Early Life
Born 21 December 1615 in Ilchester, Somerset, England, Benedict Arnold was the second child and oldest son of William Arnold and Christian Peak. Living in the large town of Ilchester, he was familiar with the nearby villages of Northover, from where his grandparents Nicholas and Alice Arnold had come; Yeovilton, where his Aunt Joane's husband William Hopkins (ancestor of Rhode Island Governor Stephen Hopkins) was from; and Limington, after which place he would name one of his properties in New England, calling it "Lemmington Farm." All four of these localities lie within two miles of each other. Arnold was likely educated at the Free Grammar School associated with the parish church in Limington, slightly more than a mile to the east of Ilchester. This ancient school is where Thomas Wolsey was the curate and schoolmaster from 1500 to 1509. Wolsey later became the Lord Cardinal and Primate of England.
At the age of 19, Arnold accompanied his parents and siblings aboard a ship destined for New England. With his parents, siblings, and other relatives and associates, the Arnolds gathered their baggage and supplies in the spring of 1635 and made the trip from Ilchester to Dartmouth on the coast of Devon. In a family record begun by his father, he wrote "Memorandom my father and his family Sett Sayle from Dartmouth in Old England, the first of May, friday &c. Arrived in New England June 24o Ano 1635." The name of the ship on which he sailed was not recorded, nor has it been identified since. It is possible that Stukeley Westcott of Yeovil, five miles south of Ilchester, was also on the same ship, bringing his family including his daughter Damaris, aged 15, the future wife of Arnold.
Upon their arrival in New England, the Arnolds joined a group of settlers from Hingham, Norfolk, England, where they established the new town of Hingham in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. William Arnold received title to a house lot here in September 1635, but the following spring he and several other settlers were persuaded by Roger Williams to join him in establishing a new settlement on the Narragansett Bay, named Providence. In the family record the younger Arnold wrote, "Memm. We came to Providence to Dwell the 20th of April, 1636. per me Bennedict Arnold." Arnold received a house lot on what is now North Main Street in Providence, and his father was granted the second lot south of his.
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