Notes
Note N1243
Index
Burial: Little Neck Cemetery From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Little Neck Cemetery U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location East Providence, Rhode Island Coordinates 41°45′59″N 71°21′18″WCoordinates: 41°45′59″N 71°21′18″W Built 1655 Architect Unknown MPS East Providence MRA NRHP Reference # 80000100 [1] Added to NRHP November 28, 1980 The Little Neck Cemetery is a historic cemetery off Read Street in East Providence, Rhode Island.
The cemetery was founded in 1655, when the area was part of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest colonial cemeteries in Rhode Island. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Famous and historical burials [edit] Little Neck Cemetery is a historical and cultural resource of much importance. It contains the gravestones of people who have played an important part in the history of East Providence and other American societies.
The oldest recorded burial is that of John Brown, Jr (who died 1662), son of the man who purchased Wannamoisett from the Wampanoag Indians. The gravestone of Elizabeth Tilley Howland (died 1667) is also there. Howland was a passenger on the Mayflower ship and was one of the original settlers of the Plymouth Colony. She died at the Swansea farm of her daughter and son-in-law and was buried near there at Little Neck. Today her grave is marked by a finely carved slate marker put up in 1946 by the Howland Family Association.
The most renowned person buried at Little Neck, however, is Captain Thomas Willett (died 1674). Willett, son-in-law of John Brown of Wannamoisett, settled in what is currently East Providence in a house that was located on Willett Avenue (now the site of the Willett Arms Apartments). He is noted for serving as the first English mayor of New York. The Willett plot, surrounded by a stone-post and iron rail fence, is now marked by a large boulder put down by the City Club of New York and that also contains the original stones marking the graves of Willett and his wife, Mary, who died in 1669.[2]
Hillside in Little Neck Cemetery
Willett and Browne headstones See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence County, Rhode Island References
Staff (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
"East Providence Historical Society". East Providence Historical Society. East Providence Historical Society. Unknown Date. U.S. National Register of Historic Places Topics Architectural style categories Contributing property Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places Keeper of the Register National Park Service Property types
Category Portal WikiProject Little Neck Cemetery From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Little Neck Cemetery U.S. National Register of Historic Places Location East Providence, Rhode Island Coordinates 41°45′59″N 71°21′18″WCoordinates: 41°45′59″N 71°21′18″W Built 1655 Architect Unknown MPS East Providence MRA NRHP Reference # 80000100 [1] Added to NRHP November 28, 1980 The Little Neck Cemetery is a historic cemetery off Read Street in East Providence, Rhode Island.
' Mary Brown, daughter of John Browne Sr and Dorothy, married Capt Thomas Willett on 6 July 1636 in Plymouth. She died on 8 January 1669/70 in Little Neck RI. Some sources say that she died in Wannamoisett, Bristol, RI and was buried in Little Neck Cemetery, Riverside, Bristol, RI
10 children were known issue of Thomas and Mary:
Martha Willett, married John Saffin, a merchant of Boston and had eight sons; four of them were mentioned in Thomas Willett’s will.
Esther Willett, b. July 6, 1647
Hezekiah Willett, born and died in 1651
Rebecca Willett died April 2, 1652
James Willett, mentioned in will
Hezekiah Willett, mentioned in his father’s will, killed by Indians at the Willett plantation in Swansea.
Andrew Willett, mentioned in will
Samuel Willett, mentioned in will
Thomas Willett
Mary Willett, married Samuel Hooker
2 additional children have been attributed.
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From http://www.newenglandancestors.org/pdfs/willett_thomas.pdf
The return trip to New England was arranged. Thomas Willett had the company of another old family friend from Leyden on the outbound trip. this was his father’s friend, John Browne, along with his daughter, Mary Browne, and other members of that family who were immigrating to the new world. They left England on June 22, 1632, on board the Lion, which was a fairly large ship for the day. The return trip took twelve weeks; they arrived in Boston on September 16. Thomas Willett and Mary Brown must have seen a lot of each other during that voyage. An enduring romance must have had its inception on board the Lion.
On July 6, 1636, he married Mary, the daughter of Worshipful John Brown (b 1584 in England; d April 10, 1662, at Swansea, Massachusetts), the son of Thomas Browne. Peter Browne, the uncle of John Browne had come over on the original Mayflower, and he and the elder Thomas Browne were sons of Thomas Browne, Senior.
(comment from Miner Descent: Some romantic tales say that he was brother of Peter Browne (1594 - 1633), the Mayflower’s carpenter and a signer of the Mayflower Compact, but this has been disproved. I had to delete my fun stories about Peter Browne. ;()
The Browns were from Swansea, England, and his wife Dorothy (nee Beauchamp) had immigrated from Cambridge, England, to Holland, and then followed the Puritans to Massachusetts. Governor Winthrop performed the ceremony. The Browns had been one of the last of the Green Gate Pilgrims to leave Holland for the new world. They were old friends of the Willett family.
“By this marriage, Willett allied himself with one of the most influential families of the Plymouth Colony. Mr. Brown had become one of plymouth’s [sic] most prominent figures and had been given a patent on the Kennebec. For twelve years he was a commissioner of the United Colonies of New England, and for eighteen years he was a governor’s assistant.
Thomas Willett died at Swansea and was buried at the head of Bullock’s Cove, in what is now East Providence, RI. His tombstone gives the date of his death as August 4, 1674 “in the 64th year of his age”. His will dated April 26, 1671 and probated on August 12, 1674, left bequests to his four sons, two daughters, a brother-in-law and the church of Rehoboth.
His wife Mary died on January 8, 1699.
SOURCE: The Willett Families of North America; compiled by Albert James Willett, Jr, A Willett; House Publication
Notes
According to http://minerdescent.com/2010/06/07/john-brown-sr/, was born 1614 in Glencairn, Dumfrieshire, Scotland "There's no explanation of her being born in Scotland which seems anomalous.". Erica Howton believes (April 2014) this is a mixup with a Mary Browne of Glencairn, daughter of a Rev. Browne of Glencairn, & to be disregarded.
Leftover material:
Source for Mary Brown as daughter of John Browne of Salem, Taunton, and Rehoboth is: Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal ..., Volume 1 edited by Ellery Bicknell Crane. Page 39.
Mary BROWN was born on 24 March 1637 in Watertown, Middlesex,Massachusetts. Sources: 1. Anderson, R.C. "The Great Migration Begins" pp.255-257. Parents: John BROWN and Dorothy KENT.
Excerpted from:
http://www.theharmons.us/harmon_t/b239.htm#P73716
note: The evidence is not convincing that her parents were John Brown and Dorothy Kent. Also, the conflicting birth dates need resolving. LDC
DEATH:
Thomas Clapp Cornell, Adam and Anne Mott: their ancestors and their descendants (N.p.: A. V. Haight, 1890), p. 251.
Inscription: 1669 Here lyeth ye body of ye virtuous Mary Willett, wife of Thomas Willett, esqr. who died, January ye 8th, about ye 55th year of her anno.
Footstone daughter of Worf. John Browne Esq. deceased