uo- 
 
 
THE 
 
 Narragansett Friends' 
 Meeting 
 
 IN THE XVIII CENTURY 
 
 WITH A CHAPTER ON QUAKER BEGINNINGS 
 IN RHODE ISLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 CAROLINE HAZARD 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 ftitocrsibc prcssf, Camfori&ge 
 1900 
 
COFYRIGHT, 1899, BY CAROLINE HAZARD 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS little book has grown from a paper 
 read before the Rhode Island Historical 
 Society in September, 1894. In present- 
 ing it I mentioned the name of my master, 
 the late Professor Diman, to whose inspir- 
 ing teaching and example I owe an increas- 
 ing debt of gratitude. And so I want to 
 write his name here, knowing that his train- 
 ing is an abiding force in the lives of his 
 pupils. 
 
 C. H. 
 
 OAKWOODS IN PEACE DALE, R. I. 
 September 25, 1899. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Pag* 
 
 CHAPTER I. QUAKER BEGINNINGS IN RHODE 
 ISLAND 3 
 
 Correspondence with Massachusetts. The ar- 
 rival of the Woodhouse at Newport. Quakers 
 driven from Massachusetts. Cruel laws. Mary 
 Dyer and her companions. Her sentence and re- 
 prieve. Her death. 
 
 CHAPTER II. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 
 SOUTH KINGSTOWN MONTHLY MEETING ... 41 
 
 Disturbed conditions in Rhode Island. Visit 
 of George Fox. The Greenwich meeting. The 
 meeting divided. 
 
 CHAPTER III. THE MEETING-HOUSES ... 59 
 
 The records. The "Old Meeting-house." 
 The Clerk and Treasurer. Westerly Meeting- 
 houses. Matunuck Meeting-house. Richmond 
 Meeting-house. Repairs and accounts. Youths' 
 meetings. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 77 
 
 Peter Davis. Stephen Hoxsie. Peleg Peck- 
 ham. Thomas Hazard. The Overseers and 
 Queries. 
 
 CHAPTER V. THE WORK OF THE MEETING . 95 
 
 Surrounding churches. Friends' discipline. 
 New Lights. Temperance: Fighting. Suing 
 at law. Debtors. Traveling. 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI. THE WOMEN'S MEETING . . .117 
 
 Clerks of the Women's meeting. Preaching 
 Friends. Patience Greene. Marriages with 
 dancing and vain mirth. Marriage in shifts. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. SLAVERY 139 
 
 John Woolman. Testimony of Richard Smith 
 in 1757. The Rathbun case. Slavery in the 
 Women's meeting. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. THE REVOLUTION 159 
 
 Jeffrey Watson's diary. Nailor Tom's diary. 
 Sufferings by war. Good government. Results 
 of the meeting. 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS IN RHODE 
 ISLAND 
 
 
Aquidneck's isle, Nantucket's lonely shores, 
 And Indian-haunted Narragansett saw 
 The way-worn travellers round their camp-fire draw, 
 
 Or heard the plashing of their weary oars. 
 
 And every place whereon they rested grew 
 Happier for pure and gracious womanhood, 
 And men whose names for stainless honor stood, 
 
 Founders of states and rulers wise and true. 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
 THE first mention of Quakers in the re- 
 cords of the Colony of Rhode Island occurs 
 in the year 1657, when a letter arrived from 
 the commissioners of the United Colonies 
 addressed to the governor of Rhode Island : 
 The commiffioners being informed that 
 divers Quakers are arrived this summer 
 at Rode Ifland and entertained there, 
 which may prove dangerous to the Col- 
 lonies, thought meet to manifeft theire 
 minds to the Governor there as follow- 
 eth: 
 
 GENT: We suppofe you have un- 
 derftood that the laft yeare a companie of 
 Quakers arived at Bofton vpon noe other 
 account than to difperfe theire pernicious 
 
4 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 opinions had they not been prevented by 
 the prudent care of that Government, . . . 
 whoe vpon that occafion commended it to 
 the General Courts of the United Collon- 
 ies that all Quakers Ranters & such no- 
 torious heretiques might be prohibited 
 coming amongft vs. 1 
 
 The " prudent care " of the authorities 
 of Boston and the Bay towns is well known. 
 Fines, imprisonment, and whipping at the 
 cart's tail all fell within the limits of pru- 
 dence ; and, not content with care for their 
 own colony, the letter goes on to say : 
 
 We thinke noe care too great to pre- 
 ferve us from such a peft, the contagion 
 whereof (if received) within youer Col- 
 lonie were dangerous, &c, to be defused 
 to the other by means of the intercourfe 
 especially to the place of trade amongfl 
 us Wee therefore make it our requelt 
 that you, as well as the reft of the Col- 
 lonies take such order herein that youre 
 naighbours may be freed from that dan- 
 ger ; that you remove thofe Quakers that 
 have been receaved, and for the future 
 prohibite theire cominge amongfl you. 2 
 
 1 R. I. C. R., vol. i. p. 374- 
 
 2 R. I. C. R., vol. i. p. 374-375- 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 5 
 
 This letter is dated Boston, September 
 12, 1657, and signed "Simon Bradstreet, 
 president." Mr. Bartlett, the learned com- 
 piler of the Rhode Island Colonial Records, 
 points out that while the commissioners 
 demanded the expulsion of Quakers from 
 Rhode Island, the Massachusetts govern- 
 ment were sending Quakers into the col- 
 ony, as in the case of Humphrey Norton. 
 
 The Quakers who caused this concern of 
 mind to the honorable commissioners had 
 come to Aquidneck from England, and had 
 been kindly received. Indeed, they could 
 hardly have found a place in the world of 
 that day where more people, by inheritance 
 and tradition, would have been inclined to 
 welcome them. The town of Newport was s 
 not yet twenty years old, being an offshoot 
 from the first settlement on the island at 
 Portsmouth. It was Portsmouth which gave 
 Mrs. Hutchinson an asylum when her teach- 
 ing had become too mystical for the rigid 
 theology of Boston. " With her," says Pro- 
 fessor Diman, " religion was less a creed 
 than an inner experience; to her enthusi- 
 astic faith, the Holy Ghost seemed actually 
 to unite itself with the soul of the justified 
 person." * Nicholas Easton, who built the 
 
 1 Sir Henry Vane, J. L. Diman, Orations and Essays. 
 
6 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS 1 MEETING 
 
 first house at Newport, seems to have shared 
 her beliefs, though doubtless with differ- 
 ences, for Rhode Island soon became 
 famous for its divergence of opinion. Ac- 
 cording to Winthrop, he was " a man very 
 bold, though ignorant," and much exercised 
 on the question of man's will and God's 
 sovereignty. He maintained " that man 
 has no power or will of himfelf, but as he is 
 acted upon by God. Being shown what 
 blasphemous confequence would follow here- 
 vpon, they profeffed to abhor the confe- 
 quences, but Hill defended the proportions 
 which," Winthrop adds, " difcovered their 
 ignorance." ] Samuel Gorton, also a mystic, 
 had been found even too mystical for the 
 company on the island, and, after a short 
 and troublous sojourn at Portsmouth, be- 
 took himself and his doctrines across the 
 Bay, where he founded Warwick. So the 
 spiritual atmosphere of the island was pre- 
 pared for the arrival of Friends in 1657 far 
 more than any of the other settlements 
 could have been. 
 
 The reply of the colony of Rhode Island 
 to the letter of the commissioners shows the 
 curious mixture of liberality and prejudice 
 
 1 Arnold's History of Rhode Island, p. 152. 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 7 
 
 characteristic of the founders. Benedict 
 Arnold was president of the colony, and he, 
 with William Baulston, Randall Houlden, 
 as he writes his name, Arthur Fenner and 
 William Field, sign the very interesting 
 letter which was sent in reply, dated Octo- 
 ber 13, 1657: 
 
 Our defires are, they declare, in all 
 things poffible, to purfue after and keep 
 fayre and loveinge correfpondence and 
 entercourfe with all the collonys, and with 
 all our countrymen in New England, . . . 
 by giving juftice to any that demand it 
 among us, and by returning fuch as make 
 efcape from you, or from other colonys, 
 being fuch as fly from the hands of juf- 
 tice for matters of crime done or 
 committed amongft you, &c. And as 
 concerning thefe quakers (so called) which 
 are now amongft us, we have no law 
 among us whereby to punifh any for only 
 declaring by words, &c, theire mindes and 
 underftandings concerning the things 
 and ways of God as to falvation and an 
 eternal condition. 
 
 Here we have a distinct declaration of 
 the limits of the civil power, a declaration 
 as far in advance of the times as Roger 
 
8 NARRAGANSETT FRIEND? MEETING 
 
 Williams himself, and breathing his spirit, 
 if not actually inspired by him. And yet, 
 immediately following this noble sentence, 
 the letter continues in the spirit of its own 
 day : 
 
 And, moreover, we find that in thofe 
 places where thefe people aforefaid in this 
 coloney are moil of all suffered to declare 
 themfelves freely, and are only oppofed 
 by arguments in difcourfe, there they leaft 
 of all defire to come, and we are informed 
 that they begin to loath this place, for 
 that they are not oppofed by the civill 
 authority, but with all patience and meek- 
 nefs are suffered to fay over their pre- 
 tended revelations and admonitions, nor 
 are they like or able to gain many more 
 to their way . . . and yet we conceive 
 that their doctrines tend to very abfolute 
 cutting downe and overturninge religious 
 and civill government among men if gen- 
 erally received. 
 
 This letter was addressed " to the much 
 honoured the General Court sitting at Bos- 
 ton for the Collony of Maffachusetts." 1 
 Thus, while agreeing with the Massachu- 
 setts authorities as to the evil influence of 
 1 R. i. c. R., vol. i. p. 378. 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 9 
 
 the Quakers, the Rhode Island men held 
 fast to their principle of religious liberty. 
 Six months later the question was taken up 
 by the general assembly sitting at Ports- 
 mouth, and a letter was sent " To the much 
 honored John Endicott, Governor of the 
 Massachusetts," which is even more explicit. 
 Quakers, this letter declares, " are generally 
 conceived pernicious, either intentionally, 
 or at least wise in efect, even to the cor- 
 ruptinge of good manners and difturbinge 
 the common peace and focieties of the 
 places where they arife or refort unto," etc. 
 
 " Now, whereas freedom of different con- 
 fciences, to be protected from inforcements 
 was the principle ground of our Charter 
 both with respect to our humble fute for 
 it, as alfo to the true intent of the Honor- 
 able and renowned parleiment of England 
 in grantinge of the same to us ; which free- 
 dom we still prize as the greatefl hapiness 
 that men can pofefs in this world : 
 
 " Therefore we shall for the prefervation 
 of our civill peace and order the more feri- 
 ously take notice," the letter continues, to 
 have Quakers conform in all civil things, 
 " as traynings, watchings and such other 
 ingadgements," and will inquire from Eng- 
 
10 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 land as to a proper course to pursue, being 
 informed that many Quakers are " suffered 
 to live in England, yea, even in the heart 
 of the nation." John Sandford, clerk of the 
 assembly, signs this letter, but here again 
 the spirit, if not the hand, of Roger Wil- 
 liams is evident. No one could prize more 
 than he the "freedom of different con- 
 fciences," and no one was more ready to 
 extend this " greater! hapiness that men 
 can pofefs in this world " to others. 
 
 The Quakers who were the subjects of 
 these letters from Massachusetts arrived at 
 Newport in the little ship Woodhouse, 
 Robert Fowler master, during the summer 
 of I657. 1 He was a North of England man, 
 and, while building his ship, became con- 
 vinced, and had a divine intimation, that the 
 ship he was then building should be de- 
 voted to the use of the society he had 
 joined. In July of the previous year, 
 (1656), Mary Fisher and Anne Austin " ar- 
 rived in the road before Boston before ever 
 a law was made there against Quakers," 
 Sewel says, " and yet they were very ill 
 treated." They were searched before they 
 landed, and about one hundred books taken 
 
 1 Appendix : A Quaker's Sea Journal 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS II 
 
 from their trunks and chests and burned by 
 the hangman. They were then committed 
 to jail as Quakers, because one of them in 
 speaking to the deputy governor, Richard 
 Bellingham, said thee instead of you, which 
 he asserted was proof enough. They were 
 stripped and searched under pretence of 
 finding some evidence of witchcraft, and 
 kept without light, the windows being 
 boarded up to prevent any communication 
 with them. Nor was any food provided for 
 them till Nicholas Upsal " was so concerned 
 about it (liberty being denied to send them 
 provisions) that he purchased it of the jailor 
 at the rate of five shillings a week, lest they 
 should have starved." After five weeks of 
 this treatment, a shipmaster was bound in 
 one hundred pounds' bond to carry them 
 back to England^ and the jailor kept their 
 beds and their Bibles for his fee. Scarcely 
 a month after the arrival of these two fear- 
 less women, eight more Friends arrived, and 
 were treated in the same manner, and sent 
 back after eleven weeks in the Boston jail. 1 
 It was at this juncture that Robert Fow- 
 ler came to London with his offer of the 
 new ship, and found five of the Friends who 
 
 1 Sewel's History ', vol. i. pp. 210, 211. 
 
12 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 had been sent back from Boston determined 
 to go once more. Six other Friends joined 
 them, and the little company made ready 
 to sail from Southampton. The captain's 
 mind almost failed him, but, encouraged by 
 George Fox, he writes : " I received the 
 Lord's servants on board, who came with 
 them, with a mighty hand and an out- 
 stretched arm." Fowler has left an account 
 of this voyage, called " A True Relation of 
 the Voyage undertaken by me, Robert Fow- 
 ler, with my small veffel called the ' Wood- 
 houfe;' but performed by the Lord, like 
 as he did Noah's Ark, wherein he shut up 
 a few righteous perfons, and landed them 
 safe even at the hill of Ararat." Besides 
 Fowler, the master, the crew consisted of 
 only two men and three boys, and he de- 
 clares that they made none of the usual 
 observations, but waited daily upon the 
 Lord, for " we see the Lord leading our 
 veffel even as it were a man leading a horse 
 by the head." The voyage took two months, 
 and our respect for Fowler's seamanship is 
 justified by the fact that New Amsterdam 
 was the first port they sighted. Here they 
 landed five passengers, while with the re- 
 maining six the Woodhouse proceeded to 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 13 
 
 Rhode Island, or, as we should now say, 
 Newport, where " we were received with 
 much joy of heart," one of the Friends 
 writes. 
 
 Mary Clark was one of these passengers, 
 who had left her husband, a merchant 
 tailor in London, with her children, and 
 went to Boston " to warn these persecutors 
 to desist from their iniquity ; but after she 
 had delivered her message, she was unmer- 
 cifully rewarded with twenty stripes of a 
 whip with three cords, on her naked back, 
 and detained prisoner about twelve weeks 
 in the winter season. The cords of these 
 whips," Sewel adds, " were commonly as 
 thick as a man's little finger, having each 
 some knots at the end ; and the stick was 
 sometimes so long that the hangman made 
 use of both his hands to strike the harder." 
 
 Christopher Holder and John Copeland, 
 passengers on the Woodhouse, who had 
 been banished from Boston the previous 
 year, also pushed their way into the colony. 
 Holder endeavored to speak a few words at 
 Salem " after the priest was done," but was 
 hauled out of church by the hair of his 
 head, and a glove and handkerchief thrust 
 into his mouth. From Salem he was sent 
 
14 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 to Boston, where whipping and cruel im- 
 prisonment awaited him. 
 
 Thus early did the passengers of the 
 Woodhouse bear testimony against the ty- 
 rannical laws in the Massachusetts. 
 
 Mary Fisher, one of the two first Friends 
 who came, had an experience of more Chris- 
 tian treatment from the Mohammedan sul- 
 tan a few years later, when in 1660 she 
 journeyed in the East, and at Adrianople 
 went " alone into the camp and got some- 
 body to go to the tent of the grand vizier 
 to tell him an English woman was come 
 who had something to declare from the 
 great God to the sultan." He procured an 
 audience for her the next morning, and 
 coming to the camp alone as before, she 
 was received as became an ambassador. 
 She hesitated to speak, " mightily ponder- 
 ing what she might say," when the sultan 
 inquired " if she desired that any might go 
 aside," and when she answered no, " bade 
 her speak the word of the Lord to them 
 and not to fear, for they had good hearts 
 and could hear it." The Turks listened 
 with respect till she had done, and the sul- 
 tan said she had spoken the truth. He de- 
 sired her to stay in the country, " saying 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 1 5 
 
 that they could not but respect such a one 
 as should take so much pains to come to 
 them so far as from England with a mes- 
 sage from the Lord God." He offered her 
 a guard to conduct her to Constantinople, 
 which she refused, though the sultan pressed 
 it upon her, saying it was in respect to her, 
 for he would not she should come to the 
 least hurt in his dominions. But she per- 
 sisted in declining it, and arrived in Con- 
 stantinople " without the least hurt or scoff," 
 and returned safe to England. 1 
 
 What a contrast to the return to England 
 from New England, only four years before, 
 after public whipping and untold indignities, 
 and all manner of hardship ! 
 
 Sarah Gibbons and Dorothy Waugh,also 
 of the Woodhouse company, bore public 
 testimony in Boston, and it was of William 
 Brand, of that same heroic company, that 
 John Norton said, when he lay almost dead 
 after repeated and cruel whippings, " W. 
 Brand endeavored to beat our gospel ordi- 
 nances black and blue, if then he be beaten 
 black and blue it is but just upon him; and 
 I will appear in his behalf that did so." 
 This Norton added because the people were 
 
 1 Sewel's History, vol. i. p. 328. 
 
16 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 exasperated at this cruelty, and " caused 
 such a cry that the governor sent his sur- 
 geon to the prison to see what might be 
 done." 1 
 
 Sewel's History, in which these things are 
 recorded, was written by a Dutchman, a 
 learned Quaker of Amsterdam, whose grand- 
 father was one of the Englishmen who left 
 home for conscience' sake. His knowledge 
 of Greek, Latin, English, French, and High 
 Dutch was acquired " while throwing the 
 shuttle in the loom, during his apprentice- 
 ship to a stuff maker." He wrote a diction- 
 ary and grammar of his own language, and 
 translated many treatises. His " History of 
 the Rise, Increase and Progress of the 
 Christian People called Quakers " was writ- 
 ten in Low Dutch, and translated by him- 
 self into English. The first English edition 
 was published in 1722 in London. " I do 
 not pretend to elegancy in the English 
 tongue," he says, u for being a foreigner and 
 never having been in England but about 
 the space of ten months, and that nearly 
 fifty years ago, it ought not to be expected 
 that I should write English so well as 
 Dutch, my native tongue." But his Eng- 
 
 1 Sewel, History, vol. i. p. 254. 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS I/ 
 
 lish needs little apology. It is direct, sim- 
 ple, and forcible, perhaps far better than if 
 he had attempted the " elegancy " of his 
 time. The documents he has preserved 
 are invaluable, and his own comments so 
 apposite that his work is the standard au- 
 thority to-day on the history of Friends, 
 no less than when it was published. Long- 
 fellow studied it so closely for his New 
 England Tragedy of John Endicott, that 
 whole passages are simply paraphrases from 
 Sewel, as, for instance, this speech of Nor- 
 ton's : 
 
 " Now hear me, 
 
 This William Brand of yours has tried to beat 
 Our Gospel Ordinances black and blue ; 
 And, if he has been beaten in like manner, 
 It is but justice, and I will appear 
 In his behalf that did so." 
 
 The zeal of Endicott, and " priest Nor- 
 ton," as Sewel calls him, for the suppression 
 of heresy, is too well known to require set- 
 ting forth in this place. It must be re- 
 membered what times they lived in, and 
 the fact that their theology practically made 
 the world, not God's world, but the devil's. 
 Thus many seriously believed that, in coming 
 to a new country inhabited by heathen, they 
 were come to the territory of Satan, and 
 
1 8 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS 1 MEETING 
 
 consequently had to fight the powers of 
 darkness with every weapon possible. The 
 laws of the colony of New Plymouth con- 
 tain among the " offences capitall," under 
 which head wilful murder, burning of 
 houses and ships, with gross offences against 
 morality, are classed, an offence which is 
 described as a " Solemn Compaction or con- 
 versing with the divell by way of witchcraft 
 conjuraon or the like." A community 
 which conceived it possible for persons to 
 make this " Solemn Compaction " could not 
 be expected to judge leniently opinions dif- 
 fering from their own. Under the theo- 
 cratic theory of government, the civil arm 
 was bound to attend to morals, and what 
 was a more deadly sin than heresy ? The 
 special offences of the Quakers were set 
 forth in an act made at a General Court 
 held at Boston the 2oth of October, 1658, 
 in which the legislation of two years against 
 the Quakers culminated. Following acts 
 which provided for whipping and the cut- 
 ting off of ears, this act of 1658 provided for 
 the. arrest without warrant of any Quaker 
 by any constable or selectman, who should 
 commit the Quaker to close jail without 
 bail, until the next court, when he should 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 19 
 
 be tried, and, being proved a Quaker, should 
 be banished on pain of death. A legal trial 
 was, by a law made in the same year, ad- 
 judged to be a trial by a court of three 
 magistrates without jury, who had power to 
 hang at pleasure. This law was made by 
 so small a majority, only one vote Sewel 
 says, that the magistrates were constrained 
 to add, " to be tried by special jury." Long- 
 fellow sums up the legislation very accu- 
 rately in " John Endicott " : 
 
 " Whereas a cursed set of Heretics 
 Has lately risen commonly called Quakers, 
 Who take upon themselves to be commissioned 
 Immediately from God, and furthermore 
 Infallibly assisted by the Spirit 
 To write and utter blasphemous opinions, 
 Despising Government and the order of God 
 In church and commonwealth and speaking evil 
 Of Dignities, reproaching and reviling 
 The Magistrates and Ministers, and seeking 
 To turn the people from their faith, and thus 
 Gain proselytes to their pernicious ways ; 
 This court considering the premises, 
 And to prevent like mischief which is wrought 
 By their means in our land, doth hereby order 
 That whatsoever master or commander 
 Of any ship, bark, pink or catch shall bring 
 To any roadstead, harbor, creek or cove 
 Within this jurisdiction any Quakers 
 Or other blasphemous Heretics, shall pay 
 Unto the Treasurer of the Commonwealth 
 One hundred pounds, and in default thereof 
 
20 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 Be put in prison and continue there 
 Till the said sum be satisfied and paid." 
 
 " If any one within this jurisdiction 
 Shall henceforth entertain, or shall conceal 
 Quakers, or other blasphemous Heretics, 
 Knowing them so to be, every such person 
 Shall forfeit to the country forty shillings 
 For each hour's entertainment or concealment, 
 And shall be sent to prison, as aforesaid, 
 Until the forfeiture be wholly paid." 
 
 " And it is further ordered and enacted, 
 If any Quaker, or Quakers, shall presume 
 To come henceforth into this jurisdiction, 
 Every male Quaker for the first offence 
 Shall have one ear cut off ; and shall be kept 
 At labor in the Workhouse till such time 
 As he be sent away at his own charge. 
 And for the repetition of the offence 
 Shall have his other ear cut off, and then 
 Be branded in the palm of his right hand. 
 And every woman Quaker shall be whipt 
 Severely in three towns ; and every Quaker, 
 Or he or she, that shall for a third time 
 Herein again offend, shall have their tongues 
 Bored through with a hot iron, and shall be 
 Sentenced to Banishment on pain of death." 
 
 Nor did these cruel laws end here, for 
 the magistrates were alive to the disap- 
 proval of the larger minded of the people, 
 as Nicholas Upsall, who sent food to the 
 starving Quakeresses, found to his cost. A 
 clause was added for the special benefit of 
 such men. 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 21 
 
 " Every inhabitant of this Jurisdiction 
 Who shall defend the horrible opinions 
 Of Quakers, by denying due respect 
 To equals and superiors, and withdrawing 
 From Church Assemblies, and thereby approving 
 The abusive and destructive practices 
 Of this accursed sect, in opposition 
 To all the orthodox received opinions 
 Of godly men, shall be forthwith committed 
 Unto close prison for one month ; and then 
 Refusing to retract and to reform 
 The opinions as aforesaid, he shall be 
 Sentenced to Banishment on pain of Death. 
 By the Court. Edward Rawson, Secretary." 
 
 Nicholas Upsall could not forbear to pro- 
 test against the early laws, for Longfellow's 
 summary covers two years' legislation, and 
 warned the magistrates, not only of the 
 unreasonableness of their proceedings, but 
 to take care they be not found fighting 
 against God. But this was taken so ill 
 that he was fined, and imprisoned for not 
 coming to church, and finally banished in 
 the winter season. 
 
