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Beriah Brown was born January 16, 1714/5, the son of Alexander and Honour (Huling) Brown. He first married Elizabeth Smith and second, in 1771, Elizabeth Babcock (1725–1815), daughter of George and Susannah Babcock.1 By his first wife, he had three sons and three daughters.2 Although he may never have been aware of it, Beriah Brown was descended from Richard Smith through a maternal line. He was Wilkins Updike’s third cousin; they both descended from Richard Smith through his daughter Katheryne’s marriage to Gysbert Opdyck in 1643. For this reason, it is entirely appropriate that his desk should come to reside at Smith’s Castle. Beriah Brown was first elected sheriff of Washington County in 1746, and held the position for 38 of 46 years until his death in 1792.3 He was involved in two prominent capital cases, one at the beginning and one near the end of his career. On the road below Tower Hill on midnight, January 1, 1751, Thomas Carter of Newport stabbed and killed William Jackson of Virginia for his money.4 At the time, Brown was not yet sheriff and not responsible for apprehending Carter, but he entered office soon after to preside over the May 10 execution. The Rev. James McSparran, a frequent visitor to the Updike house, delivered a lengthy sermon at the execution based on the quote from Saint Matthew V, 21, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill.” Carter was one of the last in Rhode Island to be “hanged in chains”—that is, hanged, then the body mounted in chains or irons and kept on display as a warning to others. Thomas R. Hazard (1797–1886) wrote that Carter was “hanged in gibbets, where the body remained until it dropped piecemeal from the irons to the ground beneath, where I have heard say the soil and verdure were for years after made rank and dark with blood.”5 Beriah Brown paid John DeGrand, the executioner, 50 pounds for his services.6 Sheriff Brown presided over another murderer’s execution at the end of his career, that of Thomas Mount in 1791. Most of Brown’s duties, however, were much less dramatic but nonetheless critical to those he served. Beriah Brown died on July 8, 1792 at the age of 77. His desk is not mentioned specifically in either his will or the inventory of his estate. In his will, he gives to his wife Elizabeth “all the household furniture that she brought me when I married her with two cows and the use of the best Rooms in my house where I now live.”7 The desk may have been part of Elizabeth Brown’s inheritance; a receipt in the Beriah Brown papers at the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS) archives, signed by Elizabeth Brown and dated April 8, 1793, notes “Then received of Beriah Waite & Beriah Brown Junr the Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Beriah Brown Esqr Late Deceased Two cows one mare and Rideing Chare Together with all and every matter of household furniture Given me by my Late Husband Beriah Brown Esqr.”8 When one sees the boxes at the RIHS containing a vast number of Brown’s papers, it is easy to imagine the Sheriff writing at his desk, stuffing communications in the pigeon holes, or filing important documents in its drawers. Beriah Brown’s desk [1964.1.2] was donated to Smith’s Castle by Mrs. Ralph Sommerville of Portland, Maine, in 1964. Research for this article yielded no clues as to how Mrs. Sommerville was related to Beriah Brown, and the RIHS, which also has Beriah Brown items donated by Mrs. Sommerville, has no further information about their provenance. Collections Committee records describe the desk as a “Rhode Island Fall-Front Desk” made of cherry wood and chestnut. It has ogee bracketed feet and four graduated drawers with bail brasses and key holes. The cabinet work has a shellcarved blocked door in the center flanked by two pigeon holes with two small drawers under a single top drawer. The desk stands 43 inches high and is 39 inches deep. The piece is in good condition except for a replaced right rear leg. Mrs. Sommerville also donated a photograph of Beriah Brown’s house as it stood in North Kingstown about 1938 [1964.1.3]. The Brown house was located on the west side of Route 2, just north of the intersection with Route 102 (approximately across from the Gregg’s Restaurant). Like most homes of the period, it no doubt faced south. The house was built before 1709 by Beriah Brown’s grandfather of the