USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Governors for three hundred years, 1638-1959; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 11
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3. To Samuel, forty acres at Black Point, four oxen, two cows, brown mare, five ewes, five ewe lambs, sow, spanish gun, sword, belt, best coat and hat, feather bed and great Bible.
4. To son Peleg, at age, twenty acres at Black Point, second roan mare, five ewes, five ewe lambs, two cows, sow, French gun, sword etc.
5. To Restcome at age, forty acres at Black Point and like legacies to William, Esbon and Elisha.
6. To Eliphal one hundred pounds of which sixty pounds at marriage and forty pounds at her mother's marriage or death.
7. To Annie sixty pounds at marriage.
8. To sons, Samuel, Peleg, Restcome, William, Esbon and Elisha rest of the estate." The inventory of the personal property bequested is also interesting.
Pounds, 824 £; Shillings, 11s; Pence, ld. as follows: £ S
4)
S Shill-
60 lb gunpowder
Pounds 94
Shill- ings 10
3 old swords
84 lb shot 1 1
flock bed for negroes
8 pr Men's shoes
80 ewe sheep 120
1 pr Women's shoes 1 16
4 old oxen
30
18 trading hatchets
36 Withers (9 rams) 27
peage 58
10
2 young oxen 56
carpet - cupboard
6 steers, 2 bulls
cloth, stuff cloak
4 calves, 12 cows
long cushion
4 heifers, 7 yearlings
corslet wanting garget
5 calves, hay horse
7 chairs - table, form
foal, 4 mares
cradle, books
10 sows 5 hogs
5 punter platters & flaggon
2 negro & negro boy 62
10
2 silver spoons
great ferry boat & tackling 20
6 old scythes
canoes 10
warming pan
Hay and corn 40
3 fowling pieces
cutlass
523. 7
-
THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF
108
Inventory
Pounds ings
There is a discrepancy between the total stated at the beginning and the total found by adding the separate items of 301 £ 4 s ld. Was this amount cash, or were the separate bequests included in the total but excluded from the itemized list?
Sometime after 1655 Bridget Sanford, John's widow, married Major William Pillips, a prominent citizen of Boston, and removed to the latter place.
She died a little before Sept. 29, 1696.
Besides John, Samuel, and Peleg, the sons of John Sanford died unmarried except Esbon, who left one child, a daughter. Eliphal married Bartho Stratton. They had four children, all girls. It is not known whether Anne married or not.
First Generation:
John Sanford, born about 1600, died 1653. President 1652-1653, married. 1. Elizabeth Webb.
1. John born June 24, 1632 or June 4, 1633.
2. Samuel, born June 4, 1633 or July 14, 1635. Mother probably died, child birth. Married second wife Bridget Hutchinson, daughter of Anne Hutchinson.
3. Eliphal, born Dec. 9, 1637.
4. Peleg, born May 10, 1639, became Gov. 1680-1683.
5. Endcome, born Feb. 23, 1640, died young.
6. Rescome, born Jan. 29, 1642.
7. William, born Mar. 4, 1644.
8. Esbon, born June 25, 1646.
9. Francis, born June 9, 1648, died young.
10. Elisha, born Dec. 28, 1650.
11. Anne, born Mar. 12, 1652.
John Sanford, 2nd, took possession of his father's home place, being at the time of his father's death about twenty-one years of age. It is likely that he left his mother to manage the farm and the ferry while he went to sea, as so many of his descendants have done. How else did he have an opportunity to meet his first wife, Elizabeth, the daugh- ter of Henry Spatchurst of Bermuda? After his marriage, his mother having married again and removed to Boston, he settled down to farming and shortly became prominent in the political affairs of Rhode Island. It is interesting to note that while his brother Peleg, who made his home in Newport, was associated with him and became even more prominent in public matters, his brother Samuel who also moved to Newport seems never to have held any civil office. John Sanford became treasurer of the colony in 1660 and there is extant in the Providence Archives the record of where John Sanford, "Treas- urer of the colony Providence Plantations hath sold unto William Offield for 5 Pound O Shillings about 600 acres in Providence and hath given a deed under the said John Sanford his hand and seale bearing date the 27th day of November in the year 1660." Probably this land is what was later known as Field's Point.
