Background
Caleb Gardner was born in on January 24, 1739, Newport, Rhode Island. He was the son of William and Mary (Carr) Gardner and a descendant of George Gardiner who was an inhabitant of Newport in 1638.
Caleb Gardner was born in on January 24, 1739, Newport, Rhode Island. He was the son of William and Mary (Carr) Gardner and a descendant of George Gardiner who was an inhabitant of Newport in 1638.
Following the New England maritime tradition, Caleb Gardner went to sea when young, rising to command and then coming ashore to engage in trade. It seems probable that he was connected with the slave-trade to some extent.
In 1775, he was first captain in Col. William Richmond’s regiment of militia; in 1776 as major and then lieutenant-colonel of the 16t Rhode Island Regiment, he was active in the construction of the Newport defenses. He was elected deputy from Newport in the General Assembly in 1777.
In 1780, after being re-elected to the Deputies, he was promoted to the Assistants, the upper house.
It has been stated that his piloting of the French fleet into Newport was during D’Estaing’s visit in 1778, but it actually occurred in 1780 when De Ternay arrived with a fleet convoying Rochambeau’s transports.
The Newport residents had kept their regular pilots cruising for weeks on the lookout for the fleet, but the French sighted none of them and arrived at Newport on July 11.
Gardiner, accompanied by several other gentlemen, rowed out to the Due de Bourgogne, De Ternay’s flagship, and piloted her through the difficult passage himself. It is said he later received a reward from Louis XVI for this service.
Gardner was one of three men who purchased the hulls of the British frigates sunk in 1778 with the prospect of salvaging them. He was later commissioned to rebuild the lighthouse destroyed by the British when they evacuated Newport in 1779.
After the Revolution, he was an assistant in the General Assembly in 1787-90 and in 1792. He served as French viceconsul and was president of a bank and a warden of Trinity Church.
In 1779, Caleb Gardner was a member of the Rhode Island council of war.
Caleb Gardner owned an African-American boy named Newport Gardner who became noted for his education, was later freed, and went to Liberia in 1825.
Gardner was married three times: to Sarah Ann Robinson, June 3, 1770; to Sarah Fowler, April 17, 1788; and to Mary, daughter of Gov. John Collins, October 20, 1799.