id wives of raiders know what their husbands had done? D

By KELLY SULLIVAN

They were married to wealthy merchants and powerful politicians, their days spent squeezed uncomfortably into gowns and petticoats, busks, stays and stockings. They concerned themselves with scented hair powders and the duties of the servants - ivory combs and imported teas and the children’s music lessons. They were the wives of the Gaspee raiders, the spouses waiting at home that evening of June 9, 1772 to whom a great and dangerous secret would either be confided in or concealed from.

The majority of confirmed Gaspee raiders were either unmarried or widowed at the time the schooner was set afire and destroyed that fateful summer night. Only a handful of the known men involved were husbands and fathers who had to make a choice regarding whether to tell their spouses of their involvement in the affair or create a believable alibi.

It would be nearly impossible to imagine Sarah (Smith) Brown as a woman ignorant of her husband's involvement in the Gaspee affair. John Brown was a well-known Providence merchant accepted as being the planner and leader of the entire historic event. Her sister’s son, Benjamin Page, was also present at the schooner’s destruction.

John and Sarah were married by Elder Samuel Winsor on Nov. 27, 1760 when she was 22 years old. The daughter of Daniel Smith and Dorcas Harris, her mother died when she was only seven years old. She went on to become a mother herself. One child had died as a baby in 1766. On the evening the Gaspee burned, Sarah was home with 11-year-old James, nine-year-old Benjamin and six-year-old Abigail. She would have two additional children, in 1773 and 1779.

John later told his grandson about his connection to the Gaspee, how he was the last person off the burning craft and how he stayed away from home for several nights following the act in case the authorities came to arrest him.

Sarah and John lived in a three-story brownstone and brick mansion, designed by his brother in 1786, located on Power Street in Providence. The bricks were brought over from England and the interior gleamed with mahogany.

Sarah was widowed in 1803 when John succumbed to heart failure. She later died on Feb. 27, 1825 and was laid to rest in

North Burial Ground in Providence.

Hannah (Paine) Potter was the wife of merchant, distiller, politician and ship’s captain Simeon Potter. Married in Bristol on March 7, 1754 when she was 22 years old, she was the daughter of Stephen Paine and Priscilla (Royal).

Her husband, 12 years her senior, arrived at Fenner’s Wharf from Bristol with a full boatload of men on the evening of June 9, ready to do battle. As they approached the Gaspee and sighted William Duddingston, Simeon yelled out, “I am the sheriff of the county of Kent, God damn you! I have got a warrant to apprehend you, God damn you! So surrender, God damn you!”

Simeon and Hannah later resided in a house located at the corner of Marsh Street and Washington Street in Newport. She died in 1788 at the age of 56. Simeon outlived her by 18 years.

Sarah Hopkins married sea captain Abraham Whipple in Providence on Aug. 2, 1761 when she was 21 years old with Elder Samuel Winsor officiating. The daughter of John Hopkins and Catherine (Turpin), she was the niece of Governor Stephens Hopkins. On the evening Abraham captained a longboat and rowed toward the grounded Gaspee, Sarah was home with 11-year-old Catherine and five-year-old Mary. When Sir John Wallace suspected Abraham of being involved in the affair, he threatened to hang him. Abraham replied, “Always catch a man before you hang him.”

Financial problems in 1788 caused Sarah and Abraham to move from their Cranston farm to Ohio. Sarah died there in 1818 and Abraham followed the next year.

On Sept. 30, 1759, 23-year-old Elizabeth Power married Joseph Brown, the brother of the aforementioned John. An architect and politician, he designed the house he had built for his family on South Main Street in Providence in 1774.

Elizabeth was the daughter of merchant and distiller Nicholas Power and Anne (Tillinghast). Her father owned an estate and liquor manufacturing business in Surinam, a tropical Dutch plantation in Guiana, South America. He died there when Elizabeth was only eight years old. Her own children, Mary and Obadiah were 12 and 10 years old when the Gaspee burned.

Joseph died from the effects of a stroke in 1785. Elizabeth died 21 years later and she was laid beside him at North Burial Ground. Etched on her stone are the words “Widow of Joseph Brown.” We’ll never know whether it was secrets or suspicions that she and the other Gaspee wives took to their graves.