Construction
The tower is located at the upper end of the plot behind the now-demolished mansion built by Benedict Arnold, the first colonial governor of Rhode Island, who moved from Pawtuxet to Newport in 1651 (not to be confused with his great-grandson, General Benedict Arnold of the American Revolutionary War.) In 1677 Arnold mentions "my stone built Wind Mill" in his will: the site for his then-new burying-ground, which survives to this day, is between this mill and his mansion. The phrase has therefore generally been accepted as referring to the Newport Tower, and is evidence the tower was once used as a windmill.
An illustration from the British "Penny Magazine", published in 1836 (shown at right), revealed to the Americans that the tower is of a similar type to Chesterton Windmill, a 17th-century mill near Chesterton, Warwickshire, England. The notion that Arnold was born in Leamington, Warwickshire, only a few miles from Chesterton, is mistaken: the family lived near Limington in Somerset, about 100 miles away. However, Chesterton windmill stands on a ridge within half a mile of one of the main southwest–northeast roads of early modern Britain, which also runs past Limington, and it is entirely plausible that Arnold, or another colonist in a position to influence the design of his "stone built windmill", would have seen it. One such candidate is George Lawton, who was born in 1607 about 30 km from Chesterton and is thought to have built several mills in the area. 'Georg Lawtons Mill' is mentioned in a 1668 document as being on the current Newport Mill Street.
Various authors have suggested that comparable Mediaeval buildings can be found in Europe; in particular the Orphir Round Church on Orkney built in Scotland around 1115 and the round churches on the Danish island of Bornholm such as Østerlars Church dating from around 1160.
Read more about this topic: Newport Tower (Rhode Island)
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