MEMOIR OF WILLIAM TAGGART,
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
William Taggart, the elder, was a respectable citizen of Newport, Rhode Island. He held the office of President of the Town-Council; was, for several years, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Newport; and was subsequently elected a Judge of the Supreme Court. He took a very active part in our Revolutionary struggle, and suffered great loss of property, by severe depredations during the War of Independence. His eldest son, William, the writer and subject of the present short Memoir, was born in Newport, on the 7th day of May, 1755, and resided there until he was fifteen years of age, when he went on a voyage to sea, with his father.
Soon after our return, my father purchased a valuable farm in the town of Middletown, about six miles from Newport. He removed to the farm, where I resided with him, being fond of agricultural pursuits. I was the eldest of twelve children; among whom the greatest harmony prevailed, until it was unhappily interrupted by the arrival of the British troops, who landed upon Rhode Island, in December, 1776. In a few days, a Hessian Colonel took possession of the best part of our commodious mansion-house; he having selected it as quarters for himself and his retinue. Although the Colonel was extremely polite, yet the mother of this numerous family was rendered very uneasy, and could not brook the idea of being among soldiers, in such a state of vassalage and danger; more especially on account of her daughters, who, she was very apprehensive, would be particularly liable to the insults of a brutal soldiery. She therefore prevailed on her husband to remove the family from the Island; and accordingly the whole, with the exception of my father and two of my brothers next in age to myself, removed, under my care, to the town of Little Compton. During the following summer an expedition was formed under the command of Major-General Spencer, to attack the British troops, and to obtain possession of the Island, and the town of Newport. About this time, a person came from the Island with a flag, and informed me that my father had expressed a wish for me to come over to the Island and have an interview with him. I communicated this fact to Colonel Joseph Stanton, who then commanded at Rowland's Ferry, in Tiverton. He assented to the proposal, and directed three officers of the American army to accompany me, and to obtain the best possible information of the force, strength, and situation of the enemy. One of these officers was a Lieutenant Charles Handy, of Newport. On the following night, we proceeded to my father's mansion on the Island; and ascertained, to the best of my recollection, that the British force did not exceed two thousand men, who had scarcely any intrenchments on any part of the Island;—that their naval force was very small, and in such a situation, that an expedition might, if judiciously arranged, be so conducted, as, under God, to insure success. We returned in safety, and made report of every particular to the proper officers. The expedition was rapidly progressing. In the interim, I several times went upon the Island, to obtain additional information, previous to the night which had been assigned for the landing of our army; and, through the same channel, I received all the intelligence which was desirable or necessary.
The night at length arrived. Our troops, said to be twelve thousand strong, were drawn up, under arms, ready for embarcation. A party of about thirty, of which I was one, was detached in three boats: and having landed, well down to the mouth of the river, we immediately proceeded to my father's house. He, with his two sons, who, until this period, had remained on the Island, and had communicated much important information to the American commander, now joined us. Our orders were, to proceed to Black Point, so called, which was the place designated for the landing of our army. The landing was to be made, at a signal which had been previously arranged; and we were ordered to secure the sentinels in our route, and to call on the inhabitants to come out, with their teams, &c., to assist in transporting the cannon. On our way, we captured two mounted light-horsemen, who were patrolling the shore; and, after our arrival at the appointed station, we waited until near day-break, for the signal. But it was not given; and, to our great mortification and disappointment, we were under the necessity of leaving the Island, accompanied by my father and brothers, who would undoubtedly have been condemned to an ignominious death, if they had remained; as the active part which they had taken, in communicating intelligence to the American forces, was now discovered. They were accordingly compelled to abandon a valuable property, which was afterwards destroyed by the ruthless enemy. Houses, barns, orchards, fruit trees, fences, were all wantonly torn in pieces; and the whole farm left a barren waste,—the mere soil, which they could not destroy, alone remaining.
