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View Tree for John GreeneJohn Greene (b. February 09, 1596/97, d. January 07, 1658/59)

John Greene (son of Richard Greene and Mary Hooker) was born February 09, 1596/97 in Dorset, England, and died January 07, 1658/59 in Occupassnatuxet (aka Pastuxet, now Warwick), Providence (now Kent) County, Rhode Island. He married (1) Alice Daniels. He married (2) Philippa. He married (3) Joan Tattershall on November 04, 1619 in St. Thomas Church, Salisbury, Eng., daughter of Richard Tattershall and Margaret Fox.

 Includes NotesNotes for John Greene:
1635- Emigrated from Salisbury, England to , Wiltshire, England, then onto Massachusetts
1637- moved to Rhode Island
Assisted in founding Warwick, Rhode Island
Signed document creating the Colony of Rhode Island

From The Family of Greene (c. @ 1900):

John Greene, fourth son of Richard Greene of Bowridge Hill, was born in 1597. He resided for some time at Salisbury, in Wiltshire, where, on November 4, 1619, he married, at St. Thomas' Church, Joan Tattershall, who died in 1643 at Newport or Conanicut. "If she was at Conanicut (as tradition has it), she must have been indebted to the hospitality of the Indians, since Conanicut was sold to William Coddington and others in 1656, thirteen years later, by Caganaquant."
In the Parish Register recording the baptism of his children, he is sometimes called gentleman, and once "Chirurgeon." According to a document still preserved in the Rolls Office, at London, Mr. Greene, described as Surgeon, late of Salisbury, together with his wife and children, took passage for New England in the James of London, which sailed from Southampton in April 1635. This vessel arrived at Boston on the third of June, and Mr. Greene proceeded to Rhode Island and resided at Providence until 1643, when he with twelve others made arrangements for the purchasing of Narraganset from the Indians. His name "does not appear on the Massachusetts Colonial Record in the period intervening between his arrival in Boston and his settlement at Providence;" hence "it is to be presumed that he made no settlement in Boston or elsewhere in Massachusetts; we know, however, that he was at one time in Salem, where he probably was associated with Roger Williams."
The settlement which was made led to hostile aggressions by the Massachusetts authorities, who invaded the plantation, took nearly all the settlers prisoners and subjected them to severe punishment. Mr. Greene's wife sought safety at Conanicut (or Newport), where she died soon after. The following year, Mr. Greene, with other leading men of the plantation, went to England and succeeded in obtaining a just assertion of their right. His troubles with the authorities of the Bay began before the arrival of Samuel Gorton, with whom he was on many subsequent occasions in full sympathy. An account of these bitter controversies cannot here be given, for they extended over many years, and the proceedings of the adverse parties may be regarded in very different lights, according to the point of view of the sympathies of those who read the story.
In Massachusetts, Greene, Gorton, and his companions were regarded, so Captain Edward Johnson tells us in his "Wonder-working Providence, " as "Full gorged with dreadful and damnable errors;" they were charged with speaking contemptuously of magistrates, for which Greene was heavily fined and "Forbidden in this jurisdiction on pain of further fine and imprisonment." Even in Rhode Island some of the party were viewed with suspicion. Among them were Richard Carder, Randall Holden, and Robert Potter, into whose families some of the Greenes subsequently married, as will be seen below. in 1643/3 those just named were "disenfranchised of their privileges and prerogatives, and their names cancelled out of the record."
On the other hand, some who have studied the proceedings of Massachusetts find in John Greene and his companions "that sturdy spirit of freedom which burned in the breasts of so many of our ancestors;" in the reply of Greene to the Legislature of the Bay, wherein he charged them with "usurping the power of Christ over the churches and men's consciences," is discovered on the earliest assertions "of entire and absolute freedom of opinion, in defiance of either secular or ecclesiastical authority."
So far as the questions at issue were theological, they involved powers which the Massachusetts clergy had always exercised with little or no restraint. Opinions which differed from their own they regarded as the rankest heresy; religious toleration was unknown: on the contrary, the people of the Bay, as Chief Justice Story says, "not only tolerated the civil power in the suppression of heresy, but they demanded and enjoyed it." Against this doctrine Greene and his companions strenuously protested.
Not only theological but political questions were involved. The claim to the Narraganset country was a disputed one. Greene and his associates held title by the deed of Shawomet to Miantonomoh, of January 12, 1642; that of Massachusetts was founded on a vote of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, which recognized the titles to be in Plymouth, but authorized Massachusetts to accept it, in case Plymouth, refused it, which she did. Thereupon the authorities of the Bay attempted to drive away their obnoxious neighbors and break up the settlement by force of arms. Greene and his friends regarded this course as tyrannical and a usurpation, and resisted it. The dispute continued for nearly half a century, during which period Rhode Island claimed the territory was heresy by Charter, and Connecticut, by right of conquest. In the end it became a part of Rhode Island. Through the entire struggle "the name of John Greene appears as the undeviating champion of the rights of the latter Colony," for the son of the emigrant, who bore his father's name, followed in his footstep.
It has been stated that while in England Greene married a second wife, Alice Daniels, whom he brought back with him; but Dr. Henry E. Turner, in a monograph of the Warwick (RI) Greenes, says that she was a widow, and was taxed 2s. 6d. in Providence for land held there in 1637 (Col. Rec., I:15), which was some six years before the death of the first wife. Alice died soon, and he married thirdly, Philippa---, who survived him and died March 11, 1687, aged 87. On his return, Mr. Greene fixed his residence at Warwick, the chief town of Narraganset, of which place he was one of the most prominent citizens, and filled the offices of Magistrate and Clerk of Court.
He made his will on the 28th of December, 1658, which was proved on the 7th day of January following. He was buried by the side of his first wife at Conanicut.

