Darius sessions

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Gravestone from Darius Sessions on the North Burial Ground

Darius Sessions (born August 17, 1717 in Pomfret , Colony of Connecticut , † April 27, 1809 ) was a Lieutenant Governor ( Deputy Governor ) of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations . He was involved in the incident surrounding the hijacking and sinking of the British schooner HMS Gaspée and made a decisive contribution to protecting those responsible.

Early years

Darius Sessions, son of Joanna Corbin (1686-1771) and Nathaniel Sessions (1681-1771), was born in Windham County during the colonial period . His family was wealthy and owned much land in eastern Connecticut. Nothing is known about the youth of Darius Sessions. Sessions attended Yale College in New Haven , where he graduated in 1737. Then he went to work in a commercial business. During the King George's War in 1746 he was a partner in the privateer slup Reprisal. He became a Sailing Master on the schooner Smithfield in 1750 . In the following years the Smithfield was active in the Caribbean in the area of ​​the West Indies . He was probably also in the distillery business operates his father William ANTRAM which a distillery north of Sessions' home in Providence ( Rhode Iceland had). During the Seven Years' War in North America around 1763, he funded the efforts of his brother, Captain Amasa Sessions, to raise a company .

Sessions became a close friend of Brown University's first president James Manning . In this context, it is credited that the university was located in Providence instead of Newport or Warren . In 1763 he became an assistant and in 1769 lieutenant governor of the colony. He replaced Joseph Wanton , who became the new governor.

Gaspée affair

In March 1772, Sessions was working in Providence. During that time he sent a troubling letter to Governor Wanton in Newport. He expressed concern about a British schooner cruising in Narragansett Bay and disrupting shipping by stopping and searching merchant ships. Sessions requested that the governor take action to hold the ship's captain accountable. A series of threatening letters followed between the governor and the Gaspée's commander , Lieutenant William Dudingston, and his immediate superior, Admiral John Montagu . On the night of June 9-10, 1772, an angry group of colonists attacked the ship and burned it down. Sessions was officially outraged by the incident and offered colonial help to bring the perpetrators to justice. In response to the threat of retaliation from the British authorities, Rhode Island officials took visible steps to find the culprits who burned the ship. Behind the scenes, however, Sessions did everything he could to thwart any attempt to identify the attackers. When a royal commission was then appointed by the British to investigate the incident, they demanded that any accused should be sent to England for trial . This formidable threat to local freedom encouraged the colonists to form the Committee of Correspondence . The royalist governor of Massachusetts , Thomas Hutchinson aggravated the colonial perception continues, by urging the British to cancel the certificate of incorporation of Rhode Iceland.

Sessions consulted with Chief Justice Stephen Hopkins and Attorney John Cole. He then appealed to Samuel Adams , a Massachusetts politician, who urged Rhode Island to remain defiant or at least delay affairs by asking for a royal commission to be set up. Governor Wanton was put at the head of this commission, but agreed with Sessions and Hopkins to defeat the commission's objectives. Sessions, Hopkins, and others coordinated efforts to clear the evidence, threatened potential witnesses, and discredited those who testified. In this context, Sessions specifically attacked the credibility of Aaron Briggs and Stephen Gulley, the former divulging the names of some of the attackers. The vast majority of Rhode Island citizens supported the attackers and kept silent about their identities. A year after the incident, the royal commission was disbanded without bringing a single charge.

Late years

Sessions assumed responsibility for the military readiness of Rhode Island in 1774. He and Wanton did not want a standing army in Rhode Island, fearing British punitive action. In the 1775 election, Sessions was replaced by Nicholas Cooke as lieutenant governor, while Wanton was re-elected governor. In April 1775 the War of Independence broke out. The State Legislature, which advocated a tough foreign policy stance, prevented Wanton from being sworn in as governor. He was deposed in November 1775 for demonstrably a loyalist, and replaced by Cooke. Sessions meanwhile wrote a letter to the General Assembly asking for forgiveness for his previous actions, which he was granted. He then returned to his Connecticut farm, which he converted into a colonial-style state mansion. His farm then served as a command center during the Revolutionary War and even George Washington visited it occasionally.

After the war ended, Sessions no longer appeared in the public spotlight. In 1795 he and his son Thomas were active in shipping between Rhode Island and Saint Croix (US Virgin Islands) . Sessions died on April 27, 1809 at the age of 92. His body was transferred to Providence, where he was buried next to his wife on the North Burial Ground . He was married to Sarah Anstram, daughter of Sarah Fenner and William Antram. The couple had ten children together: Mary (1751–1836), Sarah (1753–1821), Anne (1754–1781), William H., Darius, George (1760–1770), Elizabeth (1763–1785), Amey ( 1764–1829), Nathaniel (1767–1774) and Thomas (1769–1845).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joanna Corbin Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  2. ^ Nathaniel Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  3. ^ Mary Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  4. ^ Sarah Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  5. ^ Anne Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ George Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  7. ↑ Elizabeth Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  8. ↑ Amey Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  9. ^ Nathaniel Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
  10. ↑ Thomas Sessions in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved February 28, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Sessions, Darius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1717
PLACE OF BIRTH Pomfret , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1809