Musicians were an important part of life in early Newport. We have records of Newporters who served in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, as well as composers and musicians who lived in the city going back to Colonial Newport. We work to tell the stories of the lives of this diverse group. Today we are going to highlight some of our successes and some of the names we are working hard to discover more about.

The Revolutionary War Era

Sharper Champlin was a drummer with the 1st Rhode Island Regiment during the American Revolution. He was enslaved in Newport before the war, and during the war he fought in Portsmouth, RI and was at Valley Forge with the Regiment. After the war we know nothing of his life. What was post war life like for him and the other Black musicians from Newport who served with the 1st?

Richard Cozzens was another Black musician who served in the 1st Rhode Island Regiment. He died in 1829 in Providence, RI, and we just found his pension file at the National Archives. This will hopefully tell us more about his post war life.

We know of a total of 10 Newport musicians who served during the war. Benjamin Lawton is well known to us. After the war he was elected as Newport’s city drummer, a position we still want brought back! Most of the musicians still remain a mystery to us though, including Silas Traffarn, who served as a drummer in Topham’s Regiment. We are working to find out more about his life.

Newport Composers and Music

Newport was a popular title used for hymns in early New England Hymnals. The city was also home to a diverse group of composers and musicians from its earliest days.

Occramer Marycoo, known also by his enslaved name Newport Gardner, was an early Newport composer and teacher. You can read about his incredible life here. It has long been thought that he was the composer of a work titled “Crooked Shanks” but there is no conclusive proof that he was in fact the composer. But we do know that he wrote a work titled “Promise Anthem.” based on newspapers articles from the 1870s. We talk a little about this in a recent post. Unfortunately, little is known about his musical life outside of these two compositions. As we see in this notice below, he was a teacher, and we think music was a part of what he taught. Did he compose more? Who did he teach, and did anyone go on to a career in music?

Oliver Shaw was born in Massachusetts and his life has been well documented. He was even elected to the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame. He came to Newport at an early age to study music with organist John Berkenhead. Shaw was blind by the time he began his musical studies in Newport.

We are working to collect his musical compositions. Sadly, a fire in 1821, documented in the article below, destroyed a lot of his music. But there is music out there and we are working to collect physical and digital copies, including rare manuscripts available through auction houses.

More Clues and More Work

Newspaper archives have been one of our best resources when it comes to finding out the names of Newport’s early musicians. Here are just a few of the names we are researching. Where did these musicians come from? How long did they stay in Newport?