John Williams

John Williams

• M, #219085, b. 1644, d. 1687
• Last Edited=4 Sep 2008
• John Williams was born in 1644.1 He was the son of Nathaniel Williams and Mary (?).1 He married Anna Alcock in 1670.1 He died in 1687.1

From Putnam's Monthly Historical Magazine and Magazine of New England History (Google eBook). Salem Press Publishing and Printing Company, 1915 - New England. Page 7-9. JOHN WILLIAMS OF NEWPORT, MERCHANT, AND HIS FAMILY. BY Gnonon ANDREWS MORIARTY, JR., A.M.:

family

John and Ann (Alcock) Williams had issue:

• i. Nathaniel, born 11 Nov., 1672, at Boston, He inherited property in Boston and on Block Island, and probably died without issue; for we find that 10 November, 1788, John Whitman Williams of Newport, tailor, son of John Williams, late of Newport, mariner, sold his right in Fort Island, Block Island, which John Williams of Boston and his wife Anna left to their son Nathaniel Williams and to whom the said John Williams, father of John Whitman Williams, was heir. As he fails to name his father as the son of Nathaniel, it is probable that the latter was the John Williams, son of Palsgrave Williams, of whom we have record.
• ii. Palsgrave Williams, of Newport, R. I., who was admitted a Freeman on 31 Jan., 1704, at Newport. Palsgrave appears to have been the black sheep of the family. From a deposition taken at Block Island 18 April, 1717, and sent by Gov. Cranston to Gov. Shute of Massachusetts and now preserved with the State Archives at Boston, it appears that Palsgrave Williams was a pirate and had kidnapped three of the inhabitants of Block Island. On 5 October, 1741, Elizabeth Williams, mother of Paul (Palsgrave), desired that Stephen Hookey of Newport be made guardian to the children of Paul (Palsgrave) Williams, “who is gone and left his children, namely Paulsgrave and John Williams.” This latter entry, in the Newport Records, probably refers to Palsgrave Williams, Jr., the son of the pirate of 1718.
• iii. Anna Williams, born 4 Nov., 1674, at Boston, married Jonathan Bennett of Newport, who died in 1708. On 11 Sept., 1714, Ann Guttery of Block Island, relict of Robert Guttery, deceased, and “administrator on the estate of my former husband John Williams of Boston” etc., deeded to her daughter Anna Bennett of Newport, widow of Jonathan Bennett, of Newport, certain land in that town.
• iv. Mary Williams, born 2 Oct., 1670, at Boston; married 1st 12 Feb., 1693, Edward Sands of Block Island. He died in 1708 leaving a daughter, Sarah Sands, who married, 10 March, 1710/ 11, Teddeman Hull of Jamestown. Mary Williams married, second, 5 J anuary, 1712/13, Robert Westcott of New Shoreham, who died without issue.
• v. Elizabeth Williams born in Boston 5 Dec., 1679; married 21 Nov., 1700, at New Shoreham, Timothy McCarty. She had issue by McCarty a son, Joseph, and probably a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Catherine. She married, second, before 12 Dec., 1718, Thomas Paine of Block Island, and had issue by Paine one son, John Paine, Esq., of New Shoreham, who in 1744 married Bathsheba Rathbone (born 1725), and is the ancestor of all persons on Block Island named Paine. Thomas Paine married, second, in 1723, Susanna Arnold, widow of Samuel Arnold, and daughter of Samuel George of Block Island by whom he had one daughter, Margaret Paine, who married Benjamin Potter of South Kingstown 13 Feb., 1746. Certain deeds at Block Island make it clear that John Paine could not have been the son of Thomas Paine’s second wife, Susanna (George) Arnold whom he married in 1723, and as Thomas Paine in a deed dated 26 March, 1755, calls John Paine his son, and as Anne Guttery in her will of 12 Dec., 1718, states that Elizabeth is the wife of Thomas Paine, and as John Paine’s wife, Bathsheba Rathbone, was born in 1725, it is very clear that the Hon. John Paine, Esq., for many years Deputy of the General Assembly from New Shoreham, and ancestor of all of the Paine name on Block Island, was the son of Elizabeth Williams, who must have died before 1723. Thomas Paine is probably the Thomas, son of John Paine of Newport, saddler, mentioned in the latter’s will of 15 May, 1704, proved 4 June, 1704, as being then of age.
• vi. Arabella Williams married Edward Pelham, Jr., Esq", of Newport, 14 March, 1717/18. He was the son of Edward Pelham and his wife, Freelove, daughter of Gov. Benedict Arnold. Part of the Williams property in Newport descended to this Arabella (Williams) Pelham, while her husband inherited from his mother the property where the Old Stone Mill stands. Hermone, daughter of Edward and Arabella (Williams) Pelham, married in Trinity Church, Newport, on 14 November, 1737, John Bannister, Esq., the eminent Newport merchant, who became possessed through this marriage of the Old Stone Mill property. In this connection it is interesting to note that the grandfather of John Bannister,Thomas Bannister, of Boston, merchant, had purchased of Nathaniel Williams, J r., in 1709 the original Blackstone lot in Boston, which the first Nathaniel Williams had purchased of Richard Pepys in 1655.

