Person:Richard Warren (1)

m. 14 Apr 1610
  1. Mary WarrenAbt 1610 - Aft 1678
  2. Ann WarrenAbt 1612 - Aft 1675/76
  3. Sarah WarrenBef 1613 - Aft 1696
  4. Elizabeth WarrenEst 1615 - 1669/70
  5. Abigail WarrenAbt 1619 - Aft 1693
  6. Nathaniel WarrenAbt 1624 - Bef 1667
  7. Joseph Warren1627 - 1689
Facts and Events
Name Richard Warren
Gender Male
Birth[15] Est 1578 London, London, England
Marriage 14 Apr 1610 Great Amwell, Hertfordshire, Englandto Elizabeth Walker
Immigration[15] 1620 Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United StatesMayflower passenger
Death[15] 1628 Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
Reference Number? Q7329818?

12th Signer of the Mayflower Compact. Among the wealthier of the original Mayflower passengers.

Family and Background in England

"Richard Warren is among the most enigmatic of the pioneers who crossed the Atlantic in 1620 in the Mayflower. Clearly a man of some 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."

"In 'Mort's Relation,' published in 1622, Richard was described as being 'of London.' Charles Edward Banks in 'Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers' tells us: "Richard Warren came from London and was called a merchant (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." Although research has continued since Banks, we still cannot find records of Warren's parentage or activities in England. "He married prior to 1611 Elizabeth ______ . We might assume he was born around 1580. He was not of the Leyden, Holland, Pilgrims, but joined them in Southampton to sail on the Mayflower, leaving his wife and five daughters to follow in 1623 on the Anne. His two sons were born in Plymouth. Although Warren would seem to be among the more important of the colonists, Bradford does not mention him in his 'History,' except in the List of Passengers.[17]

Richard Warren's English origins and ancestry have been the subject of much speculation, and countless different ancestries have been published for him, without a shred of evidence to support them. In December 2002, Edward Davies discovered the missing piece of the puzzle. Researchers had long known of the marriage of Richard Warren to Elizabeth Walker on 14 April 1610 at Great Amwell, Hertford. Since we know the Mayflower passenger had a wife named Elizabeth, and a first child born about 1610, this was a promising record. But no children were found for this couple in the parish registers, and no further evidence beyond the names and timing, until the will of Augustine Walker was discovered. In the will of Augustine Walker, dated April 1613, he mentions "my daughter Elizabeth Warren wife of Richard Warren", and "her three children Mary, Ann and Sarah." We know that the Mayflower passenger's first three children were named Mary, Ann, and Sarah (in that birth order).[18]

All of Richard Warren's children survived to adulthood, married, and had large families: making Richard Warren one of the most common Mayflower passengers to be descended from.

Notable descendants: Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Alan B. Shepard, Jr. the first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the moon.

Theoretical parents include Family:Christopher Warren and Alice Webb (1).

Life in Plymouth

The following extract from Mourt's Relation shows us that he was a member of the third exploring party sent out while the Mayflower lay at anchor in Cape Cod Harbor. This party set out in the shallop on Wednesday, 6/16 December, 1620, and after many hardships, including a fight with the Indians early Friday morning, landed at Plymouth on the following Monday, 11/21 December, 1620.

"Wednesday the XIst of December, it was resolved our discoverers should set forth, for the day before was too fowle weather, and so they did, though it was well ore the day ere all things could be readie; So ten of our men were appointed who were of themselves willing to undertake it, (to wit, Captaine Standish, Maister Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winsloe, John Tilley, Edward Tilley, John Howland, and three of London, Richard Warren, Steeven Hopkins and Edward Dotte, and two of our Sea-men, John Alderton and Thomas English, of the Ships Company there went two of the Masters Mates, Master Clarke and Master Copin, the Master Gunner, and three Saylers. The narration of which Discovery, followes, penned by one of the Company." [19]

"Nathaniel Morton, who supplements Bradford and a few other on-site 17th century historians in giving us our knowledge of early Plymouth, has Warren as the 12th signer (out of 41), which is probably more an estimate of Morton's view of Warren's importance than historical fact, for Morton's transcription of the Compact signers was most likely his own modification of the List of Passengers from Bradford's 'History of Plimoth Plantation.'[20]

Very little is known about Richard Warren's life in America. He came alone on the Mayflower in 1620, leaving behind his wife and five daughters. They came to him on the ship Anne in 1623, and Richard and Elizabeth subsequently had sons Nathaniel and Joseph at Plymouth. He received his acres in the Division of Land in 1623, and his family shared in the 1627 Division of Cattle.

"In the 1627 Division of Cattle, Warren appears as one of the heads of the 12 groups which are formed to own the cattle. He received lots on "the north side of the towne" and "on the other side of the towne towards the eele-river."... In this [Cattle] Division, which was made 22 May/1 June, 1627, "The ninth lot fell to Richard Warren & his companie Joyned wth him." To this lot fell a black smooth horned heifer which came in the Jacob, and two she goats. The record of this division contains the earliest mention of the names of Richard's wife and children.

