Mr Caleb Carr

• General Notes
  • Notes for CALEB CARR: Buried twice; their bodies were moved from Newport to Jamestown. p8: "...he and his wife Mercy were both buried in Newport, RI, near where the Coddington School now stands. On 8 September 1900, the bodies of Caleb and Mercy Carr were disenterred and removed to the island of Jamestown where they still are. They lie in a small private cemetery and are properly marked with the stones that marked their graves in Newport. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "Here lieth interred the body of Caleb Carr, governor of this colony, who departed this life ye 17th day of December, 1695, in ye 73rd (79) year of his age." ...on 9 May 1635, the ship "Elizabeth and Ann" slipped her moorings and put out from London, England under the command of Roger Cooper Master; her destination was New England...On board were one hundred and two passengers bearing permission to emmigrate to the new world that lay on the western shore of their ocean.... Robert Carr, age 21 and Caleb Carr, age 11.... close associates of William Coddington who came from Boston, Lincolnshire, England as one of the original members of the Mass. Bay Company in 1629 and was a leading merchant in Boston, MA, during this period.....early in 1637 Mr. Coddington lead a group of people, because of religious differences, away from Boston. They went to Providence and conferred with Roger Williams as to settling in those parts. With Mr. Williams aid, the group quickly purchased from the Indians the large island of Aquidnick and immediately proceeded to the business of founding the town of Pocassit (later called Portsmouth). It is thought that the Carrs left Boston with this group. Certainly they were early at the Pocassit settlement for on 21 February 1638 Robert Carr was listed as an inhabitant. Early in 1639, a small group, with Mr. Coddington, removed to the south end of the island to lay out a new settlement leaving at Pocassit a goodly company to carry on. The name which they gave this new home has remained unchanged all these years: Newport...They quickly purchased from the Indians the sizable island of Conanicut (known now as Jamestown) and Robert and Caleb were among the ninety-eight original purchasers of the island. It is thought that neither of the brothers resided on the island. This move was left to their children....Caleb Carr took a very prominent part in the affairs of the settlement at Newport and in the Colony of Rhode Island. Among the offices in which he served were: Town Commissioner, Deputy, Justice, General Treasurer and Colonial Governor (in 1695 and terminated by his death late that same year)...Perhaps the thing that Caleb did that had the most lasting effect upon the family was his purchase of large tracts of land on the island of Conanicut/Jamestown, where several of his children took up their residence, and their descendants live there still...he also established a ferry between Newport and Jamestown, in 1675, spanning two hundred and fifity years associated with the Carr family...in the course of all these activities he became possessed of considerable wealth and his residence was on what is now Mill Street in Newport...he owned wharves and a warehouse at the foot of Mill Street where the ferry now docks...his Will disposed of human as well as real and personal property...his daughter Mary was without children but had a rather famous husband in Thomas Paine. He was a seafaring man and there is strong, evidence to prove that he was partner and intimate of the famous pirate, Captain Kidd..."
    
    "...he was commissioner [of Newport] in 1654-62; was made a freeman in 1655; was deputy from 1664 through 1690...he was governor in 1695, the year in which he died...he bought at different times beginning with 1658, large interests in Conanicut and Dutch Islands...the Carrs as a family became conspicuous in the development of Jamestown and their fortunes have been more or less identified with that town and Newport from their settlement to the present time ..."