George Wightman, the immigrant, was born 4 Nov 1632 in England and died 7 January 1721/2. He married Elizabeth Updike, and they settled on their farm near North Kingstown and reared a family of five sons and three daughters that were born between 26 July 1664 and 16 April 1681. They both died early in the year of 1721/2 after fifty nine years of wedded life.
   

    Nothing has been found about the early life of George Wightman. After his grandfather Edward was burned at the stake, it is thought that the rest of the family moved to London. The children (George's father, John, and his brothers and sisters) probably grew to maturity there, married, and had children of their own.
 

    George was born on June 4, 1632. This date is recorded in his family Bible, which is still in existence, and is owned by a descendant. He lived during a turbulent time in English history. Besides the religious persecution, there was a civil war that didn't end until about the time the family left for the New World. Oliver Cromwell and the parliament were supported by "middle sort of men", in which category the Wightmans were included. The nobility, gentry, and the "poorest of the people" backed Charles I, who was then the king. Charles I lost, and the surrender of his army in June 1646 ended the first phase of the Civil War.
 

    The conquering army was determined to show that kings had to be responsible to their subjects. He was put on trial and found guilty, and was executed Jan 30, 1649 at Whitehall. It is not known whether it was for religious reasons or the unsettled political situation that caused our ancestors to emigrate to the New World. Perhaps it was Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, who invited them. Williams' sister, Katherine was married to a Ralph Wightman, citizen and merchant tailor of London.
 

    Even his Bible gives no clue to his exact birthplace. In his will he bequeathed to his eldest grandson, George Wightman, "my chest also which I brought out of England and my great bible"; and he bequeathed to his son Valentine Wightman "my silver drinking cup and my chest which I brought out of England".
 

    It is assumed that he came more or less directly to Newport with his father and brothers; but no ship's list or other record giving the port of his departure from England, or fixing the place or date of his arrival in America has been found. It seems probable, considering the above recorded equipment which he brought with him, that he was no stripling when he came. Besides, he was a tailor, and one would suppose that his apprenticeship was served in England prior to his departure for a new land. Every indication is that he arrived in 1654, at the age of 20.
 

    George Wightman's older brother, Valentine Whitman (Wightman), had been in the colony long enough in 1648 to master the Indian language, for in that year, he is recorded as an interpreter at the Indian trading post of Richard Smith at Wickford in the Narragansett country (now town North and South Kingstone, RI). This will, no doubt, explain why the father, John, and his other sons arrived in Newport and immediately went to the Wickford area of Rhode Island.
 

    It is likely that like most of the early colonists in Rhode Island, our young English settler soon became interested in acquiring land, although no record of land transactions in this early period has been found; and the Narragansett Country on the mainland to the west across from Newport offered opportunities.
 

    This region, about twenty five miles in extent from north to south, comprised all of the country lying south of the present towns of Warwick and Coventry, and extended westward to Connecticut. The Narragansetts were a friendly tribe of 8,000 to 10,000 people (some estimate the number to be as high as 30,000), with 1,500 to 2,000 fighting men. The main road south from the settlements of Providence and Warwick passed through this Indian country, keeping a line not far inland by way of the Indian village of Cawcamsqussick (Cocumscussuc), southerly to the present town of Westerly, and so on into Connecticut. In the early records it is called "the country road" and the Pequid (Pequot) path.
 

    The first white men to settle permanently in this region were Roger Williams in 1636, and Richard Smith in 1640 or 1641. (Read more about these ancestors of ours in the Smith and Williams sections.)