government-the Town Council-"alsoe a Clarke, Treasurer, Constable. and Sargant; and that sayd officers shall receive ther ingagement from one of the Assistants." 1

Of these offices that of the assistant was somewhat like that of a justice of peace in the town. Deeds might be signed in his presence, and contracts made so that they would "be as authentic to all intents and purposes unto the party receiving of the deed as if every man of the town did particularly set his hand and seal." 2 The duties of the constable were the same as before receiving the charter of 1663. He might also be required to act as a fence-viewer. 3 The duties of clerk, treasurer and sergeant remain practically unchanged. The number of constables and sergeants sometimes varies.4

6

Besides the officers ordered by the colony to be chosen, the town chose such others as it deemed needful for its internal administration. Haywards are from time to time elected, water-bailiffs are appointed to care for the harbor and anchoring grounds, a town sealer of weights and measures is elected towards the latter part of the seventeenth century. " 5 The clerk of the market is a less common officer. As there had been provisions made for a "faire to be annually kept," " this officer was to have the general charge of its arrangements. Overseers of the general fields were appointed to see that the fences about the common were kept in repair, that cattle are not pastured there contrary to town orders and that other general regulations are enforced. Justices of peace do not commonly occur before the year 1700 when the town meeting records show that "John Dexter hath this day in the open

1 R. I. Col. Rec., vol. ii., p. 27.

2 Town Rec., June 4, 1666.

3 Ibid, March 28, 1664.

4 Town Meeting Rec., June 6, 1686 also 1693.

5 Town Meeting Rec., No. 1, June 5, 1699.

• Town Meeting Rec., Sept. 23, 1696.

1 Town Meeting Rec., No. 1, Jan. 27, 1696-7.

meeting given engagement to the office of Justice of

received his commission."1

peace and

In addition to these minor officers there were waywardens and surveyors of the land. These surveyors of the land were at first chosen in the town meeting and performed such of the duties of the town deputies as had not passed to the Town Council and waywardens. They were to lay out and have the general charge of the assignment of lands. After a few years these officers, whose duties made them the executive officers of the proprietors, came to be elected by them, and the records declare that the "Purchasers and Proprietors of this towne being met together have chosen Capt. Arthur Fenner and Tho: Olney surveyors to lay out lands and doe what further the surveiors are to doe."

The waywardens were the surveyors of the highways. As in the case of the surveyors of the lands there were usually two in number. They are sometimes called surveyors of the highways or men "to see the repairing of the highways." They performed many of the duties entrusted to the selectmen in other New England colonies. While they were to see to the laying out and construction of new roads, and that the inhabitants did their proportionate amount of the work, they were also to see that the highways were not "damnified by buildings or other hindrances." The waywardens were chosen in open town meeting. This name for the officers does not seem to have been common in New England outside of Providence.

Thus far there have been presented the general features of the government at Providence before the 18th century. The important subject of land administration has been considered only in a general way. In almost every case questions in regard to land had hastened the development of those forms of local government which appeared in Providence during the period before 1700.

1 June 18, 1698. They are elected by the General Assembly for many years. 2 Town Rec. June 7, 1669. Town Meeting Rec. June 7, 1686.

3 Town Meeting Rec. June, 1685.

LAND-HOLDING.

The land had first been purchased by Roger Williams from the Indians. Subsequent Indian claims to sections over which the original deed gave Williams the title, were frequently settled by additional payments. The title to the land was then, at first, in Williams alone.

He soon received the twelve other settlers into the "fellowship of his purchase," affirming that he did "freely and fully, pass, grant and make over equal right and power of enjoying and disposing the same grounds and lands unto my loving friends and neighbors." 1 William Harris, one of his "loving friends and neighbors," thus describes this transfer: "Seeing actually and immediately he did put us into equal possession of the same with himself, each one with like rights and powers to dispose thereof as ours and his." Though his companions were put into "equal possession" and became freeholders, yet Williams found that this did not prevent discord, for he says, "there was hardly ever in New England, William Harris, his equal, for monstrous evil in land business and matters of disorder as to civil government." 3

2

In the assignment of land, Williams seems to have had the first choice, and subsequent allotinents were made as impartially as possible. Sometimes, as was the custom, it was decided by lot "where every man should lie." 4

The landed rights of a full proprietor at Providence, seem to have embraced a "home lot" or place for a dwelling, a "six acre lot" usually a tract of arable land at some little distance, and a right to a sufficient amount of the "general land" to make up one hundred acres and also if there should be a division of the "common lands” a share in this division.