GOVERNORS OF RHODE ISLAND
109
GOVERNOR PELEG SANFORD
1680-1683
Born: May 10, 1639.
Died: 1701.
First marriage about 1660 Mary Brenten. birth date unknown; died: 1674. She was the daughter of Governor William Brenton.
Second marriage Dec. 1. 1674. Mary Coddington; born May 16. 1654. Daughter of Governor William Coddington. Died: Mar .. 1693. The children were:
Ann Bridget Elizabeth
Peleg William
There is more known about Peleg Sanford and less of his family than is the case with any of his relations. His first wife was Mary, the daughter of William and Martha (Bur- ton) Brenton. by whom it would happen that he had no children. William Brenton was the last but one of the Presidents under the original royal charter of 1644 and the first but one of the governors under the second royal charter of 1663. Doubtless this alliance accounts in part for his political prominence. When his first wife died, he married, after a brief widowerhood. Mary, the daughter of William Coddington, prominent in Rhode Island history from the beginning. and at the time when the marriage occurred seated in the gubernatorial chair.
To have married into the governors' families was enough to insure his consideration for the same office.
From 1665 to August 1667. England was at war with Holland. The Dutch posses- sions in the new world were sufficiently near Rhode Island to fill the colony with anxi- ety and awake a sense of responsibility. On July 2. 1667 the general assembly "voted" to muster a troop of horses and to furnish a "publish magazine," and on Aug. 10, the governor's son-in-law was commissioned "Captain". His troop could not have been very formidable, as from the date of his commission only nineteen had signed the muster roll.
In 1670 he became Assistant to the President which office he held for ten years. when he was elected Governor of the colony. This chair he held from Mar. 16, 1680 to May 1683. He was re-elected to succeed himself, but because of his relation to the crown, refused to take the oath of office, and his brother-in-law William Coddington, Jr., was seated in his stead. In 1670 while he was Assistant he was appointed by the assembly on the committee to take the oath of governor-elect, Benedict Arnold, who was too old to leave his house. He was chosen a commissioner of bankrupts, served on a committee to take charge of the public powder and was appointed surveyor of land in the Narragan- set Country in the boundary dispute between Connecticut and Rhode Island. At some time before his election as Governor he was treasurer of the colony for he is referred to in the Assembly minutes of 1680 as "our late treasurer". Although two important bat- tles of King Philip's War were fought on Rhode Island soil. and the contest was brought to a close there. Rhode Islanders. themselves, took small part in the warfare. This was This is a partial genealogy of the descendants of John Sanford by L.C.S. 1913.
THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF
110
due in part to the political individualism in the country which interfered with con- certed action and in part to the prevalence of Quaker opinions which interdicted the bear ing of arms. Peleg Sanford now bearing the title of Major was one of the few who dis- played any interest in the defense of the colonists, though there is no evidence that he was at any time offensively engaged. The great battle was at Great Swamp in South Kings- town in Dec. 1675. When an army of 1,100 colonists from Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut stormed the swamp in which the Narragansetts were intrenched, the re- sult was an English victory, but won with a loss of 68 killed and 150 wounded. The wounded were transferred to the Island of Rhode Island where they were assigned "good quarters" and given particular care. We read that Major Peleg Sanford alone furnished quarters at Newport for a large body of wounded, supplying (beside many other things) 244 lbs. of mutton 66 pounds of butter, 74 lbs. of sugar and 28 5/8 gallons of rum.
