66

cent thrown strongly on the second pint in South County speech. The story is told of a vessel sailing in the fog, and nearing the breakers, but unable to shape a course for the thickness of the weather. The captain's wife suddenly exclaimed that she saw land, and tried to indicate upon which quarter. Pint, Judy, pint!" her husband shouted to her, and as the fog lifted there was Point Judith, which has ever since borne that name. However this may be, the transition from Jude, and Juda or Judah, as some old deeds have it, to Judith was made easy to the Pettaquamscut purchasers, from the fact that Dame Hull, the wife of the goldsmith, bore that name. The ordinary pronunciation of Judy would seem to them a disrespectful abbreviation. If this derivation is correct, it is true in a way that the point was named after Sewall's mother-inlaw, as some authorities maintain, but where the first name came from is still a mystery.

A great purchase of land was made in 1738, from Francis Brinley, Esq., and Dame Deborah his wife, which included the whole southern portion of Boston Neck, adjoining a purchase of six hundred and sixty acres made from Samuel Vail somewhat earlier.

LARGE PURCHASES

21

There were about eight hundred acres of this land, which was surveyed and divided into four parts in the following year by James Helme, surveyor, and the map carefully preserved with the deed. The price at first sight seems enormous. Twenty-four thousand pounds "Current Lawful Money of New England" were paid for the eight hundred acres. But the depreciation of the currency was already great. Silver had long been current at eight shillings an ounce.1 In 1738 the rate in Rhode Island had risen to twenty-seven shillings in bills per ounce,2 making the colonial pound in paper equal five shillings eleven pence silver. Thus the value of the money paid was only £7,100, reduced to the current price of silver of eight shillings per ounce. This was two shillings higher than the sterling value, so that the pounds should be carried at $3.33, making the sum paid $23,600, or about twenty-nine dollars an One of the tracts of land into which the new purchase was divided, in a deed addressed "To all Christian people," is given to Robert Hazard, the eldest son of Thomas, in consideration of "natural love and affec1 Weeden, Economic and Social History of N. E., p. 473. Rider, R. I. Historical Tracts, No. 8, p. 55.

acre.

tion." The earliest deed of gift to this son bears his mother's signature also, Susannah Hafzard. She is thought to have been a Nichols, a sister of the Lieutenant-Governor of that name, but no one knows certainly. The black seal she pressed, and the faded paper with her name, are all that remain to bear witness of her.

There are other deeds of gift to his sons, from "Thomas Hazard senior of South Kingstown, etc., gentleman," as he is now called, or as the Narragansett Church Record less respectfully calls him, "Old Thomas Hazard." An amusing variety of spelling in the common surname occurs. There is but one signature of Old Thomas Hazard. All the deeds are signed with a T, and his name written with a double z. His eldest son writes his name with a double s, or an s and a z, Jeremiah, his brother, with an s and a 2, and George and Jonathan, also brothers, in the modern way, with one z. The Sewall deed of 1698 is the first in which it is spelled in this way, but the indorsement on the back has Hazard with a

double s. After studying these deeds, it seems proper to find that in his will the

1 Updike, History of the Narragansett Church, p. 274.

DEATH OF THOMAS HAZARD

23

It

aged father leaves the sons five shillings each, "they having all and each of them received their portion already." The preamble to this will is touching, in which the testator declares that he is "Ancient and Unwell, but of sound mind and Memory, thanks be given to God," and disposes of "such Worldly Estate Wherewith it hath pleafed God to blefs me in this Life." was a very considerable estate, given to grandchildren and the children of grandchildren, with his eldest son Robert as executor and residuary legatee. It was signed on the 12th of November, 1746, with a very tremulous and feeble T, and one is hardly surprised to see that it was proved on the 27th of the same month, a fortnight later. The inventory of the will was to the amount of £3745 is. 9d. in the depreciated currency. It was contested by two of the grandsons, and appealed to the Governor and Council of the Colony of Rhode Island, who dismissed the protest, and confirmed the will, which is recorded by his grandson Thomas, town clerk that year (1746). There is only one other mention of this Thomas of the T. In 1762 the same grandson 1 See Appendix, Will of Thomas Hazard.

makes a "Registor of Death." The record reads:

"My Grandfather, Tho' Hazard Departed this Life y° 21st day of y month call'd November in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-six aged 88 or 89 years. This account taken from a memorandum found amongst my Father's Papers after his Death.

(Signed)

THOMAS HAZARD,

fon of Rob' dec'd." Thomas Hazard had seen great changes. Where the country was once "stony and full of Indians," great farms and cattle ranges had been established. The preaching of George Fox had borne fruit in the flourishing meeting held regularly on Tower Hill. The "orthodox person" provided for on the Pettaquamscut foundation was settled, and had become a centre of influence. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, after several attempts finally sent Dr. McSparran, the delightful Irish divine, so dear to the hearts of his people. He found "a field full of briers and thorns and noxious weeds," he writes, "that were all to be eradicated before I could implant in them the simplicity of the