Welcome Arnold
Welcome Arnold was a colonial American politician and merchant.
Early life
Arnold was born on March 24, 1745. He was one of twelve children born to Jonathan Arnold and Abigail Arnold. His sister, Elizabeth Arnold, married Samuel Arnold, and another sister, Abigail Arnold, married Nathaniel Greene.His maternal grandparents were Benjamin Smith and Mercy Smith. His paternal grandparents were Arnold and Sarah Arnold. He was a descendant of William Arnold, one of the founding settlers of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Career
In 1772 he was elected a Deputy to the Rhode Island Assembly from Smithfield, at which time he was also appointed a justice of the peace. In 1778 he was again elected as a Representative to the Assembly from Providence and was reelected up until his death in 1798.Arnold, a member of the Sons of Liberty, was reportedly involved in the planning of the 1772 burning of the HMS Gaspee in Narragansett Bay, which later became known as the Gaspee affair. Occurring three years before the Boston Tea Party, it is considered the first act of civil disobedience against the Crown.
A prominent merchant in the New England-Caribbean trade, Arnold was "also a leader in the fight to end Rhode Island's involvement in the African slave trade." He served as a trustee of Brown University.
Personal life
On February 11, 1773, Arnold was married to Patience Greene, a daughter of Patience Greene and Samuel Greene. As her parents had died, Patience was raised, and married, in the Warwick house of her uncle, William Greene, the Governor of the colony of Rhode Island. The marriage was said to have "consolidated landed and mercantile power in colonial Rhode Island". Together, they were the parents of fourteen children, only four of whom lived to maturity, including:- Mary "Polly" Arnold, who married U.S. Representative Tristam Burges in 1801.
- Samuel Greene Arnold, who married Frances Rogers, a daughter of Lt. John Rogers, in 1813.
- Eliza Harriet Arnold, who married industrialist Zachariah Allen, brother of Gov. and U.S. Senator Philip Allen, in 1817.
- Richard James Arnold, who invested in southern cotton manufacturing who married Louisa Caroline Gindrat.
Descendants
Through his eldest son Samuel, he was posthumously a grandfather of Samuel G. Arnold, the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island who served as a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island during the U.S. Civil War. Samuel married his first cousin, Louisa Gindrat Arnold, daughter Welcome's youngest son, Richard.Through his daughter Eliza, he was posthumously grandfather of Anne Crawford Allen, Mary Arnold Allen and Candace Allen.