Background
Jonathan Arnold was born on December 3, 1741 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States to Josiah and Amey (Phillips) Arnold. He descended from a family of early colonists believed to be of Welsh origin.
Jonathan Arnold was born on December 3, 1741 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States to Josiah and Amey (Phillips) Arnold. He descended from a family of early colonists believed to be of Welsh origin.
He had studied medicine, and in 1776 he organized the Revolutionary Hospital of Rhode Island, and was its surgeon 1776-1781.
In the Revolutionary assembly of the colony Arnold became a leading member; the decisive event in the birth of the new state was the statute, May 4, 1776, which repealed the oath of allegiance to England, and the original draft of this law is said to be in Arnold's handwriting. This vital statute has been described as a "solemn, deliberate, desperate act of popular sovereignty, " and was followed by Rhode Island's co"peration with the other states.
Arnold's services were not confined to legislation. During the years 1782-1784 he was a delegate from Rhode Island to the Continental Congress. This was the period of the unsuccessful effort to strengthen the Articles of Confederation by laying an impost. Rhode Island was a persistent objector, and Arnold's name occurs frequently in the record of the controversy.
More significant was his defense in Congress of the new State of Vermont against the claims of New York and New Hampshire, which led to his future career in the Green Mountain State. It must have been in recognition of Arnold's action, that Gov. Chittenden of Vermont in 1776 granted to him and his associates a large tract of land in Orange County (now included in Caledonia County).
Thither he removed in 1787, and became the leading founder of St. Johnsbury. His own portion of the grant was 3, 900 acres, and he began the settlement, working personally in the cutting of timber, surveying, and building of roads and bridges.
Among his other activities, he was a judge in the court of Orange County, one of the early trustees of the University of Vermont, and one of twelve councilors who in 1791 attended the session of the Vermont General Assembly which voted to accept the Federal Constitution of the United States.
He died at St. Johnsbury.
Arnold was distinguished in appearance; "of sanguine temperament, independent mind, and positive opinions"; highly respected, and obviously a natural leader.
Arnold was married three times and had thirteen children.
He was the father of Lemuel Hastings Arnold and great-great-grandfather of Theodore Francis Green.