 'Mass. Rec, ii, 30. 
 
 "Ante p. Post p. R. I. Collec, ii, 207, 211, 212. In Oct., 1658, the Arnolds 
 were required by the Mass. Court to give bonds for any judgment for damages 
 secured against Mass. by Greene, before it would dismiss the Arnolds from the 
 Mass. jurisdiction. Mass., Rec, iv, Pt. i, 333, 336. 'Mass. Rec, ii. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 47 
 
 Commissioner Benedict Arnold and others, accompanied them again to 
 the court at Boston, but he would not engage with the court in any 
 negotiations. To all blandishments and inducements he was unyielding, 
 and even the threat made by Benedict that the sale of the land to Gorton 
 should cost Miantinomi his head failed to swerve the loyalty of this noble 
 chief from his friends. Far from yielding them a submission or acced- 
 ing to any of their wishes, he boldly acknowledged his sale of Occupasue- 
 tuxet and Shawomet and avowed his right to make them.' Thereupon 
 two of Miantinomi's subjects were employed by Arnold and the other 
 Massachusetts commissioners to effect their purpose. One of these, 
 Socononco, the local Sachem of the tract including Occupasuetuxet, 
 and the other, Ponham, the local Sachem of Shawomet. They were in- 
 duced by presents, the expectations of great gain and the hope of being 
 elevated to independent sachemdoms to say that they signed the deed of 
 sale of the land not voluntarily but from fear of Miantinomi. This state- 
 ment, although shown to be untrue, if true effected not the validity of the 
 sale, for they were subjects of Miantinomi, and according to all Indian 
 usage removed at their chief's pleasure. They, on June 22d, 1643, sub- 
 mitted themselves as subjects of Massachusetts. This gave the Massa- 
 chusetts Court a pretext for jurisdiction over Occupasuetuxet and Shaw- 
 omet similar to that which it made by virtue of the submission of the four 
 men before mentioned over Providence ; but it was far short of what 
 the Commissioners hoped to secure, — Miantinomi's submission and the 
 rightful cession he could have made to them of the broad range under his 
 dominion. The two Indians " came," Winthrop says, " to our govern- 
 ment by Benedict Arnold," who was " allotted four pounds for his pains 
 in procuring them,* and Arnold was granted permission to supply them 
 with powder and shot as he had occasion. They were the most degraded 
 and venial characters, ready tools at the service of any one Who could 
 supply them with rum and tobacco.^ Neither Socononco nor Ponham 
 could wait until the victims would again abandon their land and houses; 
 they had already entered their dwellings and had reasons not stated by 
 Winthrop " for wishing to be released from responsibility to the Shaw- 
 omet people. They were both thieves, and Ponham, having on one occa- 
 sion crep down a chimney and rifled a house in the absence of its 
 owner, was captured as he was attempting to escape by the same outlet. 
 Perhaps the Massachusetts magistrates were not insensible of the ridicule 
 thrown upon them. Ponham was afterwards shot by Massachusetts sol- 
 diers near Dedham. Hubbard says, "Among the rest of the captives at 
 that time was one of Ponham's sons, a very likely youth and one whose 
 countenance would have bespoken favor for him had he not belonged to 
 so barbarous and bloody Indian as his father."' 
 
 The next session of the Massachusetts Court was on the 7th of Sep- 
 tember, following the submission of the two Indians. The Commission- 
 ers of the United League met at the same time in Boston. The Indian 
 Sachems in the eastern portion of Long Island submitted themselves, 
 their tribes and lands to the colonies which were within the league, and 
 these tribes became to them a tributary people. The Massachusetts 
 commissioners reported their possession of Narragansett lands secured, 
 as they claimed, through the submission of the two forenamed Indians. 
 
 ii, IIS, 121, 123. R. I. Collec, ii, 265. Deposition of Benedict Arnold, R. I. 
 Collec, X, 56. Lands of R. I., 97. Drake's Book of the Indians. 
 27, 35- 'sd Savage's Winthrop, ii, 97, 100, 145. Palfrey's Hist. N. Eng., 
 
 •Hildreth's Hist. N. Eng., i, 292. ist Winthrop, ii, 120. 2d VVinthrop, ii, 147, 
 148. Mass. Rec, ii, 27, 38, 40, 41. ""R. I. Collec, vii, 190. Greenes 
 
 of Warwick 13. '"Bryant's Hist. U. S., ii, 79 note. R. I. Collec, ii, 267. 
 
 *Hubbard's Indian Wars. 'Johnson gives the number as five or six who 
 
48 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 On the I2th of Scpptember the Massachusetts Court caused the settlers 
 of Shawomet to be informed through the before named subjected officers 
 of the submission of the two Indians and of the consequent Massachu- 
 setts jurisdiction over the Shawomet land and people, and summoned 
 Gorton, Wickes, Holden, Potter, Weston, Carder, Warner and Woodale, 
 who were now living at Shawomet, to appear at Boston to answer com- 
 plaints against them. 
 
 Seldom ever have men been so goaded beyond endurance and to the 
 verge of desperation as were these men. After they had for peace sake 
 abandoned their own houses and lands and gone to the forest outside the 
 claims of every one, where they now, in all but seven of them,^ not at- 
 tempting to enforce their religious opinions on any one, and having done 
 no man wrong, as shown at their trial at Boston later on, they prayed to 
 be left only with what was their own alone; followed here and sum- 
 moned to Boston.' 
 
 In reply to the Massachusetts notice " we told them," says Gorton, 
 " that we, being so far out of their jurisdiction, could not, neither would 
 we acknowledge subjection unto any in the place where we were, but only 
 the State of old England, who only had right unto us, and from whom we 
 doubted not, but in due season we should receive directions for the well 
 ordering of us m all respects; and in the meantime we lived peaceably 
 together, desiring and endeavoring to do wrong to no man, neither Eng- 
 lish nor Indian ; ending all our difficulties in a neighborly and loving way 
 of arbitration mutually chosen amongst us." * 
 
 On September 19th the Massachusetts court sent another notice, by the 
 hands of the subjected officers, to Providence and Shawomet, informing 
 them that they would shortly send Commissioners for satisfaction, with a 
 sufficient guard for their safety agaist any violence or injury; if re- 
 ceived they would be left in peace, otherwise to right themselves by force 
 of arms. The military movements of the Massachusetts authorities 
 against Greene and others at Providence and Occupasuetuxet and Gor- 
 ton and others as Shawomet was directed by Benedict Arnold, who 
 gave notice to Massachusetts of the proceeding of these men to secure 
 themselves and reported that they were ready to meet the Massachusetts 
 forces." Almost immediately following the notice the Commissioners, 
 accompanied by a company of forty soldiers under command of Captain 
 Cook, Lieutenant Atherton and Edward Johnson, the latter the author of 
 " Sion's Savior in New England." were dispatched to Providence. Upon 
 the approach of the troops Greene and the others wanted by the Massa- 
 chusetts government, yet living at Providence and Occupasuetuxet, fled 
 to Shawomet. The soldiers marched through Providence, making sure 
 that none should escape, and on to Shawomet in pursuit of them. Thus 
 by their fleeing brethren while the people of Shawomet were in the field 
 at their employment the news of the approach of soldiers reached them. 
 The commissioners and soldiers came to a halt September 28. 1643 be- 
 fore Shawomet. A message was sent out to the commissioners, who 
 proved to be the officers of the company of soldiers, that if they would 
 come to treat in any way of equity and peace they would be welcome, but 
 not to set a foot upon Shawomet in a hostile way. 
 
 An answer was returned by the same messenger that they desired to 
 convince them of their error, to turn them from evil, but if there was no 
 way of turning them, then they should look upon them as men prepared 
 for slaughter, and proceed with convenient speed to its execution. 
 
 The return of this answer from the officers frightened the women and 
 
 encroached and began to build. 'Mass. Rec, ii, 41- R- I- Collec, ii, 95. 
 
 ♦Simplicity's Defense, Staples' Ed. 96. "sd Winthrop, ii, 146. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 49 
 
 children, who fled to the woods, to the Indians and to the other settle- 
 ments. The less than twelve men fortified themselves as best they 
 could in one of the log houses.* Gorton was the last to enter the citadel, 
 having delayed that he might help his wife to a place of safety.' Many 
 people of Providence, not of those pursued by the troops, who being 
 deeply affected with the proceedings, who had followed on to witness the 
 result and to aid their brethren, were prevented by threats and the ap- 
 parent hopelessness of success from assisting them. They, however, pre- 
 vailed upon Captain Cook and his officers to enter into a parley. At the 
 interview the Shawomet men inquired of the strangers the cause of their 
 coming, the latter alleged that the former had intruded upon the subjects 
 of Massachusetts, and that they held blasphemous errors which they 
 must repent of or go with them to the Bay to answer in the courts 
 respecting them. 
 
 The Shawomet men answered that they could not yield, that their ad- 
 versaries should be their judges, and, too, they being so far out of their 
 jurisdiction, but proposed to refer the matter to mutually chosen arbitra- 
 tors. This proposition so commended itself to those present that a truce 
 was agreed upon until word could be received from Massachusetts. 
 Meantime the soldiers broke open the Shawomet people's houses and 
 their desks and took away their writings,' quartered themselves upon 
 their cattle and drove away those who had come to see them. 
 
 Four of the Providence men, the excellent and venerable Chad Brown, 
 who now was first pastor of the Providence Church while Williams was 
 in England; Thomas Olney, William Field and William Wickenden, all 
 ministers, wrote on October 2d to the Governor of Massachusetts praying 
 him to accept the fair and reasonable propositions made to him ; but Win- 
 throp in his reply declined acceding to the proposition. 
 
 The truce was terminated by the return of the messengers and an- 
 nounced by the discharge of guns and the seizure of all the cattle, 
 eighty head, which were turned over to William Arnold, and other 
 stock and property of the settlers, and a message "was sent to Gorton in- 
 forming him that the truce, which had been no truce, was ended." Gor- 
 ton and his men were no cowards. The intruders, four times their 
 number proceeded to establish themselves and open fire upon the settlers 
 and besieged them for many days ; and until the approach of the Sab- 
 bath, when Gorton indulged in the hope that the sanctity of the day 
 v/ould afford them a day of rest, but in this he and his friends were dis- 
 appointed, for on the Sabbath morning fireworks were prepared with 
 the intention of burning the house, which had served as the settlers fort- 
 ress. The fire that was set to burn the house was extinguished. The 
 besieged, however, though they had arms during all this time, discharged 
 not a piece against them, being loth to spill the blood of their country- 
 men. 
 
 At length more soldiers were needed, and the intruders sent to Massa- 
 chusetts for aid, and the besieged, seeing that in the end they would have 
 to yield, sought once more a parley and consented to accompany the 
 officers or commissioners to Massachusetts ; provided they might go as 
 " free men and neighbors." The conditions were allowed and the troops 
 summoned to return home. The Captain, having been admitted into the 
 castle of the besieged, immediately, in violation of the articles of capitu- 
 lation, seized upon the arms of the settlers, gave them with ammunition 
 to the subjected Indians, used Gorton and those with him as captives 
 
 •" The block-house of Samuel Gorton," probablv built of lo^s with their sides 
 squared and laid one on the other. 'The wives of John Greene and 
 
 Robert Potter died from fright and exposure in their flieht. 'R. I. Collec, 
 
 ii, 105, 200, 225. Force's iv Tract, 6, p. 53. "Mass. Rec, ii, 53. 54- 
 
50 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 and marched them through the " Town Street " of Providence as if it 
 were their jurisdiction, on to Boston for trial. The men captured at 
 Shawomet were Samuel Gorton, Randall Holden, John Wickes, Richard 
 Carder, Sampson Shotten, Robert Potter, John Warner, William Wad- 
 del and Francis Weston. Richard Waterman and Nicholas Power sur- 
 rendered themselves and appeared at the trial with the rest of them," 
 but another warrant ,was issued to the before-named subjected officers 
 for the arrest of John Greene and John Greene, Jr., who had taken 
 refuge on the island of Conanicut and avoided being taken,'" with direc- 
 tions to bring them to Boston. The assent upon the people of Shawomet 
 was nine months from the time the first of them settled there. 
 
 At the trial no one complained of any injury or wrong, not a person 
 but the ministers and magistrates appeared against them.' Out of their 
 writings the magistrates framed twenty-six gross opinions. Upon Gor- 
 ton's denial of the constructions they had given his writings he was com- 
 manded by Dudley, upon penalty of irons, to be silent. Mr. Bradford 
 very courageously and at much risk to his interests * prevented further 
 questioning unless he was free to speak to them." 
 
 The captured men were for their heretical opinions condemned as 
 blasphemous enemies of the Lord Jesus and were sentenced * and im- 
 prisoned, narrowly escaping the penalty of death by the refusal of the 
 people to concur in the judgment of the Elders. All of the magistrates 
 save three were of the opinion that Gorton ought to die, but the greater 
 part of the deputies,^ who were chosen by the people, dissented." Gorton 
 was confined at Charleston and the others in other towns until March, 
 1644, the whole winter, and set at liberty then because the proceedings 
 had never the approval of the people, the masses, and it was dangerous 
 longer to keep them.' 
 
 The order for the release of the prisoners was passed by the General 
 Court on March 7th, but when it was presented to Gorton accompanied 
 by a smith to file off his fetters, he refused to part with them on the 
 conditions presented, and declared he would wait for " fairer terms of 
 release." " When the constable returned with the chief men of the 
 town, who ordered the irons to be removed by force, Gorton relaxed his 
 resolution and left the prison." This was on the thirteenth of March or 
 after. " Gorton and his friends were so kindly received in the various 
 houses in Boston that the jealousy of the Magistrates was aroused and 
 the Governor took upon himself the responsibility of issuing a warrant 
 commanding them to leave town within the space of two hours." They 
 were also forbidden to be longer than fourteen days in Massachusetts, 
 in or near Providence or any of the lands of Ponham or Socononco [their 
 own land] or elsewhere in our jurisdiction." ' 
 
 With free consciences they set out for the island. " Was Captain Cook 
 a good captain?" asked some of them of an Indian chief at whose wig- 
 wam they were entertained on their journey. " I cannot tell," he 
 answered, " but Indians account of those as good captains where a few 
 stand out against many." They lodged the last night of their journey in 
 
 "Greenes of Warwick in Colonial Hist. 4- '" We never had accusation 
 
 brought, against us but that arose from the magistrates and ministers, for we 
 walked so as to do no man wrong." Gorton in R. I. Collec, li. 54- . 'A 
 
 penalty .mposed of fine or whipping for taking heretics by the hand is related 
 by Fohn Clark in his " 111 News from New England." 4th Mass. Collec, u. 
 •R. I. Collec. ii. 133. 'Sentence. Mass. Rec. ii. 52, R. I- Collec, 11, 134 
 
 and note. "Upon the whole vote there was a majority of two in Gorton's 
 
 favor. 2d Mass. Collec. viii. 60. R. I. Collec, ii, I34. 232. "Winslow's 
 
 Defense. R. I. Collec, ii, 276. 2d Winthrop, ii, 177. ^d Winthrop, 
 
 179 and note. Judge George A Brayton's Defense of Samuel Gorton. 
 •Mass. Rec, ii. 57, R. I. Collec, ii, 148-150. ""There hath been no 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 51 
 
 their houses at Shawomet, where, perceiving that Shawomet was not 
 expressly named in the order of the court banishing them, they ad- 
 dressed a letter of inquiry from " the government of Shawomet " by 
 WilHam Warner, secretary to Governor Winthrop; he replying that it 
 was included in the territory forbidden them. They did not wait there 
 for the reply to their letter, for Gorton says they arrived on the island 
 within the limit of their banishment. Again, " about a week after," 
 says Winthrop, " we sent men to fetch so many of their cattle as might 
 defray our charge, both of the soldiers and of the court which spent many 
 days about them and for their expenses in prison. It came in all to about 
 £160.* 
 
 The greatest injustice to Gorton was not in anything we have related, 
 but in the untruthful account of him circulated by Massachusetts writers, 
 not to justify the people of Massachusetts for they never did approve 
 of it, but to justify the Magistrates' and Elders' proceedings. Gorton 
 said, truthfully, that " they labored to give the country satisfaction by 
 rehearsing gross opinions of us, and interpretation of our writings 
 which we abhor. That we denied the holy ordinances of Christ because 
 we could not join with them in their way of administration. That we 
 denied all civil magistracy because we could not yield to their authority, 
 we being above twenty-four miles out of their bounds, which we should 
 not have questioned if we had been within them. Our humble respects 
 unto all such authority hath been made manifest to all men." 
 
 Through the history of these people and their struggles for life, liberty 
 and the possession of their homes yet forty-three troubled years before 
 allowed peaceable and permanent possession of them, " Shawomet has 
 become a name not only memorable but consecrated by the heroism, 
 the suffering and the Christian patience of Samuel Gorton and his com- 
 panions."* 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Narragansett Nation. 
 
 The Narragansett Nation — Extent of its domain — War and stratagem — Miantinomi 
 captured and his son slain — Denial by Massachusetts of the Sachem's right 
 to the land or to sell it to Greene, Gorton and Williams — Gorton intercedes for 
 the life of Miantinomi — Miantinomi put to death and word justifying it sent 
 to Cannonicus— Grief of the Narragansetts — The Sachems send for Gorton to 
 visit them — Gorton secures from them their submission and cession of their 
 dominion — The Narragansetts called to answer for what they had done and 
 their reply to Massachusetts — Cordial reception of Gorton by the people upon 
 his return to the island — Gorton again chosen Magistrate — Gorton and others 
 settle down on the island to abide the arrival of the charter — Political reunion 
 of the church — Coddington writes to Winthrop of Gorton's adherents' opposi- 
 tion to him and to Massachusetts — Coddington's attempt to deliver Gorton 
 again to the Massachusetts court prevented by the island people. 
 
 At the time of the first settlement of the English in Narragansett 
 the Narragansett nation was without a rival or equal among the tribes 
 
 small noise of Master Gorton and his friends being disciplined [by Mass.]. It 
 is_ worth the inquiry to ask what conviction and conversion hath all these hostil- 
 ities, captivatings, courtings, imprisonments, chainings, banishments, etc., wrought 
 upon them." Roger Williams. Austin's Collections of Williams' Writings. 
 '"R. I. Collec, ii, 120. 'William D. Ely and John A. Rowland in Proc. 
 
 R. I. H. Soc, 1887-88, p. 44. William D. Ely, Proc. R. I. H. Soc, 1890-91, pp. 
 
52 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 of the east. Cannonicus was its Chief, and no eastern tribe could 
 compare with it either in extent of jurisdiction, number of warriors, 
 firmness and wisdom of government, or industry of its people. Its 
 Chief had full and undoubted jurisdiction over the inhabitants of a 
 tract of country extending from the Nimpuck country, which is now 
 Oxford, Mass., in the north, southerly to the ocean, including Manesses 
 (or Block Island) and a part of Long Island. It began on the east with 
 Seekonk river and the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay, and ex- 
 tended westward, including the islands, to the Pawcattuk river or 
 perhaps beyond it to the borders of the tribe which dwelt " in the trust 
 of Pequot river, now called the Thames, and was under the control of 
 the fierce and bloodthirsty enemy of the Narragansetts, Uncas, a chief 
 who had rebelled against Sassacus, the Pequot Sachem, and detached 
 from its allegiance a considerable portion of his nation, of which he 
 had formed a distinct tribe. 
 
 The general name of Narragansetts was applied to all the inhabitants 
 of this long tract of country ; but they were divided into several petty 
 tribes with each its under-sachem and local name; and this appellation, 
 in its original and restrictive sense, belonged only to that tribe which 
 dwelt on the southwestern shores of the bay. This was the chief tribe, 
 or the most distinguished of all the tribes of which the nation was 
 composed, and the Sachem or ruler of this tribe was consequently the 
 Grand Sachem, and his jurisdiction and government extended over 
 the entire country here described bounds of the nation. 
 
 IMore than this, the Wampanoags to the east were subject to theni, 
 but their chief, Massasoit, formed an alliance with the Whites, gave 
 them a portion of the lands he had subjected to Cannonicus and Mian- 
 tinomi ; and was reinstated at the head of an independent confederacy. 
 
 After the extermination [Sept., 1638] of the Pequot tribe, a treaty 
 was arranged by the Whites between Miantinomi, nephew of Cannonicus 
 and now active Chief of the Narragansetts, and Uncas, the treacherous 
 Chief of the Mohegans, agreeing to an oblivion of the past, and that 
 new complaints should be submitted to the Whites for arbitration. 
 
 The treaty was not kept inviolate. Uncas established himself in 
 the popularity of the Whites at Boston and grew more insolent to his 
 Narragansett brethren. He threw out menaces, uttered the names of 
 their honored dead and jeered at their memory. For a succession of 
 injuries done to his friends and kindred, Miantinomi complained first 
 to Connecticut and was told that they did not countenance or justify 
 the wrongs. He then complained to Massachusetts and was told that 
 if Uncas had done him or his friends wrong and would give no satis- 
 faction, he was at liberty to take his own course. He had thus fulfilled 
 the obligations of the treaty to the letter. The arbitrators had declined 
 acting and he went about to redress his wrongs in his own way. 
 
 The two armies approached each other over a place since called 
 Sachems' Plain; and here Uncas proceeded to carry into effect a 
 stratagem. 
 
 Before the battle commenced, he stepped from his ranks and desired 
 a parley [the two armies thereupon halting within bowshot of one 
 another], and suggested that "stout men fight it out" in a personal 
 battle. This refusal was what Uncas had anticipated, and the moment 
 it was uttered he fell flat on the ground and his men discharged^ their 
 arrows over him upon the unsuspecting Narragansetts. They yielded 
 to the shock, broke and fled. They were pursued, many falling beneath 
 the stroke of tomahawk and war club. Among the slain were two sons 
 
 41-43. The Sachem wore an arrow-proof jacket that had been pre- 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 53 
 
 of Cannonicus and a brother of Miantinomi. In the heat of the pursuit 
 the Mohegans were arrested by the shout of Uncas, announcing the 
 capture, the fall of Miantinomi/ 
 
 Miantinomi had been the friend of Williams and Gorton in their 
 distress. When Gorton and his persecuted followers removed to Shawo- 
 met, the kind and generous Chieftain received them and their families 
 with generous hospitality and granted them land upon which to dwell 
 among them, and he was not in the day of his tribulation forgotten. 
 
 The right of Miantinomi to grant this land Massachusetts denied, 
 and after having seduced his under-sachems to renounce his authority 
 the Magistrates of Massachusetts summoned the independent chief 
 himself to appear before them, as judges in their own cause, to show 
 by what right he had made the grant and how he claimed jurisdiction 
 over his own subjects. 
 
 It was during the heat of the proceedings of the Boston Commissioners 
 against Gorton and his friends that Gorton learned that Miantinomi 
 had become the captive of Uncas, the favorite and protege of Massa- 
 chusetts. He immediately interposed, requiring Uncas to release his 
 prisoner, and threatening him with vengeance if he refused. The 
 shrewd Mohegan thereupon surrendered his prisoner, but to the public 
 authorities at Hartford. To the latter, neither Gorton's efforts or 
 Miantinomi's earnest plea that he be delivered to his Shawomet and 
 Providence friends were availing." The authorities at Hartford retained 
 him, even after the payment by the Narragansetts to Uncas of a large 
 ransom,* a prisoner until the Commissioners met at Boston in Septem- 
 ber,^ when they sought the advice of the Elders, who upon the pretense 
 that he, in what he had done, had not consulted them according to the 
 treaty or agreement — the evident ground for the decision, however, 
 being that all their efforts had proven that he could not be seduced from 
 his allegiance to Gorton and Williams and made to renounce his deeds 
 of land to them, and submit himself and his dominion to the government 
 of Massachusetts — gave their opinion that he deserved to die.* The 
 Commissioners thereupon returned him to Uncas, commanded Uncas 
 to put him to death, and engaged to save him harmless of the conse- 
 quences.' He was killed while the troops were besieging Gorton and 
 his party in the block building. Winthrop sent a letter to Cannonicus 
 justifying the execution, and, " that the Indians might know that the 
 English did approve it, sent twelve or fourteen muskateers to abide 
 awhile " with Uncas for his protection.* 
 
 Upon the receipt of the news of the death of Miantinomi, " one 
 universal wail of grief passed through all Narragansett." Loud lamen- 
 tations, day and night, burst from groups of women and children and 
 aged men, whilst the warriors blackened their faces, sharpened their 
 hatchets and muttered dreadful imprecations. 
 
 " The chief and most aged peaceable father of the country, Cannoni- 
 cus, having buried his sons, he burned his own palace and all his goods 
 in it [among them to a great value] in a solemn remembrance and in a 
 kind of humble expiation to the Gods.'" And Pessacus, one of the 
 successors and the brother of Miantinomi, sent messengers to the 
 Governor of Massachusetts, informing him of his determination to 
 avenge the death of their Sachem. 
 
 sented to him by Gorton ; but that this at all retarded his action, as writers have 
 asserted, is not probable. 'Trumbull's Hist. Conn. 131. *5th Mass. 
 
 Collec, i, 331. R. I. Collec.. vii. 64. "Hollister's Hist. Conn., i, 122. 
 
 *Acts, Corns. United Colonies, Sep. 1643, PP. 9-12. 2d Winthrop, ii, 158 and note. 
 R. I. Rec, i, 137. Gammel's Life of Williams, 125. R. I. Collec, vii, 167. 
 'Trumbull's Hist. Conn., i, 136. *2d Winthrop, ii, 161, 162, 301. 
 
 •Williams' Key, Nar. Club, i, and in Complete Works of H^n. Job Durfee, LL. D., 
 
54 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 The sturdy resistance of Gorton to the injustice of the Massachusetts 
 authorities,'" his restoration to freedom, the plea he had made for Mian- 
 tinomi, and his ever kindly interest in the welfare of the red people 
 gave him the highest favor any man had attained to among them ; and 
 the Sachems, immediately upon Gorton's freedom and arrival upon the 
 island, sent messengers to him, to recount to him their wrongs, to express 
 their sympathy and love for him and their surprise and joy at his release. 
 When they returned he accompanied them. The Sachems, seeing the 
 approach of the vessel, sent a band of lusty men who met him and 
 conducted him to the old Sachem Cannonicus, multitudes of Indians 
 com.ing forth joyfully to meet him. Directly upon Gorton's arrival 
 among them, on April 19th, a General Assembly of the Narragansett 
 Nation was called by their Chiefs for the public manifestation of tlie 
 sense of the wrong done them and for the adoption of measures to right 
 them. An accusation, plainly false, was made by the Massachusetts 
 Alagistrates against the planters of encouraging the Narragansetts to 
 war. The Narragansetts, at this time a powerful tribe, needed no 
 encouragement to leap in avenging warfare ; they ached for it. Only 
 Gorton's influence with them and their heed to his persuasion that they 
 refrain from violence and await the better righting of their wrongs 
 by the English government, which all felt sure would be done, restrained 
 them from the slaughter of many Massachusetts settlers. An Act of 
 Submission, which the Massachusetts Commissioner had been unable 
 to obtain from them, was procured from them by Gorton. Williams 
 had not yet returned with the charter, and so from necessity, as well 
 as propriety, the submission was taken to the parent government. A 
 form.al act, setting forth their reasons therefor, submitting themselves 
 and granting their entire dominion to the government of the King, was 
 drawn up by Gorton, and it was subscribed to by Pessicus, Chief 
 Sachem, brother and successor of the late Miantinomi, and Cannonicus 
 and his son Mixan.' The article was also a peace treaty in which they, 
 yielding to Gorton's advice, agreed not to war for revenge, but to 
 submit their wrongs and their redress to the justice of Great Britain; 
 and although civil war in England prevented that government from 
 protecting them in their rights or redressing their grievances and the 
 killing of Miantinomi went unavenged, the Narragansetts, out of regard 
 for Gorton and Williams, never violated this agreement, even after 
 they had despaired of relief from England. They remained neutral 
 in war until forced from it by the other colonies assaulting them.* 
 
 At the time of Gorton and his company's release " the triumph of 
 Massachusetts seemed complete; yet within forty days this despised 
 handful of men, by a master stroke, snatched victory from defeat." 
 With matchless statesmanship they induced the Narragansett Indians 
 to cede the coveted Narragansett territory to the King, and thus raised 
 a perpetual bulwark against a final conquest of Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations by Massachusetts Bay.' 
 
 The Article of Submission and Cession by the Narragansett Nation 
 contains the following: We, the Chief Sachems, Princes or Governors 
 of the Narragansetts [in that part of America now called New England] 
 
 Chief Justice R. I. '"R. I. Collec, vii, 194. Gorton was a clever lin- 
 
 guist ; his eldest son also. They were of the few who understood the Indians 
 and could converse with them freely. '"Rhode Island's^^ claim to a 
 
 tract of territory on which without doubt depended her existence," Dr. Henry 
 E. Turner in Colonial Hist, of Greene Family. " They," of Shawomet, " fearing 
 to be again troubled, the Mass. seeking a patent for some of the Narragansett 
 country, they procured an actual and solemn .submission of the Sachems," Cal- 
 lender in R. I. Collec, iv, 90. "Judge Durfee, His Works, Gladding 
 
 and Proud Prov., 1849. "Wm. D. Ely, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1887-88. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 55 
 
 together with the joint and unanimous consent of all our people, bend- 
 ing their hearts with one consent, freely and voluntarily give ourselves, 
 peoples, lands, rights, inheritances, and possessions in themselves and 
 their heirs successively forever, unto the government of Prince Charles, 
 King of Great Britain, forever, to be governed according to the ancient 
 laws established in the realm and kingdom of England, as loving and 
 obedient subjects of his Majesty; to be ruled according to his princely 
 wisdom, council and laws of that honorable State of old England, upon 
 conditions of His Majesty's royal protection and righting us of what 
 v/rong is or may be done unto us. To have our causes heard and tried 
 according to his just and equal laws. Nor can we yield ourselves unto 
 any that are subjects themselves in any cause; having ourselves been 
 the Chief Sachems or Princes successively of the country time out of 
 mind. And for our present and lawful enacting hereof, being so far 
 remote from His Majesty, we have by joint consent made choice of 
 four of his loyal and loving subjects, our trusty and well beloved friends, 
 Samuel Gorton, John Wickes, Randall Holden, and John Greene, 
 whom we have deputied and made our lawful Attorneys and Com- 
 missioners, not only for the acting and performing of this our deed, 
 but also for the safe custody, careful conveyance and declaration 
 hereof unto his grace.* 
 
 The Chief Sachems Uaving been sent for by Massachusetts to make 
 their appearance at Boston and answer for what they had done to the 
 General Court then approaching, replied, on May 24th, in a letter con- 
 taining the following: 
 
 We understand you desire that we should come to Massachusetts 
 at the time of your Court now approaching. Our occasions at this same 
 time are very great, and the more because of the loss in that manner 
 of our late deceased brother, upon which occasion, if we should not 
 stir ourselves to give testimony of our faithfulness unto the cause of 
 that, our so unjust deprivation of such an instrument as he was amongst 
 us for our common good, we should fear his blood would lie upon us; 
 so we desire your reasons why you seem to advise us not to go out 
 against our so inhuman and cruel adversary, who took so great a 
 ransom to release him and his life also. Our brother was willing to 
 stir much abroad to converse with men, and we see a sad event there- 
 upon. Take it not ill therefore, though we resolve to. keep at home, and 
 so at this time do not repair unto you according to your request ; and the 
 rather because we have subjected ourselves, our lands and possessions, 
 with all the rights and inheritances of us and our people, either by 
 conquest, voluntary subjection or otherwise, unto that famous and 
 honorable government of that royal kingdom of King Charles, and that 
 State of old England, to be ordered and governed according to the laws 
 and customs thereof; not doubting of the continuance of that former 
 love that hath been betwixt you and us, but rather to have it increase; 
 hereby being subject now (and that with joint and voluntary consent") 
 unto the same King and State yourselves are; so that if any small 
 thing of difference shall fall out betwixt us. only the sending of a 
 messenger may bring it to right again; but if any great matter should 
 fall (which we hope and desire will not nor may not), then neither 
 yourselves nor we are to be judges; and both of us are to have recourse 
 and repair unto that honorable and just government." 
 
 On June 20th a General Court of the Commissioners put in trust 
 for the publication of the Act of Submission was held, and a letter was 
 
 *R. I. Rec, i, 134. 'R. I. Rec, i, 136. 'R. I. Rec, i, 138. This 
 
 submission of the Narragansetts to the government of England of the land as 
 
56 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 prepared by them and copies subscribed to by their Secretary, sent 
 to both the Massachusetts Court and that of the United Colonies then 
 assembled [there being, Gorton says, fear and jealousies raised up in 
 their minds that the Narragansetts would harm them], informing them 
 of the voluntary performance of their act of the cession of their lands 
 and of their agreement to abide a peaceable settlement of all difficulties 
 between them, the latter thus concluding: That so not ourselves only, 
 who are eye and ear witnesses hereof, but you also, may follow our 
 occasions and employments without any extraordinary care or fear of 
 the people aforesaid. But if either you or we find anything among 
 them too grevious to be borne, they not making any violent assault upon 
 us, we know whither and to whom we are to repair and have recourse 
 for redress, as we bend our allegiance and subjection unto our King 
 and State, unto which they are become fellow-subjects with ourselves; 
 and therefore of necessity His Majesty's princely care must reach unto 
 them.* 
 
 Upon the receipt of this at Boston, messengers were again dispatched 
 to the Sachems to persuade them to repudiate the transaction and yet 
 submit to Massachusetts, and to dissuade them from taking counsel 
 from men, Winthrop says, "such as we had banished;'" but when the 
 messengers came to Cannonicus he would not admit them into his 
 wigwam and remained within, while the messengers stood for two 
 hours out in the rain." When he did admit them, he lay long on his 
 couch and would not speak to them more than a few forward speeches, 
 but referred them to Pessicus, who, coming after some four hours, 
 showed them into an ordinary wigwam and there had conference with 
 them the most part of the night. 
 
 The seizure of Shawomet and the new light Cannonicus " had gained 
 respecting the weakness of his neighbors did not move him to break 
 the faith which he had pledged to them. He might have done it with 
 impunity and with profit. The Boston theologians, who had found 
 reasons wherewith to satisfy the conscience of the Magistracy with the 
 death of Miantinomi, could have found equally good ones to justify 
 Cannonicus in the repudiation of the grants to misbelievers such as 
 Gorton and Williams; but against all hopes of favor or money the old 
 barbarian kept his word." The messengers were answered. Winthrop 
 says, " full to the question,'" and they returned, without accomplishing 
 anything, to Boston. 
 
 No measure could be more offensive to the Massachusetts Magistrates 
 than the cession act of the Narragansetts procured by Gorton, or could 
 more provoke their resentment, because it was their own ^intention and 
 practice to "acquire the subjection of the same territory.'"" They had 
 fruitlessly made every effort to obtain it. No act ever better served 
 the main purpose of its promoter than this. It was by the King and 
 his Commissioners held to be the original of all claims to the territory; 
 cutting the knot of the question pending between the disputants for it; 
 was declared by them to be the best of all claims, and therefore they 
 definitely allotted this territory to the government of the Williams' 
 charter, for which he who drew the act intended it.' 
 
 The whole Liberal party, and that comprised seven-eighths of the 
 
 was then the Fncrlish practice was virtually but a sessinn of sovereipnty, as 
 England acknowledged to the Narragansetts the use or disposition of the soil, 
 and assayed to protect them in their right to it. The Mass. Court vainly sought 
 the Narragansetts submission for their claimed double right of sovereignty and 
 the use or disposition of the soil to settlers. '2d Winthron. ii, 203. 
 
 »R. I. Collec. vii, 161, iqi. 'id Winthrop. ii, 203. Nar. Club, ii. 
 
 "Chalmers" Political Annals, Book i, ch. xi, p. 273. 'R. I. Rec, lii, 40, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 57 
 
 people inhabiting Providence, Shawomet and Aquidneck Island, had 
 been alarmed and distressed by the proceedings of Massachusetts, and 
 were deeply in sympathy with Gorton and the others of the Shawomet 
 people. William Arnold, in a letter to Massachusetts," writes : " The 
 most part of the colony stand affected with them against Massachusetts* 
 dealings." Made shelterless in New England mid-winter, " only the 
 kindness of their friends saved their wives and children from utter 
 extermination."* The large share of the inhabitants of Portsmouth 
 had been members with Gorton of the model civil government he with 
 Hutchinson established there. Those who were driven away were 
 only the leading ones of Coddington's opponents. The larger part of 
 the Liberal party remained there. They were the popular and majority 
 party, and were emphatically law and order men, ardent advocates of 
 civil government and civil magistracy there, and were opposed to no 
 magistracy but that which was corrupt and that had illegally set itself 
 up. The restoration to the island of Gorton, their leader and so able 
 an advocate of their principles, was of " much strength "* to the cause 
 and was accordingly hailed with delight by the people. Although 
 Coddington at Newport claimed jurisdiction over the Portsmouth people, 
 and tried in his high court such of them as he could entrap in it, 
 Portsmouth men maintained their own courts, chose their own officers, 
 and for these all enjoyed the franchise privileges; and they, immediately 
 upon Gorton's arrival, chose him to the office of Judge or Magistrate 
 as an expression of their loyalty and affection.'^ In this office he was 
 continued for many years." Coddington did not hold his court in 
 Portsmouth. 
 
 Trusting that " in due season they would receive directions for their 
 well ordering " and the protection that would enable them to return 
 to their homes at Shawomet, the banished people, Gorton with them, 
 quietly settled down upon the island ; they and the people of Portsmouth 
 eagerly awaiting the arrival of the charter.' 
 
 About two years previous to this,* Deacon Aspinwall of Portsmouth, 
 who was the only one of the first island settlers that Massachusetts 
 had banished, had returned to the church. " He made," says Winthrop, 
 " a very firee and full acknowledgement of his error and seducement, 
 and that vv'ith much detestation of his sin." Mr. Wheelright, who had 
 occasioned the separation and emigration of the company to the island, 
 eventually also tendered to the church his submission. The church 
 authority was well established in Coddington's court, so far as it could 
 exercise its authority. Though he " maintained " his court at Newport, 
 its work was at about an end, the business resting with the local Magis- 
 trates of the towns. He wrote to Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts 
 the following: "Gorton is here against my mind and shall not be 
 protected by me. A party here adhere to Gorton and his company in 
 both plantations and judge them so much strength to the place, but are 
 no friends to us and you."* As they remained on the island and did not 
 depart, as did the Hutchinsons and others, the correspondence was 
 continued between Massachusetts and those here now " members of 
 their church," to again deliver them into their hands, but the people 
 
 41, 61, 62, 63. Fuller's Hist. Warwick, 28. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 1Q5. Palfrey's 
 Hist. N. E., ii, 603. Williams, Nar. Club, vi, R. I. Collec. 'R. I. Collec, 
 
 ii, 207-212. ^Turners Greenes of Warwick. 'Coddington's 
 
 letter, post p. 'Winthrop's Defense, 83, post p. Arnold's Hist. R. I., 
 
 i. 160. 'The local judges were later made the Commissioners and 
 
 Deputies or Representatives of the towns in the charter government. 
 "' Gorton had no intention of immediately leaving Rhode Island." Palfrey, ii, 
 223 note. R. I. Collec, ii, 165. Force's iv, Tract 6, p. 96. *0n Mar. 
 
 27, 1642. "Mass. Arch., ii, 4, 5. '"R. I. Collec, ii, 165. 
 
58 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 having notice thereof did altogether detest such a course; so they still 
 abode and followed their employment.'" Both Williams and Gorton 
 in their writings referring to Aquidneck called it Rhode Island. Dur- 
 ing this year the island was officially given this name. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Williams arrives with the charter for government of mainland and island, all 
 as " Providence Plantations " — Organization of government — Williams Gov- 
 ernor, Clark Deputy Governor, Gorton Assistant and Judge — The people sub- 
 scribe to the King and his laws under the charter — A code of laws for the 
 government of the colony — Deputies, or Commissioners, sent from all the 
 towns — Imprisonment for debt abolished — Cannonicus again grants Narragan- 
 sett lands (Wickford) to Williams — Williams leaves Providence, builds a 
 Trading House on his grant and settles on it — Assembly of the chartered gov- 
 ernment at Portsmouth — Movement to allot lands at Wickford and to return to 
 Shawomet — Rival claims of Plymouth and Massachusetts — Arnold directed 
 by Massachusetts to remove any who should settle — Coddington and his briefless 
 court — His danger from the people — Massachusetts government attaches Prov- 
 idence and Shawomet, and sends to bring tiie people to Boston — Massachu- 
 setts begins war against the Narragansetts — Soldiers sent against them — Mes- 
 sengers' and soldiers' repeated attempts to secure the Narragansetts' submis- 
 sion and to bring their chieftains to Boston — Repeated failures of their mission 
 — The messengers visit Williams at his Trading House, receive a letter from 
 him and return to Boston — The Colleagued colonies declare war against the 
 Narragansetts — Reasons for the war ordered to be published — Three hun- 
 dred troops and a fleet and other men for it ordered raised and a fort built upon 
 Shawomet — Notice from Williams to Massachusetts of a treaty of neutrality 
 entered into between the Narragansetts and the government of the Providnce 
 Plantations. 
 
 Charles the First had left Whitehall, then the seat of the English 
 government, on January loth, 1642-3, before WiUiams left Providence, 
 and Parliament had, in November. 1643. constituted Commissioners 
 empowered to dispose of all things regarding the Plantations;' from 
 whom Williams, on the 14th of March, 1643-4, procured a charter for 
 the " Providence Plantations," " bounding northward and northeast 
 on the patent of Massaclntsetts, and southeast on Plymouth patent, south 
 on the ocean, and on the west and northwest by the Indians called the 
 Narragansetts; the whole tract extending about twenty-five miles into 
 the Pequot river and country. And, whereas, divers well affected and 
 industrious English inhabitants of the towns of Providence, Ports- 
 mouth and Newport, in the tract aforesaid, have adventured to make 
 a near neighborhood and society with the great body of the Narragan- 
 setts ; and haz>e also purchased and arc purchasing of the natives other 
 places zi'hich may be convenient for Plantations: and, whereas, the 
 English have represented their' desire to the Earl and Commissioners 
 to have their beginning approved and confirmed by granting unto them 
 a Free Charter of Civil Incorporation and Government, that they may 
 order and govern their Plantations in such a manner as to maintain qtiiet 
 and peace^hoth among themselves and toward all men zvtth ivhom they 
 shall have to do. In due consideration of said premises, the said Robert 
 Earl of Warwick, Governor-in-Chicf and Lord High Admiral of the 
 said Plantations, and the greater number of the said Commissioners 
 whose names and seals are here underwritten and subjoined, do by the 
 aforesaid ordinance of the Lord and Commons give grant and confirm 
 
 >R. I. Rec. i. 143. 144. R. I. Collec. iv. 222. *Tbis territory and its 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 59 
 
 to the aforesaid inhabitants of the towns of Providence, Portsmouth 
 and Newport a free and absolute Charter of Incorporation, to be known 
 by the name of the Incorporation of Providence Plantations* in the 
 Narragansett Bay ; together with full power and authority to rule them- 
 selves and such others as shall hereafter inhabit within any part of the 
 said tract of land."^ 
 
 The patent provided for prospective settlements, covering as was 
 intended and had been planned by these people, besides the lands where 
 settlements were established, any lands now granted or that should 
 hereafter be granted for settlement by the Indians to Gorton and his 
 friends, who were preparing to build dwellings when Williams departed.* 
 
 Williams upon his return was saved from the long route via Man- 
 hattan by a letter furnished him by Northumberland, Fernwick and 
 ten other Parliament peers and Commoners, commanding the Massa- 
 chusetts Magistrates to not molest him and to regard the charter; with 
 which letter and charter he, on September 17th, 1644, landed at Boston. 
 Upon Williams' arrival with the charter and shield to his planters 
 from the aggressions of the Massachusetts rulers, bitter censures were 
 poured out by the latter upon the heads of Peters and Weld, their 
 unsuccessful agents." The delight of the settlers of the Providence 
 Plantations was great and expressed by public demonstrations. The 
 charter, says Gorton, " was joyfully received by the entire colony,"* 
 by those of Shawomet not the least, for it gave to all the plantations 
 the power of government that would, it was thought, protect them in 
 the peaceful possession of their lands and homes. 
 
 The Parliament Commissioners, after Williams' departure on August 
 19th, 1644, iii response to complaints which had been sent to them of 
 the invasion of the Plantations and the imprisonment of Gorton and 
 his companions, sent a letter of reproof to the Massachusetts authori- 
 ties, which letter probably as early as October reached them.' Yet the 
 Massachusetts Court, undismayed by all, on October 17th, 1644, sent 
 a letter forbidding any person intending to settle at Shawomet to do so, 
 and asserted their resolutions to maintain what they called their rights." 
 
 " With all expedition," in October or November, 1644, at Portsmouth, 
 " a joint course was held for instructing the people into the power of 
 the charter and liberties thereof, for the exercise of the authority in the 
 execution of law for the good and quiet of the people." Representatives 
 from all the towns in the colony were present, and they formed an 
 organization of government under the charter, which included all the 
 
 government could not well have been named otherwise than Providence Planta- 
 tions, for Providence was the main settlement and there was not then such a 
 place as Rhode Island : This name was given by the Island Court to Aquidneck 
 Island on Mar. 13, 1643-4, after the last reading of Williams' charter upon its 
 passage by the Foreign Commissioners in England. R. I. Rec, i, 127. R. I. 
 Collec, iv, 88. 'R. I. Rec, i, 143-146. English land at this time was 
 
 owned by the government. Its patent, as that to Mass., was both a grant of 
 dominion, t. e., the right to govern the inhabitants of it and a c^ant of tlae right 
 of loyalists to its use. One of Williams' offenses to Mass. was his assertion 
 that they should not receive the use of the land from Eng. This opinion was 
 held also by Gorton and most others of the Prov. Plantations, and in accordanca 
 with this view the patent applied for and received by Williams granted only 
 dominion, recognizing the Indians as the rightful lords to its use. This right 
 the inhabitants of Prov. Plantations received by grant from the Indians. The 
 Feudal system of government ownership of English lands was shortly afterwards 
 abolished. *There was no town upon the wild lands called by the Indians 
 
 Shawomet when Williams went to obtain the charter, but before he returned 
 the settlers had built there and been driven from the town, now of about four 
 little dwellings. 'Remarks of Thomas Aspinwall. Sidney S. Rider, 
 
 Pub. Prov. 'R. I. Collec, ii, 121. 'Baylie's Hist. Plymouth, i, 
 
 250. 'R. I. H. Tract 17, p. no. R. I. Collec, ii, 166. 'Gorton's 
 
6o LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 towns within the Narragansett tract, under the name of the Incorpora- 
 tion of the Providence Plantations.' No records of the names of the 
 corporators and of only part of its officers are preserved. Williams 
 iwas chosen Governor;'" Clark a Representative of Newport, doubtless 
 one of "the Commissioners" present whom Coddington says "joined 
 them/'* was chosen Deputy Governor ;* Gorton was chosen an Assistant 
 and Judge ;^ and other Commissioners from Portsmouth and Shawomet 
 accepted offices to which they were chosen.' 
 
