Watermarks on Early Rhode Island Paper
On March 25, 1 764, articles of partnership were drawn
up and signed for the establishment and operation of a
paper mill in Rhode Island, The principal participants
in this enterprize were Capt. John Waterman the printer,
his father-in-law, Capt. Jonathan Olney, Mr. Jonathan
Ballon and Mr. William Goddard, the printer.
A mill was built on the Woonasquatucket River near
the present 01ne\\ille and the manufacture of paper began
in 1765. A detailed history of this and subsequent Provi-
dence paper mills appears in the Americana Collector for
May, 1926.
fHO^IPEM
WATERMARK USED BY JOHN
WATERMAN ON PAPER MADE IN 1766.
John Waterman, who operated the paper mill at Ohiey-
ville used as a watermark the word PROMDKNCE as
early as 1 766. This watermark appears on the paper of
many issues of the Providence Gazette. The Waterman
paper mill e\entuall\' passed into the hands of the Obiey
ii8
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
family. As early as 1788, Christopher Olnev used the
watermark C. OLNEY.
CHRISTOPHER OLNEY S WATER-
MARK, ABOUT 1788
On paper made a few years later, the device of the
state's arms, the foul anchor on a shield with the initials
C. C. O. for Christopher C. Olney was used as a water-
mark. The date of the use of this watermark has not been
definitely determined.
WATERMARKS USED BY CHRISTOPHER C. OLNEY
Samuel Thurber, junior, and Martin Thurber estab-
lished a paper mill in Providence in 1780, on the banks
WATERMARKS OX RHODE ISLAND TAPER
119
of the Moshassuck River near the North Burial Ground.
As early as 1 791, the Thurbers were using as a watermark
a foul anchor (without any stock) and not enclosed in
WATERMARKS USED BY SAMUEL THURBER & CO.
a shield but with the initials S. T. & C. In 1797, another
watermark, a foul anchor not enclosed in a shield, makes
its appearance on Rhode Island paper.
Specimens of paper bearing all of these w^atermarks
are on file at the library of the Rhode Island Historical
Society.
AN LTNIDEN'I IFIED RHODE ISLAND
WATERMARK OF ABOUT 1 797.
120 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Thomas James
One of the thirteen original proprietors of Providence.
Austin in his Genealogica] Dictionary of Rhode Island
(p.l 11 ) gives a very scant account of Thomas James, so
it has been deemed advisable to print a fuller account of
his life.
Thomas James was born in 1593 and educated at
Emanuel College, Cambridge, England, where he
received a degree in 1614. He preached in Lincolnshire
and came to New England in 1632, in the ship William
and Francis, bringing with him his wife, Elizabeth and
son, Thomas. He became the hrst settled pastor of the
Congregational Church at Charlestown, where his son
John was baptized. Owing to discord in the church, he
was dismissed in 1636.
James was a physician as well as a clergyman and came to
Providence early in 1637. He was one of the original
thirteen proprietors of Providence, and in 1638 attended,
and later testified in the fanious case of the Indian, Peno-
wanyanquis, who was murdered by four white men.
James also was one of the original members of the First
Baptist Church, and in 1639 was Town Treasurer, and
wrote on the original Indian deed, the memorandum of
1639, which was the contested point in the Harris land
case that disturbed the courts and politics of the colony
for almost a centur\'.
On March 20, 1640, Thomas James sold his house and
land in Providence to William Field and moved away to
New Haven. In 1642, he was one of the three ministers
sent on a special mission to Virginia, and was for a few
THOMAS lAMES
121
days stormbound at Newport. He returned froni Virginia
in June, 1643, to New Ha\'en, where he resided about five
years, holding xarious offices.
He returned to England before 1648, and became pastor
of the church at Needham, but was ejected from that office
in 1662. He was living quietly in England as late as 1678.
William Harris described Thomas James as a "man of
learning and wisdom." Many persons in New England
can trace then- descent from Thomas James.
THE fTKAMROAlS MIANTONO.MI AND CA\ OXC H KT
The Miantonomi was built in 1850, and the Canonchct was built in
1851. These boats plied between Providence and Warren. See article
in Providence Evening Btdletin, April 25, 1877, reprinted in the
Ne-.cj^ort Mercury, :\^r\\ 30, 1904.
Fro}ii nhi print in the Society's Museii»t.
122
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
oi o
o t.
Z X
t;iI)K()X CASKV. SIIAI-.KS.M ITU
123
'^9
?P()ON MADE BY CIDICON CASEV OF KINC.STOX, R. 1.
O'.tncd by Mn-. M.ih.l K. Rogers.
