| Notes |
- DESCENDANT of the Greenes of Greene's Norton, County Northampton, John Greene, came over from Salisbury, County Wilts, to Boston, in I635- His ancestry is traced back to Robert Greene of Gillingham (I545). " Sir Bernard Burke states that this John Greene was a companion of Roger Williams and a party to the Providence purchase from the Indians. A family; tombstone in the King's Chapel Burial Ground, Boston, shows the same devices; as does also the book-plate of Gardiner Greene (b. I 753), who married a sister of Lord Lyndhurst.
" The crest A is that found on the tombstone The family uses more generally the crest B. " Crests: A. A dove holding a sprig of olive. B. A buck's head, erased, or " Motto: Nec Timco itCC Sper1lo"; [also Virtus semper viridis]. (Am. Heraldica, p. 58, edited by E. de V. Vermont. Brentano Bros., I 886.)
FIRST GENERATION.
1. JOHN GREENE, surgeon, the progenitor of the Warwick Greenes, was the son of Richard and Mary (Hooker) Greene, and was born on his father's estate at Bowridge Hill in the parish of Gillingham, County Dorset, England. about I590. ' Though not so recorded, dates before and after him would seem to determine this is the year of his birth.(1)
(1) ((Concerning the birth of John Greene, surgeon, General Greene made the following ingenious calculation when ninety-five years of age: "Morristown, N. J., November 30, 1896 Anne. the youngest child of Richard and Mary (Hooker) Greene of Bowridge Hill, was baptized at GiIlingham, 31 August, 1595. I suppose that Peter, their oldest child, was 20 years old in 1665 when his first child was born (which would make Peter's birth-date 1585). There are six intervals between Peter and Anne; time, 10 years or 120 months. These 120 months divided by 6 give intervals of 20 months. Then the three intervals between Peter and John, surgeon, would 60 months or 5 years, which, added to the birth-date of Peter (1585) would be 1590, the probable] date of birth of John. surgeon." (It is not likely that he was born at an earlier date, as this would have him twenty-nine years of age at the time of his marriage, 1619.) There was one error in the above calculation,--the omission of one child,--which error General Greene discovered and corrected, making seven intervals (between Peter and Anne) of 17 1/2 months, which difference, however. did not materially change the conclusion reached as to the approximate birth date of John Greene, surgeon, 1590. COMPILER.))
His father, Richard, grandfather Richard, and great-grandfather, Robert, had for nearly one hundred years before him resided at Bowridge Hill, and were undoubtedly a branch of the Northamptonshire family of Greene through a younger son. General Francis Vinton Greene, in his Introduction to that choice volume, A Photographic Facsimile from the Original Volumes of Halstead's Genealogies Pertaining to the House of Greene, states: "The antecedents (immediate) of this Robert Greene have not yet been traced with certainty, but it seems probable that he was descended from a younger branch of the powerful and wealthy family of Greenes of Northamptonshire," thereby coinciding with the conclusion reached by his honored father, General George Sears Greene, after many years of patient research. The mother of John Greene, surgeon, Mary Hooker, was the daughter. of John Hooker (alias Vowell), who was born at Exeter, England, about I524, his father, Robert Hooker, having been mayor of that city in I520. His parents died when he was about ten years old. His early education was acquired under Dr. Moseman, Vicar of Menhussin in Cornwall, and he afterward studied law at Oxford. Later he travelled in Germany and resided some time in Cologne and Strasburg, where he was the guest of Peter Martyne and attended the divinity lectures of that learned Reformer. He returned to England and after a short stay went to France, intending to extend his travels to Spain and Italy, but was prevented by the war. Returning to his native country he settled in Exeter, and was chosen first chamberlain of that city, 1555. He devoted himself after this to the study of history and antiquities. In 1568 was a member of the Irish Parliament, and in 1571 was one of the members of the English Parliament from Exeter (Wood). Price says he died I60I (?), when about eighty years of age, and was buried in Exeter Cathedral, but had no monument. He was the author of several works, among them: " State of Ireland and Order of keeping a Parliament in that Country," the same being found in the British Museum under title, " Order and Usage of keeping Parliament in England" (MS. Harl., II73, vol. I9). (From History of Devonshire, by Rev. Thomas Moore, vol. ii. p. I 25 ,.) John Hooker was uncle to the celebrated divine, Richard Hooker, Rector of Bascombe, County Wilts, 1591, and Prebendary of Sarum. John Greene removed early to Sarum (Salisbury), the county town of Wiltshire,(2)