 " Coming at length to Rhode Island, 
 he met an Indian prince," Sewel says, 
 " who having understood how he had 
 been dealt with, behaved himself very 
 kindly, and told him, if he would live 
 with him, he would make him a warm 
 house, and further said, 'What a God 
 
22 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 have the English, who deal so with one 
 
 another about their God ! ' ' 
 
 Notwithstanding the severity of these 
 laws, or rather because of their severity, 
 Quakers continued to come to Massachu- 
 setts. When the seaboard was closely 
 guarded against them, they found entrance 
 by " a back door," as Edward Rawson, the 
 Secretary of the Colony, declares to the 
 King and Council in 1661. The penalties 
 were proved insufficient " to restrain their 
 impudent and insolent obtrusions," and he 
 goes on to describe the measures taken as 
 " a defence against their impetuous, frantic 
 fury," which " necessitated us to endeavor 
 our security." We have already seen that 
 Rhode Island was the " back door " through 
 which these " malignant promoters of doc- 
 trines directly tending to subvert both 
 church and state " found entrance into the 
 well-guarded colony. The worst of the of- 
 fences against civil government seems to 
 have been the failure to doff the hat to a 
 magistrate. Some of the women bore testi- 
 mony against the cruel laws by wearing 
 sackcloth, with ashes on their heads, or de- 
 clared the spiritual nakedness of the rulers 
 by a visible exemplification. But in a time 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 2$ 
 
 when it was no uncommon thing to see a 
 woman, stripped to the waist, fastened to 
 the tail of a cart, and whipped in the centre 
 of the town by the public hangman by 
 the magistrates' order, these voluntary testi- 
 monies are the less surprising. " It must 
 be admitted," Whittier writes of these early 
 Friends, " that many of them manifested a 
 good deal of that wild enthusiasm which 
 has always been the result of persecution, 
 and the denial of the rights of conscience 
 and worship." 
 
 But Quakers simply travelling from one 
 place to another, with no other offence 
 than being Quakers, were unsafe. Hored 
 Gardner, who is described as an inhabitant 
 of Newport, came to Weymouth, " with her 
 sucking babe, and a girl to carry it," in 
 1658, " whence for being a Quaker she was 
 hurried to Boston, where both she and the 
 girl were whipped with a three-fold knot. 
 After whipping, the woman kneeled down, 
 and prayed the Lord to forgive those per- 
 secutors ; which so touched a woman that 
 stood by, that she said, surely she could 
 not have done this if it had not been by 
 the spirit of the Lord." 
 
 The most famous case of suffering among 
 
24 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 the early Friends was that of Mary Dyer. 
 Her husband, William Dyre, as the record 
 spells it, was a man of importance in Rhode 
 Island. He was one of the men appointed 
 to lay out the town of Newport, and from 
 1640 to 1643 was Secretary of the Colony. 
 He held the office of General Recorder 
 later, and was General Attorney in 1650. 
 Mary Dyer was a woman of strong charac- 
 ter, great enthusiasm, and excellent under- 
 standing. Sewel gives the history of her 
 courage at length. She came to Boston 
 from Rhode Island in 1657, he says, not 
 knowing the laws which had been made 
 against Quakers, and was imprisoned. Wil- 
 liam Dyer, her husband, upon hearing this, 
 came from Rhode Island and obtained her 
 release, "becoming bound in a great pen- 
 alty not to lodge her in any town of that 
 colony, nor permit any to speak with her : 
 an evident token that he was not of the So- 
 ciety of Quakers so called, for otherwise he 
 would not have entered into such a bond ; 
 but then without question he would also 
 have been clapped up in prison," the worthy 
 Dutch historian adds. Two years later (in 
 1659) Mary Dyer was again in Boston, 
 when William Robinson, a merchant of 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 2$ 
 
 London, and Marmaduke Stevenson, came 
 there. Nicholas Davis was also there, and 
 after whipping Robinson, who was a teacher 
 among the Quakers, all four were banished 
 on pain of death. The sentence is dated 
 September 12, 1659, and it appearing, "by 
 their own confession, words, and actions, 
 that they are Quakers," they are sentenced 
 " to depart this jurisdiction on pain of 
 death, and that they must answer it at their 
 peril, if they or any of them after the i/j-th 
 of this present month, September, are found 
 within this jurisdiction, or any part thereof." 
 Mary Dyer and Davis accordingly left Bos- 
 ton and the colony, while the others only 
 went to Salem, not being free in mind to 
 comply. And it was not long that Mary 
 Dyer remained away, for in the next month 
 (October) she returned, and all three were 
 taken into custody. On the 2Oth of the 
 month these three were brought into court, 
 when Endicott made them an oration, de- 
 claring that the court desired not the death 
 of any, but ending, " Give ear, and harken 
 to your sentence of death." Robinson had 
 prepared a paper expressly declaring that 
 while in Rhode Island he was commanded 
 of the Lord to repair to Boston, and lay 
 
26 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 down his life there, as a testimony against 
 the wicked and unjust laws. This paper 
 Endicott read, but refused to have read 
 publicly. Stevenson was then called, and, 
 seeing how his companion had fared, made 
 no defence. He was sentenced to death, 
 and it was the turn of Mary Dyer, " to 
 whom Endicott spoke thus : * Mary Dyer, 
 you shall go to the place whence you came 
 (to wit the prison) and thence to the place 
 of execution, and be hanged there until 
 you are dead.' To which she replied, * The 
 will of the Lord be done.' Then Endicott 
 said, ' Take her away, Marshal.' To which 
 she returned, ' Yea, joyfully I go.' And in 
 her going to the prison, she often uttered 
 speeches of praise to the Lord ; and being 
 full of joy, she said to the Marshal, he 
 might let her alone, for she would go to 
 the prison without him. To which he an- 
 swered, ' I believe you, Mrs. Dyer ; but I 
 must do what I am commanded.' " 
 
 In prison Mary Dyer wrote a very re- 
 markable letter, addressed to the General 
 Court in Boston, justifying her coming to 
 Boston, as it was by the will of the Lord 
 she came. " I have no self-ends, the Lord 
 knoweth," she writes. Seeing the evil of 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 2? 
 
 their unjust laws, she entreats the court 
 not to be found fighting against God, but 
 "to repeal all such laws, that the Truth 
 and servants of the Lord may have free 
 passage among you. . . . Seeing the Lord 
 hath not hid it from me, it lyeth upon me 
 in love to your souls thus to persuade you. 
 . . . Was ever the like laws heard of among 
 a people that confess Christ come in the 
 flesh ? and have ye no other weapons to 
 fight against spiritual wickedness withal, as 
 you call it ? Woe is me for you ! Of whom 
 take ye counsel ? Search with the light of 
 Christ in you, and it will show you of whom, 
 as it hath done me, and many more, who 
 have been disobedient and deceived, as now 
 ye are ; which light as ye come into, and 
 obeying what is made manifest to you 
 therein, you will not repent that you were 
 kept from shedding blood, though it were 
 by a woman." She likens her request to 
 Esther's before Ahasuerus, saying that he 
 did not contend it would be dishonorable 
 to revoke his decree. She appeals to " the 
 faithful and true witness of God which is 
 one in all consciences. If they put this 
 request from them, she continues, the Lord 
 will send more of his servants to gather 
 
28 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 the harvest ; for the light of the Lord is 
 surely approaching, even to many in and 
 about Boston, which is the bitterest and 
 darkest professing place . . . that ever I 
 heard of. Let the time past, therefore, suf- 
 fice, for such a profession as brings forth 
 such fruits as these laws are. In love and 
 in the spirit of meekness I again beseech 
 you." 
 
 Mary Dyer's query as to whether the 
 General Court had " no other weapons to 
 fight against spiritual wickedness withal," 
 reminds one of the Rhode Island way of 
 dealing with doctrine. Roger Williams 
 stoutly maintained the " freedom of differ- 
 ent consciences from inforcements," but he 
 was far from indifferent as to his neighbors' 
 beliefs. How could he be, being a godly 
 man, and certain that by belief, rather than 
 by conduct, a soul is to be judged? There 
 were long discussions in Rhode Island, de- 
 bates on all conceivable questions, and 
 pamphlets appealing to the reason and con- 
 science of the reader. These " weapons " 
 were always at hand in the Providence 
 plantations, and doubtless were well known 
 to Mary Dyer. Her appeal to the General 
 Court, written as she supposed on the eve 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 29 
 
 of her execution, is certainly a noble one. 
 From her point of view, she could have 
 done no less than offer up her life, if the 
 offering should secure liberty to her op- 
 pressed brethren. It is difficult to see just 
 why she supposed it would do so. Some- 
 thing of stubbornness must have crept into 
 her constancy to make her persist in sacri- 
 fice. 
 
 Her letter had small effect on the court, 
 as may be imagined, and the day came for 
 execution. It was the 2yth of October, 
 1659, when the three prisoners were led to 
 the gallows, in the afternoon, escorted by 
 about two hundred armed men, beside 
 horsemen, and the minister, John Wilson. 
 The three friends walked hand in hand, 
 Mary Dyer in the middle. As she was an 
 elderly woman, the Marshal said to her, 
 " Are you not ashamed to walk thus, hand 
 in hand between two young men ? " " No," 
 replied she ; " this is to me an hour of the 
 greatest joy I could enjoy in the whole 
 world. No eye can see, no tongue can ut- 
 ter, and no heart can understand the sweet 
 incomes or influences, and the refreshings 
 of the spirit of the Lord which I now feel; " 
 so " they went on with great cheerfulness, 
 
30 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS'* MEETING 
 
 as going to an everlasting wedding feast," 
 though the drummers drowned their voices. 
 At the gallows Wilson made a taunting 
 remark to Robinson : " Shall such jacks as 
 you are come before authority with their 
 hats on ? " he asked, and Robinson replied, 
 " Mind you, mind you, it is for not putting 
 off the hat we are put to death." He was 
 the first to suffer. " I suffer for Christ," he 
 said, " in whom I live, and for whom I die." 
 Stevenson was next hanged, with a word of 
 holy confidence upon his lips, and Mary 
 Dyer stepped up the ladder. The halter 
 was adjusted, " her coats were tied about 
 her feet," the old record says, and John 
 Wilson lent the hangman a handkerchief 
 to cover her face. Just as the hangman 
 was about to do his work a cry came, 
 " ' Stop, for she is reprieved ! ' Her feet 
 being then loosed, they bade her come 
 down. But she, whose mind was already 
 as it were in heaven, stood still and said she 
 was there willing to suffer as her brethren 
 did, unless they would annul their wicked 
 law." But they pulled her down and car- 
 ried her back to prison. It now appears 
 that this was a ghastly farce arranged by 
 the authorities to intimidate this intrepid 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 31 
 
 woman. The decree itself, signed before 
 she left the prison, prescribes the cruel 
 method of her release. She was to be car- 
 ried " to the place of execution and there 
 to stand upon the gallowes with a rope 
 about her necke till the rest be executed, 
 and then to return to the prison." * 
 
 It was at the entreaty of her son that 
 this reprieve was granted ; " an inconsider- 
 able intercession," the Secretary, Edward 
 Rawson, says, in his account to the king of 
 these proceedings. " Mary Dyer (upon pe- 
 tition of her son, and the mercy and clem- 
 ancy of this court) had liberty to depart 
 within two days, which she accepted of," 
 Rawson declares. From prison, the next 
 day after the execution, at which she mani- 
 fested such heroic courage, she wrote 
 another letter to the General Court, full of 
 the same spirit. " When I heard your last 
 order read, it was a disturbance unto me, 
 that was so freely offering up my life to 
 him that gave it me." She warns the 
 judges to put away the evil of their doings, 
 to " kiss the Son, the light in you, before 
 his wrath be kindled in you." And this she 
 wrote while the image of her dead compan- 
 
 1 Horatio Rogers, Mary Dyer, the Quaker Martyr, p. 53. 
 
32 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS 1 MEETING 
 
 ions must still have been before her eyes, 
 and the tale of the barbarous treatment of 
 their dead bodies in her ears. But she re- 
 turned to prison, she says, " finding nothing 
 from the Lord to the contrary, that I may 
 know what his pleasure and counsel is con- 
 cerning me, on whom I wait therefore, for 
 he is my life and the length of my days ; 
 and as I said before, I came at his com- 
 mand and go at his command." 
 
 The discontent among the people was so 
 great that the magistrates resolved to send 
 Mary Dyer away. She was accordingly 
 put on horseback, and escorted by four 
 horsemen fifteen miles toward Rhode Is- 
 land, where she was left with a horse and a 
 man to complete the journey. She spent 
 the winter in Long Island, and then, com- 
 ing home in the spring, she was moved " to 
 return to the bloody town of Boston," 
 where she arrived on the " twenty-first of 
 the Third month, 1660," that is, May, for 
 the old style of reckoning the year from the 
 first of March was still in use. Ten days 
 after her arrival she was sent for by the 
 General Court. " Are you the same Mary 
 Dyer that was here before?" Endicott 
 asked her, and it seems the court was 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 33 
 
 preparing an escape for her, being disin- 
 clined to proceed to extremities, for another 
 Mary Dyer had come from England. But 
 she replied undauntedly, and without eva- 
 sion, " I am the same Mary Dyer that was 
 here at the last General Court." She was 
 then asked if she avowed herself a Quaker, 
 to which she replied : " I own myself to be 
 reproachfully so called." Endicott said her 
 sentence had been passed, and was now the 
 same. " You must return to prison," he 
 said, " and there remain till to-morrow at 
 nine o'clock, then, thence you must go to 
 the gallows and there be hanged till you 
 are dead." " This is no more than what 
 thou saidst before," Mary Dyer rejoined. 
 " But now it is to be executed, therefore 
 prepare yourself to-morrow at nine o'clock," 
 Endicott replied. 
 
 She then said, " I came in obedience to 
 the will of God to the last General Court, 
 desiring you to repeal your unrighteous 
 laws of banishment on pain of death ; and 
 that same is my work now, and earnest re- 
 quest," and more she said of her call, and 
 of others who would come to witness against 
 these laws. Endicott asked her if she were 
 a prophetess, to which she replied that she 
 
34 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 spoke the words the Lord spoke in her, but 
 Endicott cried out, " Away with her ! away 
 with her ! " So she was taken to prison. 
 
 A letter from her husband arrived about 
 the time Mary Dyer entered the colony, 
 being under sentence of banishment on 
 pain of death. " If her zeal be so great as 
 thus to adventure, oh, let your pity and 
 favor surmount it and save her life," her 
 husband pleads. 
 
 I only say this, yourfelves have been, 
 and are or may be, huf bands to wives : so 
 am I, yea to one moil dearly beloved. 
 Oh do not deprive me of her, but I pray 
 give her me once again. Pity me ! I beg 
 it with tears, and reft your humble sup- 
 pliant. 1 
 
 But this touching appeal was of no avail. 
 The next day, June ist, the Marshal came 
 and roughly commanded Mary Dyer to fol- 
 low him. Then she was brought out, and 
 with a band of soldiers led through the 
 town, with drums beaten before and be- 
 hind her. What a scene for the quiet 
 streets of a New England town! The fresh 
 leaves of early summer upon the trees, the 
 sun shining overhead, the whole popula- 
 
 1 Bryant's History, vol. ii. p. 194. 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 35 
 
 tion following the soldiers, the noisy drums 
 rattling discordant notes, and the centre of 
 of it all one lonely woman, " of a comly and 
 grave countenance," and the undaunted car- 
 riage of a pure and lofty spirit, calmly walk- 
 ing to the fate which she had once before 
 confronted, and which even now by a word 
 from her could be averted ! For after she 
 had ascended the ladder it was said to her 
 that if she would return she should be 
 spared. " Nay I cannot," she replied, " for 
 in obedience to the will of the Lord I came, 
 and in his will I abide faithful to the death." 
 Then the captain, John Webb, said that 
 she had been there before, and was there- 
 fore guilty of her own death, knowing the 
 penalty of returning to Boston ; to which 
 she replied : 
 
 Nay, I came to keep blood guiltinefs 
 from you, defiring you to repeal the un- 
 righteous and unjuft law of banifhment 
 upon pain of death, made againft the 
 innocent servants of the Lord ; therefore 
 my blood will be required at your hands 
 who wilfully do it ; but for thofe who do 
 it in the simplicity of their hearts I defire 
 the Lord to forgive them. 
 Then Wilson, the minister, who had lent 
 
36 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 his handkerchief to cover her face before, 
 said to her, " Mary Dyer, oh repent, oh re- 
 pent, and be not so deluded and carried 
 away by the deceit of the devil." One can 
 fancy the touch of scorn which must have 
 tinged her manner, saintly as she was, as 
 she replied, " Nay, man, I am not now to 
 repent." 
 
 Then she was asked if she would not 
 have the elders pray for her, but answered, 
 " I know never an elder here." 
 
 They asked if she would have any of the 
 people pray for her, to which she replied 
 she desired the prayers of all the people of 
 God. Some one scoffingly said, " It may 
 be she thinks there is none here." And 
 she, looking calmly about, said, " I know 
 but few here." The prayers of the elders 
 were again urged upon her. " Nay," she 
 said, " first a child, then a young man, then 
 a strong man, before an elder in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 Then some one mentioned that she said 
 she had been in paradise. " Yea, I have 
 been in paradise several days," she an- 
 swered, and continued to speak of the eter- 
 nal happiness she was to enter upon. So 
 she met her death, and died, as her chroni- 
 
QUAKER BEGINNINGS 37 
 
 cler says, " a martyr to Christ, being twice 
 led to death, which the first time she ex- 
 pected with undaunted courage, and now 
 suffered with Christian fortitude." 
 
 I have dwelt at length upon the story of 
 Mary Dyer's heroic courage, because she 
 was the only woman who suffered death in 
 that time of persecution, and because she 
 was a Rhode Island woman, closely bound 
 by ties of love and friendship to the Friends 
 already in Rhode Island. 
 
 At this distance of time, we can see that 
 the magistrates also had something to plead 
 as warrant for their conduct. She had been 
 warned, and in coming back took her life 
 in her hand. The dignity of the law had 
 to be upheld. We have had cases in more 
 recent times of unjust laws being enforced, 
 by judges who did not believe in them, in 
 the very town of Boston, in the time of the 
 fugitive slaves. There was something in 
 their argument that her blood was upon 
 her own head. But with the spirit of a 
 saint she rose above all human argument. 
 Like a Hebrew of old she could say, " The 
 word of the Lord came unto me;" and 
 with St. Paul, " Woe is me if I preach not 
 the gospel." This zeal consumed her. 
 
38 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS? MEETING 
 
 Quaker though she was, and so bound to 
 meekness by teaching and principle, she 
 had tasted the glories of martyrdom, and 
 could not rest till she was counted worthy 
 to suffer to the end. If, in our modern 
 spirit, we inquire what her husband and 
 children said to her sacrifice not only of 
 herself but of them, and the suffering and 
 pain she brought them, her grave face, with 
 its rapt expression, rises to rebuke us. This 
 life was nothing, the next all, in those stern, 
 heroic times. Earthly affections were to be 
 trodden under foot. " Set your affections 
 on things above " was an injunction to be 
 literally followed. So, with a responsive 
 thrill for her noble courage, and a sigh for 
 the occasion of it, we finish the record of 
 this heroic woman. Her death reaped its 
 harvest. The " Seed," as Friends delighted 
 to call the principles of truth they lived and 
 died for, flourished abundantly. Within 
 a year of Mary Dyer's death, the Rhode 
 Island yearly meeting was established, 
 which grew till it became the general meet- 
 ing for the whole of New England. 
 
II 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 
 SOUTH KINGSTON MONTHLY 
 MEETING 
 
II 
 
 THE little colony which proved a refuge 
 for Quakers not only, but for all those of 
 oppressed conscience, had only been united 
 as to civil government three years, when 
 the Woodhouse landed her missionary band 
 on the "isle of Aquiday." There were 
 political dissensions as well as religious. 
 After the charter had been granted to 
 Roger Williams, in 1643, it was still four 
 years before the towns united in setting 
 "their hands to an engagement to the 
 charter ; " l a delay caused in part by the 
 difficulties of travel, and the long voyage 
 from England. The two island towns of 
 Newport and Portsmouth were richer than 
 the little towns of Providence and War- 
 wick, and local jealousies were rife. Gov- 
 ernor Coddington of Newport, in 1651, 
 obtained a commission as governor for life, 
 "whereby the Townes of Newport and 
 Portsmouth were disjoynted from the Col- 
 onie of Providence Plantations," 2 and it 
 
 * R. I. c. R., vol. i. p. 147. 
 
 3 R. I. C. R., vol. i. p. 268. 
 
42 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 was not till August 31, 1654, that the final 
 union of the towns was accomplished. 
 
 With this disordered political condition, 
 the religious conditions were still more 
 disturbed. The disaffected from all the 
 colonies came to Rhode Island. All vari- 
 eties and shades of opinions could be 
 found, from harmless mysticism to doc- 
 trines subversive of the good order of so- 
 ciety, and many a wild theory was pro- 
 pounded. Rhode Island has often been 
 spoken of as a colony of religious tolera- 
 tion. But it was not toleration that Roger 
 Williams taught. He laid down a larger 
 principle, the " freedom of different con- 
 sciences from inforcement," that is, the 
 broad principle of each man's being the 
 sole arbiter of his own fate, and directly 
 responsible to his Maker for his belief. 
 This was a new doctrine, a doctrine of 
 growth and development, calculated to build 
 strong and noble characters. But, while 
 remaining true to it, Roger Williams did 
 not weakly shake off all responsibility as 
 to the spiritual condition of his colonists. 
 On the contrary, while keeping clear from 
 the " inforcements " which were so freely 
 used in the neighboring colonies, he gave 
 
SOUTH KINGSTON MEETING 43 
 
 full rein to his tongue, using all the wea- 
 pons of argument and invective to scourge 
 the wayward fanatics who came to him 
 back into what he considered the true way. 
 The story has often been told, and needs 
 no repeating here. Whittier, with true in- 
 sight, has entered into Roger Williams's 
 feeling, in " A Spiritual Manifestation," 
 when he makes him say : 
 
 " Each zealot thrust before my eyes 
 
 His Scripture-garbled label ; 
 All creeds were shouted in my ears 
 As with the tongues of Babel. 
 
 " Hoarse ranters, crazed Fifth Monarchists 
 
 Of stripes and bondage braggarts, 
 Pale Churchmen, with singed rubrics snatched 
 From Puritanic fagots. 
 
 " And last, not least, the Quakers came, 
 With tongues still sore from burning, 
 The Bay State's dust from off their feet 
 Before my threshold spurning; 
 
 " A motley host, the Lord's debris, 
 
 Faith's odds and ends together ; 
 Well might I shrink from guests with lungs 
 Tough as their breeches leather : 
 
 " I fed, but spared them not a wit ; 
 
 I gave to all who walked in, 
 Not clams and succotash alone, 
 But stronger meat of doctrine. 
 
44 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 " I proved the prophets false, I pricked 
 
 The bubble of perfection, 
 And clapped upon their inner light 
 The snuffers of election." 
 
 It was in this country of "faith's odds 
 and ends " that the Quakers found their 
 opportunity. The martyrdom of Mary Dyer 
 watered the seed, and when George Fox 
 came, twelve years later, he confirmed the 
 church. The visit of Fox was the starting 
 point for many meetings in America, but 
 in coming to Rhode Island he came to his 
 own. He arrived on the 3oth of the 3d 
 month, 1672, from Long Island, and was 
 " gladly received by Friends," he writes. 
 This was the 3oth of May that he arrived, 
 when he " went to Nicholas Eastons, who 
 was governor of the Island ; there we lay, 
 being weary with travelling." He had a 
 meeting the next first day, a large meet- 
 ing, he says, " to which the deputy gov- 
 ernor and several justices came, and were 
 mightily affected with the truth." It is 
 curious to note how often Fox mentions 
 the dignitaries who attended his meetings, 
 in spite of his being no respecter of per- 
 sons. The week following his arrival, the 
 June yearly meeting for Friends in New 
 
SOUTH KINGSTON MEETING 45 
 
 England was held. Fox himself tells the 
 story of it. Some Barbadoes friends ar- 
 rived ; and the meeting lasted six days, he 
 says, and 
 
 Abundance of other people came. For 
 having no priefts in the ifland, and no 
 reftriction to any particular way of wor- 
 ship ; and the governor and deputy-gov- 
 ernor with several juftices of the peace 
 daily frequenting meetings ; it so encour- 
 aged the people that they flocked in from 
 all parts of the ifland. ... I have rarely 
 obferved a people in the state wherein 
 they stood, to hear with more attention, 
 diligence, and affection, than generally 
 they did during the four days. 
 Men's and women's meetings followed 
 for " ordering the affairs of the church, 
 . . . that all might be kept clean, sweet 
 and savory amongft them." After which 
 Friends dispersed. But Fox and Robert 
 Widders stayed on the island, " finding 
 service still here for the Lord through the 
 great openness, and the daily coming in of 
 frefh people from other colonies for some 
 time after the general meeting." "After 
 this I had great travail in spirit," he writes, 
 "concerning the Ranters in those parts 
 
46 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 who had been rude at a meeting which I 
 was not at." So he appointed a meeting 
 among them, " believing the Lord would 
 give me power over them; which he did to 
 his praise and glory." At this meeting 
 also there were justices and officers who 
 were "generally well affected with the 
 truth." One justice of twenty years' stand- 
 ing was convinced, "spoke highly of the 
 truth, and more highly of me," Fox adds, 
 " than is fit for me to mention or take no- 
 tice of." What comfort it must have been 
 to the travelling Friend, who was usually 
 greeted with stripes and imprisonment in 
 his own country, to find true appreciation ! 
 His chief acquaintance with justices in 
 England was as a prisoner on charge of 
 breaking the peace, and it is small wonder 
 that, saint as he was, this being heard with 
 favor by justices and officers should have 
 seemed to him a special cause for thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 After the Newport meetings, Fox went 
 to Providence in great travail of spirit, for 
 the people, he says, " were generally above 
 the priests in high notions ; and some 
 came on purpose to dispute." There had 
 been absolute freedom in the little town of 
 
SOUTH KINGSTON MEETING 47 
 
 Providence in the thirty-six years of its ex- 
 istence. Each householder could, and often 
 did, exhort. Roger Williams, with the hu- 
 mility of greatness, counted himself only as 
 a teacher also ; one among many. But the 
 power of George Fox's eloquence and per- 
 sonality silenced his opponents. He came 
 from Newport by water, attended by the 
 governor and many others, and held his 
 meeting in a great barn, which was thronged 
 with people, " so that I was exceeding hot, 
 and in a great sweat," he writes ; " but all 
 was well ; the glorious power of the Lord 
 shined over all ! " 
 
 Roger Williams was not at the meeting 
 that hot summer's day, but a little later 
 rowed himself to Newport to confront the 
 advocates of the Quaker doctrine. He and 
 Fox did not meet, however. One wonders 
 if they could have recognized the nobility 
 of each other's nature had they seen each 
 other face to face, or if the " Burrows " from 
 which Roger Williams " digg d George Fox 1 " 
 were too dark and mystical for the scientific 
 spirit of Williams to tolerate. There must 
 always be the two orders of men, the intui- 
 tive seer, and the logical reasoner. Both 
 
 1 George Fox diggd out of his Burrows. 
 
48 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 these men have their noble share of the 
 world's work, and in the case of Fox and 
 Williams both made a distinct contribution 
 to the spiritual life of mankind ; Fox with 
 his devout and keen perception of divine 
 immanence in the indwelling spirit, and 
 Williams with his new doctrine of the free- 
 dom of man's conscience from " inforce- 
 ments." These two should certainly have 
 found points of contact in an age which 
 is the fruit of both their teachings. As it 
 was, the apostle came to the town of the 
 liberator, and left it without seeing him. 
 After the manner of the time, they both 
 wrote polemical tracts, the most famous 
 of which is Williams's " George Fox digg d 
 out of his Burrows." 
 
