Stephen Northup

Henry Northup who left Rhode Island to settle in Hoosick, New York, and took his slave Mintus who was manumitted in 1797.

In southern North Kingstown Rhode Island is a cemetery that is called the Ancient Northup Burial Ground (Rhode Island Historic Cemetery North Kingstown #51), and though most of the graves are only marked with field stones, there are some Northups that have inscribed markers, and there is also a crude handwritten inscription on a marker that reads "Ebenezer Hearrandain, desesed June 17, 1713.

To make the relationship between the two families even more plausible, Staples, in 1843, published a list of 28 early Providence settlers who each received 25 acres of land, beginning in 1646.

The list in Staples' book giving the names of some early Providence settlers is dated "The 19th of 11 mo.

The list consists of 28 individuals "whose names are hereafter subscribed, having obtained a free grant of Twenty-five acres of land, apiece..."[7] However, Staples then notes that "The appearance of the signatures to the original document indicates they were not made at the same time.

"[8] Staples states that adjustments, written in the margin, were made to the original agreement "after the establishment of the Commonwealth of England," which took place in 1649 and lasted until 1660.

[10] Austin states that he was made a freeman in Providence in 1658, but this may just mean that his name appears on a list of freemen, because he had already been given the privilege of voting two years earlier.

[10][11] On 27 July 1659 Northup sold 60 acres of land at Rocky Hill to William Carpenter,[11] and on 4 June 1660 he was selected as the Town Sergeant for Providence.

[12] During his service as sergeant John Clawson, a Dutchman and protege of Roger Williams, was murdered by an Indian not far from Northup's house.

For instance, his occupation does not appear in any existing records, but a family researcher in the 1930s, Lester Burgess, wrote this: "The Northups owned or operated the grist mill at the Gilbert Stuart place, the foundations of which are now (1939) barely visible.

"[16] North Kingstown historian, Tim Cranston, gives the date of the house as "1680-1690s" with additions made in the 18th and 19th centuries.

[17] Genealogical compiler John O. Austin only attributes four children to Northup and his wife,[11] but family historian Virginia Chappell adds two more.

[18] He was originally buried in a small family plot on land that belonged to Wilbur Hazard, but was, before 1880, moved to Elm Grove Cemetery.

[21] Northup is an ancestor of Stephen Arnold Douglas, who sparred with Abraham Lincoln in a series of famous debates in 1858, prior to a senate race, and later lost to him in the 1860 presidential election.