The Gaspee Raiders
John Mawney wrote the second most comprehensive written eye-witness account, from
the Americans, of the Gaspee Affair.
His full statement and some
notes on it are on a separate page at the
second division of this Joseph Bucklin Society website.
Dr. John Mawney of the Gaspee affair had a noted father, also named John Mawney, who was born East Greenwich 11 Aug 1718, and died Providence 1754 (three years after the birth of his son John), leaving a sizable estate.
Apparently when the senior Dr. John Mawney died in 1754, fellow Providence Physician Dr. Ephraim Bowen was the executor of the estate and claimed to have loaned it 700 English pounds "for preserving the estate and family". The widow Mawney did not repay Dr. Ephraim Bowen, so Bowen sued the family. The jury found he had indeed loaned at least 274 English pounds to the estate but that Bowen could not recover it since: before he died Mawney had made a gift of all his personal property to his family, and land could not be charged for personal debts without a formal mortgage. Record Book # 2, Providence County Superior Court, 1769 to 1790, at p 128-129
This elder John Mawney married a Gibbs in 1745. From 1746 until he died in 1754, he was the Sheriff of Providence. His wealth was initially inherited, but he financed mercantile ventures to his profit.
Dr. John Mawney of the Gaspee raid grew up in wealth, enjoyed the estate left by his father, studied medicine, but did not exert himself in the practice of medicine.
Dr. John Mawney, b. 1751, would have been about 21 years old at the time of the Gaspee Affair.
John married (1) 2 Dec 1775 Nancy Wilson, daughter of a Dr. Wilson; and (2) Elizabeth P. Clarke, b. 1765.
Mawney in later life was know for other affairs than the Gaspee Affair. In addition to numerous attainments, he had in later years a "bold and unblushing irreverence and infidelity" [Bartlett 1861, p 20].
Dr. John's obituary appeared on 2 Mar 1830 in the Providence Phoenix. He was a Colonel in the Rhode Island militia during the Revolutionary War. He is buried in the North Burial Ground in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Mawney family line in America started with Huguenots, French Protestants who left Europe in increasing numbers following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The Huguenots purchased a tract of land purportedly held by Massachusetts . In general, the tract was bordered by the South County Trail, Frenchtown Road, and the present bounds of the towns of North Kingston and West Greenwich (East Greenwich Preservation Society Newsletter, p.16). Specifically, Frenchtown was thought to center around the “Old French Orchard” on the farm of Peter Mawney, or “Money” (anglicized versions of LeMoine), which was located near a spring. A historic Huguenot cemetery exists on the Rhode Island National Guard's Camp Fogarty, associated with four generations of the Mawney family. Listed as East Greenwich Historical Cemetery No. 60, the grave dates range from 1787 to 1900. Those buried at the cemetery appear to be descendents of Pardon Mawney (b. 1749, d. 1831) and Dr. John Mawney (b. 1751, d. 1830) (MacGunnigle 1991; McPartland 1960). Dr. John Mawney was the grandson of Colonel Peter Mawney (b.1689, d. 1754), to whom the original “Old French Orchard” was deeded (Potter map 1879).
Generally for facts on the Mawney family, see A Mawney Line of Descent, by Stanley w. Arnold, Jr., Rhode Island Genealogical Register, Vol 11 ( 1988) at 202 et seq.
And see the great short biography on Dr. Mawney in the list on the Gaspee.org page . It was written present day physician John Concannon of Pawtuxet, RI.
Mawney connections among raiders include:
Dr. John Mawney lived west across the street from Richard Olney, father of Simeon Olney.
Mawney lived directly south of Dr. Jabez Bowan
Mawney lived directly cornerwise across the street from S. Kilton and J. Kilton.
Mawney lived five houses north (across the street) from Ambrose Page.
References
in brackets [ ] or in curly brackets { } on any page in this
website are to books, or other materials,