April 22 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EDT
Stop by during school vacation week and make woven bookmarks to use with your current book!
All are welcome!
Drop-in activity, no registration required.
Join us for our upcoming Exhibit Preview Party on July 3rd from 6-8pm!
June 6 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EDT
Learn about the lives of the Wilbors over six generations, 1690-1920, with a guided tour of the c. 1691 historic house. Wilbor Hour Tours are inlcuded in the price of admission for the historical society exhibits.
Admission free to members and children under 5, $10 adult, or $5 for kids 5-12. Last admission at 4:30 PM.
Speaker: Jennifer Rycenga, Ph.D.
March 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT
No one evoked the beauties of Little Compton more than George Shepard Burleigh (1821-1903), except maybe his son, Sydney Richmond Burleigh, in painting. But George was much more than a lover of nature. Burleigh was the youngest child from a family of seven Abolitionist siblings. He wrote pointedly against slavery, against the death penalty, and in opposition to the war with Mexico. His literary work was widely published and championed by the literary elite (including Longfellow and Lowell), and he was recognized by the Transcendentalists as a kindred spirit. His marriage to Ruth Burgess, of Little Compton, brought George into the natural splendour of this corner of the world. But he never lost his reformer’s conscience, supporting women’s rights and temperance in the decades after the Civil War. George – and his love of Little Compton’s scenery and families – are more significant than has been previously acknowledged. This talk will outline the last four decades of George’s life, when he lived in Little Compton.
Jennifer Rycenga, author of Schooling the Nation: The Success of the Canterbury Female Academy (University of Illinois Press, 2025), is Professor Emerita in the Humanities Department at San José State University. Her scholarly work has focused on the Abolitionist movement, exploring areas previously hidden or marginalized, such as Black women’s activities and voices, the anti-racist work of white Abolitionists, and networks of families and friends involved in the struggles against slavery and injustice. In addition to her work on the Canterbury school controversy, she has led two Digital Humanities projects on the Burleigh family of Plainfield, Connecticut – seven siblings who all supported Prudence Crandall and the Canterbury school – and philosophic analyses of the work of Black speaker Maria Stewart (1803-1879).
Rycenga’s other work ranges widely across feminist musicology (co-editor with Sheila Whiteley of Queering the Popular Pitch, Routledge 2006), global feminism (Frontline Feminisms, co-edited with Marguerite Waller, Routledge 2001), and lesbian philosophy (The Mary Daly Reader, co-edited with Linda Barufaldi, New York University Press, 2017). Her next major work will examine the convergence of justice, history, art, and the natural world.
Jennifer Rycenga lives in Rochester, New York with her wife Peggy Macres, an elderly yet spry Shitzu-Poodle named Patsy Cline, and two highly-contented cats, Lyssa (Greek; Bringer of Chaos) and Ipo (Hawaiian; sweetheart).
April 7 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT
Lafayette played a critically important role in the American Revolution, both as a general and as an intermediary between the United States and France. Moreover, experiences with African Americans during the war transformed him into a leading anti-slavery advocate. Lafayette’s most significant military achievement was the Virginia Campaign of 1781 which led to the siege of Yorktown and victory in the last major battle of the War. His signal diplomatic achievement was the dispatch of General Rochambeau’s army to America in 1780. Lafayette’s relationship with African Americans in the War, especially with the First Rhode Island Regiment and an enslaved double agent in Lord Cornwallis’s camp was the genesis of a 50-year commitment to the anti-slavery cause.
ALAN R. HOFFMAN obtained a BA in history from Yale before earning a JD at Harvard Law School. An avid reader of early American history, he “discovered” Lafayette in 2002 and spent two years—2003 to 2005—translating Auguste Levasseur’s Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825, the first-hand account of Lafayette’s Farewell Tour of America written by his secretary. Mr. Hoffman has lectured widely on Lafayette—over 260 talks—and has spoken in each of the 24 states (and Washington, D.C.) which Lafayette visited during the Farewell Tour. Mr. Hoffman co-produced and was the principal author of virtual travelogues covering Lafayette’s Farewell Tour visits to four states: New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire (with TravelStorysGPS). Most recently, he edited and contributed to Lafayette and the Enduring Struggle for Human Rights and Democratic Governments (American Friends of Lafayette, Gaithersburg, Maryland: 2025). Mr. Hoffman currently serves as President of the American Friends of Lafayette and President of the Massachusetts Lafayette Society. He is also the editor of The Gazette of The American Friends of Lafayette. During the AFL’s Farewell Tour Bicentennial, he served on the Steering Committee that organized commemorative events in 24 states.
