USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > Governors for three hundred years, 1638-1959; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations > Part 15
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4. Judige Field house, now 55 High street, and at present owned and occupied by Mr. H. A. Briggs. Judge Field was father of William Field, the founder of the Providence Tool Co., and grandfather of the junior William Field, an accomplished musician who died but a short time ago. 5. Shop for many years owned and occupied by the late Job Bennett, gunsmith and locksmith. In later years occupied by A. K. Pendergrass, boot and shoe maker. Now unocoupled and in ruinous condition. Original owner was Nathaniel Jenks, father of Job Bennett's wife.
6. . House, original owner Nathaniel Jenks. Like No. 5. In ruinous condition.
7. Serll Bullock house. Occupied as tenement and saloon.
8. Bennett house, owned and occupied then by Isaac Bennett, the late Job Bennett's father. Now occupied as a dwelling house.
9. Trott house. Afterward owned by father of the late Joseph Wheaton Allen.
10. Squire Read house. Read street, named after him, was then a lane with a gate at the low- er end Lower story now occupled as a barber shop, etc.
11. C'apt. Ellis house. Ellis was a teamster and B on the right was his barn. He was a son- In-law of Trott. Ira Allen, father of William P. Allen, purchased the place in 1832. He re- moved the barn, erected a larger one on Its alte and It is now osen,ded by storekeepers, mant. facturers, etc. U'pper portion of the house is now occupied by E. F. Trafton.
12 Deacon Tabor house. Later occupied by his son-in-law Samuel (. Colyer, who Is well re- merhered by many of our readers. The lower floor is now used for business purposes.
I :. Barns.
X2 Grave of Gov. Joseph Jenks.
XX. Graves of the senior Joseph Jenks and wife.
. F& Fence.
The dots represent the gravestones.
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B
7
WILLIAM WANTON
Governor: May 1732-December 1733.
War Service: Captain of privateers, Colonial Wars (Queen Anne's) .
Born: September 15, 1670 in Scituate, Massachusetts.
Died: December 1733 in Newport, R. I.
Buried: Newport, R. I. Golden Hill Cemetery.
WANTON, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, son of Edward and Elizabeth Wanton, born in Scituate, in 1670. He married Ruth, daughter of Deacon John Bryant, of Scituate, an ancestor of William Cullen Bryant, the poet. As the Wanton family were members of the Society of Friends, his relatives opposed the marriage on the ground that the Bryants were not members of that Society, and her friends equally opposed it, because he be- longed to the then hated and proscribed sect; whereupon, it is said, he thus addressed her. in the presence of her family, she being very young: "Ruth, let us break away from this unreasonable bondage. I will give up my religion, and thou shalt give up thine, and we will both go to the Church of England and to the devil together." They were accordingly married, and became members of the Church of England, to which they adhered throughout their lives. Since, for obvious reasons, they could not be married in the Friends Society or the Congregational Church in Scituate, the records of Ports- mouth. Rhode Island, inform us that they were married in that town January 1, 1691, though they did not immediately remove there. Their children were Margaret, born October 22, 1692; George, born August 24, 1694; William, born October 22, 1696; Peter, born March 22, 1698; Ruth, born July 12, 1701; Edward, born April 11, 1702; Joseph, born August 15. 1705; Benjamin, born June 9, 1707, and Eliza, born October 4, 1709, four of whom. Margaret, Peter, Ruth, and Eliza, died young.
In 1694, when William was twenty-four years of age, and his brother John twenty- two, a pirate-ship having committed several robberies in Massachusetts Bay, in which the family had suffered losses, these two young men, departing from the usages of their Society, headed a party of volunteers, who captured the pirates and carried them into Newport, where they were executed. Again, in 1697, just before the peace of Ryswick, of that year, and during the troubles with Count Frontenac, Governor of Canada, a French armed ship appeared in the bay and took several prizes. The two brothers each fitted out a vessel from Boston, well manned with spirited volunteers, and captured her. It is said that their father endeavored to dissuade them from this bold and perilous en- terprise as unlawful, according to the rules of their Society, but finding them fixed in their resolution he said: "It would be a grief to my spirit to hear that ye had fallen in a military enterprise; but if ye will go, remember that it would be a greater grief to hear that ye were cowards." The fame of this bold exploit reached England, and when Wil- liam and John were there in 1702 they were presented at court. Queen Anne received them very graciously, granted an addition to their family coat of arms, and presented each of them with two pieces of plate, a silver punch-bowl and salver. with suitable de- vices. These pieces of plate are said to have been stolen from their houses in Newport. when robbed by the mobs of the political contests of the factions of Ward and Hop- kins, with the exception of one piece.