 Returning to Newport, Fox next went 
 across the Bay to Narragansett. Again the 
 governor accompanied him, and they held 
 a meeting at a justice's, " where Friends 
 never had any before." I have elsewhere 
 endeavored to show that this meeting was 
 probably held at the house of Jireh Bull, 1 
 who was a justice at that time. The year 
 before, the General Court sat at his house. 
 It was sometimes called the garrison house, 
 
 1 College Tom, p. 9. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
SOUTH KINGSTON MEETING 49 
 
 and was the largest in Pettaquamscut. " The 
 meeting was very large, for the country 
 generally came in, and people from Con- 
 necticut and other parts round about," 1 
 Fox writes. " There were four justices of 
 the peace," he adds. " Most of these peo- 
 ple were such as had never heard Friends 
 before ; but they were mightily affected, 
 and a great desire there is after the truth 
 amongst them. So that meeting was of 
 very good service ; blessed be the Lord for- 
 ever ! " The justice at whose house the 
 meeting was held invited Fox to come 
 again, but he was then " clear of those 
 parts." But he laid the place before John 
 Burnyeate and John Cartwright, who ar- 
 rived in Newport before he left, and they 
 "felt drawings thither and went to visit 
 them." 
 
 The house in which this Narragansett 
 meeting was established had a tragic fate. 
 It stood on the old Pequot trail, which in 
 Queen Anne's time became the highway, 
 on the ridge of Tower Hill. Tradition 
 places it on the right-hand side travelling 
 north, a little distance south of the present 
 corner made by the descent of the road 
 
 1 Journal, p. 452. 
 
50 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 running to the west. Only three years 
 later, in December, 1675, it was destroyed 
 by Indians, and many of its inmates, includ- 
 ing women and children, were killed. It 
 was the destruction of this house which was 
 the actual incitement to the Great Swamp 
 Fight, which practically exterminated the 
 Indians, and put an end to King Philip's 
 War. 
 
 There are no records of Friends' meet- 
 ings on the west side of the Bay until 1702, 
 when the Greenwich meeting was estab- 
 lished, which included the Narragansett 
 Friends. This at first sight seems singu- 
 lar, for Narragansett, and southern Narra- 
 gansett, had been the place of Fox's visit, 
 and was occupied by some influential con- 
 verts. 
 
 But there were good reasons why the 
 King's Province could not establish a meet- 
 ing in those early days. The country was 
 claimed by charter right by both Connecti- 
 cut and Rhode Island, and endless contro- 
 versies ensued as to the government. But 
 in addition to this, the land was claimed by 
 two rival purchasers ; the Pettaquamscut 
 purchasers, who bought Boston Neck and 
 lands adjacent of the Indians in 1657, and 
 
SOUTH KINGSTON MEETING 51 
 
 the Humphrey Atherton Company, who 
 bought " two parsels of lande," called the 
 Northern and Southern tract, in 1659. This 
 land covered the land of the earlier pur- 
 chase, including Point Juda and Sugar 
 Loaf Hill. 1 Both these companies had the 
 Indian " sagamores " put their marks to the 
 deeds of purchase, which they naturally had 
 little conception of. This is not the place 
 for a study of the interesting and extended 
 controversy which ensued. But a glance 
 at the men who were engaged in it, and who 
 claimed the right of proprietors in the land, 
 will explain why Friends for some years 
 did not set up a meeting in Narragansett. 
 Among the Pettaquamscut purchasers, Sam- 
 uel Sewall soon became a leading spirit. 
 He was an example of the best Puritans of 
 his time, but his action in the trial of the 
 Salem witches shows the bigotry to which 
 the best men were liable. Of the other 
 company, the man who gave it its name, 
 Major Humphrey Atherton, or Adderton, 
 as some records spell it, was active in his 
 persecution of Quakers. Simon Bradstreet 
 was another zealous bigot. The younger 
 Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, was 
 
 1 The Town Records, edited by James N. Arnold. 
 
$2 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 far more liberal, and his name, as the high- 
 est in rank, comes first in the deeds, but 
 his influence in the affairs of the company 
 was second to Atherton's. It is hardly prob- 
 able that zealous persecutors at home 
 would have tolerated Quaker organizations 
 in the new purchase, which they hoped to 
 develop into a prosperous colony. It was 
 Atherton who scoffed at the death of Mary 
 Dyer, saying she hung as a flag for others 
 to take warning by. Long after her death, 
 in passing the place where Quakers suf- 
 fered, as he rode proudly by, having re- 
 viewed his troops, his horse took fright and 
 threw him violently, dashing his head in 
 pieces. There were not lacking those who 
 said the animal saw the ghost of one of the 
 martyrs, and that their death was avenged. 
 But even after Atherton's tragic end, Simon 
 Bradstreet's name would have held in check 
 the open organization of a meeting. 
 
 That the meeting was held, however, would 
 seem to be indicated from several facts. It 
 was in 1699 that the Rhode Island quar- 
 terly meeting was established, consisting of 
 three monthly meetings, Rhode Island, 
 Dartmouth, and Narragansett This last 
 meeting was at first called Kingstown meet- 
 
SOUTH KINGSTON MEETING 53 
 
 ing, but very soon changed to Greenwich, 
 and included all the Friends on the west 
 side of the Bay, from Narragansett to Prov- 
 idence. A little meeting-house was built 
 in East Greenwich in 1699, the first one 
 on the west of the Bay, meetings having 
 been held before at private houses. The 
 records of the Greenwich monthly meeting 
 begin in 5 th month, 1699 (the day is obliter- 
 ated), at the house of John Briggs, when it 
 was agreed that he " write for these meet- 
 ings." A month later the meeting was held 
 at Jabez Greene's house, and on the 5th of 
 sixth month of the same year the " next 
 meeting is appointed to be held at the new 
 meeting house in East Greenwich." 
 
 This little meeting-house was built to 
 the west of the village, and had a burial- 
 ground adjoining. It was the first meeting- 
 house west of Narragansett Bay ; and here 
 the meetings were held, not only the first- 
 day meeting for worship, but the monthly 
 meetings, to which representatives came 
 from South Kingstown, Providence, and 
 Warwick. In 1 707 the meetings began to 
 beheld in rotation, three yearly at Providence 
 and three at Kingstown. This arrange- 
 ment continued till 1718, when Providence 
 
54 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 became a distinct monthly meeting. South 
 Kingstown Friends still came to Greenwich 
 for monthly meeting. Rowland Robinson, 
 John Briggs, Peter Greene, the Knowleses 
 and 'Rodmans were among the representa- 
 tives of the southern part of the State. It 
 was a time of great prosperity for Narra- 
 gansett. The farms yielded bountifully ; 
 the ferry to Newport was crowded with 
 droves of sheep and cattle going to market, 
 and produce of all kinds. The tide of travel 
 was all set across the Bay rather than to the 
 head of the Bay, and before many years 
 Narragansett Friends petitioned for a sepa- 
 rate meeting. It was at the third month 
 monthly meeting, 1743, when Thomas Rod- 
 man and Matthew Allin (sic) were repre- 
 sentatives from South Kingstown, that an 
 epistle from the quarterly meeting was read 
 at Greenwich, which allowed the meeting to 
 be divided into two monthly meetings. The 
 record continues : 
 
 This meeting concludes that the 
 monthly meeting is divided into two 
 monthly meetings as the Preparative 
 meetings were before this divifion, and 
 that South Kingftown monthly meeting 
 be held on the 2 nd day after the laft I st 
 
SOUTH KINGSTON MEETING 55 
 
 day in this month to do the proper bufi- 
 ness of that meeting in the meeting house 
 of Friends in South Kingstown. 
 There is no indication as to when the 
 " meeting house of Friends in South Kings- 
 town " was built. For many years it was 
 called " the old meeting house," and in 1 743 
 it became the centre of influence and seat 
 of government of Friends in Narragansett. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE MEETING-HOUSES 
 
Ill 
 
 IT was the third month, 1743, that the 
 South Kingstown monthly meeting began 
 its existence by the consent of the quarterly 
 meeting and the Greenwich meeting, to 
 which the South Kingstown preparative 
 meeting had belonged. The first monthly 
 meeting was appointed the following month, 
 but the records do not begin till the fifth 
 month, 1743. There are eight folio vol- 
 umes belonging to the men's meeting, which 
 contain the records of the business of the 
 meeting from month to month, the list of 
 births, marriages, and deaths, and a beau- 
 tiful manuscript of the English book of 
 discipline, which was made between 1761 
 and 1763. Thomas Hazard and Joseph 
 Congdon were the committee appointed to 
 see to this work, for which fifty pounds 
 old tenor was paid. It is entitled " Chris- 
 tian & Brotherly Advices Given forth from 
 time to time By the yearly Meeting in 
 London. Alphabetically Digefted under 
 Proper Heads. Tranfcribed by Jos : Cong- 
 
60 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS 1 MEETING 
 
 don." Beside the records of the men's 
 meeting, there are three volumes of wo- 
 men's records, the earliest a small quarto, 
 the others large folios. There is also a 
 mass of papers belonging to the meeting, 
 deeds of the meeting-house lands, epistles 
 from quarterly meetings, beginning as early 
 as 1747, yearly meeting epistles, and the 
 originals of various papers copied in the 
 records. They are a set of time-stained 
 books and documents, the paper discolored 
 and brittle, cracking in the folds, exhaling 
 the peculiar breath of long-kept mustiness. 
 The handwriting is often crabbed, the spell- 
 ing eccentric, the records themselves curt 
 and scanty. Yet here is preserved all 
 that is left of the best life of many good 
 men and women. The voice of their 
 preaching has died upon the air, the savor 
 of their virtues exists only in tradition ; but 
 the record of their actual work is preserved 
 The houses of worship which they built 
 have crumbled, but the account of their 
 labors in building remains. 
 
 It is often said we lack glamour in Amer- 
 ica, that our perspective is limited, that we 
 have no picturesque past. But all these 
 things lie more in the eye of the beholder 
 
THE MEETING-HOUSES 6 1 
 
 than in external objects. Natural beauty 
 is as beautiful in New England as in Old. 
 We have no Tintern Abbey, it is true, but 
 our greater lack is a Wordsworth to cele- 
 brate it. 
 
 " Art was given for that ; 
 God uses us to help each other so, 
 Lending our minds out." 
 
 It is the mind, the love, the life of man 
 which must reveal beauty to us who have 
 our turn at living now. Looked at in this 
 spirit, what can be more fascinating, what 
 can claim our interest and reverent affec- 
 tion, more than such a mass of records and 
 papers as those of the Narragansett meet- 
 ing? For this was life: this meant not only 
 daily affairs, of which there is abundant 
 evidence, but it meant the care of good 
 men for the soul's welfare. We may have 
 outgrown the methods ; humanity cannot 
 outgrow the aim. 
 
 Whatever those worthies truly wrought 
 has gone into the fabric of later time. 
 Their Narragansett lies before us, un- 
 changed as to physical features, but more 
 thickly peopled, with villages dotting the 
 pleasant dales. Let us try to turn back the 
 years to that summer day in 1743 when 
 
62 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 the first recorded meeting was held. Rid- 
 ing through the narrow lanes, from beyond 
 Little Rest and up from Westerly, came the 
 representatives to that meeting. The old 
 meeting-house old in 1 743 stood upon 
 the southern spur of Tower Hill, a mile or 
 more from the village. The first mention 
 of this building occurs in Judge Sewall's 
 diary, under an entry of Friday, September 
 20, 1706, when he went "into the Quaker 
 Meeting Houfe, about thirty-five feet long, 
 thirty feet wide, on Hazard's ground, which 
 was mine." 1 The sale of this land to 
 Thomas Hazard was made in 1698, so that 
 it must have been a comparatively new 
 building at the time of Sewall's visit. The 
 South Kingstown Records have something 
 further to say of this land. August 4, 1710, 
 Thomas Hazard sold one acre to Ebenezer 
 Slocum, of Jamestown, for forty shillings ; 
 and the next day it was conveyed by Slocum 
 to Rowland Robinson, Samuel Perry, Henry 
 Knowles, Jr., Thomas Rodman, and Jacob 
 Mott, for the same consideration. The 
 bounds are given, easterly and southerly by 
 the road, the rest by Hazard's land, " being 
 that parcel of land on which Stands a cer- 
 
 1 Seivall Papers, vol. ii. p. 168. 
 
THE MEETING-HOUSES 63 
 
 tain Meeting House in which the people 
 called Quakers usually meet." 1 It com- 
 manded a wide prospect of land and water. 
 At the foot of the hill the chain of Point 
 Judith ponds begins, which separate the 
 Point from the mainland ; and the perilous 
 Point itself, called in the old deeds Point 
 Juda, or Point Jude, stretches a warning 
 finger far out into the white breakers. 
 Block Island, the land of Manassees, lies in 
 the distance to the southwest ; while to the 
 east the unbroken ocean stretches to the 
 coast of Africa. Close at hand, the Petta- 
 quamscut winds through its marshes; the 
 crescent of Little Neck beach is white with 
 foam ; and but a little farther the windows 
 of Newport gleam in the sunshine. A 
 lovely prospect those "weighty" Friends had 
 to look upon. Some of the women doubt- 
 less enjoyed it, but the appeal of natural 
 beauty was not generally felt, and the com- 
 manding situation was doubtless chosen 
 more in reference to the onslaught of In- 
 dians than for picturesqueness. 
 
 In this " olde meeting house " the meet- 
 ing was organized. Peter Davis was chosen 
 "to write for the meeting," to become its 
 
 1 South Kingstown Records, vol. ii. 
 
64 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 clerk, in other words. He does not record 
 the fact himself; it is only from a subse- 
 quent entry, when he was superseded, that 
 it is learned. He had an interesting career, 
 which is briefly outlined by the records, 
 in which he constantly appears. Thomas 
 Rodman was chosen the meeting's trea- 
 surer, and served long and well. He was 
 called Dr. Rodman, and practised the heal- 
 ing art. This was perhaps the only title 
 that the strictness of Friends admitted of ; 
 but the life of a country physician, who 
 literally went about doing good, earned 
 this most peaceful and honorable of titles. 
 Books for record were bought, for which 
 2 14*. were paid, and the meeting entered 
 on the difficult question of fixing its bound- 
 aries. In a new country this is always a 
 serious task, and in no part of New Eng- 
 land was there more difficulty than in Nar- 
 ragansett. As already detailed, rival gov- 
 ernments claimed the whole country; and 
 the inhabitants must have become accus- 
 tomed to an unsettled state of affairs of this 
 nature, for it took the sober and orderly 
 Friends of Narragansett seventeen years to 
 decide what was their proper jurisdiction. 
 It was not till 1760 that a joint committee 
 
THE MEETING-HOUSES 65 
 
 from the East Greenwich meeting and the 
 South Kingstown meeting finally made the 
 report " that each may know which are their 
 proper members." The South Kingstown 
 meeting bounds were to begin at Bissell's 
 Mills on the north. This is now called 
 Hamilton Mills, and lies on the shore near 
 Wickford. From thence the boundary ran 
 " to the Highway that leads westward to 
 the house where Robert Eldrish formerly 
 lived, thence by Said Highway to the Cross 
 Highway by Nicholas Gardner's, thence a 
 strait line to Boon's house, upon black 
 plain, thence to the Highway in narrow 
 Laine by James Reynolds & by said High- 
 way to the Colony Line." l Black Plain 
 and Narrow Lane have passed from remem- 
 brance, and the houses of these worthy 
 men know them no more ; but in a gen- 
 eral way it is safe to say that the South 
 Kingstown meeting included the whole 
 of Washington County, and a portion of 
 what is now Connecticut, since Stoning- 
 ton was evidently included within its lim- 
 its. 
 
 Almost the first business which came 
 before the meeting in the first year of its 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 104. 
 
66 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 existence was the " matter of building a 
 meeting house in the north west part of 
 Westerly." The "Lower part of West- 
 erly " also desired a meeting-house, one 
 meeting-house to be ten miles distant from 
 the other. At a meeting held in Charles- 
 town, the 29th of 6th month, 1 743, a com- 
 mittee report on the size of the lower meet- 
 ing-house. They recommend a " Houfe of 
 Eighteen feet one way and 26 feet another 
 way and about 9 or ten feet Stud and about 
 200 money they think will accomplifh 
 s d Houfe." 1 A few months later Peter 
 Davis, his sons William, and Peter Davis, 
 Jr., were appointed " to fe to the Carrying 
 on of Said Building." 
 
 At first sight this seems a great sum to 
 pay for a little building of eighteen by 
 twenty-six feet. But the currency was enor- 
 mously depreciated. In 1740 it required 
 twenty-seven shillings in bills to equal an 
 ounce of silver, whose normal rate of ex- 
 change in the same year was six shillings 
 ninepence. 2 So that the inflation was ex- 
 actly four hundred per cent., and to get an 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 2. 
 
 2 Weeden, Economic and Social History of New Eng- 
 land^ chap. xiii. ; /?. /. Historical Tracts, No. 8, p. 55. 
 
THE MEETING-HOUSES 67 
 
 idea of true value the two hundred pounds 
 must become fifty. All the prices men- 
 tioned must be reduced as much or more, 
 for the currency went on depreciating, until 
 at last, in 1781, one Spanish milled dollar 
 was equal to sixteen hundred dollars in 
 paper ! 
 
 The independent existence of the meet- 
 ing seems to have acted as a stimulus in 
 building houses of worship. It was soon 
 under consideration to build a meeting- 
 house in the southwest part of South 
 Kingstown. A committee was appointed 
 in 1 748 to conclude " where to fet the 
 meeting houfe they are about to build." 
 Two Perrys, James and Benjamin, with 
 three other Friends, were appointed, but 
 the next month the proposal was " Dropt 
 for the prefent." Friends doubtless had 
 enough on hand at the moment, for the 
 upper meeting-house at Westerly was re- 
 ported " not yet fit to meet in in cold 
 weather, and all the money spent." It was 
 recommended to quarterly meeting for as- 
 sistance. But the need of a house of wor- 
 ship was evidently great, for a Friend is 
 dealt with for " suffering Friends to be dis- 
 orderly Impofed upon in their public meet- 
 
68 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 ing at his houfe, and he not forbid the 
 diforder." l 
 
 So the heart of James Perry was evi- 
 dently moved, for in 1750 he conveyed a 
 piece of land by deed to the meeting " to 
 and for the ufe of ffriends to fet a Meeting 
 houfe on, and for a burying Ground." The 
 meeting agreed to fence the ground, and a 
 committee was appointed to place the house 
 and fix the size. The house was to be some- 
 what larger than the Westerly lower meet- 
 ing-house built a few years ago. This was 
 thirty-two by twenty-four feet, " and 9 foot 
 and a half poft," but the " cofl they fuppofe 
 will be about ^750!" So in seven years 
 the cost for a building only one third larger 
 increased three and one half times. This 
 little meeting-house stood long in the " hill 
 country " in Matunuck, back from the high- 
 way to the west of the road. Of late years 
 it was surrounded by huckleberry pastures, 
 whose rich russet red in the early autumn 
 made a fitting setting for the venerable 
 structure. To it a little company of wor- 
 shipers gathered each year on a summer 
 First Day. Here again was heard the sound 
 of prayer and exhortation ; and if the melody 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 30. 
 
THE MEETING-HOUSES 69 
 
 of hymns floated from its trembling win- 
 dows, it shocked no listening Friends, for 
 the preacher who held the service was that 
 friend of humanity who has banded his 
 brethren together " in His Name." By the 
 pious care of several of these summer pil- 
 grims, the little building was preserved 
 until a very few years ago. One summer 
 when they returned from a winter's absence 
 they found it a heap of rubbish ! 
 
 In spite of the disordered state of the 
 currency, Friends kept on building ; and in 
 1753 Richmond wished a meeting-house, 
 to be built on the highway which leads 
 from John Knowles's to Mumford's Mills. 
 The dimensions were of what appears to 
 have been the usual size, thirty-two by 
 twenty-four feet, " and of a height for a con- 
 venient Galarie" the record adds. Four 
 hundred and eighty-eight pounds were im- 
 mediately subscribed, and the matter was 
 referred to quarterly meeting. This house 
 finally cost -824 5^- 5^- as the completed 
 account shows. Only ^727 i8s. 6d. were 
 received when the account was rendered, 
 " fo that there remains due to the under- 
 takers ^96 6s. nd., and there is i 6 is. 
 6d. of the fubfcriptions unpaid." It stood 
 
70 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS 1 MEETING 
 
 within the limits of the town of Richmond, 
 from which it took its name, to the west of 
 Kingston, somewhat south of the present 
 village of Usquepaug. The highway still 
 exists as a quiet country road, and, driv- 
 ing westward from Kingston Depot, to the 
 right lies a little knoll, now bare and de- 
 serted, save for a few moss-grown stones 
 which guard the resting-places of the dead. 
 Here the meeting-house was built. The 
 quiet country stretches in soft undulations 
 about it. The farms are now almost de- 
 serted ; here and there a column of smoke 
 rising from a group of old apple-trees marks 
 a household. A few stately avenues of old 
 trees between moss-grown walls lead to 
 dilapidated buildings which once were fine 
 mansions. A feeling of autumn creeps into 
 even spring-time air, as of a land that has 
 passed its vigorous youth, and lies basking 
 tranquilly after days of achievement. Or is 
 it waiting the coming of some hero of ro- 
 mance to wake this sleeping beauty, and 
 once again fill the fields, now so desolate, 
 with activity and life ? 
 
 In the days of the Friends' meeting, 
 it was a busy centre. Around the place 
 of gathering stretched the fields of the 
 
THE MEETING-HOUSES Jl 
 
 Hoxsies, Solomon and Stephen, both men of 
 mark and influence in the meeting. Here 
 the business of the Friends' meetings was 
 transacted, alternating with those on Tower 
 Hill and in the Westerly meeting-house. It 
 happens that much of the important busi- 
 ness we shall review occurred here. Here 
 the first protest against slavery was made, 
 and here some of the most influential of 
 the members were brought to account for 
 delinquencies. 
 
 Beside building its own meeting-houses, 
 the South Kingstown meeting contributed 
 to others, as it in turn also received contri- 
 bution. Warwick, Dartmouth, and Provi- 
 dence each had contributions in the early 
 days of the meeting. South Kingstown 
 was the richest town in the colony about 
 the middle of the century, and it is natural 
 to find Friends contributing considerable 
 sums. But, while Friends were generous, 
 they were thrifty. After having contributed 
 seventy-two pounds fifteen shillings toward 
 various meeting-houses, especially the meet- 
 ing-house at Providence, comes the entry : 
 
 " This meeting do not find freedom to 
 contribute any more till they are Satisfied 
 the augmenting of the firft fum which was 
 
?2 NARRAGANSETT FRIEND & MEETING 
 
 Requefted is not by unneceffary coft." 1 
 And at another time, when the epistle from 
 quarterly meeting was " read and kindly 
 excepted," as the good clerk wrote it, it was 
 quite literally true ; for " as to the requeft 
 in the Epiflle from the Laft Quarterly 
 Meeting for Affiflance in Difcharging the 
 Coft ffriends have been at about their 
 meeting houfe in Smithfield we at pre- 
 fent Defire to be excufed for we are about 
 Repairing our Meeting houfe in S Kings- 
 town." 2 
 
 The meeting-houses needed continual re- 
 pairs, and committees are appointed to "flop 
 ye leak in ye old meeting houfe," or to see 
 to the windows and small repairs, frequently. 
 It was before the days of stoves, and in the 
 long intervals of silent meditation the cold 
 must have been intense. 
 
