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Mary Browne (Holmes)

Birthdate:
Birthplace: England (United Kingdom)
Death: March 15, 1690
Providence, Rhode Island
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Rev. Obadiah Holmes and Catherine Holmes
Wife of Rev. John Brown and Rev. John Browne
Mother of Mary Aylesworth Ellsworth; Nathaniel Brown, Sr; Hannah Thompson; Martha Jenks; Sarah Pray and 8 others
Sister of Hopestill Taylor; Capt. Jonathan Holmes; Lydia Bowne; John Holmes; Martha Odlin and 4 others

Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Mary Browne

Mary Holmes was the daughter of Rev. Obadiah Holmes and Katherine Hyde. Mary Holmes was born circa 1632 at Lancashire, England. She married John Brown circa 1659. Mary Holmes died circa 1690.

Additional Curator's Notes:

This can be very confusing but attention to details will help you to merge correctly. Among the many children of Rev. Obadiah Holmes and wife Katherine Hyde were two sisters, Mary and Lydia Mary. Mary was born in 1628-1648, depending on source, in Rhode Island and died in 1690 in Rhode Island. She married Capt. John Browne. Note the "r" in his name. Sister Lydia Mary was born in 1644 in Rhode Island and died in 1693 in New Jersey. She married Capt. John Bowne, pronounced Boone. Note there is no "r" in his name. If you are careful about the spelling of the husband's surname and the place of death, you will be able to keep these sisters separated. Maria Edmonds-Zediker, Volunteer Curator, 8/10/2011.

Mary Holmes was born in 1638 at Lancashire, England.2 She was the daughter of Rev. Obadiah Holmes and Katherine Hyde.1 Mary Holmes married John Brown.1 Mary Holmes died after 1690.1. Her married name was Brown.1

Family

  1. John Brown b. 1634, d. c 1706. He was the son of Rev. Chad Brown

John Brown and Mary Holmes were married in Providence, Rhode Island in 1654. They had seven children:

  • • Sarah Brown, born in 1657
  • • John Brown, born in 1662
  • • James Brown, born in 1666
  • • Obadiah Brown, born about 1668
  • • Martha Brown
  • • Mary Brown
  • • Deborah Brown

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF STONINGTON, County of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900, by Richard Anson Wheeler, New London, CT, 1900, p. 251


SOURCE: The American Family of Obadiah Holmes, by Col. J.T. Holmes, 1915

Edwin Salter of New Jersey, one of the Holmes blood, who wrote the Early Dutch Settlers of that colony, prepared a three and a half column article on "Rev. Obadiah Holmes, his ancestry, children and neighbors," which was printed in the Monmouth Democrat, newspaper, of September 6, 1888. Near the close, he said: The Rhode Island accounts of the family state that Mary, daughter of Rev. Obadiah Holmes, married John Browne, born 1634, son of Rev. Chad Browne. This Browne family is the one distinguished in Rhode Island, and from some of its members Browne University took its name.

SOURCE:“A Genealogical Record of the Early Settler of New England…” by James Savage, first published in Boston, 1860

Mary Holmes was born about 1632 to Obadiah and Katherine Holmes in England. Her family sailed to Boston in 1638 and then moved in turn to Salem and Rehoboth in Massachusetts and finally to Newport, Rhode Island.

A deed in 1660 made reference to “the field where John Browne his dwelling house now standeth near the Great Swamp.” John Brown was an elder in the Baptist church and worked, at least for a time, as a surveyor. Mary Holmes died in 1690.



The maiden name of Mary Browne is probably Holmes or Pleasant. If she was born in England and died in Rhode Island, her maiden name was Homes. If she was born and died in Virginia, then her maiden name was Pleasant. Holmes died about 1690, Pleasant died about 1710. Another possibility for her maiden name is Willson.


Origins

Summary of the Will of Obadiah Holmes, written 9 April 1681 at Newport, Rhode Island. He bequeathed to:

  • daughter Mary Brown five pounds
  • daughter Martha Odlin ten pounds
  • dughter Lydia Bowne ten pounds
  • five pounds each to children of daughter Hopestill Taylor; ten pounds to one if only one survives
  • son John Holmes ten pounds
  • son Obadiah Holmes ten pounds
  • ten pounds each to children of son Samuel Holmes
  • ten pounds, ten shillings and a bible each to all grandchildren now living
  • ten pounds to grandchild Martha Brown
  • twenty pounds to wife Catherine
  • The above bequests to be made within one year after decease of wife Catherine Holmes.
  • Son Jonathan Holmes executor Overseers Mr. James Barker, Sr., Mr. Joseph Clarke, and Mr. Philip Smith, all of Newport.
  • Witnesses Edward Thurston, Weston Clarke who proved the will 4 Dec 1682
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Mary Browne's Timeline

1633
1633
England (United Kingdom)
1638
1638
Age 5
In the "Martin" with her husband and son John at Boston, Suffolk County, MA
1638
Age 5
In the "Martin" with her husband and son John at Boston, Suffolk County, MA
1644
1644
Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay
1645
1645
Ipswich, Essex County, Plymouth Colony, United States
1655
1655
Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, Colonial America
1658
May 2, 1658
Milford, New Haven County, Connecticut, British Colonial America
May 2, 1658
Providence, Providence County, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, United States
1662
March 18, 1662
Providence, Providence County, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, United States