Draft:William Marchant (Rhode Island judge)

William Marchant (baptized December 18, 1774 – January 21, 1857) was a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from May 1808 to May 1810.

Of Newport.

Marchant graduated from Yale University in 1792, in the same class as Eli Whitney, Roger Minott Sherman, Asa Chapman, and William Botsford.

"WILLIAM MARCHANT, a son of the Hon. Henry Marchant (College of Philadelphia 1762), of Newport, United States Judge of the District Court of Rhode Island, was baptized by Dr. Ezra Stiles on December 18, 1774. His mother was Rebecca Cooke, of Newport.

He joined the Sophomore Class in November, 1789, and though among the younger part of the Class won distinction as a speaker and writer. On taking his second degree, in 1795, he delivered an Oration on Commerce.

He settled in Newport, and was early elected a member of the State Senate. From 1808 to 1810 he was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Rhode Island, and was afterwards Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

In his later years he removed to South Kingston, in his native State, where he died on January 21, 1857, in his 84th year.

He married, on December 25, 1797, in Newport, Sally, daughter of Captain William Shaw, who died at South Kingston, in January, 1803, at the age of 26.

He was afterwards twice married, his third wife being a sister of his second; and had in all fourteen children, of whom only three survived him."