| Notes |
- "John Harndel, was a juryman at Newport RI in 1673, according to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island which goes on to give the following item: '1678 June 12 A very great hurt having been done to a small child by fast riding; it was enacted by the Assembly that any person presuming to ride a horse at a gallop, &c., in any street between the house that lately John Harndel lived in, and the house where Thomas Clifton lives, shall for the offence pay 5s. fine.' This is certainly one of the first laws against speeding in New England! John Harndel's will, dated 9 Feb 1685 and proved 22 Apr 1698, says, 'To daughter Rebecca, wife of Hugh Mosher, of Portsmouth, a good ewe sheep.' Austin gives his date of death as 6 Feb 1687. It seems a long time between that and the probate." (Bonnie Hubbard)
The following is from STAGECOACH and TAVERN DAYS:
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ROMANCE OF THE ROAD
THE traveller In the old stage-coach was not tantalized by the fleeting half-glimpse of places which we gain in railroad travel to-day. He had ample time to view any unusual or beautiful spot as he passed, he had leisure to make inquiry did he so desire, he had also many minutes, nay hours, to hear any traveller's tale that could be told him by a fellow-journeyer or by the driver. This last-named companion, going over the stage road day after day, talking constantly, querying frequently, grew deeply versed in its lore, its history. He knew the gossip, too, of each house he passed, he knew the traditions and tales of each locality; hence in his company every mile of the road had some point of deep interest.
Roger Mowry's Tavern was the first one established in the town of Providence. It escaped destruction in King Philip's War, when nearly all the town was burned, and stood till the present day. When a coach started out from that old tavern, it passed the burying ground and a dense growth of barberry bushes which grew along the roadside. There seems to have been, in many places, a suspicion of uncanny reputation connected with barberry bushes. In one spot a dense group of bushes was said to harbor a vast snake; in another it shaded an Indian's grave; a third concealed a ghost. The barberry was not a native of America; it is an immigrant, and has the further ill name of blasting any wheat near which it is planted. The grewsome growth of barberry bushes near Mowry's Tavern was the scene of the first serious crime of the settlement of Providence Plantations. The town carpenter, a thrifty and much respected young man named Clauson, much beloved by Roger Williams, was found dying one winter morning in 1660 near "a clump of barberry bushes" at the parting of the paths "near Roger Mowry's Tavern." His head was cloven open with an axe, and the dying man accused a neighbor named Herndon of being the instigator of the crime; and with a spirit never learned from his old master, the gentle Williams, he left a terrible curse upon the children and children's children of John Herndon, that they should ever "be marked with split chins and be haunted by barberry bushes." An Indian named Wanmanitt was arrested for having done this terrible deed, and was locked up in the Mowry Tavern. He was probably executed for it, though the town records only contain a preliminary story of his trial. With bills for interpreters and for a boat and guard and powder and shot and liquor, all to go with the prisoner to Newport jail, the Indian murderer vanishes down the bay out of history. John Herndon lived on peacefully for many years, branded, doubtless, in the minds of many; but there is no record that the futile imprecation of the dying man ever was fulfilled.
The following is from The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations:
Vol. 3 Chapter XLI. Some Rhode Island Landmarks
The Roger Mowry Tavern - Roger Mowry came from Salem prior to 1650, and in May, 1655, he was granted a license to keep a house of entertainment in Providense. The "ordinarie's brew" may have been sipped too often or too long; for in the course of the next half-dozen years the assembly decreed that "no howse of entertainment shall suffer any person to tipple after 9 of the clock at night, except they give a satisfactory reason to the Constable or magistrate." The penalty for disobeying this decree was of five shillings for the tavern-keeper and two shillings and sixpence for the person who "tippled."
Events of interest cluster about the old tavern. When John Clawson, a Dutch carpenter, was found dying one cold December morning in 1661 from a blow dealt by a broad-axe, at once his murderer was sought, and finally Waumanitt, an Indian, was charged with the crime and taken prisoner. There was apparently much difficulty in disposing of him. The charge for irons which the local blacksmith forged was considerable for a colony where shillings were scarce, and there was no prison in Providence to hold the captive. So he was removed to Roger Mowry's Tavern, and there kept until other disposition was made of him, Though exactly what was done is not recorded. It is stated that he was sent to Newport, and that Landlord Mowry presented his bill for housing Waumanitt. The tale went that Clawson, the slain man, had quarreled violently with a neighbor, and that it was this neighbor, Hearndon by name, who killed Clawson, by whom he was recognized. It was said that Clawson roused sufficiently before he died to pronounce a curse against the Hearndons, - that he hoped they would bear split chins and be haunted for the rest of their natural lives by barberry-bushes (near a clump of these bushes Clawson was slain); and it is said that split chins for generations marked the Hearndons.
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1619 - 1685 (66 years)