FIFTH GENERATION 6 1 
     
    
   
   
    
     for independence, he adhered to the cause of the Crown. Several of the Wilson 
     
     family were attainted as Tories, and banished from their homes until the war 
     
     was over, and, although Colonel John 3 name is not found with those thus ban- 
     
     ished, the absence of his name from all army records during the war is an indi— 
     
     cation that he did not participate in the struggle 
     
     Colonel John Wilson lived on Tower Hill, in a house built by his grandfather 
     
     Samuel Wilson. From this grandfather have descended seven generations, some of 
     
     whom live on Tower Hill to—day, and own a part of the original land bought by 
     
     Samuel as one of the purchasers of the traét of land known as the Pettaquamscut 
     
     Purchase. “ He built the first house on Tower Hill ; this house was forty—two 
     
     feet by fifty—six, two stories high with a roof of one—third altitude. The only archi— 
     
     tectural ornament was about the front door, which was constructed after the Ionic 
     
     order with two large Ionic volutes, which formed the door—cap, and projected a 
     
     foot and a half from the building. It had besides a modillion cornice. This house 
     
     was silled three times, the last time in the year 1817. The manner of silling in 
     
     those days was to frame the sill together, and then place large white— oak knees 
     
     in the corners, after the manner of ship— carpentry. The house had a brick chim— 
     
     ney fourteen feet square at the base, which contained three ovens (one of which 
     
     was in the cellar) and eleven separate smoke— flues. There was also a boiling spring 
     
     in the cellar, and a good well of water near each side ofthe house. The wells are 
     
     still to be seen. The windows were of diamond— —pane- glass set in lead. The 
     
     windows, and perhaps the frame of the house, was made in the mother country. 
     
     The house was built soon after the Pettaquamscut Purchase, and was not taken 
     
     down until the year 1823, when another was built very near the site of the old 
     
     house. It is now the property of Charles Pollock, a great—grandson of Colonel 
     
     John Wilson. 
     
     In the latter part of the eighteenth century Tower Hill was a prosperous place; 
     
     the situation was incomparable, and nearly all of the wealthy families had represen— 
     
     tatives established there in younger sons or married daughters. It was the “ court- 
     
     end" of the town. There were fourteen houses, six of them with large gambrelled 
     
     roofs, which were erected by wealthy and enterprising men who spared no pains to 
     
     make them attractive. There were also several inns or taverns, as they were then 
     
     called. A coach passed through the place twice a week from the South Ferry to 
     
     New London, and returned, carrying passengers and the mails; as many as eight 
     
     coaches have been known to arrive at the place in one morning. Balls and dances 
     
     were of frequent occurrence, guests coming from Newport and the neighboring 
     
     plantations of Boston Neck. Trees stood before each door, and in front of each 
     
     house were little gardens filled with blooming shrubs. 
     
     During the war of 1812, the Atlantic coast was blockaded by a British fleet from 
     
     Portland to Cape May, and it was difficult to carry any merchandise through Long 
     
     Island Sound. Sometimes, however, an old molasses drogher Would land a cargo 
     
     at Stonington, which would be carried by land to Providence and Boston by means 
     
     of oxen. Frequently there would be thirty ox-teams loaded with molasses on the 
     
     road