Abraham Redwood

Abraham Redwood (February 15, 1709 – March 7, 1788) was a West Indies merchant, slave trader, plantation owner, and philanthropist from Newport, Rhode Island. He is the namesake of the Redwood Library and Anthenaeum, one of the oldest libraries in the United States. Redwood was the President of the Redwood Library and Anthenaeum from 1747 to 1788. Early life and education Abraham Redwood Jr. was born on Antigua on February 15, 1709, at his father's plantation, Cassada Garden. Abraham Redwood Sr. was born in Bristol, England in 1665. In 1687, Redwood Sr. went to the island of Antigua where he married Mehetable Langford, daughter of Jonas Langford. It was through this marriage that Redwood Sr. came into the possession of the sugar plantation known as Cassada Garden which had "a great number of slaves." Abraham Redwood Jr. was the third of eleven children, following his two brothers William, (d. 1712) and Jonas, (d. 1724). Redwood Sr. remained in Antigua until 1712 when he moved with his family to Salem, Massachusetts. His wife Mehetable died in 1715. Until his death in 1729, Redwood Sr. traveled between homes in Antigua, Salem and Newport, Rhode Island. Abraham Redwood Jr. was educated chiefly by the Society of Friends in Philadelphia. On October 27, 1724, his older brother Jonas was thrown from his horse and killed, in Newport. Upon the death of his elder brother, Abraham came into the possession of the family sugar plantation in Antigua, Cassada Garden. In 1727, Redwood Jr. purchased land on Aquidneck Island and began building his country home, five miles north of Newport in Portsmouth. Sometime around 1730 he married Martha Coggeshall, of Newport, a descendant of John Coggeshall, one of the founders of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Together Martha and Abraham had six children. Redwood's botanical garden on his estate was known for its variety of curious and foreign plants, as well as indigenous plants. He ordered orange and fig trees, and adolescent guava and pineapple plants from the West Indies to fill his garden. Solomon Drowne wrote in 1767 that the garden was rumored to cost over forty thousand pounds, and that the gardener, Charles Dunham, received over one hundred dollars annual salary. Dunham was probably Newport's first professional gardener.