Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/140

ARNOLD.ARNOLD. ARNOLD, Benedict, governor of Rhode Island, was born in England, Dec. 21, 1615. He came to America and settled in Providence some time previous to 1636. In 1637 was one of the original thirteen heads of families who signed the agreement for majority rule. He made a study of the Indian languages, which enabled him to conduct negotiations with the savages, and in 1645 he was appointed as emissary for that purpose. In 1654 he was made assistant for Newport, to which town he had removed the previous year, and in 1657 he purchased with Coddington the island of Quondnoquat, afterwards Jamestown. In that same year he was elected president of Rhode Island, to succeed Roger Williams, who had resigned. In 1660 he was made assistant, and in 1662 was re-elected to the presidency. The following year the royal charter was issued, under which he was made first governor of Rhode Island, and to this office he was four times re-elected. His efforts secured the re-establishment of friendly relations and final union between Rhode Island and her sister colony, the Providence plantations. He died June 20, 1678. ARNOLD, Benedict, soldier, was born at Norwich, Conn., Jan. 14, 1741; son of Benedict and Hannah (Waterman) Arnold; grandson of Benedict Arnold, who was a member of the assembly in 1695; great-grandson of the Benedict Arnold who succeeded Roger Williams as president of the colony of Rhode Island under its first charter, 1663-1666, and who was governor under the second charter. 1669-1672, 1677-1678; and great-great-grandson of William Arnold, who came from Leamington, Warwickshire Eng., to Providence, in 1636. His father did business as a cooper, owned vessels which were engaged in the West India and coasting trade, and filled the various local offices of town surveyor, collector, assessor, and selectman. His mother was a woman of exemplary piety and dignity of character. Benedict as a boy was high-spirited, daring and reckless, the leader of his companions in all their boyish escapades, generous and courageous, always giving his protection to those smaller and weaker than himself. He received a good education at private classical schools, and was then apprenticed to the Doctors Lathrop, connections of his mother. These physicians did business at Norwich, Conn., as druggists, importing their drugs and supplying the medical stores for the British army during the French war. From this employ he ran away at the age of fifteen to join the provincial troops on the Northern border. Rough experience soon dispelled his romantic ideas of the charm of a soldier's life, and he returned to Norwich, where he remained until 1762, when with the generous assistance of his employers he established a book and drug business at New Haven, in which he was very successful. The sign which he used at this shop is in the possession of the Connecticut historical society. In business he was energetic and ambitious, and soon extended his operations, engaging in trade with the West Indies, owning vessels, which he sometimes navigated himself, and making frequent visits to Quebec and other parts of Canada, whence he shipped horses and cattle to the West Indies. In these various ventures he amassed a considerable fortune. In 1767 he married Margaret, daughter of Samuel Mansfield, high sheriff of the county. By this lady, who died June 19, 1775, he had three sons. He was absent in the West Indies at the time of the Boston massacre in 1770, and thus wrote home regarding it: "Good God! are the Americans all asleep, and tamely yielding up their liberties? or are they all turned philosophers, that they do not take immediate vengeance on such miscreants?" On his return to New Haven, where he was very popular, he was elected captain of the governor's guard, an independent military company composed of the most ardent and zealous young men of the city. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached New Haven, Arnold, addressing his company and fellow townsmen, called for volunteers to go with him to Boston, and, obtaining ammunition from the selectmen by threats, at the head of a well-drilled company of sixty he marched to Cambridge. His first act was to propose to the committee of public safety an expedition to capture Ticonderoga and Crown