 By this charter organization " it was then that the inhabitants of the 
 State first became a corporate people."" This was the beginning, with 
 Williams the first Governor, of the government of the present State. 
 The Plantation of Providence immediately subscribed to, constructed 
 and conducted its government under it and in accordance with the 
 charter provisions. It enforced its orders. It was, according to the 
 then highest earthly authority, the English government, a legally con- 
 stituted and legally organized government, and although most of the 
 early records are destroyed, sufficient evidence to assure us of the 
 exercise of its authority at this time remains. It was the beginning of 
 the chartered government granting and maintaining unlimited freedom 
 in matters of conscience and franchise rights to all its people. A 
 remarkable code of laws, one of the earliest compilation of laws in 
 American history, in which Gorton's wisdom and literary talent, and 
 also his superior legal acquirements, are apparent, was drawn up for 
 the government of the colony. " In the construction of this code, cat e 
 was taken to avoid the errors of which Gorton had complained in the 
 judicial procedures of the other colonies by making each section con- 
 form to existing English law, reference to the corresponding English 
 Statutes being placed at the end thereof." It forbade imprisonment for 
 debt, and in other respects was in advance of contemporary legislation. 
 The position against witchcraft indicates a prevailing scepticism here 
 at the time when Massachusetts was under the spell of the delusion, 
 soon to break out in an appalling epidemic of persecution.* The men 
 of Shawomet were particularly accused by the Massachusetts authori- 
 ties, in a letter addressed to the agent of the colony in England, for 
 " crying out against them that putteth people to death for witches, for 
 
 account in R. I. Collec, ii, 165, 166, R. I. II. Tract 17, p. no. "Had an organi- 
 zation of the whole colony in the fall at Portsmouth, Gorton and others accepting 
 the places to which chosen." Judge Brayton in Rider's Tract 17. 
 "Williams in his letter, R. I. Rec, i, 458, writes: "Myself the Chief-officer in 
 this colony," see his letter in latter portion of these pages. R. I. Collec, iii, 
 159-162. Williams was in 1652, "as well as before this time, elected to the 
 office of President or Governor of the colony." Judge Durfee, His Works, 177. 
 ■Coddington's letter to Winthrop, Nov. 11, 1646, "The Commissioners have joined 
 them in the same charter." "Capt. John Laveret of Mass. writes, in 
 
 about 1651, to Thos. Tempee of London, Eng. : "It is creditably reported that 
 Rhode Island has chosen one John Clark their Deputy Governor, and intend 10 
 send him to complain to his Majesty." Hutchinson Papers 382, 383. In Nov., 
 1651, Clark sailed on that mission from Boston, and in the same month Leveret 
 followed him to answer him. At no period after 1644-7 was Clark a Deputy 
 Governor until 1670. Thus it appears that the titles of the chief officers in the 
 organization, 1644, were Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants. The 
 Rovernment modeled after that of Hutchinson and Gorton upon the island. 
 *" An Incorruptable Key, by Samuel Gorton, at the time of penning hereof in the 
 place of Judication, Rhode Island, Providence Plantations, printed in the year 
 1647." This was printed while he was in England. *" We, by the 
 
 general vote of all the colony, have been chosen into the place of judicature for 
 the orderly execution of the authority of the charter." Gorton's account. Force s 
 Tract, Vol. iv. R. I. Collec, ii, 121, i6s, 166. Winslow's Defense, 83. 
 •Judge Durfee, His Works, 481, pub. 1840 at Prov. and Boston. Dr. 
 
 Janes' Life of Samuel Gorton. 'William Arnold's letter to Winthrop 
 
 in Book of News, in Winslow's Defense, copy of letter in R. I. Rec, 1, 235. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 6i 
 
 they say thjere be no other witches upon earth nor devils but your own 
 pastors and ministers, such as they are.'" 
 
 The order from the Massachusetts Court of October 17th was 
 received ; and letters from the Earl of Warwick, President of the Board 
 of Parliament Commissioners, were, as in divers times before, received 
 by the Commissioners of the new government, enclosing directions to 
 the neighboring colonies to respect the chartered rights and expressing 
 his resolution to maintain the charter granted to Williams.' "Upon 
 this the country about us was more friendly and wrote to us as an 
 authorized colony, only the difference of our consciences much ob- 
 structed."" 
 
 There are no preserved records of a January or February General 
 Assembly. By plunder and by fire and otherwise the greater part of 
 the records at Providence for the years 1644, 45, 46 were destroyed. 
 Seldom were books used then, but the records kept on separate sheets 
 of paper. If any book of general affairs was kept, it is missing. When 
 a Town-book was used, the proceedings of the Prc^-'^'jnce Plantations 
 and the colony of Providence Plantations — proceedings of both bodies- 
 were entered indiscriminately in it, and it is not always clear in 
 what capacity an act was done." The general business, to begin with, 
 was hardly more than talk about lands where, during the winter months, 
 few could settle. The people of the towns of Portsmouth and Newport 
 maintained their town governments. They had chosen and sent their 
 representatives to the Assembly of the chartered government and been 
 joined to it. " The Commissioners," as Coddington stated, " had joined 
 them in the same charter." Yet Coddington assumed to sit in a court 
 of his own, which was elected by a limited few, who were by him made 
 his freemen or electors upon pledging themselves to sustain him. This 
 he asserted as a superior court, making laws for the whole island and 
 trying the cases brought into it. Although for many months without 
 a sitting and its justice and legality denied by so formidable an opponent 
 as Clark at Newport and Gorton at Portsmouth, and with them a large 
 majority of the whole island people, he so maintained what he called 
 "government" as to hold back from the chartered Assembly the busi- 
 ness of these towns. Very little general business for the charter govern- 
 ment arose until after Coddington's leaders joined it, and then in draw- 
 ing the numerous bills of indictment against Coddington. 
 
 On April 14th' a court was held by the Deputies or Commissioners,' 
 and on the 19th of the same month a number of the " free inhabitants " 
 were granted twenty-five acres each of land, they subscribing with its 
 acceptance their " obedience to the authority of King and Parliament 
 established in the colony according to our charter."' In the records 
 " Town " gave place to " The Plantation," and English law under author- 
 ity of King and Parliament superseded " arbitration." An order was 
 issued from one of "said Courts" on the August 4th following,' and 
 " warrants " commanding attendance at their court were issued by the 
 Chief-officer Williams in the name of the King and Parliament; the 
 warrants served by their Sergeant. The form of government now, with 
 an Executive head and his Assistants, and its Courts and its Attendants, 
 differed materially from the form.er one. It was the long desired 
 authority and judicial order for the people." 
 
 •Letter of Aug. 9, 1645, from the Assembly of the Colony of Prov. Plantations. 
 Mass. Arch., ii, 6, post p. 'Williams' letter, R. I. Rec, i, 458. Williams 
 
 letter, ist Mass. Collec, i, 278. "Early Prov. Rec.. xv, 5. 7. 9. ^t, etc. 
 
 *Apr. 14, 1644. 'Early Rec. ii, 6. 'Early Rec, 11, 29- 
 
 *Early Rec. xv, 7. "Early Reeds, of Prov.. xv, 9. Chronological Con- 
 
 struction, Lands of R. I., 84. If what we have of the records of the beginmng 
 
62 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Cannonicus and the other Narrarjansett Sachems had, since tlie grants 
 they had made to Greene and to Gorton, again exercised their right 
 w'liich Massachusetts had forbidden them of disposing of their lands, 
 and had granted a still larger tract outside of I'rovidence to Williams. 
 This land was situated about where later the town of Wickford was 
 built. It was free from conquest or other rights than those of the 
 Narragansetts and of the English government granted in the charter. 
 Williams, to be freed from the annoyances of the Pawtuxans, now 
 sought relief here, erected a Trading House and took up his abode 
 on ii.° Although the course of Harris or the Pawtuxet claimants was 
 yet far from ended, this rout of Williams from Providence was the 
 last rout of any prominence they effected, for with the charter a little 
 more stable order v/as established.' 
 
 An Assembly of the government of the Providence Plantations was 
 held at Portsmouth in j\Iay of this year, 1645, against which a riotous 
 demonstration was made by its opponents, they also breaking into the 
 houses of Gorton and others, destroying their writings and carrying 
 off the volumes in which the laws were printed." At this session a 
 movement was made for apportioning some of the lands of the late 
 grant among settlers. Preparations were also made for returning 
 hom.e by some of the Shawomet people ; but all of this was cut short 
 by a burst of opposition from Plymouth and Massachusetts, who were 
 at rivalry for the territory. Brown of Plymouth had, on April 13th, 
 been dispatched by the Plymouth Court" to look after their interests. 
 He *' found them assembled in a meeting house granting land and such 
 awful things," and he, in the name of Plymouth, forbade both tlie 
 exercise of government under the charter and the distribution of the 
 land. The Massachusetts Court also forbade the officers and Commis- 
 sioners of the new government to exercise any authority under the 
 charter or to distribute the land, or anyone to settle at Shawomet ; and 
 directed their Commissioner, Benedict Arnold, to remove any who 
 should settle there.'" " Massachusetts claimed the Sachems' last grant 
 by various rights, among them that of conquest from the Pequots ; " 
 so the Commissioners were dissuaded from alloting any land to the 
 settlers for the present or until the matter could be amicably composed; 
 " though," says Williams, " I questioned not our rights, etc., yet I 
 feared it would be inexpedient and offensive and procreative of their 
 heats and fires, and the dishonoring of the King's Majesty.'" 
 
 Coddington and Brenton opposed the proceedings of the Assembly, 
 although keeping aloof from it, apprehending danger from the people.' 
 
 The disturbances at Providence had increased since Gorton left there. 
 The Pawtuxet claimants, after the departure of Gorton and Williams 
 from among them, became more defiant. On June 5th, 1645, the people 
 of Providence were, upon complaint of William Arnold, served with 
 Massachusetts attachments upon their lands.' Gorton says: "They 
 ceased not to send out their warrants amongst us," and again a number 
 
 of the povernment of the Providence Plantations were all together in order in 
 one volume the organization and working order of the charter government 
 would be in them clearly apparent. The government was not dependent on 
 Coddington and his Elders joining it. 'Williams' letter, Nar. Club, vi, 
 
 3.73-351. R- I- H. Tr., xiv, 57 note. Williams had been living there some time 
 when Arnold visited him there in June, 1645. Mass. Rec. ^ *" We lived 
 
 in no order but rout as Harris' beasts, as he calls all who cross him. until God 
 was nleased to help me to procure a charter." Williams' letter, R. I. H. Tr 14. 
 "R. I. Collec, ii, 80. 'Ply. Rec, 2d Winthrop, ii. 270. '"Mass. 
 
 Rec, ii, 117. ^Williams, Nar, Club, vi, 333-351- 'Arnold's 
 
 Hist. R. L, i, 160. •Force's iv, Tr. 6, p. 98. 'Simp. Def., Staples' 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 63 
 
 of the people were summoned to Boston for trial ;* and the few aban- 
 doned, unfinished houses and the lands at Shawomet were applied for 
 and occupied by Massachusetts subjects. War was begun against the 
 Narragansetts and white colonists, neither of whom had raised an arm 
 either of aggression or resistance. 
 
 On June i8th a company of forty armed men was sent by the Massa- 
 chusetts Court to join their ally Uncas, the Mohegan Chief, against 
 the Narragansetts.'' Meantime messengers were sent by the court to 
 the Narragansetts to exact terms from them.* 
 
 On June 28th a " meeting extraordinary " of the Commissioners of 
 the United Colonies, in response to a call from the Massachusetts Court,' 
 began at Boston. This court continued five weeks in session.* The war 
 against the Narragansetts having begun,' requiring speedy course, it 
 was agreed to take that first into consideration. The action of the 
 Massachusetts Commissioners in having, without the previous consent 
 of all the United Commissioners, sent the soldiers against the Narra- 
 gansetts caused much sharp discussion." The Commissioners now met 
 ordered the messengers. Sergeant John Davis, Benedict Arnold and 
 Francis Smith, to secure the attendance of Cannonicus, Pessicus and 
 other Narragansett Sachems at Boston and to inform them, in case they 
 refused to come, that soldiers had been sent against them,' but that 
 war should cease during negotiations.* 
 
 The Sachems received the messengers with great suspicion, vowed 
 that Arnold, who acted as interpreter, had in his former meetings with 
 them misrepresented them and had threatened them with the accom- 
 plished act, the death of Miantinomi, their Chief, for selling land to 
 the proscribed people. Although the Sachems showed surprising com- 
 posure in refraining from violence, three of them stood behind Arnold 
 with raised hatchets while he was speaking.' The messengers, fearing 
 danger and not hoping of better success at present, departed. They 
 stopped that night at the Trading House of either Smith or Williams.* 
 Before leaving, they had an interview with Williams and received from 
 him a letter to the United Commissioners ; they then proceeded to 
 Arnold's house at Providence or Pawtuxet, where they received a 
 report of other threatening behavior of the Narragansetts from Arnold's 
 family.' And they returned to the court at Boston with Williams' 
 letter, a report of what they heard and had done, and of the rude usage 
 they received from the Sachems; whereupon a Declaration of War 
 against the Narragansetts was made and the reasons for it were ordered 
 to be published.* Another companj' of soldiers was despatched to the 
 aid of the Mohegan Chief with all expedition, and the rest of the forces 
 from Massachusetts and Plymouth were ordered to join them at 
 Seekonk on the eastern bounds of Mooshasuck, to enter the Narragan- 
 sett country. Three hundred troops were ordered to be raised to be 
 sent forth by the 22d of August at the furthest; and the officers were 
 appointed and assigned to the command of them. A fleet of barks 
 and other vessels, an additional force as seamen and mariners and 
 ammunition and provisions were provided ; works for defense were 
 ordered to be constructed, and soldiers advanced to Shawomet to build 
 a fort upon it.' 
 
 Ed. 167. ''Mass. Rec, iii, 39, 40, 42. Hutchinson's Papers, i, 167. 
 
 •Hutchinson, i, 161. 'Mass. Rec, iii, 29. June 18, 1645. 
 
 "Hutchinson, i, 153-153. 'Hutchinson, i, 154. "Hutchinson, i. 167. 
 
 'Acts Commissioners United Colonies, i, 32, 33. ^Hutchinson, i, 161. 
 
 •Acts Com. United Cols., i, 54. 'Hutchinson, i, 154, 162. 
 
 •Hutchinson, i, 162. 'Hutchinson, i, 155, 164. 'Acts Com. 
 
 United Cols., i, 34-36, Z7^ 39- Mass. Rec, ii, 72 ; iii, 40, 41. Fuller's Hist. 
 
64 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 The letter conveyed by the messengers to the Court of the United 
 Commissioners, from Williams, informed them that a treaty of neu- 
 trality was entered into between the Narragansetts and the government 
 of the Providence Plantations.' 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The August 9, 1645, Assembly of the Government of the Providence Planta- 
 tions at Newport — Letter from the Assembly to Massachusetts — Their desire 
 for civil government to preserve their lives and liberties caused them to pro- 
 cure a charter — The Earl of Warwick recognizes and approves the organization 
 of the government under the charter — Those in the government dare not yield 
 themselves delinquent to answer at Massachusetts court — The government to 
 employ messengers to prosecute the cause of the Providence Plantations before 
 the government of England — Massachusetts claims to possess a prior charter 
 for the Narragansett territory — Gorton chosen by the Assembly their Commis- 
 sioner to England — Troops march against the Indians and Whites of the Prov- 
 idence Plantations — Gorton, about August 16, 1645, departs on his mission — 
 Plymouth's forces opposite Providence — Army delayed while messengers are 
 again sent to treat with the Narragansetts — The Narragansetts send for Wil- 
 liams and Wickes to council with them — The conditions of peace with Massa- 
 chusetts signed — The official notice, August zj , 1645, of the alleged patent for 
 the Narragansett lands sent by Massachusetts to the Providence government. 
 
 Early in August and during the sessions of the Court of United Com- 
 missioners at Boston an Assembly of the government of the Providence 
 Plantations was held at Newport. During the latter's sessions Brown 
 visited the island, urging the claims of Plymouth and forbidding the 
 government tQ proceed. Here he remained some time, Gorton says, 
 visiting the people of Newport at their houses, forbidding them to 
 yield obedience to the charter.' Brown met Gorton here, who was an 
 officer of the chartered government, and, Winslow says, still held the 
 office of local Magistrate on the island.'" The Massachusetts Court 
 also again served an order on the members of this Assembly, forbidding 
 them to exercise any government, either in Pawtuxet or Providence, 
 which, Winthrop says, they, from fear, did not disregard entirely. 
 Their deliberations regarding it and why they would not yield to it are 
 given in a letter written by Williams, subscribed to by the Secretary, 
 on August 9th, 1645, and addressed to the Massachusetts Court. The 
 letter, after acknowledging the receipt of the Massachusetts letter, 
 prays for "honorable attention" to the following: 
 
 "A civil government we honor and desire to live in for all those good 
 ends, which are attainable thereby, both of public and private nature. 
 This desire caused us humbly to sue for a charter from our mother 
 State and government; but as we belive your consciences are persuaded 
 to govern our souls, as well as our bodies, and, yourselves will say, we 
 have caxisc to endeavor to preserve our souls and liberties, which your 
 consciences must necessarily deprive us of, and either cause greater 
 distractions and molestations to yourselves and us at home, or cause 
 our further removal and miseries, we cannot but wonder, that being 
 now found in a posture of government from the same authority, unto 
 which you and we equally subject, you should desire us to forbear the 
 exercise of such a government, without an express from that authority 
 directed to us. 
 
 Warwick, 25. Hazard's Collec, ii. 27-51. 'Hutchinson, i. 146, 154. 
 
 •R. I. Collec, ii, 167, 168. 2d Winthrop, ii, 270, 308. Force's iv Tr.. 6, p. q8. 
 "Winslow, 83. Arnold, i, 160. Gorton, Staples' Ed. *The 6th month 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 65 
 
 "And we the rather zvonder because our charter as it was first granted 
 and first established, so it was also expressly signiHed unto you all in 
 a letter from divers Lords and Commons, at the sending out of our 
 charter, out of a loving respect both to yourselves and us. 
 
 " Besides, you may please to be informed that His Excellency, the 
 Lord Admiral, hath lately divers times been pleased to own us under 
 the notion of Providence Plantations, and that he hath signified unto 
 us (as we can show you in writing) the desire of Plymouth to infringe 
 • our charter, but his own favorite resolution not only to maintain our 
 charter to his uttermost power, but also to gratify us with any favors, 
 etc. In all of which respects we see not how we may dare to yield 
 ourselves delinquents and liable to answer in your court, nay, as your 
 writing seems to import, why we cast not away such noble favors and 
 grace unto us. It is true that divers amongst us express their desire 
 of composing this controversy between yourselves and us, but consider- 
 ing that we have not only received a challenge from yourselves, but also 
 from Mr. Fenwick and also from Plymouth and also from some in the 
 name of the Lord Marquis Hamilton (all of which claims we never 
 heard until the arrival of our charter), we judge it necessary to employ 
 our messengers and agents unto the head and fountain of all these 
 streams and there humbly to prostrate ourselves and cause for a final 
 sentence and determination — and this we are immediately preparing 
 to do without any secret reservations or delays, not doubting but 
 yourselves will feel satisfied with this our course. And in the interim, 
 although you have not been pleased to admit us unto considerations of 
 what concerns the whole country, as you have others of our countrymen, 
 yet we cannot but humbly profess our readiness to attend to all such 
 friendly and neighborly courses, and ever rest you assured in all ser- 
 vices of love. 
 
 " Henry Walton, Secretary. 
 " The Colony of Providence Plantations, 
 
 Assembled at Newport, 9th, 6th ]\Io., 1645.* 
 " To the Right Woshpls and their much Houn'd Friends and Contry- 
 men. The General Court of the Massachusetts Colonic assembled 
 at Boston." 
 This letter from this Assembly was sent to Winthrop by Williams. 
 He " never," he says, " received the least reply."^ 
 
 Gorton, Holden and Greene were employed by the Assembly as the 
 messengers and agents to the home government to present the cause of 
 the Providence government and the people for a determination. 
 
 The reasons for the war were published by the United Colonies on 
 August nth at Boston; and word was sent by the Massachusetts 
 officers to the officers of the Providence Plantations, who were probably 
 yet in Assembly, that if they should stand as neutrals and not go out 
 in the work with them they would make plunder of them. 
 
 The first company of Plymouth troops left Plymouth on August 
 15th.' The officers in command were commissioned " sole judges of 
 the necessity of the expedition," to " have power to use and execute " 
 fine, corporal punishment and capital punishment, and to seize both 
 Indian and White suspects, which latter were the adherents to the 
 chartered government, the leaders of the liberal or majority party 
 of the Providence Plantations, and to bring them to Boston.* 
 
 was August, old style. The Secretary's name was first printed Watson, but in 
 the original document it is plainly Walton. Mass. Arch., ii, 6. Proc. Mass. 
 Hist. Soc, June, 1862. "Remarks on the Narragansett Patent" published by 
 Sidney S. Rider, Providence. Williams, 4th Mass. Collec, vii, 627. 
 
 •Ply. Rec, ii, 90. *Acts Com. United Cols., i, 37-40. 'Gorton's 
 
66 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Gorton departed immediately without doubt following this and the 
 close of the Assembly sessions. The condition was insufferable. The 
 pass had been reached where it was impossible to proceed further in 
 carrying on the government without further aid from the mother coun- 
 try, or for the people longer without such aid to recover or maintain 
 their possessions, to save their lives, or at least to save themselves 
 from being taken as heretics or suspects for discipline and punishment 
 to Boston. Gorton went to England only as a last resort in the extrem- 
 ity of necessity, as the recent Assembly's letter to the Massachusetts 
 Court expressed, " to preserve the souls and liberties " of the people in 
 this emergency. The two other Agents and Commissioners of the char- 
 tered government, Holden and Greene, went with him. They, too, as 
 in Williams' case, were not allowed to enter the Massachusetts Colony 
 to take ship from Boston, and so were forced, like him, to travel for 
 this purpose to New York, that is, Manhattan.^ 
 
 After their departure, the Plymouth forces under Capt. Standish 
 rendezvoused at Seekonk, upon the river opposite Providence. While 
 here encamped with his troops before the Massachusetts forces came, 
 Standish, observing that some of Providence received the Narragansetts 
 into their houses familiarly, he demanded of them to lay aside their 
 neutrality and declare which side they were on. Gorton, in his plea 
 to the English government, stated as dispatched to him, that Standish 
 summoned the Providence Plantations to renounce the neutrality and 
 declare themselves to be either on his side or enemies.' 
 
 The Massachusetts army was delayed by considerations of the magni- 
 tude and expense of such a war, her accountability to the English 
 government, the protests of the Providence Plantations and many of 
 the Massachusetts people.' This resulted in having, on August i8th, 
 another committee, consisting of Capt. Harding and Mr. Wilbour, with 
 Benedict Arnold again as interpreter (all of them paid subjects of 
 Massachusetts, although not residents there), appointed to visit the 
 Narragansetts to treat with them.' The Narragansetts this time refused 
 to council with the committee unless they dispensed with the services 
 of Benedict Arnold, accusing him as before of being their enemy and 
 of misrepresenting them.* Arnold also, fearing, refused to go without 
 an armed guard of a hundred men. The Narragansetts sent for 
 Williams and Wickes, the latter one of those formerly chosen by the 
 Narragansetts their Commissioners to make known their submission 
 deed and grievances to England, to come and council with them. 
 
 The Narragansetts, having honorably abided by their agreernent atid 
 refrained from making their threatened avenging war,'° until every 
 vantage ground was acquired by the United Colonies, and considering 
 that as the allied armies of these colonies and the Mohegans had or 
 were about to invade Providence and Warwick to seize both Indian 
 and white suspects, the impending war if continued would, as intended 
 by those who waged it, destroy the refugee settlements and sacrifice 
 the lives of many of these white people; as a matter of prudence, as 
 well as from faith in the Royal protection and eventual righting of 
 "what wrong is or may be done," after the matter was laid before 
 Parliament by the colonies' messengers, Williams counseled the Narra- 
 
 departure was about Aup. i6, i64t;. He wrote his "Incorruptible Key " after 
 he in 1644 returned to and before his departure from the island; published in 
 London and printed on its title, " Penned in Rhode Island." ^*2w"" ^ 
 
 Defense, q?, Winslow's Defense, 85. 'Mass. Rec, iii, -(O. t .^''j 
 
 Rec. ii, 122-125. Acts Com. United Cols.. 1, 41, 42- '•'^cts Com. United 
 
 CoR, i, 42, 43. R. I. Collec, ii, 265. 3d Mass. Collec, i, 8. '".^.nte pac^ina. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 67 
 
 gansetts to accept, at a present sacrifice, the hard terms of peace that 
 the United Colonies offered them. 
 
 The Narragansetts, aUhough now a strong nation, moved by their 
 love for these men and confiding in the belief that the English govern- 
 ment would right the wrong and enforce the redress which was the 
 condition of their submission and cession, when this should be fully 
 presented to it, accepted the advice of their councillors and consented 
 to what was a disastrous agreement, making of their nation a tributary 
 people. The treaty, which bound them to unjust and almost impossible 
 obligations and conditions of peace, required four of the Indian chil- 
 dren, which were delivered to the Magistrates as hostages for their 
 fidelity, was concluded at Boston the 27th day of August, 1645/ 
 
 The letter following, giving some of the particulars of the present 
 settling of these difficulties, was on November 20th sent to Gorton's 
 destination in England : 
 
 " We are all in health at this present and cheerful [the great want is 
 your company], though men generally more invective than ever. The 
 Bay had provided an army to go against the Narragansetts had they 
 not been prevented in the very interim thus : Capt. Harding informed 
 the court of the difficulty of the enterprise, upon which the court 
 employed him and Mr. Wilbour to go to the Narragansetts and take 
 Benedict Arnold to interpret. When they came to Benedict, he refused 
 to go without a hundred men in arms, only to possess them with danger 
 to effect his bloody plot; upon which Mr. Williams being sent for to 
 Narragansett, and also myself, to inquire of us what the minds of 
 these mad people were to kill men for nothing, I went to Providence 
 athinking to go with Master Williams ; but when I came there he was 
 gone with the Captain and Mr. Wilbour upon Benedict's refusal. I 
 staid their return, and their agreement was to have Pessicus go into 
 the Bay, and Master Williams was necessitated to put himself hostess 
 until his return. The news coming into the Bay did so vex the ministers 
 that Mr. Cotton preached upon it, that it being so wicked an act to 
 take Master Williams with them, being one cast out of the church. 
 It was all one as to take counsel of a witch, and that those who did it 
 were worthy to die; upon which Mr. Wilbour was ready to die for 
 fear he would be hanged. So then the Indians went down and they 
 compelled them to cease war with Uncas and to pay them five hundred 
 pounds for charges of court and provisions for soldiers, and to leave 
 four of their Chiefs' children till the money be paid, and to leave four 
 of their chief men till the children came; and to promise them not to 
 sell any land without their consent. This being done, they came home 
 again and sent a man to tell me what was done, telling me that if 
 the Lord in England help them not they are like to suffer at present; 
 but still they say they are not afraid of them, but only give them their 
 demands rather than to war before the Lord hear of it, that all may 
 see they mean no hurt to English, but will submit to the laws of Eng- 
 land; concluding it is but lent, it will come home with advantage both 
 to their wisdom and profit. Pessicus hath been often with me to desire 
 me to inform you of these things. With great desire to see you again, 
 your ever loving friend J. W., Nov. 20, 1645.'" 
 
 The Narragansetts, now prevented from protecting Williams and his 
 friends of the Providence Plantations against Massachusetts, as they 
 were disposed to do upon occasion, the Massachusetts Court, before 
 the close of the day on which the treaty was signed and they obtained 
 
 'Acts. United Corns., i, 44, 49. Drake's Book of the Trdians. 'R. I. 
 
 Collec, ii, 170-172. *"Then Chief -officer of the Colony," Williams, 
 
68 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 the hostages, on August 27th, 1645, sent to Williams as the Chief- 
 officer' of the new government an official notice of their possession of 
 what they called a patent for the lands of the Narragansetts, " wherein 
 Providence and the island of Aquidneck are included."* The paper 
 they called a patent bore the date of December loth, 1643, which was 
 more than three months prior to the date of the charter obtained by 
 Williams; nearly one and three-quarter years before the present official 
 assertion and brandishment of it as a charter over the Providence 
 Plantations." 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The mortgages and deeds secured by the Athertons, Arnolds and other Massa- 
 chusetts subjects for Narragansett, Shawomet and Providence lands — Provi- 
 dence Plantations people subscribe to their chartered government — It grants 
 them lands — The Massachusetts court meets October i, 1645, and grants Shaw- 
 amet lands to their subjects — Brown, a Plymouth subject, forbids the Massachu- 
 setts subjects to settle on it — Captain Cook sent to England to aid other agents 
 there defend Massachusetts' actions — Vassal's religious toleration movement 
 extends to Massachusetts — Gorton's departure from Manhattan — He, in Janu- 
 ary, 1645-6, reaches England — His complaint to the Parliament Commissioners. 
 
 The Narragansetts were not long able to endure the imposed penalty 
 and forfeits, and Major Atherton of Massachusetts and other astute 
 Commissioners of the United Colonies, who had organized for the 
 purchase of Indians lands, '" assisted them," and received therefore a 
 mortgage and deed of the great tract designated " the Atherton pur- 
 chase."^ 
 
 Those charged with the government of the Providence Plantations 
 did not, however, " yield themselves delinquent to Massachusetts." 
 Williams replied to the Massachusetts Court, to Winthrop, he says, 
 in words " he believed weighty and righteous ; "' and they continued 
 to hold their Assemblies and granted to the landless inhabitants many 
 of the unoccupied acres, the people almost unanimously subscribing 
 to and " agreeing to yield obedience to the authority established in the 
 colony according to the charter."' 
 
 The Massachusets Court met on the first of October. During its 
 sessions the Shawomet lands were again applied for by its subjects 
 and ten thousand acres of it granted to twenty families who, under 
 Benedict Arnold, attempted to possess themselves of the property.* 
 
 During this October William Arnold placed on record in Boston a 
 deed for the Shawomet lands, from the sub-Sachem Socononico to 
 "William Arnold, Robert Cole and William Carpenter, who all had 
 subjected themselves to l^.Tassachusetts; it bearing the date of January 
 30th, 1641, antedating the original deed of January 12th, 1642, for 
 Shawomet which Gorton obtained from the Chief Sachem Miantinomi. 
 
 During the same year Benedict Arnold placed on record in Boston a 
 deed for the Shawomet lands as far as the Pawtuxet river extended, 
 from the subjected sub-Sachem to himself, a subject of Massachusetts. 
 It was dated 1644. 
 
 Also in same vear William Arnold procured and placed on record in 
 Boston a deed for the Meshanticut land, which was the southern 
 
 4th Mass. Collec. vii, 627. *R. I. Rec. i, 1.13- 'R- J- ^ec., i, 
 
 T33. R. I. Collec. iii. 161. *R. I. Rec, ii. 128. 'Wilhams 
 
 letter. *R. I. Collec, v, 60. Staples' Annals of Prov., 60, Jan. 19, 
 
 1645-6. Early Rec, Prov. R. I. H. Tr., 14. p. 36 note. »Mass. Rec, 11, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 69 
 
 portion of Providence, from the subjected sub-Sachcm to himself. 
 All these deeds were secretly obtained and secretly taken with the 
 sub-Sachems to Boston and there recorded. They were never recorded 
 in Providence. The purpose of the Arnolds being to throw the Colonies' 
 lands under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, when these deeds to them 
 .would be effective." 
 
 Brown of Plymouth, who had remained long upon the island visiting 
 the people and had been convinced of the justice of Gorton's cause 
 while tarrying there, proceeded thence to Shawomet, where the Massa- 
 chusetts subjects had gone to view for settlement, and forbade them in 
 the name of Plymouth, declaring that the land belonged to Gorton. 
 This being reported to the court, it sent a messenger to Plymouth to 
 inquire if they approved this.^ This court ordered that Richard Salton- 
 stall and Capt. Cook should be joined with Mr. Pocock (a man of 
 eminent ability and influence with the English government, who had 
 lately been engaged by Massachusetts with the other Commissioners 
 in England for Massachusetts) in negotiating for them before the Right 
 Honorable the Earl of Warwick and the rest of the Commissioners of 
 Plantations, etc., or before the high court of Parliament, if occasion 
 required, concerning the two late grants or charters for the govern- 
 ment or jurisdiction of lands adjoining to Narragansett Bay.^ If it 
 were the younger Saltonstall, he did not leave for some time after.' 
 Sr. Richard Saltonstall, who was in England and had in 1632 ably 
 defended Governor Endicott of Massachusetts before the King's Council, 
 was of but little present service to Massachusetts, he having experienced 
 changed convictions regarding the justice of what he had defended 
 and might be called upon to defend. From England he wrote : " To 
 Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wilson, preachers to the church which is at Boston 
 in New England: It doth not a little grieve my spirit to hear what 
 sad things are reported daily of your tyranny and persecution in New 
 England."* Capt. Cook, who had victoriously led the troops in the 
 early assault upon the settlers of Providence and Shawomet, had, in 
 one of the later invasions of Providence and Shawomet under his 
 command, been himself, with some of his company, captured, but 
 probably now had been released. He soon made his departure. 
 
 A petition, the petitioners led by William Vassall of Scituate, Ply- 
 mouth, for the government to allow and maintain full and free tolera- 
 tion of religion to all men who would preserve the civil peace and 
 submit unto government, wliich had been signed by a large share of 
 the people of Plymouth and had fruitlessly been presented to the govern- 
 ment there, was, through the added efforts of Dr. Robert Childs at 
 Boston, signed by many of the most influential and presented to the 
 Deputies or Representatives of the people in the government of Massa- 
 chusetts without any better success. It will be remembered that upon 
 an earlier movement and introduction of a resolution regarding it 
 the Plymouth Governor, Prence, would not allow a vote." After the 
 failure of the Massachusetts Deputies to effect anything for the petition- 
 ers, the petition was presented to the Massachusetts court and then to 
 the home government, entreating that His Majesty clear the govern- 
 ment of the colonies of the distinction between church and civil state 
 and the transactions of those that govern.' 
 
 128, 129; iii, 49. Arnold's Hist., i, 191. '"The Lands of R. Island, 
 
 Preliminary note and pp. 60-112, 160, 218, 219, 220, etc. Suffolk Records, Boston 
 Book, i, Doc. 6,1. '2d Winthrop, ii, 30S. 'Mass. Rec, iii, 48. 
 
 •Mass. Rec, iii, 171, Oct. 18, 1649. ' ^Hutchinson's Papers, ii, 127. 
 
 Loyalists of America, by Egerton Ryerson, D.D., LL.D., i, 117-122. 
 *Ante pagina. *2d Winthrop, ii, 319, 347. Hutchinson's Papers, i. 
 
70 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Peters and Weld, who were upon Williams' outstripping them for a 
 charter ordered by the Massachusetts Court to return and give a 
 particular account of their work at home, however, remained there, 
 and other writings about the cause of the colony of Massachusetts 
 were sent to them. 
 
 Gorton had to wait some time at Manhattan for transportation, and 
 then he could secure passage only to Holland, where he again lay await- 
 ing passage into England. When upon arriving, the Massachusetts 
 agenis who had so long preceded him had their story widely promul- 
 gated and had secured the placing of themselves and such chief men of 
 England as were their friends upon the committees to which the business 
 was referred; an obstacle to the forwarding of the business or to any 
 just hearing that could be removed only by much work and almost the 
 wearing out of the weaker party with expense and long waiting.' 
 
 The King, with his tired troops, was a fugitive among the mountains 
 of Scotland ; and, although he held Oxford, a tree was oftener the 
 canopy of State under which he held council. 
 
 Gorton's intimacy with his excellent and potent friend, the Earl of 
 Warwick, President of the Board of Parliament Commissioners, and 
 his access to the records of the Board's proceedings, were quick assur- 
 ances to him that no patent for the Narragansett country had been 
 granted to Massachusetts. What they had reported as one was but the 
 draft of one which was without [the Massachusetts agents, Weld and 
 Peters, having failed to secure them] the majority of the signatures of 
 the Parliament Commissioners. The Massachusetts agents being de- 
 feated in the strife for a patent by Williams, had sent their incompleted, 
 unpassed, unregistered, worthless paper to Massachusetts as an evi- 
 dence of their, although defeated, yet earnest endeavors.* Yet, undis- 
 mayed and still trying to throw off the blame put upon them by Massa- 
 chusetts, they were now diligently laboring to have the patent to 
 Williams recalled and their embryo-patent perfected. In Gorton's 
 first work there, he says, he met " both ministers and Magistrates and 
 others," of Massachusetts, " pleading their cause that the said charter 
 might be authentic, which would have happened if Warwick men had 
 not opposed it."" 
 
 Weld and Peters were able and serviceable men to Massachusetts 
 and formidable opponents to Gorton and the Providence Plantations. 
 Weld was one of the Synod who found and " confuted " the eighty-two 
 " Wheelright errors," and was the editor of Rise, Reign and Ruin, a 
 volume of preposterous stories, believed to have been compiled by Win- 
 throp, of the horrible freaks of the dissenters he styled " antinomians,"'' 
 a book widely distributed and read and believed by many in New Eng- 
 land and England, prejudicing them against dissenters such as Williams, 
 Hutchinson and the rest of the Providence Plantation people.* 
 
 Peters, too, was an assiduous and successful laborer for Massachu- 
 setts and a man of great influence with Cromwell. He took an active 
 p.irt in the transactions of the Commonwealth and became Cromwell's 
 favorite Chaplain and Counsellor. He possessed a spirit of unconquer- 
 able energy and perseverance, was fervid and impressive in his elo- 
 quence, popular as an orator, and of great courage. He preached before 
 the court that tried the King Charles the First, urging his condemnation, 
 and after the sentence (according to the fashion in England) before the 
 
 205, 222. Mass. Rec, iii, 90, Nov. 4, 1646. 'R. I. Collec. ii. 228. 
 
 •.•\nte and post p., Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1862, Aspinwall's Remarks on the 
 Narragansett patent. "R. I. Rec, ii. 80. ""First published in 
 
 1644 with Weld's "Preface" and "Some Additions." 2d Winlhrop, i, 284, 20,1. 
 310, 314; ii, 30, 92, 164, 260. Ellis' Annie Hutchinson, 301. 'Arnold's 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 71 
 
 execution preached the funeral sermon to the King, a terrible denun- 
 ciation/ This glimpse at the formidable character of the men and 
 measures of Massachusetts reveals but faintly a few of the obstacles 
 against which it was Gorton's heroic task to contend. 
 
 The Complaint or Memorial of the Providence Plantations to the 
 Parliament Commissioners was set forth in a paper written by Gorton 
 dated January i6th, 1645-6, prepared doubtless during his voyage. It 
 told of the wrongs inflicted upon the people of these plantations, their 
 removal from their houses and lawfully purchased possessions, the 
 trials for error in their religious opinions, the usurpations by the 
 Colonies of power not granted in their charters, and their tyrannical 
 use of it upon them, and their banishment, not only from the territory 
 granted to them in their charter, but from all the land purchased by 
 themselves of Miantinomi beyond their limits, of Massachusetts and 
 Plymouth claims and their jointly violating and obstructing the charter 
 granted to Williams, and the commands of Massachusetts and of Ply- 
 mouth that they refrain from exercising any authority of the govern- 
 ment they had organized under the charter and in which themselves 
 were officers. It recounted the wrong done to the Narragansett nation, 
 and set forth their act of submission and cession to the English govern- 
 ment of all their dominion ; the proceedings of Massachusetts and 
 Plymouth against the Narragansetts to take the country they had 
 ceded to England, and which fell within the compass of the charter 
 granted to Williams, by destroying them with the sword. It also 
 stated that word had been sent to Providence that if they should stand 
 as neutrals in the war and not go out with them in the work they would 
 make plunder of them. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The King's flight, April 2T, 1646, from Oxford — Gorton publishes his complaint 
 and the Narragansett Indians' submission and cession — The falsity of Massa- 
 chusetts' claim of a patent for Narragansett exposed by the President of the 
 Parliament Commission in open session — Parliament Commissioners' mandate 
 to Massachusetts confirming their grant to Williams and commanding observ- 
 ance and obedience — The wisdom and moderation of Gorton's petition com- 
 mended — The Massachusetts English agent, Peters, sends for the Governor of 
 Massachusetts to come over and assist in overturning what Gorton had accom- 
 plished — Coddington renders Massachusetts and Peters great assistance — 
 Coddington's letter to Winthrop— He denies the freedom of the island to his 
 opponents — Representatives of mainland and inland tovvns had joined the 
 government of the Williams charter — Coddington still with his briefless court ; 
 derides liberty of conscience ; sends records and papers to Massachusetts for 
 their English agents' use against the chartered government — Winslow sent 
 by Massachusetts to England to assist Peters and others and to reply to Gorton 
 — Mather terms Winslow an Hercules — His pre-eminent abilities — His other 
 equipments — Favorable conditions for Massachusetts — A printing press at Cn.m- 
 bridge, Mass. — A plethoria of Massachusetts books and writings — Winslow has 
 a day appointed for an audience before the Parliament Commissioners. 
 
 The absence of the King, his flight from Oxford on the 26th of April, 
 1646,' preventing communication with him, Gorton published the Act 
 of the Narragansetts and the principal matter of his complaint in a 
 
 Hist. R. I., i, 62-65. Palfrey's Hist. N. E., i, 405, 496 notes. '3^ Mass. 
 
 Collec, ix, 286. Barry's Mass., i, 207. Ryerson's Loyalists of America, i, 85, 125. 
 Echard's Hist. Eng., 3d London Ed., Book i, 778, Charles First, Book iii, 656. 
 "Disrael's Life of Charles First, ii, 391-443. 'Force's tract 6, Vol. iv. 
 
•^2 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 volume entitled " Simplicity's Defense Against Seven Headed Policy," 
 from London, August 3d, 1646.* 
 
 Gorton's petition contained no plea for redress for losses nor for 
 injuries done him or anyone, but that the Massachusetts Magistrates be 
 restrained from exercising authority beyond their chartered jurisdic- 
 tion, and that the rights of the natives and the natural and chartered 
 rights of the people of the Providence Plantations be regarded, and 
 they be restored to their lands and houses under them.' 
 
 At a full meeting of the Parliament Commissioners of Plantations, 
 to whom Gorton's memorial was addressed, the Lord High Admiral, 
 the Earl of Warwick, informed Gorton in open board that he knew 
 of no other charter for these parts than that Mr. Williams had obtained, 
 and he was sure that charter Massachusetts pretended had never 
 passed the table." There was no registry of any such paper, and an 
 examination of it disclosed that its date, December loth, 1643, was a 
 Sunday when Gorton was languishing in Massachusetts in irons. It had 
 not the names to it of a majority of the Parliament Commissioners, 
 which was necessary for it to pass, if they were genuine signatures.' 
 
 A mandate was drawn up by the Parliament Commissioners to the 
 government of Massachusetts which silenced its profession to any other 
 late charter than that to Williams, affirming this grant and to its pro- 
 visions commanding the Massachusetts Magistrates' obedience. A copy 
 of the complaint and petition was enclosed with the mandate of the 
 Commissioners, dated May 15th, 1646, to Massachusetts, viz.: "To 
 suffer the petitioners and all others, late inhabitants of Narragansett 
 Bay, freely and quietly to live and plant upon Shawomet and all other 
 lands included in the patent lately granted to them without extending 
 your jurisdiction to any part therein, or otherwise disquieting their 
 consciences or civil peace, or interrupting them in their possession, 
 until we have received your answer to their claims in point of title 
 and you shall have received our further orders therein. 
 
 The Parliament Commissioners also commended the wisdom and 
 moderation of the petitioners. They say : " You may take notice that 
 we found the petitioners' aim and desire in the result of it was not so 
 much a reparation for what had passed as a setting their habitation 
 for the future under that government by a charter of civil incorporation, 
 zihich was heretofore granted them by ourselves. The Narragansett 
 Bay was divers years inhabited by those of Providence, Portsmouth and 
 Newport who are interested in the complaint, and that the same is 
 wholly without the bounds of the Masachusetts patent." And they 
 required the trespassers to remove any persons who had taken posses- 
 sion of Shawomet lands by their authority, and permit the petitioners 
 to pass through their territory without molestation to their own homes. 
 This was signed by the Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick, the 
 President of the Board of Parliament Commissioners, and by a majority 
 of the other members." Capt. Cook was not allowed to return to New 
 England. He joined Cromwell's army, and in 1652 met his death m 
 the campaign in Ireland. 
 
 Randall Holden, who went to England with Gorton, was made the 
 bearer of the mandate of the Parliament Commissioners to Massachu- 
 
 R I Collec, ii, 59, 60, 2-?4, 2■^s. 'Lord's and Commons' letter in R. I. 
 
 Collec. ii, 195. Letter from Warwick, 228. ""Never passed the Council 
 
 table nor repistered." R. L Rec. ii, 161. 162. R. L Collec, 111, 161, 162. 
 *2d Mass. Collec, vii, 104. Col. Aspinwall, Mass. Hist. Soc Proc, 1862. Narra- 
 Ransett Patent, Sidney S. Rider, Prov., " No such thinf? upon record in any court 
 in Enj?: had searched the records." Brenton. "Theirs there, but not ours. 
 Hutchinson, Mass. Arch., ii, 26. *R. L Rec, i, 365-369. R- I- Collec, 
 
 195, -228. 'Among the signers was Mr. Fenwick, the grantee, in an 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS.. 73 
 
 setts and the glad news to the Providence Plantations. He arrived 
 at Boston on September 13th, 1646. He brought with him also a pass- 
 port of same date from the Lord High Admiral and nine other of the 
 Commissioners, directed to the government and Magistrates of Massa- 
 chusetts, in it repeating their order and further requiring that Samuel 
 Gorton and his company might land at any port in New England and 
 " pass without any of your let or molestations through any part of the 
 continent of America within your jurisdiction to the said tract of land. 
 Hereof you may not fail and this shall be your warrant." Gorton 
 remained in England upon the further business requiring him. 
 
