The immigrant John Warren was an important figure in the early settlement of Watertown, and has been extensively studied by Anderson, Smith, Threlfall, and others. His religious views have attracted the greatest attention. Anderson479 records that even though John Warren “was a member of the church, he was frequently cited for failing to attend public worship. John Coolidge and John Whitney testified that John Warren and Thomas Arnold ‘did absent themselves from the public ordinances, more than 4 times before their presentment’ [Pulsifer 36]. Mr. Jeremiah Norcross and David Fiske deposed in court that John Warren and Thomas Arnold had absented themselves from the public ordinances on the Lord’s Days both at Watertown and elsewhere. John pleaded that he had been absent elsewhere on six of the Sabbaths in question, but he was still fined 5s. for each absence [Pulsifer 36]. Bond speculates that John Warren was a Baptist [Bond 619].” Anderson472 and other sources also note that “In the 1629 Bishop’s Visitation of Nayland, Archdeaconry of Sudbury, Diocese of Norwich, John Warren was the first in a list of seven men from that parish who were presented ‘for not kneeling at the communion,’ a common Puritan offense [VIS 6/1, Norwich Diocesan Archives, Norfolk and Norwich Record Office].” Threlfall adds480 that “On 17 May 1661, the houses of ‘old Warren and goodman Hammond’ were ordered ‘to be searched for Quakers.’ His dissenting religious views were apparently like those of Nathaniel Biscoe, Senior, who returned from Watertown to England and Thomas Arnold who moved to Providence. They were perhaps Baptists.”

Anderson, Smith, and Threlfall provide many additional details about John Warren’s property and history, along with transcriptions of his will and his estate inventory. Anderson gives the date of his immigration as 1630, and Threlfall identifies him as a member of the Winthrop Fleet, but specific evidence for this is not cited. He is recorded as having taken the freeman’s oath on 18 May 1631, so he certainly arrived very early, if not with the Winthrop Fleet itself.

John Warren and his Wife Margaret are ancestors of U.S. Presidents Bush and Garfield.328