Robert Hazard

Who was Robert Hazard?

Robert Hazard was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

The son of Stephen Hazard of South Kingstown in the Rhode Island colony, his grandfather was Robert Hazard of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and his great grandfather was Thomas Hazard who settled in Portsmouth by way of Boston.

Robert Hazard became a freeman of South Kingstown in 1722. In 1734 he became a Deputy in Rhode Island's General Assembly, which position he held through 1749. In 1750 he was elected Deputy Governor of the colony, serving for less than a full one-year term, from May 1750 until his death in 1751.

Hazard lived at Point Judith, at the southern extreme of South Kingstown, on land that he inherited from his father. He married Esther, the daughter of Joseph and Esther Stanton. The couple had nine children, the oldest of whom, Joseph, married Hannah Nichols, the daughter of Deputy Governor Jonathan Nichols. Hazard was a first cousin of George Hazard who was an earlier deputy governor of the colony.