North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 census. North Kingstown is home to the birthplace of American portraitist Gilbert Stuart, who was born in the village of Saunderstown. Within the town is Quonset Point, location of the former Naval Air Station Quonset Point, known for the invention of the Quonset hut, as well as the historic village of Wickford.
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering 147 square miles (380 km2), 120.5 square miles (312 km2) of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Small parts of the bay extend into Massachusetts.
Aquidneck Island, also known as Rhode Island, is an island in Narragansett Bay in the state of Rhode Island. The total land area is 97.9 km2 (37.8 sq mi), which makes it the largest island in the bay. The 2020 United States Census reported its population as 60,109. The state of Rhode Island is named after the island; the United States Board on Geographic Names recognizes Rhode Island as the name for the island, although it is widely referred to as Aquidneck Island in the state and by the island's residents.
Prudence Island is the third-largest island in Narragansett Bay in the state of Rhode Island and part of the town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, United States. It is located near the geographic center of the bay. It is defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block Group 3, Census Tract 401.03 of Newport County, Rhode Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 278 people living on a land area of 14.43 km2.
Wickford is a small village in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, which is named after Wickford in Essex, England. Wickford is located on the west side of Narragansett Bay, just about a 20-minute drive across two bridges from Newport, Rhode Island. The village is built around one of the most well-protected natural harbors on the eastern seaboard, and features one of the largest collections of 18th century dwellings to be found anywhere in the Northeast. Today the majority of the village's historic homes and buildings remain largely intact upon their original foundations.
The Westport River lies between Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay in Westport, Massachusetts.
Hope Island is a 91-acre (0.368 km²) island located in Narragansett Bay in the State of Rhode Island. It is part of the Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, along with nearby Prudence Island and Patience Island, and home to colonial wading birds during their nesting season of spring and summer.
Patience Island lies off the northwest coast of Prudence Island in the town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. It has a land area of 0.33 sq mi, making it the fourth-largest island in Narragansett Bay. Aside from a single 600-square foot house, which is disconnected from the state electrical grid, Patience Island is otherwise uninhabited.
Fox Island is an island in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, in the United States of America. It lies between Conanicut Island and North Kingstown just south of the village of Wickford, Rhode Island. The island is a part of the town of North Kingstown. The Native Americans called the island "Nanaquonset" The island was purchased from Native Americans by Randall Holden and Samuel Gorton in 1659. In the 1860s a Christian preacher named Captain Jimmie Hammond became the first full-time resident of the island where he lived with his chickens and cat. In 1880, Rev. William Pendleton Chapman, a pastor at the nearby Quidnessett Church, featured the island in his adventure book titled “Budd Boyd’s Triumph: The Boy Firm of Fox Island.” Various other private owners have owned the island since its first habitation. Since 2000 it has been privately owned by a corporation which uses a large wind generator on the east side of the island.
Smith's Castle, built in 1678, is a house museum at 55 Richard Smith Drive, near Wickford, a village in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Smith's Castle is one of the oldest houses in the state. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 as Cocumscussoc Archeological Site due to the artifacts and information that digs have yielded in the area. It is located just off U.S. Route 1 in Rhode Island.
Coasters Harbor Island is a 92-acre (370,000 m2) island in Narragansett Bay, Newport, Rhode Island. The island is home to the Naval War College (NWC), an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy.
Cornelius Island is a small uninhabited island in Wickford Harbor, Narragansett Bay, Wickford, Rhode Island.
Rabbitt Island is a small island in Wickford Harbor, Narragansett Bay, Wickford, Rhode Island. Roger Williams received the island from Chief Canonicus' wife as a gift for a place to raise his goats. Richard Smith, who built Smith's Castle, later owned the island.
Old Narragansett Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 60 Church Lane in Wickford, Rhode Island, believed to be the oldest Episcopal church building in the Northeastern United States.
Washington County, known locally as South County, is a county located in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,839. Rhode Island counties have no governmental functions other than as court administrative boundaries, which are part of the state government.
Richard Smith (1596–1666) was the first European settler in the Narragansett country in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He established a trading post on the western side of the Narragansett Bay at a place called Cocumscussoc which became the village of Wickford in modern-day North Kingstown, Rhode Island.
The Narragansett Runestone, also known as the Quidnessett Rock, is a 2.5 t (2,500 kg) slab of metasandstone located in Rhode Island, United States. It is inscribed with two rows of symbols, which some have indicated resemble ancient runic characters.
Sarah Updike Goddard was an early American printer, as well as a co-founder and publisher of the Providence Gazette and Country Journal, the first newspaper founded in Providence, Rhode Island. She worked closely with her son William and daughter Mary Katherine, who both also became printers and publishers, forming one of the earliest influential publishing dynasties in the American colonies.
The Atherton Trading Company was formed in 1659; with Humphrey Atherton and John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut at the helm. This partnership of merchants and investors included Simon Bradstreet, Daniel Denison, Elisha Hutchinson, Richard Smith and Boston traders; John Tinker, Amos Richardson and William Hudson. Edward Hutchinson joined and by 1661, Plymouth investors included Josiah Winslow, John Brown and Thomas Willet. Their land speculation in the Narragansett area of Rhode Island was at the expense of the Native American inhabitants.
Stonewall John was a seventeenth century Narragansett leader in Rhode Island who was a skilled stone mason and blacksmith often credited with building stone wall fortifications at Queen's Fort in Exeter and Stony Fort, and blockhouses at the Great Swamp Fort.
