| Notes |
- Livermore's History of Block Island, Rhode Island, 1877
Bridgewater, Mass. Pages 268 to 286
CAPTAIN JAMES SANDS
The Sands family is traceable back into English history seven or
eight centuries, and at various times some of that name acted
conspicuous parts in national affairs, especially in the reigns
of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Sir William Sands, at that time, had
much to do in securing the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey, and in
sustaining charges against Pope Clement the VII. The American
family of this name probably sprang from that of a Mr. James Sands
of Staffordshire, England, who died in 1670, aged 140 years, and
his wife lived to the age of 120. Forty-eight years previous to
his death the subject of this sketch, Capt. James Sands, was born
in Reading, England, and. his father, Henry Sands, the first of
the name in New England, was admitted freeman of Boston in the
year 1640, thirty years before the death of the elder James Sands.
Thus we may infer, if not demonstrate, the line of relationship
between the English and American families of Sands.
Capt. James Sands, born in 1622, was a young man at the time the
noted Ann Hutchinson made so much disturbance among the good
people of Massachusetts, who banished her from the colony on
account of Antinomian preaching. She went to East Chester, N. Y.,
there settled, and employed Mr. Sands to build her a house, the
following account of which is given by the Rev. Samuel Niles, who
was the grandson of Mr. Sands.
"In order to pursue her purpose she agreed with Captain James
Sands, then a young man, to build her a house, and he took a
partner with him in the business. When they had near spent their
provisions, he sent his partner for more which was to be fetched
at a considerable distance. While his partner was gone there came
a company of Indians to the frame where he was at work, and made
a great shout, and sat down. After some time they gathered up his
tools, put his broad-ax on his shoulder, and his other tools into
his hands, and made signs to him to go away. But he seemed to
take no notice of them, but continued in his work. At length one
of them said, Ye-hah Mumuneketock, the English of which is, ?Come,
let us go,? and they all went away to the water-side for clams or
oysters. [They were near the Hudson river.] After some time they
came back, and found him still at work as before. They again
gathered up his tools, put them into his hands as before they had
done, with the like signs moving him to go away. He still seemed
to take no notice of them, but kept on his business, and when
they had stayed some time, they said as before, Ye-hah
Mumuneketock. Accordingly they all went away, and left him there
at his work - a remarkable instance of the restraining power of
God on the hearts of these furious and merciless infidels, who
otherwise would. doubtless in their rage have split out his
brains with his own ax. However, the Indians being gone, he
gathered up his tools and drew off, and in his way met his
partner bringing provisions, to whom he declared the narrow
escape he had made for his life. Resolving not to return, and run
a further risk of the like kind, they both went from the business."
Mrs. Hutchinson hired others to finish her house. Soon after she
with her whole family, sixteen in all, was murdered by the Indians.
It was in 1658 that Mr. Sands with his wife came from England and
landed at Plymouth, and soon after this he undertook the building
of the house for Mrs. Hutchinson.
A short time after his return from that undertaking to
Massachusetts, he became identified with the enterprise of
settling Block Island, three years after his arrival from England.
In what year he came to the Island we are not certain, for his
name does not appear among the sixteen who came here in April,
1661, nor is it in the list of those who met August 17, 1660, at
the house of Dr. John Alcock of Roxbury to buy the Island; and
yet, in the memorandum of the survey, his name is mentioned, and
also the numbers of the lots that constituted his sixteenth part
of the Island. This is sufficient to identify him with the first
purchasers and settlers thereof. His lots were numbered 12, and
14, and 15, the latter two owned by him and John Glover. He came
from Taunton to the Island, and was soon distinguished as a
prominent citizen.
In March, 1664, the General Assembly of Rhode Island notified the
inhabitants of Block Island that they were under the care of the
Rhode Island government, and at the same time informed James Sands,
then a freeman of Rhode Island, to come "in to the Governor or
deputy-Governor, to take his engagement as Constable or
Conservator of the peace there."
