WeaverWeaverClement Weaver was of Welsh heritage, of which an ancestor in his paternal line married, in the late 1200s, a daughter surnamed Wever, of a family long seated in Cheshire.
ARMS- Or, on a fess azure between two cotises gules, as many garbs of the field.
CREST- An antelope passant ermine attired or, suporting with the dexter foot an escutcheon gold.
(Burke: "General Armory")
Clement Weaver was born about 1585 to 1590, as he died about 1683, "near 100 years old." He came to New England between 1630 and 1640; settled at first in Boston, later removed to Weymouth, as in 1643 he owned property there an lived next door to his brother-in-law Thomas Holbrook. About 1650 he left Weymouth and went to Rhode Island, where he was a wall builder. He and his son Clement were made freemen (citizens with a right to vote) in Newport in 1655.
On 19 May 1617, he married at St. John's, Glastonbury, co. Somerset, Rebecca, daughter of William Holbrook. (William was born about 1560 and died at Glastonbury, where his will, dated 11 December 1625, was proved 1 February 1626.) They were the parents of
Sgt. Clement Weaver, born in Glastonbury before 11 December 1625, on which date he is mentioned in the will of his grandfather William Holbrook. He came to New England with his parents and was made a freeman at Portsmouth in 1655. He was a juryman in 1671, a member of the House of Deputies in 1678. He was a grantee in a deed dated 5 March 1651; in 1659 he sold land and on 6 March 1664 he bought other property in Westerly, Rhode Island. In 1682 he sold to George Vaughan ten acres in East Greenwich. His will, dated 24 November 1680, was probated in 1683. About the year 1645 he married Mary Freeborn of Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
At the age of seven years she came with her parents, William Freeborn and Mary, to Boston. They sailed from Ipswich, England, on the ship "Francis," having lived at Witham, co. Essex, England, where William Freeborn owned the manor of Batisford, with mansion house "of great antiquity." He sold the property 20 December 1633 and, on 30 April 1634, at the age of 40 years, he settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, with his wife Mary, age 33, and children: Mary, above-named, and Sarah, age 2. They had been married about the year 1625 ,and he died at Portsmouth 28 April 1670, five days before his wife, arrd five days after his daughter Sarah. William Freeborn and others, "because the opinions and revelations of Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson have seduced and led into dangerous errors many of the people of New England," were by sentence of the Court on 9 mo. 20th, 1637, ordered to deliver up all fire arms and by act of Assembly of 12 March 1638 were for their convictions excluded and driven out of Massachusetts.
On 7 March 1638, William Freeborn with other planters, among them Clement Weaver, original purchasers of Rhode Island, Signed, the compact which marks the foundation of the Colony at Portsmouth, R. I.: "We whose names are underwritten do hereby solemnly in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick and as He shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His, given us in His holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby."
On 1 December 1641, Jeremy Clarke and William Freeborn were members of the Grand jury in Portsmouth, and in 1642 William Freeborn was Constable. On 10 December 1649 he received a grant of 140 acres in Portsmouth conditioned only that he must build a house within a year. On 19 May 1657 he was elected a member of the General Court of Commissioners and the same year was a member of the Rhode Island Assembly. The Freeborns were members of the Society of Friends.
Sgt. Clement Weaver and Mary Freeborn had