I97113: Edward BOLLING (9 Sep 1746

Notes

Edward Bolling b. 09 Sep 1746 in Cobbs, Henrico Co, VA

Notes

m. Christine d'ARDRES, d. 1177.

Notes

Orders 19 may 1687 ; Ann Harris, Love Harris, Eliz; Jennett acquitted of
any willfull neglect in death of infant child of Ann Harris

Notes

EARLY JEWISH LIFE AND WORSHIP IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA by David Prentiss Shreve; edited by Jay Jacob Wind A SAMPLING OF "RELIGIOUS" PERSECUTION AND INTOLERANCE EPISODES:

"Obadiah HOLMES Reverand was born about 1607 in Manchester, Lancashire Co. England. He died on 15 Oct 1682 in Newport, Newport Co. RI. Obadiah Holmes was born in Northern England around the year 1607. His birthplace lay in the rural area of Reddish, five miles southeast of the center of Manchester. He was the second son of Robert Holmes and Catherine Johnson Holmes (the family name was at the time more commonly spelled Hulmes or Hullme.) Baptized in Didsbury Chapel on March 18, 1610, he grew up in a farm family of eight or nine children. Since Obadiah later became a glassmaker and a weaver, it may well be that "bookish" interest was minimal in his early years. He relates that he had been neglectful and strayed from his religious duties and responsibilities for a period of five years. If this was the case, he certainly atoned for it later in his life. His mother's illness and death proved a turning point. "It struck me that my disobedient acts caused her death, which forced me to confess the same to her - my evil ways." Two months after his mother's death, he took Catherine Hyde as his wife. They were married in Manchester's Collegiate College Church on 20 Nov 1630.

The decade of the 1630's so disheartened England's Puritans that they left their homeland in shipload after shipload to create a newer and purer England far away. These were the years of the Great Migration and Obadiah Holmes also "adventured the danger of the seas to come to New England." Holmes and his wife probably sailed from Preston (just north of Liverpool), down the River Ribble, across the Irish Sea, and into the open Atlantic. They had an extremely stormy voyage that prevented them from entering Boston harbor until six weeks had passed. Soon after landing at Boston in the summer or early fall of 1638, they made their way up the coast and settled at Salem, Massachusetts.

By January, 1639, they were in Salem; on the twenty-first of that month Holmes received one acre of land for a house and a promise of ten more acres "to be laid out by the town." The young Salem settlement encouraged Holmes and his co-workers in the development of what may have been the first glass factory in North America. They made the common window glass. Holmes performed other duties befitting a good citizen and often served on juries during his years of residence at Salem.

In March 1640, Obadiah and Catherine became members of the Salem church. Obadiah soon found himself disliking the rigidity of the established church. Nor was it his inclination to keep silent in the midst of religious discussions. He soon decided the church and civil laws could not be tolerated any longer. Obadiah's decision to move was probably more influenced by the fact that the church and civil authorities would not tolerate him. Before Oct of 1643, Obadiah had taken an option in the newly created community of Rehoboth 40 miles south of Boston. He sold his holdings in Salem by 1645, removing himself and his family to Rehoboth the same year. There he was elevated to the status of freeman in 1648. Both Obadiah and Catherine participated in this church's public worship, presided over by Samuel Newman. Obadiah soon found that he had not removed beyond religious and other controversies when making his second settlement in the new country. It took three years for the membership of the Rehoboth church to become divided on doctrinal and legal lines and become aligned behind the minister and Obadiah as the respective leaders. Obadiah's conversion to the distinctive views of the Baptists was developed here. Baptized with the "new baptism" along with 8 others, Obadiah took the irrevocable step toward separation from New England's official way and he became the leader of the Schismatists."

"OBADIAH HOLMES: From "Baptist Piety: The Last Will and Testament of Obadiah Holmes", Edwin S. Gaustad Arno Press 1980. D. Testimony to his Children; VERY PROBABLY OBADIAH HOLMES' POSTERITY WAS HIS GREATEST LEGACY.
His nine children presented him with some forty-one grandchildren. If that rate of productivity continued to the end of the colonial period, Obadiah and Catherine Holmes would have been responsible by that time for a progeny of more than twenty thousand persons! It is, of course, impossible to follow more than a couple of lines. Of the immediate children, four migrated south, either to Gravesend on Long Island or across Lower New York Bay into New Jersey, forming there a settlement named Middletown in honor of the Rhode Island home. Among the twelve original patentees of Monmouth County, New Jersey were Obadiah Holmes, Jr. and John Bowne, the husband of Lydia Holmes. Obadiah, Jr. later settled in Cohansey (West Jersey), which became a major Baptist center; he served as a lay preacher as well as "at the time of his death in 1723 a judge of common pleas for Salem County."[*] Jonathan Holmes also settled in Middletown, where he was elected deputy to the New Jersey assembly in 1668. A decade later he and John Bowne served on the Middletown-Shrewsbury court. Bowne, in fact, later became "a great figure in East Jersey"[1] And it is through Lydia and John Bowne that the senior Obadiah Holmes stands as an ancestor of Abraham Lincoln."**"

**The discovery of the direct line from Holmes to Abraham Lincoln was made by Wilbur Nelson, who published a small booklet on the subject: Obadiah Holmes, Ancestor and Prototype of Abraham Lincoln (Newport, 1932). The chart below is found on page 156". (CORRECTION by jb: the problem is there is no proof that Lincoln was indeed a Lincoln, some have proof that he was the Illigimate son of Nancy Hanks & Abraham ENLOE of North Carolina, indeed there is a monument in North Carolina designating his birth place and a professional anyalysis book "Eugenics", which states that Thomas Lincoln was his step father. - see Abraham Lincoln Record for details. josie bass).

