L^'!i?'^'>^*^^ -^i] * UC-NRLF B ^ 505 763 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE SEAL THE ARMS AND THE FLAG —OF— RHODE ISLAND ■ * THE SEAL THE ARMS AND THE FLAG —OF— RHODE ISLAND BY HOWARD M. CHAPIN LIBRARIAN OF THE RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROVIDENCE PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY 1913 The author acknovvledjjes with thanks the assistance of Former Governor D. Russell Brown, Hon. J. Fred Parker, Secretary of State, Dr. Charles V. Chapin, Mr. George Parker Winship, and Mr. Clarence S. Brigham. c » ? _• • ^ • • - • . ..... . ., ' . . •: • • •• PUBLICATION COMMITTEE William MacDonald Harry Lyman Koopman Theodore Francis Green CALOER PRINTING COMPANY The official seal of Rhode Island has been an anchor ever since the formal union of the four settlements in May, 1647. Ho\ve\'er, previous to this wc hncl, in i'')4i. the followin'j;' entry in the records of Newport: ■"15. It is ordered, that a flannel Seale shall be provided for the State, and that the Signett or Engraving" thereof, shall be a sheafe of Arrows bound ui\ and in the Lies> or Bond, this motto in- dented : "Amor \incet omnia.' (R. I. Col. Rec. v. I, p. iii.) llie expression Manuel Seale clearly meant a seal to be used bv the hand. ml In regard to the word Liess, Mr. Sidney S. Rider, in Book Notes. February 14, 1903, (\'ol. 20, No. 4), page one, writes as fol- lows: "The word Liess is evidently a corruption of the old English word Lease, meaning a leathern thong commonlv used by falconers for their hawks or hounds." This word has come down to us as leash. Governor Samuel G. Arn.uld in his Historv of Rhode Island, page 149, makes the following comment on the use of the word State : "The word 'State' appears for the first time in this decree. The possession of a seal has always been held as one of the insignia of sovereignty, or of exclusive rights. Its adoption by a yet unchar- tered government was significant." '\\\. Rider says: "The use of the word State in this ordinance is singular, since it was four years be- fore the date of the \\'arwick Charter (1643), and eight years before the union of the four towns {1647) nnder that Instrument. "It could not have been used under the same implication that it now has, unless, possibly, it may have been in the minds of those who devised it, that Newport w^as to become a State or Colony." This seal has appropriately been adopted as the basis of the de- sign of the seal of the Newport Historical Society. In 1647 the four original towns uniting under the Charter, held the first General Assembly, then styled the General Court cf Elec- tion, at Portsmouth, on the 19th, 20th and 21st of Mav. At this meeting the anchor was adot:)ted as the official seal. . ' € y <* * Z . * .' ^ < ■ , J , • . t ■ "18. It is ordered that the Seale of the Province shall be an Anchor." [A sketch of an anchor appears at the end of this entry in the original records.] ( R. I. Col. Rec. orig. p. 163, pr. vol. i. p. 151-) Mr, Rider. says: "No suggestion has come down to us concern- ing the originator of the idea; but certain records e.xist in which it became necessary for Roger Vv^illiams to use an individual Seal, and the anchor was the device which he used." The record to which Tvlr. Rider refers was a deed signed by Roger Williams, 20 Dec, 1661, and sealed with an oval seal bearing an anchor. ( Prov. Town Rec. pr. vol. 5, p. 309, orig. vol. 3, p. 454.) On page 19 of the Report on the Governor Benedict Arnold Burial Place, made to the (General Assembly in January, 1901, by James N. Arnold, there is an illustration of the seal of Governor Benedict Arnold. This seal is a foul anchor in an oval, with the word "Hope" above the anchor and the initials "B. A.," one on each side of the anchor. The seal itself is in the possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society. Mr. Arnold says, referring to the illustration (No. 4) : "No. 4 is the letter seal of the governor which gives the origin of our state seal." Mr. Rider dissents from this view. Inasmuch as the seal of the state up to 1664 was a plain anchor, without the motto "Hope," and as in 1664 the motto "Hope" and the cable were added, it seems far more probable that Governor Arnold, after 1664, adopted the state's seal as his own and added his initials, than that the _-tate seal of 1647 was derived from Arnold's seal, the motto and cable being omitted. The anchoi was a comparatively, common design on seals of the seventeenth century, both in England and in the Colonies. There were two anchor se;ils in common use in Rhode Island. One appears opposite John Whipple's name on a deed dated 23 Nov., 1663. (R- !