John Wickes

John Wickes (1609-1676) was an early settler of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and a co-founder and original purchaser of Warwick. He was born in 1609 in Staines, Middlesex, England. His father Robert Wickes had four sons: Thomas, John, Francis, and William.

John Wickes emigrated from England 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 Gortonists." He and the other Gortonists disagreed with Puritan theology on many essential points, and they were frequently in trouble with the authorities in the New England colonies and settlements. In 1643, he and the other Gortonists were summoned to Boston, being accused of defrauding the Indians in the purchase of land. Wickes was incarcerated at Ipswich for several months by the Massachusetts authorities.

Wickes eventually settled in what became the Warwick settlement. He fought in King Phillip'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.

In Warwick, the John Wickes Elementary School is named after him.