Person:Thomas Greene (45)

Gov. Thomas Greene, 2nd Proprietary Governor of Maryland
chr.27 Mar 1609/10 Bobbing, Kent, England
  • F.  Thomas Greene (add)
  • M.  Margaret Webb (add)
  1. Robert Greene1605 -
  2. Gov. Thomas Greene, 2nd Proprietary Governor of Maryland1609/10 - Bef 1651/52
  • HGov. Thomas Greene, 2nd Proprietary Governor of Maryland1609/10 - Bef 1651/52
  • W.  Anne (add)
m. 1634
  • HGov. Thomas Greene, 2nd Proprietary Governor of Maryland1609/10 - Bef 1651/52
  • WWinifred Seybourne1612 - 1656
m. Bef 1646
  1. Leonard GreenBet 1634 & 1645 - 1687
  2. Thomas GreeneAbt 1642 -
  3. Robert GreeneEst 1647 - Bef 1716
  4. Francis GreeneEst 1647/48 - Bef 1707
Facts and Events
Name Gov. Thomas Greene, 2nd Proprietary Governor of Maryland
Gender Male
Christening[8] 27 Mar 1609/10 Bobbing, Kent, England
Marriage 1634 Saint Mary's, Maryland, United Statesto Anne (add)
Marriage Bef 1646 Prob. Marylandto Winifred Seybourne
Death[1][7] Bef 20 Jan 1651/52 Saint Mary's, Maryland, United States[when Henry Adams appears in court as the trustee of the estate]

Contents

Research Notes

Parents

It is generally accepted that Governor Thomas Greene was the son of Sir Thomas Greene Of Bobbing Kent and Margaret Webb of Frittenden, Kent, England. Gov. Greene had three brothers; Jerimiah Greene, John Greene, and the Hon. Robert Greene, Lord of Bobbing Manor, who joined his brother in Maryland for a time but returned to England as the eldest son to inherit his father's property.

Governor Greene's father, Sir Thomas, was created a Knight Bachelor of the Realm by King James I on September 5, 1622 at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England.

Coming to America

In the spring of 1633, Thomas Greene came over from England on the Ark and Dove expedition.1,2 He was listed on the passenger list as "Thomas Greene, Esq."

Marriages

In 1634, the Hon. Thomas Greene married Anne Unknown on the banks of the St. George River in Maryland.Citation needed. [does a record exist for this]

The maiden name of Mrs. Anne Greene has been the subject of dispute among researchers over the years, namely whether her maiden name was Cox or Gerrard. Consider the following:

  • 1633: "Mrs. Ann Cox" receives a special grant of 500 ac from Lord Baltimore.Citation needed
  • 1633: "Ann Cox, Gentlewoman" is listed on the passenger list of the Ark and the Dove 2,7.
  • 1634: marriage occurs
    • Richardson (1913)4 claims she was "Mrs. Ann Cox" and cites Annapolis Land Records. [what do they say?]
    • Newman (1956)7 claims she was "Mistress Ann Cox, a spinster*, who was among the few gentlewomen on the initial voyage of the Ark and the Dove" and their marriage was "undoubtedly the first Christian marriage to have been celebrated on Maryland soil." His (*) note stated, "Mistress in the 17th century was the title given to an unmarried woman of gentle birth who had acquired an estate and independent status. The statement that she was the widowed sister of Thomas Gerard is wholly unfounded."
    • Beitzell (1968)5 claims she was a sister of Richard and Thomas Gerrard and the widow of Unknown Cox but provides no proof. Sir Richard KB Gerard was also a passenger on the Ark and the Dove.
  • [to be continued]

Gov. Thomas Greene married secondly Mistress Winifred Seyborn who arrived in Maryland some time during 1638.

Appointed Governor

In 1647, Greene was appointed to the governorship by the colony's first governor, Leonard Calvert, as an emergency measure only hours before Calvert's death due to a sudden illness.3,4


Thomas Greene was one of the Early Settlers of Colonial Maryland

Image:Maryland Settler.jpg


Robert Clarke born March 1652 and Thomas Clarke born 25 December 1654.

References
  1. Thomas Greene (governor), in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
  2.   Family Recorded, in Newman, Harry Wright. The flowering of the Maryland palatinate: an intimate and objective history of the Province of Maryland to the overthrow of proprietary rule in 1654, with accounts of Lord Baltimore's settlement at Avalon. (Washington, District of Columbia: H.W. Newman, 1961)
    pp 213-219.

