Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/406

 324 THE HISTORY OF BAREINGTOK. pounded for Church admission, and the men here met to pray, and on town meeting days to debate, to quarrel and to vote. Thus the years came and went in Harrington, in 1770. In 1774 the Colonial Census shows Harrington had 601 inhabitants, Warren, 979, Bristol, 1,209, Providence, 4,320, and Newport the metropolis of Rhode Island 9,209. The total population of the Colony was 59,678. The town had its own meeting-house near the spot where the present Con- gregational meeting-house now stands. The Bowen tavern was just north of it on the west side of the road. There were two ship yards on the east side of Barrington River near the present bridge, and one at Martin's Ferry. Duncan Kelley kept a toll ferry where the bridge now connects Bar- rington with Warren, and Nathaniel Martin ran a ferry- boat to and from Warren near the end of Ferry Lane. The Browns and Watsons lived at Nayatt ; the Smiths at Rum- stick ; the Martins and Bosworths at the ferry ; the Kelleys, the Bowens, the Tylers, and the Careys at the South End of New Meadow Neck ; the Drowns, the Shorts, the Martins, the Grants to the north, on the same Neck, The Bicknells cultivated the lands on the west side of Barrington River near the church. Solomon Townsend, the Town Clerk, son of Rev. Solomon Townsend, the venerable pastor of the Congregational Church, lived within a stone's throw of the Town Hall, in Happy Hollow, near the River. The Adams's, the Beans, Kinnicutts and Browns and Sylvester Allen had homes near what is now the Barrington Post Office. The Pecks, — Solomon, Nathaniel, Ebenezer, Joel and Amos, and the Heaths dwelt on the River in the north part of the Town. The Humphreys occupied the Centre and west of the town near the Allins with the Vialls and Medburys on the north at Wannamoissett, now East Provi- dence. All were honest, hard working, God-fearing farmers, of small means ; all sober, intelligent people, none making their mark on the pay-rolls of the militia ; all making their mark for patriotic service. With families accustomed to the work of the farm and educated in the school of industry