Gaspee Virtual
Archives |
| Dr.
Weeks |
| The Gaspee Days Committee at www.gaspee.COM is a civic-minded nonprofit organization that operates many community events in and around Pawtuxet Village, including the famous Gaspee Days Parade each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the 1772 burning of the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island patriots as America's 'First Blow for Freedom' TM. Our historical research center, the Gaspee Virtual Archives at www.gaspee.ORG , has presented these research notes as an attempt to gather further information on one who has been suspected of being associated with the the burning of the Gaspee. Please e-mail your comments or further questions to webmaster@gaspee.org. |
| Evidence implicating Doctor
Weeks:
From Admiral Montagu in Staples, (p31), Montagu was apparently citing names that Aaron Briggs gave to Captain Linzee under duress: ...the surgeon that was ordered to dress the captain was a tall, thin man, called Weeks, of Warwick; very soon after we got on board the schooner, the men's hands belonging to the schooner was tied behind their backs, and put in boats and put on shore. ...Daniel Horsmanden, in writing to the Earl of Dartmouth gives some thoughts on this Dr. Weeks <http://www.gaspee.org/StaplesAppendices.htm> p125: And thus, My Lord, this forced confession of the negro Aaron has been held up by the marine, as a hopeful and sure clue to unravel this mystery of iniquity. The fellow might probably have heard the names of the most noted and principal traders at Providence, and other trading towns in that neighborhood, though he might not know their persons; and one Dr. Weeks, inserted in his list, he might know personally, as an attendant upon his master's family. And in the direct testimony of Aaron Briggs, (see Staples, p65) it is clear that it was his "Dr Weeks" that dressed Dudingston's wounds. ...that before they went ashore, a doctor, whom they called Weeks, from one of the boats, dressed the Captain's wounds; that when they had landed the people, they untied their hands and let them go, and the captain of the schooner they carried up to a house; ... Since we know that it was actually John Mawney, a student physician, that dressed Dudingston's wounds (see Staples p14-15), it is much more likely that Briggs misidentified Mawney by the name of Weeks. From a medical hierarchy point of view, had there been an actual fully trained doctor on board during the attack, he would have been the one trusted to treat the wounds, not a student. In reviewing Montagu's list of possible suspects, he named a
"....Doctor
Weeks of Warwick, and a Richmond of Providence." This could be
interpreted
that he meant both Weeks and Richmond were doctors. In
researching
Richmond,
we can find no good evidence that Dr. Benjamin Richmond of Little
Compton
would be involved in the raid on the Gaspee, but it remains a remote
possibility.
As a wild postulation, it could be that Dr. Benjamin Richmond from
Little
Compton (or an unknown Dr. Weeks from Warwick) took on medical student
John Mawney for some clinical preceptorship, and that both gentlemen
attended
to Aaron Briggs masters, Captain Samuel Tompkins or his elderly
father-in-law
Samuel Thurston, on the not-too-distant Prudence Island. Here,
Aaron
Briggs would have seen the doctors and somehow got the idea that one of
them was a Dr. Weeks. But again, this is wildly speculative, and is not
borne out by any facts. Another physician involved was Dr. Henry Sterling of Providence, who
tended to Dudingston's wounds while he recuperated in the Pawtuxet home
of Joseph Rhodes. But it is doubted he was along for the actual attack;
elsewise, he would have been the one called on to immediately treat the
Lieutenant's wounds aboard the Gaspee,
and not John Mawney. Biographical Information The only interesting reference we have found regarding Dr.
Weeks is
a scrap of paper sold on eBay in May 2005, to wit: Cranston
April the 28 day D 1767
Dr tofone Week Bord to Seven Shilings lawful money Dr. Week Due in the year 1766 Don
in the year 1766
--old
tenor--
37-6-8 What we might assume this to be is a loan note written by a Dr. Weeks of Cranston who was loaning seven schillings to a relative, also a Dr. Weeks. 1766 was six years before the burning of the Gaspee. A search of Gendex.com, Whipple.org,
LDS
, Ancestry.com,and Google.com
all are negative for a "Doctor Weeks" or a "Dr. Weeks" or a "Weeks, MD"
that would be present in Rhode Island during 1772. Per the RI Historical Cemeteries Database, there are no possible matches with a Weeks present during 1772. On the other hand, the USGenWeb listings of the 1790 Federal Census for Warwick, RI gives us five choices: Weeks, Barney * * * 6 * And another four in the adjoining town of Coventry: Weeks, Abel 1 3 3 * * None of these are listed as physicians. One thread culled from Ancestry.com message boards is that a Francis Weeks lived as a young boy in Mass. He was kicked out of Mass. and went to RI with Roger Williams c1635. We also note that there was a series of Dr. Weeks out of New Hampshire at the time, but as far as we can tell, they stayed there. There are no Weeks families recorded in the 1770 List of Providence Taxpayers, and there are no incidences of a Dr. Weeks in the Rhode Island newspapers of the time. Until we get a more definitive first name to attach to a Dr. Weeks, if he ever existed, this research will remain dormant. |
| In weighing all the evidence,
we conclude that a Dr. Weeks was
not
involved in the raid on the Gaspee, but that references to Dr.
Weeks
were actually of John Mawney. |
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