Holbrook line: Richard Waterman, Immigrant

By now, you've noticed that I find most of our ancestors to be fascinating people.  Richard Waterman also falls in that category, I think because he is just a little bit different from many of our New England ancestors.  We don't know his origins nor do we know more than the name of his wife, which was Bethiah.

The first thing we know actually raises more questions.  Richard arrived in Salem, Massachusetts on June 16, 1629, having been sent there as a hunter by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  So, how did he become a hunter?  What experience did he have, and where did he get it? Was there enough call for a hunter in Salem that he could make a living?  Or was he one of our first frontiersmen, shooting animals for their furs?  We do know he killed a wolf in 1632 but we don't have any further knowledge about his success, or lack thereof.

We don't know when he and Bethiah married.  It may have been early in 1629, before Richard came to America, or it may have been a shipboard romance.  My feeling is that there wouldn't have been enough time for him to have met, courted, and married in Salem, and given time for their first child, Mehitabel, to have been born "about" 1630.  Of course, if that guess for a date is off then maybe the marriage did happen here.  The Watermans had three more children, Waite, Resolved, and Nathaniel.  Some sites also give a son Joseph but the sources I've found don't support that.

Richard was likely a member of the Salem church because his son Nathaniel was baptized there in August of 1637.  However, he became a supporter of Roger Williams during the times Roger lived in Salem, and when Roger was banished, he soon sought and was given permission to follow Roger into Rhode Island.  In fact, Waterman was invited to leave on March 12, 1637/38, with the other followers of Roger Williams.  Once in Providence, he settled down again.  He had a house lot located between those of Francis Weston and Ezekiel Holyman, and acquired other land besides.

He also seems to have been caught up in the "Gorton controversy", which I don't pretend to understand.  Mr. Gorton was of strong religious beliefs, and was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1644.  So was Richard Waterman.  He seems to have been imprisoned and tried more for political than religious reasons, although he was a strong supporter of Warwick, where Mr. Gorton settled, and owned land there.  Opinions differ as to whether he actually moved his family therfe, but Robert Charles Anderson seems to think he lived in Warwick for about four years, from 1666 to 1670.

In Salem, he had had little to do with the government, perhaps because he was out hunting for much of the time.  However, in Providence, he was on the committee to establish colony government, and served as the Commissioner for Providence to the Rhode Island Court on at least 10 occasions.  He was also a selectman and a magistrate, and served on several juries.

 Savage says that he was chosen colonel of the militia, which would be a high honor and responsibility.  It may be that he was chosen partly for his woodsmen skills, but he also seems to have been a leader as well.

 Richard died at Providence October 26, 1673 and Bethiah died December 3, 1680. He left a will naming his heirs and granting his lands to them but the will was burned when the native Americans attacked and burned Providence during King Philip's War.  Bethiah would have lived through that war, and it would be interesting to know how she survived, and with whom she lived after the war.  She would have been perhaps 75 years old at the time of her death.

Richard is interesting because of the connection with Roger Williams, and his later support of Mr. Gorton, because he was a hunter by trade, because he survived several months in a Massachusetts prison, and because he was respected so much although it appears that he had very little, if any, formal education.  He was a remarkable man. 

Our line of descent is

Richard Waterman-Bethiah
Waite Waterman-Henry Brown
Richard Brown=Mary Pray
Deborah Brown-Othniel Brown
Sarah Brown-Enos Eddy
Enos Eddy-Deborah Paine
Joseph Eddy-Susan Lamphire
Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants

Richard was also the father in law of Mercy Williams, who married Resolved Waterman and then Samuel Winsor.  Our line goes through Samuel.