Person:Rebecca Wilbore (2)

Rebecca Wilbore was born in Kingstown, a village on the Rhode Island mainland west of Narragansett Bay and, in 1687, married William Browning. He was from Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island, the community that her grandfather had helped found. They established a home in South Kingstown where all of their five children were born between 1688 and 1696. {note: South Kingstown did not exist at that time}

    William Browning's parents were from England, his father Nathaniel having been born in London and his mother Sarah Freeborn in Ipswitch, a port town on the eastern coast of England. Her family may have been involved with the shipbuilding industry that was the major employer in Ipswitch. Because of its available timber and tidal basin, Ipswitch had long been a leading shipyard. As early as the late 1500's, an impressive three dozen ships were built in a year -- ranging in size from 10 to 150 tons each.
    The emigration of William's father Nathaniel from London proved to be a prescient move. He avoided both the Great London Plue and the Great Fire of London, which occurred on successive years shortly after he left. Nathaniel and Sarah came to Rhode Island before starting to raise a family in 1651. And what a family it was -- 12 children, four boys and eight girls. The unbridled joy at the birth of two of their daughter was evidenced by the names given them -- Hallelujah and Hosana.
    The senior Brownings had come to Rhode Island only about 15 years after the first small communities were established. They located in a settlement begun by people who, like Roger Williams, had left what they believed to be the oppressive religious/political dictates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They called it Pocasset. The village was located on the upper eastern edge of the 15-mile-long Acquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay.
    The residents of the colony were noted as a stubbornly independent lot, especially with respect to any jurisdiction of a central government. They rejected the conditions that would have allowed them to become members of a New England Confederation. A hundred years later, their individualistic tendencies were still apparent when they refused to send representatives to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and would not ratify the constitution until the Bill of Rights amendment was added. Rhode Island was, therefore, the last of the thirteen original colonies to sign.
    They found not only land for grazing but a relatively benign climate for the part of the country due to the moderating winds off the bay. The area was rich in game. There were deer, rabbits and squirrels and plenty of birds -- partridge, pheasant, quail, wild ducks and woodcocks. Also, fresh and saltwater fish abounded in the rivers, bays and inlets. It was in this land of nature's bounty and independent thought that William and Rebecca Browning spent their entire lives. She died in 1728 when she was 75 years old; he lived two years longer, reaching the age of 79. (Taken from: A Family History, by Donovan Faust)