 A report of the complaint and petition made by Gorton had been 
 received in Masachusetts long before the official copy enclosed with 
 the mandate was received, and other papers about the case were sent 
 by the Massachusetts Court to Peters and Wild, their agents in Eng- 
 land ; but in November the Massachusetts Court received word from 
 Peters that the writings which were sent over last were not sufficient, 
 and for the Governor to come over and assist them ;'" but it was feared 
 that if the Governor went he would be detained there, and so it was 
 resolved to send another and also to send new writings to strengthen 
 their position. 
 
 Coddington, as he says, " to further that end," engaged in serving 
 them with material for amplifying their writings against Gorton and 
 the Providence Plantations, craftily preparing for Massachusetts " The 
 Sum of the Presentment," as he called it, against Gorton, and secretly 
 entertaining at his home upon the island Massachusetts emissaries 
 whom he despatched in the morning early. He writes to Governor 
 Winthrop on November nth the following: " I thought meet to inform 
 you that your son, Mr. John and all his departed from our island on 
 the 3d day in the morning early; the wind not being good to clear 
 them further than Block Island, but on the 4th day in the morning it 
 was very good, so that I doubt not they are all safely arrived before the 
 storm began; by whom I received your letter of the 21st of October. 
 For Gorton and his company they are to me as they ever have been, 
 their freedom of the island is denied and zvas zvhcn I accepted the place 
 I nozv have. The Commissioners have joined them in the same charter, 
 though we maintain the government as before. To further that end 
 you zvrote of, I sent to Mr. Cotton to be delivered to Mr. Elliot, that 
 requested it, zvhat uas entered upon the records, under the Secretary's 
 hand; zvhich I do think you may do zvell to make use of, because I hear 
 it sinks most zvith the Earl, zvhere they have liberty of conscience. 
 Mr. Peters' writes in that you sent your son p'secute ;* and so in haste 
 not doubting as occasion serves, to approve myself yours ever, William 
 Coddington."' 
 
 These passages from letters to Governor Winthrop exhibit the rela- 
 tion of Coddington to the Colony of Providence Plantations. He is the 
 instrument employed by Massachusetts to defeat the union of the towns, 
 by which alone they could hope to secure independence of her. He is 
 employed by her agent to procure from the public records such 
 extracts as might be made to appear objectionable to the honorable 
 
 old patent for which a claim had been made. Ante p. "::d Winthrop. ii, 
 
 92, 260, 332, 334. 'Thos. Peters of Sayhrook. who was younger brother 
 
 of Hugh Peters of Salem, one of the foreitrn acrents of Mass., went to En.e. in 
 1646 and returned no more. Trumbull's Hist. Conn., i, 292, 299, Savage's Diet. 
 4th Mass. Collec, vii, 428 note. And neither Hugh Peters nor Thomas 
 
 Weld ever returned to New England. Coddington who soon joined them all there, 
 writes of Hugh Peters : " I was merry with him and called him the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury." ' Purposely to execute. ' Mass. 
 
74 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Board of Commissioners for foreign plantations; and how super- 
 serviceable he desires to be in this capacity he shows by insiduously 
 calling particular attention to the act relating to liberty of conscience 
 as likely to sink most with the Earl of Warwick, the President of the 
 Board.* 
 
 The Massachusetts Court, upon receipt of the mandate and the call 
 for help from Peters, addressed themselves unto Mr. Winslow to take 
 another voyage for England, that he might thus procure their deliver- 
 ance from the designs of many troublesome adversaries that were 
 petitioning unto Parliament against them; and this Hercules, having 
 been from his very early days accustomed unto the crushing of that 
 kind of serpents, generously undertook another agency. He sailed from 
 Boston the middle of December, 1646." 
 
 Winslow was selected as the one pre-eminently qualified for the most 
 important mission. He was accounted " the most able and earnest " 
 advocate in the colonies. "A fit man,'' Winthrop said, " to be employed 
 in our affairs in England, both in regard to his abilities of presence, 
 speech, courage and understanding, as also being well known to the 
 Commissioners.'" With portions of the Island's public records, and 
 " The Sum of the Presentment against Gorton " supplied by Codding- 
 ton,' the " Book of News " by Winthrop," the writings of other Magis- 
 trates and ministers, an address from the Massachusetts Court charg- 
 ing almost everything against the heretics to justify the Magistrates' pro- 
 ceedings against them, and various captured papers copied " not verbatum 
 only, but literatum,'"* he was the best all-round equipped and reinforced 
 advocate that an opponent, " almost without friends," ever met and 
 stood up against alone.*" Then, too, " the times had greatly changed " 
 since the granting of the charter to Williams ; now " the Puritans being 
 in power in England, Mr. Winslow had great advantage in the business 
 from the credit and esteem which he enjoyed with that party.'" 
 
 During the twenty years of Parliament and Commonwealth reign, 
 1640 to 1660, Massachusetts was the favorite of Cromwell. They 
 enjoyed the favor that no other colony enjoyed or received, the commo- 
 doties of all nations free of duty.' They had other advantages over the 
 neighboring colonies. They had the exclusive control of the only 
 
 Arch. *Dr. H. E. Turner, ist R. I. H. Tr., No. 4- 'Cotton 
 
 Mather's Magnalia, Book ii, ch. i. 2d Winthrop, ii, 346, 359, 365, 387. Mass. 
 Rec, ii, 161, 165. Gov. Haynes of Conn, went over probably as a colleague to 
 Winslow in the same vessel with him, and remained as much as a year and a half 
 in Eng. Palfrey's Hist. N. E., ii. 176 note. « 2d Winthrop, ii, 346. 
 
 'See Appendix. 'R. I. Collec, ii, 197, 198, 200. 4th Mass. Collec, vi, 
 
 181, 182. Ante p. The book of News contained a pretended copy of a letter 
 of Williams to Winthrop, accusing Gorton of ''bewitching" the people with his 
 new and radical opinions, which probably originated at this time with Codding- 
 ton's Presentment. It bears date Mar. 8, 1646, supposedly just before, but really 
 aftor Gorton's departure for England. Gorton had been chosen and dispatched by 
 Williams and all of his friends to sustain his charter. They were intense friends 
 and coadjutors, and this pretended copy of Williams' letter for the Mass. magis- 
 trates' use against them and in England manifestly was an invention. No such 
 letter in v.-riting was ever found, and Winthrop seems to have nreserved all of 
 tb?r". A printed coppv of the printed nretended letter is among the Narragansett 
 Club's edition of William.s' preserved letters. Dr. Janes' " A Forgotten Founder 
 of Our Liberties." p. ?5 note. 'R. T. Collec, ii, 105, 198, 200, ?n2. 
 
 Winslow's Hyp. Unmasked. Part First. Force's iv, Tr. 6. p. s.^ 'The 
 
 Gov. Winthrop, Mr. Tyng, Capt. Keayne and the Auditor General were appointed 
 a Committee to see to the transcription of all such instruments for furnishing 
 Mr. Winslow for affairs in Eng., to be delivered to him before he go on board, 
 Mass. Rec, ii, 171. Mr. Tyng was one of those who with Capt. Cook were 
 arrested when upon one of the after-marches upon Providence and Warwick. 
 4th Mass. Collec, vi, 380; vii. 284. 'Winslow's Memorial Intd.. p. 52.^ 
 
 *Ryerscn's Loyalists of America, t, Rq-gg, tt2, 178. Palfrey's Hist. N. F.., ii, 
 bk. 2. ch. X, p. 393. *Ryerson's loy. of Amer., i, 183. Hildreth's 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 75 
 
 printing press (that at Cambridge) in America for nearly twenty 
 years, with licenses prohibiting the publication of any book or paper not 
 approved by them.' For want of a sufficient population it was not 
 until 1709 that a printing press could be maintained in Providence or 
 on the island.* There was, as a consequence of these conditions, a 
 plethora of only Massachusetts books and writings, many being printed 
 and sent over to England. 
 
 Winthrop says that upon Winslow's arrival there he had a day 
 appointed for audience before the Earl of Warwick and^ the Commis- 
 sioners of Plantations, Gorton appearing in Rhode Island's (the Provi- 
 dence Plantations) defense." Although Winslow was, as Mather _ says, 
 an "Hercules," and he also had "great advantages in the busmess' 
 through his assistant Massachusetts agents and counsellors and official 
 friends, Gorton unaided and almost alone, had the "herculean talk." 
 Added to the Massachusetts array of influence and talent against him 
 was the ingenious opposition that came from Coddington and the other 
 opponents of the charter, the Arnolds. In but few instances did man 
 ever defend a cause so successfully against such an avalanche of 
 assailants and assaults, his assailants having such unfair advantage of 
 him.' The virulent book " Rise, Reign and Ruin of the Antmomians 
 was now extensively circulated and read in England. It cited instances 
 of alleged monstrous births among the Providence people as proofs of 
 their moral monstrosities and their disfavor with the Almighty and 
 intimated charges of witchcraft against them.' Cotton's book^ ^^^^J^ 
 Tenets Washed" was also published at this time in London; and the 
 " Book of News " with the address of the Massachusetts Court and 
 the other before described writings to justify the proceedings against 
 Gorton, together with the other material furnished by Coddington, had 
 been printed and distributed, and were included by Winslow in his 
 defense. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The hearing before the Parliament Commissioners— Winslow's and Gorton's re- 
 quests—The Parliament Commissioners refuse all of Winslow s requests and 
 erant all of Gorton's— Winslow proceeds to have the Providence charter called 
 in_Winslow again defeated— The Providence charter to stand— Massachu- 
 setts commanded to not remove the people, but to assist and protect tliem— 
 Gorton and Winslow correspondence— No further opposition from Winslow— 
 Gorton leaves England for home. 
 
 Under these unauspicious prospects for Gorton the hearing before 
 the Commissioners of Parliament was called on May 25th 1647. Win- 
 slow without evidence for the territorial claims made by Plymouth 
 and Massachusetts, was constrained to principally rely for his siiccess 
 upon the common weapon against heretics; the calumny furnished him 
 against the Providence agent and people; and Gortons election as a 
 Mao-istrate was mentioned by him as a catastrophe and evidence o. the 
 danger threatening the colonies from such men as he. Wins ow s 
 address was arranged in three parts. The first was Winthrop s News, 
 adroitly edited and improved, and the Massachusetts Courts charges, 
 urging the injurious results that would follow m respect to the Massa- 
 chusetts attempts to convert the Indians, if Gorton and company should 
 
 United States, i. 456. . ^ ^Greene's Hist R I.. 1.9. .,/^^iS'l'-'":' 
 
 it 387. 'Ryerson's Loy. Amer.. 1, 97. 138- • uiot RlnfiW^ 
 
 "98 notes. 'Rider's Hist. Tr 17, PP- i4. iS- Armitage s Hist. BapUsts, 
 
yd LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 be " countenanced and upheld," and the other writings all " examined 
 and allowed by the general court holden at Boston." The second part 
 was a further account of Gorton, falsely accusing him of blasphemy 
 and of encouraging the Indians to war. The third part was " The Cause 
 of the Planting of New England" reviewed, with efforts to show that 
 great danger threatened the colony from " such as Gorton and his 
 company," that the practice of Massachusetts was not to punish for 
 heresy, but for contempt " toward the authority God had betrusted " 
 to them ; that the " severe law " complained of they " never did or will 
 execute the rigor of," but were " loth to repeal or alter the law because 
 we would leave it " to " bear witness against their judgment and prac- 
 tice."' Winslow's defense was soon after republished with a full table 
 of contents under the titles of " The Danger of Tolerating Levelers " 
 and "A More Particular Account Including the Former One." By 
 these and various other methods the heretics were made to appear odius 
 to many and deserving of all or more than the most charged or that 
 could be done to them. 
 
 Winslow, in his address to the committee, made five requests: First, 
 that they would " strengthen the cause of Massachusetts by their favor- 
 able approbation." Second, that they would never suffer Samuel Gorton 
 any more to go to New England. Third, that they would suffer New 
 Plymouth to enjoy their former liberties in the line of their government, 
 which included their the Providence government's " very seat even," 
 Providence and Shawomet. Fourth, that they would " patronize " him in 
 the "just defense" which he was making and thus place his constituents 
 under obligations to " engage with and for the Parliament and the 
 Commoners against all opposers of the State (England) to the last 
 drop of blood in their veins."'" 
 
 Not all of Gorton's address to the committee on this occasion is 
 preserved, but Winslow's requests Gorton probably offset with the same 
 requests as applied for himself and Providence, among them that the 
 English government would " never suffer Winslow any more to go to 
 New England." The result of the trial was the refusal by the Parlia- 
 ment Commissioners to Winslow of every one of his requests and the 
 granting of those of Gorton ;' and the issuance by them of a second 
 letter to Massachusetts, admonishing them to confine their jurisdiction 
 to within the limits of their sole patent. 
 
 They say : " We did not intend by our former letter to restrain the 
 bounds of your jurisdiction to a narrower compass than is held forth 
 in your letters patent. Our resolution took rise from an admittance 
 that the Narragansett Bay, the thing in question, was wholly without 
 the bounds of your patent, the examination whereof will, in the next 
 place, come before us, and whereas our said direction extended not 
 only to yourselves, but also to all the other governments and planta- 
 tions in New England whom it might concern, we declare that we 
 intended thereby no prejudice to any of their just rights, nor the 
 countenancing of any practice to violate them."' 
 
 Winthrop says: "The Commissioners having thus declared them- 
 selves to have an honorable regard of us and care to promote the 
 welfare of the four United Colonies and other English plantations 
 to the eastward, for they had confirmed Mr. Rigby's patent of Ligonia, 
 and by their favorable interpretation of it had brought it to the seaside, 
 
 6^6. 'Young's Chronicles. "Pref. Hyp. Unmasked. 
 
 'Winslow was " never suffered any more to go to new England," but was given 
 a position in the Eng. army. Mather's Magnalia, Book ii, ch. i. Gorton soon 
 returned to his government with a letter from the Lord Admirable, cominanding 
 the non-molestation of himself and people. 'May 25, 1647. ist Winthrop, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. ^^ 
 
 whereas the words of the grant laid it twenty miles short [they were 
 but twenty-four miles short of Shawomet] and had put Mr. Ferdinand 
 Georges out of all as far as Soco, our agent proceeded to have the 
 charter, which they had lately granted to those of Rhode Island and 
 Providence, to be called in.'" To this object the efforts of Winslow 
 and his assistants were applied, to be again defeated, the Commissioners 
 deciding that the charter they had granted to Williams should stand. 
 Massachusetts " was prohibited " from acting under the Weld paper 
 and enjoined to confine their jurisdiction to the territory defined in their 
 charter. The Massachusetts Magistrates never placed the Weld paper 
 upon their government records, for it would have been too difficult to 
 explain if they were called upon so to do by the English government 
 or their Commissioners. It was not again during sixteen years men- 
 tioned. Its promoters wisely let it sink into oblivion.* The Parliament 
 Board decided that Commissioners upon the ground should examine 
 and determine to which charter all the disputed territory belonged. 
 And they issued, July 22d, 1647, another order to Massachusetts that 
 "the government wherein whose jurisdiction they (the inhabitants) 
 shall appear to be, not only not to remove them, but to encourage them 
 with protection and assistance." These orders were all signed by a 
 majority of the Parliament Commissioners and by those who were 
 claimed as signers of the Weld paper. 
 
 Gorton received from the Parliament Commissioners, single-handed 
 against numbers of the most able and influential, all he asked for and 
 all he could wish, except a " visible force " to compel the Massachusetts 
 Magistrates to obey Parliament's mandates. The internal difficulties 
 in England having a paramount claim upon the thoughts and resources 
 of Parliament, the governments of the colonies were necessarily for 
 the time neglected; yet, as a result of Gorton's work, the government 
 of the Providence Plantations under their charter was so confirmed 
 and determined that a fusion of all the parties on main land and island 
 ensued, resulting in an agreement by them to the order established by 
 the charter. Peace, however, was deferred, principally by the intrigues 
 of Coddington and the impunity with which Massachusetts pursued 
 her own way during the reign of Cromwell. 
 
 " The final issue of Gorton's address to the Parliament Commission- 
 ers," Arnold says, " not only prevented the Parliament from revoking 
 their first decision, but also to have it confirmed, to the final discom- 
 fiture of their implacable enemies."* 
 
 Gorton says: "Mr. Winslow and myself had honorable correspond- 
 ence in England and before the honorable committee, which he himself 
 referred to, and not to wrong the chart I saw nothing to the contrary 
 but that I had as good acceptation in the eyes of that committee as he 
 himself had, although he had a greater charter and larger commission." 
 Winslow and Gorton were early friends, dating from before the diffi- 
 culties between the Providence Plantations and Massachusetts. Though 
 as agent for Massachusetts to defend them against Gorton's complaints 
 Winslow was obliged to make their defense against his judgment and 
 with great reluctance, with such representations as they directed, some 
 of them he would not have made of his own motion; and of Gorton, 
 \Vinslow in his discretion is compelled to say that " time was when 
 his person was precious in my sight." There must have been something 
 spiritual about him to have drawn from him such an expression of 
 
 ii, 319. 320. '2d Winthrop, ii, 386, 390, 39T. *R. T. Rec. ii, 
 
 162. Col. Aspinwall, Mass. H. Soc. Proc, 1862. Remarks on Narrapansett 
 Patent, Sidney S. Rider, Prov. "Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 219. 
 
78 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 affectionate regard. Winslow seems to have felt it necessary to excuse 
 himself for saying the hard things he did say of him." 
 
 Gorton, with the assurance of no further opposition from Winslow, 
 in the spring of 1647-8 left for home with directions from the President 
 of the Board of Parliament Commissioners of Plantations and with a 
 letter commanding his protection in passing through Massachusetts. 
 He and Winslow parted friends.' Winslow resigned his agency for 
 Massachusetts and accepted an English commission from that govern- 
 ment, and died at sea on the expedition against Hispanoli." 
 
 There were many critical periods in the early history of the State. 
 This was the first, and none could be more critical. Her chartered rights 
 had been by her more powerful and influential rival denied, her terri- 
 tory taken by armed possession and another government set up over it. 
 
 It has been suggested that the claims Gorton presented were so just 
 that success could not otherwise than attended his efforts. The 
 justice of a cause does not insure it. The spirit of justice did not 
 govern rulers generally, and the wonder is that he, against such multi- 
 tude and variety of special and influential opposition, prevailed and pre- 
 vented the Providence charter from being called in, the pretended Weld 
 charter from being completed, the refugees from being delivered for 
 punishment as requested, and the land from being divided up among 
 the other colonies. The founding of the State is due to Roger Williams. 
 Its preservation is due to Samuel Gorton. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A union Assembly, May, 16.17 — The Model Civil Government under English laws 
 as first drawn up by Gorton and Hutchinson at Portsmouth on the island now 
 agreed to by all the parties — All men privileged to " walk as their consciences 
 persuaded them, in the name of Jehova their God" — Two governments— The 
 Model Civil Government and the Judge and Elders Government contrasted^ 
 Coggershall made second President, or Governor, of the chartered govern- 
 ment Coddington, for third time left out of office, goes to Boston — War- 
 wickers attempt to resettle at Warwick — Massachusetts sends Benedict Arnold 
 and other of their officers to disperse them, and grants their lands to others — 
 President Coggershall visits Warwick and interposes for his people. 
 
 Of the owners of Shawomet now living at Portsmouth, Judge Bray- 
 ton says : " They were all law and order men and for civil govern- 
 ment. They all held allegiance to the crown of England and claimed 
 to be governed by the laws of the Kingdom. They all held that the 
 civil power could not rightfully meddle with the consciences of men or 
 with their religious belief. They claimed that the laws of England were 
 theirs and that English liberty was theirs; that they came from the 
 mother country to Aese shores clothed with them; that it was their 
 birthright, and thev had an abiding confidence that the government 
 at home would in the end vindicate those rights." Besides these men, 
 most of the inhabitants of Portsmouth were the same minded. They 
 were the subscribers to the civil compact and were the members of 
 
 •Judge Brayton, R. I. Hist. Tr. 17- Arnold's Hist. R. T., i. 168. Hutchinson's 
 Hist. Mass., i, 552. Gorton's letter to Morton, Force's Tracts, Vol. iv. 
 ^Aspinwall, Proc. Mass. His. Soc, 1862. 'Acts Corns. U. Cols., i. 192- 
 
 194. Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., i, 187. It is a singi:lar fact thrxt nearly all of 
 the agents sent by the Mass. government to plead their cause to the F.ng. govern- 
 ment, Thos. and Hugh Peters, Thos. Weld, Cant. Cook, Edward Winslow and 
 others, were never allowed to return. 'Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 122. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 79 
 
 that government, but were not of the government that Coddington now 
 pretended over them. All these and the large majority of the whole 
 of the people of the Providence Plantations had been anxiously await- 
 ing to know what would be the final issue of Gorton's mission, trusting 
 that the charter would be sustained and their rights and liberties pro- 
 tected by law. The intelligence that the pretentious Weld paper was 
 not a charter and that the Parliament Commissioners were zealous to 
 uphold the charter granted to Williams were both " tidings of great 
 joy to these people," and the means of so generally terminating the 
 internal opposition as to bring about the union of those who had been 
 Coddington's leading supporters with the chartered government.' 
 
 A General Assembly at Portsmouth, May i8th, 1847, had, upon the 
 suggestion of the Providence Commissioners, the call of the govern- 
 ment to them all, a full representation from all the towns." The 
 Commissioners representing Providence in the government, and the only 
 body of Commissioners the names of which are preserved were Gregory 
 Dexter, William Wickenden, Thomas Olney, Robert Williams, Richard 
 Waterman, Roger Williams, William Field, John Greene, John Smith, 
 and John Lippitt. There were two kinds of Commissioners from the 
 island. The two sets, each chosen by the inhabitants of their own town, 
 and the one set chosen by Coddington's limited number of freemen 
 for both towns, the whole island. After much sparring, the Portsmouth 
 Commissioners obtained a rule under which they proceeded to " act 
 alone according to the Assembly's instructions," declaring themselves 
 to be " as free as any other town in the colony." The Newport Com- 
 missioners, however composed, were, that is 'those who were successful 
 as such and were seated, most of them Coddington's friends. 
 
 Shawomet had but about six settlers when the charter was written, 
 but, as the reader has seen, provisions were made in the charter for 
 all both present and furture settlements within its stated bounds. Gorton 
 having named it Warwick, in honor of his friend the Earl of Warwick, 
 it was represented with the other towns. Portsmouth, to insure the 
 stability of their independence of Coddington, proposed an act that 
 each town govern its own affairs, but the friends of the latter prevailed 
 with an amendment that they "might work either apart or jointly,"' 
 which left the matter in its unsettled condition, disappointing the 
 people's expectations and heightening the feeling of unrest and dissat- 
 isfaction. The Providence Commissioners' desires were expressed in 
 resolutions, among them that all subscribe to the laws of England as 
 had their Portsmouth friends, and the acceptance of the model of 
 government that had been shown to them by their worthy friends of 
 the island. The following propositions of the Portsmouth Commission- 
 ers were adopted: That the plantations assent to receive and be gov- 
 erned by the laws of England — not the church compact of Coddington; 
 that " each town should have apart for the transaction of particular 
 affairs a charter of civil incorporation ; " and that the model of govern- 
 ment and laws which they submitted be accepted by the whole repre- 
 sentation for the colonies.^ 
 
 Peterson, in his history of Rhode Island, says that when the Codding- 
 ton faction joined the charter government of the Providence Plantations 
 "the town of Providence instructed their Commissioners to hold a 
 correspondence with the whole colony ' in the model that hath been 
 lately shown unto us by our worthy friends of the island,' and it appears 
 that the plan of the government was framed by the people of the island 
 and shown to those of Providence, who agreed to adopt them; and 
 
 "R. I. Rec, i. 'R. I. Rec, i, 191. -"R. I. Rec, i, 43, 44. 147 
 
8o LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 thus from the legislation of the people of the island the free institu- 
 tions emanated." But he does not credit to the proper islanders the 
 principles which he says " operated like leaven in diffusing itself 
 through the minds of the masses and formed the nucleus out of which 
 ultimately sprang the Declaration of Independence." The government 
 agreed to was not that of Coddington's, but that of Hutchinson-Gorton's 
 on the island." 
 
 The government agreed to by all present provided for a President 
 and Chief Justice and four Assistants or Associate Justices, for a 
 Court of Election annually in May, and for General and Quarterly 
 Courts; for a Grand Jury, that men have their preemptory and other 
 challenges to the full as they have them in England ; and for a Jury 
 of Twelve men of the same town where the Court of Trial is held. 
 The general code of laws, which concerned all men, was first approved 
 by the towns [as the States adopted the Constitution and still adopt 
 amendments] and was ratified by the General Assembly of the whole 
 people. All legislative power was placed ultimately in the whole 
 people in General Assembly convened. Towns might propose laws [as 
 States amends to the Constitution] and the approval of a General Court 
 of Commissioners might give them a temporary force; but it was only 
 the action of the General Asembly (the General Government) which 
 could make them general and permanent for all persons within the 
 colony. But the towns had their local laws [as the States have theirs], 
 which could not be enforced beyond their own limits ; and they had their 
 town courts [as the States have State courts], >vhich had exclusive 
 original jurisdiction over all causes between its own citizens.* 
 
 The code contained rules, among them one severely condemning a 
 judge for stooping to the roll of the advocate, directing that the judge 
 in charging the jury " should mind the inquest of the most material 
 passages and arguments that are brought by one and other for the 
 case and against it, without alteration or leaning to one party or 
 another, which is too commonly seen." And recorded that " as it would 
 be too prejudical to the place or quiet government thereof for a man 
 out of a discontented self-will, or other pretense, not to resign, together 
 with his office belonging to the colony, island or town, to him that is 
 chosen and appointed thereto. Be it therefore enacted by the authority 
 of the present Assembly that whosoever hath or shall hereafter have 
 books, papers or parchments that belong to the colony, island or town, 
 or any other things appertaining thereto, shall within one month after 
 another be chosen and appointed to take the charge thereof, deliver 
 up safely into his hands all such books, papers, parchments and other 
 things that were in his custody. And be it further enacted that he that 
 shall not resign and deliver the books, papers, parchments and other 
 things above specified within one month as he is appointed shall forfeit " 
 as provided. It was enacted that a solemn profession before a judge 
 should be accounted of as full force as an oath. 
 
 At the close of the code appears these words : " These are the laws 
 that concern all men, and these are the penalties for the transgression 
 thereof, which by common consent are ratified and adopted throughout 
 the whole colony; and otherwise than thus what is herein forbidden, 
 all men mav v/alk as their consciences persuade them, every one in the 
 name of God; and let the saints of the Most High walk in the 
 
 'This government was the first one in these Plantations to have a judiciary or 
 magistracy governing in only civil things. All its features were adopted, except- 
 ing that of the chief officer. This may have been the result of Coddmgton s 
 friends' pledge to vote only for him for Gov. or Judge. ^Historical 
 
 Discourse, by Hon. Job Durfee. R. I. Rec. i, 191-208. 'R. I. Rec, Dr. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 8i 
 
 colony without molestation, in the name of Jehovah their God, forever 
 and amen.'" 
 
 The form and character of this government was the exact antipode 
 of Coddington's. The members of Coddington's court were selected 
 by a very limited franchise. The members of his court were, up to 
 nearly this time, no more enlightened with the belief in the rights of 
 others to rule or to enjoy their opinions than were their Massachusetts 
 brethren. They, like them, had removed not because they disavowed 
 the doctrine of coercion, but because they did not like themselves to be 
 the subjects of its application. All those who went off to Newport and 
 installed Coddington to judge with double voice took the Bible as their 
 code of State. Only through the stern experience that came to them 
 after they became Baptists or Quakers did they receive into their minds 
 the sunlight from the despised doctrine. " They possessed not that clear 
 appreciation of the great democratic principles of civil and religious 
 liberty "" that was possessed by their despised brethren. In Gorton 
 and Williams Church and State were distinct, but in Coddington they 
 were at this time confounded.' 
 
 This Assembly has been called the Union Assembly, for in this all 
 the principal ones of Newport and Coddington's followers joined the 
 chartered government; the most prominent of them, his late Elder 
 Coggershall, given the office of President or Governor and each of 
 most of his other leaders given place. While this effected the recon- 
 ciliation of the leading ones of Coddington to the government, it was 
 a disappointment to Coddington, who was in this for the third time 
 left out of office. He departed for Boston. 
 
 The penalty prescribed by Massachusetts to the ov/ners of Shawomet 
 to, at the peril of their lives, venture upon any portion of it was, not- 
 withstanding Parliament's orders, unrevoked; but relying upon the 
 observance of the orders, some of them, now " in anticipation of the 
 joys long hoped for, peace in their possessions," returned to their home. 
 " Having now received our orders," August 8th, 1647, they chose a 
 town council, but they were not allowed to settle down in the place. 
 There were forty years more of hardships and struggles for them 
 before they were left in peace. Massachusetts now assumed to dispose 
 of the land at Warwick to her subjects, and granted ten thousand acres 
 to settle upon, provided government over it and sent Benedict Arnold 
 and other of their officers to apprehend the bodies of the owners, to 
 appraise damages against them and demand satisfaction.* Upon this 
 Governor Coggershall went to Warwick, and in the name of his govern- 
 ment forbade the Massachusetts subjects to intermeddle; whereupon 
 the Massachusetts Court resolved to again send forces against them, 
 but deferred it until more should be learned from their foreign agents, 
 they yet failing to observe that they had no right outside the territory 
 limited to them in their patent ^ 
 
 We have in previous pages answered the absurd accusation that 
 Gorton or the people of Warwick would not have a government until 
 by a charter. He was the leading organizer, and more than one-half 
 of those who became the original owners or settlers of Warwick were 
 members of the moflel civil government now adopted by the charter 
 government, and for their active promotion of it and participation 
 in it were denied the island. 
 
 The Providence settlers composed their difficulties by arbitration, and 
 
 Janes' Samuel Gorton, p. 60. ''John M. Mackie, 2d Ser. Soarks* Am. 
 
 Biog.,^ V, 333. 'Armitago's Hist. Baptists, 672. Eighteen years after 
 
 this Coddington was con\-crtcd and became a Friend and Liberalist. 
 *5th Mass. Collec. % 347. '2d Winthrop, ii, 386, 390. "Staples' 
 
82 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 were for eight years without a judiciary." The first six men of War- 
 wick had scarcely need of even their provision for " loving arbitration " 
 for the setthng of their difficulties ; for but nine months were allowed 
 them there; busy months in building three or four little houses before 
 they were with the six of Providence carried off to Boston jail;' and 
 from that time on, after they formed a government, or for more than 
 thirty years thereafter, Warwick was but the camp and fort for soldiers 
 and the pillage ground of the subjected Indians. The few " habitations 
 were destroyed by fire and otherwise," and the few once its inhabitants 
 were scattered and had no place for a government, scarcely even a 
 roofed dwelling. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Gorton's return from England — He is detained by the Massachusetts government 
 in Boston until after his government election is over — Coddington declared 
 elected to the head of the Providence government — Providence government 
 Assembly denounce the fraud, suspend Coddington, and choose and install Capt. 
 Jerry Clark President of the Providence government — Coddington indicted for 
 treason and his flight from the colony — Coddington offers himself and lands 
 to the league of colonies — They refuse him — He offers himself and lands to 
 Plymouth — Providence and Gorton party successfully oppose him — Codding- 
 ton's letter to Winthrop accounting his disgrace. 
 
 A year had passed since the last Assembly and the Commissioners of 
 Portsmouth and Newport had not composed their difficulties. Codding- 
 ton and his remaining adherents were trying yet to enforce the edicts 
 of this court over the whole island, and left nothing unturned to destroy 
 the government which had been established under the Charter.' The citi- 
 zens of Portsmouth had again in town meeting expressed their independ- 
 ence of the Newport men's rule over them, and ordered the clerk to re- 
 announce their resolution to act in the approaching General Assembly 
 separately. The feeling between them and Coddington's adherents, 
 
 Annals. 'GammeH's Life of Williams. 2d Sparks* Am. Biog, iv, 133. 
 
 *We omitted to state that half of the men captured by the Mass. troops had not 
 seen Shawomet, but were residents of Providence ; were either taken by the 
 troops at Providence as they passed through it, or at Shawomet after having fled 
 there before the advancing soldiers. Cotton said: "This company was made 
 up of those friends of Mr. Williams." They were members of Williams' church, 
 of other churches and of no churches, whom Gorton never disturbed in their 
 relirion, but to whom, as to others, he preached the fundamental truths of the 
 Christian religion when they chose to listen ; which was crime sufficient, so then 
 considered. " Gorton, desiring to speak his mind, fully set it forth as the mind 
 of himself and his company, whereof those of Mr. Williams, his friends were no 
 small part," Cotter. Nar. Club, ii, 16, 17. To Williams' addresses to Cotton, 
 the declared inefficiency of such means, the branding of such methods, and 
 cer<:nre of them — "There hath been no small noise of Master Gorton and hi 
 friends being disciplined, or as the Papists call it, disciplined in the school ot 
 the New Eng. churches. It is worth the inquiry to ask what conviction and con- 
 version hath all these hostilities, caotivatings, courtines, imprisonments, chain- 
 ings, banishments, etc., wrought," and "when such tjurichteoiis and most un- 
 christian proceedings are exercised against them." Cotton defends proceedings 
 by nccnsinrr Gorton, not only of heresy, but uniustlv of wrongfully taking the 
 Indian lands. Nar. Club, iv, 226, 228. Gorton did not accept the mission to the 
 Eng. government on, as his decriers stated, his sole account, as we have seen 
 from the resolutions of the Aug. 9, 1645, Assembly sessions; and Winslow, in 
 describing his Parliamentary services, writes : " Gorton also appearing in defense 
 of Rhode Island, Providence Plantations," and his petition contained no pica for 
 redress for losses nor for injuries done him or anyone, but that the Mass. magi.-- 
 trates be restrained from exercising authority beyond their chartered jurisdictio:i, 
 and that the rights of the natives and the natural and chartered rights of the 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 83 
 
 which had been continually growing, now became so severe as to 
 threaten the existence of the colony/ 
 
 Gorton was upon his return voyage to the colonies relieved from his 
 former long route via Manhattan by the order of the Parliament Com- 
 missioners to the Massachusetts Court that " we do also require that 
 you suffer the said Gorton and company to pass through any part of 
 that territory which is under your jurisdiction, toward the said tract 
 of land, without molestation, they demeaning themselves civilly, any 
 former sentence of expulsion or otherwise notwithstanding."* His 
 safety was also further provided by the Earls of Northumberland 
 and Warwick, by a passport or letter from them directed to the Massa- 
 chusetts Magistrates, especially commanding their obedience to the 
 issued orders. Under these circumstances he had taken passage direct 
 for Boston, where he arrived on May loth, 1648. This was in season 
 for him to be in Providence at the opening of the nearing Assembly 
 to testify in impending suits against Coddington and take part in the 
 election. When he landed in Boston the Massachusetts Court was in 
 session. The success achieved by Gorton in his mission made him 
 the most popular and likely candidate for the Presidency of the char- 
 tered government. This, together with the evidences which he possessed 
 of Coddington's treason papers and colonies records, the latter sent to 
 the aid of the Massachusetts agents in England, which, if laid before 
 the Assembly, would render Coddington's chances of election certainly 
 fatal, impelled the Massachusetts Magistrates promptly, in defiance of 
 the order to them from the Parliament Commissioners and in collusion 
 with Coddington who was with them in Boston, to cause Gorton's 
 arrest and detention. 
 
 The General Assembly of the Providence Plantations met on May 
 i6th, 1648, the regular sessions at Providence. They at once appointed 
 Rufus Barton, of Warwick, and Capt. Jeremy Clark, of Newport, as 
 delegates to proceed with their protest to the Massachusetts Court 
 agamst its high-handed proceedings. The Massachusetts Court, which 
 was apprised of the Assembly's movements, avoided a hearing of the 
 delegates and further delayed the matter by adjourning before the 
 delegates* arrival.' The delegates, hearing when they reached Dedham 
 that the court had adjourned, wrote to Winthrop in terms becomingly 
 severe yet deferential, asking leave to wait upon him with the request 
 which they had in charge. 
 
 The Assembly resolved itself, as was the customary procedure, into 
 a Court of Election and the election of State officers followed. It 
 appears certain that either Capt. Clark or Gorton were the candidates 
 for President of the government party. Coddington was put in nomi- 
 nation by the opposing party, with the result that the latter was, 
 although not present to meet the charges and evidences of disloyalty 
 that were lodged with the court against him, and was not present during 
 any of the Assembly's sessions, declared elected. Jeremy Clark, Roger 
 Williams, William Baulston and John Smith were chosen Assistants. 
 
 people of the Providence Plantations be regarded." The Parliament Commission- 
 ers also commended the wisdom and moderation of his plea. They say "You 
 may take notice that we found the petitioners' aim and desire in the result of 
 It was not so much a reparation for what had passed as a settling their habita- 
 tions tor the future under that government by a charter of civif incorporation, 
 which was heretofore granted them by ourselves. The Narragansett Bay was 
 divers years inhabited by those of Providence. Portsmouth and Newport, who ai« 
 ^^ >f '" *"^ complaint, and that the same is wholly without the bounds of 
 the Mass. patent. Lord's and Commons' Reeds. Collects., previously cited. 
 « J w- i."'^*-.^- ^•' '' 2^' Po'"^^- Town Rec. *R. I. Collec, ii, 196. 
 
 2d Winthrop, 1, 293. 'The oath of office was not taken of or given by 
 
84 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Immediately upon the announcement of the result of the election, upon 
 divers bills of complaint against Coddington and Baulston, their mem- 
 bership of the body was suspended. They never appeared to defend 
 themselves or attempt the impossible task of clearing themselves of the 
 charges against them, and were never engaged nor installed in office.* 
 Capt. Jeremy Clark of Newport, who was a leader of the liberal party 
 upon the island, was deputed President, and he, with the other officers 
 chosen and engaged, was engaged and installed in the office of President 
 to serve until another one be installed ; but as none other was installed 
 during that term, he only was the President for that term' and the 
 third President or Governor of the Providence Plantations under the 
 charter [Williams and Coggershall having been the first and second], 
 or the second President since the principal Coddington followers joined 
 them. It was evident that Coddington was not chosen or " elected " to 
 be President, for the immediate poll of these same men showed their 
 majority adverse to him and suspending him. The result of very similar 
 conditions in the future reasonably assures us that they intended the 
 office for Gorton at this election. In preventing Coddington's installa- 
 tion and preserving the government from the perversion for which he 
 was conspiring, they accomplished much, considering the crooked meth- 
 ods in operation against them. John Clark was a member of this 
 Assembly, an opponent of Coddington, never having since 1640 accepted 
 an office under him. 
 
 The Massachusetts Court on the 13th of the month reconsidered what 
 they had done, took up the letter from the Earls which Gorton had 
 presented to them, and believing " that it could be no prejudice to our 
 liberty, and our Commissioners being still attending the Parliament, 
 it might much have disadvantaged our cause and his expedition if the 
 Earl had heard that we should have denied him so small a request " as 
 to obey his or the other Parliament Commissioners' instructions, " re- 
 called their former order," permitted Gorton's release by only the cast- 
 ing vote of the Governor — so late that one from Boston could not reach 
 Providence during the Assembly's sessions and election — and gave him 
 the farcical grant of " a week's liberty to provide for his departure." 
 
 Portsmouth secured from the May Assembly the passage of its orig- 
 inal act regarding the courts, that they be organized and held in each 
 town separately ; the courts of each town to be composed of six men 
 of the town. These local judges were also the Commissioners or 
 Representatives of their towns, and together constituted the General 
 Assembly. From them each town chose an Assistant, who with the 
 President composed the General Court and Senate. The island was 
 freed of any plausible claims of Coddington's. The first bill of indict- 
 ment, or " Presentation of the Grand Jury," that was drawn up in the 
 colony was against Coddington and was presented at this session." 
 
 Nine days after this, on May 25th, he writes to Governor Winthrop 
 of Massachusetts that Capt. Partridge and Baulston and himself were 
 in disgrace with the people of Providence and Warwick and Gorton's 
 adherents on the island, and that he fears " Gorton will be a thorn in 
 their and our sides.'" And Williams a few weeks afterwards writes 
 that the colony was in the throes of " civil dissensions," the President 
 Jeremy Clark as the Captain of the Providence and Gorton party in 
 defense of the chartered government, and Alexander Partridge as 
 
 them; they were never invested with authority, and were not until 1654 restored 
 as members of the f^overnment. 'Callender, R. I. H. S. Collec, iv, 268. 
 
 Foster, R. I. H. S. Collec, vii. 87. R. T. Reeds 'Ante p. R. L Rec., i. 
 
 194, 196, 198, 202, 203, 210. 'Hutchinson's Papers, i, 253. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 85 
 
 Captain of the Pawtuxet and Coddington party arrayed against them." 
 In what appears to have been a short conflict, in which but one was 
 killed but many wounded, Partridge's forces were defeated; and Cod- 
 dington, after again writing to Massachusetts for help, was obliged 
 to flee from the vengeance of the people and take refuge in Taunton.* 
 
 On August 15th William Arnold wrote to the Massachusetts govern- 
 ment informing them that Pomham, one of many Massachusetts subjects 
 who were still maintained by Massachusetts upon the land at Warwick, 
 killing the cattle, entering the homes by force and committing other acts 
 of violence upon such of the owners as ventured there," had been 
 warned to the court at Plymouth and appealed to Massachusetts to 
 have the case tried by them, as the interpreters to the Plymouth Court 
 were all of the Gorton party, and as Mr. Brown, one to try the^case, 
 favored the company of Gorton and was very friendly with him. "Also 
 being desirous to acquaint your worships of my fear that if there be 
 not a speedier course taken the court will be deprived of jurisdiction 
 in these parts by those who claim that it is under the Providence 
 patent.'" He complained also of the trespass of such as returned to 
 Warwick or to what he claimed were the Pawtuxans' lands, and on 
 August 2ist, Massachusetts, in response to this and in defiance of the 
 Parliament orders to let these people freely live " without extending 
 their jurisdiction or otherwise disquieting them," again sent their offi- 
 cers to Warwick to assess damages and demand redress. 
 
 In the September following, Coddington applied, he said, " in behalf 
 of our island," to the Commissioners of the United Colonies to be 
 received into a perpetual league with them. The masses of the people 
 of the island had not authorized him to petition for them. His was 
 like Arnold's early petition " in behalf of Providence ; " it represented 
 less than a dozen individuals besides himself.* The application was 
 refused by the United Commissioners out of respect to the mandates 
 of the Parliament Commissioners. The result of Gorton's efforts now 
 saved Coddington and the island subjection to Massachusetts."* Codding- 
 ton then personally presented himself at the court of Plymouth to 
 subject himself and" the island to them. Here he was met by represen- 
 tatives of the loyal party, Holden and Warner, both from Warwick,, 
 who declaimed against Plymouth receiving him or accepting any pre- 
 tended subjection of the island. "They showed," Williams says, "to 
 the satisfaction of the court that it would be a violation of their 
 charter,"* and Plymouth refused him. Coddington in his petition to 
 Plymouth said that Portsmouth inclined to it, when it was only Baulston 
 of Portsmouth, who represented only himself, that inclined to it. A 
 majority of the inhabitants of Portsmouth were among those whom 
 Coddington termed " Gorton's adherents on the island." Some of the 
 exiles from Shawomet to Portsmouth ever remained there. Half of 
 the Portsmouth Representatives to the last Assembly were in 1639 
 signers and members with Gorton to the civil compact and model gov- 
 ernment. Neither Coddington's nor Baulston's course were approved 
 by a respectable fraction of the inhabitants of either town or the 
 island. 
 
 At this time the opposition of Codington and his supporters and his 
 course with the other colonies brought the government so near to the 
 verge of its existence that an arbitration of the difficulties was proposed 
 
 "3d Mass. Collec, ix. 278, 279, 280. 4th Mass. Collec, vii, 284. " Greenes of 
 Warwick." '4th Mass. Collec, vii, 284. ^Fuller's Hist. War- 
 
 wick. Holden and Greene's Petition, 1678. 'sth Mass. Collec, i, 360. 
 
 Wm. Arnold's letter, Aug. 15, 1648. *Hutchinson's Papers, i, 255. 
 
 •Hutchinson's Papers, i, 256. "Williams' letter, 3d Mass. Collec, ix, 
 
S6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 by both the Massachusetts Court and Williams.' In a letter regarding 
 this, Williams says he was bold to suggest arbitration, to which Provi- 
 dence and Mr. Easton, though opposed to it, yielded, a reference for 
 settlement to John Winthrop, Jr., and some other friends.' Arnold, 
 in his history of Rhode Island, says that " had they submitted " a settle- 
 ment of the difficulties to arbitration as proposed, " the charter would 
 have been virtually annulled by the act of its holders; the schemes of 
 the surrounding colonists to appropriate the rest of the State might 
 have proved successful. The Providence Plantations would soon have 
 been absorbed by Massachusetts and Connecticut." Happily, the War- 
 wick delegatets interposed and prevented it. 
 
 But the Ship of State had yet greater tempests to encounter. Cod- 
 dington, encouraged and aided by Massachusetts, and intending by 
 every means, if possible, to rule, had in the month before the Assembly 
 and election provided that " financial resources for his occasions " 
 should in June be at his call at Boston; and on September 13th, 1648, 
 he wrote to Winthrop : " Yours conveyed by Mr. Baulston to Taunton 
 received. I shall suddenly leave the island for England by the next, 
 if God will, and shall be glad and ready to serve you there." On Jan- 
 uary 29th a vessel sailed on which he took passage.' 
 
 A special General Assembly was called after Coddington's departure, 
 and was held at W^arwick in March, the beginning of the new year 
 1649, the records of which are missing, but we learn that the President, 
 Capt. Jeremy Clark, was yet upon field duty and not present at the 
 opening of the sessions. Williams was solicitated to be present as 
 moderator, but he did not attend; yet an act of oblivion was passed 
 which he had recommended.*" The charters for the towns provided 
 for in a previous act, were issued, or re-issued, at this session.' 
 
