Browne, Brown or just whitewash?

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JohnR

Browne, Brown or just whitewash?

Legg inn av JohnR » 28 jan 2006 08:16:08

Has anyone done any work on a dubious line which runs:

Sir Anthony Brown (1500-1548)=Alys Gage
Thomas Brown =
Thomas Brown =
John Brown b. 1584 = Dorothy Beauchamp
James Brown, Mary Brown, John Brown b. 1627

I seem to have first got this from Cutter's New England Families, but I
can't find a primary source that mentions Tommy Sen. and Jnr. and I
suspect the hand of a fiction writer in this tale.

John Rees

JohnR

Re: Browne, Brown or just whitewash?

Legg inn av JohnR » 01 feb 2006 18:36:15

I am posting this article I was kindly sent by Carl Boyer on the Brown
affair. I did rather like the line offered by Cutter for it was a nice
royal line but I must be content to remain a peasant. It is for that
reason that I cannot paraphrase Mr. Boyer's article.

BROWN OF PLYMOUTH AND WANNAMOISETT

As might be imagined, the genealogy of the Brown families of
Bristol Counties, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, presents some complex
problems. While the second line below, Brown of Rehoboth, is supposed
to be linked to the first (according to the genealogy of the Bosworth
family and to The Carpenter Memorial), the precise relationship has not
been proven.
Mr. John1 Browne, Gentleman, and his descendants have been the
subject of research published by the compiler in 1973 under the title,
Bristol Browns, and in a new edition, in 1981, as part of volume one of
New England Colonial Families. The section below was originally based
on an abridgement of that text (in which will be found the references),
with additions from more recently published journal articles and
correspondence.
It has been said that on 19 May 1668 Mr. James2 Browne, below,
used an armorial seal on a deed, the seal described as "A lion
rampant debruised by a bend, chequy, in sinister chief point a
crescent," similar to the arms of the Browns of Cheshire. The
compiler has not seen the deed, or found a reliable source for this
statement.
LDS film #538519, a series of family group records, contains an
entry which indicates that Mr. John1 Browne, below, was identical with
John Thomas Brown, born in Inkelborrow, Worcestershire, England about
1584, and that he married in Leyden, Holland, about 1618, Dorothy
Gowsey. John Thomas Brown was allegedly the son of James Brown, born
1552, who was son of Thomas Brown, who was born in Pittenweem,
Austruther, Fife, Scotland. Thomas was alleged to be son of John
Brown, born Pittenweem in 1500, who married 4 Feb. 1526 Beatrix
Leermouth of Pittenweem. The source of this data was given as
"Scottish Rec. Soc. and Index to Geneal. Material," Newberry
Library, Chicago, citing part 10, page 238, and Genealogical and
Personal Memoirs of Massachusetts, 2:1326. A check of the original
records may allow an absolute denial that such a line is relevant.
The John Browne who was born in Roxwell in Kent, in 1584, came to
Massachusetts Bay with his brother Samuel, but they were shipped back
to England on the Talbot, arriving home before 16 Sept. 1629 [French,
MQ, 49:110].
A John Browne was admitted freeman in Boston in 1627 on the
condition he pay £5, with William Coddington. In May 1629 Timothy
Hatherly and James Shirley (a finan-cial backer of the Pilgrims) had
written from Bristol to Gov. Bradford of Plymouth. French asks
["Decade," 2] if there had been a connection between Hatherly and
Browne in Maine. He questions whether Hatherly might have taken the
Speedwell to America between May and Sept. He also notes that Thomas
Willett came to America in 1629.
The John1 Brown who came to America aboard the Lyon, William
Pierce, Master, in 1632, leaving from London on the 22nd of June and
arriving in Boston twelve weeks later, with wife Dorothy, was said by
Robert C. Anderson to be of Watertown, Mass. Bay, and had children
Hannah, born 9 Sept. 1634, and Mary, born 24 March 1636/7 [R.C.
Anderson, Great Migration Begins, 1:255-257]. However, this
supposition by Anderson is based on only two factors: some other
passengers on the Lyon went to Watertown, and John of Watertown was the
only known person of the name in Massachusetts Bay at the time. A John
Brown was baptized in Hawkedon in Suffolk, in 1601 (a nephew of Abram
Browne and relative of Richard Browne), he died at Watertown in 1636.
