The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: MA
Qualifying Service: Physician or Surgeon
Birth: 27 Jul 1753 Boston / Suffolk / MA Death: 15 Apr 1815 Boston / Suffolk / MA
Qualifying Service Description:
DAR cites SURGEON, REVOLUTIONARY ARMY
Senior surgeon, Cambridge, MA
Also, Long Island, 1776
Also, Battles of Trenton and Princeton
Additional References:
MA Soldiers, and Sailors of the Rev., Vol 16, 1901, pg 621
Hasselgren, Rev. Surgeons: Patriots and Loyalists on the Cutting Edge, 2021, pg 43-88
Spouse: Abby/Abigail Collins Children: Rebecca; John Collins; Joseph; Mary; Henry
Members Who Share This Ancestor
None*
*This means that the NSSAR has no applications for this Patriot on file.
Instead the information provided is best effort, and from volunteers who have either researched grave sites, service records, or something similar. There is no documentation available at NSSAR HQ to order.
double headstone for John Warren (P-313915) and his older brother, MGen. Joseph Warren (P- 313935)
m. 1777, Abigail Collins, dau. of John Collins, P-348521
unsourced biography
Photo used with permission of Compatriot Mitchell Anderson, 229001, KYSSAR
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Photo: 1 of 1
Author: President Gen John Thomas Manning M.Ed.
John Warren was born on 27 July 1753 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard College at the age of 14. He graduated in 1771 and went into practice with his older brother, Dr. Joseph Warren, as an apprentice and assistant. After his apprenticeship, John stepped out and opened his own practice in Salem.
Before the Revolution began, John joined the Roxbury militia under Colonel John Pickering. After the war broke out in Lexington, this regiment marched to Cambridge, where Warren served in the military hospital. On 17 June, the younger Warren worried about his brother Joseph as the cannon fire rang out from the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Once the battle was over, Joseph was missing, and John set about asking everyone he could if they knew what had happened to him. At one point, John attempted to enter the battlefield at Charlestown. A British sentry would not let him pass into the area and stabbed him with his bayonet when John would not give up. He bore the scar for the rest of his life. It was several days before John learned for certain that Joseph was killed at the battle.
After this, John, age 22, was appointed the senior surgeon in the Continental Army Hospital at Cambridge. When the British finally evacuated Boston the following year, John marched with General George Washington to New York to assist in the defenses there. During this period, he was heavily involved with small-pox inoculations of civilians and troops. He became mainly known for success with this vaccination.
When the British overran Long Island and Manhattan, John traveled with the Continental Army in its retreat across New Jersey, staying with them through the Battles of Trenton and Princeton and through the winter of 1776-1777. During this time, he honed his surgery skills. By July 1777, the young Dr. Warren had been transferred back to Boston to oversee the military hospital there. He became known for his teaching skills at the hospital as he taught other surgeons. This eventually led to him teaching medicine at Harvard and founding Harvard Medical School.
On 4 November 1777, John married Abigail Collins, who was born on 16 May 1832. Among their children were:
John Collins. was born on 1 August 1778 and married Susan Powell Mason.
Joseph Collins was born about 1779 and married Charlotte Doane.
Mary was born about 1780 and married John Gorham.
Edward was born about 1781 and married Carolina Ware.
Nancy was born in 1782 and married Abraham Carley.
Abigail was born about 1784
Rebecca "Beckey" was born in July 1788 and married John Ball Brown.
Harriet was born about 1792 and married John Prince.
Sarah Frances was born in 1793 and married Gilbert Crismon.
Henry was born on 13 May 1795 and married Jersha Whitcomb.
Charles was born on 3 December 1797 and married Abby Otis.
Edward was born on 19 December 1804 and married Caroline Ware.
John achieved several significant accomplishments, such as performing the first abdominal surgery in America, teaching anatomy and surgery at Harvard for 30 years, and founding the medical school in 1782.
The Patriot died on 4 April 1815 from heart and lung disease. His son, John Collins Warren, followed in his father's footsteps and became one of the most famed surgeons of the 1800s. He performed the first surgery using anesthesia in history, helped found Massachusetts General Hospital, was a president of the American Medical Association, and served as Harvard's first Dean of the Medical School.
