William Wanton (September 15, 1670 – December 1733) was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving a short term prior to his death. He spent most of his adult life in the civil and military service of the colony and commanded a sloop for chasing

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 ...

Life

Wanton was the third son of Edward Wanton, a ship builder. After witnessing their persecution, he became a Quaker and preacher. His father had lived in

York, Maine York is a town in York County, Maine, United States, near the southern tip of the state. The population in the 2020 census was 13,723. Situated beside the Atlantic Ocean on the Gulf of Maine, York is a well-known summer resort town. It is home ...

;

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

; and Scituate, Massachusetts before coming to Rhode Island.

Civil and military affairs

Wanton was a merchant who became a freeman of Newport,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

in 1698, and was thereafter very active in the civil and military affairs of the town and colony. In all but two years from 1705 to 1732, Wanton was either a deputy or an assistant, and for many of those years he was the Speaker of the House of Deputies. In the years 1705 to 1706 and 1707 to 1710 he was the "Major for the Islands", having command of the militia companies on Aquidneck, Connanicut, Prudence and Block islands. From 1719 to 1731 he was in command as colonel of the "Militia of the Islands" regiment. Wanton commanded a sloop that he used to chase privateers, and in 1709 the General Assembly voted to buy his new sloop ''Diamond'' for 400 pounds, and also buy another sloop of which he was partial owner. In 1726 he was one of four commissioners from the Rhode Island colony selected to meet with commissioners from

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

to settle the boundary line between the two colonies. Wanton

Wanton was elected governor of the Rhode Island colony in 1732, but only served one full term, dying in office during his second term sometime between 3 December 1733 and 4 February 1734. He was buried in the

Clifton Burying Ground The Clifton Burying Ground is an early colonial cemetery located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It is a Quaker cemetery, and has the graves of four Rhode Island colonial governors. Description The Clifton Burying Ground is located ...

in Newport.

Family

Wanton was twice married, first to Ruth Bryant, the daughter of John and Mary (Hiland) Bryant, and by this marriage had nine children. In 1717, at the age of 46, he married a second time to 15-year-old Mary Godfrey (b. March 23, 1702), the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Carr) Godfrey, and granddaughter of Governor Caleb Carr. There were no known children by this marriage. Long after his death, his widow married in 1745 Daniel Updike. Wanton's brother,

John Wanton John Wanton (December 24, 1672 – July 5, 1740) was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving for six consecutive terms from 1734 to 1740. He was the son of Edward Wanton who was a ship builder, and who became ...

, succeeded him as governor, his nephew

Gideon Wanton Gideon Wanton (October 20, 1693 – September 12, 1767) was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations who served for two separate one-year terms. His father was Joseph Wanton, a shipbuilder in Tiverton, and his mother ...

was later governor, and his son

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 had loyalist sympathies, was deposed as governor at the beginning of 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 ...

References

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