He is also among the 58 'Purchasers' who in 1627 became the sole proprietors of land in Plymouth Colony. However, he was not among the inner group of eight 'Undertakers,' who in 1626 had 'undertaken' full responsibility for all debts to the merchants in England who had financed the colonization, even though by supposed position and wealth he might seem to belong in this group. A possible reason could be long-term illness prior to his death in 1628.[21]


Richard 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 [1628] 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."[22]


William Bradford's Mayflower passenger list[23] includes the notations:

mr Richard Warren, but his wife and children were lefte behind and came afterwards ...

mr Richard Warren dived some .4. or .5. years, and had his wife come over to him, by whom he had .2. sons before dyed; and one of them is maryed, and hath .2. children So his Increase is .4. but he had .5. doughters more came over with his wife, who are all maried, & living & have many children.

There is no account of the settlement of Richard Warren's estate, but the Colony records contain abundant evidence that his widow was thoroughly competent to bring up the children and manage the property left to her care...

Text References

  1.   Richard Warren, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

    the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

    Richard Warren (c. 1578c.1628) was one of the passengers on the Pilgrim ship Mayflower and the twelfth signer of the Mayflower Compact.

  2.   General Society of Mayflower Descendents. Mayflower Quarterly. General Society of Mayflower Descendants Vol 42-125 Plymouth.
  3.   The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
    55:70-78.

    Mayflower passenger of 1620.

  4.   Roser, Susan E. Mayflower Increasings for Three Generations. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1989).
  5.   Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
    page 1936.
  6.   General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Families in Progress. (1991)
    Richard Warren, p. 1.
  7.   BARTLETT: The Bartlett Society.
  8.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
    4:427.

    "RICHARD, Plymouth 1620, came in the Mayflower, leav. w. Elizabeth and five ds. to come in the third sh. 1623, d. 1628, hav. no other ch. but those b. in Eng. viz. Mary, wh. m. 1628, Robert Bartlett; Ann m. 19 Apr. 1633, Thomas Little; Sarah m. 28 Mar. 1634, John Cooke jr.; Elizabeth m. 1636, Richard Church, d. at Hingham, 4 Mar. 1670; and Abigail m. 1639, Anthony Snow of Marshfield; beside the two s. Nathaniel, and Joseph, b. here, bef. ment. all liv. in 1650. His wid. wh. join. with the first purch. of Dartmouth, d. 2 Oct. 1673, aged a. 90, says the rec. but fondness for exagger. makes it 93."

  9.   Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Quarterly
    Vol. 51, p. 109-112.
  10.   Leonard W. Cowie. Pilgrim Fathers, The. (London, 1970 - American edition, 1972)
    p. 11-12.
  11.   Compiled By William L Decoursey. It's About Time. (1735 - 19th Terrace Nw New Brighton, Minnesota 55112).
  12.   Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. Mayflower Descendant: An Illustrated Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy, History and Biography
    Vol. 1, p. 16; 2, p. 39 (Nathl. Warren cod.); 3, p. 45-51 (Warren Notes).
  13.   van Antwerp, Lee Douglas, and Ruth Wilder Sherman. Vital Records of Plymouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. (Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1993).

    Plymouth Colony Records 1:54 (Eliz. made Purchaser); 5:139-140 (est. Eliz.); 8:35 (d. Eliz); 12:12 (1627 div.)

  14.   Ellenwood -Wharton & 20 Allied Families.
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Richard Warren, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

    ORIGIN: London
    MIGRATION: 1620 on Mayflower
    FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth

    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" [Morton 85].

  16.   Elizabeth Jewett (various spellings) or Marsh, or Ivatt, all discredited as being his spouse.
  17. "Families of the Pilgrims: Richard Warren," second revision, 1986, pub. by Mass. Society of Mayflower Descendants.
  18. Johnson, Caleb. MayflowerHistory.com
  19. Mourt's Relation, London, 1622, p. 15
  20. "Families of the Pilgrims", supra
  21. "Families of the Pilgrims", supra
  22. New England's Memorial, p. 68
  23. Bradford, William. History of Plymouth Plantation

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Richard Warren.


The Mayflower (1620)
The Mayflower was the first settlement voyage to New England, carrying primarily English Separatists known as Pilgrims. It was destined for the mouth of the Hudson River, but landed at Cape Cod in present-day Massachusetts.
Sailed: 6 Sep 1620 from Southampton, England under Captain Christopher Jones
Arrived: 11 Nov 1620 at Plymouth, Massachusetts
After spending the winter aboard ship, the surviving passengers moved ashore on 21 Mar 1621.
Next Vessel: The Fortune (1621)

Passengers:
104; 24 families left descendants (Full List)
Pilgrim Families: Allerton (Asst. Gov. Isaac) - Bradford (Gov. William) - Brewster (Rev. William) - Chilton - Cooke - Fuller (Edward) - Fuller (Samuel) - Priest - Rogers - Sampson - Tilley (Edward) - Tilley (John) - White - Winslow (Edward)
Other Families and Servants: Alden - Billington - Browne - Doty - Eaton - Hopkins - Howland - Mullins - Soule - Standish (Capt. Miles) - Warren - Winslow (Gilbert)

Resources: Primary Sources: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation - Mourt's Relation - Pilgrim Hall (wills and other contemporary documents)
Wikipedia: Mayflower (voyage) - Passenger List - Pilgrims - Plymouth Colony - Captain Christopher Jones