| Biography | | General Joseph Warren
1741-1775
"Our General Joseph Warren was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill on 17 June 1775."
This web page is dedicated to our General Joseph Warren. We would like to ask that you relax, grab your coffee and enjoy a small history lesson. If you descend from our General Joseph Warren, please contact me, my name is Addie Morrissey and I would be proud to meet you. If you are interested in joining our General Joseph Warren DAR Chapter, please contact Mrs. Fran Perrin.
In reading documents on General Joseph Warren, I have read there is an oration which he delivered upon the Boston Masacre, which can be viewed at the historical society. He became friends with John Adams of Braintree whom later became the second president of the United States of America. In a letter of the Congress to the Honourable Artemus Ward, they appointed Artemus Ward the General and Commander in Chief of all forces raised by the congress for the defense of this and all American Colonies, dated 19th May A.D. 1775 and signed by Jos. Warren, Pres. P.T. Middlesex May 20, 1775. He taught under Judge William Cushing of the Sup. Judicial Court of the United States and whom was preceptor of the public Grammar Scholl in Roxbury in 1752. It is said that 800 British Troops under Lt. Colonel Smith crossed onto the shore of Concord. General Gage had ordered that no one leave the towm, But Dr. Joseph Warren was ahead of him, and as the troops crossed the river, William Dawes with a letter from Dr. Warren to Hancock and Adams, was riding to the neck of Roxbury, and Paul Revere was rowing over the river to Charlestown, having agreed with his friend Robert Newman to show lanterns from the Old North Church. "One if by land and two if by sea" was used as a signal of the march of the British. General Joseph Warren was killed when hit with a ball. This ball was given to the NEGHS by William H. Montague one of the founders of the NEGHS.
Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts 11 June 1741, the oldest of four sons. While the genealogy of the Warren family runs back through commoners, knights, and earls to William, Earl Warren, who came to England with William the Conqueror, and married Grundada, his daughter, General Warren's immediate ancestry were distinclively of the common people. His father was a farmer, his grandfather a carpenter, and his great-grandfather a mariner. They were, however, men of intelligence, uprightness, high character, and exemplary and useful citizens. His mother was a woman of exceptional force of character. The accidental death of her husband when her eldest son was but fourteen years old left her with the responsibility for training and educating her four sons, and the skill, fidelity, and effiency with which she met this responsibility are attested by the eminence and usefulness which all these sons attained. She lived to be ninety years old.
At the age of fourteen Warren entered Harvard College, and after a creditable course of study graduated with honor four years later. Soon after his graduation and at the age of nineteen he became Master of the Roxbury Grammar School at the salary of "ninety-three pounds, nine shillings and five pence a year. About the time of his leaving the school, he joined the Masonic fraternity, and rose to the the highest honor, being at the time of his death Grand Master for the Continent of America. Warren persued the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. James Lloyd, an eminent physician of Boston. At the age of twenty-three he was married to Elizabeth Hooton.
Warren Weekly Times Thursday, July 7, 1910
Articles on General Joseph Warren:
The Battle of Bunker Hill by Richard M. Ketchum
1987 Warren Times Observer Feb. & March 1987 (articles by Ernest C. Miller)
Stepping Stones: January 1995
Warren Biography - Warren, Joseph
Warren County Pennsylvania Almanac 1939
Life and Times of Joseph Warren by Richard Frothingham pg 558
NEHGR volumes 11:122 April 1857, 1:60 January 1847, 1:282-283 July 1847, 2:248 July 1848, 2:291 July 1848, 5:273 July 1851, 8:106 April 1854, 9:10 January 1855, 29:384-385 October 1875,
[IMAGE] JOSEPH WARREN MARTYR OF BUNKER HILL presented by George D. Pushee III in C.B. VANCE COUNCIL #85, ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES, CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA on APRIL 7, 1994 On a quiet summer afternoon about 230 years ago, some Harvard college students shut themselves in an upper dormitory room to arrange some affairs pertaining to their class. Another class member desired to be with them knowing they intended to thwart some fondly cherished purpose of his own. They refused to admit him; the door was closed, and he could not gain admittance without violence, which he chose to avoid. Reconnoitering the premises he discovered that one of the windows in the room was open and he noticed a nearby waterspout that extended from the roof to the ground. He climbed to the top of the house and slid down the eaves, then laid hold of the spout and descended until he was opposite the open window. With a prodigious physical effort he thrust himself through the window and landed in the room! Simultaneously, the waterspout crashed to the ground; had it fallen a moment sooner the boy would have been thrown to the pavement below and, undoubtedly, seriously injured. He coolly remarked to himself. "It served its purpose!" That Harvard boy was Joseph Warren, later to be known as Doctor and General Warren, the martyr of Bunker Hill and the Grand Master of Masons, Massachusetts Provincial Grand Lodge, in North America. The boy had already given promise of the man in whatever he undertook. The fearless act of getting into that room was the swelling bud which opened and blossomed and bore fruit in his adult life. Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1740, he graduated from Harvard and was made a Mason in the Lodge of St. Andrew, Boston, September 10, 1761. He received the Second Degree on September 2, 1761, but it was not until November 28, 1765-four years after his initiation-that he was made a Master Mason. The delay was in the spirit and practice of the times. In December 1769 Warren received a commission from the Earl of Dalhousie, Grand Master of Masons in Scotland, appointing him Provincial Grand Master of Masons in Boston and within 100 miles of the same. The commission was dated May 30, 1769. When the Earl of Dumfries succeeded Dalhousie as Grand Master of Scotland he issued another appointment to Warren, dated March 7, 1772, constituting Warren "Grand Master of Masons for the Continent of America," thus extending his original limits. He was untiring in the discharge of his Masonic duties and, coupled with the labors of his extensive medical practice, the care of his motherless children, together with his patriotic devotion to his country, won for him the highest regard of the public and the craft. His name is indelibly engraved on the mystic temple of Freemasonry, just as it is on the pages of American history. Somewhat impetuous in his nature, but brave to a fault, Bro. Warren craved the task of doing what others dared not to do-the same courage infused in Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and other patriots. On the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, March 3, 1770, Warren was the orator. While it was a duty which won him distinction, it was also one of peril. English military officers usually attended in order to heckle the speaker and it required a brave man to stand up in Old South Church, in the face of those officers, to boldly proclaim their bloody deeds. It required a cool head and steady nerves, and Grand Master Joseph Warren had both. The crowd at the church was immense; the aisles, the pulpit stairs, and the pulpit itself was filled with officers and soldiers of the garrison, always there to intimidate the speaker. Warren was equal to the task but entered the church through a pulpit window in the rear, knowing he might have been barred from entering through the front. In the midst of his most impassioned speech, an English officer seated on the pulpit stairs and in full view of Warren, held several pistol bullets in his open hand. The act was significant; while the moment was one of peril and required the exercise of both courage and prudence, to falter and allow a single nerve or muscle to tremble would have meant failure-even ruin to Warren and others. Everyone present knew the intent of the officer but Warren having caught the act of the officer and without the least discomposure or pause in his discourse, simply approached the officer and dropped a white handkerchief into the officer's hand! The act was so cleverly and courteously performed that the Breton was compelled to acknowledge it by permitting the orator to continue in peace. On June 14, 1775, three days before the Battle of Bunker Hill (actually Breed's Hill), Dr. Warren was elected Major General by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Without military education or experience, he was placed in the presence of the whole British army. Against the protests of Gen. Artemis Ward, Gen. Israel Putnam and others, Warren chose to shoulder a musket and join the fighting men behind barricades on the hill. He apparently felt a premonition of his death and declared to Betsy Palmer (whose husband joined the Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington), "Come, my little girl, drink a glass of wine with me for the last time, for I shall go to the hill tomorrow and I shall never come off." The shooting on June 17, 1775, lasted less than one hour but only because the Patriots ran out of ammunition. Warren had been shot in the back of the head and thrown to the ground. His body was thrown in a ditch by a British officer and buried with others. It was discovered months later and identified by Paul Revere who recognized a false tooth he had made for Warren. He was next buried in the Granary burial ground (Tremont Street, Boston) where he was laid after Masonic ceremonies in King's Chapel and, thirdly, he was buried in the Warren Tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral, Boston. Finally, on August 3, 1855, "The precious ashes were carefully deposited in an imperishable urn and placed in the family vault at Forest Hill Cemetery where they now repose." (Grand Lodge Proc.1855-69 p. 511) On April 8, 1777 Congress ordered a monument to be erected over the grave of Gen. Warren in the Town of Boston, but like many