Roger Morey and Mary Johnson
Roger Morey was born in England around the year 1610. In 1607 Jamestown had been established, and migration to the New World was becoming a reality for many British citizens. Life in the colony of Jamestown was very difficult during the early years of settlement. From abandonment to disease, settling the New World was a difficult task for the British. Roger immigrated to the North American colonies and arrived in Massachusetts in 1631.1 He had been a follower of Roger Williams and he and Williams had sailed together from England on the ship Lion.2 He married Mary Johnson (1614-1679) in 1635. Their children and other biographical information are as follows:
OCCUPATION: Neat herd at Salem, 1636-41; innkeeper at Providence by 1655. In 1657 the Rhode Island Treasurer was ordered to pay Roger "Moorie" 1s. 6d. out of the treasury "for this day's firing & house room".
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: In list of Salem church members compiled in late 1636 (annotated "removed").
FREEMAN: 18 May 1631 (as "Roger Mawry").
EDUCATION: He could sign his name, and his wife made her mark.
OFFICES: Essex petit jury (from Salem), 25 January 1641. Providence constable, 1655; one of six men chosen to hear cases in Providence 1662, in later life frequently a Providence juryman.
ESTATE: In teh Salem land grant of 1636 "Roger Morie" received 40 [0r 50] acres "next to Mr. Cole". On 14 August 1637, he requested a "spot of ground by Estye's". He was granted three-quarters of an acre of marsh on 25 December 1637, with a household of five. He had fifty acres laid out 20 February 1637 and on 20 July 1638 he was granted a strip of meadow of 2 1/2 acres and 1/2 acres of upland. Land was laid out in Providence to Roger Mowry in early 1656 at his request. On 27 August 1656 he had a house lot laid out to him upon the hill against Robert Williams's meadow. On 15 January 1658 he bought a house and four acres from Robert Colwell and sold it to Thomas Oldney Sr. of Providence 19 March 1658/9. On 7 April 1660 was granted six acres of land and three acres of meadow in exchange for land that he had been previously granted. On 12 June 1660 he sold ninety acres of land a mile outside of Providence to John Acres of Dorchester. On 23 November 1660 Henry Neale of Briantree, carpenter, sold Mowry everything he had in Providence, including his house, which had been purchased from Daniel Comstock; on 3 February 1661/2 Mowry sold the right of commonage that came with this land to William Carpenter [right of commonage refers to joint usage of a property]. On 4 May 1661 Samuel Comstock's widow, Anne Smith of Providence, sold Mowry four acres in the row of houses in the north part of Providence, next to a parcel already owned by Mowry. Mowry sold Robert Colwell's right of commonage to William Carpenter of Pautuxett on 22 December 1662. In the Division on the East Side of the Seven Mile Line, Roget Mowry drew lot #74 on the 19 February 1665/6. On 3 June 1685 Timothy Brookes reveals that "for & in satisfaction of a certain sum of money which the said Roger Mawrey promised unto the said Eldad Kinsley in marriage with his said daughter Mehittabell for part of her portion, [Mowry] did...give...unto the said Eldad Kinsley a certain quantity of land containing by estimation twelve acres". Although Roger Mowry had made her his executrix, the widow Mary ultimately refused administration of his insolvent estate. She later accepted administration, but neither will not inventory survive and were missing as early as 1677 when a review of town books which had survived King Phillip's war revealed that the administration papers and bond were missing. She may have been an ineffective administratrix, for son Jonathan claimed before a Providence town meeting that he had taken possession of twelve acres of upland that had been his father's right, being the "son & heir apparent".
BIRTH: By about 1610 based on date of freemanship.
DEATH: Providence 5 January 1666/7.
MARRIAGE: By 1637 Mary Johnson, daughter of John Johnson. She married (2) Rehoboth 14 January 1673 John Kingsley and was buried at Rehoboth 6 January 1678/9.