"Upon arriving in America in 1639 he worked at glass making in Salem for seven years.... Obadiah Holmes united with the baptists shortly after 1646 and, because of the persecutions he was obliged to undergo, moved to Newport in 1650. The following summer he was arrested for preaching doctrines contrary to the belief of the established church. He was taken to Boston and imprisoned for several weeks. Finally he was taken to the whipping-post on Boston Common and given thirty strokes with a three-corded whip which left him for weeks in a frightful physical condition. As soon as he was able he returned to the pastorate at the First Baptist Church at Newport. He preached here about thirty years, serving until the time of his death of October 15, 1682. He was buried at Middletown, five miles from Newport.

The second daughter, Martha, married a man named Odlin, a fact known only through the reference to her in her father's will. The same minimal information is available for the youngest daughter, Hopestill, who married a Taylor and died sometime before her father made out last final will in 1681. Samuel Holmes, who also died before his father did (in 1679), was, along with his wife, among those migrating to Gravesend. John Holmes apparently remained in the Rhode Island region, for he witnessed a land sale by John and Mary Browne in 1669;[2] he was twice married and the father of nine children. Jonathan Holmes, also the father of nine children, purchased the family farm (see Section G, below), returned to Newport and joined his father"s church. He was not the eldest son, but was probably chosen because he could make the desired financial settlement. Jonathan in turn left the farm to his son, Joseph, who expanded the holdings considerably, leaving an estate valued at nearly £8000 (compared with the estate of his grandfather, valued at about £130).[3] In Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey, and ultimately in the nation that Obadiah Holmes never knew, his children"and their children's children "came to constitute an imposing monument".

Several of the eight children migrated to New Jersey, among them his son Obadiah and his youngest daughter, Lydia Holmes Bowne, the wife of Captain John Bowne....

The Holmes were among the first land purchasers in New Jersey, Obadiah and Jonathon Holmes acquiring land as early as 1668. In 1675 a list, containing the names of those with Rights of Land due according to the concessions, contained the name of "Obadiah Holmes for self and wife 240 acres."

The Holmes family took a vital interest in political activities of New Jersey, and when a provincial Congress was called to take action on "tyrannical acts" of Great Britain in 1774, two of the delegates from Monmouth County were members of the Holmes family."
children:
Mary (1639-1690) m. John Brown
Martha (1640-1682)
Samuel (1642-1679) m. Alice Stilwell
Obadiah (1644-1723) m. Hannah Cole
John (1649-1712) m. 1) Frances Holden (2) Mary (Sayles) Green
Jonathon ( -1713) m. Sarah Borden
Hopestill (no dates) m. _______ Taylor
Lydia (1669-1714) m. Captain John Bowne

"My cousin's work shows eleven children in this family. I'm guessing some of them died as children or infants. I don't know her source. She says Martha married a Mr. Odlin in 1665. She lists a Joseph born about 1646 and a Sarah born about 1651. Hopestill was born 1648. I have no death date for her. She says Obadiah married Elizabeth Cooke. I haven't personally looked into to this to see her sources but have seen her work to be well documented in the past." also married Elizabeth Cooke?

The Final Words of Obadiah Holmes Rev. Psalm 78:6,7
That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God.

Obadiah Holmes evidently took these words from Psalm 78 to heart as he raised his nine children. Even their names were all taken from biblical characters. And in his last letter to these children he reminded them of the godly character he hoped they would carry on after his death:
And now my son, Joseph: Remember that Joseph of Arimathea was a good man and a disciple of Jesus; he was bold and went in boldly and asked for the body of Jesus, and buried it.

My son, John: Remember what a loving and beloved disciple he was.

My daughter, Hope: Consider what a grace of God hope is, and covet after that hope that will never be ashamed but has hope of eternal life and salvation of Jesus Christ.

My son, Obadiah: Consider that Obadiah was a servant of the Lord and tender in spirit, and in a troublesome time hid the prophets by fifty in a cave.

My son, Samuel: Remember Samuel was a chief prophet of the Lord, ready to hear his voice saying, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."

My daughter, Martha: Remember Martha, although she was encumbered with many things, yet she loved the Lord and was beloved of Him, for He loved Mary and Martha.

My daughter, Mary: Remember Mary who chose the better part that shall not be taken away and did hearken to the Lord's instructions.

My son, Jonathan: Remember how faithful and loving he was to David, that servant of the Lord.

My daughter, Lydia: Remember how Lydia's heart was opened, her care borne, her spirit made to be willing to receive and obey the apostle in what the Lord required, and was baptized, and entertained and refreshed the servants of the Lord.

The Jan. 28 (2002) reorganization meeting of the Allentown-Upper Freehold Historical Society promises to be interesting and important on at least two levels.

John Fabiano, current president of the society, will present the main program for the evening, an exploration of Abraham Lincoln's ancestors in Upper Freehold.

