Adult Guardianship and Local Politics in Rhode Island, 1750–1800

Ruth Wallis Herndon () and Amílcar E. Challú ()
Additional contact information
Ruth Wallis Herndon: Bowling Green State University
Amílcar E. Challú: Bowling Green State University

Chapter Chapter 9 in Standard of Living, 2022, pp 185-209 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This essay asks two main questions. (1) How did Rhode Island town leaders use adult guardianship during the turmoil of the Revolutionary Era? (2) What factors explain each town’s use of adult guardianships? Every town elected six councilmen each year to take care of local problems; these leaders had authority to enact discretionary guardianships to restrain and protect propertied adults whose behavior had caused complaint. Our analysis of data from 14 Rhode Island towns shows that town councilmen overall increased their use of adult guardianships significantly between 1750 and 1800. Guardianships declined during the height of warfare (1775–1781) but increased significantly after the war. Hopkinton showed the greatest use of this legal process and Providence the lowest. We found no significant correlation between a town’s use of adult guardianship and that same town’s population, wealth, or geographic region. The common factor appears to be the stress and disorder of the era. We investigated Hopkinton more closely and found that the town councilmen in this newest Rhode Island town put adults under guardianship in heavy-handed ways, especially in the 1780s and 1790s, often bypassing less intrusive and punitive solutions. The Hopkinton councilmen, we conclude, went to an extreme in using adult guardianship, but their actions were part of a widespread effort by Rhode Island town leaders to restore order in their communities after the Revolutionary War.

Keywords: Adult guardianship; Probate; Town councils; Freeholders; Rhode Island (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:stechp:978-3-031-06477-7_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031064777

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-06477-7_9

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Studies in Economic History from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().