Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/207

 END OF RANiaNG. 161 In 1681 Mr. James Brown senior, Mr. John Allen senior and John Butterworth, were elected the committee for the admission of inhabitants, and they granted to Capt. John Browne, Ensign Thomas Estabrooke, Serjeant Samuel Luther, Serjeant Hugh Cole, and Mr. Nicholas Tanner, their heirs and assigns forever, " the full right and interest of the highest rank, &c." The ranking system had already created a landed aristoc- racy. This act of the committee proceeded a step further and made the highest rank hereditary. The inhabitants of the town began to understand the tendency of their extra- ordinary rules on this subject. Although great dissatisfac- tion had been caused by the several assignments of ranks and the promotions and degradations from rank to rank, the townsmen had not been able to see the purely undemo- cratic character and tendency of their ordinance, until the further singular, but logical actions of the committee occa- sioned a unanimous protest on the part of the town, and a declaration that the act was utterly void and of no effect. From this time, the ranking system went into disuse, only occasional reference being made to it thereafter. 11