In May, 1664, Mr. Sands with Mr. Joseph Kent, presented to the
General Assembly of Rhode Island, a petition in behalf of the
Islanders that Joseph Kent, Thomas Terry, Peter George, Simon Ray,
William Harris, Samuel Bearing, John Rathbone, John Davies,
Samuel Staples, Hugh Williams, Robert Guthrig, William Tosh,
Tollman Bose, William Carboone, Tristrome Dodge, John Clark, and
William Barker might be admitted as freemen of the Colony of
Rhode Island. The Assembly referred the petition to a committee
consisting of Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, and Joseph Torrey,
who reported favorably upon all the above names except Hugh
Williams, against whom was a rumor of his having said some words
reproachful of the colony. After further examination as to his
loyalty, however, he was admitted freeman. Mr. Sands had been
previously admitted, and he is probably the James Sands mentioned
as a freeman in 1655, and as a representative of the General
Court of Commissioners, held at Newport, May the 19th, 1657.
(Col. Rec., I, p. 300, 855.) Capt. James Sands, with Thomas Terry,
was the first representative from Block Island to sit in the
General Court of Commissioners of Rhode Island, admitted such in
1665. In 1672, he was foremost in presenting the petition to have
the Island incorporated under the name of New Shoreham, and the
General Assembly granted the request, but in so doing preserved
the old name Block Island, the chartered name being "New Shoreham,
otherwise Block Island."
He understood the carpenter?s trade, as is evident from what has
been said of his undertaking to build a house for Ann Hutchinson.
This knowledge helped him in erecting his own house on Block
Island. He located it a few feet east of the house now occupied
by Mr. Almanzo Littlefield, close to the mill and bridge on the
road from the Harbor to the Center, or Baptist church. He built
it of stone, and Rev. Samuel Niles, his grandson, frequently
speaks of it in his history of the Indian and French Wars. Our
evidence of its location is circumstantial, but conclusive.
There is not an individual on the Island, besides the writer,
probably, who can say with any degree of certainty where the
"garrisoned" house stood.
Mr. Sands was brave, humane, and a devoted. Christian as well as
an enterprising citizen. There was difference of opinion between
him and his grandson, Mr. Niles, to preclude the suspicion that
might arise in the minds of some that the latter overpraised the
former. Moreover, the latter wrote at too advanced. an age to be
prejudiced, or biased from the truth by personal considerations.
Mr. Sands? courage is seen in the following extract concerning
the Indians here and the few settlers: " The English, fearing
what might be their [the Indians?] design, as they were drinking,
dancing, and reveling after their usual customs at such times, *
* went to parley with them, and. to know what their intentions
were. James Sands, who was the leading man among them, entered
into a wigwam where he saw a very fine brass gun standing, and
an Indian fellow lying on a bench in the wigwam, probably to
guard and keep it. Mr. Sands? curiosity led him to take and view
it, as it made a curious and uncommon appearance. Upon which the
Indian fellow rises up hastily and snatches the gun out of his
hand, and withal gave him such a violent thrust with the butt end
of it as occasioned him to stagger backward. But feeling some
thing under his feet, he espied it to be a hoe, which he took up
and improved, and with it fell upon the Indian."
In another connection Mr. Wiles says of him: "He was a benefactor
to the poor; for as his house was garrisoned, in the time of
their fears of the Indians, many poor people resorted to it, and
were supported mostly from his liberality. He also was a promoter
of religion in his benefactions to the minister they had there
in his day, though not altogether so agreeable to him as might
be desired, as being inclined to the Anabaptist persuasion. He
devoted his house for the worship of God, where it was attended
every Lord?s day or Sabbath."
"Anabaptist" was then a term used to designate such as are now
called Baptists, and Mr. Sands? powerful influence did much to
establish Baptist sentiments on the Island.
That he was an enterprising citizen is evident from the simple
statement: " Mr. Sands had a plentiful estate, and gave free
entertainment to all gentlemen that came to the Island." To this
it is added: "When his house was garrisoned it became a hospital,
for several poor people resorted thither."
Such are the facts that furnish the outlines of one of the noblest
characters of New England. An intimate friend of Roger Williams,
the first freeman on the Island, the Orson representative from it
in the Rhode Island Assembly, the one who procured the
citizenships to the Islanders as freemen and presented to the
State the petition for the chartered rights of a township; making
his house the hospitable home of visitors from abroad, the
garrison, and the place of worship for the Islanders, and a
hospital for the poor and suffering. "He died in the 72d year of
his age," (Niles) and instead of the humble slab, from which the
letters and figures are so worn by time, in the Block Island
cemetery, lying over his grave, there should be erected a
monument more expressive of his great excellences. His simple
epitaph reads:
HRE LYES INTVRRED THE
BODY OF MR JAMES SANDS SENIOVR
AGED 73 YEARS WHO DEPARTED THIS
LIFE MARCH 13 A. D. 1695.
