The attorney general of Rhode Island is the chief legal advisor of the government of the State of Rhode Island and oversees the State of Rhode Island Department of Law. The attorney general is elected every four years. The current attorney general is Peter F. Neronha.[1]
Attorney General of Rhode Island | |
---|---|
Department of Law | |
Style | The Honorable |
Term length | Four years Renewal once |
Constituting instrument | Constitution of Rhode Island, Executive Law |
Formation | 1776 |
First holder | Daniel Updike |
Succession | Election by joint session of Rhode Island General Assembly |
Salary | 130,413 $ (2019) |
Website | www |
In 1643, Roger Williams obtained a patent (charter) from the English Parliament. The towns of Providence and Warwick elected a Chief Officer under the authority of this Parliamentary Patent of 1643. In 1647, the towns of Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and Warwick formed a united colony under the Parliamentary Patent. In May 1650, the offices of "Attorney General for the Colonie" and "Solicitor" were created.
Image | Name | Party | Term of office | Residence |
---|---|---|---|---|
Joseph M. Blake | Law and Order | 1843–1850 | Bristol | |
Walter S. Burges | Democrat | 1851–1853 | Cranston | |
Christopher Robinson | Whig | 1854 | Cumberland | |
Charles Hart | Republican | 1855–1857 | Providence | |
Jerome Kimball | Republican | 1858–1859 | Providence | |
Walter S. Burges | Democrat | 1860–1862 | Cranston | |
Abraham Payne | Republican | 1863–1863 | Providence | |
Horatio Rogers | Republican | 1864–1866 | Providence | |
Willard Sayles | Republican | 1866–1881 | Providence | |
Samuel P. Colt | Republican | 1882–1885 | Bristol | |
Edwin Metcalf | Prohibition | 1886 | Providence | |
Ziba O. Slocum | Democrat | 1887 | Providence | |
Horatio Rogers | Republican | 1888 | Providence | |
Ziba O. Slocum | Democrat | 1889–1890 | Providence | |
Robert W. Burbank | Republican | 1891–1893 | Providence | |
Edward C. Dubois | Republican | 1894–1896 | East Providence | |
Willard B. Tanner | Republican | 1897–1900 | Providence | |
Charles F. Stearns | Democrat | 1901–1904 | Providence | |
William B. Greenough | Republican | 1905–1911 | Providence | |
Herbert A. Rice | Republican | 1912–1922 | Pawtucket | |
Herbert L. Carpenter | Democrat | 1923–1924 | North Smithfield | |
Charles P. Sisson | Republican | 1925–1928 | Providence | |
Oscar L. Heltzen | Republican | 1929–1930 | Providence | |
Benjamin M. McLyman | Republican | 1931–1933 | Providence | |
John P. Hartigan | Democrat | 1933–1938 | Cranston | |
Louis V. Jackvony | Republican | 1939–1940 | Providence | |
John H. Nolan | Democrat | 1941–1949 | Newport | |
William E. Powers | Democrat | 1949–1957 | Cumberland | |
J. Joseph Nugent | Democrat | 1958–1967 | Providence | |
Herbert F. DeSimone | Republican | 1967–1971 | Providence | |
Richard J. Israel | Republican | 1971–1975 | Providence | |
Julius C. Michaelson | Democrat | 1975–1979 | Providence | |
Dennis J. Roberts II | Democrat | 1979–1985 | Providence | |
Arlene Violet | Republican | 1985–1987 | Providence | |
James E. O'Neil | Democrat | 1987–1993 | Narragansett | |
Jeffrey B. Pine | Republican | 1993–1999 | Providence | |
Sheldon Whitehouse | Democrat | 1999–2003 | Providence | |
Patrick C. Lynch | Democrat | 2003–2011 | East Providence | |
Peter Kilmartin | Democrat | 2011–2019 | Pawtucket | |
Peter F. Neronha | Democrat | 2019–present | Jamestown |