Pardon Tillinghast

Who was Pardon Tillinghast?

Pardon Tillinghast was an early settler of Providence, Rhode Island, a public official there, and a pastor of the Baptist Church of Providence. A cooper by profession, he immigrated to New England about 1645, and became a successful merchant. Later in life he became a clergyman, serving without compensation for nearly four decades. He died in 1718 aged about 96, and was buried in a family cemetery on Benefit Street in Providence that remains extant. Among his thousands of descendants are many of great prominence, including Continental Congress delegate Samuel Ward; Julia Ward Howe who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic; and Stephen Arnold Douglas who was involved in a series of famed debates with Abraham Lincoln in 1858, prior to a Senate race, and later lost to him in the 1860 presidential election.