.~
W&SSi^
* . .*^
GIDEON CASEY S MARK
The spoons illustrated above bear the mark of Gideon
Casey of South Kingstown '^' brother of the famous Saniuel
Casey. The mark, G: CASEY, Roman capitals in a rec-
tangle, is that recorded in the Walpole Society List.
Examples of Gideon Casey's work are rare, a fact that
would substantiate the supposition that he was never much
more than an assistant to his brother, despite their partner-
ship together. It may be further pointed out that the
spoons under consideration are identical in design and
size with spoons bearing the niark of Samuel Casey.
Nevertheless it is a privilege to be permitted, through the
kindness of Mrs. Mabel K. Rogers, to record here an
example which can be dehniteh' identified as bearing his
mark.
William Davis Miller.
"' Vide Rhode Island Historical Sncifty ColUclions, Vol. xxii, p. 10? (October,
1929, and The Silversmiths of Litth Rrs!.
124
RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CiOVERNOR FENNER S CHAIR
This is one of four chairs that formerly belonged to James Fenner,
Governor of Rhode Island, and first President of the Rhode Island
Historical Society.
These four cliairs zcere recently presented
to the Society by Mr. Henry D. Shjrpe.
126 RHODF. ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Seventeenth Century Thimbles
The thimble shown at the right in the illustration on the
cover of this issue of the Collections belonged to Esther
Willett or Willitt, daughter of Thomas Willett, the first
English Mayor of New York. It was found in the ruins
of Thomas Willett's house, which was located in East
Providence, east of Riverside on the old main road to
Warren. When Col. H. Anthony Dyer built a house
around the old Willett chimney some years ago, one of
the workmen found during the excavations a bent and flat-
tened bit of silver. Upon straightening out this piece of
silver and bending it back into shape, it was found to be
a topless silver thimble of the colonial period in prac-
tically perfect condition. Around the base it bears the
inscription ESTHER WILLITT, the name of its former
owner. She was born in 1648 and was married on January
24, 1672, so that the inscription must have been cut
between these dates and presumably between 1662 and
1672.
ESTHER WILLETT S THLMBLE
The other side of this thimble
is shown on the cover of this issue
of the Collections.
In addition to the usual little depressions that cover a
thimble, this one is ornamented with two rather crudely
executed designs. On one side there is a flower, perhaps
a daisy or a sunflower and on the other side is a heart. This
thimble was undoubtedly made and the engraving upon it
cut in America previous to 1672, so that it is a particularly
NOTES 127
interesting piece of early colonial silverwork. It indi-
cates what sort of artistic designs appealed to seventeenth
century Americans. The flower and the heart are both
designs which are often found engraved on personal seals
of this period. Col. Dyer presented to the Society this
choice specimen of American colonial silver. The illus-
tration on the cover shows one side of the thimble and the
illustration in the text shows the other side.
The other two thimbles in our museum, as shown in the
illustration on the cover, are seventeenth century products,
though they may have been made in England. One is a
topless thimble like the Willett one and the other is a
thimble with a top, of the more familiar modern type.
They w^ere found in the grave of the Indian Squaw Sachem
Weunquesh, who died about 1686. They were her per-
sonal property, doubtless highly prized by her, and were
buried with her. Weunquesh was the daughter and suc-
cessor of Ninigret and was ruler of the Narragansett
Indians for about ten years.
Notes
A file of the newspaper, which at first was called the
Beulah ItejnSy later the BeulaJi Christian and finally the
Pentacostal Christian y covering the period from 1888 to
1912, has been presented by Mr. F. A. Hillery, who was
editor of this publication.
The Society has also been fortunate in obtaining some
copies of the Rhode Island Advocatey a newspaper that
was published at Woonsocket, in 18.'^5 and 1836.
From Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Russell, the society received
copies of the Independent^ for May 1 3 and May 18,1 844-,
both printed on cloth. The Independent was a Prox'idence
newspaper which on these two dates in addition to the
regular edition printed on paper, also issued an edition
128 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIKTY
printed on cloth. The first part of the trial of Thomas W.
Dorr was printed in the issue of May 13 and the conclu-
sion in the issue of May 18. Apparently in order ro issue
an account of the trial in what would seem to be more
permanent form, these two numbers of the Independent
were issued in an edition printed on cloth. The Society
had a copy of the issue of May 1 8, printed on silk, and it
was known that copies of this issue were also printed on
cotton cloth. The copv of the May 18 issue which the
Society has just received is printed on cotton cloth, and at
the bottom an extra large margin was left, on which for-
tunately appears the manufacturer's trade name for the
material: KENT SHEETINGS. The issue of May 13,
is also printed on cotton cloth, thus completing the Society's
file of this unusual cotton cloth newspaper. The issue of
May 13, may have been printed on silk and if so, it is
hoped that some possessor of a copy of this silk edition
will present it to the Society, so that our collection of
material relating to this curious episode in newspaper
history may be complete.
