Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/24

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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.

Since its occupation by the whites, the people living on this territory have been under the government of three colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Rhode Island, have lived in three counties, Plymouth, Bristol, Massachusetts, and Bristol, R. I., and have borne three township names, Swansea, Barrington, Warren, and Barrington for the second time.

James I. and Charles I. were Kings of England and the Colonies when Massassoit was Sachem of Sowams. Cromwell ruled England when Sowams was made a proprietary, Charles the Second was King when Swansea was incorporated. William and Mary were on the throne when Plymouth Colony was merged into Massachusetts Bay Colony. George I. was King when Barrington was first incorporated, in 1717; George II., when we were made Warren, and George III., when Barrington was restored in 1770.

When the Plymouth settlers first visited this territory, in 1621, they found it owned and occupied by the tribe of Indians known as the Wampanoags, under their Chief, Osamequin or Massassoit. The Indian name of the country, between Plymouth and Narragansett Bay, of which the territory of Barrington was a part, was called Pokanoket. Barrington was known as Sowams, and on its soil was the dwelling of the great Sachem, Massassoit. Besides Pokanoket, the name of the Indian country, and Sowams, the residence of the Chief of the Wampanoags, the Indians have left us several names of places which are readily identified and are worthy of preservation, as memorials of this once great tribe.^[1]

Wampanoag.—The name of the tribe that occupied the

↑ As the Wampanoags had no written language, the spelling of Indian words rests solely on the authority of the clerks or writers, who translated into English the sounds of the Indian language as it was spoken by the natives. Hence arises the variety of spelling the same word as understood by different persons. Our ancestors were in the habit of emphasizing words by the use of double letters, as in the words Narragansett, Massassoit, Peebee. In the spelling of Indian names, I have endeavored to follow the best authority, eliminating the redundant t in words whose general use has not established the form.

[1] As the Wampanoags had no written language, the spelling of Indian words rests solely on the authority of the clerks or writers, who translated into English the sounds of the Indian language as it was spoken by the natives. Hence arises the variety of spelling the same word as understood by different persons. Our ancestors were in the habit of emphasizing words by the use of double letters, as in the words Narragansett, Massassoit, Peebee. In the spelling of Indian names, I have endeavored to follow the best authority, eliminating the redundant t in words whose general use has not established the form.

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