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The Windsor Chair

chair
The Windsor Chair

This English made eighteenth century Windsor chair was taken as part of the prize from a British merchant ship captured off the West Indies during the American Revolutionary War by Capt. Zebediah Shepardson. The Captain was in charge of the sloop “Resolute”, which was licensed as a privateer by the Town of Rehoboth, in the Colony of Massachusetts.

Captain Shepardson came home to Rehoboth after the War was over, brought the chair with him and gave it to his daughter Elona. She married Caleb Abell, owner of the Caleb Abell house on what today is Greenwood Avenue in Rumford. The chair remained in the house and was passed down to descendants until it was acquired by Elsie Bushnell Williams. Elsie returned it to “Rehoboth” so to speak when she presented it as a gift to the Historical Society. The Abell House still stands on the corner of Huntington Drive and Greenwood Avenue on the original Ring of the Green. The chair left the house during the Civil War when the house was sold to the Hill Family.

For more information about the Caleb Abell House check out the Ring of the Green under our Historic Sites section.