Rhoda Carver Barton was born on October 9, 1751 in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Joseph John Carver III and Sarah Hartwell. She would live an exceptionally long life, all of it within thirty miles of her birthplace. She married William Barton on April 26th 1771. She had nine children with Barton: William, Benjamin, George Washington, Daniel, Henry, Robert, John, Anna, and Sarah. She had her first child at the age of twenty and her last at the age of thirty-nine. Based on the relevant dates, she would have nineteen and pregnant with her first child on her wedding day. Almost all of her children survived childhood; she lost one of her sons, Daniel, at the age of eight, for unknown reasons.

Her husband enlisted in the Continental Army in 1775 and fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill as a corporal. During the war years he spent quite a lot of time away from their home in Warren but would often visit. He made one of his stopovers before his greatest wartime exploit, the capture of British General Richard Prescott. Barton, who was then serving as a major in the Rhode Island Militia, surprised Prescott by sailing silently across Narragansett Bay from Warwick Neck to Portsmouth under cover of darkness. He led thirty-eight men in five whaleboats past three British frigates and then managed to break down Prescott’s door and hurry him out before most of the garrison knew what was happening. The Continental Congress recognized his bravery with a resolution and a sword, which they promptly delivered to Barton nine years later.

Rhoda Barton’s wartime life must have resembled that of many other soldiers’ wives who stayed behind to look after their homes and family. She would be alone for long periods, acting almost as a single parent to her many children. With her husband often absent, she also had to take care of many of his responsibilities along with her motherly duties. These tasks included managing land and business. Much like other families in this time, the Barton’s were slave owners. The slaves typically were in the house for help with chores and taking care of the children. After the war, Rhoda and her children stayed in Rhode Island while her husband spent time in Barton, Vermont resolving a land dispute that ultimately went against him. Refusing to pay the $272 assessment that he felt unjust, he chose instead to spend fourteen years in jail. Only after the Marquis de Lafayette paid his debt for him in 1824 did Barton return to Rhode Island to be with his family. He died six years after his return home.

Rhoda Barton was born a British subject during the reign of King George II and died an American citizen during President John Tyler’s administration. In her ninety-one years she witnessed many significant developments, including the war for independence with which she was intimately involved. She also lived long enough into the antebellum period to see the growing sectional divide between north and south that eventually led to the Civil War. Rhoda Barton was a child born in a rural corner of the British Empire, an adult in revolutionary Rhode Island, and an elderly woman in the rapidly industrializing United States of the 1830s. She passed away ten years after her husband, on December 12, 1841, and is buried with him in the North Burial Ground.

Anne Ledbetter, Student at Rhode Island College

Further Reading

Williams, C. R. "The Life of General Barton." Biography of Revolutionary Heroes; Containing the Life of Brigadier Gen. William Barton, and Also, of Captain Stephen Olney. Providence: 1839.