This story about Unfortunate Hannah Robinson is an ecerpt from the New England Historical Society’s book, “Love Stories From History.”
In the years just before the American Revolution, Rowland Robinson could be seen galloping on his black stallion across his vast estate in Saunderstown, Rhode Island Colony. Tall, good-looking and an excellent horseman, Rowland often rode out to check on his property. He owned several flocks of sheep, dozens of Narragansett Pacers, grainfields, a herd of cattle, cheese houses, barns and slave quarters.

Detail from mural in Wakefield, R.I., “South County Life in the Days of the Narragansett Planters”
Rowland had a violent temper, an impulsive nature and some decided peculiarities. He liked to count his prized blanket cows, pure white from shoulder to hip. He wanted exactly one hundred of them in his herd, and he took pains to raise or buy exactly that number. Rowland always managed to keep ninety-nine. But once they reached a hundred, one would die or wander off, leaving him in constant pursuit of his hundredth cow.
One of the Eleven
He was a Narragansett planter, one of The Eleven. They were eleven wealthy families who owned vast Rhode Island slave plantations more like Virgina than New England. They were Updikes, Hazards, Babcocks, Gardiners. And they often married each other. Rowland himself had wed a Gardiner, Anistis.
He inherited the plantation from his father, William, the deputy governor of the colony. He had improved on it for his own children. Rowland wanted the best for them. They ate on silver porringers, sat on mahogany chairs and dressed in brocades and silks. He sent his daughters, Hannah and Mary, to Madame Osborne’s school in Newport. Madame Osborne would prepare them for balls and assemblies and, ultimately, a worthy husband.
Rowland’s oldest daughter, Hannah, was considered one of the great beauties of her age. Her loveliness was celebrated across the Atlantic and wherever New England ship captains sailed. She was tall and graceful, with a Grecian profile, a flawless complexion, hazel eyes and dark auburn hair that fell in luxurious ringlets. She could marry anyone—anyone Rowland wanted her. to marry.
Unfortunately, Hannah fell in love with a suitor Rowland hated. Her romance would drive a wedge between father and daughter and end in tragedy.
Wonderfully Beautiful Hannah Robinson
One day an old Quaker preacher saw Hannah and blurted out “Friend, thou art wonderfully beautiful.”
But Hannah wasn’t just beautiful; she was pleasant to people and kind to animals. A skilled horsewoman, she loved to ride her Narragansett Pacer. Sometimes she’d stop to sit on a rock overlooking the bay and watch the sails skimming along in the distance. She could see the forest of masts rising from Newport Harbor, the ships carrying her father’s cheeses to Boston and his horses and oats to the West Indies. Ships would arrive with molasses from the Sugar Islands and leave for Europe with good Rhode Island rum.

View of Newport Harbor, 1730. Courtesy Library of Congress
Sometimes Hannah was joined on the rock by a young man who taught dancing and French at Madame Osborne’s. His name was Peter Simons. Hannah had fallen deeply, madly in love with him. Sitting by the rock he would pick a little yellow wildflower called Everlasting Life. “They should call it Everlasting Love,” Peter said as he handed the flower to her.
His real name was Pierre Simonds. He came from an old Huguenot family that fled persecution in France. He had little money but exquisite manners, and he lived with his father in a house in Newport. Hannah knew her father would hate him. She feared Rowland’s rash temper, and she knew he never changed his mind once he made it up.
Crazy Harry Falls in Love
Rowland would have preferred as a son-in-law William Bowen, a young Providence doctor who had graduated from Yale. He was infatuated with Hannah. But when William asked Hannah to marry him, she let him down gently, confiding she was engaged to someone else.
Rowland once asked the military hero Colonel Harry Babcock to spend the night at his home. “So you want me to see Hannah, that I’ve heard so much of, do you?” replied Babcock. “Well, I will go, but don’t expect me to fall in love with her, as so many fools have done.”
The colonel was nicknamed Crazy Harry. As he and Rowland entered the sitting room, the colonel said loudly that he looked forward to seeing the prettiest woman in Rhode Island.