CHILDREN:
i. Jonathan, bp. Salem 2 April 1637; m. Plymouth 8 July 1659 Mary (Bartlett) Foster, widow of Richard Foster and daughter of Robert Bartlett; m. (2) say 1694 Hannah (Pincen) (Young) Witherell, daughter of Thomas Pincen.
ii. Appia/Bethiah, bp. Salem 17 June 1638; m. 30 September 1662 George Palmer.
iii. Mary, bp. Salem 16 January 1639/40; no further record.
iv. Elizabeth, bp. Salem 27 March 1642; living in 1690 when she appears in an account of payments from the estate of her brother John; apparently unmarried.
v. Nathaniel, b. say 1643; m. (intention) Providence 28 August 1666 Joanna Inman, daughter of Edward Inman.
vi. Mehitable, b. say 1644; m. (1) Providence 9 May 1662 Eldad Kingsley; m. (2) by 1685 as his second wife Timothy Brooks, son of Henry Brooks (they made a deed together on 3 June 1685).
vii. John, b, say 1646; m. by about 1674 Mary ___.
viii. Joseph, b. say 1647; m. by 1672 Mary Wilbur, daughter of William Wilbur.
ix. Benjamin, b. 8 May 1649; bp. Salem 20 May 1649; m. say 1676 Martha (Hazard) Potter, widow of Ichabod Potter and daughter of Thomas and Martha (___) Hazard.
x. Thomas, b. Providence 19 July 1652; m. Roxbury 6 September 1673 Susanna Newell.
xi. Hannah, b. Providence 28 September 1656; m. portsmouth 3 December 1674 Benjamin Sherman.
ASSOCIATIONS: Hannah Mowry and Elizabeth Mowry were members of the Salem church in the 1640s and may have been connected in some way to Roger Mowry. Alternatively, their surnames may have been variants of "Moore" or "More."
COMMENTS: In a warrant to the constable of Lynn, dated 29 December 1647, one of the witnesses was "Roger Morey". Mention is made of "where Rogr Morey's old house stood" in 1649, perhaps referring to his remove from Salem to Lynn. A flawed reading of records in the case in which Mrs. Lydia Bankes sued Mowry for debt in June of 1650 resulted in the erroneous conclusion that Lydia was the daughter of John Johnson of Roxbury. John Clawson, a servant of Roger Williams, is said to have complained of some men, "such as Roger Mowry," according to the deposition of Edward Inman on the occasion of Clawson's violent death. Roger was the administrator of the estate of William Robinson of Providence in October 1657.3
Roger Morey's maintained a position of leadership within his community. As described below:
The Roger Mowry House: Where Roger Williams is said to have held Prayer meetings.
Until 1900 Providence possessed a landmark which bound it very closely to the days when Roger Williams lived in the colony and to the days of King Philip's war. The Roger Mowry house - in later years known as the Abbott house - withstood the disasters with befell its neighbors, though eventually it was demolished to give place to a modern dwelling on the north side of Abbott Street, at No. 30, near the Old North Burying Ground. Five years after it was torn down, the ancient elm which stood near the house, and was said to have been one of the largest elms in the city was cut down. So passed the sturdy guardian of a dwelling that played no small part in the early history of Providence.
Early Records show that Roger Mowry came from Salem some time prior to 1650, and that in May, 1655, he was granted a license to keep a house of entertainment in Providence. The "ordinarie's brew" may have been sipped too often or too long; for in the course of the next half-dozen years the Assembly decreed that "no howse of entertainment shall suffer any person to tipple after 9 of the clock at night, except they give a satisfactory reason to the Constable or magistrate." The penalty for disobeying this decree was a fine of five shillings for the tavern-keeper and two shillings and sixpence for the person who "tippled."
