Newport Historical Society

Richard Scott was born in Glemsford, Suffolk, England in 1607 and came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 and was one of the founders of Providence in 1636. He brought with him a vellum rolled document showing eight generations of Scotts and their coats of arms. It was made by an heraldic artist in London in 1607 and is similar to the Saltonstall and Miner family rolls also brought to New England. The Scott roll was passed down through the John Scott DeBlois whaling family of Newport and presented to the Newport Historical Society in 1901.

Richard Scott was married to Catherine Marbury, sister of Ann Hutchinson, who also had her spiritual issues. Catherine was whipped and jailed in Boston and later became the first Quaker convert in Providence, with many ties to Newport. They had many descendents including the merchant Nicholas Brown of Providence and the Godfrey Malbone family of Newport.

This sepia toned photograph of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia 1864 was taken when Grant was Lieutenant General during the Civil War by Matthew Brady.

You can read more about Brady in a New York Times column this morning by our Rhode Island colleage Ted Widmer.

To Cure Chopt Lipps &c.

Take 2oz: of Bees wax & cutt it in pieces or bitts & 1

Gill of good Sweet oyl set it over a Clear fire when

Dissolved pour it into a Clear Bason & it will be when

Coal’d an Oyntment good for sore Nipples also any

Thing of that kind.

This “receipt”, or recipe, is from a handwritten collection of home remedies dating from the early- to mid-18th century. It describes a remedy for chapped lips or for nursing mothers. It calls for beeswax and sweet oil, which is similar to vegetable oil.

This small book is part of the Historical Society’s archives of recipe books, account books, household ledgers and other documents of domestic life.

This map of General Washington’s Army at Valley Forge seems to be a contemporaneous record of Washington’s positions at this historic site. We do not believe that this map has been studied or published.

It was discovered in papers assoicated with Newporter John Austin Stevens (1827-1910), founder of the Sons of the Revolution and a principal in the effort to save Fraunces Tavern in New York.

In recent weeks a 20th century garage at the bottom of Barney Street was demolished to make way for a new home. Any time there is digging in the colonial part of town, Newport Historical Society staff like to look in the hole, ditch or trench. Both we, and the property owner, were surprised to discover  a curved stone wall on one side of this trench. With the property owner’s permission, two archeologists from Brown University came down on their own time to document and explore the feature.

This wall represents a section of a circular cistern made of brick and coated, or parged, with red clay to make it water-tight. The bricks, and the small objects in the fill around the cistern, seem to date to the second-half of the 18th century.

The presence of a cistern right near the iconic Newport spring is logical, and in fact there are several such features running up Barney and Sherman streets (following the water source). This one seems too large to have been for personal use. It sits right up against the corner of a foundation (can be seen in the photo), and the relationships indicate that the structure was built around and after the cistern.

The possibilities for the original use of the cistern are numerous, and it may be hard to pin down what it actually was. The location, near to the original site of the Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House and right across the street from Touro Synagogue, is intriguing. Kudos to the property owner, who has paused his work to allow these limited explorations to take place.

In a letter written to his family, John Scott DeBlois said of whaling, “It is a wretched life [of] privations and hardship deprived of friends and society.”  Born in Newport in 1816, DeBlois began sailing as a young boy.  He served as the 3^rd Mate aboard the whaling bark Isabella from 1841 to 1845 and as the 1^st Mate of the Ann Alexander from 1845 to 1849.  Between the two voyages, he married Henrietta Tew of Newport.  In 1850, DeBlois was promoted to the position of captain aboard the Ann Alexander.  Though his first voyage as commander ended in catastrophe, the experience made him one of the most famous whaling captains of the nineteenth century. 

While cruising in the Pacific Ocean on August 20^th, 1851, the crew of the Ann Alexander spotted a pod of whales.  Attempts to capture the whales ended in disaster, as one of the whales became enraged and destroyed two of the small whale boats.  DeBlois rescued all of his men, and continued the pursuit from the safety of the Ann Alexander itself.  After several hours of chase, the creature turned toward the vessel and rammed its hull.  With the hull compromised, DeBlois ordered his crew to repair to the remaining whale boats.  Luckily, the men were saved on August 22^nd when they were spotted by the crew of the Nantucket.

 Newspaper accounts of the Ann Alexander incident portrayed Captain DeBlois as a hero. His celebrity grew after the publication of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, as the American public compared John DeBlois to Melville’s fictitious Captain Ahab. 

 Undaunted, DeBlois continued his career at sea, regularly corresponding with his wife Henrietta.  She, a school teacher, was an exceptional writer.  From 1856 to 1859, Henrietta joined her husband on a whaling voyage aboard the Merlin.  She chronicled daily life aboard the vessel in a private journal, offering an exceptional window into life onboard a whaling vessel.

John and Henrietta’s letters, log books and journals are in the collections at the Newport Historical society. Reading Henrietta’s journal reveals much about her and her life at sea.

