Person:Richard Scott (27)

Richard was a shoemaker who settled first at Boston before removing to Providence by 1638. He was the deputy to Providence for the Rhode Island General Assembly once in 1666, and appears in a handful of land transactions. Richard's wife was the sister of the infamous Anne Hutchinson. However, he and his wife do not appear listed among her core supporters. Richard Scott was present at her church trial at Boston on 15 March 1637/8 and spoke only once, in her defense: “I desire to propound this one scruple which keeps me that I cannot so freely in my spirit give way to Excommunication. Whether it were not better to give her a little time to consider of the things that is …vised against her, because she is not yet convinced of her lie and so things is with her in distraction, and she can not recollect her thoughts” [Antinomian Controversy 386].

Sometime between late 1638 and early 1640, Richard Scott was the first signer of a petition of those “desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence” [PrTR 1:1; RICR 1:14]. (Chapin argued for this dating of the document, and that it comprised “the young men … and also the new-comers” who were admitted after the agreement of 8 October 1638 [Chapin 1:90-91, 96-98].) On 27 July 1640, Richard Scott signed the Combination, which firmly established the government of the town of Providence [PrTR 15:2-5; RICR 1:27-31; Chapin 1:110-15].

He apparently did not leave a will, but, on 27 April 1686, “Epenetus Olney & John Whipple both of the town of Providence” deposed that “nine years since or thereabouts, being on board of the vessel that then Henry Beere was master of, there being also aboard Richard Scott of the town & colony aforesaid (with several others), the said Richard Scott desired these deponents to come to him into the cabin, & desiring us to be witnesses to what he would declare, as to some of his granddaughters, did declare … that he the said Richard Scott (by the great desire of his wife) had freely given & granted unto his three granddaughters, Sarah Scott, Mary Scott, & Katheren Scott, his fifty-acre division of upland & meadow between the seven-mile line & the four-mile line” [PrTR 14:131]. “In the beginning of March” 1681, there was laid out to “Sarah Scott, Katheren Scott, & Mary Scott, granddaughters to Richard Scott of the town of Providence (now deceased) & in the right of the said Richard Scott seventy acres of land it being the full of the right of the said Richard Scott arising to him in the second division, or fifty-acre division, and by the said Richard Scot with the free consent of his wife hath freely given to the said Sarah, Katherne, & Mary Scott the said land” [PrTR 14:94-95]. On 28 March 1691, “Rebeckah Whipple of Providence” sold to “Isaac Hernden of Providence … a certain parcel of land containing by estimation seventy acres … it being the full of the right of Richard Scott, deceased, and freely given to his three granddaughters, Sarah Scott, Katheren Scott, & Mary Scott, and now at the disposition of the said Rebeckah Whipple, as by a certain instrument from under all their hands & seals …, which said piece of land is about eight miles distant from the said town of Providence” [PrTR 4:233-35]. (These three granddaughters were the daughters of John Scott, son of Richard. Rebecca Whipple, who made the sale in 1691, was the remarried widow of John Scott.)

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Richard Scott , in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   see also [1].

   BIRTH: Baptized Glemsford, Suffolk, 9 September 1605, son of Edward Scott. (In his will of 9 September 1640, “George Scott of London, merchant,” referred to “my dear loving father Edward Scott the elder of Glemsford in the County of Suffolk, clothier,” and made a bequest to “my brother Richard Scott now resident in New England” [Waters 1287-88, abstracting PCC 51 Cambell]. In his will of 26 December 1642, Edward Scott of Glemsford, clothier, included bequests to “James Scott, eldest son of Richard Scott, my son,” to “John Scott, second son of Richard Scott, my son,” and to “the children of my said son Richard Scott, born or to be born, his said two sons James Scott and John Scott excepted” [Richard LeBaron Bowen, Collected Papers: Armorial, Gen ealogical, and Historical (Rehoboth, Massachusetts, 1959), in “Scott Family English Research,” 6-8, citing PCC 37 Crane].)
   
   DEATH: By 1 July 1679 [PrTR 15:189].
   MARRIAGE: Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, 7 June 1632, Katherine Marbury, daughter of Francis and Bridget (Dryden) Marbury [TAG 16:81-88]. “Katharine Scott, aged 70 years, widow of Richard, Providence, died at Newport, May 2, 1687” [RIVR 7:119].

2. ↑ Tables of Contents of the Land and Notarial Records of R.I., in Rhode Island Roots. (Cumberland, Rhode Island: The Rhode Island Genealogical Society)
   June 1988.

   Acknowledgement of Rogert Williams of sale of Patience Island to Richard Scott in 1651. 1 August 1682. Witnesses: Arthur Fenner Jr., Joseph Jenckes. (3:149)
   
   -Deed from Richard Scott to Christopher Holder (husband of Mary Scott Holder). Patience Island, 26 Feb 1675/6. Witnesses: Thomas Clifton, Walter Clarke, Walter Newberry. (3:148, 149)

Founders of Providence, Rhode Island

Roger Williams was exiled from Massachusetts Bay in June 1636 for his religious beliefs. He settled the area now known as Providence with a few others, and two years in 1638 purchased it from the Narragansett. He then deeded 12/13 of it to twelve other religious dissenters known as the "Original Proprietors." There also exists in City Hall in Providence a manuscript that purports to show the lands of the first settlers, as originally allotted. It is undated, but appears to have been created before about 1650. First Comers with Williams: William Arnold, John Smith, William Harris, Francis Wickes, and possibly Joshua Verin and Thomas Angell Original Proprietors: Stukely Westcott, William Arnold, William Carpenter, John Greene, Thomas James, Robert Cole, William Harris, Thomas Olney, John Throckmorton, Francis Weston, Richard Waterman and Ezekiel Holliman. Other early landowners (from south to north): Robert Williams - Christopher Unthank - William Hawkins - Robert West - Hugh Bewitt - John Lippitt - Matthew Weston - Edward Hart - Thomas Hopkins - Widow Sayer - Widow Tiler - Nicholas Power - William Wickenden - William Man - William Burrow - Adam Goodwin - Thomas Harris - Joshua Winsor - John Field - William Field - Richard Scott - George Rickard - John Warner - Chad Brown - Daniel Abbott - William Reynods - John Sweet - Alice Daniels - Widow Reeve - Benedict Arnold - John Greene Jr. - Edward Manton - Thomas Painter - Matthew Waller - Gregory Dexter Resources: History of the State of Rhode Island - Lands and Houses of the First Settlers of Providence Current Location: Newport County, Rhode Island   Parent Towns: Boston   Daughter Towns: Newport