Charles Dickinson was evidently proud of his title, "Vestryman" because he used it in the records that he left behind. A Vestryman is not a member of the clergy but is a member of the church council. Charles was born in 1666 in Narragansett, Rhode Island.
Narragansett is a beautiful seaside town with splendid natural assets. The Town of Narragansett, of course, is the namesake of the Indian tribe of the area. At the beginning of the English colonization, the town site was merely part of a much larger territory called “Narragansett Country.” Most likely, the town simply adopted the name to distinguish itself from surrounding areas and villages, which had earlier selected appellations recalling their English heritage. (The Native American word “Narragansett” translates roughly into English as “people of the small point”.) Narragansett had existed for almost two centuries primarily as a simple farming and fishing community.
Below is a photo of a beach in the Town of Narragansett in 2018. Scarborough Beach is Rhode Island’s most popular and well known beach. Located 35 miles south of Providence on Ocean Road in Narragansett, it is a 26 acre facility with 2,325 feet of beach frontage.
Charles married four times to: Hester Gilbert in 1685; Phillippa Greene in 1691; Sarah______?, and Mary Winterton c. 1714. We have a list of Charles' and Mary's children as follows, all born in Rhode Island:
1714 Ann
1716 Charles
1718 Phillip
1718 Phillis
1720 Phebe
1723 Sarah
1726 Thomas, our ancestor
CHARLES DICKINSON
BORN: 1666 in Narragansett, Washington, RI
MARRIED: 1714 in Atteboro, Bristol, MA
DIED: 14 Sep 1740 in Narragansett, RI
MARY WINTERTON
BORN: abt 1698 in RI
DIED: unknown
SOURCES: World Family Tree Vol. 2, Ed. 1, Brøderbund Software, Inc., Release date: November 29, 1995, Page number: Tree #4543, Mary's birth; "Rhode Island Births and Christenings, 1600-1914," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F8QN-TRV : 10 February 2018), Mary in entry for son, Charles Dickinson, 27 Feb 1716; citing SOUTH KINGSTON,WASHINGTON,RHODE ISLAND, reference ; FHL microfilm 908,271;Paul M. Gifford, "The English Ancestry of Charles Dickinson (1658-1740) of South Kingstown, Rhode Island," The American Genealogist, Vol. 89, No. 2 (April 2017): pages 152, 154.