• H. Si. M'ss. 16.) This seal is oval, about five eighths of an inch long, and bears a plain anchor. It again appears on R. I. H. S., Mss. 1 10, which is dated 1690. THE ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR THE SEALE FROM THE COLONIAL RECORDS OF 1647. The other anchor seal is very similar. The oval is not (juite so long, being a little over half an inch in length. The shank of the anchor is si oittr, the flukes flatter and spread apart more. '1 he ring at the top is more of a circle, and all the lines of the design are liner, llie effect is that of a smaller or daintier seal. The earliest impression we have of this is on a document signetl by Robert Cohvell, and dated 3 January, 1666-7, R- f- H. S. Alss. ly. It also appe?rs on R. I. H. S. Alss. ^3^ 38 and 50; dated respec- tively 4 Feb., 1674; II March, 1674, and 15 Dec, 1680. h^-om copies of the early Providence deeds, it ap.pears that these or other similar "anchor" seals wei"e in very common use in this colony, appearing opposite many different names on these old deeds. In Colonial times seals were scarce, and it w^as not possible for each person to have his own seal and affix it when he si'.ji'ed a document. Instead, generally only one or two of the leading men in a town owned a seal, and these seals were used promiscuously opposite the signer's names, as little red labels are used today. A seal with a foul anchor appears on several of the manuscripts preserved in the Rhode Island Historical Society, which date from the close of the seventeenth century. In 1680 John Stokes dated a letter at London, 3 July, 1680, which he sealed with an anchor seal and addressed to "Howlong tiarris. Daughter of Wm. Harris, residing at Providence." The seal is an oval, bearing a foul anchor, with the ring at one side of the shank and the initial E at the left of the anchor. (Harris papers, p. 133.) The (Governor Arnold seal, we have already mentioned. Robert Daniel of Cambridge, Mass., who died in 1655, "sed an Oval seal bearing a foul anchor. An illustration of this appears in Jameson's History of Aledway, page 468. On a document issued by the General Assembly, taking posses- sion, on behalf of the Colony, of a recently discovered gold mine, appears the !^rst known use of the state's seal. The document is dated March 10, 1648, and at the end is a shield bearing an anchor n^--^.^^*-" 1690 1664 1865 1763 1782 lH7j upon it. The seal is not made of wax, but is merely a pen and ink sketch. This document is Providence Town Paper, No. 012. Similar pen and ink seals appear on Providence Town Documents Xo. 01084 and No. 01096, neither of which are dated. No. 01084. however, is a copy of the resolution of 1648, mentioning the ivory seal presented by William Dyre. At the meeting" of the General Assembly at Providence, May 16th, 1648, "It is ord 'J^iat the Seale of Yuory, prsented by Wm. Dyre shall be the seale of the State for the prsent to Seale the writts origi- nall and Judiciall or other records." (R. I. Col. Rec. orig. p. 194, pr. p. 213, and Prov. Town Papers, 01084.) It appears from the wording of this resolution that for some reason, perhaps poor workmanship, this seal was not satisfactory. It is probable that this was the first seal of the Colony of Rhode Island, as it is the lirst record referring to the actual seal, the design having been speciii-ed the preceding May. Doubtless William Dyre, who was at that time General Recorder of the Colony, assumed under the resolve of 1647, the duty of having the seal made, a duty naturally incumbent upon his oi^ce, and in his official capacity pre- sented the new seal at the next meeting of the General Assembly, which occurred in May, 1648. There is no impression of this seal now known to exist. This seal apparently continued in use as the Colony seal until 1660, when a new seal, which John Clarke had had made in England, superceded it. At the meeting of the General Assembly (General Court of Commissioners), at Warwick, i8th of October, 1660, it was "Ordered, That the Genel Recorder is Authorized to demaund and Receive the Seale Sent by mr. John clarke, of mr. Nicholas Easton." (R. I. Col. Rec. orig., p. 100, pr. p. 436.) There is no impression of this second state seal now known to exist. At the meeting of the General Assembly, held at Newport March i, 1663-64, it was "Ordered That for the presant, the old Seale that hath ben the Seale of the Collony, shall be the presant Seale of the Collony, to be fixed to any Commission that may be granted forth, or any matters of publicke Concearnment and that with what Convenient Speed that may bee, a new Seale be procured." (R. I. Col. Rec, orig p. 132, pr., v. 2, p. ^2.) What the trouble was that caused the above resolution to be passed we do not know, but it seems safe to assume that there had been both a misuse of seals and a dissatisfaction with the desien or workmanship of the seal then in use. The seal was presumably the second seal, the one that Clarke sent over from England. The ex- pression "Old Seale," however may refer to the Dyre seal, in which case the purpose of the resolution may have been to reinstate the Dyre seal in place of the Clarke seal. On May 4th, 1664, the General Assembly, sitting at Newport, "O'rdered, That the Sesle, with the mottoe Rhod Hand and providence plantations, with the word Hope over the head of the Anker, is the presant Seale of the Collony." (R. I. Col. Rec, crig. p. 134, pr. vol. 2, p. 41.) There are several impressions from this seal in the State Ar- chives on papers in the volumes entitled "Proceedings of the Gen- eral Assembly." This seal is one and eleven-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. In the centre