Genealogy Report: Descendants of Randall Holden, Sr.
Descendants of Randall Holden, Sr.
1.Randall1 Holden, Sr. was born Abt. 1612 in Salisbury, Lancashire, England, and died August 23, 1692 in Warwick, Rhode Island.He married Frances Dungan Abt. 1648 in Warwick, Rhode Island.She was born 1630, and died 1697 in Warwick, Rhode Island.
Notes for Randall Holden, Sr.:
Much of the information on the Holden family, particularly from Arnold Holden on down,is taken from records of Gert Schnell, Holden descendant and Vice President of the Ischua Valley Historical Society in Franklinville New York, as well as "The Holden Genealogy", by Eben Putnam, renown historian, written in 1923.Records have been added by the Richard Hanneman family, also descendants, and Laura Greene, descendant.
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NOTES ON RANDALL HOLDEN
From: THE HOLDEN GENEALOGY, by Eben Putnam, Volume I, Boston, 1923.
Pages382-389
Randall Holden, who himself wrote his name Howldon, is said to have come from “Salisbury” This statement is traced back to 1800, but its origin is not known.His associate, John Greene, with whose descendants the descendants of Randall Holden intermarried, came from Salisbury in Wiltshire, and this coincidence is probably the origin of the supposition that the Salisbury whence came Randall Holden was in that county.However, no trace of Randall Holden is found there.
(Footnote by E. Putnam: Mr. Frederick A. Holden wrote to a cousin: “I am corresponding with that great American antiquarian and genealogist, now in England, H.B. Somerby, Ex1., and hope through that gentleman to obtain such facts as will make my exertions, in addition to his, interesting to all our name.”This was in the late 1860s, and at that time Mr. Holden did not know whether or not Randall was a brother of Richard and Justinian.Nothing came of this correspondence.)
Near Salisbury in Lancashire, which is in Blackburne parish, is a place called Ewood, and there in the first quarter of the seventeenth century lived Randall Holden, gentleman, who was buried 26 November, 1623, and his widow the year following.Randall Holden, the emigrant, was born probably in 1612.The parish register of Blackburn in which parish Ewood and Salesbury are situated, although fairly complete from 1600, lacks the record for the years 1610-14.The transcripts for those years are also lost, except for March 1611 to the following March.The name Randall appears to be confined to the Ewood branch of the family.Exactly what relationship existed between the Ewood branch and other families in the parish and in that of Whalley - they were all of the same stock - has not yet developed.
Anthony Holden of Whalley married 10 Nov. 1567, Isabella Browne, the daughter of Henry Browne.She is also called Elizabeth, but was buried under the name of Isabelle, 24 Nov. 1585.The following year Anthony married Isabelle Norram.The only son of record born to Anthony was John, baptized 23 May, 1572.This is theonly occurrence of the name Anthony so far found in the Lancashire Holden family.
It has not been possible to trace the history of John, son of Anthony, nor to learn with assurance the parentage of Anthony of Whalley and Randall of Ewood.The fact that Randall Holden of Rhode Island named his sons John, Randall, Charles, and Anthony may have some bearing on the mooted question that perhaps Randall was son of John and the latter was son of Anthony and cousin of Randall Holden of Ewood.The ancient home of the Gorton family, of which Samuel Gorton proudly claimed to be a member, was not far distant.
Randall Holden was about 26 years of age when he settled at Aquidneck, and was unmarried.He preceded Gorton to that place, and no hint of a former acquaintance between them is found.Holden was twenty years younger than Gorton, was early attracted to the older man, and became his chief lieutenant.He never hesitated to assume the initiative, and was a better balanced man than Gorton.As the latter advanced in years, his place as leader of the Warwick settlement was taken by Holden.
Randall Holden first appears in New England as one of the signers of a covenant by which the subscribers incorporated themselves into a body politic, with the intention of planning a settlement beyond the limits of Massachusetts Bay Colony.This covenant is dated “7th day of the first month 1638", and it is supposed was entered into at Boston.Holden’s name is the last of the original signers.
There is no mention in Boston or in Colony records of Randall Holden prior to his settlement in Rhode Island.The date, so early in the new year as March, (Footnote: The settlers of Aquidneck accepted the first day of March as the beginning of their new year.) would seem to preclude the supposition that he had but just arrived; it is more likely that he had spent the winter in Boston, and like Clark found the winter so cold that in the spring he sought a warmer climate.