other things that Congress resolves, it was never accomplished. In 1794 King Solomon's Lodge of Charlestown (now meeting in Somerville) erected a monument on Bunker Hill on land donated by Brother Benjamin Russell for that purpose. It was "A Tuscan pillar, 18 feet in height placed on a platform 8 feet high, 8 feet square with fences around to protect it from injury." The Bunker Hill Monument Association was formed in 1823 for the "purpose of erecting on Bunker Hill a more fitting and enduring monument to the memory of the brave men who fell there in the cause of human liberty." King Solomon's Lodge (1783) then gave the Association the ground which it owned, together with the monument it had erected to the memory of Bro. Warren, on condition "that some trace of its former existence" might be preserved in the monument to be erected. On June 17, 1825, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts opened at 8 a.m. and a procession was formed on the Boston Common which proceeded to Bunker Hill in Charlestown. There, in the presence of Bro. Lafayette (the apron he wore is in the Grand Lodge archives), representatives from every New England state except Rhode Island, along with the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, Grand Master John Abbot, and Senior Past Grand Master Isaiah Thomas, assisted in laying the cornerstone and Lafayette and Bro. Daniel Webster addressed the great gathering. The monument was completed and dedicated on June 13, 1843, but without the presence of the Grand Lodge. It was during the anti-Masonic era and a resolution to attend was defeated in Grand Lodge. Inside the present obelisk is a model of the first monument that had been erected by King Solomon's Lodge. It is made of the finest Italian marble and including the granite pedestal on which it stands, is about nine feet in height and bears substantially the same inscription as the former one. The memorial is now under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service (1976) and anybody can climb the 294 steps to the top without charge. From the windows you can view the entire Boston skyline and, in particular, Charlestown Navy Yard where the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) is berthed. Joseph Warren, like Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, George Washington, and many others including Henry Knox, John Sullivan, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, seems to have been born and raised to inaugurate the glorious struggle for freedom, and then gathered to the heaven of the virtuous dead to herald the coming of their successors who have fought to preserve the freedom gained by the Patriots. From the writ-of-assistance trial of 1761 to General Washington's resignation from the Continental Army in 1783, Masons, men and women fought the most powerful nation at that time and forged a new nation of democracy that today links itself as the strong ally of the nation it defeated. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. The TROWEL, Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, Robert W. Williams III, Winter 1989 2. The Freemasons Repository, the Voice of Masonry, Cornelius Moore, November 1881, Volume 11. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Freem@sonry Information
Ancestry of Dr. / General Joseph Warren William Dawes with a message from General Warren to Hancock and Adams was riding over the Neck to Roxbury, and Paul Revere was rowing over the river further down to Charlestown, having agreed with his friend Robert Newman to show lanterns from the belfry of the Old North Church as a signal of the march of the British. "One, if by land, and two, if by sea." Although I do not descend from the Warren family, I feel the desire to share with you the data I have located on our wonderful General Joseph Warren, his ancestors and descendants. I have not changed the spelling in the words listed below. My hopes are such that because I have such enthusiasm and interest in him, that you as a descendant of his will equally be as enthused and share your lineage to him with all of us. This is about the best way we have to show the world, exactly how proud we are of him. The information you find below is information I have located and have listed the sources below so you will be able to verify the data I am listing. The ultimate goal left would be to locate a photo of our General and place on his site. If you have his photo and are willing to share it please allow me to place it on his web site. Then my goal as the creator of the site will have been reached. Please help me reach that goal! Please email me, Mrs. John Morrissey if you would like to join the crusade in bringing together the descendants of our General Joseph Warren.. John Warren 1585-1667 - The emigrator came in the Winthrop Fleet and arrived in Salem 12 June 1630. Settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. He became a freeman on 18 May 1631. Was Selectman from 1636-1640. He is presumably the 19th generation descendant of Rollo the Danish Knight whom invaded France in the 8th century.and also known as the founder of the Dukes of Normandy. This lineage goes back to the death of William de Warenne of 1088 the first Earl of Normandy. In 1630 came in the Winthrop