The mother of the above children Ann (Alcock) Williams-Guttery resided, after the death of her second husband, Robert Guttery, at Block Island. On 22 Aug., 1706, she sold a house in the south end of Boston, on the west side of the “road leading to Roxbury” (Washington St.), which had descended to her from her grandmother, Anna Palsgrave, relict of Richard Palsgrave of Charlestown, to Samuel Greenleaf of Boston. Her will, on file at New Shoreham, is dated 12 Dec., 1718, and was proved 27 June, 1723. She makes her sons John Sands and Robert Westcott, executors, and bequeaths to her daughter Arabella Pelham, to her daughter Elizabeth Paine, to son Thomas Paine then living on Block Island, and provides that he (viz. Thomas Paine) shall give a cow to her grandson, Joseph McCarty, when he comes of age. She also mentions her daughter, Mary Westcott, and her grandchildren, Palsgrave and John Williams, Joseph McCarty, Robert Sands, Edward Hull and Anna Bennett. The will was proved by Edward Pelham and Anna Bennett, the nearest of kin.

biography

John Williams, an almost forgotten Newport magnate of this period, was one of the earliest of the great merchants of Newport, at a time before the Malbones, Challoners, Scotts, and Bannisters had become identified with Newport mercantile life. John Williams was a man of great wealth and aristocratic connections. He was also a man of large public spirit and ability, as is shown by the offices that he was elected to; as for example that of Deputy to the General Assembly and Attorney General of the Rhode Island Colony.
The first member of this family in this country was Lieut. Nathaniel Williams, merchant and glover, of Boston. He joined the First Church at Boston on 26 May, 1639. ...Nathaniel Williams and his wife, Mary, had issue: iv. John, bp. 18 Aug. 1644, aged 3 days. Mary, the widow of Nathaniel Williams, married, second, Peter Brackett, merchant, of Braintree and Boston.
As early as 16 April, 1666, he is described, in a Block Island deed, among the Colonial Land Records of Rhode Island, as an inhabitant of that island, whither it is probable he had gone as agent for Capt. John Williams of London. Shortly after this date he made a most fortunate matrimonial alliance with one of the leading families of Massachusetts.
In the Suffolk deeds we have a pre-nuptial contract, under date of 25 January, 1669/70, between John Williams, son of Nathaniel Williams of Boston, deceased, glover, and Ann, daughter of Dr. John Alcock, deceased, of Roxbury. Ann Alcock was the daughter of Dr. John and Sarah (Palsgrave) Alcock of Roxbury. Dr. Alcock was a graduate of Harvard in 1646, and his wife was the daughter of Dr. Richard Palsgrave, one of the principal settlers of Charlestown, Mass., in 1629. Dr. Alcock was the son of Dr. George and (Hooker) Alcock of Roxbury, Mass. This Dr. George Alcock came in Winthrop’s fleet, and was the first deacon of Eliot's church at Roxbury, and Deputy from Roxbury to the first General Court in 1634. His wife was the sister of Rev. Thomas Hooker, the venerated founder of Hartford, Conn. Dr. John Alcock was one of the prime movers in the settlement of Block Island, of which he was one of the purchasers, and his son-in-law, John Williams, inherited a large part of the Alcock property at Block Island, including the well known Fort Island, in the great Salt Pond, mentioned by Rev. Nathaniel Niles in his “History of the Indian Wars,” and also part of the Alcock grant on the Assobet River in the town of Stow, Mass.
John Williams seems to have divided his time between Block Island and Boston. From his will we learn that he had a warehouse at New Shoreham, and he is styled indifferently in the records as of “Boston” or “New Shoreham als. Block Island.” In May, 1679, he was chosen by New Shoreham as Deputy to the General Assembly, but about this time his large and increasing mercantile enterprises necessitated his removing to Newport, where he purchased of Nathaniel Dickens, on 10 May, 1679, twenty acres bounded east by Mary Timberlake; south by John Easton, Sen.; southeast on Robert Grifiin’s heirs; west on Henry Bull; south on Jireh Bull and north on the Great Street. On July 23, 1683, he became a Freeman of Newport, and, according to the Town Records, he was chosen Deputy for Newport on 1 October, 1684. He appears to have at once taken a prominent place in Newport. His great wealth, which had been greatly increased by the uniting of his ample patrimony with that of his wife, enabled him to play an important part in the newly born mercantile life of Newport. In fact I think that John Williams together with the Hon. Major Nathaniel Shefiield, Gov. Peleg Sanford, Gov. Walter Clarke, the Coddingtons and the Brentons played a most important part in the upbuilding of the commercial greatness of Newport. In 1686, his abilities and services were recognized by the Colony, which elected him its Attorney General for that year.
