Joseph Arnold (Rhode Island farmer)

Joseph Arnold
Born(1710-09-16)16 September 1710
possibly Newport, Rhode Island
Died29 August 1776(1776-08-29) (aged 65)
probably Exeter, Rhode Island
OccupationDeacon
Spouses
  • Patience Gifford,
  • Hannah Gifford
ChildrenAbigail, Josiah, Joseph, Stephen, Samuel, Josiah, Patience, Mary, Peleg, Oliver, John, Caleb, Anna, Edmund, Dorcas, Hannah
Parents
  • Samuel Arnold (father)
  • Mary Sheffield (mother)
RelativesGrandfather: Attorney General Joseph Sheffield; great grandfather: Governor Benedict Arnold; great great grandson: Senator Stephen A. Douglas

Joseph Arnold (1710–1776) was a British colonist in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He is most noted for having a very large progeny, having had 16 children of whom 15 grew to maturity, married, and had children of their own, giving him at least 89 grandchildren. He was the great great grandfather of presidential hopeful Stephen Arnold Douglas who debated Abraham Lincoln in 1858, and lost to him in the 1860 presidential election. He was an ancestral link between Douglas and many prominent early Rhode Islanders such as Governor Benedict Arnold and two founders of the Rhode Island colony, Samuel Wilbore and John Porter.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.