is an upright foul anchor, with the word "Hope" above it. Surrounding the whole, on a band is the inscription, "The Colnie of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." Mr, Rider believes that "The attachment of the cable to the anchor was doubtless the work of the designer." Certainly there i:^ niTthing in the acts of tlie General Assembly to warrant the use of the foul anchor. llie seal remained in use until November, 1687. when, according to Arnold's History of Rhode Island, it was broken by order of Sir Edmund Andros. During the regime of Sir Edmund Andros, the so-called Andros seal was theoretically the seal of Rhode Island, although we have found no instance of its use in this colony. This seal was "engraved on the one side wdth his Majesty's effigies standing under a canopy, robed in his royal vestments and crowned, witli a sceptre in the left hand, the right hand i:)eing ex- tended towards an KngHshnian and an IncHan, both Kneeling; the one presenting the fruits of the country, and the other a scroll, and over their heads a Cherubin holding another scroll with this motto: Nunquam libertas gratior extat, with his IMajesty's titles around the circumference; there being on the other sifle the King's arms, with the garter, crown, supporters and motto, and this inscri])tioii around the circumference: Sigillum Novae Angliae in America." At a meeting of the General Assembly, at Newport, March 3, 1689-90. the Andros government having been overthrown, it was "Ordered, That the seal brought in i)y Mr. Arnold Collins, being the Anchor, with the motto 'Hope," is appointed to be the Seal of the Collony, he lia\ ing been employed by this Assembly to make it." "Ordered. That the said Collony's Seal be in the Governor's custody, for the Collony's use." (R. I. Col. Rec. pr. vol. 3. p. 264.) This seal is in size and general form the same as th.e seal of 1664. However, the outer embossed line of the band is about twice as wide as on the former seal, and the inscriijiion is omitted from the band.. The anchor is, as before, a foul anchor. Impressions from this seal appear on several documents in the volumes of "Proceedings of the General Assembly." in the State Archives. This seal was doubtless used until 1741, when at a meeting of the General Assembl}-, held at Newport, the fourth Monday in June, 1741, it was "Voted and resoh-ed, that His Honor, the Governor, procure a new seal for the Colony, to be engraven with the same motto as the old seal had; . . ." (R. I. Col. Rec, pr. vol. 5. p. 26.) The governor at this time was Richard Ward of Newp(irt, who apparently did nothing about getting a new seal, for the old seal of 1690 still continued to be used, appearing upon the Acts and Re- solves as late as 1763. In May, 1763, a new seal appears on the records. The shield is of the ordinary rectangular form, and bears a foul anchor. x\bove f. A. /. ki > s |/"<. ...!.<, ,',^v *' 1 fi i-i f' •'■' * ^-»' 1892 PRESENT SEAL the shield is the word "Hope." A single dotted band surrounds the shield and motto. On the field between the band and shield are sev- eral floral sprigs. Impressions of this seal appear on the Acts and Resolves from 1763 to 1782. In May, 1782, a new seal comes into use. This seal has the foul anchor displayed upon a Norman shield, above which is the word "Hope." A dotted band surromided the whole, while suspended from rings at each upper point of the shield, hangs drapery with scroll designs above it. Impressions from this seal appear on the Acts and Resolves from 1782 to 1798. In 1865 a new seal appears on the Acts and Resolves. The anchor is still fouled, the shield is fancy and is surmounted by rays and the word "Hope." No inscription surrounds it. Impressions from this seal appear on the Governor's Proclama- tion for 1865, and on the Acts and Resolves for 1866. On February 24, 1875, the General Assembly passed the follow- ing act : CHAPTER 441. An Act in relation to the seal of the State. It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows : Section i. There shall continue to be one seal for the public use of the State; the form of an anchor shall be engraven thereon, the motto thereof shall be the word "Hope," and in a circle around the same shall be engraven the words : "Seal of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1636." The above act is Section 2, Chapter 5 of the General Laws. A new seal was cut to meet the rec}uirements of the act. The anchor was still fouled. Impressions from the seal appear on the Acts and Resolves in the Secretary of State's Office. In 1892 a new seal again appears on the Acts and Resolves. This seal has the anchor plain and not fouled. Except for that it is similar to the seal of 1871;. which it su^nlanted. In 1912 a new seal was cnt, to replace the seal of 1892, which had become worn out. Practically the only difference is in the style of the letterinij;' in the circle. The "i^^3<')" is in narrower 'figures. This is the present official seal of the state of Rhode Island. * * * Rhode Island did not formally adopt a Coat of Arms until 1882. Up to that time the design of the seal had been constantly followed as the design for the Arms. The so-called seal on the Providence Town Papers. 