John Clark, who came from Suffolk, writing in 1652 recounted his first experiences in New England.He stated that he arrived at Boston in November, 1637.He attached himself to the party of Coddington and Hutchinson.To quote his own words, “I thought it not strange to see men differ about matters of Heaven, for I expect no less upon Earth: But to see that they were not able so to bear with each other in their different understands and consciences, as in those utmost parts of the World to live peaceable together, whereupon I moved the latter, for as much as the land was before us and wide enough, with the profer of Abraham to Lot, and for peace sake to turn aside to the right hand, or to the left;The Motion was readily accepted, and I was requested with some others to seek out a place, which accordingly I was ready to do; and thereupon by reason of the suffocating heat of the Summer before, I went to the North to be somewhat cooler, but the winter following proving so cold, that were forced in the Spring to make towards the South”.
During the winter of 1637 it is to be inferred Clark was in New Hampshire, but no mention has been found of Holden in that settlement.
Clark relates that it was in the minds of his party to proceed to Long Island or Delaware Bay, but having journeyed overland to Providence, where the ship was to meet them, they were led by Roger Williams to consider either a settlement on the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay, or on the island of Aquidneck.Taking Williams with them, the leaders of the party travelled to Plymouth where they obtained assurancethat the island was not claimed as part of the Plymouth jurisdiction, and if they settled there would be looked upon as “loving neighbors”.
The leaders of the party, which Mr. Howeard M. Chapin says consisted certainly of William Coddington, William Hutchinson, John Clark, and Randall Holden (Documentary History of Rhode Island), determined to purchase Aquidneck, Rhode Island.
Throughthe mediation of Roger Williams, a deed was procured from the Indian sachems Canonicus and Miantinomo, 24 March, 1637-8.To the signatures of the Indians Randall Holden was a witness.
As Holden was a man without family it is likely that he was one of the first of the purchasers to settle upon the island.Several families had gone thither soon after the purchase.The first meeting of the proprietors was held 13 May, 1638, and the name of Holden appears among those present.Gorton, driven from Plymouth, probably arrived on the island in December, 1638.He became at once a factor in the new settlement and, joining with Mrs. Hutchinson, effected a coup d’etat,, bringing about the substitution of the Hutchinson faction for that of Coddington’s which controlled affairs to the time of the April meeting, 1639.Coddington and many of his party seceded and settled at Newport, leaving the others in possession of Pocasset, or Portsmouth as it soon became called.Holden’s name appears neither upon the list of those who subscribed the compact of 30 April, 1639 adherents of Groton and Hutchinson, nor on the list of those who, adhering to Coddington, retired to New port.He remained at Pocasset, and because of what followed and his later close connection with Gorton there can be but little doubt he was one of the men active in ousting Coddington from office.
The first business of the General Court held at Newport, 12 March, 1639-40, was the acceptance of Mr. William Hutchinson and several others, including Randall Holden, who “desired to be reunited to this body and readily Imbraced by us”. Many freemen were admitted and officres were elected, and the reunion of the two settlements effected.At the General Court of Election held the following year, 16, and 17 March, 1641, the first business was the disfranchisement of Richard Carder, Randall Holden, Sampson Shatton, and Robert Potter.It was also ordered that “if John Weeks, Randall Holden, Richard Carder, Sampson Shotton, or Robert Porter shall come upon the island armed, they shall be by the constable disarmed and carried before the magistrate and there find sureties for their good behavior.”
