Born: 25 Aug 1605  England

Christening: 9 Feb 1606   Bishop’s Stortford, Hersford, England

Marriage:  29 Jun 1631 in Bishop’s Stortford, Hersford, England

Immigration: 1634
Details:  Ralph Earle, who with his wife Joan came from England about 1634, and was one of the original twenty colonists of Rhode Island who successfully petitioned Charles I for a charter in 1638.

Note: OCT 1638
Details: His name is there foud under date of “first of eighth month (October), 1638, in a list with fifty-eight others, arranged as “A catalogue of such perons who, by the General consent of the company, were admitted to the Inhbytants of the Island now called Aqueedneck, having submitted themselves to the Government that is, or shall be established according to the word of God therein.”

Note:  1639
Details:  The following is extracted from the records of Portsmouth, Rhode Island:  “April y 39th, 1639 – We, whose names are under [written, doe acknowledge*] ourselves the legell subjects of [his majestie*] King Charles, and in his name [doe hereby binde*] ourzelves into a civill body politicke, unto his lawes according to matters of justice.”  *a part of the record is torn off, and it has been supplied on the town’s book by the words in brackets.  This declaration was signed by twenty-nine men, of whome Ralph Earle was one.

Note: 07 JAN 1640
Details:  It was ordered at a town meeting that he and his co-partner, Mr. Wilbur, “shall serve the town with good sufficient stuff, viz: well sawn boards at eight shillings the hundred, and half inch boards at seven shillings, to be delivered at the pit by the waterside.”

Land Rec: 21 MAR 1640
Details: Ralph conveys to William Baulstone “parcells of upland and meadow.

Note: 26 AUG 1647
Details: In the record of a town meeting it is stated that he was “chosen to keep an Inn to sell beer and wine, and to entertain strangers”

Note: 02 JUN 1649
Details: He was “chosen Treasurer for this year next insuing, and also overseer of the poor.”

Note: 29 APR 1650
Details: Ralph and five others were chosen “for the committee for the General Assembly at Newport in May next.

Note: 12 NOV 1650
Details: It was “voated & granted that Ralph Erl’s house wherein he now dwelleth be recorded & Inn, in ye room of ye former vote that he was an Innkeeper”

Note: 19 JAN 1651
Details: He and three others were chosen “to proportion every man’s farm,” &c., for the purpose of assessing a tax for the support of a poor man

Land Rec: 21 MAY 1651
Details:  Ralph conveyed a tenement and eight acres of land to Nicholas and Joan Harte

Note: 03 JUN 1651
Details: He was again elected town treasurer

Land Rec: 24 JUN 1652
Details: He sold to William Arnold of Providence, land formerly owned by Francis Weston’s wife Margaret, near “Pawtuxet Falls”

Note: 1651
Details: Under date of August 25, 1651, there is a record of an agreement of division of fence between Ralph Earle and John Tripp. A very old copy of the original document is now in the possession of the heirs of the late George Earle of Providence, R.I. (Rhode Island); it is dated August 25, 1639.

Land Rec: 24 JUN 1652
Details: Ralph Earle of Portsmouth sold to William Arnold land which he had bought of Nathaniel Dickens, “which premises the said Dickens formerly bought of one Richard Harcutt the heir or assign of Fraunces Weston and Margarett his wife” –   The Early Records of the Town of Providence, 21 volumes (Providence 1892-1915)

Land Rec: 19 FEB 1653
Details:  He quitclaimed to Thomas Lawton

Land Rec: 01 DEC 1653
Details: He conveyed twenty acres to William Cadman.

Note: 1654
Details:  In 1654, he and another man were chosen as a town’s committee to “oversee the work of the Prison.”

Note: 05 APR 1655
Details: He conveyed to his son William eighteen acres of land on the northern extremity of the island, at Bristol Ferry. It is tradition that he owned the ferry, but this has not been confirmed by any discovered records.