The hero of King Philip's War was Benjamin Church of Plymouth. He and Peleg Sanford were friends; indeed in 1676, when Church was prosecuting the last campaign against Philip. his family were guests at Major Sanford's house, and it was a visit to the latter to see his wife, which gave Capt. Church the opportunity to put an end to the war. Mrs. Church was so overcome at the sight of her husband that she fainted and had but just revived when Church "spy'd two horemen coming at great pace." These were Ma- jor Sanford and Capt. Roger Golding. They brought word that Philip was in hiding at Mount Hope. Church with two horsemen immediately went to Bristol and by midnight had with a company surrounded the swamp in which on the 'morrow King Philip was killed (Aug. 12. 1667). The difficulties between the American colonies and the mother country long antedated the Revolution. In Rhode Island the troubles centered around the sea trade which had its headquarters at Newport. By the middle of the seventeenth century ships sailed out and into the harbor on doubtful business. Rovers of the sea. of whom Kidd is the best known, found there a clandestine welcome. Rumor of breaches of the acts of trade reached England and Rhode Island was suspected of con- nivance if not of actively fostering the business of privateering or piracy.
The first overt act of the mother country to establish a closer supervision of the colo- nies was on June 3, 1686 when James II created the whole of New England as a royal province and sent over Sir Edmund Andros as the royal governor. This called out a remonstrance from Rhode Island in the form of a letter to Andros which Peleg Sanford with others signed. Sanford had been previously chosen in 1683, as the agent of the col- ony to go to England, but there is no evidence that he went. In 1687 Andros made an official visit to Newport and while there made a formal demand for the annulled char- ter. This was not the patent of 1644 but the later modified charter of 1663 secured by the efforts of Roger Williams and John Clarke. In Connecticut, when the same demand was made for their charter it had disappeared, having been concealed in the "Charter Oak". In Rhode Island also the charter was missing. It had been committed to the care of Mr. Walter Clarke and he had "lost it", but in 1689 when James II abdicated and New England rose against Andros and imprisoned him, the charter was "found" again and may be seen by the interested in the archives of Rhode Island. It continued to be in force until superseded by the present state constitution. It was doubtless due to Andros' visit to Newport that Peleg Sanford was brought to the notice of the crown. The dissat- isfaction with the sea-going business in Rhode Island continued apparently as a sop to the mother country and the Assembly had in 1653 established an Admiralty Court, which
GOVERNORS OF RHODE ISLAND
111
was supposed to regulate privateering, but never did. In 1697 the Earl of Bellomont was appointed governor of New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire with powers of Captain General over Rhode Island and Connecticut. Shortly afterward Peleg Sanford was appointed by the crown judge of the Admiralty Court, but when he presented the commission to the governor of the colony, Walter Clarke, and prepared to take the oath, the governor refused to administer the oath and confiscated the commission. Neverthe- less, Peleg Sanford by this time, and for ten years previous, known as Lieut. Colonel Sanford, fulfilled the functions of his office as best he could. The correspondence be- tween himself and Bellomont and particularly his navy report in answer to the 27 que- ries of the "Lords of Trade" are all on record in the archives of the state.
Peleg Sanford died in 1701 having outlived his second wife by eight years and being in the sixty-second year of his age. Unless he cut off some of his children, which there is no reason to suppose, he left two sons and three daughters to share his estate. The children at this time were all unmarried, the oldest Ann being not more than twenty-six years old. Two children, a boy and a girl, had apparently died in infancy. Ann married in Sept. 1705 James Noyes (or Noyce) of Westerly. Bridget married Dec. 6, 1703 or 1705 Job Almy of Portsmouth.
The will of Governor Peleg Sanford, which is written below as an interesting docu- ment, was drawn before his wife's death and never changed.
The will:
"1. To wife Mary, one third of all the plate, household goods, negro woman Hull and negro man Diruke and George.
2. To eldest son Peleg, two houses and land in Newport tract called Winnewuot of 450 acres, another piece of 160 acres, all my lands upon the Merrimac river, and lands at Raco all given me by my mother, 375 acres on Elizabeth island, several tracts in Ports- mouth and one eight of all my plate.