(2)((Leland's Itinerary (pp. 7-8, 31) gives the following: 'The city of Old Saresbyri standing on an hill is distant from the New a mile by north weste and d is in compace half a mile and mo. This city has been ancient and exceeding strong but syns the building of New Saresbyri it went totally to ruin. . . . In times of civile wars--insomuch as the castellanes of Old Saresbyri and the chanons could not agree, whereupon the bishop and they consulting together at the last began a church on their own proper soyle and then the people resorted strangers to New Saresbyrie and builded there and in continuance were a great numbre of the houses of old Saresbyri pulled down and set up at New Saresbyri." Thomas,s Church was built as a Chapel of Ease to the Cathedral by Bishop Bingham in the Year (?). It was dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was martyred in the reign of King Henry Il., and is said to be in some respects more beautiful than the Cathedral. In the (?) with the living in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral. )) and was there married at St. Thomas's Church,' November 4, I6I9, to Joanne Tattershall (or, as it was written on the church register, "Tatarsole''. Nothing is definitely known of her English connections. The name is frequently, found in early records among post-mortem examinations, parliamentary writs, and charters, and is variously written Tatersall, Tateshall, Tatershal, and Tattershall. The first of the family of whom we have mention came in with William the Conqueror and obtained the lordship of Tattershall in Lincolnshire, where he seated himself and from which he took his surname. His descendants were seated in Berkshire and Northamptonshire, and were held in high repute. It is probable that other branches located in other counties, and it is not improbable to suppose that Joanne wife of John Greene, who emigrated to America from Salisbury, County Wilts, was a connection of the family of George Tattershall, who was seated at Stapleford, County Wilts, which is about five miles distant from Salisbury home; but as yet this relationship has not been proved. The following note, recently received by the compiler in answer to an inquiry about records at Stapleford, may be of interest in this connection:
STAPLEFORD VICARAGE, SALISBURY, October I 8, I 900. Madam: I have received your letter of the 25th September, but say that I cannot help you in your research, as the Stapleford register begins only with the year I637. J. F. D. Hoernle, " Vicar of Stapleford. "
Joanne Tattershall's marriage date was I6I9, eighteen years earlier.] marriage of John Greene and the baptisms of all his seven children, recorded in the Parish Register of St. Thomas's Church at Salisbury, England.. He is therein styled " Mr." and " Gent.," a mark of some distinction on at that date.(3)
(3)(( John Greene received by will from his brother Richard, Clerk of the Close of Salisbury Cathedral April 28, 1614, half of his Latin books, the other half being given to his brother, Robert, who by will October 20, 1649, gave them also to his brother John Greene in New England if he come after them' The possession of these Latin books by three brothers indicates that they were of an educated family. Mr. Greene in the Baptismal and Marriage Records at Salisbury was (?) Mr. or Gent.,' denoting his social position."--G. S. G.)) He resided at Salisbury with his family, following his profession, for about sixteen years. On April 6, I635, he was registered for embarkation at Hampton, England (see Appendix II.), with his wife and six children (one having probably died in England before this date), " in the ship James, of 200 tons, William Cooper, Master, for New England." .After a voyage of fifty-eight days he arrived at Boston, Mass., June 3, I635. He first settled at Salem, Mass., where he was associated with Roger Williams. purchasing or building a house there, but soon after Mr. Williams's flight from Salem (I636) he sold it and, joining Williams at Providence, secured his home lot. No. I 5, on the main street. He was one of eleven men baptized by Roger Williams, and one of the twelve original members of the first Baptist church on this continent, organized at Providence, R. I. He was the first professional medical man in Providence