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| The Borgias |
The House of Borgia rose to political and
ecclesiastical prominence during the Italian Renaissance. Though the Borgias
were accused of murder, bribery, and simony, and the powerful Medici family
were their enemies, the Borgias produced two popes, and their support of the
arts helped spur the Renaissance.
17th
century Rhode Island had a pair of leaders who could well be described as Borgia-esque.
William Arnold was baptized on 6/24/1587 in
Ilchester, County Somerset. His eldest son, Benedict, was baptized on December
21, 1615, also in Ilchester, and died June 19, 1678 in Newport, Rhode Island.
No, he wasn’t THAT Benedict Arnold, but he was the Revolutionary War traitor’s great-grandsire.
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| Arnold coat of arms |
William Arnold brought his family from Somerset to Hingham, Massachusetts in
1635. A year later the Arnolds followed Roger Williams (who was banished for radical
notions, such as freedom of religion) to Providence, Rhode Island. In 1638
William and his sons moved a few miles south of Providence, and named their
self-governed settlement Pawtuxet, after the nearby river.
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| Rhode Island 1660 |
The Arnolds got along well with Roger Williams, but the same could not be said
of Samuel Gorton. On January 12, 1642-3, Gorton, who Roger Williams described as
bewitching and bemadding poor Providence,
purchased a large tract of land adjoining Pawtuxet from the Narragansetts, and
named it Shawomet.
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| Samuel Gorton on trial |
Samuel Gorton had been turned out of nearly every place he settled in New
England. He came to Boston in 1636, but before long he fled Massachusetts’ Puritans
for Plymouth. The Pilgrims quickly ousted him. Gorton tried Portsmouth, then
Newport, and then Providence, Rhode Island, but didn’t stay long in any of
those towns. William Coddington, Rhode Island’s chief Justice, had him whipped
for insolence after Gorton referred to him as a “Just-Ass.”
Benedict
and William Arnold loathed their new neighbor, knew that the Puritans in
Massachusetts felt likewise, and also knew that Massachusetts eagerly sought to
claim the entire western side of Narragansett Bay. Benedict had learned to speak the Narragansett language, and used his knowledge
to undermine Rhode Island in general, and Samuel Gorton in particular. Two
minor Narragansett sachems had partial control of both Pawtuxet and Shawomet.
Benedict Arnold took these chieftains to Boston and persuaded them to submit
themselves and their lands to Massachusetts. On September 8, 1642, Benedict and
William Arnold formally turned the English settlement at Pawtuxet over to
Massachusetts’ rule and protection.
With
the Arnolds’ cooperation in hand, Massachusetts ordered Gorton to come to Boston’s
court to answer charges of duress and theft made by the Narragansett chieftans.
Gorton refused, and Massachusetts sent an army to arrest him, again with the
Arnolds’ blessing.
Remember
the Borgias’ reputation for assassination and murder? Benedict and William
Arnold knew well that the Puritans considered Samuel Gorton to be a heretic,
and that delivering him into Puritan hands placed Gorton in grave danger. Maybe
they weren’t seeking Gorton’s life, but he was tried, not for harassing the
Indians, but for heresy. He barely escaped execution when a single vote saved Samuel
Gorton’s life.
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| Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick |
The Arnolds likely wanted to see Gorton removed so they could occupy the
Gortonists’ improved lands, but that plot failed as well. Samuel Gorton sought
help from his powerful patron, the Earl of Warwick. The overt harassment of
Samuel Gorton by his neighbors stopped, and Gorton named his settlement Warwick
in gratitude.
William
and Benedict Arnold also engaged in other shady practices. On October 27 1643,
Massachusetts ordered that the Narragansett chieftans be lent fowling guns, and
gave Benedict Arnold permission to supply them with powder and shot, though giving
Indians arms and ammunition was directly counter to Rhode Island’s law. Samuel
Gorton also complained that the Arnolds gave liquor to the Indians – also
illegal – and traded on the Sabbath Day.
