Colonial period artist Newport was founded in 1639 on
Rhode Island, which is now called Aquidneck Island. Its eight founders and first officers were
Nicholas Easton,
William Coddington,
John Clarke,
John Coggeshall,
William Brenton,
Jeremy Clark,
Thomas Hazard, and
Henry Bull. Many of these people were part of the settlement at
Portsmouth, along with
Anne Hutchinson and her followers. They separated within a year of settling Portsmouth and began the settlement of Newport on the southern side of the island. Newport grew to be the largest of the four original settlements that became the
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, including
Providence Plantations and
Shawomett. Many of the first colonists in Newport became
Baptists, and the second Baptist congregation in Rhode Island was formed in 1640 under the leadership of John Clarke. In 1658, a group of Jews was welcomed to settle in Newport, fleeing the
Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. They were not allowed to settle elsewhere. This group eventually came to be known as Congregation Jeshuat Israel, and is the second-oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. They meet in
Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in America. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations received its royal charter in 1663.
Benedict Arnold was elected as the first governor. The
Old Colony House at the head of
Washington Square in Newport served as the seat of Rhode Island's government from 1741 until the current
Rhode Island State House was completed in
Providence in 1904. At that time, Providence became the state's sole capital city. Newport was the most important port in colonial Rhode Island, and a public school was established in 1640. The commercial activity that raised Newport to its fame as a rich port began with the immigration of a second wave of
Portuguese Jews, who settled there around the middle of the 18th century. The new settlers had been practicing Judaism secretly for 300 years in Portugal, and they were attracted to Rhode Island because of its freedom of worship. They brought with them commercial experience, connections, capital, and a spirit of enterprise. Most prominent among them was Jacob Rodrigues Rivera, who arrived in 1745 (died 1789). Rivera introduced the manufacture of
sperm oil, derived from sperm whales. This became one of Newport's leading industries and made the town a wealthy, prominent whaling community. Newport developed 17 manufacturers of oil and candles, and enjoyed a practical monopoly of this trade until the
American Revolution.
Aaron Lopez is also credited with making Newport an important center of trade. He encouraged 40 Portuguese Jewish families to settle there, and Newport had 150 vessels engaged in trade within 14 years. Lopez was involved in the slave trade, as were other shipping magnates, and the manufacture of
spermaceti candles, ships, barrels, rum, chocolate, textiles, clothes, shoes, hats, and bottles. Lopez became the wealthiest man in Newport, but he was denied citizenship on religious grounds, even though British law protected the rights of Jews to become citizens in England. Lopez appealed to the Rhode Island colonial legislature for redress and was refused with this ruling: Lopez persisted by applying for citizenship in
Massachusetts Bay Colony, where it was granted. From the mid-17th century, the religious tolerance in Newport attracted numbers of
Quakers, known also as the
Society of Friends. The
Great Friends Meeting House in Newport (1699) is the oldest existing structure of worship in Rhode Island. In 1727,
James Franklin (brother of
Benjamin Franklin) printed the
Rhode-Island Almanack in Newport. In 1732, he published the first newspaper, the
Rhode Island Gazette. In 1758, his son James founded the weekly newspaper
Mercury. The famous 18th-century
Goddard and Townsend furniture was also made in Newport. Throughout the 18th-century, Newport suffered from an imbalance of trade with the largest colonial ports. As a result, Newport merchants were forced to develop alternatives to conventional exports. In the 1720s, Colonial leaders arrested many pirates, acting under pressure from the British government. Many were hanged in Newport and buried on
Goat Island. File:Spring and Mary streets, Newport, RI edit.jpg|Colonial buildings in the
Newport Historic District File:Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry by William Green Turner, 1885 - Eisenhower Park - Newport, Rhode Island - DSC03984.jpg|
Oliver Perry Monument in Eisenhower Park File:Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island.jpg|
Touro Synagogue, the oldest existing synagogue in the United States
Slave trade Newport was a major center of the slave trade in colonial and early America, active in the
"triangle trade" in which slave-produced sugar and molasses from the Caribbean were carried to Rhode Island and distilled into
rum that was then carried to West Africa and exchanged for captives. In 1764, Rhode Island had about 30 rum distilleries, 22 in Newport alone. Slaves were trafficked illegally into Rhode Island, breaking a 1787 law prohibiting residents of the state from trading in slaves. Slave traders were also breaking federal statutes of 1794 and 1800 barring Americans from carrying slaves to ports outside the United States, as well as the
1807 Congressional act abolishing the transatlantic slave trade. A few Rhode Island families made substantial fortunes in the trade.
William and Samuel Vernon were Newport merchants who later played an important role in financing the creation of the United States Navy; they sponsored 30 African slaving ventures. However, it was the DeWolfs of
Bristol, Rhode Island, and most notably
James De Wolf, who were the largest slave-trading family in America, mounting more than 80 transatlantic voyages, most of them illegal. The Rhode Island slave trade was broadly based. Seven hundred Rhode Islanders owned or captained slave ships, most of whom were substantial merchants, though many were ordinary shopkeepers and tradesmen who purchased shares in slaving voyages. Newport was inhabited by a small group of abolitionists and free blacks. Reverend
Samuel Hopkins, minister at Newport's
First Congregational Church, has been called "America's first abolitionist". Among subscribers to Hopkins' writings were 17 free black citizens, most of whom lived in Newport.