    [add text]
    [Ark and Dove list of adventurers from pages 339-343]]

  3.   Recorded, in Brugger, Robert J, and Maryland Historical Society. Maryland: a middle temperament, 1634-1980. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Johns Hopkins University Press, c1988)
    pp 20-21.
  4.   Family Recorded, in Richardson, Hester Dorsey. Side-lights on Maryland history : with sketches of early Maryland families. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1967).

    Vol 2, p 340-345 -
    ... Thomas Greene, Esq., who succeeded Leonard Calvert in the year 1647 as Governor of Maryland, came from England to Maryland with the first adventurers in 1633. He took active part in the settlement of the Province and was always one of the most prominent and influential men in public affairs until his death in 1650/51. His wife whose name was Mrs. Ann Cox, came with him (Annapolis Land Records, Liber A.B.H. f. 12). He married secondly Mrs. Winnifred Seyborn, and by this wife had four sons, viz: Thomas Greene, Leonard Greene, Robert Greene and Francis Greene (Annapolis Land Records, Lib. A.B.H., f. 6 and 67, and Lib. 1, f. 188). Governor Greene was dead in 1651, and his widow married again, for in 1654 Winifred Greene, widow of Governor Thomas Greene, married Robert Clarke (Annapolis Land Records, Lib. A.B.H., v. 403).
    Little has been written of Governor Thomas Greene and his descendants who still live in large numbers in Marylandk, only a few, however, still bearing the patronymic.
    Arriving in Maryland on the Ark March 25, 1634, Thomas Greene is interesting from the moment he appears upon the horizon of historic research. As the lord of a manor, he was possessed of the whole of Poplar Island, which contained over 1000 acres, which with the addition of 500 acres on Kent Island constituted Bobing Manor (see Liber 3, folio 100, Assignments - Land Office - Annapolis under date of February 8, 1650).
    It was he who was named by Leonard Calvert on his death bed to succeed him which fact was proven in court on June 10, 1647, by the deposition of Mistress Margaret Brent, her sister, Mary Brent, Francis Anketill, and James Linsey, all making oath "that the Governor Leonard Calvert, Esq., being lying upon his death bead did by word of mouth on the ninth of this month nominate Thomas Greene, Esq., Governor of the Province of Maryland" (Maryland Archives, volume 3, folio 187).
    Because of his loyalty in proclaiming Charles II King of England upon the death of Charles I, Governor Greene was deposed and William Stone was commissioned to succeed him as loyal to the Commonwealth. Omitting further reference to his important public career, which dated from the time of his arrival until his death in 1651, as shown in the State Archives, we turn to his will found in the unindexed manuscript Land Records, Liber 1, folio 188, Annapolis, where the following makes good the omission of any testamentary account and is here given in full as an important contribution to the family history, as it is not accessible in the printed or manuscript wills of its period:

