High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Cranston (1625–1680) was a colonial physician, military leader, legislator, Deputy Governor and Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations during the 17th century. Being sent to New England as a boy, he was put under the care of Jeremiah Clarke, who became an early President of the colony, and he eventually married Clarke`s daughter, Mary. Elected a drummer in the militia of Portsmouth while a teenager, Cranston had several military positions of authority throughout his life, and during King Philip`s War was the first member of the Rhode Island Militia to hold the rank of major (not, as some sources state, major-general), in charge of all of the colony`s militia companies. He also became a physician and surgeon, being granted a license to practice by the General Assembly, and considered a great blessing to the colony.