Molly Greenwood

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HREF="id168.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Judith Whitman"><U>Judith Whitman</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id169.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Elizabeth Wiswall"><U>Elizabeth Wiswall</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id170.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Elizabeth Wytham"><U>Elizabeth Wytham</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="099f0f03.jpg"> <div> <I>Molly Greenwood</I></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Generation One</B></div> <div> Rev. John Greenwood</div> <div> Martyr for His Faith</div> <div> London, England</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Defying the threat of stake and scaffold</B></div> <div> <B>Despite the terrifying dangers facing many,</B></div> <div> <B>and the martyrdom of some, England's religious rebels</B></div> <div> <B>insist on following the dictates of conscience. </B></div> <bR> <div> A<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" > citation before the bishops' Court of High Commission on Dec. 1, 1607, against William Brewster, at a time when the Pilgrims were trying to flee to Holland, charged him with being "disobedient in matters of religion" and "a Brownist"--also known as a Barrowist or Separatist. </FONT></div> <bR> <div> How did it happen that such accusations arose against a prominent resident of a remote, sparsely settled farming community of north-central England? And what were the circumstances surrounding these charges--circumstances so terrifying that they would impel plain-living, peaceful farm folk to break with their past and seek an uncertain future in a foreign land? </div> <bR> <div> In later years Bradford, instructing young Pilgrims about their forefathers' history, said that when the Pilgrims were trying to flee Scrooby, they knew "certainly of six that were publicly executed besides such as died in prisons." </div> <bR> <div> Bradford was referring to the dreadful and tragic way the Brownist dissenters were treated during Queen Elizabeth's drive to enforce conformity. </div> <bR> <div> The queen's instinctive aversion to all dissent makes it readily understandable that she, as supreme head of both church and state, would be angered by the Brownists' religious convictions. </div> <bR> <div> <B>They believed the Bible taught that civil authority possessed no authority over religion. This was the incipient doctrine of separation of church and state, and to Queen Elizabeth it constituted sedition tantamount to rebellion. [This doctrine of Separation of church and state was a doctrine of the Separatists, designed in order to allow church and religious freedom to survive in a hostile political environment. It's original intent, as you can see, was not so Christianity and the very name of Jesus Christ could be suppressed in our public schools and government buildings--such as is the case in our public schools and government buildings across America! Our Supreme Court is responsible for the gross misinterpretation of this holy doctrine designed so Christianity could thrive in our land.</B> </div> <bR> <div> <B>The Brownist movement was a precurser of the Congregational Church that later developed in early New England.</B></div> <bR> <div>  It's beginnings were marked by pain and persecution, as illustrated by what happened, first in the London area and later in the Scrooby area, to those extreme Puritans who espoused the teachings of Rev. Robert Browne.</div> <bR> <div> Rev. Browne was a member of a wealthy Midlands family. His father was a knight, and he was related to Queen Elizabeth's closest advisor, Lord Burghley. The clergyman was trained at Cambridge, served as chaplain to the duke of Norfolk and taught in Southwark, on the south bank of the river Thames. Later, he returned to Cambridge to spend more time in religious study. </div> <bR> <div> In 1580, Rev. Browne took up his reformist ministry at Norwich, the shire town of Norfolk County and center of Puritan belief. In fact, Norwich--with its large population of Dutch refugees, come there to escape the persecution of Spain's Philip II--was second only to London as a growing Puritan stronghold. </div> <div> Rev. Browne had been attracted to Norwich because he had heard that the people there were "very forward" in religion. However, this did not spare him the official wrath of the bishop of the area. The clergyman was jailed a few times for his nonconformity. </div> <bR> <div> In 1582, at 32 years of age, he fled with his flock across the North Sea to tolerant and friendly Middelburg in Zeeland, the part of Holland that is nearest to England's East Anglia. </div> <bR> <div> There, he did something he had been unable to do in England: He published five books defining his faith and justifying separation from England's state church. </div> <bR> <div> <B>"Magistrates," he postulated, "have no ecclesiastical authority." True Christians, he said, must separate themselves from a state church that fails to exclude the irreligious.