Inspired by these editions of the Independeiit^ the
Republican Hercdd issued as a broadside the Speech of
Governor Dorr, dated June 25,1 844, in an edition printed
on silk.
Using cloth instead of paper as a medium on which to
print information for publication was not unusual at that
time. Mr. William Davis Miller owns a sheet of national
flags printed in England in color on cloth about 1840.
Manuscript copies of the items referring to the Greene
family in the Gillingham Court Rolls in the Rylands
I>ibrary at Manchester, England, have been presented to
the Society by Capt. G. Andrews Moriarty, Jr., who in
the July issue of the Collections contributed a brief article
on the ancestry of John Greene of Warwick, based on these
documents.
Frat;mcnts o( the court dress which was presented by King George I
to William Hopi<ins of Providence. (See Rhode Ishmd Privateers,
p. 106.) In the Soc!ety\< 7?iiiseu7N.
130 rhodp: island historical society
The following persons have been elected to member-
ship in the Society:
Mrs. Harold J. Gross Rabbi Israel M. Goldman
Mr. Bruce M. Bigelow Mr. Howard R. Kent
Mrs. Philip B. Simonds Mrs. Richard Howland
Mr. Roy F. Whitney
New books of Rhode Island interest are:
Roger WillhiffJSy PropJiet and Pioneer, by Emily
Easton, 1930, 339 pages.
T/ie Book of Rhode Island, an illustrated description of
the advantages and opportunities of the State, distributed
by the Rhode Island State Bureau of Information, 1930.
The July 1930 issue of the Historical Collections of
the Essex Institute contains an account of Roger Williams
by Rev. Milo E. Pearson.
Bristol, Rhode Island. A Town Biography, by M. A.
DeWolfe Howe, 172 pages, has just been issued in com-
memoration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of
the town.
The Colonial T/ieatre in New England, a paper read by
Professor Ben W. Brown of Brown University, has been
printed as a Special Bulletin by the Newport Historical
Society.
The Rhode Island Merchants and The Sugar Act by
Frederick Bernays Wiener is a pamphlet of 36 pages
reprinted from the New England Quarterly.
Heraldic Notes
CARPENTER
Daniel Carpenter, who died in 1763, was buried in the
old Rehoboth cemetery, which is now in East Providence,
R. I., and his grave is marked by an armorial tombstone,
bearing the arms, "A greyhound passant and a chief,"
with the crest "A greyhound's head." The arms are clearly
intended for those granted to William Carpenter of Cob-
ham, Surrey, on March 4, 1663, (Carpenter Family 29,
Burke) ^ viz: "Argent a greyhound passant, a chief sable,"
with the crest "A greyhound's head erased, per fesse sable
and argent."
William Carpenter, the recipient of this grant of arms,
died in 1672 without children, and Amos B. Carpenter,
author of the Carpenter Faniilyy seeks to prove that the
American branch of the family inherited the coat of arms
as next of kin. He fails to prove both the relationship and
"right of inheritance." He claims the early use of these
arms by the Carpenter family in America, but the earliest
definite date he gives is 1730, when it was drawn on the
131
132 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
cover of a note book by Dr. Comfort Carpenter, when a
student at Harvard College.
Below the shield on Daniel Carpenter's stone is a
ribbon, on which appears, instead of a motto, the inscrip-
tion: "Argent a Greyhound passant a Chief Sable is
Borne by the name of Carpenter," now badly defaced by
weather. From this it would appear that the design on
the stone was copied from an armorial painting, which
bore the aforesaid inscription under it.
If the arms of William Carpenter of Cobham were
printed in Guillim or some other book before 1730, Com-
fort Carpenter, when at Harvard, might have copied them
from such a book.'^'
If these arms were not in a printed book before 1763,
the date of the stone, the possibility of inheritance
increases.
William Carpenter, the ancestor of the Rehoboth Car-
penters, came from Wherwell or Horwell, not far from
Cobham in Surrey, [Carpeiiter Family p. 35 and Z6 and
Savage,) and the knowledge, that the family came from
Surrey, would doubtless lead them to assume the arms
born by William Carpenter of Surrey.
