Descendants of Captain Arthur Fenner

Daniel Fenner

 

[b 7–18 Jan. 1745; d 6 July 1780] Daniel Fenner Jr. m Martha Bessel of Newport, RI, on 4 Nov. 1764 at Cranston. Daniel served in the Revolutionary War in Capt. Thomas Hughes’ Company of the 1st RI Regiment under Israel Angell. Records show Daniel was sick when Washington crossed the Delaware to attack the Hessians (25 Dec. 1776) and was present at Valley Forge (Dec. 1777–June 1778). He was wounded in a battle at Springfield, NJ, on 23 June 1780, taken as a POW, and died soon after. Cranston undertook to get a pension for the widow. The census of 1790 names Martha as the head of the family in Providence, with one son over 16, one son under 16, and one daughter.

  1. Sally Anne [b 1765 in Cranston] m — Murphy; applied for her father’s pension in 1820.

  2. Darius [b ca. 1766 in Cranston] m Elizabeth Chaffee on 11 Jan. 1790 at Providence, RI.

  3. Dinah, apprenticed in 1780. She m James Devol on 25 June 1786 at Providence. James volunteered in the War of 1812.

  4. Charles [b ca. 1770 in Cranston] m Penila Westcott, daughter of Antonio Westcott, on 13 Sept. 1795.

  5. Thomas [b 1771 in Cranston; d Sept. 8, 1852] m Rosanna McDonald.

  6. Samuel Fenner [b 1777], probably m Tabitha Abbott on 7 Nov. 1813 in Cranston.

Lineage:
Arthur | Thomas | Thomas | Daniel | Daniel

Sources:
1. Martha Benns, Notes on the Fenner Family of R.I. (1941), p. 28. Martha shows Thomas, Darius, and Charles, but omits Dinah and adds Sally Ann (m — Murray), Daniel, and E(?).
2. Some Revolutionary War data provided by Ron Barnes in an email to Chris Fenner, 21 Sept. 2009, based on data from the RI State Archives.
3. Some data on the children from Richard Arthur Fenner, 20 Jan. 2016. 
4. Daniel M. Popek, They “...fought bravely, but were unfortunate” : The True story of Rhode Island’s “Black regiment” and the Failure of Segregation in Rhode Island’s Continental Line, 1777–1783 (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2016), p. 1944.