His death occurred, fortunately for us, in 1687, during the administration of Sir Edmund Andros, hence his will was probated in Boston and so escaped the distinction that has overtaken so many Newport wills. It was dated 18 April, 1687, and proved 25 October, 1687. He disposes of his large property at Block Island, Boston, Stow, and Newport among his children, and leaves land for a meeting house to Mr. Hiscox’ congregation in Newport, showing that he had Baptist proclivities. He makes Mr. Thomas Ward of Newport and his brother, Mr. Nathaniel Williams, of Boston, his executors, while his friend Mr. Robert Guttery of Block Island is appointed executor for his son, Nathaniel, until he should come of age. He mentions his sons, Nathaniel and Palsgrave, and his daughters, Ann, Elizabeth, and Arabella, and makes provision for an expected child.
Ann (Alcock) Williams, his widow, married, second, 5 June, 1689, her late husband’s friend, Robert Guttery or Gathrie, of Newport and Block Island. Guttery came from Braintree in the first settlement of Block Island in 1662, and appears to have been the principal person among a number of Scotchmen, who settled on Block Island in the first settlement. These Scotchmen were prisoners sent over by Cromwell to Massachusetts after the battles of Dunbar and Worcester and sold, for the most part, to the Lynn and Braintree Ironworks. From Braintree several of them emigrated in 1662 to Block Island, among them Robert Guttery, who seems to have been a man of wealth and position. Guttery died in 1692, leaving by Anna (Alcock) his wife, one daughter, Catherine, who married John Sands of Long Island, and who is the ancestress of the New York family of Sands.
Such is in brief the history of this, at one time, eminent Newport family, a family intermarried with such families as the Alcocks, Palsgraves, Olivers, and Bradstreets in Massachusetts, the Pelhams and Bannisters of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the Sands, Hull, and Westcott families of Rhode Island. Considering the prominence of its early members and the fact that its blood flows in the veins of many present day Rhode Islanders, in which number the author of this article is proud to count himself, I have deemed it a worthy task to rescue from the oblivion, into which it has fallen, the history of the family of John Williams, of Newport, merchant.

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• Descent of Comfort Sands and of His Children, with Notes on the Families of Ray, Thomas, Guthrie, Alcock, Palgrave, Cornell, Dodge, Hunt, Jessup (Google eBook) Temple Prime De Vinne Press, 1886 - Genealogy - 91 pages. Page 62. "Articles of Agreement on a Contract of Marriage between Anna Alcock, Daughter of Dr. John Alcock, and John Williams, Jan. 25, 1669, 70. (record Office Of Deeds, Suffolk CO., MASS., LIBER VI., FOL. 241.) Articles of agreement on a contract of marriage, by God'& permission, to bee solemnized, in convenient time, by & betweene John Williams, the sonn of the late Nathaniell Williams, of Boston, in the Countie of Suffolke of the Massachusetts Colony in New England, glower & Anna Alcock, eldest daughter of the late John Alcock of Roxbury in the same Countie and Colony in New England, phissision had made drawne & concluded upon this 25th of January, 1669r by & betweene the sajd John Williams on the one part, & the sajd Anna of Boston aforesajd, and Samuell Alcock, unckle to the sajd Anna of Boston aforesajd, phisisian,, ...."
• Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. NAME: Robert Guttridge [Robert Guthrie]  GENDER: Male MARRIAGE DATE: 5 Jun 1689 DEATH YEAR: 169 MARRIAGE PLACE: New England, United States SPOUSE'S NAME: Ann Alcock [Ann Williams]