</B> </div> <bR> <div> Once separated, he believed, they would achieve a "genuine and perfect church" when they "united by a public covenant with each other and with God."</div> <bR> <div>  <B>Church authority, he maintained, rests on its members' interpretation of the Bible. </B></div> <bR> <div> After two years in Zeeland, Rev. Browne's congregation fell apart, victim of a lack of organization and its members' criticisms of one another. The clergyman departed for Scotland. </div> <bR> <div> A few years later, on his return to England, Rev. Browne recanted. (His recantation was the reason the title "Brownist" carried an extra measure of opprobrium.) He was thereupon re-admitted to the state church and given a parish. </div> <bR> <div> But his recantation was far from the end of Brownism. Indeed, the bishops soon provided the Brownist cause with a broad popular appeal by creating martyrs. </div> <bR> <div> These included the six cited by Bradford--some of whom had studied with Brewster at Cambridge--whose public executions were so well known to the Pilgrims, as well as others who died in the prisons of that harsh era. </div> <bR> <div> That the Pilgrims were so keenly aware of the savage behavior of the authorities strongly underscores how unshakable was their resolution to ignore threatened punishment and persist in preparations to flee from England. </div> <bR> <div> The first two martyrs were common men, much like the Pilgrims. </div> <bR> <div> In the heart of East Anglia is Bury St. Edmunds. There, the two men--a shoemaker named John Copping and a tailor named Elias Thacker--had endured seven years of being in and out of prison for their nonconformity. Finally, after they had been found guilty of "dispersing of Browne's books" in England, the books were burned in front of the scaffold and the men were hanged. </div> <bR> <div> The hangings represented an irony. They were carried out close by the old abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, where the barons of England drew up the petition for freedoms that led to the Magna Charta. </div> <bR> <div> The bishops did not get all of Rev. Browne's books. But they did get the Star Chamber to buttress their control of printing by establishing, with still more dreadful penalties, new regulations governing the licensing of presses and printing. This in turn helped the bishops take action against two more nonconformists, both of them noted men--Henry Barrowe, a lawyer of London's Gray's Inn, and <B>Rev. John Greenwood. </B></div> <bR> <div> Barrowe, who had been a libertine as a youth, was a familiar figure in Queen Elizabeth's court. Then in 1586, possibly in his capacity as a lawyer, he visited <B>Rev. Greenwood </B>at the Clink Prison in Southwark, and found himself suddenly drawn to the clergyman's nonconformist teachings. </div> <bR> <div> The visit brought the lawyer's prompt arrest and subsequent imprisonment with <B>Rev. Greenwood</B>, where the two discussed Rev. Browne's books. They also took to putting their views on scraps of paper, which were smuggled to Holland for printing. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> In addition, the lawyer--who did much more secret writing than</div> <div> <B> Rev. Greenwood</B>--may have had a part in preparing seven pamphlets attacking the hierarchy, the first of which appeared in 1588 and titillated an England already bursting with exuberance following the defeat of the Spanish Armada. These were the "Martin Mar-prelate" pamphlets, ridiculing the bishops for dishonesty and irreligion. The pamphlets served to make the bishops even more relentless in their efforts to control printing. </div> <bR> <div> Living in Middelburg, Holland, at this time was Rev. Francis Johnson. He was, like many other key figures in the saga of Puritanism, a graduate of, and later a tutor at Cambridge. </div> <bR> <div> Rev. Johnson was a pastor of an English church in Middelburg. There, to please the English Ambassador, he helped to track down and burn some of the nonconformist treatises prepared in their London prison by Barrowe and</div> <div> <B> Rev. Greenwood</B>, once again jailed in London's Fleet Prison for holding illegal religious gatherings. Bradford tells how Rev. Johnson withheld two of these treatises from the flames so that he could peruse them. Reading these treatises chastened and converted him, whereupon he headed back across the North Sea to the Fleet Prison in London to visit Barrowe and Rev. Greenwood, once again jailed for holding illegal religious gatherings.