Rhode Island colonial governor
Samuel Cranston (1659–1727) was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations during the first quarter of the 18th century. He held office from 1698 to 1727, being elected to office 30 times (twice in 1698) and served as governor longer than any other individual in the history of both the colony and the state of Rhode Island. The son of former Rhode Island Governor John Cranston, he was born in Newport and lived there his entire life. Going to sea as a young man, he was captured by pirates, and held captive for several years before returning to his family.
Cranston had very little political experience when he was first elected as governor of the colony upon the resignation of Walter Clarke in March 1698. The issues that he dealt with during his first three years in office were so critical, that the continued existence of the Rhode Island colony was at stake. One of the major issues of his early tenure was that of piracy, as many privateers who were active in the recent war with France turned to piracy. The crown wanted piracy stopped, while many colonists were sympathetic to the pirates, and Cranston had to make difficult political decisions to satisfy the home country on this issue. Another ongoing issue was the disputed boundary between the Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies. The Narragansett country was given to both colonies by their respective charters, creating many decades of friction. During Cranston's tenure as governor, the dispute was finally ended, entirely in Rhode Island's favor.
The most formidable issue facing the colony began in 1698 with the arrival of Lord Bellomont as Governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Bellomont took an immediate dislike to the governance of Rhode Island, documenting numerous irregularities in the way it operated, and sending copious documentation to the Board of Trade in England. Bellomont wanted the Rhode Island colony to be removed from its charter, and put under closer royal supervision. He would likely have been successful in his quest, had he not died in 1701.
Following Cranston's decisiveness and firmness during the first three years of his tenure, he became extremely popular with the people of the colony, and while virtually every other politician of his era fell by the wayside, he was able to stand the political upheavals of his day, continuing to be elected as governor every year until his death in 1727. His first wife was Mary Hart, a granddaughter of Roger Williams, and his second wife was the widow of his younger brother, Caleb. Cranston is buried in the Common Burying Ground in Newport, and shares a large marker with his father.
Early life.
The son of former Rhode Island Governor John Cranston, Cranston was born in Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and lived there his entire life. His mother was Mary Clarke, the daughter of an early colonial President, Jeremiah Clarke. The oldest of ten children, he was educated as a youth, and became a merchant as a young adult, with his trade being that of a goldsmith.
In 1684, at the age of 24, Cranston became a freeman from Newport. Bicknell relates an interesting personal experience Cranston had as a young man. After he was married, he went to sea and was captured by pirates and not heard from for many years. Thinking he was dead, his wife arranged to marry a Mr. Russell of Boston. Cranston managed to gain his freedom and made his way back to Newport, arriving the evening of his wife's wedding. He found his wife before the marriage ceremony, and the event was turned into a celebration for his return, with the groom-to-be surrendering his expected bride with good grace.
Cranston was in his late 30s when he began his political career, becoming an Assistant in 1696. Two years later, in 1698, he was chosen as Major for the militia of the island (Portsmouth and Newport), and the same year, with virtually no political experience, he was selected as governor for the colony, when his brother-in-law, Walter Clarke, resigned from that position.
Governorship.
Piracy.
Elected as governor for the first time in March 1698 upon Clarke's resignation, Cranston was elected again two months later at the May meeting of the General Assembly, and re-elected every May thereafter through 1726, for a total of 30 times being elected to the highest office in the colony. One of the first acts of the new administration was to deal with the serious issue of piracy, which had sprung from the licensed privateering that the colonies had fostered during the recent war with France. These privateers, with roving commissions against the French had become open pirates after peace was attained. All of New England, New York, and the West Indies were deeply involved in these unlawful enterprises. The Act of 1698 prohibited piracy, had all improperly gained property confiscated, and punished the offenders.
An address to the King was prepared confessing the remissness of the colony in respect to the acts of trade, and mentioning the new statute concerning the act of piracy. That the colony assumed admiralty jurisdiction during the late war was admitted and defended on the ground of expediency because of the need to annoy French commerce, and the fact that there was then no Admiralty Court established in the colony. The letter concluded with the request for royal favor in allowing the colony to continue under its charter. This letter and other papers were enclosed with a letter from Cranston to the Board of Trade apologizing for irregularities of the colony in refusing the quota of troops for New York, and explaining charges against it in regards to piracy. He also stated that two men suspected of piracy would be brought to trial.
A bitter letter against the government of the colony was soon after written by "that old enemy of New England," Edward Randolph, the Surveyor General of Customs, who had just been to New York to welcome the arrival of its new governor, Lord Bellomont. The charges against the Rhode Island colony were most serious, including complicity with pirates, by whom many were enriched; the letter also wrongly suggested that many of the people desired a royal governor and would pay 500 pounds a year for his support.
