The war years

Little Compton families along the Sakonnet passage had been aware for some
time of British intrusion in the area. As early as 1765, frigates flying the British
ensign were a common sight patrolling the waters off Sakonnet Point. These men
were looking for tax evaders, vessels arriving from abroad with cargoes on which
duties were owed. Even though Parliament had declared Britains legal right to
collect such taxes, wily American merchants found ways to avoid paying up
whenever they could.
The Sakonnet Passage was a convenient detour around the more heavily
guarded Narragansett Bay. Trading ships heading to Bristol or Providence would slip
past Little Compton, steer upriver to Tiverton, and would go through the narrows at
Howlands Ferry and around the bend at Common Fence Point into Providence Bay. i

Little Compton Joins the Fight

There were no questions during these years on which side most people in
Little Compton were on. In July 1769, when the obnoxious British customs schooner
Liberty was set adrift in Newport Harbor, scuttled, and then burned by unknown
strangers, Comptoners would have approved quietly.
In June 1772, when merchant John Browns daring band of Providence patriots
set fire to the HMS Gaspee off Pawtuxet and shot her arrogant captain through the
groin, they would have cheered. (Little Comptons own Col. William Richmond is
believed by some historians to have been the unidentified Richmond listed as one
of the avengers.)
After the Battle of Lexington on April 15, 1775, the Rhode Island Assembly at
last called for troops to support the American army digging in around the British in
Boston, Little Compton men were quick to join up.
The job of raising Newport Countys first regiment when to Col. Thomas
Church of Seaconnet Farm, a veteran of the French and Indian War. ii His Fifteen
Regiment of Foot was composed of five companies from five towns. Twenty-four
men from Little Compton, young and old, fathers and sons, enlisted to serve under
Capt. Thomas Brownell. Among them were Lt. Aaron Wilbour (age fifty-one) and his
son Aaron Jr. (age twenty-two), and Jonathan Brownell (age fifty-seven) with his
eighteen-year-old son, Sylvester. They went in their own clothes, carrying supplies
from home, armed with hunting rifles when they had them. These first volunteers
were woefully underequipped by the American army lacking not only funds but also
a coherent system of command.
The men marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a buildup of
American troops was in process, part of a concerted effort to dislodge the British
army from its strangling occupation of Bostin. On June 14, the regiment was
formally adopted into the fledgling Continental Army under Rhode Islands Maj. Gen.
Nathaniel Greene. Two days later, fighting broke out and the Battle of Bunker Hill
was under way.

There is some question whether Thomas Brownells Little Compton Company

participates as a group in this battle, which actually was fought on Breeds Hill.
Theres no doubt that individuals from the town were involved, however. Bayles
notes of young Sylvester Brownell that he was one of the thousand men who,
under Colonel Prescott, on the night of 16 th of June, 1775, marches from Cambridge
to Breeds Hill and threw up the redoubt which, the next day brought on the battle
of Bunker Hill.iii
After the battle, Churchs regiment camped with other continental Army
regiments at Prospect Hill as colonial troops continues to lay siege to the British in
Boston. The recruits endures such terrible conditions during this time, including a
bout of smallpox, that Jonathan Brownell was mortally weakened and never
recovered. He died in 1776, at the age of fifty-eight, after returning home.
The first theater of was Boston, but the arrival of more British warships in
Narragansett Bay, fear of British Raiders mounted along the Sakonnet peninsula.
One particular scourge was the HMS Rosa, a 20 gun frigate under the command of
the notorious bully captain James Wallace. During late 1774 and on into the spring
of 1775, Wallace and engaged in a series of terrifying attacks on coastal towns. His
method was to sail into harbors with an entourage of vessels, demand livestock and
food supplies, and threatened to open fire on citizens when they refused or could
not comply. Newport, Block Island, and Stonington (Connecticut) all fell victim
As nerves freight in little Compton, the town took defensive measures. The
town militia was reorganize and strengthened in the spring of 1775. But since the
best men were soon siphoned away with Col. Church to join continental troops at
Boston, the town was left nearly defenseless. Weapons were in short supply that
soldiers drilled on the Commons carrying wooden replicas on their shoulders. iv

The Revolution
Freedom in the Front of the Battlev
Military service provided another path to freedom for Little Comptons enslaved
men. In times of peace New Englands men of color were banned from military
service, but in times of war the ban was often lifted. vi During the French and Indian
War, Sampson entered and left the war as an enslaved man, but through his service
he earned wages that he saved in order to buy his freedom from his master. During
a brief few months of the Revolution, Rhode Island offered immediate freedom for
any enslaved man who volunteered to serve, even without his masters consent.
Little Comptons Ebenezer Richmond, Ebenezer Gray and Boston Wilbour all
secured their freedom in this way in 1778. Each enslaved man volunteered for duty
and was assigned a monetary value by a committee of three assessors. Rhode
Island compensated their former masters for their losses. vii Samuel Gray received
100 , while Perez Richmond and John Wilbour Jr. were paid 110 each. The highest
amount of compensation paid to any master was 120 , and the lowest was 30 for
an enslaved man from Exeter.viii

