The town of Barrington is picturesquely located in eastern Rhode Island.
It has a fine outlook on Narragansett bay and also borders on the
Warren[43] river. It was incorporated by Massachusetts in 1718. In
1746‒’47 the territory came under the jurisdiction of Rhode Island, and
Barrington was merged with Warren. In 1770 Warren was divided and
Barrington again incorporated, this time by Rhode Island. There are
several historic sites in the town, many pleasant drives and a number of
interesting caves, woods and districts. The present population is
between 1600 and 1700.
One of the earliest Irish settlers in Barrington[44] was Matthew Watson.
He located there[45] over 175 years ago and reminiscences of his life
and times are still current among the people. Matthew was born in
Ireland in 1696. His people are believed to have been Presbyterians, an
element that has given many sturdy patriots to the cause of Irish
nationality.[46] The family left Ireland for America about 1712. They
landed in Boston.
What induced them to leave the old country can only be conjectured. It
is reasonable to suppose, however, that it was due to causes that
compelled thousands of other Irish Presbyterians to emigrate. These
causes were the result of English oppression. The Irish Presbyterians
were treated with great harshness[47] by various successive governments
in England. At one time edicts of banishment were issued against their
ministers; at another we find the government wickedly declaring their
pulpits vacant and filling them with clergymen of the Established
church. When England had a policy of church or state to carry out in
Ireland it could be made to bear heavily on the Presbyterian as on the
Catholic. England’s repeated suppression of Irish industries also caused
great numbers of Presbyterians and Irish Protestants, generally, to
emigrate to America.
The Watson family here mentioned consisted of Matthew, his father and
mother, four brothers and one sister. Sometime after arriving in Boston
the family removed to Leicester, Mass. Matthew came to Barrington in
1722, being then in his 26th year. He entered the employ of John Read, a
brickmaker, and rapidly attained great proficiency in the business,
winning the confidence of his employer and the esteem of his associates.
In the course of time he fell in love with his employer’s daughter,
Bethiah. His affection was reciprocated and the two soon became engaged.
The fact becoming known, Bethiah’s father earnestly opposed it. She was
his only daughter, and he eloquently represented to her the “folly” of
throwing herself away on “a little poor Irishman.” His arguments were of
no avail, however, and she and Matthew were married at Barrington in
1732.
It was a happy marriage and her father lived to bless the day when the
“little poor Irishman” became his daughter’s husband. Subsequently
Matthew purchased the farm of his father-in-law and conducted the
brick-making business on an extensive scale. He erected a commodious
brick mansion house which became known to the country round about as the
“Great Watson Mansion,” embellished the grounds and amassed a fortune of
$80,000.[48]
By some it is held that Matthew’s father had also located in Barrington.
The original Watson property comprised a very large part of the town.
The homestead has since been greatly reduced, however, by dividing it
among the children, by bequests and by extensive sales to new-comers.
The estate at present comprises about fifty acres, tillable and
woodland, held by descendants of Matthew. The land is very productive.
There is one six-acre lot, nearly as level as a floor, and which
produces rich crops of hay, although it has not been dressed in the past
thirty years.[49] Underneath the greater part of the estate is a stratum
of the best quality of blue clay within four to six feet of the surface.
This stratum underlies nearly the entire town, cropping out on the bay
and river shores. The principal industry of Barrington is brick-making,
which has been carried on for an indefinite period. At present
30,000,000 are produced annually. The labor in the old brick-yards of
the Watson family was done chiefly by slaves of whom Watson owned nearly
fifty. All these he manumitted some time before his death. The
continuous transportation of brick to the bay, by these slaves, for
shipment gradually wore a roadway more than six feet in depth.[50] By
plowing and cultivation this has long since been mostly filled in,
though there are still places where the old roadway shows two or three
feet deep. Some time in the eighteenth century a law was passed
ordaining that bricks should be made of certain specified dimensions.
Matthew Watson, the settler, considered this requirement as very unjust,
and so decided not to change the size of his product. In order to escape
prosecution, however, he ceased calling his goods brick, but instead
styled them “Watson’s ware.” As there was no law regarding “Watson’s
ware” the plan succeeded, and the old gentleman continued making and
selling brick at their former dimensions.[51] The “Great Watson Mansion”
was for a long period visited by people who had heard of its dimensions
and sumptuous furnishings and who desired to feast their eyes upon so
much grandeur.
It is said to have possessed some of the earliest wall paper used in
America, outside of Boston. The jambs, mantels and hearth were
constructed of marble and imported from Amsterdam. The carpet was made
from the wool of sheep raised on the farm, and being the first carpet
used in those parts attracted visitors from points even forty miles
away. A part of the mansion was recently still standing, and occupied by
descendants of Matthew. The present is the sixth American generation of
the family. Matthew, born in 1696, died in 1807; having completed 110
years of life and started on his 111th.
