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- Waterman Tibbitts and his wife Mercy Waterman were first cousins, both descendents of Roger Williams through his daughter Mercy, who married Resolved Waterman, whose son John Waterman married Anne Olney. Waterman's mother -- Phebe, and Mercy's father -- John, were siblings, children of John and Anne.
Waterman & Mercy joined the Six-Principle Baptist Church of East Greenwich together on 16 October 1783. According to author Cherry Fletcher Bamberg, this was 20 years after he contributed money to repair the meetinghouse, and 18 years after being married by Elder Gorton. At 12 o'clock on Christmas Day 1783, there was a church meeting held at "Brother Waterman Tibbitts." Other church meetings were noted as taking place there, also. Later, on 31 April 1787, they were given letters of recommendation to Elder Thomas Manchester's church in Coventry on 31 April 1787. Waterman became clerk of this assembly, the Maple Root Baptist Church, in 1790.
According to Bamberg's notes in the book "Elder John Gorton and the Six-Principle Baptist Church of East Greenwich, Rhode Island," he was born 13 April 1741 in Warwick, RI, by his own sworn testimony. He was a lifelong resident of Warwick. His Revolutionary War service consisted of short enlistments in various alarm companies spanning two years. Town records at Warwick in 1779 listed for Waterman Tibbetts: 93 acres of land used for hay, corn, apples, wood, pasteurage, a house, barn, cider house, corn crib, and a variety of farm animals. The 1798 Direct Tax recorded a two-story home, 40' x 24', on two acres about two miles from Apponaug. The family burial plot was originally located up on the hill where Tollgate High School is now, so I imagine his farm was in that area, probably bordering Bald Hill Road.
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1741 - 1835 (94 years)