Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/349

 CHAPTER XIX FROM MASSACHUSETTS BAY TO RHODE ISLAND — BARRINGTON RENAMED WARREN. Claimants to Rhode Island Territory — Claims of Rhode Island — Labors of John Clarke — Sir Robert Car — Long Struggle — Joint Commis- sion of 1741 — Appeals of Massachusetts and Rhode Island — Decree of King — Towns Added to Rhode Island — Bariington Loss and Gain — N^ew Town Formed — Named Warren by the General Assembly — Why So Called — Value of the Six Towns Added to Rhode Island. RHODE Island has made a gallant fight for every inch of the soil within her present boundary lines. The contest was continued for more than a century between Rhode Island, single-handed and alone on the one side, and the Colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New York on the other. On the East, Plymouth and the Bay Colonies claimed the territory to Narragansett Bay and the Patuckquet River. Connecticut and New York laid claim to all territory west of the Bay, and, between the claims of these great contestants, the little colony of Rhode Island had apparently a small chance for an independent life. It is only concerning the Eastern boundary that we of Barrington are interested at the present time. By the commission of King James to John Carver, William Brad- ford and others, in 1620, and by deed from King Charles I., under date of November 6, 1627, confirmed further by letters patent from Charles II., under date of January 13, 1629, the founders of New Plymouth claimed and held the territory *' from the mouth of the said river called Narra- gansett River to the utmost limits and bounds of a countrey called Pokenacutt als. Puckenakick als. Sawaamsett West-