 The many orders from Parliament upon the Massachusetts Magis- 
 trates to repeal the proscriptive acts against Gorton and others were 
 unheeded. Randall Holden, having business in Boston which required 
 his presence there, petitioned the Massachusetts Court that the sentence 
 of banishment against him might be revoked in order that he might 
 personally attend to it. He was informed that an attorney could attend 
 to the business as well as himself." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Assembly and election of May, 1649 — John Smith chosen President; Clark, 
 Gorton, Sanford and Olney Assistants ; Williams Auditor — Deferred suits 
 against Coddington — Nicholas Easton President — The government in com- 
 plete order — Renewed aggressions and attempted subversion of the char- 
 tered government with a view to the absorption of the Providence Plantations 
 by the other colonies — Massachusetts annexes Warwick and Pawtuxet to their 
 territory — Winslow resigns from the service of Massachusetts — Armed inva- 
 sion of the Providence Plantations— Gorton chosen President of the Providence 
 povernment — Coddington pretends to an English commission to _ govern^ 
 Williams sent by the Providence government to England — The secession of the 
 island — Coddington assumes its government — The passage of Gorton's Anti- 
 Slavery Act the first in America — Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants pose as Prov- 
 idence, Pawtuxet and Warwick Commissioners to assist Coddington — Their 
 rump assemblies. 
 
 271. *Mass. Rpc, iii, 202. "Williams' lr>tter. 3d Mass. Collec, 
 
 ix, 27T. *3d Mass. Collec. ir, 270-28.3. '".^d Mass. Collec. 
 
 ix, 282, 283. Tt was not as the editorial note in the printed Colony Records 
 asserts, that WilHims was chosen because Coddintjton had pone to England. 
 The conditions had not by Coddington doing to England been chanced. Cod- 
 dington was not a member of the eo\-ernment, had been expelled. None other 
 than Jeremy Clark had been installed President, and, as he was on military duty, 
 Williams was sob'cited to act in his place as Moderator of the Assembly's ses- 
 sions. 'R. I. Rec, i, 214. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 226. 'Mass. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 87 
 
 On May 22d, 1649, the General Assembly and Court of Election was 
 held at Warwick; Williams acted as moderator. John Smith, of War- 
 wick, was chosen President. Thomas Olney of Providence, John Sand- 
 ford of Portsmouth, John Clark of Newport, and Samuel Gorton of 
 Warwick were chosen Assistants and were engaged. Smith and Gorton 
 declined, and for this, as the law was, were fined, but they served and 
 their fines were remitted. This election was a complete, though brief, 
 triumph for the liberal or government party. Warrants were issued 
 by the President of the colony and served by the Constable of Provi- 
 dence on the Arnolds to appear at the General Court for trial.' The 
 suits pending against Coddington were, on account of his absence in 
 England, deferred to a later session. There was unobstructed workmg 
 order in 'the government for a season; the people happily and profitably 
 employed, required little legislation. A massive stone garrison house 
 that had been planned by President Smith was erected by him at War- 
 wick, both as a fortress and his residence.* The government, Wilhams 
 says, was in complete order. The encroachments of the adjommg 
 colonies were and had been for some time met by an effectual resist- 
 ance, and judgments had been obtained in the courts and executions 
 enforced by a number of the injured Providence and Warwick people 
 against Arnold and other Pawtuxet pretended Massachusetts subjects.' 
 
 °0n May 22d, 1650, the General Assembly and Court of Election was 
 held at Newport. Nicholas Easton was elected President. William 
 Fields of Providence, John Porter of Portsmouth, John Clark of New- 
 port, and John Wickes of Warwick were chosen Assistants and all 
 were engaged. The Assembly received peremptory orders from the 
 Bay not to prosecute any suits against the men of Pawtuxet who had 
 refused to pay taxes, accompanied by threats of intervention.' The 
 short but a year, of peace was expelled. Supplies of powder and 
 magazines and of arms proportioned to the population of the place were 
 ordered established in every town of the Providence Plantations;' and 
 a special convention of delegates from all the towns was called by the 
 President to consider the invasion of their territory.' 
 
 Renewed life was at this time given to the agressive movements of 
 Plymouth and Massachusetts and to the dissensions which had been 
 maintained by the Pawtuxans and by Coddington, by rumors of the 
 latter's designs on the colony and the changes encouraging to them, which 
 had taken place in England. When Coddington arrived there the King 
 was beheaded, the Puritans were in power, the House of Lords and the 
 Parliament Commissioners who had granted the charter to Williams 
 and the petition to Gorton had been abolished by Cromwell ; the Com- 
 monv;ealth declared, and the supreme power vested in a State Council; 
 many things favoring Plymouth, Massachusetts and Coddington. and 
 a reputed scheme of the latter to make himself life Governor of the 
 island. Plymouth and Massachusetts, encouraged by these prospects, 
 renewed their disputed claims to Warwick and Providence before the 
 Commissioners of the United Colonies. Massachusetts passed an act 
 to annex Warwick and Pawtuxet to Suffolk, one of their own counties, 
 and again sent officers to bring the people there to Boston for trial.' 
 
 On September 5th the United Commissioners met at Hartford. A 
 letter to them from Winslow was read, requesting them to ^engage 
 another agent in his place and declining their further service." The 
 
 Rec, ii, 275. 'EptIv Rec. Prov.. xv. 27. *Hist. Warwick, 26a. 
 
 •Wm. Arnold's letter, R. I. Collec. ii, 207. 212. "May. 20, 1650. 
 
 *May 23, 1650, R. I. Rec. i, 223. 'Prov. Town Rec, June 27. 1650. 
 
 •Mass. Rec, iii, 201. R. I. Hist. Tract, 17. p. 120. Early Reeds, of Prov. 
 >*Acts Commis. United Colonies, i, 162, 163. Winslow writes: "I shall be more 
 wary hereafter how I engaged in business of that nature." ist Winthrop, u. 
 
88 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Commissioners ordered twenty well-armed men sent into the Narra- 
 gansett country/ and a company of twenty others from Massachusetts 
 soon^ followed.' A letter was received by the Commissioners from 
 President Easton, protesting in the name of the government of the 
 Providence Plantations against the war they were waging, and declar- 
 ing his government and Warwick, where Gorton lived, to be bound 
 mutually to support one another.^ 
 
 At the following October sessions of the Providence Plantations it 
 was, on account of the difficulties and dangers threatening them, ordered 
 to raise £200 to send Williams to England. 
 
 The Pawtuxet claimants now, 1650, entered upon the Suffolk records 
 at Boston what they called a combination agreement to a line described 
 between Providence and their claimed purchase. No signatures are 
 upon it, nor any certification of authority nor of adoption. It had never 
 been agreed to by the town council or people of Providence, and never 
 was entered upon the records of Providence. A paper purporting to 
 be a copy, bearing the date of July 27, 1640, and thirty-six names, all 
 written on it by a town clerk twenty-two years after, and marked 
 " copied 1662" by him and found among ancient papers, has been 
 printed in the Providence Early Records.* 
 
 Coddington, on March 6th, 1650, applied to the English Council of 
 State for the government of " two small islands called Aquetnet, alias 
 Rhode Island, and Quinunagate," which his petition stated he had a 
 right to by discovery and purchase of the Indians and had quietly 
 enjoyed ever since." He stated to the council, and showed to them by 
 Winslow's assertion, that they were not within the patent for Providence 
 Plantations. Winslow had so stated in his petition and prayed that 
 they be declared in Plymouth's. An auspicious account of these proceed- 
 ings reached Coddington's friends in April, and President Easton, who 
 had for four years now been a member and loyal defender of the chartered 
 government, abandoned it. The Providence Plantations were not repre- 
 sented in the case of Coddington before the English Council, and nothing 
 having been produced by Winslow showing that the desire of Codding- 
 ton should not be granted, a resolution to grant him the commission 
 was by their vote, April 3d, T651, adopted. 
 
 We do not find records of the annual May Assembly and Election, 
 but it appears from other data that it was at the regular time held, and 
 that Roger Williams acted in the place of the President as moderator 
 of its sessions; for a letter was at this time directed by the Massachu- 
 setts Court to him, again forbidding the collection of taxes from 
 Arnold, Cole, Carpenter and others of the Pawtuxet party, Massachu- 
 setts' pretended subjects." Samuel Gorton was chosen President. We 
 do not find who were chosen Assistants. The records of the sessions 
 were destroyed by the Coddington faction, and we have only such infor- 
 mation regarding it as is obtained from other sources. The names of 
 the President and Commissioners or Representatives appear in records 
 following.' That the people should now choose Gorton to lead them 
 through the present complex and future threatening difficulties, and 
 that he should accept a so arduous and hazardous and unpropitious an 
 undertaking, is an expression of the deep-grounded faith of the people 
 in his faithfulness, zeal and steadfastness, and a monument to the 
 undaunted courage of their indubitable champion. 
 
 272, 280, ,?i8-32o. Hazard's, ii, 17S. Hutchinson's Collec, 229. 'Acts 
 
 Corns. U. Cols., 5, 168. 'Mass. Rec, iii, 218. "Acts Corns. U. 
 
 Cols., i. 170. *"The Lands of Rhode Island," by Sidney S. Rider, 
 
 Providence, 91-95, etc. "Intp. Entry Book, Vol. xcii, p. 64. 
 
 •Mass. Rec, iii, 228. *R. I. Rec, i, 235. 'Journal of the Council 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 89 
 
 The following copy of the Council's resolution was, with a letter 
 from Winslow, received by Massachusetts about the first of August: 
 " Whereas, by a late Act of Parliament of October last, it is granted 
 to the Council of State to have power and authority over all such 
 islands and all other places in America as have been at the cost and 
 settled by the people and authority of this nation, and thereon in any 
 of the said islands and places to institute government and to grant 
 commission or commissions to such person or persons as they shall 
 think fit, and to do all just things and to use all lawful means for the 
 benefit and preservation of said plantations and islands in peace and 
 safety until the Parliament shall take other and fuller orders there; any 
 letters patent, or other authority formerly granted or given to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding, do make and constitute William Coddington to 
 be Governor of the said island (Rhode Island and Conanicut Island). 
 He to be assisted by counsellors not exceeding the number of six, nomi- 
 nated by the people and approved by him.'" Coddington arrived upon 
 the island about the first of September." 
 
 The Commissioners of the United Colonies met September 4th at 
 New Haven. They had the letter from Winslow read, and expressed 
 their regrets at losing his further service." They then directed a letter 
 to the island informing Coddington they were pleased that the Parlia- 
 ment Council had committed the government of the island to his hands, 
 and desired to receive assurance from him that those who had taken 
 refuge from their jurisdiction would be delivered to them.' They 
 received a letter from William Arnold containing the following : " I 
 thought it my duty to give intelligence unto the much honored court 
 of that which I understand is now working here in these parts, so that 
 if it be the will of God an evil may be prevented before it comes to too 
 great a head, viz. : Whereas Mr. Coddington have gotten a charter of 
 Rhode Island and Conimacuke Island to himself,^ he have broken the 
 force of their charter that went under the name of Providence, because 
 he have gotten away the greater part of that colony.^ Now these com- 
 pany of the Gortonists that live at Shawomout and that company of 
 Providence are gathering of £200 to send Mr. Roger Williams unto the 
 Parliament. They of Shawomout have given £100 already and there be 
 some of Providence that have given £10 and £20 a man, to help it 
 forward with speed. It is a very great pity such a company as they 
 are. There may be some mischief and trouble upon the whole country 
 if their project be not prevented in time, for under the pretense of 
 liberty of conscience about these parties there comes to live all the scum, 
 the runaways of the country. They are making haste to send Mr. 
 Williams away. Some of them of Shawomout that crieth out much 
 against them which putteth people to death for witches,* for say they, 
 there be no witches upon earth nor devils but your own pastc»rs and 
 ministers." and such as they are.'"' 
 
 of State, Vol. 146, p. 155. 'Turners Greenes of Warwick. 
 
 "Acts Corns. U. Colonies, i, 196-198. 'Acts Corns. U. Colonies, 1, 215, 216 
 
 •It was believed by Coddington's followers that he had obtained a patent and 
 that it invalidated the Williams' charter ; but the Providence Plantation govern- 
 ment and its friends in Eng. seasonably prevented any patent or Commission 
 being issued to him upon the resolution. ^Rhode and " Conimacuke " 
 
 Islands were about one-thirty-fifth part of the territory of the colony. 
 'During the ten years beginning 1645 there were seven persons put to death for 
 the crime of witchcraft in I\cw Eng. Murray, i, 294. Hinton, Knapp & Choules* 
 Hist. U. S., 3d Ed., i, 68. 2d Winthrop, ii, 347. 3Q8, etc. "Before 1652 there 
 were thirty-six trials of accused persons and eight canital executions." " The 
 Romance of Am. Colonization," 149, 150. "'The Elders, especially 
 
 Wilson and Norton, instigated and sustained the government in its worst cruel- 
 ties." Bryant's Hist. U. S., ii, 462. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 273. Ryerson's 
 Loyalists of America, i, 122. "" Which last observation, I must say, 
 
90 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 A letter from Warwick was read complaining of the " oppressions 
 and wrongs amounting to great damage since we first possessed the 
 place, being forced thereby to seek to that honorable State of old 
 England for relief, which did unequitably draw great charge upon us 
 to the further impoverishing of our estates; and finding favor for 
 redress we were willing to waive for the time [in regard to the great 
 troubles and employment that then lay upon the State] all other losses, 
 statute wrongs, we then underwent, so that we might be replanted in 
 and upon that our purchased possessions, and enjoy them peaceably 
 for time to come, without disturbance or molestation. Since our 
 gracious grant from the honorable Parliament in replanting us in this 
 place, we have been and daily are pressed with intolerable grievances 
 to the eating up of our labors and wasting of our estates, making our 
 lives, together with our wives and children, bitter and incomparable. 
 Insomuch that groaning under our burdens we are constrained to make 
 our addresses to that honorable Parliament and State once again to 
 make our just complaint against our causeless molestors, who by them- 
 selves and their agents are the only cause of this our re-uttering our 
 distressed condition. May it please, therefore, this honorable Assembly 
 to take notice of this our solemn intelligence given unto you as the most 
 public authorized society appertaining unto and interested in the United 
 Colonies whom our complaints do concern, that we are now preparing 
 ourselves with all convenient speed for old England, to make our griev- 
 ances known again to that State, which falls upon us by reason that 
 the order of the Parliament of England concerning us hath not been 
 observed nor the enjoyment of our privileges permitted to us; in that 
 we have been prohibited and charged to acquit this place since the 
 order of Parliament given out and knovv-n to the country; in that we 
 have had warrants sent to submit us to Massachusetts Courts, and 
 officers employed amongst us to that purpose; in that these barbarian 
 Indians about us with the evil minded English mixed, under pretense 
 of some former personal subjection to the government of Massachusetts, 
 cease not to kill our cattle, offer violence to our families and vilify 
 authority of Parliament vouchsafed to us; in that we arc restrained 
 and have been this seven or eight years passed of common commerce 
 in the country, and that only for matters of conscience.'" 
 
 This letter from Warwick induced Massachusetts to lay before the 
 United Commissioners a paper alleging that what she had done had 
 been done with the Commissioners' approval. The Plymouth Commis- 
 sioners in attendance declared that which the Massachusetts Magis- 
 trates claimed was done by Mr. Winslow and Mr. Collyer, concerning 
 the resignation to them of any of Plymouth's interests in Warwick or 
 Providence, was not in the power of Mr. Winslow or Mr, Collyer to 
 resign, nor of Massachusetts to receive; and that Mr. Winslow and 
 Mr. Collyer had several times publicly denied that they either did or 
 intended to resign any part of the jurisdiction of Plymouth to the 
 Magistrates of Massachusetts. And what right or authority the govern- 
 ment oi Massachusetts had to send for Samuel Gorton inhabiting so far 
 out of their jurisdiction they understood not. That the Plymouth 
 Commissioners did not refer "the matter to the determination of the 
 rest of the Commissioners at Boston; and what authentic writings the 
 Governor of Plymouth signed the Massachusetts Commissioners did 
 not show. If they meant a writing signed by the Governor and some 
 particular persons, the Commissioners of Plymouth cannot own it, 
 
 has very much of a Samuel Gorton ring to it." Dr. Henry E. Turner. R. I. 
 Hist. Tract, 4, pp. ^6. R. I. Rec. i. 234, 235. 'Arts Corns. U. Colonies, 
 
 i, 217. *Acts Corns. U. C, i, 221, 222. Hazard's Hist. Collec, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 91 
 
 having particularly and in the Court of Plymouth protested against it.' 
 
 The Massachusetts Commissioners, remembering the order of the 
 Parliament Commissioners that the bounds of a patent should be set 
 out by a jury of uninterested persons, and that all inhabitants within 
 the limits so set forth should fall under the government established 
 by the patent, and that the resignation claimed was not with the full 
 consent of the inhabitants of Warwick who pretended an interest in 
 Williams' patent, and would not by any peaceable means be brought 
 under the Massachusetts government, and being desirous to prevent 
 inconvenience and to settle peace, resolved to relinquish the rights and 
 title they had and the lands of Warwick to Plymouth, that they engage 
 to administer justice therein to the inhabitants. That means be used to 
 reduce Warwick to submission to the government of Plymouth. . There- 
 fore, the subjected Indians and officers of Massachusetts were sent with 
 all convenient speed to Plymouth's assistance.' 
 
 The Massachusetts patent gave her three miles south of Charles river 
 or the southwest point of it, and westward indefinitely on that line which 
 is the present north line of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and by no 
 possible construction could it be tortured to mean anything south of it. 
 The grant to Plymouth gave them no right of territory west of the east 
 shore of Narragansett Bay. But suppose Plymouth had grounds for 
 such a claim, by what rule of law could she divest herself of any 
 territory pertaining to her patent except by the surrender of it to the 
 sovereign authority from which she derived it? And supposing she 
 had that power, how could Massachusetts, whose existence depended 
 on her patent, which expressly defined her limits and gave no power to 
 expand them, pretend as in the case of Warwick and Providence, on 
 the plea of voluntary subjection and release by Plymouth, and after- 
 wards, as in Narragansett, on the plea of conquest, to exercise sover- 
 eign power outside the limits of her patent?'" 
 
 There was during this year another display of the intolerance of the 
 Massachusetts authorities, this time against some members of the loyal 
 party at Newport; the whipping on September 6th of Obadiah Holmes, 
 one of the best and most respected of its inhabitants. " Upon the Lord's 
 day, July 20th, at the home of one of the brethren whom they went to 
 visit," in the town of Lynn, Mass., John Clark, pastor, James Crandall 
 and Mr. Holmes were taken upon a warrant, brought before the 
 " ordnary " and cast into prison " for drawing others aside after their 
 erroneous judgment." Holmes was fined £30, Clark £20, Crandall 
 £5, and on refusal to pay they were " to be well whipped." Some 
 indulgent and tender-hearted friends, Clark tells us, contrary to his 
 judgment, paid his fine. Thus some one paid the fine of Crandall and 
 proposed to pay that of Holmes. ITolmes had earlier, while at Ply- 
 mouth, been presented to the court there for holding religious meetings 
 and took refuge on the island. He was a man of high character and 
 importance, a member of the Newport church to which he afterward 
 succeeded Clark as pastor. He would not consent to the paying of his 
 fine and was whipped thirty stripes.' 
 
 A General Assembly session of the Providence Plantations began 
 on November 4th at Providence, over which Samuel Gorton presided, 
 and at which Roger Williams, John Clark, Robert Williams, son of 
 Roger Williams, John Wickes, John Greene, John Smith, Robert Porter 
 and others, a majority of the loyal members, were present. The time 
 of this session was " the most eventful era in Rhode Island history, 
 and this session of the Assembly one of the most important it ever 
 
 •Acts Corns. U. Colonies. Mass. Rec, iii, 216. "Dr. Turner in Greenes 
 
 of Warwick Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 1862, pp. 41, ^^. 'John Clark's 
 
92 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 held. Upon the success of its measures depended the preservation or 
 dismemberment of the colony of the present State." 
 
 It was asserted by Massachusetts and the Pawtuxet party, but it was 
 not, as will see, admitted, as the editor of the printed colonial records 
 states, that the Council of State's resolution had vitiated the charter. 
 The leading men of the colony were present^ at this Assembly, and 
 they promptly and emphatically expressed their confidence in the charter 
 and government in the following resolution :' " That we do profess 
 ourselves unanimously to stand imbodied and incorporated as before, 
 by virtue of our charter granted unto us by the honorable State of old 
 England, and thereby do according to our legal and settled order 
 choose and appoint our officers, institute laws according to the consti- 
 tution of the place and capacity of our present condition, prosecuting, 
 acting and executing in all matters and causes for the doing of justice, 
 preservation of peace and maintaining of all civil rights between man 
 and man, according to the honorable authority and true intent of our 
 aforesaid charter." Arnold, Baulston and Torey, leading men of the 
 island, afterwards [in 1660] addressed a communication to the British 
 government, in which they say " that by virtue of the charter of 1643-4 
 the government of the colony has ever since been to this time main- 
 tained." It is. Judge Durfee says, the same corporate body which has 
 perpetuated its existence by accepting and adopting the changes in its 
 constitution up to the present day.* 
 
 The £200 voted at a former session to send Williams to England, the 
 Warwick people having, as William Arnold complained, immediately 
 raised the one-half, being now available, Williams was commissioned 
 as the agent of the chartered government to England, to depart imme- 
 diately. The majority of the people of the island and the loyal people 
 of Newport, whose number there largely exceeded Coddington's 
 " freemen," had selected Clark to secure the repeal of the council's 
 resolution, and he sailed with Williams. 
 
 There were good reasons, many thought, why it was advisable to have 
 a new charter, among them, for more definitely locating the boundary 
 lines, the present charter bounding only thus : " Northward and north- 
 east on the patent of Massachusetts and southeast on Plymouth patent," 
 etc. ; for a constitutionel guarantee of religious freedom, the silence 
 upon religious matters observed in the present charter, giving the 
 people liberty to govern themselves, although the best that could be 
 secured when it was granted, not precluding religious discrimination 
 being introduced under it, if the party to this obtained control of the 
 government, which prospect seemed not altogether improbable; and too, 
 since the Parliament Commissioners who granted the charter had been 
 removed, Charles the First had been brought to the block, England 
 declared a Commonwealth, and Parliament had appointed a Council of 
 State for the affairs of government, a charter of later authority was 
 desirable. 
 
 Through most intense broils, during the disruption of the union by 
 Coddington and the threatened invasion by Massachusetts' and Ply- 
 mouth's ready and hostile forces, imperiled through intrigue, and beset 
 with the lawless acts of the Arnolds and Pawtuxans, and in the midst 
 of an insurrection inspired and supported by these parties and factions, 
 Gorton, without the valued presence of Williams and Clark during their 
 necessary absence, by his prudence, fearlessness and firmness, held the 
 despoilers at bay, and well and comparatively peaceably administered 
 the affairs of this young republic. Winslow was wise in his prediction 
 
 " 111 News from N. Eng," 4th Mass. Collec. ii. 'R. I. Rec, i, 235. 
 
 •R. I. Rec, i, 2ii. *Judge Job Durfee's Complete Works. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 93 
 
 in 1644, when Gorton was chosen a Magistrate at Portsmouth, that the 
 church magistracy had much to fear from it, but erred in his prediction 
 that " full and free toleration of religion would eat out the power of 
 government." Unlikely did he then think that a government would be 
 established and sustained by the free suffrage of a people enjoying the 
 legal right of religious freedom ; and that Gorton would be selected 
 for the leading trust in it, while himself would depart to not return, 
 severing his connection with the colonies. One of his last official com- 
 munications was to Massachusetts during this period of emotion, to 
 inform them of the English Council's pleasure that they surrender their 
 patent.' " These things,"' a petition of the Massachusetts Court reads, 
 " make us doubt and fear what is intended toward us." " This was," 
 Palfrey says, " a time of more than common sensibility in Massachu- 
 setts."" A joint effort of the colonies was now, through Massachusetts 
 relinquishing her long asserted right and title in Narragansett and 
 engaging to aid in enforcing the claims to it of Plymouth and others, 
 resolved upon to subdue the Providence Plantations. The embarrass- 
 ments of the colony and the burden or responsibility resting upon those 
 to whom its affairs were entrusted increased daily. Yet through the 
 storm and " over troublesome waves the little ship of State sailed during 
 the year 1651, tossed by billows on every side, but still bearing a crew 
 of valiant men, whose courage and wisdom was equal to the emer- 
 gency."' 
 
 The facts, contraray to the representation upon which the English 
 Council's resolution was based, were quickly shown to them, convincing 
 them that they had acted under misapprehensions and restraining their 
 further action, for it does not appear from their journal that any 
 Commission upon the order was made out to Coddington. He, after 
 waiting in vain for it over a year, or until April 14th, 1652, a few da3'-s 
 before Gorton's term as President of the colony expired, signed as an 
 expedient and last contention, a paper acknowledging the interests 
 of the original purchasers in the island, and assayed to assume its 
 government. As when in earlier days a significant paper was sent to 
 " the brethren at Portsmouth," this acknowledgment gained the support 
 of many of the inhabitants of the island, all of whom were without land 
 titles, daily fearing that they would be deprived of their possessions. 
 In the acknowledgment he states that the land had since its purchase 
 remained in his hands and had been a great source of trouble.* 
 
 On May i8th the General Assembly and Court of Election of the 
 Providence Plantations convened at Warwick. The President, Samuel 
 Gorton, was moderator of its sessions. John Smith of Warwick was 
 elected President, and Thomas Olney of Providence and Samuel Gorton 
 of Warwick were chosen Assistants for the ensuing year. The island 
 did not send representatives to this Assembly. 
 
 This session passed an Act for the Emancipation of Slaves : The 
 ■first legislative edict of emancipation of slavery that zvas adopted in 
 America. In this remarkable statute Gorton's literary style is clearly 
 evident, and he was without doubt its author and principal promoter.' 
 
 The Massachusetts Act in the " Body of Liberties " forbade the 
 bondage of only those who were Massachusetts born. It did not eman- 
 
 •Ryerson's Loyalists of America, i, 108 note. 'Palfrey's Hist. N. Etir., 
 
 ". 395 note. Winslow's Defense. 'Fuller's Hist., p. 45. *R. I. 
 
 Rec, i, so. Coddington's Petition to Eng. Council, Ante p. 'Dr. Janes' 
 
 "A Forgotten Founder of Our Republic," Preston & Rounds, publishers. Provi- 
 dence. Stephen Hawes, in his " Chronology of Ancient and Modern History," 
 p. 172. See Shepherd & Dillingham, publishers, N. Y., 1871, records that "Gorton 
 and Williams in 1652 made a decree against slavery in R. Island." Gorton was 
 the leader of this Assembly ; Williams was in England undoing Coddington. The 
 
94 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 cipate her slaves." The Massachusetts Act of 1646 was the sending 
 home of a stolen negro,' and did not affect the other slaves they held. 
 The Gorton Act" abolished life servitude, and it is the only legal enact- 
 ment abolishing involuntary life servitude that was passed in those 
 early times in any of the colonies. By its terms all slaves or bondsmen 
 living in or brought into the colony were ordered to be set free within 
 ten years. If taken under fourteen, they were to be set free at the age 
 of twenty-four years, as the manner was with English servants. The 
 man who would not let them go free, or should sell them elsewhere 
 to the end that they might be enslaved to others for a longer time, 
 should forfeit to the colony forty pounds. The price of a slave then 
 was but twenty pounds. These early legislators were not sustained in 
 their advanced humane act, for the colony did, notwithstanding it, 
 tolerate life ownership or slavery very long afterwards. And one 
 hundred years thereafter legislators took up the question of the emanci- 
 pation of slaves just where Gorton had once placed it so long before. 
 
 The breaking out at this time of a war between England and Holland 
 interrupted the commerce between the colony and the Dutch plantations. 
 
 William Arnold, Benedict Arnold, William Carpenter, Robert Cole, 
 the Massachusetts subjected agents, and others of the Pawtuxet claim- 
 ants living on lands on the outskirts of Providence and adjoining 
 Warwick, claimed to live and claimed ownership both in Providence 
 and Warwick, and injected themselves into the town councils of both 
 places and into the colony government in support of their land schemes 
 and the claims of Massachusetts and Coddington. The latter was again 
 a refugee from the colony, the people having rebelled against the 
 government he but a month ago attempted to organize on the island, 
 and he having fled again to Boston, again taking the island records.' 
 
 On July 29th the towns were ordered to select judicious men for a 
 General Court called to transcribe letter and instructions to the colony's 
 agent in England. The order is signed Samuel Gorton, Deputy Presi- 
 dent.* 
 
 The next sessions of the Assembly was on October 28th at Provi- 
 dence. The President, John Smith, was moderator. They transcribed 
 a letter to Williams in England encouraging him in his work of 
 " unweaving such irregular devices wrought by others amongst us as 
 have clothed us with so sad events as the subjecting of some amongst 
 us to other jurisdictions;" in the work of "preventing the approach 
 of Massachusetts and Plymouth upon us; they beginning to unite in 
 one against us, such as before in some respects were separate;" and 
 in the work of upholding the charter and government ; and suggesting 
 that if it be the pleasure of the Council to appoint him as Governor for 
 one year it would establish for the present the government until the 
 question of jurisdiction and chartered rights could be settled, so the 
 government be honorably put upon the place and much ^ weight for 
 hereafter added in the constant and successive derogations of the 
 government. It is the John Greene of Warwick, recorder, whose name 
 is signed to this letter.' 
 
 enslavinp; of cartnmed Indians was opposed by OoT-ton. R. T. Rec. 1, 70- 
 Oitjrch's Indian Wars, 51. Prov. Reeds., 1676. Arnold's Hist. R. Island. 
 "Force's Tract, Vol. iv. '2d Winthrop, ii, .^oo. 462. R. I. 
 
 Rec. i, 243. 'Hildreth's Hist. U. S.. Ed. 1848, Vol. i. p. 305. 
 
 •Early Reeds, of Prov., vi, 56. 'The Index to the Bartlett Colonial 
 
 Records is misleadine. Under the head of Roper Williams is " Letter of John 
 Greene to Roirer Williams, then in England: and "Dissatisfaction of General 
 Court to certain complaints in the above letter." The Index should read: 
 •• Letter from the Assembly subscribed to by John Greene, recorder, to Roper 
 Williams" [R. 1. Rec, i, 249, Oct 28, 1652. John Smith, President General 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 95 
 
 The Pawtuxet men and Massachusetts subjects, calling themselves 
 Commissioners " lovingly chosen from Providence and from Warwick," 
 were on hand at Providence during the Assembly's sessions, and imme- 
 diately drew up a letter from Providence,* complaining that the Warwick 
 people. President Smith and others in Assembly now at sessions say 
 that they so " lovingly chosen " " are no lawful committees," and com- 
 plaining that the letter to Williams in England about their irregular 
 devices, subjecting to Massachusetts and the sad events thereof, " is a 
 just cause of offense to them;" and to this letter of complaint they 
 attach a copy of the letter complained of.* 
 
 A call for a sessions of the Assembly at Warwick on December 20th 
 was made by the President John Smith, accompanied with advice for 
 the members to " keep in order and union till the return of our agent 
 from England." Without doubt the members who attended the previous 
 sessions, and who were regularly chosen at the last election, met in 
 answer to the call and were presided over by President Smith. They 
 maintained their order and union intact; but members of the Arnold 
 and Coddington factions, unfairly chosen Commissioners, obtained the 
 record books and the large part of the records of their rivals' meetings 
 were removed, preserving those of themselves. According to these 
 records, so kept until Williams' return and preserved with headings, 
 " The General Court," etc., indicating that they were the government, 
 the self-styled Commissioners of the Pawtuxet faction met, they say, 
 in answer to the call of the President.' There was but one regular 
 Commissioner among them. The President or Assembly never acknowl- 
 edged them as Commissioners or members. It would have been a 
 surrender to the Arnold and Coddington factions; but the latter sent 
 word to President Sm.ith that they, being assembled according to his 
 order, entreated that he would be pleased to afford them his presence; 
 ordered Hugh Bewett, one of their number whom the Assembly had 
 indicted for treason, to appear before them for his trial ; resolved to 
 maintain their organization; again entered their protest to the letter 
 the Assembly in October last sent to Williams,' and ordered President 
 Smith fined for not meeting with them." They record a protest made 
 by the Commissioners to their usurpations and an appeal from their 
 acts received by them from the President, John Smith, and from 
 Samuel Gorton. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Word from Williams from England regarding Coddington and the Council's 
 resolution — That no commission to Coddington for government had ever been 
 issued upon it — The English Council make an order against Coddington's 
 pretensions to government and order the Providence government to care for 
 the island — Coddington absents himself from the colony — The Coddington 
 government maintain their organization and choose Sanford their President — 
 An agreement eifected for readmitting the island to the government under 
 
 Assembly] ; and " Dissatisfaction of Pawtuxet Party to certain complaints about 
 them in the above letter." 'R. I. Rec, i, 247. 'R. I. Rec, i, 
 
 247, 248. They claimed lands and residences on both sides of the river, and so 
 claimed themselves to be Commissioners from both towns. 'Their 
 
 Secretary was John Greene, not of Warwick, but of Narragansett. R. I. Rec, 
 iiif 56, 57, "Greene Fam>ly." *R. I. Rec, i. 256. Early Pror. Rec, 
 
 XV, 60, 65. "R. I. Rec, i, 259. 'This order is not in the 
 
96 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 the charter — Williams returns — Williams elected President — Williams', Holmes* 
 and others' complaints to Massachusetts and to England — Leverett appointed 
 agent for Massachusetts in England — Cromwell prevented from inquiring into 
 the conduct of Massachusetts — The Coddington, Arnold, Pawtuxan combine 
 at Newport — Their few freemen their electors — They inflating as Representa- 
 tives of the whole large population of Newport, preponderate and control the 
 government — Coddington returns to the island ; his subscription to the Provi- 
 dence government and his destruction of the records — The choice of Gorton 
 by Coddington and the Assembly as arbitrator of the difficulties besetting 
 Coddington — Gorton's letters to the imprisoned Quakers — The combine at 
 Newport make a Massachusetts subject Governor — The court condemns Harris, 
 leader of the Arnold-Pawtuxet claimants, for treason. 
 
 The English Council of State, upon a hearing of the true condition 
 of affairs in the colony as presented to them by Williams, issued an 
 order commanding the chartered government to take care of the island, 
 following: 
 
 " Gentlemen : — The Council have been informed that Mr. Coddington, 
 from hence Governor of Rhode Island, hath so behaved himself as hath 
 produced great matters of complaint against him now depending before 
 us. The consequence thereof hath been the bringing of things there 
 into great discord and extremities amongst yourselves by means whereof 
 the whole colony is exposed as a prey to the Dutch, the enemies of the 
 Com.monwealth, who (we are informed) have designs upon that place 
 in the absence of the Governor that hath withdrawn himself. Upon 
 consideration of all which we have thought it necessary for the present, 
 and until further directions and order be given by the Parliament or the 
 Council for settling that colony, to authorize you and do hereby author- 
 ize you to take care for the peace and quiet thereof, according to such 
 orders and instructions as hath been given you by virtue of any ordi- 
 nances or acts of Parliament. Signed in the name and by the order 
 of the Council of State appointed by authority of Parliament. 
 
 "Whitehall, 2 October, 1652. James Harrington, President. 
 
 " To Magistrates and Free Inhabitants of Providence Plantations." * 
 
 William Dyre, whom Williams had taken with him, was despatched 
 with the order and on February i6th he arrived with it in the Planta- 
 tions ;" but instead of delivering it to the President and Commissioners 
 of the government under the charter he took it to the island and sent 
 word to Providence and Warwick that he had an order from the English 
 Council of State for their direction." The Coddington and Arnold men, 
 calling themselves the Assembly General of the Providence Plantations, 
 met at Pawtuxet on the 25th of February to receive it, but it was not 
 presented to them. 
 
 On March ist (1652-3)* the Coddington-island men met at Ports- 
 mouth, and the order of the Council of State was delivered into their 
 speakers' hands, instead of as it should have been into the hands of 
 President Smith and officers of the chartered government. Although 
 a Coddington government did not exist, and he was absent from the 
 former scenes of one, his adherents maintained an organization, and 
 they ordered those who were governing under the charter to take their 
 places w-ith them. 
 
 Members of the Pawtuxet party, assuming to be the government, 
 again on March 9th met at Pawtuxet to receive the Council's order 
 from and treat with the island, but complained that they received 
 neither the order nor an answer from them.* 
 
 printed records of the Colony of Rhode Island. "Arnold's Hist. R. I., 
 
 i, 242. 'R. I. Rec, i, 268. *R. T. Rec, i, 240, 269. 
 
 •R. I. Rec. i, 269. "Williams' letter, R. I. Rec, i, 351. 'R. I. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 97 
 
 The members of the Pawtuxet party, again for the third time since 
 the arrival of the Council's order, met on March i8th for the purpose, 
 as assumed Commissioners of the main land towns, of annexing them 
 to the island organization, and to join with the latter in sending an 
 agent to England to secure the withdrawal of the Council's order, and 
 establish Coddington's rule over the whole colony.' The Council's order 
 and with it propositions from the island men for a union were delivered 
 to them by Benedict Arnold. The propositions provided that Newport 
 should be the seat of government and that the Pawtuxet party should 
 come there and join them. The islanders also providing for themselves 
 too many of the official places, the propositions were not accepted and 
 the objects of the meeting not accomplished.' 
 
 The members of the Pawtuxet party, as an Assembly of the govern- 
 ment, again on May i6th met at Providence and declared Gregorie 
 Dexter, Jr., their President;* recorded the propositions Benedict Arnold 
 had made to them ; " remitted " the fine President Smith " is to pay " 
 for refusing to serve with them; and tabled Smith's and Gorton's — the 
 President and Assistant — protests to their acts of usurpations. The 
 Commissioners, members of the charter government, have no record 
 we can find of a May election, although Smith or Gorton by choice or 
 appointment served during the year as President. The order to them 
 from the English Council of State having been withheld from them, 
 they thought best to abide William's arrival, very patiently waiting while 
 they watched the maneuvering factions. 
 
 The island organization, unable to bring either the members of the 
 chartered government or the members of the Pawtuxet party to the 
 terms they offered them, persisted in maintaining a separate government 
 on the island in spite of the English Council's order for the charter 
 government " to take care of the place." 
 
 On IMay 17th the island organization chose for their President John 
 Sanford, a son-in-law of Samuel Gorton.' They passed a resolution 
 that if Providence and Warwick would act with them they might choose 
 the general officers. It appears from the Early Providence Records'" 
 that the names of the Providence and Warwick men were either written 
 to this agreement for them or that they were tricked into signing it, 
 for the Sanford government immediately thereafter reconsidered regard- 
 ing its officers, ordered that all the courts m all the towns act jointly 
 with them, appointed Commissioners for all the towns, entered into the 
 Dutch war and made some captures.' 
 
 On June 3d members of the Pawtuxet party met at Providence.^ They 
 now condemned the action of the island government, particularly blam- 
 ing them for not earlier delivering the Council of State's order to them, 
 on February 25th or on March 9th, when they set to receive it.' 
 
 On August 13th they again met at Warwick, " this being their second 
 session " at Warwick. They ordered a letter sent to Massachusetts by 
 John Greene, their recorder, and they kept the Massachusetts Magis- 
 trates posted regarding President Smith, Gorton and the other regular 
 Commissioners' doings. The Massachusetts Magistrates again received 
 a letter, September 5th, 1653, from William Arnold, informing them that 
 Gorton and his companions were intending great matters to Cromwell, 
 having a letter in their hands to which four or five of the Massachusetts 
 Magistrates had subscribed, which they intended to send to England 
 to be a further testimony against them.* 
 
 Rec, i, 258, 268, 269, 270. 'R. I. Rec, i, 2q8, 262. »R. I. Rec, 
 
 i, -264. ""vi, 65 'R. I. Rec, i, 2(53-267. »R. I. Rec, 
 
 if 267. "R. I. Rec. i, 268, 269, *Hutchinson's Papers, i, 283. 
 
98 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Finally, an agreement acceptable to a majority of each — the Commis- 
 sioners, members of the chartered government, and the Pawtuxet party, 
 and the island party — was effected for replacing the island under tlie 
 chartered government, by accepting Easton of the island as President 
 of the organization under the charter until Williams' return, and staying 
 the operation in towns of such laws as they had not participated in 
 enacting; and on May i6th, 1654, a General Assembly of the Providence 
 Plantations was held at Providence for carrying out these provisions. 
 Gorton, as an Assistant, was among the members of the chartered 
 government present, he heading the list of these representatives; and 
 with them were Pawtuxet and Island men. Officers for all the towns 
 were for the time being chosen, many of the worn champions of the 
 government giving up place to secure the desired union and peace. 
 
 The important positions held by Gorton and others of Warwick in 
 the government of the colony during these years of unhappy discussions 
 indicate the estimation in which they were held by the people. That 
 the colony was not entirely broken up by its enemies within and without 
 may be ascribed to the wisdom and prudence of a few men of the loyal 
 tov/ns who firmly held the reins of government during this period." 
 
 During August, 1654, Williams returned. He brought with him letters 
 from the " Lord Protector " Cromwell confirming the charter. Clark 
 remained, both to protect the colony's interests and to attend to some 
 private business.* 
 
 Williams, shortly after his return, sent the following to the Pawtuxet 
 men : " Since I set the first step of an English foot in these wild parts, 
 and had maintained a chargable and hazardous correspondence wit'n 
 the barbarians, and spent almost five years' time with the State of 
 England to keep off the rage of English against us, what have I reaped 
 of the root of being the stepping stone of so many families and towns 
 about us but grief and sorrow and bitterness? I have been charged 
 with folly for that freedom and liberty which I have always stood for: 
 I say liberty and equality both in lands and government. I have been 
 blamed for parting with Mooshassuck and afterwards Pawtuxet, which 
 were mine own as truly as any man's coat upon his back. I am told 
 that your opposites thought on me and provided, as I may say, a sponge 
 to wipe off your scores of debt in England, but that it was obstructed 
 by yourselves, who rather meditated on means and new agents to be 
 sent over to cross what Mr. Clark and I obtained. But, gentlemen, 
 blessed be God, who faileth not, and blessed be his name for his wonder- 
 ful providence, by which alone this town and colony and that great 
 cause of truth and freedom of conscience hath been upheld to this day.'" 
 
 On August 31st there was an Assembly of the government at War- 
 wick. A full representation was present from all the towns, and an 
 engagement for readmitting the island to the government under the 
 authority of the charter was signed by all of them. They ordered a 
 " Court of Election to be held upon Tuesday, ye 12th of ye next month, 
 and to be kept at Warwick, which officers then chosen shall be engaged 
 and stand til ye Court of Election in May next." 
 
 A General Assembly and Court of Election was held the r2th of the 
 next month and Williams was chosen President, but nearly all of the 
 other ofl[ices were given to n\embers of the Island and Pawtuxet parties. 
 Among the Representatives and officers were Baulston, Coggershall, 
 Easton, Harris and Arnold, the latter yet a subject of Massachusetts. 
 
 •Fuller's FTist. Warwick, 4^. Apnendix. iii'. 'R. I. Rec, ii, 78, 79- The 
 
 following year Clnrk pu1ili«;lied his Bible Concordance and Lexicon, the fruit 
 of many years' studv and Inbor, and at the time the most complete of the works 
 for its purpose. 'R. I. Rec, i, 351. 'R- I- Rec, i, 2S4. "Roc, i, 287-289. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 99 
 
 The courts of trials for the mainland towns were continued as they 
 ever had been, separately; but for the Island towns Newport obtained 
 the privilege of holding them jointly, which reopened upon the island 
 the subject of former agitations and difficulties.* Instructions were 
 sent to Clark; and the letter following, of Williams, in reply to one 
 received from Vane which chided the Plantations for their dissensions, 
 v/as approved, subscribed to by the clerk and sent to him : " To Sr. Henry 
 Vane — Sir, Your letter was directed to all and every one of the particu- 
 lar towns of this Providence Colony. From the first beginning to this 
 day we reaped the sweet fruits of your constant loving kindness and 
 favor toward us. Oh Sir, whence then is it that you have bent your 
 bow and shot your sharp and bitter arrows now against us? Whence 
 is it that you charge us with dissensions, divisions, etc.? Sir, we hunibly 
 pray your gentle acceptance of our trifold answer. First, we have been 
 greatly disturbed and distressed by the ambition and covetousness of 
 some amongst ourselves. We were in complete order until Mr. Codding- 
 ton, wanting the public self-denying spirit which you commend to us 
 in your letter, procured by most untrue information a monopolie of 
 part of the Colony, viz., Rhode Island to himself, and so occasioned 
 our general disturbance and distractions. Secondly, Mr. Dyre by 
 private contention with Mr. Coddington, being instructed to bring 
 from England the letter from the Council of State for our reunion, 
 he, contrary to the State's instructions and expressions, plungeth himself 
 and some others in most unnecessary grief, who protest against such 
 abuse. Sir, our third answer is, that we may not lay all the blame upon 
 other men's backs, that possibly a sweet cup hath rendered many of 
 us wanton and too active ; for v^^e have long drank of the cup of as 
 great liberties as any people that we can hear of under the whole heaven. 
 We have not only been long free — together with all English — from 
 the iron yokes of wolfish Bishops and their Popish ceremonies — against 
 whose cruel oppressions God raised up your noble spirit in Parliament — 
 but we have sitten quiet and dry from the streams of blood spilt in the 
 war in our native country. We have not felt the new chain of the 
 Presbyterian tyrants, nor in this colony have we been consumed with 
 the overzealous fire of the so-called Godly and Christian magistrates.'" 
 