3. To son William, a tract of 290 acres, one of 256 acres, other land and one eight of all my plate.
4. To Peleg and William jointly, land in Newport, one-half of Rose Island and an- other tract of 1020 acres.
5. To Ann 60 acres house etc, one third of the plate not already bequeathed and £8.
6. To Bridget, 60 acres and one third of my plate not already bequeathed and £8.
7. To Elizabeth, 90 acres, one third of my plate not already bequeathed and £8.
8. To sister Eliphal £14 of money I lent her.
9. To my nieces, Mary Brindley, Mary Cole and Katherine Vernon 40 s each.
If all my children die without heirs, the whole estate to go to the daughter of broth- er Esbon deceased and children of William Stratton dec.
To my executors 40 s."
William Stratton was the husband of his sister Eliphal. He is elsewhere referred to as Bartho Stratton.
THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF
112
POSSAM
WILBUR
-
-
-
1
1
1
1
FREEBORN
-
SECTION H
1
DANIEL 1
WILCOX
-
1
LONG SWAMP !
1
JOHN
5
1_
0
GEORGE
1
1
\ JARED
1
LADD
/
-
-
-- -
LEWIS
1.
1
-
-
SAMUEL
-
ADAM LAW
1
1
---
JOS. NICHOLSON DEC.
--
BLACK POINT.
-
JOHN
-
JOSEPH WARD
JOHN WÅRD
-
WIM. SANFORD
JOHN
SANFORD
BARTHOLOMEW WEST
-
1
1
-
-
-
1.
-
-
-
-
11
-
JOHN ALLEN
NEWPOR
SAMUEL HUTCHINSON ?
T.
GOVERNORS OF RHODE ISLAND
113
ORIGINAL LAND GRANTS PORTSMOUTH 1638 TO 1657
FROM NEWPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Compiled by Edward H. Wat 1932
JOHN SANFORD
1
1
1
-
DERE. LAWTON
TEFFT
JOSEPH
THOMAS BURTON
108 TRIPP
LIJOHN GREEN
ILSAM. IGLEN
IWM. SANFORD
1
JOHN GREEN
1
-
1
-
-
-
---
SANFORD
PELEG
TRIPP
-
-
-
-
-
PRESERVED FISH 2 JOHN COGGESHALL 9 JOS. NICHOLSON
ALLEN
-
1 105. NICHOLSON DEC.
-
ADAM LAWTON
-
-
--
LAWTON
: \BOURNE
-
IWILLIAM
SANFORD
LATHAM CLARK
SAMUEL
PELEG SANFORD
-
GOVERNOR ARNOLD CEMETERY
NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF
114
HOPE
B
Arnold Arms
BENEDICT ARNOLD
Governor: 1663-1666; 1669-1672; 1677-1678.
Born: December 21, 1615 in Leamington, England.
Died: June 20, 1678 in Newport, R. I.
Buried: Newport, R. I. Arnold Cemetery.
ARNOLD, GOVERNOR BENEDICT, son of William Arnold, was born in England, December 21, 1615, and was among the early Puritan emigrants from the Old Country to Massachusetts. Sympathizing with Roger Williams in his views on civil and religious liberty, he was among the first settlers of Providence. His name appears on the first con- veyance in the records of the town. It is attached to a "memorandum, 3 m., 9th day, 1639," which is added to the deed conveying a grant of land by Massasoit. "This was all again confirmed by Miantonomi; he acknowledged this his act and hand, up the streams of Pawtucket and Pawtuxet without limits, we might have for our use of cattle. Witness hereof (signed) Roger Williams, Benedict Arnold."
By comparing dates it will be seen that Mr. Arnold was at this time only a little more than twenty-three years of age. His name appears on the list of fifty-four persons to whom the "town lots," i.e., the lots bounded by what are now North and South Main streets and Hope Street, were assigned to the first settlers of the town. His name also ap- pears in the Civil Compact in which the signers declared: "We do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of the body, in an orderly way. by the major assent of the present inhabitants, etc;" and when, not long after, another instrument was drawn up, designed to secure more stability and good order in the management of civil affairs, this paper was signed by Mr. Arnold. It will thus appear that from the very outset, and when he was but a young man, he took an interest in matters affecting the welfare of the little colony.
