GEN. CHRISTOPHER LIPPITT was a lineal descendant of John Lippitt, one of the first settlers of Rhode Island and one who aided in organizing the government of 1647, under the Patent. Gen. Christopher Lippitt was born in 1744 and lived in the south-westerly part of Cranston. He represented Cranston in the General Assembly when he was only twenty-one years of age and continued a member until the Revolutionary War commenced. He was made a Captain of a Militia company at the age of twenty-two years and a Justice of the Peace at the same time. When the Revolutionary War commenced, he was chosen Lieutenant Colonel of a Rhode Island Regiment, and before the year 1775 closed he was chosen Lieutenant Colonel of a Regiment of minute men. Commodore Wallace, with a British Squadron landed on Prudence Island and burnt a number of dwelling houses there. Col. Lippitt, with several companies of his Regiment, was sent there to defend the Island. He moved the inhabitants with their property to the mainland. In 1776, he was chosen Colonel of the Regiment to protect the State. Col. Babcock, the commander was dismissed for bad conduct. Gen. Washington ordered the Regiment to join the Regular Army, and he, and the Field Officers then received Continental Commissions. The Regiment left Rhode Island September 1776, and he led it to Washington's encampment at Harlem Heights, New York. He was in the battle of White Plains, under Maj. Gen. Lee. He soon after crossed the North River into New Jersey. Gen. Lee carelessly slept some distance from his Army, the British found it out, surprised, captured and made him a prisoner. Gen. John Sullivan then assumed command of his division of the Army, and crossed the Delaware River. Col. Lippitt was with Washington in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He behaved very gallantly in both of these battles. He went into winter quarters at Morristown. In the spring the Regiment's term of enlistment expired, he dismissed and sent them home. While Col. Lippitt was with Washington, he gave him Brigadier General's Commission by brevet. When he returned to Rhode Island, he had a Brigadier General's Commission of the Rhode Island Militia of the County of Providence. He held that rank in the battle on Rhode Island under Maj. Gen. Sullivan.

After this battle and the army retreated from the Island, Gen. Lippitt was again chosen a member of the General Assembly and continued a member, and still held his General's Commission until 1783, the close of the war, when he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court. A political revolution took place in the State in 1787 and 1788, and General Lippitt was dismissed from public life; but was chosen a delegate to Congress but declined it. He says he was cried down because he was a zealous supporter of and advocate of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States which was formed by the Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. It will be remembered that Rhode Island was the last of the thirteen original States, that adopted the Constitution. We can see by the life of Gen. Lippitt, how bitter was the opposition against the Constitution. This opposition to that instrument, was really the first movement towards forming the Jeffersonian or Democratic Party.

Gen. Lippitt lived in quiet retirement from public life ever after this affair, and when he made this statement, was about seventy-nine years old. He was a very religious man and built a small meeting house for the Methodists, almost of his own expense; of which church he was a devoted member. His house was the home of the itinerant methodist preachers of the State. About this time he joined the Peace Society.

Gen. Lippitt married March 23, 1777, Waite Harris. She died Sept. 8, 1836, aged 81 years old. She had twelve children, (another of Bonaparte's great women,) seven of them lie buried with their ancestors on Lippitt Hill. Gen. Lippitt seemed to be a pattern of all the noble virtues that adorn human nature. As an evidence of this, his sense of justice, and his affectionate regard for his kindred; at the death of his father, he waived his right of inheritance; which belonged to the oldest son, by the law of primogeniture then in force in Rhode Island, (an old English law,) and shared equally with the rest of the children in the distribution of the estate.

Gen. Lippitt superintended the building of the Lippitt Cotton Mill, in Warwick; the third or fourth cotton mill built in the State, which his descendants held until 1889, when B. B. & R. Knight bought it. As an officer in the army, he was brave, energetic, prompt in obeying orders and executing them, and prudent in all his movements. As a civilian he was enterprising and public spirited, heartily in sympathy with the best interest of humanity. Major Christopher Lippitt, who removed to Jewett City, Conn., some over sixty years ago: where he operated a small cotton mill many years, was a son of Gen. Lippitt. Two of Major Lippitt's sons are now living in Elmwood, this city; Mr. P. W. and Albert Lippitt and they have a sister now living on Knight street. Another son of Gen Lippitt, was William, who resided in the western part of Cranston. He was a man of very decided opinions, never held an office and never seemed to want one. He was the father of Mr. Christopher Lippitt, a successful manufacturer, who resides at 193 Hope street, in this city. I suppose he was named after his noble and honored grand father, Gen. Christopher Lippitt.

Parents:
. Christopher Lippitt (1712 - 1764)
. Catherine Holden (1717 - 1807)

Marriage:
Waite Harris, 23 Mar 1777
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~Father of:
1) Susanna Lippitt [1778-1818]
+ sp: Stephen Hull
2) Waitstill Lippitt [1784-1850]
+ sp: Col. Gorton Arnold Esq. [1781-1845]
3) William Lippitt [1787-1872]
+ sp: Rhoby Sheldon Fenner [1792-1865]
4) Joseph Lippitt [1790-1842]
+ sp: Melinda Rice [1790-1857]
5) Mary Lippitt [1795-]
6) Benjamin Lippitt [1797-1803]
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There were a total of 12 children. Please contact me if you have further information.