 New England Friends were mindful of 
 the sufferings of Friends in England, and 
 in 1752 the meeting sent ^40 14^. by its 
 treasurer, to be taken to the next quar- 
 terly meeting to forward to London. The 
 treasurer had a difficult task with his ac- 
 counts in the variable currency, of which 
 the following entry is an example : 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 97. 2 Ibid. p. 35. 
 
THE MEETING-HOUSES 73 
 
 It appears by the Records of our 
 Monthly Meeting the 27 of ye Fifth 
 Month, 1747, that there is of the meet- 
 ing's money in the hands of Peter Davis 
 the sum of ^"16.16.6 that after the Dis- 
 count of ^"13.7 there remains a Balance 
 yet due to the meeting of ^3.9. 6. 1 
 Beside the meetings in the meeting- 
 houses, youths' meetings were appointed : 
 one at Westerly lower meeting-house was 
 to be held in the seventh month, " a second 
 day, after the first day." Another was held 
 at William Gifford's, in Charlestown, in the 
 2d month ; a third, in the old meeting- 
 house, on a fifth day in the seventh month 
 following the second-day meeting at Wes- 
 terly ; and at Westerly upper meeting-house 
 in the second month again. 2 
 
 So the meeting was fully established with 
 its five houses of worship. First in impor- 
 tance was the old meeting-house on Tower 
 Hill, built on Thomas Hazard's land, which 
 for a nominal consideration he sold to 
 Ebenezer Slocum in 1710, who in his turn 
 transferred it to certain trustees the next 
 day for the same consideration. Then came 
 the two Westerly houses, the meeting-house 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 1 1 1. * Ibid, p. 40. 
 
74 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS^ MEETING 
 
 on James Perry's land in Matunuck and 
 the Richmond meeting-house. What the 
 work of the meeting was, and what manner 
 of men did it, the following pages will en- 
 deavor to show. 
 
IV 
 
 THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 
 
IV 
 
 THE records of the South Kingstown 
 Friends begin in a small, square hand, with 
 Friends spelled with a double f, and words 
 written as the South County speech pro- 
 nounced them, and our interest is naturally 
 excited to know something of the man who 
 wrote them. It does not appear from the 
 first record who he was, but a subsequent 
 entry shows him to have been " our ancient 
 friend, Peter Davis." He was a South 
 County man, living near Westerly, who 
 had been prominent in the East Greenwich 
 meeting. Among the first duties that he 
 performed for the new meeting was to " fe 
 to the carrying on " of Westerly lower meet- 
 ing-house, in which his two sons were ap- 
 pointed to assist him. In 1747, on the 27th 
 of the 2d month, he " Laid before this meet- 
 ing that there hath been a concern on his 
 Mind for some time to Vifit ffriends in the 
 Weftern parts, and allfo in Europe if the 
 way mould open for him. And defired a 
 few Lines of ffriends Unity therein." This 
 
78 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 proposal was considered by the meeting, 
 and two months later action was taken 
 upon it, and the minute is entered by Peter 
 Davis himself : 
 i st 4 th Mo 1747 
 
 Whereas our ffriend Peter Davis is 
 Likely to move from us for fome time this 
 Meeting confidered to Choofe and ap- 
 point our ffriend, Stephen Hoxfie to fill 
 his Room in the Service of Clerk to this 
 Meeting. Two certificates for our An- 
 tiant Friend, Peter Davis, one for Long 
 Ifland, penfalvenia And ye Jerfes and 
 Verginia &ct Maryland &ct, one for the 
 Ifland of Great Brittian was both writ 
 and Signed in this meeting. 
 What a journey for a country Friend to 
 set out upon ! He calls himself an " An- 
 tiant Friend " already in 1747, when he was 
 about to undertake it, though this ftiust have 
 been an honorary title if the record is cor- 
 rect, which places his birth in 1712, which 
 would make him only thirty-five years old. 
 It is possible there is some mistake in this 
 entry, as he lived to a great age, though 
 the record is explicit. He performed his 
 duties to the last, filling twenty-five of the 
 large folio pages with closely written re- 
 
THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 79 
 
 cords, and on the 2Qth of 4th month, 1747, 
 comes his last entry, " This Meeting 
 Ended." One reads it with something of 
 what must have been his own feeling of 
 solemnity at quitting home and kindred. 
 His rule as a clerk was evidently not a 
 very rigid one, for on an occasion " the 
 minits of the Lafl Monthly Meeting not 
 happining to be at hand it was Remem- 
 
 In the spring of 1747, Peter Davis set 
 out on his travels, and certificates as to his 
 preaching were received by the home meet- 
 ing. The first one is dated from Nine 
 Partners, or, as it was often called, The Ob- 
 long, in the Province of New York. This 
 is back of Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, 
 and for many years was the seat of a famous 
 school under the government of Friends. 
 Peter Davis preached there in May, 1747. 
 The next month found him in the " pur- 
 chase of Westchester." Woodbridge, in 
 New Jersey, Maryland, Flushing, Long Is- 
 land, and Philadelphia were visited in turn, 
 and the certificates received, " Which was 
 all Read in this meeting to Good satisfac- 
 tion." l One wonders what his special gift 
 1 Vol. i. p. 36. 
 
80 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 was, and what aspect of truth he loved to 
 preach. The way opened before him, for 
 after a sojourn in Philadelphia in the au- 
 tumn of 1747, he sends a certificate from 
 London, dated 22d of 3d month, 1748. No 
 comment is made upon this in the orderly 
 records. There is an interval of six months 
 between the Philadelphia certificate and the 
 one from London. How long a time was 
 he upon the water, one wonders ? and what 
 reception did a Rhode Island Friend meet 
 with in London ? The records give no 
 indication, but the meeting must have been 
 stirred and stimulated by the fact of its 
 own approved minister carrying his testi- 
 mony and his gifts so far. In 1751 he was 
 evidently back again, for certificates from 
 The Oblong, Westbury on Long Island, 
 and from the Purchase in the Province of 
 New York, were received. Again, in 1759, 
 it is recorded that " our Ancient Friend, 
 Peter Davis & John Collins hath a concern 
 on their minds to vifit Friends in the West- 
 ern parts." He was evidently a man of 
 influence in the society, especially where 
 any question of doctrine was involved, and 
 was constantly on committees to deal with 
 offenders against the simplicity of Friends. 
 
THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 8 1 
 
 He lived to a great age, and was twice mar- 
 ried. Content Davis was his first wife, a 
 woman of much influence in the women's 
 meeting. She died in 1781, and he mar- 
 ried his second wife, Martha. She " de- 
 parted this Life the i2th day of the 4th 
 Mo 1809 an d was buried the i4th in 
 Friends burying ground in Richmond, 
 aged eighty-eight years." A year before 
 her death the meeting took charge of its 
 aged minister, and a paper exists specifying 
 the food and clothing the aged couple were 
 to have. 1 He lived three years longer, and 
 died in 1812, "aged one hundred years, 
 eleven months and five days," and was 
 buried in the Richmond burying-ground. 
 
 A story is told of Peter Davis by the 
 present clerk of the meeting, who in his 
 youth knew an aged man who was his 
 friend. He was vigorous in mind and body, 
 enjoying life to the last. Upon one occa- 
 sion he was riding along the Matunuck 
 road, erect as usual, and a party of younger 
 friends followed. Thinking him out of 
 hearing, they discussed his great age, say- 
 ing they would not like to live so long. 
 The old man turned in his saddle and said 
 
 1 Appendix, p. 190. 
 
82 NARRAGANSETT FRIEND? MEETING 
 
 gently, " Boys, it is sweet to live; I love life." 
 And surely he had had great experience 
 of life. Not only had he more years than 
 any other Friend who is mentioned, but his 
 travels and his preaching had made them 
 full years. He enforced the discipline of 
 the meeting, and the meeting was stringent 
 with him. On the occasion of one of his 
 religious journeys, a committee was ap- 
 pointed to inquire into his conversation and 
 report upon it. They "find things clear 
 concerning Peter Davis. All accept his 
 Setting out on his Jorney before he had 
 a Certificate." Thus even so influential a 
 Friend was kept to the letter of the law. 
 
 Stephen Hoxsie, as already noticed, was 
 chosen to succeed Peter Davis when the 
 latter set out on his travels. His first en- 
 try, the record of the meeting held the 2 7th 
 of 5th month, 1747, is a great contrast to 
 Peter Davis's crabbed hand. Peter Davis 
 evidently had modeled his writing after the 
 engrossing hand of the scribe of the day. 
 It was small and square, and lacked the 
 evenness and finish which gave the clerkly 
 hand of the period its character. Stephen 
 Hoxsie begins in a good, flowing hand, and 
 with more modern ideas of spelling, though 
 
THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 83 
 
 that retains its "freedom from inforce- 
 ment " as boldly as the consciences of the 
 founders. South County speech, to this 
 day, speaks of a convenant place of meeting, 
 and so the books record it. " Accept " was 
 always an occasion of stumbling, the quar- 
 terly meeting epistles being generally ex- 
 cepted, while genuine " exception " is often 
 " accepted." But the improvement is great 
 in the fullness and accuracy with which the 
 record was kept. It is a neat-looking re- 
 cord, and for twenty-seven years was written 
 by the same hand. Stephen Hoxsie, and 
 Elizabeth his wife, lived not far from the 
 Richmond meeting-house. They had eleven 
 children, and it was not till a few months 
 after her death, in the autumn of 1773, that 
 he resigned his clerkship. It is his hand 
 that records dealing with debtors, with "dis- 
 orderly walkers," and notes the proposals of 
 marriage between young Friends. He was 
 often on committees himself to inquire into 
 difficult cases, and was evidently a man of 
 weight and influence in the meeting. He 
 " Departed this life," the record says, " the 
 24 th Day of the io th Month 1 793," within one 
 day of twenty years from the day of his 
 wife's death, " and Was buryed in friends 
 
84 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 burying Ground at Richmond the 27 of 
 the Same, after a Solid Meeting of friends 
 and others aged 80 years & 26 Days." 
 
 This faithful clerk of the meeting was 
 succeeded in 1774 by Peleg Peckham. 1 If 
 Stephen Hoxsie was an improvement on 
 the first clerk, this third clerk was an ad- 
 vance on Stephen Hoxsie. The handwrit- 
 ing has the same general character, but is 
 clearer and firmer, an excellent hand, very 
 legible and distinct. The page has a schol- 
 arly air, and the spelling conforms to mod- 
 ern requirements. The use of capitals 
 continues in unexpected places, but the 
 whole record bespeaks a man of better edu- 
 cation. The period of the work of this 
 clerk covered the final dealings on the ques- 
 tion of slavery, and the whole period of the 
 Revolution. With Peleg Peckham Thomas 
 Hazard was closely associated. In 1775 
 Thomas Hazard and Peleg Peckham were 
 appointed " to Collect the Several Rules or 
 Minutes of the yearly meeting Tranfmitted 
 to us by Epiftles or other ways & to record 
 them in the Book of Difcipline under their 
 Proper Heads." 2 This was in the first year 
 of Peleg Peckham's service, and all through 
 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 1 6. *Ibid.v 5*- 
 
THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 85 
 
 this period, frequently at the end of a meet- 
 ing, comes the signature, " Tho s Hazard 
 Clerk this Time." I have been in much 
 doubt as to whether Thomas Hazard, who 
 was " College Tom," made these entries 
 himself. Careful comparison with manu- 
 script known to be his would lead to the 
 conclusion that it was. He had an odd 
 way of writing the " s," in the abbreviation 
 of Thomas, high up, close to the beginning 
 of the " H " in Hazard. Either these are 
 his signatures, or his friend Peleg Peckham 
 closely imitated his method. Another cir- 
 cumstance which would seem to indicate 
 that the entries are in Thomas Hazard's 
 hand is the fact that very frequently, in a list 
 of names of a committee, his own name 
 appears last. The first hundred and fifty 
 pages of the second volume of records, cov- 
 ering only seven years, appears to be in the 
 same hand ; if by both Peleg Peckham and 
 Thomas Hazard, the resemblance is very 
 remarkable. Nailor Tom Hazard records 
 in 1781, " Cousin Hazard had a fit coming 
 from the mill," and it is in that year that 
 this handwriting stops in the middle of a 
 sentence. 
 
 Thomas Hazard was the eldest son of 
 
86 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 Robert Hazard and Sarah Borden his wife. 
 His mother belonged to the meeting, but I 
 have found no evidence that his father did. 
 He received a good education, and from the 
 fact of his attending the college at New 
 Haven he derived his nickname of College 
 Tom. He was early exercised on behalf of 
 the slaves, and refused to work his farm 
 with slave labor. He related the occasion 
 of his first turning his thoughts to the sub- 
 ject. In one of the hot summer days be- 
 tween his college terms, his father sent him 
 into the field to oversee the haying. Find- 
 ing the sun intolerable, he lay down under 
 a tree and took a book from his pocket. 
 But it was too hot to read, and he lay 
 watching the negroes at work. The situa- 
 tion suddenly struck him. If it was too 
 hot even to read in the shade, what right 
 had he to keep men at work in the sun ? 
 From that moment his thoughts were 
 turned toward the evils of slavery, and when 
 a little later he heard the stern denuncia- 
 tion of the Connecticut deacon his con- 
 science was fully aroused. " Quakers ! " said 
 the deacon, " they are not Chriftian people ; 
 they hold their fellow-men in flavery." 
 Thomas Hazard was a young fellow just 
 
THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 8/ 
 
 of age, and on the point of being married f 
 when these words were said to him. He 
 gave up his worldly prospects, worked his 
 farm with free labor, and became a zealous 
 advocate of emancipation. His long and 
 useful life has been detailed elsewhere, 1 but 
 in any mention of Narragansett Friends of 
 the eighteenth century he must hold a con- 
 spicuous place. 
 
 Solomon Hoxsie, a brother of Stephen 
 Hoxsie the clerk, was also a man of mark, 
 often intrusted with business for the meet- 
 ing. He is called of Richmond, and when 
 he died, in 1781, "was decently interred in 
 his own Burying ground near his houfe." 
 
 John Collins was a traveling Friend who 
 belonged to the meeting. He sometimes 
 accompanied Peter Davis on his shorter 
 journeys, and several times the record 
 comes that he " hath it on his mind to 
 vifit ffriends at Oblong." Robarts Knowles 
 was the Friend who traveled with Peter 
 Davis on his extended journey before he 
 sailed for England. A Robert Knowles 
 was under dealing for debt not long after, 
 and one wonders if it was the same Friend, 
 
 1 Thomas Hazard, son of Robert, called College Tom. 
 By Caroline Hazard. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
88 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS 1 MEETING 
 
 and if, in his concern for the good of 
 the meeting, he neglected his " outward 
 affairs." 
 
 Friends were truly watchful over each 
 other for good. The most prominent men 
 in the meeting were chosen visitors, and 
 overseers of the meeting. The Queries were 
 sent to each meeting from the quarterly 
 meeting, and were not only read in public 
 meetings but in the houses of Friends. They 
 were a list of questions as to the life and 
 conduct of the members. Friends were ad- 
 vised " againfl running into employment 
 they have no knowledge or experience of, 
 but to employ themfelves in that bufmess 
 they were acquainted with." Their apparel, 
 furniture, table, and way of living was under 
 the observation of the overseers. Nor were 
 the ministers and elders exempt from such 
 supervision, but they were exhorted to have 
 a watchful care for each other. 
 
 In 1755 the scope of the overseers was 
 defined when it was 
 
 agreed by this meeting that for the future 
 the vifitors of each meeting Do vifit the 
 families of such who were married among 
 Friends that have not cut themfelves off 
 by Transgreffion, those who are the chil- 
 
THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 89 
 
 dren of ffriends, and read the Queries to 
 them. And fuch who are willing to be 
 in the obfervation of fuch Queries, and 
 have a Defire to be under the care of 
 friends in order that the monthly meet- 
 ing may have a Right Sence of the con- 
 duct of all Such : and take proper meth- 
 ods to Deal timely with fuch who walk 
 Diforderly. 1 
 
 A little later, in 1761, Thomas Wilbour, 
 Thomas Hazard, and Stephen Hoxsie re- 
 port still further on the duties of over- 
 seers: 
 
 It is our Judgement that every par- 
 ticular contained in the Queries now in 
 ufe in faid Monthly Meetings may with 
 propriety be committed to the charge 
 and care of faid overfeers together with 
 all other Rules of Moral and Religious 
 Conduct that are or mall be hereafter 
 thought neceffary by faid Monthly Meet- 
 ing and recommended to their overfight 
 fo far as they do or may relate to the 
 Week Day and Firfl Day Meetings and 
 their Members. 2 
 
 Still later the overseers were to take no- 
 tice of "diforders committed by members, 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 69. 2 Ibid. p. 122. 
 
90 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 viz. : Sleping and all other indecencies," 
 and the omission of members to attend all 
 meetings. 
 
 The Queries were reported upon from 
 month to month. In 1754 the visitors re- 
 port " in fome places Indifferent well, but 
 many places according to our Underftand- 
 ing too much Indifferency in Regarding 
 the good order which ought to be kept up 
 amongft us for which they Laboured in the 
 ability they Received for Amendment." ] 
 
 A little later, " where there was a De- 
 ficiency they generally gave Incouragement 
 of a Regulation." The Queries were also 
 read in meeting, " and friends gave anfwers 
 thereto as proper as they were Capable of 
 at prefent." 
 
 The meeting was not afraid to take up 
 grave questions. The question of slavery 
 stirred it deeply; temperance was already 
 a question of the day ; education received 
 attention. One question, which was a ques- 
 tion in England until very recently, came 
 up in 1771, the question of marrying 
 a deceased wife's sister. 2 A minute was 
 framed to ask advice upon it in 1772 : 
 Query to be able to marry a deceafed 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 63. a Ibid. p. 245. 
 
THE CLERKS OF THE MEETING 91 
 
 wife's Mer or deceafed Hufband's Bro- 
 ther and what is neceffary to be done in 
 fuch cafes ? 1 
 
 The system of overseers kept the meet- 
 ing closely bound together, where " too 
 much indifferency " did not prevail. The 
 most solid men of the meeting were ap- 
 pointed for this service. The Hoxsies, 
 Stephen and Solomon, Peter Davis, and 
 his companion John Collins, and Thomas 
 Hazard, all went from house to house visit- 
 ing Friends under the care of the meeting. 
 A touch of human nature doubtless crept 
 in on some of these occasions, and the 
 formal reports in the records must some- 
 times have had their origin in neighbor- 
 hood gossip. But life was taken seriously, 
 and the daily walk and conversation of 
 Friends was under close observation. In 
 a time of general laxity, and in a new and 
 partly settled country, the orderly rule of 
 Friends made for that righteousness which 
 " exalteth the nation." It may be that the 
 overseers were at times actuated by very 
 human motives, that the quiet country life 
 fostered curiosity. A sense of spiritual 
 pride in those so honored may have crept 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 267. 
 
92 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 in, yet these Friends recognized that their 
 own will was naught ; they depended upon 
 the Light of Truth, which they earnestly 
 sought, and, in the beautiful phrase of their 
 clerk, they " labored with the ability they 
 have received." 
 
V 
 
 THE WORK OF THE MEETING 
 
V 
 
 THE meeting in South Kingstown, though 
 probably the oldest association for worship, 
 was by no means the only one. As early 
 as 1668, the Pettaquamscut purchasers set 
 aside three hundred acres of land, " to be 
 laid out and forever fet apart as an en- 
 couragement, the income or improvement 
 thereof wholly for an Orthodox perfon that 
 fhall be obtained to preach God's word to 
 the Inhabitants." The church which was 
 supported from this foundation had teach- 
 ers at the end of the century, but it was 
 not till 1732 that the Rev. Samuel Niles 
 came, who is called the " firft incumbent 
 of ordination." 
 
 These ministerial lands were the cause 
 of a long lawsuit, for the "orthodox per- 
 son," for whose benefit the deed was made, 
 was held by Dr. McSparran, the missionary 
 of the Church of England, to be no other 
 than himself. Dr. McSparran arrived in 
 1719, and was active and zealous for many 
 years. His Church of St. Paul's stood in 
 
g6 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS^ MEETING 
 
 the village of Tower Hill, on the highway 
 leading to the ferry. Dr. Torrey's church, 
 which finally obtained the title to the min- 
 isterial lands, stood on the corner of the 
 Queen's high road and the ferry road. The 
 court-house was almost opposite it; and 
 from this centre, in the early part of the 
 eighteenth century, the life of the country- 
 side spread. These two churches are con- 
 tinued in Narragansett. The court-house 
 was moved to Kingstown in 1754. Dr. 
 Torrey's church followed, and has become 
 the First Congregational Church at Kings- 
 ton. Dr. McSparren's St. Paul's Church 
 was moved to a site a few miles north of 
 the village, and later to Wickford, where 
 the building in which he preached is still 
 preserved. The Church of the Ascension 
 in Wakefield is its South Kingstown de- 
 scendant. Beside these two established 
 churches at the time of the establishment 
 of the meeting, there were all sorts of minor 
 sects. Beside Quakers and Baptists, Mr. 
 Fayerweather says, " Fanatics, Ranters, 
 Deifts, and Infidels fwarm in that part of 
 the world," and Dr. McSparran bewails the 
 " hetrodox and different opinions in re- 
 ligion that were found in this little corner," 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING 97 
 
 At the same time the good doctor laments 
 this diversity, he speaks of " the power 
 and number of Quakers in this colony." 
 Dr. McSparran does not mention the sect 
 which the Friends had most to fear, if the 
 mention in their records is a true indica- 
 tion, the New Lights, or New Lites, as 
 Stephen Hoxsie often spelled it. As early 
 as 1748 a Friend was denied his member- 
 ship because he suffered Friends' meeting 
 " to be difturbed and broken up by the 
 aforef d Wild & Ranting people, which 
 meeting was in his own houfe." Peter 
 Davis and John Collins, the two preachers, 
 who were presumably strong in points of 
 doctrine, were appointed to labor with 
 Henry Mulkins, as " there appears but Lit- 
 tle hopes of his Return," and in 1753 he 
 was denied as a " Newlite." 
 
 They were also called Separates, or Sep- 
 arators, and the outward sign of a Friend's 
 removing the hat seems to have been taken 
 as a token of falling from grace. A little 
 later two Friends dealt with a man who "has 
 lately joyned with ye People called Sepa- 
 rates in their Worfhip fo far as to Stand 
 up with his Hatt off in the Time of their 
 praying." A second Friend was under the 
 
98 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 same charge, as he had " attended a meet- 
 ing of the people called feparators and 
 joined with them in worfhip by taking off 
 his Hatt, etc.," the record says. This re- 
 minds one of the early days when the hat 
 played such an important part, and the 
 Boston martyr, William Robinson, ex- 
 claimed, " it is for not putting off the hat 
 we are put to death ! " One of these Friends 
 confessed his fault as follows : 
 
 I did fometime past Inconfiderately at- 
 tend a meeting of the people called New 
 Lights, and fo far joined with them in 
 their worfhip as to pull off my hatt 
 which inconfiderate conduct of mine I 
 freely condemn. 
 
 In 1767 a young man was under dealing 
 as he " has juftified his union and commun- 
 ion with the Newlights so-called, and Friends 
 being willing that he fhould maturely con- 
 fider the matter, do conclude to refer it to 
 the next monthly meeting." Two months 
 later his case was again referred, " that his 
 mother may have an opportunity to confer 
 with him." But her arguments did not pre- 
 vail, and he soon was denied his member- 
 ship because he "pretended to juftifie 
 himfelf in being Dipp d in outward water." 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING 99 
 
 As late as 1787 the New Lights gave 
 trouble. A member confessed that he had 
 been to a funeral " and Joined with them in 
 their praying and fo forth, but have confid- 
 ered my Conduct therein fmce and find 
 that I mift it in fo doing," which seems a 
 very modern mode of confession. 
 
 The Baptist Church in Wakefield claims 
 descent from these enthusiasts. The shores 
 of Kit's Pond for many years have witnessed 
 converts " dipp d in outward water ; " and 
 what the good Friends called " Wild and 
 Ranting " was doubtless the fever of exhor- 
 tation and song into which the neighbor- 
 hood gatherings wrought themselves. Many 
 of the hymns were a sort of recitation by 
 the leader, with a refrain taken up by the 
 congregation, and punctuated with sighs 
 and groans. A wild religious fervor marked 
 these meetings, wonderful experiences were 
 related, and constant backsliding occurred. 
 To the minds of Friends, they were a peo- 
 ple of " dark and erroneous principles." 
 As might be expected, the women's meet- 
 ing had difficulty with women who were 
 carried away by this enthusiasm. Con- 
 tent Davis, the wife of our ancient friend 
 Peter Davis, was in charge of a case in 
 
100 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 1 762 where a woman went to the " Sepa- 
 arates or New Light " meeting, and with 
 an unconscious arrogance is accused of 
 " joining with them in what they call wor- 
 fhip." She refused to make satisfaction, 
 and four months after was denied for her 
 " Sade outgoings," as she was " too far 
 joyned into the Religious Sentiments and 
 practices of ye people called New light or 
 Saparates." The following year another 
 woman was " put from under friends care 
 until me makes Satisfaction " on the same 
 charge. 
 
