John Cranston was the son of Peleg Cranston. He was born on November 3, 1755 in Rhode Island and later moved to Woodstock, Ohio where he died in 1825. He married Phoebe Ann Edwards on April 4, 1791 and one of their children was Christopher Cranston who was the father of Charles Edward Cranston (Chris’s father). Accordingly, John Cranston was Christopher (Doc) Cranston’s great, great grandfather. Josephine P. Cranston obtained a certified true copy of John Cranston’s service in the Revolutionary War in 1777-1778.
(A manuscript “true copy,” in Josephine’s hand, of a Rhode Island Secretary of State service certificate. The body is enclosed in quotation marks to mark it as transcribed text. A hand-drawn rendering of the RI state seal — anchor, “HOPE,” “Seal of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations · 1636 ·” — appears at lower left, labeled “(Golden.)” to note the original’s gold seal.)
” Charles P. Bennett, Secretary of State.
” State of Rhode Island. Secretary of State’s Office. Providence.
May 4, 1897.
I hereby certify that it appears of record in this office that John Cranston served in the revolutionary war as private in Capt. Edward Carr’s Co. of Militia in Col. Dyer’s Regt. stationed in South Kingstown from November 21 to December 10, 1777. Also, private in Capt. Stephen Babcock’s Co., a detachment from Col. Chas. Dyer’s Regt. from December 19, 1777 to January 22, 1778. Also, private in Capt. James Parker’s Co. in Col. Archibald Crary’s Regt. from May 16 to September 16, 1778.
Attest: Charles P. Bennett, Secretary of State. ”
[seal, hand-drawn] (Golden.)
I hereby certify this to be a true copy of the original. Scott D. [Kinfield / Kenfield?], Notary Public, Champaign county, Ohio.
$1.50.
[lower right:] True Copy. Josephine P. Cranston. Woodstock, Ohio.
[faint embossed notarial stamp visible at lower center-right: “…STATE… OHIO…”]
Analysis — how Doc P fits the family
This is a documentary keystone, and it does something none of the letters do: it puts official state record behind the top of your descent chart.
It corroborates John Cranston (entry 5 of Doc M) as a real, war-serving individual. Your genealogy chart has John Cranston, b. Nov 3, 1755 Newport RI, as the 1815 pioneer who died near Woodstock, Ohio in 1825. The Rhode Island Secretary of State here certifies a John Cranston with three documented terms of Revolutionary militia service in 1777–78:
Pvt., Capt. Edward Carr’s Co., Col. Dyer’s Regt., stationed South Kingstown, Nov 21–Dec 10, 1777;
Pvt., Capt. Stephen Babcock’s Co. (detachment from Col. Chas. Dyer’s Regt.), Dec 19, 1777–Jan 22, 1778;
Pvt., Capt. James Parker’s Co., Col. Archibald Crary’s Regt., May 16–Sep 16, 1778.
A man born Nov 1755 would have been 22 in late 1777 — exactly right for militia service. The RI locations (South Kingstown, and the Newport-area regiments under Crary and Dyer) sit squarely in the family’s documented Rhode Island geography (Newport, Jamestown, Scituate, Foster). So this is almost certainly your John, entry 5 — though note the certificate itself gives no birth date, so the identification rests on name + RI service + the family’s own claim. Worth a small flag: RI had more than one John Cranston in this era, so this is strong corroboration, not absolute proof.
It confirms the “family trait” from the Scottish letter, ironically inverted. Doc O had George calling masonry the Cranston “family trait.” Here the American John is a soldier, not a mason — but the document does reinforce the family’s intense investment in documenting itself.
Most importantly: it’s Josephine, the archivist, at work — and it dates her patriotic-lineage project. This is Josephine procuring an official RI service record (the “$1.50” is the state’s certification fee), having it notarized in Champaign County, Ohio, and making her own attested “true copy” in her hand at Woodstock. The original certificate is dated May 4, 1897 — so this activity belongs to her late Woodstock period, right alongside Doc N (Oct 1896). This is very likely DAR / patriotic-society groundwork: in the 1890s, proving descent from a Revolutionary soldier was exactly what one did to establish a lineage claim. It shows Josephine extending her genealogical work from the Scottish-origins question (Docs O/I) to the American-Revolution credential — both ends of the family story.
New / confirmed names:
Charles P. Bennett — RI Secretary of State (1897); a datable public official, like H. S. Landis in Doc K. (Useful external anchor.)
Scott D. Kinfield [Kenfield?] — Notary Public, Champaign County, Ohio, 1897. Note: Woodstock sits on the Champaign/Union County line, consistent with the family’s known turf.
Capt. Edward Carr, Capt. Stephen Babcock, Capt. James Parker, Col. Charles Dyer, Col. Archibald Crary — all genuine RI Revolutionary officers; these are military-record names, not family, but they confirm the certificate’s authenticity to the period.
On the Parks thread: no direct help — but note the seal/coincidence of “Capt. James Parker’s Co.” Parker, not Parks — almost certainly unrelated, and a Rhode Island militia officer rather than the Connecticut/Ohio Parks schoolteacher family. I’d not connect them, but I’m flagging it so you’re not surprised by the near-homophone when you reread.
Reading notes: the notary’s surname is hard — “Kinfield” or “Kenfield” are my best readings; bracketed accordingly. The “(Golden.)” annotation beneath the drawn seal is Josephine telling us the original bore a gold (gilt/embossed) state seal, which she’s representing by drawing. The double quotation marks around the whole RI certificate are her scribal convention marking copied text (the same instinct that runs through her compositions and letters).