They might well be ignorant of the fact that the arms
were a grant to William of Cobham, and from his use of
them, might assume that they were arms which he had
inherited, and so were the arms of the Carpenters of
Surrev.
' ^ 'The earliest priiittd book in which I have found these arms is Edmondson,
1780.
Rhode Island
Historical Society
Collections
\\)1. XXR'
JANUARY, 1931
No. 1
^
>
iJ fe-^^^ j<"X Y/
^-^-^ f-^ -
-"'y-^d^,'
PROVIDENCE POSTAGE STAMPS
5^^j page 58
Issued Quarterly
68 Waierman Street, Providence, Rhode Island
CONTENTS
Page
Roger Williams and the English Revolution . . 1
Notes 58
The Slater Collection of Providence Stamps Cover 6^ 5S
Richard Smith's Canilet 59
Jemima Wilkinson 60
New Books 62
King Philip's Belt 63
ROGKR WILLIAMS NUMBER
COMMEMORATING THE THREE-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF
ROGER Williams' first voyage to America
DECEMBER 1 63 - FEBRUARY 1631
RHODE
HISTORICAL
ISLAND
SOCIETY
COLLECTIONS
VOL. XXIV
January, 1931
No. 1
Addison P. Munroe, President Gilbert A. Harrington, Treasurer
Howard W. Preston, Secretary Howard M. Chapin, Librarian
The Society assumes no responsibility for the statements or the opinions
of contributors.
Roger Williams and the English Revolution
By James Ernst*
The place of Roger Williams in the history of Demo-
cratic thought and the Rights of Man is not yet fully
determined. A monument in Geneva honors him in the
company of Luther, Calvin and Knox, as one of the five
leading Reformers of the 16th and 1 7th centuries. But the
English and American historians, as a rule, do not give
him such a prominent rank among the world-movers of
his age, although two of the foremost American historical
scholars, Channing and Bancroft, rank him as the most
important individual figure among the English colonists
of the 17th centurv.
*See R. I. H. S. C. Oct., 1929, p. 97, and Jan., 1930, p. 18 for other
writings on Roger Williams by Dr. Ernst.
Z RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Several authorities on the history of political ideas agree
that The Bloudy Tenant by Roger Williams is the source
of the principles underlying the English Revolution of
1648. Herman Weingarten in Die Englhche Revolution-
skirche concludes that the democratic ideas of Williams
were back of the principles of the sectarians and the Level-
lers in their revolt against the Presbyterian Parliament and
the royal authority. George Gervinus, in the Introduction
to the History of the Nineteenth Century^ writes that the
people's sovereignty and religious liberty principles of
Williams influenced the Levellers, and "have given laws
to one quarter of the globe, and, dreaded for their moral
influence, they stand in the background of every demo-
cratic struggle in Europe."
The Bloudy Tefient, wrote Dunning, ( Political Theo-
ries: Luther to Montesquieu, pp. 231 ff) "derived its
principles and its form from his American experience," and
"expressed essentially the resolution of a body of religi-
ous sectaries, the Independents . . . and the fuller impli-
cations of the theory which the work embodied were
revealed in the political re\'olution which was effected in
1647-1648 by the Army." Dr. Jellinek in his Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, says of the theories
of government by consent of the people expressed in a
social compact and individual rights of man in Europe and
America, that the "first Apostle was not Lafayette but
Roger Williams." A recent study of the relation of Wil-
liams to the English revolt in 1648 has been made by Dr.
Michel Freimd, ( Die Idee Der Toleranz i)n England Der
Grossen Revolution, Halle, 1927, fp. 241-268) in which
he holds that Williams is "the ripest fruit of the Renais-
sance and the Reformation movements" and the foremost
exponent of full liberty of conscience, the social compact
and the rights of man in the English revolution. Dr.
Freund also maintains that Williams has a fully developed
political theory set forth in his Bloudy Tenent and other
pamphlets.
ROGER WILLIAMS AND THK KXGLLSH RKVOLL'TION ,5
According to the conclusions of these writers Williams
supplied the political theories expressed in the "Agree-
ment of the People" and other proposals of the Army for
a democratic government, a written compact, and religious
liberty and rights of man. Dunning, Jellinek, Freund and
Gervinus had some acquaintance with the sectarian and
Leveller pamphlets of the Civil War, and approached the
subject with scholarly methods. Their conclusions deserve
at least close scrutiny. It is my purpose to make a brief
summary of the references to Roger Williams and his
pamphlets which I have discovered in the Thomasin Col-
lection of the British Museum, with the view of aiding
tow^ard a more definite understanding of the tremendous
influence his principles had in the Civil War and the revolt
of 1647-48.
