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The Great Allotment: Pullen Point's First Land Owners
Introduction, William Aspinwall, Edward Bates, William Brenton, Thomas Buttolph, Thomas Fayerweather, Edward Gibbons, Valentine Hill, Ralph Hudson, Thomas Matson, Elias Maverick, John Oliver, William Pierce, John Sanford, William Stitson, John Winthrop/Deane Winthrop

William Brenton

William Brenton came from family of wealth and high social standing in England. In 1633 he sailed from Hammersmith, England on the “Griffin” to Boston. He quickly joined the First Church in Boston, became a Freeman, a Selectman, and deputy to the General Court from 1635 to 1637.

William's allotment of land on Pullen Point was recorded as:

“Willyam Brenton, 64 acrs of Upland and Marsh together: bounded towards the North by said great Creeke, towards the East by the said Allottment of John Olyver, towards the South by the Allotment of William Stidson, and towards the West by the Common shore.” 1

William also received 163 acres in Rumney Marsh, including the site of a tidal mill (on now Mill Creek), where Slade’s Spice would eventually be built. It was also the site of Newgate's Landing Place, a spot where bulky goods could be loaded on to boats for shipping to other spots in the harbor.

During the Antinomian Controversy, William, a member of the General Court, in 1638 voted not to censure Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright. Though not disarmed or banished, Brenton left for Rhode Island and became one of the founders of the town of Newport. William served as deputy governor of Rhode Island from 1640 to 1647 but moved back to Boston by 1649, where he became a Selectman from 1652-1657.

William married Dorothy (last name unknown) in 1634. She apparently died soon thereafter, leaving a single son, Barnabas, baptized in 1635. No further information exists on this son. About ten years later, by about 1644, Brenton married Martha Burton. They had nine children: Martha Garde (1644), Mary Sanford (1646), Elizabeth Poole (1648), Sarah Eliot (1650), Mehitable Brown (1652), Jahleel (1655), William(1657), Abigail Burton (1659), and Ebenezer (1661).

William was a leading land speculator developer of his time. Beyond his initial purchase of land at Newport, R.I., in 1658, he was granted 8,000 acres of land on the Merrimack River, a location which became the town of Litchfield, N.H. William, as a member of the Pettaquamscutt Company, also purchased land cheaply from Native Americans, and then resold it for a profit to the growing population of white settlers. He acquired land this way on Martha’s Vineyard, Elizabeth Island, and Conanicut Island, R.I. He also owned land in Taunton, Mass.

In 1663 William moved to Rhode Island in 1663, and 1666 succeeded Benedict Arnold (not the Benedict Arnold of the Revolutionary War) as Governor. After serving three one-year terms he retired to Taunton, Mass. His second wife died in 1672, William died in 1674.

William's allotment of land on Pullen Point was sold to Samuel Cole, who exchanged part of it with John Newgate.

Selected Brenton descendants, locations, and objects of note:

 

Selected William Brenton Descendants
William (b. 1610); m1. Dorothy ____, m2. Martha Burton
William (b. 1657); m. Hannah Davis
Jaheel (b. 1691); m1. Francis Cranston, m2. Mary Scott
Jaheel (b. 1729); m. Henrietta Cowley
Jaheel (b. 1770); m1. Isabella Stewart, m2. Harriet Brenton

Links

 
 
Brenton Point State Park - Rhode Island State Parks
Brenton Reef Lighthouse - U.S. Coast Guard
 
Brenton Descendants
Sir Jahleel Brenton - Royal Museums Greenwich
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