Nathaniel Pearse

Nathaniel Pearse (or Pearce, Pierce, 1708-1793) was the second child of Richard Pearse and his wife Sarah. He is referred to in official documents with the title “esquire”. In 1732, he married Mary Lindsey at St. Michael’s Anglican Church. Nathaniel and Mary had eleven children: Samuel, John, Nathaniel, Christopher, Elizabeth, Richard, Thomas, Mary, Thomas, William, and Sarah. In 1746, the year Bristol became part of Rhode Island, Nathaniel was captain of the Bristol Militia Company. In 1747, he was a justice of the peace. In 1759, he was lieutenant colonel of the militia, and also a justice of the court of common pleas. In 1774, as part of a town-wide effort, he sent a sum of 18 shillings to support the people of Boston (that city’s port having been recently closed by the British). As of the 1774 Rhode Island Census, there were seven black people (likely enslaved) living in the Pearse household. In May, 1776, when Rhode Island’s Act of Renunciation was passed, Nathaniel was serving in the General Assembly. A man named Jude (born circa 1728), described as a “negro servant of Capt. Nathaniel” died in 1790. As of the 1790 United States Census, there were two enslaved people living in the Pearse household.