Person:Samuel Browning (11)

Samuel Browning was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, one of three communities bearing related names -- Kingstown, South Kingstown and North Kingstown. He was the eldest of his parent's five children. Sometime before 1710 he married Mercy Clark, who resided in the same area, and they bore three children. Their firstborn arrived in South Kingstown, then the family moved to North Kingstown where the other two were born. North Kingston is best known as the birthplace of Gilbert Stuart, painter of the most reproduced portrait of George Washington.

    By 1736, Rhode Islanders had land as well as sea transportation available to them when the first stagecoach line between Boston and Newport began service. It liked with other lines which enabled travelers to reach all of the eastern seaboard colonies.
    The Brownings undoubtedly joined in the social and recreational pursuits of the rural areas and small towns: hunting, fishing singing, folk dancing, sewing parties and husking bees. At husking bees there was widespread observance of the custom that any young man who found a red ear of corn could kiss any lady he chose. It was recorded that one young woman, charged with having enjoyed the occasion too much, was brought before a magistrate who denounced her as a "bould virgin". Another practice of young couples during colonial days was bundling -- although it was beginning to die out as the cold of northern winters was being alleviated somewhat by better heating and sturdier houses. In bundling, courting couples got into bed together to keep warm, but with most of their clothes on. They were usually separated by a board, and some cautious young women even tied their ankles together. (Taken from: A Family History, by Donovan Faust)

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).
2. ↑ Date not found in vital records of North Kingstown or South Kingstown by James N. Arnold.
3.   LAND:
   -1 Sep 1718 William Browning of Kingstown to son Samuel Browning of Kingstown, 204 Acres in Westerly. Witnesses: Nathaniel Osborn and Francis Willet. [Westerly Deeds 5:49-50]