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THE ISLAND OF AQUEDNECK, NOW RHODE ISLAND, "My lovely island home, The harvest proudly waves, The sweet birds hover round the spot, To thee my memory turns, In sorrow and in care : I love to linger there. My home o'er the dark-blue sea, Thy charms shall near depart; And twine about my heart."
This last person, Randall Houldon, we presume, soon left, as we find his name not mentioned in the records, as being one of the first proprietors of the island. These names were, however, taken from a fac-simile in the author's possession. The first settlement on the island, was commenced at its northern extremity, where a town was regularly laid out, and first named Pocasset, subsequently Portsmouth. It is that part of the island known as New-Town. But so rapid was the increase of the Colony, during the following summer, that it was deemed advisable for their mutual prosperity, to commence a settlement on some other part of the island. Accordingly, in the following spring, Mr. Clarke, with several others, removed to the south part of the island, and commenced a settlement in or about what is now called Tanner-street, formerly New-Town, to which they gave the name of Newport. The island itself, subsequently, by order of the General Court, was called the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island, in memory, as before remarked, of that celebrated isle of the Mediterranean Sea. Both towns were united under the same simple patriarchal form of government, of which Mr. "William Coddington was chosen magistrate, or judge. A few months subsequently they chose Mr. John Coggeshall, Nicholas Easton, and William Brenton, to act as his assistants. Mr. Coggeshall was descended from an ancient and respectable family in England. He came to this country with Mr. Coddington, in 1630, and was admitted a freeman of the town of Boston in 1632. He was a member of the first Board of Selectmen, of Boston, and represented the town in General Court in 1634-5-6, and the spring session of 1637, but was disfranchised for conscience toward God, that same year. His disfranchisement, with others, created great discontent among his friends, which led to their removal, and finally to the settlement of the island. Mr. Coggeshall enjoyed the confidence of the colony of Rhode Island, and at the time of his death, which occurred in 1647, he was President of the Colony. He lies in the Coggeshall burial place, a little south of Newport. The following is the inscription on his tombstone: Here lieth the Body of Aged about 56 years. His descendants are still numerous on the island; and many of them are among our most respectable citizens. He was a man of a large estate, known as Coggeshall Neck. Mr. Coddington came to this country with Governor Hutchinson, having been appointed in 1629, by the British government, one of the Assistants of the Massachusetts colony. He engaged in mercantile business in Boston, and built the first brick house in that town. But, notwithstanding all the facilities he there enjoyed of promoting his own temporal prosperity, yet he chose to relinquish all of them, for the sake of religious freedom. Accordingly, in 1638, with the beloved Clarke, and sixteen others, he left the colony of Massachusetts, and commenced the settlement of Rhode Island; and was, by his companions in tribulation, unanimously elected chief magistrate, or Judge of the colony, which office he held until the island was incorporated with Prudence and Warwick. In 1651, he was appointed by the supreme authority of England, Governor of the island, pursuant to a power reserved in the patent, by which the island became again separated from the Providence Plantation, which we shall have occasion to speak of more fully. But the people, jealous of their rights, and fearful that their freedom might be endangered, dispatched Mr. Williams and Mr. Clarke to England, to have it revoked. On receiving due notice from England, Mr. Coddington surrendered up his commission, and retired into private life, when the island again became united with the Plantation. Mr. Coddington was again elected Governor of the colony in 1674-75, and 1678, in which year he died, aged 78 years. He is said to have been a man of profound learning, and assisted in framing the body of laws, which has been the basis of our Constitution and government ever since. Governor Coddington was interred in the family burial place, which, at his death, he gave the Society of Friends in Farewell-street, just south of the North Baptist meeting-house. The freemen of Newport, in town meeting, August 30th, 1836, appointed a committee to repair the monument at the head of the grave of this distinguished friend and advocate of civil and religious freedom. His likeness, which is still in good preservation, shews him to have been a most elegant and accomplished gentleman. It may be instructive to read the laws passed by our ancestors, on the subject of religion. But every good man and lover of his country, blushes at the superstition, bigotry, and intolerance, with which they were too often tainted. Need we refer to history? Let us look for a moment to the pilgrim fathers, to the colony at Plymouth. Speaking of them, a judicious writer observes: "Much as we respect that noble spirit which enabled them to part with their native soil—by some held dearer than friends, relatives, or children, and by every generous bosom preferred even to life itself,—we must condemn the proceedings which ensued. In the first moment when they began to taste of Christian liberty