View source for Joseph Stanton Jr.

{{Short description|American politician (1739–1821)}}
{{redirect|Senator Stanton}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=January 2013}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name               = Joseph Stanton Jr.
|state1             = [[Rhode Island]]
|district1          = [[Rhode Island's at-large congressional district|at-large]]
|term_start1        = March 4, 1801
|term_end1          = March 3, 1807
|predecessor1       = [[John Brown (Rhode Island politician)|John Brown]]
|successor1         = [[Isaac Wilbour]]
|jr/sr2             = United States Senator
|state2             = [[Rhode Island]]
|term_start2        = June 12, 1790
|term_end2          = March 3, 1793
|predecessor2       = ''(none)''
|successor2         = [[William Bradford (Rhode Island)|William Bradford]] 
|birth_date         = {{birth date|1739|7|19}}
|birth_place        = [[Charlestown, Rhode Island|Charlestown]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island Colony]], [[British America]]
|death_date         = {{death date and age|1821|12|15|1739|7|19}}
|death_place        = [[Lebanon, Connecticut|Lebanon]], [[Connecticut]], U.S.
|party              = [[Anti-Administration Party|Anti-Administration]]<br/>[[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic Republican]]
|allegiance         = 
|branch             = [[Rhode Island Militia]]
|serviceyears       = 1759–1764 <br> 1776–1777 <br> 1779–1790
|rank               = [[Major general (United States)|Major general]]
|battles            = [[French and Indian War]]<br>[[American Revolutionary War]]
}}
'''Joseph Stanton Jr.''' (July 19, 1739{{spaced ndash}}December 15, 1821) was a military officer, a United States senator of the [[Anti-Federalist Party|Anti-Federalist]] faction and a United States Representative of the [[Democratic-Republican]] party.

==Early life==

Stanton was born in [[Charlestown, Rhode Island|Charlestown]] in the [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations]] in 1739.  During the [[French and Indian War]] he served in the expedition against [[Quebec]] 1759.  In June 1762 he was elected captain of the Artillery Company of Westerly, Charlestown and Hopkinton, an independent company of the [[Rhode Island Militia]] which still exists as the [[169th Military Police Company]].  He represented Charlestown in the [[Rhode Island General Assembly]] from 1768 to 1774 and again in 1776.

==Military service==
During the [[American Revolutionary War]], Stanton was commissioned as the lieutenant colonel of the 1st Kings County Regiment of the Rhode Island Militia in July 1776.  He then served as the [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of a regiment of state troops, raised for 15 months service, from December 12, 1776, until his resignation on November 10, 1777.   (The regiment was part of a brigade of two infantry and one artillery regiments which was formed to deter an invasion of the mainland portion of Rhode Island by the British forces occupying [[Newport, Rhode Island|Newport]].) <ref name="Civil">Civil and Military List of Rhode Island, 1647-1800.</ref>{{rp|354}}

In May 1779 he was appointed at the colonel of the 1st Kings County Regiment of the militia and was subsequently appointed a brigadier general in command of the [[Washington County, Rhode Island|Kings County]] Brigade of militia in October of the same year.<ref name="Civil"/>{{rp|378}} In May 1788 he was promoted to major general in command of the entire Rhode Island Militia.<ref name="Civil"/>{{rp|458}} He held this position until his resignation in October 1790.<ref name="Civil"/>{{rp|480}}

==Political career==

He was a delegate to the [[Rhode Island]] Constitutional Convention in 1790, which ratified the [[United States Constitution]] and enabled Rhode Island to be the last of the 13 colonies to join the Union.

He was elected by the [[Rhode Island General Assembly|General Assembly]] to serve as one of the first two [[United States Senate|U.S. Senators]] from Rhode Island, and served from June 12, 1790, to March 3, 1793, as a member of the [[Anti-Administration Party]] (i.e. opposed to President [[George Washington]]).  He was later elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]], where he served from March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1807, as a member of the [[Democratic-Republican Party|Jeffersonian]] [[Democrat-Republican Party]].

Stanton died in [[Lebanon, Connecticut]], in 1821 at the age of 82, and was buried in the Stanton family cemetery in Charlestown.<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/cemetery/cemetery340.html Cemetery Registry]</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=January 8, 1822 |title=Death Notices |url=https://genealogybank.com/ |work=Hartford Times |location=Hartford, CT |page=3 |access-date=November 11, 2017 |url-access=subscription  |via=[[GenealogyBank.com]]}}</ref>

==Legacy==
There is a monument to Senator Stanton on [[US Route 1]] in [[Charlestown, Rhode Island]], in front of [[Joseph Stanton House|his birthplace]], which is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].  The General Stanton Inn, a restaurant in Charlestown, is named after him.

==References==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{CongBio|S000805}}
*Wilkins Updike, ''A History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island'' (Boston,  1907) has brief sketch of Stanton on [https://books.google.com/books?id=FGrGRfuDRxoC&pg=PA525 p. 525]

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{{U.S. Senator box|class=2|state=Rhode Island| before = None| after = [[William Bradford (1729-1808)|William Bradford]] | years =1790&ndash;1793| alongside=[[Theodore Foster]] }}
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{{succession box |  before=[[John Brown (Rhode Island politician)|John Brown]] |  title=Member of the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br>from [[Rhode Island]]'s [[Rhode Island's at-large congressional district|at-large]] district |  years=1801—1807 |  after=[[Isaac Wilbour]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanton, Joseph Jr.}}
[[Category:1739 births]]
[[Category:1821 deaths]]
[[Category:American militia generals]]
[[Category:Rhode Island militiamen in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:United States senators from Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Politicians from Washington County, Rhode Island]]
[[Category:People from colonial Rhode Island]]
[[Category:People of Rhode Island in the French and Indian War]]
[[Category:Continental Army officers from Rhode Island]]
[[Category:Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Rhode Island]]
[[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]
[[Category:18th-century United States senators]]