He represented Block Island in the Rhode Island General Assembly
in the years 1678, 1680, and 1690. His descendants are very
numerous, and some of them distinguished. Three of his four sons,
during the French privateering on the Island removed to Cow Neck,
now Sands Point, on Long Island. At the same time they retained
their farms and cattle on Block Island, to which they annually
returned in the summer. Their kinsman and intimate acquaintance,
Rev. Samuel Niles, says of them: " Captain John Sands, Mr. James,
and Samuel Sands, each of them leaving a farm at Block Island,
which they stocked with sheep, were wont to come once a year at
their shearing-time on the Island, to carry off their wool and
what fat sheep there were at that time and market at New York."
One of them, it seems, returned to remain permanently after the
French. had ceased their depredations, and of him we give the
following items.
MR. SANDS? STONE HOUSE, AND THE SANDS? GARRISON.
Their location is established, in the writer?s mind beyond a
doubt, by the following circumstantial evidence, to have been
nearly where Mr. Almanzo Littlefield?s residence is now standin
THE HOUSE.
That Captain James Sands had a stone house, used as a garrison
and hospital, in times of necessity, is admitted, and shown by
Mr. Niles? History.
1. His sixteenth of the Island - nearly all of it, as seen in
the original plat, a copy of which is in the possession of
Col. S. Ray Sands, embraces the house lot, and mill-pond now
owned by Mr. A. Littlefield.
2. Rev. Mr. Niles, grandson of Capt. J. Sands, lived some years
with his grandparents in the stone house, arid he says the
mill-pond was "near the house." He speaks of that pond as
having a "flume."
3. He says that house was "not far from the Harbor," which then
was the "Old Pier."
4. The house wss within musket shot of a French privateer lying
at the Pier. After the French had plundered it and returned
to their vessel they "fired many pens at the house," says
Mr. Niles, and adds: "I heard several bullets whistling over
my head."
5. When the French took the stone house they "set up their
standard on a hill on the back side of it" [the house].
After it had stood there some hours an English vessel hove
in sight, which "put the Frenchmen into a great surprise,"
whereupon:
6. They were seen "running up to their standard on the hill,
then down again, and others doing the like."
7. Mr. Niles, when the French landed, was "in fair sight of the
house," and at the same time "saw them coming from the
water-side," while just behind him was a "large swamp."
8. The outlines of a cellar still visible between the present
old water-mill and Mr. Almanzo Littlefield?s house, and he
states that part of a cellar-wall is there covered up.
9. No other mill-pond on the Island could have had a "flume,"
and a flume implies the presence of a mill.
10. The mill-pond now there has been there from the Most ancient
traditions.
11. Mrs. Sarah Sands, widow of the above James Sands, in her
will transmitted to her son the "mill," and the "mill" was
in the inventory of her husband?s estate soon after his
death.
12. The stone house of Mr. Sands was "garrisoned." This implies
the presence of a body of soldiers.
13. That garrison existed when the men of the Island were only
"sixteen and e boy."
14. The mill-pond and mill were near the house and garrison when
Mrs. Sands had "but one little child, a girl, just able to
run about and prattle a little" when she was drowned in said
mill-pond.
15. Said garrison was established in the time of "Philip?s War,"
as a protection against the Block Island Indians.
16. The earth work of an ancient garrison that commanded said
stone house on three sides, is now seen, directly east of
the spot where said house stood, and within pistol-shot of
it, with a sharp hill back of it or east of it, and adjacent
from which the whole region around. was visible to a
sentinel.
17. The "upland in a great swamp" to which Mr. Niles fled the
first time the French came to Mr. Sands? house, was a
convenient place of concealment, lying a short distance
northwest of the location of said house. The upland and
swamp remain, and are easily pointed out, lying a little
distance west of Erastus Rose?s house.
These documents are made available free to the public for non-commercial purposes by the Rhode Island
USGenWeb Project, 1998.
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1621 - 1695 (74 years)
