Joseph Sheffield (1661–1706) was an inhabitant of Portsmouth in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations during the last half of the 17th century. He held a number of important offices within the colony, including Deputy, Assistant and Attorney General. He is most noted for being selected as Rhode Island's agent to England on two occasions, but never appears to have served in that role due to the indecision of the General Assembly. He played a prominent role in the affairs of the colony during an extremely turbulent time, when Rhode Island was threatened with losing its charter due to "irregularities" perceived by the English Board of Trade. Sheffield died at the age of 44, leaving a widow and several minor children. Life Born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island on 22 August 1661, Joseph Sheffield was the son of Ichabod Sheffield and Mary Parker. His father had been baptized 23 December 1630 in St. Peter's in Sudbury, Suffolk, England, the son of Edmund and Thomazin Sheffield. After living in Portsmouth, his father moved to Dover, New Hampshire, but returned to Newport, Rhode Island, and was buried in the Clifton Burying Ground there. Joseph Sheffield is first found in the public record in 1684 when he was made a freeman of the colony, at the age of 23. He first began his public service 12 years later when he was selected as both a Deputy and an Assistant under Governor Samuel Cranston, serving in the latter role for seven years between 1696 and 1705. Sheffield was active during a critical time in Rhode Island's history, when the colony was being accused of numerous irregularities, and when it came the closest to losing its broad freedoms under the Royal Charter of 1663. The colony's irregularities were being feverishly documented by Lord Bellomont, who had collected volumes of documentary evidence. The feeling of the home government was expressed in a letter of August 1699 written by the Board of Trade in reply to a letter written by Governor Cranston in May. The language was very severe, blaming the colony, among other things, for sending only an abstract of the laws when a full copy was required. To address this deficiency, in October 1699 Sheffield and six others were appointed to make returns of the laws to satisfy the Earl of Bellomont's requests. In December 1699 a fair copy of the laws and acts