The information as to John Greene of Quidnessett’s WIFE is currently WRONG and in the process of Correction. The correct WIFE IS JOAN BEGGARLY, per documentary evidence.

It is believed that there were two cousins named John Greene in early New England who were both married to a woman named Joan. One woman, Joan Beggarly, married John Greene “of Quidnessett.”

The other John Greene was known to have been in the Warwick area. Called “the Surgeon,” he married Joan Tattersall.

As a young man, John Greene of Quidnessett migrated to the New World, sailing on the ship “Matthew” to the West Indies.

He stayed there for a few months and then went to Massachusetts with Richard Smith to Narragansett Bay, where Richard had a trading post at Quidnessett. Together, they established trade with the Indians.

For a time, they were the only white settlers at Quidnessett until Roger Williams and a Mr. Wilcox purchased land there in 1643 or 1644.
Williams then sold his holdings to Richard Smith in 1651.

John Greene became one of the early shareholders in this land.

He married Joan Beggarly on one of his business trips to Massachusetts in 1642.

In 1679, John Greene testified for “forty years and more” earlier, he had lived with Richard Smith, who first began a settlement in the Narragansett, stating that he and Richard Smith had settled in the Narragansett 42 years earlier (notified in a petition to the King) where there was no English within 20 miles.
This happened when Massachusetts and Maine split off, and the colonizers testified they had been defending their property for 40 or more years, and the king could not give the land away to someone new.

In March of 1682, he divided his land among some of his sons who remained in Rhode Island, some of them having gone to New Jersey.

John’s wife was still alive when these deeds were executed. After his wife’s death, he went to live with his son John at Coventry and is buried in the “Old Field Lot” among unmarked graves per “Family Records” by Mary Elisabeth Neal Hanaford.
There are some old, dilapidated graves in what was once part of John of Quidnessett’s land.
Two of these crude headstones bear the initials D.G. and R.G., marking the graves of John’s son, Daniel, and his wife, Rebecca.
The oldest is marked either J.G. or I.G. and is believed to be Joan Beggarly’s.

Original Source