Richard Warren
Encyclopedia
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
(old "May Floure") in 1620. He settled in Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
and was among ten passengers of the Mayflower landing party with Myles Standish
Myles Standish
Myles Standish was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for Plymouth Colony. One of the Mayflower passengers, Standish played a leading role in the administration and defense of Plymouth Colony from its inception...
at Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
on November 11, 1620. Warren co-signed the Mayflower Compact
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower...
and was one of nineteen (among 41) signers who survived the first winter
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
.
His wife's maiden name was Elizabeth Walker, the daughter of Augustine Walker of Great Amwell, Hertford; she was baptised 1583 in Baldock
Baldock
Baldock is a historic market town in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the ceremonial county of Hertfordshire, England where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north northwest of the county town of Hertford...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, died October 2, 1673. She and his first five children, all daughters, came to America in the ship Anne in 1623. Once in America, they then had two sons before Richard's death in 1628.
Although the details are limited, Richard Warren and wife, Elizabeth, and children were mentioned in official records or books of the time period.
All seven of their children survived and had families, with thousands of descendants, including: President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
, astronaut Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was an American naval aviator, test pilot, flag officer, and NASA astronaut who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, in space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit...
, author Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
(Little House on the Prairie series), actor Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, Lavinia Warren
Lavinia Warren
Lavinia Warren was an American proportionate dwarf and the wife of General Tom Thumb.-Early life:Warren was born at Middleborough, Massachusetts as Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump, a descendant of a French Catholic family named Bonpasse, of Governor Thomas Mayhew, and five Mayflower passengers: John...
, also known as Mrs. Tom Thumb
General Tom Thumb
General Tom Thumb was the stage name of Charles Sherwood Stratton , a dwarf who achieved great fame under circus pioneer P.T. Barnum.-Early life:...
, educator and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
, and the Wright brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
.
His life
Warren is among the less documented of the MayflowerMayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
pioneers. Clearly a man of rank, Warren was accorded by Governor William Bradford
William Bradford (1590-1657)
William Bradford was an English leader of the settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and served as governor for over 30 years after John Carver died. His journal was published as Of Plymouth Plantation...
the prefix "Mr.," pronounced Master, used in those times to distinguish someone because of birth or achievement. From his widow's subsequent land transactions, we can assume that he was among the wealthier of the original Plymouth settlers. And yet, Bradford did not mention him in his History of the Plimouth Plantation except in the List of Passengers.
In Mourt's Relation
Mourt's Relation
The book Mourt's Relation was written primarily by Edward Winslow, although William Bradford appears to have written most of the first section...
, published in 1622, we learn that Warren was chosen, when the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
stopped at Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
before reaching Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, to be a member of the exploring party among 10 passengers (and 8 crew), and he was described as being "of London" among 3 men. Charles Edward Banks, in Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers writes: "Richard Warren came from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and was called a merchand of that city (by Mourt) Extensive research in every available source of information -- registers, chancery, and probate, in the London courts, proved fruitless in an attempt to identify him."
He was not of the Leiden, Holland, Pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
, but joined them in Southampton, England to sail on the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
.
Richard Warren received his acres in the Division of Land in 1623. In the 1627 Division of Lands and Cattle, in May of 1627, "RICHARD WARREN of the Mayflower" was given "one of the black heifer
Heifer
Heifer may refer to:*A young cow before she has had her first calf*Red Heifer, in Judaism is a heifer that is sacrificed and whose ashes are used for the ritual purification*Heifer International, a charitable organization...
s, 2 she-goats, and a grant of 400 acres (1.6 km²) of land" at the Eel River (Plymouth, Massachusetts). The Warren house built in that year (1627) stood at the same location as the present house; it was re-built about 1700, at the head of Clifford Road, with its back to the sea, and later owned by Charles Strickland (in 1976).
Warren died a year after the division, in 1628, the only record of his death being found as a brief note in Nathaniel Morton's 1669 book New England's Memorial, in which Morton writes:
- "This year [1628] died Mr. Richard Warren, who hath been mentioned before in this book, and was a useful instrument; and during his life bore a deep share in the difficulties and troubles of the first settlement of the plantation of New Plimouth."
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- -Nathaniel Morton, New England's Memorial (Boston : John Usher, 1669)
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Research into the life of Richard Warren is still ongoing.
Descendants
Elizabeth and Richard Warren's seven children, with their spouses, were:- Mary (c1610- 27 March 1683) married Robert Bartlett;
- Anna (c1612- aft 19 February 1676) married Thomas Little;
- Sarah (c1613- 15 July 1696) married John CookeJohn CookeJohn Cooke may refer to:*John Cooke , Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University*John Cooke *John Cooke , English cricketer...
, who, along with his father, Francis CookeFrancis CookeFrancis Cooke was one of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower. This early settler is one of the twenty-six male Pilgrims known to have descendants.- Early life and family :...
were MayflowerMayflowerThe Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
passengers; - Elizabeth (c1616- 9 March 1670) married Richard Church;
- Abigail (c1618- 3 January 1693) married Anthony Snow;
- Nathaniel (c1625-1667) married Sarah Walker; and
- Joseph (1627 - 4 May 1689) married Priscilla Faunce (1634- 15 May 1707).
All of Richard Warren's children survived to adulthood, married and had large families. It is claimed that Warren is the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
passenger with most descendants, numbering over 14 million.
Ancestral summary
More information has been published about Richard Warren than any other Mayflower passenger, probably because he has so many descendants (note that all seven of his children grew up and married). Warren's ancestry is uncertain, although there are some published sources that indicate he was descended from CharlemagneCharlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, and the International Society of the Descendants of Charlemagne considers him to be an established descendant. There is also dispute over his wife's maiden surname, but in 2002, Edward Davies located the will of Augustine Walker, who seems likely to have been her father.
Relatively little has been uncovered about Richard Warren's life in America. He came alone on the Mayflower in 1620, leaving behind his wife and five daughters. His family traveled on the ship "Anne" to join him in 1623, and Richard and Elizabeth subsequently had two sons, Nathaniel and Joseph, at Plymouth.
See also
- MayflowerMayflowerThe Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
- Mayflower CompactMayflower CompactThe Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower...
- Of Plymouth PlantationOf Plymouth PlantationWritten over a period of years by the leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation is the single most complete authority for the story of the Pilgrims and the early years of the Colony they founded...
- PilgrimsPilgrimsPilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
- Plymouth ColonyPlymouth ColonyPlymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
- ThanksgivingThanksgivingThanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...