American Revolutionary era Newport was the scene of much activity during the
American Revolution.
William Ellery was a Newport native and one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. In the winter of 1775, and 1776, the
Rhode Island Legislature placed militia general
William West in charge of rooting out
loyalists in Newport, which resulted in several individuals being exiled to the northern part of the state, including
Joseph Wanton and Thomas Vernon. On December 8, 1776, the British occupied the city without opposition.
Sir Peter Parker led 50-gun British ships, while Lieutenant-General
Henry Clinton led 7,000 troops. According to
Alfred Thayer Mahan, "The immediate effect was to close a haven of
privateers, which flanked the route of all vessels bound from Europe to New York." In the summer of 1778, the Americans began the campaign known as the
Battle of Rhode Island. This was the first joint operation between the Americans and the French after the signing of the
Treaty of Alliance. The Americans based in
Tiverton planned a formal siege of the town, but the French refused to take part, instead preferring a frontal assault. This weakened the American position, and the British were able to expel the Americans from the island. In 1779, the British abandoned the location.
Rodney lamented, "The evacuating Rhode Island was the most fatal measure that could possibly have been adopted. It gave up the best and noblest harbor in America, capable of containing the whole Navy of Britain, and where they could in all seasons lie in perfect security; and from whence squadrons, in forty-eight hours, could blockade the three capital cities of America; namely, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia." Around the middle of the century, wealthy northerners, such as the Wetmore family, began construction on larger mansions, such as
Chateau-sur-Mer (1852) nearby. Most of these early families made a substantial part of their fortunes in the
Old China Trade. By the turn of the 20th century, many of the nation's wealthiest families were summering in Newport, including the
Vanderbilts,
Astors, and the
Widener family, who constructed the largest "cottages", such as
The Breakers (1895) and
Miramar (1915). They resided for a brief summer social season in grand mansions with elaborate receiving rooms, dining rooms, music rooms, and ballrooms—but with few bedrooms, since the guests were expected to have "cottages" of their own. Many of the homes were designed by New York architect
Richard Morris Hunt, who kept a house in Newport himself. The social scene at Newport is described in
Edith Wharton's novel
The Age of Innocence. Wharton's own Newport "cottage" was called Land's End
. Today, many mansions continue in private use.
Hammersmith Farm is the mansion where
John F. Kennedy and
Jackie Kennedy held their wedding reception; it was open to tourists as a "house museum", but has since been purchased and reconverted into a private residence. Many of the other mansions are open to tourists, and others were converted into academic buildings for
Salve Regina College in the 1930s, when the owners could no longer afford their tax bills. In the mid-19th century, a large number of
Irish immigrants settled in Newport. The Fifth Ward of Newport in the southern part of the city became a staunch Irish neighborhood for many generations. To this day, St. Patrick's Day is an important day of pride and celebration in Newport, with a large parade down Thames Street. The oldest Catholic parish in Rhode Island is
St. Mary's, located on Spring Street, though the current building is not original. File:The_Breakers_interior_05.jpg|
The Breakers (1895) File:The_Elms_-_Rhode_Island.jpg|
The Elms (1901) File:The President's vacation - on Bellevue Avenue, Newport - drawn by W.P. Snyder. LCCN98511692 (cropped).jpg|President
Chester A. Arthur vacationed in Newport in 1884
20th century and beyond Rhode Island did not have a fixed capital during and after the colonial era, but rotated its legislative sessions among Providence, Newport, Bristol, East Greenwich, and South Kingstown. In 1854, the sessions were eliminated in cities other than Providence and Newport, and Newport was ultimately dropped in 1900 as a constitutional amendment that year restricted the meetings of the legislature to Providence.
The Kennedys and Newport First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had many ties to Newport. She spent her childhood summers at Newport's
Hammersmith Farm. while Kennedy used
Hammersmith Farm.
U.S. Navy The city has long been entwined with the
United States Navy. It held the campus of the
U.S. Naval Academy during the
American Civil War (1861–65) when the undergraduate officer training school was temporarily moved north from
Annapolis, Maryland. From 1952 to 1973, it hosted the Cruiser-Destroyer Force of the
U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and subsequently, it has hosted smaller numbers of warships from time to time. Today it hosts
Naval Station Newport (NAVSTA Newport) and remains home to the U.S.
Naval War College, the center for
Surface Warfare Officer training, the
Navy Supply Corps School and other schools, and the headquarters of the
Naval Undersea Warfare Center. The
decommissioned aircraft carrier was moored in an inactive status at the docks previously used by the Cruiser-Destroyer Force until it was towed to Brownsville, Texas in August–September 2014 to be dismantled. The shared the pier until June 2010. The departure of the Cruiser-Destroyer fleet from Newport, and the closure of nearby
Naval Air Station Quonset Point in 1973 were devastating to the local economy. The population of Newport decreased, businesses closed, and property values plummeted. However, in the late 1960s, the city began revitalizing the downtown area with the construction of America's Cup Avenue, malls of stores and condominiums, and upscale hotels. Construction was also completed on the
Claiborne Pell Bridge. The
Preservation Society of Newport County began opening Newport's historic mansions to the public, and the tourist industry has become Newport's primary commercial enterprise over the subsequent years. ==Geography and climate==