John Wickes

John Wickes
Born 1609
Staines, Middlesex,, England
Died March 17, 1676
Warwick, Rhode Island
Occupation Landowner
Spouse(s) Mary Wickes
Children John Wick
Relatives Temperance Wick

John Wickes (1609-1676), also known as John Wick and John Wicks, was an early settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and a co-founder and original purchaser of Shawowmet (which became Warwick, Rhode Island). He was born in 1609 in Staines, Middlesex, England. His father Robert Wickes had four sons: Thomas, John, Francis, and William.[1]

John Wickes immigrated to America with his wife Mary and his daughter Ann. He was a supporter of Puritan dissident Samuel Gorton who formed a sect called "the Gortonites" which disagreed with Puritan theology on many essential points. They were frequently in trouble with the authorities in the New England colonies and settlements. Wickes and the other Gortonists were summoned to Boston in 1643, accused of defrauding the Indians in the purchase of land.[2][3] Wickes was incarcerated at Ipswich for several months by the Massachusetts authorities.

Wicks eventually settled in Shawowmet. He fought in King Philip's War, and he was beheaded by Indians close to his home on March 17, 1676 when he wandered out of his house searching for his cows. His son John Wick settled on Long Island and became a magistrate of Suffolk County, New York. American Revolutionary War heroine Temperance Wick was his great-granddaughter.[4]

The John Wickes Elementary School in Warwick is named after him. [5]

Notable Descendants

Notes

  1. ↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1893. p. 521.
  2. ↑ The Gortonites were actually tried on theological grounds, and the land purchase dispute was not even addressed in court.
  3. ↑ Gorton 1907, pp. 49-50.
  4. ↑ "Wickes, John, 1609 - 1676 - Yale Indian Papers Project". yale.edu. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  5. ↑ "Wickes Elementary". google.com. Retrieved 30 March 2017.

Bibliography

  • Gorton, Adelos (1907). The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton. George S. Ferguson Co.
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