Though desperate for soldiers by 1778, Rhode Islands government officials and
military leaders disagreed over whether or not to allow enslaved men to enlist in
exchange for freedom. While men like Little Comptons Colonel William Richmond,
the leader of a Regiment of Rhode Island State Troops, were for the policy, others
like Hazard Potter bitterly opposed it. In February of 1778 when one of the first
groups of enslaved men gathered together to enlist, Hazard tried to dissuade the
men by announcing:
The Negros were to be made Breast works of that They were always
to be employed upon the most dangerous service to be first in the
Front of the Battle as the Hispanics were in the British Army that
were the Negros taken prisoners the[y] would not be exchanged, but
would be sent to the West Indies & Sold as Slaves. ix
Hazards outburst did not stop a total of seventy-three men from enlisting and
receiving their freedom throughout the winter and spring of that year. It is
fascinating that one hundred years after Colonel Benjamin Church used the threat of
enslavement in the West Indies as a way to force Sakonnets warriors into service,
the same threat was used to try and keep Little Comptons African-American slaves
out of service. Due to overwhelmingly pressure from those opposed to the
enlistment of enslaved men, the Rhode Island General Assembly ended the practice
on June 10, 1778.x
The men who did enlist, did so for the duration of the war, not knowing how long
that would be. Witnesses praised the First Regiment for their valor during their first
engagement, the Battle of Rhode Island.
Had they been unfaithful or even given away before the enemy all
would have been lost. Three times in succession they were attacked
with most despearat valor and fury by well-disciplined and veteran
troops, and three times did they successfully repel the assault and
thus preserved our Army from capture.xi
The cost to the men was high. Ebenezer Grays service as a private under Captain
John Dexter lasted only a year. He enlisted in March of 1778 and was recorded as
sick and unable to serve in October and again in December. He died in service on
March 31, 1779.
Boston Wilbur had already been serving in the First Rhode Island Regiment as an
enslaved man for a year, ever since his original enlistment day on March 12, 1777.
He enlisted again on April 14, 1778 to take full advantage of Rhode Islands new
offer of freedom. He served as a private in Captain Ebenezer Flaggs Company,
traveling around the state and camping at times in East Greenwich (1778), Warwick
(1779), Newport (1780), and Rhode Island Village (1781). Throughout much of 1779
he did not serve, absent without leave in the spring, sick in camp in September,
and absent with leave for the rest of the fall. It is likely that Boston never saw the
end of the war. He died in Continental Service but the date of his death is
unknown. Several of his white neighbors probated his estate back in Little Compton
in 1797 and valued it at 400 .xii (Go See Boston Wilbours Probate Little Compton
Town Council and Probate Book 3, 352 & 355.)

Ebenezer Richmond also served before he received a promise of freedom. As a

member of Cooks Militia in 1777, Ebenezer stood guard in one of Little Comptons
ten Block Houses that overlooked the Sakonnet River or in the picket barricade
constructed for the towns defense. Nothing more is known about his service in
Rhode Islands First Regiment.
(Use detail of Lafayette map as illustration)
Boston and the two Ebenezers were assigned to different companies within the
regiment and may not have seen each other again. While in the Continental Army
each man was required to travel longer and farther than ever before in his life.
Within their companies they lived and fought alongside more men of color than
lived within the whole town of Little Compton. The war not only made them free
men, it expanded their horizons in ways they perhaps could never have imagined.
The cost, however, was great. At least two of the three Little Compton, AfricanAmerican men who served in Rhode Islands First Regiment did not survive the war
to enjoy their freedom.
Other Little Compton men of color also served in the Revolution. Sip Cook served in
the Little Compton militia like Ebenezer Richmond, and Janes son Cesar Church won
his freedom, and lost his life, by enlisting in his adopted town of Dighton,
Massachusetts.xiii Aaron, Moses and Simon Suckanush (various spellings) enlisted in
the First Rhode Island Regiment as free Native American men and are honored
along with Boston Wilbor, Ebenezer Richmond, and Ebenezer Gray on the
monument that stands today in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Paul Langley, an AfricanAmerican man formerly enslaved by Lee Langley of Newport, also served in the First
Rhode Island Regiment and is honored on the monument as well. Paul died during
the war around 1780 and Lee came to Little Compton to probate his modest estate
three years later.xiv
London Richmond, a servant of the Acoaxet branch of the Richmond family, was a
private in the Dighton militia for a very mysterious twenty-nine days. From October
2 to 29 in 1777, London traveled with Captain James Briggs Company on a secret
expedition to Rhode Island. The Company also included two white members of the
Richmond family, Josiah and Perez, and was eventually discharged by General
Spencer when their mission was through. xv London did not receive his freedom for
his twenty-nine days of service, but he did survive the war and settled in Westport
as a free man to raise a family. His daughter Deborah married Simon Suckanush the
son of Aaron, who also served his country and survived of the Revolutionary War. xvi
In October, with many men still deployed elsewhere, news reached Little
Compton that Bristol had been severely bombarded by the Rose. Angered when the
town could not deliver on his demand for 200 sheep and 30 fat cattle, Capt.
Wallace opened fire point blank from the harbor with a barrage that lasts over an
hour and a half. The terrified populace took cover. Public buildings and houses
exploded and burned to the ground. British troops landed and marched inland to
warren, torching barns, stealing farm animals, looting homes, and even, according
to rumors, ripping clothes off women and the rings off their fingers. xvii

Richmonds Regiment
The situation was intolerable, but what could be done? Enter Little Comptons most
famous citizen of the day, the spirted Col. William Richmond, then forty-eighty years
old. Never one to hang around the farm for long (his large, productive acreage
encompassed historical Treaty Rock), Richmond already had an impressive list of
achievements to his credit. Hed fought as a young lieutenant under the British
command in Canada in 1775, been promoted to captain in the Kings County
Regiment in 1756, and arrives home in glory to become an assistant to Rhode Island
Governor Stephen Hopkins in Newport in 1760.
By 1770, he was serving in leadership positions at Rhode Island Assembly
and representing Little Compton there. As pressure mounted in 1775, he gained
appointment to Rhode Islands Committee of Public Safety, with responsibility for
dealing with exactly the sort of problem the British raiders were presenting.
Outspoken, energetic, and fiercely patriotic, Richmond volunteered to raise a
state regiment of 750 to defend his Rhode Island coast. Richmonds Regiment, as it
was called, went on active duty that December 1775, bankrolled by the colony
treasury. The regimental staff included Capt. William Barton, soon to become a RI
hero in his own right. Ebenezer Richmond, Col. Richmonds nephew, was brought in
as surgeons mate. The colonel, who was childless, took a warm interest in his
siblings sons and daughters.
Wasting no time, his troops began at once building and manning fortifications in
places susceptible to British raids. In particular, they erected firing platforms
especially capable of taking on Captain Wallace and his vicious entourage of attack
boats. A series of violent confrontations followed. By early May, the Rose had been
bottled up in Jamestown, and several other gunships had been chased off.
Narragansett Bay was temporarily cleared of marauders. It proved to be only the lull
before the storm. In October, the British would return in force to sink their teeth into
Newport for the next three years.
All spring, while the men of Richmonds Regiment fought off English frigates
and Rhode Island towns suffered, colonial delegates meeting at the continental
congress in Philadelphia dithered. Afraid to declare war against England, but also
afraid not to, the congress ended by taking no official stand, to acute frustration of
the Rhode Island General Assembly.
At last, unable to wait any longer, Rhode Island stepped forward on its own.
In a rousing proclamation dated May 4, 1776, two months before Americas
Congress issued its famous Declaration of Independence, Rhode Island voted to
dissolve all allegiance to the English Kings, the First of the Assembly were, colonies
to do so. Little Comptons two representatives to Assembly were, not surprisingly,
the fervent patriots Col. William Richmond and Capt. Thomas Brownell. The
proclamation they supported practically explodes off the page:
Whereas, George the Third, King of Great Britain, forgetting his dignity and
entirely departing from the duties and character of a good King, instead of