Fleet and arrived in Salem 12 June 1630. His will proved 4 Nov. 1613 by John Warren son of the testator and executor in the Will. In 1657 after an assult, Peter Warren gave testimony he did not witness the assult, as to sworn to before Richard Bellingham, the Governor, 25 5th month. In 1660 Marriage of Peter Warren & Sarah Tucker was performed. In 1670 they were named in Nathaniel Warrens will. March 1676 [ie 1677] The order and Destribution of this Collonies pte of the Contribution made by divers Christians in Ireland for the releiffe of such are Impoverished Destressed and in Nessesitie by the late Indian Warr was, as it Respects this Collonie Proportioned. Plymouth 8 00 00 Joseph Warren was appointed to distribute it. In May 1688 as a fence viewer Joseph Warren was to execute the law with respect to swine this ensueing yeare: on the South East sid of Stony River. In a town meeting 1 March 1696/7 the same day liberty was granted to Joseph Warren to have the backward seate on the lower front Galery in the meeting house. In a town meeting of the Inhabitants of Roxbury upon 2 March 1690-1 Joseph Warren was assigned Surveyers of high wayes. It was also ordered that same day, that all swine shall be sufficiently Ringed all the yeare. 7 March 1691/2 a bill of three pounds five shillings mony charged on the Town by Joseph Warren for work don on the Meeting House was Voated to be payd. 4 March 1694/5 Joseph Warren was chosen for fence viewer on the East side of the river. 1 March 1696/7 Joseph Warren was chosen to serve as Constable. 13 August 1713 Boston, 00-10-00 pd to Joseph Warren for a coffin for Goodw. Bogle. 2 March 1712/13 Joseph Warren chosen Fence Viewer. 7 March 1719/20 Joseph Warren chosen as Clerks of ye market. 1 March 1724/5 Joseph Warren Jr. chosen a Hogreaves. 29 April 1726 Voted that John Holbrook Jr., Ebenezer Cheney & Joseph Warren Jr. have liberty to Fence up the Road leading from Dorchester Brook to the Country Road for this present year, with gates for Convenient passing. 1764 Marriage of Dr. Joseph Warren to Elizabeth Hooton. 1772 Oration of commemoration of the horrid massacre delivered by Dr. Joseph Warren. 1773 Death of Elizabeth Warren. 1774 One of 26 appointed a Committee to receive donations for distressed inhabitants of the town by the Operation of the Port Bill. Received letter of an aprehension of possible disaster was cautiously revealed in Samuel Adams letter to Joseph Warren. 1765 Christ Church Boston Records. Thomas Hooton, Joseph Warren & Joan Burt appointed Godfathers of Thomas Hooton, son of John & Mary. 1775 Dr. Joseph Warren aged 34 was comissioned Major General and killed 3 days later at Bunker Hill. 1775 Death of General Joseph Warren. Descendants of John Warren. Father of the Emigrant John Warren 1 John Warren b: in Nayland, Suffolk, England .. +Elizabeth Scarlett b: in Nayland, Suffolk, England ......... 2 John Warren b: 1585 in Nayland, Suffolk, England d: December 13, 1667 in Watertown, Massachusetts ............. +Margaret d: November 06, 1662 in Watertown, Massachusetts m: in Nayland, Suffolk, England .................... 3 John Warren b: 1622 ........................ +Michel Jennison m: July 11, 1667 in Watertown, Massachusetts ............................... 4 Margaret Warren b: May 06, 1668 ............................... 4 Sarah Warren b: January 25, 1670/71 ............................... 4 Elizabeth Warren b: July 08, 1673 ............................... 4 Mary Warren b: May 25, 1675 ............................... 4 John Warren b: May 21, 1678 ............................... 4 Grace Warren b: March 12, 1679/80 ............................... 4 Samuel Warren b: January 23, 1682/83 d: November 13, 1759 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +Lydia Cutting d: July 15, 1766 in Watertown, Massachusetts m: January 08, 1706/07 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Sarah Warren b: August 19, 1714 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Lydia Warren b: August 19, 1714 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Samuel Warren b: July 19, 1719 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Elizabeth Warren b: May 16, 1723 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Nathan Warren b: July 10, 1725 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 John Warren b: August 1727 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Mary Warren b: August 17, 1729 in Watertown, Massachusetts .................... 3 Peter Warren b: 1624 d: November 15, 1704 ........................ +Hannah ............................... 4 Peter Warren b: May 1675 ............................... 4 Peter Warren b: April 20, 1676 ............................... 4 Hannah Warren b: May 19, 1680 ............................... 4 Mary Warren b: November 21, 1683 ............................... 4 Robert Warren b: December 27, 1684 .................... *2nd Wife of Peter Warren: ........................ +Sarah Tucker m: August 01, 1660 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ............................... 4 John Warren b: September 08, 1661 ............................... 