The Rebel Surgeon and the Hands of Warwick

 

In 1635, when Dr. John Greene stepped off the ship James onto the shores of Massachusetts Bay, he was a respected surgeon of 45 years. But New England was not a quiet sanctuary for a man who valued freedom of thought. In Salem, when Puritan magistrates sought to dictate how men worshipped and governed, Dr. Greene refused to remain silent. Openly declaring that the Boston court was arbitrary and unlawful, he was fined, threatened with imprisonment, and banished.

Gathering his wife, Joan Tattersall, and their children, Greene rode south into the wilderness. He linked arms with Roger Williams, becoming an original proprietor of Providence, and later joined Samuel Gorton in purchasing Shawomet—renaming it Warwick—where true liberty of conscience was codified into law.

When Boston puritans sent armed militia into Warwick to forcibly annex the land, Dr. Greene risked everything once more. Sailing back across the Atlantic to London in 1644, he successfully petitioned Parliament for an official charter, securing the fledgling town of Warwick from conquest.

While John Greene wielded the surgeon’s scalpel and the diplomat’s pen, a different kind of medicine took root in his household. His daughter, Mary Greene, married James Sweet, giving birth to Capt. Benoni Sweet. Inheriting both the independent spirit of his grandfather and a miraculous, tactile instinct for human anatomy, Benoni became the founding patriarch of Rhode Island’s legendary "Bonesetter Sweets".

Through Benoni, his son Thomas, and his surgeon grandson Caleb G. Sweet, this blend of rebel conviction and intuitive healing passed directly down the line to our grandmother, Lydia Corinna Brown.

NOTES:

Not only was Dr. John Greene a rebellious surgeon who defied the Puritan authorities of Massachusetts, but his marriage to Joan Tattersall also laid the foundation for the famous "Bonesetter Sweets"—a legendarily gifted line of folk healers in American history.

Part I: Genealogical Review

1. Dr. John Greene, Immigrant (c. 1590–1659)

• Origins & Profession: Born at Bowridge Hill in Gillingham, Dorset. He trained as a surgeon and apothecary in Salisbury, Wiltshire, practicing there for over 16 years at St. Thomas Parish.
• New England Arrival: Emigrated in April 1635 aboard the ship James to Salem, Massachusetts.
• The Rebel Founder: Quickly clashing with the rigid Massachusetts Bay Magistrates over their religious tyranny, Greene was fined and banished from Massachusetts in 1637. He joined Roger Williams as one of the 12 original proprietors of Providence Plantations.
• Founding Warwick: In 1642, along with the radical religious reformer Samuel Gorton, John Greene purchased the "Shawomet Lands" from the Narragansett sachem Miantonomi, founding the town of Warwick, Rhode Island. When Massachusetts sent armed soldiers to arrest the settlement's leaders, Greene escaped to England in 1644 with Gorton to secure a royal charter directly from Parliament, successfully protecting Warwick’s independence.

2. Joan Tattersall (c. 1598–c. 1643) — ⚠️ DEATH DATE CORRECTION

• Marriage: Married John Greene on November 4, 1619, at St. Thomas Church in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.
• Mother of the Line: She was the mother of all seven of Dr. John Greene’s children, including our ancestor Mary Greene (1633–1686).
• Death Correction: Modern scholarship confirms she died in Rhode Island around 1643. (Online trees often list her death as April 6, 1635, in Warwick, but Warwick wasn't purchased until 1642/43, and she crossed the Atlantic with her husband in mid-1635.)

Part II: The Medical Dynasty & The "Bonesetter Sweets"

When Dr. John Greene’s daughter Mary Greene married James Sweet, two distinct healing traditions merged.

   Dr. John Greene (Surgeon)  ===  Joan Tattersall

                               │

                          Mary Greene  ===  James Sweet

                                       │

                         Capt. Benoni Sweet (1663–1751)

                            ["Dr. Sweet" Bonesetter]

                                       │

                         Thomas Sweet (1703–1763)

                                       │

                      Caleb G. Sweet (1732–1831) [Surgeon]

                                       │

                           [OUR BROWN LINEAGE]

• Capt. Benoni Sweet (1663–1751): The son of Mary Greene and James Sweet, Benoni inherited an extraordinary natural talent for orthopedics. Known affectionately across New England as "Doctor Sweet," he possessed an intuitive knack for manipulating severe dislocations, fractures, and sprains without formal surgical tools.
• An Inherited Gift: The Sweets were not academic doctors; they were farmers, stonemasons, and craftsmen who passed down this spatial and tactile understanding of bones from generation to generation. Our 6th great-grandfather, Caleb G. Sweet (1732–1831), carried this lineage forward as a battlefield surgeon and physician during the Revolutionary era.

     Salisbury, England ──► Salem, MA (1635) ──► Providence, RI (1637)

                                                       │

                                                       ▼

                                              Warwick, RI (1642)

                                             [The Shawomet Charter]

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy