Master Ridge, the Irish schoolmaster of Tower Hill, a man noted for his strong character and courtly bearing. Shepherd Tom thinks he probably left Ireland for political reasons, and he would naturally in coming to the new world select the place where his countryman, Dr. McSparran, was settled. In a new country each man must count as an individual, and there seem to have been few of the social lines drawn which exist in an older community. The doctrine and practice of the Friends on this point was doubtless not without its influence, and there was no apparent descent in the social scale from a physician to a weaver, or a schoolmaster to a wool comber. Those who knew the older generation of Narragansett men will recognize that they were truly no respecters of persons; a man was a man, no matter what his surroundings, and to be treated with a respect the degree of which was measured only by his character.

The wool thus combed was spun on the "woolen wheels," smaller and stouter than the linen wheels also in use. Hannah Greenman, widow, in 1761 is credited with "30 skeins, 4 knots of Worfted spun for

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us at six shillings per skein." She also spun Linen yarn at the same price. Daniel Knowles, "son of Danicl late deceased," in 1776 spun both worsted and Lining yarn. In that year he spun thirty skeins of Kersey yarn at eight shillings. James Carpenter of West Greenwich spun Linnen yarn, and also carded and spun Tow yarn. He was also a weaver of tow cloth diaper, but in general the spinning and weaving seem to have been done by different persons.

Robert Martin is the earliest weaver mentioned, who in 1753 wove " 30 yards of Linning Cloath, at seven shillings, and 22 yards of Ticking" at the same price. If the varieties of linen corresponded with the spelling, they must have been numerous! The ticking was for the great feather beds, so universal in all the comfortable houses, and so valuable that they were mentioned in the wills of the period. Eber Shearman, Jr., of North Kingstown, was an accomplished weaver. He wove Sarge cloth at six shillings, tow cloth at four, linning, striped cotton and linning, plain cotton and Linning, Flanning, sarge worsted, blue cloth Sarge, and half Duroy. This last is interesting. We still have corduroy, and the

sixteen and a half yards of "half Duroy," woven in 1755, would doubtless make a stout riding suit. "Gardner ye weaver at Tower Hill," Benedict Oatley, and Joseph Jesse have a share in the weaving for the household from 1756 to 1760. The price in 1757 is fixed at twenty shillings a pound for wool, which they received of Thomas Hazard "to be paid for in weaving at the rates following: Tow at 3s. 6d., Flanning 35., Worsted at 5s., and other cloths at the same rate." Benedict Oatley, in 1760, wove "about twenty-six and three-quarters yards of Tow Cloth, about One yard of Which was wove Kersey." He also could weave striped cloth and wove "one piece Chex." William Taylor, in 1756, is paid "for Scouring and fulling one piece of Cersey," and "dyeing scouring Pressing & Shearing one piece of Sarge." The Indigo for dyeing cost a dollar and a half per pound in 1766. Some was obtained the same year in barter for the pacing horse at 12 old tenor a pound, a dollar being reckoned at eight pounds.

But Martin Reed' was the prince of weavers of the old time. The first mention of him is in 1763. After that the entries are 1 Updike, p. 283.

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frequent. He is called of North Kingstown, for his house was near the old St. Paul's church, of which, for many years, he was the devoted clerk. He was left an orphan at the age of seven, and just before the death of his widowed mother was apprenticed to a diaper weaver. According to the old custom this apprenticeship lasted till he was of age, and he only had one quarter's schooling. But he was ambitious, and determined to excel in his work. He studied at night, and eagerly read all the books he could find upon his chosen work. At the end of his apprenticeship he married the daughter of a diaper weaver, and with a single loom began his career, which was one of continued prosperity. On June 14, 1761, he was baptized by Mr. Fayerweather, and is called in the record "Martin Reed, the Parish Clerk, an adult." He was a most devoted attendant on the church services, and had the care of the church building for many years. He led the singing, and under Dr. Smith's direction, with Martin Reed as leader, it is said, the "Venite" was first chanted in America. When the church had no rector, in the troubled days of the Revolution, it was he

who read morning prayers, and the funeral service for the dead. His piety and sense stood him in good stead when Jemima Wilkinson, hearing he had called her a blasphemer, came down from her house at Little Rest, clad in her robes of state, and went to his house to overawe him, as she had many others. "Claiming to be the Son of God, she threatened that if he did not repent and humble himself, she would put forth her mighty power, and blast him and his family. He answered that he entertained no gods like her in his house, and that if she did not forthwith leave he would turn her out; on which she troubled him no more." He used his musical ability in a practical way by constantly singing when at work with his journeymen and apprentices. The songs were Irish, Updike says, and he knew a great number, or if he did not sing he uttered "their airs by a melodious whistle, to which the workmen became so accustomed that it became to them a relief to their toils." In this primitive work-room, with its few hand looms, with the swift shuttle thrown ceaselessly to the accompaniment of the master's 1 Updike, p. 285.

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