Plantations. He is alluded to in Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic (p. 407) as " one of the two local surgeons " at Providence in I638, though we are told " the people of Providence relied solely upon him for surgical aid long after his removal to Warwick in I643." His first wife, Joanne Tattershall, the mother of all his children. died soon after his removal to Rhode Island and it is supposed was buried at Conimicut, Old Warwick (?). He married (2) " Ailsce (Alice) Daniels. a widow" (recorded as proprietor of a home lot in Providence, 1637)(see below). They removed to Warwick, I642-3. At the time of the persecution of the Shawomet pioneers (October, 1643), when " forty mounted and, armed men, sent from Boston to arrest them, fired over their houses, the women and children fled to the woods. Fright and exposure caused the death of the (second) wife of John Greene. (It seems more-probable that this was the wife who was buried at Conimicut.) Samuel Gorton wrote of this attack of the Massachusetts troops: " Afflicting our wives and children, forcing them to betake themselves some into the woods among the Indians. suffering such hardships as occasioned the death of divers of them, as the wife of John Greene. as also the wife of Robert Potter." Judge Staples, in Annals of Providence, mentions the fact that the second marriage of John Greene was not recorded, but he found evidence in Probate Records, where mention is made of the son of Alice Daniels as "John Greene's stepson" Evidence of this marriage is also given in the following item: In the division of 52 House lots John Greene senior Had lot between Thomas James on the North and John Smith on the South, and he inherited the lot of Alice Daniels his second wife between Wm. Harris on the North and John Sweet on the South" (Rhode Island Colonial Records (Printed), vol. i.,p. 24) In files. City Clerk's office, Providence, is a book containing " A revised List of Lands and Meadows as they were originally lotted for the beginning of the Plantations of Providence in the Narragansett Bay in New England unto the [then] inhabitants of the said Plantations until anno I6--." First in order are the "home lots," beginning at the Mile-end Cove, south end of town, between Fox Point and Wickenden Streets, lots all bounded by Town (Main) Street on the west and by what is now Hope Street on the east. The name of Alice Daniels is found on this list. Mr. Greene was married (3) in London, England, about 1644, to Phillippa (always written Phillip), who returned with him to Warwick, R. I., 1646. Her family name is not known. She died at Warwick, March II, I687, aged about eighty-seven years, having survived her husband for nearly thirty years(4)
(4)((Mrs. Phillip Greene, widow, deeded to her stepson, Major John Greene, all her houses and lands for maintenance, etc., in 1668, twenty years before her death, Her will described the locality of the John Greene homestead, which description exactly coincides with that given in the will of Peter Greene. son of John, surgeon. (See notes of General Greene on Warwick Records, Appendix II )) '
In further support that his third wife was from London we quote the words of Samuel Gorton, who, in a letter from Warwick addressed " to Edward Calverly at his house by the east end of Christ Church in Newgate Market, London," and dated November 20, I649, wrote of this last wife of John Greene: " Your auld neighbor, our loving friend, Mrs. Greene, hath writ a letter of advise to you (which) made me laugh not a little, which I heartily wish may come to your hands. She laies out the benefights of these parts better than I could have advised to have done. She takes well with the country and cheerfully performs her place (part), hath the love of all, non can open their mouth against her, which is a rare thing in these parts." John Greene, surgeon, was a prominent man in the public affairs of the town and Colony and enjoyed the confidence and respect of his associates through a long and active political life, holding office almost continuously until the summer before his death, when he refused to accept the office of Commissioner, being repeatedly urged thereto. A few months later, the General Court of Massachusetts at the request of Edward Rawson, Secretary of the Colony (whose wife was Rachel Perne, daughter of John Greenes sister, Rachel), granted him permission to visit Boston in the coming spring, but he did not live to accomplish this visit. He died and was buried at Conimicut, Warwick, it is supposed beside his first wife ( ?) in the first week of January, I659.
