Background
Benjamin Bourne was born on September 9, 1755, in Bristol, Rhode Island. He was the son of Shearjashub and Ruth (Bosworth) Church Bourne.
Benjamin Bourne was born on September 9, 1755, in Bristol, Rhode Island. He was the son of Shearjashub and Ruth (Bosworth) Church Bourne.
Bourne was graduated from Harvard College in 1775.
In January 1776, Bourne was appointed quartermaster of the second regiment of the Colony Brigade under command of Colonel Henry Babcock, who was later succeeded by Colonel Christopher Lippitt. He was later appointed ensign in Captain Arnold's company and under date of December 4, 1776, volunteered to cross the North River. He received his final pay at Chatham, New York, and returned to King's County, Rhode Island, on January 18, 1777.
In February 1780, he was elected a deputy or representative in the legislature from Bristol. At the following session in May, he was a deputy and also clerk of the General Assembly and in the same month, he became a member of the Council of War. He retained the position of clerk until May 1786, and then became a deputy from Providence, serving from May 1787 to May 1790.
During his term of office, he became deeply interested in the ratification of the Federal Constitution on the part of Rhode Island and was a member of the General Assembly when a petition was received from the town of Providence requesting that the General Assembly call a convention to consider the acceptance of the Constitution of the United States.
The General Assembly refused the request of the petitioners, but as in the interval the new government had been recognized in New York the situation in Rhode Island was far from satisfactory, and again the town of Providence chose a committee, of which Bourne was a member, to draft a petition to Congress asking for due consideration to Rhode Island in the emergency. This petition was transmitted to Congress by the hands of President Manning of Rhode Island College and Bourne.
In November 1789, Rhode Island was the only state remaining outside of the Union, and at the January session in the following year Bourne renewed his motion for the calling of a convention and it was carried in the lower house by a strong majority. It afterward was passed by the state Senate with a very close vote.
Bourne was sent as a delegate to the convention for the ratification of the Constitution, which occurred on May 29, 1790, in the town of Newport.
In August of the same year, President Washington visited Providence, and Bourne served as a member of the committee to receive him. Doubtless, on account of his activity in connection with the Constitution, the State chose him as her first representative to the Congress of the United States and he served in the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Congresses. In September 1801, he became a judge of the United States district court for the district of Rhode Island.
Bourne died in Bristol, and is buried in the Juniper Hill Cemetery there.
Benjamin Bourne was distinguished by his service as a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, in 1801, which is considered as his major professional achievement. Later, as judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern Circuit, he served until his death at age 53.
After Rhode Island ratified the Constitution, Bourne was elected as Pro-Administration to the First through Third Congresses and as a Federalist to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses.
Benjamin Bourne was married to Mrs. Hope (Child) Diman, widow of Capt. Benjamin Diman of Bristol.