themselves, they forgot that others had a right to the same enjoyment. Some of the colonists, who had not emigrated through motives of religion, retaining a high veneration for the ritual of the English church, refused to join the colonial state establishment, and assembled separately to worship. But their objections were not suffered to pass unnoticed, nor unpunished. Endicott called before him the two principal offenders, and though they were men of respectability, and amongst the number of original patentees, he expelled them from the colony, and sent them home in the first ship returning to England. Had this inquisitorial usurpation been no further exercised, some apology, or at least palliation, might be framed. More interesting and painful consequences, however, not long afterwards, resulted. The very men who had countenanced this violation of Christian duties, lived to see their descendants excluded from church communion ; to behold their grandchildren, the smiling infants at the breast, denied the sacred right of baptism !" Coddington, an eminent merchant of Boston, was banished, for holding what they conceived to be erroneous sentiments, and for favoring the views of Mrs. Hutchinson. "The first general court was held at Charlestown, on board the ship Arabella. A law was passed, declaring that none should be admitted as freemen, or be entitled to any share in the government, or even to serve as jurymen, except those who had been received as members of the church; by which measure, every person whose mind was not of a particular structure, or accidentally impressed with peculiar ideas, zvas at once cast out of society, and stripped of his civic rights. "In 1656, a number of Quakers, having arrived from England and Barbadoes, and given offence to the clergy of the established church, by the novelty of their religion, at that time, certainly, a little extravagant, were imprisoned, and by the first opportunity sent away. A law was then made, which prohibited masters of vessels from bringing any Quakers into Massachusetts, and themselves from coming there, under a penalty, in case of a return from banishment, as high as death. In consequence of this several were hanged. Toleration was preached against, as a sin in rulers, that would bring down the judgment of heaven upon the land. Mr. Dudley died with a copy of verses in his pocket, of which the two following lines make a part: 'Let men of God, in court and churches watch, The Anabaptists were the next object of
persecution. Many were disfranchised, and some
banished." The principles which governed the early settlers of the island of Rhode Island, embraced all of every sect, whether Jew or Gentile. The last of the original purchasers and proprietors of this island, was Henry Bull, Esq., who died in 1693, aged 84 years. He held various public offices in the colony, from its first settlement, until a few years before his death. He was Governor of the colony in 1685, after which, being at a very advanced age, he relinquished public employment, to end his days in domestic peace; but after the revolution in England, the colony charter having been vacated, and Rhode Island put under the grant of Sir Edmund Andros, who held it until the spring of 1689; he was induced again to come forward into public life, thereby shewing a moral courage which was wanting in others. The house erected by Governor Bull, in Newport, is of stone, and still standing on the east side of Spring-street, near the junction of Broad street. It was, in 1642, used as a place of defense against the attacks of the Indians. Governor Bull lies buried in the Coddington burial place, where a plain and unostentatious slab, points the passing stranger to the spot where sleep the mouldering ashes of this bold and fearless patriot. His descendants are now in possession of the patrimonial estate of their ancestor. The character of the men who have already been brought into view, proves them to have been actuated by the best motives, in their attempts to found this colony. They recognized a superintending Providence, as will appear in the original charter of the American Isle of Rhodes: "We, whose names are underwritten, do swear,
solemnly, in the presence of the Great Jehovah, to incorporate ourselves
into a body politic; and He shall help us,—will submit our persons,
lives, and estates, unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and
Lord of lords; and to all those perfect laws of his, given us in his
most holy word of truth, to be guided and judged
thereby.
And six others, whose names have already been mentioned. Such were the principles, and such the sentiments, which distinguished the men, who first planted civil and religious liberty in this western world. We shall have occasion to dwell more at length on the dignity of their character, as we progress in the history of the island. The subject opens a wide field for reflection. It proves what men are capable of doing, under the influence of moral and christian principles. Their object in coming to this continent was not merely to acquire gain, as is too apt to be the case with all adventurers, but rather to establish a refuge from persecution, where each should have the liberty of enjoying his opinion without fear; and even at this day, after a period of more than two centuries, there is possessed by the inhabitants of the island, more liberty than is enjoyed by any other portion of the State. Source: History of Rhode Island by Rev. Edward Peterson, 1853, Transcribed by C. Anthony
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