Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/143

Rh Meadow Neck are about forty miles from Plymouth by the old Indian trail, and New Meadow Neck or Sowams, the residence of Massassoit, is "at the confluence of the two rivers in Rehoboth or Swansea."

IV. The joint deed of Massassoit and Philip to Thomas Prince, Thomas Willett and others in 1653 was of "Sowams and Parts adjacent."

This deed included the whole of Barrington or Sowams as the main body of the conveyance, with the fresh and salt meadows on the Kickemuit River, at Mount Hope and at Poppasquash as "The Parts Adjacent." The Proprietors' Records are styled "Memorial or Booke of Records of ye Severall Divisions and Bounds of ye Lands at Sowames als. Sowamsett & Parts Adjacent, purchased of ye Great Sachem Osamequin and Wamsetta his eldest Sonne by Certain Gentlemen of ye Ancient Inhabitants of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England."

This book of records, which is in the Town Clerk's office of Barrington, describes in particular the Sowams lands in Barrington, the original owners, and their successors, most of whom were residents of what is now Barrington, East Providence, Seekonk and Rehoboth. The last meeting of the Proprietors was held at the house of Elkanah Humphrey in Barrington, March 16th, 1797, at which Solomon Townsend was Moderator and General Thomas Allin was Clerk, both residents of Barrington.

These records clearly and conclusively show that the lands styled "Sowams," deeded by Massassoit and Philip in 1653, were held by the proprietary, their successors and assigns, for nearly one hundred and fifty years, when the ownership of the unsold lands was transferred to the towns of Barrington, Swansea or Rehoboth as their interests appeared. The meetings were usually called in the name of "The Proprietors of Sowams," although in several instances they are styled "The Proprietors of Phebe's Neck."

It is still further an important fact, worthy of notice, that the proprietors of Sowams divided the upland as well as