Individual Details

Some have tried to give Mary Holmes a marriage to a Richard Stillwell, May 1655 in Long Island, NY. The following explains the source and the reason why this was not possible.

Google Books:
Abstracts of Will on File in the Surrogate's Office, City of New York, Vol. 25, John Keller, 1893, p.51-2
Samuel Holmes, Gravesend, makes his wife Alice sole executrix. "In case she marry againe she is to give unto my children every one of them a cow three years old." Leaves to sons Samuel and Joseph "all my wearing clothes and carpenter tools" Legacies to daughters Anne, Katharine and Mary. "If either of my sons doe marry before the decease of my wife, then the lot of Plantation I bought of Thomas Delavall, they shall have for their use between them.". Makes his loving brothers and friends Richard Stillwell, Jonathan Holmes, Obadiah Holmes, John Browne and Samuel Spicer, Overseers and guardians of his children.
Dated 28th, 2d month, 1679. Witnesses, John Tilton (Tillon?) Towne Clerke, John Emmons. Proved in the Secretary's office before the Governor, by John Tillon and Samuel Spicer, 25 Jul 1679.

Note: Some had suggested the above will proved that Richard Stillwell had married Samuel's sister Mary (such a union is suggested in a book, Life & Times of Nicholas Stilwell by Benj. Marshall Stilwell, New York, 1878.) but Mary Holmes married John Browne - who is also listed above as one of "brothers and friends". Richard Stillwell was a brother to Alice, wife of Samuel Holmes. The Stillwell book also attributes the marriage as being in New York - both the families of Obadiah Holmes and of the Brownes were in Rhode Island by the time Mary was of an age to marry and the children of Stillwell & Browne overlap in age. It was not possible for Mary Holmes to be the mother of the Stillwell children.

Birth	1632
Marriage	Abt 1658	JOHN BROWN
Death	1690

Spouse	JOHN BROWN (1629 - 1706)
Child	Martha Brown (1658 - 1723)
Child	Mary Brown (1659 - 1726)
Child	SARAH BROWN (1660 - 1733)
Child	John Brown (1662 - 1719)
Child	Rev. James Brown (1662 - 1732)
Child	Obadiah Brown ( - 1716)
Child	Deborah Brown ( - )

Father	OBADIAH HOLMES (1607 - 1682)
Mother	CATHERINE Hyde (1608 - 1682)
Sibling	John HOLMES (1631 - 1633)
Sibling	Lydia HOLMES (1637 - 1701)
Sibling	Jonathan HOLMES (1637 - 1713)
Sibling	Martha HOLMES ( - 1711)
Sibling	Samuel HOLMES ( - 1679)
Sibling	Obadiah HOLMES ( - )
Sibling	Hopestill HOLMES (1645 - 1682)
Sibling	John HOLMES (1647 - 1712)