Richard Warren and Elizabeth
Richard Warren came to the New World as a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620. He was the twelfth signer of the Compact, signed in the cabin of the ship; the first document of government in the New World. Richard, unlike many of the other passengers aboard the ship, survived the first winter in the New World. He had married Elizabeth in England. She journeyed to follow her husband on a separate ship, the Ann in 1623 and brought with her their daughters.
Mrs. Warren was rated in the Plymouth tax list of 1632-3, and was one of the first purchasers of Dartmouth. A study of the early Plymouth records leads to the conclusion that she was a woman of force and social position in the community, and she is therein usually spoken of as "Mistress" Elizabeth Warren, a designation by no means common. And she is one of the rare instances in that early colony of continued widowhood. A glimpse of one side of her domestic life is to be had in the connection with the prosecution by the General Court of her servant, Thomas Williams, 5 July, 1635, for "speaking profane & blasphemous speeches against ye majestie of God." "There being some dissension between him and his dame, she after other things, exhorted him to fear God & doe his duty." Upon the marriage of her daughters, Mrs. Warren conveyed to their respective husbands certain lands, variously located at Eel River and Wellingsly. She died at Plymouth, 2 October, 1673, aged above ninety years. For some unknown reason, unless there is a mistake in the record, she was not buried until the twenty-second day after her death, when it was entered on the records that she, "haueing liued a godly life, came to her graue as a shoke of corn fully ripe." 1
Richard's biography is also recorded:
ORIGIN: London
MIGRATION: 1620 on MAYFLOWER
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth division of land Richard Warren received an uncertain number of acres (perhaps two) as a passenger on the Mayflower, and five acres as a passenger on the Anne (presumably for his wife and children). In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle Richard Warren, his wife Elizabeth Warren, Nathaniel Warren, Joseph Warren, Mary Warren, Anna Warren, Sarah Warren, Elizabeth Warren and Abigail Warren were the first nine persons in the ninth company. He was one of the purchasers. In the 25 March 1633 Plymouth tax list Widow Warren was assessed 12s., and in the list of 27 March 1634, 9s. On 1 July 1633, "Mrs. Warren and Robt. Bartlet" were allowed to mow where they did the previous year, and again 14 March 1635/6. On 28 Octoner 1633, a grant of Richard Warren's land on which he was required to erect a dwelling, returned to the court "for want of building" and it was regranted to Mr. Ralph Fogg, provided he pay Widow Warren sufficiently for her fence remaining there. On 7 March 1636/7 "it is agreed upon, by the consent of the whole Court, that Elizabeth Warren, widow, the relict of Mr. Richard Warren, deceased, shall be entered, and stand, and be purchaser instead of her said husband, as well because that (he dying before he performed said bargin) the said Elizabeth performed the same after his decease, and also for the establishing of the lots of lands given formerly by her unto her sons-in-law Richard Church, Robert Bartlett and Thomas Little, in marriage with their wives, her daughters". On 5 May 1640 "Richard Church, Rob[er]te Bartlett, Thomas Little, & Mrs. Elizabeth Warren were granted enlargements at the heads of their lots to the foot of the Pyne Hills, leaving a way betwixt them and the Pyne Hills, for cattle and carts to pass". On 11 June 1653, as the result of a disagreement between Mrs. Elizabeth Warren and her son, Nathaniel, and a petition offered in court by Mrs. Jane Collier on behalf of her grandchild, Sarah, wife of Nathaniel Warren, the court chose four indifference men to settle the matter of access to lands. On 4 March 1673/4 Mary Bartlett, wife of Robert Bartlett, came into this court and owned "that she hath received full satisfaction for whatsoever she might claim as due from the estate of Mistris Elizabeth Warren, deceased, and John Cooke, in the behalf of her sisters, testified the same before the court; and the court doth hereby settle the remainder of the said estate of Joseph Warren".
BIRTH: By about 1578 based on estimated date of marriage.
DEATH: Plymouth 1628. ("This year died Mr. Richard Warren, who hath been mentioned before in this book, and was an useful instrument; and during his life bore a deep share in the difficulties and troubles of the first settlement of the plantation of New-Plymouth.")
MARRIAGE: By about 1609 Elizabeth____; she died at Plymouth 2 October 1673 aged about 90 (probably an exaggeration). (Elizabeth's maiden name has been given as March in many sources, without documentation).
CHILDREN:
i. Mary, b. say 1609; m. say 1629 Robert Bartlett (date based on estimated age of children at their marriages).
ii. Ann, b. say 1613; m. Plymouth 19 April 1633 Thomas Little.
iii. Sarah, b. say 1614; m. Plymouth 28 March 1634 John Cooke Junior, son of Francis Cooke.
iv. Elizabeth , b. say 1615; m. by 1635/6 Richard Church (he shared mowing land with Mrs. Warren 14 March 1635/6).
v. Abigail, b. say 1619; m. Plymouth 8 (or 9) November 1639 Anthony Snow.
vi. Nathaniel, b. Plymouth say 1624 (Bradford says he was born here, and his mother was a passenger on the Anne in 1623); m. Plymouth 19 November 1645 Sarah Walker.
vii. Joseph, b. Plymouth by 1627; m. about 1653 Priscilla Faunce, daughter of John Faunce (eldest child b. Plymouth 23 September 1653).
COMMENTS: In his accounting of the passengers on the Mayflower Bradford included "Mr. Richard Warren, but is wife and children were left behind and came afterwards". As of 1651, Bradford reported that Mr. Richard Warren lived some four or five years and had his wife come over to him, by whom he had two sons before [he] died, and one of them is married and hath two children. So his increase is four. But he had five daughters more came over with his wife, who are all married and living, and have many children. Banks argued that Bradford's language in the sentence about meant that Richard Warren had two wives, with the first whom he had five daughters and with the second of whom, Elizabeth, he had two sons, and deForest agreed with him. Many attempts, all fruitless have been made to discover the English origin of Richard Warren and the identity of his wife. Richard Warren was in the party that explored the outer cape in early December 1620; he was described as being of London. On 5 July 1635, Thomas Williams, servant of widow Warren, confessed that "there be some distension between him and his dame, she, after other things, exhorted him to fear God & do his duty, he answered he neither feared God, nor the devil". He was reproved and released. On 5 January 1635/6 widow Warren paid 30s. to Thomas Clarke for borrowing his boat, and although returning it to a place of usual safety, an extraordinary storm wrecked it. One 3 June 1639 "Mr. Andrew Hellot" was ordered to pay Mrs. warren 10s. to settle an account between them.
BIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1938 L. Effingham deForest published a thorough study of Richard Warren. Robert S. Wakefield, Janice A. Beebe and others have prepared the Richard Warren volume in the General Society of Mayflower Descendants' series of "pink books," the fifth volume edition of which was published in 1995.2
Sources
1. Richard Warren of the Mayflower and Some of His Descendants. By Emily Warren Roebling. Press of David Clapp & Son, Boston, 1901. Pg. 3.
2. New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635. Ancestry.com, 2013. Provo, UT, USA. pg 1935-1937.
2. New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635. Ancestry.com, 2013. Provo, UT, USA. pg 1935-1937.