Name: John "the Surgeon" Greene
Sex: M
Birth: 9 FEB 1597 in Bowridge Hall, Gillingham, County Dorset, ENGLAND
Death: 7 JAN 1659 in Occupassnatuxet (aka Pastuxet, now Warwick), Providence (now Kent) County, Rhode Island USA
Burial: 9 JAN 1659 Conimicut Farm Cemetery, Warwick, Providence (now Kent) County, Rhode Island USA
Event: Note John GREENE and Joanne TATTERSHALL are my maternal 9th great grandparents.
Event: Note "Dorset, maritime County, on south coast of England; is bounded north by Somerset and Wilts, east by Hants, south by the English Channel, and west by Devon"
Event: Note OCT 1649 Inherited his brother ROBERT's Latin Books (per Robert's Will).
Event: Note 1877 Dr. Henry E. Turner, MD, claims JOHN's father was "Peter of Aukley Hall, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England". (page 4)
Occupation: Surgeon of Salisbury, County of Wilkes, ENGLAND 1 2 3 4 5 6
Immigration: 1635 From England to Boston, Massaschusetts in America, ship JAMES
Immigration: 1644 Removed to ENGLAND and married a 2nd time.
Immigration: 1647 From England to Boston, then to Rhode Island
Christening: 15 AUG 1620 Salisbury, County Wiltshire, ENGLAND
Event: Member 1639 First Baptist Church in America
Event: Age at Death (Facts Pg) 61 years, 11 months, 32 days
Will: 28 DEC 1658 Occupassnatuxet (aka Pastuxet, now Warwick), Providence (now Kent) County, Rhode Island USA; Wit. JOHN WICKES, ANTHONY LOW
Probate: 7 JAN 1659 Occupassnatuxet (aka Pastuxet, now Warwick), Providence (now Kent) County, Rhode Island USA
Event: Name 2 John JOSEPH Greene (not proven)