Holden was undoubtedly one of the party of Gorton, who also had been forced to leave Aquidneck, who applied for admission as townsmen of Providence, prior to 25 May, 1641.This was refused, but they were permitted to make their residence in that part called Pawtuxet, where they joined forces with Francis Weston and John Greene, opponents to the faction then in power.Randall Holden is next mentioned 15 Nov. 1641, as participating in the rescue of Weston’s cattle from attachment for debt. (Massachusetts Archives 2:20).Massachusetts being appealed to by many of Providence, to lend assistance in enforcing the law, refused, unless the inhabitants should submit wholly to its jurisdiction.Gorton and his party had settled on land belonging to Robert Coles, for which on 10 Jan, 1641-2, Gorton received from Coles a deed.There they began to build but soon found themselves in trouble with William Arnold, who with others now subjected himself to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and, by obtaining the submission of two minor sachems, Pumhuam and Socononoco, brought the Gorton party in conflict with that colony.In November, 1642, the Gorton party and the others removed to a tract of land south of Pawtuxet, without the bounds of Providence and beyond the territory which had passed under Massachusetts jurisdiction by the submission of its inhabitants.Here they bought of Miantinomo, Shawomet, a territory of great extent, nearly one hundred square miles, embracing what later was known as Warwick, and extending Westerly to the Connecticut line.Settling there they sent a letter to the Massachusetts authorities, signed by twelve settlers, the second to sign being Randall Holden.This letter is dated 20 Nov ., 1642.The deed from Miantinomo was obtained 12 Jan 1642-3, the first named of the twelve grantees being Randall Holden.The following September Holden signed a long, rambling letter address to the “honoured Idol Generall, now set up in the Massachusetts” subscribing it “the joynt act, not of the Court Generall, but of the peculiar fellowship, now abiding upon Mshawomet.
Massachusetts now determined to exert her authority.Commissioners with a small military force were sent to hear the charges made against Groton and others.In October, the women and children having been sent away, after a stout resistance by the men of the party who held the chief building in the settlement, much powder being burned and many threats made, with injury to none, the stronger party obtained the surrender of Gorton and his friends, who were taken rather ignominiously prisoners to Boston.This was a high handed proceeding, not entirely justified by what we are now able to learn of the circumstances.
Eight of the ten prisoners were sentenced to be confined, each in a different town, there to be set to work, and forbidden to agitate their opinions, under threat of death.Randall Holden was sent to Salem.This was 17, Oct. 1643, less than a fortnight after their surrender at Shawomet.From a letter of Downing to Winthrop, dated at Salem, 6 Dec., 1643, it appears Holden did not heed the order of the Court.On his release in the following March, by order dated 7 Jan 1643-4, he was forbidden to return within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts under penalty of death.
Many years later, in December, 1678, when in England with John Greene, Holden, in his petition to the King, described his experiences during this term of imprisonment:
“Your petitioners have been inhabitants in the towne of Warwick about 35 years.But before we were settled severall misunderstandings began to arise between the Colony of the Massachusetts and the petitioners, about matters in religion.For although that tract of land on which we sett downe was alowed and declared by themselves to be without their patnet line, yet on a suddaine, we were seized on by soldiers sent from that Government, and many of us were tried for our lives by their arbitrary proceedings, without either jury or accusers, and saved by the majority of two voates onely; after which imprisoned and confined halfe a year in the winter season, with iron both on our leggs, and forced to worke for our subsistence; then banished from thence, and also from our owne habitations, neer to return againe.....That about the year 1644 your petitioners came to England to makeour compalint to your royall father of ever blessed memory, and to obtaine satisfaction for our great losse and damages......But our dear and native country ws involved in such unnaturall broyels and disturanceds, that our designes were frustrated, and we returned home.”
During the period of the confinement of the leaders in Massachusetts the settlement of Chawomet was abandoned, but the buildings were still standing on their return, as Gorton mentions they stayed one night there before passing over to Aquidneck where their families were.
Gorton as well as Holden visited England in 1644.Holden returned first, having a safe conduct through Massachusetts given by order of the Earl of Warwick.Gorton returned in May, 1648.
Holden and Greene returned from England in September, 1646, and repaired to Shawomet, which was now a part of the colony of Providence Plantations, for which Roger Williams had obtained a charter under date of 14 March, 1643-4.Williams had gone to England for that purpose in Feburary of the preceding year, and returned in September, 1644, with the charter.
Soon after the return of the prisoners from Boston in the early spring of 1644, the Massachusetts authorities had caused a strong palisaded house to be erected at Shawomet.This was done on the petition of Pumham and Sacanonoco, the Indian sachems who had brought the charges again Groton and his company.The site of this fortified place may still be seen on the east side of the Cove, on the point commanding the entrance, and just north of the present railroad bridge connecting Warwick Neck with Oakland Beach, and was formerly the property of John Holden who owned the so-called Foster place.
