William Freeborn (settler)

William Freeborn
Born	1594 Essex, England
Died	28 April 1670 Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Education	signed his own documents
Occupation	Miller, constable, commissioner
Spouse(s)	Mary Willson
Children	Mary, Sarah, Gideon

William Freeborn (1594–1670) was one of the founding settlers of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island (Rhode Island), having signed the Portsmouth Compact with 22 other men while still living in Boston. Coming from Maldon in Essex, England, he sailed to New England in 1634 with his wife and two young daughters, settling in Roxbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He soon moved to Boston where he became interested in the preachings of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, and following their banishment from the colony during the Antinomian Controversy, he joined many of their other followers in Portsmouth.

In Portsmouth, Freeborn was active in a number of minor civic roles, such as constable, member of the petit jury, and overseer of the poor, and also held the position of Deputy to the General Court for a year. He and his wife both died in 1670, five days apart. They had two daughters and one son, all of whom married and had families. Freeborn became a Quaker, and his death, and that of his wife, are recorded in the Friends' records.

Freeborn originated in the town of Maldon, Essex, England, and was married to Mary Wilson in the nearby St Mary's Church, Mundon on 25 July 1625. He and his wife were enrolled to sail to New England at Ipswich, Suffolk on 30 April 1634, with their two daughters Mary and Sarah, and the teenager John "Aldburgh" (John Albro). They made the voyage aboard the ship Francis, and upon their arrival first settled at Roxbury, where Freeborn was admitted to the church that year, and where he became a freeman in early September.

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