John Holmes (Messenger of the Plymouth Court)

John Holmes (1603–1652 or later) was an early settler and official of the Plymouth Colony who arrived there before late 1632.[1] He served as Messenger of the Court of Plymouth from 1638 to 1645 or later, and in that office carried out one of the first executions in the colony.

Holmes was baptized 22 February 1603 in St. Nicholas, Colchester, the only son of Thomas Holmes, a maltster and the keeper of the Essex county gaol in Colchester Castle.[2] He married a woman named Sarah, surname unknown. Their son Thomas was baptized in St. Runwald in 1628. Holmes witnessed the will of his brother in law Tobias Moreton in October 1629; this is the last known record of Holmes in England, although son Thomas appears to have grown up in England in the household of Tobias's widow, John's sister Susan.[2]

Holmes's first appearance in the Plymouth records was on 16 October 1632. He served in 1638 on the jury that sentenced Arthur Peach, Thomas Jackson, and Richard Stinnings to death for robbery and murder.[1] [3] Peach's lover, Stephen Hopkins's indentured servant Dorothy Temple, was pregnant at the time, and when Hopkins refused to honor her contract, Holmes bought out her servitude.

On 4 December 1638 Holmes was sworn in as Messenger, succeeding Joshua Pratt.[1] Among the duties entailed in this office were those of bailiff, jailkeeper, and executioner. In the latter capacity on 8 September 1642 Holmes hanged Thomas Granger, a teenager convicted of bestiality.[4] It was the first execution of a juvenile in the territory of what was to become the United States.

Holmes had two known children in Plymouth, John (ca. 1636–1697) and Nathaniel (ca. 1643–1727), via whom he had numerous descendants to the present day[1] including John Haynes Holmes (1879–1964), American churchman and pacifist, and Newland Howard Holmes (1891–1965), President of the Massachusetts Senate. Holmes's wife died in 1650, and the last record of John Holmes in Plymouth was 7 October 1651. The will of Susan Morton implies he was alive in June 1652, and the wording suggests the possibility he had returned to England by that time,[2] but the date and place of his death are unknown.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Stratton, Eugene A. (June 1986). "Descendants of Mr. John Holmes, Messenger of the Plymouth Court". National Genealogical Society Quarterly. 74 (2): 83–110.
  2. 1 2 3 Holmes, Denwood. "'The Black Sheep of Some Good Family': The Essex Ancestry of John Holmes, Gentleman, Messenger of the Plymouth Court". New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 171 (Spring 2017): 85–92.
  3. ↑ "1638: Three (of four) English colonists for murdering a Native American". ExecutedToday.com. 4 September 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "1642: Thomas Granger and the beasts he lay with". ExecutedToday.com. 8 September 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2017.
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