John Crandall

Infobox_Politician
name =John Crandall


birth_date =1612
birth_place =Monmouthshire, England
death_date =November 29, 1676
death_place =Newport, Rhode Island, USA|
spouse = Mary Opp (7 children)
Hannah Gaylord (2 children)

Reverend John Crandall, one of the founding settlers of Westerly, Rhode Island was born about 1612 in Monmouthshire, England to James & Eleanor Crandall. Some biographers put his date of birth closer to February 16, 1617, the date of his christening recorded at Westerleigh, Gloucestershire, England. As such, some historians believe Westerly, Rhode Island was named for the town in England where he was christened, or possibly even born.

The Crandall genealogy by John Cortland Crandall likely errs in providing an undocumented lineage for Elder John. That work stated that he was the son of John and Elizabeth (Drake) Crandall. Elizabeth Drake was a first cousin, once removed, of Sir Francis Drake. However, no collaborating documentation has been located in England of a couple by the name of John and Elizabeth Drake Crandall. Several members of the Crandall Family Association have done research using parish records from Westerleigh which indicates that Elder John was the son of James and Eleanor (---) Crandall. This work cannot be underestimated in its importance in establishing Elder John's parentage. It is hoped that further research on the Crandall heritage will help to further elucidate the story of the Crandalls in England and America.

While the exact date of Crandall's arrival is not known, it is believed to be 1637 when he arrived in Providence, Rhode Island, then a new settlement and a refuge for dissident Puritans from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

From Providence he came to Newport, Rhode Island, as early as 1651 (The first actual documentation for Elder John Crandall in American is in 1643 when he appears as a grand jury member in Newport), and became a prominent member of the Baptist church there, subsequently the first elder of the denomination at Westerly, Rhode Island. With John Clarke and Obadiah Holmes he went to Lynn, Massachusetts, to hold services for the Baptists, was arrested there July 21, 1651, and sent to prison in Boston. Ten days later he was convicted of breaking the law by holding services and fined five pounds, in default of which he was to be publicly whipped. Upon his promise to appear at the next term of court he was released.

In 1655, he was a freeman of Rhode Island; in 1658-59, 1662-63, he was a commissioner.

With eight others he signed a letter to the court of commissioners of Rhode Island, dated August 27, 1661, in relation to a tract of land at Westerly, where they and others desired to settle.

He was a deputy to the general assembly in 1687, and in the fall of that year was living at Westerly. He and Joseph Torrey were appointed commissioners to treat with Connecticut as to jurisdiction over disputed territory, May 14, 1669, and he was supplied with thirty-five shillings by the colony of Rhode Island to pay his expenses to Connecticut.

In November 18, 1669, he received a letter from the governor and assistants of Connecticut, complaining that he and others had appropriated a large tract of land belonging to Stonington, Connecticut. He and Tobias Saunders answered the complaint for the Westerly people. He was conservator of the peace at Westerly in 1670, and deputy to the general assembly again in 1670-71.

He was arrested by the Connecticut authorities, May 2, 1671, and was advised by the Rhode Island government to decline to give bond. The Rhode Island colony promised to pay his expenses and defend him.

His first wife, (thought by some to be Mary Opp (born 1633) died August 1, 1670), and he married (second) Hannah Gaylord (born 1647), probably daughter of William Gaylord and Ann (Porter) , of Windsor, Connecticut. She died in 1678. He died at Newport, where he had moved because of King Philip's War, in 1676. Crandall is the ancestor of a number of prominent Americans, including Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn, Julia Child, Ruth Benedict, Garrison Keillor and Frances Folsom Cleveland, wife of the President.

Note that there is no record of the name of Elder John's wife in any Rhode Island records nor has a record of the marriage ever been found. Based on the approximate dates of birth of their children (with the eldest, John, born ca. 1649 based on the date he appears as a freeman in Westerly) it would appear likely that Elder John married his first wife in the latter part of the 1640s. It also would seem to indicate that he probably married her in America. Since she is referred to as a "Sabbath keeper" in communications from Samuel Hubbard, it is likely that she was of the Seventh Day Baptist faith and perhaps she was a daughter of one of the SDB families in Rhode Island at the time.