The "home lot" or "home share" usually contained about five acres. It had a frontage of 100 to 125 feet on the

1 "Initial Deed," Town Rec.

2 Harris MSS. Letter 1667, R. I. Hist. Soc.

3 Letter 1667, R. I, Hist. Tracts, No. 14.

4 Mourt's Relation, p. 25, Town Rec., Mar. 14, 1661.

"Towne Streete" which ran along the river side" and, therefore, extended well back from the highway. These lots were not always of the same proportions but always long in proportion to their width thus making the settlement compact along the street.

The "six acre lots" were somewhat remote from the town and where the soil was considered best adapted to tillage.

The share in the other lands, usually about eighty or ninety acres, was laid out by the town deputies or by the town surveyors so as not to interfere with the claims of others. Sometimes these lots were not laid out for some years after the other allotments were made.

Shares in meadow lands were held and sometimes these were granted by the town in exchange for other lands which the inhabitant might surrender. "Warehouse lots" too were not infrequently granted to such as would use them in the interests of trade. Other lots are sometimes granted under special conditions.

An old deed shows the general character of the divisions. It signifies that the town has laid out and delivered to the grantee "as his purchase right, certain parcels of land according to the parcels of other Purchasers, namely, a five acre house lot, sixty acres, twenty acres, six acres and five "1 and "also a spot of meadow about one and one-half acres also about three-fourths of an acre of meadow," making in all ninety-eight and one-fourth acres "more or less " according to the survey.

acres

This was the usual amount of land to which the purchaser had a title in the town. Besides this he had certain rights in subsequent divisions of land and to the use of the common lands or "general fields." Some other lands were considered the property of the town as a whole. Proceeds from the sales of these lands passed into the general treasury, not to the proprietors.

1 Town Records, Sept. 25, 1661.

Regulations and orders involving land interests especially fill many pages of the early records. It was, soon after the division of the lands, ordered "that none sell his lot granted in our Liberties to any person but to an Inhabitant without consent of the Town." 1 Nor did those who thus purchased land acquire a right to all the unsold lands in the limits of the town, for they were told that "they must not think that they bought and sold the right to all the lands and meadows in common and 100 acres presently and the power of voting and all for 30s." "9 2 If after obtaining land they did not occupy it, they might be fined,3 or the land might revert to the town, as the record says, after eighteen months "fall into the Town's hand again.” 4 Exactness in the use of terms describing lands is not characteristic of the early records. The following is exceptional: "the right of Commoning within the Commons of this Town of Providence, that is to say, for Commonage for cattle, privileges for fire wood, for Building timber, for timber for fencing, etc., but no claim to be laid to any land thereby." Right of commoning might be granted in proportion to the amount of land held, as in the case of the "quarter-right purchasers," who have "the right of commoning according to the said proportion of lands," or it might be a special privilege as upon petition of "John Smyth" it is ordered "that the said John Smyth shall have liberty for feeding four Cattle and taking of firing and fencing, etc., untill the Towne shall see Cause to the contrary,' " and in some cases is forbidden altogether, while instances where rights to land are much confused are not infrequent. In general it may

6

1 Town Rec., 3 die of the 10 month.

2 Letter of Williams, R. I. Hist. Tracts No. 14.

3 Town Rec., 3 die of the 10 month.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid, Oct. 3, 1666.

6 Ibid, 19th 11 mo., 1645,

7 Ibid, Jan. 27, 1659.

8 Ibid, Oct. 27, 1659.