The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 17

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868

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coming his fortune, and the elegant simplicity which would naturally be expected of him as a member of the Society of Friends. His town and his country residence both indicated, in their surroundings, the tastes of the owner. In his botanical garden were to be found curious foreign as well as indigenous plants, which were in either hot or green houses in the open grounds. We are told that the first garden in New England that had any pretensions to the name of botanical garden was that of Mr. Redwood, in Newport. He has transmitted his name to posterity through the Library in Newport, which bears his name, to- wards which he contributed a valuable donation. He died in 1788, leaving three sons and one daughter, to wit: Jonas Langford Redwood, who married Abigail Godfrey, of Rhode Island, whose children were Jonas and Abraham. The second son was William, who married Sarah Pope, and died without issue. The third son was Abraham, who married Sarah Honyman, by whom he had Martha, who became the wife of Baron Hottinguer, a banker of Paris. Mehetabel, the daughter of Abraham, married Benjamin Ellery. She was celebrated for her beauty and accom- plishments, and was the mother of the wife of Hon. Chris- topher Grant Champlin, a distinguished citizen of Newport. The Abraham Redwood whose portrait and coat of arms are in the Redwood Library was the son of Jonas Lang- ford and Abigail Godfrey Redwood. He was the grand- son of the founder of the Library.

PARSONS, USHER, M.D., youngest child of William and Abigail Frost (Blunt) Parsons, was born in Alfred, Maine, August 18, 1788. His ancestors were among the earliest of the New England colo- nists, the first of the name, Joseph Parsons, arriving from England in 1635. His great grandson, Joseph, was a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1720, and was a minister in Bradford, Massachusetts, for thirty-nine years. The fifth son of Joseph (William), the father of the subject of this sketch, was a trader and farmer, and a prominent citizen in Alfred. His son Usher studied in the schools of his native village in the winter, and worked on his father's farm in the summer. He spent about a year in the Berwick Academy. For a few years he served as a clerk in retail stores in Portland, Maine, and Wells (now Kennebunk), Maine. Having decided to study medicine, he entered the office of Dr. Abiel Hall, of Alfred While he was prosecuting his medical studies, he taught school for a part of the time, and in the family of Rev. Moses Sweat, of Sanford, Maine ; he nearly fitted for college, in- tending to have a full college course before completing his medical studies, but, concluding that to carry out this plan would occupy too many years, he made up his mind to give his undivided attention to the study of his chosen profes- sion. He now became a pupil of Dr. John Warren, of

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Boston, remaining with him six months, and then was ad- mitted to practice. After various fruitless attempts to get an appointment in the navy, he received a commission as surgeon's mate, which bears the date of July 6, 1812. Dur- ing the following winter and spring he had charge of tlie sick and wounded at Black Rock, near Buffalo, New York. In the month of June, 1813, Captain Oliver H. Perry came to Black Rock in the discharge of a professional duty as- signed to him, and Dr. Parsons was transferred to the small fleet of which he had the command and had the care of the sick among the crews of the different vessels. The battle of Lake Erie occurred September 10. A large number of the officers and men connected with the American fleet were suffering from bilious intermittent fever. During that celebrated battle Dr. Parsons was the only surgeon to whom was intrusted the care of the wounded, and in what manner he acquitted himself in the performance of the duties which devolved on him on that memorable day is thus stated by Commodore Perry, in a letter to the Secre- tary of the Navy : " Of Dr. Usher Parsons, surgeon's mate, I cannot say too much. In consequence of the disability of both the other surgeons, Drs. Horsley and Barton, the whole duty of operating, dressing, and attending near a hundred wounded and as many sick devolved on him ; and it must be pleasing to you, sir, to reflect, that of the whole number wounded, only three have died. I can only say that, in the event of my having another command, I should consider myself fortunate in having him with me as a sur- geon." A little more than six months after the battle of Lake Erie he was promoted to the rank of surgeon, his commission being dated April 15, 1814. On the 2d of December of this year he was attached to the frigate Java, in the command of Commodore Perry, his service in this vessel continuing through the years 1815 and 1816. The war with England was over, and the Java was ordered to sail early in 1816 for the Mediterranean, to look after American interests, especially in connection with the Bar- bary States and the threatening attitude of Algiers. The object contemplated by the trip was successful, and the Java returned to the United States, reaching Newport, March 3, 1817. In July of this year Dr. Parsons came to Provi- dence with the purpose of entering upon the practice of his profession. He attended a course of lectures at the Medical School in Boston through the winter of 1817- 1818, and in March, 1818, received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Harvard University. Having concluded not to remain in Providence, but to continue in practice in the Navy, he sailed from Boston in July, 1818, as a sur- geon of the frigate Guerriere, Captain Thomas Macdon- ough, for St. Petersburg, carrying Mr. George W. Camp- bell, Minister to Russia. Of his personal experience and adventures during this cruise he has given in letters to his correspondents in the United States a full account. His professional tastes he sought in every possible way to gratify by intercourse with distinguished medical men, visiting