 At the May election, 1655, ^t Providence, Williams was again chosen 
 President. On June 28th the Assembly convened at Portsmouth. The 
 letter from Cromwell, a brief of what his Council had ordered, was 
 read and recorded." Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, William Baul- 
 .ston and Benedict Arnold were ordered to form and subscribe letters 
 to John Clark and the Lord Protector.^ 
 
 The following, under date of November 15th, was sent to Massachu- 
 setts by Williams : " Concerning four English families at Pawtuxet, 
 may it please you to remember that two controversies they have long 
 under your name maintained with us to a constant obstructing of all 
 order and authority amongst us. To our camplaint about our lands, 
 they lately have proposed a willingness to arbitrate, but to obey his 
 Highness' authority in the charter they say they dare not for your 
 sakes, though they live not by your laws nor bear your common charge, 
 nor ours, but evade both under color of your authority. Since it has 
 pleased first the Parliament and then the Lord Admiral and Committee 
 for Foreign Plantations, and since the Council of State and lastly the 
 Lord Protector and his council, to continue us as a distinct colony, yes, 
 and since it hath pleased yourselves by public letters and references to 
 us from your public courts, to own the authority of his Highness 
 
 "Cromwell's order 1655, Mar. 29. Ri. I. Rec, i, 316. 'R. I. Rec, i, 395- 
 
loo LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 amongsi us ; be pleased to consider how unsuitable it is for yourselves — 
 if these families at Pawtuxet plead the truth — to be the obstruction of 
 all orderly proceedings amongst us. I grieve that at this instance and 
 by these ships this cry and the premises should trouble his Highness 
 and his Council : For the rcosonable preventing of which is this humble 
 address presented."' 
 
 The complaints in this letter from the Assembly to John Clark and 
 complaints from Obadiah Holmes and others against Massachusetts 
 were presented to Cromwell ; but Capt. Leverett, who was on November 
 13, 1655, appointed by Massachusetts their agent,' and who had taken 
 a number of French forts in America, served in the army under Crom- 
 well and enjoyed much of his favor, prevented his inquiry into the 
 conduct of Massachusetts; although he admonished her and censured 
 her for banishing her seducers.* 
 
 Both the subjected Whites and the subjected Indians were still 
 maintained by Massachusetts upon the lands of others, in constant 
 obstruction to order and the authority of the Providence charter; and 
 the General Assembly issued a warrant to bring them before the court 
 to answer the complaints of the inhabitants against them. 
 
 Forty-two was the total number of male inhabitants of Providence 
 at this time. Warwick had thirty-eight, Portsmouth seventy-one, and 
 Newport had ninety-six " freemen," but it had over three hundred 
 inhabitants, which was over two-thirds of the population of the whole 
 colony;' and a more than corresponding amount of wealth and amount 
 of control in the government. By the " freemen's " act a restrictive 
 elective franchise, an inheritance from Coddington's government, still 
 maintained at Newport, the old leaders there, as he had done, kept 
 themselves in official place, and then, by assaying to represent the whole 
 and exceeding number of inhabitants, they lead in the management of 
 the affairs of the colony. Coddington, who during the height of the 
 commotion upon the island had been obliged to flee for safety from the 
 inhabitants and remain for a time av/ay, had returned to Newport, and 
 v.-as sent as a Representative to the Assembly at its March sessions. 
 Objections were at once made to his sitting, but they were overruled 
 " for the comfort of all parties," and as his old leaders had " inconsid- 
 erately imposed the service upon him." Claims against Coddington 
 for depredations of his government upon the Dutch Colonies were 
 brought to the attention of the Assembly by a Council of State letter, in 
 reply^to which they ordered that a letter be sent to Clark manifesting 
 Coddington's subjection to the authority of the charter and acting^ to 
 free him from the danger of former troubles, complaints and penalties. 
 An injudicious partisan resolution was passed to destroy such portions 
 of the records as were unfavorable to Coddington — that they should 
 "be cut out and delivered to him." This embraced what he had 
 extracted from them, and they, with those now included, covered the 
 most eventful and interesting of the colony's early history, from its 
 ueginning up to and including the troubles that compelled Gorton's 
 despatch for England and the time of Gorton's Presidency of the colony; 
 but one page with a reference to the latter having escaped their dili- 
 gence; the eventful times immediately preceding and followmg the 
 
 399. -R. T. Rec. i, ,?22-.^2i?. ^Mass. Rec, iv, Pt. i, p. 2^1 ; Com. 
 
 dated Nov. 2.1, 1655. Hutctiinson's Papers, 272. 309, 310. Tst Winlhrop, ii, 247 
 note. 'Hutchinson's Hist. Mass. National Maarazine. Dec. 1803- British 
 
 Council of State Papers, i, 441;. Leverett was. for his success in managing the 
 cause of Mass. before Cromwell, made a Major General and granted one thousand 
 acres of land by Mass. upon his return to the colony. Mass. Rec, iv, Pt. 2. 
 »R. I. Collec, vii, 204. "R. I. Rec, i, 332. 'Letter of Leverett ^o 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. loi 
 
 departure of Williams and Clark for England — measures of the Assembly 
 from May, 1651, to May, 1652, and most of the doings of the November 
 4th, 1651, session, which was considered one of the most important in 
 Rhode Island history.* Without doubt many of these records were 
 unrecoverable, and on this account many of the members may have 
 thought this the most feasible way of settlement. It was, however, 
 decided, upon a vote to the question, that Coddington's fine about the 
 records should not be returned to him. 
 
 The Massachusetts authorities still, in 1656, extending their sover- 
 eignty over the Providence Plantations, sent their Marshal General 
 with his subalterns into Providence to arrest Richard Chasmore [who 
 formerly acted with William Arnold of the Pawtuxans and was one of 
 the persons to whom the Massachusetts warrant of May 20th, 1643, to 
 seize John Greene's cattle, was directed] for. Savage says, " probably 
 some crookedness in religion." While he was in the custody of the 
 Massachusetts Marshal in Providence, he was with a Providence 
 warrant rescued from the Massachusetts officers.' 
 
 No reply was received from Massachusetts to the November letter 
 regarding the subjected families. The depredations of the subjected 
 Indians upon the people of Warwick were unabated and their lawless 
 acts were encouraged by their settlement near them, on that side of 
 the Pawtuxet river, of the Massachusetts agents who supplied them 
 v;ith arms and powder.' Having received no reply to his letter, Williams 
 wrote to Governor Endicot, who, in response to this, offered to suspend 
 the act of banishment yet in force long enough for him to come to 
 Boston ; and provisions were made by the town of Warwick for the 
 expense of the journey; but before departing he again addressed a 
 letter to the General Court of Massachusetts in which he referred at 
 length to the lawlessness of the natives whom Massachusetts was sus- 
 taining there, and also to the troubles occasioned by the subjected 
 settlers at Pawtuxet. In this letter he said concerning Warwick: "I 
 am humbly confident that all the English towns and plantations in all 
 New England put together suffer not such molestation. It is so great 
 and so oppressive that I have daily feared the tidings." And concern- 
 ing families at Pav/tuxet who subjected themselves to Massachusetts: 
 " Their obstruction is so great and constant that without your prudent 
 removal of it it is impossible that either his Highness or yourselves can 
 expect such satisfaction and observance from us as we desire to render."' 
 The obstructions were not removed by the visit of Williams, but what 
 was deemed gratifying progress was made by an agreement that the 
 controversy should be closed by arbitration. 
 
 At the next election. May 20th, 1656, Williams was chosen President. 
 William Harris, now Pawtuxet leader, appeared as a Representative 
 from Providence; Gorton, Holden, Wickes and Greene, and two of the 
 Pawtuxet partners, one of whom was Benedict Arnold, appear as 
 Representatives from Warwick. But could the latter have been seated, 
 for he, a Massachusetets subject and their warrant server, represented 
 only the Pawtuxans and Massachusetts and could have been chosen at 
 only the Pawtuxans' meeting. He had established himself on the 
 Warwick side of the Pawtuxet river as a merchant with Boston goods, 
 and also as an agent for provisions and arms ; Massachusetts, proscrib- 
 ing the sale of the latter goods to the Providence and Warwick people, 
 directing him to sell only to the Whites and Indians who subjected 
 to her and to such others as were incited against the townspeople. 
 The sale of strong drink and wine to Indians was prohibited by War- 
 
 Endicott, Hutchinson's Papers, Ji, z-j. *Mass. Rec, ii. ®R. I. Rec, 
 
102 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 wick, yet tlie Sachem Cutohamoke and his company obtained it there. 
 Arnold had before this entertained and dealt with this Sachem, and 
 there is no doubt but that he, and not the Warwick settlers as accused, 
 sold this Sachem and his company their liquor." The business of the 
 trials, State vs. Coddington, being called, they were upon his petition 
 and on account of the commotion of the people still prevailing, continued 
 to await further orders from England. Coddington had multiplied the 
 lawsuits against him by getting into violent contentions with Dyre. 
 In this they both signed a paper signifying their submission to an 
 award of five referees, of whom Gorton was one, for the settlement 
 of all difficulty between them.' 
 
 In this year " a new occasion given by an old spirit for oppression 
 arose." People of a new religion appeared on our shores, and the 
 authorities in the other colonics made cause against them and cast them 
 in prison. Undeterred by threatening consequences, Gorton gave them 
 his active and practical sympathy, conveyeing to them the assurances 
 of his Christian love in hopeful plans for their release and to provide 
 a place where they might enjoy their liberty. " It does not appear," 
 says Judge Staples, " that difference of opinion or religion excluded 
 any from his benevolence or charity." 
 
 Four of the early Quaker Missionaries had arrived in Boston. Before 
 they landed, officers were despatched by the government to bring them 
 on shore. After being examined, they were committed to prison, there 
 to remain till the return of the ship that brought them, and then to be 
 carried back to England. 
 
 There is conclusive evidence that Gorton was not a Quaker. With 
 the individuals imprisoned at Boston he had no personal acquaintance; 
 no sectarian views or private friendship, therefore, could have induced 
 him to correspond with them, yet on the i6th of September, 1656, he 
 addressed them from W^arwick the following: 
 
 " The report of your demainor with some others of the same mind 
 with you formerly put in possession of the place of your present abode, 
 as is represented to us, as also the errand you profess you came with 
 unto these parts, hath much touched my heart ; so that I cannot with- 
 hold my hand from expressing its desires after you. If God has brought 
 you into these parts as instruments to open the excellences of the taber- 
 nacle, wherever the cloud causeth you to abide, no doubt but this your 
 improvement shall be an effectual preface to your work, to bring the 
 gainsayers to naught ; which my soul waiteth for, not with respect to 
 any particular man's person, but with respect to that spirit of wicked- 
 ness gone out into the world to deceive and tyranize ; and in that respect 
 my soul saith, O Lord, I have waited for thy salvation. But our Lord 
 may please to send some of his saints unto us to speak words which 
 the dead hearing they shall live. I may not trouble you further at 
 this time, only if we knew that you had a mind to stay in these parts 
 after your enlargement [for we hear you are to be sent back to Eng.] 
 and what time the ship v/ould set sail, or could have hope the Master 
 would deliver you, v.-e would endeavor to have a vessel in readiness 
 when the ship goeth out of harbour to take you in and set you where 
 you may enjoy your liberty."* 
 
 Callender says that Gorton " was strenuously opposed to the doctrine 
 of the Quakers."' He, however, indulged in no personal abuse of them, 
 or of anyone for their differing with him in doctrine or religion. In 
 
 i, .322, 341-345. "Wnrwick Town Orders, ante pagina. Warwick letter 
 
 to Mass., post patina. The Lands of R. T.. 42. 41. 'Nar. Club, vi. 
 
 Hildreth's Hist. U. S., i, 398. ^Gorton's letters to the Quakers in full in 
 
 Staples Ed. Simp. Def., R. I. Collec, ii, introduction. 'R. I. CoUec, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 103 
 
 the debates with tlie Friends at Newport, Providence and Warwick, 
 in which WilHams, Gorton and others engaged and out of which much 
 bad feehng arose from the accusations and personaHties indulged in 
 by some of the debaters, the records* show that, ahhough Gorton was 
 rated a disputant quite the equal of any," he was deficient in the then 
 common " talent of being disagreeable to all those whose belief and 
 practices differed from their own," he almost alone escaping the charge 
 of having uttered unkind words against them. His Quaker friends, 
 solicitous in his behalf, complain that Priest Wilson would have him 
 put to death for differing with him in religion. 
 
 Had the benevolent project of Gorton been carried out, the little 
 company of Friends would have been the earliest apostles of the new 
 faith on the shores of the Narragansett. In their reply they stated that 
 the master of the vessel had been placed under such heavy bonds to 
 set them ashore in England as to render the undertaking hopeless." 
 
 Other admirable letters of Gorton's in defense of the Quakers fol- 
 lowed. Of his above correspondence Judge Staples says : "The sentiments 
 and feelings which it displays are the more to be honored and appre- 
 ciated, because in his time, and in this country especially, they were 
 seldom avowed." It is a high achievement to be tolerant toward others 
 in matters of religion even to-day. 
 
 Benedict Arnold had, since the May Assembly last, moved to Newport 
 and become the leader of the Pawtuxans' adherents there. He was 
 made President at the May, 1657, election. 
 
 At the March, 1657-8, sessions a letter from Sr. Henry Vane was read 
 and given to Mr. Gorton. Samuel Gorton and Benedict Arnold were 
 ordered to draw up an answer to the request of the United Colonies, 
 that the Providence colony should remove the Quakers and prohibit 
 their coming into it ; to which letter the clerk should subscribe. Arnold 
 and Gorton did not agree upon a letter, and both wrote one. " We 
 conceive," wrote Arnold, " that their doctrines tend to very absolute 
 cutting down and overturning relations and civil government among 
 men if generally received. But as to the damage that may in likely- 
 hood accrue to the neighbor colonies by their being here entertained, 
 we conceive it will not prove so dangerous (as else it might) in regard 
 to the course taken by you to send them away out of the country as 
 they came among you." Arnold's conservative letter (although imput- 
 ing the overturning of civil government to an acceptance of the Friends' 
 doctrine) he, Arnold, subscribed to.'' Gorton's radical and character- 
 istic letter the clerk subscribed to as the court directed. Gorton's letter 
 reads : " Now whereas freedom of different consciences to be protected 
 from enforcement was the principal ground of our charter, both with 
 respect to our humble suit for it. as also to the true intent of the honor- 
 able and reverend Parliament of England in granting the same to us; 
 which freedom we still prize as the greatest happiness that men can 
 possess in this world: Therefore we shall for the preservation of our 
 civil peace and order the more seriously take notice that these people 
 and any others that are here or shall come amongst us be impartially 
 required, and to our uttermost constrained to perform all the duties 
 requisite toward the maintainage of the right of his Highness and the 
 government of that most reverend Parliament of England in the colony; 
 which is most happily included under the same domain and graciously 
 
 iv, 9. _ ^Firebrands Quenched, 232, 247. Apx. New England Judged. 
 
 Geo. Fox Dig:Red out of His Burrows, Mather's Maemalia. Williams' letter, 
 Proc. R. I. Hist. Soc, 1875-6. Mackey's Life of Samuel Gorton. 
 "R. I. Hist. Pub., New Ser., iii, 210. "Nar. Club, v, Intd., 3, 4, 20, 43. 
 
 'R. I. Rec, i, 376-378. *R. T. Rec, 378-^80. 'Arnold's Hist. 
 
104 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 taken into protection thereof. Humbly craving their advice and order 
 how to carry ourselves in any further respect toward these people, that 
 therewithall there may be no damage or infringement of that chief 
 principal of our charter concerning freedom of conscience. And we 
 also are so much the more encouraged to make our address unto the 
 Lord Protector, his highness and government aforesaid, for that we 
 understand there are or have been many of the aforesaid people suffered 
 to live in England: yea, even in the heart of the nation. And thus 
 with our truly thankful acknowledgement of the honorable care of the 
 honorable gentlemen Commissioners of the United Colonies, for the 
 peace and welfare of the whole country, as expressed in their most 
 friendly letter, we shall at present take leave and rest.'" 
 
 The doings of Harris, Pawtuxet leader, engaged much of the atten- 
 tion of the Assembly during the May sessions. He with others of the 
 party, the Massachusetts subjects, persisted again in the refusal to pay 
 taxes, in which action they were protected by Massachusetts. He 
 openly denied the obligation of obedience of himself and others to the 
 government,' and made, occording to Williams' charge, " notorious 
 attempts to draw all the English subjects of the colony into a traitorous 
 renouncing of their allegiance and subjection." A complaint was filed 
 against him which grew into a charge for high treason, and the court 
 directed the Attorney General to take charge of the case. 
 
 At the following June, 1657, sessions John Easton was made Attorney 
 General, and he and John Wickes were ordered to propose to the 
 Assembly the course of the Harris trial. Upon the hearing the court 
 declared his conduct to be both contemptuous and seditious ;'° and the 
 Assembly then directed the papers, comprising Harris' writings, the 
 charge against him and his reply to be sent to Clark to lay before the 
 English government ; directing Clark to command the matter in or.r 
 and the Commonwealth's behalf for further judgment; and held Harris 
 in the sum of £500 sterling, with his son Andrew, to perform the order 
 of the court. The ship by which the papers against Harris were sent 
 was lost. 
 
 In May, 1658, Mary Gardner, a Friend, resident of Newport, wife 
 of one of the Island Commissioners, and the mother of many children, 
 with one babe at her breast, was, while attending a Friends' meeting 
 taken bv the Massachusetts authorities to Boston before John Endicott, 
 who sentenced her to be whipped with ten lashes, as well as her com- 
 panion Mary Stanton who accompanied her to help bear the child. 
 After their very sore journey and (according to man) hardly accom- 
 plishable, through a wilderness of above sixty miles between Rhode 
 Island and Boston, the whipping was bloodily executed upon their bare 
 backs with a three-fold knotted whip of cords, and then they were 
 continued fourteen days longer in prison. 
 
 The further consequence to the Providence colony from the official 
 presence of Massachusetts subjects had become a matter of greater 
 agitation, since one of them had become the Governor; and they were 
 commanded to get out from one or the other colony. Accordingly, 
 during Mav and June of the year 1658. William Arnold, Benedict 
 Arnold, William Carpenter and Robert^ Cole of the Pawtuxet part}', 
 who had sixteen years before subjected to Massachusetts, and had so 
 long escaped taxation and been the cause of much of the trouble, were 
 upon their petition discharged from allegiance to that government, and 
 became freemen of the government at home in which they had been 
 
 R. I., i, 262. '"R. I. Rec, i, 364. 'William Arnold and William 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 105 
 
 holding office.' The elder one of the Arnolds soon after complained 
 to the Massachusetts Court and petitioned them for an addition to the 
 payment he had received for services rendered them. In his complaint 
 he stated that some of the cattle of Gorton's, which had been turned 
 over to him, had been " gotten away from him and he had been put 
 into very much trouble " by it ; that a number of Warwick people had 
 obtained judgments against him in the colony courts and he had been 
 obliged to pay at one time "£io," at another "£60," and at other times 
 "great costs and damages." The Massachusetts Magistrates, moved 
 by this humble petition, replied to him that as he had left the protection 
 of the Massachusetts Court and their jurisdiction, and joined with the 
 people of whom he complained, they judged it not equity that the court 
 make him satisfaction; but that he might have liberty to reimburse 
 himself by again seizing upon the persons and estates of these people. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Gorton's letters to Cromwell and to Clark defending the Quakers— Pawtuxans 
 substitute fors^ed deed for that of Williams' — Deeds contirmmg the fraud- 
 Papers secretly recorded in Massachusetts — Williams' declaration : Con- 
 firmation of no reality. Myself, Providence and Warwick robbed —The 
 Providence government applies first to the King for a new charter of govern- 
 ment—The Arnold-Pawtuxans delay Clark's commission from Providence gov- 
 ernment until after Winthrop, Jr., had secured the Connecticut charter of 
 government— The Pawtuxans' motives— Trouble ensuing— Petition of Warwick 
 men to the King— Letter to the court of Massachusetts— New charter received 
 —The King's order— The Narragansett Indian grant confirmed— The death of 
 ex-President Smith. 
 
 In the Assembly, November 2d, 1658, Mr. Gorton with three others 
 drew up a letter to Mr. Clark to be presented to his Highness and 
 Council, in defense of the right of asylum granted to the friends by 
 the government of the Providence Plantations. The letter mentioned 
 the papers in the case against Harris, sent the year previous, the wreck 
 of the vessel and their loss, and that new papers in the case were 
 ordered which could not be gotten ready to send with this letter, but 
 would be sent " by the next opportunity." It acknowledged the love for 
 Mr. Clark by the colony and their further trust to his council and care. 
 It then proceeds as follows: "We have now a new occasion given by 
 an old spirit with respect to the colonies about us which seems to be 
 offended with us because of a sort of people called by the name of 
 Quakers, who are come amongst us and have raised up divers who seem 
 at present to be of their spirit; whereat the colonies about us seem 
 to be offended with us being the said people have their liberty amongst 
 us, and entertained into our houses, or into our Assemblies ; and for the 
 present we have found no just cause to charge them with the breach 
 of the peace. And the offense our neighbors take against us is because 
 we take not some cause against these people. Sir, this our earnest and 
 present request tinco you in this matter, that as vou m^v perceive^ v-* 
 our answer to th^ United Colonies, that we flee as to our refup^e in all civil 
 respects to his Highness and honorable Council, ?<? not being sabiect 
 to any other in matters of our civil estate ; so may it please you to have 
 
 Carpenter petitioned. May 26. 1658, to he released and their associate? ioi"ed 
 them in the petition June 1, 1658. Mass. Rec. iv, 332, 333. Book Notes, Vol. 
 23, No. 22. ^'William Arnold's Petition and the Mass. Magistrates' 
 
io6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 an eye and care open in case our adversaries should seek to undermine 
 us in our privileges granted unto us, and to plead our cause in such 
 sort as zi.'e may not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's 
 consciences, so long as human order in point of civility is not corrupted 
 or violated; whereof many of us have large experience and do judge 
 it to be no less than a point of absolute cruelty. And so with our hearty 
 love, etc. Warwick, November 5th, 1658."' 
 
 On February 7th, 1658-9, the Pawtuxet party, by its leaders William 
 Harris and William Arnold, reinforced the evidences of the Pawtuxan 
 claims by submitting to the town meeting of Providence fraudulent writ- 
 ings, in what they falsely declared in the following words to be a 
 genuine copy of the original Indian deed to Williams : 
 
 " The seventh of the twelfth month, 1658-9, at our Town Court, 
 William Arnold of Pawtuxet came into this present court and did 
 acknowledge that these tw-o copies, to wit, of William Harris' and 
 Thomas Olney's and which hath these words in them as followeth are 
 the true words of that writing called the Town Evidence of Providence ; 
 and that which is wanting in the now writing called the Town Evidence 
 vvfhich agreeth not with those copies was torn by accident in his 
 home in Pawtuxet."* 
 
 This pretended copy of the original deed contained the forged 1639 
 dated memorandum, before mentioned, and an interpolation in the torn 
 portion, the whole describing more than one-half the lands in the 
 present State." 
 
 Following this came three writings obtained by Harris and partners 
 from the living Sachems, by which they " confirm " the supposed acts 
 of their revered deceased Chiefs Cannonicus and Miantinomi.* They 
 all bear date 1659-60, one year after the fraudulent deed was shown 
 in town meeting. The conspiracy was now complete. The three deeds 
 " confirmed " to them the lands along the river Pawtucket and Pawtuxet 
 and the land between them, and, as a matter of course, under the 
 transfer of October, 1638, and the " combination " dividing line recorded 
 at Boston in 1650, by which all lands west of the line v/ent to the 
 Pawtuxet purchasers, all of the new lands " confirmed " by the younger 
 Sachems fell to the Pawtuxet owners. Harris and his partners now 
 owned eight-tenths, and their claim antedated and included John 
 Greene's purchase, Gorton's purchase, and the whole territory, whether 
 owned by Indians or white men, of what is now the State of Rhode 
 Island, north of the present town of Exeter, a tract comprising not far 
 from three hundred thousand acres.' 
 
 From the reading of Williams' letters, printed in the Narragansett 
 Club and other publications, it seems that the largest share of his time 
 was employed in combiting the pawtuxet claimants' pretensions. He 
 exerted himself continuously and to his very utmost against them. 
 His protestations that " Harris hath robbed us," and " Both our towns 
 CProvidence and Warwick) and mvself have been notoriously abused 
 and robbed," and "Prodigious and wonderful to me how they can 
 squeeze out a confirmation from ye surviving Sachems of what had 
 no realitv no more than dreams and castles built in ye air."' and like 
 protestations of Gorton, Greene and all loyal others, were for the time 
 
 Reoly R. T. Co^^pc.. u. 2o'7-?t-?. "R. T. Rec, i. .in<;-?00. ♦Early 
 
 Rec, iv. 70. "The T.nnds of Rhocle Tsl^nrl bv PiMney S. Rider, Prov.. 
 
 vp. 6t-t't2. 'R. T. Rec. i. .-!>;-.?8. Stnples' Ann.nls. <t67-?6c). 
 
 »2d R. T. Hi?t. Tr.. No. 4. Rook Notes. Vol. 22. No. 4. " T^e Forcreries con- 
 rected with the OnHn^l Deed eiven to Ro(?er Willinms by the Sachems " and 
 "Lands of R. Island," Sidney S. Rider. Portsmouth Rec. i. q.'?. . "Further 
 
 condemnation of the Pawtuxans* work in Williams' letter, R. I. Hist. Tr., No. 14. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 107 
 
 X»owerless to prevent the Pawtuxet claimants' advancement. Such 
 predominance did they obtain over the Providence Council that in town 
 meeting, April 27th, following the receipt of the " confirmatory " deeds, 
 it was ordered that William Harris and John Sayle should levy upon 
 every man of Providence what he should pay of the expense incurred 
 in confirming the Pawtuxet land title.' 
 
 At a May sessions of the Assembly a commission was ordered to be 
 made out and sent to Clark in England." 
 
 On June ist, 1660, Mrs, Dyre, the wife of William Dyre of the 
 Island, was, while within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, taken 
 before their court, tried and sentenced to death for thrice visiting 
 Boston, she being a Quaker ; and suffered, regardless of all the mainland 
 and Island people could do to prevent, and her husband's pathetic 
 pleadings, the death penalty on Boston Commons. This was five days 
 after Charles the Second had ascended the throne of England, but 
 about five weeks before his accession to the throne was known in 
 New England. 
 
 When the August Providence Plantations Assembly convened, their 
 former order to send Clark his commission had not been complied with 
 and the order was repeated at this sessions. 
 
 At the October, 1660, sessions His Majesty's Declaration was read 
 and ordered proclaimed to the people. Former sessions had resolved 
 to send instructions to Clark to proceed with the colony's business in 
 England and to send him a commission from the government, which 
 he before never had, he having gone as the agent for the loyal or 
 liberal party on the Island, after the secession of the Island from the 
 government led by Coddington. Notwithstanding this, the engagement 
 of Clark and supplying him with his credentials had been delayed and 
 was prevented by those opposed to him, by securing a committee 
 com.posed entirely of themselves, to whom they had the order for 
 carrying it out entrusted six Pawtuxan and the old Coddington 
 party men. These, " or any fewer of them," were intrusted to write 
 to Clark and to send a commission to him if they thought " it neces- 
 sary."^ The placing of this business in the hands of these men and 
 entirely at the discretion of themselves, or so few as one of them, 
 shows to what extent the Pawtuxans and their Newport allys were in 
 control and how they dominated the government. 
 
 The committee as provided did not think it "necessary" to send 
 Clark a commission. He had but too recently gone to England as their 
 opponent and complainant, and had been instrumental in having them 
 deposed from the Island government, and it was quite soon for him 
 to plead for them the favor of office. The Assembly now again ordered 
 Clark's commission sent to him, and again men of the same party, 
 Benedict Arnold and William Baulston with the Recorder, were con- 
 stituted the committee to draft and send it to him.^ As a consequence, 
 it was witheld from Clark; and Mr. Merrick and Alderman Peck of 
 London were employed as foreign agents, and the papers and a petition 
 sent to them." 
 
 The Massachusetts Court, called in October, refused to proclaim the 
 new King or to address him. In November the Massachusetts Magis- 
 trates received word from Leverett regarding the complaints which 
 were prefered against them to the King and Council, and a General 
 Court was called and an address, essaying to justify the imprisonments 
 and executions complained of, was drawn up to the King on December 
 
 'Early Rec, ii, 127. Lands of R. Island. '"R. I. Rec, i, 414 421. 
 
 •R. I. Rec, i, 42. ^Oct. 18, 1660, R. I. Rec, i, 433. 'Williams' 
 
io8 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTOxN. 
 
 19th and sent to him.* To this the King replied in a letter dated 
 February 15th, 1660-1, offering them immunity from their past offenses 
 and promising them the liberty which he had declared to all his subjects;' 
 to which the Massachusetts Court, on August 7th, gave due considera- 
 tion, enacted that His Majesty should Ic proclaimed, and drew up an 
 address to him which they did not for the present send to him. On Sep- 
 tember 9th, 1661, the King, having been informed that a number of the 
 Quakers were imprisoned, a number of them had been executed, and 
 others were in danger of undergoing the like, issued a mandamus to 
 the Massachusetts government, commanding their compliance with his 
 former orders, and that if there were any Quakers condemned to suffer 
 death or other corporal punishments, or imprisoned and obnoxious to 
 the like condemnation, to forbear to proceed any further against them; 
 and to forthwith send them, whether condemned or imprisoned, over to 
 England for trial.' 
 
 This mandate was received by the Massachusetts Court in November, 
 and they forthwith proceeded to declare that the necessity of preserving 
 religions order and peace had rendered the enactment of laws against 
 Quakers necessary, and concluded by saying, "All this notwithstanding 
 their restless spirits have moved some to return and others to fill the 
 royal ear of our Sovereign Lord the King with complaints against 
 us, and have by their unwearied solicitations in our absence so far 
 prevailed as to obtain a letter from his Majesty to forbear their corporal 
 punishment or death ; although we hope and doubt not but that if his 
 Majesty were rightly informed he would be far from giving them such 
 favor, or weakening his authority here, so long and orderly settled. 
 Yet that we may not in the least offend his Majesty this court doth 
 hereby order and declare that the execution of the laws in force against 
 Quakers as such, so far as they respect corporal punishment or death, 
 be suspended until this court take further order.'" 
 
 For the Massachusetts Court to send their prisoners to England 
 would be to send " loud and swift witnesses " against the Massachusetts 
 government. If they had no prisoners they could not send any; so they 
 cunningly met the emergency by discharging the prisoners from custody ; 
 and they appointed Simon Bradstreet and John Norton to proceed to 
 England to present their address and declaration, to assure the King 
 of their loyalty and to secure the interest of those who might have 
 influence with the King and his Chancellor; but they did not depart 
 until nearly three months after.' 
 
 At the May Assembly and election of the Providence Plantations, 
 William Brenton of the Island was chosen President. Although the 
 employment of another agent than Clark, either alone or as an associate, 
 was distasteful to the loyal party, William Brenton, Benedict Arnold, 
 William Dyre, Randall Holden, John Greene, Samuel Gorton, and Roger 
 Williams were put in nomination for a choice of one or two to be 
 employed with Clark at the Court of Charles the Second.' In the 
 direction of a new charter, Roger Williams, William Fields and Zacha- 
 riah Rhodes of Providence, John Porter, John Roome and William 
 Baulston of Portsmouth, Benedict Arnold, Joseph Torrey and William 
 
 letter, R. T. Rec, i. 3<^i, ante p. *Ryerson's Loyalists of Amcr i. 132, 
 
 T33. Mass. Rec, iv. Pt. i, pp. 440-456. "Loyalists of America by iiger- 
 
 ton Ryerson, D. D.. LL. D., Vol. i. p. i.^S- Hutclimson's Papers, .^3, .334. or 11, 
 St, 52. "Kitir's Mandamus in Hazard's Collec.,_ 11, 595 and in bewails 
 
 Hist of the Ouakers. Reference thereto in Mass. Rec. iv, Pt. 2,_ p. 34- 
 'Declaration of the Mass. Court of Nov. 27, i66t. in Mass. Rec^ iv. Pt. 2 p. 34- 
 Hazard's Collec. ii, 596. "Bradstreet and Norton sailed Feb. ^o,i6bi-2 
 
 •R. LRec, i. 442. "R. L Rec, i, 445, 446. 'Lands of R. Island, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 109 
 
 Brenton of Newport, Samuel Gorton, John Greene and John Wickes 
 of Warwick were selected as a committee to receive the old charter 
 from Williams, to send it to England, to draw up an address to his 
 Majesty in behalf of the colony and to give copies of it, together with 
 a copy of the subjection deed of the Narragansetts to the agents em- 
 ployed for the use of the colony in England.'" This was a working 
 committee, the aggressive members of the loyal party having secured 
 
 place upon it. ,,,,.,., i,-. ^ r 
 
 The lands Potowomut had been purchased for the inhabitants of 
 Warwick." Trouble regarding it ensuing, the deed was turned over 
 to Benedict Arnold for the use of the colony. It was not turned over 
 to the colony and fell into the hands of private owners. 
 
 The following was sent by Gorton to the General Court of Massachu- 
 setts : , , • 1 • 1 
 
 "After our long continued patience and forbearance in lying under 
 the burdens of wrongs and injuries, which you have done unto us; wait- 
 ing- to see when your own ingenuity would prompt and provoke you 
 to'^return unto us some responsible satisfaction; but seeing no appear- 
 ance thereof, but the continuation of oppression, in withholding our 
 rights in not releasing our tedious exile; in some of yours irregularly 
 intruding upon our lawful liberties; and in your encouraging of the 
 Indians to oppress us intolerably to this day, presuming _ upon your 
 protection therein and threatening of us with your maintaining of them 
 in their doings continually; and when some (out of compassion) have 
 laid our wrongs open before the Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
 some of the chief of you, whom we spare to name, have answered with 
 great zeal 'Let them alone; let the Indians destroy them. Therefore, 
 think it not much that we are now at the last constrained to appear 
 before you in these our lines, to present unto you our long resented 
 and now resolved thoughts. Our grievances we briefly reduce into 
 these four heads, which, as occasion shall serve and call for, we shall 
 amplify prove and express every one in their several particulars, viz. : 
 
 " I Your cruel and unjust seizure upon our persons and estate, by 
 Capt' George Cooke, Edward Johnson and Humphrey Atherton, com- 
 missioned by you with the soldiers, both English and Indians under 
 their command; sent against us. His Majesty's subjects, \yho hve 
 peaceably, doing harm to no man, and far out of all your jurisdiction. 
 Your above said soldiers, contrary to law, in an hostile manner, broke 
 open our houses, spoiling our bedding by lying on them m their trenches, 
 living upon our cattle in the time of their besieging us, and driving 
 away the rest of our great cattle, amounting to a great number, into 
 the Massachusetts, and there disposing of them to your use; also when 
 we did hang out the King's colors, to signify to whom we did adhere, 
 vour soldiers shot them through and through immediately; and, con- 
 trary to your Commissioners' and soldiers' agreement with us, that we 
 should go with them as neighbors and freemen unto Massachusetts, to 
 answer anything that could^be objected against us. which said a-rree- 
 ment of ours was on purpose to save the spilling any blood, upon which 
 we invited them into the house wherein we were besieged, they imme- 
 diately, upon their entrance into our said house, seized upon our arms 
 and persons, carrying us all away as slaves and captives, leaving our 
 houses and necessaries in them to be pillaged by the Indians, who 
 accordingly did destroy our goods and habitations by fire and other- 
 wise; our wives and children being fled into the woods and other places 
 
 228, 229. *R. I. CoUec, u, 224-230. *R. I. Rec, i, 448. 
 
no LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 for safety, but in regard of hardships sustained herein, to some of them 
 it proved loss of life and to others loss of limbs. 
 
 " 2. The second general head of our grievances is, our false imprison- 
 ment for the space of one whole winter season and more, lying in chains 
 and fetters of iron, and yet to work for our livings by the sentence of 
 your court, or else to be starved, according to the doctrine of the chief 
 of your ministers, preached for the edification of the people in the 
 same season ; and when in your court privately held, you put us upon 
 questions concerning our religion, thinking to ensnare us, having noth- 
 ing else to object against us, telling us that we answered upon life or 
 death, we told you that we could not give you your due honor in the 
 place where you sat; but as you were related to the King's Majesty, 
 who had committed the same unto you (though out of your jurisdiction, 
 we held ourselves to stand in a neighborly relation unto you) ; and 
 therefore told you that we acknowledged the King and his laws to be 
 the fountain and head of your government; and that if it were so, that 
 you prosecuted us to take away our lives after our goods, we did then 
 humbly make our appeal to the King's Majesty for our trial, and could 
 not be heard ; but not having the breach of any law against us, you put 
 it to the major vote whether we should live or die; and being our lives 
 escaped only two votes, as some of the deputies of the General Court 
 informed us, some of you would have it put to vote again, only the 
 Governor answered it was the finger of God and it was the best to let 
 it pass as it was. Our imprisonment, as above said, after this was done, 
 was a time which had many hours in it, wherein you had hope to get 
 something against us by one means or other; but if every hour wherein 
 you sought this (by our own law) answer the King's laws for such 
 imprisonment it will amount to some considerable account upon your 
 score. 
 
 " 3. The third general head is, our causeless banishment and exile 
 continued upon us unto this day, which is now upon the expiration of 
 eighteen years; not only to the disgrace of our persons, in making us 
 appear obnoxious in the eyes of men, as though we were guilty of 
 some notorious crimes, but also to the depriving of us of common 
 commerce amongst men, whereby we have for so long time been hin- 
 dered of the benefit of the course, opportunity and state of things in 
 the country, in way of trade, in regard of the places of exportation and 
 importation of all commodities being amongst you, where we by your 
 law may not come, upon peril of death ; and yourselves know that many 
 amongst you and some nearer to our abodes, being favored and encour- 
 aged by you (since the time of our unjust punishment), raised their 
 estate to the sum of many thousand pounds a man, whilst we have sat 
 under oppressions intolerable; having things not at the second, but at 
 the third or fourth hand, for the necessary supply of our families, to 
 mitigate their groans under the burdens which you have laid upon 
 us, which groans have gone up. And yourselves know also that divers 
 of us were in as good capacity (if not better) to have advanced our 
 estates as many of those who are so increased, when Captain, Lieuten- 
 ant and soldiers came first against us. when yourselves had nothing to 
 do, unless you took yourselves to be the only reformers of the world, 
 to bring them all to the bent of your bow, as the chief of your ministers 
 have professed; that so far as you found yourselves to have the power 
 of the sword, you ought to subdue all to the form of your Church and 
 State. 
 
 "4. The fourth general head of our complaint is. the great charge 
 and expense you have put us unto, for the recovery and repossessing of 
 our lands, which you had seized upon, as well as upon our persons 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS, m 
 
 and estate; banishing us from them also, though under deceitful and 
 ambiguous terms, taking that for granted which was not true; accord- 
 ing^ to other of your dealings towards us, as evidently shall appear m 
 its'' due place and season, whereupon we were necessitated, for supply 
 of our present wants, to make use of our friends beyond modesty and 
 all ordinary courtesy, when you had cast us out of house and harbor 
 and place of abode, taking from us not only our goods of all sorts 
 which were our livelihood, but our lands also; leavmg us destitute of 
 any place wherein we might employ ourselves to sustain our wives 
 and little ones; thinking thereby either to drive us among the Indians 
 remote to our ruin, or else to the Dutch Plantation, where many of our 
 English people, men, women and children, were so inhumanly massacred 
 immediately before (by the barbarous Indians in those parts), which 
 was one effect of your banishing them from among yourselves. In 
 this case, we, being deprived of all liberty to pass through any of your 
 plantations to go for England, to make known unto the King's Majesty; 
 hem^ put in trust (also) with the chief Sachems about us, who earnestly 
 de^^ired to submit their persons and lands unto His Majesty's protec- 
 tion, seeing yourselves laying claim unto and prosecuting by the sword 
 for such large dominions in these parts, perceiving that we were 
 delivered out of your hands, beyond all expectation, and that we pro- 
 fessed ourselves to be subjects and servants to the Great Sachem of 
 Old England. We were upon this twofold occasion forced to travel 
 to the Dutch plantation to take shipping, where we lay long upon 
 expense before an opportunity could be had ; then transporting ourselves 
 into Holland we lay long there again for a passage into England. 
 When arrived, your friends and agents did what they could to hinder 
 the dispatch of our business, thinking thereby to wear us out in the 
 want of means to maintain ourselves; some of your chief friends, both 
 in England and also of this country, being of the committee to which 
 our business was referred, by which means the time was much pro- 
 longed before a termination of the justice and equity of our cause. 
 And yourselves know that the said committee were pleased to take 
 notice (in their letter concerning the repossessing of our plantation) of 
 our modesty and moderation, in that zve did not for that present time 
 urge or sue for reparation of other wrongs we underzvent, because of 
 the troublesome times in those days. But we were willing to stay till 
 a better and more fit season offered itself; only the repossessing of our 
 plantations was of present necessity; whereupon we might labor with 
 our hands for the preservation of our wives and children; which they 
 most willingly granted unto us, seeing that justice and equity called 
 for the same. The accomplishment thereof in our loss of time, expense 
 of money and arrearages, our families were forced in our absence 
 (which absence was not only from our families in our voyage for 
 England, but also from our lands from which you had banished us), 
 v/as no small charge, for such as you had left naked of all manner of 
 help, thinking thereby to tread us under foot forever, and our children 
 after us, such as should never be able to use any means for any satisfac- 
 tion hereafter. If the great cattle you took from us be well calculated 
 according to ordinary increase for so many years, as you have the use 
 and benefit of them, it will amount to a very considerable suwi, besides 
 all other charge and detriment; and v/e understand that now is a tim.e 
 of repairing of losses and riehting of wrongs, formerly done in our 
 native country, where we doubt not our wrongs will be taken into con- 
 sideration among the rest. And though yourselves would not allow 
 our humble appeal to the Royalty of the late Kin?, yet we hope you 
 will not hinder our humble addresses unto His Majesty that now is. 
 
112 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Wherefore considering the premises as things shall be explained and 
 amplified according to the particulars necessarily comprised, which 
 you cannot be ignorant of, and being that we respect you as gentlemen 
 of the same country out of which we came, also as neighbors here in 
 this remote wilderness, and respecting you as wise and understanding 
 men, we are, in the truth and sincerity of our hearts (for neighborly 
 peace and society in these Hie Majesty's dominions), willing to propose 
 unto you judicious and serious consideration, viz. : That if, in your 
 judgments, you shall be pleased to propound unto us such a plausible 
 way (which may stand with His Majesty's authority and not prejudice 
 nor demean our cause) for a home composure of these differences, 
 unto moderate satisfaction, we shall most willingly and freely address 
 ourselves thereunto. Otherwise, take knowledge, that our resolution 
 is, with all convenient speed to make our humble addresses to the 
 King's Majesty, in way of petition and particular declaration there- 
 upon, that His Majesty will be pleased to determine the matter by his 
 council, or whom His Majesty shall be pleased to appoint. We under- 
 stand that yourselves have received good encouragement from His 
 Majesty of late, which is our encouragement also that he will the more 
 willingly take the cause into consideration. Take knowledge, therefore, 
 that we do. by these presents, give you seasonable notice of our intended 
 proceedings about the premises, that so you may be ready to make your 
 best defense. And of this warning given unto you we keep a copy, 
 testified unto by sufficient witness; it being a seasonable time now, 
 fitting your opportunity, for we understand that your agent has lately 
 come over out of England and is shortly to return thither again, so that 
 you may give him full instructions for the management of your cause. 
 This also you may be pleased to take cognizance of that if you put 
 us unto the prosecution of our intended resolution, in our humble 
 addresses to His Majesty, the damage which we shall charge upon 
 you will amount to a very great sum, as by visible demonstrations and 
 rational and undeniable calculation and account it shall appear; besides 
 our false imprisonment, and wrongs done by Indians in killing our 
 cattle, planting and wearing out our best land, pilfering and purloin- 
 ing our goods, etc., for the space of so many years, whom we expected 
 to be removed without delay. If we hear not from you speedily con- 
 cerning the premises, then we take it for granted that you put us to 
 the prosecution of our abovesaid resolution, and intend to give us a 
 meeting in England, for the intent and purpose as aforesaid. We con- 
 clude, with our desire to know of you, whether you count us free in 
 point of egress and regress in any of your plantations or jurisdiction, 
 to go about their or any other of our lawful employments without 
 disturbance as free subjects of His Majesty in his dominions, carrying 
 ourselves (as in our constant custom and practice we have done) 
 according unto the rules of humanity and sobriety. And if we have 
 not a speedy answer from you in this point also, we shall consider 
 you hold us still as under the bondage of a causeless banishment; and 
 we shall seek to accommodate ourselves elsewhere for transportation, 
 to obtain redress. And so we take our leave, and remain, though poor, 
 yet vour loving and peaceable neighbors. From Warwick in the Colony 
 of Providence Plantations, the 22d of August, 1661."* 
 
 The commission for Clark, which was ordered drawn out in May, 
 1660, and at each subsequent sessions, was still withheld from him by 
 the adverse committee who had it in charge. And its forwarding was 
 still further retarded by the Assembly or Governor Rrentnn at the 
 August 27th Assembly session, appointing Benedict Arnold and William 
 Dyre with the Recorder Terry, another more inactive committee,* to 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 113 
 
 take charge of and send it to him. The tactics were much the same as 
 those which were by these same men made use of in 1653 to dictate 
 the terms of re-union by withholding the Council's letter. 
 
 At the May election of 1662 Benedict Arnold was chosen President. 
 The General Court at two different times during the year, both sessions 
 held at Warwick, addressed letters to Massachusetts to convince them 
 of the justice and necessity of their resolution to preserve and defend 
 the privileges of the colony and its jurisdiction "to the eastward of 
 Pawcatuck river:" "Especially considering that you (Mass.) have 
 by a more particular and especial instrument from your Lord's Commons 
 for Foreign Plantations under his Majesty our Sovereign Lord the 
 King, been absolutely prohibited from entering upon any part of this 
 jurisdiction. We do promise you that we will live by you in all loving 
 and quiet sort, not doubting but we shall be supported therein by the 
 divine power, and in due season also, to be thereby enabled to persuade 
 such as now intrude here upon us to decline their insolent proceedings. 
 And we withal do declare that if any of ours at Pawcatuck or else- 
 where in the colony have entered on the just rights and interests of any 
 (whom you call your subjects, either English or Indians) illegally, 
 that upon complaint legally made unto our Court of Justice, held in 
 the name and by the authority of his Majesty in this colony, they the 
 aggrieved parties shall have redress in all just and equal manner."* 
 
 The loyal and liberal party was this year successful in electing Roger 
 Williams President of the Town Council of Providence. The Pawtux- 
 ans' " confirmation " deeds held by Harris were on April 4th put on 
 record. On the same day the original deed to Williams of Mooshasuck 
 was recorded. The Pawtuxet party had prevented this being done 
 before, vowing that theirs was a correct copy."* 
 
 On July 27th of this year a deed made on April 9th, 1662, by Samuel 
 Gorton — his wife Mary joining — of Pawtuxet land, which "was passed 
 from Robert Cole unto himself by a deed bearing date the loth of Jan- 
 uary, 1641,'" was prevented by the Pawtuxet party from being recorded; 
 their claims antedating and covering " all the lands purchased by Gorton 
 and his companions.'" 
 
