Holbrook line: Chad Brown, Immigrant

We have more than one ancestor who made it to Wikipedia.  Chad Brown, variously described as Reverend, Pastor, and Elder, has his own article that tells much about his life.  I've found other articles, too, including one from the Register, published by New England Historical and Genealogical Society, that detail the first four generations of his descendants.  So he is easy to write about.  The hard part is choosing what to include in this post, and in trying to restrain my pride in this man and his descendants.  We actually have at least two lines of descent from him, and there are some Browns I haven't yet identified, so there could be more yet.

Once again we have a mystery as to his parentage, however.  We know that he married Elizabeth Sharparowe, daughter of John and Margaret Castley Sharparowe, on September 11, 1626 in Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.  We could probably guess that Chad came from the same general area, but we don't know that for sure.  Wycombe is a town known for its cloth industry and its paper industry during the 17th century.  We don't know whether Chad was involved in either of those, but it does give us a sense that the town was industrial before industrial was widespread, and the town must have had a certain energy to it.  We wonder what kind of education Chad received, in light of his later achievements.

Chad, Elizabeth, their son John, and possibly other children arrived on the ship Martin, arriving in Boston in July of 1638.  Whether by plan or by "encouragement", they soon moved to Providence Plantations in what became Rhode Island, where Roger Williams was teaching.  He signed agreements in 1640 and another one sometime between 1639 and 1644, to agree to the Providence Compact and to set up a government for Providence in 1640.  He took over pastoral duties for the Baptist church in 1643, when Roger Williams, the first pastor, went to England on colony business.  The church at this time met outside, or in bad weather, in someone's home.  The first church building in Providence was not built until some sixty years later.  Chad served as pastor for about 10 years, including time he was apparently an unofficial pastor, or perhaps an assistant.

There is not a good record of when he died, but there is a mention of a widow Brown, not further named, being listed on a tax list in 1650.  He was mentioned as deceased in a deed from 1663, but he could well have been deceased for quite a while by that time.  I tend to think it was shortly before 1650, because the church record says that he ended his pastorate before 1650.  This would have left Elizabeth with seven children to raise, with John at 20 being the oldest.

Chad had acted as an arbitrator in the early days of Providence, and also as a surveyor.  These jobs, combined with that of pastor make me think he surely had at least a grammar school type education, and perhaps higher than that.  He reportedly left a will but I have not been able to locate a copy.  The inventory would be valuable, to see whether he had books, and also to see how he supported himself other than as pastor.  It doesn't seem likely that this would have been a "paying job".

I think I would have liked Chad Brown.  From the bits and pieces we can see, he was a man who lived out his faith by serving others.  His record as pastor of the First Baptist Church shows his dedication to the Lord.  Some of his sons became members of the Anglican Church and some of his descendants became Quakers.  I wonder what he would have said to that?

The two lines of descent are:

Chad Brown-Elizabeth Shaparowe
Daniel Brown-Alice Hearndon
Hosanna Brown-Mary Hawkins
Othniel Brown-Deborah Brown
Sarah Brown-Enos Eddy
Enos Eddy-Deborah Paine
Joseph Brown Eddy-Susan Lamphire
Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

The second line is

Chad Brown-Elizabeth Sharparowe
John Brown-Mary Holmes
Sarah Brown-John Pray
Mary Pray-Richard Brown
Deborah Brown-Othniel Brown
as above

Fun face:  FamousKin says that Amelia Earhart and John Ritter are descendants of Chad Brown, so they are our distant cousins.