Benjamin Cushing
(1706 - 1785)
Benjamin Cushing was born in 1706 in Scituate, MA, the eighth of eleven children of Hon. Judge John Cushing, Jr. and Deborah Loring. He was a great‑grandson of Matthew Cushing who hailed from Hingham, England, and was one of the original settlers of Hingham, MA in 1638.
In 1734, Benjamin married Elizabeth Antram of Providence, and the couple settled there. Elizabeth was the daughter of local merchant and distiller William Antram. In 1737 Cushing built a house on North Main Street, at the corner of North Court Street, for his growing family. One of the oldest surviving houses in the city of Providence, it was moved to 40 North Court Street in 1875. There it served as the model for Dr. Elihu Whipple’s house in H.P. Lovecraft’s tale, “The Shunned House.”
Benjamin and Elizabeth had three children born between 1735 and 1738: Benjamin, Jr., Abigail (who died in infancy), and Ann. After Elizabeth’s death, Benjamin married Abigail Ford Richmond, and she bore him son Nathaniel and daughter Abigail. This Abigail later married the widowed Stephen Harris and lived for many years in “The Shunned House” on Benefit Street.
By 1741, Benjamin was well established as a hatter and furrier in Providence; he also co- owned a charter vessel. In 1747 he is listed as a Justice of the Peace. He was known to have traded furs to England in the years prior to the Revolutionary War. Benjamin Cushing died in February, 1785. His epitaph reads: “Plain, honest, and always consistent. Go thy ways, Traveller!”
Catherine Beyer Hurst, MBA, Writer and Community Historian
Gallery
Benjamin Cushing (1706-1785)
Benjamin Cushing was born in 1706 in Scituate, MA, the eighth of eleven children of Hon. Judge John Cushing, Jr. and Deborah Loring. He was a great‑grandson of Matthew Cushing who hailed from Hingham, England, and was one of the original settlers of Hingham, MA in 1638.
In 1734, Benjamin married Elizabeth Antram of Providence, and the couple settled there. Elizabeth was the daughter of local merchant and distiller William Antram. Town records show Benjamin listed as a “Freeman of the Colony” by 1737. In that year he built a house on North Main Street, at the corner of North Court Street, for his growing family. One of the oldest surviving houses in the city of Providence, it was moved to 40 North Court Street in 1875. There it served as the model for Dr. Elihu Whipple’s house in H.P. Lovecraft’s tale, “The Shunned House.”
Benjamin and Elizabeth had three children born between 1735 and 1738: Benjamin, Jr., Abigail (who died in infancy), and Ann.
By 1741, Benjamin was wellestablished as a hatter and furrier in Providence; he also co- owned a charter vessel. In 1747 he is listed as a Justice of the Peace. He was known to have traded furs to England in the years prior to the Revolutionary War.
Elizabeth Antram Cushing died in 1761, and four years later Benjamin married the widow Abigail Ford Richmond. She bore him two more children: Nathaniel and another Abigail. This Abigail Cushing was born in 1769, and would go on to become the second wife of Stephen Harris. (The Harrises would live for some years in the house on Benefit Street known in the Lovecraft story as “The Shunned House.”)
Benjamin Cushing died in February, 1785, and was buried at the Oakland Cemetery in Cranston. His grave, with a stone carved by prestigious local carver Stephen Hartshorn, was moved to the North Burial Ground in the early 1900s. Its epitaph reads: “Plain, honest, and always consistent. Go thy ways, Traveller!”
On February 26, 1785, The Providence Gazette and Country Journal reported on Cushing’s death as follows:
He was descended from an ancient and honorable family in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and formerly filled a Public Station in this State, to universal Acceptance. He was a gentleman of exalted Piety, a pattern of industry, economy and prudence; a kind husband, a tender and affectionate parent, and a good neighbour. In him were combined the character of the good samaritan, and the amiable Nathanial, in whom was no guile.
Catherine Beyer Hurst, MBA, Writer and Community Historian
Further Reading
Cushing’s house, now at 40 North Court St., Providence