Identifier: providenceincolo00inkimb (find matches)
Title: Providence in colonial times
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Kimball, Gertrude Selwyn, 1863-1910
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston & New York : Houghton Mifflin
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

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hind them onpillions. A community of less than four thousand souls,wherein were erected during a single decade fourmeeting-houses, is surely entitled to be described asenterprising. It is true that these centres of social andreligious life, both new and old, were not enthusiast-ically supported by the population as a whole. Out-side aid was continually forthcoming, down to thetime of the Revolution, and the clouds of darknesson the horizon were ever threatening to overcomethe feeble beams of the candle on the altar. In other fields of enterprise, however, the towns- ^^S^mt Map of Rhode Island Surveyed by James Helme and William Chandler, 1741,from the manuscript map in the Rhode Island HistoricalSociety. The portion reproduced shows ProvidenceCounty. m id not appr< lip. V\ he had to IfiohoiaiH Lnslal obod^ odJ ni qcfn Jqmaun/^rn arft moiiODnobivoTI syrodz baouhoiqor noiJioq oilT .•(J^aboS ed to be dt u siast- Out- »o the s of darkness overcome ■con the a I ise, however, tiie :
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Trogress 207 people prospered, and the town grew in numbers andin wealth. From a recorded population of 1446, in1708, the numbers had swelled to 3916, in 1730.From this time to the Revolutionary period thereseems to have been little change. If some outsiderscame to the town, on the other hand a goodly pro-portion of the townspeople went afield in search ofhome and fortune elsewhere. Progress during these years of transformationshowed itself in purely secular forms, as well as inefforts to further the spiritual welfare of those con-cerned. By June, 1729, population had so increasedthat the more remote inhabitants* from such cen-tres of activity as existed were put to great troubleand difficulty, in prosecuting their affairs in thecommon course of justice. It was to mitigate this hardship that the colonywas divided into three distinct and separate coun-ties, namely, — Newport, Kings, and Providence;in each of which was to be forthwith erected . . .one County House, and one County Goal

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