The 169th Military Police Company traces its lineage to January 1755 as the Artillery Company of Westerly and Charlestown. As such, it is one of the few units of the U.S. Army and Army National Guard which can trace its lineage to before the American Revolution. The company was redesignated in May 1758 as the Artillery Company of Westerly, Charlestown, and Hopkinton. It served in the American Revolution as part of the Rhode Island State Troops which were formed to protect the mainland of Rhode Island following the British occupation of Newport in late 1776. During the American Revolution, the Artillery Company of Westerly and Charlestown most probably formed one of the artillery companies of the Rhode Island state brigade which defended the mainland of Rhode Island from the British who occupied Newport from 1776 to 1779.