The English re\'o]ution of 1648 was mokied by two
chief forces. ( For a history of the Civil War, see Gar-
diner. TJie Great Civil Way. 4 vols.) First, in the Civil
War from 1 640 to 1 646, the Puritan Parliament turned
from sovereignty of the Common Law to the sovereignty
of Parliament, and attempted to reduce the King's prero-
gative within the bounds of Reason, Law^, and Parliament.
Secondly, the Puritans in Parliament strove to wnn a
liberty for their own worship, on equality w^ith the Angli-
cans. The religious disputes centered in the Assembly of
Divines. And by 1644, the Lidependents and Sectarians
introduced religious liberty into the realm of politics.
(Christopher Feake: A Beam of Lights 1654. E-737.)
By 1641, the Puritans party including Cromwell, Bar-
rington, Masham, Pym, Warwick, Hampden, Prynne,
Overton, Walwin, and Lilburne, generally accepted the
doctrine of the sovereignty of Parliament. In the spring of
1642 arguments based on abstract principles of govern-
ment began to supplement those based on Common Law.
The defenders of the sovereignty of Parliament were
delving into the origins of government to defend the
actions of the Puritan parliament. Henry Parker in Juh',
4 RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1642, (Observations upon some of his Majesties late
answers, E-153 (20) argued that parliament is the
supreme and arbitrary power of the land, "it is indeed the
state itself." He allowed for the union of church with
state, merely transferring the divine right of kings to the
divine right of parliament. {Ibid. The true ground of
ecclesiastical regimes, Nov. 1641j The Leveller Move-
ment , Theodore Pease.)
Two schools of the social contract now came forward in
the political struggle in England. Henry Parker and his
followers by reason of the compact claimed parliamentary
absolutism. Herle ( A fuller answer to Doctor Feme,
1642, E-244) Philip Hunton, (A treatise on monarchy,
1643, E-103) and Samuel Rutherford (Lex Rex: the
law and the prince. Oct., 1644, E-11) held that the
compact between the king and the commons or freeman
created three estates — king, lords, and commoners, with
king supreme. Neither of these compact theories assigned
any importance to the great mass of people below the
rank of freeman.
Meanwhile Roger Williams had been doing memorable
work in the American wilderness. In the spring of 1631,
he had declared to the Boston magistrates for absolute
liberty of conscience, separation of church and state, and
agreed to the supremacy of the General Court of the Bay
in civil affairs only. In 1636, he founded Providence and
by means of a social compact erected a town-government,
the written constitution granting sovereignty to the house-
holders, liberty of conscience, separation of church and
state, and government "only in civil things." This form
of government was still functioning in 1644.
In the summer of 1643, Roger Williams arrived in
England as the agent of his colony to procure a charter
of civil government. In September, he published his Key
into the Language of America in which he discussed the
democratic form of tribal government among the Indians,
the law of nature and the Indian toleration of religions.
ROGER WILLIAMS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION
Early in 1644 he published Queries of Highest Considera-
tions and Master Cotton^s Letter Answered. In these two
pamphlets Williams discussed his banishment, the princi-
ples of sovereignty of the people, absolute liberty of con-
science, separation of church and state, natural rights of
man, and his Seeker religious views. He succeeded in
1644 in obtaining from Parliament a charter of free
government in civil things, granting to the settlers of the
Narragansett country the right to establish their own form
of civil state.
For our present purpose, the fact that Williams founded
an independent civil state on the social compact theory
fixing the sovereignty in the people is of great importance.
His doctrines prior to 1 644 should be kept in mind in con-
sidering the references to him and his writings by the
pamphleteers whom I shall quote. Furthermore, it is
necessary to keep in mind certain aspects of the Civil War
in 1643:
First, when Williams came to London, the leading
pamphleteers were Prynne, Lillburn, Pym, Hampden,
Walwin, Overton, John Goodwin, and others. These
writers were contending for the rights and liberties of the
"Free-born Englishmen and Citizens" only. The freemen
were only a small body of the English nation and repre-
sented the substantial middle class. The writers agreed
that Parliament was sovereign. But the great mass of the
people, the lower classes of England, the peasants and
toilers, small tradesmen and craftsmen were looked upon
with contempt as unfit for civil power. Not until after
Williams has been in England for some months does any
one come out for the sovereignty of the people. The
Leveller movement, perse, did not begin until after 1645.
Secondly, the political aspect of religious liberty is less
complicated. According to Baillie, Robert Brown stood
"for full liberty of conscience uncontrolled by the law of