 The New Light doctrines seem to have 
 been the only religious difficulty Friends 
 had to contend with in Narragansett. It 
 is natural that any revolt from the orderly 
 ways of Friends should go to the furthest 
 extreme possible at the time. Episcopacy 
 and Presbyterianism do not appear to have 
 troubled the meeting. But there were al- 
 ways sins of conduct to contend with, and 
 the meeting kept a watchful eye upon its 
 members. A man was reported as he " had 
 of late tarried at the Tavern unfeafonable 
 and drinked to Excefs his Behaviour and 
 Converfation being diforderly therein/' and 
 was duly dealt with. Another man is re- 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING IOI 
 
 ported to the South Kingstown Prepara- 
 tive Meeting, as he " had Conducted Difor- 
 derly in Selling Spirituous Liquors By 
 Small Quantities without Licenfe." 1 Two 
 Friends were appointed to treat with him. 
 
 The young men were dealt with for fight- 
 ing, which they " openly condemn " as being 
 against " the Peacable principles we Pro- 
 fefs," and also for using " unbecoming and 
 prophain language for which reproachful 
 act I am very forry and do freely condemn," 
 the repentant young man declares. Young 
 Caleb Hazard confesses that he " has of late 
 fo far given way to the paffion of anger as 
 to ftrike and fight with Coon Williams," 
 which he freely condemns. A paper was 
 read at the Richmond meeting-house in 
 August, 1767, which must have caused a 
 good deal of talk before and after the read- 
 ing. " A man," the writer says, 
 
 come to me in my field and tho I Defired 
 him to Keep off yet made an attempt 
 to beat or abufe me to prevent which 
 I Suddenly and with too much warmth 
 pufhed him from me with the Rake I 
 was leaning on, which act of mine as it 
 did not manifeft to that Christian patience 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 226. 
 
102 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 and Example in Suffering Tryals of every 
 Kind becoming my profeffion I therefore 
 Freely Condemn it and Defire that I may 
 be enabled for the future to Suffer pa- 
 tiently any abufe or whatever elfe I may 
 be Tried with and alfo Defire Friends to 
 Continue their watchful care over me. 
 Solomon Hoxsie made a complaint of 
 a man " Giving him an occafion of uneafi- 
 nefs by Charging him with Vfmg Deciet 
 with him at feveral times." Thomas Haz- 
 ard and other Friends were appointed to 
 inquire into the case and make report : 
 " We adjudge that John Knowles condemn 
 his charge of Deceit againft Solomon Hox- 
 fie at fome meeting of friends which the 
 meeting {hall think Confiftent with good 
 order." Another man is charged with using 
 an " Unfavory expreffion, What if you 
 Should Try it out with your guns," which 
 he is advised to condemn. 
 
 All cases of dispute were to be adjusted 
 by the meeting, and both parties sometimes 
 gave a binding obligation to abide by the 
 decision rendered. One of the Congdons 
 of Charlestown was complained of by a 
 Friend " for ufing of him hardly in bargain- 
 ing," and a committee was appointed " to 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING 103 
 
 inquire into the Viracity" of the com- 
 
 plaint. 
 
 Nathan Tucker, who appeared for his 
 
 father in this case, had to give 
 
 his obligation to fland and abide the De- 
 termination of fuch Friends as Shall or 
 may be chosen and agreed to and fully 
 authorized by faid Joseph and Nathan 
 to Hear Judge and final Determination 
 make of the whole Controversy. . . . But 
 notwithflanding the parties are firft to be 
 Urged to an amicable and equitable fet- 
 tlement amongft themfelves and make re- 
 turn of their fuccefs to our next Monthly 
 Meeting. 1 
 Friends could sometimes appeal from the 
 
 judgment of the committee, and a new com- 
 
 mittee could reconsider the case, as in the 
 
 following instance : 
 
 The friends appointed to Treat with 
 Dan Bowing Concerning his not comply- 
 ing with the judgement of ffriends in a 
 cafe between him and one of his neigh- 
 bors Made Report that their Judgment 
 is that friend Bowing ought not to pay 
 anything on that Judgment them friends 
 
 gave. 2 
 
 Vol. i. p. 230. a Ibid. p. 68. 
 
104 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 In another case there was a difference 
 between two Friends about settling their 
 accounts. The meeting appointed three 
 Friends to assist in settling, and, if they 
 could not do it with the advice of the com- 
 mittee, to " Deliver each of their acco'ts 
 into the hands of the Said Committee and 
 they to fettle them & make Report." They 
 " Completed that affair according to Ap- 
 pointment " ist nth month, 1755. 
 
 If Friends ventured to appeal to the law 
 instead of to the meeting they were severely 
 dealt with, for St. Paul's maxim was closely 
 followed. A member who had sued his 
 son-in-law, contrary to the good order of 
 Friends, is mentioned. The " Meeting Re- 
 quefts of him to Defift fuch Diforderly 
 proceedings, and Defires him to attend our 
 next Monthly Meeting to make friends Sat- 
 isfaction." * 
 
 In another case, " South Kingftown in- 
 formed that John Barber has fo far difre- 
 garded the Rules of Friends Discipline as 
 to fue a Friend at Common Law." Thomas 
 Hazard and William Robinson were ap- 
 pointed to treat with him, and to inform 
 him " unlefs he makes faid Friend Satis- 
 1 Vol. i. p. 92. 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING 105 
 
 faction for the unneceffary coil and trouble 
 he has put him to, and alfo condemn his 
 faid difregard to Friends Difcipline that 
 he will be denied Memberfhip." 1 
 
 Even giving advice as to an appeal to the 
 law was a breach of discipline. A man and 
 his wife are mentioned who " conducted 
 Diforderly in that they advifed and encour- 
 aged their fon " to prosecute a friend at 
 common law, and " they are advifed to 
 condemn it." 
 
 The meeting was very jealous of the 
 credit of its members. Men were dealt 
 with for not paying their debts, and dis- 
 owned if they proved dishonorable about it. 
 An example may be taken as a typical case. 
 
 In 1766 South Kingstown Preparative 
 Meeting informed the monthly meeting 
 " that it was neceffary a Committee be ap- 
 pointed to infpect the circumftances " of a 
 Friend. John Collins, Thomas Wilbon, and 
 Thomas Hazard were immediately appointed 
 " to go out and treat with faid Robert he 
 being prefent in regard to his circumftances 
 and make Report to this Meeting." This 
 committee reported " that by his Account 
 his Debts and his Eftate are near about 
 1 Vol. i. p. 167. 
 
106 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 equivalent exclufive of his Houfehold 
 Goods and a few Cooper's Tools the Farm 
 he bought of the Heirs of James Bowdoen 
 and the purchafe money not included." 
 This would seem a large exception, and the 
 committee was instructed " to make further 
 infpection of the Said Robert's circum- 
 ftances and make Report thereof." 
 
 The next month the committee reported, 
 " from his information," the records carefully 
 state, " that he hath bought a tract of land 
 of the Heirs of Bowdoin of Bofton lying 
 in Richmondtown, the confideration three 
 hundred feventy five Dollars to be paid on 
 ye 10 of ye i mo 1767. The faid land 
 being vewed by us the Said Confideration 
 in our Eftimation is too much, and further 
 that he hath an Opportunity to enter into 
 the improvement of his brother Samuel's 
 houfe and farm and to have the ufe of one 
 yoke of Oxen therewith at the Rent per 
 annum of 1 10 yards of Common Shirting 
 flanning and the keep of one Yearling 
 Horfe." 
 
 (Signed) JOHN COLLINS. 
 
 THOMAS WILBORE. 
 
 THOMAS HAZARD. 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING IO/ 
 
 This year and the year following, 1766- 
 67, were the years in which College Tom 
 made some of his most curious bargains. 
 He bought a horse, a " Dark Coloured 
 Natural pacing Horse " he calls it, in 1 766, 
 for fifty-five silver dollars, but the value of 
 the money was to be taken in molasses, in- 
 digo, and tea. In the case of this Friend 
 whom College Tom was endeavoring to as- 
 sist, the bargain for the land was made in 
 dollars also, but the rent to be paid in 
 " Common Shirting flanning," and the keep 
 of a colt, shows how scarce actual money 
 was. 
 
 The committee appointed to assist in this 
 case wrote a letter to Boston to endeavor 
 to get Friend Robert released from his pur- 
 chase, and he reported that he had signed 
 and forwarded the letter, a copy of which 
 was presented to the meeting. As he also 
 proposed " to fell fo much of his perfonal 
 Eftate as would difcharge his contracts, and 
 provide a fuitable place for his family and 
 put himfelf to Labour this meeting advife 
 him to purfue it." 1 
 
 At the 6th month meeting, Friends re- 
 ported that little had been done toward set- 
 1 Vol. i.p. 174. 
 
108 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 tling Robert's debts, and at the gth month 
 meeting the same was true ; " therefor as it 
 is not reputable any longer to delay this 
 meeting advifes him to notify his Creditors 
 as foon as conveniently may be and deliver 
 up his Eftate or fo much of it as will fatisfy 
 all his Creditors." 
 
 At the next meeting, Friends reported that 
 "faid Robert has concluded to perfue the 
 advice of the Monthly Meeting by notifying 
 his Creditors and deliver up his Eftate to 
 them which is referred to wait for his per- 
 formance thereof." 
 
 It was six months that this Friend had 
 been advised by the meeting, and the case 
 continued much longer. The account of 
 his debts was brought in, which amounted 
 " to fifty eight and three quarters of a dol- 
 lar, and also Perfonal Eftate Amounting 
 to the Same Sum," which he was desired to 
 " offer up " to satisfy his creditors. The 
 sum seems ridiculously small to modern 
 ears, but the scarcity of money must be re- 
 membered. Corn in 1767 was ninety shil- 
 lings a bushel, and one ewe lamb sold for 
 six pounds in bills. Turned into old tenor, 
 Friend Robert's debts would amount to over 
 ^460, which seems a more considerable 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING 109 
 
 sum to be advised about. After several 
 months' delay he reported he had only one 
 creditor left, and finally he appeared in 
 meeting and " informed that he had fettled 
 with his one creditor." 
 
 But misfortune pursued him, and in 6th 
 month, 1772, he had some very urgent ad- 
 vice. He was first to deliver up the pos- 
 session of the farm which he had improved 
 for several years to his brother, who had 
 bought it. He is advised : 
 
 2 nd that he difpofe of his flock farming 
 Utenfils etc Sufficient to pay all his 
 Debts. That he accept of the privilege 
 that his Father and Brother offers him 
 (that is the Room in the houfe that he 
 lives in untill next Spring and milk of one 
 Cow this seafon and an acre and a half 
 of land already planted for such a confid- 
 eration as they have agreed on). 
 
 4 th [sic] that he put himfelf at labour 
 for the Support of his family what time 
 he hath. 
 
 5 th that he Endeavour to find Suitable 
 places to put out his Children to trades 
 and learning to fitt them for bufiness, and 
 take friends Advice therein. 1 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 262. 
 
110 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 Thus closely were the outward affairs of 
 the members under the care of the meeting. 
 Two or three debtors are mentioned who 
 left town without paying their debts, and 
 very plain language is used of them. One 
 man, who was denied for this reason, is in- 
 formed that " this was a piece of Conduct 
 not only againfl the Rules of the Society 
 but fcandalous in its Nature and injurious 
 to thofe to whom he was indebted " in the 
 paper that was publicly read denouncing 
 him. The power of public opinion was 
 thus used for honesty and uprightness. 
 
 In another case, Thomas Hazard and 
 Joseph Congdon were appointed to inform 
 a debtor " What friends require of him." 
 This man desired time to settle, " as the 
 weather has been Difficult and he lame," a 
 mode of expression which appeals to one's 
 sympathies. But the meeting was just, 
 and, though they gave time in abundance, 
 finally insisted on satisfaction. 
 
 Thomas Hazard was again on a commit- 
 tee which dealt very plainly with another 
 delinquent. It was proposed to Job Irish, 
 " by way of Advice," that he " provide 
 proper place amongfl Friends for his wife 
 and children, deliver up to his Creditors 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING III 
 
 all of his worldly Eftate to be equitably 
 divided amongft them, hire himfelf out by 
 the year by Huf bandry or otherwife for as 
 much as he can juflly get, live frugally and 
 make payment ftill with what he mall have 
 to fpare of his Earnings." This was at the 
 2d month meeting, 1767, and the vigorous 
 English is doubtless College Tom's. Five 
 months later, " Stephen Hoxfie informed 
 that he had not yet fent the Writing to Job 
 Irifh which Friends ordered him to write 
 and fend." At the next meeting " Stephen 
 Hoxfie is defired to take care to fend to 
 Job Irifh as foon as he conveniently can." 
 But at the loth month meeting he has " yet 
 omitted fending to Job Irifh as he was ap- 
 pointed to do." Nine months after the let- 
 ter was directed to be sent, "Stephen Hoxfie 
 informed that he has fent forward the letter 
 that he was to write to Job Irifh, but Friends 
 not having any account whether he has re- 
 ceived it or not, therefore that matter con- 
 cerning him is referred." Early in the next 
 year it was again referred, " as Friends have 
 no account from him, and as it is uncer- 
 tain whether he received what was wrote to 
 him by the Clerk refpecting his creditors." 
 Finally, fourteen months after the first ac- 
 
112 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 tion, " This Meeting is informed that Job 
 Irifh has received the writing that the 
 Clerk wrote to him and that he is defirous 
 Friends would yet wait fome longer time 
 with him therefore Friends Condefcends 
 to wait with him until the next Monthly 
 Meeting." 
 
 This incident shows clearly the difficul- 
 ties of communication over the country 
 roads. Matthew Allen, who was a South 
 Kingstown representative when the meet- 
 ing was set apart at East Greenwich, was 
 once summoned to appear at monthly meet- 
 ing, but sent excuse, " he being an ancient 
 Man and the Diftance fo far to ride." 
 From Stephen Hoxsie's, near the Rich- 
 mond meeting-house, to Tower Hill, was 
 indeed a good morning's ride, and Job Irish 
 evidently lived in a remote part of the 
 town. All travel was tedious, even with 
 the good Narragansett pacers, and the con- 
 sent of the meeting had to be obtained for a 
 journey. On one occasion Robert Knowles 
 " laid before this meeting his intention of 
 going with his wife to Bofton to vifit their 
 Parents and Relatives and defired a few 
 lines of Friends Unity with him." A man 
 and his wife acknowledge " their shortnefs 
 
THE WORK OF THE MEETING 113 
 
 in not adviiing with Friends timely " as to 
 their removal, and many certificates are 
 recorded where Friends went on a visit to 
 Long Island or the Oblong. 
 
 Indeed, the meeting was kept busy regu- 
 lating the smaller as well as the larger 
 affairs of life, and keeping closely to the 
 "good order of Friends therein." 
 
VI 
 
 THE WOMEN'S MEETING 
 
VI 
 
 IT is to the honor of George Fox that 
 he early recognized the value of women's 
 work in the church. There had been Sis- 
 ters of Chanty for hundreds of years before 
 his time, but the cloistered nun had special 
 work, and was shut off from the usual life 
 of women. It was George Fox, who owed 
 so much to Margaret Fell, who first estab- 
 lished women's meetings in the church he 
 founded, and made them of equal impor- 
 tance with men's. Among the Friends, 
 trained in habits of independent thought, 
 and early taught individual responsibility, 
 arose women of singular purity and beauty 
 of life, women of exalted character, and 
 often of great spiritual gifts. 
 
 At the establishment of the South Kings- 
 town monthly meeting, the women's meet- 
 ing, as well as the men's, was set in order 
 and the records regularly kept. These 
 form an interesting comment on the fuller 
 records of the men's meeting, and begin in 
 1744, a few months later than the men's 
 
Il8 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 records. They are preserved in a small 
 quarto volume, which cost fourteen shil- 
 lings, as the first entry duly records. Anna 
 Perry was the first clerk, and served for 
 fifteen years. Her vagaries of spelling are 
 delightfully individual. The meetings were 
 always called " a Pon," and she was fre- 
 quently appointed " to Draw an a Piffel to 
 the Quarterly Meeting." It must have been 
 difficult for the women to meet regularly, 
 riding, as they had to, from Richmond or 
 Westerly to Tower Hill, or from Tower 
 Hill to the other meetings. Often, when 
 the meetings were called " a Pon," the 
 entry comes, " So Kingstown now a Pear- 
 rence, Westerly now a Pearrence Notwith- 
 ftanding the Vifitors has Maid Some Pro- 
 grefs in Vifiting the familys of friends and 
 are in Some Degree Satisfied theirwith," 
 and the " a Piffel " was drawn and signed. 
 In 1758 a new clerk succeeded, as the 
 women were " under a Weighty fence of 
 the Loss it is to the Meeting not having a 
 Clerk Abilitated to Attend the Service." 
 The present clerk informed that she could 
 not, and " the Meeting thinks Proper To 
 be Looking out for one " that may attend. 
 At the next meeting, Mary Hull was ap- 
 
THE WOMEN'S MEETING 1 19 
 
 pointed, much to the benefit of the spelling. 
 Content Davis, Peter Davis's wife, Abigail 
 Rodman, and Anne Hoxsie were prominent 
 among the women as visitors, and on com- 
 mittees to see to the orderly conduct of 
 marriages. Five shillings were paid for 
 sweeping out one of the meeting-houses ; 
 as already noticed, New Lights were dealt 
 with, and the regular and orderly routine of 
 Friends was carefully attended to. In what 
 estimation the women's meeting was held 
 in South Kingstown is well shown by the 
 minute which Thomas Hazard was in- 
 structed to draw up in 1771. The Nine 
 Partners' Monthly Meeting had sent " lines " 
 to the South Kingstown meeting, to in- 
 timate that it was not according to their 
 practice to receive women Friends unless 
 their certificate was signed by the clerk of 
 the men's meeting : 
 
 Therefore in Condefention to our 
 friends of the monthly meeting at Nine 
 partner's we do hereby direct the Clerk 
 of this meeting to fignifie to s d monthly 
 meeting that we have neither precedent 
 nor Difcipline amongft us for fuch a 
 practice, neither do we think it Convn- 
 ant [convenient] So far to Degrade our 
 
120 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 women's meeting. But to Let them have 
 the Ufe and Exerfife of our Difcipline as 
 occafion may call for it in Conducting 
 the affairs of their meeting not Defiring 
 the Preheminence when Truth admits 
 of none But believing that both male 
 & female are all one in Chrifl Jefus. 
 (Signed) THOMAS HAZARD Clerk this 
 time, ist day of ye 4 mo. 1771. 
 
 The respect with which the women's 
 meeting of South Kingstown was spoken 
 of, though doubtless due to the character 
 of all the women in it, must have been in- 
 creased by the career of two preaching 
 Friends, Patience Greene, and later Alice 
 Rathbone. As early as 1755, Patience 
 Greene is called a " public friend," and a 
 member of the Society gave Friends " an 
 occafion of uneafiness by his not joining 
 in prayer" with her in a public meeting. 
 The days of open disturbance in meeting 
 were not yet passed ; and, after being dealt 
 with, the refractory member appeared in 
 meeting and " faid that he hoped he fhould 
 never give friends the Like occafion for 
 Uneafiness which this meeting takes up 
 with for Satisfaction." The case must have 
 
THE WOMEN' >S MEETING 121 
 
 caused a good deal of commotion, for it is 
 several times referred to, and Friends are 
 11 cautioned to mow no Public Marks of 
 Difunion except they have certain Intelli- 
 gence that fuch a Friend is under Deal- 
 ing." 
 
 Patience Greene had a remarkable career. 
 She was the daughter of David and Mary 
 Greene, called of North Kingstown, both 
 members of the meeting, and, at the time 
 of this public mark of disunity, was only 
 twenty-two years old. An account of her 
 life and services was published shortly after 
 her death. The copy I have studied be- 
 longed to Andrew Nichols, also a member 
 of the meeting. She is said to have " Early 
 found in herfelf a propenfity to folly dis- 
 iipation and vanity." About the age of 
 twenty-one, however, she appeared in " pub- 
 lic teftimony," and, until her death forty 
 years later, continued an ardent and valued 
 preacher. After her marriage with Pre- 
 served Brayton in 1758, they "were exer- 
 cifed on account of the Slavery of the Afri- 
 cans," and freed their own slaves. In 1771 
 she traveled on a religious visit as far 
 south as Georgia, leaving her " infant family 
 feeming to require her nurfmg attention," 
 
122 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 the old Testimony phrases it, and also had 
 the " exercife of parting with a beloved 
 weakly husband." But, smile as we may at 
 the old phrases, it was a noble work she 
 was called to, a work to which she felt her- 
 self divinely led. Once they were lost in 
 the woods, where they expected to spend 
 the night, but she says, " I enjoyed more 
 peace of mind upon that reflection than I 
 fhould in fome houfes that were rilled with 
 flaves, for that wounds me more than many 
 other evils." She returned home after this 
 long journey, most of it upon horseback, 
 thirteen months from the time she left, to 
 find one child dead and another dying! 
 Later she spent four years in England, 
 from 1783 to 1787, traveling in England, 
 Scotland, and Wales. In the latter coun- 
 try she was much oppressed, as she could 
 not speak the language, and there was no 
 interpreter. As she sat in sorrow think- 
 ing this over, and longing to speak to the 
 people, a knock came at the door, and she 
 knew an interpreter had been sent her! 
 And so it proved, for " thus again the Al- 
 mighty made way for me to my humbling 
 admiration." 
 
 Almost all the meetings in England, 
 
THE WOMEN'S MEETING 123 
 
 small and great, were visited. She went 
 to "our kind friend Lindley Murray's to 
 lodge " at York. " His converfation was 
 reviving to my fpirits," she writes. The 
 prisons were visited. It was still the time 
 when capital punishment was inflicted for 
 robbery, and debtors languished for years 
 in jail. Finally she had a concern of mind 
 to visit the King ! The way not opening, 
 however, she sent him an admirable address 
 on the subject of " promoting the freedom 
 of the enflaved Negroes in thy dominions." 
 
 It was a woman of this ardent and de- 
 voted spirit who preached in the South 
 Kingstown meeting in the freshness of her 
 youth. 
 
 Women Friends occasionally came from 
 England, as in 1759, when "our Well es- 
 teemed Friend Mary Kirby " brought cer- 
 tificates from London, and her own meeting 
 of Norfolk, England. Her traveling com- 
 panion was Elizabeth Smith, a member of 
 the Burlington meeting in " West Jerfeys." 
 These certificates were read in the monthly 
 meeting to " good Satisfaction," and the 
 Friends were at liberty to preach in all the 
 meetings. 
 
 The women were strict in requiring at- 
 
124 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS MEETING 
 
 tendance at meeting. In 1770 a commit- 
 tee was appointed to deal with six Friends 
 for not attending, and for not using plain 
 language. Among the ladies visited Col- 
 lege Tom's wife was mentioned. The next 
 meeting, the committee reports " that they 
 find fome making their excufes which they 
 think is fome what reafonable." Elizabeth 
 Hazard and three other Friends report 
 "that they are willing but Difficulties at- 
 tend their getting out to Meeting." So 
 closely were Friends watched over. The 
 system had its reverse side, as when the 
 young women were dealt with for " keep- 
 ing company" with one out of meeting. 
 One cannot blame a high-spirited girl for 
 saying, as Hannah Robinson did say, in 
 1768, when dealt with, "that she has as live 
 Friends would deny her as not." Hezekiah 
 Collins's daughters condemned their being 
 at a marriage " where there was frolick- 
 ing ;" but in spite of that, some Friends 
 were " not fatisfied about what was done 
 about Hezekiah Collins is Daughters," and 
 the acceptance of their apology was recon- 
 sidered, with the result of their being de- 
 nied at the expiration of nine months. 
 The records of quiet and peaceful doings 
 
THE WOMEWS MEETING 12$ 
 
 among the women are suddenly broken in 
 1763 by the mention of a woman who was 
 complained of " for offering to Murder her 
 Husband" ! Several months afterward she 
 had given no satisfaction, and in 2d mo., 
 1 764, she was denied, as she has of " Late 
 been charged with offering to Murder her 
 Husband, for Which Reproachful Trans- 
 greffion me Hath been Treated with Sev- 
 eral Times." Her first name was Patience: 
 perhaps that was all she had! She lived 
 in Stonington, and one can imagine the 
 excitement of Friends over such an oc- 
 currence. In the marriage certificate of 
 this woman she makes her mark only, as 
 her sister does in hers, a rare thing in the 
 case of Friends. 
 
