Church Ancestry

        Richard Church was born in 1608 in London, Middlesex Co, England. He married Elizabeth Warren, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Warren. They had 11 children, namely, Elizabeth, Joseph, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Richard, Charles, CALEB, Abigail, Sarah, Mary, and Deborah. He first appeared in New England records on Oct. 19, 1630 when he desired to be made a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1633 he was listed as a freeman of the Plymouth Colony. In 1649, Richard sold his land in Plymouth to Robert Bartlett. In July of 1649 land was sold to Richard from Thomas Prence in Marshfireld. In 1652 he purchased half of a corn mill in Hingham. Richard died in Dedham on Dec. 27, 1668.
    I have a record called "The Pioneers of Massachusetts, A Descriptive List", which says the following of Richard Church:
                "Richard, carpenter, Boston apple farmer October 19, 1630. Removed to
                 Weymouth then to Plymouth before 1932. Volunteer for the Pequot War
                 before 1637. He removed to Charlestown and bought one half of a corn mill at
                 Hingham on Jan 24, 1653 and removed thither. He was town officer there. He
                 He deposed 15 (11) 1656 ae. about 47 years. Died at the home of his son, Caleb.
                 His will gave lands in Hingham and a share in Iron Works at Tauton, etc to his
                 wife elizabeth. he left his son, Joseph, a double portion on account of the
                 lameness of his hand."

It says above that Richard Church was a volunteer in the Pequot War. I did some research on it and I found that Richard and the other New England colonists feared the Pequot Indians of the Conneticut River Valley more than any other Indian tribe in that area. In 1636, Massachusetts settlers accused a Pequot of murdering a colonist. In revenge, the settlers burned a Pequot village on what is now Block Island, R.I. Then, Sassacus, the head Pequot chief, gathered his warriors together. Another chief, Uncas, helped the settlers with his band of Pequot (later called Mohegan). The colonists and their Indian allies attacked a Pequot village near West Mystic, Conn, at sunrise on June 5, 1637. They burned alive between 600 and 700 Indians. Cotton Mather, the Puritan scholar, wrote that the colonists thought this " a sweet sacrifice, and ... gave the praise thereof to God." Later that month, the colonists captured most of the remaining Pequot Indians and sold them into slavery in Bermuda.

To see the rest of my Church line, please click here.