Events of interest cluster around the old tavern. When John Clawson, a Dutch carpenter [see above] was found dying one cold December morning in 1661 from a blow dealt by a broad-axe, at once his murderer was sought, and finally Waumanitt, an Indian, was charged with the crime and taken prisoner. There was apparently much difficulty in disposing of him. The charge for irons which the local blacksmith forged was considerable for a colony where shillings were scarce, and there was no prison in Providence to hold the captive. So he was removed to Roger Mowry's tavern, and there kept until other disposition was made of him, though exactly what was done is not recorded. It is stated that he was sent to Newport, and that Landlord Mowry presented his bill for housing Waumanitt. The tale went that Clawson, the slain man, had quarrelled violently with a neighbor, and that it was this neighbor, Hearndon by name, who killed Clawson, by whom he was recognized. it was said that Clawson roused sufficiently before he died to pronounce a curse against the Hearndons, - that he hoped they would bear split chins and be haunted for the rest of their natural lives by barberry-bushes (near a clump of these bushes Clawson was slain); and it is said that split chins for generations marked the Hearndons.
In the one-room house of Roger Mowry the Town Council met. "For this daies fireing" and "for house roome" the Town Treasurer was directed, January 27, 1657, to pay one shilling and sixpence. There is a tradition that Roger Williams held prayer-meetings at Mowry's.
Ample evidence remains to show that the house was built as early as 1653. It was a house of some size; but originally was very small with a huge stone chimney, having only the "fire roome," as did the other houses of the day, and like them it sloped toward the street. At the outer doorway was a big flat stone, which served for a door-step. The "fire room" was entered from the street, and was conspicuous for its chimney and great fireplace, occupying nearly one side of the house. Near this a steep staircase led to the loft above. There has been some conjecture as to why this old tavern was spared by the Indians during the attacks on the colony. What was spared by them was swept away by the growth of the city of Providence, and its passing took from the city a landmark of its earliest history. 4
Jonathan Morey and Mary Bartlett Foster
Their son, Jonathan (1637-1708) married Mary Bartlett Foster. Jonathan was born in Salem, Massachusetts - the same year that the first cemetery was established in that town. The courtship of Mary by Jonathan could ahve been a unique one:
During the 1650s, when Mary Bartlett was married to Richard Foster, Jonathan Morey was ordered by the courts to NOT frequent the Foster house, when Richard Foster was not home. Remember that between 1651 (Their Marriage) and 1658/59 (His death) Mary Bartlett and Richard Foster did not have any children. 5
His death was recorded in Plymouth, at the age of 75.5 One may wonder what life in the Purtian colony was like, especially in the 1690s when fears of witchcraft spread like wildfire throughout the region. Jonathan and Mary Morey had the following children: Jonathan (1659-1733), Mary (1660-1736), John (1666-1699), and Hannah (1673-1729). Mary Bartlett was the widow of Richard Foster and had children from her first marriage. After Mary's death, Jonathan married Hannah Pincen - a twice widowed woman.
Sources
Biographical information contributed by Heather Wylie.
1. Place: Boston, Massachusetts; Year: 1631; Page Number: 202. U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1500s-1900s. Ancestry.com.
2. Memorial and Family History of Erie County, New York by
3.New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635. Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA. pg. 1312- 1315
4. Old Providence: A Collection of Facts and Traditions relating to Various Buildings and Sites of Historic Interest in Providence. Printed For The Merchants of the National Bank of Providence. Walton Advertising and Printing Company, Boston Mass. 1918. Pg. 3-4.
5. An Atwood Ancestry by Jane Atwood Borchert and Carole Atwood Wentworth. Sanderstead Press, 1997. Pg. 271.
6. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Ancestry.com.
1. Place: Boston, Massachusetts; Year: 1631; Page Number: 202. U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1500s-1900s. Ancestry.com.
2. Memorial and Family History of Erie County, New York by
3.New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635. Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA. pg. 1312- 1315
4. Old Providence: A Collection of Facts and Traditions relating to Various Buildings and Sites of Historic Interest in Providence. Printed For The Merchants of the National Bank of Providence. Walton Advertising and Printing Company, Boston Mass. 1918. Pg. 3-4.
5. An Atwood Ancestry by Jane Atwood Borchert and Carole Atwood Wentworth. Sanderstead Press, 1997. Pg. 271.
6. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Ancestry.com.