 But the great care of the women's meet- 
 ing was to see that the young women of 
 the Society married in " Younety," as the 
 good clerk Anna Perry spells it in 1745, 
 when a Friend presented a paper which 
 condemned " her out Goings in taking a 
 husband contrary to the minds of friends 
 and is Received into Younety Again." A 
 mother, a few years later, " condemns her 
 forredness in Concenting to her fons mar- 
 rag And going to the Wedding it being 
 
126 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 out of the younety of friends." At this day 
 it is difficult to imagine such constant in- 
 terference with family affairs. But at that 
 time, in the neighboring colonies, the min- 
 ister was the autocrat of the town. Here 
 in Narragansett, Friends only advised, and 
 the men's records as well as the women's 
 are filled with cases where it was needed. 
 
 It was reported to the meeting that Wil- 
 liam Robinson had given his consent to 
 the marriage of his daughter with a young 
 man not of the Society, " therefore our 
 friends Solomon Hoxfie and Peleg Peck- 
 ham are appointed to infpect into the ftate 
 of that cafe, and to advife and caution as 
 they find occafion and give us an account 
 thereof at our next Monthly Meeting." ] 
 
 This marriage proceeded, however, and 
 took place in the house, after which there 
 was " vain mirth," and William Robinson 
 was duly dealt with. He acknowledged 
 his offense, and said he had rather " it had 
 been otherways," which the meeting did 
 not accept as satisfaction, and he presented 
 a more humble paper of acknowledgment, 
 which was received. One of the good 
 friends who dealt with William Robinson 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 202. 
 
THE WOMEN'S MEETING 127 
 
 on this occasion found a little later that 
 girls are difficult to manage. He did not 
 wait to be complained of, but in 1769 Solo- 
 mon Hoxfie presented a paper to the meet- 
 ing in which he gave an account that he 
 " fuffered one of another Society to keep 
 company with and alfo to marry his Bro- 
 ther John Hoxfie's Daughter whom he 
 brought up, which conduct he freely con- 
 demned and defired Friends to pafs it by 
 which paper he is defired to read at the end 
 of the Firft Day Meeting where he attends 
 and return it to our next Monthly Meet- 
 ing." 1 
 
 It makes a curious picture ! a man 
 universally respected and honored, often 
 charged with the grave concerns of the 
 meeting, standing up at the end of wor- 
 ship, and reading his own condemnation 
 for allowing his niece to marry as she 
 wished. If the girl had any affection for 
 her uncle, it must have troubled her sorely 
 to have brought such humiliation upon him. 
 
 When marriages were made " in the good 
 order of Friends," the young man and wo- 
 man appeared in monthly meeting of men 
 and women Friends on a fifth day, and laid 
 1 Vol. i. p. 212. 
 
128 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 their intentions of marriage before the meet- 
 ing. They were asked to wait till the next 
 monthly meeting for their consent. In the 
 mean time a committee of men Friends was 
 appointed to inquire into the young man's 
 " converfation and clearnefs as to mar- 
 riage," and the women's meeting visited 
 the young woman. If these inquiries were 
 satisfactory, when the young people ap- 
 peared at the next meeting, and " fignified 
 they were of the fame mind," the meeting 
 gave consent and appointed two Friends to 
 attend the wedding, to report how it was 
 carried on. One late autumn day, we find, 
 " The weather being Difficult the Young 
 woman Could not be prefent," and the 
 man appeared alone for his answer. The 
 women's record puts it very simply, as 
 when it states that " Sylvefler Robinfon and 
 Alice Perry appeared for their anfwer and 
 had it." 
 
 If the lady belonged to a different meet- 
 ing, the man, "having the Intention of al- 
 tering his Condition by way of Marriage," 
 desired " a few lines from ffriends of his 
 Clearnefs therein in thefe parts." New- 
 port damsels in this way were often brought 
 to Narragansett. 
 
THE WOMEN 1 S MEETING 129 
 
 Consent to marriage was sometimes re- 
 fused, as with the young man College Tom 
 and Peleg Peckham dealt with. They re- 
 port that they find "nothing but that he 
 is clear as to marriage, but fome other 
 Branches of his Converfation not fo pure 
 as they Defire." A committee was ap- 
 pointed to treat further with him, but he 
 gave them " No encouragement of Com- 
 plying with the good order of Truth, there- 
 fore this meeting Do not permit him to 
 marry among Friends." l 
 
 The weddings took place at the meeting- 
 houses at a week-day meeting, when the 
 pair stood, before all their relations and 
 friends, and solemnly plighted each other 
 their troth. " I take this My friend Alice 
 Perry," Sylvester Robinson said, " to be my 
 wife, promifmg through divine affiftance to 
 be unto her a faithful and affectionate hus- 
 band until Death mall feparate us." The 
 damsel Alice repeated words "of the like 
 import," as the old form phrases it, and the 
 religious part of the ceremony was over. 
 Then the great certificate was signed by 
 the bride and groom, their parents and 
 friends and neighbors, after which came 
 1 Vol. i. p. 85. 
 
130 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 the festivities, of which the overseers some- 
 times complained. " Some of the young 
 people were not fo orderly as could be de- 
 fired," a Friend reports. Some weddings 
 " were pretty orderly carried on," and others 
 " orderly as far as my obfervation," the 
 Friend says. Did the kindly old gentle- 
 man turn away from beholding vanity, and, 
 shutting himself in the dining-room with 
 the roasts and the sweets, pay no attention 
 to the " Concourfe of Young people " ? For 
 the young people liked to dance then as 
 now, and, if they could not dance at Friends* 
 weddings, there were others in Narragan- 
 sett where they could. Two Perry brothers 
 are dealt with on this account, and defend 
 themselves in the modern spirit. Our 
 friends Thomas Hazard and Peleg Peck- 
 ham sign the report, which reads : 
 
 Purfuant to our appointment we have 
 treated with Jonathan Perry and Samuel 
 Perry for their being at an Entertain- 
 ment fubfequent to a Marriage at which 
 there was vain Recreation. Now here 
 follows the fubftance of Jonathan's fenti- 
 ment on the affair (viz) that he did no 
 harm nor received any there and that he 
 had rather be in the Meeting. Samuel's 
 
THE WOMEN'S MEETING 131 
 
 fentiments as we underftood from what 
 he faid amount to this (viz) that he 
 thought there was no harm in keeping 
 the company neither received any at the 
 faid Entertainment and that he was will- 
 ing to send in a paper to the Meeting 
 but neglected to do it although urged 
 thereto. 1 
 
 Jonathan Perry afterwards presented a 
 paper condemning his misconduct, but a 
 year or so later he is again reported as at- 
 tending a wedding and apparently dancing 
 himself, whereupon he is again called to 
 account. Samuel Perry makes explicit ac- 
 knowledgment : 
 
 Through my too great inattention to 
 the dictates of Truth in my own Mind 
 and attachment to light and vain Com- 
 pany I have been to an Entertainment 
 of late where there was vain Recreation 
 which I too much countenanced and 
 joined with all of which is Contrary to 
 the Good Order of Truth as well as the 
 Difcipline of our Society which I look 
 upon to be neceffary to reftrain Youth 
 from fuch undue Liberties. 
 Therefore he condemns his conduct. 2 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 179. 2 Ibid. p. 184. 
 
132 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 When young Friends actually married 
 out of meeting, they often presented a pa- 
 per of acknowledgment, and were received 
 again. It must have been rather a bitter 
 thing for a man to present " some lines " 
 even "in some Meafure condemning his 
 mifconduct in marrying out of Unity of 
 Friends," and to have it referred for further 
 consideration. 1 This last paper was still 
 "referred that Friends may have a Sight 
 and Senfe of his Sincerity in condemning 
 his mifconduct." After all, the man was 
 married, and how could he sincerely con- 
 demn it if he loved his bride? 
 
 One man appeared in meeting and " in- 
 formed Friends that he had unadvifedly 
 and inconsiderately married out of the 
 Rules of the Society," which he " freely 
 and heartily " condemned. 2 
 
 Another, who had made a marriage con- 
 trary to Friends' rules, declared that if they 
 would " pass it by " he would endeavor to 
 be more steady ! 
 
 A third man presents the following pa- 
 per, which makes one wonder what kind of 
 woman his wife was : 
 
 I do hereby acknowledge that I have 
 
 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 212. 2 Ibid. p. 156. 
 
THE WOMEN'S MEETING 133 
 
 wilfully and knowingly transgreffed the 
 good Order and Rules of the Society 
 in proceeding in Marriage with a woman 
 not of the Society nor according to the 
 Method allowed of amongfl Friends for 
 which Transgreffion I am heartily forry 
 and do defire Friends to forgive and pafs 
 by and hope that I lhall by the Lord's 
 affiftance be preferved not only from 
 Transgreffions of fo wilful a kind but 
 alfo from all others. 1 
 
 In 1758 all marriages not among Friends 
 were forbidden by the Society, and Friends 
 adhered to their rules. 2 
 
 This great care for the proper solemniza- 
 tion of marriage is seen to be necessary 
 when we remember that the day of marry- 
 ing in shifts was not long past. Two cases, 
 among others, are on record in the South 
 Kingstown Records, one in 1719, when the 
 man took the woman in marriage " After 
 me had gone Four times a cros the High- 
 way In Only her Shift and hairlace and no 
 other Clothing " ! 3 The other woman, in 
 1724, had her " Shift and hair Lace and no 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. H2. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 85. 
 
 9 S. K. Council Records , No. r, 1704-1723. 
 
134 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 other clothing on that I fe," 1 the justice 
 who marries them declares. These were 
 both winter weddings, one in February 
 and one in December, so that humanity, 
 as well as decency and honesty, were out- 
 raged. For the object of the curious cere- 
 mony was the evasion of debt. If the wife 
 brought her husband nothing, she could 
 not even bring her debts, and he was free 
 from paying them, which he would other- 
 wise have to do. 
 
 When such extreme care was manifested 
 by the meeting in regard to marriage, it 
 may well be imagined how severe the deal- 
 ings of Friends were with immorality. 
 Some young members are on record for 
 " diforderly and fcandalous conduct," and 
 requested to clear themselves of the charges 
 brought against them. Their offenses are 
 described in very plain English, and, no 
 matter what position their fathers had in 
 meeting, they were expelled if the charge 
 was proved true. With Roman fortitude 
 the father in one case signed the document 
 with the other Friends, setting forth his 
 son's misdoing, which was publicly read, 
 
 1 Town Meeting Records, Births, Marriages^ etc., 1723- 
 1726, p. 69 (from the back of the volume). 
 
THE WOMEN'S MEETING 135 
 
 denouncing him. In one case, after five 
 years of disfellowship, the young man was 
 received into the Society again, and a cer- 
 tificate given him allowing him to marry. 
 Only one woman in a period of thirty years 
 was dealt with on a similar charge. 
 
 We may smile at the quaint phraseology 
 of the records, but it was a good service 
 those women did. Patience Greene, with 
 her gifts of exhortation ; Content Davis, 
 visiting the families of Friends ; good Anna 
 Perry, with her oddities of spelling, all 
 did an important work. 
 
 In a new country, and in a time of lax 
 morality, the service rendered by the high 
 standard of Friends can hardly be over- 
 estimated. 
 
VII 
 SLAVERY 
 
VII 
 
 THE Friends in Narragansett seem to 
 have united, in no common degree, spiritual 
 virtues with temporal prosperity. If they 
 had a David Greene, whose daughter spoke 
 of heavenly things, and left all to preach 
 the gospel, they also had substantial and 
 well-to-do farmers, the Rodmans and Haz- 
 ards, and others, who, like their neighbors, 
 worked their farms with slaves. South 
 Kingstown was richer in slaves than any 
 other part of Rhode Island, and any effort 
 for the abolition of slavery would be sure 
 to arouse opposition. 
 
 It is difficult to determine the exact num- 
 ber of slaves in South Kingstown. The 
 probate records for 1743 mention only 
 nineteen bequeathed by will in that year. 
 The will of George Hazard shows that he 
 possessed fifteen of this number. We have 
 the tradition of the negro election day, 
 when, in imitation of their masters, one of 
 their own number was elected governor; 
 and the laws for the regulation of slaves 
 
140 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 show that the number was very consider- 
 able. As early as 1729 there was a law 
 passed to allow a master to manumit his 
 slave on deposit of ^100 security. In 1750 
 a law was passed forbidding the selling of 
 " strong beer, ale, cider, wine, rum, brandy, 
 or other strong liquor, to any Indian, Mu- 
 latto or Negro servant." To guard against 
 evasion, it was specified that no person was 
 to " presume to sell, give, truck, barter or 
 exchange " this liquor with a slave. Slaves 
 were to be within doors at nine o'clock at 
 night, or to be " publickly whipped by the 
 conltable ten stripes " for each offense. 
 They were not allowed to keep " creaters " 
 in South Kingstown. So it is quite evident 
 that slave-holding formed an integral part 
 of the social order of Friends in Narra- 
 gansett. 
 
 To them came John Woolman in 1748 
 and 1760, stirring the meeting with his 
 preaching, and his private as well as public 
 testimony against slavery. He and his 
 companions held five meetings in the latter 
 year, when he says he went " through deep 
 exercifes that were mortifying to the crea- 
 turely will. In feveral families where we 
 lodged I felt an engagement on my mind 
 
SLAVERY 141 
 
 to have a conference with them in private 
 concerning their flaves." 1 John Pember- 
 ton also came during this period probably, 
 as his letter indicates. 2 These were saintly 
 men, well tried, and full of faith. These 
 doubtless did not need the caution given 
 by the Discipline of 1775, "to be careful 
 how and what they offer in prayer, avoid- 
 ing many words and repetitions ; and not 
 turning from Supplication into declaration, 
 as though the Lord wanted information." 
 I have elsewhere given the history of the 
 movement against slavery in part, 3 but 
 fuller study of the Records has made fresh 
 disclosures. The first recorded testimony 
 against slavery is that of Richard Smith, 
 who presented a paper as " his testimony 
 againfl keeping Slaves, and his Intention 
 to free his negro Girl," dated the 28 th n mo 
 1757. This paper " he hath a mind to lay 
 before the quarterly meeting, all which is re- 
 ferred for further Confideration." 4 Month 
 after month passed and no action was 
 taken upon it, but the paper remains on 
 record " to mow the reafon and make it 
 manifefl to mankind why that I difcharge 
 
 1 Woolman's Journal, p. 161. 2 College Tom, p. 182. 
 8 College Tom, pp. 169-1 78. 4 S. K. M. M. R. vol. i. p. 82. 
 
142 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 and fet free my Negro garl named Jane." 
 Then follows an argument against slavery, 
 based upon the Golden Rule, at the con- 
 clusion of which comes this personal state- 
 ment : 
 
 Sometime after I had written this Dis- 
 charge I had it in Confideration which 
 way was proper to make it Manifeft & 
 Secure and it appeared to me very pro- 
 per to lay before Friends at the prepari- 
 tive meeting, as buifmefs to the Monthly 
 Meeting, to fee if the Monthly Meeting 
 would think proper that it might be put 
 on Record or would forward Untill I 
 might Know what might be done by 
 Friends on this acct. for this thing hath 
 had weight on my mind ever Since this 
 Girl was put into my hands to prove 
 me in this part of Self Denial whether 
 I would be faithfull or not. Now my 
 Friends to tell you plainly Some Years 
 before this my Intent was to have bought 
 Some Negro ws flaves for to have done 
 my work to have Saved hireing of help. 
 But when I was about buying them I 
 was forbidden by the fame power that 
 now caufes me to fet this Girl at Liberty 
 for the matter was fet before me in a 
 
SLAVERY 143 
 
 Clear manner more Clear than what 
 Mortal Man could have done, and There- 
 fore I believe it is not write for me to 
 Shrink or hide in a thing of fo great 
 Concernment as to give my Confent to 
 do to others Contrary to what we Our 
 Selves would be willing to be done unto 
 Our Selves if we were in Slavery as 
 many of them are at this Day & under 
 Such Matters and Miflreffes too as would 
 be willing to be called Chrifts true fol- 
 lowersand make a Profeffion of fome of 
 his Truths but if we truly Confider God 
 will have no part kept back for he calls 
 for Juftice and mercy and his Soul Loaths 
 the Opprefling of the Inocent and poor 
 & helplefs and Such as have none to 
 help and will affuredly avenge their caufe 
 in Righteousnefs. Thefe things I have 
 found on my mind to lay before Friends 
 as a matter worth due Confideration and 
 fo lay it before this Meeting as Bufmefs. 
 (Signed) RICHARD SMITH. 
 
 So the principle involved in slavery was 
 very clearly stated as early as I757. 1 
 
 In 1762 the " Quarterly and Yearly Meet- 
 
 1 Additional Testimony, Appendix, p. 186. 
 
144 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 ing Confirmed the Judgement of our Mo ly 
 Meeting given againft Samuel Rodman on 
 account of his buying a negro Slave. And 
 it is the mind of friends that there ought 
 to go out a publick Teilimony and Denial 
 of Samuel Rodman," which was referred to 
 the next monthly meeting. At the next 
 meeting, Stephen Hoxsie was appointed to 
 draw up a " paper of frds Teflimony of 
 Difowning," as it was the " Sence and 
 Judgement " of the meeting. Notwith- 
 standing this, in 1765 came the Rathbun 
 case, which was before the meeting eight 
 years. Having bought a negro girl, Joshua 
 Rathbun " appeared tender " when dealt 
 with for that disorder, and was brought to 
 confess his error, as follows : 
 
 Westerly: 27 th : 1 2 th m 1765. 
 
 To the monthly Meeting of Friends to 
 be held at Richmond next 
 
 Dear Friends. I hereby Acknowledge 
 that I have Acted diforderly in purchas- 
 ing a Negro Slave, which diforder I was 
 Ignorant of, at the time of the Pur- 
 chafe but having converfed with Several 
 Friends upon the Subject of Slavery 
 have gained a knowledge that heretofore 
 
SLAVERY 145 
 
 I was ignorant of, both as to the Rules 
 of our Society, as well as the nature & 
 inconfiftancy of making Slaves of our 
 Fellow Creatures am therefore free, & 
 do condemn that inconfiderate Act & 
 defire Friends to pafs it by, hoping that 
 I may be preferr d , from all conduct that 
 may bring Uneafmefs upon Friends for 
 the future, am Willing likewife to take 
 the Advice of Friends both as to the 
 bringing up & difcharging of the afores d 
 Negro. 1 
 
 JOSHUA RATHBUN. 
 
 This evidently sincere paper was accepted 
 by the meeting, and for some time the mat- 
 ter dropped. 
 
 In 1769 occurs this significant entry: 
 This Meeting moves the Quarterly 
 
 Meeting to confider the propriety of the 
 
 latter part of the loth Query which is 
 
 fent up thereto in the Account from this 
 
 Meeting. 2 
 
 The tenth Query was the query as to 
 slave-holding among members. In this 
 very year the Quarterly Meeting proposed 
 to the Yearly Meeting " fuch an amend- 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 171. 2 Ibid. p. 212. 
 
146 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 ment of the Query of 1760 as fhould not 
 imply that the holding of flaves was al- 
 lowed." 1 It seems as if this change may 
 have come directly from the South Kings- 
 town meeting. Thomas Hazard had long 
 before freed his slaves, early in the forties, 
 having refused to hold any. Richard Smith 
 in 1757 had borne his testimony against 
 slavery. Samuel Rodman in 1762, and 
 Joshua Rathbun in 1765, had been dealt 
 with, so that the time was coming when a 
 decisive movement could be made. 
 
 Such were the conditions when in 1771 
 Joshua Rathbun made over his negro girl 
 to his son for the consideration of fifty dol- 
 lars. The money was " made up another 
 way," the record says, the old man evidently 
 trying this to salve his conscience, as he 
 had promised to set the girl at liberty at a 
 suitable age. The son was first dealt with, 
 and denied membership, because he 
 
 Encouraged the Deteflible practice of 
 enflaving Mankind by his takeing a bill 
 of sale of a negro girl of his Father and 
 afterward Sold her fo that She was car- 
 ried out of the Country notwithftanding 
 
 1 Publications of the R. /. Historical Society f , Slavery in 
 R. 7. 1755-1776, W. D. Johnston, p. 148. 
 
SLAVERY 147 
 
 his promife to his sd father to Sett her 
 
 at Liberty at a Suitable age. 1 
 
 The father was desired to try to recover 
 the girl, and even advised to " Commince 
 and profecute " his son " for the Recovery 
 of Damages upon a promis " made by the 
 son, which he failed to do. 
 
 The meeting held at Joshua Rathbun's 
 house was ordered discontinued in 1771, as 
 he " did not ftand Clear in his Teftimony 
 for the Caufe of Truth as he ought to have 
 done " against Slavery. But he replied two 
 years later, during which time he apparently 
 continued the meetings, that "he mould 
 be glad to take friends' Advice but hath 
 peace in holding faid Meetings apprehend- 
 ing it as he faid as his duty." 2 His wife 
 was dealt with by the Women's Meeting, 
 and acknowledged her offense in sitting in 
 a meeting out of unity, though it was in 
 her own house, and finally the old man 
 was denied his membership. 
 
 Ten Friends are mentioned in 1771 who 
 were under dealing about their slaves. Old 
 Dr. Rodman, who lived by the dam on the 
 Saugatucket where Peace Dale now is, 
 " appeared in this meeting, and Saith that 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. i. p. 260. 2 Ibid. p. 276. 
 
148 NARRAGANSETT FRIEND? MEETING 
 
 he fhall not comply with the Rules of the 
 Society Refpecting his Slaves to Liberate 
 them." 1 Some members " appears of a dis- 
 pofition to comply with friends rules in 
 liberating their flaves," but five Friends, 
 among them two women, one of whom 
 was College Tom's mother, Sarah Hazard, 
 widow, " did fhew the Contrary Difpofi- 
 tion." Three were denied membership. 
 Sarah Hazard must have been converted 
 by her son, for only one woman proved 
 obdurate, and was " noticed " to the Wo- 
 men's Meeting. 2 
 
 In the women's records, the first mention 
 of " the bufmefs concerning flaves " occurs 
 at the 1 2th month Women's Meeting, 1771. 
 It was continued and reported upon for a 
 year, when the paper of denial was drawn 
 up. The disowning of this woman is dated 
 23d day of the tenth month, 1772, and is 
 a noble testimony from the Women's Meet- 
 ing. She is denied her membership, as 
 of late it doth appear that She hath Re- 
 fufed to comply with that part of our 
 Difcipline which is againft the enflaving 
 Mankind a Practice very repugnant to 
 Truth and Equity an invation of the 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. i. p. 245. 2 ma. p. 245 . 
 
SLAVERY 149 
 
 Natural Rights of Mankind fubjecting 
 them to a ftate of Bondage and oppres- 
 fion wolly Inconfiflent with the Spirit 
 of the Gofple now having dealt with her 
 According to the order of the Gofple 
 in much Labour and forbearence that 
 the oppreffed might go Free. But me 
 Conueth to Difobey the Truth and re- 
 luctant to our advice on its behalf We 
 have Denied her Memberfhip in our 
 Society until She return To the Truth 
 and make Satiffaction for her Tranfgres- 
 fion which is our Sincear Defire This 
 teftimony Given forth in behalf of the 
 Truth and againft Tyranny & Oppreffion 
 from our Monthly Meeting of Women 
 Friends held at Richmond the 23 day of 
 Tenth month 1772. 
 
 Signed by ten women. 
 At the 4th monthly meeting, 1771, a com- 
 mittee was appointed to treat with all who 
 " poffes flaves." They were kept busy for 
 two years, and in 1773 report that "they 
 dont find there is any held As Slaves by 
 Frds." 1 
 
 Notwithstanding this encouraging entry 
 in the records, the committee to visit slave- 
 
 1 S.K. M. M. /?.vol. ii. p. I. 
 
150 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS" MEETING 
 
 keepers was still continued, and found a 
 little more to do. A list of emancipated 
 slaves gives the names of five liberated in 
 I773, 1 and eight more who were freed at 
 intervals till 1 786, which was two years after 
 the Emancipation Act had been passed 
 by the Rhode Island legislature. But the 
 meeting had clearly declared its principles, 
 and stood boldly for liberty. 
 
 It is interesting to follow the course of 
 the men denied. Among them, Joshua 
 Rathbun claims our sympathy most of all ; 
 and the following touching letter, written 
 two years after his denial, is in conformity 
 with all we can glean of his character : 
 
 ye 12 th Day of the 5 month 1775. 
 Deare friends have had a mind Ever 
 fence my Denial toock Place uppon me 
 to be under the Care of friends yea with 
 great Defire at times: But Sea no way 
 for it as my mind Stood : I deare Do no 
 other way But to be Honeft to what 
 Sence I had : it was a great Crofs to me 
 to be Denied by friends it was all moft 
 two much for me to beare : How Ever I 
 was Boorn up under it all : and have not 
 
 1 Appendix, p. 190. 
 
SLAVERY 151 
 
 as yet fainted : bleffed be God for his 
 Preferving Power that he might in his 
 own time give me Sight and Sence : and 
 at Lenth : the Lord has Shewed me by 
 the Inftance of Eli: that I Should not 
 only have advifed : my Son : but Should 
 have Conftrained him to have Done Jus- 
 tis to the black garl : and I Sea now I 
 Should have taken up with the advife of 
 friends : in Proficuting my Son, if he 
 would not have Done Juftis with out : 
 and I am Sorey that I Could not at that 
 time have taken up with the advife of 
 the Laft Committey to me Sent By 
 the monthly meating Namely : John Col- 
 lins Solomon Hoxesey thomas Wilber & 
 Joseph Congdon advifmg me to Defifl 
 and not hold no more meattings for 
 friends had no Eunity with it. I Say 
 I am Sorrey Seeing it was a Crofs to 
 the Difcepline of friends and as to the 
 manner of my holding of meattings out 
 of Eunity I freely Condem : and as to 
 the matter Leave me to Stand or fall 
 to my own mailer: and I Delire that 
 friends may Pafs it by and take me 
 under there Chriftion Ceare: I Never 
 Saw as I now Sea till ye 7 th of this In- 
 
152 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS^ MEETING 
 
 ftant: from one that Defiers to travel no 
 fafter then the Light Difcovers and to 
 Comply with Every manyfefl of it : Who 
 allfo Defires to be admitted a member of 
 your Sofiatry. 
 