At the October 1698 session of the General Assembly, provision was made for the reception of Lord Bellomont, who was expected soon from New York on his way to Boston. A commission was named to prepare a digest of laws to send to England, and another commission was formed to present the issue of the colony's western boundary with Connecticut to Bellomont. At the same time, additional letters were sent by the Board of Trade in England to the colonies on the subject of piracy. Rhode Island's agent in England, Jaleel Brenton (son of Governor William Brenton), asked that all privateering papers be sent to England, with an account of the trials of some of the pirates. Letters from England gave instructions to the custom house officers on how to conduct their business and included an order from the British Cabinet to the governors of all the colonies to apprehend the notorious Captain Kidd should he appear in their waters.
Irregularities in the colony's affairs.
In December 1698 the Board of Trade made a formal representation to the King concerning the many irregularities of the Rhode Island colony, specifically charging it with refusal to take oaths, encouraging illegal traffic, assuming admiralty jurisdiction to themselves and resisting it from the crown, and other flagrant acts of disloyalty. They went on to recommend that a commission of inquiry be sent to Lord Bellomont to examine these matters with the view to issuing a "quo warranto" against Rhode Island's charter. Also, the board made inquiries of Mr. Brenton, then in London, about the extraordinary militia power of the colony, to which he replied that it had been conferred by the charter, but that the Assembly recently gave to the militia the power to select its own officers.
In May 1699 Brenton informed the colony of actions taken by the government of Connecticut, which now claimed a great part of Warwick and Providence as well as all of the Narragansett country under the jurisdiction of King's Province. Cranston wrote a long letter to the Board of Trade, deprecating the many false reports against the Rhode Island colony that were mostly circulated by Randolph. At the same time, Lord Bellomont, who remained in New York for a year, moved to Boston. He was afflicted with gout, which, Arnold wrote, "seems to have affected his temper to the detriment of Rhode Island interests."
Lord Bellomont, enemy of Rhode Island.
Bellomont's purpose at this time was to break up the piracy that had grown out of privateering, an extremely difficult task, as many of the leading families in both New York and New England were involved in it. He succeeded in enticing Captain Kidd to come to Boston, where he was seized and imprisoned. Kidd had many friends in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and the state of affairs in the colonies was such that some pirates were allowed to escape from incarceration. With the many letters that Bellomont sent home this year were nearly 100 documents in support of the charges against the Rhode Island colony. To further his designs upon Rhode Island, and to aid in securing other pirates known to resort there, Bellemont commissioned the three members of the Admiralty Court, Brinley, Sanford and Coddington, to collect evidence and use their efforts to capture some of Kidd's confederates. They accepted the trust, but deplored the difficulties because of sympathy felt everywhere for the freebooters.
The feeling of the home government was expressed in a letter of August 1699 written by the Board of Trade in reply to a letter written by Cranston in May. The language was very severe, blaming the colony for sending only an abstract of the laws when a full copy was required, and sharply rebuking them for their encouragement of piracy, citing privateer commissions granted by Deputy Governor John Greene in 1694. The urgency of these affairs led Cranston to call a special session of the Assembly in Newport in August in which were discussed the pending visit of Bellomont to Rhode Island along with funding for the visit, the boundary issue with Connecticut, and the need for funds to hire another agent to join Brenton in England to defend the colony against the attacks of its enemies.
Bellomont left a diary of his visit to Rhode Island and its proceedings. On the first day he was met at Bristol ferry by Cranston and a troop of horse, and escorted to Newport where a meeting of the council was held, and the royal commission read. The next day Bellomont's instructions to inquire into the mal-administration of Rhode Island's affairs were read to the council, and former Rhode Island governors Walter Clarke and John Easton were examined upon several points charged, as were Cranston, Greene and Peleg Sanford. The troublesome subject of oaths was minutely examined—the scruples of many in Rhode Island upon this subject (particularly Quakers) was incomprehensible to the English officers. Governor Winthrop of Connecticut arrived with his commissioners to discuss the Narragansett dispute. The conflicting clauses in both colonies' charters were read, as was the earlier agreement between John Clarke and the first Governor Winthrop. The case was argued on both sides, but no mutual agreement could be reached. Bellomont ordered each side to prepare a statement of their claims along with affidavits and then to send their agents to England to place the matter before the King.
Further examinations in regards to piracy continued to evolve. Caleb and Josias Arnold (both sons of Governor Benedict Arnold) were added as members of the Admiralty Court as commissioners to collect evidence upon piracy charges, and the governor and his council were requested to aid them in their work. Bellomont, having finished his business in Rhode Island placed the governors of Rhode Island and Connecticut under bonds of 3000 pounds each to enforce the acts against pirates, and later wrote Cranston with thanks for his hospitality, and for directing the arrest of a pirate who had escaped to Rhode Island. An acceptable copy of the laws and acts