52 Ancestors #17: The Outspoken John Greene

Writers suffer from writer’s block and I’m convinced that genealogists suffer from something called ancestry block … that moment when you think the branches and leaves on your family tree are so many that you can’t decide which branch to research next! Okay, I just made that up … but I suffer from this pretty regularly. Then, just like breaking through writer’s block, some little tiny bit of inspiration pops up and … poof! … I’m well on my way to adding more names and information to my tree.

Today’s little nugget of inspiration hit me when I ran across new Quaker records on Ancestry.com … and was able to connect my 10th great grandfather, John Greene. From there, the floodgates opened and I’ve been able to connect more Greene dots while discovering yet another set of ancestors who had large roles to play in the formation of America. Have I ever told you how much I LOVE this stuff??

John Greene was born on February 9, 1597 at Bowridge Hill in Gillingham Parrish, County Dorset, England to Richard and Mary (Hooker) Greene. He hailed from a prominent lineage. The Greene family lived at Bowridge Hill for nearly 100 years prior to John’s emigration to America.

On November 4, 1619, John married Joanne Tattershall at St. Thomas’s Church in Salsbury. Together they had seven children:

• John, Jr (1620-1708, my line)
• Peter (1621-1659)
• Richard (1624-1635)
• James (1626-1698)
• Thomas (1628-1717)
• Joan (1630-1658)
• Mary (1633-1686)

John remained in Salsbury with his family following the profession of a surgeon until 1635 when he, Joanne, and six of their children traveled to America. Richard likely died before they left England.

The Surgeon

I first read “surgeon” and thought, “wow, that must have been something back then”, until I remembered that surgeons ranked below physicians in the 1600s and earned very little money. Surgery as we know it today didn’t really exist then and poor John likely made his living dissecting corpses and performing amputations. This seems an odd profession for someone from such an astute family. Maybe it satisfied a curiosity.

Arrival to America

The Greene family arrived in Boston on the ship James on June 3, 1635. They settled in Salem where John became acquainted with Roger Williams (now, there’s an interesting man!) This friendship leads me to believe that, like Williams, John Greene was a separatist, believing the Church of England corrupt. When Williams fled Salem, John Greene followed. That was probably a smart move, given what we now know about Salem!

John Greene was among the 12 original members of the first Baptist church in America, formed in Providence, Rhode Island. Ultimately, Greene was fined 20lbs for his speaking out against magistrates of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was ordered not to step foot inside the colony again.

The Massachusetts Colonial Records state: 
“John Greene of New Providence fined 20£ and forbidden this jurisdiction on pain of fine and imprisonment for speaking contemptuously of magistrates Sep. 19, 1637.”

 

Rocky Roads

In 1643, he, Samuel Gorton and nine other men bought a tract of land from the Chief of the Narragansett tribe which later became known as Warwick, Rhode Island. In the fall of that same year, settlers were summoned to appear in Massachusetts court, to which they promptly refused. Forty soldiers were then sent from Boston to arrest the settlers, many of whom fled to the surrounding woods and lived with the Indians. John Greene’s second wife, Alice Daniels, died that night.

While many settlers were taken back to Boston, tried and convicted, John Green and his eldest son escaped the persecution. Along with Samuel Gorton, Greene sailed to England where Gorton was able to obtain a royal decree for the settlement from the Earl of Warwick.

Greene was an upstanding citizen of Warwick holding office almost continuously until close to his death in January 1659. He bequeathed nearly all of his land to his eldest son, John, and dispersed the rest of his estate across immediate and extended family. He left 40 shillings to his “beloved friend Mr. Samuel Gorton”.

John Greene’s family went on to become prominent citizens of the American Colonies.