Ancestors of Charles Stone Brown. Descendants of William Bailey. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Susan W. Pieroth, (© 1997 Susan W. Pieroth) USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages are for the use of indivisual researchers, and may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ History of Rhode Island - Biograşhical Pages 188 - 191 The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: Biograşhical, by the American Historical Society, Inc., 1920. For an unknown reason there are two coşies of the book with the same title şage, but with different contents. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ancestors of Charles Stone Brown. Descendants of William Bailey. CHARLES STONE BROWN--Until thirty-two years of age, Mr. Brown was engaged as a mill worker, becoming an overseer, but then he turned to agriculture, and is the owner of a fine estate of 700 acres in the town of West Greenwich, the nucleus of that estate being the Waite farm at West Greenwich Center. To that original purchase he has added by purchase and improvement until, in e×tent, equipment and utility it is unsurpassed in that district. One of the farms bought was owned by Dr. Wilcox, which had formerly been the homestead of the parents. One special feature of the Brown farm is its large pond, so situated that it can be used to irrigate every part of the estate. To its other natural beauties and advantages, a tract of several acres of timber land must be added, a feature likely to be of unusual benefit, should present conditions long continue. On his beautiful estate, Mr. Brown has now spent thirty-si× years, 1884-1920, and to its upbuilding, improvement, and management these years have been devoted. He has created a wonderful home, and to him every acre is doubly dear from the fact that it is the product of his own ambitious effort, and represents his life work as a business man. Through a maternal line, Charles S. Brown descends from William Bailey, who became a resident of Newport, R. I., soon after the settlement of the town. The earliest record of him, however, is of June 14, 1655 when he bought land of Gabriel Hicks. His parentage, place of nativity, date of birth and death, are alike unknown. It is known that he died previous to July 20, 1670. He married Grace Parsons, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth Parsons, of Portsmouth, R. I. William and Grace (Parsons) Bailey were the parents of five sons, the fourth being Hugh bailey, who was made a freeman of the Rhode Island Colony at Newport, May 21, 1702. He removed from Newport to East Greenwich, R. I., some time prior to 1703, and there died in 1724, soon after his second marriage. He married (first) Anna -----, who died in February, 1720. They were the parents of eight children, the eldest being a son, William, of further mention. William Bailey was born in the town of Newport R. I., April 29, 1696, and was admitted a freeman of East Greenwich, May 2, 1721. He married Rebecca Straight, born January 27, 1700, daughter of Henry and Hannah Straight, her father a blacksmith of East Greenwich, son of Henry and Mary (Long) Straight, who lived in a house at East Greenwich built by Henry Straight, the elder, as early as 1679. William and Rebecca Bailey were the parents of seven children, Caleb being the first born. Caleb Bailey was born in East Greenwich, September 7, 1720, and there resided until 1754. He then moved to Coventry, and there resided until about July, 1756, and is ne×t heard from in 1764, when he bought a tract of land in West Greenwich. He occupied a dwelling which stood on the farm, then built another nearby into which he moved about October 1, 1765. There he resided until his death in 1803, the old homestead yet remaining in the Bailey family, and is known as the Gideon Bailey house. He married (first) Mary Godfrey, daughter of John and Catherine (Davis) Godfrey, of East Greenwich. They were the parents of nine children, the si×th being a son, Joseph Bailey. Joseph Bailey was born September 1, 1756, and died March 29, 1841. He owned and occupied the farm in West Greenwich, adjoining his father's on the south, and was a devoted member of the Noose Neck Hill Baptist Church, and a leader of the singing. He was a man of deep piety and upright life, and very fond of his family. When in advanced years it was not an uncommon sight to see him supporting himself with a cane, walking beside his equally aged brother Caleb, who required the aid of two canes. He married Elizabeth Hall, born September 24, 1759, died December 13, 1839, daughter of Robert and Sarah (Matteson) Hall. They were the parents of five sons and eight daughters, all of whom married e×cept the eighth, a son Joseph, who died in infancy, and the youngest daughter Amey, who died at the age of eighty-eight years, in 1894. During the Revolution, Joseph Bailey served as a soldier in the Rhode Island Militia stationed to guard the shores of the bay. He contracted a lameness from e×posure while on that duty, and was granted a pension by the Government. Waity Bailey, second child of Joseph and Elizabeth (Hall) Bailey, was born at the farm in West Greenwich, R. I., March 22, 1781, and died January 2, 1848. She married Seth Brown, born April 7, 1778, died October 22, 1866, son of Josiah and Amy (Stone) Brown. Seth Brown was a probate judge of his native town, a man of influence and high standing. He married (second) January 31, 1850, Lois (Waite) Carpenter, widow of Christopher Carpenter. Seth