THE TAKING OF THE LAND 1659-1755

Excerpt from Foster, Rhode Island, Statewide Historical Preservation Report P-F-1,

RI Historical Preservation Commission, June 1982, Page 5

"The tract they bought from Narragansett sachems Newcome and Awashouse,

 known as "Wishquatnoqke" soon anglicized to Westconnaug---"

The initial purchase of land in what eventually became Foster was made by the settlers at Providence in

1659. Authorized by the Colonial General Assembly to "buy out and clear off" the Indians inhabiting the area

west of the so-called Seven Mile Line, Providence’s western boundary at the time, the purchasers negotiated

three separate deeds with the Narragansetts, between May and December of 1659. The land they

acquired included most of what later became the towns of Foster, Scituate, Glocester, and Burrillville, and extended

Providence’s boundary to twenty miles west of Foxes Hill present Fox Point. The Providence Proprietors appointed

a committee to supervise the division of the "Providence Woods" or the "Outlands" as early as 1662, but it was not

until 1694, well after King Phillip’s War, that the first division of 150-acre shares took place. The actual surveying of

these lots did not begin until 1705.

A second purchase of land in the area which became Foster was made in 1662 by William Vaughan of Newport,

Zachariah Rhodes of Pawtuxet, and Robert Westcott of Warwick. The tract they bought from Narragansett sachems

Newcome and Awashouse, known as "Wishquatnoqke" soon anglicized to Westconnaug,

was about fifteen miles square and included, approximately, the southern halves of the present towns of

Foster and Scituate. Organization of the Westconnaug Company to apportion the land occurred in June, 1678,

by which time a number of influential Newporters had joined the original purchasers. Among them were

Samuel Cranston Governor from 1698 to 1727, Weston Clark Governor from 1696 to 1698 and Deputy

Governor from 1700 to 1714, and then-Governor William Wanton. Not until 1707, however, was any formal

action taken to divide the *Westconnaug lands. That year the Company admitted seven new partners and

appointed a surveyor.

(It was not until 1755 that the Providence Proprietors made their final division, and all lands included in the future

town of Foster were apportioned.)