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Benedict Arnold V was born January 14, 1741 in the home of his parents Hannah Waterman King Arnold and Benedict Arnold IV in Norwich. Benedict Arnold V had an elder brother of the same name who tragically died in infancy. His parents continued with the tradition of repeating the family forename in order to keep four generations of prominent Rhode Island lineage alive.
The family’s homestead transformed from a comfortable, loving environment into a bitter reminder of his mother’s failed dreams, the heartbreaking deaths of his siblings and his family’s financial sufferings. Therefore, with the assistance of his mother’s cousin’s the Lathrop brothers; Benedict Arnold sold the property in 1764 without a second thought and moved to New Haven with his surviving sister Hannah to start a new life away from their painful history in Norwich. Benedict Arnold’s sense of shame over the loss of respect to his family name was something he carried all through his adulthood. He was very sensitive to slights against his name. Benedict Arnold’s decisions in adulthood were influenced by his tragic upbringings in Norwich because Benedict Arnold’s ceaseless goal was to restore honor to his besmirched family name. Ironically, his decisions during the Revolutionary war ensured that his name will forever be immortalized as one of a dishonored traitor.
The family’s homestead transformed from a comfortable, loving environment into a bitter reminder of his mother’s failed dreams, the heartbreaking deaths of his siblings and his family’s financial sufferings. Therefore, with the assistance of his mother’s cousin’s the Lathrop brothers; Benedict Arnold sold the property in 1764 without a second thought and moved to New Haven with his surviving sister Hannah to start a new life away from their painful history in Norwich. Benedict Arnold’s sense of shame over the loss of respect to his family name was something he carried all through his adulthood. He was very sensitive to slights against his name. Benedict Arnold’s decisions in adulthood were influenced by his tragic upbringings in Norwich because Benedict Arnold’s ceaseless goal was to restore honor to his besmirched family name. Ironically, his decisions during the Revolutionary war ensured that his name will forever be immortalized as one of a dishonored traitor.