012. 01084, 01096, may well be considered as the Colony's Coat of Arms: A ^.hield bearing an anchor, no colors being specified. This would make the first use cf Arms occur in 1648. the plain anchor then be- ing the design. The design for the Arms, as we have said, followed that of the seal, so that at the beginning of the so-called Digest of 1730, we find the Colony's arms depicted as a foul anchor. The shield is sur- rounded by an extensive ornamental desig-n. From 1753 to 1758 the Arms of King George of England were used by the Colony on the printed Acts and Resolves, the seal of the state also being affixed. In June, 1760, the Arms of the Colony were printed at the end of the Acts and Resolves for that session. The design is the same as that used on the Digest of 1730. From this time to 1882 the Arms of Rhode Island continue to be the foul anchor on the shield, and the motto "Hope." The shape of the shield and the design surrounding it, take on various forms ac- cording to the taste or skill of the engraver. During the latter part of the eighteenth century the motto 'Tn God we hope," some times replaced the word "Hope" on the State's arms. In 1881 the Public Statutes were compiled, and it was voted at the meeting of the General Assembly in May. 1881, that they should go into effect Feb. i. 1882. Section i of chapter 5, which formally recognized the State's Arms, reads as follows : "Section i. The Arms of the State are a goklen anchor on a bhie fifUl, and the motto thereof is the word Hope." HerakHcally the arms woukl be blazoned "Aznre an anchor or," with the motto "Hope."" No mention is made of the anchor being foulech hence a phiin anchor shonkl be presnmed. Since 1882 the plain anchor has nn- qncstionably become the charge of the State"s arms. Tile present arms nsed by the State on its stationery and pub- lications, are said to be the design of Judge G. M. Carpenter. ^: * * In 1780 the United States authorized each state to use a state tlag, and it seems probable that Riicde Island adopted one at this time. In his message of 1897, Governor Lippitt says, in regard to this: "Subsequently, in general orders, dated Army Headquarters, New Winsor, N. Y., October 2, 1770, General Washington prescribed dark blue as the standard color of the uniform of the Continental Line of the Revolution, and that the facings of the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut regiments should be white. On February 20, 1780, the Continental Board of War^ in Philadelphia, Penn.. issued a regulation prescribing that every regi- ment of the resjiective state lines should have two Hags, one the United States and the other the state, 'the ground whereof to be the color of the facing." White, therefore, become the authorized color for the ground of the Rhode Island emblem."' No formal action, however, was taken in regard to the state Hag until 1877, when on March 30 the General Assem])ly passed the fol- lowing act: CHAPTER 628. It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows : Section i. The flag of the state shall be a foul anchor with the motto "HO'PE."" the whole to be surrounded by a scroll, around which, in a circle, shall be as many stars as there are states in the Union. The color of the anchor, motto and stars shall be blue, the scroll red in the centre of a white field. STATE FLAG STATE ARMS Sec. 2. Tliis act shall take effect from and after its passag-e. From 1780 to 1882 the ground of the etate Hag was white, but for some unexplained reason it was changed to blue in the revision of the (ieneral Laws, which was made in 1882. Section 3 of Ch.apter 5, Title 2 of the General Laws of 1882, reads as follows : Sec. 3. The Pag of the State shall be blue and in the centre thereof shall be represented a golden anchor, surrounded by thirteen golden stars. The field of the flag remained blue until 1897, when, acting upon the suggestion ofifered by (Governor Lippitt in his message, the Gen- eral Assembly changed it to white. It is interesting to note here that from 1877 to 1882 the scroll on the flag was red. This is the only period that red appeared on our state flag. On May 19, 1897, the General Assembly passed the following act : CHAPTER 460. It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: Section i. Section 3 of Chapter 5 of the General Laws, "Of The Arms, The Seal and The Flag of the State," is hereby amended so as to read as follows : Sec. 3. The flag of the state shall be white, five feet and six inches fly and four feet and ten inches deep on the pike, bearing on each side in the centre a golden anchor, twenty-two inches high, and underneath it a blue ribbon twenty-four inches long and five inches wide, or in these jjroportions, with the motto "Hope," in golden let- ters thereon, the whole surrounded by thirteen golden stars in a circle. The flag to be edged with yellow fringe. The pike shall be surmounted by a spear-head and the length of the pike shall be nine feet, not including the spear-head. ' Sec. 2. This act shall take efifect immediately. 1750713 RsCs THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 3 - ! ■ .^'-.-yiS?/- r^f^^A' I