I found the article below in the Google ebook library. If you want to read the whole thing click HERE
I believe that the Adam Gould referred to was the son of John and Elizabeth in the article above. I’m basing this on the fact that the term “New Lights” was used in the middle of the 18th century at the time of the “First Great Awakening”. The New Lights embraced the religious revivals that spread through the colonies at that time.
Adam Gould was born in 1712 in Kingston, Rhode Island. He was a soldier in the Revolution. He married Abigail Anthony and they had seven children together. He died on September 10, 1807, in his hometown, at the impressive age of 95, and was buried in the Gould Lot on the corner of South Road and Allens Avenue in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. He was my 5th Great Grandfather
The Narragansett Historical Register Volume 1. 1882-1883
Site of the Adam Gould House
The site of Mr Gould’s house was about 150 rods north of the present Colored meeting house near Curtis’ Corner. This place is historic as the place where the cats were let out of the bag, as narrated by Mr. Comstock in his history of the affair.
Mr. Gould was part Quaker, and he did not like the New Lights, because he said they were too noisy in their worship. His wife followed New Light doctrine, and the two used to differ over it, and he predicted that they would some time turn into cats. Perhaps this led to the fact of the place being chosen for the site of Mr. Comstock’s Cat-astrophe.
When Mr. Gould discovered so many cats around his house (he not knowing how they came there), naturally supposed his prophecy had been fulfilled, and he so stated it to his wife, who took at once more logical and reasonable grounds. The dispute over it caused the joke to take on a new richness and added immensely to it; and particularly as the old man seemed so honest and sincere about his own convictions in the matter, and seem to really believe his statements.