The following information is a synopsis of what various writers have said about John Greene of Quidnessett. In a few places I add my own comments in brackets. I give some of my conclusions at the end with comments. However, considerable disagreement appears in these accounts.

Wife: Joan

Children:

His oath 21 July 1679 said "that forty years and more ago, Mr. Richard Smith, that I then lived with, did first begin and make a settlement in the Narragansett, ..."

24 March 1682 he deeds land to son Daniel and son James.

13 May 1692 his will is alluded to in a deed of his son Edward.

On page 88 Austin gives the birthdate of John Greene (son of John and Ann (Almy) Greene and grandson of John and Joan (Tattershall) Greene as 6 Nov. 1651.

Wife: a young widow, Mrs. Joan Beggarly. Her name given by Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts.

Children:

John Greene, b 6 [sic] June 1651, d unm. He is given as the son of Major John and Anne (Almy) Greene, Jr. and the grandson of John and Joanne (Tattershall) Greene the surgeon of Warwick.

Page 1: John Greene of Quidnessett (or Kingstown) may have resided at or near London, possibly at Enfield (he names a daughter Enfield). He is known to have been associated with Richard Smith at a trading post in Quidnessett as early as 1637.

Page 1: John Greene of Newport has been considered to be a separate line. In 1918, Louise Prosser Bates, after an extensive search of land and vital records, published in a paper entitled, "The Real Story," her conclusions that John Greene of Newport and John Greene of Quidnessett were one and the same person. This premise appears to be substantiated by the work of Norma Greene, who researched the Greene family which settled in Monmouth, N.J. I believe this bears further investigation by those whose family lines are directly affected.

Page 11: Parish records in Gillingham [England] do not begin until 1560. The Parish records of births, marriages, and deaths, plus the copies of wills, reveal family connections. They document that Surgeon John Greene of Salisbury was the grandson of Richard Greene, of Bowridge Hill; further, that this John Greene married Joan Tattershall and by her had children in England.

Page 12: In 1964, at the time we published our first Greene family history, "The Greene Family of St. Albans, Vermont," we were fairly confident in the assertion that John Greene of Quidnessett also was a descendant of the Knightly Family of Greene.

In retracing the authority for this assumption in various family histories, it becomes apparent that all of them stem from one source, the book authored by Lora LaMance. ... One can only wish that she had printed the specific documentation - or train of circumstantial evidence - which led her to the assumption that John Greene of Quidnessett was a descendant of Robert Greene, gentleman, of Bowridge Hill. So far as I have been able to ascertain there exist no letters, journal entries, or other documents to verify this claim.

Other researchers tracing the line of John Greene of Quidnessett have presented other traditions about this man which, unfortunately, are not compatible one with the other. The result is a number of different pieces of a puzzle which do not fit together properly to produce a clear picture.

Pages 27-29: Governor Winthrop's account from which "Beggarly," the name of John Greene's wife is derived is quoted. Walter and Ella Greene comment: "The preceding narration mentions 'one Greene who married the wife of one Beggarly.' She was also known as Alice Daniell, which caused confusion among earlier genealogists who stated that the second wife of John Greene of Warwick was Alice Daniell and that Mrs. Beggarly therefore must have been the wife of John Greene of Quidnessett - impossible for there was just one such person." William B. Trask in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, XXXV:318-320 identifies Mrs. Daniell as Mrs. Beggarly and as wife of John Greene of Warwick.

Page 32: John Greene, b 5 [sic] June 1651; d betw 1681-6; s.p. He was the son of John and Anne (Almy) Greene and the grandson of John and Joanne (Tattershall) Greene, surgeon, of Warwick.

Pages 43ff.: John Greene of Quidnessett. Beyond ... [the affidavit executed by John Greene of Q], little is known for certain but much has been speculated. There is no certainty as to when or from where he sailed for New England. The identity of his wife is known only through his will, which mentions only her given name, Joan; the text of the will itself has not been found ... Whether Joan was his first and only wife is not known. Whether she was the mother of all of his children is not known; although there are records which justify the assumption that she was the mother of at least the three youngest children.

Was John Greene of Quidnessett and the man referred to as John Greene of Newport one and the same person? LaMance, in 1904, wrote "no" and her book has been used as the authority by many of the later writers about his family. On the other hand, in 1918, Louise Prosser Bates wrote "yes" and presented compelling arguments based upon land records to substantiate her claim. When the activities and children attributed to John Greene of Quidnessett are combined with those attributed to John Greene of Newport, (as shown in Austin) there appear to be no conflicts; they do merge into one picture. (Page 44).

In the search for the ancestors of John Greene of Quidnessett, perhaps the most disturbing tradition is that which suggests his true name may have been Clark and that he may not have been a Greene at all! This tradition is associated with John of Coventry, Rhode Island, who married Abigail Wardwell. Two genealogies connect the tradition with John Greene of Quidnessett in the belief that John of Coventry was his son. (Page 45).