Hannah was in the room sewing. She stood to welcome her father and his guest. Her father introduced Babcock, and she extended her hand. He gently took it, gazed into her face and fell to his knee. Softly the colonel said, “Permit, dear madam, the lips that have kissed unrebuked those of the proudest queen of earth, to press, for a moment, the hand of an angel from heaven.”
Crazy Harry had no more luck with Hannah than William Bowen had.
Rowland began to grow suspicious. He didn’t understand why his daughter rejected so many suitors. Everyone else knew, but they wouldn’t tell him.
Courtship
In Newport, Hannah and Peter had many opportunities to spend time in each other’s company. But the time came for Hannah to leave Madame Osborne’s, return home and find a husband.
The lovers then had a stroke of luck. Hannah’s uncle, William Gardiner, hired Peter to tutor his children. The Gardiner plantation adjoined the Robinson farm, and their manor houses stood just two miles from each other. Hannah began to find reasons to call on her cousins. Hannah’s uncle sympathized with his niece, and he didn’t tell Rowland about her visits. He even encouraged them.
Hannah’s mother, Anstis, noticed her daughter’s frequent visits to her brother’s house. She asked Hannah about them. Hannah admitted she was seeing Peter. Anstis didn’t approve, and she tried for months to discourage her daughter’s relationship with him. But she finally realized Hannah was as stubborn as Rowland, so she reluctantly consented to the match.
Peter began to visit Hannah secretly at the Robinsons’ imposing manor house. It measured more than a hundred feet from end to end, with a massive center chimney and a steep gambrel roof. The Robinsons entertained often, and the dining room could accommodate a crowd. Hannah’s large bedchamber was above the dining room. In the evenings she put a signal light in her window, and Peter hid in the lilac bushes below. The lovers would then talk to each other and exchange messages.
The stratagem worked so well that Peter dared to come into the house. Up the stairway he crept and into Hannah’s room. But every night, Rowland came to her bedchamber to bid her goodnight. When the lovers heard his tread in the hallway, Peter hid in a large cupboard built into the wall.
Wretched Dancing Master
One night, Rowland Robinson unexpectedly stepped out of the front door. He was surprised to see a white paper flutter from Hannah’s window down onto the lilacs. He went over to the bush and raised his blackthorn stick. Peter jumped out of the bushes and ran away in the night. But Rowland recognized the young music teacher who worked for his brother-in-law.
Rowland was livid. He stormed into his daughter’s room and upbraided her for throwing herself away on a wretched French dancing master. Couldn’t she see the scoundrel was a fortune-seeker who only wanted her money? he thundered. He railed and ranted at his daughter, but she didn’t say a word.
From then on Rowland kept Hannah under close surveillance. He never let her go anywhere alone. If she walked, she was watched. If she rode her horse, a servant accompanied her. And if she thought about calling on a neighbor, Rowland immediately grew suspicious and forbade her to go, or else he followed her and brought her home. One day she left to visit an aunt in New London. Rowland saw a vessel leaving Newport heading in that direction. He suspected the wretched French dancing master was aboard, intending to rendezvous with Hannah. He rushed off to New London himself, arriving only a few hours after Hannah did. Rowland then forced her to come home immediately.
Hannah’s family and neighbors couldn’t help but notice her misery. Sympathetic to her plight, they helped the lovers by carrying their letters to each other.
Soon after the incident with Rowland in the lilac bush, Peter left the Gardiners. He found a new position farther away in Narragansett. Sometimes months went by without the two lovers seeing each other. Hannah grew thin and her complexion lost its rosy tint.
Finally, Hannah concluded the only solution was to elope with Peter. She had a helpful new ally who could help her escape her father’s scrutiny: Her friend from Hartford, Miss Belden, had come to stay with the Gardiners. She and Hannah’s uncle agreed to help.
Hannah Robinson Elopes
The Narragansett planters entertained on a lavish scale, and it wasn’t unusual for them to send party invitations to Boston, Newport and Providence. One day, Hannah’s mother’s sister, Mrs. Lodowick Updike, invited the Robinsons to a ball at their home, known as Smith’s Castle. The Updikes were only one town away in North Kingstown, and they would have felt snubbed if no member of the Robinson family attended their ball.