protecting, is endeavoring to destroy the good people of this colony by

sending fleets and armies to America, to confiscate out property, and to
spread fore, sword, and desolation throughout our country, in order to compel
us to submit to the most debasing and detestable tyranny; whereby it
becomes our highest duty, to use every means with which God and nature
have furnished us, in support of our invaluable rights and privileges Be it
therefore enacted by this General Assembly that an act entitled An act for the
more effectually securing to his majesty the allegiance of his subjects in this
his colony and dominion of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations IS
HEREBY REPEALED.

As pressure from the British increased in and around New York City,
Washingtons Continental Army repeatedly sought, via a tough quota system, to
draft men away from the colonies home militias. The woeful experiences of Little
Comptons first army volunteers during the siege of Boston was still fresh in local
minds, and recruitment flagged. As an inducement, the town made sure that those
who enlisted next would be not only properly equipped, but paid. On November 29,
1776, residents voted:
That Adam Simmons be appointed to act with the Committee of Public Safety
in furnishing the soldiers who are immediately to be raised in this town with
blankets, knapsacks, firearms, bayonets and cartridge boxes, and Voted that
this Town give thirty shillings lawful money, to be paid to each of fifteen ablebodied men who shall first enlist out of the militia of this town. xviii

The new recruits barely got out of town. They were called back almost immediately
to join regiments close to home because on December 6, 1776, a massive British
Fleet sailed into Narragansett Bay, landed some eight thousand troops, and took
over Newport and the Island. It was the beginning of a three-year occupation that
put Little Compton, just across the Sakonnet Passage, practically within whistling
distance of the enemy. xix

A Lion at the Door

The British occupation of Newport was a game-changer for everyone living around
Narragansett Bay. Suddenly the full force of his Majestys military might had arrived
on Rhode Islands doorstep, with every intention of forcing its way into the house.
Frightening stories of brutality against civilians by British troops during their seizure
of Boston were everywhere known. As the British fleet massed Narragansett Bay,
even families with long roots in the area streamed off the island. Those who had
friends or relations in Tiverton or Little Compton moved in with them. Many people
went to providence, causing increased burden to a city already suffering from
several years of British blockade.
In Little Compton, Roger Williams old spirt of tolerance was suddenly an
unaffordable luxury. The Society of Friends pacifist teachings were reexamined and
criticized. Many Quakers in town were ardent patriots more than willing to join the

fight. Still those who held back, even when they protested neutrality, were resented.
Along with the other towns, Little Compton struggled to provide its quota of soldiers
to the continental army and was forced to beat the bushes to make up for no-shows.
On August 9, 1778, as the American army desperately sought troops for the Battle
of Rhode Island, Little Comptons town council issued the following order:
that men Be hired to supply the places of Samuel Wilbour, William
Wilbour, John Peckam, Enos Gifford, Ezra Chase, Elezar Chase, Sylvanus
Wilbour, John Macumber for the Rhode Island Expedition agreeable to an act
of the Council of War and request of Col. John Cook. Also that the men to Be
hired for the above delinquents upon the credit of said Little Compton until the
Money can be raised agreeable to an act of the General Assembly of Rhode
Island.xx

The Wilbour, Peckham and Chase families were Quakers, and others in this group
may also have been members of the Society of Friends.
Families suspected of being outright Tory sympathizers simply moved out of
town---or never moved in. Gideon Sisson, of Newport, dared not take possession of
beautiful Seaconnet Farm on Sakonnet Point, which he had just purchased from Col.
Thomas Church, after his affection for the King become Known in town.
The
property was confiscated during the war and turned over temporarily to Judge
William Tarrgart, a patriot refugee from Middletown about whom more will be told.
When Little Compton farmer Abiel Cook was discovered selling sheep to the
British in June 1775, the committee for Inspection, a watchdog group of Little
Compton and Tiverton residents, took steps to punish him for endeavoring to feed
and support the enemies of American liberty. xxi They wrote an account of his
treachery and sent it for publication to the Newport Mercury. The article called on
all friends to American liberty to break off all dealings with said Cook, and treat
him as an enemy to his country.
Cook had been caught at Fogland Ferry as he was about to take his sheep across
the island to deliver them to the frigate Swan, one of the British coastal attack
boats. The Committee for Inspection voted that the sheep be seized and sent as a
present to the hungry American Army near Boston. Cook was unrepentant. He
swore hed do it all again if he had the chance, an affront so outrageous that the
story made it into the newspapers in Providence. xxii
With the British on Aquidneck Island, construction of fortification at Tiverton heights
went into high gear. Fort Barton, as it would be called, was soon a central
headquarters for military defense in the area. xxiii Throughout 1776 and 1777, arms
and men from all over New England poured in to defend the narrow crossing at
Howlands Ferry.
(Insert picture from pg 123 and pg 124 with captions here)
Downriver, Little Comptons western shore was wide open to enemy attacks. The
same month the British took Newport, the American command at Tiverton moved to
strengthen Little Comptons militia by sending more powerful weapons. Up to this
time, rifles, many individually owned, were the towns chief defense. As of January

1777, the militia had use of cannon: two mounted field pieces, one four or sixpounder and one smaller one and proper cartridges. In addition, the town clerk was
empowered to draw 150 pounds of lead, 50 pounds of powder and 500 flints for
the use of Little Compton soldiers.xxiv
The new artillery was put into action almost at once. Little Compton men, clearly
lusting revenge, quietly hauled two cannon downs to Fogland Point. On January 4,
they opened fire on the British man-of-war Cerberus, moored offshore. The surprise
attack damaged the ships hull and killed six crewmen before the English could get
out of range. Little Compton, with only one man wounded, had drawn its first blood
as a town. xxv

