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Continental Congresses

John Gardner (1747–1808)

Rhode Island delegate to the Continental Congress (1789), John Gardner was a plantation owner and Rhode Island politician. Some sources, including the “Biographical Directory of the United States Congress,” lists the spelling of his name as “Gardner” [1], while other sources list his name as “Gardiner.” The Rhode Island Historical Society, the holder of the papers of this man as well as his family, has them cataloged as “The Gardiner Family Papers.” [2] Newspapers of the period list him as “Gardiner.”

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He was born in South Kingstown, near Narragansett, Rhode Island. According to the Daughters of the American Revolution (as a “founding father,” Gardner is included in their rolls of honor), his parents were John Gardiner, whose name included “of Boston Neck,” and his second wife, Mary (née Taylor) Gardiner. John and Mary had seven children together—four girls and three boys. The name of Gardner’s father, John Gardiner “of Boston Neck” did come up in family histories of the Gardiner family. Thus, from this we can trace the family back to a Lion Gardiner. John Lyon Gardiner, the family genealogist, wrote in 1927 (the original word spellings are retained), “In [the] handwriting in his family Bible … is the following: ‘In the year of our Lord—1635—July the 10—Came I Lion Gardner and Mary my wife from Woerden a towne in Hilland where my wife was borne, being the daughter [of] one Derike Wilamson Derocant … wee came from Woerden to London and from thence to New England and dwelt at Saybrook forte foure years of which i was Commander and theire was born to me a son named David in 1635 April the 29 the first born in that place …” [3] Apparently, nothing else is known about Mary Taylor Gardiner, except that she was the stepmother to the seven additional children that John Gardiner seems to have had with his first wife, who died in 1739. [4]

He “engaged in agricultural pursuits in Narragansett, R.I.” [5] During this time, according to the state of Rhode Island archives, his father, also known as “Captain John Gardiner,” served in the French and Indian War, as well as deputy governor of the Rhode Island colony from September 1756 to 1763, during which he served on the colony’s Committee of War in 1756, 1757, 1759, and 1760; he further served as a member of the Colonial Councils of War during these same years, in addition to 1761 and 1762. [6]

Gardner volunteered for service once war broke out between England and her colonies in April 1775. His ancestor, Walter MacDougall Livingston, who was descended from Gardner’s sister Sarah, when filling out an application to join the Sons of the American Revolution in 1929, wrote of his ancestor’s service during the war: He stated that Gardner “[s]served as [a] Captain of the South Kingston Reds and Rhode Island Artillery [between] October 1775 and May 1776.” He continued that “the information herein contained was obtained from the copy of my mother’s application to the Society of the American Revolution, of which society she became a member on October 5, 1908.” [7] Gardner’s military service, or, at least, the record of it, ends in 1776.

The owner of a plantation in Rhode Island, Gardner entered the political arena in 1786, when he was elected as a representative to the Rhode Island General Assembly, as a member of the Paper Money Party. He served until the following year. In 1787, The Newport Herald of Rhode Island reported on an election held in that city that same day, in which deputies from cities across the state were elected as “Deputies from the several towns”; on the list as representing “South-Kingston” were Captain Samuel J. Potter and Col. John Gardiner. [8]

On 12 May 1788, Gardner was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress, “for One Year from the First Day of November next, and until another shall be appointed to take your Place.” According to historian Edmund Cody Burnett, Gardner attended only a single session of the Continental Congress—on 12 February 1789, just three weeks before the body went out of existence, superseded by the new bicameral national legislature, composed of a US House of Representatives and a US Senate. [9] The Providence Gazette reported on the election, “Delegates [elected] to represent the State in Congress. The Honourable Peleg Arnold, Esq; 1st. Jonathan J. Hazard, Esq; 2d. Thomas Holden, Esq; 3d. John Gardner, Esq; 4th.” Once again, the name of this man is spelled differently than it had previously been done. Perhaps this explains why the US Congress lists his name as “Gardner.” [10]

After he left the Continental Congress, Gardner is listed in the 1790 US census, the first ever done in the United States by the federal government of all of the states, as “Coll. [sic] John Gardner.” In 1791, he served as a justice of the peace for South Kingstown.

John Gardner died in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, on 18 October 1808. The Providence Gazette merely stated that “[a]t South-Kingstown, on the 25th ult. Col. John Gardiner, in the 62d year of his age.” [11] He was buried in the Platform Cemetery, located in North Kingstown, in Washington County, Rhode Island, under the name “John Gardiner.”

[1] [1] See Gardiner/Gardner’s official congressional biography, online at http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000056.

[2] [2] See the official inventory for The Gardiner Family Papers, courtesy of The Rhode Island Historical Society, online at http://www.rihs.org/mssinv/Mss629-8.htm.

[3] [3] Gardiner, John Lyon, “Gardiners of Gardiner’s Island” (New York: Jonathan T. Gardiner, 1927), 3.

[4] [4] Information on Gardiner family tree online, at http://www.geni.com/people/Col-John-Gardiner/6000000021637804901.

[5] [5] Refer to Gardiner/Gardner’s official congressional biography, op. cit.

[6] [6] The elder Gardiner’s military service can be found in Howard Chapin, “Rhode Island in the Colonial Wars” (Providence, RI: Published for the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1920). Additional information on him, as well as the family, can be found in William Edward Gardner, “The Triumphant Captain John and Gardners and Gardiners” (Nantucket Island, MA: Whaling Museum Publications, 1958).

[7] [7] Application of Walter MacDougall Livingston, 15 May 1929, “Sons of the American Revolution, Membership Applications, 1889-1970,” courtesy of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Louisville, Kentucky, Vol. 246, National Membership Number 49071, State [New Jersey] Number 2498.

[8] [8] “Newport, May 3,” The Newport Herald [Rhode Island], 3 May 1787, 3.

[9] [9] Edmund Cody Burnett, ed., “Letters of Members of the Continental Congress” (Washington, DC: Published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington; eight volumes, 1921-36), VIII:xcv.

[10] [10] “Providence, May 10,” The Providence Gazette and Country Journal [Rhode Island], 10 May 1788, 3.

[11] [11] “Died,” The Providence Gazette [Rhode Island], 12 November 1808, 3. For an additional obituary, albeit small, see New-England Palladium [Boston, Massachusetts], 22 November 1808, 4.

Citation Types

MLA 9th
"John Gardner (1747–1808)." Continental Congresses, edited by Mark Grossman, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0146.
APA 7th
John Gardner (1747–1808). Continental Congresses, In M. Grossman (Ed.), Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0146.
CMOS 17th
"John Gardner (1747–1808)." Continental Congresses, Edited by Mark Grossman. Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Cong_0146.