The group will also elect new officers and vote on an amendment to its constitution.The 16th president's great-great-grandfather was Mordecai Lincoln, brought to Imlaystown in 1714 from Scituate, Mass., by Richard Saltar to operate his iron forge. The forge, or "bloomery," as it was called, was located at the junction of Buckhold and Doctor's Creek.
Mordecai married Saltar's daughter, which makes Saltar a Lincoln ancestor.

In addition, Saltar was a direct descendant of Capt. John and Lydia Holmes Bowne. Capt. Bowne was a Monmouth patentee and a prominent Baptist settler in the county.

Lydia Holmes Bowne was the daughter of the Rev. Obadiah Holmes, a Baptist preacher who was tortured for his faith in Puritan Boston. The minister's sons, together with Capt. Bowne, were among the most prominent early settlers in the Middletown area of Monmouth County.

A great deal of information about the Saltar family and their lives in the century preceding the Revolutionary War can be found in a book authored by Monmouth University professor Daniel J. Weeks, Not for Filthy Lucre's Sake: Richard Saltar and the Antiproprietary Movement in East Jersey, 1665-1707.

According to Fabiano, "The basic premise of the book is that Lincoln's greatness as a statesman and defender of individual rights can be traced to such men as his great-great-great-grandfather Richard Saltar, John Bowne, and Baptist preacher and dissenter Obadiah Holmes, all from Lincoln's genealogy." (there is a claim that Lincoln was the bastard child of Abraham Enlow of Rutherford County, North Carolina and Nancy Hanks, and that Tom Lincoln was an adopted father-Abe Lincoln never divulged anything about his family ancestry-so his ancestry still remains a mystery- see Abraham Lincoln's record for details.)

EARLY JEWISH LIFE AND WORSHIP IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA
by David Prentiss Shreve
edited by Jay Jacob Wind

A SAMPLING OF "RELIGIOUS" PERSECUTION AND INTOLERANCE EPISODES:

o The Puritans arrived in America 10 years following the founding of James Town. They opposed democracy as "amongst civil nations...the meanest and worst of all forms of government" (Gov. John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts).

o In 1647, the Massachusetts Colony forbade Catholic priests even to enter Puritan Territory.

o In 1848, the year Margaret Brent asked for the right to vote in the Maryland Assembly, Margaret Jones was executed as a witch in Massachusetts, being the first of many to die at the hands of superstitious and cruel persons living in spiritual darkness.

o In 1651, Two Baptist ministers, John Clark and Obadiah Holmes were arrested in the Massachusetts Colony while they were worshipping in a service in a private home. Clark's fine was paid; however, Holmes was whipped in the streets of Boston.

o In 1656, Quakers arrived in Boston and were imprisoned for 15 weeks then were deported. They were then prohibited from entering Massachusetts. The Quakers (Society of Friends) was founded in 1648. Quakers were being hanged in Boston, because Christinas who were not Puritan were "vipers in the garden of the Lord."

o In 1659, two Quakers were hanged on the Boston Common for returning after receiving a warning. Plaques stand there as a memorial to the godless cruelty of the early Bostonians. One of these was Mary Dyer. Her story has personal meaning to the writer of this text for his ancestors were Quaker until the American Revolution when three brothers took up arms. Mary Dyer was the wife of William Dyer, the first attorney general for Rhode Island, in 1650. He was one of the first settlers there and became Commander-in-Chief upon the sea. He was sent to England in 1653 to revise the charter and was one of the most prominent men in Rhode Island in its early colonial history.

William and Mary Dyer were the grandparents of Freelove Dyer Shreve who had married William Shreve. William Shreve died c. 1750 in Fairfax County, Va.

o In 1660, (Cromwell's Commonwealth in England ended) anyone celebrating Christmas in Massachusetts was fined 5 shillings.

o In 1661, Puritan persecution of Quakers in Massachusetts ended.

ITEM
o Obadiah HOLMES Reverand was born about 1607 in Manchester, Lancashire Co. England. He died on 15 Oct 1682 in Newport, Newport Co. RI. Obadiah Holmes was born in Northern England around the year 1607. His birthplace lay in the rural area of Reddish, five miles southeast of the center of Manchester. He was the second son of Robert Holmes and Catherine Johnson Holmes (the family name was at the time more commonly spelled Hulmes or Hullme.) Baptized in Didsbury Chapel on March 18, 1610, he grew up in a farm family of eight or nine children. Since Obadiah later became a glassmaker and a weaver, it may well be that "bookish" interest was minimal in his early years. He relates that he had been neglectful and strayed from his religious duties and responsibilities for a period of five years. If this was the case, he certainly atoned for it later in his life. His mother's illness and death proved a turning point. "It struck me that my disobedient acts caused her death, which forced me to confess the same to her - my evil ways." Two months after his mother's death, he took Catherine Hyde as his wife. They were married in Manchester's Collegiate College Church on 20 Nov 1630.

The decade of the 1630's so disheartened England's Puritans that they left their homeland in shipload after shipload to create a newer and purer England far away. These were the years of the Great Migration and Obadiah Holmes also "adventured the danger of the seas to come to New England." Holmes and his wife probably sailed from Preston (just north of Liverpool), down the River Ribble, across the Irish Sea, and into the open Atlantic. They had an extremely stormy voyage that prevented them from entering Boston harbor until six weeks had passed. Soon after landing at Boston in the summer or early fall of 1638, they made their way up the coast and settled at Salem, Massachusetts.