</div> <bR> <div> Not long after that--in 1592--London's Separatist Ancient Church of Southwark was formed, with Rev. Johnson as pastor and <B>Rev. Greenwood</B>, momentarily free on bail, as teacher. Associated with them, despite having a price on his head, was Rev. John Penry, one of William Brewster's classmates at Cambridge. </div> <bR> <div> The authorities moved swiftly. Rev. Johnson and <B>Rev. Greenwood </B>were arrested while conducting religious services in the Fleet street lodgings of a London haberdasher. And soon 56 members of the new church, while holding services in Islington just north of London's ancient walls, were pounced upon and thrown into one or another of London's stinking prisons: the Clink, Fleet and Newgate. </div> <bR> <div> The bishops then proceeded to secure an even stronger law against nonconformists--an "Act to retain the Queen's subjects in Obedience"--a law aimed directly at the Brownists and Barrowists. </div> <bR> <div> Anyone over 16 years of age who for a month failed to attend "the usual place of Common Prayer...to hear Divine Service," as established by her majesty's laws, said the act, or who urged nonattendance by "printing, writing or speeches," could be imprisoned without bail until he conformed. Moreover, such dissidents, if not in conformity within three months, had to leave the realm. And if they returned, they could be put to death "as in the case of felony, without benefit of clergy." </div> <bR> <div> Barrowe and <B>Rev. Greenwood</B> were next brought into the courtroom of London's Old Bailey to answer charges of sedition under the new law. Then, without time for appeal, they were hanged. </div> <bR> <div> A few weeks later Brewster's classmate, Rev. Penry, charged with printing derisive tracts, was executed on the gallows at Southwark. And in Norfolk still another nonconformist, the little-known William Dennis of Thetland, was hanged. </div> <bR> <div> These men, then, were the six "publicly executed" that Bradford discussed in later years while recounting the shocking perils the Pilgrims had had to face. Bradford's nephew and secretary, Nathaniel Morton, in his preface to Bradford's remarks, said that the cause for which the six perished "was in effect but what our church and the churches of Christ in New England do both profess and practice." </div> <bR> <div> Although the number of believers who perished in the ghastly prisons of those times must have been very large, most of Rev. Johnson's flock ultimately managed to escape to Holland's biggest community, Amsterdam. There, in 1597, they were joined by the clergyman himself, after he had spent additional years in prison and had endured futile official efforts to deport him to the New World. Thus the martyrs' Ancient Church of Southwark was renewed in Amsterdam. </div> <bR> <div> Holland as a possible land of refuge had recurringly been brought to the attention of the Pilgrims. It was a land already known to their leader, Brewster. And successive condemnations of Separatist martyrs during the growth of the Scrooby congregation had increasingly directed Pilgrim attention to that country across the North Sea. </div> <bR> <div> At that time, the Pilgrims' pastor, Rev. Richard Clyfton, was about 54 years old; and their teacher, Rev. John Robinson, who would later gain renown as "Pastor of the Pilgrims," was 31. Rev. Clyfton, said Bradford--in his only physical description of a Pilgrim--was a "grave and fatherly old man...having a great white beard." </div> <bR> <div> Like the Brownist leaders of London, Brewster and the clergymen involved in the Scrooby area had been ousted or had resigned from their earlier positions. All three had access to the illegally printed books of Rev. Browne and Barrowe; all three had been trained at Cambridge University. </div> <bR> <div> Rev. Clyfton, 13 years Brewster's senior, had become rector in the hamlet of Babworth, eight miles south of Scrooby, in 1586, two years before the Spanish Armada sailed. He was, said William Bradford, "a grave and reverend preacher, who, by his pains and diligence had done much good; and, under God, had been the means of the conversion of many." </div> <bR> <div> Bradford knew this at firsthand, for Rev. Clyfton was his teacher. Bradford, as a teenager, had tramped more than 10 miles, in part along the Great North Road, to listen to him preach. These trips were from Austerfield, a hamlet just north of Scrooby where