History of Little Compton, Rhode Island, USA

The first European settlers in Little Compton were Englishmen from Duxbury, Massachusetts in the Plymouth Colony who sought to expand their land holdings. After first attempting negotiations with Awashonks, they petitioned the Plymouth Colony, which granted them their charter. In a series of lotteries beginning in 1674 and ending in the early 1680s, they divided the land in Little Compton into lots of standard sizes and began settling there.

Little-Compton is a wealthy maritime and agricultural township, situated in the southeastern extremity of the county and State, 30 miles southeast of Providence; bounded on the north by Tiverton, on the east by the State of Massachusetts, on the south by the Atlantic ocean, and on the west by the east passage of the Narragansett bay. The average length of the township, from north to south, is about 7 miles, and its mean breadth, from east to west, is 4 miles, comprising an area of about 28 square miles.

The form of the southern section of the township is that of a peninsula, inclining to a point. The surface is pleasantly diversified. The soil is a deep loam, rich in agricultural resources, and the means of wealth derived from this branch of industry.

The agricultural productions are abundant, and consist of the various articles common to this region. The town is one of the most flourishing agricultural districts in the State. Barley constitutes a staple production, large...

Hesekiah Willibor, of Little Compton, Rhode Island, has been tried at Newport for an attempt to commit murder, found guilty, and sentenced to pay $50, and be imprisoned 3 months. Willibor had paid his addresses to a young woman, but having been discarded, he had been heard to utter threats of revenge, and soon after this a gun was discharged into the chamber in which she slept, and the ball struck within two feet of her head. The evidence against him was altogether circumstantial.

Little Compton, Rhode Island
Newport county. This very pleasant town, the Indian Seaconnet, lies on the ocean at the eastern entrance into Narraganset bay, 9 miles E. by N. from Newport, 30 S.S.E. from Providence, and 12 S. from Fall River, Mass. The soil of the town is uncommonly fertile, and being cultivated by an industrious class of men, is very productive of corn and other grain; beef, pork, butter, cheese, and wool.

Seaconnet Rocks, at the southeastern extremity of the town, where a break-water has been erected by the government, is well known to sailors, and memorable as the place where a treaty was made between the English and the Queen of the powerful Seaconnet tribe in 1674. That tribe is now extinct: Seaconnet Rocks is their only monument.

Little Compton is becoming celebrated as a place of resort, in summer months, for sea air and bathing; and very justly so, for very few parts of our coast exhibit a more interesting location.

Little Compton, a post-township of Newport co., Rhode Island, on the Atlantic, 30 miles S. S. E. from Providence. Pop., 1462.