Of more importance even was the way into the world outward, through the
bay. Pardon Tillinghast had been granted land twenty feet square for a
storehouse and wharf “over against his dwelling-place,” in 1679-80, at
the foot of the present Transit Street. There was struggle and
competition for “lands by the sea-side,” or “forty-foot lots, called
warehouse lots,” throughout this time, and complete division of the
shore privileges was not effected until 1749. All these restless
movements showed that the town was waking up and sending its commerce
abroad into foreign countries. The first effectual street regulations
were in 1736.
The next church organized after the First Baptist followed the faith of
the Six-Principle Baptists. The Friends, as they were expelled from
Massachusetts, settled in various towns of Rhode Island. Mention has
been made of Richard Scott. In 1672 George Fox visited Newport, and he
held a meeting “in a great barn” at Providence. Here was a contestant
worthy of our doughty champion, Williams. They disputed with voice and
pen, recording their angelic moods in these argumentative titles: _The
Fox Digged out of his Burrowes_ begged one side of the question; this
was answered with equal logic in _A New England Firebrand Quenched_. The
Friends built a meeting-house about 1704.
The First Congregational Pedobaptist (now Unitarian) Society was formed
about 1720. They built a house for worship in 1723, at the corner of
College and Benefit Streets, where the Court House now stands. This
building became the “Old Town House,” when the society moved to its
present location at the corner of Benevolent and Benefit Streets.
Meanwhile the adherents of the Church of England, yet to become the
Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, were gathering in our
town. There is some dispute as to the first movements, but Dr. McSparran
of Narragansett affirmed that he “was the first Episcopal minister that
ever preached at Providence.” The society thus formed finally took the
name of “St. John’s Church, in Providence.” The church was raised in
1722, on the spot where the present building succeeded it in 1810. It
will be observed that these new ecclesiastical developments moved along
with the broader commercial life which was animating the community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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