Catharine Greene

Notes:

Catharine, or Katherine, was d/o Capt. Benjamin Greene, according to the marriage record.

Catharine married William Greene 30 Dec 1719, Warwick, Kent Co., RI. William (son of Samuel Greene and Mary Gorton) was born 16 Mar 1695/96, Warwick, Kent Co., RI; died 22 Feb 1758. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Greene William, of Capt. Samuel, and Katherine Greene, of Capt. Benjamin ; m. by Anthony Low, Justice, Dec. 30, 1719; Town Page Detail: Marriage (Vol. 1: Pg. 41) Warwick, RI.

1. Benjamin Greene was born 19 Aug 1724, Warwick, Kent Co., RI.
2. Samuel Greene was born 28 Apr 1727.
3. William Greene was born 16 Aug 1731.

Benjamin married Susannah Holden 21 Jan 1689/90, Warwick, Kent Co., RI. Susannah (daughter of Randall HOLDEN and Frances DUNGAN) was born 8 Dec 1670, Warwick, Kent Co., RI; died 11 Apr 1734, Warwick, Kent Co., RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Greene Benjamin, of Thomas, and Susannah Holden, of Randall, Jan. 21, 1689-0; wn Page Detail: Marriage (Vol. 1 : Pg. 62), Warwick, RI.

Notes:

He was referred to as Thomas Greene "of the Stone Castle." He purchased from his brother-in-law James Sweet a stone house at "Old Warwick," built in the early days of the settlement. It was the only stone house south of Providence on the mainland. On March 16 & 17 1675/76, Indians burned every house in Warwick except this stone house, where Thomas, along with his wife, six children, and some friends and neighbors, stayed safely.

Thomas married Elizabeth Barton 30 Jun 1659. Elizabeth (daughter of Rufus Barton and Margaret Unknown) was born 1637; died 20 Aug 1693. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Randall Holden was one of the signers of the first Portsmouth Compact, 7 March 1638. He was also one of the original settlers of Warwick, along with the Gortons and Greenes.

On 24 March 1639 Randall Holden witnessed the deed of the purchase of Rhode Island (Aquidneck Island) from the Indians. (source: RI Genealogical Register, Vol 14, p. 220)

Randall married Frances DUNGAN 1648, Warwick, Kent Co., RI. Frances (daughter of William DUNGAN and Frances LATHAM) was born 1630, London, England; died 1697, Warwick, Kent Co., RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

He is referred to as Dr. John Greene; John Greene, Surgeon; and John Greene, Sr.

The following information is extracted and paraphrased from the book "The Greenes of Rhode Island," compiled by Louise Brownell Clarke and published in 1903, available at the RI Historical Library and elsewhere:

This John Greene, an English surgeon who became the first professional medical man in Providence Plantations, was the founder of a family which has become as prominent as any in the history of our state. It gave to the Colony two Governors (both named William Greene); to the Army of the Revolution, Major-General Nathanael Greene; to the United States forces in the Civil War, Major-General George Sears Greene . . . and many others (pp. 43 & 44). These notable Greene descendants were also descendants of our ancestor Samuell Gorton (p. 45).

John Greene, Sr. was born at his father's estate, Bowridge Hill, at Gillingham, County Dorset, England in 1597 or 1598 (the above book gives his year of birth as c. 1590). He later moved to Salisbury, Wiltshire (p. 52), and in 1619 was married there at St. Thomas Church to Joan (or Joanne) Tattershall (or Tatarsole). Their marriage is recorded in the church register, as are the baptisms of all their children (p. 54). The family resided at Salisbury for about 16 years. It is not known exactly what prompted Dr. Greene and his wife to leave their homeland, but we do know that they sailed from Hampton (or Southampton), England, with their six children, on 6 April 1635 on the ship "James." After a voyage of 58 days (p. 55), they arrived in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on 3 June 1635. They first settled at Salem along with Roger Williams who, when he learned in 1636 that officials intended to deport him back to England, escaped south to the Narragansett Bay area, beyond the borders of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The climate of religious persecution also led to the ousting of Dr. Greene, who in the spring of 1637 sold his house in Salem and brought his family to Providence, where he was one of the twelve original proprietors.

According to Massachusetts Colonial Records, i, p. 203 (quoted in above book, p. 57), "John Greene of New Providence [was] fined 20 pounds and forbidden this jurisdiction on pain of fine and imprisonment for speaking contemptuously of magistrates Sep 19, 1637." In a letter sent to the Massachusetts Court, he had charged them with usurping the power of Christ over the churches and men's consciences. It was a bold accusation, one that he would not have made had he not believed it to be both true and an egregious offense.

The right mode of baptism was one of the issues of contention in Massachusetts, where there was no allowance for different beliefs; but in Providence there was freedom of worship. So, here John Greene was baptized by Roger Williams, and was one of the twelve founding members of the First Baptist Church in America. John was also one of the first six settlers to receive home lots, which fronted on Towne Street (now Main Street) facing the cove (now the river) and extending back to Hope Street (p. 59).

Some time after Dr. Greene came to Rhode Island, his first wife Joan died. She was the mother of all his children. He then remarried to Ailsce (Alice or Elsie) Daniels, a widow of Providence.

The first land purchase by an English settler in the Warwick area was made by (Dr.) John Greene, Sr., to whom was deeded on 1 Oct 1642 the tract of land called Occupasuetuxet, by Miantonomi, chief Sachem of the Narragansetts. He moved there in 1642 or 1643 with his new wife and family. His farm came to be known as "Greene's Hold." In addition, John was one of a group of twelve men, including our ancestors Richard Waterman and Samuell Gorton, who purchased "Old Warwick" -- just south of Greene's land -- from the Indians. Known as the Shawomut Purchase, this area deeded to the settlers was about four miles wide and twenty miles inland, extending from the bay to the present-day Connecticut border. Shawomut, an Indian name meaning "a spring," was the original name of Warwick.

