Holbrook line: John Sheldon, Immigrant

This is another of those bad news/good news posts.  The good news is that quite a lot is known about John Sheldon after he arrived in Rhode Island.  The bad news is that nothing is known of his life prior to that time.  Is the glass half full, or half empty?

William Sheldon has been suggested as the father of John, but that isn't proven to my satisfaction so it's just as well to say his parents are unknown.  He is believed to have been born somewhere in Warwickshire, England, about 1630 but again, I've not seen records to support that, and the Sheldon Family Association only lists England and 1628.

So, John Sheldon's first 25 years are a mystery.  He was a tanner by trade, so possibly that was his father's occupation, too.  Or he could have been apprenticed to learn the trade from some other family member or even town resident, if we only knew what town and on which side of the ocean we should be looking.

The first official record of him has him on September 9, 1654, in the town of Providence, Rhode Island,  "falling on Hugh Benett in the night".  There is no explanation for this.  John appeared before the Town Deputies and acknowledged whatever it was that he had done, Hugh Benett declared himself satisfied, as did the town, and that was the end of that episode.

There are several records of land acquisitions and sales beginning on February 12 ,1660, when John bought land from Zachary Rhodes, near the dwelling house of William Carpenter.  William Carpenter was his bride's uncle.  John married Joan Vincent March 26, 1660, who was the daughter of Thomas Vincent and Fridiswide Carpenter.  I found it interesting that the intentions were made at a town meeting, not a church meeting, of Providence Settlement and Providence Plantation.  So did the Sheldons not attend a church?  Quakers and Baptists were common in Rhode Island, but so were "free thinkers".  John and Joan had at least five children. 

He was on a petit juror in 1672, but other than that his "sightings" are mostly to do with land transfers that I am not quite following.  If you  want to read the details, they are on the Randall and Allied Families tree at Rootsweb, which I got to just by googling "John Sheldon 1630".

By 1708, Joan had died and John was in his old age and apparently needed care.  He signed an agreement with his son Nehemiah, in which all of his personal estate was given to Nehemiah and Nehemiah in return promised to care for him as a dutiful child should.  He died September 2, 1708 at Kingston, Washington County, Rhode Island. 

There is much I'd like to know about John, particularly his early years and his origin, but also his religion, if any, and  how he practiced his occupation.  I'd also like to know what he thought about some of our more famous Rhode Island ancestors, who lived when he lived, such as Roger Williams.   I would also like to know what John and family did during King Philip's War.  Did they leave?  Where did they go?  Did John serve in the military?  There is still more to the story, if we could just find it!

The line of descent is:

John Sheldon-Joan Vincent
Timothy Sheldon-Sarah Balcom
Martha Sheldon-Thomas Mathewson
Deborah Mathewson-Joseph Winsor
Lillis Winsor-Nathan Paine
Deborah Paine-Enos Eddy
Joseph Eddy-Susan Lamphire
Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants