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(1707-1785), was a member of the Rhode Island Assembly during most of the years from 1732 to 1752, and was Speaker at various sessions, 1738-1749. He was one of the committee, at the Albany Convention of 1754, which drafted a plan of colonial union. He was Governor of Rhode Island from 1755 to 1757, from 1758 to 1762, from 1763 to 1765 and from 1767 to 1768. He was a Rhode Island delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1780, and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1765 he published "The Grievances of the American Colonies Candidly Examined." He was the most eminent Rhode Island statesman of the last century.