A Coast with Eyes

That spring, residents voted to establish a system of coastal watch houses. These
had been under discussion for some months by the town council, and they were put
quickly into operation. There were five, usually manned by members of the town
militia, though soldiers from the Continental Army also patrolled at times during the
three years the British occupied Newports island. The houses were not conventional
military blockhouses but actual homes owned by active military men in the Little
Compton community. They were sort of local headquartersplaces for changing
guard, etc., according to Roswell B. Burchard, who researched the town history in
1904.xxvi Located at intervals of a mile or two from each other, the houses were
specifically chosen to provide a continuous line of protection along the Sakonnet
coast.
The first was on Brimstone Hill in a house originally built by the Quaker leader John
Irish, directly across West Main Road from the Friends Meeting House. (The Meeting
House is still standing today, remains a point of reference.)
A second house was, or near, the old Amasa Gray house, on land probably owned at
the time by John Church. A private road called Blockhouse Lane, on the west side of
West Main Road, exists near the location today.
Col. William Richmonds House, standing about where the current Richmond
house is today on Treaty Rock Farm, was the third watch house.
From here, as well as from the Amasa Gray location, Aquidneck Island was clearly
visible. With a telescope, it was possible to track British troop movements on the
islands eastern side.
Captain Benjamin Coes house, north of Swamp Road/West Main Rd
intersection, was the fourth watch house. It looked west to the river across Thomas
Churchs meadows, part of the farm Church had inherited from his father, Benjamin
Church. Coes house was later moved up the road to a lot beside the of Wilbour
family cemetery, where it sits today. The white, wood-frame cottage, whose exterior
lines are largely unchanged, is a privately owned summer residence, with a view of
the Sakonnet River still mostly unimpeded.
Finally, Col. Thomas Churchs farm near the present-day Stone House Club
was the perfect location for the presiding over vulnerable Sakonnet Point. The house

in those days would have had an unobstructed view across fields to what is now
Lloyds Beach and the panorama of land on both sides going down to the water. An
odd hump that partly obstructs the view today did not exist in Revolutionary times.
The hump is the remains of an underground battery that was built for coastal
defense during World War II.
In 1777, watch house number two, the Amasa Gray location, became an
important center of intelligence operations for American forces. Here Lt. Seth
Chapin of Sherbournes Regiment set up watch with a high-powered spyglass to
receive clandestine messages from across the river. His confederate was Isaac
Barker, a Middletown farmer who owned a large farm about two miles northwest of
Newport in a place called Paradise Valley. Between 1777 and 1779, Barker posed as
a British loyalist while he passed crucial information to Chapin and the generals at
Tiverton and Providence. The amazing details of his story are described in a pension
application he filed in 1833, more than fifty years afterward. xxvii xxviii

A Spy in the House

Barker was twenty-six and recently married to Sarah Peckham when he first made
contact with American forces. Immediately after taking Newport in December 1776,
the British army locked down the whole of Aquidneck Island. Lines of
communication with surrounding areas were cut. Island inhabitants were so tightly
controlled that even those with family on the mainland could not easily send or
receive messages.
The barkers were among a scattering of rural families who chose to stay and protect
their farms during the occupation. Most who remained were Tory loyalists. Isaac was
a fierce patriot, but he disguised his feelings so cleverly that he was able to move
around the island, picking up crucial information on troops, arms, and plans. Its
likely that he had as system of communication in place long ago before official
connection with the American army, which began in August 1778. He had relatives
in the Little Compton area, cousins his own age who knew the river, had boats, and
could, and secretly visit Aquidneck beaches at night. This would shortly come in
handy.
Barkers first intelligence reports were sent via a code he devised using fence
posts, a tree, a stake, and a stone wall broken by gateways. The wall ran along the
top of a high ridge on his farm called Great Rock. It was possible through this
method to send more than a dozen different messages, Barker later testified,
depending on where stakes were placed and how various bars were arranged in the
gateways. Lt. Chapin, watching through his spyglass in Little Compton, received and
decoded the intelligence, then sent word up the road to American Leadership at Fort
Barton.
In the summer of 1778, Isaac and Sarah Barkers home was taken over by a
British colonel. The Barker family (the couple had an infant daughter) was pushed
into back rooms while the colonel and his staff quartered in the main part. The
situation was uncomfortable, but the young farmer worked it to his advantage. He

kept the colonels table stocked with hard-to-find delicacies and displayed such a
fervent loyalty to the king that the officer and his staff trusted him and spoke openly
around him.
During this stage of his spying activities, Barker often had more detailed
information than could be sent to Chapin by fence post code. So he devised a new
method. A secret drop written messages was opened on the islands eastern shore.
It was a cleft in a finger of rock that reached out a bit from a beach near North Point,
about a mile from Barkers house. When there was intelligence to transmit, Barker,
who had a pass from the colonel that allowed him to walk the boundaries of his
farm, would casually wander in the direction of North Pint. If no one was about, he
would slip down to post his letter in the rock. Then he climbed Great Rock and
signaled Lt. Chapin that a message awaited him. At this point, Barkers cousins and
their boats came into play. Under cover of dark, they rowed Chapin across the river
for a hasty pickup and returned him to Little Compton.
The operation required guile and a steely nerve. One night, coming back on
foot from North Point, Barker was intercepted by horsemen of a British patrol. Not
only was he a suspicious distance from his farm and too near the coast, but hes
forgotten his pass. The horse patrol put him under arrest, but, at the last moment,
Barker managed to persuade them to accompany him back to his house, where he
concocted a story for why hed been so far out of bounds. The colonel was deceived
once again and ordered him released.
Barker and Chapin carried on their intelligence mission until the British
withdrew from Newport in October 1779. So unsuccessful were they that the
Americans on the mainland knew far more about the intentions of the British than
the redcoats knew of American plans. Through British troops were never dislodged
from the island, they could not win so much as toehold outside it and never guessed
the identity of the mole within their ranks. It was a victory Barker gloated over the
rest of his life, as historian Edward Field notes in the following anecdote drawn from
Barkers pension testimony:
One day the colonel, as he was seated at dinner, called Barker into the
room. As he entered the colonel said: Barker, there is a traitor or spy among
usthere is no mistake. Not a single thing transpires on this island but the
rebels know all about it almost as soon as we ourselves. This traitor must be
found out. Let me but see him and the rascal shall soon go into eternity!
In telling the story years after, Barker said it required all his strength of nerve
to conceal his feelings. He knew the rascal was there in the presence of the
colonel, but with strong language he coincided with him and said: Yes, the
traitor ought to be hung, and promised to use his efforts to see that he was
caught. After that, said Barker, I was more of a Tory than ever. xxix xxx

