Samuel Nightingale II (1741-1814)

He was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, and grew up in Providence from 1752. He became a successful merchant, invested in the East India and coastal trade, and was said to have been associated with the firm of Brown & Ives. He was Treasurer of Providence from 1797 to 1814, and Deacon in the First Congregational Church, raising money for for the church through a lottery. He served on a committee to evaluate the possibility of public education in Providence in 1767, and in the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party in 1774 was appointed to a correspondence committee. He did not serve in the Revolution, though he served on a committee to plan defenses for Providence in 1775. He was Chairman of the town's Committee of Inspection, and his schooner "La Committee" was briefly detained by British privateers. He had 6-children and lived at the southeast corner of Weybosset Street and Distel Lane (now Page Street) while his brother, Joseph, built the Nightingale-Brown House on Benefit Street that still stands today.