By January, 1639, they were in Salem; on the twenty-first of that month Holmes received one acre of land for a house and a promise of ten more acres "to be laid out by the town." The young Salem settlement encouraged Holmes and his co-workers in the development of what may have been the first glass factory in North America. They made the common window glass. Holmes performed other duties befitting a good citizen and often served on juries during his years of residence at Salem.

In March 1640, Obadiah and Catherine became members of the Salem church. Obadiah soon found himself disliking the rigidity of the established church. Nor was it his inclination to keep silent in the midst of religious discussions. He soon decided the church and civil laws could not be tolerated any longer. Obadiah's decision to move was probably more influenced by the fact that the church and civil authorities would not tolerate him. Before Oct of 1643, Obadiah had taken an option in the newly created community of Rehoboth 40 miles south of Boston. He sold his holdings in Salem by 1645, removing himself and his family to Rehoboth the same year. There he was elevated to the status of freeman in 1648. Both Obadiah and Catherine participated in this church's public worship, presided over by Samuel Newman. Obadiah soon found that he had not removed beyond religious and other controversies when making his second settlement in the new country. It took three years for the membership of the Rehoboth church to become divided on doctrinal and legal lines and become aligned behind the minister and Obadiah as the respective leaders. Obadiah's conversion to the distinctive views of the Baptists was developed here. Baptized with the "new baptism" along with 8 others, Obadiah took the irrevocable step toward separation from New England's official way and he became the leader of the Schismatists.

The climax must have come to a head in 1649 for that is the year on October 29 that Obadiah entered suit for slander against Samuel Newman, the minister. The slanderous suit stated that Obadiah had committed perjury in some court proceeding. On the 2nd day of Oct 1650, he, with others of Rehoboth, were indicted by the Grand Jury at New Plymouth for holding meetings on the Lord's day from house to house, "contrary to the order of the court". The burden of the petition was that the dissident group (Holmes and 8 others) had set up a separate and irregular church meeting in opposition to the orderly, approved, and established congregation led by Rev. Samuel Newman. All such schismatical activity, the petitioners urged, should cease forthwith. The court responded mildly enough, by ordering the group (in Holmes' words) "to desist, and neither to ordain officers, nor to baptize, nor to break bread together, nor yet to meet upon the first day of the week..." Holmes and his followers would not find peace in Plymouth nor in Massachusetts Bay, so once more he sold his house and lands and moved to Newport, Rhode Island, hoping that he had left behind for good the meddling civil magistrates, the condescending clergy, the intrusive and insolent laws.

On July 16, 1651, John Clarke, John Crandall and Obadiah Holmes journeyed from Newport into MA, coming to the town of Lynn on the 19th of that month. The purpose of the visit was to bring spiritual comfort and communion to one William Witter, a blind and aged fellow Baptist who had invited the three to come to his house. The broader purpose was, of course, an evangelical one: to tell of the new baptism and its import to all who would hear. And indeed the word was proclaimed, converts were baptized, the elements of the Lord's Supper were served - all of this done privately in William Witter's home.

On Sunday, July 20, two constables entered the house. "With their clamorous tongues" they interrupted Clarke's discourse, "telling us that they were come with authority from the Magistrates to apprehend us." Clarke asked to see the authority for so rude an intrusion, "whereupon they plucked forth their warrant, and one of them with a trembling hand read it to us." The three Rhode Islanders were placed under arrest and taken to the local "Ale-house or Ordinary", Anchor Tavern, to be fed and to await their scheduled appearance before the local magistrate, Robert Bridges, early the next morning.

One of the constables suggested to the 3 prisoners that if they were free, then all might go together to the Lynn church for evening services. Clarke replied (humor presumably intended) that if they were free, none of this awkwardness would have happened. Yet, he said, we are at your disposal and if you want us to go to church we will go to church. Off they went, but on the way Clarke informed the constable that if forced to attend "your meeting, we shall declare our dissent from you both by word and gesture." Believing this to be a problem for sacred officers, not civil ones, the constable held his peace. Upon entering the church, where services were already underway, the three visitors took off their hats, "civilly saluted", sat down, and put their hats back on again. This action was more than rude; the replacing of hats was an open declaration of disapproval of whatever was being said or done. The constable quickly snatched three hats from three irreverent heads and afterwards, the three were returned to the tavern where they were "watched over that night as thieves and robbers." In the morning, after a brief appearance before Robert Bridges in Lynn, the itinerant evangelists were sent to Boston for trial.

They were committed to the common jail. The mittimus, or court order for commitment to prison, indicated essentially four complaints against the "strangers". They had offended by (a) conducting a private worship service at the same time as the town's public worship; (b) "offensively disturbing" the public meeting in Lynn; (c) more seriously, "seducing and drawing aside others after their erroneous judgment and practices"; and (d) "neglecting or refusing to give in sufficient security for their appearance" at the next meeting of the county court.

The trial before the General Court began one week later. The trial itself was so swiftly consummated that the accused hardly knew it was done. We were examined in the morning, wrote Clarke, and sentenced in the afternoon - sentenced "without producing either accuser, witness, jury, law of God or man..." It was the assumption of Governor Endicott and his assistants of the guilt of the accused and cut off any defense when Holmes and Clarke tried to speak. The members of the court shot questions at them, or made statements to them, which showed their guilt prejudged. The violence of some of the bystanders, in the presence of the court, and without its rebuke, went so far that Holmes was assaulted, struck, and cursed by Rev. John Wilson. This happened while Holmes was in the custody of an officer, in the presence of the court, and within the protection of the law.

