vital records sources
go to Elizabeth Sweet's page

Benjamin was approved to become a freeman on "the 3rd Tuesday of February" 1723,1 having turned 21 the previous October. This date was 15 February 1723, but on the Julian calendar used at the time. Our current calendar is Gregorian, on which this date would be 26 February 1724. By May 1735 he was an ensign in the 3rd North Kingstown militia company.2 In June of the following year he was still serving but was replaced in October, having "refused."
     He proposed an "exchange" that involved using a road by his house rather than one nearby that was too steep for safe passage (did they eliminate the other road?). At a town meeting on 26 August 1746 a committee was appointed. Benjamin and the committee did a site visit and a report was made at another meeting on the 29th.3 The impassable road may have been a public road, the other private. This proposal had the proviso that he be allowed to hang gates at his corner house and at the plain where the road curves south. This may describe Shermantown Road, to the west of where his wife and parents-in-law lived.
     Benjamin, probably his wife Elizabeth and their surviving children and their spouses moved to Cornwallis Township in Nova Scotia. Daughter Frances

Benjamin's will, based on a transcription. I've left out some standard wording:

In the name of God Amen, the twenty fourth day of September one thousand seven hundred and seventy seven, Benjamin Condon of Cornwallis in the County of Kings County in the Province of Nova Scotia, yeoman, being of perfect mind and memory...

Imprimis, I will that all my just debts and funeral charges be well nd truely paid at some convenient time after my decease by my sons JOseph and James out of what I herefter give them, each to pay one half thereof

Item, I give and bequeath to my son Joseph Condon and to his heirs and assigns forever all my out doors moveable estate of what name or nature soever with one half of all my undevided lands after my grandson Benjamin Condon, my son Joseph's son, has had two hundred acres of the said undevided lands laid out to him

Item, I give to my son James Condon all my home farm where I now live and to his heirs and assigns forever and one half of my indevided upland after my grandson Benjamin Condon's two hundred acres is laid out, also my Spanish Indian man servant and if he the said servant shall become incapable of labour by age, sickness or otherwise, my will is that he be comfrtably provided for out of the income or profits of my said home farm during the whole time he shall be incapacitated as aforesaid

Item, I give to the heirs of my diseased son Benjamin Condon and to their heirs and assigns for ever five shillings only because I have given to my said diseased son in his life time

Item, I give unto my son on law John Sweet and to his heirs and assigns for ever the whole of what is called my two hundred acre division of upland and my silver shoe buckles that I now wear. I give to my grand son John Sweet and that for ever

Item, I give to my grandson Benjamin Condon and to his heirs and assigns for ever that is to say my grand son Benjamin Condon my son Joseph's son two hundred acres of my now undivided upland with my six acre dyke lot laying in the Bowing Dyke with four acres of flat grass or bad dyke being within the same dyke

Item, I give to my daughter Margaret, the wife of John Sweet, and to my daughter Frances, the wife of John Steadman and their heirs and assigns for ever all my indoor moveables of what name or nature soever (except three feather beds and one fine rug) to be equally divided between them

Item, I give to my grand daughter Elizabeth Steadman one feather bed and one flower'd rug and to her heirs and assigns forever

And lastly I do likewise constitute and appoint, make and ordain my said son Joseph my sole executor of this my last will and testament...

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written

Benjamin Condon

The witnesses were Asa Beckwith and William Marchant. The will was proved on 14 May 1778.

children of Benjamin Congdon and Elizabeth Sweet (the North Kingstown records were damaged by a fire in 1869):4

James
Elizabeth b. 28 May 172- (record damaged, year unknown but abt. 1726)
Margaret b. 6 November 172- (record damaged, year unknown but abt. 1728)
Benjamin b. 28 November 173- (record damaged, year unknown but prob. 1730, since he was likely the Benjamin who married Sarah Chase in 1748)
son, prob. Joseph b. 11 April 173- (record damaged, year unknown but abt. 1732)
child b. 17 July ----
child b. 3 October ----
Frances b. abt 1737/38
daughter b. prob. abt. 1741, d. December 1741
son b. prob. abt. 1743/44, d. 3 February 1743(/44?)
son b. prob. abt. 1746, d. 17 April 1746

vital records sources: Benjamin's marriage is in James Arnold's Vital Records of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, vol. 5 (Providence:1894), 16, performed by Elisha Cole, "assistant," indicating this was a civil ceremony. His birth date has been claimed, but it wasn't found in the published RI vital records by Arnold. The earliest appearance of the date may be a printed sheet of genealogy, undated (but thought to have been printed about 1870) and by an unnamed author, that was re-printed in Boston in 1918 by Frank J. Wilder as Congdon Family of Rhode Island. This is a compilation including information from the will of Benjamin (1) and vital record dates that may have been taken from the North Kingstown records before they were damaged by a fire in 1869. Others were likely taken from a family Bible, given the personal detail (for instance, the time of death of one family member). This document follows only one line of descent, including siblings, from Benjamin (1), through Benjamin (2), John (3), John (4), Thomas Rose Congdon (5) and ending with his children, further indicating private records were at least partially used.

1. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, vol. 4 (Providence:1859), p. 338.
2. Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1647-1800 (Providence:1900), p. 71-74.
3. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, vol. 5 (Providence:1860), p. 295.
4. James Arnold, Vital Records of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, vol. 5 (Providence:1894), 66.