Although John Greene must have been in Providence as early as April 27, I637, as mentioned in a letter of Joshua Verin of that date ("we six which came first"), and when "the first portions of grass & meadow were appropriated to Throckmorton, Greene, Harris, Verin, Arnold, and Williams," June 10 I637, (see Rhode Island Colonial Records (Printed), vol. i, p. I7), his name is not mentioned on Massachusetts records till August I, I637 " Mr. John Greene of New Providence bound to Quarterly Court first Tuesday of seventh month next for speaking contemptuously of magistrates in I00 marks" (Massachusetts Colonial Records, i., p. 200). On which account taken as follows: "John Greene of New Providence fined 20? and forbidden this jurisdiction on pain of fine and imprisonment for speaking contemptuously of magistrates Sep. I9, I637" (Massachusetts Colonial Records, i., p. 203). John Greene, feeling the injustice of the magistrates, wrote a letter concerning which the following entry was made, March I2, I638: "A letter was sent to the Court by John Greene dated New Providence, wherein the Court was charged with usurping the power of Christ over the churches and men's consciences, and it was then ordered (March I2, I638) that he should not come within their jurisdiction, " ' etc. The late Henry E. Turner, M.D., of Newport, in The Greenes of Warwick in Colonial History (p. 7), writes: " However insignificant in the aggregate of historical items this transaction may appear, it was one of the earliest assertions of entire and absolute freedom of opinion in defiance of either secular or ecclesiastical authority, and was one of the scintillations from the profound which aided to kindle the flame which is now lighting the world in its march to universal emancipation, and it seems to me to entitle John Greene to a high place among the apostles of fine thought." In all transactions in Warwick, John Greene was a prominent figure,"enjoying fully the confidence of his fellow citizens and suffering in common with them from the machinations of their enemies in Mass.," inasmuch as, though he escaped imprisonment(5)
(5)((During these persecutions of Gorton and his companions, John Greene was not arrested by the Massachusetts Bay authorities. Possibly this was due to the influence of Edward Rawson, Secretary of Massachusetts Bay Colony, who had married a niece of John Greene, surgeon. The warrant for the arrest of John Greene. surgeon, and his son John was never executed--G. S. G.))
he was with them under the ban of oulawry by name, and was forced to submit to interference with and destruction of his property. In "Letters from the Pawtuxet," by Henry Rousmaniere, on "Genealogy of the Greenes, published in the Providence Journal, May, I859, mention is made of John Greene as "This Adam of Shawomet [Warwick], who was driven out of Massachusetts, not Paradise, for the great crime of obeying his conscience in religion," and " who left to his family a fair name and a large landed estate." His will was dated December 28, I658, and proved January 7, 1659. He left his large estate to his descendants, much of the property being still in the possession of his posterity.
POLITICAL RECORD OF JOHN GREENE, SURGEON.
August 8, I647. Member of first Town Council of Warwick, R. I. February 26, I648. Commissioner (Representative of Warwick in General Assembly) May 7, I649. Magistrate in Court of Trials at Warwick. June 4, I649. Assistant. July 2, I649. Member of Town Council. October 26, 1650, May 8, 1655, October 6, 1656, and August 9, 1657 )commissioner He is mentioned in Col. Rec., R. I., pp. 241, 278, 304, 325, 326, 337, 354; "Commissioner, 1652, 1654, 1657, Magistrate, 1656."
JOHN GREENE
CHILDREN BY FIRST MARRIAGE ONLY: John, bap. August 15, 1620, married Anne Almy. Peter, bap. March 10 1621-2, married Mary Gorton. Richard, bap. March 25, 1624, died young (probably in England). James, bap. June 21, 1626, married (1) Deliverance Potter; (2) Elizabeth Anthony. Thomas, bap. June 4, 1628, married Elizabeth Barton. Jone, bap. October 3, 1630, married John Hade. Mary, bap. may 19, 1633, married James Sweet.
ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH IN THE CITY OF SALISBURY, WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND. EXTRACT FROM THE PARISH REGISTER, WHICH BEGINS 1570. MARRIED .
I6I9, November 4, John Greene mar. to Joane Tatarsole.
BAPTIZED.
1620, August 15, John ye sonn of John and Joane Greene. 1621-2, March 10, Peter the sonn of John and Joane Greene. 1624, March 25, Richard, the son of Mr. John and Mrs. Joan Greene. I626, 1626, June 21, James, of Mr. John and Mr.is Joane Greene. 1628, June 4, Thomas, sonne of John and Joane Greene, gent'm. 1630, Oct. 3, Jone daur. of John and Jone Greene. 1633, May I9, Mary of John and Jone Greene, Chirurgeon The above John Greene, chirurgeon, and Joane Tatarsole settled in Warwick, R. I., and were ancestors of the Warwick Greenes.
(Greene's of the World Ultimate Family Tree)
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1597 - 1658 (60 years)
