"This question has been debated, off and on, for over three hundred years, but few have looked into the records of the actual parishes concerned.  The records show that not many cases were brought to the church courts in a single year.  For example, Great Bromley, which sent at least nineteen emigrants to New England, among them relatives of John Stone, another settler of Sudbury, can be examined."
"But such men could, if they were courageous enough, or stubborn enough, flout church pressure. John Daniel and his wife were excommunicated, then excommunicated a second time, and a year later, again censured for remaining in their unholy state."
"Some men could be both amusing and stubborn.  In May, 1630, John Stone was presented by the churchwardens of Ardleigh for arriving in their church so full of drink that he became sick.  In June the archdeacons ordered him to appear and excommunicated him when he failed to show up. By July the pressure of community and church opinion forced Stone to come to the archdeacon's court, swear to obey the church law, and be repentant.  The commissary ordered the standard form of public pennance - Stone had to stand on the sill of his church dressed in a white sheet, each Sunday, "untill the next court". But Stone obviously considered this too humiliating. He did not turn up with a signed certificat of his penance and was again excommunicated.
By August Stone had become cocksure in his defiance.  he was reported as follows: "On the 15th of August last, Mr. Evans, the minister, took occasion in his sermon to speak of Adam and Eve's making themselves coats of fig leaves. Stone presently whispered to his neighbor, Thomas Woodward, in the church, and asked him where they had thread to sew them, and then laughed withal. Being afterwards told in the churchyard of his misdemeanor by Joseph Daniel, Stone answered, 'Let him (meaning the minister) prate what he will. He knows his wages!'  And on last Easter Day, the said Stone took away the bottle with the wine, which was left after Communion, and drank it up, and after bragged"  The archdeacon, accordingly, escommunicated Stone. He did so again in October, and for a third time in November. Still, Stone did not appear to ask forgiveness and to agree to penance.  By February, the archdeacon had lost all patience. he issued a fourth writ of excommunication for refusal to obey. in April, the archdeacon again "warned him to apear in person" and condemned Stone to perdition of the fifth time.  Finally in June 1631, Stone could not stand the repeated censures.  Having had his fling, and his laugh, he did his penance and was made to contribute 5s 8d to the poor of his parish. Whether this was the same John Stone who turned up in Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1639, or not is not certain."  (Puritan Village The Formation of a New England Town  Chilton Sumner Powell)

1640, of Sudbury, Massachusetts - member of church64

June 03, 1644, executor of Edward How's will.63

He removed to Sudbury with the early settlers, was a proprietor there, and shared in three divisions of land. He bought of the Indians at Natick, May 15, 1656, ten acres of land on the south side of the river at Sudbury, and his purchase was confirmed by general court 1656, together with a grant of fifty acres of land for services, etc. He added to the tract he already owned in what is now the village of Saxonville, in the town of Framingham, until he owned a very large stretch of land. He built his house where the present railroad station is located in Saxonville. He built the first house in what is now the village of Cochituate, in the present town of Wayland, then Sudbury. He built in all six houses in Sudbury and Framingham and built the first mill in Framingham, in 1659, at the falls now known as Stone's Mills, a corn mill, and his son Daniel built there the first saw mill. He was appointed fence viewer 1654, town clerk 1655. and was admitted a freeman 1665. In 1645 he sold his house in Sudbury to John Moore. He was the first to build his house in Framingham. He located, without having a grant, at Otter Neck, on the west side of Sudbury. in 1646-7.

1656;  Secured a deed from the Indians of about a dozen acres of land in what is now Saxonville, which was at once confirmed by the General Court which also granted him fifty additional acres adjoining.    (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

1658;  Built a house near the the location of the present Saxonville railroad station, and later he built houses for his sons in that vicinity.  He also built, about 1658, a dam and gristmill on the falls of the Sudbury River, where the Stone family owned the mill privilege for several generations.    (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

December 13, 1661;  Bought the Corlett farm of two hundred acres.    (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

August 22, 1663, witness to will of Robert Nanny of Boston63

1665, Cambridge freeman64

September 15, 1666;  He and Nathaniel Treadway, executors and residuary legatees of the will of Edward Howe, were deeded by Thomas Mayhew his three hundred acres covering much of the present Saxonville.    (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

1672;  After the death of his father, he removed to Cambridge, MA, inheriting his father's homestead there.    (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

1682 & 1683;  Deputy for Cambridge, to the General Court.   (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

November 15, 1682;  Elected one of two ruling elders of the Cambridge Church.    (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

Town Offices: representative 1682 - 8364

Abstract of the will dated 16 Apr. 1683.  To wife Ann Stone, for life, the house where I now dwell, all moveables, six cows, a mare, swine, poultry; also rents from my houses and lands at Sudbury, now occupied by my son Daniel Stone; at her death my dwelling house in Cambridge to go to my daughters Hannah Bent, Mary Fox, Elizabeth Stowe, Margaret Brown, Tabitha Rice and Sarah Hill, and the remainder she leaves to be equally divided among all my children.  All my outlands in Sudbury to be equally divided among my sons Daniel, David, Nathaniel Stone, they to pay to my above nameddaughters 100 pounds.  My dwelling houses and lands thereto belonging in Sudbury, I give to my son John Stone, for life, to be improved for his maintenance by my son Daniel Stone, with remainder to my said son Daniel Stone or his heirs.  Wife Ann Stone to be executrix, and brethern John Cooper, Sen. , and Samuel Stone, Sen., to be overseers, and executors after the decease of my wife.  Proved 12 June 1683.  (Middlesex Co. Probate Records, N. 21596)

Burial: Harvard Square Cemetary, Cambridge, Massachusetts62
Gravestone inscription;
Memento te esse Mortalem
Here lyeth ye body of Elder John Stone
                Aged 64 years
Who departed this life ye 5th day of May
                     1683
(Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

It appears he was a successful and prosperous farmer, aquiring an extensive landed estate and well established large family of children.
Living in an unincorporated region during the twenty-five most active years of his life (1647-1672), John Stone was not prominent in the public affairs of Sudbury, the town with which he was associated.    (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

November 6, 1705; Isaac Hunt of Cambridge, and Ebenezer Hunt, John Fox, Nathaniel Fox, and John and Hannah Fletcher, all of Concord, for 21 pounds conveyed to Jacob Hill their one-sixth of the house and lands of their grandfather John Stone, late of Cambridge, which he left by will to their mother, Mary Hunt, alias Fox.  (Middlesex County Deeds, vol. 14, p. 175)

June 03, 1644, beq. 1/3 part of what was owed of Thom. Mayhew to Edward How
June 03, 1644, to get 1/3 remainder of cattle should Edward How's wife die before her
"For over half a century there has been much speculation as to her parentage.  She and Nathaniel Treadway (her next door neighbor in Sudbury) were the principal and residuary legatees (with no named relationship) of the will in 1644 of Edward Howe of Watertown, Mass., who was baptised 1 Jan. 1587/8 at Boxted, co. Essex, England directly across the Stour River from Nayland, co. Suffolk, and married there, 16 Aug. 1610, Margaret Wells; so it has been generally claimed that Anne, wife of John Stone and Suffrana wife of Nathaniel Treadway were sisters, and daughters of Edward Howe.  These ideas are erroneous, as it has been proved that Nathaniel Treadway married in New England, in 1639, Suffrana Haynes, daughter of Walter Haynes, who came from Wiltshire in 1638, and she had no sister named Anne; and there is no evidence that Edward Howe had any surviving children.  The English origin of Nathaniel Treadway has not been discovered; but the writer has found this rare family name only in Essex  and Herts.  The registers of Boxted are lost from 1617 to 1640, so data on the Howes there are incomplete.  From what evidences are yet available, it seems likely that Anne, wife of JohnStone, was a sister of Nathaniel Treadway, and that their mother was probably a sister of Edward Howe, thus making them niece and nephew of the latter. (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)