Charles Edward Banks [Planters of the Commonwealth, 100] listed
John1, Dorothy, John2, Mary, James and William Browne as passengers on
board the Lyon, but at best this is an educated guess.
A John Browne, "aged 40," sailed from England on board the
Elizabeth with William Stagg as the Master, under a certificate of
conformity dated 17 April 1635 with James Walker, 15, and Sarah Walker,
17. The Walkers were relatives to Mr. John1 Browne (the "Widow
Walker," whose name last appeared 18 Feb. 1646/7, was his sister
[French, MQ, 50:5], but the John Browne on board the Elizabeth was
another person altogether, having been born about 1595 and having been
listed as a baker. The Walkers were being sent "to the care of John
Browne," not "in the care of" [French, MQ, 49:110].
Mr. John1 Browne, Gentleman, who lived briefly in Duxbury, has
been confused with John1 Browne of Duxbury, weaver, the latter a
brother of Peter1 Browne, Mayflower passenger [McFarland, NEHGR, 140
(1986), 331-332], who is known not to have been a Leiden Separatist
[E.A. Stratton, Plymouth, 255], and whose inventory was taken 10 Oct.
1633 [MD, 1:79]; Peter had married first, in 1626, Martha Ford, and
second, about 1630 Mary [TAG, 42:41].
John1 Browne, weaver (who died by 1684, having married 26 March
1634 [Plymouth Colony Records, 1:26] Phebe Harding, and left a daughter
Remember, who married about 1668 Josiah Wormall) of Duxbury, was
probably the man of the name listed as taxed in Plymouth in 1633 and
1634 for 9/- each year, the lowest amount assessed, as Mr. John1 Browne
had a large estate. Mr. John1 Browne was a shipbuilder in Plymouth
Colony at least as early as 1647.
Robert L. French's article, "John Browne of Plymouth Colony,
Obstructionist and Libertarian," MQ, 49 (1983):109, 161, and 50
(1984):5, 57, noted in Eugene Aubrey Stratton's Plymouth Colony, Its
History and People, 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 1986),
253-254, was a major source of material additional to the third edition
of Ancestral Lines. Neil D. Thompson told the compiler in 1996 that he
was researching the question of John1 Browne's alleged marriage to
Dorothy Beauchamp.
On 30 April 2000 Robert L. French of 479 Angell Hill Road,
Chatham, NY 12037-2003, wrote to the compiler, enclosing a copy of
"John Browne of Plymouth Colony, a Decade's Progress," written in
1996. He said that he has submitted the article to the Mayflower
Quarterly, that it has not been printed, and that R.C. Anderson does
not accept his theses.
1. Mr. JOHN1 BROWNE, Gentleman, was born in England, perhaps
about 1580. He died in Swanzey, then part of Rehoboth, Plymouth
Colony, 10 April 1662. His will, dated 7 April 1662, was proved twelve
days later.
It has been suggested that he was the John Browne licensed to
marry at St. James Clerkenwell, London, 28 Dec. 1611, DOROTHY
BEAUCHAMP. His wife Dorothy died in Swansea 27 Jan. 1673/4, aged 90
years [Shurtleff's Plymouth Records, 8:48], and was buried on 29 Jan.
Her will, dated 17 Dec. 1668 and proved 29 March 1674, mentioned
daughter Mary Willett and her children, Sarah Elliott, daughter of
Sarah Elliott deceased, son James Brown, grandson John Browne and his
brothers Nathaniel and Joseph, granddaughter Dorothy Browne,
daughter-in-law Dorothy Browne, daughter-in-law Lydia Browne, and
granddaughters Lydia and Anna Browne [MD, 18:94]. Two children of John
and Dorothy (Beauchamp) Browne were baptized at St. James', namely
Edward on 19 July 1620, and Rebecca on 30 May 1622. However, none of
the known children of Mr. John Browne of Wannamoisett were found there.
John Browne was associated with Edmund Freeman of Sandwich, and
Edmund's brother-in-law in England, John Beauchamp, who was a native
of Cosgrove, Northamptonshire [French, MQ, 50:60; French, "A
Decade's Progress," 9], son of Dorothy Clarke of Roade, Northants.
John Beauchamp went to London. He was married to Alice Freeman, who
might have been a cousin of that Alice (Freeman) (Thom[p]son) Parke who
was daughter of Henry and Margaret (Edwards) Freeman and descended from
King Ethelred II the Unready of England (who died in 1016) [Roberts'
Royal Desc. of 500 Immigrants, 436]. According to French, Alice
(Freeman) Thompson's daughter Martha married John2 Browne.