the great hospitals of the Old World, and, greatly cn- riched in knowledge, and with better qualifications than ever to pursue his chosen vocation, he returned to his native land, reaching Boston early in 1820. In August of this year, he received the appointment of Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in Dartmouth College, where he lectured only a year. In April, 1822, he carried out his former purpose to take up his residence in Providence. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the medical school then attached to Brown University, in 1823, and held that office until 1828. As a physician and surgeon he rose to a prominent rank. For purposes of consultation his services were in demand in Rhode Island and the neighboring States. Few men in his profession have enjoyed such rare facilities as he for informing them- selves of the best methods of the treatment of diseases and of performing surgical operations, and he made the knowl- edge he had acquired of constant use in his own practice. In 1843 he again visited Europe, and still further enlarged his acquaintance with matters pertaining to his profession. He formed friendships with distinguished scholars and scientific men, which were the source of great satisfaction to him in subsequent life. In the Rhode Island Medical Society he took a deep interest, and for three years was its presiding officer, 1837, 1838, and 1839. He was pres- ent as a delegate from Rhode Island at the organization of the American Medical Association, in 1847, and for many years attended the meetings of the Association in different cities of the Union. In 1853, at New York, he was elected first Vice-President, and at the meeting at St. Louis, in 1854, in the absence of the President, he acted as such, and made the opening address. His writings on topics con- nected with his profession were very numerous, and were regarded as of a high character. He was a prime mover in the plan which culminated in the establishment of the Rhode Island Hospital, his personal gifts to which were one thousand dollars, three hundred volumes from his library, and a bequest of one hundred dollars. He ob- tained a charter for the Rhode Island Natural History Society, in 1837, and was the first President of the Society. " His ecclesiastical relations," says his biographer, " were peculiar. He was brought up in Congregational worship and the faith of the Puritans. Soon after his marriage he was admitted to the Episcopal communion, at St. John's Church. In later years he had a seat in one place of wor- ship after another, St. John's, the First Baptist, St. Ste- phen's (now Church of the Saviour), and the Central Con- gregational Church. For the last twelve years of his life the latter was his usual place of attendance on Sun- days, and the only one where he owned a pew, though he frequently partook of the communion of the Episco- pal Church. He often went to other churches, especially the Unitarian, under the ministry of Dr. Edward B. Hall, whom he much admired." At the commencement of the civil war he offered his services to the Governor of

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the State, and was commissioned in June, 1861, Surgeon of the Providence Horse Guards. Although he saw no active service, he took a deep interest in all matters per- taining to the great conflict. Among a large number of productions of his pen was his "Life of Sir William Pep- perell," one of his ancestors. He collected from various sources a large amount of material which he used in the preparation of this volume. Many of his leisure hours dur- ing four years from 1851 to 1855 were devoted to this book, which was published in May, 1855, and favorably received both in this country and in England. In 1861 he published a pamphlet of 32 pages, bearing the title, " In- dian Names of Places in Rhode Island." The whole sub- ject of Indian antiquities had for him a great charm. The life of Dr. Parsons was a very active one. He travelled much. He interested himself in matters connected with his profession. He was fond of antiquarian researches. His busy brain was constantly employed on some subject which for him was full of interest. He died in Provi- dence, December 19, 1868, in the eighty-first year of his age. He married, September 23, 1822, Mary Jackson Holmes, daughter of Rev. Abel Holmes, D.D., of Cam- bridge, Mass., author of " Annals of America." Mrs. Parsons died June 14, 1825, leaving one son, Dr. C. W. Parsons, of Providence.

