Joseph Stanton Jr. (July 19, 1739December 15, 1821) was a military officer, a United States senator of the Anti-Federalist faction and a United States Representative of the Democratic-Republican party.

Early life

Stanton was born in Charlestown in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1739. During the French and Indian War he served in the expedition against Quebec 1759. In June 1762 he was elected captain of the Artillery Company of Westerly, Charlestown and Hopkinton, an independent company of the Rhode Island Militia which still exists as the 169th Military Police Company. He represented Charlestown in the Rhode Island General Assembly from 1768 to 1774 and again in 1776.

Military service

During the American Revolutionary War, Stanton was commissioned as the lieutenant colonel of the 1st Kings County Regiment of the Rhode Island Militia in July 1776. He then served as the colonel of a regiment of state troops, raised for 15 months service, from December 12, 1776, until his resignation on November 10, 1777. (The regiment was part of a brigade of two infantry and one artillery regiments which was formed to deter an invasion of the mainland portion of Rhode Island by the British forces occupying Newport.)

In May 1779 he was appointed at the colonel of the 1st Kings County Regiment of the militia and was subsequently appointed a brigadier general in command of the Kings County Brigade of militia in October of the same year.

Legacy

There is a monument to Senator Stanton on US Route 1 in Charlestown, Rhode Island, in front of his birthplace, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The General Stanton Inn, a restaurant in Charlestown, is named after him.

References

  • Wilkins Updike, A History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island (Boston, 1907) has brief sketch of Stanton on p. 525