Martha's sister Bridget Thompson was said by French ["Decade," 9]
to have married George Denison, whose daughter by his second wife was
the Margaret Denison who married James3 Brown.
Robert French [MQ, 50:60-61; "Decade"] believed that Dorothy
Beauchamp's family had their origins in Northamptonshire. The Rev.
Robert Browne (of the "Brownists"), who was born in Tolethorpe in
Rutland, died in Northamptonshire. Robert's relative and protector,
William Cecil, lord Burghley, was prominent in Stamford, two miles from
Tolethorpe, and was great-great-grandfather of Frances (Wray) Vane,
whom John Browne went to England to visit; she was the niece of Sir
John Wray who was jailed for failure to collect the ship loan of King
Charles I. Thus French believed that the Rev. Robert Browne and John1
Browne were related to Albinia Cecil, who was Frances Wray's mother.
Robert Browne was descended from Christopher Browne, Sheriff of
Rutlandshire (in 1492, 1500 and 1509), who died in 1518, and whose son
Edmund Browne married Joan Cecil, daughter of Lord Burghley's
grandfather by his second wife. A John Browne was merchant of the
staple at Calais and Alderman of Stamford in Lincolnshire in 1376 and
1377. Thomas Blore's Browne genealogy chart [History and Antiquities
of the County of Rutland, 1811-1913, 93] shows no relationship between
Robert Browne's father, Anthony, and Joan Cecil, but Anthony
Browne's father, Francis Browne, was the older half-brother of Edmund
Browne, Joan's husband. In 1585 William Cecil, lord Burghley, wrote
a letter to Anthony Browne including the statement that Robert Browne
"was of my blood." William Cecil's mother referred to Anthony
Browne as "friend" in her will of 1582.
According to French ["Decade," 5], John Browne was
successively a Puritan, Catholic, and Jesuit, and then associated with
Separatists, Baptists and Quakers, and was perhaps close enough to the
Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice of Queen Elizabeth, as well
as to the 1st Earl of Warwick and the Dowager Countess, and perhaps
Viscount Wimbledon (the father of Albinia Cecil and grandfather of
Frances [Wray] Vane), to finance his own settlement in America. His
mother and wife may have been from those prominent families in the area
of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire or Northamptonshire who were involved
in the settlement of New England.
French presents his conjecture that John Beauchamp's wife Alice
Freeman was the sister of the Edmund1 Freeman whose daughter married
William Paddy, Treasurer of Plymouth Colony and business partner of
Thomas Willett, a son-in-law of John1 Browne. French further
identifies Mary2 (Browne) Willett's daughter Sarah as having married
John Eliot, Jr., son of the Reverend Eliot, who came to Roxbury with
the Thompsons before they went to Stonington, Connecticut. French
states further that Edmund's other sister, Elizabeth Freeman, married
John2 Coddington, son of the William Coddington of Rhode Island who was
a partisan of Plymouth Colony.
Robert L. French believes that his social standing indicated
university training ["Decade," 2], and that he may have been the
John Browne admitted to an unknown college at Cambridge about 1592
[French cited J. Venn's Alumni Cantabridgensis (1974 reprint), 234]
as a youth from Louth in Lincs. (for which registers survive from 1538)
who attended school in Louth. He then entered the English College in
Rome on 1 Nov. 1600, receiving minor orders but leaving after a year or
more. French noted that Louth is about four or five miles from
Belleau.
French cites the Records of the English Province of the Society
of Jesus, which was edited by Henry Foley, S.J., and published in
London by Burns and Oates in 1877, for John Browne's personal
testimony. He was "making progress [in Cambridge] in my studies,
when my father purchased a place for me in Maudlin College from Sir
William Wray," who was the grandfather of Frances (Wray) Vane, and
whose oldest son John was baptized at Louth in 1586. "My parents are
genteel, and I am the heir; they always lived on their own estates, the
annual rent being some £400 per annum but, having spent the greater
part of his property, my father lived as a poor gentleman. I have
three little brothers and one sister...." He went on to say that
after several adventures, and two imprisonments (one at Marshalsea), he
went to Rome. The record continued with the statement that he "at
his own request, was dismissed with the intention of entering the
Franciscan Order, but they did not receive him, being scarcely
'compos mentis'." French continues that this would explain his
family's reticence about his life before his arrival in America in
1632, and that "it would hardly be surprising that he would suppress
the court records pertaining to his successful suit against the Rev
Newman for defamation and would burn the petition after he won the suit
against George Bowers (MQ Aug 1983 p 112)."