    "Annapolis Land Records, Liber 1, f. 188. November 18, 1650 -
    These present witness that I Thomas Green of St. Maries in the Province of Maryland, Esq., at the desire and request of my loveing wife Winnifred Green and out of my natural affection I bear to my Loveing children, Thomas Green, Leonard Green, Robert Green and Francis Green, with divers other reasons me thereto moveing, have assigned given and made over and Doe by these presents assign give and make over unto my Loveing friends Henry Adams and James Langworth All my whole estate in the Province of Maryland or else where as well of lands and title thereunto as of goods, servants, Cattle, Swyne, debts, or whatsoever also in any ways mine now or hereafter may be due unto me within the said Province or elsewhere to the uses and intents following, vizt:
    That my loveing wife Winifred be really possessed of all and every part and parcel of my foresaid estate for her freely to use and enjoy the same in her own person during the term of her natural life without Wast diminution or alteration thereof saving the value of one thousand weights of tobacco to be delivered to my most honored friend Thomas Copley, Esq., whenever I shall happen to die. In testimony I die a faithful Christian and desire the prayers of the holy Church, Provided also that myself during my life and that my Loveing children, Thomas Green, Leonard Green and Robert Green and Francis Green aforesaid, and what other it shall please God to send me hereafter be sufficiently maintained and provided for out of same both for subsistence and education agreeable to their quality untill each of them respectively come to eighteen years of age
    And that my present true reale and proper debts be also paid with all possible conveniency,
    And that at the end of ten years next, following the date hereof she my Loveing wife Winnifred Green deliver or cause to be delivred unto my loving and Eldest son Thomas Green the first part of all such estate in kind as shall then and at that time be in her possession or in value as my said son shall desire for his portion appointed him by me; if he shall then be living, also It shall be Lawfull for my foresaid Dear wife Winifred Green to Convert the said fifth part to her own proper use at the expiration of the foresaid ten years without any account to the rest of my children.
    and that at the end of thirteen years from the date thereof she my Loving wife Winifred Green deliver or cause to be delivered unto my second son Leonard Green the fourth part of all shuch clear estate in kind as shall then at that time be in her possession or in value as he the said Leonard Green shall make choice of for his portion appointed him by me, If he shall then be living Else the whole Clear estate aforesaid to remain to the sole personal use and benefit (With the Provisoes aforesaid) of my Loveing wife Winifred Green untill the end of the fifteen years from the date hereof, And then deliver or caused to be delivered unto my son Robert Green the third part in kind of the whole Clear Estate aforesaid as shall then and at that time be in her possession or in value as the said Robert Green shall then make choice of for his portion appointed him by me. If he shall then be living Else one entire half in kind &c."
    The same as above was provided for his son Francis Green.
    In case all the boys are dead wife Winifred Green is to have one half of the estate forever, and the other half to go "to such other issue it shall please God to send me after the date hereof for their respective portions appointed then by me If there shall be any such then living, and if not then the foresaid half wholly to accrue to my dear wife, Winifred Green her use and profit forever, Provided she be not afore invested with the half appointed by me for my son Francis Green his portion, nor with the other fifth part appointed by me for my son Thomas his portion by reason of either of their deaths as is also allowed her by me in which case the half aforesaid shall be divided by equall portions amongst the brothers then surviving And at the end of 17 years from the date hereof she my Loveing wife Winifred Green shall not be invested with either of the foresaid parts, and that I shall have any future issue then also living, That then an equal share be deducted by her my Loveing wife Winifred Green out of the half afore appointed by me for such issue and applyed to her own proper use and benefit forever. And if it should soe fall out, which God forbid, that my Dear and Loveing wife Winifred Green should happen to die afore any the several respective years above mentioned, That my several respective children's portions are to be paid them respectively out of the said Estate as aforesaid, That then it shall be good and Lawfull for her my said Dear wife Winifred Green to give and dispose at her death at her pleasure of the one fifth part of the Whole Clear estate then remaining in her possession, If it be within the ten first years, If after the ten and within the 13 years then the fourth part, If after the 13 and within the 15 years then the third part to be at her disposal as before, And after the 15 and within the 17 years then the one half of what she shall be then possessed of at her disposal as afore.
    Giving further power by these presents in the case aforesaid to my Loveing friends Henry Adams and James Langworth or to the Survivor of them or to his assignment to Re Enter upon the remainder of the said Estate to the intents above said (that is to say) freely to possess the same in their own persons for my respective children's use and my own livelihood as is above at large expressed, allowing my Loveing friends Henry Adams and James Langworth each of them the value of six hundred pounds of Tobacco and one third of the male Cattle Increase between them for their pains and care they shall be at in manageing the said Estate to my respective Children's use profit and advantage at the several days of payment above expressed of their several respective portions, And if it should soe please God as that at the end of the seventeen years aforesaid at any time afore there should be neither wife nor children of mine then living that then the whole estate aforesaid be disposed of as followeth:
    First that three parts thereof be delivered by my Loveing friends Henry Adams and James Langworth or the survivors of them or his assigns as aforesaid unto my honored friend Thomas Coply, Esq., or his survivors, to be employed by him or them to such Charitable uses as he or they in their discretion shall think most tending to the honour and glory of Almighty God either in this Province or elsewhere, My own decent livelihood during my live being herein always Comprehended, Then that the other fourth part remain to the sole benefit of my Loveing friends Henry Adams and James Langworth or to their survivors of them, or to his assignee as afore forever. In Wittness of all which I have hereunto sett my hand and seal the 18th of November 1650.
    Signed THO. GREENE."
    Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of RICHARD WILLAN, ALICE SMITH. ...

  5.   Family Recorded, in Beitzell, Edwin Warfield. Life on the Potomac River. (Abell, Maryland: E.W. Beitzell, 1973).

    [states that Ann Cox was actually Ann Gerard, sister of Richard and Thomas Gerard who also arrived in Maryland on the Ark and Dove. He states that she was the widow of someone named Cox. However, he does not give a source for that statement or relationship.]

  6.   Family Recorded, in Newman, Harry Wright. To Maryland from overseas. (Annapolis [Maryland]: H.W. Newman, 1982)
    p 81.

    Thomas Green, Esq., one of the Gentlemen of Fashion on the Ark and 2nd Governor of Maryland, was the second son of Sir Thomas Green, Knt, whose great-grandfather received the Rectory of Bobbing from Henry VIII upon the dissolution of the monasteries. Robert Green brother to Thomas, the Adventurer, came to Maryland, but returned to England. When Lord Baltimore granted Governor Thomas Green a Manor with court Baron, he named it "Bobbing" after his ancestral Estate.
    -----
    REF: Halsted's Co. Kent, Vol. 2 pp. 534, 635-639 ; Berry's Kent Pedigrees, p. 302; 1530 Visitation of Kent ; The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate by Newman.

  7. Family Recorded, in Newman, Harry Wright. The Maryland Semmes and kindred families: a genealogical history of Marmaduke Semme(s), gent., and his descendants including the allied families of Greene, Simpson, Boarman, Matthews, Thompson, Middleton, and Neale. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Maryland Historical Society, 1956).

    p 134 -
    THOMAS GREENE, one of the "twenty gentlemen of very good fashion " who sailed on the Ark and the second Provincial Governor of Maryland, was one of the most interesting characters of earl Maryland and one whose history has been quite neglected. He had invested in the adventure to a minor extent, so consequently its success was of more than casual interest. He was always styled by Governor Leonard Calvert " my well beloved friend," but the tradition that he was a kinsman of Leonard Calvert has not been proved and he oft repeated statement that he married Helen, a daughter of George, Lord Baltimore, is merely a myth of genealogy, His brother, Robert Greene, Esq., emigrated to Maryland, but being the son and heir to the parental estates in England he returned to the mother country, but before departing he assigned his land rights to his brother Thomas.

    Governor Thomas Greene was a member of the Catholic faith, like most of the gentlemen on the Ark, a Royalist in politics, a supporter of the Stuart dynasty, and for his loyalty to the Crown he was castigated figuratively before his death by the radical elements which were then gaining strength in the Province; principally the Puritans who had been outlawed in Virginia and virtually driven out and to whom Lord Baltimore offered a haven in his Province.

    His marriage to Mistress Ann Cox, a spinster,* who was among the few gentlewomen on the initial voyage of the Ark and the Dove, was undoubtedly the first Christian marriage to have been celebrated on Maryland soil. She died within a few years, but was living as late as April, 1638. He married secondly Mistriss Winifred Seybourne [Seaborne] who arrived in Maryland some time during 1638.
    -----
    [*Mistress in the 17th century was the title given to an unmarried women of gentle birth who had acquired an estate and independent status. The statement that she was the widowed sister of Thomas Gerard is wholly unfounded.]
    -----

    The mother of his children has been the subject of much discussion, but of the two younger sons there is no question of their being the issue of Winifred his last wife. When he applied for land rights on September 15, 1647, among the claims was "100 acres more being the right of his wife Mrs. Winifred Seyborn for Transporting herself into the Province 1638." It is therefore proved that she emigrated and financed her passage in 1638. At the same time he proved rights for 50 acres each for his children "100 more for Transporting 2 children in the year 1644 vizt Thomas and Leonard Green." From the strict construction of the wording, there is no implication that Mistress Seyborne brought them over or was their mother. Mistress Seyborne came in 1638 and the boys came six years later. This point is important. They were less than 18 years of age in 1650 and they came out of England in 1644. There is no record of Thomas Greene returning to England, so the only inference that can be placed on the matter is that two older children were born in Maryland and had at one time been sent to England, presumably for a year of [sic] two of schooling.

    Children of Thomas Greene, Esq.
    1. Thomas Greene, d.s.p.
    2. Leonard Greene married Anne ___, q.v.
    3. Robert Greene married Mary Boarman, q.v.
    4. Francis Greene married Elizabeth ____, q.v.

