Frances Latham

rdf:langString Frances Latham

rdf:langString Frances Latham

rdf:langString Frances Latham

rdf:langString Newport, Rhode Island

rdf:langString Kempston, Bedfordshire, England

rdf:langString : Barbara, William, Frances, Thomas; : Walter, Mary, Jeremiah, Latham, Weston, James, Sarah

rdf:langString September 1677

rdf:langString Colonial wife and "Mother of Governors"

rdf:langString Frances Clarke

rdf:langString Frances Dungan

rdf:langString Frances Vaughan

rdf:langString Lewis and Elizabeth Latham

rdf:langString Jeremy Clarke

rdf:langString Rev. William Vaughan

rdf:langString William Dungan

rdf:langString Frances Latham (1610–1677), was a colonial American woman who settled in Rhode Island, and is known as "the Mother of Governors." Having been widowed twice, she had three husbands, and became the ancestor of at least ten governors and three deputy/lieutenant governors, and is related by marriage to an additional six governors and one deputy governor. Born in Bedfordshire, England, she was the daughter of Lewis Latham, a falconer for King Charles I. She was first married to William Dungan, with whom she had four children. Dungan died at an early age, and she soon married Jeremy Clarke who brought her and her Dungan children to New England where they settled in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Clarke was a prominent merchant who became the President of the colony for a year. With Clarke, Frances had seven children, the oldest of whom, Walter, later became a governor of the colony. Jeremy Clarke died when all of his children were still minors, after which Frances married her third husband, the Reverend William Vaughan of Newport. Frances and her last husband both died at about the same time in 1677 in Newport, and Frances was buried in the Common Burying Ground there. She leaves a legacy of thousands of descendants, many of whom reached great prominence during their lives.