“A supposed murder committed on the body of one Henry Sparker”

Yesterday I quoted from the 9 May 1768 Boston Chronicle about a fatal dispute in Newport, Rhode Island.

That same day, Solomon Southwick of the Newport Mercury (his house shown here) ran his first report about the same event:

On the Night following [another event], between 11 and 12 o’Clock, as Mr. Henry Sparker, Shoe-Maker, of this Town, and Mr. Philip Dexter of Providence, being in Company with some of the People belonging to his Majesty’s Sloop Senegal, now in this Harbour, commanded by Capt. [Thomas] Cookson, a Difference happened between them, which ended in a very tragical Manner; Sparker being run almost thro’ the Body, with a Sword, as ’tis supposed; by which he died in about an Hour after; and Dexter received a Stab in his right Side, and had his head very much cut and mangled, by which his Life is still in Danger.

The Senegal’s Men concerned in this unhappy Affair are Mr. Robert Young, Mate, Mr. Thomas Careless, and Mr. Charles John Marshall, Midship-men; who are now confined in his Majesty’s Jail in this Town, and are to have their Trial on the first Monday in June next. As yet it seems to be a little uncertain who were the first Aggressors in this melancholy Event, the Particulars must therefore be deferred till after the Trial.

The June trial date was notable in itself. Ordinarily the colony’s superior court wouldn’t have convened until September. But on 4 May, the day after the arrest of the three naval officers, the Rhode Island legislature convened and approved

An Act empowering the justices of the superior court of judicature, court of assize and general jail delivery, to meet and hold a special court, for the trial of Thomas Careless, Charles John Marshall and Robert Young, officers on board His Majesty’s ship of war, the Senegal, now lying at anchor in the harbor of Newport, who stand committed to His Majesty’s jail, in Newport, for a supposed murder committed on the body of one Henry Sparker, in the night time, on Tuesday, the 3d day of this instant May.

The stated reason for not waiting until September was that “His Majesty’s service, by their detention in jail until that time, may greatly suffer.”

The Newport Mercury report differs in some notable ways from what the Boston Chronicle stated the same day. Most significantly, the local newspaper identified the dead man as shoemaker Henry Sparker instead of a “Dutchman” (Dutch or German?) named Nichols. It said the other American in the fight, Philip Dexter, was from Providence rather than a Newport sailor. It said that Robert Young was a mate, not merely a midshipman, on H.M.S. Senegal. Presumably these details are more reliable than the report printed off in the neighboring colony.

On the other hand, the Newport Mercury said much less about the “melancholy Event” itself than the Massachusetts paper. There was no mention of the dispute starting at “a house of ill fame” or description of how the violence developed. Southwick left out Sheriff Joseph G. Wanton’s difficulty in securing the three officers from an angry, defiant crowd. Some of those omissions might be due to how the local readership had already heard a lot about the killing over the preceding week. But the Mercury was also making its home base look better.

On 3 June, exactly one month after the fatal fight, attorney general Oliver Arnold prosecuted Young, Careless, and Marshall on the charge of murder.

COMING UP: Well, of course I was going to break here, wasn’t I?

“About midnight a fray happened at a house of bad fame”

On 3 May 1768, a man was killed in Newport, Rhode Island.

This is how the 9 May Boston Chronicle reported the incident:

We hear from Newport, that on Tuesday the 3d inst. about midnight a fray happened at a house of bad fame there, between some of the officers of the Senegal man of war on that station, one Nichols a Dutchman a shoemaker, and one Dexter a sailor, both belonging to Newport.—

It began in the house with high words, during which Dexter put out the candle, and a scuffle ensuing one of the officers had his nose cut off, then Nichols and Dexter went away, and the people belonging to the man of war, went to a doctor’s—

Soon after their departure, it is said, Dexter having changed his dress, came back to the house with a club stuck with nails, threatening to search it, but on being answered they were not there, after some time departed, they however unluckily met again in the street, came to blows, when Nichols and Dexter were both run through the body—the Dutchman immediately ran home, called out that he was a gone man, and died in a few minutes. Dexter was alive when the post came away, but, it was thought could not long survive.

Next day an application being made to Capt. [Thomas] Cookson, of the Senegal, he expressed much sorrow for what had happened, accompanied the sheriff [Joseph G. Wanton] on board his ship, and delivered up his officers to the civil authority; a vast concourse of people attended their landing, and threatened to dispatch them; but by the prudent management of the sheriff, they were safely conducted to the court house, followed by the croud, where they were examined, and afterwards committed to gaol.

