BARTON, COL. WILLIAM--Page 1

Col. William Barton, who was a Warwick native and a steadfast patriot, captured a hated British General during the Revolutionary occupation of Newport, RI. He was a war hero, a state representative, and had a town in Vermont named after him. His marriage to Rhoda Carver gives his descendants a Mayflower connection (John Alden), and his own ancestors include Samuel Gorton, religious dissenter and founder of Warwick.

The tale of his daring raid on the headquarters of the British General Prescott is a well-known story, but you may not know that he was incarcerated in Vermont for fourteen years!

He joined the American cause shortly after Bunker Hill. Early in the war, Rhode Island applied to Massachusetts to obtain military protection for Providence, Bristol, and Newport. William Barton was chosen as commander.

Newport was chosen by the British fleet as a base of operations in December, 1776. Although the British demanded that their soldiers be quartered in the private homes of the citizens, things were relatively peaceful there, at first. Then General Clinton and Lord Percy sailed for New York and left the British troops under the command of General Richard Prescott. Life became much more unbearable for the residents of Newport after that.

He pulled down all the lovely old trees in the area for his soldiers to use as firewood. When that source of fuel ran out, he sent troops to ransack the cemeteries for wooden grave markers. Then the wooden sidewalks were taken up and burned, as well as the fencing that had marked property boundaries for generations. When the lack of sidewalks made Prescott's journeys difficult, he commandeered all the stone doorsteps to create a place to walk--for his use only, of course.

He was vain and pompous, requiring curtseys from the women and removal of hats from the men. Complainers were punished--slapped into prison without trial and beaten.

Prescott eventually tired of his quarters in Newport and moved to occupy the Overing farm, located five miles from the town. Overing, of course, was not pleased, but had little choice. In the summer of 1777, a patriot named Coffin and a British deserter managed to escape the island and reach the Yankee encampment at Tiverton.

Col. Barton listened intently to Coffin's report. Barton had been waiting for a way to take direct action against the British. His familiarity with Newport and the farm in question enabled him to concoct a bold plan. He and about forty volunteers managed to steer right under the noses of several British warships, sneak up to the farm, capture Prescott, and row to Warwick without being captured or disabled.

The occupation of Newport lasted about three years, but with Prescott gone, things most likely got a bit better for the island's citizens. Barton was widely hailed as a hero. [William Barton--Page 2]