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Eliza
Tillinghast
was
at
that
time
eighteen
years
of
age
,
and
had
been
reared
as
gently
as
the
reduced
circumstances
of
her
father
permitted
.
She
had
attended
Stephen
Jackson
's
school
opposite
the
Court-House
Parade
;
and
had
been
diligently
instructed
by
her
mother
,
before
the
latter
's
death
of
smallpox
in
1757
,
in
all
the
arts
and
refinements
of
domestic
life
.
A
sampler
of
hers
,
worked
in
1753
at
the
age
of
nine
,
may
still
be
found
in
the
rooms
of
the
Rhode
Island
Historical
Society
.
After
her
mother
's
death
she
had
kept
the
house
,
aided
only
by
one
old
black
woman
.
Her
arguments
with
her
father
concerning
the
proposed
Curwen
marriage
must
have
been
painful
indeed
;
but
of
these
we
have
no
record
.
Certain
it
is
that
her
engagement
to
young
Ezra
Weeden
,
second
mate
of
the
Crawford
packet
Enterprise
,
was
dutifully
broken
off
,
and
that
her
union
with
Joseph
Curwen
took
place
on
the
seventh
of
March
,
1763
,
in
the
Baptist
church
,
in
the
presence
of
the
most
distinguished
assemblages
which
the
town
could
boast
;
the
ceremony
being
performed
by
the
younger
Samuel
Winsor
.
The
Gazette
mentioned
the
event
very
briefly
.
and
in
most
surviving
copies
the
item
in
question
seems
to
be
cut
or
torn
out
.
Ward
found
a
single
intact
copy
after
much
search
in
the
archives
of
a
private
collector
of
note
,
observing
with
amusement
the
meaningless
urbanity
of
the
language
:
'M
onday
evening
last
,
Mr.
Joseph
Curwen
,
of
this
Town
,
Merchant
,
was
married
to
Miss
Eliza
Tillinghast
,
Daughter
of
Capt.
Dutee
Tillinghast
,
a
young
Lady
who
has
real
Merit
,
added
to
a
beautiful
Person
,
to
grace
the
connubial
State
and
perpetuate
its
Felicity
.
'
The
collection
of
Durfee-Arnold
letters
,
discovered
by
Charles
Ward
shortly
before
his
first
reputed
madness
in
the
private
collection
of
Melville
F.
Peters
,
Esq.
,
of
George
St.
,
and
covering
this
and
a
somewhat
antecedent
period
,
throws
vivid
light
on
the
outrage
done
to
public
sentiment
by
this
ill-assorted
match
.
The
social
influence
of
the
Tillinghasts
,
however
,
was
not
to
be
denied
;
and
once
more
Joseph
Curwen
found
his
house
frequented
by
persons
whom
he
could
never
otherwise
have
induced
to
cross
his
threshold
.
His
acceptance
was
by
no
means
complete
,
and
his
bride
was
socially
the
sufferer
through
her
forced
venture
;
but
at
all
events
the
wall
of
utter
ostracism
was
somewhat
torn
down
.
In
his
treatment
of
his
wife
the
strange
bridegroom
astonished
both
her
and
the
community
by
displaying
an
extreme
graciousness
and
consideration
.
The
new
house
in
Olney
Court
was
now
wholly
free
from
disturbing
manifestations
,
and
although
Curwen
was
much
absent
at
the
Pawtuxet
farm
which
his
wife
never
visited
,
he
seemed
more
like
a
normal
citizen
than
at
any
other
time
in
his
long
years
of
residence
.
Only
one
person
remained
in
open
enmity
with
him
,
this
being
the
youthful
ship
's
officer
whose
engagement
to
Eliza
Tillinghast
had
been
so
abruptly
broken
.
Ezra
Weeden
had
frankly
vowed
vengeance
;
and
though
of
a
quiet
and
ordinarily
mild
disposition
,
was
now
gaining
a
hate-bred
,
dogged
purpose
which
boded
no
good
to
the
usurping
husband
.