In 1642 he was one of four of the inhabitants who, becoming dissatisfied with the conduct of Gorton and his company, placed themselves and their lands under the govern- ment and protection of Massachusetts, where they all remained for sixteen years, with the exception of Mr. Arnold, who, before the completion of this period, removed to New- port. He took an active part in Indian affairs, doing what lay in his power to allay the hostile spirit of the natives. His removal to Newport was in 1653. We find the name upon the list of "commissioners" from that place, appointed to adjust certain difficulties and to bring about the union of the towns of Rhode Island under the charter or patent granted by the "honored Parliament of the Commonwealth of England."
GOVERNORS OF RHODE ISLAND
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At the meeting of the General Assembly in September, 1654, he was elected a "colony officer" till the next May, and was re-elected the following year. For four years. 1657-61, he held the office of President of the colony, and under the charter of King Charles he was Governor from May. 1663, to May. 1666; also from May, 1669, to May, 1672. During Governor Arnold's second term of office, serious difficulties sprang up with the colony of Connecticut, which at one time threatened the peace and welfare of both the colonies. The Governor was appointed as agent of Rhode Island to proceed to Eng- land and defend what was believed to be the rights of the colony under the charter.
The two towns of Westerly and Stonington maintained a sort of internecine strife for many years. In 1677 Mr. Arnold was again chosen Governor, and was in office at the time of his death, which occurred June 20, 1678. Governor Arnold was a leading man of the times in which he lived, and occupied a conspicuous place in Rhode Island history. Hon. S. G. Arnold says of him: "His liberal views and thorough appreciation of the Rhode Island idea of intellectual freedom appear in the letters that, as President of the colony, he wrote in reply to the arrogant demand of the United Colonies when they urged the forcible expulsion of the Quakers. Throughout his long and useful life he displayed talents of a brilliant order, which were employed for the welfare of his fellow- men.'
BENEDICT ARNOLD
SOLDIER
Great Grandson of Governor Benedict Arnold
BENEDICT ARNOLD, soldier, born in Norwich, Conn., 14 Jan., 1741 died in London, England, 14 June, 1801. His ancestor, William Arnold (born in Leamington, Warwick- shire, in 1587), came to Providence in 1636. and was associated with Roger Williams as one of the fifty-four proprietors in the first settlement of Rhode Island. His son Benedict moved to Newport, and was governor of the colony from 1663 to 1666, 1669 to 1672, 1677 to 1678, when he died. His son Benedict was a member of the assembly in 1695. His son Benedict, third of that name moved to Norwich in 1730-1 was cooper. ship- owner, and sea-captain, town surveyor, collector, assessor, and selectman. He married, 8 Nov .. 1733, Hannah, daughter of John Waterman, widow of Absalom King. Of their six children, only Benedict and Hannah lived to grow up.
Benedict received a respectable school education, including some knowledge of Latin. He was romantic and adventurous, excessively proud and sensitive, governed rather by impulse than by principle. He was noted for physical strength and beauty. as well as for bravery. He possessed immense capacity both for good and for evil. and circumstances de- veloped him in both directions. At the age of fifteen he ran away from home and enlisted in the Connecticut army, marching to Albany and Lake George to resist the French in- vasion; but, getting weary of discipline, he deserted and made his way home alone through the wilderness. He was employed in a drug shop at Norwich until 1762, when he removed to New Haven and established himself in business as druggist and bookseller. He acquired a considerable property, and engaged in the West India trade, sometimes commanding his own ships, as his father had done. He also carried on trade with Canada, and often visited Quebec.
THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF
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On 22 Feb., 1767, he married Margaret, daughter of Samuel Mansfield. They had three sons, Benedict, Richard, and Henry. She died 19 June, 1775.
