Notable Cousin · via the maternal line

Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold V

1741–1801 · Continental Army general whose 1780 plot to surrender West Point to the British made him the most infamous traitor in American history. His treason exposed, he fled to the British, fought against his former country, and died in exile in London — his name a byword for betrayal.

Relationship

Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold V is the 4th cousin, 7 times removed of John, Perry, and Patrick Long.

Through Stukely Westcott (1592–1677), founder of Providence. Arnold descends from Stukely’s daughter Damaris Westcott; the family descends from Stukely’s son Jeremiah Westcott. The kinship is a matter of record, not endorsement — the archive documents it as it documents every other line.

SIDE: MATERNAL · Westcott

Most Recent Common Ancestor

Stukely Westcott (1592–1677)founder of Providence and Warwick; the single shared ancestor connecting Benedict Arnold to the family. This is the single shared ancestor that connects Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold V to John, Perry, and Patrick. FamilySearch PID: 9HZW-SXJ.

Descent Tree

Both lines descending from the most recent common ancestor, Stukely Westcott. The family’s line is the maternal Plantagenet descent documented in full on the Plantagenet Descent page; Research-in-Progress markers flag generations not yet enumerated. Click any PID to open the FamilySearch record.

Via the maternal line — Westcott
MRCA
Stukely Westcott
1592–1677
founder of Providence and Warwick; the single shared ancestor connecting Benedict Arnold to the family
The family’s line
Jeremiah Westcott
1633–1685
Stukely’s son; the direct line
Capt. Josiah Westcott
~1675–1721
Caleb Westcott
1716–1800
Elizabeth Westcott
~1760
Mary Peckham
1792
Fanny P. Harrison
1813–1892
Richmond C. Winter
1839–1912
Fanny Harrison Winter
1869–1914
Rachael Winter Swift
1896
Francis Swift Perry
1923–2011
maternal grandfather; Cape Cod
Carol A. Perry
1952
maternal bridge
GB2W-HXSLIVING
John, Perry & Patrick Long
living
the three brothers
LIVING
Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold V’s line
Damaris Westcott
17th c.
Stukely’s daughter; the Arnold line descends through her. The intermediate generations to Benedict Arnold are documented in the FamilySearch walk but not enumerated here — no PIDs invented.
RESEARCH
Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold V
1741–1801
Continental Army general; defected to the British, 1780

On the Relationship

Benedict Arnold is documented here as a collateral cousin, not celebrated. The kinship runs through Stukely Westcott’s daughter Damaris; it is the same Providence founder from whom the family’s own line descends through his son Jeremiah. Including a traitor in the record is a test of the archive’s standard: document what is true, sanitize nothing.

Sourcing confirmed

VERIFIED on the shared anchor, Stukely Westcott (9HZW-SXJ), and on the family’s own line from Jeremiah Westcott through the Westcott → Peckham → Harrison → Winter → Swift → Perry chain, all enumerated on the Plantagenet Descent page. The Arnold-side descent from Stukely’s daughter Damaris Westcott is documented in the FamilySearch relationship walk but its intermediate generations are not enumerated here, and no identifiers have been invented to fill them. The “4th cousin, 7 times removed” label is the FamilySearch relationship-walk figure, carried verbatim (Rule #87).

Sources

  1. Benedict Arnold — Wikipedia
  2. FamilySearch: Stukely Westcott (9HZW-SXJ)
  3. Internal: Stukely Westcott line
  4. Internal: the full chain on the Plantagenet Descent page