    Before sailing from England, or shortly thereafter, Thomas Greene was granted a large manor of 10,000 acres, for Father Copley writing to Cecilius, Lord Baltimore on April 3, 1638, cautioned him against the excessive taxation imposed on the manor lords "An [sic] accordingly Mr. Green one of the Gentlemen that came in the Arke, reflecting that besydes the losse of his halfe share of trucks [harvest] he was now to pay tenne barrels of Corne for his 10,000 acres and that only he had three men to raise that and maintaine himself and his wyfe confidently told me that he must necessarily deserte the Colonye" As no further record has been found for this manor, he probably permitted it to return to the Lord Proprietary being in those difficult times more of a burden than an asset

    After the manor of Richard Thompson on Popely Island in the Bay was forfeited by treason against the Lord Proprietary, Lord Baltimore granted the manor to Thomas Greene, though the letters patent were apparently among those papers burned by Ingle on his raid into Maryland during 1645. The manor consisted of 500 acres on the tip of Kent Isle not far from Fort Kent Manor of Giles Brent and the entire Isle of Popely on which Thompson was seated and which was the scene of the massacre of his wife and children by Indians during his absence. If Thomas Greene maintained a steward on his manor, no record has come down, but leases were made; for records exist of a Gersom Cromwell being a tenant on the portion on Kent Island. Greene gave the name of of Bobing to his Popely island manor and held it until February 8, 1650/1, when, for 10,000 lbs. tobacco, he sold to Thomas Hawkins, of London, Mariner, "all rights and interests in my whole Manor."

    He received other land grants, one of which was a warrant for 2,500 acres, but he died before the patent was issued. Consequently, in 1665 it was surveyed and granted to his three sons who gave it the name of "Green's Inheritance." His seat, however, was on "Green's Rest" within the environs of St. Mary's City and bordering St. Mary's River.

    He took a serious interest in all the affairs of the Province and became one of the leading factors in the early political developments. He attended the early General Assemblies to whom all freeholders were summoned. When the legislature became representative and the Upper House or Privy Council developed, he was one of the first to be appointed by the Lord Proprietary to that body which was virtually a counterpart to the British House of Lords. He was also appointed one of the Justices of the Provincial Court at its inception. He retained his seat in the Council until 1647 when he succeeded to the governorship by the death of Leonard Calvert, the first Provincial Governor. His term of office lasted until April 26, 1649, when Lord Baltimore commissioned Captain William Stone, of Virginia, and, for a short period shortly thereafter, acted as governor when Stone was on a business trip to Virginia.

    On November 18, 1650, Thomas negotiated a document whereby he assigned his entire estate in trust under certain conditions to his friends, Henry Adams and James Langworth, for the benefit of his wife, Winifred, and sons - Thomas, Leonard, Robert, and Francis. He desired his wife to have full possession of the estate during life except for a certain amount of tobacco which vas bequeathed to his friend Thomas Copley. His widow was to grant his sons the designated shares in succession as they came of age, "... be Sufficiently maintained and Provided for ... both for Subsistance and Education aswerable to their quality until each of them respectively come to eighteen years of age."* In the event of his widow's decease and the death of his sons without issue, then three-fourths of his estate were to be distributed to charity and the residue to Henry Adams and James Langworth.
    -----
    [* The fact that his two older sons were less than 18 years of age in 1650 disproves the statement often made that the two sons were conceived of a marriage contracted in England before his sailing in 1633.]
    -----

    He died before January 20, 1651/2, the day on which Henry Adams appeared in court as the trustee of the estate. His widow married secondly Robert Clarke, Gent., one-time Surveyor-General of the Province, and became the mother of at least two of the Clarke children - Robert and Thomas. On November 16, 1654, Robert Clarke on behalf of his wife Winifred Clarke "late wife of Thomas Greene deceased and her children by the said Greene" demanded 400 acres of land for the transportation of four servants by Thomas Greene on June 10, 165-.

    In 1658 William Hewes instituted action against Robert Clarke for repairs on "Green's Rest" before Clarke married the widow of Thomas Greene. At that time Madam Greene-Clarke was deceased. Hewes claimed that Captain William Stone engaged him for the work and that the overseers of the estate of Thomas Greene should be responsible for the expenditures. ...

  8. Thomas Greene, in Richardson, Douglas, and Kimball G. Everingham. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2005)
    267.

    Tho: the sonn of Tho: Greene gent. was baptised the 17th of Marche 1609[/10].

  9.   == Notes on Thomas Greene ==
    [Source: http://users.cougar.net/~susan1/TGreene.htm ]
    ... The diary of Father White, which is an account of what took place on the trip from England to Maryland shows that Thomas Greene m. Mrs. Ann (Gerrard) Cox. It was said to be the first Christian marriage in Maryland.

    Note: Historians are not kind to Greene's governance of MD and state that Margaret Brent, who was appointed guardian of Leonard Calvert's estate, should have been in Greene's place and a better steward.]