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Joseph Wanton, the elder brother having settled in Tiverton in 1688, and estab- lished a shipyard at the place known as Bridgeton, William followed him to this vicin- ity, and, as early as 1702, purchased property at the north end of the island in Ports- mouth, and established a ship-yard at what is now the south end of the Old Colony Rail- road bridge. In Queen Anne's war against France and Spain in 1702, "the brigantine Greyhound, of one hundred tons, mounting twelve guns, and manned with one hundred men and boys, was fitted for sea, and placed in command of Captain William Wanton, with a privateer commission to cruise for five months. He gave bonds in the sum of £1000 for the faithful discharge of his trust, and to return to port in two months." "He returned after two months' cruise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence crowned with bril- liant success. He captured and brought into port three French ships, one of them a privateer of 260 tons, of twenty guns and forty-eight men; one of 300 tons and sixteen guns, and the third of 160 tons and eight guns. They were loaded with dried fish," bound for France.
The next year William sold his property in Portsmouth, consisting of nineteen acres of land, the ship-yard, and ferry, to Daniel Howland, of Tiverton, for £430, and re- moved to Newport. Hence the place from which he removed was afterward known as "Howland's Ferry." Upon his removal to Newport he turned his attention to trade and politics, and rapidly rose to power and distinction.
He was Speaker of the House of Deputies in 1705, 1708, 1710, 1715, 1716, 1718, 1719, and in February, 1723. He was elected Governor in 1732 and 1733, and as his brother John was Deputy Governor from 1729 to 1734, this was the only instance of brothers holding the two principal offices of the colony at the same time. Governor William Wanton died December, 1733, aged sixty-three years. The State House in Newport was built during his administration.
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HON. WILLIAM WANTON
1732-1733 Painter Unknown
Southwest Corridor Second Floor of State House
1
WANTON TOMB Golden Hill Cemetery Newport, R. I.
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JOHN WANTON
Governor: May 1734-July 5, 1740.
War Service: Naval officer and Colonel of Militia, Queen Anne's War.
Born: December 24, 1672 in Scituate, Massachusetts.
Died: July 5, 1740 in Newport, Rhode Island.
Buried: Newport, Rhode Island. Coddington Cemetery.
WANTON, GOVERNOR JOHN, son of Edward and Elizabeth Wanton, was born December 24th, 1672 in Scituate, Massachusetts. He married, in 1689, Ann, daughter of Gideon Freeborn, by whom he had six children, Eliza, Edward, Gideon, Sarah, Joseph and Mary, and secondly to Mary Stafford of Tiverton, then in Massachusetts. His naval exploits in connection with his brother William, related in Arnold's History of Rhode Island, says that during Queen Anne's War, in June 1706, "a sloop loaded with provi- sions was taken by a French privateer near Block Island. The news reached the Gover- nor the next day. Proclamation for volunteers was forthwith issued; two sloops were taken up for the expedition, and within two hours' time were manned by one hundred and twenty men, under the command of Captain John Wanton; and in less than three hours afterward captured the privateer, retook her prize, and brought them into New- port. The promptness and success of this adventure astonished and delighted the coun- try, and added fresh laurels to the naval glory of Rhode Island."
In 1712, when forty years of age, he rejoined the Society of Friends, of which he was a birthright member, and, like his father and his elder brother Joseph, became a Quaker preacher. Having ample means of his own, he travelled extensively to promote the interests of the Society. It must have been a singular spectacle to the Quaker con- gregations in those days to see a man distinguished for his great personal bravery, and bold and successful naval exploits, appearing in the garb of his sect, and preaching the gospel of peace. He is said to have been an eloquent preacher.
Colonial politics were much disturbed after the death, in 1727, of Governor Sam- uel Cranston, who had filled the gubernatorial office with distinguished ability for twenty- nine years, and there were many divisions in the little colony. During this state of af- fairs Wanton was induced to enter the arena of politics. As his piety and eloquence had commended him to the members of the Society of Friends, then the wealthiest and leading sect of the colony, so his family influence, great wealth, and acknowledged in- trepidity made him immensely popular with "the world's people" and assured his suc- cess in politics.
