William P. Sheffield — Active in the professional life of Rhode Island, where he not only is a lawyer but an executive in several large industrial organizations, William P. Sheffield is carrying on the tradition of leadership established by his illustrious father and grandfather, both of the same name — William Paine Sheffield. The Sheffield family in Rhode Island is an old one, and the three generations mentioned above have all made their homes in Newport, where William P. Sheffield is a zealous worker in the best interests of his city.
It was in the earliest days of the settlement of Rhode Island that the forerunner of the present Sheffield family came to this region; and throughout the Colonial period, as well as since independence, members of the family have held outstanding positions in society. Among those who have won distinction for the name have been such men as the late Hon. John G. Sheffield, and the late Hon. William Paine Sheffield, of Newport, of the latter of whose achievements as a writer in historical lines and whose service as a State legislator in both branches of the United States Congress were notable. The second William Paine Sheffield was a lawyer of prominence in Newport. The family line has been traced back to Joseph Sheffield, the first moderator of the first town meeting of Portsmouth of which there is any record. From him the line is traced through Ichabod, Joseph, Edmund, Josiah, Edmund, and George G., to the first William Paine Sheffield. George G. Sheffield, great-grandfather of the man whose name heads this review, was a Jeffersonian until, at the formation of the Republican party, in 1856, he became a Republican; and since that time the family has been staunch in its allegiance to the party of Lincoln.
William Paine Sheffield, Jr., the father of William P. Sheffield, of this review, was born June 1, 1857, in Newport, Rhode Island; studied at private schools, Phillips-Andover Academy (class of 1873), and Brown University, from which he was graduated in 1877 with high honors. Going abroad, he studied civil and Roman law in the Department of Law of the University of Paris, at Paris, France, and was prepared for the bar under the direction of his father and at the Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in March, 1880, and began practicing at Newport. Beginning in 1889, he was solicitor for Newport for several years. From 1885 to 1894 he was a member of the school committee, and for a part of that period its chairman. He worked intelligently for the betterment of progressive and practical methods of instruction in both his town and county, and was an advocate of a system of manual training in the public schools. In 1886, with others, he instituted and maintained, in Newport, private instruction for boys in woodworking. He served as colonel on the staff of Governor George Peabody Wetmore, from 1885 to 1887, and was a member of the General Assembly of his State from Newport from 1885 to 1887, in 1889 and 1890, and from 1894 to 1896. From 1880 to 1884, he was state commissioner on the affairs of the Narragansett Indians. From 1906-07 he served as a member of Congress from Rhode Island, and later he was national committeeman up to the time of his death. In 1906, at the first election held under the new charter granted the city of Newport, he was elected a member of the representative council from the Third Ward for the one-year term, and at that body’s first meeting was its unanimous choice for the presidency. In 1907 he was again elected to that body for the three-year term. He was a director of the Redwood Library, and at one time its secretary. He was a treasurer of the Newport Hospital, the People’s Library, and the Savings Bank of Newport, and was elected, in 1907, a director of the Newport Water Works to succeed his late father. He died October 19, 1919. He married, on October 16, 1889, Mary Stevens Burdick, and they had eight children: Margaret Burdick, William Paine, Mary Morse, Samuel Sanford, Lilias S., Katharine R., Frances, and Elizabeth. Mrs. Sheffield is still living as are also all her children with the exception of Margaret.
Of these children, William Paine Sheffield, who is third of the name, was born at Newport February 9, 1893. He attended the public schools here, and the St. George School; Phillips Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts; Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, from which he received, in 1915, his degree of Bachelor of Arts; and, for two years, the Harvard Law School. He read law in the office of Sheffield and Harvey, the firm that his father headed, and was admitted to the bar in Rhode Island in 1919. He then became actively associated with Sheffield and Harvey, which, upon his father’s death, in 1919, was converted into a new firm of the same name, Sheffield and Harvey. Mr. Sheffield has continued as a partner in this firm since that time, with offices at No. 223 Thames Street, Newport.
Along with his activities as a lawyer, Mr. Sheffield has been active in numerous business and civic projects. His political faith, like that of his ancestors since the formation of the Republican party, has been with this party organization, on whose ticket he was elected, in 1920, a member of the Newport representative council. He is president, treasurer, and a director of the Newport Electric Corporation; vice-president and secretary of the Colonial Gas and Electric Company; secretary and a director of the Community Hotels Corporation; a director of the Puritan Life Insurance Company of Rhode Island; a trustee of the Savings Bank of Newport; secretary and a director of the Mount Hope Bridge Company; and a director of the Newport Oil Corporation. He was commissioned a second lieutenant on August 15, 1917, when he entered the United States Army as a member of the Field Artillery attached to the 2nd Division, 17th Regiment. For one year he served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and in September, 1918, was transferred to the 70th Field Artillery. He saw active service at Chateau-Thierry and the Aisne-Marne sector, and was discharged, on December 24, 1918, with the rank of first lieutenant. Mr. Sheffield is a vice-president and a member of the Newport Council of the Boy Scouts of America, a trustee of the People’s Library of Newport, the Redwood Library, and the Seaman’s Church Institute. His religious faith is that of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, in which he is a vestryman. Mr. Sheffield is a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, which he joined in his student days, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Newport Lodge, No. 104. He also holds membership in the Newport Post, No. 7, of the American Legion, of which he is a past commander; while he is also past commander of the American Legion of Rhode Island. He is affiliated with the Newport Lions Club; the Miantonomi Club; the Wanumetonomy Golf Club; the Sachuest Golf Club, of which he is at the time of writing (1931) the treasurer; the Ida Lewis Yacht Club; and the Chamber of Commerce of Newport. He is a member of the Rhode Island State Bar Association, the Newport Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.
William P. Sheffield married, on August 17, 1917, Agatha Spoank, daughter of Joseph E. Spoank, who for many years was Judge of Probate Court in Providence. By this marriage there have been the following children: 1. William P., 4th. 2. Edwin S. 3. Richard B. 4. Agatha S.
Source: Carroll, Charles. Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, vol 4 of 4. New York: Lewis historical Pub. Co., 1932.