Bristol, Rhode Island in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783

William Barton

William Barton (1745-1809) was from Warren. He married Ruth Thomas in 1768. William and Ruth had four children: Amos Thomas, Lillis, William, and Patience. As of the 1774 Rhode Island Census, there was one black person (likely enslaved) living in the Barton household. In 1775, William became a justice of the peace. During the 1778 Rhode Island Campaign, he served in William Throope‘s company of militia for ten days. Ruth died in 1779, and William remarried to Elizabeth Miller. William and Elizabeth had six children: Molly, Samuel, Thomas, Rebeckah, Alfred, and Betsey. William was the Collector of Excise for Bristol County in 1783. In 1792, he became a justice of the Bristol County Court of Common Pleas (serving until at least 1799), and in 1793 he was the Collector of Interest on Paper Money Bonds.

He could be confused with another William Barton who was born in Warren in 1748.