William Greene was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Background
William Greene was born on March 16, 1695 in Warwick, Rhode Island. He was the son of Samuel and Mary (Gorton) Greene and a great-grandson of John Greene, founder of the family in America. The latter, a son of Richard Greene of “Bowridge Hill, ” Dorset, England, was by calling a surgeon, and in 1635 emigrated from Salisbury in Wiltshire to Massachusetts. He settled first at Salem, but in 1637 moved to Providence, where he became one of the original proprietors. He assisted in the founding of the town of Warwick, and at various times represented it in the Rhode Island General Assembly. His son John was deputy-governor of Rhode Island from 1690 to 1700, and his son Samuel, father of William, was at various times between 1704 and 1719 a deputy in the Assembly. William’s mother, Mary, was a grand-daughter of Samuel Gorton.
Career
William Greene was a practical surveyor, and in 1728, 1736, and 1741 aided in fixing the line between Rhode Island and Connecticut.
On July 15, 1740, he was elected deputy-governor of the colony and served until May 1743, when he became governor, succeeding Richard Ward. During the period of his incumbency the struggle between France and Great Britain for North America was at its height. Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and Admiral Sir Peter Warren, commander of the British naval forces in American waters, both complained to Greene that Rhode Island was not contributing its share of men and money, but Greene replied, with truth, that Rhode Island, despite its slender population (three thousand men capable of bearing arms), had cheerfully ordered three hundred able-bodied soldiers to be sent to join His Majesty’s land forces, as also one hundred seamen in the sloop Tartar to join the naval forces. Writing to the colonial agent in London he commented further, “our Small Government have got their Men Ready much Sooner than the Massachusetts and a Greator proportion not withstanding they so often Complain of us”. Nevertheless, he was compelled to hearken to the just reproach of the British Admiralty that Rhode Islanders were carrying on illicit trade with the enemy under cover of flags of truce.
In May 1745 Greene was succeeded in the governorship by Gideon Wanton, but he again held office in 1746-47 and from 1748 to 1755. In the boundary dispute with Massachusetts, 1746-47, he stood resolutely for the interests of Rhode Island and secured the cession to it of the towns of Cumberland, Warren, Bristol, Little Compton, and Tiverton, a territory claimed by Massachusetts but covered by the original Rhode Island charter of 1663.
Greene’s third term was marked by a contest over paper money in which, supported by the Newport merchants, he vigorously opposed the further emission of bills of credit as “unjust and unreasonable, ” dangerous to trade, unfair to creditors, and likely to lead to the forfeiture of the colonial charter, although, at the direction of the Assembly, he later instructed the agent in London to use every effort to prevent the passage of an act by Parliament prohibiting the issue of bills by the Colony. Opposition to the control of the government by the Newport faction had been growing for some time, and in 1755 Greene was defeated for the governorship by Stephen Hopkins of Providence.
In 1757, however, he was reelected, but he died early in the next year, at Warwick.
Achievements
William was a clerk of the county court in Providence, deputy from Warwick, speaker of the Rhode Island Assembly, and then deputy governor from 1740 to 1743. He became governor for the first time in 1743 and served four separate terms for a total of 11 years, and died while in office during his final term.
Connections
Greene was married on December 30, 1719, to his second cousin, Catharine Greene, great-granddaughter of the first John Greene and daughter of Benjamin Greene, familiarly called “Tobacco Ben. ” On her mother’s side she was a granddaughter of Randall Holden. She bore her husband six children, of whom one son, William, became the second governor of the State of Rhode Island.