If John1 Browne was related to the Rev. Robert Browne (born c.
1555, died 1633), the founder of Congregationalism and in turn perhaps
related to William Cecil, Lord Burghley (born 1521, died 1598), the
chief minister to Queen Elizabeth, this would not lend status to anyone
in the Bay Colony or Plymouth. Robert Browne was known as
"Troublechurch Browne" and the very word "Brownist" was widely
used as a religious insult in England and the colonies.
Edmund Browne (a half-brother of Rev. Robert Browne's
grandfather) married Joan Cecil, a half-sister of William Cecil's
father. French feels it likely that John1 Browne's father was Philip
Browne, the next elder brother of Rev. Robert Browne. Philip was at
Benet's College, Cambridge, in 1570-1572, the same time as John
Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims. "After Lord Burghley had
several times bailed him out of trouble, he put Rev. Robert Browne in
charge of his father Anthony," and in June 1591 Francis Browne, the
oldest son of Anthony, appointed his brother, Rev. Robert Browne, vicar
of Little Casterton, Rutland. In Nov. 1591 Rev. Robert was moved to
Achurch-cum-Thorpe, in Northampton-shire, and Rev. Philip, the next
elder brother, was installed at Little Casterton. Before going to
Little Casterton Philip was perhaps the Surveyor of the Queen's
manors in Lincolnshire, which might account for his connection with Sir
William Wray, M.P. for Grimsby and the son of Sir Christopher Wray
(born 1525, died 1592, seated at Glentworth, a few miles east of
Gainborough), the Lord Chief Justice of Queen Elizabeth I. Sir William
Wray and his sisters were patrons of several of the prominent
non-conformists in the area, including Rev. John Smythe (the
Se-Baptist), Thomas Helwys (another Baptist), Rev. Richard Bernard (the
father-in-law of Roger Williams; he eventually turned away from the
Separatists), the Rev. Clyfton (who went to Holland with the Pilgrims),
and others. The Rev. John Smyth dedicated a sermon to Sir William Wray
in 1603.
A sister of William Wray was Frances Wray (born 1560, died 1634),
who was called by Cotton Mather "the aged and pious dowager Countess
of Warwick," and was the second wife of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of
Warwick. Apparently she was a patroness of Thomas Dudley and Simon
Bradstreet as well. Her first husband was George St. Paul, and to
them both was dedicated Christian Advertisements by Richard Bernard
(born 1567, died 1641), who called them "his singular and ever good
benefactors." At the time Bernard was rector at Worksop, from which
came several members of the original Pilgrim congregation. William and
Frances Wray had a sister Isabel Wray (born about 1557, living in
1617), who as Lady Isabel, wife of Sir William Bowes (a relative of
John Knox), received a dedication from Thomas Helwys ["Decade," 6].
Francis Browne died in 1604, and Philip was discharged, perhaps
because he was a dissenter. Philip was in Achurch in 1631 when he was
presented to the Bishop of Peterborough and excommunicated, the last
record of Philip being dated Feb. 1630/1, when he "remained
excommunicated." He probably died soon afterward. Rev. Robert
Browne was also excommuncated and died "in gaol" in 1633. French
cites F. Ives Cater as giving the details of Philip's troubles and
saying that Robert was not excommunicated, while Serjeantson's
History of St. Giles Church records Robert's excommunication, so that
the earlier record of Fuller's Worthies is corrected.
French questions whether a record can be found that John
Browne's sister, mentioned in his testimony, married a Walker, had
children named James, Sarah and Philip, and lived at Taunton in
Plymouth Colony. Was one of John's little brothers the Anthony who
was mentioned in Blore's chart of the Browne at Tolethorpe in
Rutland? Was another the William who was the ship captain with the
family in 1632? While baptisms for Philip, John, Anthony and William
could not be found at Louth, the IGI shows William baptized at Alford
(where the registers date from 1538) in 1584. Could Alford be the
parish of Philip Browne's wife?
French points out ["Decade," 4] that a connection with
William Cecil would have had little influence in New England thirty
years after Cecil's death, but the Wray connection to the Earl of
Warwick would be important, as would continuing ties with the Cecil
family. Albinia (Cecil) Wray was Lord Burghley's
great-granddaughter.
Thus French felt it was clear that Mr. John1 Browne sailed from
London, 22 June 1632, on the Lyon, William Pierce, Master, with his
wife Dorothy and William, Mary, John and James, who were probably named
in the order of their birth. The ship arrived in Boston on 16 Sept.,
twelve weeks from London and eight weeks from Land's End [Banks'
Planters of the Commonwealth]. He was a freeman in Plymouth on 3 Sept.
1634. On the same ship was Isaac Robinson, son of Leyden pastor John
Robinson.
According to Nathaniel Morton's New England Memoriall,
published in 1669, John1 Browne traveled in the Low Countries and
became friendly with John Robinson, pastor of the Pilgrim church at
Leyden, Holland; this would have been about 1616 [French, MQ, 49:161].
On 15/25 Jan. 1625 he received the first deed of land in America from
the Indians to an Englishman [French, MQ, 49:162], this from Samoset
and Unnongoit for land in the area of Bristol, Maine, and in 1626 he
was associated with Edward Winslow in another transaction, where he was
apparently known as a Bristol (England) merchant [French, 49:163]. His
holdings in Maine in 1628 were mentioned by Mary (Browne) Willett's
biographer; Maine holdings were recorded also in his estate records,
and an explanation needs to be sought.
There is apparently a deed dated 15 July 1625 made by Capt. John
Somerset (perhaps Samoset, and transcribed as John Summerset Sagemr
when the deed was recorded 24 Oct. 1729) and Unnongoit, two Indian
sagamores, of land at Pemaquid and New Harbor, including the island of
Muscongus, extending to about eight by twenty miles, to a John Brown in
consideration of fifty skins in payment, witnessed by Matthew Newman
and William Cox and acknowledged before Abraham Shurts in Pemaquid on
24 July 1626. This John Brown has been believed to be son of Richard
Brown of Gloucester, and born in Barton Regis, Gloucestershire [not
found as a parish], before 1600. John was said to have married
Margaret Hayward, daughter of Francis Hayward, and died in
Damarascotta, Maine, about 1670. In 1641 this John Brown witnessed a
deed of part of this purchase to his son-in-law, Richard Pearce, from
Samoset, an Indian chief, and Easey Gale and Dick Swalks. This Richard
Pearce was supposed to have been the son of Captain John Pierce to whom
the charter was issued for the Plymouth Company in 1621. Capt. Pierce
brought the charter to Plymouth on the Fortune in Nov. 1621 and sold it
to the Plymouth Company for £500 in May 1623; the charter was lost
later. Theresa Hall Bristol [NYGBR, 51: 29-39] and John Johnson's
The History of Bristol and Bremen, Maine (1873) were mentioned as
sources. However, the Rehoboth John Browne, whose children were born
between 1614 and 1623 seems more likely to be the grantee than the John
Brown, husband of Margaret Hayward, whose children were born between
1636 and 1642. Eben L. Elwell [MQ, 47:57-65] suggests that this John
Brown was the one of Rehoboth, but states that "later historians"
believed the deeds were forgeries.
French explains ["Decade," 8] that while the deed refers to
Muscongus Bay and New Harbor, which are some distance from Kennebec,
this can be reconciled if the families lived at New Harbor while the
trading post at Kennebec was an outpost in Indian territory. Elwell
indicated that the Indians visited Monhegan (off the coast at Muscongus
Bay and New Harbor) as early as 1622, when they came to purchase food
from Capt. Huddleston, and returned to "Kenibec" in 1625 to trade,
receiving £700 in beaver furs for a long boat loaded with corn. John1
Howland was in charge of a trading post at Kennebec about 1629, when
the Pilgrims claimed an "exclusive right to trade" under the
"Bradford charter."
The Pilgrims in Maine used maps prepared by Capt. John Smith
based on his voyages of 1613 and 1619; John Smith was a schoolmate of
John Brown. Capt. Smith was born in Willoughby in Lincolnshire, where
his father was a tenant of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby (1555-1601), the
same man mentioned by John Browne in the Jesuit records as Lord
Willoughby Berwick, who was the governor of Berwick in 1598. John
Smith was baptized less than two years after John Browne and first went
to school in Alford where William Browne was baptized in 1584. Smith
was then sent to boarding school at Louth, where he must have known
John Browne. Both of them sought to serve under Lord Willoughby just
before 1600, and John Browne succeeded, while Smith accompanied
Willoughby's sons, Robert and Perigrine Bertie, on their grand tour
and was in Rome at the English Jesuit College in 1600/1 when John
Browne was there. Smith was also acquainted with Samoset, from whom
John Browne bought the property in Maine, and with Squanto, the Pilgrim
interpreter ["Decade," 10]. Smith returned Squanto to America
after Weymouth had taken him to England.
