Benedict Arnold (governor) - Providence and Pawtuxet

Providence and Pawtuxet

In 1637 Arnold was one of 13 settlers who signed a compact agreeing to subject themselves to any agreements made by a majority of the masters of families. About 1638 he accompanied his father, his brother-in-law William Carpenter and Robert Cole in a move about five miles south to the Pawtuxet River. The settlement, called Pawtuxet, was still within the jurisdiction of Providence (and later became a part of Cranston, Rhode Island). On 17 July 1640 Arnold signed an agreement with 38 other Providence residents to form a more compact government "to preserve the peace and insure the prosperity of a growing community." It did neither, especially after the arrival of Samuel Gorton in Providence, who Roger Williams wrote was "bewitching and bemadding poor Providence." In one incident, "Upon the attempt to enforce the execution of an award against Francis Weston made by eight men orderly chosen, Gorton, with many of his followers, assailed the representatives of law and order making a tumultuous hubbub." In a petition that Arnold wrote, dated 17 November 1741, he with 12 others formally applied to Massachusetts for help, asking the government there to "lend us a neighborlike helping hand." Massachusetts replied that they could not help unless the complainants fell under their jurisdiction.

Being highly offended by Gorton, who had moved with some of his adherents to Pawtuxet, the Arnolds, Cole, and Carpenter went to Boston, and on 2 September 1642 submitted themselves to the government and jurisdiction of Massachusetts. They were received by the General Court there, and appointed justices of the peace. In doing this, these settlers allowed a foreign jurisdiction into the midst of the Providence government, a condition that would last for 16 years. Gorton, unhappy about being under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, then moved with his followers another 12 miles further south, settling at a place called Shawomet, beyond the limits of Massachusetts' jurisdiction.

Having already become proficient in the Narragansett and Wampanoag native languages, and harboring an intense dislike of Gorton, Arnold and his father devised a scheme to undermine their adversary, and to simultaneously obtain extensive lands from the local Indians. Gorton had purchased Shawomet from Miantonomi, the chief sachem of the Narragansett people. Two minor sachems, Ponham and Sacononoco, had some control of the lands at Pawtuxet and Shawomet, and Arnold, acting as interpreter, took these chieftains to Governor Winthrop in Boston, and had them submit themselves and their lands to Massachusetts, and claim that the sale of Shawomet to Gorton was done "under duress." Now with a claim to Shawomet, Massachusetts directed Gorton and his followers to appear in Boston to answer "complaints" made by the two minor sachems. When Gorton refused, Massachusetts sent a party to Shawomet to arrest Gorton and his neighbors. The ensuing trial had nothing to do with the land claims, but instead focused on the writings and beliefs of Gorton, for which he and others in his group were imprisoned. Ultimately, Gorton was released and went to England where he was given legal title to his lands from the Earl of Warwick, and in his honor the settlement of Shawomet was renamed Warwick.

Besides Roger Williams, Arnold was the only member of the colony who was highly proficient in the Narragansett and Wampanoag tongues, and he was often called upon to interpret during negotiations. In June 1645 he was sent by the General Court of Massachusetts to the Narragansett people to urge them to desist from engaging in a war with the Mohegans. On 28 July of the same year Arnold and two others were sent out to get the hostile tribes to send deputies to Boston to talk and make peace. This attempt failed, and a month later Arnold would not go back again, as he had been charged with mis-representing the reply of the tribes two months earlier, and Roger Williams went as interpreter in his place.

The issue of the Pawtuxet settlers remaining under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts was a constant irritant to Roger Williams, Gorton, and the other Providence and Warwick settlers. At a meeting of the General Court of Rhode Island held at Warwick on 22 May 1649 it was ordered that letters be sent to Arnold and the other Pawtuxet settlers in reference to their subjecting themselves to the Rhode Island colony. This did not happen, and the Pawtuxet settlers continued under Massachusetts for another nine years. Arnold and his father, while not laying claim to the Shawomet lands, nevertheless had extensive land holdings, and in 1650 Arnold paid a tax of five pounds, the highest in the colony, and his father paid three and a half pounds, the second highest amount.

In June 1650 Roger Williams wrote to Governor Winthrop in Massachusetts saying that Arnold had bought a house and land at Newport, with the intention to move there. While his reasons for moving were not revealed in his own writings, some historians have suggested that it was mercantile interests that compelled the move, while others have suggested political interests, or wanting to get away from the hostile atmosphere of Providence and Pawtuxet were reasons.