 Throughout the colony and in the Assembly the selection of the 
 individuals upon whom the government should, in the event of a new 
 charter, devolve, was a grave matter of contention ; the government 
 under the present charter now being officered principally by members 
 of the Coddington and Arnold organization who were unwilling to 
 yield them up to others. An assemblage made up largely of Newport 
 men, and in which Benedict Arnold was named as the President, was, 
 as a necessity to avoid more serious delay, acceded to by the loyal 
 party. Undoubtedly, Clark would if unhampered have named an ever 
 loval man to head the government, although the naming now of any 
 other than the present incumbent, Arnold, for the place would have 
 resulted in deposing him from office. The Pawtuxans, Arnolds and 
 Coddingtons now being dictators upon the matter urged for any charter, 
 agreed that Clark should proceed alone with the colony's business, 
 that all the papers should be delivered to him, and the commission 
 v/hich had been made out to him, but which the committee in charge yet 
 
 *R. I. Rec, i, 469, 470, 4ot;. ''The original Williams' deed is preserved 
 
 at Providence. A photo engravure of it and also a copy of the fraudulent copy 
 ^vhich the Arnold Paufuxans prepared can be had of Sidnpy S. Rider of 
 Providence. Book Notes, Vol. 2. No. 4. The Lands of Rhode Island. The 
 Arnold forgery was not, during the lives of both father and son. recorded. 
 *Earlv Rec. Book, iii. p. 13; nrinted conv, ii. 26. ^The Forgeries, 2d. 
 
 Ser. R. I. Hist. Tract No. 4. Sidney S. Rider. *R. T. Rec. i. aj«. Book 
 
114 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 detained, should be sent to him.' Yet some of the opponents of Clark, 
 not having gained all they wished, refused to support the program 
 adopted and persevered in acting independently and obstructing and 
 longer delaying the urgently needed proceedings. 
 
 The Massachusetts agents, Bradstreet and Norton, who went to 
 England, were met in London by Clark and Holmes and by a number 
 of Friends, among them John Copeland, whose mutilated ear was a 
 swift witness against them of the trials and persecutions he and his 
 fellows had suffered in Boston. George Fox was present at the confer- 
 ence with them and questioned the agents so closely that they became 
 confused." The Rhode Island men, Clark and Holmes, met these agents 
 before the King and exposed the falsity of their profession of toleration 
 and obedience, and challenging them to cite one single act of duty or 
 loyalty in support of their profession as loyal subjects." Yet the King 
 continued to Massachusetts their privileges, as they promised they 
 would act with loyalty and toleration in the future; and Bradstreet 
 and Norton presently returned, bearing a royal letter dated June 28th, 
 1662, in which the King recognized the church and promised oblivion 
 of past offenses ; but he demanded the repeal of all laws inconsistent 
 with due authority, an oath of allegiance to the royal person, as for- 
 merly in use, but dropped since the commencement of the late civil 
 war, the administration of justice in his name; complete toleration 
 for the Church of England; the repeal of the law which restricted the 
 privilege of voting and tenure of office to church members, and the 
 substitution of property qualifications instead; finally, the admission 
 of all persons of honest lives to the sacraments of Baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper.' 
 
 The " Petition of John Clark and others of Rhode Island."' which was 
 under the direction of the committee, was finally delivered to Clark 
 and was presented by him to the Councillors of the King. It was for 
 a confirmation of the present charter, and recited that the petitioners 
 did in the year 1643 secure from the Commissioners of Plantations a 
 charter of incorporation, whereby they were empowered to choose 
 their own officers and to make their own laws with the limitation that 
 they should be so near the laws of England as the nature of the con- 
 stitution of the place would admit; and that having grounded the 
 government thereon, they humbly craved they might find such grace 
 in his Majesty's sight that under his wing they might not only be 
 sheltered, but caused to flourish in their civil and religious concern- 
 ment. And the commission, which was made out and dated October 
 i8th, 1660, over two years ago, was delivered to him. It^ authorized 
 him to act as the agent of the colony in perpetuating the liberties and 
 boundaries and amenities of the colonv according to the true intent 
 and meaning of all contained in the charter " bearing date one thousand 
 six hundred and forty-three;" the old charter which those who drew 
 the commission once so earnestly opposed, but under which they now 
 were installed in office. 
 
 There is not a word regarding religious liberty in this 1643 charter, 
 although to be protected from enforcement was, as Gorton said, the 
 principal ground for it. It provided this by granting the people full 
 authority to rule themselves in a form agreed to by the greater part 
 of them". This was sufficient only as long as the people's will could 
 be expressed. Now constitutional prohibition of religious enforcement 
 
 Notes, Vol. 22, No. 4. 'Rrvant's Hist, of the United States, ii, lor- 
 
 '"Clark's 111 News from Npw FneLnnd, 4tli Ser. Mass. Collec, ii. Loyalists of 
 Amer., i, 143. 'Hildrcth's Hist. U. S.. i, ch, _xiv. 453. Kinpr's letter in 
 
 Loyalists of Amer., i, 140, and in Hazard's Collec, ii, 605. *R. L Rec, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 115 
 
 was desired to permanently assure it. " The only safety," Gorton said, 
 " was in prohibiting the Magistrates to intermeddle between God and 
 the conscience of men." 
 
 A letter and the " Address from Rhode Island to King Charles the 
 Second '" was sent to Clark by the select men ; the address setting forth 
 " that it was much on their hearts if they might be permitted to hold 
 forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing State might stand 
 and best be maintained with a full liberty in religious concernment; 
 craving to receive from his Majesty a more absolute, ample and free 
 charter of civil incorporation, while permitted with freedom of con- 
 science to worship the Lord our God." 
 
 While Clark was delayed by the withholding of his credentials, 
 John Winthrop, Jr., v/as engaged in advancing the passage of a 
 charter for Connecticut, which described that colony's bounds as east 
 upon the Narragansett river.* The draught of this charter thus preced- 
 ing that of the Rhode Island charter came finally before the Council 
 board before the objectional portion was revealed to Clark, and he 
 could not at this stage combat it. Winthrop says : " Mr. Clark might 
 have done their business before my arrival, or all the time since. I 
 should not have offered anything therein. Why he did not act about 
 their business before, when he would have none to oppose, or all the 
 time when he should have no opposition from myself or any other, I 
 know not the reason. I had not the least intention of v/ronging them." 
 
 The Providence and Rhode Island grant was to Patatticuck river, 
 at that time also called Narragansett river. The Council explained 
 that they did not intend to grant away from it any of its territory. 
 Winthrop agreed with Clark upon the terms " Patatticuck river called 
 Narragansett river," and this line of division was, not however without 
 many years of troublesome and expensive trials for both colonies, 
 sustained by the King's Commissioners." 
 
 Benedict Arnold was for the year 1663 elected President of the 
 colony, and five of the six Providence Representatives chosen were 
 also of the Pawtuxet party. The Pawtuxet party also obtained a two- 
 thirds majority in the Providence Town Council; and again ordered 
 that no land should be granted within the Pawtuxet claim. A struggle 
 in the Assembly and local courts, led by Harris, for the possession of 
 the lands they claimed, followed; Harris, by electing controlling majori- 
 ties in the Town Council and General Assembly, attempting politically 
 to accomplish his object.' Although but four men held eigfat of the 
 ten shares in this claim to nearly the whole State, it is not suprising 
 that these few bhould have so large a following; for the land, the stake 
 for which they played, was of such monstrous financial value that 
 their success would insure the dispensing of rich bounties to their 
 friends.* 
 
 At a General Assembly held at Newport on November 24th, 1663, 
 the new charter from Charles the Second, brought over by Capt. Baxter, 
 v/as read. The earnest struggles for religious liberty had, in the con- 
 stitutional prohibition of the exercise of civil authority over men's 
 consciences, gained the final victory. It limited the power of civil 
 government to civil things. The charter recites from the Committee 
 
 i, 485. 'R. I. Rec, i, 489-491- *R- I- Collec, iii, 190-213. 
 
 "Mass. Archives. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 380. 'The use in the Conn. 
 
 charter of the name Narragansett instead of Patatticuck for the boundary river 
 was doubtless the work of Harris, who had been made the paid agent for the 
 Prov. government and also for Conn. Had the contention of Conn, under it 
 been sustained, the Narragansett lands claimed by the Pawtuxans would have 
 been awarded to them. '2d R. I. Hist. Tract, 4, p. 80. ^Lands 
 
'ii6 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 of Select Men's Address to the King " That it is much in their hearts 
 if they may be permitted to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most 
 flourishing civil state may stand and best be tnaintained zvith a full 
 liberty in religious concernment/'^ 
 
 All the rights granted in the earlier charter were confirmed in this, 
 the original right and title of the Indians and their concession of the 
 Narragansett territory through Gorton to the English government for 
 the government of the Providence Plantations was recognized and 
 confirmed. The names of the men from the different parties, upon 
 whom the government under the new charter should devolve until the 
 next May election, as had been agreed upon and sent to Clark, were 
 inserted in the charter; but those who had borne the chief burdens and 
 sacrifices in the cause did not receive the chief honors. The Newport 
 organization and the Pawtuxans were nov/ in a majority sufficient to 
 command for themselves most of the prominent places. The Governor 
 named, therefore, was not Williams or a representative of the liberal 
 party,'" but Benedict Arnold, and he became by this appointment the 
 first Governor under the new charter;* largely attributive to the limited 
 voting privilege maintained in Newport. Arnold and Brenton held 
 the office of Governor for fifteen years between them continuously, and 
 they with Easton and later Coddington continuously for twenty-one 
 years (with the exception of one year) until the death of all of them.* 
 
 The name " Providence Plantations " in the William.s charter, Gorton 
 said, disturbed the men of Newport. In the new charter Rhode Island 
 was prefixed to the name of the colony. Gorton, one of the few of the 
 liberal party who obtained recognition under the new charter, was 
 named in it as -one on whom the government should devolve, was a 
 member of the Assembly that received the charter, and was a member 
 of the next Assembly in March, in which the new charter was adopted. 
 Under the new charter the Governor, the Deputy Governor, and four 
 of the ten Assistants were Newport men, and of the Deputies Newport 
 had six to four from any other town.* The preponderating population 
 of Newport was from Massachusetts ; it was nearly a Massachusetts 
 government. The political consequences of the other towns than New- 
 port were thus destroyed, and the government, though with constitu- 
 tional liberty established in it, passed from the hands of those whose 
 early struggles founded and maintained it. These thereafter " shared 
 but few favors and seldom secured any official recognition or distinc- 
 tion." 
 
 Most of the early officers of the government, like Gorton, as he says, 
 " never persued earthly honor." Conscience and duty actuated them 
 in taking upon themselves the dangerous responsibilities that confronted 
 them; and sacrifice and suffering without honor in their day was their 
 earthly portion. The infirmities of age and long continued public 
 service, as at last pled by Gorton, were the only laudable reasons for 
 laying down this unthankful work. Except in the cases of Arnold 
 
 of R. Island, loi, io6, 255. "R. I. Rec, ii, 4, 5. "R. I. Collec, 
 
 vii, 204. 'Arnold was chosen Chief-officer before the new charter 
 
 arrived. To name or not to name him as Governor in the charter was one of 
 the obstructions in proceedings. To not have so named him at this time would 
 have deposed him from the office. *.\rnold and Coddington, through 
 
 their extensive land acquisitions and political favors, and the favors of commerce 
 extended to them by Mass., became possessed of large wealth, exceeding that of 
 any other two men in the colony. Coddington, in 1665, abandoned the church 
 and Puritan party and became a Friend and Loyalist, and was thereafter the 
 Governor of the colony and a commendable citizen. 5th Mass. Collec, i, 330 
 note. 2d Savage's Winthrop, ii, 179. R. I. Collec, ii, 52. Mass. Rec. ii, 48. 
 »R. I. Rec, ii, 39. *R. I. Rec, i, 515-517. "Dr. Cathcart. The 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 117 
 
 and Coddington, there was hardly an example of personal ambitious 
 strife for place in the colony until after the government was established 
 very secure and its offices were provided with emoluments. Samuel 
 Gorton and John Smith served as Presidents of the colony during the 
 culminating period of the attempted subversion of its government and 
 the transferring of its dominions to the other colonies, the most trying 
 period, and met with judgment and courage every emergency; pre- 
 served the valued rights by their charter granted to them, and happily 
 lived to see the cause for which they labored triumph. 
 
 The nev/ charter also contained the express provision that the inhabit- 
 ants of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations should have perfect 
 freedom to pass and repass without let or molestation into the other 
 colonies, and to hold intercourse with such of their people as were 
 willing, " any act, clause, or sentence in any of the said colonies pro- 
 vided or that shall be provided to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 Accompanying the charter was an open letter from the King to the 
 Governor and Council of Massachusetts, expressly calling their atten- 
 tion to the signification of his will as provided in his charter, and 
 requiring their obedience, which letter he sent through the hands of 
 the Governor and Council of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
 evidently to assure to all the parties interested a knowledge of its tender 
 and his will. Its receipt was, by the Governor and Council of Massachu- 
 setts on November i8th, 1663, acknowledged." 
 
 A remarkable fact regarding this charter is that it was so liberal in 
 its provisions that it was not changed by the revolution, but remained 
 in force until 1842. It was in advance of other instruments in provid- 
 ing protection in the matter of religious worship. When, later, the 
 Liberalists complained of this deficiency in the United States Consti- 
 tution and addressed Washington upon the subject, urging an amend- 
 ment, the request commended itself to his judgment and he replied that 
 had he known the needed protection was not accorded fully in the Con- 
 stitution he never would have signed it. The amedment was introduced 
 by Madison and, in spite of violent opposition at the first, Congress 
 passed it." 
 
 That Charles the Second should favor the experiment of civil govern- 
 ment with liberty of conscience .and provide for the enforcement of 
 religious freedom, first in this banished colony, is largely due to the 
 exemplary life, earnest entreaties and convincing eloquence of Gorton, 
 Clark and Williams. His letters* show that he was well disposed to 
 grant them this favor.' He had pledged " that no man shall be dis- 
 quieted or called in question for difference of opinion in matters of 
 religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom," in his famous 
 declaration from Breda in 1660.* In his letter to Endicott the same 
 year he says: "Neither shall we forget to make you and all our good 
 people in those parts equal partakers of those promises of liberty and 
 moderation to tender consciences expressed in our gracious declaration." 
 And the identical language of his declaration from Breda (with the 
 selectmen's entreaty to him " to hold forth a lively experiment, with 
 a full liberty in religious concernment ") was inserted in the new charter 
 
 R. I. and Prov. Plantation was the first, or the second if we grant the first to 
 the colony of North Carolina, to declare itself " free from all dependence on 
 the crown of Great Britain." This she did May 4, 1776. She then refused to 
 enter the Compact of United Colonies until constitutional religious_ freedom 
 was adopted. ^King's letters in Ryerson's Loyalists of America. 
 
 'Williams' letter, R. I. Collec. iii, 163. R. I. Rec, i, 459. Warwick letter. R. I. 
 Rec, ii, 79- *Rapin, 2d London Ed., ii, 6t6. Echard, 3d London Ed., 
 
 the Commonwealth Book, iii, 761-763. 'Charter in R. I. Rec, ii, 5. 
 
;!8 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 by his special order, and by him defended in open court before it was 
 sealed and he signed it." 
 
 By enforcing freedom in the American colonies the promotion of 
 the Episcopal religion was accomplished; but, however, its operation 
 here was most desirable and beneficial. Massachusetts was offered a 
 new charter on the same terms as Narragansett and refused it. Then 
 her charier fell. This was the last effective act of Charles the Second 
 relative to Massachusetts, for before a new government could be settled 
 the Monarch died. His death and that of the charter were nearly 
 contemporary." James the Second, immediately upon his accession to 
 the throne, in resentment of the disobedience and belligerancy of Massa- 
 chusetts and indignant less with the Narragansett than with the Massa- 
 chusetts heretics, appointed a Royal Governor and a Royal Commission 
 which changed, for the time being, the whole face of New England.' 
 
 We passed with but a mention one of the proceedings of the last 
 Assembly, v.hich v/as attended with much importance. The Indian 
 Kings of the Narragansett nation were by invitation of the Governor 
 and Council present. The deed and submission sent by them to his 
 Majesty by Mr. Gorton was read to them, which they reaffirmed and 
 owned to have executed. This submission deed of the Narragansetts 
 secured by Gorton well stood all the ridicule that Massachusetts writers 
 could bestow upon it. No instrument ever more fully than this served 
 its chief purpose. Massachusetts had commissioned Arnold and others 
 to secure this same thing, but failed in it, and subjected but two of the 
 petty Sachems.* The submission of the Narragansett Chiefs with their 
 dominion in the interests of the Providence Plantations befv.r':; others 
 had seduced them, which latter would have facilitated the efforts of 
 Weld to secure Massachusetts a patent and of Winslow to call in the 
 grant to Williams, was a master policy; notwithstanding England was 
 unable to return to the Narragansetts, for the deed the redress and 
 protection which was due for it. And although Miantinomi fell in 
 death, doubtless earlier than he would have fallen had be submitted to 
 Massachusetts, the same fate awaited those who did submit to Massa- 
 chusetts after their land had been gotten from them.^ 
 
 This Indian grant was recognized as the highest authority by the 
 Parliament Commissioners, and in the charter as the best of all grants; 
 so all-sufficient as to supercede all others; and the grant in the body of 
 the charter is, therefore, given to the Rhode Island and Providence 
 colony of dominion over this land.* 
 
 Without this deed the colony could not have retained any considerable 
 part of the Narragansett domain; and the importance attached to it 
 by all the colonies is evident from what we have recounted. It was 
 bv virtue of this act that the King's Commissioners sitting at Warwick 
 erected it into the King's Province, named its bounds, and gave to the 
 Governor and his Assistants of the colonv of Rhode^ Island and Provi- 
 dence its entire control, forbidding others trespassing upon it. The 
 charter says that as the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations " are 
 seized and possessed by purchase and consent of the natives to^ their 
 full consent, and they having by near neighborhood to and friendly 
 
 Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, cTi. v. '"T^arry's^ Hist. Mass.. First 
 
 Period, xvii, 478. 'Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, ch. vi. 
 
 *Acts Coms. U. Cols., i, .■jz, etc. 'Canonchet, the son and successor to 
 
 the Chiefdom of Miantinomi, when captured was offered his life if he would 
 secure the submission of his Tribe, which refusin°f, he was killed and quartered. 
 The Tribes that did submit. .-ir>d the petty Sncb'-ms whom Arnold induced to 
 submit, were afterwards killed. Hubbard's Indian Wars, etc *Col. 
 
 Aspinwall, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, i860, pp. 39-41 ; 1862, pp. 41, 77, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 119 
 
 society with the great body of the Narragansett Indians given them 
 encouragement, of their own act to subject themselves, their people 
 and lands unto us, it shall not be lawful for the rest of the colonies to 
 invade or molest the native Indians or any other inhabitants within the 
 land and limits mentioned, they having subjected themselves unto us 
 and being by us taken into our special protection, without the knowl- 
 edge and consent of the Governor and company of Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations,"^ 
 
 Shortly prior to March, 1664, the death occurred of John Smith, 
 former President of the colony. Pie was an early settler in Providence, 
 a subject of the vengeance of the church Magistrates of Massachusetts, 
 and prior to 1648 permanently settled at Warwick ; was one of the first 
 members of the government under the charter and one of its most 
 earnest defenders. He served the colony loyally and faithfully in 
 various ways, and as President during very troublesome times and to 
 him a most trying period. Happily, he lived to see religious freedom 
 secured to the colony in its constitution. The town of Warwick 
 appointed Gorton administrator of his estate. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Assembly under the new charter — Gorton named in it as one of the incorpo- 
 rators — A Representative — Change of name from Providence to Rhode Island 
 and Providence Plantations — The King appoints Commissioners to settle the 
 disputes of the colonies — Instructs them to see if the Narragansetts' sub- 
 mission and cession secured by Gorton prove true — -They confirm the Narragan- 
 sett submission and cession — Gorton names the unsetled territory the King's 
 Province — Samuel Gorton, Jr., appointed a magistrate in it — Commissioners 
 declare all claims of the other colonies to lands within it to be void, and place 
 it in the Rhode Island and Providence government's keeping — They order the 
 removal of Massachusetts subjects from it — Massachusetts court refuses to 
 heed the orders of the King's Commissioners — The King commands the Gov- 
 ernor and Council of Massachusetts to send representatives to answer in 
 England. 
 
 The first Assembly of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
 under the new charter sat at Newport March ist, 1664. Samuel Gorton 
 was, as we have stated, named in it as one of the incorporators of the 
 government, so also were Benedict Arnold, William Coddington and 
 William Baulston. The appointments named in it were Arnold, Gov- 
 ernor; Brenton, Deputy Governor; Coggershall, Clark and Baker, 
 Assistants, all of Newport; Baulston and Porter, Assistants, of Ports- 
 mouth; Field, Olney and Williams, Assistants, of Providence; and Greene 
 and Smith, Assistants, of Warwick. The vacancv occasioned by the 
 death of Smith was filled by the choice of Randall Holden. The Assem- 
 bly appointed the Superior Court at Newport semi-annually to be held 
 by the Governor and six of the Assistants with or without the aid ox 
 the Deputy Governor. Five of twelve colony officers were required to 
 be citizens of Newport. The Governor, Deputy Governor and three of 
 the Assistant justices, thereafter of Newport, and five out of each 
 
 'R. I. Rec, ii, 4, 15, King's letter. Letters from the colony to the King and 
 Lord Clarendon, Sept. 4, 1666, R. I. Rec, ii, i^s, 156, 556, 562; iii. 40, 61, 62, 
 63, etc.; iv, 370-373- King's letter, ist Mass. Collec. v. 221: 2d. Mass. Collec. 
 vu, 98-112; Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 315. -!i6. Sheffield's Paper. National 
 Magazine, 62. «R. L Rec. Book Notes, xix, 19, p. 70. 
 
120 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 twelve of the grand and petit jury were to be Newport men. Every 
 town was deprived of the power of electing one-half of its council, the 
 election of half given to the vote of the whole colony.* Newport had 
 surpassed the other towns in population, wealth and social influence ; 
 had now a more than corresponding political interest, and filled most 
 of the offices of the government. Its accessions vv^ere of a character 
 very different from those of the early settlements, which were of a 
 people many of whom, after having been impoverished by fines and 
 penalties, had escaped almost penniless to enjoy in the wilderness the 
 scant returns of labor and the hoped for large reward of freedom from 
 religious oppression. Its accessions were largely Puritan men of wealth 
 .who came to the new port of enterprise for business. This Puritciu 
 element was made by the rulers the privileged electorate, thereby keep- 
 ing them in power. Without regard for or sympathy with the liberal 
 element it held controlling influence in the colony for more than a 
 century.^ 
 
 The change in the official title of the colony, dictated by the Newport 
 island men and made by prefixing the name of the island to it, led to 
 the colony being called by the island's name; and it also loaned strength 
 to the error, encouraged by the followers of Coddington then in power 
 in the government, that prevailed for many years, that the government 
 of the colony had its origin in his government on the island. The 
 name of the State should be Narragansett. 
 
 Those governing at Newport from the beginning felt but little interest 
 in the mainland towns to which they had against their will been united" 
 Previous to Clark's return from England the colony had paid him the 
 amount agreed upon for his services and also sent to him an extra 
 allowance for his greater encouragement in its behalf, Gorton being 
 one who guaranteed the amount apportioned to his town.^ Upon 
 Clark's return the Assembly promptly assumed the debt which was 
 contracted in 1651 for his departure, and to this added a gratuity and 
 assessed £600 upon the towns for it, £80 of it being assigned as War- 
 wick's portion. To this Warwick for good reasons objected. The main- 
 land had alone paid the expenses of Williams, the government agent, 
 and it belonged to the island alone to pay the departure expenses of 
 Clark their agent.'" Clark had but recently, during the coming in of 
 the King, been employed by the government,' and for this all his 
 expenses and claims had been paid with an extra allowance. The 
 Warwick people had, Williams said, been for the past twenty years 
 subjected to a loss of £100 annually. Holden said in all £4,000 from 
 the depredations of those who had betrayed the government, without any 
 relief from the government;' and they rightly thought that the island 
 should pay Clark's departure expenses, and if a further payment to him 
 by the government was deemed just it should be assessed upon those 
 who had betrayed the government and proudly done wrong of a higher 
 nature. , 
 
 Others joined with Warwick in the protest to the Newport mens 
 proceedings, but it was unheeded, and in October (1664) the arrearage, 
 now £200. was ordered to be collected from the different towns. Unwar- 
 rantable reflections having been cast upon the patriotism of the Warwick 
 people, they in the December following addressed a letter to the 
 Assembly then in session which vindicated their unrivalled interest 
 in the colony and the justice of the course they would recommend, 
 
 *Judge Dnrfee's address, 1847. *R. I- Collec, vii, 211. 'R. I. 
 
 Rec, i, 4801482, Sio; ii, 77. 478, 479- SM, 515, 558; iii, 22. ' R. I. Rec, 
 
 ii, 78-80. *R. I. Rec, ii. 515, SS8. ^- T- Rec. 1, 341-345: 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 121 
 
 stating that they almost alone bore the expense of the first mission, 
 that of Gorton, Greene and Holden to England to sustain the colony, 
 and had done none less for it than any others had done, and this done 
 on their own charge, travel and loss of time, never receiving a penny 
 from any of the other towns; that when the men of Massachusetts had 
 drafted a charter for Narragansett, during the height of their credit 
 in England, and had both ministers and Magistrates pleading that it 
 might be made authentic, these Warwick men only prevented it.* War- 
 wick, however, paid the amount that had been assessed to her without 
 abatement; and at an Assembly at Warwick, June 21st, 1670, ordered 
 £300 to be raised to send Clark and Greene to England to now oppose 
 the claims Connecticut made by the precedence of her new charter 
 with bounds including, as they thought, portions of the Providence 
 colony. Clark did not go, his death occurring soon after.* 
 
 The King finding it impossible to secure compliance and necessary 
 to compose the differences of which he received complaints, and to do 
 justice to numerous demands at his royal hands, on the 22d of April, 
 1664, appointed Col, Richard Nichols, Sr. Robert Carr, Knight, George 
 Cartwright, Esq., and Samuel Meverick, Commissioners to visit the 
 colonies in New England to examine and determine all complaints and 
 appeals in all causes and matters, as well military and criminal, and he 
 sent under date of April 23d, 1664 letters to both the Massachusetts 
 and Rhode Island governments " acknowledging his duty to see that 
 justice be administered to all his subjects."" 
 
 The King's letter of June 28, 1662, brought over by Bradstreet and 
 Norton, nearly two years past, remained unpublished, but now upon 
 the appointment of the royal Commissioners was made public and 
 several other letters from the King acknowledged,* with a protest 
 against the royal Commissioners in what they term a " supplication " to 
 the King, dated October 25th, 1664.' It was replied to by the King on 
 February 25th, 1664-5. The letters of the King of February 15th, 1660, 
 September 9th, 1661, June 28th, 1662, April 23d, 1664, and February 
 25th, 1665, show the groundlessness of the Massachusetts Magistrates' 
 statements and reveal what they contended for under the rights of 
 conscience was the right of preventing others, and what they claimed 
 under the pretense of charter rights was absolutism, refusing to submit 
 even to inquiry as to whether they had encroached upon the rights and 
 territories of their White and Indian neighbors, or made laws and 
 regulations and performed acts contrary to the laws of England, and 
 to the rights of others of the King's subjects. The King's letter of 
 February 25th, 1664-5, i^i answer to the supplication is not given by 
 Hutchinson in his history. This and a letter from Lord Clarendon in 
 answer to a copy of the supplication that was sent to him, and a letter 
 from Robert Boyle in reply to a letter sent to him, and upon the subject 
 of this address to the King and their rejection of the royal commission, 
 may be read with advantage to those who would pursue this subject 
 further.* 
 
 In January, 1664-5, the Commissioners appointed by the King arrived. 
 
 iii, 58-62. _ 'R. I. Rec, ii, 78-80, 127. *.An error in the printed 
 
 records assigms this sessions to Newport ; but from the minutes of the Governor 
 and Magistrates of Newport, held the Friday previous ?nd hat held the Oct. 
 fnllowinp, it is evident the place was Warwick. "Kind's letter. Hazard's 
 
 Hist. Collec., ii, 6341637. Ref. to in Loyalists of Amer., i, 176. "zd Mass. 
 
 Collec., viii, 47. 'Supplication in Mass. Rec, iv, Pt. ii, 129-133. and in 
 
 Loyalists of Amer., i, 153-150. ^King's letter of Feb. 35. 1664-1; in 
 
 Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, 166-169, and in Hutchinson's Collec. of State 
 Papers, 390. or ii.iis. Lord Clarendon's letter in Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., 
 *> 544. and in Loyaliss of Amer., i, 160. Robert Boyle's letter in 2d Mass. Collec., 
 
122 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 They were well received by the people of the Providence and Rhode 
 Island Plantations. The Indian Princes gave them a long petition. 
 Among their complaints of injustice was that the Massachusetts Com- 
 missioners had first caused them to be fined, then took their country in 
 mortgage to satisfy the sentence, and would inveigle them out of it.' 
 
 One of the King's most implicit instructions to his Commissioners 
 was " to see if it prove true " that the Narragansetts had submitted 
 their domain to Charles the First of their will; and accordingly their 
 first business in Narragansett was to visit the headquarters of the tribe 
 at Pattamsquscot, where a council with them was held and the sub- 
 mission of the Narragansett Chiefs were confirmed; whereupon the 
 Commissioners then, there on the 20th of March, 1664-5, formally 
 received the grant, commanded it to be called by the name Gorton 
 applied to it, " The King's Province," and commissioned men of the 
 Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, their Governor and Assist- 
 ants its Magistrates and rulers.'" We do not find Samuel Gorton 
 named as one of these Magistrates. Lie was now seventy-three years 
 of age, and had on account of the infirmities of age refused to longer 
 serve in the office of Assistant, although he was Magistrate at Warwick 
 and did serve as Assistant in the place of absent ones ; and so doubtless 
 served as his son did and with him as Magistrate for the King's 
 Province. Llis interest in the grant may have prevented his appoint- 
 ment by the Commissioners or have made him unwilling to accept such 
 an appointment. The Magistrates named were appointed to serve until 
 May 3d following, and then the Governor and his Assistants or Magis- 
 trates were to rule. His son, Samuel Gorton, Jr., was an Assistant and 
 was one of the Court of Justice that sat in the Province.' And the 
 Commissioners issued this order : " Having received from some of 
 the principal Sachems of the Narragansett Indians a submission or 
 surrender of themselves, their subjects and their lands to the protection, 
 government and dispose of our dread sovereign, giving us a deed dated 
 April 19th, 1644, wherein they and all the other Sachems of that coun- 
 try did then submit, subject and give over themselves to his late Majesty, 
 we, his Majesty's Commissioners, command that no person of what 
 colony soever presume to exercise any jurisdiction but such as procure 
 authority from us ; and we also declare that " The King's Province " doth 
 extend to Pawcatuck river; and whereas, Major Atherton and others 
 of tlie Massachusetts pretend a mortgage of a great part of the said 
 country, and whereas, there is also two purchases pretended to, of two 
 great tracts of land by the same, in which deed there is no mention of 
 any consideration, and that it appears that the said pretending purchasers 
 knezu that the said country was submitted to his Majesty, as well by 
 z:'itness as by said submission bein^ eighteen years ago printed. We, 
 his Majesty's Commissioners, having heard the whole business, do 
 declare the said purchases to be void and order and command that the 
 said purchasers shall quit and go off the said pretended purchased 
 lands."' 
 
 vii. 40-"; I, and in Lovalists of Amer., 1, i6t. "R. I. CoHec, ii, 128. 
 
 "R. T. Pec, ii, n:,. 04. 'R. T. Rec, ii, 502. =R- T. Rec, h, 
 
 50. 60. The R. T. Reeds., i. 466, contain what is certified to by Edw. Rawson, 
 pecy. of he Mass. Court, as a letter written by the command of Charles the 
 Second, dated June 21. i66,'?, (but thirteen days after Charles sinrned the new 
 charter of the R. I. and Prov. Plantation^ according the rieht of John Scott and 
 others of the .Atherton company to the Nnrraoransett territory, which writinp: is 
 of doubtful authenticity. Scott was an active supporter of the renutcd Narra- 
 gansett patent, and he was afterwards convicted and imnrisoned for forsrery 
 and other crimes [Palfrey's Hist. N. E., ii, 564 note and 58.^ note. Aspinwall's 
 remarks on the Narragansett patent, Sidney S. Rider, Pub., 28-37 note], Seq. p. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 123 
 
 The Commissioners then sat to hear the complaints of the town of 
 Warwick. The ]\lassachusetts Magistrates refused to appear before 
 the Commissioners to answer the numerous complaints of Warwick 
 or of others or to indicate their claims or acts, and denied the right 
 of the Commissioners to hear and determine causes. A letter was 
 received by the Commissioners from Williams stating that he had been 
 many years engaged in pleading with Massachusetts and in behalf of 
 his loving friends of Warwick with the Massachusetts Magistrates, who 
 would be pleased were Mr. Gorton and his friends destroyed, and advis- 
 ing that the Massachusetts colony be reduced to obedience'. The 
 petition that was four years since addressed by the people of Warwick 
 to the General Court of Massachusetts, complaining of the contmued 
 oppression and suffering occasioned by the remaining subjected mhabit- 
 ants and giving notice that they should proceed before the Kmg m 
 corncil unless some arrangements were made satisfactory to them, the 
 Massachusetts Court having given no heed to, now twenty-two years 
 after the first occasion for complaint arose, during which tmie there had 
 been unremitted depredations and oppression regardless of the many 
 orders and the prohibition in the charter, and yet debarred the privi- 
 leo-es of trade, their goods exchanged second or third-handed,_ their 
 property destroyed by the subjected inhabitants who occupied their best 
 lands, and the order of banishment to this day unrepealed, they of 
 Warwick now laid their precise and commendably brief complaint 
 before the Commissioners.* This, at this late day, was the first petition 
 to the government for reparation that Gorton or any of the Warwick 
 people had made. There was in this no claim for damages to the 
 person, but only for property losses. From this it is more than probable 
 that they would not have sought redress had they, after the first assault 
 on them, been allowed to settle down in peace. 
 
 The Commissioners, after the hearings, issued on April 4th from 
 Warwick an order " that all those gifts or grants of land lying on the 
 eastern side of Pawcatuck and a north line drawn to the Massachusetts, 
 made by his Majesty's colonv of the Massachusetts to any person what- 
 soever, or by that usurped authority called the United Colonies, to be 
 void.'"' And on April 17th they ordered the removal of dl both Indians 
 and Whites, Massachusetts subjects, from these lands." 
 
 The Massachusetts Magistrates, in lieu of their appearance before 
 the King's Commissioners, put forth on May 30th, 1665, what they 
 called an apologetical reply, a document of " vituperation and obscurity 
 of meaning," in which they incorporated the pith of "Hypocrisy 
 Unmasked," including in it the old petition of Benedict Arnold and his 
 company. As nearly twenty-five years had elapsed since the events 
 referred to had occurred, it was clear enough that the consequences which 
 the petition pretended were completely falsified. It, therefore, suited 
 the General Court to quote the Providence petition as stating that 
 Gorton and his company were already the vile and dangerous men 
 which the petitioners only said they might become in a certain con- 
 tingency. In other words, the court so garbled the petition as to make 
 It assert as an existing fact that which was only put as a possible 
 consequence. However heretical it may appear, it is difficult to escape 
 the suspicion that the Puritans sometimes shov/ed signs of human 
 weakness.' 
 
 note 'R. I. Rec, ii, 136. 'Warwick's complaint, dated Mar. 
 
 4. 1664-S, in R. I. Collec' ii, 231. and in 2d Mass. Collec^ viii. 6S 
 »R I Rec. ii, 93. 'R- I- Rec, ii. 132. 'Bryant's Hist U. S.. 
 
 ii/71. 'Loyalists of Amer., i, 14S. 2d. Mass. Collec, vui, 55-58; other 
 
124 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 On May 2d, 1665, Colonel Nichols and all the other King's Commis- 
 sioners with him drew up, signed and forwarded to the Massachusetts 
 Court an address regarding its refusal of its members to appear and 
 defend themselves, and regarding a report circulated that the King 
 had sent here to take away any civil liberties. It said: "We declare 
 as false and protest that they are diametrically contrary to the truth, 
 as ere long we shall make it appear more plainly. These personal 
 slanders with which we are calumniated, as private m.en we slight ; as 
 Christians we forgive, and will not mention; but as persons employed 
 by his sacred Majesty we cannot suffer his sacred honor to be eclipsed 
 by a cloud of black reproaches and some seditious speeches without 
 demanding justice from you against those who have said, reported or 
 made them.'" And the Commissioners on May i8th addressed to the 
 Massachusetts Magistrates the following: "The end of the first plant- 
 ers coming hither was, as was expressed in your address, the enjoyment 
 of the liberty of your own conscience. We, therefore, admire that you 
 should deny liberty of conscience to any, and especially wlien the King 
 requires it, and that upon a vain conceit of your ov.n that it will disturb 
 your enjoyments which the King often hath said it shall not.'" 
 
 And Commissioner Col. Cartwright addressed to Mr. Gorton the 
 following: "These gentlemen of Boston would make us believe that 
 they really think that the King has given them so much power in their 
 charter to do unjustly, that he reserved none for himself to call them 
 to account for doing so. In short, they refuse to let us hear complaints 
 against them, so that at the present we can do nothing in your behalf; 
 but I hope shortly to go to England, where, if God bless me thither, 
 I shall truly represent your suffering and your loyalty. Your assured 
 friend, George Cartwright. Boston, May 26, 1665.'"° 
 
 The three Commissioners Carr, Cartwright and Meverick on July 
 26th, 1665, addressed the Massachusetts Court as follows: "We thought 
 when we received our commission and instructions that the King and 
 his Council knew what was granted to you in your charter, and what 
 right his Majesty had to give us such a commission and commands; 
 and we thought the King, his Chancellor and his secretaries had suffi- 
 ciently convinced you that this commission did not infringe your 
 charter; but since you must needs misconstrue all these letters and 
 endeavors, and that you will make use of that authority which he hath 
 given you to oppose that sovereignty which -he hath over you, we shall 
 not loose more of our labors upon you. but refer it to his Majesty's 
 wisdom, who is of power enough to make himself to be obeyed in all 
 his dominions.'" The Commissioners also wrote to their government, 
 among other things regarding the Massachusetts Magistrates, that 
 " Seven years they can easily spin out in writing. If writing will serve 
 the turn, as thev suppose it will, they can keep the business in agitation 
 until the King 'and all his secretaries there and all his good subjects 
 here be weary of it. Both the readiest and surest way is for his 
 Majesty to take away their charter, which they have several ways for- 
 feited, but that without a visible force will not be effected.'" 
 
 The Commissioners composed some differences with the Dutch 
 settlers, finally arranged for the removal of the subjected Indians 
 [delivering to Ponham £20, " ordered as a present unto him if he would 
 
 letters of the Commis, Seq. 58-64. «2d. Mass. Collec, viii, 75-77: other 
 
 Corns, letters, Seq. 81-87, 00. "R. I. Collec, ii, 246. 'Reference 
 
 is made to an order signed in Aug., 1665. by all of the Kings Corns, upon the 
 subject of complaint prepared against Mass., which order we are unab e to find. 
 Staples. ^O'Calligan's Documents, etc., iii, 102. Hutchinson s Collec, 
 
 412-420, or ii, 139-150, is King's Corns, report. 'R. I. Rec, n, 127-129, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 125 
 
 find a place to live upon " away from Warwick] ; and finding their 
 authority still resisted by the government of Massachusetts Bay, re- 
 ported the result to the King and Lord Chancellor in December, 1665. 
 The report answered the inquiries the King had instructed them to 
 make and gave much other information at length. It stated that " the 
 Narragansett Sachems did in the year 1644, by writing, surrender 
 themselves, their people and country into the late King's protection; 
 two of which Sachems now living did actually in their own persons 
 surrender themselves, people and country into his royal Majesty's 
 protection before his Commissioners, and deliver to them that very 
 deed made in 1644, v/hich has been carefully kept by Mr. Gorton. This 
 Narragansett country is almost all the land belonging to this colony, 
 which cannot subsist without it. This colony, which now admits all 
 religions, even Quakers and Generalists, was begun by such as Massa- 
 chusetts would not suffer to live among them, and is generally hated by 
 the other colonies, who endeavored several ways to suppress them. 
 They (the other colonies) maintained other Indians against the Narra- 
 gansett Indians. The Commissioners of the United Colonies disposed 
 of a great part of his country, pretending they had conquered it from 
 the Pequot Indians; but evidence being made that the Narragansetts 
 had conquered it before the English began their war, and that the 
 right was in him who sold it to the Rhode Islanders; and his Majesty's 
 Commissioners, not thinking it justifiable for any colony to dispose of 
 land without their own limits, determined it for the Rhode Islanders."" 
 
 The King, upon receiving the report from his Commissioners, ordered 
 their return.* He at the same time addressed a letter to Massachusetts, 
 stating that as he had received full information from his Commissioners 
 of their treatment in the several colonies, in all of which they had 
 received great satisfaction but only in that of Massachusetts, and not- 
 withstanding many expressions of loyalty from those who govern that 
 colony, so believe that his Majesty hath no jurisdiction over them, but 
 that all persons must acquiesce in their judgments, however unjust, his 
 Majesty thought fit to recall his Commissioners, which he hath at the 
 present done, that he might receive a more particular account from 
 them; and his Majesty expressly commanded the Governor and Council 
 of Massachusetts to forthwith send representatives to England to 
 answer before him the complaints prepared against them, and for their 
 conduct to the Commissioners ; and he further expressly charged that 
 the Governor and Council of Massachusetts immediately set all persons 
 at liberty who had been imprisoned for petitioning or appealing to his 
 Commissioners ; and for the better prevention of all differences ordered 
 that the bounds and limits of the several colonies made by his Majesty's 
 Commissioners continue to be observed until his Majesty should find 
 cause to alter them. That full obedience be given to his signification 
 of his pleasure in all particulars.* 
 
 582: iii, 40, 61 ; iv. 373. ^King's letter to his Corns., dated Apr. 6, 1666. 
 
 'King's letter to Mass.. dated Apr. — , 1666, probably in full in Ryerson's Loyal- 
 ists of Amer., i, 169-171. King's letter dated Apr. 10, 1666, in Hutchinson's Hist. 
 Mass., i, 547, 548. The copy of his Majesty's Signification to the Mass. Colony 
 was _ surreptitiously conveyed over to them by some unknown hand before the 
 original came to Boston ; and formerly the very original of Mr. Meverick's 
 petition to the King and Council, concerning the Mass. Colony, was stolen out 
 of the Lord Arlington's office in Whitehall by one Capt. Scott and delivered to 
 the Governor and Council at Boston. This I affirm positively to be true, though 
 when I questioned Scott upon the matter he said a clerk gave it to him. 
 [Letter of Nichols to Morrice, in O'Calligan's Documents, etc., iii, 136.] This 
 Scott, one of the most active in the pretended Narragansett purchases, and who 
 obtained the reputed accord to his right therein from the King [see ante p. 122I, 
 was finally brought to trial in Connecticut and convicted under ten charges, one 
 
126 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The King's ccn.pliments in a letter to the government of Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations — The Massachusetts court send ship-masts to the King 
 in lieu of agents to answer before him — The Massachusetts people protest 
 against the course of their magistrates — Pavvtuxet claimants capture the Court 
 of Trials — They protest against Williams and his opposition to them — Morton's 
 scandalous book — Gorton's letter to Morton — Williams' letter to the Plymouth 
 court — Gorton's letter to Governor Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut. 
 
 The following: from the Kinp: was at the same time communicated to 
 the government of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: 
 " Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well ; having received so full 
 and satisfactory accotmt from our Commissioners, both of the good 
 reception you have given them and also of your dutifulness and obedi- 
 ence to us, we cannot but let you know how much we are pleased 
 therewith, judging that respect of yours toward our officers to be the 
 true and natural fruit which demonstrates what fidelity and affection 
 toward us is rooted in your hearts. And although your carriage doth 
 of itself most justly deserve our praise and approbation, yet it seems 
 to be set off with more lustre by the contrary deportment of the colony 
 of Massachusetts; as if by their refractoriness they had designed to 
 recommend and heighten the merit of your compliance with our direc- 
 tions for the peaceable and good government of our good subjects in 
 those parts. You may, therefore, assure yourselves that we shall never 
 be unmindful of this your loyal and dutiful behavior, but shall upon 
 all occasions take notice of it to your advantage, promising you our 
 constant protection and royal favor in all things that may concern 
 your safety, peace and welfare."" 
 
 Colonel Cartwright was made the bearer of the sum of the Proceed- 
 ings of the King's Commissioners and of other letters to his Majesty 
 and the Lord Chancellor, and of other papers to England. In his 
 passage the vessel was captured by the Dutch and his papers were taken 
 and never recovered.' Copies were ordered by the Rhode Island 
 Assembly to be sent to England by the first opportunity. 
 
 With the closing of the work of the King's Commissioners there 
 dawned a new era of joy to Gorton and the other Providence and 
 Warwick settlers. They secured, now for the first time, a measure of 
 what they so long ago hoped for under the first charter, " peace in the 
 quiet enjoyment of their possessions." On account of the difficulties 
 there had been but few accessions to the inhabitants of Warwick ; they 
 were in all but a handful of impoverished adventurers; but comparative 
 peace for nine years followed the favorable decisions for them, when 
 again their dwellings, with those of the Providence people's, were 
 destroyed by the Indian wars. 
 