4 Joseph Warren b: February 19, 1662/63 in Roxbury, Massachusetts d: July 13, 1729 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ................................... +Deborah Williams d: October 06, 1743 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Samuel Warren b: August 13, 1694 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Joseph Warren b: February 02, 1695/96 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ...................................................... 6 General Joseph Warren b: 1741 d: June 17, 1775 in Bunker Hill .......................................................... +Elizabeth Hooton b: 1747 d: April 29, 1773 m: September 06, 1764 in Boston, Massachusetts ................................................................. 7 Joseph Warren ................................................................. 7 H. C. Warren ................................................................. 7 Richard Warren ................................................................. 7 Elizabeth Warren ................................................................. 7 Mary Warren ...................................................... 6 John Warren b: 1753 ........................................... 5 Ebenezer Warren b: January 26, 1698/99 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Sarah Warren b: July 27, 1702 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 John Warren b: September 18, 1704 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 Hannah Warren b: March 31, 1707 in Roxbury, Massachusetts ............................... 4 Benjamin Warren b: July 25, 1665 ............................... 4 Elizabeth Warren b: January 04, 1667/68 ............................... 4 Robert Warren b: December 14, 1670 ............................... 4 Ebenezer Warren b: February 11, 1672/73 .................... 3 Daniel Warren b: 1628 ........................ +Mary Barron m: December 10, 1650 in Watertown, Massachusetts ............................... 4 Mary Warren b: November 29, 1651 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +John Child m: May 29, 1668 ............................... *2nd Husband of Mary Warren: ................................... +Nathaniel Fiske m: April 13, 1677 ............................... 4 Daniel Warren b: October 06, 1653 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +Elizabeth Whitney m: December 19, 1678 in Watertown, Massachusetts ............................... 4 Hannah Warren b: July 04, 1658 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +David Meade m: September 24, 1675 ............................... 4 Sarah Warren b: July 04, 1658 in Watertown, Massachusetts ............................... 4 Elizabeth Warren b: September 17, 1660 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +Jonathan Tainter m: December 06, 1681 ............................... 4 Susanna Warren b: December 26, 1663 in Watertown, Massachusetts ............................... 4 John Warren b: March 05, 1665/66 in Watertown, Massachusetts d: July 11, 1703 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +Mary Brown m: May 22, 1683 in Watertown, Massachusetts ........................................... 5 John Warren b: March 15, 1684/85 ........................................... 5 Jonathan Warren b: April 26, 1688 ........................................... 5 Daniel Warren b: August 1689 ............................... 4 Joshua Warren b: July 04, 1668 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +Rebecca Church ........................................... 5 Lydia Warren b: November 03, 1696 ........................................... 5 Joshua Warren b: June 04, 1698 ........................................... 5 Nathaniel Warren b: May 25, 1700 ........................................... 5 Rebecca Warren b: June 19, 1704 ........................................... 5 Elizabeth Warren b: June 19, 1704 ........................................... 5 Abigail Warren b: December 20, 1705 ........................................... 5 Susanna Warren b: February 02, 1706/07 ........................................... 5 Hannah Warren b: June 02, 1708 ........................................... 5 Prudence Warren b: December 05, 1709 ........................................... 5 Daniel Warren b: July 28, 1712 ........................................... 5 Phineas Warren b: December 21, 1718 ............................... 4 Grace Warren b: March 14, 1671/72 in Watertown, Massachusetts ................................... +Joseph Morse m: January 20, 1690/91 .................... 3 Mary Warren b: 1628 SOURCES 1. Christ Church Boston Records. 2. Roxbury Town Records 3. Entries From The Parrish Registers Of Nayland, Co. Suffolk 4. Immigrant Ancestors pg. 419 5. The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy pg. 995 6. English Orgins of New England Families pg. 93 7. NEHG Register Volumes 2 July 1848 pg.248 8. NEHG Register Volumes 84 April 1930 pg.166 9. NEHG Register Volumes 84 October 1930 pg.363 10. NEHG Register Volumes 96 July 1942 pg.274 11. NEHG Register Volumes 96 July 1942 pg.276 12. NEHG Register Volumes 100 April 1946 pg.138 13. NEHG Register Volumes 84 October 1930 pg.357 14. NEHG Register Volumes 118 October 1964 pg.314 15. NEHG Register Volumes 128 October 1974 pg.244 16. NEHG Register Volumes 124 October 1975 pg.325 Home of the General Joseph Warren DAR Web Page |