etc., on the days and near the places where the General Meeting of Friends are annually held for religious worship, and in February, 1769, the petition was presented and the Assembly passed an act prohibiting the sale of liquors and the practices of buying or running horses, playing at quoits, and engaging in other sports within certain limits by vain and disorderly persons, negroes, tawnies, and others, whereby unguarded youth and light people are induced to withdraw from said religious meetings and join in these disorderly practices, to the great dishonor of the Christian religion, as well as the disquieting said meetings, spreading of vice and immorality, and threatening the destruction of peaceable government, with a penalty of twenty shillings for each offence. Mr. Steere resided in Smithfield, where he was town councilman and deputy for several years. It is probable that he dwelt on the old Steere homestead not far west of the present Stillwater depot and now occupied by Mr. Sherman. The ancient Steere cemetery is to be found here, most of the stones being rough stones unmarked, according to the custom followed by the Society of Friends at that time. In 1748 his place is noted as being in the Eleventh District, which began at the Providence line near Isaac White's, running to the Logway," also to the Cross Road from Daniel Angell's to the Island Road.* Thomas Steere married, first, May 16, 1736, Katherine Comstock, daughter of Hazadiah and Martha Comstock (sister of Anthony Steere's wife). She died December 17, 1751. He married, second, December 16, 1754, Mercy Aldrich, as recorded in the "Friends' Records." She was born April 5, 1730, and died November 11, 17-. The date of Thomas Steere's death has not been found. He was alive in 1774. That Steer Cler Children of Thomas and Katherine Steere: I. ELISHA, b. September 10, 1737; m., 1st, Amy Aldrich; 2d, Penelope Steere; 3d, Widow II. ANDREW, b. November 19, 1738; d. December 18, 1751. 38 39 40 III. SUSANNA, b. May 10, 1740; d. December 5, 1751. 41 42 43 VI. NATHAN, b. September 23, 1747; d. May 3, 1771. V. THOMAS, b. February 2, 1744; d. December 8, 1751. IV. DAVID, b. May 20, 1742 ; m. Mary Arnold; d. October 22, 1790, ƒ. 45 VIII. KATHERINE, b. January 16, 1756; m. Smith. She d. May 17, 1784. *Steere's History of Smithfield, p. 29. Providencess George the Second by the Grace of Got of Great Frame and Jiela nd Ring Defender of the Jueland G To the Sherif of our County of Providence of Yeaday of four Regio ND 27.12. that they should Step Hopsins Cer 19. HON. RICHARD STEERE, son of Thomas (5), grandson of John, Sen. (1), was born in the township of Providence (the portion afterwards included in Smithfield) on the third day of June, 1707. He early removed to Glocester, where his father, Thomas Steere, on the 5th of June, 1732, deeded to him, for love, etc., one hundred and sixty acres in the easternmost part of Glocester, "where his [son's] house is." He lived not far from the Smithfield line, on or near the place since owned by J. and R. Colwell. (See Map of Steere Residences.) He was made freeman of the Colony May 2, 1732. On 16th January, 1733, he signed a petition addressed to the Governor and Representatives against lotteries.* He bought several parcels of property, both on the Smithfield side and in various parts of Glocester. He purchased from William Turpin, shopkeeper (son of the Providence schoolmaster of the same name), March 31, 1735, for £16 10s., twenty-two acres of land to be taken up on the east side of the Seven Mile Line, on the original right of Stephen Northup, deceased. At this date Mr. Steere is spoken of as a resident of Glocester, as also in several later deeds, showing that he had removed permanently. On the 8th of October, 1735, he bought of Thomas Arnold, for 10, ten acres to be taken up on the east side of the Seven Mile Line, on the original right of Thomas Olney, deceased. His next purchase was from Joseph Williams of Scituate (grandson of Roger Williams), on the 23d January, 1735, for £5, of twenty acres in Smithfield.§ March 29, 173, he bought of John Smith of Gloucester eight acres in the same town for £2 Ss. || He bought of Peter Cook of Scituate, March 30, 1747, for £650, a tract of land in Scituate, a half part of three hundred *To the Right Honourable William Wanton, Esq. Gov. and the rest of his most noble Council, with the worthy gentlemen, the Representatives, when met by adjournment on the third thursday of February, A. D. 173, for the holding the sessions of Assembly at Providence within and for the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England: This Petition preferred humbly sheweth the earnest request and submissive desire of your poor petitioners, that you would be pleased to take maturely into consideration the late practices of Lottery, the vein of which is but newly opened within the jurisdiction of this Colony and the very heart of it, being but an imposture upon the Colony, which ill-boding practices was long since put down in the Massachusetts, alone purely for the detestableness of it and prodigal practices and now consider a great Assembly if this obnoxious rout of lottery be not torn up with other such foolish fopperies, where there soon will be blown out of the world that an cient gravity that the reign of it was so pleasant an Dated in Glocester January the 16 A. D. 1732[3]. § Ibid., vol. 1. || Ibid., vol. 1, p. 398. and sixty and a half acres that "did lately belong to Capt. Stephen Remington of Providence." Roger Williams of Scituate, February 3, 1748, Providence Williams, March 10, 1749,* Benoni Williams and Goliath Williams of Scituate, April 17, 1751, Benoni Williams, January 5, 1753, and Goliath Williams, February 16, 1756, all grandchildren of Roger Williams, deeded to him, in all, about two hundred acres on the Smithfield side. March 18, 1752, he bought of Nicholas Lapham of Dartmouth, for £100, one hundred acres of undivided land, not yet laid out, but to be taken up on the west side of the Seven Mile Line, either in Glocester or Scituate, in the original right of William Barnes and in the second hundred acre division. He also purchased, June 3, 1752, one hundred and fifty acres in Scituate, in the first division of Wesquamaug Purchase, upon the original right of Aaron Davis, paying therefor £400 to Jonathan Thurston of Newport, executor of his father Jonathan Thurston's will. He bought of Manariah Kelly, 14th September, 1769, a small piece of land for £4 14s. 6d., which Mr. Kelly had recently bought from Jonathan Sweet.† October 21, 1760, Mr. Steere executed an agreement with Capt. Daniel Mowry and his brother Oliver respecting a dividing line at a place called Nipmauge. Richard Steere was very prominent in public affairs, representing the town. of Glocester in the General Assembly the greater part of the time from 1736 to 1776. He was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Providence for thirty-four years, and was chief justice of this court, 1782-84. His chief service, however, was rendered to the town of Glocester. He was president of the Town Council about forty years, and filled in the most acceptable manner the office of town clerk for sixty years, holding this important position from June, 1737, to the day of his death. His records kept for so many years are a model of neatness and care, presenting a remarkably regular and beautiful appearance for writings of that early period. "He was a very respectable and highly useful citizen, and discharged the duties of the various offices committed to him with great ability and the most inflexible integrity." His name is among the subscribers to the new meeting-house erected in Glocester in 1741. Richard Steere married, first, April 25, 1730, Anna Comstock, daughter of Capt. Samuel and Anna Comstock. She died December 25, 1731. He married, second, April 27, 1735, Jane Aldrich, probably daughter of Peter and Priscilla Aldrich. She died January 21, 1763. He died October 16, 1797, aged 90. Richand Steere Just *Prov. Records, vol. 12, p. 373. + Glocester Records, vol. 8. Providence Gazette. |