On one of his voyages, being at Honduras, he fought a duel with a British sea -- captain who called him a "d - -- - d Yankee"; the captain was wounded and apologized. He occasionally visited England. At noon of 20 April. 1775, the news of the battle of Lexington reached New Haven, and Arnold, who was captain of the governor's guards, about 60 in number. assembled them on the college green and offered to lead them to Boston. Gen. Wooster thought he had better wait for regular orders, and the selectmen refused to supply ammunition; but, upon Arnold's threatening to break into the maga- zine, the selectmen yielded and furnished the ammunition and the company marched to Cambridge. Arnold immediately proposed the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. and the plan was approved by Dr. Warren, chairman of the committee of safety.
Arnold was commissioned as colonel by the provincial congress of Massachusetts, and directed to raise 400 men in the western counties and surprise the forts. The same scheme had been entertained in Connecticut, and troops from that colony and from Berkshire, with a number of "Green mountain boys," had already started for the lakes under command of Ethan Allen. On meeting them Arnold claimed the command, but when it was refused he joined the expedition as a volunteer and entered Ticonderoga side by side with Allen. A few days later Arnold captured St. John's. Massachusetts asked Connecticut to put him in command of these posts, but Connecticut preferred Al- len. Arnold returned to Cambridge early in July, proposed to Washington the expedi- tion against Quebec by way of the Kennebec and Chaudiere rivers, and was placed in command of 1.100 men and started from Cambridge 11 Sept. The enterprise, which was as difficult and dangerous as Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, was conducted with con- summate ability, but was nearly ruined by the misconduct of Col. Enos, who deserted and returned to Massachusetts with 200 men and the greater part of the provisions. After frightful hardships, to which 200 more men succumbed. on 13 Nov., the little army climbed the heights of Abraham. As Arnold's force was insufficient to storm the city. and the garrison would not come out to fight. he was obliged to await the arrival of Mont- gomery. who had just taken Montreal.
In the great assault of 31 Dec., in which Montgomery was slain, Arnold received a wound in the leg. For his gallantry he was now made brigadier-general. He kept up the siege of Quebec till the following April, when Wooster arrived and took command. Ar- nold was put in command of Montreal. The British, being now heavily reenforced, were able to drive the Americans from Canada, and early in June Arnold effected a junction with Gates at Ticonderoga. During the summer he was busily occupied in building a fleet with which to oppose and delay the advance of the British up Lake Champlain.
On 11 Oct. he fought a terrible naval battle near Valcour island in which he was de- feated by the overwhelming superiority of the enemy in number of ships and men; but he brought away part of his flotilla and all his surviving troops in safety to Ticonderoga. and his resistance had been so obstinate that it discouraged Gen. Carleton, who retired to Montreal for the winter. This relief of Ticonderoga made it possible to send 3,000 men from the northern army to the aid of Washington, and thus enabled that commander to strike his great blows at Trenton and Princeton.
GOVERNORS OF RHODE ISLAND
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Among Allen's men concerned in the capture of Ticonderoga in the preceding year was Lieut. John Brown, of Pittsfield, who on that occasion had some difficulty with Ar- nold. Brown now brought charges against Arnold of malfeasance while in command at Montreal, with reference to exactions of private property for the use of the army. The charges were investigated by the board of war, which pronounced them "cruel and groundless" and entirely exonerated Arnold, and the report was confirmed by congress. Nevertheless, a party hostile to Arnold had begun to grow up in that body. Gates had al- ready begun to intrigue against Schuyler, and Charles Lee had done his best to ruin Washington. The cabal or faction that afterward took its name from Conway was al- ready forming. Arnold was conspicuous as an intimate friend of Schuyler and Washing- ton, and their enemies began by striking at him. This petty persecution of the commander- in-chief by slighting and insulting his favorite officers was kept up until the last year of the war, and such men as Greene, Morgan, and Stark were almost driven from the service by it.
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