Holbrook line: John Warren Immigrant, died 1677

 Earlier, I wrote a post about the John Warren of Watertown whom I believed to be the father of this John Warren.  I am no longer convinced the connection exists, so the search for this John's origins are still ongoing.  It appears that his first son may have been named Joshua, and there is a Joshua Warren born in 1594 who is sometimes given as John's father.  However, once bitten, twice shy, and I'm not ready to state that as a fact.

We really know nothing of John Warren until he shows up in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1649.  He was approved then as a member of a 5 person group who were given permission to set up (and possibly operate) a sawmill then.  I am supposing that means he had been in the area long enough to have built up some sort of reputation, so I'm guessing he may have been 25 years old then.  Working back, that gives us a potential birth year of 1624, which is what I'm seeing, with no documentation, on various family trees.  But he could have been 10-15 years older, or a few years younger than that.  

He married Deborah Wilson, daughter of Thomas and Ann Wilson in Exeter on October 21, 1650. Thomas had died in Exeter in 1643.  Thomas was part of a group of families who went to with the Boston theocracy.  The Exeter men were led by Reverend John Wheelwright, who was a supporter of his sister in law, Anne Hutchinson.  (That's a story for another day.)  We don't know if John arrived with this group, too young to be listed in documents, or if he arrived later.  However, he was given land grants in 1650, 1652, and 1664, which along with the saw mill permit, indicates he was an early settler there.  One possible reason that he would not be found in immigration records is that he was an indentured servant when he left England.  

John was a selectman for Exeter in 1655 and 1657, which means that he was probably a little bit wealthier, relatively speaking, than most of his fellow residents.  Poor people were not chosen for this job. So if John did come as an indentured servant, he had certainly come up in the world.

John and Deborah presumably had 18 happy years together in Exeter, and at least six children, before Deborah died in 1668.  John remarried the following year, to Elizabeth Royal Coombs, and they seem to have lived in Hingham, Massachusetts, where they had one child together.  Elizabeth had three children of her own, so there may have been as many as 10 children in the home when Elizabeth died in 1671/72.  John then married, date unknown, Elizabeth Danson, and they had two children together.  

Probably sometime during his second marriage, the family moved to Boston, where John set up a shop on land owned by the Coombs family.  He was a tobacconist, meaning he sold tobacco, and a  cardmaker, which seems to mean he made the combs used for carding wool.  I don't think these were high status jobs, but he seems to have been able to support his family.  

John wrote his will July 10, 1677 and died soon after.  His wife was left everything, in order to raise his son by his second marriage and his daughter by the third marriage, except son Thomas was given his shop, to be removed from the Coombs land at Thomas's pleasure, and Joshua was given his tobacco "engine".  The inventory, which I have not seen, is reported to have been valued at a little over 301 pounds.     

There are of course unanswered questions about John besides his parentage.  Was he a church member?  (Probably he was, since it's unlikely that he would have been chosen as a select man if not.) Was he involved in any military service?  He was over the age of 50 when he died, so it's not likely he was a participant in King Philip's war, but there may have been earlier skirmishes in New Hampshire.  It would be interesting to know, and to know why he died at a somewhat early age.  

The line of descent is:

John Warren-Deborah Wilson

Mary Warren-John Burr

Mary Burr-Thomas Marsh

Deborah Marsh-Isaac Lazell

Deborah Lazell-Levi Rockwood

Susanna Rockwood-Nahum Holbrook 

Joseph Holbrook-Mary Elizabeth Whittemore

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants                                                                

Holbrook line: John Warren 1585-1667 Immigrant

Oh, there is nothing like a documented immigrant ancestor!  It's exciting to find one, it's exciting to find a little bit of his story, but it's frustrating too because for almost every fact fount I have more questions.  Our John has at least three more generations in back of him in England, so it's fun to note his background, instead of having guesses and suppositions.

John Warren was born shortly before August 1, 1585 (baptismal date) in Nayland, Suffolk, England.  His parents were John and Elizabeth Scarlett Warren.  John the father was a cardmaker.  Given his location and the amount of wool that was produced there, I believe he made equipment for carding wool, not playing cards.  The town is a small one, on the border with Sussex, and in the 1600's was a center for Puritan dissenters, at least for a time.

John's mother died about March 27, 1602.3 and his father then married Rose, who was buried August 11, 1610, and then married Rose Riddlesdale, who outlived him.  John the father died in 1613, when our John was 28 years old.  Our John was also a cardmaker, and earned enough of a living to marry  Margaret who has been identified as Margaret Bayly  They had at least seven children.  The first three died as infants or young children, but when John and Margaret came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, they had their four youngest children with them.

John was already in trouble with the Church of England in 1629, when he failed to kneel for communion.  Since there were several other men who also failed to do this, it is not likely that he had bad knees  As Puritans, the men had decided that kneeling to receive communion was not appropriate.  This seemed like a good time to leave England . The family came with Winthrop's fleet in 1630, but I'm not able to confirm whether or not they came on the Arbella, the flag ship of the fleet.  At any rate, they sailed with a number of good Puritans.

John was made a freeman at Watertown, Massachusetts, on May 18, 1631, although he may not have been a member of the church.  Church attendance was mandatory and he was fined several times for frequent absences from service.  There is some speculation that although he immigrated with and lived with Puritans, he was actually a Baptist at heart, or possibly a Quaker.  If he had admitted either of these leanings publicly, he would have been exiled, and perhaps he was already feeling his age.

John prospered in his new country, acquiring significant tracts of land by grant and it's possible he also purchased some property.  He was a selectman for at least two terms and also served on committees to lay out highways and to divide land, jobs meant for wise people.  He still owned 188 acres of land in various parcels when he died.  His real estate was then valued at 123 pounds and the rest of the estate was valued at a little over 47 pounds.  His inventory still included a musket, sword, and halberd.  These items were required of all men in case of attack, although by his death on December 13, 1667, he was 82 years old and would likely have been excused from military duty for some years.  Margaret had died 5 years before, on November 6, 1662.

These are the basic facts about John Warren.  I'd love to know more about him, especially his religious beliefs, and how he supported his family once he arrived in America.  Surely there wasn't that much of a demand for cardmakers in the early years of the colony.  There were books in his inventory so we can assume he was literate.  What was the source of his education?  As I said, the information we do have is wonderful but I'd like to know more!

The line of descent is:

John Warren-Margaret possibly Bayly
John Warren-Deborah Wilson
Mary Warren-John Burr
Mary Burr-Thomas Marsh
Deborah Marsh-Isaac Lazell
Deborah Lazell-Levi Rockwood
Susannah Rockwood-Nahum Holbrook
Joseph Holbrook-Mary Elizabeth Whittemore
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants

Update.  Although the blog post itself may be accurate, this John Warren is no longer thought to be the father of the John Warren who married Deborah Wilson.  The John Warren who married Deborah Wilson married her in Exeter, N.H.  He is supposed to be a cardmaker and a tobacconist, but I don't have enough information to write a post about him, as yet.  The important thing is that John and Margaret don't appear to be our ancestors.  I am sorry to have misled you.