 The King's last letter occasioned the calling of the Massachusetts 
 Court in an extraordinary session". It, however, refused to obey the 
 King's order to again send representatives to vindicate their acts before 
 him;' and in the fall thev met again according to adjournment." To 
 this court nearly two htmdred of the principal inhabitants of INIassachu- 
 setts, " our fathers." the editor of the Danforth papers writes, " who 
 
 of them heinjT for forper>'. and sentenced to pay a fine of ??on, to be irnprisoned 
 durinfr the plensure of the court, and to pive bonds t othe amount of £500 for 
 future pond behavior. [Conn. T?pcds., ii, 16. comp. 4?o.l 'Kinc's letter, 
 
 R. T. Rec. ii, 149. 'Hutchinson's Hist. Mass.. i, 250. *2d Mass. 
 
 Collec, viii, 98. "sd Mass. Collec. viii, loR, 100. _ _ '"Ryerson's 
 
 Loyalists of Amer., i. 181 note. Sessions Oct., 1666. Petition in Hutchinson's 
 Collec, 511-513, or ii, 248-215, and in 2d Mass. Collec, viii, 102-107. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 127 
 
 exhibited so much good sense and sound pohcy," protested against the 
 course of the Magistrates, but they still refused to send representatives, 
 and this time instead sent two large masts^ thirty-four yards long and 
 a shipload of timber, the freight thereon costing them sixteen hundred 
 pounds^ sterling, as a present to the King, which he graciously accepted. 
 And the fleet in the West Indies being in want of provisions, a subscrip- 
 tion and contribution was recommended through the colony for bring- 
 ing in provisions to be sent to the fleet for his Majesty's service.' Further 
 action was suspended for a time, as Charles was absorbed by exciting 
 questions at home, his war with Denmark and Holland and his intrigues 
 with France. 
 
 While the people of the Providence colonies had been engaged in 
 arresting the invasions of their foreign foes, the Pawtuxet party, their 
 internal foes, had been politically undermining them, having now nearly 
 secured the control of the government. William Harris, his brother 
 Thomas Harris and William Carpenter, all three of them Pawtuxet 
 partners, obtained the places of Assistants, and four Assistants with 
 the Governor or Deputy Governor, formed the high Court of Trials. 
 Thus setting as judges in this court, which was likely to have before 
 it their causes, they might have considered the object of their 
 scheme to acquire the lands of nearly the whole colony well nigh 
 accomplished. Many struggles with them and the towns of Providence 
 and Warv*^ick before the local courts followed. Not succeeding in 
 these, they continued the strife to strengthen themselves greater polit- 
 ically by electing controlling majorities in the town councils and in the 
 General Assembly. The papers upon the subject, which were sent from 
 Warwick to Clark for his use before the King and Council against 
 them, were by spy or traitor obtained by them and held at Newport 
 ior their service.^ Litigation and costly trials were kept up by them 
 against the colony and against the towns of Providence and Warwick 
 to secure an acknowledgment of their claims and place them in posses- 
 sion of the land. 
 
 On November 19th, 1667, a protest similar to the nearly thirty years old 
 one by the same party, Arnold and his eleven others against Gorton 
 and others of Providence, was issued now against Williams for " keep- 
 ing up a difference with Pawtuxet men," signed by " Sixteen Proprietors 
 of the town." These proprietors were the barest minority of the people 
 of the town, and ten of them were either Harris partners or closely 
 allied blood relatives of these partners.^ Harris, arraigned at court 
 for calling an Assembly without warrant and for making another rout 
 of settlers from the lands at Providence, admitted his guilt and plead 
 the justification of his acts." And the violent and threatening acts 
 of the Massachusetts government were such that the Rhode Island and 
 Providence Assembly passed an act of war of defense against them.' 
 
 In 1669, while Gorton in advanced years had retired from official 
 cares, Nathaniel Morton published a libellous and most scandalous book. 
 
 '2d Mass. Collec, viii, no. 'The freight £1600 the Mass. Magistrates 
 
 paid on these presents amounted to within £400 of all the Warwick people asked 
 for twenty-two years' spoliations and damages. 'Hutchinson's Hist. 
 
 Mass., i, 257. Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, 180-182. Col. Nichols' letter to 
 Mass. May 19, 1667, enclosing a letter from the King, in Hutchinson's Papers, 
 li, 139. Col. Nichols' letter to Mass., June 12, 1668, regarding the King's letter 
 of Apr. 10, 1666, in Hutchinson's Papers., 427. or ii, 156. *R. I. Rec, ii. 
 
 78. ''Book Notes, Vol. T3, No. 23. Harris, Arnold and Carpenter had 
 
 bought of the other ori.ginal claimants and now claimed three-fourths of all 
 the lands deeded to Williams, and all lands west, north and south as far as the 
 Pawtuxet river and its branches extended under the forgery. Lands of R. 
 Island, loi, 106. "R. L Rec, ii, 208. 'R. L Rec, ii, 206. 
 
128 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Morton professed to have derived the greater part of his information 
 from Bradford's history, but an examination of this discloses that there 
 is nothing set down in that history relating to Gorton. Morton also 
 had been for years the keeper of the Plymouth records, so v^rould have 
 known that what he wrote of Gorton was wrong had he not avoided 
 consulting them. Gorton wrote to him the following indignant letter of 
 denial : 
 
 " I understand that you have lately put forth a book of records ; 
 whether of Church or State I know not, but this I know, that I am 
 unjustly enrolled in it. You peremptorily judge of one you know not, 
 for I am a stranger to you; besides that, your understanding reacheth 
 not the things whence God exerciseth his people (I Cor. ii, 14) with 
 wishes of better things in you and all men. I must give you a true 
 description of our understanding from the Apostle Jude, verse ten : 
 therefore I have no railing speech to return, or judgment of blasphemy 
 (as the words are), either to seek any revenge of myself or to comply 
 with any such spirit I dare not ; but I dare not but comply with the 
 spirit of the Apostle in this his saying: The Lord rebuke thee (Jude 9). 
 My second word concerns your assuming authority to canonize and 
 put into the rank and number of Saints such men when they are dead 
 which in their lifetime were persecutors, especially you having acknowl- 
 edged them to be such yourself; as also to throw down under your 
 feet and make as brute beasts having only hope in this present life 
 such as are known to be fearers of God, worshipping him instantly day 
 and night, though they be not acknowledged to be such by some par- 
 ticular Sectaries as yourself, for you are no orthodox Christian because 
 you deny the whole and complete word of God to be concerned in the 
 present state of the chuch of Christ, and have chosen a part of it only 
 to concern your present profession ; therefore a Sectarie and no Catholic 
 Christian. But for these things you seek to besmear me with, which 
 return justly upon yourself, mine adversaries shall be my judges where 
 any spark of humanity remains. I have often wondered in my younger 
 days how the Pope came to such a height of arrogance, but since I 
 came to New England I have perceived the height of that triple crown 
 and the depth of that sea whence such things arise, and not from the 
 presence of Peter, but from the corrupting of the Apostles' doctrine, 
 bending and bowing it to comply with corrupt avarice, pride and super- 
 stition and vain imaginations of the minds of men setting up their gods 
 at Dan and Beersheba (if you understand the etymology of the words). 
 And the glory there is no other but that the Levitical Priests carved 
 below the mount of God, forming it of the ear and heart jewels of 
 the Egyptians, adorning carnal Israel who turn back in their hearts 
 into the house of bondage whence they were delivered. 
 
 "A third word I have to say concerns your office of record; mistake 
 me not, I meddle not with your record further than they concern myself. 
 Do not vest my words, as once they were in a letter taken in pieces, and 
 what was plainly expressed to be spoken of the clergy was applied to 
 the Magistrates, to make me obnoxious among men; and when the 
 truth appeared it was professed that it was done by a reverend Divine 
 before the State of England, who got no honor there by that, whoever 
 he was. Deal fairly with me, as I shall do with you and all men. I 
 then affirm that your record is fetched further than Cape Cod, namely, 
 from him who was from the beginning a murderer also; and truth he 
 abode not in, nor can he abide it. And I take it to be the highest 
 point of murder to strike at the life of the soul, which life is the spirit 
 of Christ, which I profess to live by and account all other life not 
 worthy the name of life with respect unto that (Gal. ii, 20). Your 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 129 
 
 record, therefore, comes from afar. It ariseth out of the bottomless 
 pit, the smoke whereof is as a stifling fog of darkness in your book. 
 
 " It is untruly recorded concerning Plymouth's dealings with me ; 
 conceals many passages that were enacted and falsifies things expressed. 
 A difference between Mr. Ralph Smith and myself was not the occasion 
 of Plymouth's dealings with me. If you had recorded truly you would 
 made report that Plymouth's dealings with me had been their threat- 
 ening of a widow, one Ellen Aldridge, who they said they would send 
 out of the colony as a vagabond; whereas nothing was laid to her 
 charge, only it was whispered that she had smiled in your congrega- 
 tion; and she having been a woman of good report in England, and 
 newly come over; being careful of her credit, she fled into the woods 
 to escape the shame which was threatened to be put upon her, there 
 remaining several days and nights, at the least part of the nights, and 
 absented herself again before people stirred in the morning. My speak- 
 ing on her behalf (she being then my wife's servant) was the occasion 
 that Plymouth government took to deal with me. Whereupon they 
 called me to a court more privately held to examine me, and one of 
 them indulging upon a point aggravating the matter more than it 
 deserved, I said he spoke hyperbolically ; whereupon they asked your 
 Elder then present what was the meaning of that word, and he was 
 pleased to expound it that I told the Magistrate that he lied. And this 
 was their dealing with me; and accordingly they gave their own con- 
 struction of what I spoke afterwards. Only in your court more pub- 
 licly, the foreman of the jury (your Elder's son, Jonathan Brewer) 
 befriended me so much as to move the court that I should not speak 
 on my own behalf at all, and there ;was no Attorney to be had in those 
 days that I knew of. 
 
 " In the time of these agitations Mr. Smith took offense at m.e. 
 Whether of himself or instigated I know not, neither know I any occa- 
 sion I gave him, unless it was because his wife and others of his family 
 frequented very usually morning and evening family service, and so 
 did a religious maid living then with your teacher, Mr. Reyner. Mis- 
 tress Smith after expressing herself how glad she was that she could 
 come into a family where her spirit was refreshed in the ordinances of 
 God as in former days. In this offense taken by Mr. Smith he applied 
 himself to the Governor of Plymouth for help to break his covenant 
 made with me, I having hired one part of his house for the term of 
 four whole years. Whereupon I was persuaded to put the matter to 
 arbitrament. The men were appointed, my writings delivered as I 
 remember. John Cooke was one, an eminent member of your church, 
 who shortly after said the writings were commanded out of their hands 
 by the Governor' (Prence), insomuch that they could do nothing to 
 issue the matter, neither could 1 procure my writings again unto this 
 day, lest the justice of my cause should appear to any. But the court 
 proceeded to fine and banish, together with sentence given that my 
 family should depart out of my own hired house (Acts xxviii, 30) 
 within the space of fourteen days upon the penalty of another great 
 sum of money besides my fine paid, and their further wrath and dis- 
 pleasure. Which time to depart fell to be in as mighty a storm of 
 snow as I have seen in the country ; my wife being turned out of doors 
 in the said storm with a young child at her breast (the infant having 
 at that very time the measles breaking out upon it, which the cold 
 forced in again, causing sickness nigh unto death), who had been as 
 
 ■The Gov. uniformly wrote his name Prence, though Morton and others wrote 
 it Prince. Bradford's Hist. Plymouth, 362. 'Plymouth Reeds., i, 100, 
 
130 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 tenderly brought up as any man's wife then in that town; and I myself 
 to travel in the wilderness I knew not whither; the people comforting 
 my ,wife and children when I was gone with this, that it was impossible 
 for me to come aHve to any plantation. I say no more of this now, 
 though I can say much more, with the testimony of men's consciences; 
 but I have been silent to cover other men's shame and not my own, for 
 I could wish to be a bondsman, so long as I have to live upon the face 
 of the earth, in human respects, that all the agitations and transactions 
 that have passed between the men of New England and myself were 
 in print without diminution or extenuation, without covert false deal- 
 ing or painted hypocrisy. It should be a crown, aye a diadem upon 
 my grave, if the truth in more public or more private agitations were 
 but in prose though not in poetry, as it was acted in all the places 
 wherein you seek to blemish me" (Job xix, 23, 24; xxxi, 35, 36). 
 
 " I perceive what manner of honor you put upon me in Rhode Island, 
 which the actors may be ashamed of and you to be their herald. I 
 have been silent of things done at Plymouth, Rhode Island and else- 
 where, and am still in many respects, but have not forgotten them. I 
 have heard that some of Plymouth then in place were instigators of 
 the island. I could name the parties of both places, being met together 
 at Cohannet (Taunton). I carried myself obedient to the government 
 of Plymouth so far as became me, at the least to the great wrong of 
 my family more than in above said, as can be made to appear if 
 required; for I understood they had commission wherein authority was 
 derived, which authority I reverenced ; but the island at that time had 
 none, therefore, no authority legally derived to deal with me; neither 
 had they (Coddington's court) the choice of the people, but set up 
 themselves. But such fellows as you can bring men to the whipping 
 post at their pleasure either in person or name without fault committed, 
 or they invested with any authority. 
 
 "Again I affirm you to be a deceitful recorder, in that you declare 
 that I have spoken words (or to that effect) that there is no state nor 
 condition of mankind after this present life. I do verily believe that 
 there is not a man, woman or child upon the face of the earth that 
 will come forth and say that ever they heard any such words come out 
 of my mouth. And I appeal unto God, the judge of all secrets, that 
 there was never such a thought entertained in my heart. Therefore, 
 I do verily believe it was hatched in the bosom of the proper author of 
 your scroll. I am far from the opinion you slander me with, for I 
 hold and shall through God maintain that he who takes upon him to 
 be an. interpreter of God's word and brings not eternity into the things 
 or matters whereof he speaks, that man is a false prophet or interpreter 
 of the word of God. You could not have clothed me with any piece 
 of Saul's armor that would have fitted me worse than this scandal, 
 and I know you have many pieces thereof among you. 
 
 " Whereas you charge me with passion, I know not your meaning in 
 that word. It is an ambiguous phrase, but through God's goodness I 
 know the passion of Christ. And the Apostles' saying, that he fulfils 
 the rest of his passion in the flesh (Col. i, 24), and he being in a mul- 
 titude of passions (2 Cor. i, 12, 23). And I know that Elijah was a 
 man of passions, yet he was strong in prayer. And here you extort 
 a word from me which I thought would have gone in secret to the grave 
 with me, for I never uttered it with my lips to any, though my heart 
 hath resented it many a time. The thirty-three years is upon expiration 
 since I arrived first in New England, in which tract of time I have 
 
 105. Judge Brayton, R. I. H. Tr., No. 17. "Force's Tract, Vol. iv, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 131 
 
 washed my face with tears day and night in the ordinances of Jesus 
 Christ, under the scandals, reproaches, calumniations and wrongs put 
 upon me, for no other reason (though covered with other wizards) 
 but for the profession of Jesus Christ. Yet have not these passions 
 been in any imbittered sourness of spirit, but from enlarged desires, 
 when the thing desired hath been presented as in Joseph when he saw his 
 brethren, and in Jacob when Rachel appeared unto him. And I know 
 they are reserved in a bottle of transparent glasses and written 
 not on the black lines of the oldness of the letter, but in the lines of the 
 light of life, or newness of the spirit. And I well know that God 
 hath turned men's dealings with me into schools of learning (over- 
 shooting them in their own bow), as God did in that carnal and cruel 
 act of Joseph's brethren, that the glory might be in themselves and not 
 in him (Gen. xlv, 4, 5). I have told you in this a small portion of my 
 passion, yet more than was my purpose to have done. Scandalize me 
 for it, and tell the wrold of it again and also of what I have lost by 
 it; and whilst you are calculating and summing up the number of days 
 contained in so many years I will appeal to God, the searcher of hearts, 
 as a witness of the truth which I now write. Let me tell you this much, 
 that I write now in passion, for it draws tears from mine eyes to see 
 the nature of man (which I myself by nature am) so evidently and 
 perspicuously appear in you; for he that writes or speaks of the word 
 of God and cannot apply unto himself (in a true sense) whatsoever 
 is contained therein, he is no true minister of salvation, but of con- 
 demnation (2 Cor. iii, 9; xi, 26, 27). But let this stand as a parable 
 to you and your teachers, whilst you in the meantime vent your corrupt- 
 ing and contagious poison. 
 
 "And whereas you say in your records that I am a sordid man in 
 my life. I tell you what I say of that, and do you hide it from none: 
 That I dare be so bold as to lay my conversation among men to the 
 rule of humanity with any minister among you. In all the passages of 
 my life which God hath brought me through from my youth unto this 
 day, that it hath been as comely and innocent as his, according to present 
 occasions, so that nothing shall be covered or painted over with 
 hypocrisy. Whose ox or whose ass have I taken, or when or where 
 have I lived upon other men's labors and not wrought with my own 
 hands for things honest in the sight of men, to eat my own bread? But 
 these things are beneath my spirit, either to speak or write; but you 
 force to apologize; for would any man think that the spirit of one 
 man should be so audaciously impudent as to bring forth such falsities? 
 
 " I would say something of the foundation of your church at Plymouth 
 if I thought it were not a matter too low to talk of, for when suit was 
 made to the church in Holland, out of which your church came, to 
 procure a dismission of a sister there to the church of Plvmouth, though 
 the gentlewoman upon occasion had been in New England divers years, 
 yet a dismission would not be granted. Their preaching member then 
 with them I knew to be a godly man and was familiarlv acquainted with 
 him now about half a hundred years ago in Gorton, where I v/as born 
 and bred and the fathers of my body for many generations. The Elders 
 gave the ground and reason that they could not dismiss their sister to 
 the church at Plymouth in New England because it consisted of an 
 apostacised people fallen from the faith of the Gospel, and when through 
 such importunities a writing was procured, properlv of advice to their 
 sister how to carry herself, her husband the solicitor, whom you know, 
 I need not to name, and I think you know after what manner the writing 
 was read in your church by your ancient Elder; part conceded and 
 part expounded to the best. If you know not I do, for I was present, 
 
132 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Now to have this testimony of aspersion concerning the foundation 
 of your church by the mother out of which you came may be consid- 
 ered, I think you can say, little more orders of the church of Rome. 
 
 "A fourth word I have to say concerning the stuff, as you contempt- 
 uously call it. What stuff you ignorantly make of the word of God. 
 For the rest of your expressions, which you charge upon us, you falsely 
 apply them. We never called sermons of salvation, tales ; nor any 
 ordinances of the Lord an abomination or vanity; nor holy ministers, 
 necromancers. We honor, reverence and practice these things ; there- 
 fore through guilt you falsify our intent. And, however, you term 
 me a belcher out of error, I would have you to know that I hold my 
 call to preach the Gospel of Christ not inferior to the call of any 
 minister in the country, though I was not bred up in the schools of 
 human learning; and I bless God that I never was, lest I had been 
 drowned in pride through Aristotle's principals and other human 
 philosophy. Yet this I doubt not of, but that there hath been as much 
 true use made of the languages within this twenty years past for the 
 opening of the Scripture in the place where I lived as hath been in 
 any church in New England. When I was last in England through 
 importunities I was persuaded to speak the word of God publicly in 
 divers and eminent places as any were then in London ; and also about 
 London and places more remote; many times the ministers of the place 
 being hearers, and sometimes many together at appointed lectures in 
 the country. I have spoken in the audience of ail sorts of people and 
 personages under the title of a Bishop or a King; and was invited to 
 speak in the presence of such as had the title of Excellency ; and I was 
 lovingly embraced wherever I came, in the word uttered, with the 
 most eminent Christians in the place. And for leave-taking at our 
 departure, not unlike the ancient custom of the Saints upon record in 
 the Holy Scriptures, and I daresay as evident testimony of God's 
 power going forth with his word spoken, manifested as ever any in 
 New England had, publicly and immediately after the words delivered; 
 the people giving thanks to God that ever such came to be uttered 
 among them; with entreatly to stay, and further manifestations, in as 
 eminent places as are in England; whence myself did know the Doctors 
 of note had formerly preached and at that time such as had more honors 
 than ordinary preachers have; who gave me the call thither in way of 
 loving Christian fellowship, the like abounding in the hearer. There- 
 fore, I know not with what New England is leavened or spirited. 
 Indeed, once in London three or four malignant persons caused me to 
 be summoned before a committee of Parliament because I was not 
 a universit}' man. I appeared and my accusers also, one of them a 
 schoolmaster in Christ's Hospital, another or two Elders of independent 
 or separated churches, who were questioned what they had against me. 
 They said I had preached. Divers of the committee answered and said 
 that was true, they had heard me. The chairman asked my accusers 
 what I had said. They said I had spoken of cherubims, but they could 
 not repeat anything; btit they said they were sure I had made the 
 people of God sad. But the sum of all their accusations was brought 
 out in a book which they said contained divers blasphemies. The 
 book was only that which was printed concerning the proceedings of 
 the Massachusetts against myself and others. The honorable committee 
 took the book and looked over it and found no such thing there as 
 they ignorantly suggested. Then my accusers desired Mr. Winslow 
 might be called forth, whom they had procured to appear there, whom 
 they thought would oppose me strongly with respect to the book. He 
 spoke judiciously and manlike, desiring to be excused, for he had noth- 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 13J 
 
 ing to say concerning me in that place ; his business with me lay before 
 another committee of Parliament; which gave the Table good satis- 
 faction. My answers and arguments were honorably taken by the 
 chairman and the rest of the committee, and myself dismissed as a 
 preacher of the Gospel. 1 r r- » • u 
 
 " Some of you have upbraided us as not having the word of God with 
 us because of our paucity. I think those called Quakers are as many 
 as you; but I think them never the better for this multitude, nor the 
 Papists who cover that part of the earth called Christendom. It hath 
 ever been the way of the world to make itself great by multitude (Gen. 
 X, 8, 9, 10; Hosea i, 7, 11) ; but Christ stilleth his flock to be little and 
 his disciples few (I Cor. xvi, 19). 
 
 "A fifth word I have to say is, in that you send the reader to a book 
 printed by Edvv. Winslow for a more full and perfect intelligence. 
 Mr. Winslow and myself had humanlike correspondence in England, 
 and before the honorable committee which he referred himself unto; 
 and not to wrong the dead, I saw nothing to the contrary but that I 
 had as good acceptation in the eyes of that Committee as himself had, 
 though he had a greater charter and a larger commission than myself 
 had. I do not know or remember any particulars in that book, for since 
 the publishing thereof I have always had my thoughts exercised about 
 things of better and greater concernment. I saw it in London, but read 
 but little of it ; and when I came over to these parts my_ ancient friend, 
 Mr. John Brown, discoursing with me about those affairs in England, 
 told me he had read such a book printed or put forth by Mr. Winslow. 
 I told him I had seen it, but read very little of it. Mr. Brown, ^ you 
 know, was a man approved among you and elsewhere (for aught I 
 know' or ever heard) wherever he came; an Assistant in your govern- 
 ment, a Commissioner for the United Colonies, etc., who thus spoke 
 to me in our discourse. I will not pervert nor alter a word of the will 
 or words of the dead. I say he affirmed this unto me, that he would 
 maintain that there were forty lies printed in that book; and I doubt 
 not but Mr. Brown's word and judgment in his time would have been 
 acceptable and taken by any of you as authority regarding the book. 
 Therefore add thy writing unto it if any spark of humanity be left, 
 to inform your readers of the truth of things; or else take it to your- 
 self that you are he who goes about to seduce and corrupt the m.inds of 
 men with falsities. Warwick, June 30th, 1669. Samuel _ Gorton.'"" 
 
 It is not known that Morton was wanting in the humanity to add the 
 writing in acknowledgment of his errors, for such a writing could not 
 at the time been published in the colonies, the only press then in the 
 colonies being that which was under the control of the Massachusetts 
 authorities. 
 
 There were many people in Massachusetts and in Rhode Island v/ho 
 felt the need of something to justify their history, and accordingly the 
 truth as Gorton had made plain was suppressed, and the scandalous 
 fiction of Morton was seized upon with avidity and copied and recopied 
 in hundreds of thousands of books, and is to be found in all libraries 
 having new England histories; while the truth, the letter of Gorton's 
 here given, the writer could find but in one of the public libraries in 
 the second largest of our cities. The circulation of INIorton's fable 
 was so profuse'that it became the generally accented correct life sketch 
 of Samuel Gorton. 
 
 The following from Roger Williams was sent to Major Mason and the 
 Court of Plymouth: "'When the next year after my banishment 
 
 Tr. 7. The first printing press in R. I. 1745. Holmes' Annals. *R. I. 
 
134 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 (1636-1637) the Lord drew the bow of the Pequot war against the 
 country in which Sir the Lord made yourself with others a blessed 
 instrument of peace to all New England, I had my share of service to 
 the whole land in that Pequot business inferior to very few that acted, 
 for I upon letters received from the Governor and council at Boston, 
 requesting me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to break and 
 hinder the league labored for by the Pequots against the Mohegans and 
 Pequots against the English, the Lord helped me immediately to put 
 my life into my hand. Three days and nights my business forced me 
 to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequot ambassadors, whose hands 
 and arms, we thought, wreaked with the blood of my countrymen, 
 when God wondrously preserved me and helped me to break to pieces 
 the Pequot negotiation. Considering (upon frequent exceptions against 
 Providence men) that we had no authority for civil government, I 
 went purposely to England, and upon my report and petition the Parlia- 
 ment granted us a charter of government for these parts, so judged 
 vacant on all hands. When at Portsmouth on Rhode Island some 01 
 ours, in a General Assembly (November, 1644) motioned their planting 
 on this side Pawcatuck river, I, hearing that some of the Massachusetts 
 reckoned this land theirs by conquest (from the Pequots). dissuaded 
 from the motion until the matter should be amicably debated and com- 
 posed ; for though I questioned not our right, etc., yet I feared it would 
 be inexpedient and offensive and procreative of these heats and fires, 
 to the dishonoring of the King's Majest}-. Some time after the Pequot 
 war was closed in 1639, and our charter from the Parliament (March 
 14, 1643-4) the government of Massachusetts wrote (August 27, 1645) 
 to myself, then Chief-ofificer in this colony, of their receiving of a 
 patent from the Parliament for the then vacant lands, as an addition to 
 the Massachusetts, etc., and thereupon requesting me to exercise no 
 more authority, etc., for they wrote their charter was granted some few 
 weeks before ours (Ante, p. — ). I returned what I believed righteous 
 and weighty to the hands of my true friend, Mr. Winthrop, the first 
 mover of my coming into these parts, and to that answer of mine I 
 never received the least reply ; only it is certain that at Mr. Gorton's 
 complaint (May, 1646) against the Massachusetts the Lord High 
 Admiral, President, said openly in a full meeting of the Commissioners 
 that he knew no other charter for these parts than what Mr. Williams 
 had obtained, and he was sure that that charter which the Massachusetts 
 Englishmen pretended had never passed the table. Upon our humble 
 address by our agent, Mr. Clark, to his Majesty (1661), and his gracious 
 promise to renew our former charter, Mr. Winthrop by some mistake 
 had extended upon our line, and not only so. but, as it is said, upon the 
 lines of other charters also. Put the King's Majesty sending his 
 Commissioners (1664) to reconcile the differences of and to settle the 
 bounds between the colonies, yourselves know how the King himself, 
 therefore, hath given a decision to this controversy. Our grant is 
 crowned with the King's extraordinary favor to this colony, as being a 
 banished one, in which his Majestv declared himself that he would 
 experiment, whether civil government could consist with such liberty 
 of conscience. This his Majesty's grant was startled at by his Majesty's 
 high officers of State, who were to view it in course before sealing, 
 but fearing the lion's roaring they couched, against their wills, in 
 obedience to his Majesty's pleasure. Some of yours, as I heard lately 
 told tales to the Archbishop of Canterbury, viz. : That we are a profane 
 people and do not keep the Sabbath, but some do plough, etc. But, 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 135 
 
 first, you told him not how we suffer freely all other persuasions, yea, 
 the common prayer, which yourselves will not suffer.'" 
 
 In 1675 Gorton received information that the Connecticut Indians 
 intended to invade the Narragansett country. He had early, by his 
 influence with the Narragansetts, prevailed upon them to observe peace, 
 to abide the tribunal of the English government and refrain from 
 avenging the death of their Chief; and he sent a request to Governor 
 Winthrop of Connecticut that he would have the now intended invasion 
 forbidden. Continuing upon the subject, Gorton writes: "My thoughts 
 are in exercise concerning the policy of the English in these parts. 
 People are apt in these days to give credit to every flying and false 
 report, and not only so, but they will report it again, and by that means 
 they become deceivers and tormentors of one another by speech and 
 iealousies. There is a rumor that the Indians are in combination to 
 "root out the English, which many fear (for my own part, I fear no such 
 thing) as though God brought his people hither to destroy them. I 
 rather fear our vain hopes groundless expectations, that they will 
 become Christians, when they are invested with naught else but litteral 
 principles and grounds of hypocrisy. The Gospel is of a purer nature 
 than to consist in ornaments and telling of history without revealing 
 the mystery thereof, which is Christ in his saints the hope of glory. 
 I remember the time of the wars in Ireland (when I was young, in 
 Queen Elizabeth's days of famous memory), when much English blood 
 was spilt by a people like unto these, the Earl of Terrone being their 
 leader, where n:any valiant soldiers lost their lives, divers noble men 
 earnest for religion, v/hose names are upon my heart still; and in my 
 latter days I have been in company with ancient preachers of God's 
 word, men of God, now fallen asleep, v/ho have lamented the loss of 
 some of those noble men (naming them) with weeping tears,_ having 
 in their lifetime been intimate with them in religious and godlike con- 
 cernments. I think we have no cause to suspect God's hand toward us 
 in these parts, which hath removed us into a place more suitable for 
 us, wherein the people are multiplied beyond thoughts of heart; and 
 with all the natives decreasing by war among themselves and by dis- 
 ease. If God make room by such means for the spreading of the 
 English, it seems more suitable than the sword unto that royal leave 
 which was granted to his subjects to plant themselves in these parts; 
 and also to the charge given together with it, namely, that none of the 
 English should take any lands from the natives without giving them 
 satisfaction for it. And is it to be doubted that the not observing this 
 charge is a great and universal grudge among the Indians at this day; 
 while men take up lands and plant upon them as their own, without 
 any retribution; at the least not to the Chief Sachems, if any small 
 thing at all, to some base, inferior fellow, which makes the Sachems 
 afraid lest by this means in short time they shall be spued out of the 
 country for want of land to reside upon. And for aught that I have 
 learned, this was the cause of that barbarous slaugther made of our 
 friends at the Dutch plantations. Sir, my humble submission consists 
 in my prayers to God for you and yours."" 
 
 Rec, i, 457-460. Nar. Club Papers. "Rhode Island's Gift to the Nation," by 
 Sidney S. Rider. =4th Mass, Collec, vii, 627. ^Arnold's Hist. 
 
136 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The King Philip's War — The swamp battle — Capture of Philip's wife and son — 
 The Narragansetts' extinction — Warwick destroyed — Providence and Paw- 
 tuxet burned, and two of the family of Massachusetts ex-subject and Pawtuxet 
 claimant slain. 
 
 In 1675 began what is known as the Philip's war, the final conflict 
 between the colonies and the Indians, which resulted in the latter's 
 extermination. Though the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 
 hardly took an active part in it, her geographical position caused her 
 to suffer more than the other colonies. Warwick being more exposed, 
 was one of the chief sufferers. The storm had been gathering ever 
 since the tragic death of Miantinomi. Although neither England nor 
 Rhode Island could give the Narragansetts the expected redress, they, 
 through the advice chiefly of Gorton and Williams and the friendship 
 existing between them and the people of Providence, allowed the death 
 of their Chief, Miantinomi, to pass unavenged.. But they were eventu- 
 ally, and from circumstances that left them no honorable choice, forced 
 into the conflict. Philip, the second son of Massasoit, was the Chief of 
 the Wampanoags. His elder brother Wamsutta, who had succeeded 
 his father as Sachem, had fallen under suspicion of the settlers, been 
 seized and confined, from the effects of which, it was believed, he fell 
 into a fever and died. Philip succeeded his brother as Sachem, and 
 the English, suspecting him of plotting against them, charged him and 
 with such proofs that he made a confession, and submitted to the dis- 
 arming of all his people. Subsequently, a new exaction was made, 
 requiring him to pay a £200 penalty, and not to sell land or make 
 war without the consent of Plymouth. Philip, in a reply to a friend 
 who tried to persuade him from the contemplated war, complained : 
 " They tried my people by their own laws and assessed damages which 
 they could not pay. Their land was taken. At length a line of division 
 was agreed upon between the English and my people, and I myself 
 was to be responsible. Sometimes the cattle of the English would 
 come into the cornfields of my people, for they did not make fences 
 like the English. I must then be seized and confined till I sold another 
 tract of my country for satisfaction of all damages and costs. Thus 
 tract after tract is gone; but a small part of the dominion of my ances- 
 tors remains. I am determined not to live till I have no country." 
 
 Acting upon this, he appealed to the sympathies and the recollections 
 of wrong to the different tribes, and urged them to forget their ancient 
 animosities and combine for restoring them to their liberties and their 
 domain. He gathered around him a great body of warriors, joined 
 with him most of the other tribes, and the general war was commenced. 
 The Narragansetts remained neutral. They received with kindness, 
 fed, clothed and nursed the old men, women, children and disabled 
 warriors that took refuge with them. These acts drew down upon them 
 the more the hostility of the English " and opened for them the gulf 
 for their destruction." The Narragansetts were ordered to give them 
 up; Canonchet, the son and successor of Miantinomi, refused, and a 
 force of eleven hundred and thrity-five men, besides volunteers that 
 joined it, marched through the towns of Providence and Warwick 
 against them. On the next day. December nth, the army was on the 
 march to the place where the Indians had taken refuge. Here occurred 
 the celebrated " Swamp " battle. Upwards of two hundred of the 
 English were killed and wounded. Within the enclosure or fort five 
 hundred Indian wigwams were set on fire, in the flames of which 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 137 
 
 perished not less than three hundred of the sick and wounded, the 
 infants and aged. The entire loss of the Indians in killed, wounded 
 and prisoners was not less than one thousand, including those who 
 perished in the burning wigwams. This was the principal and decisive 
 battle, though afterwards there were several skirmishes and many 
 towns were burned. 
 
 About the middle of January one of the elder Sachems of the Narra- 
 gansetts sent a message to General Winslow, requesting a month's 
 delay in order to adjust the terms of peace; but he regarded this as 
 an artifice to gain time, and shortly after, on January 27th, 1676, 
 marched to the swamp where they were posted. They, anticipating 
 his approach, abandoned this country, pursued by the English forces, 
 and seventy of their people were captured and killed. Ten times in 
 the course of 1676 the English swept the devoted region and rooted 
 out all that dared to remain; all were killed, captured, or dispersed, 
 many perishing miserably by famine. From the 27th of January, 1676, 
 the day of the departure of the main body, the Narragansetts ceased to 
 exist as a distinct people. They blended with the followers of Philip 
 and shared his fortunes. 
 
 Canonchet, the son of Miantinomi, the last grand Sachem of the 
 Narragansetts, was captured in the month of April. He was offered 
 his life if he would procure the submission of his tribe. This he refused 
 to do. When told he must die, he replied : " I like it well. I shall 
 die before my heart is soft, or I have said anything unworthy of 
 myself." To insure the fidelity of the friendly tribes by committing 
 them to a deed that would forever deter the Narragansetts from seeking 
 their alliance, it was arranged that each of them should take a part 
 in the execution. Accordingly, the Pequots shot him, the Mohegans 
 cut off his head and quartered him, and the Natics, who joined the 
 English, burned his body and sent his head as " a token of love and 
 loyalty to the Commissioners at Hartford."^ 
 
 July 2d " the English army marched to the south and surprised them 
 in a cedar swamp near Warwick. A great slaughter ensued. IMangus, 
 the old queen of the Narragansetts, a sister of Ningret, was taken and 
 with ninety other captives was put to the sword. One hundred and 
 seventy-one Indians fell in this massacre, without the loss of a single 
 man of the English. Thence they scoured the country between Provi- 
 dence and Warwick, killing many more." 
 
 " Captain Church was commissioned by Governor Winthrop to pro- 
 ceed with a volunteer force of two hundred men, chiefly Indians, to 
 attack Philip in his retreat near Mount Hope. For several days they 
 pursued the Indians from place to place, killing many and taking a 
 large number of prisoners, among whom were Philip's wife and only 
 son." Philip was subsequently pursued into a swamp, where he was 
 shot through the heart by Alderman, an Indian, whose brother Philip 
 had indignantly slain because he had counselled him to sue for peace. 
 Thus perished Philip, who declared he would not live until he had no 
 country. His head was sent to Plymouth, where it remained set up 
 on a pole for twenty years; one hand was sent to Boston as a trophy, 
 and the other was given to Alderman, who exhibited it for money. 
 The body was quartered and hung upon four trees as a vivid illustra- 
 tion of the barbarity of the age.* Philip's chief councillor, Anawon, 
 escaped from the swamp with most of Philip's followers, but was a 
 few days after captured by Capt. Church, who sent him alive to Ply- 
 
 R. I., i, 411. Hubbard's Indian Wars, 157, 158, etc. *ist. Am. Ed. 
 
 Magnalia, ii, 498, 499. Quartered with an axe. *Lands of R. Island, 
 
138 LIFE AND TliMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 mouth, where he was shot. Most of the other captives who were con- 
 spicuous for their bravery or position met a similar fate.° Quinapin, 
 a cousin of Canonchct, and next in command to him in the great swamp 
 fight, with his brother, was tried at Newport by a council of war and 
 was shot. The young Metacomet, son of Philip, with many other 
 captives, was sent to Spain and the West Indies, where they were sold 
 as slaves. Until after the invasion of the Narragansetts, the people 
 of Rhode Island appear not to have participated in the war with their 
 Indian neighbors, and regarded it as at least of doubtful justice; but 
 when commenced, it left them no choice. They subsequently so far 
 followed the example of other colonies as to execute one if not two 
 of the Narragansett under-Sachems as adherents of Philip, and to sell 
 some of the captives, not as slaves for life, but as servants for a tc^vn 
 of years.' To this sale some men who had been leaders in the liberal 
 party agreed, but Gorton was not one of them; we never find him 
 violating the unwavering principles of his character by engaging in 
 so inconsistent an act.' 
 
 The war was now at an end ; not a single free Narragansett remained 
 in the country they had lately occupied. The Warwick settlers, from 
 their exposed situation, had early' removed their stock and goods to 
 Portsmouth ;' but their dwellings, all with the exception of one of stone, 
 had been burned, every field had been laid waste, and the bridges as well 
 as every other improvement destroyed; the people for the second time 
 found a home on the island. Tradition says that Gorton was rowed 
 by friendly Indians across the bay to a place of safety. Providence 
 was burned, destroyed, only five houses remaining, and Pawtuxet also 
 was burned ; and William Carpenter, one of the Pawtuxet partners, 
 ex-subject of Massachusetts, who lived on land of Warwick, was 
 despoiled of 200 sheep and 50 cattle, and two of his household were 
 slain.'* 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Massachusetts court unable to longer delay obedience to the King's com- 
 mands — They send Stouphton and Buckley to England — Rhode Island Assembly 
 choose Danford and Baiiy, of Newport, as agents to England — Their departure 
 delayed pending the suits of the Pawtuxet claimants — Trial of the Pawtuxan 
 claims and verdict in their favor — Warwick men appeal, and resolve to carry 
 a petition to England — Gorton, Greene and Holden again chosen to lay a peti- 
 tion before His Majesty — Gorton's death — Greene and Holden depart immedi- 
 ately with the petition — They procure from the King in council a stay of pro- 
 ceeding? — A powerful petition — Its presentation by the Warwick men to the 
 King — King orders the Massachusetts government to send other agents em- 
 powered to negotiate a settlement and to repeal the obnoxious laws — They 
 send Nowell and Richards — Quo-warranto issue summoning the corporation 
 of Massachusetts to England — The Massachusetts charter pronounced void — 
 King Charles the Second's death — Kins James' declaration under which the 
 intolerant practices of the leagued colonies end. 
 
 175. Baylie's Hist. Plymouth, Pt. 3, p. 136. Hubbard's Indian Wars. Disjointed 
 fingers and toes of Narragansett prisoner. "Judge Durfee's Works. 
 
 R. I. Rec. ii. 549. ^Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 419- Mackey's Life of 
 
 Gorton. Gammel's TJfe of Williams, 140. R. I. Collec, v, 170. Most of the 
 leaders of the liberal party opposed enslaving the captives ; we find Ralph Ear], 
 a member of the 1639 Model Govt., actively opposing it. Portsmouth Rec, i, 
 70. R. I. Collec, ii, 152 and note. Church's Indian Wars, Boston, 184S, p. 51. 
 •Directly after the hanging of Poagonet. R. I. Rec, ii. 519- °R- I- Rec, 
 
 ii, 533. "Austin's Allied Families, 58. Foster Papers, R. I. Rec, n, 
 
 S56, etc Hubbard's Ind. Wars, 214. Church's Philip's War. Lands of R- 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 139 
 
 Charles the Second had now for some time, at least since the time 
 of the closing in 1667 of the work of his Commissioners, been absorbed 
 with exciting questions at home to the unavoidable neglect of the colonies, 
 during which interval, although the signification of his will respecting 
 the bounds set by his Commissioners had been in some parts regarded 
 by the Massachusetts Magistrates, his other wishes were not obeyed; 
 and the Narragansetts, for whom he had undertaken to provide protec- 
 tion, had been destroyed. But the continued complaints and urgent 
 appeals to him from the neighboring colonies against the proceedings 
 of the Massachusetts Bay rulers now awakened his renewed attention.* 
 The Massachusetts Court, unable to longer delay in violation of the 
 King's repeated commands" to send representatives to appear before 
 him, on October 30th, 1676, sent Stoughton and Buckley to England.' 
 
 The Rhode Island Assembly in May, 1677, chose Sanford and Baily, 
 of Newport, agents to the government in England ;* but their departure 
 was delayed pending the suits of the Pawtuxet claimants. 
 
 Harris, having in the trials in behalf of the Pawtuxet claimants been 
 unsuccessful, had in 1675 gone to England and laid a petition before 
 the King. Harris petitioned for a commission of eight judges, two of 
 whom should come from each of the four colonies of Plymouth, 
 Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, assisted by a jury of 
 twelve men, two of whom should come from Plymouth, four from 
 Massachusetts, three from Connecticut and three from Rhode Island; 
 and a royal order granting Harris' petition was issued. Plymouth, 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut had been possessed of much more than 
 one-half of the entire colony of Rhode Island and had claims enough 
 set up to cover the whole, and Harris was at this time in league also 
 with Connecticut, acting as her agent in England in urging her claims 
 against the colony of Rhode Island. Harris was at the same time in the 
 pay of Connecticut for advancing her claims to Narragansett ; of 
 Plymouth for advancing her claims to Providence and Pawtuxet ; and 
 of the Rhode Island government — the Newport Cabal — for advancing 
 his own and his partners' claims to Providence and Warwick ; the 
 Pawtuxet partners being willing that any government should have juris- 
 diction that would aid them in possessing the soil. A bill from Harris 
 for his services was presented to the court at Newport on October 
 27th, 1662, and another for his service against the town of Warwick was 
 presented to the court at Newport on November 17th, 1677.° Nine of 
 the twelve jurymen came from Plymouth, Massachusetts and Connecti- 
 cut colonies. These colonies wanted jurisdiction over these lands. 
 Rhode Island seemed doomed. This court prepared for business in 
 Boston and then adjourned to meet November 17th, 1677, in Provi- 
 dence. Four days later the jury rendered their verdict in favor of 
 Harris, sustaining the claims of the Pawtuxet party to the whole 
 northern and western portions of the colony west of the line of separa- 
 tion from Providence, which was recorded by them in Boston, and 
 placed the running of the line as requested by Harris upon the town of 
 Providence. A delay was effected by Providence denying the line to 
 be run. 
 
 The Warwick people, alarmed both at the success of the Pawtuxans 
 and the claims urged by Connecticut to the Narragansett dominion, on 
 the 29th of November' resolved to, at their own expense (any of the 
 other to_wns contributing to it thr.t chose to), send the former potent 
 
 Island. 'Ryerson's Loyalists of Amer., i, 187. 'Hutchinson's 
 
 Papers, 210-510. 'Mass. Rec, v, 163. *R. I. Rec, ii, 580. 
 
 "Preserved in the Mss. Arnold's Hist. R. I., i, 432-438. 'Arnold's Hist. 
 
140 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 agents of the colony' to lay a petition clearly reciting these causes to his 
 Majesty for his determination. Gorton's death occurred on the loth 
 of the next month, December, but Greene and liolden departed with 
 the petition almost immediately thereafter. They were received by the 
 King, as he had promised, with his most gracious favor, and forthwith 
 procured from him in council a stay of the proceedings.' This order 
 from the King, although not the final act, was nevertheless fatal to the 
 claims of the Pawtuxans, for contemporary with this the political 
 prestige of the party passed and Rhode Island was again saved from 
 destruction. " Gorton and his companions triumphed at last. Rhode 
 Island owes them a heavy debt."° 
 
 The many orders of Parliament and of his royal hand and the express 
 provisions of his charter, that the inhabitants of the Rhode Island and 
 Providence Plantations should have perfect freedom to pass and repass 
 without let or molestation into the other colonies, and to hold inter- 
 course with such of their people as were willing, " any act, clause or 
 sentence in any of the said colonies provided or that shall be provided to 
 the contrary notwithstanding," and his letter with it expressly calling 
 the Governor and council of Massachusetts to it and requiring their 
 obedience, had been by the Massachusetts rulers to this day unheeded. 
 In the hearing before the King and council the Warwick men at once 
 fell upon Massachusetts and the Massachusetts agents " with great 
 severity in a petition, relating the facts of the case, exposing the falla- 
 cies of their opponents, repelling their attacks upon the loyalty of Rhode 
 Island and adducing record proofs of the disloyalty of Massachu- 
 setts," concluding with a series of requests ; first, that a Supreme Court 
 of jurisdiction over all the colonics might be erected in New England, 
 whereby equal justice might be rendered, boundary disputes adjusted 
 and civil war, which must otherwise result from " the oppression of 
 an insulting and tyrannical government," might be averted; second, 
 that the royal letter of 1666, confirming the acts of the Commissioners 
 in behalf of Rhode Island, might be renewed; third, that Connecticut 
 might be compelled to restore the town of Westerly taken from Rhode 
 Island by force ; and lastly, that the decisions of Massachusetts against 
 Warwick men, especially the decree of banishment against them, now of 
 thirty-five years' standing, might be annulled. The original of " this 
 masterly State paper, as conclusive as it is severe,"'" is filed in the 
 Bristish State Paper Office.' It is not printed in the Rhode Island 
 Historical Collection, although it should he, as it is the only one of 
 Rhode Island's papers preserved that is a fitting reply to the apologetical 
 reply of Massachusetts. Rhode Island does herself injustice by publish- 
 ing in her collection, as she does, one without the other. 
 
