James GREENE

  General Notes:

JAMES GREENE "of Potowomut" (John), was baptized at St. Thomas' Church, Salisbury, England, June 2I, I626, and came with his parents to New England in 1635. He was made freeman of Warwick and Providence Plantations in I647. He resided at Old Warwick on the main street on the southerly side, where the graveyard is now located in which he and some of his family are buried. He was on the "Roule of ye Freemen of ye Colonie of everie Town in1665 and was Town Clerk, May 16, 1661. He was "an excellent penman of the old English text." He was a member of the General Assembly of the Colony, being Commissioner under the first charter, and Deputy and Assistant under the second (I663), for ten years, between 1660 and 1675. He was considered "a man of much practical sagacity." He does not appear to have been in public life after the Indian war (1675-6), when his house, withal others in Warwick, except the " Stone Castle," was burned to the ground. When the message from the General Assembly advising the people of Warwick of danger was received, he fled to Portsmouth, R. I., where the father of his second wife, John Anthony, resided. He remained for some years at "Hunting Swamp," but in 1684, having made purchases of Warwick land (6)((Warwick Records. 1664, 1st Book of Marriages. Warwick Records, Land Ev., p. 12: "15 Oct. 1682 Thos. Staffordof Warwick sells to James Greene of Hunting Swamp Portsmouth for 5f all his lands in Warwick, purchased by the inhabitants of Warwick which deed stands recorded in Warwick.'')) he removed to Potowomut where was an ancient mill, and built his house on the hill near the west bank of the river, overlooking the beautiful lake which furnished the water power for the forge which his grandsons (sons of Jabez) established for making anchors and other forms of ironwork. This became a notable industry in colonial times and in the early days of there public. The interests of the forge" were enhanced by the revival of business after peace existed between England and her emancipated colonies, and this became the pioneer of the more extensive works on Pawtuxet River, near the western border of Warwick, known as 'the Forge.'" The place at Potowomut where James Greene resided until his death, was the birthplace of his great-grandson, the highly distinguished Major General Nathanael Greene of the Revolutionary Army, and the residence of his descendants for more than two hundred years. He died "at his mansion in Potowomut," April 27, I698, in the seventy-second year of his age, and was buried at the Old Warwick burial-ground, under an altar-tomb with the inscription still in a good state of preservation, on his original house lot of six acres granted by the proprietors of Warwick, 1647, when he had attained his majority. This lot was located on the main street, the second lot north easterly from the road leading to Warwick Neck. The burial-ground and lot descended to his eldest son, James, whose descendants have been buried there to the present generation.

The estate in Old Warwick has within a few years been sold out of the Greene family, but they still retain owner ship of this ancient and historic burying-ground located near the site of the "Stone Castle." In recent years much has been done to preserve the history of the family records, memorial stones having been erected by Rufus W. Greene and Benjamin Greene Arnold, containing records of the Greene ancestors dating back to John Greene of Salisbury, England. And thus they will passed on to coming generations, who will gratefully appreciate the fore thought which has preserved them, and the resting place of their ancestors.

James married Elizabeth ANTHONY, daughter of John ANTHONY and Susanna POTTER, on 3 Aug 1665. (Elizabeth ANTHONY was born in 1646 in Portsmouth, Newport, RI and died on 27 Oct 1698 in Warwick, Kent, RI.)