Joseph Stanton Jr. (19 July 1739 – 15 December 1821) was a US Senator from Rhode Island from 12 July 1790 to 3 March 1793, preceding William Bradford, as well as a member of the US House of Representatives from Rhode Island's at-large district from 4 March 1801 to 3 March 1807, succeeding John Brown and preceding Isaac Wilbour. He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.
Biography[]
Joseph Stanton Jr. was born in Charlestown, Rhode Island in 1739, and he fought in the French and Indian War before serving as a militia colonel during the American Revolutionary War. From 1768 to 1774 and in 1776, he represented Charlestown in the Rhode Island General Assembly, and he attended the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention in 1790. As Rhode Island was the last state to join the union, he took office as Rhode Island's inaugural US Senator in 1790, and he served until 1793; he then served in the US House of Representatives from 1801 to 1807. He died in 1821.