ANTON, EDWARD, ancestor of the distinguished family of that name, settled in Boston before the year 1658. Tradition says that he came from London, England, bringing his mother with him; but of his father both record and tradition are silent. He was probably married before he left England. His wife died in 1661. By this marriage he had two chil- dren, Edward, born in Boston in 1658, and Margaret, born in Boston in 1660, neither of whom lived to mature years. He was an officer of the Guard, and was on duty at the execution of the Quakers, October 19, 1659. He was of an eminently religious and impressible nature, and, like the great majority of the people of Massachusetts at that time, was deeply sensible of the cruelty, injustice, and im- policy of these extreme measures. Mr. Wanton was greatly affected by the Christian firmness with which they submit- ted to death, and was so deeply impressed by the addresses at the gallows that, on his arrival home, he said, " Alas, mother, we have murdered the Lord's people ;" and taking off his sword, he laid it down, and took a solemn oath that he would never wear it again; which oath he faithfully kept to the end of his long and eventful life. Soon after- ward he adopted the sentiments of the Friends, and resolved to become a teacher among them. This change in his views caused him to be subjected to persecution in Massa-

chusetts, and as Plymouth Colony was more tolerant, lands were purchased at Scituate, in the North River, in 1660, where he removed the following year. Being a shipwright, he here established a ship-yard, in which he and his sons followed this business during the remainder of his life. His neighbors soon learned the business of him, and it extended into the towns of Pembroke and Mansfield, and, later, into Duxbury. The ship Columbia, in which Cap- tain Gray of Boston doubled Cape Horn in 1783, and dis- covered the mouth of the great river to which he gave the name of his little ship, was built on the North River in 1773. After the death of Mr. Wanton's first wife, a Quaker preacher, who visited him at his new home in Scituate, rec- ommended to him a lady of his acquaintance in England. He sent her proposals in writing, which she accepted, and came to this country in 1663, when they were married. The marriage, though thus singularly consummated, proved a happy one. Their children were Joseph, Elizabeth ( who bore her mother's name) William, John, Sarah, Margaret, Hannah, Michael, Stephen, and Philip. Mr. Wanton founded a Friends' Society in Scituate, the first meeting- house of which was in the vincinity of Judge Cushing's residence, about two and a half rods from the harbor. It is now represented by the Society in Pembroke. His last visit to Newport, as representative from the Quarterly to the Yearly Meeting, was in 1716, when he was eighty-five years old. He died October 16th, of the same year, and was buried on his own farm, a few rods northeast of his house, where were also interred several members of his own family, and others. He had a large estate, and left to his sons Joseph, William, and John all his lands in Pennsyl- vania, and all his money in the hands of Edward Shippen, formerly an associate trustee with him of the Friends' meeting-house in Boston in 1704, and a man of large wealth. He bequeathed to his two granddaughters, Mary and Lydia, children of Stephen, £450 each, legacies to various other persons, and the remainder of his estate to his son Michael, who, like himself, was a Quaker preacher, and whom he made executor of his will. The family of Michael became connected with a leading family of Friends of Rhode Island by the marriage of Mary, the daughter of Michael, to Daniel Coggeshall, of Portsmouth, in 1726. John, the son of Governor John, married into the family of Abraham Redwood, founder of the Redwood Library. Five of the family filled the office of Governor of the Colony from 1721 to 1775. William, after being Speaker of the House for eight years, was Governor from 1732 to Decem- ber, 1733, when he died in office. John, after being Deputy-Governor from 1721 to 1722, and again from 1729 to 1734, seven times, was also elected Governor seven times, from 1734 to 1740, when he died in office. Gideon, the son of Joseph, of Tiverton, after being General Treasurer from 1733 to 1743, was Governor from 1747 to 1748. Joseph, son of William Wanton, was Deputy-Governor from 1764 to 1765, and Governor from 1769 to 1775.

BIOGRAPHIICAL CYCLOPEDIA.