Miles Standish was a mutual acquaintance of John Browne and Capt.
John Smith, and was hired over Smith because he was cheaper, according
to Smith.
Elwell indicates that Thomas Willett was also involved in
Kennebec.
On 20 Sept. 1629 a John Browne, owner and master of the
Speedwell, arrived at Bristol from Sallee (Salé, Morocco). Thomas
Willett, Mr. John1 Browne's future son-in-law, and Anthony Jansen van
Salee (Anthony van Salé) both left Holland and went to America in
1629, and later had dealings in New Netherland.
Shortly after his arrival in Plymouth, Mr. John1 Browne was
chosen as an Assistant to the Governor of Plymouth Colony in Jan.
1635/6, the same day he was admitted as freeman, and was elected again
each year for nineteen years with the exception of 1646. He was
treated with deference and respect by John Winthrop, John Winthrop,
Jr., Roger Williams, William Coddington, Samuel Gorton, Edward Winslow,
Miles Standish, Timothy Hatherly and Edmund Freeman. In 1637 he and
Capt. Miles Standish laid out Cohannet, and by 1639 he had moved there
with Standish and others [DAB, 3:167]. He was a proprietor there when
it was incorporated as the town of Taunton. In 1641 he and Standish
laid out Barnstable and Yarmouth. Later he was a partner with John
Winthrop, Jr., in Stonington, Connecticut.
In 1641 he and Edward Winslow purchased Rehoboth (including the
present towns of Seekonk, East Providence and Pawtucket), extending
Plymouth Colony into the Wampanoag lands by purchase rather than
expropriation. He became a friend of Massasoit, the chief of the
Wampanoag Indians, and as a result the life of his son James was spared
during King Philip's War in the 1670s by Massasoit's heir. He
wrote to Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay as "Loving Friend,"
and was on good terms also with leading men in Rhode Island. By 1644
he lived in Rehoboth, where he was a neighbor of Roger Williams at the
time the latter got his charter in 1644 with the help of the Earl of
Northumberland.
As well as serving with the colonial leaders as an Assistant, he
was a member of the Council of War in 1642, 1646 and 1653, and
Commissioner of the United Colonies of New England from 1644 to 1656,
serving longer than any other. Thus he was useful to Plymouth Colony
in negotiations with the others [E.A. Stratton, Plymouth, 253. In 1643
he was an incorporator of the town of Rehoboth [Bowen, Early Rehoboth,
2:134], and he served there as Townsman in 1645-1646 and 1650-1651. He
was one of the wealthier men in town, was a landed proprietor in Maine,
Rhode Island and Connecticut [French, MQ, 49:109], and had extensive
interests in the New Netherlands as well. In 1644 John Winthrop, Jr.,
was conducting business in England for him [French, MQ, 49:166]. In
1645 he helped preserve Plymouth Colony's jurisdiction in his area
from an encroachment attempted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the
support of one Richard Wright of the town.
On 29 Oct. 1645 the town meeting voted that he should undertake
to buy Wannamoisett (now East Providence and Barrington, R.I.) from the
Indians for £15 worth of commodities with the provision that the
Indians would move from the land and John Browne would retain title to
it. He settled there permanently.
He represented Plymouth Colony's opposition to placing Roger
Williams' charter in effect in Rhode Island while on a trip to
Providence, and then went to Shawomet to support the followers of
Samuel Gorton against interference from twenty Massachusetts Bay
families. In 1651 he and Timothy Hatherly boldly resisted the claim of
Massachusetts Bay to Samuel Gorton's area [DAB; cf. Samuel Gorton's
"Simplicities Defence against Seven-Headed Policy," in R.I. Hist.