Chapin says that Gorton and Holden went to England in the autumn of 1645, prior to November 20, 1645, prior to November 20, and obtained from the Parliamentary Commissioners, 15 May, 1646, an order to Massachuetss to permit the return of the Warwick settlers and the restoration of their lands.In Otctober of that year the former Warwick settlers were still living on Aquidneck, although the preceding year they were represented in the new charter government, by Samuel Gorton, who was acting as commissioner in August 1645.
The first meeting held at Warwick, after the return of the settlers, was on 1 May, 1647.On 19 May, Holdenk, Gorton and others were sent as commissioners to represent the town in the General Assembly, and at that session it was voted “that Warwick should have the same privilege as Portsmouth.”
Randall Holden was a member of the town council in 1647, and frequently moderator of town meetings.At the town meeting of 5 June, 1648, he was elected treasurer, and from this time, for many years, he was one of the most important and active of the citizens of the town.He was sent to Plymouth in 1648 to inform the Commissioners of the United Colonies regarding an order the town had received from the “state of England”.He was chosen assistant in 1646, and for nine times commissioner in th e period 1652 and 1663 inclusive, and served as deputy ten years, between 1666 to 1685 inclusive.Hardly a year passed by he was the representative, one way or another, of the town in the Colony government.
In 1665 he was one of those named by the Royal Commissioners as justices of the peace for the King’s Province, to serve until the following May when the Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants were to assume office as such.
With the rest of the inhabitants of Warwick he was forced to leave his home when the town was abandoned in March, 1676, succeeding which the Indian enemy destroyed all but one of the buildings.He returned with the others, and almost immediately was sent to England by the town, soon after November, 1677 to protect the town’s claim to former purchases from the Indians.John Greene again accompanied him.They returned early in 1678.Holden was certainly in England from July, 1678 to January 1678-9.In 1681 he was chosen moderator.
In 1683 he was one of a committee to draft a letter to the King, and in 1687-1688 was justice of the Court of Common Pleas.
It was after his return from England in 1646 that Randall Holden married.He took to wife Frances Dugan, the step-daughter of Jeremiah Clarke, one of the most important men of the Newport community.
In giving testimony, 24 June 1669, regarding the original grant of Dyter’s Island, Holden gave his age as 57 years or thereabouts.This would make him born about 1612, and 80 years old at the time of his death, 23 August 1692.
Randall Holden settled in what is now known as Old Warwick.His house built after his return to the devastated town, in 1677, was in the present Main Street, and a sketch drawn from memory by Mrs. John W. Greene, is reproduced in Fuller’s “History of Warwick” and copied here.
Not only did Randall Holden have his proportion of lands in Old Warwick on the Neck, part of which long remained in the family, but he participated int he various divisions of common lands among the proprietors.Thus he, and later his representatives, obtained land at Cowesit, in Coventry, and in other sections of the town.He himself obtained one of the five Wecochaconet farms of four hundred acres, his being the most northerly, and bounding on the Pawtuxet River, including a large part of what later become known as Natick.
He also became possessed by purchase of lands in the King’s Province, and acted as agent for others in procuring grands of lands from the Indians.
His qualifications, both as leader of men and possessor of landed and other estate, were equal to any in the community in which he lived.
Children of Randall Holden and Frances Dungan are:
| 2 | i. | Mary2 Holden, born August 1652. | ||
| 3 | ii. | Frances Holden, born September 29, 1649. | ||
| 4 | iii. | Elizabeth Holden, born August 1652. | ||
| 5 | iv. | John Holden, born January 1655/56. | ||
| 6 | v. | Sarah Holden, born February 1657/58. | ||
| 7 | vi. | Randall Holden, born April 1660. | ||
| 8 | vii. | Margaret Holden, born January 1662/63. | ||
| + | 9 | viii. | Charles Holden, born March 22, 1664/65 in Warwick, Rhode Island; died July 21, 1717 in Warwick, Rhode Island. | |
| 10 | ix. | Barbara Holden, born July 2, 1668. | ||
| 11 | x. | Susan Holden, born December 8, 1670. | ||
| 12 | xi. | Anthony Holden, born October 15, 1673. |