The
Arnolds and their Pawtuxet residents remained under Massachusetts’ jurisdiction,
despite a charter issued by Parliament in 1644 which included Pawtuxet as part
of Rhode Island. On May 22, 1649, Rhode Island’s court sent letters to Pawtuxet,
ordering them subject themselves to Rhode Island governance, but the Arnolds
ignored it.
The
Arnolds actively undermined Rhode Island’s affairs by providing information to
the Puritans for sixteen years, and were repaid with food and protection.
William wrote regarding Rhode Island’s effort to get a charter from Parliament:
From Pawtuxet, this 1st day of
the 7th month, 1651, Much Honored, I thought it my duty to give
intelligence unto the much honored Court [of Massachusetts] of that which is now working here in these
parts; so that if it be the will of God, an evil may be prevented … under the
pretence of liberty of conscience about these parts, there comes to live all
the scum, the runaways of the country, which, in time, for want of better
order, may bring a heavy burthen upon the land … I humbly desire my name may be
concealed, lest they, hearing of what I have herein written, they will be enraged
against me, and so will revenge themselves upon me.
William
Arnold maintained his opposition to Rhode Island, and Samuel Gorton went back to London in disgust. He returned in 1658 with
a strong letter of protest from the Earl of Warwick, who was both an ardent
Puritan and a sponsor of Providence settlement. Massachusetts was finally
forced to withdraw, Pawtuxet submitted to Rhode Island, and on 5/31/1666
William Arnold swore allegiance to King Charles II. William Arnold remained
in Pawtuxet for the rest of his life, reconciling with his neighbors as they
mellowed with age.
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| Benedict Arnold grave marker |
William's son, on the other hand, had already grasped a new opportunity. In
1653, at the age of 38, Benedict took his family to Rhode Island’s principal
city, Newport. He became a freeman that year and represented Newport in Rhode
Island’s government, and in 1657 he succeeded Roger Williams as President of
the colony. He served as president, then as governor almost continuously from then
until his death in 1678.
Now,
Benedict Arnold had to fight off Massachusetts, his former protector. He
complained to Parliament, and then to King Charles II about “sundry
obstructions” and claims made by Massachusetts and Connecticut to the
Narragansett Indians’ lands. He vigorously pursued a new royal charter for
Rhode Island, and obtained that vital document in 1663, granting the colony self-rule
and liberty of conscience in “a Republic of Liberty under Law, in which every
man is king and no man subject.”
Though
the Puritan colonies complained, and despite the “bad effects of their
doctrines and endeavors,” President Arnold allowed the highly controversial
Quakers to shelter in Rhode Island. He advised the Puritan colonies to let them
speak their minds in peace, and in 1658 coolly noted that where Quakers were punished
harshly, they unceasingly returned and gained adherents through their patient
sufferings. However, Rhode Island’s government allowed Quakers to declare themselves
freely, and in consequence, “they least of all desire to come [among us].”
Benedict
truly turned over a new leaf, pursuing the union of Pawtuxet and Warwick with
Rhode Island’s other towns. He became a warrior for civil and religious liberty,
and the historian Samuel G. Arnold wrote of his famed ancestor that “he
recognized the distinction between persecution and opposition, between legal
force and moral suasion as applied to matters of opinion … throughout his long
and useful life he displayed talents of a brilliant order which were ever
employed for the welfare of his fellow men.”
If
Benedict Arnold’s actions benefitted himself along with his fellow Rhode
Islanders, that was all to the better. At Governor Arnold’s death, his will dispersed
several thousand acres of land, cash, and livestock among his wife and
children. If wealth was any indication, God had clearly poured out his favor on
Benedict Arnold, and so did Rhode Island, even though Benedict had once been a
force of opposition.
Jo
Ann Butler is proud to be a 13th generation descendant from Benedict
Arnold. She is currently writing about the Arnolds in the final volume of her A Scandalous Life series about Herodias (Long)
Hicks Gardner Porter and Rhode Island’s earliest years.
Sources:
“Benedict
Arnold, First Governor of Rhode Island” - Hamilton B. Tompkins - Bulletin of
the Newport Historical Society - 1919
The Great
Migration - Robert Anderson, George Sanborn, Melinde Sanborn - 1999
The Arnold
Memorial - Elisha S. Arnold - 1935