The penalty which the law provided was banishment. But what sort of punishment is it to "banish" persons who already live in another jurisdiction? Obviously, some other manner of rebuke had to be meted out, whether the law made provision for it or not. Clarke, clearly the spokesman and leader of the group, was fined £20; Crandall, as a tag-along and largely silent companion, was fined only £5. But Obadiah Holmes, already under the cloud of excommunication from the church in Rehoboth, received the largest fine of £30. All the fines provided for a hard alternative: to be paid in full or else the culprit was to be "well whipped". Until the fines were paid or satisfaction otherwise received, all three were to remain in jail.

They were not without friends and sympathizers, however. The friends of Clarke and Crandall speedily raised the amounts of their fines and paid them. The fine of Holmes was higher and required a little more time to raise the amount, but his friends were ready to pay it. When he learned what they were proposing to do, he promptly forbade the payment of the fine, making it a matter of his conscience and scruples.

After another week, Clarke was released when friends paid his fine. John Crandall put up bail and went home. So only Holmes remained in prison, adamantly refusing to pay his fine or to let others pay it for him. The court's explicit alternative awaited him - to be "well-whipped". The 5th day of Sep 1651 came and he was taken from the jail, stripped naked down to the waist - he refused to aid by touching even a button of his clothing - tied to the post and publicly whipped.

There were thirty strokes, with a three-cord whip, held by the executioner, not in one hand, but in both hands. The strokes did not follow each other quickly or lightly. They were laid on slowly and with all the strength of the officer wielding the instrument of torture. Throughout, there was not a groan or murmur from the victim. The first sound from his lips were the words to the magistrates, who stood about as witnesses, "You have struck me as with roses."

After his release from jail, Holmes returned to Newport and in 1652 succeeded Dr. John Clarke. He became the second minister of the first Baptist Church in America. The church at Newport was his permanent charge for more than thirty years until his death on October 15, 1682.

Reference to his will is found in a list of seventeen wills (between 1676 and 1695) that were presented to the court in 1700, by parties interested, the law requiring three witnesses, and these wills having but two. He was buried in his own field, where a tomb was erected to his memory (in what is now the town of Middletown). His wife did not long survive him.

Last Will and Testament of Reverend Obadiah Holmes:

These are to signify that I, Obadiah Holmes of Newport on Rhode Island, being at present through the goodness and mercy of my God of sound memory; and, being by daily intimations put in mind of the frailty and uncertainty of this present life, do therefore - for settling my estate in this world which it has pleased the Lord to bestow upon me - make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament in manner following, committing my spirit unto the Lord that gave it to me and my body to the earth from whence it was taken, in hope and expectation that it shall thence be raised at the resurrection of the just.

Imprimis, I will that all my just debts which I owe unto any person be paid by my Executor, hereafter named, in convenient time after my decease.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter, Mary Brown, five pounds in money or equivalent to money.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter, Martha Odlin, ten pounds in the like pay.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter, Lydia Bowne, ten pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my two grandchildren, the children of my daughter, Hopestill Taylor, five pounds each; and if either of them decease, the survivor to have ten pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my son, John Holmes, ten pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my son, Obadiah Holmes, ten pounds.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my grandchildren, the children of my son Samuel Holmes, ten pounds to be paid unto them in equal portions.

All these portions by me bequeathed, my will is, shall be paid by my Executor in money or equivalent to money.

Item. I give and bequeath unto all my grandchildren now living ten pounds; and ten shillings in the like pay to be laid out to each of them - a bible.

Item. I give and bequeath unto my grandchild, Martha Brown, ten pounds in the like pay.

All [of] which aforesaid legacies are to be paid by my Executor, hereafter named in manner here expressed: that is to say, the first payment to [be] paid within one year after the decease of my wife, Catherine Holmes, and twenty pounds a year until all the legacies be paid, and each to be paid according to the degree of age.

My will is and I do hereby appoint my son Jonathan Holmes my sole Executor, unto whom I have sold my land, housing, and stock for the performance of the same legacies above. And my will is that my Executor shall pay unto his mother, Catherine Holmes, if she survives and lives, the sum of twenty pounds in money or money pay for her to dispose of as she shall see cause.

Lastly, I do desire my loving friends, Mr. James Barker, Sr., Mr. Joseph Clarke, and Mr. Philip Smith, all of Newport, to be my overseers to see this my will truly performed. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this ninth day of April, 1681.

Obadiah Hullme [Holmes][Seal]

Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of

Edward Thurston

Weston Clarke

(Edward Thurston, Sr., and Weston Clark appeared before the Council [of Newport], December 4, 1682, and did upon their engagements [pledges] declare and own that they saw Obadiah Holmes, deceased, sign seal and deliver the above written will as his act and deed; and, at the time of his sealing hereof, he was in his perfect memory, according to the best of our understandings. Taken before the Council, as attested. Weston Clarke, Town Clerk.)

References:
Baptist Piety, "The Last Will & Testimony of Obadiah Holmes", Edwin S. Gaustad, Christian University Press, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1978.
The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, John Osborne Austin, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, MD, 1969, (previously pub. 1887), pp. 103 - 104.