During the examination, several of the croud behaved with such indecency to the judges, that they ordered the sheriff to carry them to gaol, but the mob prevented him from putting their orders in execution.

There was no overt political aspect to this dispute. But, according to Wilkins Updike’s Memoirs of the Rhode-Island Bar (1842), it “excited an intense interest growing out of the exasperated state of animosity existing between this country and Great Britain, respecting the Stamp act.” So the mob threatened to lynch the naval officers and defied their own judges.

Or did they? This account of the killing contained a serious inaccuracy: the name of the dead man. So how many of the other details didn’t reach the Boston press intact?

TOMORROW: The report from Newport.

The Mystery of John Webber

As quoted earlier, the 3 Sept 1765 Newport Mercury blamed “An Irish young Fellow, who had been but a few Days in the Town,” for fomenting more unrest just when town leaders thought their protest against the Stamp Act had reached a satisfying end.

The Rhode Island newspaper thus absolved the town of full blame for the ongoing violence and class conflict. (Similarly, Whigs in Boston liked to blame riots on sailors, blacks, boys, and occasionally “teagues”—anyone but the white men of the community.)

The Newport paper didn’t report the name of that “young Fellow.” Other records indicate that he was named John Webber. On 4 Nov 1765, the Mercury reported:

During last Week two threatning Letters were dropped at the Door of Joseph G. Wanton, Esq; High Sheriff of this County, imparting, that unless he released one John Webber, committed about 2 Months since, being charged by the King’s Attorney [Augustus Johnston] for his Crimes and Misdemeanors, they would effect his Release by Violence; and likewise threatened Mr. Wanton’s House with Destruction.

To prevent the intended Mischief, a Number of Persons patroled the Streets last Friday Night, and discovered nothing of the expected Outrage: But the Night following the Gaol was surrounded by between 20 and 30 Men; an Alarm was given, and they immediately dispersed, but not without losing two of their Company, said to be the Ringleaders, who were seized; and instead of releasing their Associate in Prison, were forced to take up their Residence in the same Place.—

That Mr. Wanton’s Property should be threatened with Injury, by those abandoned Villains, is very extraordinary; as no Person is more zealous in defending the Rights of his Country than he, and consequently detests and abhors Stamp-Act Projectors and Abbettors, of all Kinds. It is therefore presumed, that the Inhabitants of this Town will manifest a due Resentment in his Behalf.

John Webber, mentioned above, endeavored to hang himself last Friday [1 November], but was prevented by a Person’s entering his Apartment just as he was perpetrating the Act.

The Authority have appointed a Military Watch, in order to suppress any Riots which may happen in Town.

As of February 1766, Rhode Island assembly records show, Webber was still in the Newport County jail. He was then deemed too poor to support himself, so the colony reimbursed the jailer for buying him food.

In 1999 the Newport Historical Society published a paper titled “Who Was John Webber?” by Ruth Kennedy Myers and Bradford A. Becken. I haven’t been able to access it, but the abstract says those authors regretted not being able to ferret out much more information about Webber. The paper probably cites the following items.

The Newport Mercury for 8 May 1784 reported the death of a man with the same name and approximate age of the crowd leader nineteen years before, but said he was from southwestern England instead of Ireland:

On Tuesday Morning last died of a Dropsy in this Town, in the 42d Year of his Age, Mr. JOHN WEBBER, late of Stratton, in the County of Somerset, Great-Britain, and on Wednesday his Remains were decently interr’d in Trinity Church-Yard.

This John Webber’s gravestone is still in that cemetery, as shown above (via Find a Grave), giving the same information about his origin. He must have been prominent enough in Newport for his death to warrant a full paragraph in the newspaper, yet the newspaper saw no reason to explain why he was prominent.

The carved stones (head and foot) suggest that Webber had notable property when he died, as did an advertisement that appeared in the 5 June Mercury inviting people to an auction of his effects to be held “near the Rev. Dr. [Ezra] Stiles’s Meeting-House.” Those effects included:

• “a complete Set of surveying Instruments”
• “a Camera Obscura”
• “Mahogany writing Desk”
• “a few Medicines and Surgeon’s Instruments”
• “a neat fowling Piece”

Had John Webber prospered in the two decades since the Stamp Act riots (including years that were very hard for Newport)? What had he done during the war, when Newport was occupied by the British military? All those things remain obscure.