Point Judith, Rhode Island
human settlement in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States
Point Judith is a village and a small cape, on the coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island, United States, on the western side of Narragansett Bay where it opens out onto Rhode Island Sound.
It is the location for the year-round ferry service that connects Block Island to the mainland and contains the fishing hamlet of Galilee.
History
Point Judith was either named for Judith Thatcher or Judith Hull. Judith Thatcher was a passenger on a small vessel with her father when it ran aground on the point and was almost wrecked. Judith is said to have rendered great service and as a result the vessel was saved. In remembrance of this the crew called the point after her name. According to Edmund Quincy's 1874 biography of his father Josiah Quincy, Point Judith was named after Judith Hull by her husband John Hull.
In the mid-17th Century Point Judith was mined by Hull in the search for "black lead", hoping to find silver. Hull was the treasurer and minted coinage for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Unsuccessful with this endeavor, Hull established a business to raise coach horses for sale within New England but also for plantations in Virginia and Barbados.
“Point Judith, Rhode Island” enters the record as human settlement in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Point, Judith and Rhode can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Point Judith, Rhode Island” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Point, Judith and Rhode provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2100774. Authority coordinates are 41.361, -71.481. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1874.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Point Judith, Rhode Island”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Point Judith, Rhode Island primary sources, Point Judith, Rhode Island archive and Point research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Point Judith, Rhode Island”?
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Point Judith, Rhode Island” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.