Name/Title
1777 Act from General Assembly of RI (Who Can Bear Arms)Entry/Object ID
2025.01.28.03Tags
Grant, MilitaryDescription
An Act by the state of Rhode Island detailing those citizens who are able to bear arms.Context
Front of Item Transcription:
State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations.
In General Assembly, March Second Session, 1777
An A C T for numbering all Persons able to bear Arms within this State.
Be it enacted by this General Assembly, and by the authority thereof it is enacted, that the following persons be appointed committee-men for the town to which their names are respectively ascribed, for the purposes herein after mentioned, to wit:
For Providence, Mr. Martin Seamans,
Warwick, Mr. James Jerauld,
Westerly, Joseph Crandal, Esq;
North-Kingstown, Joseph Coggeshall, Esq;
South-Kingstown, Thomas Potter, Esq;
East-Greenwich, Benjamin Tillinghast, Esq;
Jamestown, Benjamin Underwood, Esq;
Smithfield, Daniel Mowry, Esq;
Scituate, Mr. Joseph Davis,
Gloucester, Capt. Asa Kimbal,
Charlestown, Joseph Hox[sie?], Esq;
West-Greenwich, Samuel Hopkins, jun. Esq;
Coventry, Samuel Wall, Esq;
For Exeter, George Peirce, Esq;
Bristol, Daniel Bradford, Esq;
Tiverton, Walter Cooke, Esq;
Little-Compton, Phillip Taylor, Esq;
Warren, William T. Miller, Esq;
Cumberland, John Dexter, Esq;
Richmond, Capt. Sim. Clarke, jun.
Cranston, Nehemiah Knight, Esq;
Hopkinton, Thomas Wells, Esq;
Johnston, Richard Eddy, Esq;
North-Providence, Capt. Joseph Olney,
Barrington, Mr. Henry Bowen.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said committees make regular lists or registers of the names of all the male persons inhabiting or residing within their respective towns,
From sixteen to fifty years of age, whom they shall judge able to bear arms.
From ditto to ditto, whom they shall judge unable to bear arms.
From fifty to sixty, able to bear arms.
From ditto to ditto, not able ; and,
From sixty upwards.
That lists be made of those who are transient or resident persons in the same manner ; as also of those belonging to the towns within this state in the possession of the enemy ; of Negroes and Indians in the same manner ; and also of those who have taken the affirmation, or produced certificates from the friends meeting, to excuse them from military duty ; as also of those who have inlisted into the Continental Battalions, or into the service of this state for fifteen months ; setting down the names of all the persons numbered in separate columns : and after the lists aforesaid are mad, the said committees shall make Oath, before some magistrate or Justice of the Peace, that the same hath been justly and truly made, according to the best of the knowledge of such committee-man ; which lists so made and sworn to shall be returned by the said committees to the General Assembly at their next sessions, to be holden at South-Kingstown, on the seventeenth day of April next.
And be it further enacted, that in case either of the said committees shall refuse to serve, that either of the deputies of the town where such committee resides be empowered to appoint other suitable persons in their places.
And it is also enacted, that the commanding officers of the two Continental Battalions raised by this state, and of the two regiments and train of artillery inlisted by this state for fifteen months, be requested to make return to the general assembly, on the said seventeenth day of April next, of the soldiers they shall have then inlisted, with the towns to which said soldiers belong, in order that the General Assembly may then known the strength of the state.
And it is further enacted, that the secretary, as soon as may be, furnish the said committees with copies of this act, and with blank columns for the purposes aforesaid.
A true copy :
witness, Henry War, Sec'ry [Secretary]
Back of Item Transcription:
Act of Assembly for numbering the people AD 1777Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
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