Draft:John Banister (merchant)

John Banister (June 7, 1707 – October/November 1767) was a Colonial Rhode Island merchant who was elected chief justice of the Colonial Rhode Island Supreme Court in October 1763, though no record indicates that he ever actually served in that office.

John Banister of Newport: The Life and Accounts of a Colonial Merchant

JOHN BANISTER (Thomas, Thomas1), of Newport and of Middletown, R. I., merchant, the testator of 1767, an abstract of whose will is given above, was born in Boston, Mass., 7 June 1707, and died between 17 Oct. and 16 Nov. 1767. He married in Trinity Church, Newport, 14 Nov. 1737, HERMIONE PELHAM, who was born 3 Dec. 1718 and died before her husband, daughter of Edward, Jr., and Arabella (Williams) § of Newport.]| John Banister was chosen a warden of Trinity Church, Newport, on Easter Monday, 7 Apr. 1740 (Mason's Annals of Trinity Church, p. 71).

"John Banister was a type of the enterprising and adventuresome men who flourished in Newport in a period which Richman in his history of Rhode Island has called The Golden Age of Newport. His two sons draw attention to themselves by the difference in their attitude and conduct in a critical period in the history of the Colony of Rhode Island".