TAG - The American Genealogist, Vol. 19, No. 4, Additions & Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of RI, G. Andrews Moriarty, Demorest, GA, April 1943, p. 224.

The Wightman Heritage, Wade C. Wightman, Gateway Press, Baltimore, MD, 1990, pp. 288 - 304.

Plymouth Colony, Its History & People 1620 - 1691, Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Ancestry Publishing, Salt Lake City, UT, 1986, p. 306.

Parents: Robert Hulme II and Katherine Johnson.
He was married to Catherine Hyde on 20 Nov 1630 in Manchester Parish, England. Children were: Jonathan HOLMES, Martha HOLMES, Mary HOLMES, Lydia HOLMES, Hopestill HOLMES, John HOLMES, Obadiah HOLMES, Samuel HOLMES.

(Massachusetts Archives, X. p. 212)." It was supposed that John Cotton would represent the ministers. But the Governor allowed the debate to come to naught, though he had proposed it. Clarke and Crandall were not long afterward released "upon the payment of their fines by some tender-hearted friends" without their consent and contrary to their judgment. Holmes not accepting the deliverance was publicly whipped. He said:

The man striking with all his strength (yea spitting in (on) his hands three times as many affirmed) with a three corded whip, giving me therewith thirty strokes. When he had loosed me from the post, having joyfulness in my heart, and cheerfulness in my countenance, as the spectators observed, I told the magistrates, You have struck me as with roses (Backus, I. p. 192),

The whipping was so severe that Governor Jenekes says: Mr. Holmes was whipt thirty stripes, and in such an unmerciful manner, that in many days, if not some weeks, he could take no rest, but as he lay on his knees and elbows, not being able to suffer any part of his body to touch the bed whereon he lay (See Summer Visit of Three Rhode Islanders, by Henry M. King, 1890).

The trial and whipping of Holmes was the occasion of the conversion of Henry Dunster, the President of Harvard, to the Baptists. The immediate cause of the organization of the church in Boston was a sermon Dunster preached there on the subject of infant baptism. The church was much delayed in its organization, but this finally took place May 28, 1665. The magistrates required them to attend the Established Church. The General Court disfranchised them and committed them to prison, and pursued them with fines and imprisonments for three years (Backus, I. 300). In May, 1668, the General Court sentenced Thomas Gould, William Turner, and John Farnum to be banished; and because they would not go, they were imprisoned nearly a year; and when petition for a release of the prisoners was presented to the General Court, some who signed the petition were fined for doing so, and others were compelled to confess their fault for reflecting on the Court.

The complete separation of Church and State was not guaranteed by the Constitution of Massachusetts until 1833." From http://www.pbministries.org/History/John%20T.%20Christian/vol1/hi story_21.htm

from http://members.aol.com/blesshope/histbap.htm

"In America Many groups came to the New World seeking religious freedom, Congregationalist, Presbyterians, Puritans, Baptist, Quakers, French Reformed, and others. Of these groups, only the Baptist and Quakers granted to others the freedom they sought for themselves. Groups such as the Puritans came to establish their own faith, and to exclude all others. "Intolerance was a necessary condition of their enterprise. They feared and hated religious liberty" (Dr. Ellis).

All who did not conform to their own views, were fined and imprisoned, and whipped and banished; and, as Baptist were especially opposed to religious oppression, the heaviest persecutions fell upon them. Hence, in 1644, a law was passed in Massachusetts against the Baptist, by which it was 'ordered and agreed, that if any person or persons within this jurisdiction shall either openly condemn or oppose the baptism of infants, or seduce others to do so, or leave the congregation during the administration of the rite, he shall be sentenced to banishment.' The same year we accordingly find that a poor man was tied up and whipped for refusing to have his child sprinkled; and on July 20, 1651, Obadiah Holmes, John Clark, and John Crandall, Baptist ministers, were arrested near Lynn, Massachusetts, while preaching on the Lord's day, taken to the parish church in the afternoon, sent to the Boston jail, and subsequently fined. The fines of Clark and Crandall were, after a while, paid, but Mr. Holmes was kept in Boston jail till September, when he was tied to the whipping post and publicly whipped. His clothes were stripped off, and thirty lashes sunk into his naked flesh, which was so torn and cut that for weeks afterward he could only rest upon his hands and knees even in bed. (John Q. Adams)."

from (This is available in a booklet from Blessed Hope.) A Historical Survey of Baptism*
by Brian Gordon (as pertaining to the mode of baptism and its ramifications)

Obadiah HOLMES/Robert Wheaton Connection: Extracted from Hill, William G., _Family record of Deacons James W. Converse and Elisha S. Converse...including some of the descendants of...Robert Wheaton of Salem, Massachusetts, 1636..._ (Malden, Mass., 1887). CTState, [Robert Wheaton d Rehoboth <2 Mar 1696] Pages 43 ff:

"Robert Wheaton of Swansea, Wales, Salem and Rehoboth Mass-

1. Robert Wheaton, of Rehoboth, Mass., was born 1605 in Swansea, Wales, and came to this country between the years 1630 and 1636; married Alice Bowen, daughter of Richard Bowen; died 1695-96, aged 90 years. The first mention we have seen of him in on the town records of the city of Salem, Mass. as follows: -

"Town meeting the 6th, 11th mo. 1636"
"Robert Wheato. refused to be Inhabitant."