My venerable parents being thus reduced, at once, from affluence to extreme poverty, the Legislature of the State granted my father the sum of two hundred pounds, lawful money; which, in the then depreciated state of the currency, was but a temporary relief for so numerous a family. Some time after this, the same authority put him in possession of a confiscated estate, called the Seconnet Point Farm, which was extremely exposed to the enemy, as will be found in the sequel of this narrative. Early in the summer of 1778, another expedition for taking possession of Rhode Island was planned, under the direction of Major-General Sullivan; and a very large force from the States of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, was collected to carry it into effect. My father was appointed to command the boats intended for landing the troops, with the rank, pay, and rations of a major in the army; and afterwards, by a warrant, dated May 8th, 1778, under the hand of General Sullivan, I was appointed a captain of the boats under my father, with the pay, &c., of a captain in the army. By virtue of this warrant, I enlisted a number of boatmen, who were allowed the same pay as the troops in the service of the State. After the failure of the expedition, we were ordered to proceed with the boats, for their safe keeping, to Dighton, in the State of Massachusetts, where we remained until the tenth of March, 1779; when we were all discharged by General Sullivan. I then retired, with my father, to the farm on Seconnet Point.
Toward the latter part of the July following, a large party of Refugees from Newport, came to Little Compton, for the express purpose of making prisoners of my father and his sons, who were peculiarly obnoxious to the enemy. This party landed undiscovered; although there was a guard kept at the house where we dwelt, and sentinels were stationed on the shore. Two of the sentinels, discovering a boat, hailed and fired; but were immediately seized by the enemy, then at their backs, with threats of immediate death for daring to fire. We were alarmed at the house by the report of the muskets; and I and my unfortunate brother, having armed ourselves, were the first to reach the shore; and were instantly made prisoners by the enemy, who were in ambush. As they appeared to be in confusion, my poor brother attempted to escape, by leaping over a stone wall; and had proceeded some distance, when he was fired on, and wounded through the thigh. One of the merciless desperadoes pursued, and ran him through with a bayonet. Although more than half a century has passed, since that cruel and savage deed, my blood still thrills at the recollection of the tragic scene! They then took four of our party on board their schooner, and lodged us in the jail at Newport, which was then used as a provost. I there remained as prisoner for about a fortnight, when, with a Captain Benjamin Borden, of Fall River, I made my escape, in the following manner. The prisoners were occasionally permited to go into the cellar; where we observed that, instead of iron, the windows were furnished with wooden bars, which might be easily removed with a good knife. But even then, there were difficulties to be surmounted, which, to persons less determined than ourselves, would doubtless have appeared insuperable. Sentinels were placed both in front and rear of the prison; and were continually patrolling. At the east end of the building, there was, and still is, a narrow street, communicating with the front and back streets of the prison. From the cellar window, by which we escaped, a few steps brought us into the street in front, and in view of the soldier; who, fortunately for us, was at that time in the sentry-box, on account of the rain which was falling. We had previously selected a topic of conversation respecting New York, that we might appear to have recently arrived from that place; in order to avert any suspicion which might arise in the mind of the sentinel, or of any other person whom we might meet. We had agreed to walk deliberately, and without betraying any signs of fear; arid were providentially enabled to pass, in the twilight, safely through the compact part of the town. Near the hay-scales in Broad Street, we went into the fields on the south-east of that street; and at a short distance from thence, without detection, we crossed the lines which enclosed the town, although these were strictly guarded. We then attempted to cross the road, and to steer our course between the forts by Irish's and Tammany Hill, in order to avoid the regiment of Anspach, which was encamped near by; but, as it had then become very dark, we soon found ourselves much too near for our safety. The darkness however prevented our re-capture: for, as we heard the sound when the guard was relieved at the fort at Irish's, we (to use a not unapt metaphor) were enabled "to steer between Scylla and Charybdis." We came out into the west road; and, having proceeded about eight or nine miles towards Bristol Ferry, halted at the house of Nathan Brownell, who received us with great kindness.