JOHN GREENE, Surgeon, was the first of my Green ancestors to come to
America. He was the fourth son of Richard and Mary Hooker Green of
Bowridge Hill, Gillingham, County of Dorsetshire, England. John Greene
was born 1590 in England; died in January of 1659 in Warwick, Providence
(now Kent) County, Rhode Island, in the America's; married first in 1619
to JOANNE TATTERSHALL, daughter of Richard and Margaret Fox Tattershall.
He was the Surgeon of Salisbury, County of Wilkes, England. One page 234
of "A Family Genealogy" by William Henry Beck, III, is the following
account of JOHN GREENE (1590-1659):

JOHN GREENE, the pioneer in this country, with his wife and children,
sailed from Southampton on April 16, 1635, on the ship JAMES and landed
in Boston (Massachusetts) on June 3, 1635. They settled in Salem but were
driven out by religious persecutions, and soon after went to Providence
(Rhode Island). Here he was one of the twelve to who Roger Williams
conveyed land in his 'initial deed', thusly called because the men are
mentioned only by their initials, and one of the twelve original members
of the first Baptist Church in Providence. He was of the party who with
Samuel Gorton purchased Shawomet, later called Warwick (Rhode Island),
from the Indians. His is the only name of a white man signed as a witness
to the deed. His own plot, called Occupassnatuxet, more commonly known as
Pastuxet, remained in the family until 1782, when it was bought by
Governor John Francis, whose heirs are still in possession.

In August 1637, he was accused of having spoken contemptuously against
magistrates and stood 'bound in a 100 marks to appear at the next Quarter
Court', by order of the Massachusetts authorities.

In September following, for the same offense, he was fined $20.00 and was
to be committed until the fine was paid, and enjoined not to come into
the jurisdiction of Massachusetts upon pain of fine or imprisonment at
the pleasure of the Court. A few months later the same court of
Massachusetts received a letter from Greene with which he charged the
court with usurping the power of Christ over churches and men's
consciences. The court again ordered him not to come into their
jurisdiction under pain of imprisonment and further censure.

In 1643 came the summons to the Warwick men to appear in Boston to answer
to the complaints of Pomham and Soconoco, 'as to some unjust and
injurious dealing toward them by yourself'. Then soldiers were sent to
bring them by force to Boston, after the accused refused to go, declaring
they were legal subjects of the King of England, and beyond the limits of
Massachusetts authority. On their arrival, there was a parley during
which the officers declared that the Warwick settlers 'held blasphemous
errors of which they must repent' or go to Boston for trial. Greene
escaped capture but was banished like the rest.

After Joanne's death in 1643, John Greene returned to England and
remarried. Three years later, however, when he and Gorton returned from
England, he had the satisfaction of landing in Boston, justified by the
King of England.

Like others of this company of Shawomet settlers, Greene held responsible
positions under the charter and was magistrate, assistant member of the
town council, representative in the assembly, and commissioner from 1654
to 1657.

John Greene died in Warwick (Rhode Island) in January of 1659.

"REF.: -- COLONIAL FAMILY OF AMERICA by McKenzie. Volumes I and 2, Pages
209 and 198." Paper arranged by Miss Mary A. Greene, Providence, Rhode
Island USA.



More About John Greene:
Burial: Conanicut, RI, Warwick.

More About John Greene and Joan Tattershall:
Marriage: November 04, 1619, St. Thomas Church, Salisbury, Eng..

Children of John Greene and Joan Tattershall are:
  1. John Greene, b. August 15, 1620, d. November 27, 1708.
  2. Peter Greene, b. March 03, 1620/21, d. Abt. 1659.
  3. Richard Greene, b. March 20, 1623/24.
  4. James Greene, b. June 14, 1626, d. April 27, 1698.
  5. +Thomas Greene, b. June 01, 1628, Salisbury, County Wiltshire, England, d. June 05, 1717, Warwick, Providence County, RI.
  6. Joan Greene, b. October 03, 1630.
  7. Mary Greene, b. May 12, 1633.
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