Note: This monument is a cenotaph. No death date or burial record has been found for Samuel. He may be buried in the cemetery (now lost) of his grandson Oliver Arnold, son of Joseph, as there are many adult graves there that have not been identified. The cemetery is/was likely located on the Schartner Farm on Rte 2, near the Exeter/N. Kingstown line. The birth date given here is an approximation based on his being alive in 1678 (per grandfather's will), the sequencing of his siblings, and based on his first land transaction in 1699. The death date is an approximation based on his age, and that he was living in 1752 when mentioned in a deed.

Samuel Arnold was the son of Caleb Arnold and Abigail Wilbur of Newport and Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and the grandson of Governor Benedict Arnold. His maternal grandfather was Samuel Wilbur, for whom he was likely named. He was married in 1708 to Mary SHEFFIELD, the daughter of Attorney General Joseph Sheffield and Mary Sherriff of Portsmouth.

Sadly, the published genealogy of the Arnold family, entitled the Arnold Memorial, hopelessly muddles the family of this Samuel Arnold with the family of a different Samuel who lived on Block Island. The subject of this memorial did NOT marry Mary George of Block Island as stated in the Arnold Memorial.

Samuel was given land in Kingstown in the will of his maternal grandfather, and probable namesake, Samuel Wilbur, dated 21 Aug 1678, so was born that year or earlier. Samuel was of Portsmouth in 1699 when he deeded some of this land in the Narragansett country (Kingstowne) to Nathaniel Niles of Kingstown. (RIGR 9(1):77,79) By 1710, however, Samuel had crossed the Narragansett Bay, and was called of Kingstown when he received from his father, Caleb Arnold, 200 acres of land lying "on the Northwest part of Pettiquamscutt [Purchase, bounded] north by land of Joseph [suname burned away, with other info]." Caleb Arnold "have unto set his hand [burn]teenth day of Nov 1710." (RIGR 8(2):183) Samuel's grandfathers, Gov. Benedict Arnold and Samuel Wilbur, and his great grandfather, John Porter, were three of the seven men who made the large Pettaquamscutt purchase from the Indians, this land later becoming the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Family sources suggest that Samuel was a physician like his father, though he is called yeoman in a 1750 deed. Land of Samuel in N. Kingstown was mentioned in a deed dated 23 Aug 1742 between his son, Joseph, and Benjamin Mory. (RIGR 4(3):243) After the town of Exeter was established from N. Kingstown in March 1742/3, the Arnold's property likely fell on the Exeter side of the line. Thus, on 24 April 1747, the land of Samuel and his sons Caleb and Joseph was mentioned as being in Exeter in a deed between Edmund Sheffield of S. Kingstown and Benjamin Mory of Exeter.

On 25 May 1750, Samuel Arnold of Exeter, yeoman, for love and affection, deeded to son Caleb Arnold of Exeter 51 acres of land partly in Exeter and partly in N. Kingstown, bounded on land of said Caleb Arnold, Benjamin Mory, and Benoni Hall. The deed was recorded 21 Nov 1751, signed by Samuel Arnold and witnessed by Benoni Hall and Joseph Arnold [his other son]. Samuel's wife, Mary, likely died at an early age, as she only had three children, and she did not cosign any deeds with Samuel. Samuel was living on 25 March 1752 when mentioned in a deed between his two sons. His only known children, probably all born in Kingstowne (now N. Kingstown or Exeter):

*Joseph, born about 1710, married (1) Patience Gifford and (2) Hannah Gifford

*Mary, born about 1712, may not have married. She was still living in 1776 when she accompanied her brother Joseph to camp to see his sons during the beginnings of the Revolutionary War. She did NOT marry Josiah Utter. Josiah lived on Block Island and married Elizabeth Arnold of the Block Island family.

*Caleb, born about 1715, married Hannah Reynolds, lived in Exeter, RI, and had ten children.