It is said that up to the day of his death, his faculties were
unimpaired, except for blindness. On the day that he was 100 years old
he called for his saddle-horse, mounted without assistance and rode off
briskly for a couple of miles. Upon his return, the negro servant being
absent, and the great gate unopened, he touched up his horse and cleared
it at a bound.
Further interesting facts regarding Matthew Watson are found in an
article published[52] some years before his death. It was written at
Barrington and reads as follows:
“There is now living in this town Matthew Watson, Esq., in the 105th
year of his age, in a pretty good state of health, and in the enjoyment
of his faculties, except being blind. He was born in Coleraine in the
province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland, in March, A. D. 1696, from
whence he, with his father and mother, four brothers and one sister,
migrated and arrived at Boston, A. D. 1712, from whence they removed to
and settled in Leicester, in the county of Worcester (Mass.), where he
hath one brother, Deacon Oliver Watson, now living. Mr. Watson came to
this town A. D. 1722, where by his industry he acquired a pretty
handsome fortune. He hath sustained the office of a Justice of the Peace
in the town, and was formerly a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for
the county of Bristol. He hath been a member of the Congregational
church in this town between seventy and eighty years without censure. He
hath ten children now living, the youngest of whom is fifty-three years
of age, all in a married state, except his eldest and youngest
daughters, who are widows. He was born in the seventeenth, lived through
the eighteenth and is now progressing in the nineteenth century.”
The foregoing extract was found, in 1893, by the writer while engaged in
examining files of the _Providence Gazette_ at the rooms of the Rhode
Island Historical Society in Providence. As the article was written at
Barrington during the lifetime of the centenarian, some, at least, of
the facts were probably obtained from his own lips. The extract may
therefore be considered as authoritatively settling certain data which
have long been in dispute.
* * * * *
Matthew is said to have had fifteen children, ten of whom were living at
the time of his decease.[53] The names of these ten were Abigail, Mary,
Rachel, Mercy, Bethiah, Matthew, Lydia, William, John and Samuel. There
were also many grandchildren and great grandchildren. In Arnold’s “Vital
Record of Rhode Island” appears an entry under Barrington which states
in substance that “Robert Watson and Mary Orr married at Londonderry,
Ireland, 1695.” They were probably the parents of Matthew, the
Barrington settler, who had the names recorded for purpose of reference;
or they may have been so recorded by some other member of the family.
The centenarian was twice married.[54] Bethia, his first wife, died in
1778, leaving ten children. One of Matthew’s descendants, John Watson,
married Ann Waterman, daughter of Capt. Asa Waterman, of Rhode Island,
who was assistant commissary-general during the Revolution. She was
related to Governor Cooke of Rhode Island.
Among the centenarian’s descendants were the following: Robert S. W.
Watson who wedded Patience Blygh. He was born in 1804; Annie Cooke
Watson, born in 1831; Dr. S. T. Watson, born 1832; John W. Watson, 1835;
Mary H. Watson, 1837; Henry H. Watson, 1839; Robert S. Watson, 1843;
Emily F. Watson, 1845; Robert S. Watson, 1846; Charlotte A. Watson,
1850.
Nearly every generation of the family has had a Matthew in it. A second
Matthew Watson was born in 1741.[55] A Matthew Watson of a later
generation married Abby B. Wheaton, of Providence, in 1818. The
Providence Directory for 1844 shows “Matthew Watson, manufacturer, rear
Roger Williams Bank,” and gives his residence as Angell street. In
February, 1892, the following interesting communication appeared in the
Providence _Journal_. Its author is thought to have been Matthew Watson,
of Providence, a recent representative of the name.
* * * * *
THE CUP THAT CHEERS. To the Editor of the _Journal_: The first time that
tea was brought to Barrington, Rhode Island, is not known to the writer
of this article, but the second time it was brought by Matthew Watson
something over a hundred and fifty years ago, before the famous Boston
tea party.
Matthew Watson sold brick which he manufactured from the clay on his own
property, which was extensive, even for those days, in Newport. On one
of his trips there he bought the teapot, a sketch of which appears with
this article, and six teacups.
As tea had never been used, of course there was no tea-kettle, and water
to make this was boiled in a dinner pot hanging from a crane over the
wood fire. The teapot now is in possession of one of Matthew Watson’s
descendants, and is a quaint little affair of some ancient style of
crockery. It stands on three legs, which adds to its unique appearance.
Once it was broken into eight pieces, but was so cleverly mended that it
is almost impossible to detect this as it stands, with other heirlooms,
looking down on the china and glass of later dates.