William Greene, Governor of Rhode Island

1695 - 1758  (62 years)

• Name	William Greene
  Suffix	Governor of Rhode Island
  Birth	16 Mar 1695	Apponaug, Warwick, Kent, Rhode Island   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Alternate birth	16 Mar 1696	Warwick, Kent, Rhode Island   [2, 3]
  Death	23 Jan 1758  [4]
  Alternate death	25 Feb 1758  [1, 5]
  Burial	Governor Greene Cemetery, Warwick, Rhode Island   [4]
  Person ID	I18592	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	15 Sep 2018

  
  

  Father	Samuel Greene,   b. 30 Jan 1671, Occupasuetuxet, Rhode Island d. 1720 (Age 48 years)
  Mother	Mary Gorton,   b. 31 Oct 1673   d. Jan 1732 (Age 58 years)
  Marriage	24 Jan 1695  [1]
  Family ID	F11551	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Catherine Greene,   b. 31 Mar 1698, Warwick, Kent, Rhode Island d. 28 Nov 1777 (Age 79 years)
  Marriage	30 Dec 1719  [1]
  Children	1. Samuel Greene,   b. 25 Aug 1727   d. Bef 1761, At sea (Age < 33 years)
  Family ID	F11548	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	19 Nov 2017

  
  

• Notes

  From Wikipedia: Greene was made a freeman of the colony in 1718, and at the age of 32 was elected a deputy from Warwick in 1727, which office he held for five years. He was the clerk of the county court in Providence and speaker of the Rhode Island Assembly in 1734 and 1739. In 1728 he was appointed, along with John Mumford of Newport, to survey the boundary line between the Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies. When Governor John Wanton died in 1740, Richard Ward became the governor, and Greene became the new Deputy Governor, which office he held until his own election to governor in May 1743. This was one of the rare cases when a Rhode Island governor did not come from the island of Aquidneck where the towns of Newport and Portsmouth are located. One of the important issues of Greene's first term in office concerned the boundary lines of the colony. Several geographic boundaries were adjusted, and the towns of Barrington, Warren and Bristol were added under Bristol county, and the towns of Tiverton and Little Compton were added to the towns on Aquidneck island in Newport County. Another major issue facing the colony was the war against France and Spain, for which the colony was expected to share in the defense of the Crown. When England declared war against France on 31 March 1744, the colony manned forts and reinforced them with guns and ammunition. Commodore Warren, with the aid of Rhode Island forces, laid siege to Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, which surrendered in June, surprising Europeans that the "strongest fortress of North America had capitulated to American farmers, machanics [sic], and fishermen." The colony also had a few war sloops at its disposal along with 15 privateers and was successful in capturing 20 ships and sending them to Newport. During Greene's third term, the colony had divided into two hostile camps. The leaders of the two divisions were both future governors, Samuel Ward and Stephen Hopkins, with Greene siding with the Ward camp. Some of the divisive issues concerned war versus peace, paper money versus hard currency, and Providence versus Newport interests. Elections went back and forth between the two opposing sides, and amid the discord, Greene died while in office on 23 January 1758.

  
  

• Sources

  [S1615] The Greenes of Rhode Island, with Historical Records of English Ancestry by Francis Vinton Greene and Louise Brownell Clarke, based on the work of George Sears Greene. New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1903. [S481] Vital Records of Rhode Island, 1636-1850: First Series, Births, Marriages, and Deaths by James N. Arnold. Narragansett Historical Publishing Co., 1891-1912. [S1715] Greenes of Warwick in Colonial History by Henry E. Turner, M.D. Newport, Rhode Island: Davis & Pitman, Steam Printers, 1877. [S160] Wikipedia. [S1715] Greenes of Warwick in Colonial History by Henry E. Turner, M.D. Newport, Rhode Island: Davis & Pitman, Steam Printers, 1877., month and year only.