The Gaspee Raiders
The evidence for Joseph Brown being in the attacking party with his brother
John Brown comes partly from the statement of Aaron Briggs and partly from the
statement of Sam Ramsdale, both of whose statements did include the names of others that we
do know were in the raiding party. Briggs gave a list of five men's names, that were concerned in destroying his Majesty's
schooner Gaspee:
John Brown and Joseph Brown, principal men of the town of Providence; Simeon Potter of Bristol; Doctor Weeks, of Warwick; Richmond, of Providence. [Staples, p. 31]
Generally, the items recited by Aaron Briggs gives credence to his report. He reported things that only someone present would have known. Yet we know he was trying desperately to please his English captors, and may have inaccurate in some particulars in his haste to tell "all" he knew. For example, he described the person taking care of the wounds of Lt. Dudingston as being a tall thin doctor called Weeks. There was a Doctor Weeks in Providence but no one has suggested that he was in the raiding party . We know that the tall thin doctor who took care of Lt. Dudingston was Dr. Mawney. We know from the accounts of the persons in the cabin where the wounds of Lt. Dudingston were cared for that Briggs was not there in the cabin. We know that in boat that left the Gaspee carrying Lt. Dudingston, were also Briggs and Mawney in that same boat. Aaron may have known, from what Briggs saw or heard in the boat taking Dudingston ashore, that the tall thin man was a doctor; and the name Briggs supplied the English for that person may simply have been the name of a person Briggs had thought was the only doctor in Providence.
Briggs may have added Joseph Brown to the list of raiders he "saw" in a like manner, that is, he merely assumed from something observed that night that one of the persons was someone whose name Aaron had heard of before.
On the other hand, Briggs was not the only person naming both John and Joseph Brown. Saul Ramsdale claimed to have heard the preparations for the Gaspee attack and told his friend William Thayer, a Providence shoemaker recently moved from Mendon, Massachusetts, what he had heard. (Because of the concerted efforts of the Rhode Island patriots, neither Ramsdale or Thayer was able to testify before the Royal Commission.) Ramsdale identified the "heads of the gang" as "John and Joseph Brown, and someone named Potter." We know that John Brown was in the raiding party. We knoe that Simeon Potter was in the raiding party, and must have know about it many hours before the attack force left the docks at Providence. ( Simeon Potter was rowing up to the attack that night all the way from Bristol, and knew that other longboats would be coming from Providence.)
Joseph Brown was the most active politically, of the four Brown brothers. He served in the legislature and was active in its politics.
Hon. Joseph Brown: b. 3Dec1733; d. 3Dec1785; m. 30Sept1759 Elizabeth (Power) Brown.
The Hon. Joseph Brown was buried in the Old North Burial Ground in Providence as were many other Gaspee raiders.
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