GREENWOOD GENEALOGIES, 1154-1914
Chapter 5 • THE EXECUTION OF JOHN GREENWOOD
It will be of interest to every Greenwood to learn of the execution
in England of John Greenwood as a Puritan. He was a graduate of
Cambridge University in England, a clergyman in the Established
Church, and the very first to separate from that church and found
the religious doctrine known as Puritanism or Congregationalism.
He labored for simplicity of religious forms. Seven years he suffered
the privations of close prison confinement and finally on the
sixth of April, 1593, with his co-worker, Henry Barrowe, was taken
from jail and hanged. That little band of Pilgrims that landed
at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620, were his followers -- they had worshipped
at the church he founded -- that band of Puritans that landed
in America and founded Boston were believers in the doctrine he
was first to teach. The religious teachings of John Greenwood
rapidly spread in England and in 1640 occurred the civil war in
which the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell as leader overthrew the
English church and government and established in England the right
of the Puritans to existence in that country. Persecution of the
Puritans ceased for a time in England after Cromwell established
himself as ruler of the country. But that little band of Pilgrims
at Plymouth, that band of Puritans at Boston, those followers
who wended their way to Virginia and Maryland -- they brought
to America the teachings of John Greenwood -- the separation of
church and state -- and if America owes its greatness, its progress,
and its achievements to one principle in government more than
another it is that in America every American can kneel at the
altar of his own faith, and worship God according to the dictates
of his own conscience. The state in America is separated from
the church. American government tolerates no single form of religious
worship but shelters and protects alike all. John Greenwood taught
that there could be but one head to the church and that head was
not the Queen but Christ, and that there could be no law for the
government of the church other than what the Scriptures contained.
The execution of John Greenwood was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
John Greenwood, b. 1556, entered Corpus Christie (or Benet) College,
Cambridge, Mar. 18, 1577-8, a theological student, received his
Bachelor's degree 1580-1, was ordained deacon of the English Established
Church by the Bishop of London and priest by the Bishop of Lincoln,
and for 5 years labored in the English Church, in Norfolk County.
What led to a change in his religious belief is unknown but he
was deprived of his benefice and began holding secret religious
services at the home of Lord Robert Rich, of Rockford, Essex County,
who was interested in his doctrine. Soon Lord Rich and a clergyman
named Robert Wright, who was associated with John Greenwood, were
arrested and thrown into prison. Mr. Greenwood then went to London
where he formed a secret congregation at the house of one Henry
Martin at St. Andrews. Here, early in October, 1586, he was arrested
and lodged in the Clink prison while conducting a service.
There had preceded Greenwood at Cambridge by a little more than
10 years a man of marked ability, by name of Henry Barrowe, third
son of Thomas Barrowe, Esq., of Shipdam, Norfolk, by his second
wife, Mary. He entered Cambridge Nov. 22, 1565, receiving his
degree of Bachelor of Arts 1569-70, became a lawyer and practiced
in Her Majesty's courts. He had become interested in the religious
teachings of John Greenwood, and hearing of Greenwood's arrest
he visited Greenwood on Sunday, Nov. 19, 1586, between 9 and 10
o'clock, at the Clink. Here with no pretense of legal warrant
Barrowe was arrested and locked in with Greenwood. A few days
later both Greenwood and Barrowe were removed to the fleet prison,
where their quarters were close, and deprived of proper food,
sufficient warmth and many necessities of life they were kept
in confinement for 7 years. Many times during their imprisonment
Greenwood and Barrowe were taken before the authorities of the
English Church and questioned as to their religious belief. Such
an examination of Greenwood took place first at the palace (1586)
before the Bishop of London. Asked by the Bishop if he believed
in baptism, Greenwood replied that he did. Asked if he did not
have a son unbaptized, Greenwood replied that his son Abel, 1-1/2
years old, was unbaptized, but that he had been in prison and
was unable to take his son to a reformed church where he could
be baptized according to God's ordinance. Asked if he did not
consider the English Church a church of God replied "No."
Mr. Greenwood told the Bishop that every congregation of Christ
should be governed by a pastor, teacher and elder and by no other
than that Christ appoints. He would excommunicate the Prince (Queen)
as well as all members of the church who disobeyed the teachings
of the word of God. He would make no exception of the Prince.
"The Scriptures Set down efficient laws for the worship of
God and government of church which no man may add to or diminish.
Her Majesty is not the supreme head of the church."
Barrow's first examination was on the afternoon of his arrest
before the Archbishop, Archdeacon and Doctor Cosin. He protested
stoutly against his arrest without a warrant but to no effect.
An effort was made to bind Barrowe by an oath to attend the Established
Church, but he refused to take the oath. Eight days afterwards,
27 November, Barrowe was taken to Lambert before a synod of bishops
and a dean, when a long sheet of accusations was read against
him. He admitted that much of the matter was true but not all,
and demanded that witnesses against him should be sworn, whereupon
Whitgift (head of Corpus Christie College), losing his temper,
burst out "Where is his keeper? You shall not prattle here.