Bradford was born into a large, prosperous farm family in 1589. </div> <bR> <div> Bradford was only 16 months old when his father died. His mother remarried, and then, at age 4, Bradford was committed to the care of his grandfather. By the time Bradford was 7 his grandfather and mother were both dead, and his uncles, yeomen farmers, took over his care. </div> <bR> <div> When he was 11, Bradford was stricken ill. This kept him from farm chores and left ample time for this natural scholar to read the Bible. Soon he was taking those long Sunday walks along the "Pilgrim Path" to Babworth in order to hear Rev. Clyfton. </div> <bR> <div> The farming folk of Austerfield for the most part attended the small, ancient, Norman style church of St. Helena--still to be seen--where Bradford was baptized. When Bradford became convinced that he should give up attendance at the church, he was faced with "the wrath of his uncles," and the "scoff of his neighbors now turned upon him as one of the Puritans..." His response shows that Bradford shared the stout resolve of the early Pilgrims: </div> <bR> <div> "I am not only willing to part with everything in this world for this cause but I am also thankful that God hath given me a heart so to do; and will accept me so to suffer for him." </div> <bR> <div> In time, Rev. Clyfton became one of the "good preachers" that Brewster invited to Scrooby Manor. It's uncertain when the clergyman gave up his rectorship at Babworth, but he could well have been at the manor with the orphaned Bradford, taking part in services and discussions with Brewster, his generous host. This was some time in the fall of 1606, when Scrooby Pilgrims "joined themselves by a covenant of the Lord...to walk in all His ways made known." </div> <bR> <div> His own account, observed Bradford in later years, would show that this complete separation "cost them something," not just in a money sense but in their patient suffering as well. </div> <bR> <div> The other dismissed clergyman joining the Scrooby covenant, Rev. John Robinson, had begun his ministry near Norwich (where Rev. Browne had preached) in 1600. In 1604, after King James' crackdown began, Rev. Robinson's nonconformity was no longer endurable to his bishop and the clergyman was dismissed. (One crushing consequence of King James' conference at Hampton Court was that some 300 clergymen all over England were either deprived of their livings, or else felt compelled to quit them for conscience' sake.)</div> <bR> <div> Rev. Robinson's wife came of a well-off family in a hamlet near Gainsborough, a large community on the river Trent in Lincolnshire, some 10 miles east of Scrooby. The clergyman withdrew there from Norwich and pursued his religious studies. The search for the truth, he said, was in his "heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones." </div> <bR> <div> For a time, the Scrooby nonconformists walked to Gainsborough to hear the preaching of Rev. John Smyth in the hall of Gainsborough's ancient manor--a place where Henry VIII once held court after a stay at Scrooby Manor. (Bradford, who had often heard Rev. Smyth, said that the clergyman was a "man of able gifts and a good preacher.") </div> <bR> <div> While Rev. Smyth was a student at Cambridge University, he had been tutored by Rev. Francis Johnson, before that nonconformist's fiery preaching led to his being forced out of the university. </div> <bR> <div> Rev. Smyth, after preaching for a time in Lincoln, was plagued by religious doubts and gave up his pulpit in the state church. Instead, he gathered a Separatist flock together for worship in the hall of the old manor in Gainsborough. </div> <bR> <div> In time, the "distance of place" between Gainsborough Manor and the homes of some of the worshippers, said Bradford, led to the Gainsborough flock's splitting into "two distinct bodies." This occurred in 1606, when Scrooby Pilgrims decided to make their own covenant. Presently, Rev. Smyth and the remainder of his flock fled from Gainsborough to Holland and formed the second exiled English church in Amsterdam. </div> <bR> <div> The Scrooby Pilgrims, with hope in England denied them, were next to flee to Holland. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Generation Two</B></div> <div> <B>Abel Greenwood</B></div> <bR> <div> Abel Greenwood, born about 1590, was the son of the Reverend John Greenwood, who was martyred for his faith in 1593.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Generation Three</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="540fb340.gif" border=0 width="251" height="52" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Emigrant Ancestor</B></div> <bR> <div>  <B>THOMAS GREENWOOD</B> a weaver, aged 22, came from England to Boston in  1665, and two years later settled in the southeast part of Cambridge, now Newton, MA.  