Joseph Wanton, Jr.
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Joseph Wanton Jr. (1730–1780) was a Loyalist, merchant, Deputy Governor of Rhode Island in 1764 and 1767, and owner of Hunter House in
Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
.


Early life and career

Wanton was born to Governor
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 ...
and Mary Winthrop Wanton of Newport on February 8, 1730. He graduated from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1751 and was involved with privateers during 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 ...
, possibly where he attained the title of colonel. Wanton's first wife Abigail Honeyman died in 1771; they had 7 children. He was elected Deputy Governor of Rhode Island in 1764 and 1767.


Loyalist during Revolutionary War

Wanton was a loyalist during the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. He was accused of treason and imprisoned by Rhode Island General William West while the British occupied
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 ...
in 1776. When the British occupied Newport, Wanton raised troops for the Loyalist cause. In 1780, his property ( Hunter House) was confiscated, and he fled Newport when the Americans reoccupied the city. Wanton likely died in New York in 1780 after fleeing there with the British.Col. Wanton Burial Record, Trinity Church Wall Street, Manhattan
 In 1781, his widow Sarah Brenton Wanton unsuccessfully petitioned the State of Rhode Island to return the confiscated Wanton properties in Newport, Jamestown, Prudence Island, and Gould Island.


See also

* Hunter House


References


External links


Hunter House
- Official Website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wanton, Joseph Jr. 1733 births 1780 deaths Harvard University alumni Harvard College Loyalists in the American Revolution Loyalists in the American Revolution from Rhode Island Lieutenant Governors of Rhode Island