 JOSHUA RATHBUN 
 
 It is a comfort to find the following re- 
 port, which was duly recorded, and to 
 know that the old man was doubtless rein- 
 stated : 
 
 According to appointment We have 
 had an oppeturnity With Joshua Rath- 
 bun Refpecting his Requeft to be Re- 
 ftored again to Membership With friends 
 and he appears to be in a Good Degree 
 Sincere in his Requeft Which We think 
 Well of Granting him all Which We 
 Submit to the M Meeting Next to be 
 held at Richmond. 
 
 PETER HOXSIE 
 THOMAS WILBUR 
 WILLIAM J. KNOWLES 
 JOSEPH CONGDON 
 
 He died, aged 77 years, the i4th of 7th 
 month, 1 80 1, " of a very diftreffmg Diforder 
 
SLAVERY 153 
 
 in his Stomach, which he endured with 
 much Fortitude and Refignation and which 
 terminated his Life the Evening of the 
 fame day." 1 
 
 As late as 1800, Joshua Rathbun the son 
 desired to be restored, and was favorably 
 reported to the meeting, as he " appears to 
 be in a Good Degree Sincere in Condemn- 
 ing his Mis-Conduct." He also "faid he 
 Was Willing to do all he Could to Relieve 
 the Negro Girl from Slavery that he was 
 Denyed for Selling." And in 1807 comes 
 a letter from Benjamin Rodman, who was 
 denied in I772. 2 He was Dr. Thomas 
 Rodman's son, and writes to the meet- 
 ing: 
 
 South Kingstown the 26 th of 2 d Mo 
 
 1807. 
 
 In confequence of Friends dealling (as 
 I then thought, too hardly with my fa- 
 ther) many years ago, refpecting his 
 keeping of Slaves, which I was so un- 
 guarded as to refent, and to refufe to Set 
 at liberty thofe in my poffeffion, which 
 have fince all been liberated by me, 
 
 1 Births, Marriages, and Deaths, p. 146. 
 * Ibid. p. 265. 
 
154 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 which conduct of mine (in refuting to 
 free them at that time) I am forry for 
 and defire friends to pafs it by and again 
 admit me as a member of Society. 
 
 BENJ. RODMAN 
 
 To the Mo. Meeting of friends 
 next to be Holden at 
 Richmond. 
 
 These papers really show the power of 
 the meeting. To Joshua Rathbun it came 
 as a bitter trial to be denied ; to the other 
 men, in their way, either as a discredit 
 or a misfortune, which years after was re- 
 membered, and repaired if possible. It was 
 the power of public opinion about them 
 the consensus of opinion of the best 
 and most honorable men they knew that 
 they valued, as well as the doctrine of the 
 church they loved. So, in a formative 
 period of American history, these little self- 
 governing bodies of men, scattered in re- 
 mote rural districts, bound together by ties 
 of love and belief, and a common purpose 
 of daily life, these little meetings had vast 
 influence in training men to public affairs, 
 in shaping the true democratic policy to- 
 ward which the country was tending. The 
 
SLAVERY 155 
 
 meeting might seem isolated ; but while 
 such men as John Woolman and John 
 Pemberton came to it, while Mary Kirby 
 from England crossed the water to visit it, 
 it was not out of communication with the 
 great world. Out to that world it sent i^ts 
 own ministers, Peter Davis, Thomas Robin- 
 son, and Patience Greene, who, under her 
 married name of Patience Brayton, could 
 not have forgotten the meeting of her 
 youth. The very fact of the beautifully 
 printed London Epistles coming yearly 
 was an education, and the books which the 
 meeting subscribed for made many a good 
 Friend's library. It was the existence of 
 many such well-governed and self-sustain- 
 ing bodies as the South Kingstown monthly 
 meeting which made possible our Revolu- 
 tion, paradoxical as this may seem, since 
 any resort to arms was so severely dis- 
 countenanced. Here, in small, a truly re- 
 presentative government was in operation. 
 
VIII 
 THE REVOLUTION 
 
VIII 
 
 THE middle of the eighteenth century 
 certainly marked the height of the greatest 
 power and usefulness of the South Kings- 
 town meeting. The long agitation over 
 the question of slavery, which began as 
 early as 1742, at the time of Thomas Haz- 
 ard's (son of Robert) marriage ; which was 
 discussed in John Woolman's powerful ser- 
 mons, and personal pleadings with masters 
 and mistresses in 1 748 ; to which Patience 
 Bray ton and Richard Smith bore testimony 
 in the fifties, was finally settled in meet- 
 ing in 1773. This was a formative period. 
 A question affecting the lives of so many 
 persons, masters as well as servants, natu- 
 rally stimulated thought ; and, though the 
 meeting was in a little corner of the world, 
 it was not left without leaders from abroad, 
 as well as those developed within its own 
 borders. 
 
 Two Friends in especial throw light upon 
 this period, the diary of Jeffrey Watson, 
 beginning in 1640 and ending 1783; and 
 
160 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 that of " Nailor Tom " Hazard, from 1778 
 to 1840, the two covering a period of one 
 hundred years of observation by men of 
 unusual capacity and intelligence. Both 
 these men were Quakers by birth and train- 
 ing. Jeffrey Watson was the son of John 
 Watson, Esq., the first child born in Nar- 
 ragansett after the Indian War, 1 his obitu- 
 ary notice declares, that is, in 1676. " He 
 was blefl with more than a common fhare 
 of good fenfe, and was early employed in 
 many important affairs." At his death, at 
 the age of ninety-seven years, he left one 
 hundred and thirty-eight descendants, a 
 great part of whom followed him to the 
 grave. " He was a Loving Husband, a 
 Tender father, a juft Magiftrate, a good 
 neighbor, a mild Mafler, and an Honeft 
 Man." Our ancient friend, Peter Davis, 
 preached at his funeral, also Stephen Rich- 
 mond and Robert Knowles. His son, Jef- 
 frey Watson, inherited many of his father's 
 good qualities, and seems to have had a 
 special relish for preaching. In 1743 he 
 records having heard at Friends' meeting 
 " the ablefl man that I had ever heard in 
 
 1 I am indebted to Mrs. C. E. Robinson for a copy of 
 this valuable diary. 
 
THE REVOLUTION l6l 
 
 my life." He mentions all the special meet 
 ings of Friends, as in 1755 : 
 
 I was at the Quaker Meeting and there 
 
 was two Old England and one Filly- 
 
 delphia man fpoke exceedingly able. 
 
 Again in the same year : 
 
 I was at the Quaker Meeting to hear 
 
 Sam 1 Fothergill. There was a boundance 
 
 of people the minifter Exceedingly Able 
 
 and a great fcolar Difcourced in a very 
 
 High Stile. 
 
 Watson also went to the Baptist meeting. 
 Once it was held in the woods, on a rainy 
 day, but Gardner Thurston preached a very 
 able sermon from Joshua, 24th chapter and 
 1 6th verse. Again, at the Baptist meet- 
 ing, Samuel Albro is recorded as exceed- 
 ingly able, preaching from the text, " Pre- 
 pare to meet thy God o Ifreal." 
 
 Thomas Hazard is mentioned as a 
 preacher; in 1791 the text of his funeral 
 sermon for John Watson, senior, is given : 
 "The Grace of God has appeared to all 
 Mankind." 
 
 All the prominent Friends' funerals are 
 spoken of. They departed this life with 
 " Much Lamentation " he often adds. Of 
 the other preachers, Hoxsie is often men- 
 
162 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 tioned, the good clerk of the meeting. 
 Whitman preached from the ever comfort- 
 ing text, " Bleffed are the dead who die 
 in the Lord." Patience Greene preached 
 often in 1756 and 1757, and Stephen Rich- 
 mond later. So the meeting was well sup- 
 plied with its own ministers. 
 
 Some hint of the state of the currency is 
 
 given in June, 1757, when, at Tower Hill, 
 
 " they was a letting bank money." After a 
 
 few days' consideration, on the Qth of June 
 
 Watson went to Tower Hill " to Take of 
 
 the Bank money." This was one of the 
 
 issues of paper money which Rhode Island 
 
 had made at intervals from 1710. The 
 
 premium was enormous ; the issue of 1757 
 
 is quoted at $ i$s. for one Spanish milled 
 
 dollar, while the next year the value of the 
 
 silver dollar rose to 6 in old tenor bills. 1 
 
 In 1761 comes an interesting record: 
 
 Jan. 19. This Day the Prince of 
 
 Wales was proclaimed King of England 
 
 by the name of George the Third by the 
 
 Grace of God King over Great Britain 
 
 France and Ireland, Defender of the 
 
 Faith &c. 
 
 There were still some years when the 
 
 1 R. I. Colonial Records, vol. vi. p. 361. 
 
THE REVOLUTION 163 
 
 orderly proceedings of the meeting were 
 quietly carried on, but there were signs 
 of the coming storm. The debased cur- 
 rency was in itself a source of danger. In- 
 many instances barter was resorted to again, 
 and contracts had to provide in what sort 
 of money they should be paid, since every 
 year saw increased inflation. Corn, which 
 in 1751 sold at twenty-five shillings a bushel, 
 gradually rose till in the early sixties it 
 reached its maximum of one hundred shil- 
 lings. Careful men of business kept their 
 accounts in old tenor and lawful money, 
 with endless trouble and confusion. No 
 wonder Jeffrey Watson often records try- 
 ing to settle accounts, " but could not do 
 it," and his joy when he has finally agreed 
 with a certain creditor, and makes the re- 
 cord, " fettled accounts for ever and ever 
 amen "! Then came the stirring days of the 
 Revolution. In Narragansett the echoes of 
 the shot that rung around the world were 
 also heard. It is interesting to find some 
 of the earliest advice to Friends was in re- 
 gard " to receiving and paffing the late pa- 
 per Currency that is made and paffed in 
 thefe Colonies Iffued Expreffly for the 
 purpofe of Carrying on War it is recom- 
 
1 64 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 mended to friends Serious Confideration 
 and Obfervation." 1 This was given from 
 Newport in ist month, 1776. Friends in 
 the summer of that same year were advised 
 to " enter deeply into themfelves and not 
 implicitely follow the fentiments of others, 
 but fee that their proceedings therein are 
 in the liberty of the Truth." 2 So powerful 
 were the Quakers in the Colony that the 
 General Assembly passed an act in June 
 of the same year entitled " An Act for the 
 relief of perfons of tender confciences, and 
 for preventing their being burthened with 
 millitary duty." 3 
 
 The meeting therefore drew up a minute 
 instructing Friends how to act under the 
 circumstances : 
 
 This meeting is informed that through 
 late Laws Friends are fubjected to fome 
 penalties on certain Requefitions which 
 they may be releafed and excufed from 
 by Producing a certificate to the chief 
 Officers from our Clerk Setting forth that 
 they are members of the Religious So- 
 ciety called Quakers, therefore the clerk 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. ii. p. 55. 
 
 2 R. I. Meeting Records, 1 776. 
 8 R. I. C. R. vol. vii. p. 568. 
 
THE REVOLUTION 165 
 
 is directed to make and fign Certificates 
 to our members applying for the fame 
 when no diforder or irregularty doth ap- 
 pear and every fuch applying member is 
 earnestly defired to Examine and fee that 
 nothing be done out of the truth that our 
 Teftimony may be preferved pure and 
 no reproach brought upon friends. 1 
 A meeting for Sufferings was early ar- 
 ranged, and members who had suffered on 
 account of military service were instructed 
 to send " the account and prices there of in 
 Value of s d Sufferings to the clerk of this 
 meeting and for the Clerk to Tranfmit An 
 ace* to the meeting for Sufferings." 2 
 
 But the war began to press home. 
 Thomas B. Hazard, called " Nailor Tom," 
 in his diary begins to note the movement 
 of vessels with an anxious eye. From the 
 ridge of Tower Hill the bay lay in plain 
 sight, and Newport was always an impor- 
 tant point. He writes : 
 
 Jan. 30, 1779. The Regulars landed 
 and took two boats out of the river. 4 
 sail went upland from Newport. Some 
 snow. One ship went into Newport. 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. ii. p. 51. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
166 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 The next month " Davis privateer went 
 eastward ; " March 2oth, " a sloop sailed out 
 of Newport about sunset." May 8, " Regu- 
 lars landed in Point Judith." Nailor Tom 
 was a man of great conversational power, if 
 tradition is to be trusted. He could pic- 
 ture a scene most vividly, and his conversa- 
 tion was enlivened by flashes of wit and 
 humor ; so that for him this last brief entry 
 doubtless called up the whole scene, and he 
 felt again all the commotion of the country- 
 side. But, fortunately for us, Jeffrey Wat- 
 son gives a fuller account of this proceeding. 
 The entry in his diary is May 9, 1779: 
 
 John Gardner Jun was Taken at Point 
 Judah with his 9 workmen by the Land 
 Pirates who Joyned the Miniftered party 
 to burn plunder and Deftroy the Inhab- 
 itants of North America and took ye 
 faid Gardner's eftate from him nine oxen 
 Twenty fix cows with their calves and 
 about forty five fheep with their lambs 
 and caryed to Newport the 8 Day of 
 May 1779 and kept him prifoner until 
 Oct 15 1779. Job Watfon had about 
 feven hundred fheep with their lambs 
 caryed of at the same time and some 
 cattle. June 25. Land pirates Landed 
 
THE REVOLUTION l6/ 
 
 again of Point Judah and caryed away 
 from John Gardner between two and 
 three hundred wait of cheefe two lambs 
 and fome of his wifes wearing clofe and 
 fome other fmall things and from Job 
 Watfon two negro men and four white 
 men that was at work for him. Gorton 
 was feen this day in a Bean field near by 
 where they landed. 
 
 Nailor Tom makes two or three entries 
 that same month. June 3d, " Craddock was 
 taken in his fifh boat by the Privateers- 
 men." The 6th, " Regulars landed and 
 took Samuel Congdon." The 8th, "The 
 Regulars burnt two houfes laft night." The 
 1 2th there was an "alarm in the night." 
 So the countryside had its share of dis- 
 turbance and tumult. 
 
 Jeffrey Watson makes an interesting 
 entry in 1781 : 
 
 March 6 General Wafhington Rode by 
 our Houfe with about Twenty Soldiers 
 for a guard about ten o'clock. 
 
 He was born in Virginia in the county 
 of Weftmoreland the eleventh day of 
 February 1732. Had a Col's commiflion 
 at nineteen years of age was taken Pris- 
 oner by the French and Indians and 
 
168 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 given Liberty on a Parol was exchanged 
 when Gen. Braddock was Defeated near 
 Dequefne in the year 1755. 
 The meeting records have occasional 
 references to dealings with members who 
 acted "in the Quality of a Soldier." As 
 early as the 27th of 5th month, 1776, a 
 young man is reported who had enlisted and 
 gone into the Millitary service which con- 
 duct being Inconfiflant with the Princi- 
 ples of Truth which we profefs and con- 
 trary to the Teftimony which we as a 
 people have always bourn, Wee there- 
 fore Deny him remaining any Longer a 
 Member of our Society. 1 
 Other dealings with delinquents follow. 
 One man who paid a war tax was labored 
 with, as this was contrary to the " General 
 teftimony againft contributing toward carry- 
 ing on War." Another member is denied 
 for " hireing such eftates as are faid to be 
 confifcated." 2 But the general conduct of 
 affairs was not apparently interrupted. On 
 the very same page on which this political 
 offense is recorded, equal space, if not more, 
 is given to the consideration of a man who 
 married again within four months of his 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. ii. p. 63. 2 Ibid. p. 103. 
 
THE REVOLUTION 169 
 
 wife's death, and, further, "that the said 
 John has lately joined with ye people called 
 Seperators in their worfhip fo far as to 
 Stand up with his Hatt off in time of their 
 praying." 
 
 Another good Friend was denied because 
 he bought some books at a vendue, taken 
 from a vessel which was a prize of war, al- 
 though he pleaded that he thought " his 
 motive being to Reftore the moffc Valuable 
 Book purchafed to the Right Owner was a 
 Mitigation of his Tranfgreffion." 1 
 
 The 3ist of 8th month, 1778, the monthly 
 meeting was informed that the old meet- 
 ing-house "has been lately occupied as a 
 Hofpital for the fick lately landed out of 
 the French fleet and greatly Damaged and 
 likewife the pale and board fences wholly 
 deftroyed." : A committee was therefore 
 appointed " to apply to the Barrack Mas- 
 ter, (and others whofe right and bufmefs it 
 may be) requefting the reparation " of the 
 house and fences. 
 
 Young men were drafted, and others 
 hired to go as substitutes ; but in general 
 the " labour for their recovery " proved in- 
 effectual. In 1780 comes an entry that 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. ii. p. 132. 2 Ibidt p> IO9< 
 
170 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS* MEETING 
 
 throws more light. A matter came up 
 against a man who had resided in Newport 
 for several years, and " the Communications 
 with the main being Obftructed Untill late 
 laft Fall by its being a Britifh Garifon and 
 fince the Evacuation the Severity of the 
 Seafon and other Impediments hath hitherto 
 prevented the Committee appointed from 
 Treating with him." l 
 
 During this time the agreement from the 
 meeting for Sufferings in Providence, of 
 which Thomas Hazard, son of Robert, was 
 a member, to raise funds for a school by 
 subscription, was received, and the matter 
 duly reported upon. The temperance ques- 
 tion was also coming into prominence, and 
 Friends bore their testimony against per- 
 sons who " drinked to excefs," and those 
 who " fold Spiritous Liquor by the fmall 
 quantity without a Licenfe." 2 
 
 Attending a horse-race also came within 
 the limits of disorderly conduct, and the 
 lines of Friends were drawn even more 
 strictly in this time of trial and disorganiza- 
 tion. In 1775 a committee was appointed 
 " to revifit such perfons as Chofe to be con- 
 fidered as members of our Society," and 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. ii. p. 149. 2 Ibid. p. 170. 
 
THE REVOLUTION I/I 
 
 they were to be informed " that it is the 
 Defire of this meeting that they duly attend 
 all the meetings both of worfhip and Dis- 
 cipline, and alfso Maintain Our Chriflian 
 Teilimony in every Branch thereof." 
 
 . Attending Jemima Wilkinson's meetings 
 was a cause of stumbling, for which a paper 
 of contrition had to be presented. 2 
 
 South Kingstown had a " concern," in 
 1781, "to take under further confidera- 
 tion the Neceffity of Bearing a Teilimony 
 againfl War & Fighting and alfo our Tes- 
 timony for Plainnefs of Speech and Ap- 
 parrel." 3 
 
 So the careful regulation of the daily life 
 of Friends continued. It was an important 
 influence in a formative period of our his- 
 tory. The " good order of friends " had to 
 be strictly observed. Each little meeting 
 had its definite relation to the larger meet- 
 ings. The overseers were appointed by 
 the monthly meeting to take charge not 
 only of " Sleping and all other indecencies " 
 in the meeting itself, but of conduct ; and 
 any deviation from the strict rule of Friends 
 was reported to the preparative meeting, 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R. vol. ii. p. 42. Ibid. p. 171. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 172. 
 
1/2 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 which made its returns to the monthly 
 meeting. This meeting could refer dif- 
 ficult cases to the quarterly meeting, or ad- 
 vice could come from the quarterly meet- 
 ing. The quarterly meeting in turn could 
 appeal to the yearly meeting, the final 
 source of authority. This government fos- 
 tered independence of thought and speech, 
 for it rested upon the consent of the gov- 
 erned ; members were only " fuch as chofe 
 to be confidered friends." The papers of 
 contrition all ask to be " received again into 
 the loving care of friends." It was a vol- 
 untary submission to what each man con- 
 sidered best and right. 
 
 But the great service Friends rendered 
 was a spiritual service. We, who have to 
 trace the history of a single meeting in 
 records which are of necessity accounts of 
 delinquencies, may be apt to forget the 
 great principle for which they stood, 
 " the light of Truth within me," as the old 
 testimonies phrase it. It was the doctrine 
 of the indwelling Spirit which gave those 
 men their power. In an age of formalism, 
 when true religion languished and bigotry 
 still reigned, George Fox proclaimed this 
 doctrine. No wonder he was misunder- 
 
THE REVOLUTION 1/3 
 
 stood. No wonder that even such a man 
 as Roger Williams, with his bold teaching 
 of freedom of different consciences from 
 inforcement, shrank from this still bolder 
 assertion of the divine light and truth 
 dwelling in each soul. To him this seemed 
 a blasphemous assumption. And indeed, 
 in the freedom in which the early Friends 
 rejoiced, they did carry their conduct to 
 extremes. In protesting against outward 
 forms, they sometimes offended the de- 
 cencies of life. But in the eighteenth 
 century these eccentricities had in large 
 measure disappeared. Thomas Hazard, 
 the Hoxsies, Collins, and the other promi- 
 nent Friends of the meeting were grand- 
 sons of the men who heard George Fox 
 preach in Justice Bull's house on Tower 
 Hill. The meeting was settled and in 
 order. They had the tradition of piety and 
 right living behind them; they knew the 
 truth which had made them free. The 
 churches around them were still in bondage 
 to the minister. Episcopacy was struggling 
 for a foothold in the New World, and here 
 was an organized representative govern- 
 ment fully equipped for work, and with the 
 vital spark of life. 
 
174 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS' MEETING 
 
 It had fought the battle of emancipation. 
 For years it quietly worked with its mem- 
 bers, until long before the act of abolition 
 in Rhode Island, passed in 1 784, the South 
 Kingstown meeting was clear in its testi- 
 mony against the " deteftable practife of en- 
 flaving Mankind." It stood for temperance 
 in all things, in its rebuke of intoxication, 
 in its sobriety of speech and behavior, in dis- 
 countenancing unseemly amusements. If 
 " dancing and vain mirth " at weddings were 
 counted among these, we must remember 
 the license of the times, and how seldom 
 these recreations were kept within proper 
 bounds. It stood for education. Books 
 were subscribed for. Fox's " Journal," and 
 " Barclay's Appology now printing at Phil- 
 adelphia," was sent for. Sewall's " History 
 of Friends," " Piety promoted," the " reprint 
 of the Holy Bible," are all mentioned ; and 
 when the school was established, in 1781, 
 South Kingstown took its share. 
 
 It 'stood for equal rights of men and 
 women. Many a minute closes, " The 
 women's Meeting being in unity there in." 
 This equality was based on a broad and 
 firm foundation, the men's meeting " not 
 Deliring the Preheminence where Truth ad- 
 
THE REVOLUTION 175 
 
 mits of none But believing that both Male 
 & female are all one in Chrift Jefus." 1 So 
 the women had training in independent 
 thought and action. To them, questions 
 of conduct were often referred: they had, 
 as women always must have, charge of the 
 aged and the poor. They themselves 
 treated with women who held slaves, and 
 were thoroughly competent to take care of 
 their own meeting. Elizabeth Kirby and 
 Patience Greene were preachers held in 
 honor by the whole meeting, who traveled, 
 the first from England and the latter to 
 England, speaking the message which was 
 delivered to them, " according to the mea- 
 sure of their ability." These meetings had 
 an important share in preparing the coun- 
 try for self-government. The man second 
 only to Washington himself belonged to 
 the Greenwich meeting, to which the Nar- 
 ragansett meetings also belonged until 1743. 
 Who can doubt that the training in ad- 
 ministration, as well as in high principle 
 and true courage, stood Nathaniel Greene 
 in good stead in his eventful career ? The 
 habit of plain speaking and righteous deal- 
 ing gives tremendous power ; and when to 
 
 1 S. K. M. M. R., vol. i. p. 235. 
 
I?6 NARRAGANSETT FRIENDS'* MEETING 
 
 that is added a true recognition of Divine 
 guidance, a constant turning to that Inner 
 light of Truth the possession of which is 
 the birthright of every child of God, we 
 should expect heroes from such a nurture. 
 It was a high ideal that those just men set 
 before themselves, and an ideal which led 
 to practical results in ways they could not 
 approve. The same freedom they taught 
 their sons, the same liberty they claimed 
 for themselves, led to the throwing off of 
 British rule, and, through the "war and 
 carnal fightings " they so deeply deplored, 
 to that larger liberty in which a new ex- 
 periment in civilization could begin. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
A 
 Quakers Sea-Journal 
 
 Being a True 
 
 RELATION 
 
 of a Voyage to 
 
 NEW ENGLAND 
 
 Performed by Robert Fowler of the Town of 
 
 Burlington in Torkfhire in the 
 
 Tear 1658 
 
 London Printed for Francis Coffenet at 
 the Anchor & Mariner in 
 Tower-Street Anno 1659 
 
A true Relation of the Voyage undertaken by me 
 ROBERT FOWLER, with my fmall Vejfel called 
 the WOODHOUSE but performed by the Lord 
 like as he did NOAH'S Ark, wherein he Jhut up 
 a few righteous perfons, and landed them as 
 fafe, even as at the Hill Ararat. 
 