He married  first, June 8, 1670 (Wednesday), Hannah Ward, aged about 19. She died before 1687. His  second wife was Abigail. She may have been Abigail Spring.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Parentage of Thomas Greenwood's Second Wife</div> <div> John Spring of Newton, one of the administrators of the estate of Thomas Greenwood, had a da. Abigail, b. Feb. 2, 1666, and she is supposed to be this 2d wife of Thomas Greenwood. She m. 2d, Feb. 15, 1697, Josiah Fisher, b. in Sherborn, Sept. 15, 1655, son of Anthony of Dedham. Josiah was rep. to the general court from Dedham 1699, selectman 1697-1701; she d. Sept. 6, 1708. He had 2 wives before Abigail and 1 after, d. Apr. 12, 1736. Children by Abigail were: Abigail (Fisher) b. June 3, 1698, d. before 1736; m. Oct. 21, 1723. Joseph Guild; Experience (Fisher) b. Apr. 14, 1700, d. Jan 18, 1777; m. 1st, Dec . 2, 1730 Ebenezer Woodward; 2d, AP. 16, 1747 Rev. Samuel Dunbar of Stoughton, Mass.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Mr. Greenwood, died interstate, at Weymouth, MA on  Sept. 1, 1693, aged 50 and was interred in the old burying ground in Newton, leaving an estate of about £480. He was made freeman Feb. 2, 1681, a member of the church, a justice of the peace, constable, selectman, of Newton, 1686-71; 1690 and 1693, the first town clerk, which office he held many years. He was one of the first signers of the petition to the general court, May 8, 1678, asking that their village be set off from Cambridge and incorporated as a new town. There were 64 freemen in the village and 52 signed the petition which represented that they were crippled in person and estate by the late Phillip's war; that they were at great expense in building and enlarging their meeting house and in building a new house for their minister; that having so many families now the law required them to support a school of their own; that the townsmen had imposed a tax of "three county rates" without their knowledge or consent which they considered harsh proceedings. The petition through actively opposed, was granted and Cambridge Village became New Town, Dec. 8, 1688, which has since become Newton.</div> <bR> <div> On a tax assessment, Sept. 5, 1688, for "2 persons and estate 6s. 8d." appears the name of Thomas Greenwood as tax Commissioner. His name as one of the Commissioners also appears on the tax list for Stowe, Medford, Charlestown and Marlborough in the summer of 1688, the Commissioners serving </div> <div> under Governor Andros.</div> <bR> <div> Thomas Greenwood was born at Heptonstall, Eng. The record of his baptism appears on the register of the old parish church at Heptonstall June 4, 1643, son of Thomas Greenwood of Heptonstall. Thomas, the father, was baptized at Heptonstall, Feb. 26, 1610, son of Abel (born 1585) who was son of Rev. John Greenwood, the Congregational martyr, executed at Tyburn, Eng., Apr. 6, 1593.</div> <bR> <div> Thomas Greenwood learned his trade as a weaver in his native town of Heptonstall, where the establishment of woolen manufacture took place at a very early period. Members of the Sutcliffe family were manufacturers of cloth in the vicinity of Heptonstall as early as 1311. The old Heptonstall Cloth Hall, which stood on the North side of the church yard at Heptonstall, was long a market place for the sale of the product of the clothiers of the vicinity.</div> <bR> <div> The line of ancestry of Thomas Greenwood back to Wyomarus runs through John the priest given in the ancient English pedigree of this volume.</div> <bR> <div> Thomas and Elizabeth Hammond of Cambridge, yeoman, for £10 sold  to Thomas Greenwood of Cambridge, weaver, seven acres woodland on South side of Charles River, in Cambridge, bounded South and East and West by grantor's land and North by Capt. Thomas Prentice and John Ward. Sale November 7, 1673 (Volume 5:91</div> <bR> <div> Nathaniel and Mary Hammond of Cambridge, planter for £8 10s, sold to Thomas Greenwood of Cambridge, weaver, eight and one half acres in Cambridge on the South side of the Charles River, bounded  South and East by land of grantor, West by Edward Jackson, North by the grantee. Sale February 1, 1676 ( Vol. 6:443)</div> <bR> <div> Edward and Elizabeth Jackson, Cambridge, gentleman, for £8 5s, sold three acres to Thomas Greenwood, Cambridge, weaver, seven acres, 40 rods in Cambridge, South side of the Charles River, bounded North by meadow of Elder Thomas Wiswall, South by grantor, East by John Ward, West by meadow of Johnathan Hide. Sale May 13, 1677 ( Volume 6:445)</div> <bR> <div> Sam