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| Richard Warren - to right of center in rear |
As Thanksgiving approaches, I am grateful for Richard Warren, my eleventh Great
Grandfather. (Without going into detail, suffice it to say that I descended from him through the Chase line.) I am equally appreciative for his remarkable wife, Elizabeth Walker Warren.
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| Mayflower |
Richard was born in 1578. He married Elizabeth and they became the parents of five beautiful daughters. He came to America on the Mayflower, alone, in 1620. Elizabeth waited three years before bringing her daughters, aboard the ship Anne, to join their father in the New World.
Annie
Russell Marble, author of The Women Who
Came in the Mayflower described Elizabeth as a “companion of good breeding
and efficiency”. She further editorialized of the five daughters, “it is safe
to assume they were attractive for, in a few years, all were well married.”
Two
more sons were born to the family in America before Richard’s death in 1628.
The New England Memorial recorded his
death with honor in this manner (SIC):
“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.”
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| Elizabeth Walker Warren |
Evidently Elizabeth was a woman of independent means, for she never remarried.
An
interesting insight into Elizabeth’s faith, fortitude and character is found in the Court Records
wherein her servant was prosecuted for (SIC), “speaking profane and blasphemous
speeches against ye majestie of God. She (Elizabeth) exhorted him to fear God and
doe his duty.”
The
widow Elizabeth survived her husband for forty-five years, living to the age of ninety-three, a remarkable lifespan for that generation, leaving seventy-five great grandchildren.
At
the time of her death, The Old Plymouth Colony Records paid her tribe (SIC), “Mistress
Elizabeth Warren, having lived a Godly life came to her Grave as a Shock of
corn full Ripe. She was honourably buried on the 24th of October
(1673).”