Aggressive Tactics

As British dug more deeply around Aquidneck Island, all eyes turned to Tiverton fort
above Howlands Ferry for deliverance. It was said that Gen. George Washington
himself believed that the war might be won immediately if only the enemys troops
were driven from the island. And why not? The English generals had already
suffered a succession of unexpected defeats. A rowdy corps of American militiamen
had exacted a heavy toll on British troops during the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.
Americas Continental Army had routed the well-trained forces of General Burgoyne
in Saratoga, New York, in October 1777. Another bold strike might cause the royal
lion to turn tail and go home.
That summer and fall of 1777, thousands of men from militia all over New England
gathered along the east bank of Sakonnet Passage to prepare for an attack on the
island. Several times, Little Comptons militia was ordered up the road to join
campaigns that were called off at the last minute. Gen. Washingtons man in
charge, Gen. Joseph Spencer, kept finding reasons to delay. Sudden storms, disputes
over where and how to attack the island, and jitters about military readiness were
among the excuses. The troops, tired of waiting, grew disgusted. They began to
suspect Gen. Spencer of weak nerves. Granny Spencer, they called him behind his
back.
In November, Gen. Spencer was relieved by Lt. Col. William Barton, the
intrepid ringleader of the rebel band that, in July 1777, had captured Newports
commanding British general, James Prescottat night, in his bedclothesand taken
him off the island. (This extraordinary adventure, told and retold, raised the morale
of America at the time and caused the fort at Tiverton to be named for the hero.)
But within two months, an even more skillful leader, Gen. John Sullivan, was
appointed to take charge. The contest over Aquidneck Island was coming to a head.
It would culminate in August in the ill-starred Battle of Rhode Island.
Meanwhile, Little Compton farmers and the military watchdogs along the
Sakonnet Passage kept a sharp eye on British comings and goings. The river
continued to suffer blockade by British frigates. The fort at Tiverton could not
receive supplies by water. The infant America navy was bottled up in Providence.
Seamen made multiple attempts to sneak past the British gatekeepers, but without
much success. In September 1777, a British man-of-war intercepted a newly built
twenty-gun privateer from Providence trying to reach the ocean. Little Compton
farmers looked on helplessly from their fields as the American vessel was chased
downriver, driven ashore at Sakonnet Point, and burnt by the enemy.
On Warrens Point, elderly Thomas Bailey (1715-1793) and several coast
guards were captured by British seamen, who rowed in from a warship and landed
on the beach below his house. Bailey was interrogated: What was the strength of
the American army? He was asked. He answered, according to a story he retold over
many years, that the British might as well attempt to count the sands of the beach
as the troops upon which the Americans replied.
For his jaunty reply, he was dragged off with the guards and incarcerated in a
prison ship. He survived by pretending to be mad. He told his captors that he must

go home because his wife was wide open, his barn door was sick abed, and every
pumpkin was a hog.xxxi
He was soon released and sent home, the tale concludes, somewhat unbelievably.
Few returned from British prison ships, which were notorious for their high death
toll.
But attacks like these were not the main source of trouble for Little Compton
residents. Across the river, British troops were running out of food and firewood. The
island has little livestock left on it, as the cold winter of 1777-1778 set in, freezing
companies of redcoats stripped the few remaining trees from the land and began to
dismantle Newports docks and wooden houses for fuel. The British command,
desperate for supplies, turned to bands of hired thugs to prey on surrounding
mainland areas.
One especially ruthless group was headed by William Crosson. During 1778,
the hooligans repeatedly raided communities on Swansea neck and down into Fall
River. According to Roswell B. Burchard:
They made several midnight boat sorties against our Little Compton farms.
The depredation of Crossons band became notorious, and measures taken to
apprehend him were fruitless until Little Compton men took the matter into
their own hands. A curious boat, which they called a shaving mill, xxxii was
fitted out at Sakonnet Point, and in it a party of men under Lemuel Bailey
effected Crossons capture. He was taken under a strong guard to Providence
where he narrowly escaped the wrath of the populace.xxxiii

American troops at Fort Barton were also suffering from a lack of

supplies at this time, but for them there was help from the home front. Local
residents like Maj. Pardon Gray, who owned farms both in Tiverton and Little
Compton, provided not only produce and livestock but also bread baked in
the farms huge stone oven.xxxiv

French Forces to the Rescue

After a cold winter of standoff between American and British forces, skirmishing
began again in the spring. On May 25, two British frigates attacked American
fortifications at Fogland Point, setting fire to a guardhouse. British raiding parties
penetrated Mount Hope Bay and were fought off by community militias. On July 30,
after excited rumors about the approach of a massive French naval force had swept
the mainland, Little Compton residents saw the ships with their own eyes. Two
huge, heavily armed French frigates (thirty-cannons on board each) sailed past the
rocks of Sakonnet Point to take on three British galleys that had been on guard for
months in the waterway.
The galleys had nowhere to retreat but upriver, where the fort at Tiverton Heights
controlled the narrow channel into Mount Hope Bay. Hopelessly trapped, crews of
two of the galleys set fire to their ships and abandoned them. A third boat, the
gunsloop HMS Kingfisher, came within range of American cannon dug in at High Hill