Smith’s Castle
Reluctantly, Rowland agreed to let Hannah and her sister go, but under the watchful eye of his servant Prince. The sisters would ride horseback the eight miles to their aunt’s house and spend the night.
Miss Belden and Uncle William sent a message to Peter, and they laid plans for the elopement.
Anstis knew of the plan but did nothing to stop it. Hannah’s sister, Mary, was kept in the dark.
On the morning Hannah left, she bid goodbye to her cook and to her maid. She asked them to care for her little dog, Marcus, and her cat, Felis. Then she hugged her mother and said goodbye, sobbing. She knew she might never see her again.
Fortunately, Rowland had left the house an hour earlier, called away unexpectedly on business.
Mary, Hannah and Prince mounted their horses and headed toward North Kingstown. In a dense wood along the way, they met up with a closed carriage. Peter jumped out and helped Hannah into the carriage. Mary cried and begged her not to go. Prince pleaded with her, too, knowing how Rowland would punish him for letting Hannah escape.
Hannah asked Prince to take good care of her horse, and the carriage rumbled off to Providence.
Hannah Robinson in Newport
Peter had a sister who sent along some clothes for Hannah. They arrived in the city hours later and were married by an Episcopal minister visiting from London. Local ministers would not have risked Rowland’s wrath.
When Rowland learned of Hannah’s elopement, he was incandescent with rage. He was angry with Hannah, furious with Peter and seething toward their accomplices. He offered a large reward to anyone who told him who helped them elope. And he announced he would not give Hannah so much as a halfpenny.
The newlyweds moved in with Peter’s father in a fine old two-story house on Bridge Street in Newport. Hannah and Peter lived there for several months until Peter found a job in Providence. They then moved to a modest house in that city.
Father Knew Best
Unfortunately, Rowland Robinson was right about Peter Simons. He had just wanted Hannah for her money after all.
Once Rowland disinherited his daughter, Peter began to neglect her. He took up gambling, and he didn’t come home at night. Then he started to disappear for weeks.
Anstis sent Hannah’s brother, William, to Providence to check on her. William brought her clothes and her little dog, Marcus.
Heartbroken, neglected and poor, Hannah began to waste away. William told his mother about Hannah’s decline. One day he said Hannah was so sick she couldn’t leave her bed.
Anstis then persuaded Rowland to let her send Hannah’s maid to her. She also pleaded with him to relent and to go see his daughter. He refused. Anstis noticed, though, that he would come home and wander abstractedly through the house until he saw Felis, Hannah’s cat. He would sit quietly in the room with the creature. Once Anstis saw him holding Felis to his chest and sobbing.
Prince noticed Rowland visiting the stable more often than he used to. He always patted Hannah’s horse as he left.
An Unexpected Visitor
Finally, Rowland softened. He told Anstis if Hannah agreed to disclose the names of the people who helped her elope, she could come home. Informed of his offer, Hannah wrote him an affectionate letter but refused to reveal her conspirators.
Then one day Rowland jumped up from dinner and rode his horse thirty-five miles to Providence, stopping overnight at Lodowick Updike’s. He found Hannah’s little house and banged his cane against the door. Her maid answered.
Hannah was too sick to leave her bed, the maid said. Rowland told the maid to ask Hannah who had helped her elope. The maid returned with the message that Hannah wouldn’t tell. Rowland turned around and rode home.
Several days later he mounted his horse and rode to Providence. Again he knocked on the door, again he demanded to know who had helped Hannah elope. Again Hannah refused to tell.
At home, Anstis took ill. Rowland was distraught. He rode again to Providence and rapped his cane on the door. When the maid answered it, he asked, “How’s Hannah?” Informed of her condition, he turned around and rode home.