Away with him. Clap him up close. let no man go to him. I will
make him tell another tale yer I have done with him."
On the 9th of March 1589, Archdeacon Hutchinson visited Mr. Greenwood
at the Fleet, saying he had come by virtue of a commission from
her Majesty to confer. Mr. Greenwood declined to have anything
to say until he could have pen and ink and a fellow prisoner as
a witness of the conversation, on the ground that he had been
wickedly slandered and his cause falsely reported by the bishops
and specially by one Dr. Some. The pen, ink and witness being
granted, the archdeacon read some questions, mainly as to whether
a church made up of members who were called together by the blowing
of Her Majesty's trumpet, received into the church without conversion
and repentance and consisting of all sorts of profane people could
be considered a true church of Christ. Very little progress was
made at the interview and when the archdeacon went away he insisted
on carrying with him all the notes that had been taken of what
passed. He was prevailed upon to leave them in the hands of Mr.
Calthop, the witness, but Mr. Greenwood says: "No sooner
was I gone and locked up than the wardens were sent to the gentleman
for the papers, who, declining to deliver them without our consent,
the archbishop's servant came and took them away."
Eight days after this, Mar. 17, 1589, the archdeacon came to see
Mr. Greenwood again, bringing a witness of his own and having
the doors locked upon them with no other person present except
the two turnkeys of the jail, one of whom acted as scribe. On
this occasion the argument was mainly upon the question whether
John the Baptist received to his baptism those Pharisees and Sadducees
whom he called generations of vipers, the archdeacon insisting
that he did and Mr. Greenwood contending that while the vipers
may have been present they took no part in the baptism, except
as onlookers.
In one interview the archdeacon had with Mr. Barrowe, the latter
complained of his many years of illegal imprisonment and close
confinement and was told by the archdeacon that "You should
be most happy, for the solitary and contemplative I hold the most
blessed life; it's the life I would choose." Mr. Barrowe
meekly replied: "Could you be content, Mr. Andrews, to be
kept from exercise and air for so long a time, matters so necessary
to a body?" "I say not," was the answer, "that
I would want air."
In an interview, April. 13, 1589, between Greenwood and Barrowe
and clergymen of the English church, the prisoners state, "Things
were disorderly handled and there were manifold cavils and shifts,
shameless denials of manifest truths, and most unchristian contumelies,
scoffs and reproaches against our persons." It ended with
Greenwood and Barrowe being required to set down in brief the
reasons why they persisted in refusing to return to the Church
of England, which they did in these words:
While in prison both Greenwood and Barrowe wrote several books
which were produced under difficulties that would have crushed
the spirit of men of weaker fiber and inferior courage. Denied
proper writing material they used such scraps of paper and bits
of material as was secretly brought to them by friends from the
outside. When one piece of paper was written over it was taken
away and another piece as secretly furnished. These pieces of
paper were taken to Holland where the writing was put into print
and the books published. The Holland printers had to make what
they could of the writing, but on the whole they did their work
fairly well. These books treated of the religious belief of Greenwood
and Barrowe and contained the interviews between them and the
English Church officers, and although 300 years have passed since
their publication, some of these books are yet found.
In the autumn of 1592, for some reason not apparent, there was
a relaxation of the rigor with which Greenwood was treated and
he was allowed to leave the fleet, either on bail or on his personal
promise to appear when required, and he went to live with Roger
Rippon, in Southwalk. Barrowe remained in jail. Rippon's house
was one of those at which the members of a secret church, formed
by Mr. Greenwood four or five years before had held its meetings.
Mr. Greenwood, now that he was out of prison, met twitch these
people, and was appointed their doctor or teacher, but the bishops
were alarmed by what they heard of the spread of Separatism and
on Dec. 5, 192, Mr. Greenwood was again arrested and committed
again to the Fleet with Barrowe. This time he was arrested at
the home of Edward Boyse on Ludgate Hill.
On March 23, 1593, Greenwood and Barrowe were brought to trail
at the Old Bailey in London. They were charged with publishing
and dispensing seditious books; the proofs of the charge were
found in the writings which they had published while in prison.
Their sedition consisted in denying Her Majesty's ecclesiastical
supremacy and attacking the existing ecclesiastical order. On
the 3d, 11th and 20th of March Barrowe had been cited before Chief
Justice Sir John Popham and Attorney General Lord Ellesmere and
examined as to his opinions and his authorship of certain books.
Barrowe avowed his convictions of the truth of his treatises and
among other things expressed his opinion that the established
government of the Church of England was unlawful and anti-christian.