 The true Difcourfe taken as follow eth : 
 
 THIS Vejfel was appointed for this fervice 
 from the beginning, as I have often had 
 it manifefted unto me, that it was faid 
 within me feveral times, Thou hath her 
 not for nothing, and alfo New England prefented 
 before me ; alfo when Jhe was finifhed and 
 fraughted, and made to Sea, contrary to my will, 
 was brought to London, when fpeaking touching 
 this matter to Gerrard Roberts, and others, who 
 confirmed the matter in behalf of the Lord, that it 
 mujl befo ; yet entring into reafoning and letting 
 in temptations and hardjhips, and the lofs of my 
 life, wife and children, with the enjoyments of all 
 earthly things, it brought me as low as the grave, 
 and laid me as one dead, as to the things of God, 
 but by his Injlrument G. F. was I refrejhed and 
 raifed up again, which before that it was much 
 contrary to my felf, that I could as willingly have 
 died, as have gone, but by the Jlrength of God I 
 was made willing to do his will ; yea, the cus- 
 toms and fajhions of the CuJlom-House could not 
 Jlop me : Jlill was I ajfaulted with the Enemy, 
 who preffed from me my fervants,fo that for this 
 
APPENDIX l8l 
 
 long Voyage we had but two men and three boys, 
 bejides my f elf. Upon the fir/I day of the fourth 
 Moneth received I the Lords fervants aboard, who 
 came with a mighty hand and an outftreched arm 
 with them,fo that with courage we fet Say I and 
 came into the Downs the fecond day, where oiir 
 dearly beloved W. D. with Mich. Tomfon came 
 aboard, and in them we were much refrejhed, and 
 after recommending us to the grace of God, we 
 lanched forth : Again reafon entered upon me, 
 and thoughts rofe in me to have gone to the 
 Admiral, and have made my complaint for the 
 want of my fervants and a Convoy, from which 
 thing I was withholden by that hand which was 
 my helper: Shortly after the South winde blew 
 a little hard, fo that it caufed ^^s to put in at 
 Portsmouth, where I was furnifhed with choice of 
 men, according to one of the Captains words to me, 
 That I might have enough for money, but he faid 
 my Veffel was fo fmall, he would not go the Voyage 
 for her. Certain days we lay there, wherein the 
 Minifters of Chrift were not idle, but went forth 
 and gathered flicks, and kindled a fire, and left it 
 burning ; alfo feveral friends came aboard and 
 vijited us, in which we were refreJJted: Again we 
 lanched from thence about the Eleventh day, and 
 was put back again into South Yarmouth, where 
 we went afhore, and infome meafure did the like ; 
 alfo we met with three pretty large Jhips, which 
 were for the New found Land, who did accom- 
 pany us about 50 leagues, but might have done 
 JOO, if they had not feared the Men of War, but 
 
182 APPENDIX 
 
 for efcaping them they took to the Northwards, 
 and left us without hope of help to the outward, 
 which before our parting it was Jhewed to H. N. 
 early in the morning, that they were nigh unto us 
 that fought our lives, and called unto me> and told 
 me, butfaid he, thus faith the Lord, you shall be 
 carry ed away as in a Mift, and prefently zve es- 
 pied a great Ship making up towards us, and the 
 three great Ships were much afraid and tacked 
 about with what fpeed they could for it ; in the 
 very interim the Lord God fulfilled his promife, 
 and ftruck our enemies in the face with a con- 
 trary wind, wonderfully to our refrefement : then 
 upon our parting from thefe three Ships, we were 
 brought to afk counfel at the Lord, and the word 
 was from him, Cut through and fleer your 
 ftreighteft courfe, and minde nothing but me, 
 unto which thing he much provoked us, and caufed 
 us to meet together every day, and he himfelf met 
 with us, and manifejled himfelf largely ttnto us,fo 
 that by ftorms we were not prevented above three 
 times in all our Voyage ; The Sea was my figure, 
 for if any thing got up within, the Sea without 
 rafe up againft me, and then the Floods clapt their 
 hands, of which in time I took notice, and told 
 H. N. Again in a vijion in the night If aw fame 
 Anchors fwimming above the water, and fome- 
 thing alfo of a Ship which croft our way, which 
 in our meeting I f aw fulfilled, for I my f elf with 
 others, had loft ours,fo that for a little feaf on the 
 veffel ran loofe in a manner ; which afterwards 
 by the wifdom of God was recovered into a better 
 
APPENDIX 183 
 
 condition than before : Alfo upon the twenty-fifth 
 day of the fame Moneth in the morning, we faw 
 another great Vejfel making up towards MS, which 
 did appear far off to have been a Frigot, and 
 made her Jign for us to come to them, which unto 
 me was a great crofs, we being to windward of 
 them ; and it was faid, Go fpeak him, the crofs 
 is fure, did I ever fail thee therein ? and unto 
 others there appeared no danger in it, fo that we 
 did, and it proved a Tradesman of London, by 
 whom we writ back : Alfo it is very remarkable, 
 when we had been five weeks at Sea in a darkfea- 
 fon, wherein the powers of darknefs appeared in 
 the greatejl ftrength again/I us, having fay led but 
 about JOO leagues H. N. falling into communion 
 with God, told me that he had received a comfort- 
 able Anfwer, and alfo that about fuch a day we 
 Jhouldlandin America which was even fo fulfilled; 
 Alfo thus it was all the Voyage with thefaithful t 
 which were carried far above Jlorms and tern- 
 pefts, that when the Ship went either to the right 
 or left hand, their lines joy ned all as one, and did 
 direct our way, fo that we havefeen and faid, we 
 fee the Lord lead our Veffel, even as it were a 
 man leading a horfe by the head, we regarding 
 neither latitude nor longitude, but kept to our 
 Line, which was, and is our Leader, Guide and 
 Rtile, but they that did, failed. Upon the lajl day 
 of the fifth Moneth we made land, it was a part 
 of the Long Island far contrary to the expecta- 
 tion of the Pylot ; Furthermore our drawing had 
 been all the Voyage to keep to the Southwards, 
 
1 84 APPENDIX 
 
 until the evening before we made land, and then 
 the word was, There is a Lion in the way, unto 
 which Lion we gave obedience, and f aid, Let them 
 fteer Northwards until the day following, and 
 foon after the middle of the day, there was draw- 
 ings to meet together before our ufual time, and it 
 wasfaid, That we may look abroad in the evening, 
 and as we fate waiting upon the Lord, they dis- 
 covered the land, and our mouthes was opened in 
 Prayer and Thanksgiving ; as way was made, we 
 made towards it, and espying a Creek, our advice 
 was to enter there, but the will of man rejifled, 
 but in that eftate we had learned to be content, and 
 told him both fides was fafe, but going that way 
 would be more trouble to him ; also hefaw, after 
 he had laid by all the night, the thing fulfilled. 
 
 Now to lay before you injhort, the largenefs of 
 the Wifdom, Will and Power of God, Thus this 
 Creek led us in between the Dutch Plantations 
 and Long Island, where the moving of fome 
 friends whereunto, which otherwife had been very 
 difficult for them to have gotten too : Alfo the 
 Lord God that moved them, brought them, to a 
 place appointed, and us into our way, according to 
 the word which came to C. H. You are in the 
 road to Road Island. In that Creek came a Shal- 
 lop to meet us, taking us to be Jlrangers, making 
 our way with our Boat, and they fpoke Englijh 
 unto us, and informed us, and alfo guided us 
 along : The power of the Lord fell much upon us, 
 and an unrejlable word came unto us, That the 
 Seed in America lhall be as the fand of the fea. 
 
APPENDIX 185 
 
 It was publifhed in the ears of the Brethren, 
 which caufed tears to break forth with fulnefs of 
 joy,fo that prefently for thefe places they prepared 
 themfelves, which were Robert Hoggen, Richard 
 Dowdney, Sarah Gibbins, Mary Witherhead, and 
 Dorothy Waugh, which the next day weputfafely 
 ajhore : Into the Dutch Plantation called New 
 Amsterdam, we came and it being the firft day of 
 the week,feveral came aboard on us, and we began 
 our work: I was caufed to go to the Governor, 
 and Robert Hoggen with me ; he was moderate 
 both in words and actions. Robert and I had 
 feveral days before feen in a vijion the Vejfel in 
 great danger; the day following this was ful- 
 filled, there being a pajfage between two Lands, 
 which is called by the name of Hell-gate, we hap- 
 pened very conveniently of a Pylot, and into that 
 place we came, and into it were forced, and over 
 it was carried, which I never heard of any before 
 that was ; and the Scripture is fulfilled in our 
 eyes, in the Figure, Hells gates cannot prevail 
 again/I you : rocks many on both fides, fo that I 
 believe one yards length, would have endangered 
 lofs of both Vejfel and Goods ; Alfo there were a 
 fcull offijhes purfued our Vejfel, and followed her 
 Jlrongly, and along clofe by our Rudder ; and in 
 our meeting it was Jhewed me, Thefe fijhes is to 
 thee a Figure, Thus doth the Prayers of the 
 Churches proceed to the Lord for thee and the 
 reft: purely in our Meeting did the thing run 
 through me as oyl, and did me much rejoice. 
 
 FINIS 
 
 Copied in the British Museum, July j, 1897, by C. H. 
 
1 86 APPENDIX 
 
 RICHARD SMITH'S TESTIMONY AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 I Richard Smith of Groton in the County of 
 New London and Colony of Connecticut upon 
 Coniideration and Knowing it Required of me 
 I have written this in Order to Show the reafon 
 and make it manifeft to mankind why that I 
 Discharge & Sett free my Negro Girl named 
 Jane at Eighteen Years of Age Daughter of 
 Sarah which is now in Slavery with her other 
 Children Among the kein of Stephen Gardner 
 of Norwich Deceafed their Girl Jane was Given 
 to my Wife Abigail by her Father Stephen 
 Gardner by will in Order to be a Slave all her 
 Days According to the Common Cuftom of 
 Slavery. But She falling into my hand by my 
 Wife and the Lord by his free Goodnefs having 
 Given me a clear Sight of the Cruelty of making 
 a Slave of one that was by Nature as Free as my 
 Own Children and no ways by any Evil She had 
 Committed brought herfelf into Bondage and 
 Slavery and therefore can no ways be Gilty 
 of Slavery, and to argue becaufe her Mother 
 was made a Slave being by force and Violence 
 brought Out of her Own Land againfb her mind 
 and will and Deprived of What She had there & 
 made a Slave of her Should be a Sufficient Rea- 
 fon that her pofterity Should be Opreft in bond- 
 age with Slavery. I fee no Juftice for it nor 
 Mercy in fo Doing but Violent Opprefsing the 
 Inocent without Caufe For this thing of Ser- 
 vants it hath pleafed God to fett before us in a 
 
APPENDIX 187 
 
 Clear manner the cafe of Servants and Espe- 
 cially the Unreafonablenefs of thefe matters 
 and miftreffes who profefs to be the followers 
 of Chrift how they will buy & fell and be per- 
 takers in making Marchandize in Great Babylon 
 of the Slaves that is the bodys of men and 
 women and of thefe Strangers as Indians & Ne- 
 grows that are taken Out of there Own Country 
 or taken in War one among a nother and Sent 
 out which when brought here in Sed of being 
 Relieved are Sold into Slavery all there Days 
 and there pofterity after them they being never 
 fo Innofent in Ronging of any and thefe mas- 
 ters and miftreffes that buy them or Other ways 
 by their parents have them, all this while pro- 
 fefs them-f elves to be the followers of Chrift 
 or Chriftians and yet how they will plead the 
 Reafonablenefs of Keeping them in Slavery and 
 their pofterity after them. But when they have 
 pleaded all they can and ufed the beft Argu- 
 ments they have, it is only to have there work 
 done with eafe & they to be great and to be 
 Lord Over there fellow Creatures, Becaufe they 
 have power & Authority to Opprefs the helplefs 
 by a Cuftomary Law of the Nations to keep 
 them in Bondage under Slavery, Quite Renoun- 
 cing and rejecting and Hating to Obey the Law 
 & command of there great Lord and Mafter 
 Chrift as they call him who charge them faying 
 Therefore all things whatfoever ye would that 
 man fhould do to you do ye even fo to them for 
 this is the Law and the prophets faid Our Great 
 
1 88 APPENDIX 
 
 Lord Matt. 7 & 12 Now if it ftiould be afked 
 of any of thefe Matters or Miftreffes if they in 
 like Manner with there Childeren mould be car- 
 ried away unto any Strange People in the world 
 and be Sold into Slavery whether they would be 
 willing to Serve a ftrange Nation in Slavery & 
 their Children after them and be Deprived of 
 what they Injoyed in there Own Country (for this 
 is the Cafe) I Suppofe there Answer would [be] 
 no nor any of Our Children upon any acct. No 
 not if they were in a Chriftian Land as they call 
 this Well then how can any of them plead the 
 Reafonableness of Keeping of any of them in 
 Slavery with there pofterity and not to fet them 
 free in a Reafonable Time as they themfelves 
 with their Children would be willing to be done 
 by According to Chrifts words above mentioned 
 for by Nature all Nations are free One from the 
 Other and the apoftle Saith God is no Refpecter 
 of perfons, the Apoftle Likewife Saith that God 
 hath made of One Blood all Nations of men to 
 Dwell on all the face of the Earth Acts 17 & 26 
 So that by Nature & Blood we are no better in 
 Gods Sight than they and it is plain that Chrift 
 taught a Doctrine that was to releive the Op- 
 prefled and to Unbind heavy Burdens and let the 
 Innofent *prif oners go free, and hath Commanded 
 us to love Our Enemys, and to entertain Stran- 
 gers, & not to Opprefs them in Bondage with 
 Slavery and Said, he came not to Deftroy Mens 
 Lives but to fave them Luke 9 & 56 So that the 
 way that brings them into Slavery is forbidden 
 
APPENDIX 189 
 
 by Chrift for by war Violence & Stealth and 
 tradeing in them is the way by which they are 
 firft Ordered to go into Slavery, and they that 
 buy them or otherways have them and keep 
 them in Slavery as they do there Beafts for to do 
 there Labour & not to releive them and fet them 
 free, are pertakers of the Same evil, Therefore 
 I Leave this as a faithfull Teftimony in the fear 
 of the liveing God againft all such wicked pro- 
 ceedings, and upon true Confideration of what is 
 written I hereby Declare that now at this Time 
 that my Negrow Girl Jane hath arrived to Eigh- 
 teen Years of Age that me Shall now go out 
 Free from Bondage and Slavery as free as if me 
 had been free born and that my Heirs, Execu- 
 tors or Adminiftrators mail have no power Over 
 her to make a Slave of Her or her pofterity no 
 more than if She had been free born, for I freely 
 give her her freedom now at the arrival of the 
 aforefd age which is now full filled in this pre- 
 fent Year 1757 as witnefs my hand 
 
 (Signed) RICHARD SMITH. 
 
190 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 LIST OF PERSONS 
 
 OWNING SLAVES, NAMES OF 
 
 SLAVES AND 
 
 DATE WHEN SET FREE 
 
 Name of slave 
 
 Owned by 
 
 Date of emancipation 
 
 Jane 
 
 Richard Smith 
 
 
 1757 
 
 Pegg 
 
 Stephen Richmond 
 
 2;th 1 2th mo 
 
 1773 
 
 Phillis and her two children 
 Casper and Judith 
 
 John Knowles 
 
 ist nth mo 
 
 1773 
 
 Richard 
 
 Jeremiah Browning 
 
 2 ;th gth mo 
 
 1773 
 
 Israel 
 
 William Robinson 
 
 I5th ist mo 
 
 1780 
 
 Dick 
 
 John Congdon 
 
 29th 1 2th mo 
 
 1783 
 
 Luce \ 
 
 
 
 
 Jack 1 
 
 William Congdon 
 
 2gth 3d mo 
 
 1784 
 
 Fan ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 Barshebe Knowles 
 
 24th 7th mo 
 
 1783 
 
 
 Robert Knowles 
 
 
 
 Cuff, otherwise Cuff 
 
 Joseph Knowles 
 
 
 
 Knowles 
 
 John Congdon 
 
 
 
 
 Charles Congdon 
 
 
 
 
 Hannah Knowles 
 
 
 
 Job 
 
 William Peckham 
 
 4th 8th mo 
 
 1786 
 
 Rose 
 
 William Peckham 
 
 24th 8th mo 
 
 1786 
 
 PETER DAVIS OLD AGE 
 
 We the Committee appointed to provide for 
 the Support of Peter Davis and wife have met 
 on f d Businefs and propofe the following agree- 
 ment made with Peter Hoxfie for one years 
 fupport of f d Peter Davis and wife that He will 
 keep Martha Davis for the confideration of her 
 Anuity or income free & clear from any expence 
 to friends, and that he will keep and support 
 Peter Davis includeing victualling, clotheing, 
 Doctrineing, lodgeing &c for the f d term of one 
 year, for the confideration of fifty dollars, twenty 
 Seven of which is due to the f d Peter Davis from 
 W m Sweet Peckham, which he agrees to Collect 
 
APPENDIX IQI 
 
 of him, which will leave twenty three Dollars for 
 the Monthly meeting to pay, Or in that Pro- 
 portion if the f d Peter should deceafe before the 
 expiration of that time. And the f d Peter Hoxfie 
 agrees that they mail be as well clothed at the 
 years end as they are when he receives them 
 his year is to commence the 8 th day of the 7 th Mo. 
 1808. 
 
 All which we fubmit to the Mo. Meeting. 
 PETER HOXSIE 
 JOHN CONGDON 
 JEREMIAH BROWNING, JR. 
 JOSEPH COLLINS, JR. 
 Hopkinton the io th of 7 th Mo. 
 A. D. 1808. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 ADVICE to debtors, 109. 
 Albro, Samuel, 161. 
 Allen, Matthew, 112. 
 Aquidneck, 5. 
 Arnold, Benedict, 7. 
 Atherton, Humphrey, 51 ; death 
 
 of, 52. 
 Austin, Anne, 10. 
 
 Barber, John, 104. 
 Books subscribed for, 174. 
 Bounds of meeting, 65. 
 Braddock, General, 168. 
 Bradstreet, Simon, 5-51. 
 Brand, William, 15. 
 Brayton, Preserved, 121. 
 Briggs, John, 54. 
 British garrison, 170. 
 Bull, Jireh, 48. 
 Burnyeate, John, 49. 
 
 Cartwright, John, 49. 
 Clark, Mary, 13. 
 Collins, Hezekiah, 124. 
 Collins, John, 87. 
 Congdon, Joseph, 59. 
 Congdon, Samuel, 167. 
 Commissioners of the United 
 
 Colonies, 3. 
 Copeland, John, 13. 
 Corn, price of, 163. 
 Creditors, 108. 
 
 Dancing, 130. 
 
 Davis, Content, 99. 
 
 Davis, Nicholas, 25. 
 
 Davis, Peter, 63; his travels, 
 
 78; his old age, 81. 
 Deceased wife's sister, 90. 
 Debts and debtors, 105. 
 Diman, Professor J. L., 5. 
 Dyer, Mary, 24 ; sentenced, 26; 
 
 letter to the court, 27 ; on 
 
 the gallows, 29; reprieved, 
 
 30 ; executed, 35. 
 
 Easton, Nicholas, 6. 
 Endicott, John, 9, 26. 
 Epistles, London, 156. 
 
 Fayerweather, Rev. Mr., 96. 
 
 Fisher, Mary, 10 ; in Turkey, 14. 
 
 Fothergill, Samuel, 161. 
 
 Fowler, Robert, 10. 
 
 Fox, George, 12; meetings in 
 Newport, 46; in Narragan- 
 sett, 48; established wo- 
 men's meeting, 117. 
 
 Friends denied, 169. 
 
 Friends' judgment in contro- 
 versies, 103. 
 
 Friends' meeting accounts, 73. 
 
 Friends' spiritual service, 172. 
 
 Friends' sufferings in Eng- 
 land, 72. 
 
196 
 
 INDEX 
 
 George III., proclaimed, 162. 
 Gibbons, Sarah, 15. 
 Gorton, Samuel, 6. 
 Greene, David, 139. 
 Greene, Nathaniel, 175. 
 Greene, Patience, 120; her 
 
 travels, 122-23. 
 Greene, Peter, 54. 
 
 Hazard, Elizabeth, 124. 
 Hazard, Robert, 86. 
 Hazard, Sarah, 148. 
 Hazard, "Nailor Tom," 160; 
 
 diary, 165. 
 Hazard, Thomas, 59; serves 
 
 as clerk, 85 ; frees his slaves, 
 
 86; preaching, 161. 
 Holder, Christopher, 13. 
 Horse-racing, 170. 
 Hoxsie, John, 127. 
 Hoxsie, Solomon, 87 ; makes 
 
 complaint, 102; marriage of 
 
 niece, 127. 
 
 Hoxsie, Stephen, 82. 
 Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, 5. 
 
 Inflated currency, 67. 
 Irish, Job, 110-112. 
 
 Kirby, Mary, 123. 
 King's Province, 50. 
 Knowles, John, 102. 
 Knowles, Robert, 87; visits 
 Boston, ii2. 
 
 Laws against Quakers, 18. 
 Little Rest, 62. 
 Liquor license, 101. 
 Longfellow, 17. 
 
 Marriages, 128. 
 Marriage in a shift, 133. 
 
 Marrying out of unity, 132. 
 McSparran, Dr., 95. 
 Meeting-house in Greenwich, 
 
 53- 
 
 Ministerial lands, 95. 
 Mulkins, Henry, 97. 
 Murray, Lindley, 123. 
 
 New Lights, 97-100. 
 Nichols, Andrew, 121. 
 Niles, Rev. Samuel, 95. 
 Norton, John, 15. 
 
 Old meeting-house, 62. 
 Overseers, 91. 
 
 Paper money for war purposes, 
 
 163. 
 
 Peace Dale, 147. 
 Peckham, Peleg, 84. 
 Pemberton, John, 141. 
 Perry, Alice, 128. 
 Perry, Anna, 118, 125. 
 Perry, James, gives land for 
 
 meeting-house, 68. 
 Perry, Jonathan, 130. 
 Perry, Samuel, 130. 
 
 Quakers, acts of law against, 
 
 18. 
 
 Quakers, travelling, 23. 
 Queries, 88-90. 
 Query, the tenth, 146. 
 
 Ranters, 4. 
 
 Rathbun, Joshua, 144; sells 
 
 his slave, 146; denied, 147; 
 
 restored to membership, 150; 
 
 death, 153. 
 
 Rathbun, Joshua, Jr., 153. 
 Rawson, Edward, 22. 
 Records of meeting, 77. 
 
INDEX 
 
 197 
 
 Regulars at Point Judith, 166. 
 Rhode Island, the " back door," 
 
 22. 
 
 Richmond meeting-house, 69. 
 Robinson, Mrs. C. E., 160. 
 Robinson, Hannah, 124. 
 Robinson, Rowland, 54. 
 Robinson, Sylvester, 129. 
 Robinson, William, 24, 126. 
 Rodman, Benjamin, 153. 
 Rodman, Samuel, denial of, 
 
 144. 
 Rodman, Thomas, 54. 
 
 Separators, 97. 
 
 Sewall, Samuel, 51 ; entry in 
 
 diary, 62. 
 
 Sewel, historian, 16. 
 Slave legislation, 140. 
 Slaves in South Kingstown, 
 
 !39- 
 
 Slaves in the women's meet- 
 ing, 148. 
 
 Slocum, Ebenezer, 62. 
 
 Smith, Elizabeth, 123. 
 
 Smith, Richard, frees slave, 
 141. 
 
 Temperance, 170. 
 Testimony against war, 168. 
 Torrey, Dr., 96. 
 
 Tower Hill, 49 ; letting money 
 
 at, 162. 
 
 Tucker, Nathan, 103. 
 Thurston, Gardner, 161. 
 
 Upsal, Nicholas, 1 1 ; banished, 
 
 21. 
 Usquepaug, 70. 
 
 Watson, Jeffrey, 159 ; accounts, 
 163. 
 
 Watson, Job, 166. 
 
 Watson, John, 160. 
 
 Washington, George, 167. 
 
 Waugh, Dorothy, 15. 
 
 Westerly meeting-house, 66. 
 
 Whittier, "A Spiritual Mani- 
 festation," 43. 
 
 Widders, Robert, 45. 
 
 Wilbour, Thomas, 89. 
 
 Wilkinson, Jemima, 171. 
 
 Williams, Roger, 8; charter 
 procured by, 41 ; goes to 
 Newport, 47. 
 
 Winthrop, Governor, 6. 
 
 Woman's meeting records, 
 118. 
 
 Woodhouse, voyage of, 12. 
 
 Woolman, John, 140. 
 
 Youths' meetings, 73. 
 
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