vital records sources
go to Mary Warren's page

There is some misinformation on the internet about John regarding his parents and where he was born. There is no credible evidence of either. It's been suggested he was the "Mr. John Greene" who brought suit against someone for trespass in 1650, but he couldn't have done so as a minor. The first mention of him in New England records is in the Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, town meeting minutes of 18 November 1661, when the town "Graunted to Jno Green two Acres of land wher Abraham Warren lived one Ryall side to be layd out by Jeffey Masey."1
     It was agreed to pay him 22 shillings, 8 pence for an unnamed service to the town at the meeting on 24 December 1674.2 This happened on various ocassions over the years. On 1 February 1677, the town agreed to lease part of the town's common land on Ryal Side to John Green John Leach (specified as the son of Richard) and John "Bachilder" for the term of a thousand years, which was customary, the rent being £22. Their rent payments are itemized for many subsequent years. Another part of the common was allotted to their neighbors as part of their rights as freeholders in the town, including John Green's father-in-law Abraham Warren.3 His town taxes were waived on 21 January 1680, but no reason is given.4 On 31 May 1678 he was chosen to be a constable,5, but his proportion for collecting the tax for the minister's support is listed on the 24th. I don't find a specific reference to his being chosen at the 18 March town meeting, when other townsmen were chosen constables for the following year, or before this.
     A town meeting item from 8 March 1685/86 says he was abated all but his Essex County taxes "in Consideration of his Keeping his mother in law."6 When his father-in-law Abraham Warren died in 1682, John was appointed adminstrator of his estate.7 The value of the estate, which was only £10, 3 shillings and 11 pence, was given to Mrs. Warren for her maintenance, "& so to be improved for her comfort by the administrator." I've only found references to towns in New England paying residents to "keep" people if they were poor and had no other means. Apparently the estate money ran out and we can only guess the whys and whats of the arrangements afterwards. He was abated his minister's tax for the same reason on 13 December 16868 and again on 19 January 1686/87.9 On 12 March 1685/86 he was abated taxes, and listed this way: "pet on John Greens being in another towne."10 I've seen nothing to suggest where he might have been. Early in 1686 he is on another abatement list for a different amount, but "Zachr Herric, John Green & Compa." were paid £20, no reason given. 178 Zachariah Herrick also had a lease for Ryal Side land. The men who paid rent as part of a group agreement were sometimes referred to by several names followed by "and compa" or company, but these were payments to the men, not rents due.
     John doesn't have an obvious presence in Essex County court records up to the end of their publication in 1692. It's possible he was the one "presented for breach of the peace" and fined at the June 1667 session of the quarterly court.11 Another John "Green" was appointed to help bury the corpse of a drowned man.12 A younger John Green (but not John and Mary's son), apparently a mariner, is mentioned numerous times in a court case involving Mordicai Craford. The name appears again as a witness with John Massey. Nothing helps identify him.13

children of John Green and Mary Warren:

i. Abigail, b. "22: 12m: 1660," which translates to 22 February 1660/61 in the dual-year form to indicate the Julian (Old Style)/ Gregorian (New Style) calendar year overlap.
ii. Mary, b. 1 March 1663/6414
iii. Sarah, b. 14 August 1666
iv. Elizabeth, b. 20 February 1667/6815
v. Hannah, b. abt 166916
vi. John, b. 28 June 1671

vital records sources: His marriage is in Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts, to the year 1849, vol. 2 (Essex Institute:Salem, MA, 1924), 447; his death is in Vital Records of Beverly, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849, vol. 3 (Topsfield, MA:Topsfield Historical Society, 1916), 456, taken from a gravestone in the Greene family cemetery in Herlihy Park in Beverly, formerly a part of Salem. "HERE LYETH BURIED Ye BODY OF JOHN GREEN AGED ABOUT 60 YEARS DECEASED Ye 11 DAY OF JANUARY 1690/1" (The Essex Antiquarian, vol. 3 (Salem, MA:1899), 171.

1. Town records of Salem, Massachusetts, vol. 2 (Salem, MA:The Essex Institute, 1913), 18.
2. Ibid, 196.
3. Ibid, 252-3.
4. Ibid, 321. It's not evident from context if the was an Old or New Style year.
5. Ibid, 262.
6. Ibid, vol. 3, 153.
7. Essex Co., MA, probate file 28978.
8. vol. 3, 173.
9. Ibid, 189, called "Goodman Greene," showing he was a freeholder in good standing.
10. Ibid,155.
11. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, vol. 3 (Salem, MA:Essex Institute, 1913), 435.
12. Ibid, 98.
13. Ibid, vol. 5 (1916), 215, 222.
14. Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts, to the year 1849, vol. 1 (Salem, MA:Essex Institute, 1916), 389. The year given is 1663. The Greene children's birth records originate from an Essex Co., MA, court record of vital record returns from the towns, and were transcribed for the published Salem vital records. Where the births occurred in the overlap of the Julian and Gregorian calendars (which affected Abigail's, Mary's and Elizabeth's birth dates), there isn't a dual year given. It's clear in context that the records of these Greene children are in the Julian, or "Old Style." I've given a dual year for each to clarify the overlap.
15. Ibid. The year given is 1667 in the court record, but must be in the "Old Style." The explanation given in the note above is further evidenced by the fact that Elizabeth couldn't have been born in 1667 in the Gregorian, or "New Style," because of her sister Sarah's birth date, which wasn't in the calendar overlap, and was certainly in August 1666.
16. placed here based on the way John's heirs are listed in a 1693 agreement; Essex Co., MA, deed 9:117.