He was Deputy Governor from 1721 to 1722, and from 1729 to 1734, when, upon the death of his brother William, he was elected Governor seven times successively. He died in office, July 5, 1740, and was buried in the Coddington Cemetery, Farewell Street, probably before the Clifton ground on Golden Hill Street, Newport, was opened. Four, if not five, of the colonial governors sleep in this now sadly neglected spot. Governor Wanton's grave is probably on the west side of the ground, opposite the gate, covered with a large freestone slab, the inscription upon which is now obliterated. "He is de- scribed as a man of middling stature, thin features, and fair complexion; remarkable for his gentle attentions to children, many of whom would gather around him to catch his smile in the street, or collect at his door as he sat in his portico. He resided in a
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HON. JOHN WANTON 1734-1740 Painter Unknown Southeast Corridor Second Floor of State House
house which he purchased, which stood opposite to that of his brother William," on Thames Street.
Portraits of these two remarkable men, with their coat of arms, and in the style of Queen Anne's time, may be seen in the Hall of Representatives, in the State House in Providence.
My dear Mr. Mohr:
I have examined the Quaker church records and find the following concerning the death of Gov. John Wanton:
"5 day 5 mo. 1740 JOHN WANTON GOVERNOUR of the Colony of Rhode Island Aged 68 years and departed this Life the 5th day of the 5th month 1740 being the 7th day of the week and the 2nd day of the week following he was carried to the Meeting house and after Meeting was buried in Coddington's Burying place-for many years he was a valuable public friend."
Evidently he either never had a grave stone or it has since disappeared, but this would probably be the record used to prove his burial in the little "Governor's Cemetery" and would be the reason for his name being placed on the stone wall.
If all the churches had kept the records as the Quaker group did we would have many of our questions answered.
June 8, 1954
Sincerely yours, GLADYS E. BOLHOUSE (Mrs. Peter) Executive Secretary Newport Historical Society
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RICHARD WARD
Governor: July 15, 1740 to May 1743.
War Governor: Colonial War, England and France.
Born: April 15. 1689 in Newport, Rhode Island. Died: August 21. 1763 in Newport, Rhode Island.
Buried: Newport. Rhode Island. Common Ground Cemetery.
WARD, GOVERNOR RICHARD, colonial governor, born in Newport, R. I., April 15. 1689. died there August 21. 1763. His father, Thomas Ward, son of John Ward, who was an officer in one of Cromwell's cavalry regiments. came from Gloucester, England. after the restoration of Charles II, as his father did also, and both settled in Newport. Thomas Ward, who followed the business of a merchant, was General Treasurer of the colony. 1677-1678, a deputy to the General Assembly in 1678-1679, an Assistant in 1679- 1681, and then Deputy from 1683 till 1686.
Richard was also engaged in commerce. He was Attorney-General in 1712-1713, Deputy and Clerk of the Assembly in 1714, Recorder from 1714 till 1730, Deputy Gov- ernor from May to July. 1740, when Gov. Wanton died, and Governor from July 15. 1740, till May, 1743-three terms. His able report to the English Board of Trade on paper money, January 9, 1741, is printed in the "Rhode Island Colonial Records," edit- ed by John R. Bartlett.
His son, Samuel, statesman, born in Newport, R. I., May 27, 1725; died in Phila- delphia, Pa., March 26, 1776, removed early in life to Westerly, R. I., where he prospered in business both as a farmer and merchant.
After representing his adopted home for several years in the legislature, he was ap- pointed in 1761 Chief Justice of the colony, and in 1762 he was chosen its Governor. He was active in the founding of Rhode Island College (now Brown University), and was one of its trustees from 1764 till 1776. In 1765 he was re-elected governor. When the stamp-act was passed he was the only one of the colonial governors who refused to take the required oath to sustain and enforce it.
For a third time he was chosen Governor in 1766. From the outset he took a decid- ed stand against the oppressive encroachments of the British crown. With Stephen Hop- kins he represented Rhode Island in the Continental Congress in 1774-1776, and uni- formly advocated the most vigorous patriotic measures. He was always called to the chair when Congress went into committee of the whole, was chairman of the committee that reported in favor of a general for the American Army, when Col. George Wash- ington was unanimously chosen. Dying of small-pox in the midst of his arduous duties, he was buried in the grounds of the Ist Baptist Church in Philadelphia, where a monu- ment was erected to his memory by order of the Rhode Island General Assembly.
