Dea. John Greene, of Charlestown

John Greene

• Birth: Oct 14 1593 - St Margaret Moses, London, England
• Death: Apr 22 1658 - Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts
• Parents: unknown according to the Great Migration Project
• Spouses: 1) Perseverance Johnson? 1) Joanna, widow of John Shattswell

Biography

From https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Greene-1714

John Greene was born probably in England about 1593. He and his wife Perseverance ______, left to come to New England in April, 1632 on the ship James. With them aboard the ship were sons John and Jacob. Also with them were Abigail Green and Joseph Green, undetermined if these were their children, and Sarah Jones, servant.

He died on April 22, 1658. [8]

His tombstone, near Harvard monument which is damages was partially inscribed:

MEMORIAL OF YE JUST IS BLESSED Here lyeth ye body of Mr. John Greene born at London, in Old England, who married Perseverance, the daughter of ___ Johnson in Amsterdam, by whom he had 6 children, with whom and 3 children he came to Charlestown, in New England, in 1632, was ruling elder in ye church, and deceased April 22, 1658, leaving behind 2 sons and one daughter, viz, John, Jacob, and Mary, who erected this monument to the memory of him and his wife, their father and mother.[8]

His will dated April 21, 1658; inventoried May 22, 1658: and proved June 15, 1658 has bequests to:

• my beloved wife Joane
• son John
• son Jacob
• daughter Mary Greene
• daughter-in-law Elizabeth, wife of Jacob
• grandsons Jno. and Jacob, sons of Jacob and Elizabeth
• my wife's grandchild Joanna Shachwell (sic), and my son-in-law Richard Shatchwell (sic) to keep for his daughter [4] [11]

Family

His married first wife named Perseverance ___ (?Johnson [8]), probably by about 1620, by the births/ages of their children. [4]

He married secondly by 1647, widow [Joanna (Taylor) Shattswell, widow of Richard Tuttle] and John Shattswell. She died at Ipswich, Massachusetts on April 17, 1673, as widow Joanna Shatswell. [4][12]

Children of John and Perseverence

1. John was born about 1620 and died about February 21, 1688/9 as John Green of Stow." He names brothers Jacob and Thomas, sister Mary Stevens, nephew John Stevens. Kinsmen Thomas Stevens, Cyprian Stevens and Jacob Stevens.[4] (p. 247)[13]
2. Jacob was born about 1623, by depositions He married by 1654 to Elizabeth. Their eldest child was born in Charlestown on October 11, 1654.[4]
3. ? Abigail sailed to New England in 1632, no further record.
4. ? (probably) Joseph who sailed to New England in 1632. (no further record.)
5. Mary born at Charlestown, Massachusetts on April 1, 1634; baptized at the First Church on April 6, 1634 [7]; married by 1658, Thomas Stevens [4]; died at Stow, Massachusetts on January 15, 1721/2. [13]

Notes

From https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/p/r/a/James-L-Pratt/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-...

Deacon John Greene, parentage unknown, was possibly born in London, England around 1593. At sometime prior to his emigration to the American colonies, he was married to Perseverance Johnson, possibly the daughter of the noted Puritan minister, the Rev. Francis Johnson, who fled to Amsterdam from England.John and his family, including three children, went to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailing from London on the "James" and arriving in the Boston area on June 12, 1632.They settled in Charlestown, where John joined the Church there on May 29, 1633.He became the first and only Ruling Elder and, as such, was given the pew right behind the pulpit.
Aside from being called "Deacon", John was also called "Serg".He served as Town Clerk and was Selectman for eleven years.The first records of the town of Charlestown, written in his beautiful script, are still in existence.

The date of Perseverance's death is unknown, but it was evidently before John's death, since he married for the second time Joanna Shotwell, widow of John Shotwell of Ipswich.

From https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:8k71p286r

Old oil painting of First Church, Charlestown. This painting itself seems to have disappeared; but on a small round box in the possession of the Society of the Preservation of New England Antiquities, there is a slightly domed three-inch cover that is decorated with an excellent copy of this same picture. The Charlestown Church was founded in 1632, when roughly one-quarter of the members of the church in Boston withdrew and started a separate parish under Thomas James as Pastor. In 1634, the Rev. Zechariah Symmes arrived and was soon elected teacher. Mr. John Greene was elected ruling elder, and served for 50 years. No other ruling elder was ever elected, but from 1639 on till the time of the Revolution, the Charlestown Church always managed to support both a pastor and a teacher. As Budington says (p. 52), "Out of their deep poverty, and when they were but a little band, they cheerfully supported two thoroughly educated men, that they might enjoy the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. No people probably ever made greater sacrifices than did our fathers for the support of religious institutions."

Sources

• England: Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (Original index: England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch, 2014.)
• Hotten, John Camden (editor). The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years, Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens Pressed, and Others, who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. London: John Camden Hotten, 1874 p. 150
• Anderson, R. C. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. p. 811-13 (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995). < AncestryImage >; < AncestrySharing >
• Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Massachusetts, Vol. 1, Publ. by the Historical Society, Boston, MA, 1852 p. 93
• Hotten: James C. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality; Emigrants; Religious Exiles; Political Rebels; Serving Men sold for a term of years; apprentices; children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700 : with their ages and the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars; from mss. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England, London, England, 1874 p. 150
• Records of the First Church in Charlestown, 1632-1789 by J.F. Hunnewell, editor, Charlestown, MA, 1880
• The History of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Part 1, by Richard Frothingham, C.C. Little and J. Brown, Boston, MA, 1845
• The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Volume 1 -The Early and Colonial Periods, Ed. by Justin Winsor, J. R. Osgood and Company, Boston, MA, 1880
• Records Relating to the Early History of Boston: Third Report of the Record Commissioners of Boston, Document 39-1878, Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, Boston, MA, 1878
• Case 9764: p.1-6: Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)
• New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (John Green & 2/wf Joanna (_____) Shatswell, w. John; by 1656; Charlestown Vital *Records of Stow to the Year 1850, NEHGS, Boston, MA, 1911 p. 247: 259
• Unless otherwise referenced, this bio is cited to Anderson's Great Migration, featured name: John Greene Anderson, Robert Charles Great Migration Begins, Boston, MA: NEHGS 1995, pp 811-814
• link to “John Greene” in Charlestown Land Records, 1638-1802 By Charlestown (Boston, Mass.)