Speaker: Marjory O’Toole
May 20 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT
New research conducted over the last fifteen years has dramatically changed and broadened our understanding of the history of the Sakonnet Wampanoag people. We’ve been learning from Wampanoag advisors and studying historic documents, the archaeological record, and the Sakonnet landscape. LCHS Executive Director Marjory O’Toole will share some of what we have learned about seventeenth-century Sakonnet sachems like Awashonks, Takamona, and Mamanuah along with lesser-known individuals from more recent times including Sue Codimonk, Moses Suckanush, and Thomas Cooper. This second half of the history will explore the how the Sakonnets and their Acoaxet neighbors responded to the arrival of English newcomers, established a thriving Indian Meeting House on John Dyer Road, and continued to live on their homelands, slowing moving to neighboring Native communities.
To view the first half of the talk presented at the 2025 LCHS Annual Meeting click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TgkErwEie0&t=73s
The talk begins at 11 minutes and 45 seconds.
Marjory is the Executive Director of the Little Compton Historical Society. She holds an MA in Public Humanities from Brown University and is the author or editor of ten local history books.
It’s Halloween.
I’m sitting in the 325 year old Wilbor House Museum by myself, listening to the wind howl, and staring at 13 Witches Marks.
They are on the door directly in front of me, one of the doors that leads from my c. 1970 office space to the historic part of the house. There are more marks inside.
Witches Marks or apotropaic (derived from the Greek word for “averting evil”) marks are good luck signs carved into buildings. They remind me very much of Amish “Hex Signs.”
For more on Witches Marks see this fascinating article from England by Kirsten Amor which prompted me to write my own story today:
In her article Amor writes that 17th-century English property owners inscribed a variety of Witches Marks on doorways and near hearths to prevent witches from creeping into their homes to lurk, unseen in the shadows behind doors and in dark corners, waiting to cause mischief or damage property. Some marks were placed near a family’s (or business’) valuables to ensure their safekeeping. The marks were often tangled together in order to tangle up the witches and better prevent them from entering the home.
Historian Joanne Pope Melish pointed the marks out to me as superstitious symbols a year ago when she first toured the Wilbor House. There are quite a few. Aside from the 13 or so on the green door, there are about a dozen more over the doorway and hearth of our c. 1740 Long Kitchen. I had seen the marks many times before Professor Melish’s tour, but I thought they were something different. Much less Halloweeny.
While our former Executive Director Carlton Brownell was training me, over a decade ago, he explained that the boards with the drawings were taken from a workshop in Westport and the tradesmen had doodled them into the wood. I don’t often contradict Carlton, sadly now deceased, but for the sake of Halloween let’s put his practical explanation aside for a bit and focus on superstition instead.
In 1955-1957 when Carlton restored the Wilbor House its Long Kitchen was in particularly bad shape, and he used a great deal of wood from the Waite-Potter House of Westport, Massachusetts which was destroyed by a hurricane (Carol?) shortly before the Wilbor House restoration. See the Waite Potter House below in a photograph owned by the Westport Historical Society.
For more on the Waite-Potter House please see the Westport Historical Society’s on-line collection and an archaeological report (by Little Compton’s very own Kate Johnson):
http://westhist.pastperfectonline.com/photo/EB8C32CF-0214-4702-B45B-395801330791
Note the “Potter” brand (weirdly upside down) in a board with many circular marks now positioned over one of our doors. Carlton may very well be correct that the Waite Potter House was used as a workshop sometime in its 250 year history, but before it was a workshop it was a house, originally dated 1677 and now, based on Kate Johnson’s work, more likely to be very-early-18th century. We must decide for ourselves whether it was 18th-century colonists or 19th-century workmen who made the marks.
Today, on Halloween, I vote for early-18th-century Witches Marks. The tangled designs are so like those in Amor’s article that I find myself convinced. I also wonder why practicing workmen or apprentices would make designs on permanent walls rather than on scrap wood or even paper. More significantly, why would workmen tangle and overlap their designs in confusing ways? It doesn’t make sense. The tangled circles (shown below with a pencil rubbing of the green door) are perfect for trapping witches. They are pretty terrible for showing the skill of a craftsman.
At least some of Little Compton’s first European settlers were superstitious. Several owners of local historic homes have recently shared the “concealment items” (usually worn shoes) hidden behind their fireplaces by early residents to keep evil spirits out. Why not Witches Marks, too?
There’s one more bit of evidence that I was very happy to discover today. While 90% of our Witches Marks appear on boards most likely brought from the Waite Potter House, I found two very small, very simple marks on a huge beam over the hearth in our c.1690 Great Room. I am certain the beam is original to the house. I am less certain about the significance of the marks, but for the sake of Halloween, let’s just go with it. Perhaps our good Quakers Samuel and Mary (Potter) Wilbor, like the early Potter’s of Old Dartmouth (was Mary related?) may also have thought it wise to protect their family from stealthy spirits and cowering witches with these symbolic marks.
No spirits bothered me today.
I have a deal with them that they leave me in peace, and I will do the same for them. But I did find this broom in the Long Kitchen behind the door – maybe waiting for a visit tonight. It’s getting dark. I’m going home.
Happy Halloween from the Little Compton Historical Society and the Wilbor House Museum.
