Stephen Wardwell

Stephen Wardwell (1754-1839) was the third child of Stephen Wardwell and Mehitable Howland. He was baptized in the Congregational Church. Before the war, he moved to Providence, where he worked as a baker and merchant. During the Revolution, he served in Jabez Bowen’s Regiment of Militia. Some of this time was spent in Bristol, baking bread for the troops stationed there. In the winter of 1779-1780, Stephen served as a baker with the 15th Massachusetts Regiment. Stephen was married to a woman named Mary, with whom he had three children: Betsey, Mary, and Stephen Snow. Stephen had a business partnership with Chester Blashfield until Blashfield’s death in 1815. In the 1830s, he was a vocal opponent of slavery. He served as a deacon in the Congregational Church and was a singing teacher and choir leader.. Stephen applied for a pension in 1833, receiving $43.33 per year. His obituary in the Providence Journal reported that “in all his transactions he was strictly an honest man.”