Author: James Edward Mitchell
John Warren, M.D. (1753-1815), a notable Boston physician and his bros., Ebenezer and Joseph Warren, M.D. & a MajGen’l recorded b. 30 May 1741, d., KIA 17 Jun 1775 /Bunker Hill, were the beloved children of Joseph Warren [Junr. (1695-Oct. 1755)] and Mary Stevens, married at Boston, 1740. John was born on 14 Jul 1753 at Warren farm, now mapped at 130 Warren St., Roxbury, Massachusetts (MA) 02119-3233; sources, MA, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 for brothers, John and Joseph Warren, sons of Joseph and Mary, Roxbury, Index to Births, 1642-1844 Images 105 & 106 of 116.
http://www.drjosephwarren.com/2016/01/uncertain-future-for-historic-roxbury-warren-homestead/
John’s grandfather, i.e., Joseph Warren, Sr., was recorded born 19 Feb 1661 at Boston, Suffolk County (Co,) MA /Joseph Warren, Sr. (1661-1729); source,
Find A Grave Memorial# 81975510. Our subject, Joseph’s grandson, John was only age 3, when his father, Joseph Junr., picking Warren Russet apples at their Roxbury farm orchard, accidently fell to his death on 25 Oct 1755 in his young son’s presence; source, Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill (battle) and the Birth of American Liberty by Samuel A. Forman, Copyright 2012, Pelican Publ., Co, Gretna, Orleans Parish, Louisiana (LA); pgs 26-7, 35 & 106; Joseph Warrens’ youngest bro., nicknamed, ‘Jack’ –see: pg 106, Apprentices in Medicine.
John’s older bro., Joseph Warren, M.D., (SAR Patriot #: P-313935) was preparing to enter Harvard in 1759 and was logically elsewhere, wrote Samuel A. Forman. John entered Harvard College (BA ’71) where he related the story of his helplessness on the scene of his father’s death, caused by a fall. Both John and his older bro., Joseph were practicing medicine in Boston during the 1763-4 smallpox epidemic.
Forman wrote, that Joseph and John Warren were accepted Masons in St. Andrew’s Scottish Rite Lodge, Boston, when the Green Dragon Tavern was purchased on 31 Mar 1764 by the fraternal organization; sources, Ibid. pgs 14, 120-1 & 264 and, see -Surgeon (LieutCol. equivalent) John Warren, Continental Militia; Col Timothy Pickerings’ Regt.
https://www.advocatesforrotc.org/harvard/AmerRevHalumns.pdf
Dr. Warren, age 20, was appointed during 1773, as an army surgeon for Col Timothy Pickering’s Continental (MA) Militia Regt. Pickering’s regt. was posted at Cambridge, MA tending to wounded from the battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill) on 17 Jun 1775. After the battle had ended, John went to search for his bro., Joseph Warren, M.D., a newly appointed (MA) MajGen’l (killed in action) there. Asking to pass to Breed’s Hill scene, John was challenged by a British sentry who would not let him pass; John persisted but was bayoneted; sources, Ibid., and, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, Vol 15, Section _ Unknown, see: Thatcher, James Barnstable (MA). List of surgeons examined and approved by a cmte for that purpose, [pg 508 i.e., (film image # 508) of 941].
Warren, after convalescing at Cambridge hospital, volunteered his service and was appointed senior surgeon. In 1776, Dr. Warren, age 23, was appointed surgeon of the general hospital on Long Island during the American campaign against the British Army and Navy invasion. He also was surgeon at the battles of Trenton and Princeton 1776-77 before being reassigned to Boston as military surgeon in the army hospital. Ibid., see: advocatesforrotc.org.
John married Abigail Collins (1760-1832), a dau. of Rhode Island Gov. John Collins at Boston, MA on 15 Oct 1777; source, Massachusetts, Compiled Marriages, 1633-1850, Dr. John Warren & spouse, Abigail Collins, Boston, Suffolk, MA; Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT, Film # 0818093-0818095. Their holy matrimony at Boston produced a dozen children that included the couple’s elder son, John Collins Warren, M.D. (1778-1856). At Boston, Dr. Warren, age 61, died and was buried at Saint Paul’s Church across from the Boston Common before being removed approximately 1855, out of the area of excavation for train tracks at downtown. John’s reinternment was completed at the Warren family vault at Forest Hills Cem., 95 Forest Hills Ave., Jamaica Plan, Suffolk Co, MA mapped at Latitude: 42.2982, Longitude: -71.107774; Find A Grave Memorial# 25548116 .
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