John Wickes


John Wickes, also known as John Wick and John Wicks, was an early settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and a co-founder and original purchaser of Shawowmet. He was born in 1609 in Staines, Middlesex, England. His father Robert Wickes had four sons: Thomas, John, Francis, and William.
John Wickes immigrated to America with his wife Mary and his daughter Ann. He was a supporter of Puritan dissident Samuel Gorton who formed a sect called "the Gortonites" which disagreed with Puritan theology on many essential points. They were frequently in trouble with the authorities in the New England colonies and settlements. Wickes and the other Gortonists were summoned to Boston in 1643, accused of defrauding the Indians in the purchase of land. Wickes was incarcerated at Ipswich for several months by the Massachusetts authorities.
Wicks eventually settled in Shawowmet. He fought in King Philip's War, and he was beheaded by Indians close to his home on March 17, 1676 when he wandered out of his house searching for his cows. His son John Wick settled on Long Island and became a magistrate of Suffolk County, New York. American Revolutionary War heroine Temperance Wick was his great-granddaughter.
The John Wickes Elementary School in Warwick is named after him.

Notable Descendants