Holbrook line: Stephen Paine 1716-1797

 This is the last Stephen Paine in our line, I believe.  At least, he's the last ancestor with that name that I've located as of today.  This Stephen was born on August 17, 1716 in Providence Plantation, Rhode Island, the son of Stephen and Sarah Vallett Paine.  I have seen Sarah referred to as the widow Vallett so it may be that she has a maiden name yet to be discovered, but I have also seen that her parents were Jonathan Vallett and Elizabeth Belcher.  I haven't explored that possibility.  

When Stephen was born, Glocester was it's own community but not officially separated from Providence until 1739.  He was, however, considered a freeman of Glocester in 1738 so the town did have some autonomy prior to the "official" date.  We don't know what the religion of Stephen's birth family was.  Glocester was the center of the "New Light Baptists" and he would surely have been influenced by the beliefs of his neighbors if he wasn't actually one of the group.  At least some of his children were New Light Baptists (among other things, they believed in baptism, preferably by immersion, as adults, rather than the sprinkling done at infant baptisms in more traditional churches).  

Stephen married Sarah Thornton, daughter of Benjamin Thornton and a disputed wife who was possibly a Gurney by birth, on July 15, 1739, and the couple had at least six children together, the last born in 1752.  I've not found an indication of Stephen's occupation so I'm going to say he likely farmed, and may have had another job besides, as many men of the time did.  

That is as much as I know about Stephen until the time of the American Revolution.  We know he was a lieutenant serving under Captain Abraham Winsor (probably the father of his daughter in law) in the train band in 1775.  He was almost 60 years old at the time, so it's more than possible that he also had other military experience, possibly in the French and Indian War.  However, I have not been able to document that at all, so the earlier military experience idea is just speculation at this point.  Also, we don't know whether he served during the Revolution, as again, evidence is lacking.  Glocester was a divided town during the Revolution.  Most residents were patriots, but there were several of the New Light Group who were pacifists.  His son, Nathan, whom I wrote about recently, was one of the pacifists.  Also, at Stephen's age, he probably would have been excused from duty had he requested it, as 60 year old men were not up to the rigors of a military campaign as a general rule.  

Sarah Thornton Paine died in 1772, but Stephen lived until December 29, 1797, which gave him plenty of time to swap war stories and to watch the new country being born.  I have not located his will or inventory, which should tell us much.  Like his wife, he died in Glocester.  

This is not a lot of information to fill in the "dash" of Stephen's life,  There may be more records available than I have located (there almost always are) but at least this is an outline to use when researching the answers to many of the questions we have about Stephen.  

The line of descent is:

Stephen Paine-Sarah Thornton

Nathan Paine-Lillis Winsor

Deborah Paine-Enos Eddy

Joseph Eddy-Susan Lamphire

Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard 

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants