GENERATION 10

GENERATION 9

Biography

GEORGE LANPHEAR was born about 1638, in England, perhaps in or near the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where two of his siblings were baptized. He died at Westerly, Washington, RI, Oct. 6, 1731. He may have been the GEORGE LANPHEAR who married at St. Bololph, Bishopsgate, London, on Aug. 3, 1659.

Early Westerly records are sparse. GEORGE was evidently there in 1699, for a deed dated Jul. 25, 1721 whereby he sold land to his son John refers to his having purchased land in 1669 from John Clark, physician. The deed, recorded Aug. 14, 1721, describes the land as 46 acres.

This was a time when the inhabitants of Westerly were questioning the authority of Rhode Island, rather than Connecticut, over the town. GEORGE was a member of the Seventh-Day Baptist Church, founded at Newport in 1671.

On Mar. 23, 1723/24, for an unrecorded sum, GEORGE sold to his son SHADRACH, of Stonington, laborer, 50 acres bounded in part by son John's land. Also, about this time, son Seth acquired much of his father's land in Westerly. This did not sit well with some of Seth's brothers and sisters.

A defining event for the family occurred on Oct. 31, 1726, when three of the brothers petitioned the Rhode Island General Assembly to investigate their father's conveyence of that land to their brother. The three brothers wanted a deed they considered fraudulent to be voided. The Assembly ordered that management and care of their father and his real and personal estate be administered by the Westerly Town Council. The fraudulent deed had never been recorded. At a special meeting of the town council on April 25, 1727, seven of the nine children of GEORGE LANPHEAR (or their husbands) signed an agreement that divided their father's land among them. All of the children signed by mark except Covey and Pendleton. Seth was listed as "no return" and John did not sign.