TILLINGHAST REUNION IN PROVIDENCE, JULY 18-20, 03
The Tillinghast family, which started in Rhode Island upon the arrival of Elder Pardon Tillinghast to the Providence Plantation Colony in 1645, will be celebrating its 360th anniversary by returning to Providence on July 18-20.
The last reunion held in Providence was 1976, and at that time, Charles C. Tillinghast, Chancellor of Brown University and former Chairman of TWA, was the host. This reunion will be dedicated to him and to Julia Ward Howe, a renowned feminist and Tillinghast descendant.
Activities will include registration starting on Friday at The Inn at Brown University, with genealogy discussions with local and visiting experts and historians. Saturday will include more genealogy; walking tours of Tillinghast artifacts, including Pardon's and family members' grave marker on Benefit St., sites of homes lived in by various Tillinghast members, including governors, Senators, Congressmen, a Supreme Court justice, and many businessmen and others; and a bus trip to East Greenwich, Newport, and Barrington to see other Tillinghast sites. A clambake will conclude the day at the Tillinghast Farm.
On Sunday, the reunion participants will attend worship service at the First Baptist Church, where Pardon was one of the original members and donated land and the church's first building in 1700. He also became the 6th pastor. His wharf was the first to be erected in Providence, which led to the city's becoming one of the great ports for commerce and trading in New England. The reunion will conclude with a brunch at a Tillinghast restaurant across the street from the church.
All family members (including the Wetmore, Ward, Jenckes, Bowen, and Hogg clans), and others interested in the Tillinghast history, are invited to attend.
