John Brown Family (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 32) Theme: "Small"

Not knowing of any ancestors of small stature or small family size, nor any with a surname like Small or Little, I have chosen to devote this week to my Brown family, several of whom were buried at a cemetery including "little" in its name: The Ancient Little Neck Cemetery in Rhode Island.

Google Earth image of Little Neck Cemetery

1. First Generation - John (c.1585-1662) and Dorothy Brown

John Brown (my 10X great grandfather) was a well-to-do English shipbuilder who had known the Mayflower Pilgrim group at Leyden, but didn't join them in America until a few years later. By then, he was married to Dorothy and had at least three children: daughter Mary (c1614-1669) and sons James (1623-1710) and John Jr. (1630-1662). 

In 1635 John became a citizen in Plymouth Colony and began a term of 18 years on the board of assistants. By 1643, he was involved in purchasing land for a new settlement, and a couple of years later, the family moved to Rehoboth.

John was often a mediator in settling disputes between the English and the local Native Americans, both having great confidence in him. He was a man of some power and influence and stood fast for Plymouth Colony in the Gorton Plantations dispute with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was said that Brown and Hatherly were so vigorous and fearless in pushing their claim that they neutralized the efforts of Massachusetts Bay such that Plymouth finally prevailed. 

However, bad blood was still in evidence when the 1652 joint session of congress was to be held at Plymouth. The first day, only five of the six representatives required for a quorum were in attendance. Late on the second day, the representative from New Haven in Massachusetts Bay arrived with the excuse that he had been hindered by bad roads. John Brown also came in late with the excuse that he had been plagued with a toothache. The Massachusetts representatives took great offence to Brown's excuse. It was decided that when no quorum was available on the first day, no session would be held that year even if a quorum arrived later. The members headed for home with ill feelings all around. When the General Court of Massachusetts meddled in the affair by formally insisting upon an apology from one of the Plymouth members, Plymouth interpreted this as meaning that Brown had to apologize before he could take his seat. (Plymouth had insistently re-elected Brown as one of its two representatives for the next session.) The Plymouth position was that if for any reason one of their representatives could not take part, neither would the other (leading to a lack of a quorum). This would essentially dissolve the congress. Massachusetts wisely dropped the matter without an apology from Brown.

John's independent spirit got him censured by his stern pastor Newman in 1652. Brown sued the pastor for slander and was given a verdict of £100 damages plus his costs. As soon as he won, Brown apparently arose in court and remitted the money. He had just wanted to prove his point as a matter of principle!

A couple of years later, while sitting in the court, some of the men at Rehoboth wanted all the people to be compelled to pay their share for public worship as in the other Colonies. The other commissioner favored this, but Brown was in opposition. Rather than force the population to support religion, he said those that favored the tax could pay their share and he would secure the balance by binding his estate to make good any shortfall for the next seven years. This led to several years of ongoing disputes as the proposers of the tax did not take kindly to being coerced into paying their share after all!

After reaching the age of 70, John retired from public service and spent his remaining days on his estate where he died in 1662 at the age of 78. His son John had died just a short while before him, but his wife Dorothy lived on into her 90th year. He was also survived by daughter Mary, the wife of Captain Thomas Willett, a very prominent citizen who became the first mayor of New York City. 

John Brown Memorial
 Little Neck Cemetery
Photo courtesy Julie Nathanson from Find a Grave website

2. Second Generation - James Brown (1623-1710) and Lydia Howland

John and Dorothy's other son, James Brown, my 9X great grandfather, married Lydia Howland in about 1654. She was the American-born daughter of Mayflower passengers John Howland and and Elizabeth Tilley. The first of their 9 children were born in Rehoboth.

Fenced burial location of Lydia's mother Elizabeth Tilley Howland
Little Neck Cemetery
photo courtesy Barbara Hanno from Find a Grave website

Like his father, James took a very active role in public service. When the Baptists were persecuted in Massachusetts, he was one of the instigators in the move to the new settlement of Swansea. The motivation was clearly religious liberty; the First Baptist Church in Massachusetts was established here. 

James was among those authorized to dispose of Swansea lands. In order to be admitted, potential inhabitants had to agree in writing to abide by these main principles: not to hold any damnable heresies inconsistent with the faith of the Gospel or denying the Trinity, that it was acceptable to hold different opinions on baptism, and that no one could be admitted who would be a charge on the place. One of the First Signers was James Brown.

Brown and the other four trustees used a very undemocratic method for determining how much land a man would get. Men were divided into three ranks according to the judgment of the trustees as to their standing. Men of the first rank would get 3 acres, second rank 2 acres and third rank 1 acre. The majority were deemed second rank but more were third rank than first. (One must assume that Brown and the other trustees all classed themselves as first rank!) This worked for a surprising number of years without complaint, but was finally abandoned when some of the men were purportedly attempting to confer their first rank status on their heirs and assigns forever!

James Brown served as Selectman and Deputy for many years. Town meetings were sometimes held in his home. During his tenure, schools were established in Swansea in 1673 for teaching grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, Latin, Greek and Hebrew in addition to reading and writing English.

Just prior to the outbreak of King Philip's War, Lieutenant James Brown was convinced that war was impending and on 14 June 1675 described his concerns to Governor Winslow. Like his father, James Brown had been held in high regard by the Native Americans but things were taking a turn for the worse. On Sunday 20 June when most of the townfolk were in church, some of Philip's men raided Swansea. Just one man was at home and surprised the raiders; violence ensued, marking the start of King Philip's War. One of James Brown's sons bore this news to Plymouth. Over the next few days, several Swansea residents were killed and half the town was burned.

After his famous brother-in-law Thomas Willett died, James Brown took over as "Assistant" from 1665. Even though he was a leading Baptist, whose adherents were often stigmatized, he was consistently selected to sit on the bench for 13 years. He lived until 1710 and was also buried in Little Neck Cemetery.

3. Third Generation - James Brown (1655-1718) and Margaret Denison

My 8X great grandfather James Brown was the oldest child born to James and Lydia (Howland) Brown. Less has been found about his life than his illustrious father and grandfather, who would both have been hard acts to follow. In 1676, he married Margaret Denison, daughter of George Denison and Ann Boradell. They went on to have a large family of about a dozen children including daughter Dorothy, my 7X great grandmother. Like so many other family members, James was buried at Little Neck Cemetery when he died in 1718. 

Burial Stone for James Brown
Little Neck Cemetery
Photo courtesy Julie Nathanson from Find a Grave

Little Neck Cemetery was founded in 1655 when the area was still a part of Rehoboth, MA. It is one of the oldest colonial cemeteries in Rhode Island and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Sixty-eight Browns are buried in this cemetery, although it is not certain how many of them are related to our John Brown family. 

Some Resources:

• History of Swansea MA 1667-1917 accessed 8 July 2020 on Internet Archive at https://archive.org/stream/historyofswansea00wrig/historyofswansea00wrig_djvu.txt
• Ancestry.com. History and genealogy of the Mayflower planters and first comers to ye olde colonie [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
  Original data: Hills, Leon Clark,. History and genealogy of the Mayflower planters and first comers to ye olde colonie. Washington, D.C.: Hills Pub. Co., c1936-c1941.
• Find a Grave website located online at https://www.findagrave.com/ and its listing for Little Neck Cemetery link at https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1808353/ancient-little-neck-cemetery