above Fogland. Militiamen waiting there landed several direct hits on the royal hull.
Soon the crew could be seen preparing to disembark. The Kingfishers captain had
one more trick up his sleeve, however. Unbeknownst to all, he ordered the ships
powder magazines rigged to a slow-burning fuse, then took his crew off in rowing
boats to Aquidneck Island.
As the Kingfisher, now set to explode, drifted toward Sakonnet shore, she was
boarded by French sailors who put her in tow to their ship. They sent a line inshore
to a cheering crowd of inhabitants for help in pulling the prize in. Only at the last
moment did the sailors on board discover the lethal booby trap. They leapt off into
the water as the boat ignited and went up in a huge explosion. On the beach, some
one hundred men and boys were shaken by the blast but unhurt. In the aftermath, a
well-singed cat floated ashore on debris. It was adopted by a neighboring family and
is said to have lived for many years.xxxv
With the French on hand to support the American cause, Gen. Sullivan, Gen.
Washington, and other leaders felt the time was ripe to finally dislodge the British
from Newport. In August 1778, a carefully planned strategy of attack was put in
motion. American troops, backed by French troops under the Marquis de Lafayette,
crossed to Portsmouth from the fort at Tiverton Heights to invade the north end of
the island. Simultaneously, count DEstaings fleet, having fought its wat up
Narragansett Bay, landed an army of French soldiers on the islands west side,
forcing the British to defend on several fronts.
The plan was well on the way to working when a classic, end-of-summer
hurricane bore down on the RI coast. The French fleet sustained heavy damage and
withdrew to Boston for repairs. American-led soldiers, caught without shelter in the
islands north end, took the brunt of the storm, which doused their campfires, ripped
tents from over their heads, soaked gun powder, and wreaked artillery. In the face of
such weather, chaos broke out among the men. Within days, some 3,000 of the
original force over 10,000 had defected. Many were local farmers who had signed
on temporarily for the invasion and felt no incentive to continue once the campaign
seemed lost.
Soldiers who remained, including Christopher Greenes heroic Black
Regiment, battled Hessian troops in the wake of the storm. But both sides had taken
a beating during the hurricane, and the confrontation flagged. Two days later, Gen.
Sullivan, seeing no chance of uprooting the enemy from the island. Ferried his
remaining troops back to Tiverton during a crafty nocturnal retreat. xxxvi

Mainland Patriots Keep Up the Pressure

The failure if American troops to rout the British seemed to fire up mainland patriots
to even more creative forms of harassment against the enemy across the water.
Francis Wilbour, an elderly cousin of Sarah Soule Wilbour, lived through the war in
town. Sarah listened to his stories as a child and later recorded some of them in a
journal:

He was never happier than when he got good listeners to his revolutionary
stories. He took great pride in telling the following incidents. When the British
occupied Rhode Island they had some fine Calvary [horses] turned out to
grass nearly opposite Fogland Ferry. The desire to possess some of these
animals so inspired a party on the mainland that they decided to run the risk
of being captured in the attempt. Francis Wilbour and Peregreen White were
the leaders of the expedition. They crossed over in the night and all but one
man (the smallest and weakest of the party) succeeded in securing a prize.
Francis turned over his to his led fortunate companion, and returning for
another, he caught a noble animal. By this time the sentries were alarmed, as
he galloped toward the shore the bullets whistled behind him, but he reached
it in safety, swam his horse over and landed in triumph.xxxvii

Wilbour and White are protagonists in another colorful Wilbour family story also
recorded in Sarah Wilbours notes. It features a woman for whom she clearly feels
empathy.
One of the most daring exploits of the day was the recapture of the
vessel that had been taken by the English . . . and anchored off the coast
below Fogland. The English were then in possession of RI, their sentries within
shot of the vessel. Francis Wilbour, Perrygreen White and enough more to man
a boast, made bold and fearless by their patriotism, rowed out of Little
Compton shore under cover of darkness, with muffled oars, they reached the
stern of the vessel. It was warm, the cabin window was open, a woman was
the sole occupant; she thought someone had fallen overboard, and did what
she could to help him in. the others followed, going quietly up the companion
way; they seized the unwary crew before they could recover from their
astonishment at seeing what they supposed were spirits from the vastly
deep clothed in flesh and sent up to destroy them. They submitted quietly.
The valiant captors with their prize reached a place of safety
undiscovered.xxxviii

In October 1778, an even more daring attack was mounted against the Pigot,
an armed, 200-ton galley that was a well-known and detested sight in the Sakonnet
River. The ship was manned by the crew of forty-five and buffered against enemy
boarding by a special netting around its hull. She regularly moored between
Churchs Point and Fogland. This is where the patriot hero Maj. Silas Talbot, already
famous for other exploits against the British, found her when he reconnoitered from
Sakonnet banks in October 27.
Seeing that she was armed at all points, Talbot, who had gathered sixty
Providence men for his assault, took on fifteen more from Little Comptons home
militia. That night, in a small sloop called the Hawk, they sailed from Howlands
ferry downstream. Just before reaching the British for at Fogland Ferry, sails were
doused. The boat drifted in dead silence with the tide past the battery. Undetected
by the enemy, Talbots men raised the sail again, but the night was so dark that the
Pigot, whose crew and captain had retired, was invisible. A scow with muffled oars

was sent out to determine her position. Then sails were raised again and the Hawks
swooped upon its victim.
A volley of rifles shots came from the Pigot, but before she could maneuver
her cannons into position, the Hawks boom caught in the galleys netting and
snagged in the foredeck shrouds. Talbots men ran along the bowsprit and boarded,
driving the crew below and capturing the captain. In triumph, and under a new flag,
the Pigot was sailed past Newport to Stonington, Connecticut, a patriot harbor. Maj.
Talbot was promoted by congress to Lieutenant colonel, and Little Compton took
gleeful pleasure in being rid of the Pigots menacing black hulk in its channel.xxxixxl

Murder at Sakonnet Point

One of the most dramatic events in the towns history occurred in the summer of
1779, at Seaconnet Farm on Sakonnet Point, formerly the home of Col. Thomas
Church. Church had sold out to a Tory, Gideon Sisson, before the war but Sisson had
never taken possession and the farm was confiscated by the town. It was nominally
returned to Church and used as one of the five coastal watch houses.
In December 1777, the farm was turned over, rent-free, to Judge William Taggart
and his family as a reward for undue hardships caused by their courageous
patriotism. Taggart was a wealthy and respected Middletown landowner, just the
sort of person who might have been expected to support the English king. In reality,
the judge and his sons were ardent patriots who, before the link to Isaac barker was
established, passed crucial intelligence to the American army at Tiverton.
Their double life was discovered. The Taggarts fled Middletown to safety,
leaving all they owned behind. In fury, the British ravaged their land and burned
their home to the ground. Even this did not satisfy the English command, which
made a special point of learning where the family had gone. They were determined
to capture the Taggarts and hang them as traitors to the crown.
To this end, a band of men, whose leader was formerly a member of
Crossons ruffians, was sent to make the capture. What happened that day on the
Point was later described by Capt. Taggart, the judges surviving son, still shocked
by the brutality years after the event:
Toward the latter part of July 1779, a large party of Loyalist, called
Refugees, came to Little Compton for the express purpose of making
prisoners of my father and his sons. This party landed undiscovered although
there was a guard kept at the house and sentinels were stationed on shore.
Two of the sentinels discovering a boat, hailed and fired, but were immediately
seized by the enemy with threats of immediate death for daring to fire. We
were alarmed at the house by the report of musket; and I and my unfortunate
brother were the first to reach the shore, and were instantly made prisoners
by the enemy, who were in ambush. As they appeared to be in confusion, my
brother attempted to escape by leaping over a stone wall, when he was fired
on and wounded in the thigh. One of the merciless desperadoes pursued and
ran him through with a bayonet. Although more than half a century has

