by Bruce C. Macgunnigle (Author)
In 1746 an act was passed by the General Assembly of Rhode Island requiring that all freemen take an oath against bribery and corruption. When the act was complied with in the following year, it effectively created a census of freemen. In all, 1,867 persons took the oath in 1747, but unfortunately their names, along with the lists of names for the next eight years, were not included in John Bartlett's ten-volume "Colonial Records of Rhode Island." The omission of these nine years constitutes a substantial loss in the published records of freemen, the additional lists by Sidney S. Rider notwithstanding. This present work, however, makes good the loss, and although it appears a modest undertaking it contains an alphabetical list of 4,199 Rhode Island freemen for the years 1747-1755, giving the town of residence and the date the individual was created a freeman.