General Notes

JOHN  Brown

ORIGIN:
MIGRATION: 1632
FIRST RESIDENCE: Duxbury
OCCUPATION: Weaver.
FREEMAN: Took oath of fidelity at Duxbury, perhaps in 1657 [ PCR 8:182].
EDUCATION: Signed his will by mark.
OFFICES: In Duxbury section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [ PCR 8:189].
ESTATE: Assessed 9s. in Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 [ PCR 1:10, 27].
    On 8 June 1650 William Allin of Sandwich sold to John Browne of Duxbury, weaver, about thirty acres of upland in Duxbury "being one part of three of land which appertained unto the children of Peter Brown, brother unto John" [ PCLR 1:186, cited in TAG 42:41]. On 13 August 1679 Ephraim Tinkham of New Plymouth sold to John Brown of Duxbury two acres of meadow "one of which I had in right of Mary my wife, daughter of Peter Brown deceased" [ PCLR 5:197, cited in TAG 42:41]. On 7 November 1679 William Snow of Bridgewater sold to John Brown "all that my one third of 25 acre lots of land formerly of Peter Brown of Duxbury" [ PCLR 5:197, cited in TAG 42:41].
   In his will, dated 15 April 1672 and sworn 5 June 1684, John Brown of Duxbury, planter, bequeathed "unto Pheebe my wife all my houses, lands, & cattells & movables for term of her life, & as for cattells & movables to be disposed of at her discretion, and at the end of her life I give this aforementioned houses & lands unto my son-in-law Josiah Wormall & unto his wife Remember my true & natural daughter, and at the end of their lives the aforementioned houses & lands I give unto John Wormall my grandchild at the decease of his father & mother, and if God so dispose that the aforesaid John Wormall be deceased before he do or may by right enjoy it then I give it equally between Pheebe & Lyddia my grandchildren" [ PCPR 4:2:128].
BIRTH: By about 1610 based on date of marriage.
DEATH: By 5 June 1684 (probate of will).
MARRIAGE: 26 March 1634 Phebe Harding [ PCR 1:26]; she was named in her husband's will, 15 April 1672.
CHILD:

    i   REMEMBER, b. say 1648; m. by about 1668 Josiah Wormall [ Maryland 43:154-59].

ASSOCIATIONS: Brother of PETER  Brown of Plymouth.
COMMENTS: The identification of John Brown of Duxbury as brother of Peter was published in 1957 by Donald Lines Jacobus and again in 1966 by Florence Barclay [ TAG 33:214-22, 42:35-42]. More recently Gerald W. McFarland repeated this identification, and added to it an explicit argument showing why this John Brown was not the same man as the John Brown who resided in Plymouth, Taunton and Rehoboth, and served frequently as an Assistant of Plymouth Colony [ NEHGR 140:331-32].
   It remains to demonstrate that John Brown, brother of Peter, was the man taxed in Plymouth in 1633 and 1634, thus placing his arrival as early as 1632, and removing any evidence for the presence of the more prominent John Brown in Plymouth prior to 1635.
   John Browne of Plymouth, Taunton and Rehoboth was referred to in the records as "Mr." or "gent." He was elected an assistant on 5 January 1635/6 [ PCR 1:36], and had, along with Timothy Hatherly, been admitted as a freeman on the same day [ PCR 1:4]. From that date on, he was frequently named to high office, and was one of the most important men in the colony.
   The tax list entries for 1633 and 1634 assess John Brown at nine shillings, the lowest amount assessed. Mr. John Browne, the assistant, would have had an estate large enough to earn a higher assessment. John Brown, brother of Peter, fits the economic profile of these tax assessments better, and we already know that he was in Plymouth at least by 1633, based on his date of marriage.
   Thus, the evidence is consistent with the arrival of John Brown, brother of Peter, by 1632, in time to appear in the 1633 tax list, and of Mr. John Browne in 1635, followed by immediate admission as a freeman and election as an assistant. [For more on this John Brown, see Phantom File.]
   John Brown may have lived for some time in Plymouth before his removal to Duxbury, but the earliest records for this man (two tax lists and marriage) may have been from either town, as the colony records at this date do not differentiate among Plymouth, Duxbury and Scituate.
   Since John Brown of Duxbury had arrived by 1632, there is a chance that he was the John Brown who sailed on the Lyon in 1632, but reasons are given in the sketch of JOHN  Brown of Watertown for thinking that he is more likely this passenger.
   The estimated date of birth for daughter Remember is based on the crude estimate that she married by about 1668, based on her father's will which shows that she had three children by 1672. Josiah Wormall was born in Rowley in 1642. Remember was in fact probably born somewhat earlier than 1648, but still probably some years after her parents' marriage.