and Mary Trusdall and Elyas and Hannah Kendrick, of Cambridge, planters, for £46 sold to Thoma Greenwood, of Cambridge, weaver, 23 acres in Cambridge, South side of the river, bounded West by John Ward: South by the road, East by James Trowbridge and Deliverance Jackson, North by Thomas Hammond and a highway. Sale November 7, 1677 ( Volume 6:441)</div> <bR> <div> A mortgage of Isaac Parker, Cambridge Village, husbandman, for £20 10s to Thomas Greenwood, 24 acres in New Cambridge, orchard, meadow and upland and house and land left him by father, John Parker, who bought it of Nicholas Hodson. Bounded by Thomas Hammond on East; Nathaniel and John Hammond on South and West; John Druce on North. May 21, 1691 Mortgage not endorsed but probably released by the heirs.</div> <bR> <div> Thomas purchased land from James and Margaret Trowbridge of Cambridge Village, yeoman, for £23 1s  consisting of three small lots of meadows on then North side of the Charles River, being the salt marsh he bought of James Russell, Lot 2 one acre bounded North by the marsh of John Moore, South by John Ward, West by grantor, East  by running out with a small point toward the river. Lot 2 three acres, bounded North by marsh of John Moore, East and North by grantor, West by upland of Sam Goffe.  Sale in March 1684-85 (Volume 9:499)</div> <bR> <div> He also purchased from Nathaniel Healey of Cambridge Village, planter, for the sum of £10 sold to him, Thomas Greenwood, twenty-six and one half acres woodland, South side of River, bounded North and West by Thomas Prentice and John Ward, South and East by Ruth Jackson, South and West by Nathaniel Colburns, - land bought from Jonathan Jackson - June 11, 1685. This is a mortgage cancelled - 1692.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> A true inventory of ye estate of Thomas Greenwood of Newton in ye county of Middx., who deceased interstate September ye 1st, 1693, taken by us ye subscribers hereof as followeth --</div> <bR> <div> I<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#660000" FACE="Arial" >mprimis:</FONT></div> <bR> <div> In wearing apparel 13-17-00</div> <div> In books 01-00-00</div> <div> In plate 02-10-00</div> <div> In cash and bills of credit 110-00-00</div> <div> A bed and furniture in ye parlour 10-00-00</div> <div> A bed and furniture in ye parlour chamber 06-05-00</div> <div> A bed and furniture in another chamber 05-00-00</div> <div> Two beds and furniture in ye Dwelling Room 06-00-00</div> <div> More bedding as Blankets Ruggs pillow beers 14-15-00</div> <div> In linnen napkins Towels Table cloaths 18-02-00</div> <div> In Pewter 04-17-00</div> <div> In Brass 06-04-00</div> <div> In Iron and wooden vessels 02-07-06</div> <div> A chest and cupboard in ye parlour 03-12-00</div> <div> Tables, chairs, boxes, chests, tongs</div> <div> fire shovels cobirons in other Rooms 07-04-00</div> <div> In armour 03-03-00</div> <div> An house, barn, home Lott 110-00-00</div> <div> Woodland, meadow, pasture, 23 acres 45-00-00</div> <div> 7 acres of fresh meadow 14-10-00</div> <div> 4 acres salt marsh 24-00-00</div> <div> Husbandry utensils and belonging to ye trade 12-01-00</div> <div> One horse 05-00-00</div> <div> Seven cows 16-00-00</div> <div> Twenty sheep 05-00-00</div> <div> Six swine 03-16-00</div> <div> In provisions 07-00-00</div> <div> Book debts 25-00-00</div> <div> <B>Total: 481-13-06</B></div> <div> Debts from ye estate 10-00-00</div> <bR> <div> Signed: <I>John Spring, James Trowbridge, John Staples</I> </div> <bR> <div> October 23, 1693: By ye Honorable James Russell, Esqr., Thomas Greenwood and John Greenwood two of ye admitted administors, then appearing personally, and on ye 1st of November in said 1693 Abigail Greenwood, personally appearing, they all being ye admitted administrators made oath, that this contains a true inventory of ye estate of Thomas Greenwood, late of New Towne, Deced., intestate, as far as comes to their knowledge; and yt when more appears they will cause it to be added. Samll. Phipps, Regr., Ja: Russell, J.P. </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="552d7dc0.gif" border=0 width="215" height="220" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Thomas Greenwood used three "e's" instead of two in spelling his last name. His father, Thomas, his grandfather, Abel, and his great grandfather, John, the priest, used the same method of spelling Greenwood, but the four sons of Thomas spelled the name with two "e's" as the name is universally spelled today. Thomas Greenwood's method of spelling his name is but one of the numerous ways used by the earliest members of the Greenwood family before any set form was established and it has been an aid in tracing his ancestry. Previous to the year 1600 the Greenwood name was variously written: Grenwod, Grenwode, Grenewod and Grenewode. A John Grenewodde was living at Grenewodde Lee in 1439 and a John Grenewodde was a curate, in Heptonstall, 1520 to 1541. The name William Grenehude appears in a will proved at York, Jan. 30, 1430. The name Thomas Grenewoodde appears in a will dated Nov. 11, 1543. A Luvecock Grenehod was before the court at Wakefield in the year 1274. A </div> <div> will of Joan Grenehude, widow, was proved at York, May 14, 1491; also a will of John Grenehode, of Bramham, proved at York, Apr. 24, 1484.