& Bristol Railroad Directors to change the name of their station at Chachacust or New Meadow Neck, from New Meadow Neck to Hampden Meadows and the erection of a tablet on the depot, with the following inscription:
This Station is Called
HAMPDEN MEADOWS
In accordance with a request of the Rhode Island Historical Society. In the early colonial days the name "Meadows" was given to the tracts of land "running as far back from the river as the soft grass would grow."
The name Hampden commemorates the visit of Edward Winslow and John Hampden to this region in 1623. In March of that year, news reached Plymouth that Massassoit was sick and likely to die. Accordingly Edward Winslow (afterwards Governor of Plymouth Colony) was sent to visit the Indian sachem at his village of Sowams, and to care for him in his sickness. With him went "one Master John Hampden, a gentlemen of London, who then wintered with us and desired much to see the country." It is confidently believed that future historical research will prove unquestionably that this young man afterwards became the great Parliamentary Leader and statesman whose glory is the common heritage of the English race.
March, 1890.