May 21^st
Blois is improving the shower by washing. I am obliged to keep below as the house on deck leaks badly. I go to the head of the stairs occasionally and fetch a hem just to make Blois look up and grin then I go below carefully holding up my skirts as the stairs are flooded.

June 11^th
Delightful weather calm through the night & greater part of the day. A little breeze has sprung up but we do not sail much. A sail in sight. Blois on the house spying. Mr. Adams working lunars in my room. Mr. Enos’ little Snowball lying at my feet. The Doctor is just in front of my window frying Dolphin for supper. His stove was moved out to paint the Galley so he cooks outdoors and it has quite a “Picturesque effect,” reminds one of the Pic Nics. No one seems very impatient to get home except the Capt he would like to get the care off his shoulders. I hardly can define my feelings. I wish to see my friends but dread the change from this quiet life. May God keep us as he has hitherto is my prayer.

Lat 33..07 N
Long 60..10 W
518 miles from home

June 16^th
…I cannot speak my feelings as they are so complicated as I near home. I thought the feelings would be all joy but I find there are many fond associations with the Old Merlin, and I feel shy about encountering the land… Oh! May we be assisted to live a Christian life on shore, may we not be ashamed to acknowledge our indebtedness to God who has sustained us.”

They came to anchor off New Bedford on the 18^th.

This machine is similar to one that was constructed by Ben Franklin and donated by his grandson to the Library Company of Philadelphia. It has been in storage under less than ideal conditions for some time, and the provenance is not currently associated with the object. Our ongoing collections project, Lost & Found, is designed to assemble and collate collections documentation and make sure that “we know what we know” about each object as we also work to update storage conditions. Watch this site for more information… we would love to know who made this machine and when. It is tempting to speculate, however, since we do know that Franklin’s brother James lived and worked in Newport, and that electrical experiments were performed by several colonial Newporters who were in contact with Franklin in Philadelphia.

Edward Wanton (1629-1716) was an early settler of York, Maine, and lived in Boston and Scituate, Massachusetts. While in Boston, he attended the trials and public floggings of persecuted Quakers by the magistrates and clergy. Upon witnessing these events in 1658, he immediately converted to the Quaker faith and became an ardent preacher and activist. He was jailed and whipped in 1663 in Boston, and again persecuted in 1680 at Scituate.

In 1680 he produced this testimonial which outlines his persecution for refusing to be taxed or tithed, especially for the purposes of supporting the local church, which as a Quaker, he would not do.  His sons moved to Newport and Tiverton to escape such treatment. The family prospered and occupied Hunter House, the Quaker Thomas Robinson House and our own Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, as well as producing four Colonial governors.

This document was donated to the NHS by Mr. Edward Wanton Gould, Jr.

While the Historical Society has many important documents from Newport’s earliest days, this small accounting, in which Benedict Arnold, in his own hand, bills John Clarke for various groceries and supplies, is a very human reminder of the lives of two of Newport’s illustrious founders. With the hindsight that comes from 320 years of the passage of time, we are able to know what neither man did when this was written: ten years after settling this account, both men were no longer living.

Newport’s William Ellery is well-known as one of the company of men who placed their names onto one of the nation’s most hallowed and historic documents: the Declaration of Independence.

Ellery was born in Newport into a family of privilege on December 22, 1727 (Portraits of his grandparents are on display at the Museum & Shop at Brick Market). He entered Harvard in 1743, where he was better known for his humor than his academic achievement, but there is no doubt that he developed a life-long interest in scholarship. After graduation, Ellery followed his interests and his pleasure into a number of different occupations.  He began the practice of law in 1764 after securing an income from his father’s estate. It was in this same year that he caught the political fever as well, as growing British taxes wrought unprecedented resentment and protest among his fellow Newporters.

In 1776, Ellery’s place in history was secured by the unexpected death of his political associate, Samuel Ward. Ward had served as one of the Rhode Island representatives in the Continental Congress. William Ellery was elected as his successor, and traveled to Philadelphia where he signed the Declaration of Independence. Following a nearly ten year career as a member of Congress, Ellery held a number of other occupations including Lord of Admiralty, Judge, Loan Officer, and finally Customs Collector.

Throughout his life, Ellery continued to expand his knowledge of the arts and sciences. He united with his good friend and intellectual companion Ezra Stiles in scientific pursuits including chemical experiments with rum and observation of meteorological phenomenon.  William was especially adept with the classical languages. He urged his children and grandchildren to devote as much time and patience as was necessary to acquire a sound understanding of the great classical works. His love of the classics continued until his last hours; he was translating Virgil’s Aeneid and Horace’s Espistles in the last month of his life and he died reading Cicero.

In recent years a descendant of Ellery’s (there are many in Rhode Island) donated several boxes of family books to the NHS, which were originally thought to be law and college texts from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Included in the boxes, however, were many volumes from William Ellery’s personal library, including this copy of Virgil’s works. Ellery annotated and drew in many of these volumes, and passed them down to descendants. Note, in the photograph, that one of these corrected the spelling of “Fourth” in the printed text.