BORN: 1583/Hertfordshire, England
DIED: October 1, 1673/Plymouth

Richard Warren was a passenger on the Mayflower, arriving in Plymouth in 1620. We know he was from London and the evidence seems to indicate that he was a man of some wealth.

His wife, Elizabeth, arrived in Plymouth on the Anne in 1623 with the couples’ daughters Abigail, Anna, Elizabeth, Mary and Sarah. Two sons, Nathaniel and Joseph, were born to the Warrens in Plymouth.

Richard Warren died in 1628. His wife Elizabeth outlived him by 45 years, dying at Plymouth in 1673. Her death was noted in the Records of Plymouth Colony (PCR 8:35) : “Mistris Elizabeth Warren, an aged widdow, aged above 90 yeares, deceased on the second of October, 1673, whoe, haveing lived a godly life, came to her grave as a shocke of corn fully ripe.”

During the long period of her widowhood, Elizabeth Warren’s name appears in the records of Plymouth Colony. She appears first as executor of her husband’s estate, next paying taxes owed by a head of household, and finally as an independent agent in her own right.

Elizabeth Warren’s maiden name of Walker and her family origins in Hertfordshire, England were uncovered in 2003; see Edward J. Davies, “The Marriage of Richard Warren of the Mayflower,” The American Genealogist (April 2003), 78-81.

Davies’ analysis of several related English documents established that the marriage record of Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Augustine Walker, to Richard Warren in Great Amwell, Hertfordshire, on April 14, 1610, belonged to the Elizabeth and Richard Warren who ended up in Plymouth Colony. The will of Augustine Walker, dated April 19, 1613, includes reference to his daughter Elizabeth Warren (married three years earlier), and to her 3 daughters: Mary, Ann, and Sarah. The daughters’ names match those of the three oldest children of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren and his wife Elizabeth. Mary Warren, Anna Warren, and Sarah Warren arrived on the Anne along with their mother and younger sisters in 1623.