Joseph Wanton - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Newport in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations on 15 August 1705, Wanton was the seventh of nine children born to William Wanton and his first wife, Ruth Bryant. His father had been a governor of the colony, as had his uncle John Wanton and his older first cousin, Gideon Wanton. His grandfather, Edward Wanton, was a ship builder, who became a Quaker after witnessing the persecution of these people, and became a speaker (preacher) of that religion. His grandfather had lived in York, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and Scituate, Massachusetts, and though he likely never lived in Rhode Island, many of his children settled in Newport or other parts of the colony. Though Wanton was of a Quaker background, his mother was a Presbyterian, and as a compromise, her children were raised in the Anglican faith.

While some sources say he graduated from Harvard College in 1751, it is far more likely that this was his 21-year old son, Joseph, Jr., rather than the 46-year old Wanton, who was by then a highly successful merchant sailing the globe in pursuit of commercial interests. That he was well educated, however, is certain from the vast amount of correspondence in which he engaged, particularly as Governor of the colony. In the mid-1750s, the Boston portraitist, John Greenwood, followed a group of sea captains and merchants to Surinam on the northeast coast of South America. The trading usually took time, so the men often waited in pubs. Being commissioned by the merchants to create a satirical painting, Greenwood concocted a 22-figure tavern scene, showing himself among the affluent traders, all subject to the "intoxicating effects of alcohol and economic ambition." Most accounts agree that Wanton is the bald man slumped in a chair by the table, being doused with a pitcher of rum, by one account, or of punch and vomit, by other accounts.

As a merchant, Wanton was involved in the maritime trade of a variety of goods. During the first half of the 18th century the slave trade was booming in Newport, and from 1708 to 1755 the population of black slaves in the colony burgeoned from 220 to nearly 4700. In 1758 Wanton declared that he had sailed the Snow King of Prussia with a cargo of 124 hogsheads of rum and 54 slaves. While at anchor along the African coast, he and his cargo were captured by a French cruiser.

In 1765 Wanton became one of the founders of the new college in Rhode Island, called the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and later named Brown University. He is named as an original "corporator," and as an original trustee of the college.