BANTON, GOVERNOR WILLIAM, son of Edward and Elizabeth Wanton, born in Scituate, in 1670. Hle marricd Ruth, daughter of Deacon John Bryant, of Scituate, 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 mem- bers of that Society, and her friends equally opposed it, be- cause he belonged to the then hated and proseribed 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 either in the Friends Society or the Congregational Church in Scituate, the records of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, inform us that they were married in that town January 1, 1691, though they did not immediately remove there. Their ehil- dren 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 ; Ben- jamin, 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 Ryswiek, of that year, and during the troubles with Count Frontenac, Governor of Canada, a French armed ship ap- peared 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 enterprise 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 cow- ards." The fame of this bold exploit reached England, and when William and John were there in 1702 they were pre- sented at eourt. Queen Anne received them very gra- ciously, granted an addition to their family coat of arms, and presented each of them with two pieces of plate, a sil- ver punch-bowl and salver, with suitable devices. These pieces of plate are said to have been stolen from their houses in Newport, when robbed by the mobs of the political con- tests of the factions of Ward and Hopkins, with the excep- tion of one piece. Joseph Wanton, the elder brother,

having settled in Tiverton in 1688, and established a ship- yard at the place now known as Bridgeton, William fol- lowed him to this vicinity, and, as carly as 1702, purehased property at the north end of the island in Portsmouth, and established a ship-yard at what is now the south end of the Old Colony Railroad 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 brilliant 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," and bound for Franee. 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 removed to Newport. Hence the place from which he removed was afterward known as " Howland's Ferry." Upon his removal to New- port he turned his attention to trade and polities, and rap- idly 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 instanee of brothers holding the two principal offices of the colony at the same time. Governor William Wanton died in De- cember, 1733, aged sixty-three years. The State House in Newport was built during his administration.

ANTON, GOVERNOR JOHN, son of Edward and Elizabeth Wanton, was born in 1672. Savage's Genealogical Dictionary states that he married, in 1689, a daughter of Gideon Freeborn, by whom he had six children, Eliza, Edward, Gideon, Sarah, Joseph and Mary, while Dean, in his History of Scituate, says that his wife was Mary Stafford, of Tiverton. In addition to his naval exploits in connection with his brother William, related in the sketch of the latter in this Cyclopedia, Arnold's History of Rhode Island says that during Queen Anne's War, in June, 1706, " a sloop loaded with provisions was taken by a French privateer near Block Island. The news reached the Governor the next day. Proelamation 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 command of Captain John Wanton ; and in less than three hours afterward captured the privateer, re- took her prize, and brought them into Newport. The

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promptness and success of this adventure astonished and delighted the country, 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 am- ple means of his own, he travelled extensively to promote the interests of the Society. It must have been a singular spectacle to the Quaker congregations 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 affairs Wanton was induced to enter the arena of politics. As his piety and eloquence had commended him to the mem- bers of the Society of Friends, then the wealthiest and lead- ing sect of the colony, so his family influence, great wealth, and acknowledged intrepidity made him immensely popular with " the world's people," and assured his success in poli- tics. 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 Cod- dington 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 described as a man of middling stature, thin features, and fair complexion; re- markable 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 house which he purchased, which stood oppo- site 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.

ANTON, GOVERNOR GIDEON, son of Joseph and Sarah (Freeborn) Wanton, was born in Tiverton, October 20, 1693. He held the office of General Treasurer of the colony twelve years, 1732-44, and two years later succeeded William Greene, as Gov- ernor of Rhode Island. This office he held for one year, and in 1747 he was elected a second time, and was in office one year. He took an active part in the stirring events of the period in which he lived. Soon after his installation

as Governor he was called upon to furnish troops to assist in carrying on the war against France, which she had de- clared, March 15, 1744. An expedition having been planned to proceed to Cape Breton, Rhode Island re- sponded to the call for soldiers. Her troops also took part in the siege of Louisbourg, and when that place was taken they remained to garrison the captured fortress. We are told that "the people of Rhode Island went into this war with great spirit, and no man took a deeper interest in it than the Quaker Governor of Rhode Island." Mr. Bart- lett says, " that although a Quaker, he was a belligerent one, and fully equal to the emergency; and had he been Governor and Captain-General of Rhode Island in 1861, would have been among the first to send a regiment of Rhode Island volunteers to Washington. Through life Gideon Wanton was distinguished for his talents and for the influence he exerted in the affairs of the colony." He married, February 6, 1718, Mrs. Mary Codman, who died September 3, 1780, and was buried in the Friends' burial- ground, Newport. His own death occurred September 12, 1767. He had four children, Gideon, Jr., John G., Joseph, and Edward. The house in which he lived is still standing in Broad Street, Newport,

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The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Rhode Island, Part 17

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: National biographical publishing co., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Providence, National biographical publishing co.
Number of Pages: 868