Holbrook line: John Thornton, Immigrant

John Thornton is another problem ancestor.  There are at least three John Thorntons who could be our immigrant ancestsor, with birthdates ranging from 1591 to 1614 to 1634.  I believe our immigrant is probably the John Thornton who was born about 1591 in Coggeshall, Essex, England, because in 1639 there is a John Thornton "in the employ of" John Coggeshall, at Providence, Rhode Island.  I think it's quite possible that our John came as an indentured servant to John, although that is not the only explanation. 

John Thornton, probably our John, married Joane Linch on April 4, 1627 at St George the Martyr Church in Southwark, Surrey, England.  This would put this couple of the right age to be parents for our second John, who was born about 1634, and who married Sarah Thurston. 

John Thornton received 10 acres of land in Newport in 1639, and was one of the twelve founding members of the First Baptist Church there in 1648.  That brings us to another issue.  I have found John Thornton listed as "John Thornton, DD", but I can't find records of university matriculation.  I tend to think the "DD" attribution is an error, but if someone has additional information I will happily reconsider. 

And here the fun starts.  John the older seems to have died about 1648 and Joane about 1650, yet many of the following records are applied to the older man.  John was made a freeman in 1655.  The younger John would have been 21, so technically eligible for freemanship, and if John the older was gone, then it would almost have to be John who married Sarah who was a freeman.  He paid taxes in 1679, by which time he had moved to Providence, and was a deputy to the general assembly in 1680.  In 1683 he sold 100 acres and commonage to his son, Solomon, and in 1686 sold 100 ares to his son John.  In 1692 he deeded 62 acres and his house to his son James, in what amounted to a will, providing that if his wife Sarah outlived John, James would care for her for the rest of her life.  Because of the amounts of land that John owned, he is believed to have been a farmer.  We don't know what the first John did for a living. 

John is believed to have died after 1695 and Sarah sometime after that.  The big question to me (after, of course, whether the two John Thorntons are identified correctly) is what did John and Sarah do during King Philip's War?  Most of Rhode Island fled to relative safety in Massachusetts or Connecticut, so it is not unreasonable to think that is what John and Sarah did.  Did their home survive, or did they have to start all over again?  John's story seems very incomplete to me, and I hope that someone will be able to fill in the blanks here. 

The line of descent is:

John Thornton-Joane Linch
John Thornton-Sarah Thurston
Benjamin Thornton- Mary possibly Gurney
Sarah Thornton-Stephen Paine
Nathan Paine-Lillis Winsor
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