Mr. Herreshoff was survived for many years by his wife, who was a woman of great culture and unusual attainments. She had been given the best educational advantages by her father, Mr. Brown, and was a very accomplished musician. She played in particular the piano-forte and, indeed, was well known as a most brilliant performer. She was also very much of an astronomer and found great pleasure in the study of this science during the many years in which she was a widow. She was the very model of the best type of the New England gentlewomen who, although delicate of constitution, yet possess an extraordinary degree of strength and who, in the management of their households, display an amount of practical capability which has become proverbial. Her presence is described as having been austere and she was exact and methodical in all her occupations. She read extensively and her literary excursions led her into many various realms. Her husband's circumstances were such that is was unnecessary for her to do much work, and she was enabled to gratify her love of music and literature to the fullest. Her death occurred on August 2, 1846, at Bristol, R. I.
Mrs. Herreshoff was a member of a very old and distinguished New England family, which had been identified with the history of that region since the earliest Colonial period. It was founded in this country by Chad Brown, who came to Boston on the good ship 'Martin' in 1638. He was exiled from Massachusetts, where he had settled, on account of his religious beliefs, and became one of the original proprietors of the Providence purchase. He was ordained in 1642 the first settled pastor of the Baptist church of Providence. As a clergyman he was only less famous than Roger Williams.
(the above is from "The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: Biographical", by the American Historical Society, Inc., 1920, volume 6)