Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/203

CHAPTER XII SWANSEA RANKS Division of Lands — Order of Town — Threefold Ranks— Names of Men in the Several Ranks — Town Legislation — Committee on Ranking— Highest Rank Hereditary — The Town Abolished the Sj'stem. ALL the lands of the town not included in the Sowams' purchase, which had not been distributed among the proprietors of Sowams and Mattapoisett prior to 1667, were under the general control of the inhabitants and subject to town legislation. We come now to consider a most extraordi- nary and novel method of dividing the lands of the town among its citizens, a plan which was adopted in no other colony in New England, and the motive for which does not appear in the town records. The inhabitants were divided into three ranks or classes, according to their ability, character, or influence, corresponding in some sense to the three Roman orders, the Patrician, the Equestrian, and the Plebeian. The power of ranking the inhabitants was exer- cised by the five persons appointed by the Court to regulate the admission of the same, in 1666, and was afterwards assumed by the committee appointed by the town. Captain Thomas Willett, Mr. Paine, Senior Mr. Brown, John Allen, and John Butterworth arranged the ranks at the first. Pro- motions and degradations were made from one rank to another according to the authority and judgment of the com- mittee in charge. The act of the town, establishing the ranking system was as follows : Swansea, February 9th, 1670. " It is ordered, that all lots and divisions of lands that are or hereafter shall be granted to any particular person, shall be proportioned according to the three-fold ranks under- written, so that where those of the first rank shall have three