Richard Ward Greene (January 21, 1792 – March 14, 1875), was an American attorney, having graduated from Brown University and having studied law at Litchfield College and under Boston lawyer Ebenezer Rockwell. He was appointed U.S. attorney for Rhode Island in 1826 and also served in both houses of the state legislature. In May 1848 was elected as Chief Justice of the

Rhode Island Supreme Court The Rhode Island Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the U.S. State of Rhode Island. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, all selected by the Governor of Rhode Island from candidates vetted by the Judicial N ...

. He resigned on June 14, 1854. His nephew, Albert Collins Greene, was a

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

. His uncle was the Revolutionary War General,

Nathanael Greene Nathanael Greene (June 19, 1786, sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most talented and dependa ...

. Born at Potowomut, Rhode Island, Greene was the son of Christopher Greene and Deborah Ward. He married Katherine Celia Greene on November 12, 1851. He died on March 14, 1875, in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. In his will he left (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

)$75,000 to the

Methodist Episcopal The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

Sunday Schools.

References

Justices of the Rhode Island Supreme Court Greene, Richard W. Politicians from Warwick, Rhode Island Rhode Island lawyers 1792 births 1875 deaths 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers Brown University alumni Greene family of Rhode Island {{RhodeIsland-state-judge-stub