Richard Warren
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Richard Warren (b. about 1580 - 1628) was one of the passengers on the Mayflower in 1620, settling in Plymouth Colony, one of the signatories of the Mayflower Compact, and one of the 19 (of 41) signers that survived the first winter.
His wife Elizabeth (nee Walker) (baptised 1583 in Baldock, Hertfordshire, died October, 1673) and his first five children, all daughters, came to America on the "Anne" in 1623. Once in America, they had two more children, both sons, before Richard's untimely death in 1628.
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[edit] His life
Richard Warren is among the most inscrutable of the Mayflower pioneers. Clearly a man of rank, he was accorded by Governor William Bradford 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 Mort's Relation, published in 1622, we learn that Warren was chosen, when the Mayflower stopped at Cape Cod before reaching Plymouth, to be a member of a ten-man exploring party, and he was described as being "of London." Charles Edward Banks, in Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers writes: "Richard Warren came from London 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 Leyden, Holland, Pilgrims, but joined them in Southampton, England to sail on the Mayflower.
He received his acres in the Division of Land in 1623, and his family shared in the 1627 Division of Cattle. But he died a year later in 1628, the only record of his death being found in Nathaniel Morton's 1669 book New England's Memorial, in which he writes: "This year died Mr. Richard Warren, who was an useful instrument and during his life bare a deep share in the difficulties and troubles of the first settlement of the Plantation of New Plymouth."
[edit] Descendants
His seven children were: Mary (b about 1610), Anna (b about 1612), Sarah (b about 1613), Elizabeth (b about 1616), Abigail (b about 1618), Nathaniel (b about 1624), and Joseph (born about 1626).
All of Richard Warren's children survived to adulthood, married, and had large families, making Richard Warren, quite possibly, the Mayflower passenger with more descendants than any other passenger. Among his descendants are: Civil War general and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alan Shepard the first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the moon, author Laura Ingalls Wilder, actress Lucille Ball, actor Richard Gere, writer Henry David Thoreau, aviators the Wright brothers, and many more. A detailed genealogy of just the first five generations takes up three volumes (see below).
[edit] Ancestral Summary
More erroneous 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). It is time here to debunk many of the mistakes that have been published over the past hundred years.
Common mistake #1. Richard Warren's wife is not Elizabeth (Jewett/Jonatt/Juett) Marsh. This is easily disproven. Elizabeth (Jewett) Marsh was born in 1614, which makes her not only younger than Richard Warren's two oldest children, but also makes her only fourteen years old when Richard Warren died. [Mayflower Descendant 2:63].
Common mistake #2. Richard Warren is not a proven descendant of any royalty, whether it be Sir John de Warrene or Charlemagne. Richard Warren's parents have not even been identified, despite extensive searches in the records of England (see the Mayflower Quarterly, 51:109-112 for a summary of one such search).
The only concrete things we know about Richard Warren's ancestry are that he was a merchant of London--whether he was born there or not is an entirely different question. We also know that his wife was named Elizabeth.
There is a Richard Warren who married an Elizabeth Evans on 1 January 1592/3 in St. Leonards, and a Richard Warren who married an Elizabeth Doucke on 1 November 1596 in Sidmouth, Devon. However, since Richard's first child was born about 1610, a marriage in 1592 or 1596 seems most unlikely.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Vol. 18, Pt. 1: Richard Warren); edited by Robert S. Wakefield
Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Vol. 18, Pt. 2: Richard Warren--Fifth Generation Descendants of Mary2, Anna2 and Elizabeth2); edited by Robert S. Wakefield
Mayflower Families Through Five Generations (Vol. 18, Pt. 3 Richard Warren) Fifth Generation Descendants of Abigail 2, Nathaniel 2, and Joseph 2; edited by Robert S. Wakefield