</div> <div> Children: </div> <bR> <div>  Thomas  born in Weymouth, Jan. 22, 1671; m. Elizabeth Wiswall. </div> <bR> <div> John born  in Newton, July 15, 1673; m. 1st, Hannah Trowbridge; 2d, Alice Lyon. </div> <bR> <div>  James  born Dec. 19, 1687; m. 1st, Thankful Wilson; 2d, Abigail -- </div> <bR> <div>  William born Oct. 14, 1689; m. Abigail Woodward.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="54efbd50.gif" border=0 width="251" height="469" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Thomas Greenwood's Home in Newton</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Generation Four</B></div> <div> <B>Rev. Thomas Greenwood</B></div> <bR> <div> Reverend Thomas Greenwood, eldest child of Thomas and Hannah Ward Greenwod of Newton, MA was born in Weymouth, MA on January 22, 1671. Thomas graduated from Harvard with a BA degree in 1590, and was ordained in October of 1693 at the First Congregational Church of Rehoboth,MA, now Newman Congregation Church in Rumford, Rhode Island. Rev. Greenwood married Elizabeth Wiswall on December 28, 1693 in Weymouth, and brought his new bride to the Rehoboth Church the following Tuesday. The town agreed to give him £95 current silver money of N. E., toward his settlement, and for his comfortable subsistance,  the  contribution of strangers and £70 yearly, "to be paid to him one third in silver money and the other two-thirds in beef, pork and all sorts of merchantable corn, rye, butter, cheese and merchantable boards at the current price set upon by the selectmen of the town, " and the use of the pastor's and  teacher's lands so long as he shall continue in the work of the ministry in Rehoboth.</div> <div> Judge Samuel Sewell in his diary makes frequent mention of Rev. Thomas Greenwood of Rehoboth, whom he visited on his official rounds. On Friday, September 30, 1709, he found Mr. Greenwood "dangerously ill of a malignant fever. At parting, Mrs. Greenwood, with tears, desired prayers for her husband and that word be left with Caleb Stedman at Roxbury, to acquaint her husband's bro., John, at Newtown."</div> <div> During the early years of Thomas Greenwoods's ministry it should be noted that the General Court of the Provice of Massachusetts Bay saw fit to restrict the native Indians to certain tracts of land by legislative act. This wa quite different from the townspeople's treatment in 1664 of their neighbor, Sam, the Indian, who was made a citizen, or at least an equal, by vote of the town. Just prior to the turn of the century.</div> <div> In the year 1700, Thomas Greenwood was appointed  a schoolmaster to serve as teacher at the handsome sum of thirty pounds silver money for the year. The school was supported by the Town of Rehoboth and the pattern of connection between the ministry and teaching of children was continued.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Rev. Thomas Greenwood</div> <div> The Rev. Thomas-2 Greenwood made his entry on one of this parish registers at Rehoboth, Mass.: </div> <div> "My hon'rd father Dyed (Friday) Sept. 1st, 1693, In ye evening." </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="470" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 324 WIDTH="466"><bR> <div> Two books of exceeding interest are in the hands of FrancisA.Thayer, 38 Park Row, New York City. Both are of old print and have come down from the sons of Thomas-1 Greenwood to the present generation. One of these books is entitled, "Commentaries on the Lamentations of Jeremiah," London, 1602, in which is written the autograph avowedly of "Rev. Thomas Greenwood, his book, 1714." and under "John Greenwood, 1720" and on another fly leaf -- "Jno Greenwood's ex Doro patris" without date. The autographs are in a handsome hand. There is also written: "Noah Greenwood, 1786." </div> <div> Another book, "The Sermons of Christian Religion Delivered by Zacharias," has written on the fly leaf: "Abiah Carpenter, his book the 25th April 1659." "Jno Greenwood, his book, bought of Capt. Butterworth, Jan'y 8, 1724." (Same fine hand as the other book.) "Oliver Greenwood, his book, January 1783." (In an uncultured hand.) </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> June 11, 1700</div> <bR> <div> The Committe appointed by the town to procure a schoolmaster for this year, agreed with the Rev. Thomas Greenwood, their minister, to teach the school, for the sum of 30 pounds in current silver money."