Connecticut and Massachusetts officials at various times tried to exert their control over the Rhode Island territory. Massachusetts Bay officials used rivalries among Indian tribes as leverage to stake their own claim to the prime coastal farmlands of Rhode Island, particularly the Shawomut area. Although the Indian Sachem had sold the settlers the land, with a fair written contract to prove it, there was a small group of unfriendly Indians on Warwick Neck who refused to leave and continually harassed the settlers. Massachusetts saw their opportunity and in 1643 sent a posse of armed men from Boston to arrest the settlers, even firing on a house where the English flag was displayed in an appeal to a higher law. The women and children fled in terror to the woods, while some of the men were bound and taken prisoner to Boston. Sadly, two of the wives died, probably from the trauma of fright and exposure to the elements (p. 55). The two who died were Isabel, wife of Robert Potter, and Ailsce, wife of Dr. John Greene.

The leaders of Shawomut, seeing the need for authority from the mother country as a defense against the neighboring colonies, appealed to England for their right to exist. The Earl of Warwick signed the Patent of Providence Plantations on 14 March 1643/44, and so the town was officially named Warwick in his honor.

Official records show that John held numerous leadership positions in the Colony and in the town:
8 Aug 1647 - Member of the first Town Council of Warwick, RI
26 Feb 1648 - Commissioner (Representative of Warwick to the General Assembly)
7 May 1649 - Magistrate in Court of Trials, Warwick, RI
4 June 1649 - Assistant
2 July 1649 - Member of Town Council
26 Oct 1650 - Commissioner
8 May 1655 - Commissioner
6 Oct 1656 - Commissioner
9 Aug 1657 - Commissioner

John made a trip back to London around 1644, where he married his third wife, Phillipa (it was always spelled "Phillip" -- a common name for both males and females at the time; it may have been pronounced as "Phillippe"). Her maiden name is not known. They returned to Warwick in 1646. After a full life, he died in January 1659, and is buried on the family farm in Conimicut, Old Warwick. His wife "Phillip" died in 1687, at about 87 years old.

John is the great-great-grandfather of General Nathanael Greene.

The RI Cemetery Database has his year of birth as 1585.

For more interesting information on the Greenes, see "Warwick's Villages & Historic Places," by Don D'Amato, at the City of Warwick web site:

http://www.warwickri.gov/heritage/damatoshistory/apponaug4.htm

Dr. married Joan TATTERSHALL 4 Nov 1619, St. Thomas Church, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. Joan was born Abt 1598, England; died Between 1638 and 1639. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

One online genealogy identifies her parents as Richard (b.1572) & Margaret (Fox, b.1576) Tattershall. No documentation is provided.

Notes:

The church record gives her maiden name as "Tatersole."

Notes:

Rufus, a Quaker, had come to Portsmouth, RI, from New Amsterdam to escape persecution by the Dutch there. He later went to Warwick. (See "The Greenes of Rhode Island," p. 67)

Rufus — Margaret Unknown. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

William & Frances and their family resided in St. Martin's in the Fields, London, England. William was a "Gentleman."

William married Frances LATHAM Abt 1628. Frances (daughter of Lewis LATHAM and Elizabeth Unknown) was born 15 Feb 1609/10, Kempston, Bedford, England; died Sep 1677, Newport, RI; was buried , Governor's Lot, Newport, RI. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

When Frances died in 1677, she left 86 grandchildren.

The following note is from a website: "The writer can state definitely that the Dungan family, of whom were the Earls of Limerick, was the only manorial family into which Frances Latham could have married, her father being the King's Sergeant Falconer, and a member of his household. There is no doubt in the writer's mind after an extended search, that William Dungan was a grandson of Sir John Dungan by his wife Margaret Forster, and this conclusion was arrived at by Mr. Howard O. Folker and an Irish genealogist in Dublin, who conducted their investigations without consultation with the writer." (source: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mylines/dungan108_09.htm)

The following information is from another website: http://pages.prodigy.net/reed_wurts/heraldry/latham.htm

Frances Latham now generally called "The Mother of Governors," because no less than fourteen of her direct descendants, and many sons-in-law in succeeding generations, became Governors or Lieut. Governors. Baptized 15 February 1609/10, she was the eldest of nine children of Lewis Latham whose portrait is in the collection of the late George W. Elkins, a descendant of Lewis Latham.

He who was of Elston, co. Bedford, England, was born about, 1584 and buried 15 May 1655, aged about 71 years. He was a member of the King's household, and Falconer to Prince Henry in 1612, and later was Sergeant Falconer to King Charles I.

ARMS-Or, on a chief indented azure, three bezants
CREST-An eagle standing on an empty cradle with wings displayed, reguardant or.

(NEHGR, Roll of Arms, Vol. LXXXII, p. 156; A.R. Justice, ANCESTRY OF JEREMY CLARKE..., p. 72)

We can imagine Frances as a young girl on the moors in companionship with her father as he attended the Royal Princes, Henry and Charlie, in their hunting with falcons, ever a favorite royal sport, the birds being highly trained to search out and pounce upon rabbit, grouse and other small game and bring them to their master.

Frances Latham was married in 1627 at age 17 to William Dungan, Gentleman, who was born about 1606, a London Merchant and Perfumer. His wares were in great demand and quite necessary to offset the obnoxious odors arising from the gutters in a thickly settled district subject to heavy fog and having surface drainage.

They made their home at St. Martins-in-the-Fields where later he died and was buried 20 September 1636, leaving her a widow at age 26 with four little children between the ages of 2 and 8 years. By his Will dated 13 September 1636 he gave all his property to his wife Frances, after bequeathing