In 1860 his remains were removed to the cemetery of Newport. R. I. Another son, Henry, member of the Colonial Congress, born in Rhode Island 27 December 1732; d. there, 25 Nov., 1797, was Secretary of Rhode Island from 1760 till his death, and took part in the Congress that met at New York City on October 7, 1765. He early espoused
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the principle of national independence, and during the Revolution acted as a member of the Committee of Correspondence. Samuel's son, Samuel, soldier, born in Westerly, R. I., November 17, 1756; died in New York City August 16, 1832, was graduated at Brown in 1771. He raised a company, and marched to the siege of Boston in 1775, was commissioned Captain by Congress, and joined Benedict Arnold's expedition into Canada, being taken prisoner at the siege of Quebec, and conveyed to New York City by sea. He was commissioned as a Major of the 1st Rhode Island line in 1777, was in action at Red Bank, writing the official report of the battle, and was with the army at Valley Forge.
In 1778, after marrying a daughter of Gov. William Greene, he assisted in raising a new regiment in Rhode Island, which he commanded in Gen. John Sullivan's cam- paign in that state. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in 1779, and retired on Jan- uary 1, 1781. He was a delegate in 1786 to the convention at Annapolis, Md., for the regulation of commerce between the states. He made a voyage to China in 1788, and in 1790 established himself in mercantile business in New York City. After serving as president of the New York Marine Insurance Company in 1806-1808, he relinquished business, retiring to an estate in Rhode Island, whence he was sent as a delegate to the Hartford Convention of 1814. He afterward resided in Jamaica, L. I., and at the close of his life in New York City.
The second Samuel's son, Samuel, banker, born in Rhode Island May 1, 1786; died in New York City November 27, 1839, received a common-school education, entered a banking-house as clerk, and in 1808 was taken into partnership, continuing a member of the firm of Prime, Ward and King until his death. In 1838 he secured through the Bank of England a loan of nearly $5,000,000 to enable the banks to resume specie pay- ments, and established the Bank of Commerce, becoming its president. He was a found- er of the University of the City of New York and of the City Temperance Society, of which he was the first president, and was active in organizing mission churches, a patron of many charities, and the giver of large sums in aid of Protestant Episcopal churches and colleges in the West.
The third Samuel's wife, Julia Rush, poet, born in Boston, Mass. January 5, 1796; died in New York City November 9, 1824, was a sister of Rev. Benjamin Clarke Cutler, and through her mother, a grand niece of Francis Marion. She married Mr. Ward in October, 1812. One of her occasional poems is preserved in Rufus W. Griswold's "Fe- male Poets of America" (Philadelphia, 1848). Their son, Samuel, author, born in New York City, January 27, 1814; died in Pegli, Italy, May 19, 1884, was educated at Round Hill School, Northampton, Mass., and at Columbia, where he was graduated in 1831. He went abroad to perfect his studies, received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen, travelled extensively, and became proficient in the modern languages. Re- turning in 1835, he married a daughter of William B. Astor, and entered his father's banking-house as a partner.
After his second marriage, in 1843, to Medora, a daughter of John R. Grymes, he left the firm, and in 1848 went to California, where he engaged in mining. During his stay in the interior he acquired several Indian dialects. He visited Mexico in 1854, acted as secretary of an expedition sent by the United States Government to Paraguay in 1858, went on a diplomatic mission to Nicaragua in 1862, securing the renewal of transit across the isthmus, and on his return settled in Washington, D. C., where his powers of conversation, persuasive manners, and skill in entertaining his friends, which
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extended even to inventing delicate dishes, enabled him to exert such influence over leg- islators that he was "spoken of the king of the lobby." He was also known as "Uncle Sam Ward."
His last years were spent in Europe, principally in England, where he was a social favorite. He died after returning from a journey to Malta from the home of his sister, Mrs. Terry, of Rome, whose first husband was Thomas Crawford, the sculptor. Another sister is Julia Ward Howe. Ward was for a score of years the intimate friend and cor- respondent of the poets Halleck and Longfellow. His nephew, Marion Crawford, has depicted him in the character of Mr. Bellingham in "Dr. Claudius" (1883). He pub- lished a volume of verse entitled "Lyrical Recreations" (New York, 1865).
The second Samuel's grandson, William Greene. soldier, born in New York City July 20, 1832, was graduated at Columbia in 1851, and became a banker. He was lieu- tenant-colonel of the 12th Regiment of the New York Militia, with which he served in the field from April 21 till August 5, 1861. As Colonel of the same regiment he was again in the United States service in 1862, participating as acting Brigadier, and personal- ly directing his artillery fire, in the defense of Harper's Ferry, where he was made prisoner and paroled. In 1863 he served again as Colonel of the regiment in the Pennsylvania campaign. He partly invented and greatly improved the Ward-Burton breech-loading rifle. After the war he was made a Brigadier-General in the state militia service, and served for nearly twenty years.
