JAMES GREENE "of Potowomut" (John), was baptized at St. Thomas' Church, Salisbury, England, June 2I, I626, and came with his parents to New England in 1635. He was made freeman of Warwick and Providence Plantations in I647. He resided at Old Warwick on the main street on the southerly side, where the graveyard is now located in which he and some of his family are buried. He was on the "Roule of ye Freemen of ye Colonie of everie Town in 1665 and was Town Clerk, May 16, 1661. He was "an excellent penman of the old English text." He was a member of the General Assembly of the Colony, being Commissioner under the first charter, and Deputy and Assistant under the second (I663), for ten years, between 1660 and 1675. He was considered "a man of much practical sagacity." He does not appear to have been in public life after the Indian war (1675-6), when his house, with all others in Warwick, except the " Stone Castle," was burned to the ground. When the message from the General Assembly advising the people of Warwick of danger was received, he fled to Portsmouth, R. I., where the father of his second wife, John Anthony, resided. He remained for some years at "Hunting Swamp," but in 1684, having made purchases of Warwick land (6)((Warwick Records. 1664, 1st Book of Marriages.
Warwick Records, Land Ev., p. 12: "15 Oct. 1682 Thos. Stafford of Warwick sells to James Greene of Hunting Swamp Portsmouth for 5f all his lands in Warwick, purchased by the inhabitants of Warwick which deed stands recorded in Warwick.''))
he removed to Potowomut where was an ancient mill, and built his house on the hill near the west bank of the river, overlooking the beautiful lake which furnished the water power for the forge which his grandsons (sons of Jabez) established for making anchors and other forms of iron work. This became a notable industry in colonial times and in the early days of there public. The interests of the forge "were enhanced by the revival of business after peace existed between England and her emancipated colonies, and this became the pioneer of the more extensive works on Pawtuxet river, near the western border of Warwick, known as 'the Forge.'" The place at Potowomut where James Greene resided until his death, was the birth place of his great-grandson, the highly distinguished Major-General Nathanael Greene of the Revolutionary Army, and the residence of his descendants for more than two hundred years. He died "at his mansion in Potowomut," April 27, I698, in the seventy-second year of his age, and was buried at the Old Warwick burial-ground, under an altar-tomb with the inscription still in a good state of preservation, on his original house lot of six acres granted by the proprietors of Warwick, 1647, when he had attained his majority. This lot was located on the main street, the second lot north easterly from the road leading to Warwick Neck. The burial-ground and lot descended to his eldest son, James, whose descendants have been buried there to the present generation.
The estate in Old Warwick has within a few years been sold out of the Greene family, but they still retain owner ship of this ancient and historic burying-ground located near the site of the "Stone Castle." In recent years much has been done to preserve the history of the family records, memorial stones having been erected by Rufus W. Greene and Benjamin Greene Arnold, containing records of the Greene ancestors dating back to John Greene of Salisbury, England. And thus they will passed on to coming generations, who will gratefully appreciate the fore thought which has preserved them, and the resting place of their ancestors.
He married (1). about 1658, Deliverance, daughter of Robert Potter one of the early proprietors of Warwick, whose homestead adjoined his, and who was the ancestor of the Bishops Potter of New York and Pennsylvania), and his wife Isabel, who died from exposure when the Massachusetts troops invaded Shawomet in I643.
Deliverance (Potter) Greene, born 1637, died 1664, and he married (2), August 3, 1665, Elizabeth, daughter of John and Susanna Anthony of Portsmouth, R. I. She died in 1698.
John Anthony, father of Elizabeth, second wife of James Greene, was the son of John Anthony, "an inn-keeper with other occupations," who came in the ship Hercules to New England, April I6, I634, and settled at Portsmouth, R. I. He was made freeman in 1641, and in 1642 sold fifty acres of land which had been granted him at Newport. In 1644 had land grant at Portsmouth. He was appointed, May 25, same year, by the Court of Commissioners "to keep a house of entertainment." He was Corporal, Commissioner, and Deputy, and was ancestor of Hon. Henry B. Anthony, Governor of Rhode Island and United States Senator. He died July 28, 1675 .
James Greene's father, John Greene, surgeon, by will leaves " to son James Greene" as follows: "I give unto my son James Greene my six aker Lott in ye necke called Warwick neck or Misshaomet together with my Great Lott and all my other Right in ye said enecke yet undivided either upland or meddow ."
James Greene, in his will dated May 27, 1697, proved May25,1698, gives to his "loving son James Greene the one half of all my right in the farm land, commonly called and known by the name of farm lands undivided with half the meadow- already divided and ioning to the land of Coweset lying in the Grand Purchase" (Appendix I.).
CHILDREN BY FIRST MARRIAGE
James, born June 1, 1658-9, married Mary Fones
Mary, born September 28, 1660, married James Reynolds.
Elisha, born March 17, 1662-3, died young. Not mentioned in his father's will.
Sarah, born August 27, 1664, married Henry Reynolds.
CHILDREN BY SECOND MARRIAGE:
Peter, born August 25, 1666, married Elizabeth Slocum.
Elizabeth, born October 17, 1668 married (I)Francis Reynolds, (2)--Hill.
John, born February 1, 1670, died young.
Jabez, born May 17, 1673, married Mary Barton.
David, born June 24, 1677, married (1) Mary Slocum, and (2)Sarah Barber.
Thomas, born November 11, 1682, died young.
John, born September 30, 1685, died December 8, 1757, married Mary Allen.
Susanna, born May 24, 1688, married Joseph Hull.
(All but last date from Warwick. Records.)