John Warren

1585-1667 · Nayland, Suffolk, England → Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Born 1585, Nayland, Suffolk, England

Died 1667

Father: John Warren

Mother: Elizabeth Scarlett

Children include Daniel, Mary

He came to America in 1630, aged forty five, with his wife and the children born to them at Nayland, and settled at Watertown. He was made a freeman in May 1631 and was a selectman from 1636 to 1640. In 1635 the town appointed him and Abraham Browne to lay out all the highways and see that they were kept in repair. His home lot of twelve acres in 1642 lay between the highway and William Hammond's land, with John Biscoe to the north and Isaac Sterne to the south, and he held seven other lots, about a hundred and seventy six acres in all.

Then he fell out with the church. In October 1651 he and Thomas Arnold were each fined twenty shillings for an offence against the laws concerning baptism. In April 1654 he was fined for neglecting public worship fourteen Sabbaths at five shillings each, three pounds ten. In March 1659 the constable was sent to warn him for not attending, and reported that "old Warren is not to be found in town." In May 1661 the houses of "old Warren and goodman Hammond" were ordered to be searched for Quakers. Bond, reading these entries two centuries later, set him beside Dr John Clark of Newport, Nathaniel Briscoe and Thomas Arnold, who left Watertown for England and for Providence, and concluded "they were probably all Baptists."

His wife Margaret died in November 1662. He made his will on 30 November 1667 and died on 13 December, aged eighty two. The will gave his son Daniel the sixteen acres he was living on, his daughter Mary Bigelow sixteen acres in her possession, his daughter Elizabeth Knapp sixteen acres of plowland her husband was farming, and the rest to his sons John and Daniel.

Parents

John Warren (1555-1613)

Elizabeth Scarlett (1561-1602)

Children

Daniel Warren (b. 1628)

Mary Warren (d. 1691)

Sources

Gilman Bigelow Howe, Genealogy of the Bigelow Family of America, from the Marriage in 1642 of John Biglo and Mary Warren to the Year 1890 (Worcester, 1890), printed pages 18 to 27, read in full text at archive.org, genealogyofbigel1890howe

HENRY BOND, Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, the WHITNEY family and the BARRON family. "Embarked at Ipswich, Eng. Ap., 1635, for New England, in the Elizabeth and Ann, Roger Cooper, master, JOHN WHITNEY, aged 35; wife ELLIN (Elinor), aged 30; sons John, aged 11; Richard, aged 9; Nathaniel, aged 8; Thomas, aged 6; and Jonathan, aged 1 year. He was admitted freeman, Mar. 3, 1635-6; was Selectman several years between 1638 and 1655 inclusive, and was Town Clerk, 1655. In 1642, his homestall lot of 16 acres (where he continued to reside), was bounded E. and S. by William Jennison; W. by Martin Underwood; N. by Isaac Mixer. He at the same time owned 8 other lots, amounting to 212 acres. The Registry of Deeds shows that he made additions to these possessions. His early admission as a freeman, and his early election as Selectman, show that he held a respectable social position. His wife, Elinor, d. May 11, 1659, and he m. (2d), Sept. 29, 1659, JUDAH (Judith) CLEMENT. He died a widower, June 1, 1673, aged 74. His Will, dated Ap. 3, 1673, attested by William Bond, Sr., and Sarah Bond, Sr., mentions sons John, Richard, Thomas, Jonathan, Joshua, and Benjamin." (II.) "JOHN WHITNEY, Jr., was adm. freeman, May 26, 1647, then aged 23; was Selectman, 1673, '74, '75, '76, '78, and '79. He m. RUTH, dr. of Robert Reynolds, of Boston. [The Will of Robert Reynolds, of Boston, dated April 20, 1658, mentions his dr. Ruth Whitney, and her eldest son; his dr. Sarah Mason, and her son Robert.] He d. Oct. 12, 1692, and adm. granted to wid. Ruth, and sons John and Benjamin. Inventory, dated Oct. 26, 1692, taken by Elnathan Beers and Thomas Hammond. It embraced 18 lots or parcels of land, amounting to about 210 acres, and prized at 197l. 15. It embraced one lot of 17 acres, 'purchased of father Arnold.'" Ten children, the eighth of them "Elizabeth, b. June 9, 1656; m., Dec. 19, 1678, Daniel Warren." "ELLIS BARRON (often written Elliz), adm. freeman, June 2, 1641; constable, 1658; selectman, 1668 and '73; d. Oct. 30, 1676. He had two wives. 1st. GRACE, the mother of his child. He m. (2d), HANNAH, wid. of Timothy Hawkins, senr. She d. Sept. 1, 1685. The births of only 2 chil. recorded. His Will, dated Oct. 26, proved Dec. 19, 1676. Inventory, 139l." His children: Ellis, who married Hannah Hawkins in 1653 and moved to Groton, and "Mary, m., Dec. 10, 1650, Daniel Warren. She d. Feb. 13, 1715-16."

ELIZABETH FRENCH, "Genealogical Research in England: Warren," in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, volume 64 (1910), worked from the Nayland and Wiston registers and the Suffolk wills; and ROBERT CHARLES ANDERSON, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, volume III (Boston, 1995), the sketch of John Warren, which adopts her line. JOHN WARREN of Watertown was baptised at Nayland in Suffolk on 1 August 1585, and all seven of his children were baptised there, so the family crossed in 1630 already made. Bond's Watertown account, which rests on his will of 1667, names four children: John, Mary, Daniel and Elizabeth. See [[bond-watertown-genealogies-the-warrens]]. He appears in a presentment of 1629, the year before he left. Anderson notes that several of the Watertown planters came out of this one parish: John Firmin and Isaac Stearns as well as Warren, Nayland being a cloth town on the Stour. HIS FATHER, JOHN WARREN, was a cardmaker of Nayland, a maker of the wire brushes used to comb wool, in a town that lived by cloth. He was the middle of two brothers both called John, which is how the pedigree distinguishes him and what makes a Nayland Warren hard to trace. He was taxed sixteen pence on lands in the subsidy of 8 James I, 1611, and was testator in 1613. HIS GRANDFATHER, JOHN WARREN of Corlie in Nayland, was born about 1525. His will is dated 21 April 1576 and was proved on 5 June; he was buried on 23 April 1576, two days after dating it. He was three times married, and the mother of his son John is unnamed, so the generations above him attach through a woman whose name is lost. HIS GREAT GRANDFATHER, ROBERT WARREN of Wiston, was born perhaps about 1485 and was testator in 1544; his will names his wife MARGARET, which is the whole of what survives of her. French allows an unnamed generation above Robert, offering that a blank Warren was perhaps the father of both Robert of Wiston and a Thomas Warren of Wiston who was testator in 1558. Perhaps is the word, and that generation is not claimed. MARGARET, the emigrant's wife, has no maiden name in French's account and none in Anderson's: two authorities working the same registers eighty five years apart both leave it blank. The line as given follows French's article and Anderson's sketch, and French's article is the authority for all of it.

If John Warren is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "John Warren (1585-1667)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-warren-1585-1667-c82dce.