One Branch of the Rhode Island Sheffields Related-Family-SheffTitle.GIF CAPT. JOSEPH SHEFFIELD (Ichabod, of Portsmouth, R. I., born 22 Aug. 1661, died 18 Feb. 1705/6. He married, 12 Feb. 1684/5, MARY SHERIFF or SHRIEVE, died after 17 March 1718/19, daughter of Thomas Sheriff or Shrieve of Plymouth, Mass., and Portsmouth, R. I. (R. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. XXI, p. 132.) He was a landowner, farmer, and lawyer and was prominent in the political affairs of the Rhode Island Colony. He was a Freeman in Portsmouth on 14:6:1683 (Portsmouth Town Records, op. cit., p. 220) and of the Colony on 6 May 1684 (Rhode Island Colony Records, vol.111, p.150). On 1541: 1684 he was on a Coroners Jury in Portsmouth and again on 11 Aug. 1692 (Portsmouth Town Records, op. cii., pp. 300, 297). On 22:6:1692 he was on a trial jury in Newport (ibid., p.249), and on 20:4:1694/5 he was constable in Portsmouth (ibid., p. 251). On 14:11:1696, 7:4mo.:1697, 21 3:1697 and 16:2:1697 he was Moderator of the Portsmouth Town Meeting (ibid., pp. 193,306,3085309). In 1696 he was Deputy from Portsmouth to the General Assembly, and was a Colonial Assistant in 1696 and 1698--1705. (Austin, op. cit.). On 3 May 1699 he was one of a committee of five to determine and settle the boundaries of the towns of Kingston, Westerly, and Greenwich (Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. III, p. 370). On 25 Oct. 1699 he and six others were appointed to inspect and transcribe, the Colonys laws, in accord with a request of the Earl of Bellamont, Governor of Massachusetts, and on 22 Dec. 1699, he carried them to the Earl in Boston (ibid., vol.111, pp. 378,396). On 14 Feb. 1699/1700 he was appointed Colonial Agent to England, with an allowance of £850 and expenses, later, as it was decided to keep but one agent in England, i.e., Jahleel Brenton, Esq., he was allowed £40 for his disbursements for his projected voyage. On 6 May 1702 John Holmes and he were empowered to lease and settle the ferries in the Colony not already settled. On 17 Sept. 1702 he was one of a committee to address the Crown regarding Colonel Dudleys (Joseph Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts) demand for the Rhode Island militia. On 2 Feb. 1702/3 he was appointed sole Agent of the Colony in England to uphold the Charter of Charles II, with a salary of £100 and £60 for the succeeding years, together with a further sum for expenses, &c., but in April 1703 it was voted not to be necessary to send an Agent to England at this time. On 12 May 1703 he was one of the Rhode Island Commissioners on the boundary dispute with Connecticut, and on 22 June 1703 he was on a committee, with two others, to draft the laws of procedure in the Rhode Island Court of Common Pleas. From 1704--1706 he was Attorney General of Rhode Island, and on 19 June 1705 he was on a commission to transcribe and print the Colonys laws. (Austin, op. cit.; Rhode Island Colonial Records). He was a busy trial lawyer and he frequently appears as such in the Court Docket of Bristol County, Mass., preserved in Taunton, Mass. He was active in the popular party in the Colony, which opposed the encroachments of the Crown upon the Charter, and thereby incurred the displeasure of the Earl of Bellamont, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, who in a dispatch to the Home Government, preserved in the Public Record Office in London, writes: "their new agent for England, Joseph Sheffield, keeps a little blind rum house, where the Indians are his best customers, as none of the English will go near him." The important offices with which he was entrusted by his fellow Colonists would seem to belie the opinion of the noble Earl. On the 5 May 1705, Joseph Sheffield and Caleb Arnold petitioned the General Assembly to be allowed 20,000 acres in the Narragansett Country, in order to settle a township there. The lands in question lay in what is now the town of West Greenwich. The petition was rejected. (Colonial Office Papers 5 864xx, Public Record Office, London; Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, vol. xxx, p. 85.) His will, dated 3 Feb. 1705/6, was proved 18 Feb. 1705/6, and is on record in Portsmouth. The executors were his wife Mary and his brother, Maj. Nathaniel Sheffield of Newport. He gave his Portsmouth lands to his son Joseph, reserving to the latters mother a half interest for life, together with certain personalty. He gave personalty to his daughters Mary and Elizabeth and divided his Kingstown lands equally between his Sons Benjamin, Edmund, and William. He gave his gold ring to his son Joseph, his silver shoe buckles to his son Benjamin, his speckled cane to his son Edmund, and his ivory headed staff to his son William. His inventory was £120:13:0. On l2:5mo.:1708 Benjamin and Edmund chose their brother Joseph as their guardian (Portsmouth Town Council Records, vol. II, p. 15). Joseph Sheffield's Portsmouth lands adjoined those of his father Ichabod's (West, op. cit.), and in addition he had a large tract of land in the Narragansett Country in what are now the towns of North and South Kingston. Children, born in Portsmouth: i. JOSEPH, of Kingstown, R. I., b. 2 Nov. 1685; d. before 4 June 1736; m. in Kingstown, 27 Jan. 1708, MARY EARLE, daughter of Ralph Earle of Freetown Mass. Seven children. ii. MARY, b. 8 Nov. 1687. iii. ELIZABETH, b. 15 Feb. 1688/9; d. 11 July 1689. iv. CAPT. BENJAMIN, of Kingstown and Jamestown, R. I., b. 18 June 1691; m. ELIZABETH He became a Freeman in Kingstown on 3 May 1720, but later removed to Jamestown. He was Deputy from Jamestown in May 1738 (Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. IV, pp. 266, 543). Child: 1. Benjamin, b . 6 June 1727. Perhaps others. EDMUND, b. 5 April 1694. vi. WILLIAM, b. 30 March 1696; ? m. HANNAH ----. vii. ELIZABETH, b. 1 June 1698; m. 17 Oct. 1717 JOSEPH WAIT of Kingstown and Exeter, R. 1. Ten children (cf. THE REGISTER, vol. 73, p. 298). [Great confusion has been created by the statement in the printed Rhode Island Colonial Records (vol. I, p. 76) and in the printed Portsmouth Town Records (p. 20) that a Joseph Sheffield was Moderator of a Portsmouth Town Meeting on 13: 1:1643. This is a misreading for 1697 and refers to Captain Joseph. There was no Joseph Sheffield in 1643.] Moriarty, G. Andrews, Vol. 104, January 1950, pp. 160-162. Reprinted in Genealogies of Rhode Island Families, Volume I. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1989).