As the troops at that season of the year, were encamped in the fields, it was extremely hazardous for us to visit, at seasonable hours, those of the inhabitants who were friendly to the American cause; but still greater, and apparently insurmountable obstacles opposed any attempt to leave the Island, undiscovered. As the shores were closely guarded, we could not possibly obtain a boat; and our only alternative was to procure a number of rails from the fences, for the construction of a raft; and then to await a proper time for making an attempt to escape in that manner. This was truly the most hazardous part of our enterprise; for we were obliged to launch our frail and unseaworthy bark between two of the nightly guards which were stationed on the shore. But the same Providence, by which we had thus far been so signally favored, still shielded and protected us. We left the shore with our raft, unperceived. A thick fog soon came up, and as it was very calm we knew not in what direction to steer. We were all night upon, or rather in, the water, as our rude bark was not strong enough to keep us entirely above the surface; and at daybreak, when the fog passed away, we found ourselves so near the Island, that we could see the sentinels leaving the shore, and were in momentary expectation of being pursued and retaken. We were, however, enabled to continue our course; and, about an hour after sunrise, we safely landed from our sinking raft, on the south point of the Island of Prudence, a distance of eight or ten miles from the spot where we embarked. From Prudence, we were taken in a boat, and conveyed to the town of Bristol; and from thence proceeded to our respective places of abode. How wonderful are the ways of Him, whose throne is in the Heavens; whose tender mercies are over all his works; whose word assures us, "that it is not in man that walketh, to direct his steps"! In the autumn following, the British forces evacuated Rhode Island, and departed for New York; and in the spring my father again removed his family to the Island,—but not to our once flourishing: and delightful abode. Not a vestige remained of our mansion, which, with every surrounding building, was totally demolished;—the orchards, the fruit, and ornamental trees were utterly destroyed; even the hay and rails were consumed; and nothing remained but a barren, uncultivated heath. This was a deplorable prospect for a man with a numerous family. This sad reverse of fortune was all attributable to the active part we had taken in behalf of our beloved country; but the love of Liberty was so closely interwoven with our nature, that they must stand or fall together. My father was advised to make application to the general government, for some recompense for his great losses; but he never did more than to make an estimate of them, which, if I correctly remember, amounted to twelve thousand dollars. At his decease, I found that the portion of his estate which had been devised to me was involved beyond its value, under a heavy mortgage. But, with a firm persuasion, that by industry I should be able to redeem it, I commenced the work of repair, and erected suitable buildings for the accommodation of my increasing family. But, as this was composed entirely of females, my agricultural concerns were managed with difficulty. In addition to this, we have experienced a long scene of affliction, in the protracted illness of three amiable daughters; one of whom, for a long time, has been, and still is, deprived of her reason,—another, for more than ten years, has been, by a series of complicated disorders, confined helpless to her bed,—and a third, who more than three years since, on the day after the funeral obsequies of another sister, was seized with sudden illness, has also been confined from that time until the last few weeks. Thus, by an accumulation of misfortunes, I have been compelled to relinquish my property to my indulgent creditors; excepting a sufficiency for procuring a small tenement for my suffering family. But, what abundant reason have I to pour out my soul in grateful acknowledgment to the Author of all good, that in the midst of judgment he hath remembered mercy; that he has taken my feet from the miry clay, and placed them on the rock Christ Jesus.
In June, 1804, I united in Christian fellowship with the Second Baptist Church in Newport; and in September, 1809, was chosen by an unanimous vote to the office of deacon. As an additional motive to call on my soul to bless God's holy name, I have abundant reason to hope and firmly believe, that my three afflicted daughters have found the pearl of great price: and, when reason shall have regained its empire in the mind of my afflicted Maria, they will unite in pronouncing all things as loss and dross, in comparison with the knowledge of their exalted Redeemer; and, with devout hearts and united voices, say with the inspired Apostle, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."
WILLIAM TAGGART.
Middleton, R. L, October 24th, 1833.