If you have apotropaic marks in your historic home please post them in the comments here, on our facebook page or email me at lchistory@littlecompton.org. I’d like to learn more.
Marjory O’Toole – Managing Director
Free and Open to the Public – Sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities
As part of a year-long project honoring the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in Little Compton, the Little Compton Historical Society is hosting a speakers’ series featuring authors and historians with expertise on slavery and freedom in New England. The series is made possible by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and will run through February, 2017. Each event is free and open to the public.
The Historical Society is pleased to welcome Linford Fisher as its next speaker on Tuesday, September 27, at 7 PM at the United Congregational Church on the Commons. Dr. Fisher, Associate Professor of History at Brown University, writes and teaches on religion, Native Americans, and slavery in colonial America. During his talk he will help place slavery in Little Compton and the surrounding areas into the context of the wider Atlantic World.
Dr. Fisher is the author of The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America (Oxford, 2012) and the co-author of Decoding Roger Williams: The Lost Essay of Rhode Island’s Founding Father (Baylor, 2014), with J. Stanley Lemons and Lucas Mason-Brown. These books will be available for purchase before and after his talk and are now available for borrowing at the Brownell Library in Little Compton. Dr. Fisher is currently working on a book-length project on Indian and African enslavement in colonial New England and several select English Atlantic islands, including Bermuda, Barbados, and Jamaica. His course at Brown University entitled “Enslaved, Slavery in the Atlantic World” inspired the Historical Society’s Director, Marjory O’Toole, to begin her research on local slavery, indenture and freedom and prompted the Historical Society to explore the topic throughout the year with a book, a special exhibition, school programs and this speakers’ series.
The next two talks in the series are:
On Friday, October 21 at 1 PM, at the Little Compton Historical Society, Kevin Ryan, President and CEO of Covenant House International will speak on the persistence of slavery today in the United States and across the globe in the form of human trafficking especially as it pertains to the young people seeking help from Covenant House shelters in the United States and abroad.
On Wednesday, November 2 at the United Congregational Church on the Little Compton, Commons at 7 PM, Keith Stokes will present “American Irony—Slavery & Religious Freedom in Colonial Newport.” Mr. Stokes is the co-founder of the 1696 Heritage Group.
Marjory O’Toole, Little Compton Historical Society Managing Director, will share the personal stories of some of Little Compton’s 250 enslaved and forcibly indentured people during her talk at the organization’s Annual Meeting. The event is free and open to the public and will be held on Wednesday, August 10 at 7 PM at the United Congregational Church on the Little Compton Commons. Members of the Historical Society are especially encouraged to attend to vote on the organization’s board members and officers. A brief business meeting will take place from 7 to 7:15, followed by Ms. O’Toole’s talk. The evening will conclude with refreshments and a book-signing.
Ms. O’Toole has been the Managing Director of the Historical Society for over a decade. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Humanities at Brown University. For the last three years she has been conducting primary source research that sheds light on the lives of Little Compton’s enslaved and forcibly indentured men, women and children who lived and worked in the community from 1674 to 1816.
This summer, and specifically August 5, 2016, marks the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in Little Compton. Kate Hilliard, the last person known to be enslaved in Little Compton, gained her freedom on August 5, 1816 when her owner, David Hilliard’s will, was approved in the local probate court. David granted Kate her freedom in his will and directed his grandson to care for her in her old age. Kate was enslaved by the Hilliard family throughout her life and worked in their tavern and the poor house that they ran. She married an enslaved man named Prince Grinnell and together they had at least two children.
The Historical Society is celebrating the end of slavery in Little Compton by honoring the lives of enslaved people like Kate Hilliard. Their stories were lost from our local history for over two hundred years and have only recently been rediscovered through the Historical Society and Ms. O’Toole’s efforts. This July the Society published Ms. O’Toole’s book entitled “If Jane Should Want to Be Sold, Stories of Enslavement Indenture and Freedom in Little Compton, Rhode Island” and opened a special exhibit by the same title. The book is now available at the Historical Society’s museum shop and Wilbur’s General Store, Earle’s Gas Station, Gray’s Daily Grind and Partner’s Village Store as well as amazon.com. It is also available for loan at the Brownell Library and other libraries throughout the state.
Reservations are not required for the annual meeting. Directions and more information is available by calling 401-635-4035.
If you are using our on-line ordering form to purchase your House Tour tickets we ask that you purchase each ticket individually.
TICKETS – https://lchistorical.wordpress.com/programs-events/historic-house-tour/historic-house-tour-order-form/
You may also buy your ticket in person at the Wilbor House Museum (548 West Main Road, LC), by phone 401-635-4035, or by mail with the form you may print from the website.
On-line, phone and mail-order tickets will be held for you.
You may pick them up on the day of the event at Wydfield Farm if you are attending the Patron’s Brunch or beginning at 11 a.m. at the Little Compton Community Center on the town Commons at the Little Compton for the regular tour.
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