Soc. Colls., 2 (1835), 167ff., 249, and Adelos Gorton's The Life and
Times of Samuel Gorton (1907), 18, 62, 64, 69], going before the
Commissioners of the United Colonies, saying of Plymouth, "not an
inch of her soil could be alienated except by the whole body of freemen
in General Court assembled" [French, MQ, 49:112. Hatherly had
visited at Kennebec and Penobscot in 1631 while John Browne and Thomas
Willett were there, and become a close associate of Browne at Plymouth
[French, 49:163]. While Hatherly lost his seat as a Assistant because
of his opposition to intolerance, Browne did not.
He was a liberal concerning religion; in 1645 he supported
William Vassall's petition and a motion to grant "full and free
tolerance of religion to all men that will preserve the civil peace and
submit unto the government," with "no limitation or exception
against Turk, Jew, Papist, Arian, Socinian, Nicolaitan, Familist, or
any other" [French, 49:113]. The motion failed on a tie vote. His
was the first magistrate's voice to offer the opinion that support of
the church should not come from taxes. In 1665 he pledged his own
property as a bond that the church could be supported from voluntary
contributions [Eck, xii-xiii]. Yet he "persecuted" his son James
for becoming a Baptist [4 Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 4:277; Narragansett
Club Publications, 6:192, quoted in Bowen's Early Rehoboth, 1:29],
and sued the Reverend Mr. Samuel Newman of the Church of Christ as a
result of slander, for which he was awarded the handsome sum of £100,
which he remitted at once. It is to be noted that the content of the
defamation has been suppressed.
Various records mention his shipyard, which was probably in
Bullock's Cove, and numerous dealings in land. He was a member of
the highest class, and his son-in-law, Mr. Thomas Willett, who had come
to New England also on the Lyon in 1631, became in 1664 the first
English Mayor of the City of New York.
The Clarendon Papers at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University,
reveal that the reason he left public service in Plymouth Colony was
that he had returned to England in 1655, in the service of the Vane
family as executor of the estate of the senior Sir Henry Vane,
including Raby Castle in Durham, while Sir Henry Vane (born 1589, died
1655 [one of the chief officers of King James I], who had been in
America from 6 Oct. 1635 to 3 Aug. 1637, and had served as Governor of
Massachusetts Bay) was imprisoned by Cromwell, the dictator of England.
He 1655 John Browne stayed with the Wray family at Belleau, the
Lincolnshire home of Sir Harry Vane (born 1613, died 1662, son of Sir
Henry Vane) not far from Boston, where Roger Williams had also stayed.
While Mr. Browne was at Belleau in 1657 George Fox came for a visit,
and mentioned in his diary meeting a "New England magistrate"
[French, MQ, 49:165]. Upon the Restoration in 1660, when Charles II
returned to the throne, Mr. Browne sailed to his home in Wannamoisett.
Sir Harry Vane's wife Frances was a daughter of Sir Christopher Wray.
In 1627 Sir John Wray had been in Gatehouse Prison for failure to
collect the ship loan of Charles I. John Browne of Sutterton, a
village just south of Boston in Lincolnshire, was among those failing
to pay the tax. William Coddington, who also resisted the tax, came to
America with the Rev. John Cotton of St. Botolph's church in Boston,
was for a time of St. James' Clerkenwell, and a relative of Edmund
Freeman of Sandwich.
When he died of fever he was buried in Little Neck Cemetery at
the head of Bullock's Cove in Wannamoisett. In his will he left 1700
acres of Narragansett lands to the children of his son John, who had
died ten days before he did, and he was able to leave a large estate
valued in the inventory of 19 April 1662 at £665.1s.2d, but including
only 6/- in cash! He left his daughter Mary Willett only 12d "to bee
payed att the end of every yeare During her life for a memoriall unto
her; and it shalbee in full of all filiall portion which shee or any in
her behalfe shall Claime" [see MD, 18:18].
Children, probably born in England:
i. William2, possible son, nephew or brother, passenger on the Lyon,
1632, lived Duxbury in 1643, probably returned to England in 1655
[French, MQ, 50:6], lived in Plymouth 1663, in Sandwich in 1667, and
was a sea captain.
ii. Mary, d. 6 Jan. 1669, bur. Little Neck; m. 6 July 1636 Capt.
Thomas1 Willett (formerly of Leyden), who m. (2) 19 Sept. 1671
Mrs. Joanna (Boyce) Prudden of Milford, Connecticut [Smith, NYGBR,
80:50]; he succeeded Miles Standish at Plymouth and was the first
English Mayor of New York City, their dau. Sarah m. a son of the Rev.
