Welcome Arnold

Welcome Arnold (March 24, 1745 – September 29, 1798) was a colonial American politician and merchant.

Early life Arnold was born on March 24, 1745. He was one of twelve children born to Jonathan Arnold (1709–1796) and Abigail ( Smith) Arnold (1714–1801). His sister, Elizabeth Arnold, married Samuel Arnold (son of Joseph Arnold), and another sister, Abigail Arnold, married Nathaniel Greene (son of Caleb Greene).

His maternal grandparents were Benjamin Smith and Mercy ( Angell) Smith. His paternal grandparents were Arnold and Sarah ( Parrish) Arnold. He was a descendant of William Arnold, one of the founding settlers of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Career In 1772 he was elected a Deputy to the Rhode Island Assembly from Smithfield, at which time he was also appointed a justice of the peace. In 1778 he was again elected as a Representative to the Assembly from Providence and was reelected up until his death in 1798.

Arnold, a member of the Sons of Liberty, was reportedly involved in the planning of the 1772 burning of the HMS Gaspee in Narragansett Bay, which later became known as the Gaspee affair. Occurring three years before the Boston Tea Party, it is considered the first act of civil disobedience against the Crown.

A prominent merchant in the New England-Caribbean trade, Arnold was "also a leader in the fight to end Rhode Island's involvement in the African slave trade." The marriage was said to have "consolidated landed and mercantile power in colonial Rhode Island". Together, they were the parents of fourteen children, only four of whom lived to maturity, including:

Mary "Polly" Arnold (1774–1851), who married U.S. Representative Tristam Burges in 1801. Samuel Greene Arnold (1778–1826), who married Frances Rogers, a daughter of Lt. John Rogers, in 1813.

In 1785, Arnold built a two and a half story Federal style home at the corner of South Main and Planet Street in Providence. He died in 1798 and was buried in the North Burial Ground.