William Paine Sheffield, Jr.

Who was William Paine Sheffield, Jr.?

William Paine Sheffield was a United States Representative from Rhode Island. Born in Newport, R.I. on June 1, 1857, he was the son of U.S. Representative William Paine Sheffield, Sr..

He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, MA from 1869 to 1873 and graduated from Brown University in 1877. He studied law at the University of Paris and the law department of Harvard University; was admitted to the bar in 1880 and commenced practice in Newport, R.I.

He was a commissioner to extend citizenship to the Narragansett Tribe of Indians in 1880.

Sheffield was commissioned a colonel in the Rhode Island Militia on the military staff of Governor George Peabody Wetmore in 1895. He was member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1885-1887, 1889, 1890, 1894-1896, and 1899-1901. He served as a member of the commission to revise the State constitution in 1897.

Sheffield was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-first Congress and served from March 4, 1909 to March 3, 1911. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910 and in 1912.

He served as a member of the Republican National Committee in 1913 as well as a member of the committee to revise the State constitution in 1918.