John Eliot, famed apostle to the Indians.
iii. John, d. 31 March 1662; m. (1) c. 1649 poss. Martha Thompson,
who bapt. Preston, Northamptonshire, 17 Dec. 1626 (a sister of the
first wife of George Denison of Roxbury, whose dau. Margaret [by his
second wife] m. James3 Browne, Jr. [French, MQ, 50:8]; a Martha Browne
d. 14 Feb. 1660- however, Gary Boyd Roberts identifies the Rev.
William Thompson [the missionary to the Pequots, who later dropped the
"h" in his name]'s known dau. Mary [dau. of as Alice (Freeman)
(Tompson) Parke] having m. in Roxbury Joseph Wise), m. (2) c. 1660
Lydia2 Buckland (dau. of William and Mary [Bosworth] Buckland), who m.
(2) William2 Lord; on 12 July 1682 James2 Browne mentioned "my loving
nephew John Brown, grandson and eldest son of my brother John Brown by
his first wife, one half of all the lands my father had given her which
was the real intent of my father's last will."
2. iv. James, d. Swansea, Mass., 29 Sept. 1710; m. 1654
Lydia2 Howland.
2. Mr. JAMES2 BROWNE, born probably in England about 1623, died
in Swansea, Massachusetts, 29 Sept. 1710, aged 87, and was buried in
Little Neck Cemetery in what is now Riverside, Rhode Island.
He married about 1654 LYDIA2 HOWLAND*, who was buried with him.
He was in England in 1659 when James Cudworth wrote to him there.
Possibly he went to visit his father, although the circumstances are
not known. In 1665 he succeeded his brother-in-law, Thomas Willett,
who was then Mayor of New York City, as Assistant in Plymouth Colony,
which post he held also in 1666 and 1673-1683. He was chosen Deputy
from Rehoboth in 1666, and from Swansea in 1669, 1671 and 1683.
For some time he was in the center of the controversy over
control of the church in Rehoboth, which raged between Congregationists
and Baptists. On 2 July 1667 he and Mr. Myles, the Baptist minister,
were each fined £5 for setting up a public meeting without permission
of the General Court, while a Mr. [Nicholas] Tanner was fined 20/-. On
the 30th of October following the Baptists were given permission to
organize the town of Swansea, with a Baptist church under Mr. Myles,
the church being the first of that denomination in Massachusetts. Thus
while James2 Browne served, with John Allen and Stephen Payne, Sr., as
a Selectman for Rehoboth in 1666-1667, he was next to serve Swansea as
grand enquest in 1668. The records of the two towns were mixed for
years afterwards.
As Plymouth Colony Assistant and Lieutenant of the Swansea
Military Company, James Browne played an important role in King
Philip's War. On 14 June 1675 he went to King Philip, then chief of
the Wampanoags, with a friendly letter from Governor Winslow, and,
finding the Indians hostile, warned the colony of impending war. A
member of the tribe, Petonowowett, later said Mr. Browne would have
been killed that day had not Philip intervened personally. When the
war actually began on Sunday, 20 June 1675, it was son James3 Brown who
took the word to Plymouth. On "Fasting Day," the following
Thursday, nine settlers were killed while on their way home from
church, and on 18 July fifteen were killed in an ambush. That month
Mr. Browne, who was one of five (out of seven) Assistants taking the
field during the war, led twelve men from Swansea in pursuit of the
Indians across the Seekonk plain, with help from the Mohegans and
eleven men from the Mt. Hope garrison under Lt. Nathaniel Thomas.
During the war James Browne went to Philip twice but found him "very
high and not p'swadable to peace."
It has been said that on 19 May 1668 he used an armorial seal on
a deed, "A lion rampant debruised by a bend, chequy, in sinister
chief point a crescent," similar to the arms of the Browns of
Cheshire, England.
His will, dated 25 Oct. 1694, was proved 11 Jan. 1711.
Children, born in Plymouth Colony:
i. James3, b. Rehoboth 4 or 21 May 1655; d. Barrington, Mass., 15
May 1718; m. 5 June 1676 Margaret2 Denison, who b. 1657, d. 1741.
* ii. Dorothy, b. Swansea 29 August 1668; d. Rehoboth 2 June 1727; m.
Swansea 12 Nov. 1690 Joseph2 Kent, Jr.
iii. Jabez, b. Swansea 9 July 1668; d. Barrington, R.I., July 1747;
m. (1) Jane, m. (2) 14 Feb. 1740/1 Abijah Wheaton.
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