His visits continued for several weeks. Then Miss Belden and William Gardiner learned about Rowland’s demands and Hannah’s condition. Miss Belden wrote to Hannah and begged her to reveal her name. William Gardiner rode to Providence to visit Hannah, and he said he would tell her father of his role in her elopement.
Free To Tell the Story
Released from her vow of secrecy, Hannah wrote to her father, offering to tell him the whole story. As soon as he got her letter, Rowland left for Providence.
When Hannah’s maid admitted Rowland to the house, he rushed to Hannah’s bedside. Shocked by her wasted appearance, he broke down in sobs. He knelt by her bed, held her hand and wept until he could regain his composure. Then Rowland rose, reached into his pocket and gave Hannah’s maid several gold coins. He told her to buy whatever Hannah needed, whatever would make her comfortable, and to prepare her for her journey home. Rowland never even asked who had helped her elope.
Rowland rode home and immediately arranged for Hannah’s rescue. The roads were rough, too rough to carry her in a carriage. Rowland had a litter at the manor, though, which wealthy people used to transport the sick. When he arrived home, he told his head farmer to select his four strongest servants. They were to take the litter on board his fastest sloop and to go to Providence as quickly as possible, by sail or by oar.
Tired and dirty, Rowland mounted a fresh horse the next morning. He took Prince with him and a horse for Hannah’s maid. Then they rode back to his daughter’s house in Providence to bring her home for the last time.
Hannah Robinson Goes Home
The sloop arrived at the wharf. Rowland and the servants spent the night in a tavern. The next morning, they went to Hannah’s house. They gently placed Hannah in the litter with her little dog at her feet. Then they began the long walk home. At nightfall they rested at Lodowick Updike’s house.

The Roger Mowry Tavern in P rovidence
The next day the sun rose on a perfect Indian summer morning. The entourage resumed its journey, eventually reaching the wooded spot where Hannah had abandoned Mary and Prince for Peter. Hannah began to cry.
On they plodded. When they reached the rock where Hannah used to sit and watch the bay, she asked them to stop. She sat and watched the ocean as she had as a girl. She spotted a yellow wildflower—Everlasting Life—and asked her maid to pick a sprig and pin it to her dress.

The view of Narragansett Bay today
The sun was setting, and they could hear in the distance cows lowing, an ax chopping wood and fishermen singing a roundelay. They were a mile from home, and Rowland told Hannah they should resume their journey or else the evening air would do her harm. But Hannah insisted on staying until the evening gun from Fort George boomed.
The party reached the Robinson manor house by moonlight. Hannah held a sad reunion with her sick mother. Rowland carried her to her bedchamber, where her family and servants surrounded her. A high fever and delirium set in, and they heard the cry of the whippoorwill, a sign of death. Hannah called to her mother, “Do you hear the death angel mother? He is out in the lilac.”
Unfortunate Hannah Robinson died the next morning, October 30, 1773.
Alone in His Grandeur
Peter Simons came once to the Robinson estate to pay his respects. In honor of his daughter’s wishes, Rowland treated him cordially. Simons then left for Europe and never returned to America.
Anstis Robinson died a month after her oldest daughter passed away. Mary died four years later. William got married and died at age forty-six. Rowland outlived them all, dying at the age of eighty-seven.
A woman who knew him well wrote in her diary, “Rowland Robinson was thus left alone in his grandeur, a man of violent passions, which was characteristic of the Robinsons, but of a noble, benevolent nature.”
In 1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps built a new watch tower at the site where Hannah Robinson watched Narragansett Bay. The rock and the tower, called the Hannah Robinson Tower, are now owned by Preserve Rhode Island and managed by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

Hannah Robinson Tower
The Robinson manor still stands, though part of it has been torn down. The Lodowick Updike house also stands, known popularly as Smith’s Castle.
The tale of Unfortunate Hannah Robinson was one of the great scandals of colonial New England.
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The story of Unfortunate Hannah Robinson is one of 15 in the New England Historical Society’s story collection, “Love Stories from History.” Click here to order your copy today.
Images: Hannah Robinson Tower By Raime – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7604720. Smith’s Castle By Mlanni98 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77139260.