passed since the cruel and savage deed, my blood thrills at the recollection of
the tragic scene.xli

Following the murder, Capt. Taggart and three others were taken to Newport by boat
and imprisoned to await a trial whose outcome was not in doubt. Young Taggarts
escape from jailand the hangmans noosetwo weeks later makes equally
exciting reading.
In the cellar we observed that instead of iron the windows were
furnished with wooden bars which might easily be removed with a knife. From
the cellar window . . . a few steps brought us into the street in front, and in
view of the sentry, who fortunately for us was at the time the sentry box on
account of the rain which was falling. Near the hay scaled on Broad Street we
went into the fields and crossed the fort by Irishs and Tammany Hill, in order
to avoid the regiment of Anspach, which was camped nearby. The darkness
prevented our recapture, for as we heard the sound when the guard was
relieved at the fort Irishs, we came out into the West Road and proceeded
toward Bristol Ferry, halting at the house of Nathan Brownell, who received us
with great kindness. As the shores were closely guarded we could not obtain a
boat, and our only alternative was to procure a number of rails from the
fences, for a raft, and make an escape. We left the shore with our raft,
unperceived. A thick fog came up, and we were all night upon or rather in the
water, as our raft was no strong enough to keep us entirely above the surface;
and at day break, when the fog passed away, we found ourselves so near the
island, that we could see the sentinels leaving the shore, and were in
momentary expectation of being retaken. About an hour after sunrise, we
safely landed from our sinking raft on the Island of prudence. From Prudence,
we were conveyed to the town of Bristol and proceeded to our places of
abode.xlii

The attack in Seaconnet farm proved to be one of the last violent acts against the
mainland by British forces on Aquidneck Island. On October 25, 1779, all English
and Hessian troops were evacuated by British command from Newport. They were
sent to NYC, where their support was deemed essential for fighting off combined
French and American assaults. Within hours of their departure, soldiers watching
from Little Compton and other posts along the Sakonnet Passage came across to
take possession. They found the town in smoking ruins and the once beautiful island
bleak and barren landscape. Those who had lived through the occupation were
ecstatic to see American troops, but many were traumatized and hardly knew what
to do next to fen for themselves.
To add to this misery, the winter that followed, 1779-1780, was the worst in
memory. A period of prolonged cold caused all three passages around the island to
freeze bank to bank and far out into sea. For six weeks, Narragansett Bay itself was
locked on ice. The plight of the island residents, many literally on the point of
starvation, was recognized by everyone. That winter, people from Tiverton, Little
Compton, providence, and many other towns around the bay brought wood, corn,

wheat, and other food supplies across the ice to the helpless and demoralized
people of Newport.
At town meeting called in Little Compton during the 1780, residents voted to
contribute tax money for the support of the poor on the island. Little Compton itself
was quartering numbers of refugees, often paying for their needs out of the town
treasury. Feeling stretched, the council ordered in April 1780:
. . . that the town sergeant set up notification in three of the most
publick places in town notifying all persons against taking any person or
family into their homes who are not Inhabitants of the Town without giving
Notice of it to the town council within one week of Receiving upon penalty of
law.xliii

Meanwhile, the main battlefronts of the Revolution moved south to New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, where American troops took a beating
from Lord Cornwalliss army on May 12, 1780. Without the British in residence, Little
Comptons militia was no longer required to constantly monitor the banks of the
Sakonnet. But the town, small as it was, was repeatedly called upon to supply a
quota of troops from within the community to fight in distant battles.
An entry in the town records in July 180 notes with perhaps a touch of
resignation: A meeting called to known what method to call in to Raise 21 men to
fill up the Continental Battalions.xliv
In fact, the end of the war and American victory were closer than anyone in Little
Compton could have imagined. On October 17, 1781, General Charles Cornwallis,
hopelessly besieged in Yorktown, Virginia, by a combined force of 10,500 French
troops and 8,500 Americans, ran up the white flag and agreed to unconditional
surrender. The fight for American independence was over. xlv

Hard times and Recovery

There is no record of how Little Compton greeted the news of English capitulation;
no mention this time of excellent sermon or bells rung to parades around the
commons. The celebrations would come later, generations later, long after the
immediate shock and disruption caused by the war had passed from memory. For
people who endured personal hardships in the war or lost friends and family,
winning was a bittersweet result.
Benoni Simmons (b. 1775) served in Americas infant navy, returned to his farm in
LC without his right arm. Had been shot off in 1776 by a cannon ball on Lake
Champlain, where he had been a gunner on the galley Trumbull.
Ezra Chase lost the fingers of both hands when his gun discharged accidently
while he was stationed at Tiverton in March 1778.
Sylvanus Shaw was killed at the battle of Red Bank in October 1777. xlvi
Malachai Grinnell (b. 1737) was captured and died on board the notorious prison
ship Jersey in New York Harbor in 1780.

