North Kingstown’s Chafee Nature Preserve, also known as Rome Point, was originally named for English debt collector George Rome. He came to the area in 1761 to convince Newport-based debtors to honor their debts back in England. One of the bankruptcy debts auctioned off was the area now known as Rome Point, which George Rome himself purchased in order to build a grand summer estate.
Rome was sympathetic to the Tories, a fact discovered by Benjamin Franklin when he intercepted a packet of Rome’s correspondence, which he then released to the colonies. Rome was arrested in North Kingstown and his land holdings seized. Rome himself fled the area on his release and sought sanctuary aboard the British warship HMS Rose.
The estate Rome built is long gone, but his land was donated back to the state in 2001, at which time the nature preserve was built on 200 waterfront acres. The preserve is a popular winter destination for seal watching along the shore.
