Person:John Greenway (7)

from The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33.

Origin: Mildenhall, Wiltshire. Migration 1630 to Dorchester before he requested freemanship on 19 Oct 1630. He was admitted 18 May 1631 (as "John Grinnoway") [MBCR 1:80, 366].

Minor offices in Dorchester 1630s, 1640s.

On 5 February 1650[/1], John "Greeneaway of Dorchester in New England, millwright" granted to "Ursula Greeneaway the daughter of the said John Greeneaway [who] hath always been an obedient, loving, dutiful and faithful daughter and servant unto her aged father & mother" the southwest end of "my dwelling wherein the said Ursula doth usually lie" and "all my said dwelling house, outhouse, barn, garden & orchards, containing five acres more or less ... and also three acres of meadow ... in the meadow called the Calves Pasture ... also three acres of meadow near the Old Harbor ..., also one lot in the little and greater neck of five and a half acres ... also all my commons of wood, timber and land ... on this north side of Naponsett River" at the death of John and Mary Greeneaway. If Ursula had no children, then at her decease the property was to go to "my kinsman & servant Thomas Millett, the son of Thomas & Mary Millett, my son-in-law & daughter," Thomas to pay £10 for four years to "my daughter Ann Pearse & her children, 30s.; unto my daughter Elizabeth Allen and her children £3; to my daughter Mary Millett and her children 35s.; unto my daughter Susanna Wales & her children, if she have any £1 17s. 6d.; & unto my daughter Katherine Daniell & to her children £1 17s. 6d yearly" for four years. If Thomas Millett died without heirs of his body, then "his brother John Millett or other son of Thomas Millett the father shall have the said premises." If daughter Ursula had any heirs, they to pay "in the same manner Thomas Millett should have done" [SLR 1:199]. On 10 August 1650 "John Greeneaway of Dorchester ... millwright" granted for "great love & fatherly affection" to "William Daniel & Katherine his wife, the daughter of the said John Greeneaway" his right in the land and commons on the south side of Neponset River, "one lot lying in the first lot in the three divisions," being thirteen acres, and three acres of meadow [SLR 1:201]. On 5 February 1650[/1] "John Greeneaway of Dorchester" for "the great love and fatherly affection that I bear unto my son-in-law Rob[er]t Pearse and Ann Pearse my daughter, now wife of the said Rob[er]t Pearse, hath given unto the said Robert Pearse and Ann his wife all that my land scituate in the Pine Neck in Dorchester, six acres whereof was purchased of Moses Maverick," together with the meadow in the said neck together with the commons appertaining to the six acres "for their lives ... and after their decease to Thomas Pearse the only son of the said Robert and Anna ... and if the said Thomas die without issue, then the said land to remain unto Mary Pearse and Sarah Pearse, daughters of the said Robert and Ann equally ... and if either of these said daughters die without issue, the survivor to have the other's portion" [SLR 1:201].

COMMENTS: Leslie Mahler's discovery that this family resided at Mildenhall, Wiltshire, diminishes the likelihood that they were passengers on the Mary & John [TAG 74:193-95]. In a deposition of 29 July 1642 "Ursly Greenoway" deposed regarding the will of John Bradley of Salem, that he said "he had nobody to give his estate but his wife, only some of his clothes & tools he gave to his brother-in-law William Allen" [NEHGR 2:185]. The latter was WILLIAM ALLEN of Manchester, whose second wife, whom he married about 1634, was named Elizabeth. As John Greenway had a daughter Elizabeth Allen with children, and as Ursula Greenway would not otherwise seem to have any reason to be involved in probate matters in Salem, it may be that the second wife of WILLIAM ALLEN was Elizabeth Greenway. The lack of dates for some of the daughters of John Greenway raises the possibility that he may have been married more than once. If the year of birth suggested above for Ann is close to correct, and if Katherine was closer to thirty than to twenty when she married, then the births of the daughters would fall within a range of twenty years, without large gaps, and they might all be the children of one wife. But if Katherine was born about 1626, as suggested above, and if Susanna was close to her in age, then the births would be spread over a quarter of a century, with a large gap between the first five and the last two, which would strongly indicate that John Greenway had been married at least twice. The resolution of this dilemma will probably have to await the discovery of his English home in the two decades between the baptism of Elizabeth early in 1609 and his departure for New England.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1878 William B. Trask published abstracts of the testamentary deeds of John Greenway, accompanied by extensive annotations, including the very important index to the lost pages three and four of the first book of Dorchester town records [NEHGR 32:55-59]. A concise treatment of the family was published by Mary Lovering Holman in 1919 [Scott Gen 204-05].

from Trask, William Blake, Dorchester (Mass.) Town Records, April, July, Oct 1867 Vol 21 21:270-271 Oct 8 1633 "It is agreed, that their shall be a decent buring place, bounded upon the knapp, [the top of a hill] by Goodman Grenwayes". This was the second burial ground, being a part of the present "old Burial Ground", corner of Boston and Stoughton streets. It was ordered to be laid out five rods square, by vote Nov. 3 1634. The oldest inscription extant is Nov. 8 1638, although this is a replacement stone. The oldest original stone bears the date 1611 and 1648.

21:275 3 Nov 1634 Its also ordered, that the common gates shall be forth with made and set up sufficiently with the pales belonging to the same, one at Mr. Woolcots, one at Walther ffilers, one at Goodman Poapes, one at Goodman Grenwayes, and to be palled betwist William Horsefords lott, and the Creeke.

21:332 17 April 1635 regarding the cowsherd position of Thomas Thorneton and Thomas Sanford, ..."do p'mise to fetch all the Cowes from Jonathan Gillets house to Mr. Wookcotts, and from John Greenwayes to Walther ffilers, and to drive them forth in the morneing an hower after sun rising, and at comming in to drive them thorow and turn over the bridge those that are beyond that way; also one of them doth p'mise to Keepe them every lord's day and the Plantation to find an other according as shall be agreed in an equall p'portion.

The claim that the Greenaways came to New England on the Mary and John is uncertain [Robert Charles Anderson; Mahler]. However, it is possible that they moved to the West Country, where passengers of the Mary and John derived, since there are no other records of the Greenaways in Mildenhall, Wiltshire, other than the 4 baptisms, ending in 1609. The men that applied for freemen status in Oct 1630, as did John Greenaway, mostly arrived in 1630 with the Winthrop fleet and the Mary & John. However, there were earlier arrivals and the freemen list contains many of the surviving settlers from the the Abigail and the Higginson fleet, as well as a few who came before 1628.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   BIRTH: By about 1576 based on estimated date of marriage.
   DEATH: Between 5 February 1650/1 [SLR 1:201] and 6 May 1652 (his deed acknowledged by witnesses [SLR 1:202]).

2. ↑ 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)
   2:310.

   "JOHN, Dorchester, came, prob. in the Mary and John 1630, req. 19 Oct. to be freem. and 18 May foll. was adm. a millwright of much esteem, brot. ch. perhaps one or more already m. in Eng. Ann, who was w. of Robert Pierce, outliv. him almost 31 yrs. and a. 31 Dec. 1695, says Blake's Ann. and the gr.stone a. 104 yrs. so perhaps the oldest tenant of that mansion; Ursula, w. of Hugh Batten, and she came 1635, aged 32, with her maiden name, as comp. to her sis. Mary who was w. of Thomas Millet, and passengers in the Elizabeth; and Catharine, w. of William Daniel; had div. of ld. 1652; was then old; and his w. Mary d. 23 Jan. 1659."