Background
William was born on October 10, 1798 in Providence, Rhod Island, United States, the youngest son of Samuel and Ruth (Read) Staples.
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book
Rhode Island in the Continental Congress: With the Journal of the Convention That Adopted the Constitution. 1765-1790
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The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee
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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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Annals of the Town of Providence: From Its First Settlement, to the Organization of the City Government, in June, 1832
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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
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Annals of the Town of Providence: From Its First Settlement, to the Organization of the City Government, in June, 1832
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
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Rhode Island in the Continental Congress: With the Journal of the Convention That Adopted the Constitution. 1765-1790
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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William Read Staples
Edit ProfileEducation
He graduated from Brown University in 1817.
Career
After reading law in the office of a local attorney, he was admitted to practice in 1819, and although at the bar and on the bench he maintained a successful association with the law for nearly half a century, he impressed one of his contemporary biographers as being "not especially fond of his profession".
He entered public life in 1832 as a member of the common council of Providence, served as a police justice of the city for two years, and in June 1835 took his seat by appointment as an associate justice of the supreme court of Rhode Island.
Elected chief justice of that court in 1854, he was compelled through loss of health to resign his office in March 1856. Thereafter, except for a few months in 1856 as state auditor, he devoted himself largely to unofficial public service and to the development of his interest in the history of his native state.
In his Annals of the Town of Providence, published in 1843, he claimed with too much modesty that his purpose was only "to collect facts for the future historian, " but in that book he arranged economically a great store of facts, collected from numerous original sources, into a vigorous, reliable narrative covering two centuries of the city's life. At the instance of the Assembly he performed in his closing years a similar task of research and presentation in his Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, a work that was brought out by the state in 1870 under the editorship of Reuben Aldridge Guild.
He edited also The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee (1845) and, at different periods of his life, certain works of legal utility of no general interest.
He died in 1868.
Achievements
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William Read Staples was one of the incorporators of the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1822. He was chosen at once to act as its librarian and cabinet keeper, one of the several offices that he held in the society in the course of his long membership. He edited for the society an edition of Simplicities Defence by Samuel Gorton in Rhode Island Historical Society Collections.
Works
book
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Annals of the Town of Providence: From Its First Settlement, to the Organization of the City Government, in June, 1832
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
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Rhode Island in the Continental Congress: With the Journal of the Convention That Adopted the Constitution. 1765-1790
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
-
The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
-
Annals of the Town of Providence: From Its First Settlement, to the Organization of the City Government, in June, 1832
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
-
Rhode Island in the Continental Congress: With the Journal of the Convention That Adopted the Constitution. 1765-1790
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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Annals of the Town of Providence: From Its First Settlement, to the Organization of the City Government, in June, 1832
Connections
He was married in November 1821 to Rebecca M. Power who died in 1825. They had two children both of whom died in childhood. In October 1826 he was married to his second wife, Evelina Eaton of Framingham, Massachussets, who survived him with six of their eleven children.
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Born
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Died
January 19, 1868 (aged 70) -
Nationality
American