... when reference was made to "Clark Greene families" these were references to families in which the father had been named Clark because of contact with contemporary families with the surname Clark rather than in memory of a vague tradition of a fugitive ancestor. (Page 46).

Lora LaMance wrote that John Greene had fled England to escape the wrath of Henry VII. In her account the surname Clarke is assumed as an alias, and the true surname is Greene. She recounts a fascinating tale. I shall not reproduce it here as it is long in the telling and short on facts which can be substantiated. It can be found on pages 34-5 of her book. (Page 46).

After examining the various traditions, I regretfully conclude that nothing positively is known of the parentage and previous history of John Greene of Quidnessett, prior to 1636. (Page 47).

Combining the information from several genealogies, it appears that there were ten children (Pages 52-59):

He wrote of three John Greenes: John of Warwick, John of Quidnesset Neck in of the town of North Kingstown, and John of Newport.

In 1666 the proprietors of the northern part of Quidnesset neck made a division of their lands, previously, so far as appears, unsurveyed. On a plat which purports to indicate the boundaries of each piece of property in that region in that year, a tract of one hundred and fifty-one acres is assigned to "John Greene and Son." [This does not give the name of the "son" and if John (Jr.) was born in 1651, the son mentioned here would seem to be a son older than John (Jr.)]

On 1 Jan 1671-2, a John Greene with John Fones, ..., bought of the Indians a large tract since known as the Devil's Foot or Fones's Purchase; ... From the fact that all these original purchasers were Quidnesset men, excepting Fones, who lived some three miles west in Narragansett, it may be fairly inferred that their fellow proprietor, John Greene, was the Quidnesset John. As an argument to the contrary, there is a record in East Greenwich, of the admission as a freeman in the same year, 1685, and on the same day, Mary 14, as Capt. John Fones, of a Lieut. John Greene, of New York, concerning whose origin nothing more is known, but who may have been the partner of Fones in the above purchase.

In March 1681-2 ... the land next north of James Greene's estate [on Allen's Harbor] was owned by a John Greene, presumably the son of the elder John, who three years later was a resident of East Greenwich.

His wife, in 1682, was named Joan ... neither her parentage nor any dates of birth, marriage or death have survived.

He lists the following children:

She concludes that John Greene of Newport and John Greene of Quidnessett are the same person. This is based on deeds referring at one time to John Greene of Newport and to the same person later as John Greene, sr., of Narragansett. [But note also that many of the references given by Austin to John Greene of Newport, Mrs. Bates attributes to Lieut. John² Greene of Newport, who she says is the son of John Greene of Quidnessett.]

John Greene and John Greene, Jr. were among the signers of a letter on 27 June 1679 written with respect to the Fones' Purchase. Edward Greene sold both lots belonging to John Greene, sr. and in the deeds states that they descended to him by will of his father, John Greene, deceased (East Greenwich Deeds.

John Greene, jr., called at the time Lieut. John Greene of Newport, had a special meeting of the townsmen of East Greenwich called, May 14, 1685, when as a Fones purchaser he was recognized as a townsman and was allowed to draw his lot and farm.

May 1, 1690, John Greene of Newport sold the ten acre lot acquired above.

John Greene of Quidnessett died before 25 Sep 1685. His children:

There were among the early settlers of Rhode Island three families who bore precisely the same name, John Greene, and so far as is known unrelated by birth to each other:

John of Newport; John of Warwick, and John of Quidnesset Neck, in the town of North Kingstown. [This reads very much like a repetition of what Ray Huling Greene had previously written in Narragansett Historical Register.]

John Greene of Quidnessett, d betw 1682 and (prob) 1696; m Joan, who died later than 1682. Children:

From her Introduction she referred readers to LaMance for the early Greene history and began the genealogy with Timothy⁴ Greene, son of John³, son of John² and Abigail Greene.

John Greene of Kingstown, Rhode Island, was settled there at a trading post built by Richard Smith, before 1639. Nothing is known of his earlier history and antecedents, and there is no known connection between him and the two other John Greenes who curiously enough, were also early settlers in Rhode Island. ... There is a tradition that John Greene, on leaving England, had changed his name from Clarke to Greene supposedly on account of religious difficulties. ...

Nothing is known of the wife of John Greene, except that on 24 March 1682, when he transferred a hundred and twenty acres of land to his son, Daniel Greene and sixty acres to his son, James Green, on condition that they each pay 30s a year as long as either their father or mother was alive, she signed herself Joan Greene. Children:

The De Forests made the same error that Walter and Ella Greene made with respect to the Mary Greene who married John Eldred. See page 123 of Ancestors and Descendants of William Browning Greene and Mary Hoxsie Lewis with Allied Families for the Mary Greene who married John Eldred.

If you have stuck with me this long on this page, you may be interested in reading what I wrote in my book about John Greene of Quidnessett. I include this page without noting my references or footnotes. They are, however, based for the most part on the information summarized above.

The identity of John Greene, Jr., son of John Greene of Quidnesset. is disputed. I have written a page setting forth the positions and arguments of various writers.