"Town Meeting 26th, 9th mo., 1638"
"Of the several proportions of land laid out at Marble Head this 14th of the 9th moneth 1638, To Robert Wheaton granted X (10) acres of Land."

That on the "1st Day of Ye 2nd moneth, 1644" "Robert Wheaton desireth some ground at ye great lotts"
"Granted to Robert Wheaden XX (20) acres of Land neere to the marsh at Mr. Bishops ffarme, to be laid out by the towne, conditionallie that if hee depte from the towne before hee improve it, it shall return to the towne"

This last-mentioned land was in that part of Salem now known as Danvers; it was at the foot of the hill, near the pear-tree said to have been set out by Governor Endicott on his farm. This pear-tree is now enclosed by a rail fence.

No further record of Robert Wheaton appears on the town records of Salem, and none appear at the Registry of Deeds or at the Probate Office; and although it is known that children were born to him in Sale, no record of their baptism, or any mention of him or his family, appears on the church records of Salem.

This is not surprising, when all the facts in the case are considered.

First. That Robert Wheaton came from the pure, unmixed native Welsh, or rather Cumry race, which was of Tartaric origin; which race, though often driven to the mountain factness of Wales by the Angles, Saxons, and Normans, was never subjugated, They never intermarried as did the Angles, Saxons, and Normans and never since A.D. 180 changed their religion. They never gave adherence to the Church of Rome, and when the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin came among them, they found nothing to reform. While they were not Romanists, they were not of the Church of England; neither were the like the Pilgrim Fathers on one hand, or the Puritans on the other; yet, in common with the two latterm they desired the same religious freedom that all in time obtianed in coming to these then inhospitable shores.

Second. Their religion, creed, church government, and mode of worship were, and ever had been essentially like the Baptists of the present day. Their views were wholly unlike those held by the Puritans and Pilgrim Fathers in many respects.

Robert Wheaton was in active sympathy with Obadiah Holmes and Roger Williams, the latter being banished from Salem and the Colony in the fall of 1635, by the Puritans. Roger Williams, who was a Welshman and a Baptist moved to Rehoboth, which was in the jurisdiction og the Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth, who, though more tolerant than the Puritans, yet drove him still farther on and across the Blackstone River, where he founded the present city of Providence. The principles which he laid hown, both in religion and politics, may be summed up in one word, TOLERATION.

Robert wheaton and his family removed from Salem to Rehoboth between the years 1643 and 1646, where he, and some of his sons, were instrumental in the upbuilding of the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts, which was lcated in that part of Rehoboth afterwards ceded to the Baptists, and named Swansea. Robert Wheaton, like Roger Williams, was a pioneer,a forerunner of a large number of Welsh Baptists, who, a few years later, came over from Wales and settled in that region.

Who shall say that the influence of those early Welsh settlers for good upon the destinies of the people of this country was second to that of the Puritan or Pilgrim Fathers?

The reasons are, therefore, apparent why Robert Wheaton "refused to be Inhabitant" of Salem in 1636, and why lands in 1644 were granted to him, "conditionallie that if he departe from the towne before hee improves it, it shall return to the towne". and why no mention of him, or the baptism of any of his children, on the church records of Salem.

During the year 1643, the proprietors fo Rehoboth were "required to give in the value of their estates." There were fifty-eight in all returned; No. 26 reads as follows:-

"Mr. Obadiah Homes, formerly of Salem, now Robert Wheaton's, L100:00:00"

"On the 18th of the 12th moneth (Feb) 1646, at a metting of the town, it was agreed to draw lots for the new medow, and to be divided according to person and estate, only those that were under L150 estate to be made up to L150."

Robert Wheaton drew lot No. 25. In 1658, and also in 1668, he drew other lots of land ( see Bliss' "History of Rehoboth") In 1657 he took the "oath of fidelitie" and in 1658 was admitted freeman.

In 1683, Aug 18, he gave ded of land in the North Purchase, now Attleboro, to his son, Benjamin. He suffered all the horrors of the Indian War of 1675, being where it first broke out in all its savge fury, King Philip having his home at Mount Hope, not far distant from Rehoboth.

His homestead was in the south part of the town, and nas been in successive generations of his descendants up to, and including, the present (1886) time. As before stated, he was instrumental in the upbuilding of the first Baptist church in Massachusetts, at this place, and over which his son Ephraim became a distinguished minister. He died 1695-96, leaving widow Alice or Alce , as then spelled, sole executrix of his will. He lies interred in the ancient burying ground (which was near his homestead farm), near by the grave of his son Ephraim, but with no stone to tell the spot."

3. REV. OBADIAH HOLMES (Robert HULME2, Robert1). Born ca 1606/1607 in Reddish, Cheshire, England. At the age of 3, Obadiah was baptized in Didsbury, Lancashire, England, on 18 Mar 1609/1610. Obadiah died in Newport, Newport Co., RI, on 15 Oct 1682; he was 76. Occupation: Glassmaker, Weaver. Religion: Baptist. On 20 Nov 1630 when Obadiah was 24, he married Katherine HYDE, in Manchester, England. Born ca 1610 in England. Katherine died in Newport, Newport Co., RI, aft 1682; she was 72.

# Baptist Piety, "The Last Will & Testimony of Obadiah Holmes", Edwin S. Gaustad, Christian University Press, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1978.

