Joseph Stanton, Jr.

Joseph Stanton, Jr. (July 19, 1739 – 1807) was an American politician of the Anti-Federalist faction.

Stanton was born in Charlestown, Rhode Island in 1739. He served in the state legislature from 1768 to 1774.

During the American Revolutionary War, he was a colonel in the Rhode Island State Regiment (aka. Stanton's Regiment) from December 12, 1776 until his resignation on November 10, 1777. After the war, he served as a general in the Rhode Island Militia.

He was a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention in 1790, which ratified the United States Constitution and enabled Rhode Island to be the last of the 13 colonies to join the Union.

He was elected by the Rhode Island General Assembly to serve as a U.S. Senator and served from June 7, 1790 to March 3, 1793. He was later elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he served from March 4, 1801 to March 4, 1807.

Stanton died later in 1807 in his home town of Charlestown.

There is a monument to Stanton on US Route 1 in Charlestown, Rhode Island.

References

• Joseph Stanton, Jr. at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Wilkins Updike, A History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island (Boston, 1907) has brief sketch of Stanton on p. 525

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