I. Samuel

Samuel, an American patriot, born in Newport, R. L, May 27, 1725, died in Philadelphia, March 26, 1776. He was a delegate to the convention at Hartford in 1758 to settle the quotas of New England troops in the French war, became chief justice of Rhode Island in 1761, and was colonial governor in 1762-'5 and in 1766. He was one of the founders (1764) of Rhode Island college, afterward Brown university. In 1774-'6, with Stephen Hopkins, he was a delegate to the continental congress at Philadelphia.

II. Samuel

Samuel, an American soldier, son of the preceding, born in Westerley, R. I., Nov. 17, 1756, died in New York, Aug. 16, 1832. He graduated at Rhode Island college in 1771, became a captain in the revolutionary army in 1775, and was with Arnold in the attack upon Quebec, where he was taken prisoner, but at the close of 1776 was exchanged. Subsequently as major and lieutenant colonel he served with distinction in several engagements. After the war he was for several years a merchant in New York. In 1814 he was a delegate from Rhode Island to the Hartford convention. - The life of Governor Ward, with a notice of his son, was written by William Gammell in Sparks's "American Biography," 2d series, vol. ix.