Little Compton

Little Compton

Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The population was 3,616 at the 2020 census.

Little Compton was originally inhabited by the Sakonnet Indians and their settlement was called Sakonnet or Saughonet.^[3] The name has been interpreted in a variety of ways including “where the water pours forth”.

The first European settlers were from Duxbury, Massachusetts in the Plymouth Colony, which granted them their charter. The ruler of the Native Americans was a female sachem named Awashonks who was friendly to the newcomers and remained so during and after King Phillip’s War.^[3] With her acquiescence, the new settlers divided the land into standard-sized lots for farms.^[3] Among the 29 original proprietors was Colonel Benjamin Church, who would become well known for his role in the late 17th-century conflicts with surrounding Indian tribes, initially the Wampanoags and later, the Narragansetts. In 1675, Church built a house in Little Compton, just prior to King Philip’s War. Today, a plaque marks the location on West Main Road. Click here for additional information