Darius Sessions (17 August 1717 – 27 April 1809) was a deputy governor of the
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations during the buildup to the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. He was heavily involved in moderating the effects of the
''Gaspee'' Affair, and was instrumental in keeping the perpetrators from being identified.
Early life
Born in
Pomfret, Connecticut
Pomfret is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,266 in 2020 according to the 2020 United States Census. The land was purchased from Native Americans in 1686 (the "Mashmuket Purchase" or "Mashamoquet Purchase ...
, Sessions was the son of Nathaniel Sessions and Joanna Corbin.
His family was fairly well-to-do, and owned a lot of land in eastern Connecticut. Sessions attended
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
, graduating in 1737, and subsequently worked in Rhode Island in the mercantile business. In 1746, during
King George's War, he was part owner of the
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
sloop ''Reprisal''. Later, in 1750, he was the master of the
schooner ''Smithfield'', working in the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
.
He was also likely involved in the
distillery business of his father-in-law, William Antram, who had a stillhouse just north of Sessions' home in
Providence. About 1763, he bankrolled the efforts of his brother, Captain Amasa Sessions, to raise a company of soldiers to fight in the
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
.
Sessions became a close friend of
Brown University's first president,
James Manning, and has been credited with the university being located in Providence, instead of
Newport or
Warren
A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...
. In 1763 he became an Assistant, and in 1769 was elected as deputy governor of the colony, replacing
Joseph Wanton
Joseph Wanton Sr. (15 August 1705 – 19 July 1780) was a merchant and governor in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations from 1769 to 1775. Not wanting to go to war with Britain, he has been branded as a Loyalist, but he remaine ...
who became the new governor.
''Gaspee'' Affair
In March 1772 Sessions, working in Providence, sent a letter of concern to Governor Wanton in Newport. He expressed alarm at a British schooner that had been cruising the
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...
, disrupting the traffic by stopping and searching commercial ships. Sessions requested that the governor take measures to bring the ship's commander to account.
A chain of threatening correspondence ensued between the governor and the commander of the ''Gaspee'', Lieutenant
William Dudingston, and the commander's superior, Admiral
John Montagu.
On the night of 9–10 June, a party of incensed colonists attacked the vessel, and burned it to the waterline. Officially, Sessions was outraged at the incident, and offered the colony's assistance in bringing the perpetrators to justice. To ameliorate retribution by the British authorities, Rhode Island officials took visible steps to find the culprits who burned the ship.
Behind the scenes, however, Sessions did all he could to thwart any attempts to identify and find the attackers. When a royal commission was appointed by the British to investigate the incident, they demanded that any indicted person be sent to England for trial. This egregious threat to local liberty prompted the colonists to form the
Committees of Correspondence
The committees of correspondence were, prior to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a collection of American political organizations that sought to coordinate opposition to British Parliament and, later, support for American independe ...
.
Loyalist Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
Governor
Hutchinson further aggravated the colonists sensitivities by urging Britain to rescind the Rhode Island charter.
![Sessions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Sessions.Darius.tombstone.NoBurGnd.Prov.jpg)
Sessions conferred with Chief Justice
Stephen Hopkins and lawyer John Cole, then appealed to Massachusetts' statesman
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...
, who urged Rhode Island to remain defiant, or at least to stall matters by appealing the creation of the royal commission. Governor Wanton was put at the head of this commission, but was compliant with Sessions' and Hopkins' attempts to frustrate the aims of the commission.
Sessions, Hopkins, and others coordinated their efforts to lose evidence, threaten potential witnesses, and discredit those who testified. In particular, Sessions attacked the reliability of Aaron Briggs and Stephen Gulley, the former of whom gave the names of some of the attackers. The vast majority of Rhode Island's citizens were supportive of the attackers, and kept quiet about their identities. A year after the incident, the royal commission was terminated without a single indictment.
Later life
In 1774 Sessions was put in charge of Rhode Island's military preparedness. Both he and Wanton did not want a standing army in Rhode Island, out of fear of inspiring British retribution.
In the election of 1775, Sessions was replaced as Deputy Governor by
Nicholas Cooke
Nicholas Cooke (February 3, 1717September 14, 1782) was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations during the American Revolutionary War, and after Rhode Island became a state, he continued in this position to become the ...
, but Wanton was re-elected as governor. The hawkish state legislature prevented Wanton from being sworn in as governor, and he was deposed in November 1775, becoming a confirmed
Loyalist, and being replaced by Cooke. Sessions, on the other hand, wrote a letter to the General Assembly asking for forgiveness for his earlier positions, and "was received into their favor and friendship."
Sessions had returned to his farm in Connecticut, which he had reconstituted as a stately colonial mansion. His farm then became a command center during the
Revolutionary War, and even
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
visited on occasion.
Following the war, Sessions stayed out of the public spotlight. In 1795, he and his son Thomas were involved in shipping between Rhode Island and
St. Croix
Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...
. Sessions died on 27 April 1809 at the age of 91, still with "full strength of mind."
He was returned to Providence to be buried in the
North Burial Ground beside his wife, Sarah.
See also
*
List of lieutenant governors of Rhode Island
The current lieutenant governor of Rhode Island is Sabina Matos, who was sworn in on April 14, 2021, after Daniel McKee succeeded to the office of governor. The first lieutenant governor was George Brown.
In Rhode Island, the lieutenant gove ...
*
List of colonial governors of Rhode Island
This is a list of the judges, presidents, and governors of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations from 1638 to 1776.
Governor of Providence
*Roger Williams June 1636 - September 1644
Judges of Portsmouth
*William Coddington 7 ...
*
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
State list of lieutenant governors of Rhode Island
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sessions, Darius
1717 births
1809 deaths
People from Pomfret, Connecticut
People of colonial Rhode Island
People of colonial Connecticut
Burials at North Burying Ground (Providence)
Yale College alumni