25 Apr 2021: In Living Color – Randall Wells and the Hopkinton Militia

While up in Rhode Island last week, I drove over to Narragansett to find my best approximation of where the Hopkinton Militia was stationed as mentioned in the pension application of Daniel Knowles. I’ll start with the reference he makes in his application. The x’s are words I was unable to make out in the old handwriting.

In November 1777 the company xxx of the same, of which xxxx be again  xxx was again called out, George Thurston was still Captain, Randall Wells Leit and Joseph Thurston Ensign, they were marched xxx(From?) Little Rest Hill now called Kinston Hill(?) to the shores of the Bay, to join the shores and stationed at the Bonnet Farm xxxx at the house of Colonel John Gardiner in Boston Neck two months and afterward(?) two more months at the xxxx house near the same, at the end of that time, they were discharged. 

I found this map online that shows Little Rest, right in the middle. Below that is a modern day map, and below that is a close up showing Little Rest Hill Road in South Kingston, RI.

I wasn’t really looking for Little Rest Hill, but it was nice to know where it was and the direction they were coming from when they marched to the Bonnet Farm and the house of Col. John Gardiner. A little Googling, found the reference below. It talks of the estate at Bonnet Point and Wesquage Beach.

The Gardiners of Narragansett: Being a Genealogy of the Descendants of George Gardiner, the Colonist, 1638, PAGE 210

The map above shows, Wesquage Pond, the neighborhood called The Bonnet next to Bonnet Shores Beach and Colonel John Gardner Road. Interesting that the road has Gardiner missing the “i”, but this must be the general area in which Randall Wells and the Hopkinton Militia encamped in November 1777.

So here I am, in my first video blog post. Note, this is a learning curve. Lesson 1: block the wind from the microphone. You can still hear me, but there’s wind.

Jennifer April 2021

I’ll be doing daily posts for a while to catch up on all the great info I gathered on my recent trip to Rhode Island and Connecticut, so much more to come!

-Jennifer

I filmed on the beach by this intersection.

The Beach I filmed on. Did Randall walk here?