John Green II (1669 – 1727)
1. His childhood
John Green jr. (II) was the son of John Green (I) and his wife Rebecca NN of Milton-next-Gravesend, Kent, England. John was christened on 3 May 1669 at Milton Parish, Milton-next-Gravesend.1-3 He was born four years after the Great Plague of London of 1665 (with London lying just over 40 km west of Gravesend), three years after the Great Fire of London in 1666 and almost 40 years before the unification of Great Britain (England and Wales) with Scotland in 1707.
Milton village on the River Thames was incorporated into the town Gravesend in the 13th century and became known as Milton-next-Gravesend. Much of Milton parish remained rural until the 1840s, before it was incorporated into Gravesend town. The ancient parish church of St Peter and Paul of the Church of England is still located in the original settlement. The cast of a ring of five bells produced for the church in 1656, was the handiwork of John Hodson. Since 1810, the ring was further augmented to eight bells presently.2,4
The first marriage entered in the Parish Register of Milton was that of John Green and Margaret Reve on 4 September 1559. Whether this John Green is related to our family branch – maybe the grandfather or great-grandfather of our John Green I – has not been confirmed yet.1
2. His wife
John married Jane Wats on 8 October 1695 at Milton-next-Gravesend. Six children, who were all born in this village, could be found in archived documents. Both John and Jane died at Milton-next-Gravesend. Jane was buried on 30 May 1736.1
3. His children
Their children were: Sarah (≈31 July 1696) who possibly died young, John (≈27 February 1697), Elizabeth (≈27 January 1700) who married Charles Huckett on 24 June 1725, William (≈21 March 1702 – Ω6 June 1704), Sarah (≈24 December 1704 – Ω9 April 1706) and Rachel (≈29 December 1706).1
Their second child, John (*ca 1697), became my husband’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. READ MORE on John Green III.
4. His career
Nothing is known about his life and what means he used to support his family, but he did live during a rather politically tumultuous time with much unrest within the country caused by the open, public conflicts between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists. John was born during the reign of Charles II from 1660 to 1685, followed by the unpopular James II from 1685 to 1688 who was ousted by William, Prince of Orange, who became Britain’s first Dutch king, William III, from 1689 to 1702. He co-ruled with his wife Mary II. They were succeeded by Anne in 1702 who ruled until 1714, followed by George I from 1714 to 1727.5,6
5. His death
John Green II died at the age of 58 years in the same year as King George I. John was buried at Milton-next-Gravesend on 18 June 1727.1
- Family tree notes by Jean Jamison, made available by Katie Taylor from Germany, October 2017
- Milton, Kent. A vision of Brian through time. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/6279
- Kent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent
- Milton-next-Gravesend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton-next-Gravesend
- King and Queens of England & Britain. http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/KingsQueensofBritain/
- List of British monarchs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_monarchs