same name, and the cellar is said to have contained cells and barred windows that the sheriff used for prisoners.9 Threatened with demolition in the late 1960s, the structure was dismantled and rebuilt in Newport in 1972, thanks to the foresight of Doris Duke’s Newport Restoration Foundation. The house now sits near Trinity Church, facing west toward its former home. Death of Beriah Brown Provokes Law Enforcement Crisis In South County On July 10, 1792 Tom Hazard noted in his diary that “old Briah [sic] Brown died night before last.” A week later the Newport Gazette included a brief obituary: “At North Kingstown, in an advanced Age, Beriah Brown, Esq. for many years sheriff of the County of Washington—A Gentleman highly and deservedly respected.” With no provision in the Rhode Island legal system for deputy sheriffs to continue to act on the instructions of the judiciary, Brown’s death caused an unexpected crisis in the state. Governor Arthur Fenner, concerned that representatives would be reluctant to leave their farms during peak harvesting, was nonetheless forced to call the legislature into special session as quickly as possible. In addressing the legislature on August 9, Fenner praised Beriah Brown as a man “who discharged the duties of an important office with fidelity, sustaining the best of characters, that of an honest man, and of a worthy citizen.” Few individuals, he said, were more generally approved; few had served so long and so repeatedly. Fenner pleaded with the legislature to take action. The course of justice itself in Washington County had been interrupted because deputy sheriffs lacked all authority to act. The legislature responded to the governor’s appeal by electing Nicholas Gardner, Jr. the new sheriff for Washington County and by passing a law affirming the authority of deputy sheriffs, following the death or resignation of sheriffs. The critical role of the sheriff in executing judicial decisions was never more clearly demonstrated. Identity of Beriah Brown Desk Donor Discovered In the Summer 2002 issue of the Chronicle, we highlighted the desk owned by Beriah Brown, highsheriff of Washington County. We noted that the desk was donated to the Castle by a Mrs. Ralph Sommerville, but her identity was unknown. Subsequent genealogical research has discovered her identity and her relationship to Sheriff Brown. Mrs. Ralph Sommerville was Mattie D. Hall, and Beriah Brown was her third great grandfather. Mattie D. Sommerville died in Portland, Maine, in September 1964. This goes a long way to confirming the provenance of this piece, as well as other “Beriah Brown” pieces Sommerville donated to the Castle and to RIHS. The following genealogical sketch begins with the sheriff’s generation and follows the direct bloodline down to Mattie Hall. 1. Beriah Brown (1715–1792) m. Elizabeth Smith (?-?) 2. Beriah Brown (1744–1819) m.c.1782 Amy Shearman (1746–1799) 3. Beriah Brown (1768–1854) m.1794 Penelope Spencer (1776–1817) 4. Amy Ann Brown (1806–1892) m. 1826/1828 Isaac Hall (1798–?) 5. George Brown Hall (1835–1904) m.c.1870 Marietta Aldrich(c.1842–aft.1920) 6. Mattie D. Hall (c.1875–1964) m. 1909 Ralph M. Sommerville(c.1885–?) References 1. See Alden G. Beaman, “The Family of Alexander Brown of Kingstowne,” Rhode Island Genealogical Register, 11:233–235. 2. Althea H. McAleer, et al., Graveyards of North Kingstown, Rhode Island (North Kingstown, privately published, 1992), Lot 96: [np]. 3. Christopher Bickford, “Washington County Sheriffs and Jailers, 1790– 1956” (unpublished manuscript for Pettaquamscutt Historical Society exhibition, 2002). 4. Federal Writers’ Project, Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937) 332. 5. Thomas Robinson Hazard, The Jonny- Cake Papers of “Shepherd Tom” (Boston: Merrymount Press, 1915) 180. 6. “Selections from the Sheriff Beriah Brown Papers,” The Narragansett Historical Register, 1(1882–1883) 215. 7. Will of Beriah Brown, dated June [?], 1789, proved 11 July 1792, North Kingstown Probate Records 12:156– 161. 8. Beriah Brown Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscript Division, Box 6, Folder 7. 9. C. Hunter White, Wickford and Its Old Houses; North Kingstown, Its Houses and Sites (Wickford, Main Street Association, May 1960), 74. See also Antoinenette Downing, Early Homes of Rhode Island (Richmond, Virginia: Garrett & Massie, 1937), 85; a drawing of a mantel in the house appears on page 93. |
