A short history of Rhode IslandGreene, George Washington
History
A short history of Rhode Island
Greene, George Washington
Rhode Island -- History
Rhode Island suffered less at his hands than any other colony. The
enforced toleration which excited such strong feelings in Massachusetts
met with no opposition in a territory where Baptists and Quakers
and Puritans and Separatists worshipped according to their own
convictions. John Greene soon became aware that there was no prospect
of a return to the free life of the charter so long as James held the
throne. Therefore, without renouncing the hope of a better future,
he confined his negotiations for the present to questions of minor,
though important bearing. Chief among them was the putting an end to
the intrusions of the outside claimants to Narragansett. This brought
up all the unsettled claims which had been so pertinaciously enforced
and so firmly resisted. The Atherton claim was thrown out by the
Commissioners as extorted from the Indians by fear. The Connecticut
claim was repudiated upon grounds set forth in the Rhode Island
charter. Several individual titles, both Indian and English, were
considered, and after careful examination, the right of Rhode Island to
King's Province was confirmed for the third time--"against Connecticut
in point of jurisdiction, and against the so-called proprietors in
point of ownership." This report was met in England by a petition of
Lord Culpepper in behalf of the Atherton company for grants of land
not already occupied and the bass ponds, upon such quit rents as might
seem good to the King. The petition was granted in part and Andros
was intrusted to "assign them such lands as had not already been
occupied--at a quit rent of two and sixpence for every hundred acres."
Thus far Rhode Island has come off with honor in her contests with her
neighbors. There was one, however, in which she won no honor. A party
of unfortunate Huguenots had established themselves in King's Province,
forming a little settlement of their own and paying honestly for their
lands. But the French name was not loved in the colonies and their
Protestant neighbors persecuted them away. Traces of them may still be
found in the neighborhood where they settled, which bears to this day
the name of Frenchtown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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