</div> <bR> <div> From "The Territorial History of East Providence" by Harold Flint</div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="5459deb0.jpg" border=0 width="157" height="235" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Rev. Thomas Greenwood</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Generation Five</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="5479deb0.jpg" border=0 width="157" height="235" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Rev. John Greenwood</B></div> <bR> <div> John was the second son born to  Reverend Thomas and his wife Elizabeth Wiswall Greenwood. John was born in Rehoboth, MA on May 20, 1697. He graduated from Harvard College in Boston on 1717, and began to preach in Seekonk, MA. On March 10, 1720 he agreed to teach school in Rehoboth for a period of six months for £12 for the first quarter, and the second quarter at the rate of £45 per year. </div> <div> On November 14, 1720, the town voted " Whereas the church of Christ in Rehoboth having made choice of Rev. Greenwood to preach the gospel amongst us for the present, the question being put whether the town would concur with the churche's choice, voted by the town to raise £70 per annum till we have a minister settled amongst us." On February 13, 1721, a vote was taken by the town inviting Mr. Greenwood tobecome the minister of the west part of the town which had been his father's former parish. One hundred and nineteen votes were cast in favor of the measure and only five against. </div> <div> On June 10, 1728, Rev. John and Rev. David Turner presented petitions to the town for an increase of their salaries, stating that their present salaries were inadequate to their comfortable support, the town in answer to their petitions voted to add to Mr. Greenwood's salary £20, and to that of Mr. Turner, £30, making each of their salaries  £100.</div> <bR> <div> A letter from Rev. Greenwood</div> <div> Rehoboth, December 2, 1757</div> <bR> <div> To the first church of Christ in Rehoboth under my pastoral care,</div> <div> Brethren:</div> <div> Whereas, by Divine Providence I am rendered unable thro bodily infirmity to carry on the work of the ministry any longer, after 30 odd years labor therein, and whereas, you presented to me the town's resolutions not to grant any support for another minister here except I release my salary, ye ministering lands and quit my pastoral office; altho, I think it not reasonable in the town to defer it, yet for peace's sake and that the gospel might not be hindered, I release my salary from the eleventh day of March next as aforesaid and by the advice of some ministers and brethren called to advise in the affair and at the desire of this church, I do likewise promise to ask and to receive of this church a dismissal from my pastorate over them as soon as a council of churches can conveniently sit for the orderly doing of it, provided the church, particular persons, or the town, or any or all of them, will come under obligation for my support and maintenance during my natural life to give me £20 annually to be paid one half money and the other half in specie equal to money, the first year to be paid the 11th day of March, A.D.. 1759, and so from year to year by the 11th of March sussessively during my natural life as aforesaid, and that I and my estate be not taxed toward public charges.</div> <bR> <div> John Greenwood</div> <bR> <div> These propositions the church and the town readily acceded to, and 40 individuals pledged themselves jointly to raise annually the support required, agreed to give yearly various sums each from £2 to 2 bushels of corn, or 2 bushesl of rye. He was succeeded by Rev. John Carnes, a native of Boston, MA. </div> <bR> <div> There was and incident reported in the "History of Salem, MA" . It mentioned that " B. Lynde is on a committee of the General Court of MA, to consider a printed sermon said to be preached at Southboro, December21, year not known, by John Greenwood, pastor of the church in Rehoboth, at the ordination of Nathan Stone as pastor of the churhch in Southboro, which the House greatly apprehends may have a tendency to subvert the good order of the churches and towns within this province."</div> <div> There is no report as to what the sermon contained or what was done about it.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>