 The petition was accompanied by various documents corroborating 
 the position advanced by its authors. These documents are not all 
 filed with the petition, but are scattered among other papers in the 
 same and other volumes in the British State Paper Oflfice. Reference 
 is made to a letter in answer to Gorton's addressed to the King which 
 cannot be found, unless one of the letters, April 27th, 1678, December 
 13th, 1678, July 4th, 1679, and a peremptory order requiring the Massa- 
 
 R. T., i, 434, 46.-!. 'Arnold's Hist., i, 4.U- 'Rider's R. I. IT. 
 
 Tract, 2d Scr., No. 4. "Wm. D. Ely. John A. Howland, R. I. llist. 
 
 Soc. Proceedings, 1887-88, 1890. Massachusetts owes him a heavy debt, for had 
 the Providence Plantations been brouRht under their jurisdiction and the refu- 
 gees surrendered to them, as they requested of Coddington, the early writers 
 could not as they did justify all the disciplininp; acts, so great would have been 
 their number. "Arnold's Hist., i, 446. 'New Eng. Papers, 
 
 iii, 24-27. A portion of an address from Warwick men to King Charles the 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 141 
 
 chusetts Magistrates to revoke the order of banishment is that to which 
 reference is intended. 
 
 On April 27th, 1678, the King addressed the Massachusetts Court 
 a letter of rebuke and instructions ; among the latter that the oath of 
 allegiance as established by law in England be administered to all of 
 the proper age.^ 
 
 The Warwick men, who in point of talent had few or no superiors 
 in the colony, showed themselves fully competent for the most difficult 
 labors of defense or negotiation, and were fully employed in the defense 
 of the rights of the colony. The Newport agents remained at home. 
 An advertisement, dated July 30th, 1678, and signed by Simon Brad- 
 street and others of Boston, styling themselves a company to dispose 
 of the Narragansett lands, was posted in Newport and other towns; 
 and Connecticut had petitioned to tlie King for a part of the Narragan- 
 sett territory. The Warwick men were called upon to answer the 
 averment of the petitioners. This they did with signal ability. The 
 printed advertisement to dispose of the Narragansett land was presented 
 by them to the Royal Council, and an order was at once issued for 
 the Massachusetts agents to appear and show upon what title the lands 
 v;ere claimed. The Massachusetts Agents informed the Council that it 
 was a private claim. This admission, together with the representation of 
 Greene and Holden in answer to the Connecticut petition, was embraced 
 in an order of council issued the same day requiring that notice should 
 be sent to New England to leave King's Province in its present condi- 
 tion, and that those who claimed ownership or jurisdiction there should 
 forthwith send agents to prove their right before the King. The following 
 week a peremptory order was issued mmulling the sentence of banish- 
 ment that had been passed by the Massachusetts Court against the 
 Warwick people thirty-five years before, and commanding the said 
 court to repeal the same and to allow those persons, at all times, free 
 access within their jurisdiction. The terms of the order were unusu- 
 ally decided and indicate a strong feeling of condemnation in the 
 Royal Council at the arbitrary conduct of Massachusetts toward the 
 adherents of Gorton.^ 
 
 This was a gratifying advance toward ending the occasion for the 
 complaints of the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations against 
 Massachusetts and other colonies. The Warwick men were longer 
 detained upon incidental matters of the colony, after effectually dispos- 
 ing of which they returned home. The agents for the other colonies, 
 not offering anything to induce their lordship to differ in opinion 
 from that expressed in his order of December 13th, a decree was later 
 issued declaring void all other than the Rhode Island and Providence 
 Plantations claims.* 
 
 The services of the Warwick men to the colony were rendered 
 gratuitious ; and they neither asked or received any payment for their 
 passage to England nor maintenance while there. After their return, 
 the government at Newport voted them £45, which they had paid on 
 the colony's account in England, and £15, the amount of their passage 
 home.° 
 
 Second in 5th Mass. Collec, i, 505. Callender's Discourse, R. I. Collec, iv, 92, 
 mentions the address of Gorton to King Charles the Second, presented in 1679. 
 Chalmers' Annals, Book i, ch. viii, 197, 198 ; ix, 273. ^Hutchinson's 
 
 Papers, 515, 516, or ii, 253. Mass. Rec, v, 193. Reference thereto in R. I. 
 Rec, iii, 62. 'Arnold's Hist., i, 452, 493. R. I. Rec, iii, 18, t,7, 41, 
 
 58, 60, 67. Original Pet. in British State Paper Office. New Eng. Papers, iii, 
 49. Order upon it xxxii, 312, ante p. ^Arnold's Hist., i, 505. R. I. 
 
 Rec, V, 370-373. ''Arnold's Hist., i, 447 note ; R. I. Rec, iii, 47. July, 
 
142 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 The Massachusetts agents returned with a letter from the King to the 
 Massachusetts Magistrates bearing date July 24th, 1679,* with com- 
 mands to send over other agents within six months from the receipt 
 of the letter, empowered to negotiate a settlement, to repeal all laws 
 that were contrary to the laws of England, requiring suitable obedience 
 in respect to freedom ,and liberty of conscience, and appointing Edward 
 Randolph a collector and surveyor for the colonies. Another letter 
 on September 30th, 1680, commanded obedience to the former letter, 
 and that the representatives to attend his Council be sent within three 
 months from the reception of the present order.' This letter led to 
 the calling of a special court, and Samuel Nowell and John Richards 
 were elected as agents to England, according to the King's commands; 
 but with power so restricted as to render them incapable of giving 
 satisfaction, and a writ of qiio-zvarranto was issued June 27th, 1683, 
 summoning the Corporation of Massachusetts Bay to defend their acts 
 against the complaints and charges made against them; and judgment 
 was entered the next year pronouncing their charter void.* 
 
 The person selected by the King to govern the people of the provinces 
 was Pusey Kirk, but before his commission and instruction were com- 
 pleted all was delayed by the demise of King Charles, vv^hich took place 
 the 6th of February, 1685. 
 
 Dudley was commissioned by the new King as Governor, with instruc- 
 tions to give universal toleration of religion. Dudley was within seven 
 months superseded by Andros, with instructions of a more stringent 
 character, which instructions he fulfilled to the letter. 
 
 It is singular that toleration in Massachusetts should have been 
 proclaimed by the arbitrary James in a declaration above and contrary 
 to the law for which he received the thanks of the ministers of that 
 colony, but which resulted in the loss of his crown in England.' 
 
 James' Declaration _ of Indulgence was proclaimed 1687, and now 
 for the first time Quakers, Baptists and Episcopalians enjoyed tolera- 
 tion in Massachusetts. That system or religious tyranny, coeval with 
 the settlement of New England, thus unexpectedly received its death- 
 blow from a Roman Catholic, who professed a willingness to allow 
 religious freedom to others as a means of securing it for himself." 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Permanent return of Warwick people to their homes — The triumph of religious 
 freedom and end of attempted subjugation of the Providence and Rhode Island 
 lands and people — The adoption of their principles as the cardinal doctrine of 
 the Nation — Closing events in Gorton's life — Honors accorded him — His char- 
 acter and his teachings. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1677, after the Indian war, that Gorton and his 
 people again, and this time permanently, returned to Warwick, their 
 home, a barren waste ; themselves, most of them, destitute of all earthly 
 goods to start again, many of them now in their old age, at the foot, 
 
 1679. 'Hutchinson's Papers, 519-522, or ii, 257-261. Letter in Ryer- 
 
 son's Loyalists of Amer., i, 187-189 notes. 'Ryerson's Loyalists of 
 
 Amer., i, 193, 194. Hutchinson's Papers, 522-525, or ii, 261-264. "Loyalists 
 
 of America, i, 207-210. 'Loyalists of Amer., i, 216. "Hildreth's 
 
 Hist, of the U. S. of America, ist Ser., ii, 109. 'Arnold's Hist, i, 192. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 143" 
 
 the toiling rounds of life's ladder. With undaunted courage they set 
 to rebuilding their dwellings. Yet suffering as they were from despolia- 
 tion, few people were as happy as they who now enjoyed the triumph 
 of the principles for which they had set apart their lives; unmolestedly 
 laboring to rear for themselves comfortable abodes and surroundings, 
 while worshipping God according to the dictates of their own con- 
 sciences. 
 
 In reviewing the efforts of Massachusetts to extend her jurisdiction 
 and to attach to herself any residents of the Providence Plantations, 
 and to lead the people in revolt against the charter, the claims of the 
 other colonies and the great sufferings and trials that the people 
 endured, the historian of Rhode Island says : " As we examine the 
 progress of this deeply laid scheme and observe the steadiness with 
 which it was pressed through a long series of years, we cannot but 
 admire the firmness of our ancestors in foiling at every turn, nor can 
 we fail to recognize the hand of a Supreme pov^^er in preserving a colony 
 whose peculiar principles at first made it an object of aversion, and 
 finally were adopted as the cardinal doctrine of a whole nation."^ 
 
 On the 4th of June, 1677, Gorton was chosen to the Town Council of 
 Warwick for the ensuing year, and his son Samuel was at the same time 
 chosen Treasurer. On November 27th the father signed a deed of 
 lands in the Narragansett country to his sons and his six daughters and 
 their husbands ; and on Lhe 27th of November by another deed he 
 divided the remainder of his estate among his three sons, Samuel, John 
 and Benjamin. To Samuel for aid in supporting the family while 
 he was absent in England he gives his homestead and library; he also 
 committed to him the care of his mother, providing that she be main- 
 tained with convenient housing and necessaries and that means should 
 be furnished for her " recreation in case she desired to visit her 
 friends.'" 
 
 Before the close of the year, on or the days before the loth of 
 December, the leader of these early struggling and liberty-loving people, 
 Samuel Gorton, was called to his rest, he being eighty-five )fears of age. 
 Ripe in years spent in good works, " always enjoying the confidence 
 of his fellow-townsmen,"^ and " retaining to the close of his days the 
 affectionate esteem of his fellows and fellow-citizens."^ " Gentle and 
 sympathetic in private intercourse, generous and sympathetic in nature, 
 he awarded to others the same liberty of thought and expression which 
 he claimed for himself."* " He was universally beloved by all his 
 neighbors and the Indians, who esteemed him not only as a friend, 
 but one high in communion with God in heaven. Gorton was a holy 
 man, wept day and night for the sins and blindness of the world ; his 
 eyes were a fountain of tears and always full of tears; a man full of 
 thought; had a long walk out through the trees or woods, where he 
 constantly walked morning and evening, and even in the depth of night, 
 alone by himself for contemplation."" In one of his last letters, that to 
 Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, he mentions death with 
 the request that it "be accompanied with a requiem at his departure, 
 the burden of which should be this: 'that true Christian religion con- 
 sists only in that wherein the soul of a believer continues still in com- 
 munion with the Spirit of God in Christ, when the natural body is gone 
 down to the grave.' "" 
 
 -Warwick Records ; Austin's R. I. Genealog. Diet. ; Dr. Janes' " Samuel Gorton, 
 a Forgotten Founder of Our Liberties." ^Chief Justice Staples' Int. 
 
 to R. I. Collec, ii. Jared Sparks' Am. Biographies, ist Ser., xv. ^Oliver 
 
 Payson Fuller. "Dr. Ezra Styles' acct. from the aged Mr. John Angel, 
 
 R. I. Collec. •4th Ser. Mass. Collec, vii, 626. "Hon. Samuel 
 
144 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 " I have read almost every word that is legible of the records of the 
 colony from its first settlement till after the death of Gorton. From the 
 first establishment of the government he was almost constantly in 
 office, and during a long life there is no instance of record to my knowl- 
 edge of any reproach or censure cast upon him, no complaint against 
 him, although history furnishes abundance of evidence that there was 
 no lack of enemies to his person, principles or property. This can 
 hardly be said of any other settler in the colony of any standing. It 
 was this fact that fixed my opinion of the general tenor of his conduct 
 and th.e uprightness of his character. I remember an instance in which 
 he applied to be excused from serving in the Court of Commissioners, 
 and assigned his long services as a reason. He constantly enjoyed 
 the confidence of his fellow-townsmen and received from them the 
 highest honors in their gift.'" " To the charge made against l.im by 
 Morton he could truly as well as indignantly say: 'Whose ox or whose 
 ass have I taken, or when or where have I lived upon other men's 
 labors and not wrought with my ov/n hands for the things honest in 
 the sight of men to eat my own bread?' None could gainsay him, 
 although his reputation for morality as well as righteousness was laid 
 broadly open and in the search for everything picked clean to the 
 bone."^ "The whole tenor of his life shows that he was conscientious, 
 sincere and in all matters of fact honest and truthful.'" " The com- 
 munity in the midst of which he lived, trusted and honored him to the 
 last, and few testimonials to integrity of character are better than 
 this. It is a remarkable circumstance that he always retained the 
 affection of his neighbors and friends. The few ' dissenting freemen ' 
 of Warv.-ick never were his neighbors or friends, but were interloping 
 enemies who followed him to Warwick to decry his virtues, to break 
 up the settlement, to obtain his land. He generally succeeded in satis- 
 fying the candid. That he must have been possessed of great and shin- 
 ing virtues is sufficiently evident from the fidelity with which his 
 early adherents followed through life his changing fortunes and by 
 their never-failing confidence in his worthiness to fill public office 
 of the highest trust and of the greatest importance to the general 
 weal."" 
 
 He was their chosen Representative to the Assembly in the years 
 1649. 51. 52, 55. 56, 57. 58, 59» 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, and 66; served a 
 number of terms in the Upper House, corresponding to the present 
 Senate; was Associate Judge of their highest court; and was their 
 President or Governor for the term beginning in 1651 and ending in 
 1652. He was a multitude of times selected to audit the accounts of the 
 colony, to care for the Lord Admiral's letters and other highly-prized 
 documents, and more than any other man in the colony called upon 
 to draw up important State papers, many of these now unfortunately 
 no longer extant; and his old age was continually honored by the gift 
 of the most important civil offices.' 
 
 Sidney S. Rider, whose knowledge of these early men, obtained 
 from a lifelong study of their works, is not exceeded by anyone living, 
 says that Gorton was " one of the most learned men then living in 
 New England" (Lands of Rhode Island, 201). In the languages, in 
 the law and in letters he was exceedingly proficient. His early asso- 
 ciations good; his wife as tenderly reared as any lady in the colony: 
 her family educated and refined; her brother a college president, an 
 
 Eddy in 2d Ed. SavaRe's Winthrop. 'Bryant's Hist. United States, ii, 
 
 68. "Col. Thos. Aspinwall in Remarks on Narragansett Patent. 
 
 "Mackey. '2d Ed. Sparks' Am. Biog., Life of Samuel Gorton, v, 376. 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 145 
 
 excellent Latin poet. And their family relations with Gorton and with 
 one another appear to have been the best, they sending to him and to 
 their daugther the herds of fine-bred cattle— among the first in the 
 colony— for the pastures about his pioneer home. Mr. Rider in his 
 forthcoming "Constitutional History of Rhode Island" will show that 
 Gorton had no intellectual superior in New England ; and that in courage 
 he was not less than sublime. To Samuel Gorton, for his work in sus- 
 taining and preserving the charter and government, Wililam D. Ely 
 says: "Rhode Island owes him a great debt." 
 
 During the year 1667 he had declined to again accept a government 
 office, he then being seventy-five years of age. The year preceding his 
 death his eldest son, Capt. Samuel, was chosen a Representative, and 
 served in the House and in the Senate to defend the now constitutionally 
 established principles of soul liberty for sixteen successive years. Under 
 the order of the King's Commissioners, that the Governor and his 
 Assistants or Magistrates should rule in the Narragansett Province, 
 the latter was one of the Magistrates to govern there, and was one of 
 tl-.e Court of Justice who sat in the Province. He was selected to 
 oversee the laying out and allotment of the lands of East Greenwich, 
 " that it be fairly done," was one of those selected to answer the twenty- 
 seven questions sent from the Lords of his Majesty's Privy Council to 
 the colonies, and for many years served upon the committees who 
 drafted the colonies' letters to the King. Samuel Gorton has been 
 honored also in the persons of his other sons and numerous of his 
 descendants. His sons John and Capt. Benjamin were among the 
 founders of the town of East Greenwich, those to whom the colony 
 granted five thousand acres of land. Capt, Benjamin was a Repre- 
 sentative in both the House and Senate. Gorton's grandson, Othniel, 
 also was a Representative, and Othniel. Jr., was for seven full terms 
 a member of the General Assembly from Warwick, and in 1761, in 
 connection with Stephen Hopkins and Job Bennett, Esquires, was 
 directed to prepare a reply to the questions which had been proposed 
 by the Lords Commissioners of the Plantations; was Speaker of the 
 House in 1787, and the same year was one of a committee to draft a 
 letter from the colony to the American Congress. In June, 1788, he 
 resigned his position in the Assembly and became Chief Justice of the 
 Superior Court, which position he retained until May, 1791.* " General 
 Nathaniel Greene, next to George Washington, the most eminent mili- 
 tary leader in the contest with Great Britain, traced his lineage directly 
 to John Greene and Samuel Gorton, noble founders of the liberties 
 which he fought to sustain; as did also Colonel Christopher Greene of 
 Revolutionary fame. Albert Gorton Greene, a descendant of John 
 Greene, Samuel Gorton and Randall Holden, three of the original 
 settlers of Warwick, became a judge of the Municipal Court in the city 
 of Providence, and is well known to three generations as the author 
 of ' Old Grimes " and other popular ballads and poems. The late 
 Governor Henry Lippitt and the recent Chief Magistrate of Rhode 
 Island, the Hon. Charles Warren Lippitt, as well as the late Lieutenant 
 Governor, Samuel G. Arnold, the historian of the State, and the present 
 Lieutenant Governor, Lewis S. Chanler, of New York, and the present 
 Bishop, Henry C. Potter, of New York, are direct descendants of 
 Samuel Gorton.'" Among his descendants are several each of United 
 States Senators, Members of Congress, Major Generals, Governors of 
 States, Judges of Supreme Court, Senators and Assemblymen, Church 
 
 R. I. Records. »R. I. Hist. Tract, No. lo. »Dr. Janes in 
 
 Samuel Gorton, a Forgotten Founder of Our Liberties." 'Oliver 
 
146 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 Bishops, and I^Ioderutors, Renowned Alissionaries, Distinguished 
 Authors, Etc., representing nearly every State and Territory in the 
 Union. Some scores of his descendants served with honor and distinction 
 in the early wars, the Revolution, the war of 1812 with Great -Britian, the 
 Civil War, and in the United States Congress, and very many of his living 
 descendants are eminent in literature and the professions. 
 
 His published works are: "Simplicity's Defense," "Incorruptible 
 Key," " Saltmarsh," " The Common Plagues," and "Antidote Against 
 Pharisaical Teachings.." A Commentary on the Lord's Prayer was 
 left by him in manuscript, unpublished. 
 
 One does not find in his published works any detailed system of faith ; 
 he did not attempt to build up a sect or claim anything new in revela- 
 tion or Scripture interpretation. His religious opinions, if peculiar 
 then, are no more so now than exists in any congregation. " The 
 essential gospel truths as held by the great body of evangelical Chris- 
 tians of the present day are those that were held and preached by him."* 
 He made but small account of the forms of religious worship and laid 
 not much stress upon most of the dogmas of theology ; a right temper 
 of heart being in his view the one thing needful, and the union of the 
 believer with Christ in love the great saving doctrine of revelation.** 
 A thorough study of his theological writings by one well qualified for 
 an understanding and proper comparison of their teachings with the 
 various systems has been made by Dr. Janes, President of the Brooklyn 
 Ethical Association, whose exposition of them and conclusions regard- 
 ing them he has published in his " Life of Samuel Gorton," to which 
 the reader is referred, from which by permission we briefly quote in the 
 following. : " By far the best and most complete exposition of Samuel 
 Gorton's religious convictions is to be found in a remarkable manuscript 
 in his own handwriting which has never been published, but which 
 is preserved in the library of the Rhode Island Historical Society in 
 Providence. The manuscript to which I refer is a running commentary 
 on the Lord's Prayer. I have examined many papers of contemporary 
 and more recent dates, but with the exception of those left by his eldest 
 son, Capt. Samuel Gorton, who was evidently instructed by his father, 
 and whose handwriting resembles his so closely as to be distinguishable 
 from it with difficulty. I have never seen any so clear, systematic and 
 scholarly in appearance. When the reader has searched dilligently 
 beneath the quaint and involved phraseology, bristling with scriptural 
 references and illustrations, and come into sympathetic contact with the 
 living thought of the writer, the surprising thing which is discovered 
 is the remarkable modernness of many of Samuel Gorton's ideas. It 
 goes without saying that he was not ' orthodox,' according to the con- 
 ventional standard of his time, nor yet, perhaps, of our own; but we 
 everywhere touch the personality of a vigorous and independent thinker, 
 who in many directions foreshadowed the views of the advanced thinkers 
 of a later day. Some of his enemies denounced Samuel Gorton as an 
 atheist. He was as remote as possible from atheistic leanings. He was 
 not even affiliated with the deism of his own and the succeeding century. 
 His theology was profoundly Christian. The Scripture references to 
 the Father, Son and Holy Spirit he interprets as recognitions of ' spirit- 
 ual distinctions in the nature of Christ.' They are not separate persons 
 of a godhead, but distinctions of the divine activity, having a unity 'not 
 found elsewhere, but only in Christ.* 
 
 " With Channing Samuel Gorton also taught the essential divinity of 
 human nature — the equal nearness of the divine spirit to the sinner and 
 
 Payson Fuller, Hist. Wk., 303. 'Incorruptible Key, 73. •Com- 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 147 
 
 to the saint. He recognizes a divine spark in every human soul, and 
 to this he made his appeal.' He also, however, accepted the eternal 
 antagonism of good and evil as an unquestionable fact, both in scrip- 
 tural teaching and in human experience. The tendency of the one is 
 to eternal life; of the other to eternal death. He, therefore, taught a 
 conditional immortality, wholly dependent upon the character of the 
 individual. ' Neither can any salvation hold proportion with the son 
 of God,' he says, ' but freedom from sin.' This saved him from the 
 errors of Antinomianism.' The doctrine of imputed sin and imputed 
 righteousness he denounces as unworthy of the divine character. * God 
 was in Christ reconciling men unto himself, not imputing their sins.' 
 Nor is this work of reconciliation limited to any historical period. 
 ' God is eternally a creator, eternally a redeemer, eternally a conservator 
 of peace.' The substance of his teaching is that righteousness is life 
 eternal ; sin is eternal death. There is no arbitrary penalty inflicted at 
 the close of man's earthly career, or on some future day of judgment; 
 it is the intrinsic and natural result of evil action." 
 
 Mr. Gorton distinguished four distinct stages in the historical develop- 
 ment of religious ideas: the family, the national, the apostolic, and the 
 spiritual or universal. Considering the period in which he wrote, and 
 the fact that the Bible seems to have been almost his only text book, 
 his conclusions are remarkably consistent with those of modern students 
 of sociology and comparative religion. 
 
 The temptation is great to continue this line of exposition and quo- 
 tation, but I must bring it to a close with one or two additional passages 
 further illustrative of the ethical quality of his thought. All virtue, 
 he taught, even the goodness of God, consists wholly in the service 
 of others. " The goodness of God's nature is such," he says, " that it 
 cannot subsist or be without communicating itself with another; other- 
 wise his goodness should be useless, which cannot be admitted for one 
 moment of time, for there is an impossibility thereof. The natural 
 temporary or typical goodness of any creature is useless unless it be 
 communicated with another; God never made any creature in heaven 
 or in earth simply for itself, but for the use of another; how infinitely 
 more is this true of God, who hath made himself in Christ to be the 
 goodness of the world." 
 
 With Theodore Parker, he taught that the entire creative energy was 
 expressed in the divine nature, to conceive which as purely masculine 
 was inadequate, anthropomorphic and irrational ; and in one of the most 
 striking passages in his Commentary on the Lord's Prayer he argues 
 for the equal recognition of woman in the church, as a teacher of 
 religion. 
 
 In philosophy Samuel Gorton was an original thinker, rather than 
 a student of past systems. In theology he was far in advance of the 
 prevailing thought of his time. Only a few of the minor sects of our 
 own day have yet approximated to his views as to the equal position 
 of woman in the pulpit and the church ; only an occasional strong and 
 independent mind has reached his conception of religion as a birthright 
 of the individual soul, to which belongs the inalienable privilege of 
 investigation and interpretation, free from priestly mediation and secta- 
 rian bias." 
 
 Regarding the Holy Ordinances, such as Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper, he scorns the Massachusetts Elders' charge that he denied them 
 
 mentary Mss., ii, 14, 57. 'Gorton was not a follower of Annie Hutch- 
 
 inson. " His theology was original and peculiarly his own." Commentary 
 Mss., 58, Dr. Janes, 97. "' Samuel Gorton, a Forgotten Founder of 
 
 Our Liberties," by Dr. Janes. "Incorruptible Key Introd. 
 
148 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 because he could not join with them in their way of administering, 
 and say : " We revere and practice them." Regarding the law, " Not 
 scrupling," he says, " any civil ordinance for the education, ordering 
 or governing of any civil State." Regarding magistracy, " Keep the 
 office,," he says, " according to sobriety within the compass of civil 
 things."' 
 
 "Authority," he says, " cannot safely be entrusted to Magistrates if 
 their place of office be not bounded within the compass of civil things." 
 He argues clearly and logically in the introduction to his " IncorruptTble 
 Key " that if Magistrates are permitted to extend their authority to 
 things spiritual they are consistently bound to enforce their own con- 
 victions of religious duty, and to persecute all who dissent therefrom. 
 The only safety is in forbidding them " to intermeddle between God 
 and the consciences of men; in this way only is the preservation and 
 honor of all States in their several ways of rule and government.""' 
 
 One-fourth of the whole number of the original purchasers of War- 
 wick were members of the First Church organized by Roger Williams 
 at Providence; and Ezekiel Holman, also a member, and two others, 
 William Arnold and Stuckley Westcott, also members — jiist one-half 
 of the original members of Williams' church were early settlers of 
 Warzvick.^ The last two were early dissenters from Williams' church 
 and continuous disturbers of the peace of the Providence settlers, as well 
 as of the quiet Warwickers. All the others of these joined Gorton in 
 support of the government and in unyieldingly resisting every effort 
 of violence, compromise or arbitration to bring them under any authority 
 that would deprive them of their civil rights or religious freedom. 
 " There is no evidence of their interfering in the affairs of their neigh- 
 bors, or cultivating any differences among themselves ; on the contrary, 
 no community on the continent were more sedulous in courting the 
 good will and confidence of the natives and none practiced more 
 forbearance and endurance under trials, such as are rarely paralleled."' 
 
 It was within the short time of six months from the final return of the 
 Warwickers, not more than a dozen of them, to their lands which were 
 divested by the war of all improvements, in which short time they could 
 not have erected more than three or four dwellings, that Gorton's 
 death occurred. There had not been, therefore, an opportunity for the 
 establishment of a church there before his death. For about five months 
 only from the completion of the first dwelling was a meeting-house 
 here provided him, wherein he conducted religious service, attended 
 by the few Episcopalians, Quakers or Baptists, not a sufficient number 
 of whom could agree to any one system for the organization of such 
 a church.' Cotton Mather said of them that he could not learn they 
 " were agreed or any one principal so much as this, that they were to 
 give one another no disturbance in the exercise of religion."* They 
 were stigmatized by their opponents, as also they " that crieth out much 
 against them that putteth people to death for witches."" At this time 
 " all professed to believe in witchcraft, excepting only those few enlight- 
 ened philosophers who were branded as impious atheists.'" 
 
 Gorton's advanced position upon the question of human slavery is 
 here worthy of attention. It superseded by about one hundred years 
 
 ^'Incorruptible Key, Rhode Island, 1645, Introduction. Samuel Gorton, Preston & 
 Rounds, Publishers, Providence. 'Fuller's Hist. Warwick, 298. 
 
 'Dr. Henry E. Turner. 'Not until about fifty years after Gorton's 
 
 death, in about 1725, was any denominational society, and that the Baptist, 
 able to organize a church nt \Varwick. ''Cotton Matlier in Maq-nali, ii, 
 
 449. 'Wm. Arnold's letter, ante p. 'Pref. to OfFor's Ed. 
 
 Increase Mather's Remarkable Providences. 'Dorr's Controversies with 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 149 
 
 other like legislation upon the subject. His treatment of the Quakers 
 also may be alluded to as an illustration of his practical love of freedom. 
 Although differing with them and strenuously opposing what he con- 
 ceived to be their errors, he defended their rights and gladly gave them 
 shelter. 
 
 "After the venerable founder of Providence," says his biographer, 
 " no man was more instrumental in establishing the foundation of equal 
 civil rights and soul liberty in Rhode Island than Samuel Gorton." In 
 his letter to Clark for presentation to the Lord Protector, Cromwell, 
 he writes " to plead our cause in such sort as we may not be compelled 
 to exercise any civil power over men's consciences, so long as human 
 orders in point of civility are not corrupted and violated." 
 
 He was possessed of more literary education than any of the founders 
 save Williams. In law and politics he understood his rights better than 
 did the Elders and Magistrates of Massachusetts; and he at all times 
 showed the courage of his convictions, and he appeared to have asserted 
 no propositions which he could not legally maintain.' Samuel G. Arnold 
 regarded him as " one of the most remarkable men who ever lived.' 
 His astuteness of mind and Biblical learning made him a formidable 
 opponent of the Puritan heirarchy. By his bold example, by his written 
 and spoken word he did much that should make his name ever freshly 
 remembered by the friends of civil and religious liberty throughout 
 the wide world.* 
 
 Dr. Janes says : " No portrait or adequate description of this tor- 
 gotten Founder of our Liberties has been handed down to our time. 
 The writer of his brief biography tells us that ' his bearing was court- 
 eous, his feelings lively, his mind vigorous and well informed.' From 
 such' hints as we may obtain from various sources we may picture him 
 as a man of tall stature, marked features and gentlemanly address; 
 blue-eyed — a typical Saxon; of an earnest and sympathetic nature; 
 persuasive of speech in conversation and exhortation, and freely empha- 
 sizing his thoughts with appropriate gestures; quick to resent injustic, 
 and bold in his denunciation of wrong-doers ; more eloquent and effective 
 in his spontaneous utterances and unstudied efforts than in the formal 
 and labored style of his written treatise." 
 
 Judge Brayton says he was "a man of independent spirit, having a 
 character for truth and honesty, for morality, for courtesy to all and 
 for Christian charity; a quick sense of justice, earnest in the defense 
 of the rights of others as well as of himself, whose boast it was that 
 he never laid his hands in violence upon any human being, not even 
 upon his children." 
 
 Bryant says he was sympathetic and affectionate, and with all he was 
 frank and above suspicion, his purity and sincerity unquestioned. 
 
 The Boston Transcript in a recent article refers to him as " the sturdy 
 Rhode Islander" and "a noble-minded patriot and thinker."^ No leader 
 of any of the reform movements has inspired his followers with a higher 
 degree of trust, confidence and affection. 
 
 Chief Justice Durfee, in a discoure before the Rhode Island Historical 
 Society, said: "Samuel Gorton, the chief man of the settlement of 
 Shawomet, was a person of the most distinctive originality of character. 
 He was a man of deep, strong feeling, keenly alive to every injury, 
 though inflicted on the humblest of God's creatures. He was a great 
 lover of soul liberty and hater of all shams. He was a learned map, 
 self-educated, studious, comtemplative. a profound thinker, who, in 
 his spiritual meditation amid ancient Warwick's primeval groves, wan- 
 
 the Freeholders. 'John M. Mackey. 'John M. Mackey. 
 
150 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 dered off into infinite and eternal realities, forgetful of earth and all 
 earthly relations. He did indeed clothe his thoughts at times in clouds, 
 but then it was because they were too large for any other garment. 
 No one, who shall rivet his attention upon them, shall fail to catch 
 some glimpse of giant limb and joint and have some dim conception of 
 the colossal form that is enshrouded within the mystic envelopment. 
 Yet in common life no one was more plain, simple and unaffected than 
 Gorton. That he was courteous, affable and eloquent his very enemies 
 admit, and even grieviously complain of his seducing language. He 
 was a man of courage, and, when aroused, no hero of the Iliad ever 
 breathed language more impassioned or effective. Nothing is more 
 probable than that such a man, in the presence of the Massachusetts 
 Magistrates, felt his superiority and moved and spoke with somewhat 
 more freedom than they deemed suited to their dignity. Far more 
 sinned against than sinning, he bore adversity with heroic fortitude; 
 and if he did not conquer, he yet finally baffled every effort of his 
 enemies. The misfortunes and annoyances to which he was subjected 
 exceeded in severity and duration that of any other of the prominent 
 settlers of the colony, and through it all he bore himself in a manner 
 that commands our admiration." 
 
 The house that Gorton erected, and where he lived the nine months 
 before he was taken captive to Boston, is supposed to have been shortly 
 after destroyed. The house which he, upon his return from England 
 and return to Warwick in 1648, erected and in which he lived until the 
 King Philip's war in 1675, was, with every other there, destroyed. The 
 house built and occupied by him during the few summer months between 
 the time of his last return there and his death was about two miles 
 distant from the first-mentioned spot. It lay at the head of a small 
 cove which winds its way through pleasant meadows, a little distance 
 inland from what was formerly called Cowesett, now Greenwich Bay. 
 The house faced the water and had a southwestern exposure, whereby 
 it was fanned in summer by refreshing breezes from the sea and was 
 visited in winter by the warm air, fabled to blow from the Indian 
 heaven. In other directions gently sloping hills sheltered it from tb.e 
 inclemencies of a northern climate; a prattling brook, still skirted with 
 the rem.ains of ancient elms, ran hard by, down the gradual declivity 
 into the cove; and on both sides were spread out ample fields, the 
 fertility of whose soil must have annually clothed them with variegated 
 beauty, and the golden rewards of labor. No fairer spot can be found 
 upr-n the Narra.q-ansett shores; none within whose quiet, sunny solitude 
 the founder of Shawomet could better have spent the tranquil evening 
 of his eventful and much harrassed life. Also upon the rising ground 
 in the vicinity his aged eyes were often gladdened with the sight of 
 the pleasant shores and placid waters of the bay and its numerous 
 islands, of Mount Hope in the distance, of the heights of Providence 
 in the north, and of the line of ocean glittering in sunlight on the 
 southern horizon. Tradition says that part of the timbers and stone 
 of Gorton's house are still preserved in the dwelling which stands near 
 the site of the ancient household, and which is now inhabited by some 
 of his descendants. It also points to the family burying-ground, lying 
 a short distance in the rear of the house, as the place, " now without 
 overarching tree or mound," where the hoary patriarch was interred. 
 But the exact spot where his ashes repose is marked by no pious stone 
 or monumental marble. Yet if without other honors, may it at least 
 ever be their privilege to sleep beneath the green sward of a free 
 State.* 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 The first published account of the treatment of Gorton while on the 
 island was by an English clergyman named Lechford, who passed some 
 time in Massachusetts, but not in Rhode Island, and who, in the company 
 of Hugh Peters, Thomas Weld, William Hibbins and John Win- 
 throp, Jr., all Massachusetts agents, on August 3d, 1641, "loosed from 
 Boston," in his book " Plain Dealings," issued from London, Eng., 
 November i6th, 1641, in the words following: "There lately they 
 whipped one Master Gorton, a grave man, for denying their power and 
 abusing some of their Magistrates with uncivil terms. The Governor, 
 Master Coddington, saying^ in court, you that are for the King lay hold 
 on Gorton, and he again on the other side called forth, all you that 
 are for the King lay hold on Coddington. Whereupon Gorton was 
 banished from the island; so with his wife and children he went to 
 Providence." On the page with this he tells us that deer in New 
 England are " as big as some lions," that " barley there is inferior to 
 the product in England," and that "beans also there are very good." 
 " In many passages," writes Cotton, " Plain Dealings might be called 
 false and fraudulent;" and he probably does not mean the ones refer- 
 ring to the Massachusetts products. [3d Series Mass. Collection, iii, 
 55, 397; Cotton's Wavs of Cong. Churches Cleared, 71; Narragansett 
 Club Papers, ii, 219,' note.] The second published account was by 
 Winslow in 1646-7 in that part of his book Winthrop's Book of News 
 in full, edited and improved. It is the anonymous account. The book 
 contains also a copy of William Arnold's letter, a copy of Benedict 
 Arnold's petition, a copy of the alleged letter of Roger Williams, and 
 a copy of the paper drawn up for Winslow's use m England, called 
 " The sum of the presentment of the grand jury " against Gorton, 
 by Coddington. A portion of what appears to have been Wmthrops 
 Book of News, including copies of portions of the Island Records which 
 were " over the secretary's hand," and Coddington's letter naming some 
 of the messengers who secured them, and calling attention to what 
 Peters had written in, was published by Charles Dean, so lately as 
 i8so with a companion article by himself, in which he unfairly ignores 
 the fact that Gorton was one of the leaders and Magistrate m the 
 Portsmouth government in 1639 and was still a Magistrate m 1644-1645 
 when Brown visited him. Dean also ignores the official records of 
 certain events that are proof contrary to the drift of his reasoning. 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 The paper " The sum of the presentment of the grand jury " was a 
 fabulous writing of Coddington's, conceived by him in spite and for 
 Winthrop's and Winslow's use to aid them in their fight against Gorton 
 and the Williams charter in England. There is not any mention of a 
 trial verdict, sentence or punishment of Gorton at any time in the 
 records or in the copies of them which Coddington " furnished over the 
 secretary's hand" to Winthrop and his agents. Up to the time of 
 Coddington's reassumption of rule at Portsmouth, himself, the Judge 
 and the Elders decided all complaints; he had no grand jury or petit 
 jury [Mar. 10-12, 163Q-40; July, 1640; R. I. Reeds., i. 98, 103.] Under 
 Hutchinson's government, the first to inaugurate regular courts, dispense 
 with Elders and provide a jury, the Governor and his Assistants decided 
 whether any complaints should be brought to the public courts. [Apr. 
 
 151 
 
152 LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL GORTON. 
 
 30, 1639; Rec. i, 71.] Upon Coddington's reassumption he and his 
 Elders ordered his courts to consist of Magistrates and jury, as organ- 
 ized by the Hutchinson government [Rec. i, 103], and further following 
 their example, dropped the titles of Judge and Elders for that of Gov- 
 ernor and Assistants invested with the office of Justice of the Peace, 
 according to the law " that the Hutchinson government had adopted " 
 [Rec. i, 100, loi]; but later Coddington and his court, heedless of the 
 law and their agreement, ordered their court (Mar. 16-17, 1641-2) "to 
 be held according to the ancient form and custom [Ante, p. — ], former 
 orders contrary herewith made void," and Coddington again attempted 
 with Elders to call any court either general or sessions. [Rec. i, 123.] 
 
 Under Coddington the Sergeant [Rec. i, 65] or Secretary [Rec. i, 
 95, 96] was required to receive complaints and commend them to the 
 Judge and Elders [Jan. 29, 1639-40; Rec. i, 103, 106, 124] ; and Codding- 
 ton disposed with even this shortly. [Rec. i, iii, 123.] No such form 
 as a Presentment or Indictment was practiced or understood at this 
 time — the summer of 1640 — by Coddington and his court on Aquidneck 
 Island under the Pentateuchal system. There were Coroners and 
 Inquest Juries appointed to inquire into the manner of violent death ; 
 but no court practice or provision for a Grand Jury for Indictment or the 
 finding of a bill of particulars of complaints against the offenders to 
 be presented to the court with the offenders for trial. The regular 
 method of procedure was much like that before a Justice of the Peace 
 or our Police Courts to-day, and this was all that was required in that 
 sparsely settled village of less than seventy-five male inhabitants, where 
 the court was comfortably held in the small room of some settler's 
 little log dwelling. In Connecticut, while trial by jury was practiced 
 early [Conn. Rec. i, 84, 90], the Grand Jury for Indictment was not 
 adopted till September, 1643 [Conn. Rec. i, 91, 93], and there was no 
 Grand Jury for Indictment in Rhode Island until the adoption of the 
 code for the government under the 1643-4 charter. The minutes of 
 appointments of some kind are inserted with the erroneous editorial date 
 of 1643 iri the Bartlett records. They don't belong there; the men 
 named in the appointments were not residents or freemen at that time, 
 and not till many years after. The correct time and date of this was 
 not before the Code, and after this not until in 1648 was the first Grand 
 Jury for indictment called or required. [May and June, 1648; Rec. i, 
 209, 211.] With the Code was the process first provided that an accused 
 or suspected person should be the subject of an inquest by a Grand 
 Jury or a bill of counts of Indictment presented to the court for his 
 trial. 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 From the time of Samuel Gorton's return from England to the colony, 
 1648, until the time when Newport, outstripping the other towns in 
 population and political influence, controlled the affairs of the colony, 
 the records of his public life [even without the records of his Presi- 
 dential term, 1651, which records were destroyed] show that there 
 was no man in the colony more popular or given more honor, and that 
 he was habitually placed on important legislative Committees, serving 
 on more of them than any other person, where a knowledge of law and 
 superior literary skill was required. The compiler of the printed 
 Colonies Records has indexed to Gorton but a fraction of the Committees 
 on which the records show he served, while others who the records show 
 served on less than he are indexed on many more; and, too, the favored 
 ones have their Committees named, while if they are indexed to Gorton 
 
PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 153 
 
 at all they are indexed by only the meaningless numerals of the page. 
 Others on Committee with Gorton and to write to Cromwell and Clark 
 are indexed to indicate it, while Gorton is not; and, agam, where Gorton 
 is on Committee to write to Clark, he is not indexed on it at all. Begin- 
 ning with Gorton's and Williams' appointment on Committee to write 
 letters to Cromwell and Clark [beginning here because the records of 
 Gorton's services preceding this are too nearly all destroyed to fairly 
 compare with his contemporaries' records] from this appointment. 
 Vol. i, p. 321, to the end of the volume, Gorton served on fourteen 
 Comniittees, while nine were the most upon which service was rendered 
 by the next most popular citizen. These are but a few of the many 
 omissions of the records' compilers. The living disloyal ones of the 
 State are, as of old, natural policticians, and succeed in obtaining places 
 on the Committees selected for public work. The General Assembly 
 recently printed, at the cost to the State, a pamphlet setting forth that 
 Benedict Arnold, not Roger Williams, was the author of Sou Liberty, 
 r Report, p. 30, 1901; Reply, Book Notes, Vol. 20, No. 7.] Will some 
 such loyal State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation man as 
 were Judge Brayton, Judge Staples and Judge Durfee, and are William 
 D Ely and Sidney S. Rider, write a history of the State. No proper 
 truthful history of the State has ever been published. It is in justice 
 due from the Legislature to its people that it places in all the important 
 libraries of the United States a proper history of the State; tor at 
 this late day few libraries contain any other books of this history 
 than those by the old antagonistic writers. 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 The Deeds usually referred to as Wills : . t ,. 
 
 I Samuel Gorton, with respect to the great affection I bear to my son- 
 in-laws and daughters, do fully give to them all right, etc in that neck 
 of land in Narragansett which was given unto Mr. Randall Holden and 
 myself and do grant unto son Daniel Cole and daughter Maher one- 
 sixth part (Also one-sixth) to son John Sanford and daughter Mary, 
 son William Mace and daughter Sarah, son John Warner and daughter 
 Anna son John Crandall and daughter Elizabeth, son Benjamin Barton 
 and daughter Susannah, the bounds thereof being more largely ex- 
 plained in the deed bearing date May 27, 1659. ^ 
 
 Signed and sealed November 2-], 1677, in Warwick. 
 
 Witnesses. 
 
 JOHN GREENE, Assistant, 
 
 RANDALL HOULDON, ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ 3^ 
 
 For good will, etc.-To son Samuel Gorton, Jr., being enlarged the 
 more upon my mind by reason of his being instrumentally a g^eat sup- 
 port un?o me to help bring up my family when my ^^-^^l^^^^rHrhf; 
 etc • unto whom also I commit the care of my beloved wife during her 
 widowhood, if she live to be a widow, and appoint that she shall be 
 maintained &c.; also to have somewhat convenient for recreation in 
 
154 PROVIDENCE AND RHODE ISLAND PLANTATIONS. 
 
 case she desire to visit her friends . . in consideration of the prem- 
 ises, to said son Samuel all right to my house and lot in Warwick, 
 with appurtenances ; and, further, my right in township of Warwick . . 
 and a patch of marsh which is mine, for maintaining the widow Eliza- 
 beth Moore in her lifetime and for the charges of her decent burial. 
 Also to son Samuel aforesaid one-third of my right of purchase be- 
 yond township of Warwick, having given other two-thirds to sons John 
 and Benjamin. 
 
 I freely pass over all said lands as specified in the premises unto said 
 son Samuel as well as the goods, moveables and chattels, and also my 
 Library, together with all my deeds and writings. 
 
 In witness whereof, etc., I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 
 27th day of November, 1677, Warwick. 
 
 SAMUEL GORTON [L. S.]. 
 
 Signed and sealed in presence of 
 JOHN GREENE, Assistant. 
 RANDALL HOULDON. 
 
 THE ONLY HOUSE STANDING IN WARWICK IN 1677 
 
 The stone house and fortress, built in 1649, by President John Smith. It, after his death in 1664, 
 passed from his widow's family, the Sweets, to Thomas Greene, who occupied it, and whose descend- 
 ants lived in it for many generations, and who were from this styled the Stone Castle Greenes. This 
 house and the house of Samuel Gorton which was built by him during the summer of 1677, were probably 
 the only completed houses that were in Warwick at the time of Samuel Gorton's death, in Decem- 
 ber. 1677. 
 
OCT 7 
 
 1901 
 
1%'^'^ 
 
 
 ; /,. 
 
 
 ^A^ 
 
 v^-^ 
 
 
 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 0014 111 1437 ^