Mount Hope (Rhode Island)
Encyclopedia
Bristol, Rhode Island
Bristol is a town in and the historic county seat of Bristol County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,954 at the 2010 census. Bristol, a deepwater seaport, is named after Bristol, England....
overlooking the part of Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. Covering 147 mi2 , the Bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor, and includes a small archipelago...
known as Mount Hope Bay
Mount Hope Bay
Mount Hope Bay is a tidal estuary located at the mouth of the Taunton River on the Massachusetts and Rhode Island border. It is an arm of Narragansett Bay. The bay is named after Mount Hope, a small hill located on its western shore in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island. It flows into the East...
. The elevation of the summit is 209 feet, and drops sharply to the bay on its eastern side. Mount Hope was the site of a Wampanoag (Pokanoket) village. It is remembered for its role in King Philip's War
King Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...
.http://books.google.com/books?id=V5YEGJjhIS4C&pg=PA239&lpg=PA239&dq=montaup+mount+hope&source=web&ots=tNv1sZaj0P&sig=92_ng83FBCkMihMX4TSEMZ0yhZI#PPA239,M1
Today, Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
's Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology is Brown University's anthropology museum. The museum has a gallery in Manning Hall on the university campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Its Collections Research Center is located in Bristol, RI .-History:...
owns 376 acres (1.5 km²) of woodland on Mt. Hope off Tower Street in Bristol. The Museum grounds on Mount Hope include King Philip's Seat (or "chair"), a large rock formation where Wampanoag sachem
Sachem
A sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...
King Philip
Metacomet
Metacomet , also known as King Philip or Metacom, or occasionally Pometacom, was a war chief or sachem of the Wampanoag Indians and their leader in King Philip's War, a widespread Native American uprising against English colonists in New England.-Biography:Metacomet was the second son of Massasoit...
held meetings. The site of King Philip's death in Miery Swamp is nearby. Mount Hope Farm
Mount Hope Farm
Mount Hope Farm is an historic estate on Metacom Avenue in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA.The farm is located near the Mount Hope Bridge in Bristol, Rhode Island, and the grounds have been farmed since the 1680s...
is also nearby.
The first battle of King Philip's War took place near here in 1675. Philip was eventually defeated.
Metacom, a main road in Bristol was named after him, derived from his Wampanoag
Massachusett language
The Massachusett language was a Native American language, a member of the Algonquian language family. It is also known as Wôpanâak , Natick, and Pokanoket....
name Metacomet
Metacomet
Metacomet , also known as King Philip or Metacom, or occasionally Pometacom, was a war chief or sachem of the Wampanoag Indians and their leader in King Philip's War, a widespread Native American uprising against English colonists in New England.-Biography:Metacomet was the second son of Massasoit...
.
King Philip made nearby Mount Hope his base of operations. "King Philip's Chair," a rocky ledge on the mountain, was a lookout site for enemy ships on Mount Hope Bay. It can be seen as part of the Haffenreffer Museum grounds. The site where Captain Benjamin Church's men killed King Philip in 1676 is located in nearby Miery Swamp. Church eventually became an owner of Mount Hope.
After the conclusion of King Philip's War, the town surrounding Mt. Hope was settled in 1680 as part of the Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
. Mt. Hope remained a part of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
until the Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
transferred Bristol to the Rhode Island Colony in 1747.