# The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, John Osborne Austin, Genealogical Pub. Co., Baltimore, MD, 1969, (previously pub. 1887), pp. 103 - 104.

# TAG - The American Genealogist, Vol. 19, No. 4, Additions & Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of RI, G. Andrews Moriarty, Demorest, GA, April 1943, p. 224.

# The Wightman Heritage, Wade C. Wightman, Gateway Press, Baltimore, MD, 1990, pp. 288 - 304.

# Plymouth Colony, Its History & People 1620 - 1691, Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Ancestry Publishing, Salt Lake City, UT, 1986, p. 306.

^[S1757] ^[S1757] ^[S1757] ^[S2345] ^[S2345] ^[S3726]

Notes

iii. JOHN TINSLEY, b. abt 1723, Essex Co., VA.; d. March 1798, Madison Co., VA.

census 1787, Culpeper Co,VA, ref: WBk 1-175-77. ^[S3597] ^[S123]

[221492]
or d. 10 SEP 1798

Notes

LEWIS WILLIS: 5 Sept 1749 Spotsylvania Co., VA: Charles Dick, guardian to Lewis Willis, orphan of Henry Willis, Benjamin Grymes Security. From the records of M. Guyette Wardlaw, 181 W. Middleton, Henderson, NV 89015.

LEWIS WILLIS, ANN WILLIS 1797, Spotsylvania and King George Counties, VA
Willis & uxr vs John Taliaferro
Debt on a Bond
Monroe witness on Bond
CR-DC-O/521-128 Court Records Digest, presented by the Records Conservation Project in cooperation with the Clerk of the Circuit Court for the City of Fredericksburg, VA.

LEWIS WILLIS
Court Case, 17 June 1812, Virginia Herald, Fredericksburg, VA
LEWIS WILLIS
Court Case, 20 July 1816, Virginia Herald, Fredericksburg, VA
LEWIS WILLIS
Court Case, 26 Oct 1816, Virginia Herald, Fredericksburg, VA
LEWIS WILLIS
Court Case, 27 Sept 1817, Virginia Herald, Fredericksburg, VA

Will: 2 Mar 1812 Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania County,Virginia; Obituary 11 Feb 1813 Alexandria Gazette,Alexandria,Virginia

Wife 2: + Elizabeth S. Bromfield WILLIS
Wife 3 + Anne Carter Champe WILLIS d: Nov 1804

Col. Lewis Willis was the son of Col. Henry Willis by his third and last wife, Mildred (Washington) Gregory. Lewis Willis was the half-brother of the wife of Col. John Thornton (Mildred Gregory) and therefore in the same degree was uncle to Mildred Thornton, the second wife of Samuel Washington; as he was half-brother also to Frances Gregory, who married Francis Thornton, of "Fall Hill", he was uncle to her daughter, Mildred Thornton, who married Charles Washington. It is interesting to remember also that Henry, the half-brother of Lewis Willis (on his father's side) had married his (Lewis's) half-sister (on his mother's side). This was Elizabeth Gregory, who later married Reuben Thornton; this lady was married four times, but had no children.

Lewis Willis was himself cousin to George Washington and two years his junior; as boys they were chums and schoolmates; he served in the Revolution as Colonel of the 10th Virginia; was a Vestryman of St. George's Church in Fredericksburg, and its most prominent lay member.

The date of his marriage to Mary Champe is not known but both were very young; they had issue: Mildred; John W.; Henry; Jane; Mary; William Champe.

After the death of his first wife, Mary Champe, Col. Lewis Willis married the widow of his brother-in-law, John Champe, of "Lambs Creek,' the sister of his son-in-law, Landon Carter. Mrs. Champe had spent twelve years as the wife of John Champe, and had no children. After her marriage to Lewis Willis she became the mother of three, one only surviving. This was Byrd Charles Willis.

Printed from Family Tree Maker, CD162Family History: Virginia Genealogies #I, Genealogies of Virginia Families I, A-Ch, Champe of Lambs Creek, Thornton, The Leaming Company, Inc., June 25, 2000

Fredericksburg, VA, Gazette, 27 Jan 1789, Advertisement of the sale of "Popcastle" and Lambs Creek, King George Co, on the river 15 miles south of Fredericksburg. "Popcastle," containing 1288 acres, was occupied by the late Col. William Champ. "Lambs Creek,: 667 acres, buildings greatly out of repair, now in possession of Col. Lewis Willis, /s/ Francis Willis, GA (Virginia Vital Records, p. 494).

^[S2246]

My Southern Family

Edward BOLLING

9 Sep 1746 - ____

ID Number: I97113

Notes

Sources

Sara Linda ENNIS

William EUBANK

ABT 1790 - BEF 1847

ID Number: I74338

Sources

BAUDOIN II de GUINES

ABT 1135 - 2 Jan 1205

ID Number: I58417

Notes

Sources

Love HARRIS

ABT 1680 - ____

ID Number: I99483

Notes

Sources

Rev. Obadiah HOLMES "the immigrant"

1606 - 15 Oct 1682

ID Number: I49134

Notes

Sources

John TINSLEY

ABT 1723 - Mar 1798

ID Number: I45813

Notes

Sources

Col. Lewis WILLIS of Willis Hill

11 Nov 1734 - 13 Feb 1813

ID Number: I30275

Notes

Sources