William Greene's brother, John, soldier, born in New York City, November 30, 1838, was graduated at Columbia College in 1858 and at Columbia Law-School in 1860, then studied medicine at the New York University Medical College, taking his degree of M. D. in 1864. During the Civil War he served with his brother in the field as Lieu- tenant, and afterward Captain, in the 12th New York National Guard, taking part in September, 1862, in the defense of Harper's Ferry, under a heavy artillery fire for three days, when surrounded by a large part of Lee's army under Stonewall Jackson, when he was made prisoner and paroled. Subsequently he became Colonel of the 12th New York Regiment for eleven years, till October, 1877, and for some time acted as secretary to the National Rifle Association. He is the author of many historical papers and of "The Overland Route to California and other Poems" (New York, 1875) .
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HON. RICHARD WARD July 15, 1740 to May, 1743 Southwest Corridor Second Floor of State House
This portrait was copied by Wilfred I. Duphiney. The original pastel por- trait is in the R. I. School of Design and was made by John Singleton Copley - 1737-1815.
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Common Ground Cemetery Newport, R. I.
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WILLIAM GREENE
Governor: May 1743 to May 1745; May 1746 to May 1747; May 1748 to May 1755; May 1757 to Feb. 22, 1758.
Born: March 16, 1695 in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Died: January 23, 1758 in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Buried: Warwick, R. I. Greene-Roelker Burial Ground.
GREENE, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, 1st, son of Capt. Samuel and Mary (Gorton) Greene, was born in Warwick, March 16, 1695. He was a descendant of John Greene, son of Peter Greene, of Aukley Hall, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. In 1718 he was made a freeman, and was Deputy in 1727, 1732, 1736, 1738, and 1740. He and John Mumford were appointed, in 1728, surveyors of the line between Connecticut and Rhode Island, and in 1736 received a similar appointment in connection with two others. He was Deputy-Governor in 1740, 1742 and 1743, and Governor in 1743, 1744, 1746, 1748, to 1755 and 1757, eleven years.
The position which Governor Greene held in Rhode Island is shown in the cir- cumstance that he, a citizen of Warwick, should have been elected as Chief Magistrate of the colony. For three years, 1654 to 1657, Roger Williams had been President of the colony. But from 1657 to 1743, a period of 86 years, no citizen not residing in Newport had been called to that position, with the exception of Governor Joseph Jencks, and he was elected on condition that he live in Newport, the Assembly voting £100 to meet the expense of his removal. No such condition was made in the case of Governor Greene. It was during his administration that the struggle was maintained between the English and the French for the mastery on this continent.
In the Colonial Records of Rhode Island may be found a large amount of corres- pondence which was carried on between the Governor of the colony and persons in military authority in the English army. The letters of Governor Greene exhibit good sense and habits of business, which indicate that he had rare qualifications for the posi- tion which he filled. It was also during his administration, in part, that the long con- troversy between Massachusetts and Rhode Island as to the position of certain towns was ended, and Cumberland, Warren. Bristol, Little Compton and Tiverton were brought within the bounds of the latter colony.
Stirring events, both at home and abroad, occurred while Governor Greene was in office, events in which Rhode Island was deeply interested. In 1745, Louisbourg and Cape Breton were taken by the English. In 1755 was Braddock's defeat, and in 1758 was Abercrombie's defeat at Ticonderoga. Rhode Island was behind none of her sister colonies in the aid which she rendered to the mother country. We are told that "the colony became largely indebted for supplies, etc., furnished the government, all of which was expected to be reimbursed, and for which expenditures large amounts of paper money were issued by the colony." The reimbursement, however, was never made. Un- der various pretexts the claims of Rhode Island were set aside, and the result was that heavy pecuniary burdens were laid upon the colony, the pressure of which it felt for many years. Soon after the close of his term of office Governor Greene died, the event occurring in February, 1758.
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HON. WILLIAM GREENE
1743-1745 1746-1747 1748-1755 1757-1758
Southwest Corridor Second Floor of State House
Original painted by Peter Pelham 1684-1751. This portrait was copied by Wilfred I. Duphiney from the original which hangs in Boston Mu- seum of Fine Arts. The portrait was given to the Museum by Mrs. C. Pel- ham Curtis. She was a descendant of the artist, her husband a descendant of William Greene.
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