Note: 05 MAY 1655
Details: The “Jurymen chosen for the Generall Court of Tryals to be held at Providence,” were John Sandford, Ralph Earle and Francis Brayton. Ralph was again upon the grand jury in 1669.

Note: 25 MAY 1655
Details:  He was appointed by the Court of Commissioners to keep a house of entertainment. A convenient sign was to be set out at the most “perspicuous” place, to give notice to strangers.

Land Rec: 24 NOV 1656
Details:  He conveyed land to Daniel Grinnell, Ralph, Jr., signing the deed as witness

Land Rec: 05 JAN 1658
Details: He conveyed forty acres to Jeremiah Willis.

Note: 02 MAR 1658
Details: At a town meeting, five men were chosen “to examine and audit Ralph Earll’s accompts of what the towne is indebted unto him, and what they shall find the towne to be in his debt shall be payd to the sayd Earll by the towne Treasurer.”

Note: 10 AUG 1667
Details: He joined a “troope of horse,” which had been ordered to be raised and signed, with eighteen others, a paper in which they “approve of the choyce of our Captaine (Peleg N. Sanford) and Lieftenant (John Almy) to the full.” He was afterward captain of the troop.

Note: 07 JUN 1671
Details: In the General Assembly, Ralph “Earll” and eleven others, of Portsmouth, and a number of residents of Newport, were appointed as a special court, to sit on the 15th of the same month, to try “two Indians now imprisoned upon criminall charge.”

Note: 1667
Details: Ralph claimed the lands of the Dutch House of Good Hope, now Hartford, Connecticut, and commenced a lawsuit therefor “against Richard Lord and James Richards of Hartford, possessors of the Dutch land, about 1667. Earl affirmed that he purchased the land of Underhill, in August, 1653, and paid him twenty pounds sterling for it; but Underhill protested against Earl’s claim.” “It is not improbably,” continues the article from which we quote, “that there was some foundation for this claim. There are many papers on the subject in the archives of Connecticut.”

Birth of Son:  22 Apr 1632 (baptized)
Name: Ralph Earl

Will: 19 NOV 1673
Details: “The last will and testiment of Ralph Earle, of Portsmouth, on Rhoad Island, being in perfect memory, being sencible of man’s mortalitie and for the avoiding of futur controversies amongst my Relations doe order and dispose of my Estate as followeth: —     first I doe order, substitute and apointe Jone my wife my whole and sole Exectrix to Receive and pay all whatsoever is due Either to or from mee and that which Remains of my Estate chall bee and Remaine in the hand and possession of my said wife during her naturall life and at her deceas to be dispoed and divided in maner and forme following, namely, my will is that after and upon the decease of my said wife that all my land and houseing, with the apurtinenc thereto belonging, shall be and Remaine to my Eldest sonn, Ralph Earle, and to Ralph Earle, the sonn William Earle, to be Equally divided into three parts, my sonn Ralph to have two parts thereof and my said Grandsonn one, to be to them, there heirs and Asigns a possesion and Estate forever: and further my will is that all my moveable Estate shall, at the decease of my said wife, be Equally divided into five parts, and that my sonn Ralph Earle shall have two parts thereof, he paying, or causing to be paid, the sum of one shilling to my son William Earle, as his portion of my Estate, and the other three parts thereof I doe give and bequeath to my three daughters, that is to say, Mary the wife of William Cory, Martha the wife of William Wood, and Sarah, a widow to the late deceased Thomas Cornell, to Each of them an Equall share: and for the dividing and disposing wherof, as an overseer, I doe order and apoint my friend and neighbor John Tripp the Elder to take care to see this my will performed as abovesaid; and that this is my will and Testament, to be performed to all true intents, witness my hand and seal, this nienteenth day of november, in the year one Thousand six hundred Seventy and Three.   Witness Thomas Havens.”

Death: 1678   Portsmouth, Newport Co, Rhode Island

Parents are unknown

    
Joan Savage     

Birth:  

Death:  

Parents are unknown

    
Return to Smith Home Page
Return to Genealogy Home Page