Greenwood had been examined on the 11th and 20th and confessed
to his authorship of the books laid to his charge. Robert Bowle
and Robert Stokes examined and testified on the 19th as to the
way the books of Greenwood and Barrowe had been printed. Daniel
Studley and James Forster testified to the printing also of the
books. The latter, who described himself as a physician and master
of arts, confessed having written some part of the Greenwood's
and Barrowe's book entitled "A Brief Description of the False
Church."
The answers of Greenwood and Barrowe at the trial was a general
denial of the charges brought against them but they were found
guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
The next morning, March 24, 1593, preparations were made for their
execution but they were reprieved. certain doctors and deans were
then sent to the prisoners to confer with them but the prisoners
claimed an open or public discussion, which was refused them.
On the 31st of March the prisoners were conveyed to the place
of execution very early and secretly, where being tied by the
neck to the tree, were permitted to speak a few words. They declared
their innocence of all malice or ill intent and exhorted the people
to obey and love the Queen and magistrates but to follow their
leaders no further than they followed Scripture. They were then
in the act of parrying for the Queen when they were again reprieved.
This time as the result of a supplication to the Lord Treasurer
that "in a land where no Papist was put to death for religion,
theirs should not be the first blood shed who disagreed about
faith with what was professed in the country," and desired
conference to be convinced of their error. But only six days was
gained by this clemency.
The law that Greenwood and Barrowe were convicted under did not
well apply in their case and the prelates having introduced a
bill into Parliament that would apply were much alarmed when the
bill came down to the Commons with its modifications and lest
the prisoners should escape execution they were secretly and early
on the morning of Apr. 6, 1593, taken to Tyburn and there hanged
without ceremony.
After the death of Greenwood and Barrowe, Parliament of England
enacted a law "To Retain the Queen Majesty's subjects in
Their Due Obedience" which read: "That if any person
over 16 years of age shall be absent from church for a month,
or by writing, printing or speech shall attempt to persuade any
of her Majesty's subjects to deny the Queen's ecclesiastical supremacy
or shall attempt to persuade them from coming to church or shall
be present at any unlawful meeting for religious worship they
shall be committed to prison without bail until they conform and
make submission. If for 3 months they refuse to conform they are
to be banished from the realm. If they fail to leave the country
or return without license they are to be hanged as felons."
Immediately after the passage of this act most of the Separatist
prisoners were released from jail and several hundred of them
streamed to Holland. Among the first that fled were the members
of the secret church in London of which John Greenwood had been
pastor. They crossed the sea in separate companies as they were
able and within three or four years most of them had settled in
Amsterdam. At one time 56 members of John Greenwood's secret church,
while holding a service among the sand hills at Islington, were
surprised and arrested. They were "committed without neither
meat, drink, fry or lodgings, nor were their friends allowed to
have access to them; husbands and wives were purposely put into
different prisons; some had not a penny about them, so that not
only they but their poor families were in wretched cause. All
was contrary to law etiquette and conscience.
On May 22, 1593, John Penry, a graduate of Cambridge University
and a member of John Greenwood's secret congregation, was hanged
at St. Thomas Waterings in London. Gov. Bradford, in his "Dialogue,"
gives these additional names of Puritans who were publicly executed
-- William Dennis at Thetford, Norfolk, and John and Elias Coppin
at Bury St. Edmunds. A great many Puritans who were committed
to jail died in prison. Some were horse whipped, some branded
with hot irons and some kept in chains.
John Greenwood's definition of a church was: A company of faithful
people separated from the unbelievers and heathen of the land,
gathered in the name of Christ, whom they truly worship and readily
obey as their only king, priest and prophet, joined together as
members of one body, ordered and governed by such officers and
laws as Christ in his will and testament hath hereunto obeyed.
It is interesting to notice how John Greenwood and members of
the church he founded struck upon some of the simple forms of
religious observance that have remained characteristic of the
Congregational Church to this day: One Daniel Buck, a writing
master, deposed 9 March, 1593, that when he joined the company
"he made ye protestation that he would walk with the rest
and yet so long as they did walk in the way of the Lorde and as
far as might be warranted by the word of God; that Greenwood took
water and washed the faces of them that were baptized saying only
in ye administration of the sacrament 'I do baptize the in ye
name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and without
Godfather and Godmother'; and that at the Lord's supper five white
loaves or more were set upon ye table and that the pastor did
break ye bread and then deliver it unto some of them and the deacons
delivered to the rest, some of sd. congregation sitting and some
standing about the table and that the pastor delivered the cup
unto one and he unto another till they had all drank using the
words at ye delivery thereof according as is set down in the eleventh
of Cor. ye 24 verse."
Henry Barrowe was unmarried and a man of some property, which
he willed to the Puritan Church at his death. His money paid for
the printing of the religious works he and Mr. Greenwood wrote
in prison.
The execution of John Greenwood at Tyborn is recorded on the records
of Corpus Christie College, Cambridge, Eng., and the offense is
given as "writing against the Book of Common Prayer."
 Greenwood Genealogies Index
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