Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/565

 TOLL BRIDGE COMPANY. 459 the inhabitants of Warren and Bristol generally, which were presented to the general Assembly ; in consequence of which a Charter of Incorporation was granted to the Warren & Barrington Toll Bridge Company. According to the Charter, it was ordered that the bridge was to be built from Warren to Little Island, thence to Tyler's Point and thence to the old Ferry Lane in Barring- ton ; that convenient draws, each of a width of thirty feet, to be raised in fifteen minutes, were to be maintained for the passage of vessels in Palmer's and Barrington Rivers, that a good able bodied man was to tend the bridge who could raise and lower the draw ; an annual meeting was to be held for the election of a president, vice do., treasurer and secre- tary to be chosen by a majority of the shares ; that the tolls at the said bridges were to be the same as at Kelley's bridge, provided that officers and soldiers on training days going to and returning from parade, and children going to and from school be exempt ; that whenever the stock-holders were reimbursed for all expenditures, the General Assembly might reduce the rate of toll of the bridge, and that the bridge be completed within two years. Mr. Duncan Kelley, the owner of Kelley's Bridge evi- dently saw that " his craft was in danger," by the erection of a bridge so near his own across both rivers, and the people saw as clearly that it would be to their advantage to use Kelley's bridge instead of building another in the same neighborhood, accordingly we find as the result of an agree- ment between the parties in interest, that the charter was amended at the June session of the Assembly, 1802, so that the bridge " will prove more commodious to the public as well as the said Company." It was enacted, that "the bridge should be built a little further Northerly, making the Eastern abutment thereof at or near the wharf of Captain Jeremiah Bowen in New Meadow Neck and continuing the same across the said river in such course or direction as shall be found most convenient to the opposite shore in Bar- rington," that the draw be limited to twenty-six feet in