Notes |
- The birth and death dates given above are crude approximations to let the reader know that this was an adult and not a small child. Stephen is first of record (as an adult) in 1655, and he is last found in a public record in 1687.
The following is taken mostly from the wikipedia article on Stephen Northup, which was created by this memorialist:
Stephen Northup was the founder of the Northup family in Rhode Island, but his origin is currently unknown. Though there is no marriage record, and the name of his wife does not appear in any public record, private sources indicate that Northup was married about 1654 to Elizabeth Hearnden/Harrington (the name has been written both ways), the daughter of Benjamin Hearnden/Harrington and Elizabeth White.
William R. Staples, in 1843, published a list of 28 early Providence settlers who each received 25 acres of land, over a period of about ten years beginning in 1646. On the list of names is Stephen Northup, as well as Benjamin "Herendeen," the latter with his name signed by a mark, this very likely being Northup's father-in-law.
Since the above transaction does not carry a definitive date on it, the first time Northup's name appears in a dated public record is on 2 October 1655 when "the town meetinge of Providence, in the Colony of Rhode Island, granted to Stephen Northup, twenty-five acres of land," and this, therefore, should be considered his earliest arrival in Providence.
On 27 August 1656, at another town meeting, "it was ordered that Stephen Northup have a home-lot laid out to him over against Christopher Smith's lot; also, that he have commonage equal to any other townsman; and that he be allowed to vote with the other inhabitants of the town." He built his house at the north end of the town, between the main street and the Moshassuck River. John O. Austin in his Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island states that he was made a freeman in Providence in 1658, but this may just mean that his name appears on a list of freemen, because he had already been given the privilege of voting two years earlier. On 27 July 1659 Northup sold 60 acres of land at Rocky Hill to William Carpenter and on 4 June 1660 he was selected as the Town Sergeant for Providence. During his service as sergeant John Clawson, a Dutchman and protege of Roger Williams, was murdered by an Indian not far from Northup's house. Northup then went about "warning the town about the prisoner," and was paid three shillings for his efforts. Northup spent four days taking the prisoner to Newport and attending the trial.
In 1662 Northup sold all of his rights to land between the Pawtucket and Pawtuxet Rivers to William Hawkins, and in 1665 he obtained a lot in a division of lands in Providence. The last record for him in Providence occurred when on 28 March 1666 he witnessed a deed there, but two months later his name does not appear on a list of those in Providence taking an oath of allegiance to the King, thus he had likely moved to Kingstowne by then.
After leaving Providence, Northup moved to the Narragansett country, which was organized as Kingstowne in 1674, and later split into North Kingstown and South Kingstown in 1722, the former being where Northup lived. On 19 May 1671 he took the oath of allegiance here, and in August 1672 he was called to appear before the Connecticut court. The Narraganset country was in dispute between the Connecticut and Rhode Island colonies, and both jurisdictions claimed these lands. Northup's reply to the Connecticut court was, "I denie to obey any warrant from ye authority of Conecticot; if ye government of Roade Island send any I will obey them but not this warrant nor any from Conecticot Colony." Sometime in the 1660s or 1670s Northup had purchased some of the Pettaquamscutt lands from Samuel Wilbur and other Pettaquamscutt purchasers. Title to the land was in dispute with the Humphrey Atherton Company, but on 5 December 1679 Northup and others were entitled to keep their lands. Northup had 120 acres of land on the west side of Pettaquamscot Pond, not far from the Gilbert Stuart Birthplace. He is last found in the public record in September 1687 when he was taxed 5s 1/2 d, according to Austin.
There are so few extant records concerning Stephen Northup in Kingstowne, that much of the portrayal of his life there is anecdotal. For instance, his occupation does not appear in any existing records, but a family researcher in the 1930s, Lester Burgess, wrote this: "The Northups owned or operated the grist mill at the Gilbert Stuart place, the foundations of which are now (1939) barely visible. I believe the first dam there was built by old Stephen Northup." (from NK Graveyards by McAleer, Hoffius and Nunes)
Stephen Northup built what appears to be the oldest existing house in North Kingstown, and perhaps in the entire state of Rhode Island. The origins of the house likely date back to Stephen's first arrival in the Narraganset country. Northup's residence in Providence continued at least through 1666, and there is no record of him in Kingstowne before 1671, so sometime between those two years is when he likely arrived in Kingstowne, and this may be when the house construction began. However, whatever was built before 1675 was almost certainly destroyed during King Phillip's War, so anything existing today would be from after that time. The National Park Service, in their report on historic North Kingstown properties, only gives a general timeframe for the house's construction: "The Stephen Northup House at 99 Featherbed Lane is another house in which the seventeenth-century core has been preserved by an eighteenth-century addition." North Kingstown historian, Tim Cranston, gives the date of the house as "1680-1690s" with additions made in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Austin only attributes four children to Northup and his wife, but Chappell in the Rhode Island Genealogical Register (1980 p 76) adds two more. Of the six children that have been credited to the couple, the oldest was likely Stephen (1660-1733), who married Mary Thomas of Jamestown and had eight children. The next son, Benjamin (1662-1750), married in 1681 Susannah Almy. He was originally buried in a small family plot on land that belonged to Wilbur Hazard, but was, before 1880, moved to Elm Grove Cemetery. However, the Elm Grove Cemetery book shows no record of his being buried there, so his marker may be defunct or illegible, or else he may not have had a marker moved to the new burial location.
The next son, Henry (1664-1740) married Mary Kingsley and had four known children. The only daughter, Mary, married John Mowry and died in 1724. The next son, Joseph (died before 1729) married Hopestill Smith, the daughter of John Smith and Phillis Gereardy, and the couple had five children. David, the presumed youngest son, (died in 1725) married Susanna Congdon, the daughter of Benjamin Congdon and Elizabeth Albro, and the granddaughter of Major John Albro who was an early magistrate of the colony. David and Susanna had four known children.
Northup is an ancestor of Stephen Arnold Douglas, who sparred with Abraham Lincoln in a series of famous debates in 1858, prior to a senate race, and later lost to him in the 1860 presidential election.
There is no record of Northup being buried in this cemetery, but since this is called the "Ancient Northup Burial Ground" and there are scores of graves marked only with field stones here, it is highly likely that Stephen Northup, his wife, and several of his children are buried here. It is known that his grandson, Robert Northup (died 1783) is here, since he has an existing marker with an inscription.
(findagrave)
|