Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/172

 130 THE HISTORY OF BAllEINGTON. Mattapoisett or Gardner's Neck, to attend Mr. Myles's preaching on the Lord's day. His interest in matters of education was second only to his desire to spread the Gospel. In 1673, the town voted to establish a school "for the teaching of grammar, rhetoric, and arithmetic and the tongues of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, also to read English and to write." Of this school Mr. Myles was invited to be schoolmaster, at a salary of " forty pounds per annum in current country funds." He accepted and performed the duties of minister and schoolmaster until the settlement was broken up by the Indian war. This school was kept in the several neighborhoods of the town m different portions of the year, so that the reverend school- master not only enjoyed the privilege of boarding among his school parishioners, but also of carrying the means of a literary education from one community to another over the town. Then, as now, the clergy did not grow rich from the people. Some of the inhabitants saw no necessity of a schoolmaster and others argued against paying his salary as a minister, and between both difficulties Mr. Myles secured but a lean support. When Philip's War opened in 1675, Mr. Myles's house was fortified and was known as the Myles's Garrison. Here the troops collected at the first outbreak, and Mr. Myles was among the foremost in the defence of the infant settlement, holding the position of captain. At the close of the war, the pastor found the membership of his church and society so scattered that he was obliged to seek a support elsewhere. Boston, Providence, and Newport had become the only places of safety and sympathy for Baptist believers, and he preached in Boston for a considerable time after leaving his home in Swansea. Mr. Sprague, who in those times joined the Baptist Church in Providence, in writing to Massachu- setts many years after says, " Why do you strive toper- suade the rising generation that you never persecuted nor hurt the Baptists, which is so apparently false .-• Did you not barbarously scourge Mr. Baker of Cambridge, the chief