John Kingsley, of Rehoboth

NOTE: (moved from profile Cause of Death where it does NOT belong: "Chris has no proof of his fathership other than 30yrs/Rehobeth, MA and the thought that there could not have been many Kingsleys. He did marry Mary Johnson, also married to Roger Mowry whose daughter Mehitable married Eldad Kingsley,half brother, if true).

Alternate Birthplace , Hampshire, England.

With Cotton Mather in Taunton and he followed Mather to Rehoboth. Immigrated to Dorchester from Plymouth England in1630

Parents:

Wives:

1. Elizabeth Stoughton
2. Alice Daniels
3. Mary Johnson, daughter of Capt. John Johnson

Children:

(Added by David Calvin Kingsley) John Kingsley was born on 7 September 1614 at Hampshire, England. He was the son of John Kinsey and Katherine Butler. John Kingsley was born circa 1615 at Hampshire, England; Date is pure guess. Assuming he was about 25 years old when he married which was about average for Puritans of the 17th century Mass., Robert Kingsley's note. He resided at at Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, between 1635 and 1648. He married Elizabeth Stoughton circa 1636 at Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts; John's first wife. John Kingsley married Alice Thatcher after 1656 at Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. John Kingsley and Alice Thatcher removed to at Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, between 1662 and 1668. John Kingsley married Mary Johnson, daughter of John Johnson and Mary Heath, on 16 March 1674 at Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; John's third wife. John Kingsley died circa January 1679. He was buried on 6 January 1679 at Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.

John came from England in between 1630-1635, eventually settling in Dorchester, MA where he was one of seven organizers of the First Church of Dorchester which was founded in August 1636. He and Elizabeth married there, and she was the second church member when her marriage covenant was signed.

John remarried sometime after 1640, to Alice Daniels. He acquired the first grant of land in Taunton, MA in 1645 and relocated there, where he became a shareholder in Great Lots the following year. He was appointed bailiff in 1647 and tax collector in 1648. In about 1649 the family moved to Rehoboth, MA. spent ten(? ) prosperous years in their fertile farm east of Seekonk River. They raised grain and had horses, cattle, sheep, swine and fowls. After the death of his second wife, John married Mary Johnson Mowry, his daughter-in-law's mother, in 1674. In 1675 the King Philip's war broke out. The Indians burned the town March the 28th, 1676: "...a party of the Indians, crossing the river, laid the town in ashes, burning forty houses and thirty barns. Only two houses were left standing, the garrison house, which stood on the spot where the house of Phanuel Bishop now stands, and another home on the south end of the common, which was preserved by blak sticks having been arranged around it, so as to give it at a distance the appearance of being strongly guarded. The houses were set on fire, as tradition informs us, early in the evening, and when the sun arose the next morning it beheld only a line of smoking ruins.

John was saved by being in a fortified garrison home. (Mary had probably fled with the other women and children to Newport where Rev. John Clarke porvided shelter for them) Five weeks of isolation had left them starving and he wrote a letter to friends in Conn. to please send food. About three weeks later food arrived to them. John and Mary moved to Bristol, RI where the couple died within a day of each other. His grave was moved back to Rehoboth, probably because he stated in his will that he wanted "to be buried by my wife Allice in the North Corner of my houselott."

ref: KINGSLEY FAMILY OF AMERICA by William Author Kingsley

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