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Joseph Jenckes (1656 – 15 June 1740) was a deputy governor and governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Early life
Jenckes was the son of Joseph and Esther (Ballard) Jenckes who lived in Lynn, Massachusetts before coming to Rhode Island. His father, the son of an earlier Joseph Jenckes, first appeared in Rhode Island in 1669 when granted land on the Pawtuxet River in Warwick, but shortly thereafter settled in Providence. The subject Joseph Jenckes was the oldest of nine children, several of whom eventually held positions of influence in the Rhode Island colony.

Jenckes became a freeman in Providence in 1681, and ten years later began an extensive career of civil service to the colony. For 12 years from 1691 to 1708 he was a Deputy from Providence, and for four of those years he was the Speaker of the House of Deputies. From 1707 to 1712 he was assigned as Major, the colony's highest military rank, for the towns of Providence and Warwick, and was also the Assistant from Providence during those years as well. In 1715 he was elected as the Deputy Governor of the colony, and held this position every year but one until 1727 when he was elected as Governor, which position he held for five consecutive one-year terms. Because the center of government in the colony was in Newport, upon his election to governor, the General Assembly appropriated £100 to move him and his family from Pawtucket to Newport.

Governorship
One of Jenckes's first acts as the governor was to recognize the new English king, George II, by sending him a letter of congratulations. In the letter was also a request for 60 canons for the fort at Newport. Some of the legislation he oversaw included having the town clerks register vital records for the colony, encouraging the production and manufacturing of hemp, and establishing a ferry between Jamestown and Newport. Also, a commission was chosen to revise and print the laws of the colony, and an act was passed to free mulatto and negro slaves, provided the owner gave a bond of £100 to insure against illness or poverty.

In 1729 there were two acts concerning the division of the colony. The first of these divided the colony into three counties: Newport County (consisting of Newport, Portsmouth, Jamestown, and New Shoreham), Providence County (Providence, Warwick, and Greenwich), and Kings County (North Kingstown, South Kingstown, and Westerly). Also, Jenckes appointed a committee to divide the part of Providence north of Warwick into the towns of Smithfield, Scituate, and Glocester, along with a smaller town of Providence.

One of the major issues concerning Rhode Island during Jenckes' terms of leadership was the boundary-line controversy with the neighboring Colony of Connecticut, and in 1721, between his two terms as Deputy Governor, Jenckes was in England with Richard Partridge to obtain royal intervention in this dispute. Connecticut refused to observe the boundary between the two colonies that had been established by commissioners from both colonies who met at Stonington, Connecticut in 1703. The Rhode Island colony was also having boundary line issues with Massachusetts, and Jenckes and his partner were able to get satisfaction from the crown, so that the Rhode Island colony "may not hereafter be molested, as they have hitherto been to their very great prejudice." Several years later, in 1726, Jenckes was one of four commissioners from Rhode Island who met with Connecticut commissioners to settle the line of partition between the two colonies. The following year he wrote a letter on behalf of the General Assembly to the king, thanking him for his protection of Rhode Island's "charter privileges".

The most important issue during Jenckes's tenure concerned bills of credit being used to fund the colony. An act passed by the General Assembly on 14 June 1731 issued public bills of credit amounting to £60,000. Jenckes allowed the bill to pass, but then dissented after it was passed; nevertheless, his dissent was considered null and void by the assembly. In essence, what Jenckes was doing, with great hesitation, was following the orders from the King, which prohibited the American colonies from issuing any more paper money. While land holders wanted the paper credits, merchants protested any additional credits. A group of merchants signed a memorial of protest even before the General Assembly met, but this instrument was largely ignored by the assembly.

Death and burial
Jenckes died in 1740, "deemed to die intestate by reason of his insanity of mind," and his son Nathaniel was appointed as administrator. Rhode Island genealogist John Osborne Austin wrote that Jenckes is buried in the North Burial Ground in Providence, but this is incorrect. The family cemetery in Pawtucket where he was buried is now defunct, with no trace of its existence remaining. It is likely, however, that Jenckes's tombstone was moved to the North Burial Ground for a while, and that is why Austin and other authors gave this cemetery as his resting place. In 1925 some of the other grave markers from the defunct family cemetery were discovered and photographed. Apparently, all of the grave markers are now in the keeping of the Rhode Island Historical Society. While a few parts of the inscription from Jenckes's marker are illegible, Bicknell published part of the inscription in the early 20th century, allowing the missing words to be filled in. It reads: In Memory of ye Hon. Joseph Jencks Esqr. late Governour of ye Colony of Rhode Island, Deceased ye 15th Day of June A.D. 1740 in ye 84th Year of his Age. He was much Honord & Beloved in life & la- mented in Death; He was a bright Example of Vertue in every stage of Life; He was a Zealous Christian, [a true] & Prudent Gover- nour, a kind Husband; a Tender Father; a good Neighbour & a [faith]full Friend; Grave, Sober, Pleasant in [be]havior; Beau- tifull in Person with a Soul truly [Great], [H]eroic & sweetly Tempered

Family
Jenckes' first wife was Martha, the daughter of John and Mary (Holmes) Brown, and granddaughter of two early Rhode Island Baptist ministers, Chad Brown and Obadiah Holmes. Joseph and Martha Jenckes had nine children together, and at least 68 grandchildren. Following Martha's death, Jenckes married in 1727 Alice Dexter, the widow of John Dexter who was the son of Gregory Dexter, an early President of Providence and Warwick. Alice was the daughter of John and Sarah (Whipple) Smith, and granddaughter of early Providence settler John Whipple.

Ancestry
The English ancestry of Joseph Jenckes was published by Meredith B. Colket, Jr. in the New England Historic Genealogical Register in 1956. Details concerning the parentage of Jenckes' mother, Esther Ballard, were published in Anderson's Great Migration series in 1999.

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 * Includes the spurious pedigree derived from the fraudulent research of Horatio G. Somerby.





























Online sources