On
the
seventh
of
May
,
1765
,
Curwen
's
only
child
Ann
was
born
;
and
was
christened
by
the
Rev.
John
Graves
of
King
's
Church
,
of
which
both
husband
and
wife
had
become
communicants
shortly
after
their
marriage
,
in
order
to
compromise
between
their
respective
Congregational
and
Baptist
affiliations
.
The
record
of
this
birth
,
as
well
as
that
of
the
marriage
two
years
before
,
was
stricken
from
most
copies
of
the
church
and
town
annals
where
it
ought
to
appear
;
and
Charles
Ward
located
both
with
the
greatest
difficulty
after
his
discover
of
the
widow
's
change
of
name
had
apprised
him
of
his
own
relationship
,
and
engendered
the
feverish
interest
which
culminated
in
his
madness
.
The
birth
entry
,
indeed
,
was
found
very
curiously
through
correspondence
with
the
heirs
of
the
loyalist
Dr.
Graves
,
who
had
taken
with
him
a
duplicate
set
of
records
when
he
left
his
pastorate
at
the
outbreak
of
the
Revolution
.
Ward
had
tried
this
source
because
he
knew
that
his
great-great-grandmother
Ann
Tillinghast
Potter
had
been
an
Episcopalian
.
Shortly
after
the
birth
of
his
daughter
,
an
event
he
seemed
to
welcome
with
a
fervor
greatly
out
of
keeping
with
his
usual
coldness
,
Curwen
resolved
to
sit
for
a
portrait
.
This
he
had
painted
by
a
very
gifted
Scotsman
named
Cosmo
Alexander
,
then
a
resident
of
Newport
,
and
since
famous
as
the
early
teacher
of
Gilbert
Stuart
.
The
likeness
was
said
to
have
been
executed
on
a
wall-panel
of
the
library
of
the
house
in
Olney
Court
,
but
neither
of
the
two
old
diaries
mentioning
it
gave
any
hint
of
its
ultimate
disposition
.
At
this
period
the
erratic
scholar
showed
signs
of
unusual
abstraction
,
and
spent
as
much
time
as
he
possibly
could
at
his
farm
on
the
Pawtuxet
Road
.
He
seemed
,
as
was
stated
,
in
a
condition
of
suppressed
excitement
or
suspense
;
as
if
expecting
some
phenomenal
thing
or
on
the
brink
of
some
strange
discovery
.
Chemistry
or
alchemy
would
appear
to
have
played
a
great
part
,
for
he
took
from
his
house
to
the
farm
the
greater
number
of
his
volumes
on
that
subject
.
His
affectation
of
civic
interest
did
not
diminish
,
and
he
lost
no
opportunities
for
helping
such
leaders
as
Stephen
Hopkins
,
Joseph
Brown
,
and
Benjamin
West
in
their
efforts
to
raise
the
cultural
tone
of
the
town
,
which
was
then
much
below
the
level
of
Newport
in
its
patronage
of
the
liberal
arts
.
He
had
helped
Daniel
Jenckes
found
his
bookshop
in
1763
,
and
was
thereafter
his
best
customer
;
extending
aid
likewise
to
the
struggling
Gazette
that
appeared
each
Wednesday
at
the
Sign
of
Shakespeare
's
Head
.
In
politics
he
ardently
supported
Governor
Hopkins
against
the
Ward
party
whose
prime
strength
was
in
Newport
,
and
his
really
eloquent
speech
at
Hacher
's
Hall
in
1765
against
the
setting
off
of
North
Providence
as
a
separate
town
with
a
pro-Ward
vote
in
the
General
Assembly
did
more
than
any
other
thing
to
wear
down
the
prejudice
against
him
.
But
Ezra
Weeden
,
who
watched
him
closely
,
sneered
cynically
at
all
this
outward
activity
;
and
freely
swore
it
was
no
more
than
a
mask
for
some
nameless
traffic
with
the
blackest
gulfs
of
Tartarus