Cushing Richmond, age 14, son of Joshua and Elizabeth (Cushing) Richmond,
met a similar fate. He may have been among the group of little Compton men who,
along with old Thomas Bailey, were surprised and taken by British seamen on
Warren Points beach.
Charles Church, age 13, son of Thomas and Ruth (Bailey) Church, was
kidnapped in Newport by British raiders in 1776. The family had sold the ancestral
farm on West Main Road in Little Compton to Dr. William Wilbor in 1774 and moved
to Newport, where Church held important positions in colony government. It was
not an auspicious time to relocate there. According to B.F. Wilbour: The
neighborhood of Newport was harried by parties of soldiers who burnt buildings,
destroyed stock and murdered citizens or carried them off to the horrors of prisons
ships. Thomas son Charles was so carried off . . . and was never heard from
again.xlvii
Judge William Taggart, whose son was bayoneted by a British raiding party on
Sakonnet Point in 1779, moved back to Middletown after the war to begin rebuilding
his farm and replanting the orchards cut down by British soldiers.
Word of Gen. Washingtons victory at Yorktown reached Little Compton late in
the fall of 1781. Across the Sakonnet Passage, Newport remained a burned and
broken shell of its former self. The two winters just past had been harsh. Englands
long blockade of Narragansett Bay had smashed the local economy. Little Compton
farmers, tradesmen, and millers who had thrived off in wealth and trade in Newport
were now largely without market. It would take the next two decades to repair the
damage done. xlviii

i Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little Compton,
RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
ii Its interesting to see how readily these old soldiers, men who had fought with the
British against the French in Canada, switched over to join the American cause during the
Revolution. Other Little Compton Veterans of the French and Indian wars who brought
their experience to the patriot cause were Perez Richmond, his brother Col. William
Richmond, and Capt. Aaron Wilbur, who so inspired his sons that all five eventually
served in the Revolutionary Army.
iii Richard M. Bayles, History of Newport County, 1638-1888 (New York: L.E. Preston,
1888) 1033
iv Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little Compton,
RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
v Marjory OToole, Unpublished Manuscript, If Jane Should Want to be Sold: Tories of the
Slavery, Indenture & Freedom in Little Compton, RI, Little Compton Historical Society
Archives
vi Lorenzo Greene p.
vii For the Patriot, Providence Patriot, (Providence, Rhode Island) February, 6, 1828, Vo.
26, p. 2. Accessed via Americas Historic Newspapers
viii Sidney S. Rider, An Historical Inquiry concerning the attempt to raise a Regiment of
Slaves in Rhode Island, Rhode Island Historical Tracts 10, 1880 List of Slaves in Black
Regiment, 43-44.
ix Letter to the Speaker of the General Assembly from Captain Elijah Lewis, South
Kingstown, March 13, 1778. Accessed via the Rhode Island Secretary of States website.
x Christy Mikel Clark-Pujara, Slavery, Emancipation and Black freedom in Rhode Island,
1652-1842. PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2009.
http://ir.uiowa.edu/edt/4956, p. 112.
xi Letter from Dr. Harris a white Revolutionary soldier, as it appears in Christy Mikel ClarkPujara, Slavery, Emancipation and Black freedom in Rhode Island, 1652-1842. PhD
(Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2009. http://ir.uiowa.edu/edt/4956 p.
114

xii LC BOND BOOK g 139 April 5 1797

xiii Source this
xiv LCTCP Book 3 p. 66
xv They Pledged Their Lives and Fortens, Dighton Historical Commission, 1976, p. 29.
xvi Marriage record
xvii Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xviii B. F. Wilbour, Notes on Little Compton (Providence: Little Compton Historical Society,
1974) 42
xix Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xx Town Council and Probate Records, Little Compton, Vol. 2
xxi Armand Francis Lucier, Newspaper Datelines of the American Revolution, Vol. 1 (Westminster,
Md.: Heritage Books, Inc., 2007) 143

xxii Ibid.
xxiii Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xxiv Bayles, History of Newport County, 1638-1888, 1001
xxv Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xxvi Roswell B. Burchard, Historical Address, 200th Anniversary of the Organization of the
United Congregational Church of Little Compton (Providence: United Congregational
Society, 1906) 91

xxvii Congresss pension act of June 7, 1832, passed to provide pension for Revolutionary
War veterans, inspired Barker, then age 81, to apply. Two years earlier acts passed in
1818 and 1832 did not cover ad hoc volunteers like him
xxviii Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xxix Edward Field, Isaac Barkers Signal, Address to the Society of the Sons of the
American Revolution, in Manual of Rhode Island society of S.O.R. (Central Falls, Rhode
Island: E. L. Freeman, 1900) 268
xxx Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xxxi Benjamin Franklin Wilbour, Little Compton Families (Baltimore, Md.: Clearfield
Company by Genealogical Publishing Co., 1974) 28
xxxii A shaving mill was a small privateer fitted out with a cannon in the bow. It held
some twenty-five men and was a fast, maneuverable boast used by both British and
American seamen during the Revolution and the War of 1812.
xxxiii R.B. Burchard, Historical Address, 92-93
xxxiv Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xxxv P.F. Little, Fragmentary Sketches and Incidents in Little Compton and Tiverton during
the Revolution and the war of 1812 (Little Compton: privately printed, 1880) 9-10
xxxvi Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xxxvii Sarah Soule Wilbour, Incidents in the Revolutionary War, unpublished, Little
Compton Historical Society archives
xxxviii Ibid. R. B. Burchard, writing of his incident in his Historical Address honoring the
200th Anniversary of the Little Compton Congressional Church (p. 96), identifies Lt. Seth
Chapin, spy Isaac Barkers co-conspirator, as the ringleader of this capture. The British
prisoners, including the woman passenger identified as the wife of Sir Guy Johnston,
were brought to Little Compton, where they were turned over to the American army.

xxxix This account of the Pigots capture comes from Edward Peterson, History of Rhode
Island (New York: J.S. Taylor, 1853) 432-433
xl Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little Compton,
RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xli B. F. Wilbour, Notes on Little Compton, 47
xlii Ibid., 47-48
xliii Town council and Probate Records, Little Compton, Vol. 2
xliv Town council and Probate Records, Little Compton, Vol. 3
xlv Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.
xlvi The fate of these three Little Compton men is reported by Sarah Soule Wilbour in her
Diaries from 1882-1891, transcribed by Shelia Mackintosh (Little Compton: Little Compton
Historical Society, 1993) 457
xlvii Benjamin Franklin Wilbour, Little Compton Families (Baltimore, Md., Clearfield
Company by Genealogical Publishing Co., 1974) 178
xlviii Lisle, Janet. First Light Sakonnet. Vol. 1 of the History of Little Compton. Little
Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2010.