and Waity (Bailey) Brown were the parents of nine children: Lydia, married Potter S. Wilcox, of Connecticut; Nathaniel, a farmer, married (first) Dorcas Tabitha Tillinghast, (second) Phebe Matteson, and resided near Jewett City, Conn.; Allen, married (first) Unice Greene, of West Greenwich, (second) Hannah Elliott; Ambrose, of further mention; John Anthony, born Oct. 15, 1809; Set (2), married Polly Matteson; Josiah Enos, born May 15, 1815; Alfred Nelson, a farmer of West Greenwich, married Betsey Palmer; Betsey Ann, born Sept. 13, 1820. Ambrose Brown, fourth child of Seth and Waity (Bailey) Brown, was born July 4, 1806. He married (first) December 12, 1824, Phebe Rathbun, who died January 24, 1841, leaving four children: Abel R., born Dec. 12, 1825, died September 25, 1847; Dorcas Catherine, married, at Sterling, Conn., William Henry Butler, a manufacturer of safes; Seth Anthony, of further mention; John A., born Dec. 27, 1835, died June 8, 1841. Ambrose Brown married (second) Lydia, daughter of Amos and Elsa (Ellis) Greene, and they had one child Horatio A., born Jan. 3, 1847, married Emily Smith, now deceased; one daughter was born to them, Minda, now deceased. He married (third) Lydia, daughter of Thomas and Lucy (Greene) Lewis. He married (fourth) June 4, 1869, Rhoda, daughter of Caleb and Elizabeth (Tillinghast) Hall. Seth Anthony Brown, son and third child of Ambrose Brown, and his first wife, Phebe (Rathbun) Brown, was born December 13, 1828, and died September 23, 1907. He was a farmer of West Greenwich, Kent county, R. I. He married Lucinda Cory, born August 11, 1830, died October 19, 1909, daughter of John and Hannah (Douglas) Cory. Seth A. and Lucinda (Cory) Brown were the parents of nine children: John A., born April 20, 1848, died in early boyhood; Phebe H., born April 28, 1851, married, Dec. 3, 1871, Rev. John H. Edwards, pastor of the Baptist church in Exeter, R. I., son of John and Lucinda (King) Edwards, and she is the mother of a son, William Henry Edwards, who married Jennie Brown; Charles Stone, of further mention; Emma E., born Nov. 2, 1856, married Erastus A. Straight, a farmer of Exeter, R. I., and has children: Oliver C., Lucy A., and Charles Straight; William H., born Jan. 19, 1859, married, Nov. 21, 1885, Ella F. Young; Randall, born Oct. 23, 1860, died aged two years; Ella L., born April 28, 1862, married George A. Rose, and has children: Walter L., Ambrose H., Jennie, Lewis Anthony; Lucy L., born April 24, 1867; Waity, born Jan. 23, 1876, married Lewis N. Palmer. Charles S. Brown, of the ancient Rhode Island family, was born at Escoheag Hill, R. I., September 8, 1853, son of Seth Anthony and Lucinda (Cory) Brown. When four years of age he was sent to the public school at Escoheag Hill, but soon afterward the family moved to a farm at Davisville, North Kingston, and there he attended public school until nine years of age, when he began working in an Exeter cotton mill. He continued as a cotton mill worker for twenty-three years, advancing through the positions open to the boys. Very rapidly and long before his hears justified, he was filling a man's position, being superintendent of a spinning room at the age of si×teen, when the Hallville Exeter mill burned. Mr. Brown then went to a Massachusetts mill, but si× months later returned to Rhode Island, entering the Wyoming mill at Richmond, there remaining overseer of the spinning department until 1884. This closed his career as a mill man, he purchasing the Waite farm at West Greenwich Center in 1883, and around that purchase has added different tracts until his present seven hundred acres is the result. He moved to his purchase soon after acquiring title, and has since made agriculture in general and the upbuilding of a valuable estate in particular his life work. He has been very successful, and is one of the substantial, influential men of his community. He has long been an active member of the West Greenwich Baptist Church, was superintendent of its Sunday school for several years, and has filled a number o its offices, as needed. When requested to allow his election to the office of deacon, he declined in favor of another, but he was ever ready to serve the interests of the church in a private capacity. He is an active temperance worker, in its political aspect, and may always be depended upon for efficient service in any good cause. He was selected to take the West Greenwich farm census, but he had taken little part in the political life of his town e×cept as a public-spirited citizen and a property owner desirous of good government, local, state and national. In political faith he is an Independent. Mr. Brown married (first) September 24, 1871, Harriet F. Weeden, of Exeter, R. I., who died October 18, 1875, leaving three children: Stephen E., born Sept. 17, 1872, a farmer of South Kingstown, R. I.; Lillie May, born March 13, 1874, married Lewis C. Grinnell, of Exeter, R. I., a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives; Fred Ambrose, born July 8, 1875, married Mildred Brown; now a merchant of Greene, R. I. Mr. Brown married (second) Penelope Bates, who died December 15, 1917, daughter of Pardon T. and Olive (Peck) Bates, and a woman of rare religious e×perience, her life reflecting the virtues of her New England ancestry, and the strength of the religion she professed. She was the mother of two children: Pardon Tillinghast, born March 18, 1880, now a farmer of West Greenwich Center; Clifford A., born Dec. 11, 1881, died March 7, 1900.