John WILLET

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Son of Thomas Willet and Mary Brown

John married Abigail COLLINS in 1663 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Abigail (daughter of Deacon Edward COLLINS and Martha BAYLIE) was born on 20 Sep 1644 in Cambridge, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts; died on 1 Feb 1673/4 in Charlestown, Massachusetts; was buried in Phipps Street Burying Ground, Charlestown, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Colonial Mayor. First Mayor of New York City. Arriving in 1632 on "The Lion" (with a religious separatist movement that called themselves "The Saints", that fled England to Leydon, Holland then went back to England to follow the Mayflower voyage), Thomas Willett was a merchant that traded from Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. He succeeded Captain Miles Standish as head of the Colonial Militia and negotiated what is now known as the "Rehoboth North Purchase" which acquired land (now known as Attleboro and North Attleboro, Massachusetts) from Wampanoag leader Sachem Wamsutta who was the son of famed chief Massasoit. He later conducted sea trade from the Colonies and was a navigator from 1651 to 1654. When the charter of "New Amsterdam" was changed to British possession, Governor Richard Nicholls granted the city charter on June 12, 1665 and the city, population 1,500 at the time, got Thomas Willett as its English representative/mayor, making him the first mayor of "New York". He served two concurrent one-year terms from 1665 to 1667. His property in that colony was confiscated when the Dutch reclaimed the area and he settled in the locale of Barrington, Rhode Island (while some accounts have his retirement in Sewansea or Seekoknk, Massachusetts, these towns are all close and at the time the town lines that currently exist were not the same.) He was married to Mary Brown and together they had fourteen children. There is a large memorial marker placed for him, and near it is the original weathered stone which, now unreadable is documented as having the following inscription "1674 Here lyeth the body of the worthy Thomas Willett, Esq. who dies August 4 in the 64th year of his age, and who was the first mayor of New York and twice did sustain the place." (bio by: R. Digati)

Thomas married Mary BROWNE on 6 Jul 1636. Mary (daughter of John BROWNE and Dorothy ?) was born in 1614 in England; died on 08 Jan 1669; was buried in Little Neck Cem. Riverside, Providence, RI. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
She was buried "by her father Mr. John Browne, and other relations upon a little hill in Swansey" in Little Neck Cemetery, Riverside. her husband survived her, married a second time, died in August 1674, and was buried by her side.


At the graves of Thomas Willett and Mary Willett are stones inscribed as follows:

1674
Here lyeth ye body of ye
Wor. Thomas Willett,
esqr., who died Aug. 4,
in ye 64th year of his anno.

Footstone
Who was the first May.
of New York and twice
did sustain ye place.

1669
Here lyeth ye body of ye
virtuous Mary Willett,
wife of Thomas Willett,
esqr., who died, January
ye 8th, about ye 55th
year of her anno.

Footstone
daughter of Worf. John
Browne Esq. deceased.