Horse Raising in Colonial New England 925 



Narragansetts is g-iven in a letter written about 1847 and quoted by 

 Updike (169) in his History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett. 

 This describes how in 1791 an aged lady then living in Narragansett 

 rode one of these pacers on a lady's side-saddle to Plainfield, a dis- 

 tance of thirty miles, rode the next day to Hartford, forty miles, staid 

 in Hartford for two days, then rode forty miles to New Haven, then 

 forty miles to New London, and then home to Narragansett, forty 

 miles more. The lady claimed to have experienced no sensible fatigue. 



Because of the export trade with the West Indies, horses of any 

 sort would have been a valuable source of revenue to the Narragansett 

 planters,^^ and it is probable that many of the ordinary New England 

 stock were bred for this purpose in the region. But the cream of the 

 demand from the sugar planters was for saddle horses for personal 

 use, and for these they were willing and able to pay extravagant prices. 

 To this demand was added that of persons of means throughout all New 

 England and the other continental British colonies as well.^^ Thus, 

 in these unusual pacers, whose gait and general characteristics suited 

 them so admirably to such use, it is clear that the Narragansett dis- 

 trict had a very important source of revenue and one which probably 

 contributed in no small measure to its prosperity. 



The horses and other livestock of the Narragansett district designed 

 for exportation to the West Indies found an outlet through the various 

 ports on Narragansett Bay, or were driven to New London or Stonington 

 over the old Pequot trail, which had become the post road between 

 Boston and New York and Avhich passed through the center of the 

 region. Apparently many animals were shipped also directly from the 

 Narragansett country itself; Robert Hazard, for example, is said to 



" P>om the account book kept by Thomas Hazard, one of the wealthiest and most 

 prominent of the Narragansett planters, may be gleaned some idea of the prices received. 

 In 175S he sold a three-year-old at £150, and the next year a thirteen-year-old bay 

 " with a white nose " brought £70 ; while in 1755 a " black troting mare " brought 

 only £55. In 1763 a black mare sold for £244, but by that time the Rhode Island 

 currency had greatly depreciated in value and Mr. Hazard noted alongside that £7=1 

 Spanish Milled Dollar." In 1766. however, one " dark colored natural pacing horse Avith 

 some white on his face " brought the high price ' of fifty-five Spanish milled dollars. 

 (Hazard. TJiomas Hazard. S!nn of Roht., caU'd Cnllrrfc Tom,, p. fi."^.) 



^^ Watson (Annals of PhUadclphia and Pennsylvania, p. 209) gives an account of 

 one such shipment in 1711, as recorded in a letter written by a certain Rip van Dam 

 who had engineered the transaction on behalf of Jonathan Dickinson, of Philadelphia. 

 The horse was shipped from Rhode Island in a sloop, from which he jumped overboard 

 and swam ashore to his former home. Recaptured, he finally arrived in New York, 

 " after fourteen days passage much reduced in flesh and spirit." He cost £30 plus 

 50 shillings for freight, and was evidently an animal of spirit; he " would not stand 

 still but plays about all the time ; " he would " drink a glass of wine or beer or cider," 

 and Rip van Dam further opines that " he would drink a dram on a good cold morning," 



